Fish keeping
G'day
Pretty new here. Thought I would whack up some photos of some of the fish that I keep. I have been a serious aquarist for many years now, and while fishing is an expensive hobby... it has nothing on fishkeeping. Between fishing, fish keeping and a mrs i stay more or less broke most of the time. Not that I don't have some serious fun along the way though!
There has been a lot of discussion on stingrays lately. So I think these photos are probably the most appropriate. I have a group of 4 P. motoro stingrays, which are FW rays from the Amazon. They are currently juveniles ~25cm disk width. Large adult females can push 60cm+. They are in a 8x3x2.5 tank for now. Have a 8x6x3 acrylic tank in storage that will be set up when my new house is done (doesn't fit through the doors in my house now). The biology of FW rays is very similar to SW rays. Suprises me on these forums the old wives tails I hear about rays. Like they don't have teeth!? let me give you the hot tip they most certainly do, even worse they have a plate in their mouth for crushing, so all those people who suggest sticking their fingers into a stingrays mouth, do so at your own risk. Also heard flipping them on their backs isn't good for them, also not true. I know of many overseas ray keepers that ultrasound pregnant females to see the development of the young pups. This does them no harm, and being pregnant the ray is at its most sensitive.
My Mangrove Jack. These guys are said to be notoriously agro, I haven't found that to be the case so far. Although this may change as the fish matures. Pics are a little old, fish is currently about 25cm.
Have more or less kept anything imaginable over the years from pretty cichlids to Giant catfish. Any other fish keepers on here?
Cheers,
Alex
Andy_b
Posts: 633
Date Joined: 19/10/11
nice
set u have there with some great fish aswell :)
dkonig82
Posts: 2091
Date Joined: 06/07/10
Looks great!Have been so
Looks great!
Have been so tempted to get a sweet aquarium setup, but the costs and hassles associated with my semi-regular house moving have prevented me so far!
When asked by a non-fisherman 'how many fishing rods do you really need?' the correct answer is either:
n+1 (where n is the number of fishing rods you currently own); or
n-1 (where n is the number of fishing rods which would cause your significant other to dump you.
Noxious
Posts: 504
Date Joined: 22/12/11
Cheers guys. Dkonig- yeah
Cheers guys.
Dkonig- yeah moving aquariums is a massive pain.
lurcha
Posts: 455
Date Joined: 29/12/09
Sweet rays! I've had fish for
Sweet rays! I've had fish for almost 10 years, only got cichlids at the moment.
Graeme76
Posts: 287
Date Joined: 03/10/11
Nice Fish Noxious. How's the
Nice Fish Noxious. How's the Jack get along with the Afra? Is that a Polystigma I see or am I mistaken? I love my aquariums, if you go onto page two of the General Discussions threads & scroll down a little you will find a thread I started titled "Aquariums". There's a bunch of photos of some of my tanks & fish. I've got heaps of them but all but one are set up at a friends as I have an uncooperative landlord that won't let me have tanks in the house. The tank I have here is for my Dovii (40cm long at 2yrs old) & is on the back verandah, great to sit back & watch him with a bourbon in hand on a summer night or during a good storm.
Noxious
Posts: 504
Date Joined: 22/12/11
Graeme - There are no Afra in
Graeme - There are no Afra in the tank with the Jack. Close on the Polystigma, correct genus wrong species it is a Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus.
Dovii are great fish. Big males become great glass bangers.
Graeme76
Posts: 287
Date Joined: 03/10/11
Sorry my mistake, don't know
Sorry my mistake, don't know why I wrote Afra, that's clearly not a mbuna. Blue Dolphin is what I should have written. Forgive me, I havn't dealt with Malawi cichlids for a few years now (mostly SA, CA & Tangs) so my memory of many of the names is a bit foggy. Anyway nice fish, you should put up a few more photos.
ealzee
Posts: 611
Date Joined: 14/11/11
good info....
sick little rays there matey, and i would love to own a pet mangrove jack!! thats sick! And also........... cheers for the info on the rays ;)
kill it??? eat it!!!!
bod
Posts: 2320
Date Joined: 03/05/06
nice ray
looks like an aboriginal painting. I'd be keen to see some more photos too.
Noxious
Posts: 504
Date Joined: 22/12/11
Graeme - yeah that is a blue
Graeme - yeah that is a blue dolphin (C. moori).
Cheers for the comments guys. Will post more pics of the rays later.
Some more of the dolphins -
Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus
Nimbochromis venustus
Placidochromis phenochilus "mdoka white lip"
Champsochromis spilorhynchus
Red tailed catfish
terboz123
Posts: 1358
Date Joined: 13/04/11
ove the jacks, the mooris and
love the jacks, the mooris and the red tail cat!
a hard days fishing still beats work
PGFC member
GCGFC memberpale ale
Posts: 1755
Date Joined: 02/01/10
Nice fish there, make me feel
Nice fish there, make me feel like going home and cleaning out some of my tanks. Yours look a lot cleaner than mine
I have a SW coral tank with a few reef fish
A cichlid tank with frontosa as my favourite
a smaller tank with swordtails, guppys etc
an outside tank which had a 10 inch barra who recently died. Looking for mangrove jack to take his place.
Graeme76
Posts: 287
Date Joined: 03/10/11
Jusmp on the Perth Cichlid
Jusmp on the Perth Cichlid Society website if your not already a member Pale Ale. The people on there should be able to help you track down a Jack. I think some of them order fish in group buys from other parts of the country so you might be able to get one at a good price if you can get one that way.
pale ale
Posts: 1755
Date Joined: 02/01/10
I live in Karratha mate, can
I live in Karratha mate, can just go and catch one at the freshwater Miaree Pool. Dunno how it will go moving into a glass tank, as I would not take an undersize fish.
Noxious
Posts: 504
Date Joined: 22/12/11
Pale Ale - I think the 2
Pale Ale - I think the 2 biggest issues you will need to take care of with a wild caught mangrove jack are; 1 getting the salinity to a very similar level in your tank to the location you have caught it at, then slowly altering the salinity to acclimatise it to the level you want. The second is feeding, can be difficult to get a WC fish to eat prepared foods.
terboz123
Posts: 1358
Date Joined: 13/04/11
Noxious pretty sure all jack
Noxious pretty sure all jack you get are wild caught..........
jacks at a juvi size of 5 cm you looking at $250
a hard days fishing still beats work
PGFC member
GCGFC memberSimo_
Posts: 1843
Date Joined: 13/11/06
Awesome fish. would love to
Awesome fish. would love to have something like that.
Bring on April
Graeme76
Posts: 287
Date Joined: 03/10/11
Would be ok so long as the
Would be ok so long as the tank is big enough (bare minimum 6x2x2ft for a single jack but would prefer bigger) & you do as Noxious said & acclimatise it slowly to your water source at home. That would probably mean moving large quantites of water from the location you catch it to your home for a good 3-6 months. Food can be problem but if it is, then you probably shouldn't consider a wild caught fish. That said breeding feeders like Convicts or Guppies is pretty easy to do & a cast net up your way should see you with plenty of live food. Most predators will happily take chunks of fish flesh, peeled prawns etc to once they have settled into your tank.
terboz123
Posts: 1358
Date Joined: 13/04/11
Nice Fish! I use to
Nice Fish!
I use to keep/breed fish until i bought my boat. Didnt ahve enough time for both with work and the mrs!
tanks :
6x2x2 Malawi Display
Breed: Pepp/Common/Albino/Albon Long fin/Common Longfin bristle nose
Attempted to breed: L134s didnt happen and also kept a L number community tank.
once had a jack but turned super aggressive.
PCS is a great site just like fish wrecked, but for fish keeping...
ive always dreamed of a Aussie predator tank, but dont know how a jack, a barra and a murry cod would get along.......
a hard days fishing still beats work
PGFC member
GCGFC memberpale ale
Posts: 1755
Date Joined: 02/01/10
I reckon jack would rip the
I reckon jack would rip the throat / guts out of both if they were similar size
Noxious
Posts: 504
Date Joined: 22/12/11
The final outcome with mixing
The final outcome with mixing agro species has a lot to do with the individual fish. Like my jack, nobody would predict in a million years that it would live with the fish it does.
Here are some new pics of the rays, taken this morning -
ealzee
Posts: 611
Date Joined: 14/11/11
man they are awesome!! nice
man they are awesome!! nice set up u got there
kill it??? eat it!!!!
Noxious
Posts: 504
Date Joined: 22/12/11
cheers mate
cheers mate
Graeme76
Posts: 287
Date Joined: 03/10/11
A jack in with some haps,
A jack in with some haps, yeah I can see that working. They are all largish predators & so long as the jack had it's own territory it probably wouldn't do much harm to the others.
Terboz, I know a couple of people in Perth that breed jacks so you can definitely get bred rather than wild specimens. As for a jack, barra & murray cod all together, I'd just settle for a tank that would be big enough to hold all three.
For anyone that wants to see a truly big private aquarium, check this out: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?8952-Building-My-50-000-Gallon-Monster-Mega-Tank
Noxious
Posts: 504
Date Joined: 22/12/11
Wasn't aware of any private
Wasn't aware of any private keepers breeding jacks? I would think that anyone breeding these guys would be hormone inducing them to do so.
Graeme76
Posts: 287
Date Joined: 03/10/11
One of my mates took me over
One of my mates took me over to a bloke that was definitely breeding them (heaps of fry & juvie jacks in several tanks) but he wasn't very forthcoming with info on how he was getting them to breed. He said something about temperature & salinity changes but I think hormone inducing would be a distinct possibility.