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Elassoma Gilberti

Started by Guest_Okiimiru_* , Aug 22 2010 01:19 PM

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1023 replies to this topic

#101 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 18 October 2010 - 10:15 AM

That'll be amazing if pygmies do well in your swordtail tank, but with your dense planting it just might work, as long as you can get enough suitable food to the pygmies. I'd suggest letting the swordtails gorge on flakes or frozen food for 5-10 min, then add live foods for the pygmies while the swordtails are stuffed. Otherwise the pygmies may have trouble competing for food if there's a lot of young swordtails.

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#102 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 19 October 2010 - 10:38 PM

The Farm. Immediately!

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#103 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 20 October 2010 - 08:39 AM

My poor little male. He tries to court the females, flashing his beautiful blue and black fins, and the big male swooped in and chased him away.

Here's a video:

Edit: Oh, and I forgot to add that the reason the lighting looks much more natural now and less yellow is that I broke apart my lighting fixtures, took out those gross bulbs that came with them, and put in bulbs with a higher K value. I think they're 5000 K and 590 lumens per bulb, which is still only so-so when compared to sunlight (6500 K instead of 5000 K) but much better than the bulb that came with it.

Edited by EricaWieser, 20 October 2010 - 08:43 AM.

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#104 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 20 October 2010 - 11:04 PM

and the big male swooped in and chased him away.

...now you have been converted to a true Elassoma nut... you just referred to a 1.5 inch fish as "the big male"

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#105 Guest_itsme_*

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Posted 21 October 2010 - 06:39 PM

Okay. If I get any good ones, I'll add them to this topic and you can have them.
But I think your website should mention how skittish and frustrating to keep these fish are. My friends who visit me to stare at my tanks really hate the Elassoma; they can never see anything inside the aquarium and even I can only rarely find a fish in there. My friend Shane is most vocal, and advocates, "Giving them away and getting some real fish." The Elassoma spend 99% of their time being invisible.

That or get some more "fish-geeky" friends. Clearly your friends don't appreciate your accomplishments! :smile2:

Get used to it. :biggrin:

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#106 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 21 October 2010 - 07:50 PM

That or get some more "fish-geeky" friends. Clearly your friends don't appreciate your accomplishments! Get used to it.

So true. But that's why we have the internet, to meet each other and talk about our fish with people who care.

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#107 Guest_itsme_*

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 12:08 PM

So true. But that's why we have the internet, to meet each other and talk about our fish with people who care.

Indeed. Oh, sorry, one word response. Yes, indeed! OK, I think we're in the clear 8-)

Wait, I feel someone breathing down my neck... :tongue:

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#108 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 30 October 2010 - 11:52 AM

I'd just thought I'd give an update about the 10 gallon tank. Here's a new photo of it, taken about five minutes ago:

009resize.jpg 234.36KB 2 downloads

And I'm still seeing the Elassoma gilberti that I put in my 55 gallon tank. They haven't been eaten or starved to death; instead, they're getting along just fine. It is kind of funny how extremely slow growing they are when compared to the swordtail fry, though. The swordtails and gilberti were the same size when I introduced the gilberti, but now the swordtails are almost half again as big. And they act differently, too. The swordtail fry have taken to exploring the main section of the tank, while the gilberti juveniles stick to the thickly planted region.

Edit: Oh, and I've been using a different method to harvest microworms. Instead of scraping them off of the sides of the container, I have laid flat a piece of paper towel on the food media. The worms crawl through the paper towel but the media doesn't, so you can scrape worms off of the paper towel in much higher numbers and without substrate contamination. I got the idea from http://www.waynesthi.../microworms.htm

Edit:
Oh, yes, and here's another photo of a female and her daughter.

004resize.jpg 180.35KB 0 downloads

Edited by EricaWieser, 30 October 2010 - 12:03 PM.

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#109 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 31 October 2010 - 02:23 PM

I was removing cladophora algae from the tank today and was able to count fifteen juveniles. *headdesk* If half of those are males and start fighting one another, this is going to get messy.

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#110 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 02 November 2010 - 07:45 AM

Tested the water last night and it read 0 ppm nitrate. I was so shocked (I've never changed the water. Ever.) that I tested it again, to the same results.
It's funny that this tank water is of such good quality because I've been topping the water off every time it evaporates with the water from my main tank (which I know for a fact was above 40 ppm last week, oops). Andrew gave his opinion on it, stating, "Well, your plants are awesome." I looked at the Ceratophyllum and said, "That it is. That it is..."

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#111 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 02 November 2010 - 09:37 AM

Healthy plants are very efficient at sucking in all available nitrogen compounds, which I'd guess you have in your tank.

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#112 Guest_nativeplanter_*

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Posted 02 November 2010 - 11:41 AM

Agreed. Especially at the rate that you thin your plants and your low fish load. I once went a couple years without a water change in one heavily planted tank. Not that I would recommend that type of maintenance. If anything, I would think that the Ceratophyllum might become calcium-starved at some future point.

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#113 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 03 November 2010 - 06:52 PM

I just wanted to post an update and say that yesterday I saw an Elassoma gilberti in my main tank (the 55 gallon with swordtails) doing well, with a full stomach. It was chillin', looking very well adjusted and fat.

I am still feeding the main tank and the 10 gallon both with microworms every day.
And I caught a nice photo of the little male, who is going crazy with all his new (ew, sister) females to court that are coming of age.

Picture:

001resize.jpg 40.88KB 3 downloads

And the 55 gallon got some new occupants yesterday. I count 20 or 30. They're so tiny and cuuute

004resize.jpg 153.55KB 1 downloads
I like it how the fry are safe. When I see one with a specific spot pattern, I watch it grow up and slowly become an adult. Since I've started planting the tank with this current 'jungle' setup (and now that the darters are gone again), I've never lost track of a baby. Each swordtail makes it to adulthood, 100% survival rate. I think that's a good thing for the Elassoma; they're going to make it to adulthood, too, probably. So far so good... *crosses fingers*

Edited by EricaWieser, 03 November 2010 - 06:55 PM.

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#114 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 07 November 2010 - 03:22 PM

So, something moderately interesting happened. I rearranged my 55 gallon tank in a big way, removing a whole bunch of the plants and adding a shelly area with Neolamprologus multifasciatus. To my surprise, the Elassoma giblerti in the tank are fine with that. I expected them to hide and hate life and hate me in particular, but instead they calmly investigated the new shell region and their new, more open environment. They've gotten a lot bigger than they were when I first introduced them to the 55 gallon tank, which might have something to do with their new bravado. Probably. I dunno. All I can say is, I have an update on the Elassoma, and that's that they appear to be compatible with community tank living.

Tank before and after:
Before:

Before.jpg 137.23KB 3 downloads

After:

After.jpg 147.58KB 2 downloads

Neolamprologus multifasciatus (the surprising new friends of both the swordtail fry and the juvenile Elassoma gilberti)

033resize.jpg 126.38KB 1 downloads
I don't know why, but the swordtail fry and the juvenile gilberti are all very comfortable around the cichlids. Weird.

Edit: Also, I count five adult females in the 10 gallon.

Edited by EricaWieser, 07 November 2010 - 03:57 PM.

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#115 Guest_itsme_*

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Posted 07 November 2010 - 04:08 PM

That's a fun community experiment. Might get interesting if the cichlids figure out that the little guys in the tank are tasty. Course that will solve your population problem :smile2:

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#116 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 07 November 2010 - 04:12 PM

Ah! I turned back to the tank after posting that, wondering if I could get a photo of one of the gilberti being (surprisingly and unusually) social. And one was doing glass-nose thing right on the front glass! It was moving up and down, back and forth, with its nose on the front glass. I grabbed my camera, scaring it of course, and took a photo of it.

041resize.jpg 84.06KB 0 downloads

Why are they so social now? I don't get it...

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#117 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 07 November 2010 - 04:15 PM

Might get interesting if the cichlids figure out that the little guys in the tank are tasty. Course that will solve your population problem

I dunno. The N. lamprologus shells are a good two feet away from the plants with the swordtail fry, and they seem to want to territorial-ly stay near their shells. It's been a couple days and the fry count remains the same.

Edited by EricaWieser, 07 November 2010 - 04:16 PM.

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#118 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 07 November 2010 - 04:27 PM

Ah! I turned back to the tank after posting that, wondering if I could get a photo of one of the gilberti being (surprisingly and unusually) social. And one was doing glass-nose thing right on the front glass! It was moving up and down, back and forth, with its nose on the front glass. I grabbed my camera, scaring it of course, and took a photo of it.

041resize.jpg 84.06KB 0 downloads

Why are they so social now? I don't get it...

Got a video:

Edited by EricaWieser, 07 November 2010 - 04:28 PM.

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#119 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 08 November 2010 - 02:43 PM

Those Neolamprologus are vaguely similar to Elassoma in shape and movement, the way they spend much of their time hovering over a small territory near the bottom. Perhaps the sight of similar-looking fish acting confident and secure helps the Elassoma to feel that way. I've thought about trying gilberti in a tank with scarlet dario to see if that makes the gilberti more bold; just haven't had a chance to try it yet.

I wonder if the high hardness needed for Neolamprologus might be a long-term health problem for Elassoma? Certain kinds of soft-water tropical fish have trouble with high Ca+Mg levels. Maybe their ultra-efficient Ca+Mg uptake can't slow down enough when those minerals are abundant, and they get kidney damage??? Other species adapt just fine across a wide range from very low to high hardness. Dunno how flexible Elassoma are. In the Carolinas we only find them in very soft water. Do some of those FL and Gulf drainage pops live in hard water? How hard? [Limestone bedrock doesn't always indicate hard water on the surface].

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#120 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 08 November 2010 - 06:44 PM

Those Neolamprologus are vaguely similar to Elassoma in shape and movement, the way they spend much of their time hovering over a small territory near the bottom. Perhaps the sight of similar-looking fish acting confident and secure helps the Elassoma to feel that way.

Aaaah. Very interesting.

I was wondering about my water parameters myself, so I just tested and found:
pH: 8.4 or 8.6 ish. My test kit yielded a color that wasn't on the color sheet. O_O
GH: 10 degrees of hardness.

I'd bet my 10 gallon has the same water parameters.