[Eclipse]

Christmas fishies?. I have just started looking again.

Emailed my killifish breeder in NY, but it looks like he doesn't have killifish listed on aquabid anymore. That was my first choice....I could get killifish eggs off aquabid and try and hatch them but since I've never kept killifish before that seems too risky. Plus I'd have to find homes for most of the "litter".

Actually there is a fish already that I would like to rescue. Here's the story. I went to hospital yesterday and checked out their two large ( 135 gal?) tanks.

As usual the fish selection looked like it was done by someone blindfolded

. Some fundamentals of fishkeeping, get fish that won't outgrow your tank and get fish that won't eat each other, which meams matching their sizes since logic dictates bigger fish eat smaller fish.

One of the tanks had three iresdescent "sharks" I need not tell anyone that they need a 500 gal tank and will start bashing themselves bloody if confined, these are big aquarium fishies if they don't die prematurely first.

The other tank had: a foot long pacu, some medium sized tetra species fish that I was unable to idenify, three medium- large sized predatory, pimolodella species catfishes and one rasbora ( this is the fish I'd like to adopt off of them). I'm going to go out on a limb and assume they purchased more rasboras which were eaten by either the pacu or the pimlodellas.

At first I wondered why this frightened looking single schoaling fish wasn't hiding in the plastic plants from the big pacu ( ah, predatory catfish) down there. This is a miserable fish. Schoaling fish feel insecure alone and this fish is in constant danger of being eaten, a fate worse then living in a predator infested wild stream I dare say.

I'm thinking of trying to find out who keeps these tanks and ask if I can buy their lonely looking rasbora off of them. I dunno, I feel kinda shy about trying this( trying to buy a fish from a public place?) and I doubt I will find them, probably get an answer like the person who takes care of them comes in once a month.

The catch is that if I was able to rescue this rasbora, I would be obliged to aquire at least one more from the petshop as I think the chances of me picking up another rasbora who needs a new home are slim to none or keep a lonely schoaling fish myself.

I have two twenty gal planted tanks setup, though thanks to the rules I am only allowed to keep fish in one ten gal, so I'd either have to keep them half filled so break the rules and hope nobody checks.

One is a twenty gal high and is filled with root systems of pond plants and lucky "bamboo" and the other one is a standard twenty filled with a creeping/wandering jenny. I think either tank would suit rasboras.

 

[snownose]

I would go for it. If you tell them about the rasbora being in the same tank as its predator. Also, you should probably take all the nets and supplies you will need to get him out of there.

Good luck!

 

[Ludi]

Won't the pacu outgrow that size tank as well? If he hasn't already....

 

[Tom]

Hm. As large fishes go, I think pacus are relatively easy-going, and maybe more prone to eating any plants in the aquarium than other fish... but a rasbora is tiny compared to a pacu, and the pacu might eat him/her.

I would definitely ask to take the rasbora, but why not wait a bit to see how the rasbora adjusts to single life? I know shoaling fish really do prefer a group of their own kind, but anything would be an improvement over his present situation.

 

[Tom]

The other thing you might do, rather than keep the lone rasbora by him/herself, might be to see if anyone else you know has a rasbora already?

 

[Eclipse]

The pacu probably has outgrown the tank or will. But what can I do there?, I can't take in a pacu. Besides that the pacu is also a schoaling fish and would appreciate company.

Pacus are definatly on the docile side for fish, but big fish eat little fish. I don't think there's any "vegetarian" fish that won't eat fish tiny enough.

I havn't gotten back over to the hospital yet and I hope the rasbora is still there * crosses fingers* . I think the large tank size is the only reason that fish wasn''t eaten yet, but fish gotta sleep sometime. Hopefully I can get over there sometime tomorrow, plus I still need a heater for my tank here.

On top of that, removing a little fish from a big tank is going to be challenge both to catch that fish and not scaring that pacu to leap right out of the tank. which I think is a likley outcome for a large corner fish ( the pacu won't know I'm trying to catch the rasbora).

I remember catching my three synos out of my 150 gal tank. They were about three- five inches at the time and it took hours to get them out.

I was bucket catching them because of the catfish spine thing. I wounded one on the head and another on the pectoral fin because they were leaping around wildly. Worst fish transfer ever.

I tried again later because they were engaged in courtship behavior ( synos don't breed much in captivity so I was excited) and my 150 was full of cichlids. I manged to get them moved into a breeding tank without injury , but they were so stressed they no longer wanted to breed, also they never wanted to breed again to this day

.

I'd keep the rasbora alone for a while anyways due to quarantine reasons.

My tank was killed off twice due to new fish, once when I didn't quarantine and once right after quarantine because I guess I didn't quarantine long enough.

I'm guessing in my tank, a lone schoaling fish will simply hide. I do plenty of hiding places, however I don't think that's a good approach to keeping captive fish happy. I think keeping schoaling fish alone keeps them under stress because they feel more vurnerble sp?.

I had a lone cardinal tetra for a while because it was the only survivor of a group ( they were a sickly fish breed), I couldn't find any more and when I finally did find more they released a plague upon my tank.

Online sources say the rasbora needs to be in a group of at least eight and some sources say a 20 gal tank is the minimual tank size ( active fish?).

A pity I havn't got my 55 gal with my clown plecos here, a group of rasboras would do great there. So I think I should get at least one more of them.