Colomesus asellus

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 06 May 2007, 18:20

It looks like you found a good fish to go with your puffers.
It is always good, IMO, to have at least something to watch when the rest of the fish, like the driftwood cats, hide all day. At least it helps cut down the frequent question: "Where are the fish?"

These may well surprise you by actually raising some fry despite the night time "boogiemen", Driftwood Cats.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 07 May 2007, 16:12

Alright. As the first day of my holidays, this was supposed to be a nice day. Not, as you'll soon find out.
Furthermore, holidays are meant to relax a bit - evenmore when you've had a very busy time at work for the past few months. That's a double negative and it's probably going to cost me.

- noticed some a-typical behaviour in the medium tank. Trachelyichthys on the move; Amblyceps hanging around.
Not good. Cleaned the filter and changed almost half of the water. Added Nitrivec. Can't tell yet whether these measures were in time or not. Bummer.

- had to get the Leptobarbus out of the large tank today. That wasn't too bad. I didn't have to get all the wood out, thus causing no panic among the Auchenipterids, which was nice for a change. I caught them in about 10 minutes. I managed to work around the Geophagus nest. That made me a little happier.
I started getting some water out - by hose - and within half a minute I sucked up one of the Ageneiosus. I wasn't paying attention. I didn't know it would fit into the hose and it didn't. It was sucked in with some violence and pretty soon it got stuck. Luckily the hose is transparent so I knew where to cut it to free the poor thing. It's not a very relaxing thing to do when there's no-one else around. The place became a bit messy. I hastily put the fish back in the tank. Even now - 2 hours later - it sits motionless on the sand.
Luckily it's not tumbling over or doing other silly things. The latter is my department these days.

- I noticed a bite mark on the Ageneiosus. The upper tail lobe. And on another one. The third one also missed a part of the dorsal. So apparently the puffer is not as innocent as I wrote (yesterday!!). And apparently I've been watching with my eyes closed.

So as you can see I'm doing fine at the moment. A short holiday abroad was cancelled due to the weather. Instead of that I may paint the loft the next couple of days.
Hope all fishes survive. If not, my bad. I'll keep you posted.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 07 May 2007, 18:15

Marc,
Sounds like things went South mighty fast.
Maybe you should scrape and siphon out a few of the Cichlid eggs so you salvage something extra from the disaster?
Puffers? Caveat emptor.
They don't even like themselves.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 08 May 2007, 21:58

This is going to be a messy thread, but what the heck, it's Speak Easy, isn't it?
Update on yesterday's "events":
- Amblyceps mangois: very little improvement; survival still doubtful.
- Trachelyichthys exilis: improved. Hides again and barbels no longer curled.
- Microgeophagus ramirezi: improved. Rash above the eyes is disappearing.
- Ageneiosus vittatus: much better. Swims and eats well. Minor injuries; should heal completely. No extra bite wounds on all A. vittatus.
- Geophagus bahia red: are taking care of there juvies; don't seem to be bothered by anything.
I had one more tank to do today and to my great surprise these came out:

Now I can understand when you say these are hamster droppings, but in fact they are juvenile Tatias

. I have two Tatia species in that tank.
So I checked Daniel60's thread and I think they are T. intermedia fry. They came out of my filter and that's where I put them back into. Meanwhile I've also seen a few in the tank itself, but my camera is not able to make close up pictures of these mini fishes.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 09 May 2007, 00:16

Nice surprise. Congrats on the new fry.
If we can't ramble on speak easy where else can we?

Bas Pels · Post by **Bas Pels** » 09 May 2007, 11:18

Nice one

I can't imagine anybody complaining about getting good news

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 11 May 2007, 22:21

Marc van Arc wrote: Update on yesterday's "events":
- Amblyceps mangois: very little improvement; survival still doubtful.
- Trachelyichthys exilis: improved. Hides again and barbels no longer curled.
- Microgeophagus ramirezi: improved. Rash above the eyes is disappearing.
- Ageneiosus vittatus: much better. Swims and eats well. Minor injuries; should heal completely. No extra bite wounds on all A. vittatus.
- Geophagus bahia red: are taking care of there juvies; don't seem to be bothered by anything.

Update on the update: after 3 more days the following can be said:
- A. mangios: condition very well. Eats, hides, barbels fine. Recovered afaic.
- T. exilis: ditto
- A. vittatus: injuries have healed. No longer recognisable as "accidental victim".
- G. bahia: don't want me near their nest. Attacked my hand and the sponge fiercely while I was cleaning the front window

. Juvies are doing fine.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 12 May 2007, 10:21

so in the end, no fish were lost?

good to hear!

btw gratz on the Tatia fry. looks like 3 tanks won't do the job, pretty soon you need a fourth for raising baby catfishes

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 12 May 2007, 13:12

I have a fourth tank at school. Major problem is that I have to empty it every school holiday that lasts two weeks or more, because there's no-one to feed the fish. As long as there are only guppies in it, it's no problem. The problems start when I want to make it a more interesting tank. I can't possibly house these fish at home.
The main issue of that tank was to breed feeders, so I think I'll just stick to that. So the Tatias will have to grow up in their own tank.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 12 May 2007, 13:21

for young fishes that's the best solution. they need to be fed often.

but as far as adult riverine fishes go, a few weeks fasting doesn't hurt them at all. I too have a few tanks at school and 2 of those have catfishes in them as well. 1 is a Malawi Mbuna tank with a group of Synodontis petricola and a L144 Ancistrus; the other has had a range of riverine cats, including Corydoras and Ancistrus. even the 7 week holiday in summer didn't hurt them one bit!

the fish are thin, true, but healthy. a bit of fattening up after the holiday and they did just fine. I removed the Cory's when I introduced a rare variety of Cryptoheros nigrofasciatus from Nicaragua (kids like cichlids for the fry and the colors

). the Ancistrus has proven to be indestructable, it has even lived with the Axolotls for a year in an unheated tank.
I never had any trouble with any of the shorter holidays whatsoever. I even wish some of the Zebra-fry would get eaten, but nooooo

the heatwave in the summer is the biggest danger, not starvation. heat goes up, oxygen goes down; I lost a few animals including my albino Axelotl during the one last summer.
I make sure the filters are clean and running well (Eheims on all 3 tanks), the tank's not too crowded (fry removal just before the holiday starts), a big waterchange and no new arrivals at least a month before the big summerbreak.

someone with your expertise can keep a lot more than guppies in a tank wich has -in all- 12 weeks without food.

remember: in the wild the fishes from the rainforest have to fast for months, sometimes half a year before the rain comes and with it the plancton. this goes for smaller fishes as well. it's different for Rift-fish, but any easy-to-keep-beginners-fish that isn't too tiny (Tatia fry-size) should be able to cope with the holidays.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 12 May 2007, 17:45

I was actually thinking of putting a pair of convicts in (instead of guppies). So you say they are able to survive the summer, given good conditions. They would have the whole tank for themselves. How are they as breeders? Could they provide me with regular offspring?

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 12 May 2007, 17:51

Marc van Arc wrote:I was actually thinking of putting a pair of convicts in (instead of guppies). So you say they are able to survive the summer, given good conditions. They would have the whole tank for themselves. How are they as breeders? Could they provide me with regular offspring?

Marc,
You have no idea.
A better question would be. "How do I make them stop?"

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 12 May 2007, 18:18

exactly.

same problem here and I got a rare F2 pair from wildcaughts that Willem Heijns himself brought from lake Ometepe. so these actually look very nice.
but nobody wants em.

luckily I got a big eel that eats fishes the size of smelt and 4 Bathy's that chase anything small, so it's not going to be a problem for long.

not even a holiday with several weeks of no food whatsoever made a dent in the population.
the guppies and platies were all gone ofcourse, but the herd of Convicts survived right up to the last lil meany fry.

want to get a continuous supply of Ageneiosus-food I guess? this is the way to go.
but be sure to feed em when small, these are tricky little buggers and if they get smart you soon will have a Convict biotope at home with a few catfishes in there for good measure

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 12 May 2007, 19:36

Right. That should do the trick then. Hope I can find them around here; can't exactly remember where I saw them last...
Should I start off with a small group or just go for a pair? Normally I'd have looked this up, but the loft is still one big mess so I can't get to my books.
Thinking of which: gender differences apart from extended dorsals??

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 12 May 2007, 20:16

Hi Marc,
I think I would get just a pair. You will have many fry in no time at all.

The Convicts are ofen found ready to go because they get brought in by those aquarists weary of their aggression. Think of some of the meaner species of the marine Damselfishes and you'll have a good picture of the Convict's boldness. They are fearless fish.
In addition to the standard variety there is a xathanistic form that is (I think) attractive.

The recently introduced form sid mentions is nice but hard to find.

Another very good one to consider is Herotilapia multispinosa, Rainbow Cichlid. All the good traits, similar sized and much more peaceful, almost to a fault,compared to Convicts. Despite their lack of aggression they do remarkably well with aggressive fish. They have a knack of not making themselves a target yet are perfectly able to defend a breeding territory.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 13 May 2007, 15:18

Thanks all for your remarks and tips (also Bas Pels for his PM).
I'll let you know how things will turn out with regard to the convicts.

Bas Pels · Post by **Bas Pels** » 13 May 2007, 18:49

apistomaster wrote: The recently introduced form sid mentions is nice but hard to find.

that depends on where one looks. I myself have 5 varieties of convicts, I happened to stumble upon. 2 from Panama, 1 from Nicaragua, 1 from Honduras and 1 from guatemala.

All different in shape, coloration and behaviour. In fact, I am trying to get one of the Panama varieties te breed - in vain

for over 3 months now.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 30 May 2007, 14:54

Just to wrap this one up: regrettably I had to get the puffer out again today.
It kept on nipping fins and the Ageneiosids were his favourites, which caused a major problem because they are my favourites too. I think the Platystacus will also be happy with my decision.
Anyway, I've tried it and it doesn't work out overhere. I'll miss the odd fish; it was a pleasure watching it cruise the tank. Too bad.
The Cichs behave properly, so they can stay.