Crenuchus spilurus, ( sail fin tetras ) my journey...

[Magnum Man]

it's been a bumpy road so far... but I received 8 of them alive yesterday despite the winter weather... they went directly into my mixed South American Tetra tank... they were shipped in 2 bags, and have split up in the tank... 4 smaller ones have joined in the tetras favorite spot, in with smallish shoals of Rummy Noses, pristella's, cardinals, and the smaller raccoons, and smaller palmeri emperors, mature palmeris and Raccons, come and go, in and out of the group... this tank has tons of hiding spots, and is well shaded... I haven't seen the 4 bigger ones over night, but as the smaller ones appear to be doing ok, and as @GaryE ... said they were a Cichlid like tetra, I'm assuming they went out in search of homes???
I'll continue to post in this thread, their future adventures

and link this thread below, with some nice pictures, and some of the troubles I had getting them here...

these are 4 of them, towars the back of the tank... difficult to see, in this tank, and on my tiny cell screen

trying a new fish, & a new to me seller... fingers crossed...

Crenuchus spilurus ( Sailfin Tetras ) I have 10 ordered, coming from Hawaii... how they are supposed to look now... At maturity... anyone tried these guys???

www.fishforums.net

 

[GaryE]

I tried to get some, but when the temperatures plummeted, I cancelled the order. I'd like to try them.

 

[Magnum Man]

the rest of the sailfins joined the mixed Tetra shoal... I did lose one, small one I found stuck to the filter intake... the rest look good this morning, so 7 of them in the tetra shoal...

 

[Magnum Man]

got the 1st chance to watch these guys feeding, tonight as I'm usually behind the tanks... they have no problem competing with the Rummy Noses and company, and really seemed to like the Ultra Fresh mini pellets I fed tonight, so I saw several eating multiple pellets... it's a good sign...

this is what I watched them eat tonight...

Amazon.com

 

[Magnum Man]

these are harder to see in this shaded tank, and they prefer to hang towards the back of the tank, though they don't appear to be particularly spooked by my presence, but with the lit background I can see 2 males dancing, dorsals all errect... these were listed as medium size, so I'm sure they are not mature yet... thinking I'll reorder some more, if they are still in stock, when ever I order again, as long as the mature palmeri's leave them alone... the sailfins dancing seems to attract attention from the mature male palmeri's... I'm not seeing any physical interaction... I have a pair of mature male palmeri's that often dance for immature females... wondering if they are just making sure the new comers aren't trying to attract their girls???

 

[Magnum Man]

mature male palmeri's have lost interest in the "kids" dancing... they are bigger, and don't typically hang with the bulk of the tetras, so everything is good in the tetra world...

 

[Magnum Man]

well, the mature male palmeri's are being mean today... I think they are trying to get the dancing newcomers away from their females... hoping that doesn't get too violent, and gets sorted out, without too much stress... the bigger sail fins look solid, hoping they can handle the pecking order education today...

 

[Magnum Man]

as expected the Crenuchus spilurus love the shrimp cocktails of frozen brine shrimp, and frozen blood worms, from the shakers... adult male palmeri's are still policing the mixed shoal, keeping any males away from the immature female palmeri's that want to hang out in the shoal, rather than be chased by the adult males...

 

[Back in the fold]

Did these come from that outfit in Hawaii you tried before ?

 

[Magnum Man]

no, those all arrived dead... I wasn't happy with the shipping, and the combination of it being winter, and the LA fires at the same time... that ended up being a big disaster...

 

[Magnum Man]

these came from Aqua Importers, here on the mainland

 

[Back in the fold]

Well , are they as cool as you thought they’d be ? What are their habits that you’ve seen so far ? Are they good eaters ?

 

[Magnum Man]

in my highly shaded tank, you have to go search them out... they're eating, no problem... for some reason the mature male Emperors keep them in the corner, or in the weeds, but most are still looking solid

 

[Mr Limpet]

Male C. spilurus prefer their own personal caves to lurk in.

 

[Magnum Man]

they are available, and one or two have found personal spots, but the bulk of them are hanging in the mixed Tetra shoal