Poeciliocharx weitzmani

[andris]

does anyone have experience with Poeciliocharax weitzmani to share please? what size of aquarium they demand? i had them in the community tank of 140cm long and decided to move into 80 cm only with small dither and they do not seem to be happy despite actually water conditions and chemistry are better.

 

[TCMontium]

does anyone have experience with Poeciliocharax weitzmani to share please? what size of aquarium they demand? i had them in the community tank of 140cm long and decided to move into 80 cm only with small dither and they do not seem to be happy despite actually water conditions and chemistry are better.

I keep them in a 55*35*40h cm aquarium. I had a male with 3 females in there for 7 months and they seem fine. I also have 2 pairs in a 80*35*40h aquarium and most of the time they don’t even show themselves. My fish likes to hide in/behind plants and decoration, whether they have other fish in the aquarium or not(well, just a mendezi pair). When they show themselves (mostly for feeding), they don’t show aggression towards other species and they eat in peace (but they do eat aggressively), then they go back to hiding.
I thing females tend to be less shy/territorial. I see the females more often than males and males run away much quicker when I get close to the aquarium to take their photo or just watch them.

Maybe yours are just still stressed? How long has it been since they moved in to the new “small” aquarium? What is the decoration like in both aquariums?

 

[andris]

thank you, maybe its a matter of stress of new conditions, i has been 4-5 days since they have moved. tank is decorated with dead wood elements, leaf litter as a carpet. ph 4.9 compared to 5.5 in the previous tank. there are definitely hiding places. 1 female is behaving similar to your fish, however 1 male and 1 female cannot find their place. they swim from one side to another and back practically all day long. they were eating well in the previous tank, at the moment i think they eat rather sporadically. did you try to breed them?

 

[TCMontium]

thank you, maybe its a matter of stress of new conditions, i has been 4-5 days since they have moved. tank is decorated with dead wood elements, leaf litter as a carpet. ph 4.9 compared to 5.5 in the previous tank. there are definitely hiding places. 1 female is behaving similar to your fish, however 1 male and 1 female cannot find their place. they swim from one side to another and back practically all day long. they were eating well in the previous tank, at the moment i think they eat rather sporadically. did you try to breed them?

That swimming behavior seems strange but one of my Taeniacara candidi that I moved to another big and decently decorated aquarium last week also is acting like that, swimming from side to side along the glass like a stressed Pengasius. I can’t figure out the reason either. Maybe it just sometimes takes much more time for them to get used to the new aquarium, for some reason. Or maybe there is problem(s) we can’t figure out but some more experienced fish keepers know of. I hope others will write too if they know about the specific reasons of this kind of stress behavior.

I couldn’t provide a breeding aquarium and any infusoria-type food culture until recently, so I didn’t try to breed characins. Recently I did manage to grow some Copella arnoldi fry in an “established” aquarium with feeding banana wirms from time to time, so I am planning to try breeding Poecilocharax soon. It probably won’t be very successful without an actual infusoria (preferably Paramecium) culture to feed the fry regularly and plenty, but even growing a few fry would be a success for me.

 

[andris]

thanks yes that is strange behaviour, maybe someone else can advise us. with relation to feeding i use vinegar eels to feed the tiny size fry in early stage, in addition i believe there is plenty of microorganisms that fry can be feed with in my tank.

 

[grayfox55]

They are cave spawners..just like Apistos. They love any type of tubes to hide in..use gray pvc tubes.. If you can get them..I use charcoal bamboo tubes... males will set-up house and that's where they will spawn! Once you see the male tending eggs you can either let nature take it's course or steal the eggs and hatch them artificially. Females do tend to be less shy! Beautiful fish..