grammodes came out of hiding

[duanes]

Got these at the Milwaukee ACA convention couple years ago, they were about an inch then, now maybe 6".
Other than when protecting fry, and hitting the surface for food, they hide.
Today the male was almost parading, couldn't believe it, and had to grab a few pics

You can almost see the female through a hole in the flower pot

I kept 1 fry from 1 of their last years spawn, it lives in a sump, and is maybe 4"

 

[fishman09]

he looks great. really like the way your tanks are with all that algae. looks real and the fish and fry probably love it

 

[gnuisance]

how do you get all that algae growth?

 

[DanG13]

That male is a lil stunner!

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[flowerpower]

how do you get all that algae growth?

Gotta love the parasitic flora!
It's a look you hardly see on the forum anymore. I think a lot of people these days think detritus and algae= filth= poor husbandry, which isn't necessarily so...
The "fry" is sooo very awesome looking. Love the red freckles.

 

[duanes]

The tank gets a little sun, and as you can tell, because of breeding action, I never scrape the back or sides, and very seldom even clean the front glass. When there are fry, they get to constantly graze. I do 25%-40% water changes every other day,(in summer every day because water goes to the garden).

 

[duanes]

By the way, in line right after the grammode tank, is a planted sump, that gets about 3 hours of full sun everyday. It grows hair algae like crazy, so much that I harvest it to feed other tanks. I believe it helped seed the grammode tank, although it doesn't get as hairy there (not enough sun).

In between the 2 tanks is where I placed my auto water change out let.

When I shut the valve off to the sump, water is pumped out the window from the tanks, to my raspberry and herb plants.

 

[Kristanathaniel]

At what size do grammodes hit sexual maturity? I have 5 of them that are a little over 3".

 

[rwellbaum]

cool!

 

[gnuisance]

Very cool.