Baby Whale?

[samurai_beth]

Hey,

I went into my local fish shop earlier today and bought quite an interesting looking fish (£4.99). When I got home I did some research and found out it was a baby whale (it had the wrong name on the label in the pet shop). When I asked the staff about him they were not much more than useless.

It's not eaten anything yet, I've given it bloodworm and it's unusual that it hasn't eaten because all the other fish I've bought from this pet shop have been absolutely starving by the time I get them home. At the moment he's in a quarantine tank with 5 guppies and a blind cave tetra but in my main tank I have a black ghost knife and a spiny eel.

Can anybody give me some info on caring for this fish?

Thanks a lot,
Beth

 

[aly_starh]

Whale...?

As in the ones you find in the sea...?

EDIT; ok maybe not... try this link Click here

 

[finalfantay85]

This had me and my work colleagues really baffled for a minute until google sorted us out lol...

If you mean a baby whale fish then this is what i found:

http/fish.mongabay.com/species/Pollimyrus_isidori.html

It looks like it needs a diet of live food. Very interesting looking fish!

 

[samurai_beth]

Oh I'm sorry haha, I should've put baby whale fish. I know they're not related to the actual whale but are related to the elephant fish without the elongated snout

Thanks for the info guys, I also had trouble finding anyone else who owns one. Does anybody have one or even know somebody with one? I just hope I can get it eating and would like some tips from somebody who has experience with them

 

[nmonks]

"Baby whales" are usually, but not always, Pollimyrus species. These are gregarious fish that don't do well singly, and in small groups can (will) bully one another, so it's important to keep a substantial number of specimens. They are not fussy about water chemistry, but they are sensitive to poor water quality. Like all mormyrids, they're easily poisoned by things like formalin and copper, so you absolutely must work on a "prevention rather than cure" basis. If treating for whitespot, use salt, and if treating finrot, use antibiotics. Be very, very careful with any other off-the-shelf medications.

The basics aren't too difficult to provide. Keep a group of at least five specimens, which given their adult size of around 10 cm means a tank at least 150 litres or so in size. Provide a soft substrate, ideally smooth silica sand. Use some floating plants to provide shade (they don't like bright light). Water chemistry can be anything, from hard to soft, but zero ammonia and zero nitrite are critical. feed primarily on wet-frozen wormy foods: bloodworms, tubifex, mosquito larvae and glassworms. Be sure to vary what you offer from day to day because these foods are individually not especially nutritious.

Cheers, Neale

 

[samurai_beth]

Thanks Neale he's now thriving on a mix of live and frozen food. One thing though, he's in a tank about 150 litres and I have a black ghost knife in with him. I read somewhere online that these would be compatible tank mates, but they seem to be playing a game of tag, they both have plants that they've claimed as their own on opposite sides of the tank, one will go over to the other's plant and "tag" the other then dash back to his plant, then the other will do the same. I've watched them for days now doing this. Neither of them have actually bitten the other but I'm curious as to what they're doing

It doesn't seem aggressive at all. (I've seen my knife fish when he's had a tank mate he didn't get on with.)

 

[Jonty]

Black Ghost Knife fish need a minimum 300l tank when full size - are you planning to upgrade?

 

[samurai_beth]

Hey, yes, I'm planning an upgrade, he's only around 10cm at the moment, he is growing faster than my last bgk though.Also he has this tank pretty much to himself.

Had to move the baby whale out of this tank as I thought the two (bgk and him) could be stressing eachother.

 

[nmonks]

They aren't playing and they aren't compatible. All electric fish will jam each other's signals, and they use this to assert dominance. Usually the dominant fish will so stress the weaker one if sickens and dies. In almost all cases, electric fish need to be kept either singly or in large groups of just one species. Usually aquarists don't have space to keep groups, which is why nominally schooling species like Apteronotus albifrons and Gnathonemus petersii are widely considered "one to a tank" animals. Pollimyrus spp. are small enough that they can be kept in groups, and indeed do better in groups than otherwise. But even if you keep just two or three, they will fight; you do need a big group, five or more.

Cheers, Neale

One thing though, he's in a tank about 150 litres and I have a black ghost knife in with him. I read somewhere online that these would be compatible tank mates, but they seem to be playing a game of tag, they both have plants that they've claimed as their own on opposite sides of the tank, one will go over to the other's plant and "tag" the other then dash back to his plant, then the other will do the same.

 

[samurai_beth]

Thanks for that, I thought they might be getting stressed so seperated them this morning. I'm currently working on an entire tank rethink as I seem to have quite a few fish dotted around in seperate tanks that are rather large tanks, but only have a couple of fish in. The baby whale is now completely alone (in a tank with no lighting at all, so he only gets natural light) and he seems to have settled down a lot. If the pet shop had told me what he was, and some real information about him I definetly wouldnt have purchased him, also he was the only one there and I cant seem to find any others for sale, so it looks like solitary for him, I feel guilty about not being as well informed as I should have been poor little guy

Thanks for all the help, and any more advice is greatly appreciated. Do you know any tankmates that he could be put with? As the only site I found with information like that on said a bgk would be a good tank mate and that was obviously wrong.
Thanks so much

 

[nmonks]

You can keep Pollimyrus with anything that won't compete with it for food. Tetras, non-nippy barbs, livebearers, etc. I would tend to avoid greedy bottom dwellers like loaches and Corydoras since these are likely to hog the food, but gobies, spiny eels, whiptails, and other slow feeding bottom dwellers would be fine. The main thing is to quarantine new fish if possible, since standard ick medications will kill mormyrids (though salt/heat treatments are safe).

Cheers, Neale