Hi and help ;)

[earthling]

Hi everyone

I have been keeping fish for about 4 years and have had both hits and misses during that time. I've tried my hand at quite a few fish, including marines and brackish water fish but found that I did not have the required time to give them the respect they deserve I therefore decided to stick to freshwater fish

I currently have 5 fish tanks, ranging from approx 20 litres (hand made) to 100 gallons, in which I have silver sharks, danio's, cardinal tetra's, plecs, hypostemus, gourami's, swordtails...(not all in the same tanks obviously )

My latest purchases are 2 beautiful pike cichlids, although, after researching them on t'internet, I'm not exactly sure which species they are They are in the 100 gallon tank on their own and when I bought them, the man in the garden centre told me that they were definitely a male and a female because they wouldn't tolerate each other otherwise due to their aggressive nature :/ Although I've had them for a few weeks, I'm not entirely convinced because they have identical markings, identical shapes etc and they are around 5-6 inches in length.

I'm torn between a choice of 2 species that they could actually be.....sp. venezuelan or crenicichla strigata

I'm not sure if my attachment has worked but I've tried to post a picture of the only one of the 2 that I could catch relatively still

 

[PNWFisherman]

looks Venezuelan to me. Nice pike I have one similar size.

 

[its_an_obsession]

looks to be a venezualan. i guess there is a possibility of it being strigata, as i think they look similar as juvies. The only difference being that vens are very common and strigatas extremely rare.

you will likely have to wait til the fish get larger to determine the sexes.

 

[Jumbie]

Yeah I would have to agree with obsession; it is very difficult to tell the difference between the juvie Venezualan and the juvie Strigata. I would have to say it is a Vene. only because the Strigata is vary rare/hard to come by. The only real way to tell what sp. and sex they truly are is waiting until they get bigger.

 

[Peanut_Power]

100% Crenicichla sp. 'venezuela'

That guy at the garden center was feeding you a load of crock. Lugubris pikes, which sp. 'venezuela' is a member of, show 'schooling' tendencies when they are younger till about subadult size. Up till then, its possible to keep multiple Crenicichla together without too much difficulty. Once they start to hit that subadult stage though, there is no telling what could happen.

Definitely a guess as to what genders you have. Generally if you are wanting a pair though, either you get them in groups of three or larger to increase your odds of having multiple genders, or you get them large enough to determine their genders. Even then a successful pair might not be formed.

Congrats, and welcome to the world of Crenicichla!! They are totally awesome!!!

 

[earthling]

Ahhhh thanks for the replies guys I recall Mr Garden Centre saying a name that began with an 'S' so I assume he meant strigata. Obviously not the case then This could be why he charged £30 for the 'pair', whereas venezuelans probably retail at about £10 for the 'pair'.

It would have been nice if they were a bonded pair, but I'm not bothered either way because they are beautiful fish and do my tank justice, unlike the 'common' fish (guppies, swordtails, mollies etc) that were in there previously and were 'lost' in the depths of the tank.

One little question though.....I've noticed that the 2 plants in the tank have been uprooted so is there any point in replanting them or should I simply move the plants into another tank ? The plants themselves haven't been damaged but the pikes seem to have taken a dislike to them (it's taken them just over a month, mind, to decided that they don't like them !!!) There are a few (fairly large) pieces of bogwood that they've taken refuge in and I've also got a few large rocks in there too so the plants aren't really essential.

With regards becoming aggressive, I'm lucky that the OH has got a few tanks in his house too, so if I notice any funny business going on, he could always take one out of the way

Cheers again xxx

 

[fishworld]

I have never seen or kept pike before . I live in india where this fish doesn't kept in LFS . But nice fish . Hope u find its species .

 

[LobstersGoPeenchPeench]

well my brother had 2 orange pikes and a sveni in the tank. sveni female and the oranges both male. we called them homo's because they always spent time together. well anyways goes to show that u cant always say well they are always together so they must be a pair. and about the plant they prolly just ran into it and uprooted it. replant them and if it keeps happening keep replanting it and make sure its buried enough so it doesnt uproot. maybe try another part of the tank for the plant. also some plants root systems arent that good and get uprooted really easy. so just keep trying and goodluck with them pikes. nice starter pike

 

[earthling]

Oh no

I came home yesterday afternoon to find one of them 'corkscrewing' into the gravel

It looked as though he was in pain so I watched him for a minute or so, but the other one grabbed him by the face and started going berserk

He was obviously getting beaten and by the time I located my net (the only one large enough to reach to the bottom of the tank) he was on his side gasping

I managed to fish him out and have put him in another tank which, although being only 35 litres, I considered a better option than leaving him to get pecked to death

The only thing is, yesterday afternoon we had about 6 inches of snow so I'm unable to take him to the OH house to go into a bigger tank and it also means that I can't get to the garden centre to buy any potions to help the poor fella

He's regained a bit of colour overnight, although he's still mainly on his side and when he does try to swim, it's cringeworthy watching him struggle It's as if his head is too big for the rest of his body

His 'tail' fin has started to rot and I've noticed a small fungus patch on his side so I've put a few drops of eSHA exit anti whitespot/fungus treatment in (it's all I've got here and as I said, I can't get out because of the snow so I'm stuck)

I put a very small shrimp in for him last night, which he's had a peck of but not eaten the whole thing so I'll have to take it out.

What should I do next ? Shall I carry on using the esha stuff I've got ? Shall I try him with a different sort of food ?

Help

 

[HiImSean]

bump the heat to about 86F and add aquarium salt. not the salt for saltwater mixing.