mangoed
New Member
In the year I’ve been keeping fish, quite a few have died, primarily from causes which have been difficult to determine. However, apart from a disastrous experience with Threadfin Rainbow fish (where all four specimens snuffed it), the losses have generally been single individuals from a group. This has left me with various groups which no longer meet the suggest minimums for the type of fish.
For instance, the first fish I bought were 4 Harlequin Rasbora. A quick look at a couple of websites suggests that, at minimum, 5/6 individuals should be kept (though the actual numbers aren’t important to my question). In any case, one recently died and so I now have just 3. I would like to buy 2/3 more so that I comply with the suggested minimums.
Now, although sold as such, I don’t believe these fish to necessarily be Trigonostigma heteromorpha (they are probably espei or hengeli).
Basically, my question is, does this matter? Can I mix the 3 species? More generally, when maintaining a group of fish, especially given that occasional replacement appears to be required, how close does the species match have to be?
If the match has to been exact, then I can envision two problems... (1) I can’t tell exactly which species I have, so how would I know which to buy? (2) Even if I can identify my fish, what the LFS sells me probably won’t be the same anyway (since it was their descriptions that were inaccurate in the first place).
I should point out that it is not just the rasboras, I have 3 fish sold as “red-nose(d) tetras” which may be Hemigrammus bleheri, Hemigrammus rhodostomus or Petitella georgiae.
My two Corydorus sterbai look a lot like reticulatus to me and I also have 3 fish sold as Sparkling Gouramis (Trichopsis pumila) one of which, after some growth, turns out to be a Croaking Gourami. As for my Otos, I have no real idea (probably Macrotocinclus affinis).
Does it matter or how much does it matter?
-dan
For instance, the first fish I bought were 4 Harlequin Rasbora. A quick look at a couple of websites suggests that, at minimum, 5/6 individuals should be kept (though the actual numbers aren’t important to my question). In any case, one recently died and so I now have just 3. I would like to buy 2/3 more so that I comply with the suggested minimums.
Now, although sold as such, I don’t believe these fish to necessarily be Trigonostigma heteromorpha (they are probably espei or hengeli).
Basically, my question is, does this matter? Can I mix the 3 species? More generally, when maintaining a group of fish, especially given that occasional replacement appears to be required, how close does the species match have to be?
If the match has to been exact, then I can envision two problems... (1) I can’t tell exactly which species I have, so how would I know which to buy? (2) Even if I can identify my fish, what the LFS sells me probably won’t be the same anyway (since it was their descriptions that were inaccurate in the first place).
I should point out that it is not just the rasboras, I have 3 fish sold as “red-nose(d) tetras” which may be Hemigrammus bleheri, Hemigrammus rhodostomus or Petitella georgiae.
My two Corydorus sterbai look a lot like reticulatus to me and I also have 3 fish sold as Sparkling Gouramis (Trichopsis pumila) one of which, after some growth, turns out to be a Croaking Gourami. As for my Otos, I have no real idea (probably Macrotocinclus affinis).
Does it matter or how much does it matter?
-dan
