# Celestial pearl danio



## George Farmer (28 Feb 2012)

The trickiest fish I've ever photographed!


celestial by George Farmer, on Flickr


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## danmullan (28 Feb 2012)

Haha, 100% agree.

I had a shoal of about a year or so ago and would spend hours trying to get decent pictures.

Got a nice collection of good photos with the entire fish in focus. I would post them but can't find them on any SD cards and they're not on my comp   

What lens are you using? I found that wide apeture is a must otherwise the fish would dissapear into the rest of the photo.


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## hotweldfire (28 Feb 2012)

Love 'em. Keep eating my shrimplets but still love 'em.


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## awtong (28 Feb 2012)

Lovely photo George.  Nice looking fish but saw them on Sunday at £18 for three  

Andy


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## Antipofish (28 Feb 2012)

awtong said:
			
		

> Lovely photo George.  Nice looking fish but saw them on Sunday at £18 for three
> 
> Andy



Blimey !  I was talking to my LFS about getting some and he can do them at £3.90  or 10 for £35.00  Hope nobody tells him about the prices some people charge, lol.

George, great photo.  Your next task, should you choose to accept it, is to get all 15 in the same image   I am impressed at the colouration on that fish, are they all like it ?


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## awtong (28 Feb 2012)

If you can get them at that price it sounds like a deal!

Andy


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## Antipofish (28 Feb 2012)

awtong said:
			
		

> If you can get them at that price it sounds like a deal!
> 
> Andy



I may have to only get a few as I just put 11 cardinals in though, lol.


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## mlgt (28 Feb 2012)

Great photo as always George. Lovely fish and enjoyed breeding them.
However as hotweldfire says, they stopped my sakura shrimp colony growing as it should.
Thus I promptly rehomed them. I will set up a CPD breeding project in the summer.


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## hotweldfire (28 Feb 2012)

Here's where I got mine. Four for £11 but then postage as well:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Galaxy-Rasbor ... 1517wt_952


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## Gill (28 Feb 2012)

hotweldfire said:
			
		

> Here's where I got mine. Four for £11 but then postage as well:
> 
> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Galaxy-Rasbor ... 1517wt_952


Great Seller and Quality of fish is excellent. Have used him in the past.

George, took you long enough to get these. They are a great fish for small and large scapes. 
Will keep them at some point.


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## doobiw55 (28 Feb 2012)

Definitely one of my favourite fish and that's a great photo, I've tried for ages to get a photo without them been blurry in it


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## Wolfenrook (6 Mar 2012)

Love CPDs, but these days I just can't justify the high price of them.  Dug up an old photo I took back when I had a school (only have 1 very old one left these days).  It's a bit grainy I'm afraid as I took it with an old Kodak point and shoot digital:-







Ade


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## Christie_ZXR (6 Mar 2012)

Love these little guys  That's what my maidenhead voucher got spent on for christmas! Got them sharing with my guppies, which is an odd combination, but with the amount of planting in that tank they get on pretty well. I've seen courting behaviour, but a spawn is a little unlikely with the others there...I can hope though!


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## darren636 (7 Mar 2012)

great characters. Little slow compared with my microdevario though!


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## awtong (7 Mar 2012)

That photo seems to show them with much better colour than I have seen in shops recently.  Just shows how nice fish can colour up once they are out of holding tanks and settled at home.

Andy


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## darren636 (7 Mar 2012)

in the holding tanks they are very grey , with almost invisible spotting. The cheapest i have seen them is 4 pounds.


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## Ian Holdich (7 Mar 2012)

i also had a school of these in my last scape, they were brilliant little characters. These were a fiver each, my neighbour is now a proud owner of them. Very nice fish.


cpd01 by Ian Holdich, on Flickr


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## doobiw55 (7 Mar 2012)

I know its not a great photo but thought i would share it, 
DSC00584 by doobiw55, on Flickr


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## GHNelson (7 Mar 2012)

Hi
Price is coming down now bought some for £2.95 recently.
hoggie


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## Antipofish (7 Mar 2012)

I have just arranged for some to be ordered for me.  Wait for it.....


.....


.....


ONE POUND FIFTY EACH !!!!

Yes, £1.50


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## Antipofish (7 Mar 2012)

doobiw55 said:
			
		

> I know its not a great photo but thought i would share it,
> DSC00584 by doobiw55, on Flickr



Its a good photo mate, it made me look at everthing in it   and the red/brown crypts, is that wendtii brown or something else ? It looks awesome.


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## doobiw55 (7 Mar 2012)

Bargain!! May I ask from where?


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## Antipofish (7 Mar 2012)

doobiw55 said:
			
		

> Bargain!! May I ask from where?



Its a special price for me, lol. (Since he keeps me permanently poor, he has worked out if he does deals for me I buy stuff all the time   ).  His usual price is about twice that.  But its one of the LFS's down here.  If you like I can see if he would ship some if you are interested ?


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## GHNelson (7 Mar 2012)

Antipofish said:
			
		

> I have just arranged for some to be ordered for me.  Wait for it.....
> 
> 
> .....
> ...


  You jammy git   
Come on tell us.


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## Antipofish (7 Mar 2012)

hogan53 said:
			
		

> Antipofish said:
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I spend a lot of money there, but lets put it this way, they cost a LOT less than what I am paying for them so the £5 price tag in some LFS's is frankly outrageous.  Its the new black syndrome of course.  Galaxy Rasboras are the new Cardinals, lol.


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## doobiw55 (7 Mar 2012)

Antipofish said:
			
		

> Its a good photo mate, it made me look at everthing in it   and the red/brown crypts, is that wendtii brown or something else ? It looks awesome.



Thanks mate, I'm unsure what sort of crypt it is... So It could be lol


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## doobiw55 (7 Mar 2012)

Antipofish said:
			
		

> doobiw55 said:
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Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm running out of tank space at the moment!  How many have you coming?


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## darren636 (7 Mar 2012)

where as you based antipofish?,


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## Antipofish (7 Mar 2012)

darren636 said:
			
		

> where as you based antipofish?,



Eastbourne, "Suntrap of the South" lol. (for my sins).

And I have ordered 15


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## darren636 (7 Mar 2012)

man. That is a crazy price. Well done that man


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## Antipofish (7 Mar 2012)

darren636 said:
			
		

> man. That is a crazy price. Well done that man



Hehe, its almost worth ordering a 100 and flogging the rest   But i don't really wanna go down that road.


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## darren636 (7 Mar 2012)

you get 80 in a can . Mmm tasty...


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## Antipofish (7 Mar 2012)

darren636 said:
			
		

> you get 80 in a can . Mmm tasty...



OK, enough of hijacking this thread, we should both shut up now


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## plantbrain (8 Mar 2012)

George Farmer said:
			
		

> The trickiest fish I've ever photographed!
> 
> 
> celestial by George Farmer, on Flickr



SOB's hide like ghost.


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## Radik (8 Mar 2012)

they are nice but I observed they start to harras each other and later only few strong males and females survive and the rest males or females health deteriorate over time, get weak, get sick.. die. So not sure if very large shoal would fix it or less in bigger tank. Does anybody have same experience?


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## ghostsword (10 Mar 2012)

plantbrain said:
			
		

> George Farmer said:
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You bet. I got 10 on a 30 tank heavily planted with moss and ferns, lots of wood and I never see them. 

Added 8 embers to see if the fish are less shy. 


___________________________


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## spyder (10 Mar 2012)

Radik said:
			
		

> they are nice but I observed they start to harras each other and later only few strong males and females survive and the rest males or females health deteriorate over time, get weak, get sick.. die. So not sure if very large shoal would fix it or less in bigger tank. Does anybody have same experience?



I've heard males can squabble over territory. I've had 2M's+4F's in a 28l nano for over 12 months. No casualties or bullying going on, all still fit and healthy.

Will be attempting a breeding program in the summer if I can net the critters.  



			
				ghostsword said:
			
		

> You bet. I got 10 on a 30 tank heavily planted with moss and ferns, lots of wood and I never see them.
> 
> Added 8 embers to see if the fish are less shy.
> 
> ...



I added a few young guppies to the cpd tank. It seems to have settled them and drawn them out a little after a month or so.


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## hotweldfire (13 Mar 2012)

plantbrain said:
			
		

> George Farmer said:
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I have 2 males and 2 females and they're constantly chasing each other. Don't know how ferocious it gets though, no sign of nipped fins or other damage.

You're right about the shrimp though. Had loads of berried fire reds recently, seen lots of fry. 

Absolutely no juveniles so far.

At the same time I swear the CPDs have increased in size by about a third and their colour is much stronger now. Enjoying the live food no doubt.


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## George Farmer (1 Apr 2012)

A couple more shots of these fascinating little fish. 

I bought a dozen Danio choprae (glowlight danio) after reading that these interact well together and I haven't been disappointed. The celestials are much braver and enter open water far more frequently and the little skirmishes that ensue between the fish are brilliant as they defend territories etc.

However, the autofocus still isn't up to capturing these due to their darting behaviour whenever I approach the tank.  I use manual focus with plenty of trial and error after remaning motionless for a couple of minutes . I feel a bit like a sniper. 

100mm, f/4, 1/400 sec, ISO 1600, lit with aquarium lighting.


celestial2 by George Farmer, on Flickr


celestial and araguaia by George Farmer, on Flickr


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## moodycm (14 Apr 2012)

Hi guys, I just bought 12 of these wee guys and they're great. I'm going to attempt to breed them, does anyone know roughly at what age/size these fish can reproduce at? Mine are pretty small but most of them are quite colourful with good markings, I'm just trying to determine if they're old enough to start trying to breed them or if I'll need to wait for a while. Any advice would be much appreaciated


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## Sentral (14 Apr 2012)

Not too sure on the age but breeding should start once they've been conditioned on live foods and good water, the males will show bright orange and you'll be able to see the black spot on the female. 

I've got 4 as well, they do spar quite a bit but it's not too bad, I like watching them dance. Will be getting a few more after a rescape as I'm pretty sure i only have 1 fem!


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## moodycm (14 Apr 2012)

Yeah they're great fish, really entertaining to watch!

Thanks for the advice, hopefully I'll manage it


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## logi-cat (6 May 2012)

i've got a female constantly following/chasing another female around the tank, anyone know why?


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## Iain Sutherland (6 May 2012)

I had 10, beautiful fish but now only 3 left.  All other fish happy and no losses except jumpers.  Not sure if this is due to skirmish's between them or if they were bad stock to start with?


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## doobiw55 (10 May 2012)

Not the best pic again.


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