Community

One of the things that I really enjoy being witness to is the way that fish interact with one another. Naturally feeding time can be both a beautiful sight in colorful contrast, as well as a comical spectacle to keep an eye on. This is usually about the time that I start naming my fish...lol Here's Rusty, Birdy, Max, and a special guest appearance by Spaz to help shine on your day.

 

Thanks for the responses! This particular tank (45Gdeep) contains a balanced bunch of mostly respectful neighbors. And as @Danno11 states, apart from pushing and swatting each other occasionally, there is little serious aggression. These are of course the ground floor crew, apart from the albino bichir which I call spaz because he absolutely has no clue where he belongs apart from being on the near constant move. Spaz has got to be one of the craziest fish I have ever kept. He'll literally swim right into the glass, just bounce off happily without a care, and keep right on going his spastic way. It eats off the top and the bottom and I have no doubt he'd dine mid water as well if he had the patience to do so. I'm thinking that much like many catfish species, (unlike loricariidae btw) bichirs must have relatively poor eyesight, and "see" by barbel sensory means more so than sheer sight. This is such a comical fish to watch that I could have easily just named him Mr. Magoo. Here's a shot of this tank's other community members. You can't see all the Angelfish in this photo as there are actually 10 all roughly the same size, and apart from a little bit of Max, the yellow spotted peckoltia sabaji L075 (an identification that I do not agree with!) most tankmates are in hiding as this photo was taken early in the day. I actually purchased all 10 of these Peruvian angels (containing 3 naturally occurring melanistic (black) members) when they were quarter sized, all from the same batch. There a happy bunch that I refer to as the "fan dancers" because of how they all behave at feeding time.

 

Thanks @Danno11! Angels and plecos have always been two of my favorites. I was very fortunate about 25 years back to have been able to keep Altums. Had them for several years up until a wintertime power failure that lasted for several days ended up claiming them. They are truly the most beautiful wild angels I have ever had the pleasure of keeping.