Cren. sp. Venezuela?

[Pipe layer]

I found these guys at an LFS and was pretty impressed. They are labeled as black lines and I am pretty sure they are Sp. Venezuela, though it may be a little too early to tell. My roommate picked up 5 of them, what seems to be 3m;2f and I was just looking for confirmation on the species.

http://vid836.photobucket.com/albums/zz283/pipelayer5/IMG_1901_zps2anzm6ow.mp4

They are currently housed in a 120 by themselves with tons of driftwood.

Diet will consist of massivore, earth worms and feeder fish.

Any suggestions on helping them feel less skittish when we walk up to the tank? We have kept the light off the last 2 days and are hoping to see some more activity soon.

 

[Rocksor]

It can take as long as a month to make them less skittish, especially since there aren't any other fish with them to show them that you or your friend are not to be feared.

You don't need to give them feeder fish. They'll easily transition to frozen food like blood worms and frozen silversides.

 

[Pipe layer]

It can take as long as a month to make them less skittish, especially since there aren't any other fish with them to show them that you or your friend are not to be feared.

You don't need to give them feeder fish. They'll easily transition to frozen food like blood worms and frozen silversides.

Thanks, it took about a month last time we had pike as well and was hoping we could do something to make them more comfortable.

The feeders will not be a staple, more of a treat every once and a while.

 

[mrrobxc]

I believe them to be vennies as well but the price seems quite high. Assuming their margins aren't ridiculous at this store, one can assume that the wholesale cost was pretty high too. Vennies being the cheaper species of pike, you can something g else on your hands. You'll know for sure once they hit sexually maturity as many Lugribus pikes look like that when young.

As for behavior, I've found them to do well with dither fish like severums, chocolates, hoplarchus, or even angelfish in a big enough tank. As a matter of fact, that's exactly what I keep with my current pikes without issue though I will say that some sp3cies like lents need a lot of room to avoid intraspecific aggression.

Lastly, I learned the hard way to not use feeders. I lost my pair of adult crenicichla tapajos 1 from a bacterial infection I believe was brought on by feeders that I purchased to feed my wild cichla. Avoid feeders whenever possible. I've found pikes to be easy to wean onto dry food. I start with freeze dried first and then I move to pellets.

Good luck.

 

[Pipe layer]

Thanks for your experience! Very helpful. I am going to add in a school of angels to hopefully help with their comfort around people.

Did you quarantine your feeders first? We have them in a 20 with medication for ich and bacteria. Leave them for a few weeks before feeding?

What would you usually expect a 6-7" venny to go for at an LFS?

 

[mrrobxc]

I didn't qt the feeders but if you can, even better.

I see vennies go from 10 to 20 bucks max. 40 bucks is a lot.

 

[Pipe layer]

I didn't qt the feeders but if you can, even better.

I see vennies go from 10 to 20 bucks max. 40 bucks is a lot.

True, thanks again. Hopefully they turn out to be something else. And yeah, we had an issue with feeders once and have qt'd them ever since.

 

[softturtle]

Should be a fun group of fish to have. Already got 5, should go get the others

IMO... $40 is not bad, not great but not bad. Not many 7" fish will go for less than $20 unless they were "grown out" by a customer. Normal retail mark up is between 300-500% for stores interested in keeping the doors open.

 

[crenicichla444]

Yeah sounds like a fun group to have

Idk if it's just me or not but one of them "kinda" looked like my Atabapo Is when they were grey and coloring up.... $40 isn't too bad esp at that size. If I were you I'd just grab em all! If one turns out to be atabapo I then you score lol plus growing out groups of pikes is fun asf highly recommend they're like velociraptors

 

[Pipe layer]

Yeah we really thought about grabbing all 7 but it seemed like it was 5 males and 2 females so we decided to hold back on the males. Definitely a fun group so far. Already munched some massivore last night, although not right away. They should be more accepting of it tonight now that they know what the deal is.