Stowaway in riccia

[RonWill]

Folks,

I recall bringing up the need to quarantine plants especially when there are plant-spawning fishes residing in the same tank.

Recently received 2 bags of riccia on 27th March 2004; one from Ben Chua at AQ and the other, from a very quiet friend.

The riccia were intended for infusoria and paramecium culture experiments but... I was inspecting for micro-organisms when this caught my eye... stowaway fry in riccia!!!


I did a quick date check and the riccia has been sitting around in a square take-away container.. Noticed free swimming fry morning of 17th Apr 2004, which means approx 21-day incubation, but what fish

Ben and 'YW', any clue?

For the rest of you killie-folks who maintain more than 2 species of the same genus, do be extra careful when swapping plants... Stowaways can easily corrupt known-good population code, or worse, create a hybrid!

[imported_subzero]

I have a similar experience when i was moving my moss into my newly setup tank. There was no fish in the tank except shrimps and after a month, i saw the small fly floating near to the surface of water. Out of curiousity, i raised the fly and realised that they're actually Lampeye panchax-plocheilichthys macrophthalmus.
Strange thing is that i recall that i have the panchax together with the moss way before the fly appear(probably 3mths).

[RonWill]

Ben, I received news that these stowaways might be Melanotaenia praecox, or commonly called "Neon Dwarf Rainbow". At a max of 2.5 inches and considered 'peaceful', they're likely candidates as companions for larger adult Fundulopanchax species like GAR and SJOs.

FWIW, Lily also reported some hatched AUS Chocolate from the 'Frogbits' (Limnobium laevigatum) I gave her.

Strange thing is that i recall that i have the panchax together with the moss way before the fly appear(probably 3mths).

Some eggs go through a 'resting period', where there is no embryol development, and/or hatching when favorable conditions return. The longest incubation time I experienced with AUS was close to 2 months and some of my SJO eggs are still clear after 2.5 mths!

Last word... be very conscious of what you're doing when shifting plants around!!

[stormhawk]

Ron, I kept these praecox before and they're really aggressive feeders. Fast too and a very easily agitated species. They can out-compete even tiger barbs and larger rasboras for food.

Nevertheless, they're a flashy species and could vie for the intensity of the blue shimmer in their scales with the Tanganyikan lampeye (Lamprichthys tanganicanus). Oh yes, before I forget, for those looking for the Tanganyikan lampeye, there's a shop in AMK that has them. Wild imports.

*note: am not affiliated with the shop, saw it in a commercial post on petfrd.com*

[RonWill]

...and they're really aggressive feeders. Fast too and a very easily agitated species. They can out-compete even tiger barbs and larger rasboras for food.

Jian Yang, thanks for the info... guess I'll either have to allocate them to a community tank or pass on them. Any fish that out-eat and out-grow my killies will require 2nd thoughts... last thing I need are nerve-stricken killies with all their tankmates zooming around!

About the Lamprichthys tanganicanus, is this the same lampeye we talked about? IIRC, these fellas are not small in size