Odd characin thread

[KungFish]

Marc, how was the temperament of your gnathocharax? I've got a shot at some but know absolutely nothing about them.

Also, are they jumpers? The long angled pectoral fins remind me of hatchetfish, aka 'aquatic rockets' .

[Jools]

Alleykat asked me via PM , as the regulars will know, I think PMs are a poor way to share information as it is only a two way conversation and I don't really have the time for many of those (but always want to help where I can). So...

could you tell me what size yours are? I saw them once quite a while ago in a shop, and was immediately intrigued but didnt get any without some research. I read they can be quite aggressive, do they bother tankmates or mainly each other?

Mine are pretty uniformly 8cm SL. They are not aggressive however I keep ten of them with

Peckoltia brevis

and

Auchenipterichthys coracoideus

neither of whom show any damage from their tank mates.

Hope that helps,

Jools

[alleykat]

hi everybody!

sorry Jools.. the thought crossed my mind, but I was worried about 'contaminating' the mainly pictorial thread.Thank you for your quick reply, and I'll know what to do next time

[Marc van Arc]

Marc, how was the temperament of your gnathocharax? I've got a shot at some but know absolutely nothing about them.
Also, are they jumpers? The long angled pectoral fins remind me of hatchetfish, aka 'aquatic rockets' .

They can and will jump (see pectorals indeed), peaceful despite visible teeth, surface orientated (see shape), easily fed, in one word a briljant little fish. One thing though: despite being with 15 specimens, they didn't shoal in my tank. If you don't object to individual behaviour, this one is highly recommended imo.

[kruseman]

Poecilocharax weitzmanni male ( bycatch to cardinaltetra)

male:


female:

[Mol_PMB]

Nice to see someone else with these. Two of mine sometimes seem to take turns guarding a little cave, but I've never seen anything come of it. Have you managed to breed yours?


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[kruseman]

No, I haven't. And given the fact that my breedingattemps with characins almost always end in failure, chances are slim to none

[Catxel]

I ordered some Slender Chameleon Tetras for the LFS I work at and they will be here friday in the fish shipment. I only found a cpl of articles on them and wondered if anyone here has had any personal experience with them? They seem pretty rare, but sound very cool. Of course, I will be taking a few home with me Cant help customers if I haven't taken them on a test drive myself LOL. Anyone here ever have them?

[Mol_PMB]

Here's one of my less common tetra species: Phenacogrammus aurantiacus sp.lefini
This is an attractive tetra from the Congo. The photo also includes a 'normal' Congo tetra (Phenacogrammus interruptus) for comparison.

[characinkid]

When you say they are Slender tetras, are these Iguanodectes? If so... cool fish..

[Catxel]

Yes, the color changing fish.

[kruseman]

This is an attractive tetra from the Congo

I fully agree. Stunning fish!

[kruseman]

Moenkhausia naponis

[KungFish]

What a funny coincidence!

I will be getting moenkhausia naponis as well in a couple of weeks!

[kruseman]

Seems like we share the same taste.
There are probably not many people around who keep Denticetopsis alongside .M. naponis

[kruseman]

http://youtu.be/MI0GHLilQTM[/youtube]

This link doesn't seem to work maybe this will

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI0GHLi ... xuDWuSDpMQ

[kruseman]

It seems this is an Astyanax festae. Not Moenkhausia naponis

http://condor.depaul.edu/waguirre/fishw ... estae2.jpg

[rupertoooo]

I ordered some Slender Chameleon Tetras for the LFS I work at and they will be here friday in the fish shipment. I only found a cpl of articles on them and wondered if anyone here has had any personal experience with them? They seem pretty rare, but sound very cool. Of course, I will be taking a few home with me Cant help customers if I haven't taken them on a test drive myself LOL. Anyone here ever have them?

Saw this thread so I thought I would jump in and provide some of my personal experiences. Iguanodectes spilurus are fairly uncommon and unless they are wild caught you are probably not going to see them. Awesome medium size characin that is extremely active and can show aggression but directed mainly at conspecifics. If I was to compare this fishes attributes with another tetra it would definitely be the Boehlkea Fredcochui, a.k.a. Knodus Borki (Cochus blue tetra) which is another one of my personal favorite characins. Funny thing about the spilurus, at least in my case is there seems to be a hierarchy. This fish flashes colors of yellow, orange, blue and green within its caudal peduncle which is what makes this fish extra special. As with any fish the home is important 50% weekly water changes, heavily planted, plenty of water movement and quality food will help this fish thrive. Try adding in some Knodus Borki and if you can find them, Danio Jaintianensis for a real treat. Substitute Danio Choprae if Jaintianensis are unavailable.

[rupertoooo]

Some oddball characins. The ultra rare Moenkhausia phaeonota, Hyphessobrycon amapaensis, Iguanodectes spilurus, Hyphessobrycon sp. Rainbow or Bleeding Blue (I do not believe it has been given an official name). I have a few rainbows growing out in the tank as well. Parva, Tabubil and Kamakas.

[bekateen]

That's a really nice looking tank, with colorful fish.

And the background language is colorful too!

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Sorry, this isn't about an "odd" characin, but I couldn't think of a better place to ask this question: Does anybody know if penguin tetras

Thayeria obliqua

are particularly bad about eating Cory eggs? Recently, almost every time I wake up to find eggs laid in my community tank, I discover that most of the eggs have been eaten before I wake up. The newest fish in the tank (for about 4 months now) are 3 penguin tetras, so I suspect they are the culprits. I also have several Apistogramma agassizii, one upside down cat, and 6-7 banjo cats. Everyone else in the tank are Corys. I've never caught any of these fish eating eggs, but they could be too.
Thanks, Eric

[Marc van Arc]

I can hardly remember the time I did not keep characins.
So if I may adapt the title of this thread to suit my current status: no characins, that's odd.

It took me nearly a year to find out that I missed keeping fishes from the characin family.
To make up for that, I keep Tetragonopterus argenteus since last Thursday.

[coelacanth]

Sorry, this isn't about an "odd" characin, but I couldn't think of a better place to ask this question: Does anybody know if penguin tetras

Thayeria obliqua

are particularly bad about eating Cory eggs? Recently, almost every time I wake up to find eggs laid in my community tank, I discover that most of the eggs have been eaten before I wake up. The newest fish in the tank (for about 4 months now) are 3 penguin tetras, so I suspect they are the culprits. I also have several Apistogramma agassizii, one upside down cat, and 6-7 banjo cats. Everyone else in the tank are Corys. I've never caught any of these fish eating eggs, but they could be too.
Thanks, Eric

Very late to this one, but we found that some tetras are really extremely good at nipping Corydoras eggs off glass or decor. Looking at the jaws of Thayeria, I could easily imagine these doing the same.

[bekateen]

Thanks coelacanth. That fits with my experience. Maybe I should get rid of these guys, or at least move them to another tank.

Cheers, Eric

[kruseman]

What a great video with loads of characins!

[Marc van Arc]

It took me nearly a year to find out that I missed keeping fishes from the characin family.
To make up for that, I keep Tetragonopterus argenteus since last Thursday.

It took me two months to discover they weren't T. argenteus, but Ctenobrycon spilurus. Mind you, they were very small.
Anyway, I don't keep them anymore.

[Mol_PMB]

I'm going to resurrect this thread because I have finally managed to get hold of some more

Poecilocharax weitzmani

They were rather small (half an inch) but only £2.99 each so I bought a group of 14 yesterday. They're feeding hungrily now, which is great. I'm going to grow them out a bit until they're sexable, and then put them in smaller groups and have a better go at breeding them.

I've still got one remaining from my previous batch but he's big and looking very elderly (>4 years) so I will probably keep him separate from the youngsters. Last time round I did see some signs of courting and possibly guarding eggs, but never any fry. I've got more experience and better foods and water now, so think it's worth trying again.

Cheers,
Paul

[characinkid]

Going to resurrect this old thread with a quick video of my Rhoadsia altipinna

[Jools]

An oldie but a goodie - those are cool fish.

Jools

[kruseman]

They look great!