Hi everybody,
I am new to fish-keeping and this is my story:
I turned out a bit long. So, if you get bored, just skip to the
line!
I got into the hobby of fish keeping about 10 months ago. I rented a place in Buenos Aires facing a backyard. It does have lots of sunshine but frosted windows. So when looking for other stuff on Deremate (Argentine eBay) I bought a tank with two discus to make up for the lack of view with beautiful fish. The guy delivered his tank (45 gallons), filled it up with water (not really warm, no de-chlorinator, nothing) dropped in the discus, and they were fine! Apart from the gravel there was no filter in the tank, I had no idea what a pH value or a cycle was, didn't change water for the first 4 months in a tank with no filtration - the fish were fine! One time there was an electrical blackout that lasted some 40 hours, the temperature in the tank dropped to 42 degrees - the fish were fine. One time, one discus jumped out of the tank, spent over an hour on the floor - he was fine 24 hours later! On arrival they used to eat some disgusting discus-pasta this guy fed them, that made the tank, the fridge and my hands stink like rotten chicken fat. I switched to clean and easy Tetra bits. My house was clean and the fish grew!
When I finally visited an lfs and they told me that discus were difficult fish to keep I couldn't believe it. I did an on-line search, and it turned out to be true! Discus are sensitive fish. So I decided, I could buy more fish.
Soon I had 4 big tanks (but will buy 2 more to accommodate the fish I have), a few small tanks, frogs and newts but no books and not many friends to advise me.
14 of the 16 discus I got grew a lot within a few weeks after moving in with me, but two died. I fed them several times a day, watched them and intervened once, when one aggressive newcomer blue diamond bothered the discus that is now sick. I also bought two good size healthy adult Oscars, whos previous owner kept them in a 15 gallon tank each! There were a few casualties: two angelfish, two axolotls, a jurupari and a few neons passed away, and a frog escaped who knows where.
However, my last purchase was the biggest and took me by surprise. And that is where it gets interesting.
It was listed online as cichlids for $4, to sell actually for some $150. When I arrived in sellers apartment I saw lots of adult African and American cichlids and their offspring. I immediately fell in love with one 10 long, sort of chameleon-headed looking grayish fish of cylindrical shape with a huge mouth, which, according to the owner, was not yet classified. I wanted him and his knife-fish. However, the guy was moving apartments and made his prices in the way that it made a lot more sense to buy all the cichlids off him. And so I did. The guy wanted to get it over with and within three days brought me all the fish. So in addition to my very overstocked discus tank and a sick discus I had to deal with that as well.
We introduced the chameleon-head", a 13 carp - black shark (Labeo CHRYSOPHEKADION 13), a 10 Oscar, a 13 pleco and 5 fireheads into the new 90g. I put in the chameleon-head some 10 minutes before the Oscar but he knew this tank from before, because I bought him with the tank. He threatened other fish by opening his mouth and the pleco understood. My stupid 13" black shark bothered him, so he took the sharks whole head (!!) in his mouth and bit him! But, as dumb as this carp is, he did not get it and continued harassing the chameleon-head until the second full head bite satisfied his curiosity.
So far it was OK. But then, when I wasnt looking, the chameleon-head bit Oscars pectoral fin off at its "root!
I took out the Oscar (he did not try to hide or resist), put a liquid called "tripaflavina" on the spot where the fin used to be and put him in a different tank.
Before that I had to transfer the shark temporarily from the 60g into a 30g to make place for the discus. While I was busy cleaning the former discus tank, the shark, jumped from one tank into another! He first jumped up twice and then over. Were all clean jumps, never touched glass! He seemed to check out the other tank from above before making his move. The other tank had more water and less fish. Then, at night he jumped out of his new tank and dropped 3' on the floor. There were scissors lying on that floor...
Then a Rafael and a similar Argentine cat almost died as I forgot the air-supply and then I myself almost ATE Tetra ColorBits, shoving a handful in my mouth with my right hand mistaking them for the sunflower seeds in my left.
I did some on-line research, and I am pretty sure that the chameleon-head is a so called Frog-headed pike cichlid Crenichla Semifasciata or Batrochops Semifasciatus. There is very little info on this fish and, even though some websites say occasionally imported, I was able to locate only two instances of people actually keeping them.
Then someone on fishindex.com suggested I pay a visit to mfk and here I am.
Although I resent the Batrachops for being so hard on the Oscar I still can't help but admire him. Compared to him Oscars look like ugly and stupid goldfish. He is very beautiful. The few pics I found online do not even give an idea of what he is like. He lets me pet his head and even touch his eyes. He patrols the tank but does not seriously attack anybody (except the Oscar). I also have the smaller and paler female but was told to keep her with the Africans so the male does not kill her. Both are skilled cave builders with very flexible bodies.
I am a total beginner, will need advice and will make mistakes. Please consider that it was not me who kept a 10 Oscar in a 15g, but his previous owner. I do not agree to take crap for that as I had to at oscarfish.com.
All my tanks are overstocked at this moment but two new 60g are coming. For now Ill just post one tank:
90-gallon with :
10" male Crenicichla Semifasciata (Batrochops Semifasciatus)
13" MORULIUS CHRYSOPHEKADION (Black Shark)
5x 4" Cichlasoma synspilus (Redhead Cichlid)
6" RHINODORAS DORBIGNYI
14" Pterygolichthys gibbiceps (Sailfin Pleco)
Batrachops is not as bad as you might think. His previous owner had the same 90 gallon with:
10" C. Semifasciata,
5x 4" Cichlasoma synspilus
18" Clown Knife
for a long time with no problems. Therefore, all I did was replacing the clownknife with 2 smaller fish (RHINODORAS DORBIGNYI does not really count at all). And I am considering keeping the shark with an Oscar instead.
I am new to fish-keeping and this is my story:
I turned out a bit long. So, if you get bored, just skip to the
line!I got into the hobby of fish keeping about 10 months ago. I rented a place in Buenos Aires facing a backyard. It does have lots of sunshine but frosted windows. So when looking for other stuff on Deremate (Argentine eBay) I bought a tank with two discus to make up for the lack of view with beautiful fish. The guy delivered his tank (45 gallons), filled it up with water (not really warm, no de-chlorinator, nothing) dropped in the discus, and they were fine! Apart from the gravel there was no filter in the tank, I had no idea what a pH value or a cycle was, didn't change water for the first 4 months in a tank with no filtration - the fish were fine! One time there was an electrical blackout that lasted some 40 hours, the temperature in the tank dropped to 42 degrees - the fish were fine. One time, one discus jumped out of the tank, spent over an hour on the floor - he was fine 24 hours later! On arrival they used to eat some disgusting discus-pasta this guy fed them, that made the tank, the fridge and my hands stink like rotten chicken fat. I switched to clean and easy Tetra bits. My house was clean and the fish grew!
When I finally visited an lfs and they told me that discus were difficult fish to keep I couldn't believe it. I did an on-line search, and it turned out to be true! Discus are sensitive fish. So I decided, I could buy more fish.
Soon I had 4 big tanks (but will buy 2 more to accommodate the fish I have), a few small tanks, frogs and newts but no books and not many friends to advise me.
14 of the 16 discus I got grew a lot within a few weeks after moving in with me, but two died. I fed them several times a day, watched them and intervened once, when one aggressive newcomer blue diamond bothered the discus that is now sick. I also bought two good size healthy adult Oscars, whos previous owner kept them in a 15 gallon tank each! There were a few casualties: two angelfish, two axolotls, a jurupari and a few neons passed away, and a frog escaped who knows where.
However, my last purchase was the biggest and took me by surprise.
And that is where it gets interesting.It was listed online as cichlids for $4, to sell actually for some $150. When I arrived in sellers apartment I saw lots of adult African and American cichlids and their offspring. I immediately fell in love with one 10 long, sort of chameleon-headed looking grayish fish of cylindrical shape with a huge mouth, which, according to the owner, was not yet classified. I wanted him and his knife-fish. However, the guy was moving apartments and made his prices in the way that it made a lot more sense to buy all the cichlids off him. And so I did. The guy wanted to get it over with and within three days brought me all the fish. So in addition to my very overstocked discus tank and a sick discus I had to deal with that as well.
We introduced the chameleon-head", a 13 carp - black shark (Labeo CHRYSOPHEKADION 13), a 10 Oscar, a 13 pleco and 5 fireheads into the new 90g. I put in the chameleon-head some 10 minutes before the Oscar but he knew this tank from before, because I bought him with the tank. He threatened other fish by opening his mouth and the pleco understood. My stupid 13" black shark bothered him, so he took the sharks whole head (!!) in his mouth and bit him! But, as dumb as this carp is, he did not get it and continued harassing the chameleon-head until the second full head bite satisfied his curiosity.
So far it was OK. But then, when I wasnt looking, the chameleon-head bit Oscars pectoral fin off at its "root!
I took out the Oscar (he did not try to hide or resist), put a liquid called "tripaflavina" on the spot where the fin used to be and put him in a different tank.
Before that I had to transfer the shark temporarily from the 60g into a 30g to make place for the discus. While I was busy cleaning the former discus tank, the shark, jumped from one tank into another! He first jumped up twice and then over. Were all clean jumps, never touched glass! He seemed to check out the other tank from above before making his move. The other tank had more water and less fish. Then, at night he jumped out of his new tank and dropped 3' on the floor. There were scissors lying on that floor...
Then a Rafael and a similar Argentine cat almost died as I forgot the air-supply and then I myself almost ATE Tetra ColorBits, shoving a handful in my mouth with my right hand mistaking them for the sunflower seeds in my left.
I did some on-line research, and I am pretty sure that the chameleon-head is a so called Frog-headed pike cichlid Crenichla Semifasciata or Batrochops Semifasciatus. There is very little info on this fish and, even though some websites say occasionally imported, I was able to locate only two instances of people actually keeping them.
Then someone on fishindex.com suggested I pay a visit to mfk and here I am.
Although I resent the Batrachops for being so hard on the Oscar I still can't help but admire him. Compared to him Oscars look like ugly and stupid goldfish. He is very beautiful. The few pics I found online do not even give an idea of what he is like. He lets me pet his head and even touch his eyes. He patrols the tank but does not seriously attack anybody (except the Oscar). I also have the smaller and paler female but was told to keep her with the Africans so the male does not kill her. Both are skilled cave builders with very flexible bodies.
I am a total beginner, will need advice and will make mistakes. Please consider that it was not me who kept a 10 Oscar in a 15g, but his previous owner. I do not agree to take crap for that as I had to at oscarfish.com.
All my tanks are overstocked at this moment but two new 60g are coming. For now Ill just post one tank:
90-gallon with :
10" male Crenicichla Semifasciata (Batrochops Semifasciatus)
13" MORULIUS CHRYSOPHEKADION (Black Shark)
5x 4" Cichlasoma synspilus (Redhead Cichlid)
6" RHINODORAS DORBIGNYI
14" Pterygolichthys gibbiceps (Sailfin Pleco)
Batrachops is not as bad as you might think. His previous owner had the same 90 gallon with:
10" C. Semifasciata,
5x 4" Cichlasoma synspilus
18" Clown Knife
for a long time with no problems. Therefore, all I did was replacing the clownknife with 2 smaller fish (RHINODORAS DORBIGNYI does not really count at all). And I am considering keeping the shark with an Oscar instead.
!! Awesome pike up...err...i mean pick up. Semis are pretty tight pike cichlids. Haven't ever kept one before, but have heard about them a pretty good deal. I believe they are from the Saxatilis family. You reallllly wanna see some wicked pikes that get larger and really open the can of whoop....get into Lugubris pikes! The bruisers of the pikes! 