What are your favorite Thorichthys species and why?
- Thread starter SCM_2123
- Start date
Nice setup. I particularly like the sowrdtails as well. How many did you have in total, how big was the tank, and what other tankmates did you have?
Thanks. The swords were wild Rio otapa. I had 12 helleri but I moved them to my 7 foot tank eventually. The tank shown was four foot. They lived quite happily in the 4 foot for at least 2 years before moving them to the bigger tank.
I have kept 4 Thoritchthys species (meeki, aureus, maculipinnis, pasionis), and like the aureus and maculpinnis color combination best for subtle red and extensive sparkles through out the body. Aureus and maculpinnis are very similar in look and not easy to tell apart. Although Meeks has the strongest red, it lacks sparkles so it is less attractive to me. Pasionis aka yellow firemouth lacks the firing color of the other 3 and is too plain looking to me. Meeki is the most hardy species, having been domesticated the longest time. Not so with other species which are susceptible to disease in my experience.
Not always the case as many are over bred and produce weak lines.
Most fair better at lower temps, around 72 ,73 except Meeki and passionis. They seam to fair better at around 77 , 78.
Keep the others too warm and you will shorten the life span.
I had heard that about some of those. They are from a bit cooler environments. I run my current tank at 78. That seems to be a common default.
Half of Mexico is in the subtropical zone, and there are central highlands that have altitude cooling effect. Fishes collected from these areas are subtropical, and prefer cooler temp. The reason Meeki is more hardy than other newer Thorichthys is due to length of domestication. Wild caught or F1/2 Meeki won’t be as hardy, but few want to pay high price for wild Meeki when domesticated strain has been around for 100 year
I would probably argue that in a lot of cases the reverse is true. The fact that they have been bred for so long by fish farms etc,means that there are lots of washed out ,grey weak strains that are far from robust and healthy.
If you were to give a group of f1 or f2 Meeki the right diet and conditions they will be brighter more robust and generally far healthier fish.
I fortunately have not noticed any distinction in hardiness in the captive bred thorichthys I've kept.. All did well in my tanks.. Most of the meeki I've kept are Florida raised, although some were from breeders via TUIC and Wet Spot (Coba). Similarly, I have not had any issues w/ the pasionis, maculipinnis, aureus and helleri I've kept.. all equally "hardy". The aureus and helleri I have were Czech bred.. The only distinction I've noticed is meeki tend to be more feisty than the others and hold their own better w/ more territorial tankmates.. pasionis, though bigger, haven't done so well w/ more territorial tankmates...
