Which African Moon Tetra would be better in a group of assorted African Tetras???

[Magnum Man]

I’m struggling to get the new brichardi to eat…. The common Congo’s are enjoying me trying to get the new fish to eat ( full bellies) I got some excitement out of them with freeze dried brine shrimp, but didn’t see any actually eat… it’s bug bites this morning…
They otherwise seem to be doing fine… maybe they are picking at stuff when I’m not around, but I’d feel better if I actually saw them eat something

 

[GaryE]

Set up a table with a candle, and find the old Andy Williams 1950s song "moon river". Sing it as 'moon tetra' and they'll eat to get strength to escape.

 

[Magnum Man]

They didn't eat the Bug Bites either... I have a coffee bean grinder that I have been putting those whole dried black soldier fly larvae in, to chop them up a bit, mostly for the Tin Foil Barbs... put a little of that, dusted, in the tank this morning, after trying the Bug Bites... the interruptus, worked at those, even though they had full bellies, the Brichardi, still nothing...
I got the most response from them with FD Brine Shrimp... may run over to the closest fish store, & see if they have some frozen foods... we have nothing local

 

[Magnum Man]

Ended up in the ER with my mother, late afternoon today, so I didn't make a road trip for frozen food... I bought some small raw, shelled and deveined shrimp, at Walmart, in town today… diced up a half of one as small as I could… the brichardi got excited, but the interuptus ate all of it

 

[GaryE]

You may just have to set a feeding course and stay with it. It isn't rare for fish to eat when we don't see them. They are foragers, and may do their eating after the frenzy. I seem to recall mine picking along the bottom a lot. On another thread, the whole question of cleanliness came up, and I offered my half baked theory that clean substrates are not good, while pristine water is needed. These are a species that would profit from that approach. You never want rotting food in a tank, but they like older, established tanks, with some mulm to dig through.

They need time, and I wouldn't worry. If I know your source, he wouldn't sell emaciated, starving fish.

If the interruptus are interrupting their suppertime, sometimes raising the flow a little disperses the food faster and gets more to the more bottom oriented brichardis.

The late Pierre Brichard sure got some nice fish named after him.

 

[Magnum Man]

With these, I was worried, after having a dead one in the bag at arrival ( talking about how do you receive your fish ) I got these out of the bag as quickly as possible… not sure if the problem was lack of oxygen, or ammonia, but the biggest one was DOA, the biggest live fish looks the roughest, and has been struggling the most… I was sure he was going to die last night, but it looks better today… they all came in breathing rapidly, yesterday the smaller two looked good, and were hanging with the interuptus, the bigger one was sitting close to the bottom, ( just above the Armano shimp ( they are like vultures ) but this morning the 3 are swimming together… so I agree, that hopefully they’ll start eating with my normal feeding schedule

 

[GaryE]

When I get to pick, I always avoid the big males. I try for young fish. But when they come from Africa, they're the size that gets in the net. There aren't nice uniformly sized batches like from breeding farms.
The usual problem with Congo River region fish, even from the creeks like those, is oxygen. The shipper will add oxygen to the bag, but with stress, etc, it's still a problem.
Are you one of those gun totin' Americans? I want to burglarize your fishroom when I see those.

 

[Magnum Man]

I've had a conceal carry permit for 15 years, but you are welcome to look if you were in the neighborhood... BTW, these ended up being the last 4 the supplier had... it would be awesome to get 1st picks out of shipments, or even actually get a pick... with nothing close, mine are all picked for me, when they only have a few, I guess you get what you get...

 

[Magnum Man]

@GaryE brine shrimp happy dance tonight… the Brichardi were seen eating finally…suspect they may have been fed live brine shrimp, as at 1st they took them in, and spit them out, but before the water cleared, they were eating them
Tonight I did the happy dance
All 3 Brichardi are looking better

 

[GaryE]

They are very young. In a few months, they'll be beautiful, but their fins have yet to grow. A big problem for the business side is that African tetras take more time to develop. It's worth the wait for us, but for them, they take too much space for too long.

I will now confess that my largest fish isn't much more than 10cm long, and has a small mouth. Everyone gets freshly hatched brine shrimp here, along with the usual fare.I spend around $200 per year to feed Chinese artemia to 60 tanks, pretty well every day. I supplement with bug flakes, green flakes etc.

I used to think that was an enormous cost, but then I got a dog.

 

[GaryE]

I got a snapshot of my moon tetras, or some of the shoal, anyway.

 

[Magnum Man]

Very nice... I think I'm ordering some of those, on my order this week, unless you bought them all ... MRS thought the breuseghemi were too plain... I also have a group of these ( pictured ) coming, along with several other African Tetras including some red Brichardi, I'm hoping they'll shoal with my 3 red / blues...

 

[GaryE]

My breuseghemi have been here for a year next week. So your seller's stocks are safe.

 

[Magnum Man]

sorry, I thought they looked like...

Bathyaethiops caudomaculatus​

 

[Magnum Man]

^ those are the ones I'm ordering, though yours look better than the sellers pictures of the breuseghemi