Woohoo! New fish from Rapps - Hoplarchus psittacus

[fishinmind]

I too have been a member for several ears but not very active. I received 14 fry last week and find them adorable little fishes. Being .5 inches they school constantly for food.
I am looking for ideas to best maintain them. I have them in a lightly planted tank to avoid ammonia/ nitrate buildup but eventually would like to house them in a suitably sized tank. Any suggestions what would do well with them?

 

[fishinmind]

Lets keep in touch and share info. I am feeding mine flakes, freeze dried shrimp and a fry sinking crumble (NLS i think). I will check. I was told to do daily water changes. I will talk to the breeder to get his ideas. Good Luck with you babies.

 

[michelle767]

You did the right thing by getting 4. At that size you want to make sure you get at least 1 male and you have plenty if time to make stocking changes later. Just let them grow for now and watch them in order to determine the sexes. Clean water is the key with this fish so keep up on water changes and you should be fine. If for some reason you luck out and get a pair, remove the others from the mix. I kept a single male in a 125 for years and he got along great with my Urau's, and Geo's. I wish I hadn't sold him to a fellow hobbiest.

Thanks so much for all the advice! How often should I do water changes would you say? Would 25% or so weekly be enough?

Can't wait till I get that one monster male!

i grew out a group of 5. they are very cool fish to see grow because they look almost exactly like they will at 1" as 12" lol. mine were never overly aggressive. i sold them when they were about 4-5" and kept the largest. still she never was very aggressive until she hit 10+". mines with a pair of severums, a few daemon and a small group of festivus

So how aggressive did she get? Sounds like she's with some fairly peaceful cichlids.

Welcome to the madness

Thanks!

Lets keep in touch and share info. I am feeding mine flakes, freeze dried shrimp and a fry sinking crumble (NLS i think). I will check. I was told to do daily water changes. I will talk to the breeder to get his ideas. Good Luck with you babies.

Yes! Let's try to keep in touch. I envy your batch of 14. It'll be exciting to watch them grow. Mine are nuts about food right now. I've been feeding them flake and frozen brine shrimp. But yesterday I noticed the little pigs all trying to take the Hikari cichlid mini-pellets. One of them even grabbed TWO somehow and then took them back to his "cave" where he spit them out and then kept trying to eat them, ha. A big clown loach eventually nosed his way in and got them.

 

[fishinmind]

That is funny, I have fed mine frozen krill, flakes, and NLS crumbles that are for babies. I watched them gnawing on them but because their mouths are still too small to gobble down. I watched them wait till they soften enough to eat. It was this morning that I crushed the crumbles to less than half their size. Now my little piglets are enjoying their NLS. I included a picture of my friends parrots in the background. One of these links work.

By the way I have been doing modest daily water changes. Keep in touch.

 

[at7447]

get some picks, nice pick up

 

[Scubarod]

my wish list fish!!!!! pics

 

[fishinmind]

I started an album. I captured 4 blurry pictures but it gives you an idea how small they are.

 

[croc 2-3]

Good pick ups. Psittacus are cool & always good to find when you can..

 

[fishinmind]

I added a few more pics in my gallery today. I am hoping that these guys grow evenly and not balloon into little terrors,lol.

 

[fishinmind]

My babies are over an inch now and eat about 4 or 5 times a day. They ave a diet of NLS recently 1mm fits in their mouths now, crushed flakes, and freeze dried shrimp.