The Sparklers

[seangee]

Lovely pics. Does the red colour come out as they mature or are they different colour strains? Mine have no red , but I suspect they are still very young.

 

[CassCats]

Lovely pics. Does the red colour come out as they mature or are they different colour strains? Mine have no red , but I suspect they are still very young.

My one female didn't develope the deep red until she came into breeding condition. She is the more dominant female and the only one breeding of the two females. I got them both young, under an inch.

My male has a bit of red too, but not as vibrant as my dominant female.

As far as I am aware, there are no colour strains with sparkling gourami.

 

[seangee]

My mistake. Water change today and I decided I had gone a little too far with the whole blackwater thing and made photography impossible. So after shedding a bit more light on the subject...

 

[Retired Viking]

Really like their colors

 

[CassCats]

My mistake. Water change today and I decided I had gone a little too far with the whole blackwater thing and made photography impossible. So after shedding a bit more light on the subject...
View attachment 110611

Lovely male there!
But sparklers love tannins, so no worried going too far

 

[seangee]

Lovely male there!
But sparklers love tannins, so no worried going too far

I meant for me being able to see in there .
Ok I give up. How do you sex them? There is another similar to that in colour, 2 with a lot of blue above the lateral line and very little or no red and 2 that are quite plain (but they are the smallest).

 

[CassCats]

I meant for me being able to see in there .
Ok I give up. How do you sex them? There is another similar to that in colour, 2 with a lot of blue above the lateral line and very little or no red and 2 that are quite plain (but they are the smallest).

Looking at your photo, you can see the internal organs... theyre rounded, like a "D"
There's no ovaries visible. This is a male. You can view it better when they are back lit.
Your photo, I drew the round edge of the internal organs that are visible.

A mature female will show obvious ovaries as a triangular point off to the back of the internal organs. When young it is harder to see.

I made this collage when my females were just delivered, still very young where it is harder to sex them, to compare:

The female in the bag is the same female shown above now.

 

[seangee]

Ta that's very helpful. I had read to look for the ovaries using a backlight but without pics I had no idea what to look for. The one in my pic is by far the biggest. The second biggest is definitely a female, and seems to be the feistiest of the lot. The rest are hard to tell but most of them do look like your female in the bag. I did ask the supplier to "best guess" at more females than males - hopefully they got it right.

 

[CassCats]

Ta that's very helpful. I had read to look for the ovaries using a backlight but without pics I had no idea what to look for. The one in my pic is by far the biggest. The second biggest is definitely a female, and seems to be the feistiest of the lot. The rest are hard to tell but most of them do look like your female in the bag. I did ask the supplier to "best guess" at more females than males - hopefully they got it right.

Yeah its tricky to tell when young. But very obvious once larger.

If more than one end up male though, watch out for that. Males will often fight

 

[CassCats]

Dropping some more photos of my trio

Nyx, the male

Minnie, the dominant female

And Tiny, the subordinate female

Hoping to keep a female or two from the fry to even out some of the aggression between the girls. Minnie is quite the feisty one with everyone.

 

[Crispii]

Beautiful shots! Really love the bright iridescent colors on those sparklers!

 

[CassCats]

Beautiful shots! Really love the bright iridescent colors on those sparklers!

I love it too. Especially in their eyes. Like one minute its white and then they juuuust move their eye and bam, electric blue.


Another note, my online store got croaking gourami in, and I'm sitting here like because I dont have a tank theyd be compatible in haha

 

[Crispii]

I love it too. Especially in their eyes. Like one minute its white and then they juuuust move their eye and bam, electric blue.


Another note, my online store got croaking gourami in, and I'm sitting here like because I dont have a tank theyd be compatible in haha

Ooooh. Croaking gouramis. I would love to keep some, and I even saw them at my LFS, but I have nowhere to put them in.

 

[CassCats]

Ooooh. Croaking gouramis. I would love to keep some, and I even saw them at my LFS, but I have nowhere to put them in.

I mean... my 55 gallon doesn't have any gourami or betta species, but its got quite a bit of current to it so... not a good option for them.

But man. They got in some unusual labyrinth fish this year. I still wish i could go with the samurai gourami, they had them a few months back. Sigh.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I mean... my 55 gallon doesn't have any gourami or betta species, but its got quite a bit of current to it so... not a good option for them.

But man. They got in some unusual labyrinth fish this year. I still wish i could go with the samurai gourami, they had them a few months back. Sigh.

You have so many beautiful fish! I had no idea they were the size of neons. And wow, the colour on the the highlighter fish (kubatai? Is that right?) even more tempted by those now.

What moss is that you're using with the fry? Is it Christmas moss? I've only had java moss, but this looks quite nice