# Show Us Your Rare And Odd Fish!



## Kristoph91

Hi guys,

If you have any weird, rare or special fish - lets see 'em 
Nice to have a look at what people have got 

Kris


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## Antipofish

you know the saying.... you show us yours.....LOL  All I have is dwarf neon rainbowfish and a few ottos so nothing really rare, although I do think the ottos in particular are rather special :0


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## awtong

One of my favorite fish that I have is in the thread Blue Phantom.  Have a look.

Andy


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## Kristoph91

Haha If I would I could *Antipofish*, the only slightly rare fish I have is a cobalt blue goby! And he's back home in my 30L. Yeah well Ottos are special wee lads I guess 
I think I saw that *Awtong*, Is it a plec? 

Kris


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## Christie_ZXR

This is my special little man:








Not the best photo, but you can see his markings in this one. When he's out of the sand, he's rarely still enough for a decent pic!




He's called Mushroom and he's a Takifugu Ocellatus. Care is a bit of guesswork really! He's not the easiest fish in the world to look after, as no one can say for certain what the best conditions for one in an aquarium are. I've had him about 6 months now and touch wood, he's doing well so far. 


And this is "Gucci" the L257;



Sadly not with me any more    I seem to be able to manage a complicated puffer, but difficult to feed catfish are a little out of my league.


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## Kristoph91

Christie_ZXR they're some nice photos! So what exactly do you feed the puffed then? He's pretty cool I must say though ! 
Thanks for the input 

Kris


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## awtong

KrisHumphreys1991 said:
			
		

> Haha If I would I could *Antipofish*, the only slightly rare fish I have is a cobalt blue goby! And he's back home in my 30L. Yeah well Ottos are special wee lads I guess
> I think I saw that *Awtong*, Is it a plec?
> 
> Kris



Yeh he is a "plec" L128.  Had him for a good while.  They are fairly expensive and he is a very slow grower!  I also have a chocolate zebra and 5 leopard frog peckoltia of varying ages and sizes.

Andy


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## awtong

I also love the 2nd pic of the puffer buried in the sand.  He has that "I am not doing anything - you didn't see me" look on his face or is that just me   

Andy


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## Kristoph91

Haha you aren't the only one who noticed that Andy! "crouching tiger, hidden puffer"  
Is it true that some of the L number plecs eat wood? 
Kris


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## awtong

Plec's and wood is a much discussed subject.  Many are recommended to be kept with wood.  Panaque's have been found to have wood in the gut but these fish are grazers they have a fairly fast digestive tract.  It is thought they are actually consuming algae and micro-organisms found on the wood rather than the wood itself.  There are scientific studies now being undertaken to see if they are actually digesting the wood.  Some catfish algae tabs have lignin (found in wood and some algae) added to them for the health of the fish.  Mine tend to browse on the wood and don't really eat it.

Andy


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## Kristoph91

That's pretty interesting, lignin is to bind the wood cells together I think? Maybe it has some special effect on the digestive organisms...


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## Christie_ZXR

Feeding's a bit of a pain with the puff, he has to have thaimanese-free foods for the most part. I give him cockles as his staple, always soaked in vitazin vitamins first. He also gets the odd mussel and bloodworms, but pretty rarely. Nutritionally, from what I can tell, Locusts would be an ideal diet. But having seen him eat a locust once, never trying it again! 

I'd never looked at that pic that way, but now it's mentioned, he really does look like he's up to no good and he's hiding!


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## BigTom

Video of my Indostomus in this thread, they're bloody brilliant - http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20102


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## Kristoph91

*Christie_ZXR *What did he do to the locust :O
*BigTom*, they're pretty cool  Never seen them before! 

Kris.


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## Christie_ZXR

Um, he bit its bum off. Which isn't as funny to see as it sounds! He didn't kill it. Had to whip it out quick and feed it to the fig 8, who is a murderous sod anyway, so it got put out of it's misery quick enough. 
Sadly, no one sells frozen locusts, and I'm not brave enough to bop them on the heads myself. Although if I can ever talk the o/h into doing it, I will try him on them properly. We've got reptiles, so we've always got plenty in the house.


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## Kristoph91

Oh jesus thats a bit sick alright haha. The figure 8 had no problem chomping it then ?
Lol.
could you freeze them yourself from live ?


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## Tom

Christie_ZXR said:
			
		

> Sadly, no one sells frozen locusts, and I'm not brave enough to bop them on the heads myself.



There are prepared dead locusts available for reptiles, but not sure how suitable they are for fish. I just tried my baileyi on Trout fillet which went down a treat, but then he is a piscivore.


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## Christie_ZXR

I'd feel too mean freezing them! Death by freezer can't be too pleasant. The fig 8 chomped it down in no time, seemed quite happy about it!

Didn't know you could get frozen locusts, where have you seen them? Could be worth a go. Just as long as nothing's been added to them.


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## Tom

They're not frozen, they're in tubs - which is why I'm not sure if they're suitable.


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## Antipofish

Two pages of a show us your rare or odd fish thread and only two fish ! LOL


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## Tom

None of these are especially rare, but...

Aphyosemion





The only photo I have of the baileyi puffed




Shellie








OK this one is less common. T. abei?


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## Ady34

Wow Tom,
thats some diversity of fish you have there!
Ive never seen a puffer puffed before! Does he do it regularly?
Love the killifish.
Ady.


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## Tom

He hasn't puffed for years now (that I've seen). He used to do it randomly, or when he caught his own reflection. He doesn't attack glass quite as much these days!

The others I no longer have, but are ones I've kept over the last 3-4 years. The abei puffer I was particularly fond of, but our cleaner knocked the light into the tank one day by accident. When I got home, the water was 40 degrees :/


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## Ed Seeley

Some of my previous fish over the years, (Not the greatest photos sorry)
Apistogramma eremnopyge




Nanochromis sabinae,




Biotecus sp. 




Enantiopus melanogenys 'Utinta'




Cyprichromis microlepidotus 'Bulu point'




And a video of some current fish,

Cynotilapia zebroides 'Jalo Reef', Labeotropheus fuelleborni OB, Pseudotropheus johanni, Neolamprologus helianthus, Lepidiolamprologus meeli and some Sanke swordtails (though they don't count as rare!!!)


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## RudeDogg1

I have corydoras melini which are ment to be quite rare.

And bottia kubotai which are rare as hens teeth down here


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## Palm Tree

I'll try and take some pictures of my ropefish later, there so amazingly cool its unbelivable


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## Kristoph91

Nice pictures guys  
Really interesting 
Look forward to seeing more! Its always nice to see what people are proud of 

Kris


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## michj

Christie_ZXR said:
			
		

> Feeding's a bit of a pain with the puff, he has to have thaimanese-free foods for the most part. I give him cockles as his staple, always soaked in vitazin vitamins first. He also gets the odd mussel and bloodworms, but pretty rarely. Nutritionally, from what I can tell, Locusts would be an ideal diet. But having seen him eat a locust once, never trying it again!



Hi Christie
have you tried mealworms?
you can buy them live and keep/breed them easily, because of this you get the oportunity to feed the worms on a diet that will in turn benefit youre fish rather than low grade food that the breeders tend to give them which could be lacking.
you also get giant varieties for the larger more aggressive feeders.


michael


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## Christie_ZXR

I did consider them actually, because the beardie has them occasionally, so I sometimes have them at home. Only thing that put me off, and it might be totally wrong, is I remember reading somewhere not to give them to the beardie too often since they can be hard to digest. No idea how Dimmi's digestive system compares to fish though!
I'll do a bit of research on what's in them, and what's best to feed them though, cheers. It's worth looking at again. Irritatingly, I've found what looks to be a great article on T. occelatus, but the website's a bit confusing. I think you have to be a research student to be allowed look at it, and I'm not 

Mushroom's had a few lancefish to try recently, which he seems to have loved, and I've absolutely hated!! So glad I don't need to feed live fish! I know I'm a hippy, but ever since I realised as a kid that that stuff from the chippy up the road and Freddie the goldfish were the same thing, I've not eaten fish myself, so feeding them to a puffer has been a bit weird! lol.


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## michj

years ago i used to give them to my oscars as a treat maybe once a week and they really seemed to enjoy them and didnt appear to cause any problems, the kids loved  hand feeding the oscars with them.
i used to feed the oscars live fish as well and i agree with you that there isnt much nice about it other than i know my ossies were getting a good meal (an i still enjoy fish an chips)  

i hear what youre saying when it comes to reading up on certain things though, sometimes when articles get over technical it is a bit off putting , annoying when you want to learn and you end up coming away more confused  :? 

take care

michael


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## Christie_ZXR

It's not that, it's an article about breeding them which I've heard of, but I could only find it on this website that wants me to log in :-S


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## Liam

These tiny fish (Danionella dracula) are not so common, I keep them with shrimp as they can’t eat baby shrimp.


Danionella-dracula-1 by Peter M4, on Flickr


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## darren636

Liam said:
			
		

> These tiny fish (Danionella dracula) are not so common, I keep them with shrimp as they can’t eat baby shrimp.
> 
> 
> Danionella-dracula-1 by Peter M4, on Flickr


where  did  you  get  these  tiny  marvels  and  what  are  your  water  perameters?  cheers.


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## awtong

What a cracking looking little fish   

Andy


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## Liam

I got them in Wholesale Tropicals in London a couple of years ago; Kesgrave Tropicals sometimes have them and do mail order. As for the water, don’t think they are fussy, they were in local hard water and now I have them with crystal reds pH6.5 GH GH4 and less than 1 KH at 23C. They need very small foods, micro worms and ground fish food do them fine.  
Cheers Andy a bit of a curiosity but one of the very few shrimp safe fish.


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## Iain Sutherland

+1 to that!  Cracking photo too, did you take it?

edit*  just checked out your flicker too, there are some amazing photo's in there!!  Particularly like the cories, seems to really show there character!!
What camera and lenses do you use?


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## Liam

Thanks, yeah I did, its a bit of a hobby of mine, taking fish pics.
Cheers
Peter


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## George Farmer

Liam said:
			
		

> Thanks, yeah I did, its a bit of a hobby of mine, taking fish pics.
> Cheers
> Peter


And very good you are too! I've just taken a nosey at your Flickr.


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## darren636

thats' peter from PFK  forum. i recognised your style. fab as always.


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## OllieNZ

George Farmer said:
			
		

> Liam said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks, yeah I did, its a bit of a hobby of mine, taking fish pics.
> Cheers
> Peter
> 
> 
> 
> And very good you are too! I've just taken a nosey at your Flickr.
Click to expand...


Me to and   especially the daphnia etc...


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## awtong

Here's my Chocolate Zebra.  This is probably one of the best photo's I have taken and I have a bit of a soft spot for her!






Andy


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## somethingfishy

Love this chocolate zebra which is why im picking one up on saturday


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## awtong

somethingfishy said:
			
		

> Love this chocolate zebra which is why im picking one up on saturday



Thanks, I hope it works out for you.  Might try and see if I can get out to the store you are going to this weekend for a look about.

Andy


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## somethingfishy

me and a mate are heading over there sat 11:30 ish if you are about, its not amazing but better than average for sure


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## awtong

I will have to see what happens as the wife wants to get her nails done 1st   

So I need to be there before 11.30 to bag me another zebra   

Andy


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## somethingfishy

haha i will hunt you down


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## Skatersav

I used to own a batfish - freshwater thing from China.  I think they are now banned because they could survive in British streams and rivers.  Mine unfortunately got taken down by a crazy rainbow shark.  It was a seriously cool fish though.  Here's a photo of one I found on the web:


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## Tom

Amano used those in one of his older scapes, but got slated for it as they weren't suitable long term.... I like 'em!


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## BigTom

Tom said:
			
		

> Amano used those in one of his older scapes, but got slated for it as they weren't suitable long term.... I like 'em!



Heh, no kidding. They get to 3 feet long, weigh 40kg and live for 20 years.

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.ph ... cus&id=221


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## awtong

Yeh these have been in the news recently as PFK and others found them on sale in some uk stores.

Andy


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## Skatersav

Yeah, it was back in the early 90s that I bought this fish and LFS practices maybe weren't up to the standards of today - "Sure, in the wild it gets quite big, but it will only grow to suit the tank - don't worry - everything will be fine - buy five and I'll give you a discount!"


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## a1Matt

I've been on a mission in the last couple of weeks to stock my tanks with some lesser seen fish.  I'm quite pleased with the results, having recently aquired:

micropoecilia picta 'red'
neoheterandria elegans
epiplatys dageti monroviae

Hoping to breed the first two, but do not have enough time to concentrate on the dageti's at the moment (hopefully they will spawn and a few fry will survive in the comuunity tank they are in).

No pics as I do not own a camera (and phone camera does not do them justice).


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## BigTom

Nice panchax there Matt. Wish I could get excited about the more unusual livebearers, but all I see when I look at them is fish soup full of sunken treasure chests and guppies


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## a1Matt

Thanks, I've got 3 females and 2 males so a nice size group.  Just hope they settle OK.

I still love guppies (and endlers) too!

I am clearing out my wild line of endlers (post will be going up in the sale section soon) so that I can concentrate on other tanks. Shame to see them go as they show no hybrid traits at all (unlike all the retail ones).

Maybe you would like the heterandria formosa, as they do not look like other livebearers (I've had them in the past so I think that qualifies them for discussion in this thread  ).  The super foetation aspect is the same as the elegans - they basically drop a fry every couple of days rather than the whole batch at once.  Good for nanos as they are happy in small bodies of water.


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## Kristoph91

Nice fish guys, love the batfish but WOW it gets big.

Great livebearers, havent seen them for sale anywhere! 
Love the Kili's too 

Kris


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## OllieNZ

Here are some of mine not particulary rare but not commonly kept
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?genus=Neolamprologus&species=brevis&id=510



http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.ph ... lus&id=629



http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.ph ... nii&id=141



http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.ph ... gri&id=303



http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.ph ... tus&id=191


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## Skatersav

I love Keyhole ciclids - they are really nice fish to keep.  But, a little bit lame.  They are kind of the "walter the softy" of the aquatic world.


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## OllieNZ

Skatersav said:
			
		

> I love Keyhole ciclids - they are really nice fish to keep.  But, a little bit lame.  They are kind of the "walter the softy" of the aquatic world.


Lol they were a very peaceful fish. If you want a challenge try the jewels they were positively psychotic


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## Liam

A bit late, but thanks for the comments George. 

Thanks Darren yeah that’s me. You may like this species its Boraras naevus, they were scientifically described last year. Guess they are still rare enough.  They are quite different from other boraras sp in that the males and females are quite different looking. 

Cheers Ollie yeah I think those ones are the best, (the insects), hardest to do though. Really like your knife fish. 
Cheers
Peter
Female

Boraras naevus (4) by Peter M4, on Flickr

Male

Boraras naevus (2) by Peter M4, on Flickr


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## darren636

i am a sucker for most small fish  those b.  naevus  look  lovely,  its  good  that  they  sorted  out  the  micros  / species  confusion.


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## sr20det

Liam said:
			
		

> A bit late, but thanks for the comments George.
> 
> Thanks Darren yeah that’s me. You may like this species its Boraras naevus, they were scientifically described last year. Guess they are still rare enough.  They are quite different from other boraras sp in that the males and females are quite different looking.
> 
> Cheers Ollie yeah I think those ones are the best, (the insects), hardest to do though. Really like your knife fish.
> Cheers
> Peter
> Female
> 
> Boraras naevus (4) by Peter M4, on Flickr
> 
> Male
> 
> Boraras naevus (2) by Peter M4, on Flickr


Saw some Baroras micros in wholesale tropical on the weekend. Looked like that second red pic, all red though, none like the female.


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## dw1305

Hi all,
My _Dicrossus maculatus_ pair have just spawned. With apologies for the picture quality, but this is the female, her eggs are on the underside of an _Anubias_ leaf, just behind her in the photo.






This is "dad", he is normally in charge and very rarely visible, but at the moment he can't venture into the jungle, as she beats him up if he does. I'll clean the glass and see if I can get a better photo, as he is a bit of a looker.




I'll try and get a video if the fry hatch. I don't have a reasonable camera, but we apparently can borrow very good video kit from another department.

They are in this tank 


and they have grown a bit since I first had them:




cheers Darrel


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## frothhelmet

Got me 2 nannostomus unifasciatus. Trying to get more as when there are only two they fight constantly, but do no damage. Here are some photos;


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## spid3r

Greetings from Slovakia 

Here are my little miracles   
1 month ago



they grow pretty fast


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## Iain Sutherland

they are very cool spid3r, what are they??


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## spid3r

They are Channa gachua "Bengal blue".


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## Radik

My smallest Boraras Urophthalmoides 1.8 cm max. Mid swimmers absolutely lovely shoaling fish.


Boraras Urophthalmoides by Radik2, on Flickr


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## brodnig

@ Darrel (won't quote whole post)

Fantastic fish, i would love to set up a Biotope for _Dicrossus_ sp. in the future.

Good luck with the fry!


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## dw1305

Hi all,


> Fantastic fish, i would love to set up a Biotope for Dicrossus sp. in the future.


 Fingers crossed at the moment because I can't get into the lab. until later today or possibly tomorrow. I've kept _D. filamentosus_ before, but I never got any fry, although they spawned and they were gorgeous. 

I'm hoping that _D. maculatus_ should be a little more forgiving of harder water, even if it isn't as good looking a fish. I've been looking for them for a long time because I thought the tank might be suitable, as they are a pretty rare fish in the UK.

I tested the pH and conductivity yesterday afternoon (during the photoperiod), and it was pH7.58 and conductivity 82 microS (about 50ppm TDS). 

This is a better picture of dad getting stuck into some _Daphnia_ and Ostracods (the yellow dots).




cheers Darrel


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## brodnig

dw1305 said:
			
		

> Hi all,
> 
> 
> 
> Fantastic fish, i would love to set up a Biotope for Dicrossus sp. in the future.
> 
> 
> 
> Fingers crossed at the moment because I can't get into the lab. until later today or possibly tomorrow. I've kept _D. filamentosus_ before, but I never got any fry, although they spawned and they were gorgeous.
> 
> I'm hoping that _D. maculatus_ should be a little more forgiving of harder water, even if it isn't as good looking a fish. I've been looking for them for a long time because I thought the tank might be suitable, as they are a pretty rare fish in the UK.
> 
> I tested the pH and conductivity yesterday afternoon (during the photoperiod), and it was pH7.58 and conductivity 82 microS (about 50ppm TDS).
> 
> This is a better picture of dad getting stuck into some _Daphnia_ and Ostracods (the yellow dots).
> 
> 
> 
> 
> cheers Darrel
Click to expand...


Stunning! I actually prefer _D. maculatus_, although I understand they appear on lists less frequently.

I understand that these species need really rather acidic conditions for eggs/fry to survive, though as you say D. maculatus may be the more forgiving in harder water. 

Good luck anyway and keep us posted. I'm very envious!


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