a new tank: rheophile catfish species of Rio Tocantins

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

Fishy Crazyness!


Today I was Mr Fish Taxi Cab Man

I went to Germany for a roundtrip and came home with my old Toyota filled to the brim with new livestock

first stop:
Stephan Schaaf's fish cellar just west of Koblenz to get Ancistrus sp`rio_tocantins`
he's a dedicated L number enthousiast with quite a few breeding tanks in a true catacomb under his house
I got 9 juvenile Ancistrus for an absolute bargain price; all arrived home in good health and now they're slowly acclimatizing by drop-method

second stop: Oliver Frankk, OF Aquaristik.
there I got extremely lucky, cause there was more than I had foreseen
this was the "Fish Taxi" part of my trip, cause I bought and brought fish from OF for:

Bas, who now has a pair of Rhamdia quelen

Arjan who got 3 Tatia strigata and 4 Parodon affinis to add to his 3 P affinis

Marc who added 2 (hopefully a pair) Ageneiosus sp "green" to his tank.
this is a new species, not in the Catelog and it's not the species I've seen at Neil's place in 2010; these are shorter and different build, much more robust.

I went for a group of 8 Retroculus lapidifer, but I also got
4!! Pimelodus tetramerus. I expected only 2 or so left, but Oliver still had 4. they're nicely sized and already very stripey

and totally unexpected, BUT also suitable for this set up were the last 3 Hassar!
Oliver had a shipment of these, but they turned out quite fragile. he told me 3 survived and stayed there already for quite some time. they're now here, acclimatizing and so far they look healthy and not stressed at all

amazing fish and I never kept any hassar yet. Doras/Ossancora and other more common Doradidae, but not Hassar.


because of the Hassar I did my third stop at:
Zoo Zajac: where I bought 2 extra powerheads, 1 for the tank and the other as a back up.


the fourth stop was Eindhoven at Marc's place, where Bas and Arjan also picked up their fish

Marc made a gift of 6 gianormous Triportheus angulatus which are in the tank now, slowly cruising around
they made it without any issues at all.

but they're so huge, if anyone not into fish thinks I'm breeding salmon at home, I can forgive them

[Bas Pels, posts: 1919]

Bas, who now has a pair of Rhamdia quelen

Bas, who's very happy with them

They are now in a 130 * 50 cm tank, acclimatizing. In a month they wil lgo into my newly decorated (guess what am doing the next month) 4 meter Central America tank

First catfish which inhabits CA I ever had

Sid, thanks a million

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

I thought you had a Rhamdia before?
I've seen it a few years ago.....

was in 1 of the shorter garage tanks


on the topic: I've seen try-outs for Pimelodus spawning
last night I couldn't sleep (too much excitement), so I spend my time watching the fish until 2 AM (when I could sleep)
the tetramerus went completely berserk!

3 of them got into this racing chasing behavior and often went 'tail head' making waves to each other and hitting each others' heads

that's just fighting for dominance I think

but the fourth, the big one, got a different treatment; they kept chasing that 1 too, but they constantly swam on top of that ones' head, tickling it with the chin whiskers and trying to get "T style" in front of it

it looked like a speeeded up version of Corydoras mating, except they didn't try to clamp the snout, so maybe more like Synodontis mating.

the big one wouldn't have any of it, so time and again after she was followed all over the tank she would turn around and chase away 1 of the smaller ones

it's pretty obvious I got 3 males and 1 larger female, though

[Marc van Arc]

You are up early
So I take it all new stock is doing well?

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

I don't see any catfish at the moment, except for 1 Hassar that i can spot under the wood, I think that's a good sign, since sunlight is blasting into the room

the triportheus are just cruising, but they do freak out when I get close, they got plenty room to do so

the Retroculus are busy levelling the sand, so everything looks OK to me

[MatsP]

Which Retroculus are they?

--
Mats

[Bas Pels, posts: 1919]

I thought you had a Rhamdia before?
I've seen it a few years ago.....

was in 1 of the shorter garage tanks

I still got it, but that one came from Uruguay - not CA therefore. It measures some 20 cm now

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

Which Retroculus are they?

Retroculus lapidifer, juveniles about 6-7 cm or so.

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

update on the tank:

so far it looks like all fish are settling in just nicely

the Retroculus behave like I'm used to; quite active and they''re not so much into dry food, they prefer to pound down loads of unfrozen stuff, mysis, mosquito larvae, artemia etc.

I only recently found out that I was wrong about these: Retroculus is NOT a Geophagine cichlid, but it belomngs in a group all by itself.
no wonder all the meaty stuff doesn't bloat em up at all.
consider myself lucky.

the Pimelodus tetramerus are worth all their money and more. such a lively funny and visible catfish, even when the lights are on and sun is shining in the room.
just a wee bit of food and up pop the 4 weasels
not agressive at all; they love to chase each other and tickle the other fish, but not a scratch anywhere. playful fish.

the Triportheus are still skittish, but their majestic cruising sure works; a great fish.

my Doradids are the ones I'm most concerned about; the Hassar like species are not the easiest to keep fish and they're shy and a bit overly impressed, especially by the Pims.
however; they eat well!
they were skinny, but unlike the Retro's, these guys love flake, especially the OSI. i see nicely filled tummies.
however, they're not Hassar.....I think I got myself 3 Hemidoras stenopeltis
not a Tocantins fish, but they'll stay alright. real beauty and as odd as oddballs can be.


the Quarantaine tank with its shoal of baby Triportheus and Ancistrus sp`rio_tocantins` looks fine; i was quite worried, since the Tocantins were kept in RO water and my water is as hard as bricks.....
I took well over 2 hours to acclimatize them and so far they're a very lively bunch.
gotta go after some extra greens, though; their tank is totally void of any algae and the few pieces of wood I got with algae on em are too big for it.

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

a few attempts at taking pictures


the big shinies are Triportheus.


retroculus lapidifer juveniles


pimelodus tetramerus

[MatsP]

Looking really nice!

--
Mats

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

it's getting better by the day;

from where i sit with the Gro Lux tube on and bright daylight in the room and I spot the P tetramerus and the Hemidoras just romping around, sticking their noses in the sand occasionally....

it's 2 PM!


no need for a headlight or a tiny LED to see the catfishes

[wrasse, posts: 729]

Hi Sid,

It's good to see some pics of your new tank, at last...
I hope your other fish soon catch up with those lovely triportheus.
Really looking forward to seeing those elusive hassars... Maybe some more cover at the front would bring them out?

Give us some stats...

what are your tank dimensions?
what are the tank water parameters? (I recall your tapwater is 'brick hard'?).
What's creating the rapids flow? Number of pump outlets etc.

- Richard

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

Aquarium Size: 1700.00mm x 600.00mm x 600.00mm
Volume: 612 litres, 134.6 UK gallons or 161.7 US gallons
Acidity: pH 7.5 to 8
Hardiness: dGH 10 to 12
Temperature: 24 to 27'C
Current: strong (4000L/h)
Furniture: Substrate: fine riversand. decorations: medium and large rounded rocks, bogwood
Filtration: Large Eheim filter, pump does 2400L/hour; filter substrate: bio-balls, blue sponge, perlon fiber. extra powerhead: Newave 1600L/h
Lighting: 2 x 58 watt fluorescent lights, 1 daylight and 1 Gro Lux
Heating: 1 x 300 watt Jager

Fish:
3 Hemidoras stenopeltis
4 Pimelodus tetramerus
6 Triportheus angulatus
8 Retroculus lapidifer

adding later:
juvenile Triportheus angulatus
juvenile Ancistrus sp`rio_tocantins`
these 2 groups are quite small juveniles and still in quarantaine

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

the tank is getting quite algy, so this weekend I'll add the Ancistrus

since that involves putting a net into a tank with (baby) Triportheus, I might as well add these too; cause they likely to go all over the place.


did a huge 4/5 waterchange in ALL my tanks yesterday; which kept me busy for the evening.
had to do a waterchange anyway (regular maintenance ofcourse), but made it XXL big because i wanted to de-worm all the tanks in 1 go.

and i don't like to add meds to water with a lot of organics in, it would be hard on the fish.



the whole water ballet will be even more time consuming once the 590G tank is up and running