Non-parasitic Trichomycteridae
Posted: 13 Jan 2003, 17:18
Anyone else ever kept those?
I've kept four species of Trichomycterids over the years. The first was a 'contamination' of an Otocinclus batch; the Glass Trichomycterid; Tridensimilis brevis.
This tiny fish ate bloodworms and live tubifex, I sort of told myself it wasn't a parasite, hence and released it with the rest, wich proved to be a mistake, as it relished to take off some scales and slime as well from other inhabitants. It lasted only a few weeks however.
The second Trichomycterid I encountered were 4 young Trichomycterus alternatus (although I thought they were Pygidium itiaye). Rarely have I kept such fun fish!
completely harmless and acting like loaches on angeldust when feeding time was happening. They could "swim" through the sand, unfortunately they weren't long lived (a year or so) and I've never seen them again. In the end they were 8 cm big. non-fussy eaters, very peaceful too.
The third species ,-of wich one is still around in my best friends' tank and currently at least 7 years old- were a quite large group of Ituglanis metae, but I've "known" them as Trichomycterus sp.
I got my first one in Germany as "mystus sp" (!!), I knew it wasn't that, fortunately they didn't and it changed ownership for 6 DM (about 3 Euro...). some time later I got a few more and a few years later when the original group was dwindling, I could buy three youngsters again; most of those by an Importer. These fish rarely make the trade...
This is a happy-go-easy fish, if there ever was one. Contrary to the small Trichomycterus, these don't dig, or rarely. They sure like dense plants and prefer to bore themselves in between roots or stems of bushes, even close to the surface. They were extremely good at robbing eggs from Hoplo-bubblenests!
They're quite big, my biggest easily reached 15 cm, but the presence of well-developed ventrals made sure it wasn't Eremophilus (who get even bigger). Another wasted chance by the importers! Mastacembelids seem to "hate" them, at one time I kept a Mastacembelus armatus, who got peaceful with two Calamoichthys calabaricus (Bichir-eel), but who managed to tore most fins off my Ituglanis. Once removed to my friends' tank, these grew back in short time.
The last species was a single Ochmantus; this time I knew it was a parasite -sort of- but I assumed that all my fish were too small for him to crawl in the gills (I didn't realize there are other ways of fish-terrorism as well) , so I loosed him on the rest. It was a bit carnage!
He was incredibly fast, could dive in the coursest grit, and rip scalesand skin off any fish, even the, then around, Tank busters; two Pterodoras granulosus. I had to take him back to the importers....
Anyone else ever kept Trichomycterids, and are they still as hard-to-get as then? Because -especially the nonparasitic species- they are really beautiful, and great to keep in all kinds of tanks!
I've kept four species of Trichomycterids over the years. The first was a 'contamination' of an Otocinclus batch; the Glass Trichomycterid; Tridensimilis brevis.
This tiny fish ate bloodworms and live tubifex, I sort of told myself it wasn't a parasite, hence and released it with the rest, wich proved to be a mistake, as it relished to take off some scales and slime as well from other inhabitants. It lasted only a few weeks however.
The second Trichomycterid I encountered were 4 young Trichomycterus alternatus (although I thought they were Pygidium itiaye). Rarely have I kept such fun fish!
completely harmless and acting like loaches on angeldust when feeding time was happening. They could "swim" through the sand, unfortunately they weren't long lived (a year or so) and I've never seen them again. In the end they were 8 cm big. non-fussy eaters, very peaceful too.
The third species ,-of wich one is still around in my best friends' tank and currently at least 7 years old- were a quite large group of Ituglanis metae, but I've "known" them as Trichomycterus sp.
I got my first one in Germany as "mystus sp" (!!), I knew it wasn't that, fortunately they didn't and it changed ownership for 6 DM (about 3 Euro...). some time later I got a few more and a few years later when the original group was dwindling, I could buy three youngsters again; most of those by an Importer. These fish rarely make the trade...
This is a happy-go-easy fish, if there ever was one. Contrary to the small Trichomycterus, these don't dig, or rarely. They sure like dense plants and prefer to bore themselves in between roots or stems of bushes, even close to the surface. They were extremely good at robbing eggs from Hoplo-bubblenests!
They're quite big, my biggest easily reached 15 cm, but the presence of well-developed ventrals made sure it wasn't Eremophilus (who get even bigger). Another wasted chance by the importers! Mastacembelids seem to "hate" them, at one time I kept a Mastacembelus armatus, who got peaceful with two Calamoichthys calabaricus (Bichir-eel), but who managed to tore most fins off my Ituglanis. Once removed to my friends' tank, these grew back in short time.
The last species was a single Ochmantus; this time I knew it was a parasite -sort of- but I assumed that all my fish were too small for him to crawl in the gills (I didn't realize there are other ways of fish-terrorism as well) , so I loosed him on the rest. It was a bit carnage!
He was incredibly fast, could dive in the coursest grit, and rip scalesand skin off any fish, even the, then around, Tank busters; two Pterodoras granulosus. I had to take him back to the importers....
Anyone else ever kept Trichomycterids, and are they still as hard-to-get as then? Because -especially the nonparasitic species- they are really beautiful, and great to keep in all kinds of tanks!