Neets - what have your experiences been like?

[LowCel]

I received an order from Jeff Rapps yesterday and part of that order was two wild Neetroplus Nematopus. This is my first time keeping these fish so I was wanting to see what others that have kept them think of them. So far I am really enjoying watching them. They are some of the smaller fish in the tank but they seem to have a great attitude. The larger of the two (the male) doesn't let anyone bully him around.

The larger one loves moving gravel around as well. It's funny watching him trying to move rocks around that are 1/4 his size.

Also I am sort of cuirous about their growth rate. The male is about 4 1/2" SL and the female is about 3" SL.

 

[croc 2-3]

Well they'll only get about 2 more in. as they max out at 5(female)-6 in. (male) if they don't start breeding,as they are mature enough to breed. as long as you don't have any parachromis species in their that can swallow them whole or no hiding places they can live with any species & hold their own. Great fish I like them a lot.

 

[toges]

in the wilds of the nicraguan crater lakes, they are the staple food of parachromis dovii....they are notorious fin nippers....they are in direct competition with nicaraguensis (parrot cichlids) for spawning sites and they are generally better at spawning among the rocks than the parrots....i was attempting to set up a nicaraguan biotope..with a dovii as my top preditor,...i was planning on having 3 pairs of neets....a pair of parrots...the plan was to allow the neets to breed and fry to become the main food sorce and the whole thing would be remotely self sufficiant..... all was going well until one day i awoke to find that my female dovii had cleaned up the 3 female neets in 1 night!! and over the next week.... she caught up with the remaining males....and 1 of the parrots as well......

i like the neets generally, if only they were a little better coloured.....this may be because in australia , they are in-bred to the point of being grey all over!....they do have great personalities and they are very active....but just keep them away from Dovii