Oddball Or Not ?

[Ethos]

What in the?
Is that fish in water? It looks like he's not , and the brown stuff is the waters beggining.

 

[funkybodal]

That's cool bloozoo.

Sorry if the link was dodgy or something.

Wildwoods seem to have pretty much all the available garra species. Cool fish, I'll probably get some when I go back to London.

Cheers.

 

[benzonar]

They had some of these in Aqualife in Leyland Lancashire a few months back. Apparently they are the best algae eaters out there. The lfs had them stickered up as Rhino algae eaters.

Seemed quite shy and for some reason I resisted buying one, mainly because I knew nothing about them and didn't want a potential killer on my hands.

 

[Bloo]

That's cool bloozoo.

Sorry if the link was dodgy or something.

Wildwoods seem to have pretty much all the available garra species. Cool fish, I'll probably get some when I go back to London.

Cheers.

No, not your fault at all that the link was dodgy. There were security issues on the TFK website, but that should all be fixed now I think.

They had some of these in Aqualife in Leyland Lancashire a few months back. Apparently they are the best algae eaters out there. The lfs had them stickered up as Rhino algae eaters.

Seemed quite shy and for some reason I resisted buying one, mainly because I knew nothing about them and didn't want a potential killer on my hands.

Yeah, as interesting as these fish are, they couldn't tell me anything about these fish either. And to be honest, as fascinating and odd-looking as these fish are, I don't really have a setup to "experiment" with them and don't fancy introducing potential havoc into the tank

But as far as I can attain, they only reach approx 4" - but as for temperature I'm unsure ?

Anyone with more information greatly appreciated.

 

[BOD]

not sure if it helps at all, i had a garra pingi pingi looked pretty much the same,they can be kept in cool water and tropical water to about 25-26C.

My pingi was a bit of a bugger when we had goldfish, but we changed him later on in life to tropicals and he got on better with them, apperntly they dont like goldfish lol

 

[funkybodal]

PFK had a pretty detailed article about them a while back, but I'm not sure if I've got that issue here at Uni. Garra are pretty easy to keep, the largest species reaches 4" but others are smaller. Like cooler water (but should be fine in general tropical temps as long as there's a decent oxygen content) and a bit of a flow.

I watched this fascinating tv programme about hippos ages ago which showed how their dung supported the whole ecosystem of the river. Several species of Garra lived around the hippos and fed off their dung, as well as 'cleaning' the hippos skin etc (the dody link was an article about how Garra can be used to help cure certain human skin conditions).

The Hippos rely on the Garra and other fishes to such an extent that they actually stand there with their mouths open to be cleaned and then they NEVER swallow any fish.

Unforunately, a decline in the number of hippos is screwing over the entire ecosystem...

Wicked fish, I might set up a special Garra tank when I get home.

Hope this helps, s'all I could really remember.

Cheers,
Luke.

 

[Bloo]

Thanks for that Luke.
The differences in Garras seem quite great though.

Have a look at this facinating article on "Garra rufa" and how they are used in controlling Psoriasis in Humans !
And these chaps seem live live in waters anything from 15C - 37 C ! (59F - 99F)

Just a last edit on this thread to add in some of those photos (not so good) that I managed to take of them with my (not so good) phone:

This photo best shows the fish at the back with the "horn" - the others in the other photos are all youngsters and only have large bumps.

 

[mellowserra]

The first time in 3 weeks I've had time to access my computer or go to the LFS, I see a bunch of these "horned CAEs" swimming about the bottom of a tank along with CAEs (sees tank...thinks about bloozoo's post...). The first I have ever seen these also, very interesting, but I did not ask about them.