NEW PICKUP Acarichthys Heckelii

[japes]

Looking very nice and they look like they're getting along well too which is good, and possibly lucky.

Just a bit of a tip for people only wanting to keep 2 of these specimens. If you have 2 males the dominant of the two will beat the living faeces out of the sub-dominant male, and if you get a Male/Female that aren't of breeding age yet, the male will reach sexual maturity before the female and more than likely beat her up as well.

They aren't that physically aggressive, there will be shredded fins and missing scales, but they are relentless. I had four of these in my main display and even that wasn't enough to spread aggression once a pair began forming, and I ended up with the two non-paired heckelii cowering in different corners 24/7 prior to me selling them.

My only concern JK47 would be that if the female can't find a desired spawning site, which for heckelii in the wild is a 1'+ deep pit in the sand (so mimic with a pot or something similiar), the male may do some damage to her.

 

[jworth]

Wow those tanks look great! Love all of those fish and the decor. That sucks you are having a hard time with the Myersi. I considered Kraussi myself and have heard nothing but bad things about putting Caqueita in calmer community tanks. How many tanks and what sizes do you have right now?

 

[JK47]

Wow those tanks look great! Love all of those fish and the decor. That sucks you are having a hard time with the Myersi. I considered Kraussi myself and have heard nothing but bad things about putting Caqueita in calmer community tanks. How many tanks and what sizes do you have right now?

I have just the 225 gallon and the 125 gallon and some random smaller tanks. I don't like to start one until I finish another. After the 125g is finished and the electrical is redone in the garage, I will be able to do the big tank and focus solely on it.

Looking very nice and they look like they're getting along well too which is good, and possibly lucky.

Just a bit of a tip for people only wanting to keep 2 of these specimens. If you have 2 males the dominant of the two will beat the living faeces out of the sub-dominant male, and if you get a Male/Female that aren't of breeding age yet, the male will reach sexual maturity before the female and more than likely beat her up as well.

They aren't that physically aggressive, there will be shredded fins and missing scales, but they are relentless. I had four of these in my main display and even that wasn't enough to spread aggression once a pair began forming, and I ended up with the two non-paired heckelii cowering in different corners 24/7 prior to me selling them.

My only concern JK47 would be that if the female can't find a desired spawning site, which for heckelii in the wild is a 1'+ deep pit in the sand (so mimic with a pot or something similiar), the male may do some damage to her.

Japes, thanks for the feedback, it's very much appreciated. That is a very good point about the male reaching maturity more quickly, I had not thought about that. If I end up having to get rid of them down the line, I will but since these are some of my favorite I feel confident I will be able to provide for them long term barring the aggression issues you mention of course. I currently have 3 and will be adding 2 more very soon when I get my order in.

Would it be worth the planning to try and only keep the females from the group or would that just replicate the aggression in a different sex?

 

[japes]

Japes, thanks for the feedback, it's very much appreciated. That is a very good point about the male reaching maturity more quickly, I had not thought about that. If I end up having to get rid of them down the line, I will but since these are some of my favorite I feel confident I will be able to provide for them long term barring the aggression issues you mention of course. I currently have 3 and will be adding 2 more very soon when I get my order in.

Would it be worth the planning to try and only keep the females from the group or would that just replicate the aggression in a different sex?

If you're going to eventuate with 5 in any of tanks you showed photos of earlier I'd be confident you won't have any problems. Having a tank length of 6' does wonders for reducing the aggression as they actually have a reasonable amount of room to establish territories (which I found to be about 4x2' )

Going for all females is a possibility but it's also a bit of 'cheap' way of making fish work. Without males present, like most other Eartheaters, colours will be less than perfect. My personal opinion on keeping beautiful fish in a situation where they can't do what they're designed to do, breed, is a little disappointing when you're keeping multiple specimens anyway. This obviously isn't ideally what you want to do, and lets hope it doesn't come to that, but it's fantastic to see more people on the forums actually properly care for the social requirements of a group of fish that's all too commonly neglected without even knowing it.

Just to reiterate, 5+ in a 6' tank shouldn't cause you any issues. Worst case scenario might be that you need to pickup a couple more, move an established pair that's causing trouble to one of your other tanks, and re-beef the shoal. The story with mine goes that they're currently in an 8', the same 4, and they're fine due to the room.

 

[peathenster]

check out this video at the 1:20 mark....that's japes meant by "spawning site"

a large upside down flower pot with a hole on the side should do.

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[JK47]

If you're going to eventuate with 5 in any of tanks you showed photos of earlier I'd be confident you won't have any problems. Having a tank length of 6' does wonders for reducing the aggression as they actually have a reasonable amount of room to establish territories (which I found to be about 4x2' )

Going for all females is a possibility but it's also a bit of 'cheap' way of making fish work. Without males present, like most other Eartheaters, colours will be less than perfect. My personal opinion on keeping beautiful fish in a situation where they can't do what they're designed to do, breed, is a little disappointing when you're keeping multiple specimens anyway. This obviously isn't ideally what you want to do, and lets hope it doesn't come to that, but it's fantastic to see more people on the forums actually properly care for the social requirements of a group of fish that's all too commonly neglected without even knowing it.

Just to reiterate, 5+ in a 6' tank shouldn't cause you any issues. Worst case scenario might be that you need to pickup a couple more, move an established pair that's causing trouble to one of your other tanks, and re-beef the shoal. The story with mine goes that they're currently in an 8', the same 4, and they're fine due to the room.

That makes me feel better, thanks Japes. An tank exceeding 8' is not an issue at all, it's the plan. I passed on a 6"+ male from the same LFS tank today because I didn't want to introduce anything larger than my male, very glad I did that looking back because that was hard not to do an impulse buy. Now I get to pay twice as much for the other two but they are the same size so it's worth it although I will not know the sex until I pick them up.

Last pic for the night since the lights are off. Her colors look better already. Little 1" OH to her left.

 

[jworth]

neat video. great insight to their behavior in the wild.

 

[JK47]

check out this video at the 1:20 mark....that's japes meant by "spawning site"

a large upside down flower pot with a hole on the side should do.

That is an awesome find and great video. Thanks for adding it to this thread Peter.

 

[japes]

That is an awesome find and great video. Thanks for adding it to this thread Peter.

It's an excerpt from a 5 Part BBC Series called Amazon Abyss. The part where they're snorkelling through the crystal clear cutoff from what I believe is the Rio Negro is absolutely fantastic.

 

[darth pike]

a large upside down flower pot with a hole on the side should do.

A large upside down pot with the bottom knocked out might work better though.