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Thread: Trichopsis pumilus

  1. #1
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    Trichopsis pumilus

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    A nice little fish here, it's hard to get nice pictures especially when you are not really into the photo side of things. But hopefully I will be able to get them to breed.







    Is anyone keeping or breeding them? They are really a spectacular fish when the light gets them side on, then they shine!

    Scott.
    Thanks again,
    Scott Douglass

  2. #2
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    You sure those are gouramis? In the first photo, they look like they are trying to be peat divers

    I've observed them at the LFS and they are indeed attractive little fish and the common name fits well.
    ~Joseph

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    They make small nests amongst floating plants and breed readily. And croak a lot too, especially at night.

  4. #4
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    Hi, I still have not heard them croak yet so I am not sure what to even listen for. But it is kind of noisy where they are with lots of tanks bubbling away.
    They remind me of Killifish, and I think in a lot of ways they are similar. But I do have a soft spot for the little gourami's. I just set them up with lots of floating plants and some peat on the bottom to darken the bottom and make the water more acidic.
    I am in half a mind to take a trip over to Malaysia and see what I can find up there. I used to dream of going to Malaysia collecting fish so I was thinking it is a bit dumb and lazy not to now that I am living here.

    Scott.
    Thanks again,
    Scott Douglass

  5. #5
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    Cool! Pygmy gouramies! They are so cool and very easy to spawn. Raising the fry can be tricky as they are very small. I had luck with green water and infusoria. They very quickly reahc a size where they will take brine shrimp nauplii. Breeding them in a well planted tank helps the fry survive well.

    In a large enough tank both parents will guard the spawn with the male taking center stage and the female patroling the periphery. the female will also collect fallen eggs and pass them to the male during female. Very neat to watch. I once had five prs spawning at once and only one pr in a breeding tank. I just collected the other nests (many of which were well below the surface of the water under leaves) and dropped them into the breeding tank. The female and male gathered the eggs and put them in their nest... that was a monster of a spawn!

  6. #6
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    Here are some happy little fish, the pic is bad as I did not want to spook them too much poking about with a camera. All the reds and blues have come out in the fins. Very nice! And some little cats in the background if you are wondering.



    And this is the reason they are looking so happy,





    Not many eggs I can see, and they are not big on the construction side of things. But still always nice to see some happy fish.
    Thanks again,
    Scott Douglass

  7. #7
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    I've kept 6 of these little fellas for about a month, in a small tank with lots of Christmas and Java moss, Monosolenium, Najas, duckweed and water lettuce. There is no filtration and the water was treated with a bag-ful of peat granules. A few snails. This setup was originally intended for a group of P. annulatus but, just like Scott, I couldn't resist these croaking beauties...



    They seemed to like their new home very much, and soon a hierarchy was established. I realized the tank might be a tad too small for 6 of them, since the two dominant individuals practically forced the others to stay hidden most of the time. This is a shot of one of them:



    I feed them Duplarin S and occasionally BBS, which oddly enough they ignored. One individual had become particularly aggressive towards the others recently, until 2 days ago I noticed he was spending most of his time in the midst of the Najas, looking up to the surface. I lifted the water lettuce right above him and here's what I found:



    There were at least 60 eggs in the bubble nest. I'm so disappointed that I missed the mating! The father was now too aggressive to leave him in the main tank, he had beaten one tankmate to death (I hope it was not a female, I don't even know how many I have). Before I could transfer him and the nest, the eggs had hatched. I moved the father and the fry into a small plastic container, I had to scoop out many of the fry manually, probably losing quite a few in the process.

    The father was very indignant of course, but he didn't waste time. Seeing his former (now considerably relieved) tankmates behind the glass prompted him to resume parental care. I counted approximately 30 fry. He's been moving them from the water lettuce leaves to the roots and back every few hours.

    I think I should leave the father with the fry until they're free swimming and have exhausted the yolk sac. I hope this won't take too long, I don't want to stress the father too much. The question is, what do I do next? Someone in an earlier thread on croaking gouramis said they feed their betta fry with Liquifry until they're old enough to take BBS. I don't have any liquid food, so I guess I'll try the old green water-java moss-snails method. Anyone who has raised fry of these species (Tyrone?), all extra help is welcome!

    Francesco

    P.S. As I have no editing tools for resizing images, I uploaded only the linked thumbnails, so everybody doesn't have to wait ages for the full size pictures to load.

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    Hello Francesco!
    They are my favorite gouramies! But in Bulgaria we lost them....I like the small fishes!
    When I raised T. pumilis the first food for the yongs was american BBS. May be not all youngs eat BBS, but more of them...

    Good luck!

    P.S. I am not too good in english, but I hope you can understand me.

  9. #9
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    The Liquifry just feeds infusoria already present on the plants. When I am out of it, I find a rice-grain-sized piece of hard-boiled egg yolk can be mashed into a little water and produces an impressive equivalent. Just a drop or two on a Java Moss wad will cause a bloom in less than 24 hours. GO EASY! It is a great way to foul the water if you overfeed it.

    The babies eat the rotifers and paramecia, and not the actual Liquifry or egg yolk.

    Wright

    PS. Never use Amquel, Prime, Ammo Lock 2, etc. in baby tanks They are formaldehyde-like, and kill all infusoria dead. Dechloraminators starve babies when they are most vulnerable.
    01 760 872-3995
    805 Valley West Circle
    Bishop, CA 93514 USA

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by whuntley
    PS. Never use Amquel, Prime, Ammo Lock 2, etc. in baby tanks They are formaldehyde-like, and kill all infusoria dead. Dechloraminators starve babies when they are most vulnerable.
    Hello Wright

    Wow I had no idea about this! I consider that quite a valuable piece of info you just dropped, so thanks for that.

    Regards
    Cameron

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vasko
    Hello Francesco!
    They are my favorite gouramies! But in Bulgaria we lost them....I like the small fishes!
    When I raised T. pumilis the first food for the yongs was american BBS. May be not all youngs eat BBS, but more of them...

    Good luck!

    P.S. I am not too good in english, but I hope you can understand me.
    Hi Vasko,

    your English is very clear, thanks for wishing me good luck . I hope you can find T. pumila in Bulgaria again soon, I love small fish too because you can easily keep them and breed them in small tanks, and they're very cute to watch. I'd like to know, how old were your fry when they could take BBS? Tyrone too says they quickly get big enough to eat them...I hope so because they look very tiny right now!

    Today the fry were free swimming, I removed daddy, lowered the water level to 3 cm, replaced the floating plants with a sprig of moss from a 'dirty' tank and injected with green water. I counted 52 fry, and they all look healthy and active. Here's a shot of the rearing tray:



    Quote Originally Posted by whuntley
    I find a rice-grain-sized piece of hard-boiled egg yolk can be mashed into a little water and produces an impressive equivalent. Just a drop or two on a Java Moss wad will cause a bloom in less than 24 hours. GO EASY! It is a great way to foul the water if you overfeed it.
    I've been considering egg yolk but I'm afraid to foul the water just as you said. How about I mash a grain into a jar of water, leave it in the sun for a few hours waiting for the BBB (big bacterial boost) and then feed only a few drops at a time of the solution?

    As for dechlorinators, rest assured I don't use them even in adult tanks

    Francesco

  12. #12
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    Francesko,

    when the youngs start swimming free (2-4 days after hatching) I give them infusoria. After 2 days I feed them with infusoria and BBS. And when they was 15 days old I feed them only with BBS.

  13. #13
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    Vasko,

    the fry have been swimming freely for a few days now, but they're still too small to take BBS. I'm relying on the microorganisms in the green water and moss to support them for now. I should receive some microworms in the mail soon, I'll try and see if they can eat them.

    The day after his return to the main tank, the father built another bubble nest, this time I caught a glimpse of the pair mating but couldn't take any pics. I found the eggs...



    ...and was preparing to isolate them with the father, but he's outsmarted me this time: as soon as they hatched, he moved the fry somewhere I couldn't find them, no matter how hard I looked. I hope some will make it in the tank with the adults.

    Francesco

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