Pleasant Surprise

[OldMan47]

I picked up a pair of Xenoophorus Captivus, Relict splitfin or Green goodeid at the ALA convention auction last weekend. Today I looked into their new tank and found some living and a few dead fry. The tank has no cover except a tiny clump of java moss so I am not too surprised by the losses. My real surprise was that the female was far enough along to produce any viable fry. She is rather small and it must be her first fry drop. There are a few live fry so I added a good clump of java moss from one of my other tanks but what a bonus 3 days after the auction. These guys are endangered and I was a bit concerned about taking them in, but now I am encouraged to set up a proper home for them to breed and expand into. The BAP points can come with the next drop that will have started in my tank.

 

[Christi_22]

I picked up a pair of Xenoophorus Captivus, Relict splitfin or Green goodeid at the ALA convention auction last weekend. Today I looked into their new tank and found some living and a few dead fry. The tank has no cover except a tiny clump of java moss so I am not too surprised by the losses. My real surprise was that the female was far enough along to produce any viable fry. She is rather small and it must be her first fry drop. There are a few live fry so I added a good clump of java moss from one of my other tanks but what a bonus 3 days after the auction. These guys are endangered and I was a bit concerned about taking them in, but now I am encouraged to set up a proper home for them to breed and expand into. The BAP points can come with the next drop that will have started in my tank.

To further an endangered species is commendable. Really hope the little guys survive, keep up the good work. This is Fish keeping at it's best imo and would love to see some pics.

 

[OldMan47]

There is not much to see yet Christi. The new guys are bigger than the average livebearer fry because they are more typical of the size of goodeids. The fish are a plain silvery color so not much to look at, my wife refers to them as bait. The tank was set up late Sunday night when I got home and is a bare bottomed 10 gallon with a sponge filter that I made the attempt to instant cycle by cleaning an old filter in the tank before introducing the fish. They had to swim in the resulting silty water for a short time until the sponge cleared the water. I have added a clump of java moss for the fry to hide in. The tank has no light on it so I am counting on light from a nearby window to keep the plants, java moss, alive. I will try to get pictures of all of my new fish in the next few days but most are still trying to settle into their new spartan surroundings. You can't go to a national convention and come home empty handed can you?

 

[Christi_22]

There is not much to see yet Chrissi. The new guys are bigger than the average livebearer fry because they are more typical of the size of goodeids. The fish are a plain silvery color so not much to look at, my wife refers to them as bait. The tank was set up late Sunday night when I got home and is a bare bottomed 10 gallon with a sponge filter that I made the attempt to instant cycle by cleaning an old filter in the tank before introducing the fish. They had to swim in the resulting silty water for a short time until the sponge cleared the water. I have added a clump of java moss for the fry to hide in. The tank has no light on it so I am counting on light from a nearby window to keep the plants, java moss, alive. I will try to get pictures of all of my new fish in the next few days but most are still trying to settle into their new spartan surroundings. You can't go to a national convention and come home empty handed can you?

Look forward to the pics. I have never attended a convention (not sure if there are that many in the UK) but being new to fishkeeping, maybe that's something I have to discover.

 

[OldMan47]

I would bet good money that the BLA has a convention much like ours with a big difference. In the US, a day's travel will not get you half way to the other end so it can be a many days trip to get to or from the convention.
Next year our convention is in Detroit and that means a 7 to 8 hour drive for me. Last year it was in Texas and would have been a 2 day trip even for a person like me who will drive on the interstate highways until I just can't move any more. In case you don't already know, the interstate systems here are designed to move traffic at well over 100 KPH with no stops and no roundabouts. 12 hours is not an unusually long day for me when I have a place that I want to go. I have been known to go 14 hours or more. I drive to my daughter's home, a distance of 3400 KM in about 2 1/2 days. I often arrive around lunch time on the third day.
If you really want to participate in things like that, start by joining the local fish club. They will have all of the information on what is going on all around and will probably have a good set of lectures and programs at the club meetings themselves. From there it is a short step to knowing about any other club activities within a few hundred KM of the local club. I find that they all support each other here, if only to the extent of telling the members what is coming up nearby in the next month at each meeting. If your main interest is livebearers, the British Livebearer Association does maintain a web site that should be of more interest to you than it is to me, but I am a forum member there. It is not a lively site like this one but does carry news of what is happening.

 

[helterskelter]

Thats good news i used to have loads of them back in the mid 90's and in a large group their stunning.

Also BLA (British Livebearer Association)
www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk

Has a couple of auctions and shows a year usually in corby and nottingham

It's £16 a year
or £12 for via e-mail.

Also if ur intrested in goodeid the aquatic design centre in westend of london has two goodeid's
Ameca splendens
Xentotca esieni

Both are nice fish but generally nippy so should not be in a community tank.

 

[OldMan47]

My Amecas and my Xenotoca were both very nice fish in a species only tank. I have heard horror stories about them when they are kept with other fish but they are very nice in their own tanks. I sold off a couple of pairs of Xenotoca eiseni and Xenotaenia resolanae at the ALA convention. I included a few fry with each pair to help start a colony breeding setup because I knew from my own experience that the adults are OK with fry when there are also a few juveniles in the tank. Otherwise it can be a bit of a challenge to get a breeding colony started. I had quite a few fry of each kind so throwing in 3 or 4 young fish with the pairs was not a problem for me and virtually guarantees the buyers some success.