• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Fish recommendation

Conort2

Conort2

Member
Joined
16 Feb 2018
Messages
1,481
Location
London
Hi,

Hope everyone’s good. As some of you may know I’ve recently acquired some ammocryptocharax elegans. They’re currently being house in a 18in L x 16in W x 12in H aquarium. There is quite a high flow and the tank is decorated with leaves, twigs and some easy low light plants like anubias, moss, Java fern. Now the main issue is with these fish is they don’t move a great deal and are pretty well camouflaged so aren’t seen much. Has anyone got any recommendations on a tank mate which may increase activity in the tank? The only species I can think of are dwarf shrimp and dwarf loricairiids such as parotocinclus, hypoptopoma etc.

The tank mates can’t really compete with the darter characins as they only eat live and are very slow feeders hence the reason I can only think of dwarf loricariids. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated although I think this one may be a struggle.

Cheers
 
I'm hesitant making any recommendations @Conort2, as I know your fish knowledge is far more extensive than mine, and you've likely already considered most of the common recommendations that I might come up with. That said, some Boraras would be one consideration if it were me - given that they tend to inhabit the upper layer (assuming you have floating plants) and so will stay away from food falling down to your green darters (for the most part).

The Chocolate Gourami's that you also recommended to me might be a consideration, and would look great in your blackwater/leaf litter style tank - though perhaps it's pushing the tank size a little. I have found them to be quite slow purposeful feeders, so they'd also likely allow your Green Darters plenty of time to get to food also (though they do graze at all levels).
 
Liking the suggestions @Wookii however the big issue is the high flow rate. I think those black water swamp fish will get battered by the flow. The darter characins look extremely delicate but they take high flow in their stride due to their body shape.

PlanetCatfish.com - Acestridium dichromum (Loricariidae) Cat-eLog

Images are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder.
www.planetcatfish.com www.planetcatfish.com
This is from the same habitat and also has the same colour changing ability but I recon they’re even harder to find than the darter characins.
 
Conort2 said:
Liking the suggestions @Wookii however the big issue is the high flow rate. I think those black water swamp fish will get battered by the flow. The darter characins look extremely delicate but they take high flow in their stride due to their body shape.

PlanetCatfish.com - Acestridium dichromum (Loricariidae) Cat-eLog

Images are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder.
www.planetcatfish.com www.planetcatfish.com
This is from the same habitat and also has the same colour changing ability but I recon they’re even harder to find than the darter characins.
Click to expand...

Good point, I missed that you'd mentioned the high flow. Out of interest how are you getting the high flow in a small tank like that, without it turning into a whirl pool - do you have some spray-bar style arrangement?
 
Wookii said:
Good point, I missed that you'd mentioned the high flow. Out of interest how are you getting the high flow in a small tank like that, without it turning into a whirl pool - do you have some spray-bar style arrangement?
Click to expand...
Only using a aquael Pat filter and a ehiem skim without the skimmer attached, the ehiem seems to be kicking out the flow compared to aquael.
dw1305 said:
Hi all,

....... and <"pretty difficult to keep alive">.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...
Seems that way! Looks like they need a continuous source of algae. I’ve found what appears to be some parotocinclus eppleyi but these sound equally as difficult too. Problem is with these dwarf loricariids is their often in a terrible way before they make it to the shops and you end up trying to fight a losing battle.

Maybe some higher grade shrimp may be the best bet. I’ve never given proper bee shrimp a go so now may be the time.
 
Like wooki I'm hesitant with suggestions but how about nannoptopoma sp1 (robocop otocinclus). I don't think they'd out compete the elegans for food and think they can handle a fair amount of flow.
Like most oddball wild fish getting good quality specimens can be an issue, and these little guys would require a decent amount of algae and vegetable matter to keep them healthy.
4e4e5996dbea1.jpg


PlanetCatfish.com - Nannoptopoma sp. (LDA110) (Loricariidae) Cat-eLog

Images are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder.
www.planetcatfish.com www.planetcatfish.com
 
John q said:
Like wooki I'm hesitant with suggestions but how about nannoptopoma sp1 (robocop otocinclus). I don't think they'd out compete the elegans for food and think they can handle a fair amount of flow.
Like most oddball wild fish getting good quality specimens can be an issue, and these little guys would require a decent amount of algae and vegetable matter to keep them healthy.
View attachment 175317

PlanetCatfish.com - Nannoptopoma sp. (LDA110) (Loricariidae) Cat-eLog

Images are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder.
www.planetcatfish.com www.planetcatfish.com
Click to expand...
Also Aquatic Design Center can get them in, they had some last year!
 
John q said:
Like wooki I'm hesitant with suggestions but how about nannoptopoma sp1 (robocop otocinclus). I don't think they'd out compete the elegans for food and think they can handle a fair amount of flow.
Like most oddball wild fish getting good quality specimens can be an issue, and these little guys would require a decent amount of algae and vegetable matter to keep them healthy.
View attachment 175317

PlanetCatfish.com - Nannoptopoma sp. (LDA110) (Loricariidae) Cat-eLog

Images are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder.
www.planetcatfish.com www.planetcatfish.com
Click to expand...
They were one of the species I had in mind to be fair. Think they’d appreciate a similar sort of set up, they key would be finding healthy specimens.

I’d always fancied otocinclus cocama aswell, just seems quite a gamble considering the price of these little loricariids. I’d be very suprised if I found them for less than 12quid each and then you’d need a group of at least 6.

Cheers
 
If you decide to go down the 'otto' like fish and fancy a challenge finding them I'd suggest Parotocinclus britskii, fantastic little fish and would appreciate similar conditions too the Ammocryptocharax, I kept some a few years ago and were one of the best fish I've ever kept like tiny camouflage Otocinculs. Or if not too similar looking to the Ammocryptocharax you could look a another fish with great character Homaloptera tweedi/smithii
 
Conort2 said:
just seems quite a gamble considering the price of these little loricariids. I’d be very suprised if I found them for less than 12quid each and then you’d need a group of at least 6.
Click to expand...
Yes, definitely a gamble. I spent about an hour yesterday eyeing these up at aqualife in Leyland, they'd had a delivery from ruinemans a couple of weeks ago so I knew they had them in. They looked in good condition to be fair, but I ended up leaving with some otothyropsis instead.

Spent the night wrestling with myself about the pros, cons and risks then phoned them today and reserved 4 which I collect on Friday. They also had otocinclus cocama which have also been on my hit list for a while but they only had one.
Conort2 said:
I’d be very suprised if I found them for less than 12quid each
Click to expand...
The ones I got £16.95 ea 😖
 
afroturf said:
Parotocinclus britskii, fantastic little fish and would appreciate similar conditions too the Ammocryptocharax, I kept some a few years ago and were one of the best fish I've ever kept like tiny camouflage Otocinculs
Click to expand...
Another great one to consider. How did you keep these alive long term?

John q said:
Spent the night wrestling with myself about the pros, cons and risks then phoned them today and reserved 4 which I collect on Friday.
Click to expand...
Good luck! They’re a unique little species, will have to keep us updated on how they get on.
 
Conort2 said:
Another great one to consider. How did you keep these alive long term?
Click to expand...
As you mentioned previously getting healthy specimens to start with is half the trick, its a while since I had them but after a few initial losses were quite happy in a mature tank with clean water needed lots of wood to graze on as definitely preferred biofilm/algae than any prepared food, I did feed Repashy gel food both grub pie and soilent green painted onto rocks/wood witch was the most success I had with any prepared food.
 
afroturf said:
but after a few initial losses
Click to expand...
That’s the only issue, it seems almost inevitable I’ll lose a few unless I’m extremely lucky.

I’m thinking a group of a smaller corydoras species could be an option but not sure how greedy these will be. Tukano and nijsseni are from the same sort of region and may be small enough to not outcompete them. Only other options are the true dwarfs like hastatus but not sure if they can hack the flow.
 
Hi all,
Conort2 said:
Turns out they’re now known as corydoras pauciradiatus
Click to expand...
They are going to split Corydoras into several new genera, so Corydoras lineage 5 will include A. pauciradiatus, but none of them will be Corydoras, they will be something else (possibly Gastrodermus).

It is still down as <"Aspidoras pauciradiatus on PlanetCatfish">

cheers Darrel
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top