How Much Is An Adult Female Thorichthys Ellioti Worth? Pics

[three-fingers]

Well, I really like my ellioti, but just in the past week she has begun bullying my two rainbowfish to the point that - when I'm not feeding them - they stay in the corners of the tank and have some very slight signs of stress (a couple of white bits on the tail).

The sad thing is, I know that at some point within the next year I'll be upgrading to a 150 UK gal tank, and all issues between fish would be sorted out due to the extra space.

Anyway, I never considered selling my beloved ellioti (who leaves even guppies and my angelfish completely alone) until today when I was at work (at the lfs) by complete coincidence some guy phones up looking to buy an adult female ellioti, because he has an adult male and would like to breed them.

I was just hoping my ellioti would stop bullying the rainbowfish, but that call almost seems like destiny.

I told him to call back on Saturday, so I have until then to make a decision.

If my female persists in causing damage to my two big rainbow fish, I will have to sell her.

But for what price? I was thinking £15? This is just based on scaling up the prices of smaller firemouths. I want to to give the guy a good deal, but I really like this fish and have given it great conditions, and probably spent quite a bit over the past year in feeding her a great variety of different foods.

This is a pic of the fish (shes a bit bigger now, is quite red from the throat to the belly and digs pits in the sand frequently).

Any ideas on what to sell her for? (or any other comments otherwise welcome ) Or anyone who thinks the behaviour of my fish will all blow-over soon for at least 6 months? My rainbow fish are big and tough, but it pains me seeing them like this for the first time.

Here's a pic of her thats even older than that, but properly shows her colours under good lighting (I had cleaned away the frogbit so there was more light for this pic).

edit: wow, it seems i double-posted somehow. How embarrassing. If a mod could delete the fist topic, it would be appreciated .

 

[minxfishy]

I dont know about a price, but DONT DO IT, she is beautiful. Try to re-arrange the tank a bit to give the rainbows some breathing space, maybe she thinks they are in her territory, if she leaves the guppies and others alone, I would try other measures before rehoming. Or temporary house your rainbows somewhere else until the upgrade.

Sorry that doesnt help you I know, but that is a lovely fish.

 

[shroob]

I saw some 2-3" elotti's for sale near me at £3.99 if that helps.

 

[veil92]

If/When you settle on a price, why not sell her off, and if she pairs with his male, take on some of his fry.

 

[eldomingo]

she's so beautiful!
please don't sell her

 

[GShorty1981]

Never saw one of these before but looks loads like a firemouth with blue speckles I'd love to see a hybrid with both red and blue bits!

 

[three-fingers]

Thanks for all the nice comments .

I dont know about a price, but DONT DO IT, she is beautiful. Try to re-arrange the tank a bit to give the rainbows some breathing space, maybe she thinks they are in her territory, if she leaves the guppies and others alone, I would try other measures before rehoming. Or temporary house your rainbows somewhere else until the upgrade.

Sorry that doesnt help you I know, but that is a lovely fish.

That's a good idea actually, I'll try see if changing some stuff helps, cheers. Problem is thought because of the way the way the tanks set up with the substrate and all the plants...re-arranging things takes hours to do properly, of course this had to happen at the end of the holidays .

I saw some 2-3" elotti's for sale near me at £3.99 if that helps.

Yeah I got my girl at around 2" for about that, seems like it was just yesterday .
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=228340&hl="]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=228340&hl=[/URL]

She has till Saturday to calm down. If the guy only wants her for breeding, then I think I'll give her to him for free, and arrange to get her back as soon as I have my bigger tank set up (which could take anytime up to a year if it ends up taking months to build).
I'll only sell her if the guy wants to keep her (and I deem him suitable lol).

 

[juanveldez]

a full sized mature ellioti I would say anywhere from 20-40 USD here where I live.

 

[three-fingers]

Cool thanks, that's a pretty decent price. 20 USD is currently 13.69 GBP, so £15 seems quite reasonable.

 

[three-fingers]

Just to update, the guy never called Saturday and before I talked to him again I had to make another addition to the tank - my old gibbi from years ago.
I also removed most of the floating plants and cleaned back some of the vallis.
Now she's stopped bullying the rainbowfish (for now anyway), and is spending more time at the back of the tank where I cleared some space.

So thanks for all the advice, rearranging stuff in the tank really does seem to counter aggression well .