Belly Crawlers...I think.

[Titania]

Hi all,

As you can see, I'm new to the forum and also brand new to pikes. Not new to fish, however. I've kept a lot of different kinds of fish over the 15 years I've been keeping fish, but just got my first pikes.

I did a lot of reading here (thanks!) before heading out to pick up my first. They were sold as "gold" pikes. And, well, we all know how useful common names are. I believe they are both female Belly Crawlers, as both have occeli and red stripes on their dorsals. But, I figured I'd get a firm ID and sexing from the experts.

So...on with the pics.

The 65 gallon tank they call home with a pair of Uarus and a Leporacanthicus cf. galaxias.

The pikes:

 

[Peanut_Power]

First of all, WELCOME TO THE CRENICICHLAHOLIC FAMILY!! Secondly!! Welcome to MFK!! Haha.

Great pike up, they are indeed Crenicichla sp. 'belly crawler', and they DO seem to be females! They are great fish, and will quickly grow on you!! Hopefully you will get just as hooked as the rest of us and want to get more!! Great setup too btw!! Looking awesome!

Enjoy your new pikes! They are definately awesome fish!

 

[killerfish]

As usuall peanut_power told it how it is


They are belly crawlers and appear to be females

 

[djdlemma]

Welcome!! Nice crawlers!!!

 

[Titania]

Thanks all, for the welcome and confirmation on ID!

I definitely LOVE the pikes, and I'm already thinking about where I could POSSIBLY fit another tank...maybe a nice 250 gal or so. Then, I could try my hand at some of the bigger species. But, with 10 other tanks up right now, space is an issue.

The pikes are funny. They are never out of sight of one another. Where one goes, the other one follows. They also seem to be quite fond of the galaxy pleco. They tend to just hang out next to him a lot. Maybe they think he's a funny looking piece of driftwood!

Here's the galaxy:

 

[Titania]

Update: Well, I ended up having a REALLY bad outbreak of medication resistant ich in the tank. No idea who brought it in. The pikes seemed quite resistant, as they only every got a couple of spots. The Uarus, however, didn't make it. I've honestly never seen an infection so bad. I was really upset, as I'd had them for a couple of years, grown out from quarter sized babies. It took me 2 weeks, but the tank is finally clean. The meds didn't work, so I opted for 90+ degrees and salt. That did the trick. The poor pikes managed just fine in the bath temp water. They're super tough little fish. All is back to normal now. Now that they're feeling back up to par, the females have developed a really pretty lime green & orange colouration on their gill covers. It subtle, but pretty. I also picked up a male this weekend. He's in quarantine right now.

I picked up some new inhabitants for the tank to fill the upper level void left by the Uarus....4 Nandopsis salvini. One confirmed female, the others still too small to tell. They came out of 2-week quarantine on Thursday and were added to the tank. They seem to get along quite well with the pikes. The pikes bully them a little bit during feeding, but nothing more than bluff, really. I plan on keeping just a single pair of the salvini once they pair off.

I'll try to get some new pics.

 

[pwmin]

Very sorry for the loss of your uarus but glad the others made it. How big is the plec?

 

[Titania]

Very sorry for the loss of your uarus but glad the others made it. How big is the plec?

Thanks. The ich was nuts with the Uarus. I saw a couple of spots one day and starting treating as soon as I saw them. By the next day, the Uarus were covered...and I mean covered. By the 3rd day, they were goners. I assume their super-tasty slime coat was very attractive to the parasites.

The pleco is about 8 inches...still a little ways to go to hit adult size.

 

[Peanut_Power]

Uaru are rediculous for ich. Actually got my 125gal bumped up to 86 degrees and treating it with salt right now because there is ich in the tank from the move and what not. The Uaru of course have it the worst...*grumbles*

 

[joey02]

I had i small cause of ick with 1 inch uaru befor also, but never lost any. They got it right after i bought them.
As soon as i noticed it, i raised the temp. to 89F and waited for the ick to fall off the uaru to reproduce in the sand. as soon as they seemed to clear up a bit, i knew the ick only fell off the uaru to reproduce and would have came back even stronger and in more numbers, so thats when i treated with ick cure. Ick is suppose to only be effected by treatment when they are in the free swimming stage. Raising the temp. only speeds up there life cycle. After 48hrs of this treatment (50% water change daily,and a new dose of ick cure each time with high water temp maintained.) the ick was gone and never came back. Maybe this will help oters with ick and uaru.