|
 |
 |
| Jubilee Fish |
| 06 June 2012 |
For many aquarists, it's very important that their aquarium fish are brightly coloured. Fortunately there are lots of tropical fish that display brilliant colours, though as always with aquarium fish, they won't show their best colours unless kept properly. Given that this is the year of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, it's only fitting that we look in particular at those species that can bring the "red, white and blue" to your aquarium, and what you need to know to keep them looking their best.
Neons and Cardinals
Few fish catch the eye like Neons and Cardinals! At their best these are peaceful beauties well suited to community tank life, but both species post particular problems for the aquarist that need to be addressed before purchase.
Starting with Neons, the issues here are water chemistry, water temperature, and the often rather poor health of farmed specimens. So far as water temperature goes, these fish do not do well in hard water, and at least part of their reason they are often regarded as "delicate" is the fact so many people try to keep them in hard water. Neons really should be kept in water between 2-12 degrees dH general hardness and with a pH between 6 and 7.5. If your water is harder than this, you'll need to use a reverse-osmosis ("RO") filter to produce zero-hardness water that can be mixed around 50/50 with tap water to provide the right environmental conditions. Some retailers sell RO water, or if you live outside a city, you can collect rainwater and use that instead.
Temperature is another issue with Neons; they are often kept far too warm, doing best at around 22 degrees C, which makes them ideal companions for other low-end tropical fish such as the popular Bronze Catfish, Corydoras aeneus.
Finally, farmed Neons are very vulnerable to a parasite called Pleistophora hyphessobryconis that causes Neon Tetra Disease. Infected fish quickly lose colour and vitality before dying a few days after these symptoms become apparent. There is no cure. Neon Tetra Disease is very contagious, apparently through healthy fish ingesting parasites from ailing fish, so it's important to remove diseased fish at once. Actually, some sick Neons are merely infected with a bacterial infection that does clear up when treated with antibiotics, but since antibiotics are not sold in the UK, this is largely academic, and the best approach is to simply euthanise any suspect Neon at once; immersing them in a bath of 30 drops of clove oil in 1 litre of aquarium water does the job painlessly and quickly. In any case, do not buy Neons from a tank with any sickly-looking fish, and do shop around for the healthiest, best-quality Neons you can find rather than the cheapest.
Cardinals are more expensive than Neons but generally less difficult to keep, providing their two key requirements are considered. Firstly, they must have soft, acidic water conditions; i.e., 1-10 degrees dH, pH 6-7. Secondly, they must have warmth, 26-28 degrees C being ideal. While Neons and Cardinals look alike, they do have different temperature requirements, so they shouldn't be mixed. But on the other hand Cardinals do work well with those high-end tropical fish that appreciate warmth, such as Sterba's Catfish, Corydoras sterbai; they also mix well with Discus and Gouramis.
Blue Gouramis
The popular Blue Gourami is actually just one form of a very variable species, the Three-Spot Gourami, Trichopodus trichopterus (for long known as Trichogaster trichopterus). The other commonly seen forms are the Gold Gourami and Opaline Gourami, but there are some less often seen forms as well, including a violet form. All are very similar in terms of care. They are basically hardy animals able to do well across a broad range of water chemistry values, and seem to thrive (if not necessarily breed) in both soft and hard water conditions. Water temperature is not especially critical provided it is not too cold, and anything between 25-30 degrees C will do.
Adults can get to as much as 15 cm in length, but that's uncommon, and 10-12 cm is typical. Males and females look very similar, but males do have much longer dorsal fins and do tend to be noticeably more aggressive. Indeed, this is one of those community fish species that likes to throw its weight around, and can cause problems in a small aquarium. Given adequate space though, at least 100 litres, this is a fairly reliable species, especially when kept with robust tankmates like Loaches, Danios and Corydoras. On the other hand, because it's a slow-moving, long-finned fish, it's a risky companion for nippy fish like Tiger Barbs.
Dwarf Gouramis
The Dwarf Gourami is another extremely popular aquarium fish, thanks to the brilliant red and blue stripes on its flanks and its gentle, but inquisitive, personality. Recently renamed Trichogaster lalius, it was for a long time known as Colisa lalia, and this is the name most often seen in aquarium books. In the wild it inhabits ditches and streams with little current, and it thrives best in tanks with plenty of aquarium plants but only gentle filtration. It is a superb community fish, and works well kept alongside small, peaceful fish that won't nip or harass it. Neither should it be kept with anything larger or more aggressively territorial, such as dwarf cichlids. Although the brightly coloured males are widely sold, the silvery females are sometimes seen, and pairs can be kept safely in tanks from about 60 litres upwards.
For a long time Dwarf Gouramis have been described as "delicate" or "sickly", and some aquarium writers have found it difficult to recommend them. There seem to be two problems, one of which is a sensitivity to Mycobacteria-type infections (sometimes, if inaccurately, called Fish TB). This problem goes back at least as far as 1980s and was reported by aquarists such as the compilers of Baensch's Aquarium Atlas. The second problem is a viral infection (Dwarf Gourami Iridovirus) that was more recently reported by Australian vets and published in the UK by the magazine Practical Fishkeeping. Both diseases present similar symptoms: lethargy, loss of colour, wasting, and eventually death. Neither is treatable. Buying locally-bred specimens minimises these risks, as will presenting your Dwarf Gouramis with the right environmental conditions, i.e., soft, slightly acidic water kept suitably warm; aim for 2-12 degrees dH, pH 6-7.5, 24-28 degrees C). Certainly take care to never buy specimens from tanks with any sickly-looking specimens, and as with Neons, look for the best specimens you can, not the cheapest.
White Skirt Tetra
This medium-sized tetra is a tank-bred form of the Black Widow Tetra, Gymnocorymbus ternetzi. It's one of the few community aquarium fish that is genuinely white, unlike the many different albino fish that are essentially off-white to pink in colour. Healthy specimens are brilliant white with black eyes (which immediately distinguishes them from albino varieties of this species, which have pink eyes). White Skirt Tetras look especially dramatic in well-planted tanks with lots of shade, but they are active fish and do like open areas with plenty of space for swimming.
White Skirt Tetras are easy to keep. They are not too fussy about water chemistry and will do well in moderately hard water up to about 20 degrees dH, though like all South American tetras they prefer soft, slightly acidic conditions. Water temperature isn't a major issue either, provided the aquarium isn't too warm, between 22-25 degrees C being ideal. They are intensely social fish though and must be kept in a group of at least six specimens and ideally more than that. In smaller numbers they are apt to become nippy or aggressive, particularly towards slow-moving, long-finned fish.
Patriotic Fish from around the World
One of the nicest tetras in the hobby is Hyphessobrycon heterorhabdus, a species sometimes called the Belgian Flag Tetra. It has three colourful bands that run horizontally along its otherwise silvery-green body, one red band, one white band, and one black band. These colours resemble those seen on the Belgian flag, hence its common name. A school of six or more specimens kept in a shady, well-planted aquarium can look very attractive indeed. They aren't very large, only getting to about 4 cm or so in length, and are easily bullied by larger and more aggressive fish, even things like Danios. But being such peaceful fish they make excellent additions to communities of small, docile species where they can work as excellent dither fish for such species as Corydoras and Apistogramma. Basic care is similar to that of other South American tetras, in particular their need for good water quality and soft, slightly acidic water chemistry.
Perhaps the most celebrated aquarium patriot is a hardy killifish from Florida, Jordanella floridae. Sometimes called the Florida Flagfish and sometimes the American Flagfish, it sports attractive rows of red spots on its flanks and blue spots on its fins, that taken together resemble the flag of the United States. Jordanella floridae is a tough little fish found in a range of swampy environments along the Florida coastline, but under aquarium conditions is best treated as a subtropical rather than tropical fish. Optimal conditions require moderately hard, slightly basic water chemistry and a temperature of 18-20 degrees C (about that of the average centrally-heated home, so a heater may not be necessary). Slightly warmer conditions in summer encourage spawning. It's chief requirement is for a diet based largely on plant material, particularly algae, so it is best to use Spirulina flake rather than traditional flake foods. Such foods are often sold as "livebearer" or "herbivore" flake food and aren't difficult to buy.
Male Jordanella floridae gets to about 6 cm in length, the females are a bit smaller, and they also differ in colouration, the males being more strongly coloured while the females have a distinctive black spot on their dorsal fins (both have a dark blotch in the middle of their flanks). Breeding is strikingly similar to that of cichlids, with the male guarding the eggs until the fry are free swimming. All in all, a charming, undervalued species that makes a great alternative to Goldfish: a pair could be easily housed in an aquarium as small as 30 litres. |
| |
|
| News categories: |
| Select a tropical fish finder news category below to
view specific news articles for each category: |
| |
|
|
| |
|
| Picture Details: |
| Source: |
N/A |
| Link: |
N/A
|
| View: |
Enlarge
Image |
| Species: |
Cardinal Tetra |
|
|
| Picture Details: |
| Source: |
N/A |
| Link: |
N/A
|
| View: |
Enlarge
Image |
| Species: |
Neon Tetra |
|
|
| Picture Details: |
| Source: |
N/A |
| Link: |
N/A
|
| View: |
Enlarge
Image |
| Species: |
Florida Flagfish |
|
|
| Picture Details: |
| Source: |
N/A |
| Link: |
N/A
|
| View: |
Enlarge
Image |
| Species: |
Dwarf Gourami |
|
|
| Picture Details: |
| Source: |
N/A |
| Link: |
N/A
|
| View: |
Enlarge
Image |
| Species: |
Blue Gourami |
|
|
| Picture Details: |
| Source: |
N/A |
| Link: |
N/A
|
| View: |
Enlarge
Image |
| Species: |
Belgian Flag Tetra |
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
