D39

[Ben Rhau]

Where did you get them?

 

[anewbie]

Updated picture - added a few plants which will take 6 months to a year to grow; the actual reason for the post is again to illustrate the fish use of leaves on the right side:

 

[Yoannikko]

Hello,

This is looking like a very nice tank ! The nice think about val is that it grows pretty quickly when conditions are right. The inconvenient part is that you have to stay on top of it if you don't want it to completely take over.

 

[anewbie]

Here is another picture of a young male (approx 1 to 1.25 inches)[sometime the phone works ]

 

[anewbie]

Just an updated picture of one of the male d39; i guess he is 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inch; not sure how large these get relative to winkelfleck and nijjensi but either way rather pleasing to the eyes:

 

[anewbie]

So on @Tom C website he described these are not overly aggressive. I purchased 6 little ones pre sexual mature (6 to make sure i had at least m/f); what i'm finding is they are very aggressive to each other. As they become sexual mature it seems they have either killed off 4 or have driven them into ~permanent hiding with the dominant female and male always visible.

I'd consider these among the more aggressive species i have esp at this young age. The a. sp bluketa for example exhibit little aggression among multiple males/females with only an occasional display but no real chasing or seen aggression.

Anyway i'll try to find out what happened to the other 4 though i suspect i will never know unless some show up one day.

 

[natoufly]

Hi, I have a group of 6 d39, I will take six hoping to have at least one couple but for now I have 4 certified males, and the other two are still too small.

the 4 males are almost adult size and i find that they are surprisingly not very aggressive with each other, maybe because there is no female... the biggest one is clearly at home but there is no excessive harassment. i'm going to separate them soon in any case, hoping to have a female in the last two but i'm not too hopeful.

 

[anewbie]

Hi, I have a group of 6 d39, I will take six hoping to have at least one couple but for now I have 4 certified males, and the other two are still too small.

the 4 males are almost adult size and i find that they are surprisingly not very aggressive with each other, maybe because there is no female... the biggest one is clearly at home but there is no excessive harassment. i'm going to separate them soon in any case, hoping to have a female in the last two but i'm not too hopeful.

Yea to be honest the one i had confirmed as female was the most aggressive. For a while i thought she was nesting but i haven't seen her now for a week; nor the 2nd confirmed female so not 100% sure what is happening. I just see two one that is a clear male and one that i'm undecided on.

 

[anewbie]

Some updated pictures of my d39:

I believe these are 2 males and a female. there is a 3rd male in the 65 and a possible female in a 20 long which i will be moving to the 65 tuesday. I've drained the 20 long 3 times (after removing all plants and hard scape) to catch these little devils but alas they keep alluding me. Unlike the a. ladisalo (which have stayed hidden for a year) these guys are out and about about 2 days after the move. The a. ladisalo were out until i moved them and now they avoid me at all cost. Typical morning - i walk into the room the a. ladisalo see me and quickly hide i feed the fishes in their aquarium - they remain hidden and then come out after i leave the room.

the 20 long i tore about to catch those suckers:

Little devil i missed (in truth i thought maybe it had died but no - it had the nerves to snicker at me after i moved the others).

From the top:

 

[anewbie]

This is an updated picture showing how the tail has darkend into an orange as they continue to evolve. They are in 65 now though to my knowledge no breeding attempts; the ec is fairly low maybe around 40 but i don't think it is that acidic - maybe 6.2 - not sure if that is an issue. Kind of wish they would breed as i like this species:

Kind of frustrating. I'm thinking my ladisalo (another fish in another aquarium is having problems because the ph isn't low enough though i never seen them attempt to breed - have two groups - one group in a 40B and a m/f in a 29 for over a year. Again the ec is in that 30-50 range but ph is probably around 6.4. Just a guess - hard to get an accurate number.

 

[Tommy Kronkvist]

What is a morse code tetra? Do you know the correct name? Thanks.

It's not scientifically described yet, but often referred to as Hemigrammus sp. "Morse Code".

 

[anewbie]

A picture of one of my most lovely morse code:

 

[Tom C]

A picture of one of my most lovely morse code:

In the rear parts of my tank, where there is less light, these beautiful creatures appear quite differently, and the "code" is more prominent:

 

[anewbie]

In the rear parts of my tank, where there is less light, these beautiful creatures appear quite differently, and the "code" is more prominent:

I have a 2nd group in a darker aquarium but they still seem to prefer the bright areas to hang out - conversely the orange tetra prefer to the dark area - the 2nd group of morse code are in a 100 (gallon) and the 2nd group of orange tetra are in a 65 (gallon); the above morse code is in a 29 with the n t:
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I really do like them quite a bit - the t oranate (hummingbird tetra) are the blurr out tetra with the morse code).
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what i don't fully understand is why these prefer the sun light while a lot of my other tetra prefer the dark areas.