Another "Name that Fish" thread

[MoSinister]

I purchased a 15 gallon tank this evening from a lady and have been gifted all the fish that came with it (kinda only wanted the tank, but what can you say to free fish?). Now I get to see if they make it through the transition. I've been a tetra and goldfish (pond) owner up til now.

I've identified 2 zebra danios, 1 peppered cory, 1 common pleco and 2 that I can't seem to find online. I'm kinda bummed, cause it looks like they're all schooling fish (cept the pleco), and there are too few of each.

Anyway, back to the unidentified ones. They are 2.5 to 3 inches long, translucent w/ silver organs, and have one black stripe on their tail. I'm including a pic. I'd appreciate if someone can tell me what they are. I've looked for a while now and it's 1:30am so I'm getting too tired to look anymore. Thanks in advance.

 

[hsherman1986]

looks like a scissortail rasbora to me.

 

[WaterPond]

thats exactly what it is. Very hardy fish and need to be in groups of three or more. You also need a bigger tank IMO, these fish get up to 6 inches long and will not be happy in a 15gal.

Cories also like to be in schools and so do zebra danios.

Did you buy all these fish without even researching their requirements?

Is this tank cycled?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I agree that it is a Rasbora trilineata aka Scissortail. They only grow to 2.5 - 3 inches in size but you may want to highly consider returning the common pleco. It is going to be a huge nitrate producer. Not exactly something that you need for a small tank. You are correct that these are schooling fish. Do you have IDs now for all the fish? Do you plan on keeping the stock and adding new additions?

Water- As you can see in the above post, the tank was a gift and it came with the fish already. He is already aware that they are schooling fish.

 

[hc8719]

Did you buy all these fish without even researching their requirements?

Is this tank cycled?

he bought the tank from some lady, i dont think he was expecting the fish

 

[WaterPond]

oh, sorry, i misunderstod that, i'm really sorry.

I wan't getting angry or anything, my appologies.

And Fishy- All the research i have done on scissortail rasboras says they grow to be 5-6" long, there is one at my LFS that is about 4.5" Could there be a dwarf variety maybe?

 

[MoSinister]

Thank you for the replies guys. Unfortunately, I'm sad to say that I no longer have to worry about the rasboras. They both went fins up last night. I was worried about this because they were swimming erratically the moment my wife and I got the tank set up. I'm sure you guys hear a bunch of these stories, sorry to have to bring you another.

The lady I bought the tank off of thought she was doing us a favor by emptying all the fish into little baggies and draining the tank water, so we were forced to perform a 100% water change. I'm assuming the tank was cycled, but now we get to start over.

We're going to be taking the pleco to a lfs if we can find one that will take him.

 

[drobertson]

http://www.franksaquarium.com/nanofish.htm

Yes there are Dwarf Scissortail, this is a link that Zezmo showed in another thread

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I'm sorry to hear that Mo.

Water- I did a search this morning for scissortail rasbora and every link that I clicked said they grew to 2.5 - 3 inches. For example, this one lists 3". The dwarf variety is much smaller than this one.

 

[WaterPond]

well, people told me in this thread: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=87986&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

that scissortails grow from 5-6 inches.

 

[JustOneMore20]

The information seems to vary for Scissortail rasboras. When I google them (Scissortail rasboras) the first two links say 6 inches. The 3rd link says 5 inches. Then on down I see 2.5-3 inches, 6 inches, 3 inches....etc.

My point is that the information is not consistent, so really its hard to say for sure how big they get. It would be interesting to see a 6 inch rasbora though.

Sorry about your losses MoSinister. It probably was the 100% water change that killed them.

 

[tropicfishman]

looks like the tail on a bala sorta...cool fish lol

 

[MoSinister]

To tell you the truth Fishy (may I call you that?), I'm uncertain at this point where I'm going with this surprise. The lady was moving and needed everything gone last night.

*This is the long part for anyone who wants to bail out now. You've been warned*

My first concern is to make sure everyone lives if possible. Second, determine if the best home for these guys is with me or with someone else.

I didn't mention it earlier, but we received 4 guppies as well as a second 5 gal tank. The lady said that three of the four were in the big tank, and that one that she says was born in the tank, she separated into the 5 gal on his own.

I've identified the three "adults" as blonde tux guppies. But the "juvi" looks so different I can hardly believe he's a tux. He has spots all over him with one larger spot on each side of his body almost halfway down, and lovely stripes throughout his tail...super pretty. I'll try to get a pic of him, but he's a fast little bugger. Anyway, I digress.

I took a chance that they had no diseases and put the guppies in a 5 gal tetra tank I have that is cycled. It's a little crowded now, but it gave me time to get the new 5-gal cleaned up (very crusty), and ready for possible action.

The "juvi" guppy was being extremely aggressive toward one of the other guppies; going so far as to "clamp on" to the anal fins and ride the other fish. So, after readying that guppies really could hang with danios, I put him in the 15g tank. There was some tussling at first, but it's calmed down some in there now.

There is still some aggressive behavior amongst the remaining three guppies, but it's better and amongst themselves; they don't seem to mind the tetras.

(You guys still with me?)

So, here I am with a decision. Get rid of all the fish I received and put my pleco into the 15g alone, or give away the two 6-7 inch plecos and keep the others. I certainly can't keep both, and even one sounds like it'd be too much, especially with the extra bioload of the other fish. Silly enough, I have an attachment to my pleco even though I hardly ever see him when he's in the pond. I've had him 2 years now. On the other hand, if I keep the fish and lose the plecos, I'll probably buy a third danio, and one or two cories since they both like others of their kind. I have a nephew I think could help me out by taking some, but have yet to talk to him.

Anyway, that's my story.

 

[drobertson]

First off, my hats off to you for rescuing some fish freinds, and trying to save what you could. I know what you mean aboout the pleco's i have two that i'm going to have to find new homes for, they are getting way to big for my tanks. Do not want to see them go because I have hade them so long, but I know they would be happier if I could find them bigger tanks.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Sure, you can call me Fishy.

I'd return the Plecos. They will grow far too big for your tanks unless you plan to upgrade. After you return the plecos you could definitly increase the number of cories and danios. You could have an excellent tank going on with two schools of fish.

Do you plan to keep the guppies in the 5? What kind of Tetras do you have in the tank?

 

[MoSinister]

I was kind of wondering if there was enough flexibility to eventually put my tetras (4 regular 'ol neons btw) and guppies in the 15g tank. But I don't want fish bouncing off each other either. I also don't know these new fish's bio particulars well enough to know if it's feasible.

If all else fails, I can split the three guppies from the tetra tank and put them into the new 5 gal for a while. In the end, I wasn't looking to have three tanks. I wanted only one for easier maintenance. But if that's not the best solution, I'll use three.