Phenacogrammus sp. fantastique

my "mystics" are arriving tomorrow morning... they were delayed a week, because of the weather pattern in the sellers area... hope they are good, as he is now out of them, and has been holding mine until they ship today...

I still can find next to nothing on these fish... just basic info on

Phenacogrammus​

nothing on this new subspecies, nothing on size or diet in the wild, I guess they'll be fine in my African tank, as it is, hope they aren't in a hurry to mate, then turn to mass murderers :)
 
“Fantastic’s” out of the bag… 3 all alive… pictures of a couple
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The 3 have found each other... top 3 fish in this picture...
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Hard to see well, but right now, kind of a pale orange, with burgundy color in the tail, out of the bag, will see what we get in a week or two, for colors
 
Starting to see a light turquoise pattern, showing slightly under the orange on the body, this morning…. They actually look quite a bit like the smaller Brichardi’s of similar size, before their center line gets real pronounced
 
“Fantastic’s” kind of snubbed the frozen brine shrimp last night ( but there is a lot of competition for those in this tank ) but they ate up several of my micro pellets this afternoon… so good to see them eating
 
Next stage of coloring… silver tips on their dorsal, and tips of their tails…. Anyone else buy these from Dan’s or one of the other sellers that got them about the same time???? Since there is not much out there on them, might be nice to trade notes
 
On a now kaput forum, I used to exchange notes on African tetras with a woman in the southern US somewhere, years back. She and you are the only keepers of Congo tetras, beyond interruptus and caudalis that I've ever encountered online.
I could post a lot if anyone here wanted to discuss the ins and outs of killie and lampeye keeping, but it's the same problem. There aren't enough keepers around. One importer brings in 30 fish once every year or two, and we buy them from that lot. What happens to the others in the lot? Some sell to people who don't discuss. Some never sell and die at the importers'. Some go to public aquariums.
We discover we're the only people with the fish, soon enough. It isn't a snob thing - it's something I find frustrating. If I could get the African tetras I used to have again, with the aquarium set up I have now, breeding would be my priority. But now, I can't afford to buy a group of six to ten $30 tetras. I used to make much more money from the fish than I spent and I could put fish money aside and play in rich guy world, but no more.
Alas, I'm afraid we're doomed. You're stuck with me. Reheboth in Florida may start with more Congo fish. Below Water in Canada will occasionally, though your border restrictions make them hard to get fish from. The Europeans will get them regularly. But among English language aquarists, not many people explore the exotic species. Culturally, we have an increasingly dull, conservative approach to fishkeeping.
 
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On a now kaput forum, I used to exchange notes on African tetras with a woman in the southern US somewhere, years back. She and you are the only keepers of Congo tetras, beyond interruptus and caudalis that I've ever encountered online.
I could post a lot if anyone here wanted to discuss the ins and outs of killie and lampeye keeping, but it's the same problem. There aren't enough keepers around. One importer brings in 30 fish once every year or two, and we buy them from that lot. What happens to the others in the lot? Some sell to people who don't discuss. Some never sell and die at the importers'. Some go to public aquariums.
We discover we're the only people with the fish, soon enough. It isn't a snob thing - it's something I find frustrating. If I could get the African tetras I used to have again, with the aquarium set up I have now, breeding would be my priority. But now, I can't afford to buy a group of six to ten $30 tetras. I used to make much more money from the fish than I spent and I could put fish money aside and play in rich guy world, but no more.
Alas, I'm afraid we're doomed. You're stuck with me. Reheboth in Florida may start with more Congo fish. Below Water in Canada will occasionally, though your border restrictions make them hard to get fish from. The Europeans will get them regularly. But among English language aquarists, not many people explore the exotic species. Culturally, we have an increasingly dull, conservative approach to fishkeeping.
I actually found a couple shops near me in Toronto that sells phenacogrammus aurantiacus. It was actually my first intro to african tetras that I never had due to the price tag being 59.99. They've had this in stock multiple times too so perhaps they've got a breeder?

There's also one that sells various "rare tetras" though I'm not knowledgable enough to know how rare they actually are.

Here are the websites: https://topickaquarium.com/collecti...h_tetras/products/blue-eye-golden-congo-tetra

Edit: ok it seems that the second website only has the one congo tetra the other ones are south american.
 

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