My new fish - Spectracanthicus zuanoni

[MarcW]

I was in a local fish shop last weekend, and saw a group of really nice looking CW045, so I decided to go and get a group of them this weekend, unfortunately they lost most of them in the week. Another fish which caught my eye last weekend was

Spectracanthicus zuanoni

, apparently they have been in the store for several months and have been doing well.

I came home with 6, spending a long time looking at the fish in store, I'm sure I have a mix of sexes but can't be sure how many of each. They vary in size from 8 to 12cm TL.

After all the discussion of Zebras and the Xingu recently, I am pleased to have a little piece of the Xingu at home to try and breed, and they are on the IBAMA positive list (I checked before buying them) .

A couple of them have sunken stomachs, but there was poo in the bags I brought them home in, they each had their own bag, so I suspect they may have some internal parasites/worms, so I'm going to treat them with Flubendazole and try to get them back into shape. I wouldn't normally have accepted fish with sunken stomachs, but after a bit of negotiation the one with the most sunken stomach was given to me free, and the rest of the group at less than the ticket price, so I'm going to give it a go.

I have a few questions:

1. There isn't any diet information in the Cat-eLog, I'm assuming they are an omnivore, so I'm going to feed them a primarily vegetarian diet, with some meaty food thrown in maybe once a week. Does that seem like a good start?
2. I assume they are

Spectracanthicus zuanoni

, not

L354

? They seem to have round spots rather than variously shaped blotches like L354.
3. Am I right thinking I got a mix of sexes?

Thanks for everyone's help!

Fish 1

Fish 2

Fish 3

Fish 4

[MarcW]

The other 2 fish.
Some look quite light coloured, this seems to be their stress colouration, once they were in the tank they were all the same dark colour within 5 minutes.

Fish 5

Fish 6

[bekateen]

Good luck, Marc. Sorry I don't know anything to help you here, but I'm sure some people do.

Cheers, Eric

[MarcW]

Thanks Eric, I'm having all the usual worries I'm sure most people get with a new group of fish, have they eaten yet, when will they eat, why haven't they eaten, etc.! .

I'm sure they will be fine once they're settled in for a week or so.

[lfinley58]

Hi Marc. Your feeding plan sounds good. The primary natural food for the species year round is detritus and a variety of algae (up to 65 species of single cell, multicellular and filamentous) comes in second for most of the year. Invertebrates (insect larvae; small crustaceans; some microinvertebrates that live among the algae and detritus; and sponges) are eaten regularly but in lower quantities.
If you have algae growing on movable platforms in other tanks you might consider moving some into the S. zuanon tanks so that they might be able to graze at will.
If you want to try to get some sponges into them there are frozen foods available which have a sponge component. These are usually marketed as being for marine butterfly fish.
Keep us filled in on how they are doing.
Lee F.

[MarcW]

Thanks Lee.

I don't have any algae covered rocks, but I do have some Repashy Solient Green, which I could paint onto some rocks for them. It has a couple types of algae in it but also some meatier ingredients, I'll try to get hold of the Super Green variety which is vegan, for some more algae content.

In the meantime I'll also try courgette, and various algae wafers.

I've added several caves into the tank but they seem to prefer hiding in wood or between filter intake sponges and the glass. Is this a species which only caves when spawning? If so I'll add some more rock work for them to hide in.

Thanks for your help.

[lfinley58]

Hi Marc - Happy to help a bit if I can.
Your feeding plan sounds good - go with it.
I have no experience (or info that comes to mind) regarding spawning in this species. Maybe someone else can chime in on that.
Lee

[MarcW]

Thanks again Lee.

I've read the breeding report on here but there isn't much detail. I believe they have only been bred a handful of times and that they are cave spawners.

For now I'll focus on getting them settled in and eating well. In the long term I'll setup a new aquarium for them with lots of rocky crevices and more current.

[MarcW]

They seemed to eat some of the food offered overnight, Repashy Fruut Luups. I added four, 1cm cubes, one has gone, two are half eaten, and one is almost whole still.

However this tank does occasionally get direct sunlight, the sides and back were covered in a brown algae, this morning that is completely gone! I only cleaned the front glass just before putting them in so I could see them better, I wish I'd left it now!

I'm going to try and figure out a way of filming or photographing them at night, to check up on them and see if they are all active and eating, I'm thinking a remote flash sitting on the cover glass or some sort of infra red camera, like a baby monitor or motion activated wildlife camera.

[MarcW]

I've created some Repashy covered bits of slate to see if they go for them. I also ordered a cheap infrared camera to record them overnight to see if I can catch them eating, if its any good I'll post some footage.

[MarcW]

Well it seemed to work, most of the food was gone from the slate this morning there was roughly 8x4cm by 0.5cm thick Repashy Soilent Green last night and about 3x1cm left this morning. I'll add some more tonight as well as some courgette (zucchini).

I managed to get a picture of the fish with the most sunken stomach, it still doesn't look great, but has come through the flubendazole treatment ok, and I'm hoping with the amount of food missing, it has had something to eat. My infrared camera should arrive today so hopefully I'll be able to work out which ones are eating by tomorrow.

[lfinley58]

Marc,
It is a very nice feeding project that you are working on. Keep up the good work.

Lee

[MarcW]

I got some footage of them eating, well, at least 4 of the 6 individuals eating at the same time, hopefully they all got some food at some point during the night. My next challenge is to work out how to convert the .av file which the camera saved into something I can put on YouTube to link to here!

There appears to be a problem with the way I put the Repashy on the slate, I boiled the slate as it had been in my garage for quite a while, then applied the mix soon after, it would appear that the hot slate, contracted slightly or somehow effected the bond between the food and the slate, as they have now come away from the rock after being stored in the fridge. I'll give it another go with cold pieces of slate and see how it goes.

There were a few scrapes taken off of the courgette skin, I'll try it again tonight to see if they eat any more.

[MarcW]

I've figured out the video, see below for some footage of my new fish at night! They like to hang around the food and just eat for a second or two every few minutes. On the left is a courgette, and in the middle a sheet of Repashy Soilent Green.

[Jobro]

nice creepy video xD these white eyes really give me the creeps

where did you get the cam and how much was it? I might like to try this as well

[MarcW]

Thanks, yeah the reflection in their eyes is creepy! It was completely dark in the room the camera seemed to work quite well.

The only issue I had with it is that it saves the files on a memory card in .av files which I'd never heard of before and I had to download some unprofessional looking software after a few virus scans to convert it so I could put it on YouTube.

This is the same camera I used: https://www.amazon.co.uk/FLOUREON-Wirel ... 2FBlack%29

It was £26.99, if you search for an infrared or night vision security camera it should return many similar cameras.

I need to move it further from the glass as anything close to the glass isn't quite in focus.

[MarcW]

I got some more footage of them feeding last night, I'm hopeful that they are all eating. Again just a couple scratches off of the courgette skin, I'll keep on offering it for a couple more nights to see if they take to it, then switch to sweet potato for a bit.

Both Repashy mixes I offered were eaten, although there seemed to be a preference for the Fruut Luups over Soilent Green, the larger fish had most of the Fruut Luups while the smaller fish went for the Soilent Green. This may have been related to territory rather then food preference. So tonight I'm going to swap around the positions of those two foods to see if they still show a preference for the Fruut Luups.

In the videos below Soilent Green is the block on the left, courgette in the middle then Fruut Luups on a piece of slate on the right. The videos are 6x speed, otherwise it can be pretty dull to watch .

[torusle]

I always put some scratches on the courgette or cucumber using my fingernails before I put it into the tank.

Don't know why, but the fish take less time to start feeding on it. Could be the smell or maybe they think that the food is good because they're not the first one to chew on it.

Works for me. Maybe worth a try.

[Jobro]

If plecos see at night, could they maybe see infrared?

stupid me, there wouldn't be lots of infrared light during night without any LEDs xD

But I found that Pelvicachromis taeniatus can actually see infrared somehow. Maybe plecos could as well.

[MarcW]

I believe that some animals can see infrared, if the catfish can see it, their behaviour doesn't seem to be effected by it. Certainly if I shine a torch in the tank they swim away, maybe they don't associate infrared with danger as they seem to do with the spectrum of light we can see?

There is a ring of LEDs around the lens of the camera, bad picture attached!

They never seem to be very bright though, no brighter than pictured above, it also appears red rather than the purple it came out as in the picture.

[bekateen]

Cool videos, Marc.

I discovered with my beggini that they eat the zucchini flesh better if I scrape the seeds and middle out of the zucchini before putting it in the tank.

Good luck,
Eric

[MarcW]

Well, there didn't seem to be much difference after switching the foods to different sides of the tank, so I guess they like both types of Repashy that I have been feeding!

Again, they didn't go for much courgette, but did have a little. I'll keep offering it occasionally think I'll try some sweet potato tonight.

[Jobro]

Cool videos, Marc.

I discovered with my beggini that they eat the zucchini flesh better if I scrape the seeds and middle out of the zucchini before putting it in the tank.

Good luck,
Eric

That's the way I go about it as well Same with cucumber.

My fish usually prefer the flesh over the skin, though.

[MarcW]

I'll give the courgette another go tonight with the seeds scraped out and a few scratches on the skin, to see if it makes any difference.

I fed some to my

L128

last night, and used the night vision camera to watch them, they are certainly more enthusiastic!

In the video I think is my largest male who is about 6 inches SL, when compared to the courgette he's eating.

[MrRRunner]

Really interesting post Marc, I keep L128, and L239's myself amongst others, and find Vitalis (was New Era) plec pellets are also accepted readily, May I ask if you purchased your Fruut Luups in the UK as I would like to try this but can't find a uk seller.
And good luck with the Spectracanthicus zuanoni.

[MarcW]

The new era plec pellets were all my L128 would eat when I first got them, I have a couple pots of them and feed them from time to time. I haven't tried them with the Spectracanthicus zuanoni yet though.

I get the Fruut Luups from Stephan at Swiss Tropicals, he does ship internationally, but I travel to the US occasionally and have him ship it to my hotel then bring it back in my suitcase. It might be worth sending him an email to check pricing for shipping.

[MrRRunner]

Thanks for that Marc, Swiss tropicals is where I had seen them and he does say enquire about shipping costs.
I'll hang on a bit and hope that one of the uk suppliers get's it in, I'm not short on variety so no rush.

[MarcW]

I added some more courgette last night, I removed the seeds and made a few cuts in the skin with a knife.

I'm not sure if it was the new method of preparation, or that they are getting used to it as food, but they ate more of it than previously! They also appeared to eat a little of the flesh, none of my other fish have done that previously.

[Jobro]

Marc, you don't need to offer such huge portions

try to place it in a way, so that the plecos can reach both sides. Maybe they mostly only eat the skin because they only reach the skin?

[MarcW]

It's just out of habit, my

L128

will strip the skin off of half a courgette in a couple hours, so I just put that much in! Maybe the

Spectracanthicus zuanoni

just need a half portion!

You could be right about the way its placed, last night I placed it so there was access to either side, some flesh was eaten, but it still seems they prefer the skin! I'll have to try that in my other tanks too, in them I have only ever placed it with the skin facing up.