Amaralia hypsiura, husbandry and notes

[catfishchaos]

Hello everyone!

A while ago I received a pair of

Amaralia hypsiura

and I have really enjoyed them! In my hours of watching my pet rocks I have witnessed some cool behaviours that I thought would benefit other keepers and or make them more enticing to those who are interested in the fish and let you guys know how I'm keeping them and hopefully I can continue to update this thread as time goes on.

I find my two specimens to be misleadingly active, Always in a knew spot (still burried mind you) in the morning and if watching the tank with a red light at night one of the two is always out and about exploring/foraging. I have found they actually swim instead of using the water jet movement that other members of the Aspredinidae families use. I have also found that they have the ability to "collapse" or more simply fold their cadual fin. When resting the fin is narrow and straight yet when swimming its fully extended and round. One thing I find fascinating about them is that they seem to evolving away from dorsal fins. Both of my specimens have the tinniest of knubs that can erect to look like the saddest dorsal fin you will ever see. I have witnessed both fish swimming and find when they wish to cover distance they swim up and glide to there destination. They manipulate their pectoral fins the way that sea going birds do with their wings making subtle angular adjustments to flaps of the fin to pin point their decent and extent that can control these "flaps" is rather impressive indeed! One the coolest things i witnessed was by accident during a water change. I was cleaning the sand accidentally dropped an atomic bomb equivalent of sand onto one specimens head completely covering the gills and head area. I was expecting a grumpy banjo to loose his marbles and go flying around the tank (these fish are rather skittish) but instead a second poof of sand arose. The fish had simply employed the jet water push but had turned it into a method of removing nuisance sand. I must say I can see this being very useful in the rivers they come from in order to maintain cover without sacrificing any senses would be a great way to stay under the radar from predators.

In the aquarium I have found to be exceptionally hardy and unfussy regarding Ph, food, tank mates and temperature changes. I also can say that if you have a nice scape with dirt or aqua soil they wont burrow in it (they will play in it) but only ever burrow in the sand I have provided for the majority of the tank. I'll get some pictures of the fish and the tank sometime this week hopefully and although I only have 2 right now I do plan on picking up 2-3 more but no more than that because of how active they seem to be when the lights are off.

I hope you enjoyed the read and I assure there will be more to come!

[Chinafishboy]

Thanks for sharing, long knowledge

[bekateen]

Yes, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to seeing their photos.

Cheers, Eric

[naturalart]

Wow. Nice fish, nice share. Tanks much catfishchaos.

[catfishchaos]

Pictorial update!

Well I guess I like pet rocks because I picked up two more of these guys... I also purchased a Fluval prism light so I can cast red and blue light to observe nocturnal behaviours.

Based off of size alone it looks like 2 males and 2 females


First suspected female with a small eye deformity named Wink

The first male sporting the rather useless dorsal fin


Some shots of the new female


Some shots of the new male

Close up of the dorsal