Eeeek! I might be getting some Psuedomugils luminatus!

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

That would make a great entry in one of our upcoming Fish of the Month contest which will feature "any fish"...especially "oddballs"---most likely for the December FOTM contest.

Oh man, I'd better get better at taking photos then! Mine are still pretty young, he said three of them are 5-6 months, and one male who is more deeply coloured than the other is closer to eight months. Not sure how long they take to reach spawning maturity, but I shouldn't imagine it would be that long, given their short lifespans.

In years past I had a few of the blues eyed bows as well as threadfins. The only spawning I ever saw was from some threadfins I bought and parked in a LF BN grow tank. It had a lot of plants including floaters. I parker the threads in there. I had to remove the floating plants to clean the tank and soon after getting the threads i was surprised to see tiny fry from them. Unfortunately I had no infusoria for them and nothing else proper to feed and the next week they were gone.

What I liked about both the bue eyes and the threads was how the males display. The male threads were like little butterflies flapping their dorsals up and down.

Nice! The threadfins are definitely stunning when fully displaying! The store had threadfins in as well when I went the other day, but I was more drawn to their red neons and celebs, which they had together in a gorgeous planted CO2 display tank, and their colours worked really well together. So I guess I'd like to successfully breed some of these guys, then eventually have them in a set up with some celeb rainbows too! Subtle colour on the celebs, but under a good plant light, contrasting against the greens and next to the red neons, they were stunning little fish.

I definitely need to do a lot more research, and pick the brains of the lovely helpful folks here like you and @Colin_T .... I almost don't want to tempt fate by saying out loud that I hope to breed and raise them, like it's all going to go horribly wrong just by saying that! But hey, we all start somewhere, right? And I won't learn much if I don't ask!

The guy I got them from hasn't had any fry appear in the same tank as the adults, he thinks either they, or the fish he has with them are too good at finding the eggs or fry for that. But he said that once the females are in condition they can spawn daily for a while, so by diligently collecting sections of moss and the eggs, he was able to raise fry in a separate nursery tank. At the moment I have the moss and suspected single fry I saw this morning in a super fine net breeder box in the adults tank. Will just have to see if it works out or not! I do have another tank I could use as a spawning/nursery tank if needed, but if these current eggs/fry don't make it, I'll probably give the adults a month or two to carry on maturing and try to feed them up into breeding condition with lots of live and frozen foods.

 

[Fishmanic]

@AdoraBelle Dearheart
well, you'll have till December to perfect your picture taking skills. For October FOTM, I am planning on featuring all catfish EXCEPT PLECOS. So Otocinclus, and cories would qualify (@WhistlingBadger)

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Adorabelle......
I first of all bought eggs from someone in Scotland around 3 years ago. They arrived with the packet squashed and no visible eggs. He sent me more that arrived OK but failed to hatch.
Then I saw them on ebay and contacted the seller direct. He is in Sunderland and I'm only 8 miles away so drove up there. I didn't see any sense in paying for carriage. I got a breeding pair.
After 3 days the male committed suicide by jumping out of the tank.
So I got another pair of them, as 1 male with 2 female should work well.
Once more, the male did a runner and died on the carpet.
When I set my nano tank up I bought another pair so now have a male and 3 female. I have added a male Santa Maria Endler as it was alone in another tank with larger fish after its mate also did a jump from the tank. They get on very well.
So far I haven't seen any sign of breeding activity but as I can't sit and watch them all day long I might just get a result in due course. I hope so as if I get any more of them committing hari kari I'll drop them from my collections.
As for the breeding, it's not easy to place a breeding mop into such a small well planted tank so I haven't. Im relying on there being sufficient plant growth to do the same thing, and for the fry to have enough places to swim through to escape detection and live to grow into other high jump athletes.
You have seen and commented on my nano tank as it was being set up and now it's in full bloom, so to speak.
The Monte Carlo in the left rear is now well spread and growing taller. The Rotala in the rear left is the same. It's going to be absolutely great when the colour comes through better. The mini hairgrass is already in need of a cut and I'll wait a couple more weeks for that just in case there are eggs in it.
Would I buy more Luminatus? Probably not. They are surface swimmers and very skittish. The slightest movement outside of the tank sends them scattering so I can see how they manage to jump out.
I think I'd be going for one of the rasboras instead, or perhaps even more of the male endlers as they too stay small and are simply dazzling in some gorgeous colours.
Anyway, good luck with yours, and if you need a phone number of the guy in Sunderland just ask.

Here's the tank just after setting it up prior to the being filled with water
View attachment 163416
and here it is nowView attachment 163415

Thank you so much for the detailed reply!! I'm sorry I missed it before, this was just before my old computer died and I was offline for a week, so I missed some notifications as this thread had gone right back down and I hadn't got the luminatus yet to bump it. I'm sorry you had such poor luck with the luminatus jumping! The hood for the tank they're in at the moment isn't great either, so I've been nervous since reading this, but *touch wood* mine haven't seemed too spooky yet... but I have a 20g tank ready that I'd planned to replace their current 15.5g with, which has a better acrylic lid, so reminded myself to get on with doing that!

Your tank is looking incredible! It looked great when I first saw it, but it's always good to see how a tank has matured as it grows in and establishes Sounds like while yours may well spawn in the current set up, fry growing up with the parents is apparently unlikely? So you could always try using some small spawning mops or mosses and collecting eggs that way? Depends how keen you are to breed them, I guess! But the guy I got them from also said they got on really well with Endlers, and now you too, so maybe keeping both would work out well! Oh, there were some really nice Japanese blue endlers in the store too, that reminded me. I've been trying not to get more livebearers, but I'm always drawn to blue fish, and the colour and movement Endler's give is hard to beat! Chili's would look lovely in that tank of yours too...

Thank you so much as well for the offer of the number of the guy in Sunderland! I'm in the South of the UK though, so a bit far to go, but I appreciate it! Fingers crossed I won't need it, still have contact with the guy I got these from, and apparently the store I took my bronze cories too had some in stock too, saying they get these fairly often, so hopefully I can get some there if I need any/want to expand the gene pool later.

 

[Essjay]

So CAE, Otocinclus, and cories would qualify

If you mean CAE, Gyrinocheilus aymonieri, it's a cyprinid not a catfish

 

[Fishmanic]

@Essjay
you may be right..my bad

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

@Essjay
chinese algae eater CAE is a catfish as far as I know

Seriously Fish says @Essjay is right! They even have the word "loach" in quote marks on the their title page for them.
Order: Cypriniformes Family: Gyrinocheilidae

The bit I find really interesting though is "It’s often seen on sale under the trade names ‘Indian’ or ‘Chinese’ algae eater but does not occur naturally in either country."
Cool! Didn't know that. Common names are often so deceiving, can see why so many hobbyists insist on using latin names, gets confusing otherwise with so many shared and inaccurate common names.

Gyrinocheilus aymonieri – Sucking ‘Loach’ (Gyrinocheilus kaznakovi, Gyrinocheilus monchadskii) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[Fishmanic]

I stand corrected

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Wonder if anyone here has a red-tailed cat or two to enter...

Thank you for the suggestion, @Fishmanic , and the heads up about upcoming contests! I gotta get to snapping photos, I've got lots of catfish to choose from! Bronze cories, albino aeneus, Sterbai's, the pygmies, and of course the otos and new black venezuelan cories!

 

[Fishmanic]

seeing that catfish tend to hang out in groups, you have to try to focus on just ONE catfish. You could use a cropping tool to zoom in on the catfish. Take dozens of pics till you get it right

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

seeing that catfish tend to hang out in groups, you have to try to focus on just ONE catfish. You could use a cropping tool to zoom in on the catfish. Take dozens of pics till you get it right

I'm very glad we now live in an age of digital photography and we can take hundreds of photos until we get a decent shot! I remember taking film to be developed as a kid, and the worry about "wasting" photos due to how limited rolls of film were, making it hard to practice or get decent shots of anything, like alone something trickier like fish in a glass box full of water! Man, the old days! Kids don't know how lucky they are

 

[Fishmanic]

My father was a photographer in the 1940s. He used a Speedgraphic camera that weighed 5 pounds and took pictures using light sensitive plates....just one photo before you would need to change the film plate. Pictures had to be developed in a dark room with caustic chemicals. How times have changed.

Speed Graphic - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I still have his camera on display

 

[Rocky998]

My father was a photographer in the 1940s. He used a Speedgraphic camera that weighed 5 pounds and took pictures using light sensitive plates....just one photo before you would need to change the plate. Pictures had to be developed in a dark room with caustic chemical. How times have changed.

Speed Graphic - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I still have his camera on display

It's a family story of ours that my great grandfather when he owned a camera store was working on an invention. The first water proof camera.
He was in the process of building when he came to find his shop was ransacked and the prototype along with all his work was gone...

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

My father was a photographer in the 1940s. He used a Speedgraphic camera that weighed 5 pounds and took pictures using light sensitive plates....just one photo before you would need to change the film plate. Pictures had to be developed in a dark room with caustic chemicals. How times have changed.

Speed Graphic - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I still have his camera on display

Oh wow! That's so cool that you've kept it, and have it on display! I love family heirlooms like that!
My dad still has a couple of older cameras, not as old/professional as that one, and not on display, they're tucked away in a box somewhere, but I remember seeing them as a kid and him explaining that the weird cube thing was a flashbulb, stuff like that. I don't even know what cameras they are, but 50s-60s I'd guess, and given his age. Historic items like that with a family connection are priceless.

 

[Colin_T]

Under good conditions, most blue-eyes and other rainbowfish can breed when 3 months old. The Pseudomugils will breed when 2cm (bit under an inch) long and they can reach this size in 2-3 months.

Most of the Melanotaenia species can be 2-3 inches long in 3 months and are sexually mature than. The Glossolepis species take about a month longer to mature than the Melanotaenia sp.

If the Pseudomugils are 6-8 months old, they should be sexually mature and able to produce eggs.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

As a rule I have always spawned fish in a species tank. It makes things much simpler and eliminates a number of potential problems. However, there are plenty of folks who prefer to find one or two other species they can put into a breeding tank. But they must be safe both in terms of being a predator or a prey. Then there are the dietary considerations. Once food hits the water you cannot tell fish which one they are supposed to eat.

Finally, not all species are good parents. Some will eat their own children.

In the 1960s I worked in a private gallery/home of a couple who were major dealers in Indian and other Eastern art plus a bit of pre-Colombian. Part of what I was doing was photographing their collection. For this I used a huge bellows camera mounted on a massive wooden rail type stand. It held a variety of sheet film. I loaded 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 Kodachrome into holder in a blacked out bathroom with no windows. I used a light meter, tape measure and a stop watch to determine the exposure time for pictures which was in seconds.