Today I went to see the fish room at Select Aquatics not very far from me. I was cheerfully welcomed by Greg Sage the keeper and person behind the business.
Their pics are better than mine...
I fell in love with these and took home 2
Other Green Dragon plecostomus
and these and 2 more
Plecostomus Green Dragon
Then 3 of these
Puntius padamya - Odessa Barbs
After consideration of the Dragons my initial concern was they might interbreed with my 3 present ancistrus, but given that any possible surviving baby fish would become fish food with the larger fish in the tank and that their would be little possibility for that.
I am trying 3 Barbs for the moment and if they seem to get along okay with the Angels and don't nip the fins I will get 6 more.
The Albino Dragons are so frilly and beautiful and will stand out noticeably in my dark tank. One of the Green Dragons are very green and one has a very large whitish edging on his tail and dorsal fin which is why I chose it. So I am pretty excited that they all should be beautiful in the tank and give the other 3 more company!
The Odessa Barbs are bred to bring out the red color although other Odessa Barbs tend to have more green and lighter red stripes. One of the far away lfs have some nice looking Greener ones so I will likely pick up a few of those males and more of the red females.
Did acclimation and put them into the QT 46G tank with just 8 inches of water tonight and with some plants and see how they are doing in the morning. The Dragons seemed perfectly happy in transit though the Barbs got pale as they do. I was told to give them 12-24 hours to color back up.
Happy work and fish day!!!
The tour of the fish room was quite interesting. Many types of fish he raises are quite uncommon for the most part in lfs, non existent in big box stores, and some of them were amazing, and a couple - 2 maybe 3 were no longer found in their natural habitat and are only kept any longer in private breeders hands.
One of the Green Dragons is sitting with the tip of his nose just above the waterline. Of course this concerns me as I wonder if he hates the water. It is a little different than what he is used to pH wise mainly as his was 6.8 and mine is 6.5. I don't think that should be as much a difference. 0 Amm and NitrIte and 0-10 NitrAtes as it just came out of the tap in addition to their water from their own tanks. Maybe he just likes to wiggle upward...I think I will add another 5G of water for them. They are used to very large tanks FULL of water. I have to move the stand and tank tomorrow why I don't want to fill it all the way tonight.
I fed about 20 tiny particles of Hikari Microwafers in two rounds 10+10 for the Barbs and they ate it right up and their red stripes are now pink. About 40 minutes after they went into the tank.
Very happy with the new guys.
Back to my 12 nano tank baby fish and Tangerine Tiger Shrimp. The Boraras Brigitae aka Chilis look fine, a little light colored as they are still juveniles. But I feel like they are doing well.
The part I am not too pleased about are the light colored TT shrimp. The last batch of babies are faintly orange not fruit orange colored. After I lost so many of the dark orange ones before, the numbers are creeping back but not the right color.
Now I am faced with culling the pale ones, something I am not too interested in have happen because I like them all and they are still nice but as previously happened in a colony, without culling the poor colors will end up causing a bigger mess.
Maybe I can put the culls into a planted vase and let them grow up in there. Kinda just thinking it out on the screen here...I have seen around 10 light ones including the 1-2 adults down to tiny ones. Previously I hadn't but 1 lighter one! Going in the wrong direction colorwise.
