# Splash tetra - Copella arnoldi



## MaverickGR (14 Oct 2019)

Hi all, I have a very specific question regarding the splashing tetras _Copella arnoldi_. I have set up a riparium specifically to accommodate these fish (see pic below), along with a group of bronze corys which are already in there now. I know these fish leap out of the water to spawn and I have read in several forums that aquarists have lost fish through small gaps in their lids. However, I have read from other sources that the fish can "only" jump up to 10-15 cm from the surface. In my riparium, the distance from the surface to the open top is 36 cm (~14").
So my question is this: Do I need a lid in my tank? 




Thank you in advance for your replies!


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## dw1305 (14 Oct 2019)

Hi all, 





Ioannis Leris said:


> Do I need a lid in my tank?


No, I think  you should be all right. Have a look at @Iain Sutherland's <"Splash Tetra Paludarium">. 





Ioannis Leris said:


> I know these fish leap out of the water to spawn and I have read in several forums that aquarists have lost fish through small gaps in their lids.


They do, and <"I'm one of the aquarists">. 

cheers Darrel


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## Edvet (14 Oct 2019)

Mine don't jump up either, the edge is 21 cm above the water


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## MaverickGR (14 Oct 2019)

Great! Thank you both for your input, I will be receiving the fish tomorrow (hopefully) so I will update the thread in the next few days


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## dw1305 (14 Oct 2019)

Hi all, 





MaverickGR said:


> I will be receiving the fish tomorrow (hopefully) so I will update the thread in the next few days


It is worth getting a <"vestigial winged _Drosophila_ culture"> for them. You want _Drosophila melanogaster_, rather than the bigger _D. hydei._

cheers Darrel


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## Edvet (14 Oct 2019)

They fill up their belly on my dog kibble fed grindal worms. ( feed the grindal healhtily and in turn the fish will be fed healthily i believe)


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## MaverickGR (17 Oct 2019)

The fish are in, they were very shy in the beginning, only swimming in the back of the tank under the hanging planters. After a while they started swimming around in the rest of the tank, but they quickly retreated in the covered areas when they felt threatened. They ate a bit but not with much appetite, I will try some newly hatched BBS which will probably do the trick...


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## Edvet (17 Oct 2019)

Add some floaters to gove some xtra cover.


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## MaverickGR (17 Oct 2019)

Yes, I have some _Pistia _growing in a different tank so I will be adding some of that...


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## MaverickGR (19 Oct 2019)

Today I saw two males competing, they had developed a darker colour band on their sides. The fish hang out more in the open space generally. It seems they have started habituating in their new home 

Στάλθηκε από το Mi A2 μου χρησιμοποιώντας Tapatalk


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## Edvet (19 Oct 2019)

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figures?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0183069


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## MaverickGR (19 Oct 2019)

Thanks, I've seen this paper, I've looked for all relevant published articles before purchasing them (I happen to be a Biologist ). Truly fascinating fish!

They seem to enjoy the added _Pistia _too...


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## Sarpijk (21 Oct 2019)

Ηi, Maverick! Great riparium setup!


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## MaverickGR (29 Oct 2019)

A small update, the fish seem well habituated, they swim everywhere in the tank and are not too frightened when I pass by. They also have a good appetite now (in the beginning they were a bit hesitant to eat)! Males are sparring occasionally and the females have started developing an orange hue above their bellies, but I haven't seen any other signs of breeding behaviour (leaps etc).


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## MaverickGR (4 Nov 2019)

Hello again, one of the males has been repeatedly leaping on the front panel of the tank for the last two days. I assume he has picked this spot because it has very little water flow/surface agitation. He chases away all the other males that enter this area, but he also chases females away, which I found weird... Perhaps he can tell that they're not ready to mate from their behaviour/posture? I'd appreciate some info on how to tell if the females are ready for breeding or not 

Last time I measured my parameters, I had a pH of 8.03, dGH 10 and dKH 6, which are all on the high end of their range. I was thinking of adding some peat moss to lower the pH and soften the water a bit, but since I am already seeing some first signs of spawning behaviour, perhaps I shouldn't really change things... What do you think?


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## MaverickGR (6 Nov 2019)

I got the first eggs today on the front panel!  I saw some increased activity last night, females were very close to the male doing the test leaps. Today I found the eggs, they were probably laid very early in the morning. I saw the male splashing them once before I left for work. Since it's a very small batch (probably their first try) I will just leave them there to see what happens and I'll wait for a larger batch to try and raise some fry.





PS: I never got around to add the peat so I think I will not change anything regarding conditions...


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## PARAGUAY (6 Nov 2019)

Really good aquarium can you share bit of info on your emersed planting Maverick


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## MaverickGR (6 Nov 2019)

PARAGUAY said:


> Really good aquarium can you share bit of info on your emersed planting Maverick



Thanks, you mean info on the plants or the planters?


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## Sarpijk (6 Nov 2019)

Great news Maverick! Keep us updated on the eggs!


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## MaverickGR (7 Nov 2019)

I've got good news and bad news 

The bad news are that the eggs had dried out when I went home in the evening, the male had probably stopped splashing them at some point. My tank is open top, so the humidity is not very high above the surface, which could also have contributed to this... The good news is that I found quite a few eggs (also dried) on the back panel, between the planters, which means that the fish have been spawning frequently in the last few days. I guess the males are young/inexperienced and they can't take good care of the eggs. Hopefully they will become better at this 

I have now added a couple pieces of plastic sheet attached to the glass with suction cups (as spawning surfaces) so that I can remove the eggs easily if they lay them there. I'll keep you guys posted...


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## PARAGUAY (7 Nov 2019)

MaverickGR said:


> Thanks, you mean info on the plants or the planters?


Just the plants but info on the planters yeh would be helpful thanks


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## MaverickGR (7 Nov 2019)

There you go, I will post some more info on how they were planted and how each species is doing at some point...


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## MaverickGR (11 Nov 2019)

I had several spawns over the weekend  My latest contraption was to spread a piece of cling film (plastic wrap) on the glass wall at the site where they usually lay their eggs, in order to safely remove the eggs afterwards and place them in a hatchery box. I also added a little tube with airline/airstone that blows the water near the eggs so that they are kept moist. Hopefully I will get some fry in the next couple of days...


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## MWood (11 Nov 2019)

Ingenious. Makes me want to keep these again


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## Costa (13 Nov 2019)

Do you keep lights on at all? I know that tetra eggs are photosensitive, maybe the same applies to the splash tetras (to a degree at least, considering how they breed in nature)?


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## MaverickGR (13 Nov 2019)

Hi, yes I didn't change anything regarding lighting, the lights are on for about 10h everyday (with a 1h dawn/dusk simulation). The eggs stayed in the main tank but were transferred into a small floating clear plastic box with mesh-covered holes and a bit of water circulation by a tube with airline/airstone (see photo). There were 2 batches of eggs collected (~24h apart), they started hatching a couple of days ago and now some are in the horizontal (free-swimming?) stage and others in the "hanging" stage. Last night I added some moss and today I started a continuous supply of _Paramecium_, we will see how it goes... Fingers crossed!


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## Sarpijk (27 Nov 2019)

Any updates?


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## MaverickGR (28 Nov 2019)

Hi, I haven't updated this because I mysteriously lost the first batch of fry. They disappeared within a period of 8-9 hours (while I was at work). When I returned home I only found 1 fry (there were 15+ before). I am 99% sure that one of the adults jumped in the fry box and ate them while I was away (I have seen them jump in these before). I was careless enough to leave it without a lid  I now have another batch of eggs hatching today, so hopefully the second time will go better...


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## dw1305 (29 Nov 2019)

Hi all,
I've just had a different species of _Copella_ spawn. It is <"_Copella callolepis (_Zarske_)">. _I only got them a couple of week a go from Acres Aquatics nr. Warminster.



They spawned a dead Beech leaf, just below the surface. Apologies for the quality of the video, most of the interesting bits are in the last 20 seconds. They are only pale and contrasty during the spawning, immediately afterwards they reverted to darker with an obvious lateral stripe.

As you can probably see from the reflection it was a quick grab of an IPAD, and the tank is quite gloomy and tannin stained.

cheers Darrel


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## mort (29 Nov 2019)

How much space above the water line do these need? I've always been fascinated by them and see they are often kept in tanks with a large airspace but is it detrimental to them if you only had a few inches.


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## dw1305 (29 Nov 2019)

Hi all,





mort said:


> How much space above the water line do these need?....but is it detrimental to them if you only had a few inches.


It is only really _Copella arnoldi _that needs much space, even then they often they lay their eggs on the glass, just a few cm above the water line. 

The main issue I had with them was losing them through gaps in the tank lid (as soon as they started spawning), they can leap at least 15 cm. 

cheers Darrel


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## MaverickGR (8 Dec 2019)

I managed to get a couple of photos from the fry, now roughly 10 days old (they are from 3 separate spawns a couple days apart), still feeding on Paramecium (and an occasional dash of powdered food). I will try offering some BBS tomorrow and I'll see what happens...









And one more...


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## Costa (12 Dec 2019)

Impressive!


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## MaverickGR (3 Jan 2020)

Happy new year everyone! At the moment I have a few fry growing from a different spawn. I lost the previous batch and I think the problem was that I didn't have some sort of "intermediate" type of food after Paramecium and before Artemia, as they were doing fine until about 12-15 days post hatch. I tried feeding Artemia a few times by that point but they wouldn't take it -  it was still too large for them. I now have banana worms as this intermediate food and hopefully this will do the trick. Here are some pics from some fry that have stopped taking Paramecium and have been eating banana worms for about a week now (~3 weeks old). At this point the urostyle is becoming visible, as reported in many literature sources.


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## Sarpijk (11 Jan 2020)

Nice one Yanni! Keep us updated! How is the riparium doing?


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## MaverickGR (13 Jan 2020)

The riparium is doing good, not perfect but good. I had some random spikes of ammonia (followed by spikes of nitrates) which I assume are due to bad circulation and rotting plant parts. I am thinking of adding a second filter to cope with this (improve circulation and filter media volume). I am currently doing 30% water changes weekly. The few larger fry from the previous batch are growing nicely along with some of the newer batch. It is interesting that even after a month post hatch, the "big" fry are still eating Paramecium when I add them in the breeding box for the smaller fry (although their main food is banana worms)! These are very very slow growers (tank temperature is at 25C which also plays a role I guess)...


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## Sarpijk (16 Jan 2020)

This sounds odd. I would think that all riparian plants would help with water quality. Do you need any limnobium laevigatum? If yes I could send some!


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## Iain Sutherland (16 Jan 2020)

I'd be surprised in spikes too, a cycled tank with good amount of emersed plants should be bulletproof.  
I blame the test kit 

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## MaverickGR (17 Jan 2020)

One other possible explanation would be the DIY fertiliser capsules I used when I set up the tank (using osmocote-type fertiliser). I planted these deep in the substrate (fine sand) but after adding some new plants, part of the fertiliser might have surfaced. The API test measures both Ammonia and Ammonium so perhaps most of what I saw was the latter (which is less harmful), but they both convert to Nitrate eventually (and that also spiked later on). Now things seem to have stabilised, but I will be adding the second filter just in case (I had it laying around in my aquarium stuff anyway)...

Sarpijk Thanks for the offer, I already have Pistia and Limnobium in the tank  I will be posting some new photos in the weekend.


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## dw1305 (17 Jan 2020)

Hi all, 





MaverickGR said:


> would be the DIY fertiliser capsules I used when I set up the tank (using osmocote-type fertiliser). I planted these deep in the substrate (fine sand) but after adding some new plants, part of the fertiliser might have surfaced.


I think that would be the most likely explanation. 

cheers Darrel


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## MaverickGR (23 Feb 2020)

Little update here, the few fry that remained are currently doing well. This is the largest of them (in the plastic box) next to an adult female for comparison. They are eating brine shrimp nicely and I also offer some banana worms for the slower growers. Note that this is ~2.5 months old and is still quite small! Probably keeping the temperature in the tank around 25C (during the winter) is also a reason for their slow development, so the next rearing attempt will be in the summer time, when the temperature in the tank reaches 28.5C (and is kept there with cooling fans).


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## MaverickGR (1 Mar 2020)

Yesterday I released the 2 larger ones into the main tank, they seem to be doing fine, eating commercial food and everything. Here's a small video:


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## PARAGUAY (6 Mar 2020)

Really nice to see


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