South American leaf fish

[bathking]

I havet tried to keep the Peruvian leaf fish but so far, 3 have died. The last one died, I think, due to my 30% water change. It was eating alright on small fish and river shrimp. Any advice from anyone please? Thanks.

 

[Ben]

maybe PM Dwarfs or Lucky62 as they own one and i think know alot.

HTH

sorry im not much help. maybe try a google search

EDIT: to the forums introduce yourself in the apropiet section

DD

 

[Paul_MTS]

here's Dwarfs fish index bit on them- http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=58484

 

[lucky62]

I havet tried to keep the Peruvian leaf fish but so far, 3 have died. The last one died, I think, due to my 30% water change. It was eating alright on small fish and river shrimp. Any advice from anyone please? Thanks.

We had 2 , 1 died about 3 weeks after we got them , I think the other prevented him from eating , by hogging the food.

We've had the surviver for , I'd say 5 or 6 months now.

The one we have is actually a false leaf fish [ the one paul v linked ], so I'm not sure if we're talking about the same animal here .

Ours is still kind of small , I'd say 2 1/2 " . A little more then half grown .

It will only eat live food , and he has to see it moving or no deal , He refuses meal worms for the reason they move slow or don't move at all .

Until we can find another source our safest bet has been live brine shrimp . We gorge him once or twice a week , meaning he only eats once or twice a week .

Over the summer he ate many insects .

He has snails in his tank ,and my son has seen his eat some , not often , but if he's hungry it'll do .

Now about the water changes , these fish hardly move , and don't need to be feed [ as often or as much ]like , say cichlids , that tend to move around alot more then a leaf fish , so I think a 10% water change would be be fine , also the temp should be as close as you can get it esp if you replace 30% of the volume , maybe you do this , I don't know .Also , do you add water conditioner ?

Leafs are said to like water with a less than neutral Ph and a little on the acid side , our tap water suites him and all of our other fish just fine .


Did you look at my sons profile on the fish ? , is it the same as yours ?

If so , we he gets home , I'll get him to add his 2 cents .

 

[CFC]

Monocirrhus polyacanthus is the scientific name for theS.American leaf fish, i kept a small group of these a couple of years back without much success. The species is extreemly delicate and needs to be kept in very soft, mildly acidic, nitrate free water, conditions that discus are kept in are ideal, if the fish are kept in hard alkeline water or the nitrates rise too high (above 40ppm) their health deteriorates and the fish become ill and die. They need to be fed on small live foods such as guppies and ghost shrimp and should be fed every day, they probably will not take dead or prepared foods as i was unable to train mine to take anything but live food. They do not do well in a community type setting and ideally should be kept in a planted species tank or with other sedentry fish like banjo catfish and farrowellas.

 

[bathking]

Thanks for your info, CFC. I have now segregated the tank from the rainbows and will try again by not changing too much water at one go. This fish looks like a brown leaf, swimming at an angle. There are false leaf fish (google search will get a picture) and lucky62 might have got these. I have also put in some brown drift wood, which should lower the water ph without any conditioner. The fish shop just used normal local tap water from North London, England. Any more tips welcome.