Operation Bankruptcy

[Andys temperate tank]

I can never get over the size of some of your fish Kev. They are great.

Nor can I, some of them are absolute 'Tanks' lol

The ones with the black stripe and red tail should be called Brutus or similar.

[KevB]

That's the banded rainbow, Melanotaenia trifasciata. A lot of rainbow species do this odd shape change in the males as they get mature where they fill out vertically rather than getting longer. There are a number of regional variants of this species and I'm not 100% sure which I got as the shop didn't know either.

[KevB]

All the newcomers are still alive and look reasonably well. The additional 3 torpedo barbs, although dwarfed by the fully grown adults already in there, are steadily growing.
The 3 added M parva are beginning to look like they may all be female which isnt too bad as the tank was heavily weighted toward males before in the other species. I'd have space for one or possibly two at a pinch M parva males if Wharf get any more in stock, the three I bought were the last in the tank at the time I nipped in for the torpedos.

Although it's reflection fenzy time now with the lighter evenings even with the blinds closed I will try to cobble some video together in the next few days. If anyone who does these things isn't familiar with it I can recommend the free video editing software Lightworks. I'm still playing around with it but it has some great features even in the freebie version.

[KevB]

Better late than never, lashed a few hand held and tripod shots together. The Parkinson's male is growing nicely as well now, compare video below to the one taken in Feb (p57 I think).

https://vimeo.com/549723615

[KevB]

I noticed two of my SAE's doing a lot of side by side swimming and both fish temporarily went pale so the strong black stripe virtually disappeared, made them look rather ill tbh but they both returned to normal colour and behaviour after a while. Can anyone verify if this is mating behaviour in this species?, not sure I've seen them do it before and it didn't look aggressive in any way. They are fully grown, slightly overweight really but I can't isolate them at feeding time. I wonder if the warm weather has made the water temp go a bit above its normal settings and it has triggered some mating behaviour?

[plankton]

I'm not sure there is any confirmation about SAE spawning activity, it doesn't (usually) happen in an aquarium.

[KevB]

Didnt see any eggs being released, though they did head into the java fern at one point. If they do it again and I'm close I will try to get a bit of video.

[KevB]

I may regret this but I've added 2 extra M. parva. After kidding myself that 1 of the 3 I previously bought might be a male I'm coming to the conclusion that all 3 are going to be female. As it happened Wharf had a new batch in and with a lot of examination we might have found 2 that show early signs of male colouration. However they are VERY small. This is why I might regret it. I know that if I dare photgraph or video them they will become a midnight snack for the 'We're peaceful community fish, honest guv' trifasciata. So its fingers crossed time.
If they survive a month I'll get the phone out and get some footage. They look healthy enough. One was very outgoing from the start but the other looked frightended of the other fish (can't blame him) and hid in a corner. Now they chase each other about a bit and sometimes go side by side which gives me hope they are indeed both males, I'm sure one of them is. Just wish they would grow a bit quicker!

Edit - footnote : I've noticed Wharf have gone back to limiting rainbowfish purchases to mostly pairs, looks like people haven't been playing the game and buying lots of males leaving them with tankfuls of females that they then struggle to sell (which is what probably happened to me with the original M parva, it was only as they remembered me from last time they let me have 2 males).

[F3l1ss]

I'd love to have some females! Can never find them.

[KevB]

This is just a brief video snapshot of the 2 new arrivals but by chance some of the 3 adult/subadults I got originally also swam into shot. Too much reflection, I take few videos at this time of year due to that, my lights go out at 9pm.

https://vimeo.com/579989252

If they turn out to be males and the correct species they should end up like this :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPQE7--LCoM