My Hara jerdoni!

[catfishchaos]

Hello everyone!

I've been spamming this forum lately with

Hara jerdoni

question threads (which are wildly unpopular...) but recently I decided to go a ahead and get some! At the moment I have them setup in 10 gallon hospital tank with lots of ceramic shards, slate and a sinking spawn mop for them to play in until the Fluval edge I bought is all ready and the plants have had some time to grow. I hope this thread will be a long one and I'll try to post new pictures and updates every two weeks or so but we will see how it goes. Although un glamorous I'll try to get some pictures of the tank (and the fish) tonight after work.

[Shovelnose]

I have never kept these fish with plants, just tons of driftwood and rocks although I do think plants will be as just as good. Fairly hardy for a sisorid, just that they rarely take to processed food.

[catfishchaos]

Once kept well they seem to be hardy but I have unfortunately lost a few in perfecting there water. The LFS that I work at would't give them the proper conditions (80 F mild nitrate ect) and out of the 50 we ordered their was a mere 14 left for me at the store (and none were sold). I purchased 5 but the filter intake was strong and 2 became trapped so I carved some sponge to fit the intake and no problems since. A few more have just passed away for no real good reason, they all had sunken stomachs when I purchased them but the dead specimens have shown full bellies with brine shrimp and blood worms. I now have a total of 4 however there are two more at the pet store I plan on introducing once the tank is a little more stable. I'm not sure how cooperative they will be but I will try and get some photos up tonight.

[Shovelnose]

What sort of filter do you use? They don't really do well in current, I find that HOB's suit the purpose better for filtration in such cases. I would suggest you stick to blood worms for now.

[catfishchaos]

The filter is a fluval C3 and emits a bit of current but I have broken it up with ceramics and yarn spawn mops that they can take shelter in to escape the flow.

I have no intention on switching them to commercial, I get my frozen rather cheap and plan to supplement this with live Grindal worms on the occasion.

[catfishchaos]

Well as of now there are 5

Hara jerdoni

remaining but now that the tank is established everyone is eating and playing I think I'll pickup the other 2-3 on Thursday!

I did a 50% water change (was going to do 25% but the water line vanished in my viewfinder ;) ) and gave them some blood worms that they devoured! all look happy and healthy and it looks like 3 females and 2 males so maybe when I have all the time in the world I'll try and breed them but for know I just want pretty- not the word I mean active... hmmm I mean interesting fish!

Here are some photos of the little buggers and their setup, let me know what you think!

Overhead


From the side


A few of them chilling in their caves




And a few of the bold (or hungry) ones



Last one is horrible quality and very dark (turn up your brightness folks ) but it shows one sitting calmly with a big blood worm hanging out of his mouth which is the sight of victory in my books.


I'll keep you all updated as best I can!

[bekateen]

They are so cute! Enjoy them, and good luck with them.

Cheers, Eric

[Shovelnose]

Are you planning to add some substrate to the tank?

[catfishchaos]

Thanks bekateen I really enjoy them! I was planning on getting some Centromochlus or Tatia for the 30 gallon but I might just need to track down some

Hara hara

Don't worry shovelnose this is a temporary setup. The final tank is a Fluval edge with fine sand (ADA mekong) surrounding some aquasoil where it will be planted densely with M.crenata in the foreground and Pogostemon erectus in the background and using ADA ryouh stone I have made a little low cave like structure that casts enough shad to hopefully limit growth underneath the structure. Two thirds of the tank will be just sand with no vegetation for them to play on and feed on, I know how important a sandy bottom is to this species and I have no intention on denying them that. I hope to move them by early october maybe even late september. The plants arrive on the 16 and I need at least a week to stabilize the tank to allow some root establishment and growth

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Are you planning to add some substrate to the tank?

Same question from me, personally I'd put in some sand, dead leaves and wood to give them a lot more cover, even while they are in quarantine. For me the advantages of having non-stressed fish over-way the disadvantages of not being able to easily check on them.

Do you have access to some floating plants (and a light)? if you do I'd be tempted to put them in as well.

I'm not a fan of small, bare tanks, for me they make water management more difficult.

I'm not familiar with the filter system on the "Fluval Edge", but if you can move some filter media over? I'd add the

Hara jerdoni

to Edge as soon as possible. They won't disturb the plants, and the plants will offer additional biological filtration straight away.

cheers Darrel

[catfishchaos]

Hi all,

Are you planning to add some substrate to the tank?

Same question from me, personally I'd put in some sand, dead leaves and wood to give them a lot more cover, even while they are in quarantine. For me the advantages of having non-stressed fish over-way the disadvantages of not being able to easily check on them.

Do you have access to some floating plants (and a light)? if you do I'd be tempted to put them in as well.

I'm not a fan of small, bare tanks, for me they make water management more difficult.

I'm not familiar with the filter system on the "Fluval Edge", but if you can move some filter media over? I'd add the

Hara jerdoni

to Edge as soon as possible. They won't disturb the plants, and the plants will offer additional biological filtration straight away.

cheers Darrel

The problem with the ADA aqua soil is that at first it releases ammonia to cycle the tank and that cycle will indefinitely kill them off (hence the large water change schedule) but I do plan on taking a sponge from the edge and stuffing it into a canister filter for a little while to get is established and then put it back into the edge. I might grab some more pot pieces and make a few more spawn mops but I think I'll stray away from the sand for now just for ease of cleaning and ease of monitoring food intake.

[dw1305]

Hi all,

The problem with the ADA aqua soil is that at first it releases ammonia.

OK., that makes sense.

I only keep planted tanks, but I've never used any of the nutrient rich substrates.

cheers Darrel