"Jumping Characin?"

[scottthomas]

I bet no one has ever bred these fish in a tank. These are the best videos (Rivers of the Sun) about the Amazon IMO. unbelievable that fish breed like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1EMe...eature=related

[William Palumbo]

That was interesting to say the least! Thanks for posting it...Bill

[plecocicho]

These are Coppela arnoldi and have been bred many times. Soft, little acid water, liove food and a few inches between the tank water level and the hood and you got a breeding going on.

[scottthomas]

Thanks for the info. Based on the video, I would have guessed you would need a very tall aquarium and some low hanging plants. Would be interesting to see.

[scottthomas]

Oh, I see here that is exactly how some people breed them. Amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XO8LG_gANk

[Apistomaster]

I have long been a big fan of the Copella and Pyrrhulina species. They are rarely boldly colored but they make up for that by their very different behavior than the better known Characins like the popular traditional Tetras, Hatchetfish and their near relatives, the Pencilfish.

Occasionally some species are deliberately imported other than the best known Splash Tetras, Copella arnoldi but I have found most of mine as "contaminants" in dealers' wild Pencilfish tanks. Putting together a group of just one species can take a lot of time and patience trolling the newest shipments of the Pencilfish but I have been able to find and keep about 6 species so far and have bred half of them. The majority spawn on small leaves of stemmed plants like Ludwigia and Hygrophila placing a patch of 60 to 100 eggs in a neat patch out in the open. The males timidly guard the fry until they hatch in about 36 hours. The fry are very small and challenging to raise. Many of their fry need Infusoria until they are 10 days post free swimming but once they can begin to take newly hatched brine shrimp their growth becomes rapid. In this respect they are more like raising the fry of Pencilfish and believe me, their slow start and need for microscopic foods can try both one's patience and skill as a fish breeder.
My best luck was with some Copella nattereri where I managed to raise about 75 fish to adults. Others I have bred are Pyrrhulina rachovii and Copella vilmae(a very pretty species). I tried by never could find quite enough to breed of Copella metae which has an interesting zipper-like side stripe and Copella sp "Spotted" which has a pleasant scheme of evenly dispersed spots, one each scale. I have kept Copella arnoldi but it is one I haven't bred. These were once quite a popular fish and they were the only one I could easily buy when I became interested in them so I never tried to breed them. I was one of the few shops in my area who even bothered to stock them regularly. One species, Copella guttata fans out of shallow pit in sandy substrate and places it's eggs in the depression where the males guards them. I once brought in 50 of them just the one time but they were not very interestingly colored and are a little too large for my tastes.
This group contains so many species which are normally not kept by the fishermen although they catch 1000's of them everywhere they fish but the loss is ours. These fish are excellent additions to peaceful planted tanks and
offer something different from the usual fare. Only the one species, C. arnoldi, is known to jump out of the water to place their eggs above the water level but all of them are extremely skilled leapers and their tank cover should not have any uncovered openings or they will find them.
They always seem like a blend of part Tetra, part Killiefish and part Apistogramma between their breeding biology and build. I have often kept a school of them in planted Discus tanks. They are good ditherfish to keep with Apistogramma although a bit more likely to eat the Apistogramma fry than any other Pencilfish other than the somewhat atypical Nannostomus beckfordi which will eat fry. Try one of these species sometime and I promise you will like them.

[scottthomas]

Thanks for all the information Larry? Hope I got your name correct. I am planning a small micro planted tank based on the videos of Amazon's flooded forests that I have been watching. It is just amazing to me watching people canooe so far back into a flooded forest to fish etc. I have actually owned and bred 2 different types of pencil fish and I enjoyed them very much. Can you tell me what is one of the smallest species of fish common to the Amazon system that I might be able to purchase? I want to create a very small amazon type planted aquraium.

[Apistomaster]

Hi Scott,
I know of some extremely small but rather plain species of Killiefish which are a Brazilian approximation of African Lampeye Killies but I have never seen these for sale.
Nannostomus marginatus aren't too hard to find and are pretty little fish.
I also like Hyphessobrycon amandae. Only about one inch and very copper-red.
I raised a few hundred of these so I could have a mass display of them and I really like this species. Another favorite is Parachierodon simulans, the Green Neon. I have tried breeding Cardinals and 2 neon Tetra spp but still haven't succeeded.
A very interesting and colorful species is Poeciliocharax weitzmani, Black Darter Tetras. I have had about 20 for about 18 months and now they are full grown. They are very shy, males are aggressive towards the smaller females and mine only eat live foods. Marble hatchets are small and pretty cool but can be difficult to acclimate. You can assume they are starving and Ich magnets when new. They don't do well in the long term unless they receive fruit flies and live mosquito larvae. The larger Silver Hatchets are much easier fish to keep but not really small.

I am pleased to see I am not alone in my interest in keeping and breeding small Characins. I am hoping to breed some Pencilfish other than the easier N. beckfordi someday. I tried Coral Reds, n. mortenthaleri, but they had rather intense intra-specific aggression, worse than what I have seen among N. trifasciatus so I would try a larger tank with more plants if I tried them again.
Larry

[scottthomas]

Larry,

The Hyphessobrycon amandae is a great suggestion. Thanks. I asked the owner of a LFS near me and she said she has gotten them in before and she reaslly liked them also. Said they reminded her of Cherry Barbs. She ordered some for me arrive Tuesday. Again, thanks and have a Happy New Year.

[Cuchulainn]

I've got a couple splash tetras. Ones definitely huge compared to the other. I've tried lowering the water level in the tank, but pretty sure I don't have a pair. Perhaps I'll be lucky to grab a few more one day.
That video is what made me get them.
Heres a couple craptastic cell phone pics of mine. The other tetras are Crenuchus spilirus-sailfin tetras with one of there offspring that made it in the community tank they are in.

[Cuchulainn]

NVM sorry, disregard the photos. Apparently they need to be resized first.