New additions

[Disgirl]

Excellent pictures Matt! Have they been in or spawned inside the cone yet? A new use for my cones!
Barb

[Discus-n00b]

Thanks Barb, they love going inside and hanging out in the cone. Its a great cave for them. Still waiting on a spawn, they are not exactly paired up yet.

[Ryan]

Matt,

I love those pikes! They look great. Female C. regani have black spots in the dorsal fin but males do not. It does look like you have a male and female.

I've been working with pikes for the first time as well. I got some small, undescribed Lugubris-type pikes (possibly a variety of C. johanna) from John (snookn21) a while ago. Things were going well until they started tearing up the fins of fish three times their size. They will soon be leaving! But I may replace them with C. regani because John has some available.

Mine were a bit shy in a bare-bottom quarantine tank but they are very social and active in my 210g community with larger cichlids. Give them some tankmates and they'll probably come out more. Mine did hide for about 3 weeks when I first moved them into the tank, but then one day they just decided they were comfortable and now they're always on the prowl.

I was never drawn to pikes based on pictures before, but I've really changed my mind since owning them for a while. They are quite intelligent and funny to watch. I love when they extend their fins and swim around each other in circles, trying to establish dominance.

[brewmaster15]

Matt,

I love those pikes! They look great. Female C. regani have black spots in the dorsal fin but males do not. It does look like you have a male and female.

I've been working with pikes for the first time as well. I got some small, undescribed Lugubris-type pikes (possibly a variety of C. johanna) from John (snookn21) a while ago. Things were going well until they started tearing up the fins of fish three times their size. They will soon be leaving! But I may replace them with C. regani because John has some available.

Mine were a bit shy in a bare-bottom quarantine tank but they are very social and active in my 210g community with larger cichlids. Give them some tankmates and they'll probably come out more. Mine did hide for about 3 weeks when I first moved them into the tank, but then one day they just decided they were comfortable and now they're always on the prowl.

I was never drawn to pikes based on pictures before, but I've really changed my mind since owning them for a while. They are quite intelligent and funny to watch. I love when they extend their fins and swim around each other in circles, trying to establish dominance.

Lol, I saw these Pics Matt posted and said to my," Ryan's going to be drooling over them" Guess I was right. They are really neat looking fish. I've never kept them, but they are definetly something thats different and interesting... Matt, its good to step outside the Discus Box from time to time , I think it makes us better fish keepers.

and as always killer photos Bud!

-al

[Discus-n00b]

Those look great Ryan!

Al you should try the pikes sometime, I'm like Ryan never really was into them until I got some now I love them. They are so fun and interesting to watch. I wish I had some room for some of the bigger species.

[Ryan]

Matt, any updates on your regani? Have you seen any spawning activity? I have some but they're still a bit young and the male has been very aggressive toward the female, probably because she isn't mature enough to spawn yet. For now I have them growing out in separate tanks and she's finally packing on some size. I'll reintroduce them in a few more months.

[Discus-n00b]

Hey Ryan, I just posted in your Pike thread but I'll post here too! 0 Updates, I don't know whats going on with these two. They don't get along at all and the male is always chasing the female, both have pretty drab colors and they just aren't pairing up at all. The female hides most of the day because the male is always on the prowl. I wish they would pair up but its looking like its not happening between these two. Perhaps I need to separate them, however I didn't think they could really grow anymore.

[Ryan]

From what I've read, pike pairings are really difficult. If they are not compatible, chances are one will just harass the other. Maybe if you could find them, you could buy a few more females and see if the male chooses one. Then you could re-home the spare females or keep them in your other tanks.

I was told by someone on MonsterFishKeepers that the female may not be interested in breeding because she's not sexually mature. I decided to separate the two and let them mature a bit more before trying to reintroduce them. They got along fine for the first couple of months, but then the male turned aggressive and wouldn't let my female eat or swim around the tank.