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Mystery Fish - 02/06/2007
Hello,
<Hi.>
I went to my local fish store today to get a few new fish. I spotted the
cherry barbs and decided to take a few of those. When the owner was
getting some from the tank I noticed there was a white fish in there
with them. Thinking maybe it was a different color for some reason, I
asked the owner and he said he didn't know and said it was mine for
free. He mentioned it might be left over from whatever was in the tank
before the cherry barbs. I don't know where to look to find out what it
is. I have looked over the site a bit but couldn't find what I was
looking for. I've attached a few pictures hoping maybe someone on the
crew could let me know what it is.
<It looks like it may be a young female silver molly, but I'm not
certain from the image.>
I've looked into the possibility of it being a baby cherry barb, due to
its small size, but it sounds like cherry barb fry are usually tan or
brown? Help would be very much appreciated.
<Any chance at a larger picture? Though these pics are not bad at all,
it'd be great if you could get a bit bigger of a picture, or a picture
of the fish against a single color background (easier said than done, I
know!)>
Thanks, Laura
<All the best to you and your Mystery Fish, -Sabrina> |
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Maybe another... a Goodeid? RMF |
Re: Another few questions for
Neale. Livebearer sel., Goodeids - 1/31/08
Wow, thank you, Neale!
<Nicole,>
Those suggestions for livebearers are right up my alley. Rhonda Wilson (who I
mentioned having really taken inspiration from) also keeps many of these wild
type livebearers - Goodeids, Limias, etc. and that's just the kind of setup I am
interested in, some messy plants growing however they please, lots of algae for
grazing, basically as natural a setup as possible.
<Sounds nice.>
Since there is no hope that the LFS in my area can special order anything like
this, I searched Aquabid.com. There are a couple of Limias, one person had a
pair of Liberty mollies, and the same person had Ameca splendens, the butterfly
Goodeid. (I keep wanting to spell it Goodeoid, so my apologies if there's a
typo.) The latter really interests me, mostly because I know zilch about
Goodeidae and I love learning something new that's fish related!
<Goodeids are fascinating fish, though some are pretty nippy, boisterous
animals!>
I am checking out goodeids.com, which has lots of helpful information, but would
you know of any livebearer book that does more than gloss over this species?
I've never seen a book on wild type livebearers, perhaps there is one? It's hard
to get a feel for the livebearer books on Amazon since most aren't reviewed.
<I have a couple of specialist livebearer books, of which 'Interpet Guide to
Livebearing Fishes' is the one I like best. It's cheap and easy to buy used.>
I can just imagine the look on the faces of my LFS if I asked them to special
order these fish, since they had never heard of Pelvicachromis taeniatus,
"Nigerian red" kribs before. Their response was, "Are you talking about a
freshwater fish or a saltwater fish?"
<Ah, nice fish; kept and bred them myself. Increasingly easy to get in the UK,
thankfully. Not sure why US-based aquarists are so poorly served when it comes
to freshwater fish.>
This is the same LFS that had a tank full of young rainbowfish which they called
"rainbow tetras". I helpfully took out a book from their shelves, and opened up
to the page on rainbowfish, which had plenty of pictures...
<Heh...>
I'm going to just take my time and research everything very carefully. After
being in this hobby about 5 years, I now know that the amount of time spent
planning an aquarium *definitely* pays off in the end.
<Indeed so. And it improves the fun too. You can only buy a certain number of
fish, so you'll get the best value from your fishkeeping if you very carefully
choose exactly the species you need for fun, colours, breeding, and interesting
behaviour.>
Even if the fish you choose nonchalantly can co-exist together peacefully, it's
awfully nice to have as close to a perfect stocking scheme as you can achieve,
given your personal tastes...and going to the pet store and grabbing this and
that is certainly not going to take you there!
<Precisely.>
So for all the newbies out there, it's not the slightest bit absurd to spend a
couple months with an empty tank just planning. Use the time to fishless cycle,
if need be!
<Correct!>
Thanks so much for your help, I knew you would be able to provide a fresh
perspective. I am still a bit nervous about ordering fish online, I've never
done it before, but my plan is to try to buy all the fish from the same seller
at one time, so that I only have to pay the $30 shipping fee once. I will be
sure to acclimate the newcomers carefully, and will be on top of water quality,
doing daily water changes to ensure that as many as possible of the new fish
survive.
<One bit of advice I'd make with livebearers is to avoid getting fish from one
person's batch. Those'll be descended from one pair of fish, so your gene pool
is pretty small. Ideally get two batches of fish from two different people.
That'll mix the genes up. Inbreeding with livebearers is problematical, and you
can easily end up with a fair proportion of fish with crooked spines, deformed
swim bladders, Siamese twins, etc.>
Take care,
Nicole
<Will try my best.>
P.S. Thanks for letting me know about livebearers and earthworms, I'll skip that
then. My tetras and Bettas absolutely love this treat, it's probably their
favorite food, but I can see that their mouths differ considerably from
livebearer mouths.
<Lots of fish LOVE earthworms. They're easily the best food in the world for
settling in Spiny Eels. But livebearers are, on the whole, adapted to scraping
algae and slurping mosquito larvae from the surface. They have neat upturned
mouths for just this purpose.>
I'll probably end up skipping the swordtails, although the aforementioned LFS
can get green swordtails in, as I have seen those in stock before.
<I'd tend to steer clear of Swordtails unless you have a big enough tank.
They're funny fish. But do look out for Swordtail-Platies, Xiphophorus
xiphidium, a neat little fish with the looks of a Platy but a little sword like
a Swordtail. Cheers, Neale.>
Goodeid Livebearers - 05/07/2006
Hello, I started my aquarium hobby one year ago when I purchased a betta for
my nephew's 10th birthday. (In addition, I bought a Striped Raphael, named
Cookie, and a 10-G tank for myself.) Since then I have been reading
books, magazines, on-line articles and the WetWebMedia FAQs to ensure success
with
my current 10-G, 55-G, and new 5 day old 29-G tank/s. Last weekend I attended my
first convention - the American Livebearer Association, 35th Anniversary, in New
Jersey - and at the auction on Sunday, I bought 6 Ameca splendens, 5 Xenophorus
captivus fry, and a bag full of 20 Peppered Corydoras. Since these species are
more rare in the aquarium hobby, I need your help. I set up the 29-G tank with
dividers separating the fish. Can I put them
together instead??
< I would not mix Goodeids together for fear that they might interbreed.>
I read somewhere (on-line) that the Ameca splendens do not mix well with Corys
.... What about the X. captivus fry, can they mix with the Corys?
< The catfish would probably not harm them, but may out compete them for food.>
So far it appears that they both like the bottom of the tank. Of course I will
not put all 20 Corys in the 29-G; many have already settled in my 55-G. Last
question, my 55-G contains a mix: neon tetras, brass tetra, mollies,
swordtails, guppies, platies, 1 dwarf gourami, and Corydoras. Could the new
fish mentioned above live with my other fishes?
< You just purchased some rare livebearers and I would think that you would be
interested in breeding them and keep them pure. If you mix them together they
may cross with each other. If you don't have the space you could just throw them
in all together and they would probably get along just fine.-Chuck>
If all these fish continue reproduce, at some point in the future I may need to
move them around. Thank you much for your help - with this question and with all
the others you answered as I read through your website. Adrienne Heggs,
Queens NY
Goodeidae
I recently purchased four fish at the local fish store that were marked
unknown. The fish look like the goodeidae in An Illustrated Encyclopedia of
Aquarium Fish. The only difference, is the four I have a spot on the side..
the smaller fish have green iridescent and the larger have red lines and the
spot. They are acting similar to cichlids in being territorial and
challenging the male blue ram. I would like to know if this is the fish I
purchased. Their fins are clear, the body is the same and they have the
same tail and mouth as the picture in the book above. The only difference I
can see is the coloring. They are eating flake food and pulling at the
plants. Two of them have set up territory in one corner and are not real
aggressive, but certainly don't act like other live bearers. The store
manager said they came in marked, general, community;flag fish.
>>
Hmm, I love a challenge... and this one isn't too tough... they might be the goodeid, Ameca splendens... or the Cyprinodont (egg laying toothed carps, sort of like the killiefishes) Jordanella floridae, the Florida Flag Fish...
Read on... though domesticated livebearers like the swordtails, guppies, mollies and platies are easygoing... there are MANY other species of livebearers that are tough!
Bob Fenner, who won't scold you for buying an "unknown" animal at this point, but surely hopes he and you won't be picked up by space aliens and tossed in an enclosure of "unknowns" from another planet!
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