Characidium sp. and other fishes from Japan..

[ranmasatome]

Heh..heh...

Took some shots yesterday... have to go eat now so no time to do nicely.. so this is just a teaser...

[celticfish]

So how are the rest of the fishies doing in your tank?
More pictures of the loot please!

[benny]

OOhh!!! Pretty pretty!! And a very good picture too!

Any more information about these fishes?

Cheers,

[ranmasatome]

Actually this family is quite unknown relatively speaking..but i have grown extremely fond of them... i want to watch them eat brine shrimps..but so far always sold out one leh.. damn sian..

As for the picture.. its taken with my PnS canon G6...actually its quite hard to take a nicely posed picture of this fish..their dorsal fins and anal fins are always fluttering like a humming bird!!! if you lucky then can get a perfectly posed picture. This current picture still can see a little fluttering in the dorsal fin.

All my fishes are doing well celtic..kekeke... took pictures of the Lepidarchus adonis as well... swee swee swee man!!! thats all i can say.. i want to buy like 50 more pieces the next time i go back..kekeke..

[ranmasatome]

Here is another one.. these are the coloumbian types.



sorry for the pictures being all dotty... can't seem to clear them up..my PS is dead. The real joys of keeping these fshes is watching them swim in real life... like an underwater hummingbird...

[ranmasatome]

More Fishes!! This time one of my favourites.. Lepidarchus adonis.. again apologise for the rough images..

[celticfish]

The two fellas look like they were checking you out!
Gold sheen on the third is very nice though the red seems "washed out".
Any comments on why the red went off, anyone?

The characidiums look a lot like SAE's...
Do they take to algae?
Would be a nice change from the usual SAE crew.

[ranmasatome]

The red isn't really red..its more like maroonish red..but yeah i agree it wasn't as evident as it could be... i was actually still taking more pictures of these guys as none of the previous photos were satisfactory but my camera ran out of batteries..haiz..

The characidiums do look like SAEs but they definitely aren't as they don't take algae...at least i don't think they do. Also if you watch the way they swim and behave you will definitely be able to tel the difference. They are so cute in the water, fluttering around like hummingbirds. i really want to feed some brine shrimp and just watch..should be awesome. The coloumbian ones are a little territorial...but it isn't the "peck scales out" kinda territorial..its more just like a friendly chase...at least that i what i observed so far. They have chased the one from pantanal but they don't bite or whatever as the one from pantanal still has fully intact fins. Usually the fins would be the first to go if there were signs of biting.

Really hope we can start to bring these fishes in locally...you should see the Odontocharacidium aphanes.....really beautiful species... the next on my list to get.. and also that one species from brazil with the HUGE fins...so pretty!!! DROOLZ!!!!!

[hwchoy]

your WB is way off leh.

[ranmasatome]

Aiyoh..... read la.... i already told you they are rough images...PS is dead!!!!

[hwchoy]

not PS, you need to custom your WB else even PS wouldn't do much good.

[ranmasatome]

Err.... i think we have a different idea of rough images. These are just for show, not for any identification purposes. IF i had wanted to take really good photos to keep...i think i would have known better to WB at the start. But i thought just to show the fishes temporarily..so shoot first and just use ps to balance it however best i can...but ps not working..so i used infran...but that screwed it up even more..haha..so just show first loh...not a big deal mah..its either that or our screens are differently calibrated.
All these have been sent to the trash...like i said they are rough images and none are of acceptable quality...cannot read ah? chill out and just enjoy the fishes lah...i replace them with better photos for you in future okay?
So what you got on your trip?

[hwchoy]

not screen calibration lah. of course I expect better standards even for "rough"

actually now come to think of it, how did I do custom WB on the G-series? for my current set up I have a "standard" custom WB image of the tank so just by selecting it I get a pretty good WB. don't have to do it every time. but cannot remember how it works on G already.

haven't been doing much fish lately, been very busy. did not go to any fish market in HK and SZ even.

[ranmasatome]

Usually when i do it on the G i just shove the white balance card into the water and custom balance it there..haha... shooting from tank to tank so water cast a different hue on the pictures everytime..

[stormhawk]

Nuuuuu!!! The Jellybean Tetra!!!!

Congratulations on getting the critters. I will go back to my shell now.

The Characidium species will feed on anything smallish. I used to feed mine with tubifex and they loved it.

[ranmasatome]

i think jelly bean is ladigesia roloffi....

[stormhawk]

Ok my bad, but you get the point. We seldom see African tetras, especially the small ones, and now you have the Adonis. Time to raid your tank I guess...

[torque6]

nice shots.

[Heiko Bleher]

Hi,

this is Heiko Bleher and I just saw the photos of the characoids and wanted to tell you the following:

The Family is Characidiidae (by some recent author included in the family Crenuchidae) all member are bottom dwelling characoids (tetras). The upper one you have, from the Panatanal (probably from the Rio Guaporé) I collected many times and brought them already early into the hobby. The correct generic name is Jobertina (not accepted by all, but the best Characoid expert of the world who passed away last year, Jacques Géry, classified it as such). extensively written up in my book, Bleher's Discus volume I.

The lower is a Characidium and probably C. fasciatum, which has a wide distribution. Almost 50 species are known in the genus and widely found in South America, always in smaller habitats, creeks over sandy bottom. Therefore they are beautiful fishes for smaller aquarium (but have nothing to do with the African Lepidarchus, and should not be kept together).

Anyhow, all the best with the peaceful jwels,

from a collector,

Heiko Bleher
www.aquapress-bleher.com
www.aqua-aquapress.com

[ranmasatome]

Thanks Heiko bleher,
i'm enjoying them very much myself...jewels indeed..