New Fish For Andy

[Erised]

Absolutely lovely fish Andy (and Nina ofcourse) =)
We're gonna need as many updates as possible on the snakehead fry, it would be nice seeing how fast they grow and all that. Are you planning on keeping all of those that reach adulthood?

 

[andywg]

I'm not too sure on the fry. I may try and get a breeding pair and then I have a ready supply of live food and I'm sure a couple of lfs will take the fry round here.

 

[andywg]

Well, some naive person suggested updates on the fry sooo...

Sadly I tried putting a lid on that would allow a little more light into the tank, however it let more than light in. It created a tiny gap which 3 of the snakeheads exploited. The first two jumped on Tuesday when we were both at work. I nearly stepped on the third one and decided it was time to put the tighter lid on.

Anyway. Some pics after feeding them today (they already have some hefty appetites and the colours are starting to appear on some).

And while I was with camera in hand, I thought I'd try some of the community tank. Here are some very rare pics of our Chaetostoma plec (still not sure on the exact species)

Note the Ten spine stickleback in the last pic, a rescue from a bag of feeder shrimp. He was duelling with the giant armoured Cameroon fan shrimp for a piece of prawn:

In case anyone wondered what a sump can look like on a FW tank, here's the community's tank:

And finally a pic of my bedside tank housing some spotted woodcats (or oil cats) and another Chaetostoma species together with our betta. Here we have the plec and a wood cat (not easy to photo those things)

 

[Durbkat]

It looks like the snakehead frys tank is becoming over run with snails, or is it food for the fry?

 

[andywg]

There's a fair amount of MTS snails in my tanks. Nothing major, they come out from the sand at night and clean up the tank.

Don't know if the snakeheads will eat them or not, have never seen the adult bother any...

 

[Erised]

The fry look absolutely lovely Andy. Sorry to hear you lost another 1 of them though. Hopefully the better fitting lid will allow you to keep the rest of them. They do look adorable =)

Love all the other fishies as well, specially the wood cat.

Do keep up the fry updates every 2 weeks or so

 

[maryjason]

Those fry are definately cute..seems they are on a rapid growth spurt ! I must say I wasnt really a lover ov snakesheads althought i did think they were ok and now after seeing your rainbow snakehead i d really love to have one just a shame theres no way i could. The rainbow snakesheads are really the nicest snakeshead i ve ever seen, the colours are beautiful, such a stunning fish

 

[andywg]

I do love our Bleheri, and it's a shame we lost the other one. But from what I have seen, there doesn't appear that much difference between the bleheri and the gachua.

 

[Synirr]

Awwwwww, that cute little face in the 5th pic

 

[andywg]

Well, the snakeheads moved to their far more roomy cube today (after some fun setting up the Eheim wet/dry).

First fill:

Underneath: note the polystyrene table that the filter sits on to prevent pressure leaks.

Some of the fry checking out their new surroundings:

And then I fed them. The appetitie of these fellows always amazes me. I always think I have massively overfed them (almost always on live) yet come the morning; everything is gone.

Hope you all enjoy...

And thanks again CFC.

Andy

 

[tazy]

Hi andy its Mary here ..using desktop so it signs me in as jay anyway that tank is lovely..and those little snakeheads wont be so little so if they keep growing like they are. I had to laff when i saw the one who had been eating the bloodworm ...cos he is transparent he is turning red...so cute they are....I still have high hopes for a rainbow snakehaed like urs ....Never say never Oh forgot to add glad you got ur filter leak sorted without and tape or anything lolololol i m laffin cos i have seen a pic somewhere where one was leaking where the intake tube is attached to the filter and there was a lovely diadora sock tied ever so nicely ! lmfao

 

[andywg]

They are growing at a fast rate. It turns out we have so far lost 3 to jumpers (leaving 9, turns out CFC can still count after a few pints... )so I have left the water level a little low for now.

The problem with the filter was it was sited a little too low and the breather tube was a little obstructed so the pressure was blowing the seal. I just altered the breather tube, built the little polystyrene tower and everything works fine. It's very weird how the filter fills up then drains for a bit. Creates a nice varying current in the tank though.

I haven't seen any C. bleheri for some time around here. In fact we purchased the only two I know, but Shotgate has since shut down. If you can't find any, the C. Gachua don't look too different once fully grown.

 

[andywg]

Well, time for a one month update.

Before the fry, a quick look at some of our new acquisitions:

A couple of Armoured Cameroon shrimp. We had two, lost one and found these two. The female (I believe, the whiter one) is a very nice size - the orange flashes underneath the bag in the first pic is a rosey barb around the 1.75" mark. Nina also got some good photos of the male on the bracer bar.

Somewhat rare and clear pics of the butterfly fish and a cory:

And an update on the fry. They are getting bigger and bigger. When we got them on 31 December they were smaller than the shrimp they are with, they have now taken to eating hte shrimp (found one with half a shrimp hanging out his mouth tonight).

And finally, a groovy shot of two chilling underneath the filter inlet.

Enjoy

Andy

 

[Durbkat]

Nice. Do those shrimp usually sit out of the water like that?

 

[Erised]

Those shrimp are simply freaky dear, why would anyone keep something as ugly like that in a nice looking tank?
The fry are still gorgeous though =D They are indeed not really fry anymore, closer to 'little fishies' ... not any less cute though!