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Hope you got the real one over there! Looking forward to your report. 🙂
The ones I bought labeled as P. tweediei over here weren’t too bad, $8 USD each.
If it makes you feel better, it was only this week that he finally colored up a bit. Previous to this, I’ve just seen a hint of maybe a different shading in the fins, but nothing that was certain. Just enough to tell it was probably male.
Though, now he looks more like Bintan “blue line”. Except that lighter ring in his tail which may turn out to be a different color yet. I don’t think he’s mature yet, he was continually approaching another fish in the tank and turning sideways and so on (if that’s even courting behavior and not aggression) but this was the brightest he got and didn’t stay like this for long. I didn’t risk the flash on the camera because I figured that would be the end of seeing any color from him for a little while. There is one larger plain striped one in the tank which I assume is female. But, oddly, her stripes are much wider than the others stripes. Either perhaps that one is more mature, or a different Paro mixed in. I don’t know.I was going to ask if the ones you got in were showing color. I’m tempted to just order all the Paro’s they have and hope for the best. But, I keep catching myself from starting too many projects at once.
It’s not a good image at all, but it was nice to finally see some color on one of them that was definitely color and not my eyes playing tricks on me.
🙂
I have not yet picked up Java Moss, I do need to try that one. I do have access to a bunch of duckweed and a tiny water lettuce plant that resembles some species of salvinia, so I will go ahead and try those again. The tanks are better lit now than they were, previously the duckweed died, but now it should do fine. (I know, how does anyone kill duckweed, but it’s apparently possible) The sword plant has been in there a week and hasn’t melted yet, so maybe that one will work. I think though I will continue practicing with rooted cuttings instead of larger plants after how quickly the ceratopteris died.
It may have been my eyes playing tricks on me, but this evening the larger paro which looks like a male seemed to have red markings and blue in his tail. Can’t wait for him to actually display so that there is some hope of knowing what species I have! It is amazing how much they eat really. They can clear a cloud of artemia pretty quickly.
Hmm, funny you mention those little pumps. They are very cheap this time of year because of not being in season anymore and I looked at them and wondered what I could use one for. Hopefully there are still some left when I check tomorrow.
Helene, I love your little elephant. I probably should just do smaller water changes on these tanks. I’m so conditioned to hearing that I should change 50% and up every week that it is what I have been doing with the Paro and betta tanks. And you’ve explained what I’m doing wrong with the Java Fern. Everyone talks about how easy to grow it is but it doesn’t seem to be doing all that great for me. Well, now I know why. I will have to get some larger pebbles and tie them on then. Water Sprite, Ceratopteris, is also supposed to to well in these tanks but the rooted cutting I had melted in less than 4 hours after putting it in. Wonder what I did wrong there? It roots readily in my other tank but died like I left it in the sun when I put it in the paro tank. Perhaps it needed slower acclimation?
Thank you for looking at them, I wish they were nicer, but, they are nicer than tanks I set up before, so at least it’s progress.
The pots were originally buried in such a way so that the bottom of the pot was angled up, BUT, I have not mastered slow enough water changes and displace a lot when I change water.
I’ve had aquariums now for 15 years or so, but, embarrassingly enough have only had planted aquariums for a few months now. You’ll note a couple displaced Java Fern as well. How do those of you with planted aquariums add water back into the tank without disrupting everything? Isn’t it funny, there are plenty of guides for how much light and what kind of substrate but nothing on how to do a water change without turning your tank into a bowl of ‘plant and substrate’ stew. Even pouring water very slowly it all gets stirred up. There’s probably something obvious I’m missing.I have been guilty of using plastic plants, bright pink gravel and all sorts of other hideous fish tank ‘accessories’. My community tank in my living room currently includes a ugly large orange “Nemo” figure. (2 year old daughter picked it) I still don’t really put together beautiful setups, but at least now I use natural colored substrate and live plants. I will post photos of them soon even though they are ugly. At least they are fairly ‘natural’ looking.
I will go ahead and set up a few aquariums then, I think I still have two empty 10 gallon aquariums and a 20 gallon tall. When the tanks are ready I’ll go ahead and order.
Hopefully they will be ready soon, but it seems to be really slow going prepping a tank with low ph. It was 4 weeks for ammonia to finally be out of the tank I set up for the bettas. My higher ph tanks are ready much more quickly.
I would love to try more Paros. My 6 that are actually Paro’s are still doing well, eating and just being fish.
I’ve had that Wetspot list up on my computer for at least a week now mulling over adding more. I think I must be doing something right as they are all still alive and eating a month later, and yet I’m nervous to add more in case these 6 are just alive because of luck and nothing else.
I hate to miss out on these and have them not available, but I also am afraid of obtaining them and killing them with inexperience. Indecision!
Thank you, I will try a more shallow container. I was using a 10 gallon tank as I was concerned with maintaining water quality, but I think that is way too much water. I netted some into a smaller container, so hopefully that will work better.
[quote=”helene” post=2380]Moina are really good food. But otherwise theres always the artemia nauplia, which I find is an excellent food.[/quote]
I have never hatched those, so I should give them a try and see how it goes.
So far my fastest culture is the daphnia, I wish they had more nutritional value as they fill the tank quickly. The moina are a lot slower to produce for me.
They haven’t really been successful at catching the daphnia, so I had let off feeding them that. They primarily are eating blackworms, but I also use mosquito larvae when I find it. I do have a Moina culture, but I hadn’t tried it with them yet as I thought the moina were too small. But, I will go ahead and use them then. I will give Grindals a try, I would like something else to try to culture as the blackworms are very slow to culture.
The female never really seemed to get comfortable, so I transferred both back to the original tank with the others.
I’m going to wait and see if a pair forms naturally and then separate them. I added some more hiding places in the original tank and the betta’s will be out tomorrow, tanks are already set up, just waiting for new filters to arrive.
I really believe they are still juveniles. The male never really colored up enough to be identifiable, so perhaps a few more months will make the difference in being able to tell species and gender.
I hope I’m not posting too much, but I’m just trying to be careful not to make too many mistakes with these. I can already see I need to change the hide. You can see a line of bubbles, but, unfortunately the tube is such a shape as to allow them to move up and out. The male is also in this photo, but because I used the flash he is already striped. The assumed female is the next photo.
Fortunately, I don’t think any of them have it yet. I went ahead and used a flashlight to light the fish brightly and they look very uniform. No small particles on them when viewed with bright light. Probably that photo looks that way because of the flash and small particles in my water from the oak leaves. It is good to know to watch for it. I wouldn’t have known to watch for it otherwise.
I will watch for those tablets as it seems like something I won’t be able to find locally, something I need to just order online and keep in stock for emergencies.
Thank you for your help. I really hope to be able to find more Paro’s at some point. They are not that easy to come by here. Someone else I know ordered those P. tweediei and her order came in today also wild bettas. She had ordered them previously and the first ones she ordered looked different she said. No idea who has those ones now though.
