Has anybody kept these with plecs? Iv owned them in the past but never kept them with plecs before. I recall them being quite inquisitive but not aggressive.
Dicrossus Filamentosus
- Thread starter Rabbit
- Start date
These are stunning fish Rabbit. I kept some with my bn,s a while back. I dont think they are into flow but it didnt really seem to bother them. I think mine spawned aswell. If you have some floating plants then thats where they will do it.
Nice fish mate
thegeeman
Nice fish mate
thegeeman
Hi all,
They are not at all aggressive, but they are black water fish, so they need very clean, acidic, low conductivity water (extremely soft, really below 50 TDS, and ideally below 10) and below pH 6., they also like the water warm (above 27oC). I'm not sure which L numbers you could keep them with, although a small Hypancistrus or Panaque species would be a possibility, they don't like a lot of flow, but they are all right, best in fact, in very heavily filtered water.
Even at pH6 they are unlikely to spawn successfully, and you may need to get down to below pH 5 - pH4.5 with 0dGH, at these buffering and pH levels water quality maintenance, even though they are small cichlids, is easier in a bigger volume tank, and with very low stocking.
They need lots of cover a sand substrate, ideally both leaf litter and plants, live food and fairly subdued light, normally they are kept with Pencil fish as dithers, or a small black water tetra or even dwarf Cories. BBS., Grindal worms and Daphnia are the usually suggested food, but I think they will try and eat anything that wriggles, because black water fish have to eat what ever is available. Java moss, Java fern, Ambulia, Water sprite, Cryptocoryne are the sort of plants you need, they are open spawners and will use a piece of bog wood or an Amazon Sword leaf.
I was quite tempted, and after advice I set up a tank for them, but even using rain water, peat filtration and some acidic leaf mould in the substrate I just couldn't keep the pH low enough, I tried to source Dicross maculatus, (which comes from less extreme conditions), but couldn't and eventually I got some less demanding Apistogrammas instead.
The great Larry Waybright (Apistomaster) breeds them, and he said:
"My own experience with breeding this species spans 4 decades. I have found them easy to spawn but generally harder than most Apistogramma spp. to get viable eggs and the fry are extraordinarily sensitive to any decline in water quality. Females often eat their spawn but the greatest success in breeding them always occurs when the female takes good care of the fry. Good luck, everyone. I still consider them harder to breed and raise than wild Discus. I almost always have D. filamentosus because wild fish are so cheap in the USA and they are among the most beautiful of SA Dwarf Cichlids."
cheers Darrel
They are not at all aggressive, but they are black water fish, so they need very clean, acidic, low conductivity water (extremely soft, really below 50 TDS, and ideally below 10) and below pH 6., they also like the water warm (above 27oC). I'm not sure which L numbers you could keep them with, although a small Hypancistrus or Panaque species would be a possibility, they don't like a lot of flow, but they are all right, best in fact, in very heavily filtered water.
Even at pH6 they are unlikely to spawn successfully, and you may need to get down to below pH 5 - pH4.5 with 0dGH, at these buffering and pH levels water quality maintenance, even though they are small cichlids, is easier in a bigger volume tank, and with very low stocking.
They need lots of cover a sand substrate, ideally both leaf litter and plants, live food and fairly subdued light, normally they are kept with Pencil fish as dithers, or a small black water tetra or even dwarf Cories. BBS., Grindal worms and Daphnia are the usually suggested food, but I think they will try and eat anything that wriggles, because black water fish have to eat what ever is available. Java moss, Java fern, Ambulia, Water sprite, Cryptocoryne are the sort of plants you need, they are open spawners and will use a piece of bog wood or an Amazon Sword leaf.
I was quite tempted, and after advice I set up a tank for them, but even using rain water, peat filtration and some acidic leaf mould in the substrate I just couldn't keep the pH low enough, I tried to source Dicross maculatus, (which comes from less extreme conditions), but couldn't and eventually I got some less demanding Apistogrammas instead.
The great Larry Waybright (Apistomaster) breeds them, and he said:
"My own experience with breeding this species spans 4 decades. I have found them easy to spawn but generally harder than most Apistogramma spp. to get viable eggs and the fry are extraordinarily sensitive to any decline in water quality. Females often eat their spawn but the greatest success in breeding them always occurs when the female takes good care of the fry. Good luck, everyone. I still consider them harder to breed and raise than wild Discus. I almost always have D. filamentosus because wild fish are so cheap in the USA and they are among the most beautiful of SA Dwarf Cichlids."
cheers Darrel
They wouldn't be my idea of a pleco companion, as Darrell said, they fare better in really soft water and i don't think they would enjoy the current in a pleco tank much.
A pair i got four or five years ago spawned, but i was lucky, a dwarf cichlid breeder had been growing them on for himself, but ended up selling them to me and they bred within a couple of months of getting them.
Luckily they spawned at the front corner of the tank and they didn't mind me taking pictures.
It was weird to watch, the female laid some eggs, the male fertilized them, then while the female was laying some more eggs, the male did a lap of the 2ft tank, stopped and fertilized the newly laid eggs, then did another lap of the tank while the female laid some more eggs, and this was what happened for nearly an hour.
Male fertilizing the eggs
Female after laying some more eggs in the pile waiting for the male
The male coming back to fertilize some more eggs
Newly hatched fry feeding on the java moss
Female leading the troops
Fry roughly six months old
A pair i got four or five years ago spawned, but i was lucky, a dwarf cichlid breeder had been growing them on for himself, but ended up selling them to me and they bred within a couple of months of getting them.
Luckily they spawned at the front corner of the tank and they didn't mind me taking pictures.
It was weird to watch, the female laid some eggs, the male fertilized them, then while the female was laying some more eggs, the male did a lap of the 2ft tank, stopped and fertilized the newly laid eggs, then did another lap of the tank while the female laid some more eggs, and this was what happened for nearly an hour.
Male fertilizing the eggs
Female after laying some more eggs in the pile waiting for the male
The male coming back to fertilize some more eggs
Newly hatched fry feeding on the java moss
Female leading the troops
Fry roughly six months old
Andrew,
Brilliant, in fact I'm sure I've seen your pictures on another forum?
They are just so lovely, shouldn't say it on this forum, but I'd swap any plec for success with them.
cheers Darrel
Brilliant, in fact I'm sure I've seen your pictures on another forum?
They are just so lovely, shouldn't say it on this forum, but I'd swap any plec for success with them.
cheers Darrel
The ones im looking to acquire are adult German bred so the conditions should be a little easier to handle, they will be going into a 700l corner unit with an eheim 2213 with nothing but bio media and water softener weipro 2100lph cannister with 3 graded sponges and peat pellets.
The unit will also be running UV and plant filtration as the unit had a built in top filter, so my idea is to turn that into a hydroponic / plant filter.
I dont know which plec im going to use but it would be out of L201, 333, 66, or 134, although it does seem the best matching conditions would be a zonancistrus sp.
Cory sterbai breeding colony, ornate hyphessodrycon, half-beaks and hatchets are the other tank mates.
The tank does have T5 lighting but im handling this with a rather large Lilly species.
The unit will also be running UV and plant filtration as the unit had a built in top filter, so my idea is to turn that into a hydroponic / plant filter.
I dont know which plec im going to use but it would be out of L201, 333, 66, or 134, although it does seem the best matching conditions would be a zonancistrus sp.
Cory sterbai breeding colony, ornate hyphessodrycon, half-beaks and hatchets are the other tank mates.
The tank does have T5 lighting but im handling this with a rather large Lilly species.
Hi Rabbit,
Best of luck, it sounds a good set up, so I reckon they are worth a punt.
cheers Darrel
Best of luck, it sounds a good set up, so I reckon they are worth a punt.
cheers Darrel
Rabbit
You set up sounds good, checkerboards will love the cover of the plants and they be really nice dither fish.
Remember to post some photos
You set up sounds good, checkerboards will love the cover of the plants and they be really nice dither fish.
Remember to post some photos