2026 in the big fishroom

[GaryE]

From outside the building to the outside of tanks, now to the inside. I'll gradually post fish here as I take shots of them daily. 38 shots this morning got me these three to begin. My favourite cory, Hoplisoma atropersonatus. One of my goofiest tanks to watch, 15 Hoplisoma panda, some bought, some raised from eggs. And finally, a mighty hunter of mosquitoes, an Epiplatys togolensis caught on the Benin trip.

 

[bgarthe40 58]

That fish room is “FINtastic”.

 

[emeraldking19 70]

My fishroom is also my man cave. How do you call yours, Gary...?
I can stand or sit and enjoy my environment. I totally don't need any other company than just my tanks and fish...

 

[GaryE]

It isn't a man cave. Maybe a Gary Grotto?

Here's my latest installment in the Who Gave This Guy a Camera series of fish kept in that room:

Hyphessobrycon citrus - a recent arrival that really is getting yellower by the week. We'll see how it plays out over time.

Some home bred and all grown up Enteromius fasciolatus - Angola barbs from Africa.

Tetras I received as Hyphessobrycon metae. Maybe they are. They are one of the most changeable tetras I've kept - black neon-like at times but capable of losing the stripe and being very metallic looking.

And finally (for today) a group of my Hyphessobrycon melanostichos.

 

[gwand39 156]

Keep the pics coming! Fantastic stuff.

 

[Innesfan38]

Tetras I received as Hyphessobrycon metae. Maybe they are. They are one of the most changeable tetras I've kept - black neon-like at times but capable of losing the stripe and being very metallic looking.

Over the years I've ordered "H. metae' three times from three different usually reliable sources. I received a different species each time. I still do not know if I've ever had H. metae.

 

[GaryE]

Over the years I've ordered "H. metae' three times from three different usually reliable sources. I received a different species each time. I still do not know if I've ever had H. metae.

It's a problem, that. I don't know if I have them either. I have a very nice fish with an interesting tail pattern on a more slender back neon type body. Sometimes, it's blue black. But I'm a bit at the mercy of the exporter, who named it. The importer is a nice young guy who doesn't know fish very well. Yet. He's learning. He'll order in odd stuff for his local shop, and he isn't afraid to take a flyer on something that looks good on a list. I respect that, and support him when I can.

The other two, melanostichos and citrus, came from very knowledgeable sources. There, I can trust the info.

 

[Innesfan38]

It's a problem, that. I don't know if I have them either. I have a very nice fish with an interesting tail pattern on a more slender back neon type body. Sometimes, it's blue black.

That 'species group' of H. metae, H. peruvianus, H. loretoensis, H. margitae (et al.) seems to have a lot of intermediate forms. I'm seeing "aff" and "cf" appearing in a lot of vendor listings for several of them. A dynamic group. I like all of them.

 

[JCinPA]

Wow! I'm so jealous!

I'm glad to have found this place. I started off killing my first guppies, then slowly learning the cycling process, growing my number of fish, losing a new one, successfully fishless cycling a QT tank with Fishless Fuel, and getting a second fish through QT. I feel like I've learned a ton (some through disasters), but I do think my 10 gallon tank was a perfect learning environment for me. I would love to have a fish room like yours.

But, I'd be happy with a 55-75 gallon community tank and I'm confident I could manage it effectively now. Unfortunately, my spousal unit is not on board with a larger tank. So, I live vicariously though you guys for the time being.

Great fish photos, BTW. Those little guys are hard to catch in frame and focused.

 

[GaryE]

These were also this morning. Someone dropped in so I couldn't add the other successful shots. Chromidotilapia kingsleyae and the head of a Congo. The Cichlid is a mouthbrooder much like an SA Geophagus.

Nothobranchius palmqvisti, an east African annual with 10 weeks egg incubation at 23c.

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And finally, a Hoplisoma melini to compare with a Moenkhausia costae tetra. Interesting marking evolution there

 

[GaryE]

And the evening involved me avoiding other work by clicking away on the camera. Here's today's crop.

We start with the hard to photograph Bathyaethiops greeni (I think - it came as breuseghemi). The fish so reflective that the flash blots out colour - nice colour. They just look silvery in all photos. It's a high bodied, slightly larger African tetra from the Congo system.
Behind it is a female Microctenopoma congicum, a Congolese species that was born in the fishroom almost 2 years back. Females have poor colour - males in breeding dress are stunners.

Now we come in with a really nice fish. I bought it as Corydoras sp, and it seems to be Hoplisoma brevirostris. I got 6, and lost 3 quickly to shipping damage. For close to a year, the fish were occasionally spotted in the tank. Then I found them again, and got six more, all of whom survived. They are all over their tank and fearless in a group of 9 - really delightful fish. IMHO - pretty too.

I'm calling special on this poor photograph. This is a tiny Distochodid 'tetra', Neolebias powelli. I got them out of a Nigerian shipment. It's a microfish I've only seen once before, 30 years ago. It's similar to the smallest Bororas species. It really resembles those completely unrelated Asian fish, down to the colour and behaviour. They are shyer, and have taken weeks to begin appearing in their tank. Males are deep red/orange, and females are paler. I like this tiny fish a lot.

Last for this batch is a West African killifish. It's a lampeye, Procatopus similis. It came in the same Nigerian shipment, ostensibly from the Cross River, the Nigeria/Cameroon border. It has been reported there, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Nigerians bought them from a Cameroon fisherman. This is a fish that needs to grow into its looks. Right now, they're okay, but they will become beautiful, to my eye. I love the mid sized lampeyes of west and central Africa. They are a hair too young for breeding, but I bought as many as I could afford and have shoals in 3 tanks. This is a fish I intend to breed for as long as I keep fish. They are egg shooters, firing eggs at high velocity into cracks in wood and rock in nature, with incredible aim through wildly flowing waters. I use tightly tied acrylic mops. I've bred these and related species before, but have learned that you don't see them often enough to assume you'll ever see them for sale again. I have juveniles of their relatives, Procatopus nototaenia from eggs I bought from Europe, and am hoping for both sexes there.

 

[GaryE]

Morning has broken onto another crop of photos. My new layout makes access easy. I'm pleased.

Hemigrammus rubrostriatus, a fish I've learned abut through bad luck. I bought 6 online a couple of years ago, and they turned into stunners, a largeish tetra with a yellow green body and red stripes. Then they died. I don't know why. It was just them and without symptoms. I tried again, and 3 out of 6 survived, however, this batch never turned green. I still like them. They're fast, peaceful tetras

I like small fish and I cannot lie. Carnagiella myseri is the smallest of the hatchet group. It's another fish I really like. They don't show up often and I grabbed ten when I saw them on a list. You have to put them in tanks on tall stands as they rarely leave the surface.

I posted these guys in another thread, and did an inconclusive deep dive on their origins after. According to Ian Fuller, a very trusted source on corys, they don't seem to be a simple local variety of Osteogaster aenea (the old Corydoras aeneus, bronze cory). They're smaller and differently marked. They may be Osteogaster venezuelanus. I got them from a local breeder.

Whatever their name, they are little beauties. I'm glad to have them, and glad they aren't a man made morph like the supposed black venezuelanus, which gives them a bad name. The diversity of the cory group is delightful, and we don't need linebred fish to undercut the little importing of good stuff that goes on.

 

[Back in the fold]

Wow Man ! Totally , totally awesome . You ARE living the dream .

 

[emeraldking19 70]

In some way these are now hard to get at our regular wholesalers.

Unfortunately, my spousal unit is not on board with a larger tank.

So, familiar to the most of us...

 

[GaryE]

Chugging along taking snaphots as I go. These guys have been in other thread - Nannostomus marginatus pencils, an oldie and a very goody.

This fish is an important one to me. What really hooked me on having a fishroom was Western African dwarf Cichlids, specifically what was then Pelvicachromis taeniatus. Most of the taenies (from Cameroon) are now called Pelvivachromis kribensis, with taeniatus being the Beninois and Nigerian species. In Benin this Spring, I caught what was then a tiny female, and finding her in my net was one of my two or three greatest fishcatching thrills. The idea that I had caught such a fish myself was really something.

She has grown up and I plan to put her with a male from my other pair of wilds, which died but left me fry. The males are a touch too small now, but they'll catch up. Every time I see her, I remember that place, and that excitement. It's silly how we can react to a tiny fish.