Xenotoca Eiseni

[superjalami30]

I just bought a breeding pair the other day.
What an interesting fish.
In it's own way.

Shouldnt be long until I have another 12 or more.

 

[bball4life]

I have never heard of one of those. I am going to do a google image search the name sound really cool.

 

[guppymonkey]

Awesome! You should try to post some pictures! I love goodeids. I had a pair of Split Fin Goodeids ( Chapalichthys Pardalis ) and the female gave birth to about a dozen little fry. I lost the female in a power outage but the fry all survived somehow so in a few months I will have a dozen good sized goodeids!

Good luck with breeding you goodeids, they are amazing to watch. Its great to see the little umbilical cords hanging from the fry (if you can catch a glimse of them right after they are born!).

 

[dwarfgourami]

Oh, I do envy you! I would love to keep goodeids, but would need another tank, and they are hard to find- supose you would have to go through the Livebearers Association or something.

What do the redtailed fry look like? I saw some split fin fry in the Portsmouth aquarium and was amazed at how totally unlike the parents they look, yet not like babies either; you would have thought they were a different fish.

 

[nmonks]

Xenotoca eiseni is a very nice, hardy livebearer. It is often considered one of the best goodeids for beginners. The interesting thing about goodeids is that they are more advanced fishes than the poecilids (guppies, etc.). The fry are connected to the mother by a placenta, so in effect their mode of reproduction is idential to ours, with the fry getting food from the mother. This is called viviparity.

Poecilid livebearers, by contrast, merely retain the eggs inside themselves; the fry have no connection with the mother. While we call them "livebearers" they are really ovoviviparous and in some ways more analagous to mouthbrooding cichlids, except that instead of carrying the eggs in the mouth, they carry them in the uterus.

Anyway, in practical terms, Xenotoca eiseni is a good fish for beginners because the parents rarely eat their fry, so you don't need a breeding tank if the main aquarium is reasonably well planted with floating species such as hornwort. On the downside, this fish is a confirmed fin-nipper, so choose tankmates with care. Other goodeids should be fine, as will things like swordtails, but fancy guppies would be a bad choice for companions. Xenotoca eiseni prefers moderately hard, alkaline water but doesn't need salt. It is a herbivore in the wild, some either make sure there is algae in the tank or use a vegetarian flake food as their staple diet. Vegetarian flake is the stuff usually sold as "livebearer food".

We do have a pinned topic on these rare livebearers, by the way. At some point this livebearer forum might be subdivided to create a section just for people with rare livebearers such as goodeids and halfbeaks.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[neon_platy]

uggghh so jealous...i want goodieds so bad and they were on aquabid over last week, the guy is like 20 min from my house so i was like hmmm i could bid and not have to pay shipping charge but hten i saw he was selling in like 12-20 fish quantities which sucks b/c my 55 wasn't ready yet, so i messaged him and he said he'd see how things went with the auctions and maybe set aside a few for me...still hopin to get that call today...nobody in my area has any kind of goodeids even the good LFS had no idea what i was talking about. I half wanna call my Mexico Office and be like ummmm can you do me a favor

 

[nmonks]

If you're into rare livebearers, and you can't get them locally, do yourself a favour and get in touch with one of the many livebearer clubs, for example, the American Livebearer Association or the Northeast Livebearers Association. Those are two in the US; there are many more within the US and around the world.

http/livebearers.org/ALAPublic/Default.htm
http/www.nelivebearers.org/

The ALA is having their convention in April, and that's one good place to obtain specimens. These so-called "rare livebearers" are far from rare, it's like killifish, they're just not widely sold. They aren't expensive, and they aren't difficult to keep. The people who are into rare livebearers are usually very friendly, and keen to make converts. They will tell you where to find the fish, how to look after them, and how to breed them.

Rare livebearers are gradually becoming more mainstream in the UK, and obtaining them isn't too difficult. With luck, this trend will catch on in the US.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[neon_platy]

Neale,

Thanks for your help! Yeah, I've seen a few on aquabid that are like 1 pair for 34.99 plus 27.00 shipping to make sure they're alive upon arrival...I'll take a look into that. I'm not a huge fan of the guppies and since I have platys wanted to try my hand at something different... If I do get any from the local guy I'll post on here...

Thanks again,

Brian

 

[nmonks]

Brian,

Xenotoca are going for around 5 UKP a pair, and for most of these "rare" livebearers -- whether goodeids or halfbeaks or wild poecilids -- you should only be paying 2-3 times more than common livebearers, not ten times more.

There's a place not far from my home selling pike livebearers. Now those are seriously interesting fish... definitely not your usual guppies!

Cheers,

Neale

 

[blitztidus]

I am jealous, I WANT ONE. None of the pet stores near me have any, as I can now tell they are rare, so maybe I will come across one someday.

 

[neon_platy]

okso all this goodeid talk got me a bit crazy today and i went to an old LFS I used to go to long time ago, they're in a downtown kinda nice artsy area not a PETSMART/PETCO but real LFS. I asked the owner that i instantly recognized if he had any he said no but he had a friend that bred and created or discovered a breed called Black Panther (?) it was black something and how he was done with that blah blah blah...so i buy couple platys grab 2 golden kilis (never seen them before) then managed to find taht plant that everyone talks about for fry then at checkout to show i was serious about goodeids i was like can i give you my phone # so if you get any or your friend had any please call...he was like you know what I'll call him now...then they're all like making plans for me to pickup a pair later this week...turns out this guy bred/or now protects the fish that were in the Belle Isle Aquarium, since none of you are from Detroit, it is the oldest aquarium in america and is on this island in detroit river that i went to as a kid and this island/aquarium, and the old zoo that was there was like nice part of the dead/scary detroit anyway, they shutdown the aquarium last year in spite of public outcry, Detroit has no money anyway, so he apparently is like the keeper of all rare/extinct/normal goodeids here. anyway what do you guys think that have or have exp with goodeids?? are they ok with my platies?? im so excited about doing something different

 

[blitztidus]

I heard of that Aquarium before, I live in Wisconsin, well you should post pics of them as soon as you get them. Well They should be fine with the platies.

 

[neon_platy]

cool thanks...i guess b/c the lfs owner while talkin to the guy asked if they'd be with the platies when i said yes i guess the guy was like they might nip at the fins of the platies...just wanted to see what anyone's experience was here...Yeah the aquarium was one of those things that was amazing when i was a kid but then as i got older and my dad took me with my little sister you could tell how everything was starting to be neglected and not as beautiful...anyway detroit has a lot of probs and probably will never recover to what it used to be. Just wanna see what everyone thinks about the nipping...Anyway, yeah I have a digi cam and will post pics immediately...

 

[superjalami30]

Wow, I wasnt expecting this many replies!

Your all going to kill me when I tell you how much I spent on mine.....

$1.50 Canadian for each, a total of $3.00!!!

I bought mine from a fella here where I live that sells many types of fish for very low prices.
For example, I bought my snowball plec for 22 Canadian, a leapord plec for 34 bucks, and a dwarf pike cichlid for 12.
Actually, everything he sells is about 50% cheaper than the retail outlets here (superpet and a couple of pet shops).
Queen arabesque plecs retail for approx 70 canadian here but he sells his at 34.

Again, all prices are canadian.

Getting back to the Xenotoca Eiseni, yes, what a neat little fish.
Thanks to all the posts with the info!!

I will try to get a clear shot, but my cam hates me when I take up close pics.

Btw, neon_platys, I was in your city last summer, liked it so much I'm going back in july!

 

[neon_platy]

super, sorry for hijackin your post a bit yeah rochester is nice i live near downtown so it's fun to walk down to starbucks in the evening get something cold to drink then walk through the park....yeah I have no idea how much i am going to "pay" for whatever I get, all I know is it is supposed to be brought to the LFS wed/thu for me and i'll get a call...i'm not even sure if it's red tail, or butterfly, or what...btw i remembered what i was talking about he made the "black beauty" goodeid or discovered it or whatever...so do you have yours with other fish? I'm just curious about their concern for my platys...since it's a 55 gallon i'm not too concerned since theres lots of plants/two caves to hide in and lots of swimming room