Rapps Vieja Melanuras Trio

[midasman714]

This is my first Rapps purchase and decided to get a few Melanuras.

I was only able to capture one on photo since they are still quite skittish although eating like champs. I'm assuming they will stay a bit on the "shy" side till they get larger. The other two not on photo have more blotchy patches on top and bottom w/o the spots by the tail line as seen with this one.

They are roughly 3" long and will grow out in 125 gallon tank to themselves. I'll keep updating this thread with their progress.

 

[dan518]

Look forward to the updates

 

[midasman714]

Here's a couple slightly better photos. They are still quite elusive but do make appearances during feeding time.

Added a BP to welcome them into their new home.

 

[midasman714]

I was able to catch "decent" photos of these little guys, and one RARE photo of all 3. I had to become sniper-like to get these.

 

[dan518]

I like the bottom pic, there looking good

 

[Stanzzzz7]

They will be beautiful when mature.Nice fish.

 

[Frank Castle]

very nice, they look quite different from mine

 

[midasman714]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I do have a question:

I've had them for over a month now and they remain very shy. I do see improvement, however it's very minimal. I was thinking of adding more fish (trio currently in 125g with a 5" BP). Do you think this is a good idea or should I just be more patient? Water parameters are perfect with low nitrate levels.

 

[dan518]

Maybe try some livebearers, swordtails should work well

 

[FishKing5]

I got a group of five 1.5 inch melanuras from rapps and they were never shy and were eating like pigs right away. I got the orange/gold/blue 'Laguna Yaxha, Guatemala' race and looks like you got the red head melanuras from him so maybe that makes a difference in their personalities but I haven't had any issues with them being shy. Theyre all pushing 2 inches now. I'm sure yours will stop with the shyness in no time. I do a lot of water changes which seems to make them really happy so maybe you could experiment with that.