tiny S.lucipinnis - too small for other cats?

[L number Banana]

Hi Just got my 5 S.lucipinnis
I'm guessing that's what they are as the parents are about 4 inches and have bred regularly over the last 6 years.
Here's pics of the new babies!

Question after the pics - didn't realize 1 inch was really 1inch (2.5cm) and they look tiny compared to the syno and thoracata that they would be moving in with. EEeek they're sooo tiny!








Here's where they're going. There's a 4 inch male and female M. thoracata and my 5 inch hybrid syno. The 1 inch cherry barbs have never been bothered but I'm still a wee bit chicken about putting these guys in so small. There's lots of hidey holes. Should I add more? They're in the plastic breeder box right now.

[Birger]

The biggest worry for me is that the other fish are such piggish eaters that these little guys may not get much food. S.lucipinnis are fairly slow growers so you would want to give them as good a start as possible.

Make sure to throw some kind of plant or something in the breeder box to give something to hide in/sit on while you are making your decision.

You will really like these as they get bigger and bolder .

Birger

[L number Banana]

Birger wrote:

Make sure to throw some kind of plant or something in the breeder box to give something to hide in/sit on while you are making your decision.

They've got plants and a curve of pottery to hide in. It's like a tiny fish tank. It's towards the end of the tank where the heater and airstone is as well. I'm going to hunt around to see if I can find or make something the same as the breeder box but just a bit larger. Need to keep their swimming muscles growing.

I've got the fat thoracata still being handfed and the syno only eats at night. Maybe I'll get the baby synos used to a regular light's-on feeding right after I feed the hoplos. Then I'll try introducing them to the tank.

You will really like these as they get bigger and bolder .

I already adore them and three are quite distinct, two are like twins and I can't tell them apart. One swims upside down but not in a scary way, more like the way the hybrid syno cruises at night. Sometimes up sometimes down, rests both ways as well

These guys are 1 inch including the tail, how old do you think they may be?

[syno-kev]

I Have found that if you get a medium sized terracotta plant pot and break it up the curved pieces make ideal hiding places for the smaller synos and if you break up a bigger pot thats even better

nice pics !

kev

[Richard B]

I sorta keep forgetting how cute these are when real small!

As long as there are plenty of hidey-holes they should be fine & there is some good advice above.

If you are clever & able you can introduce a lucipinnis only feeding device - i might patent that name!

Ok then, get a clay flowerpot. Make a couple of holes in it on the sides & maybe enlarge the hole in the bottom. Turn it upside down in the tank. Place larger rocks around it to keep it in place, but so the lucipinnis can find their way in via the side holes. Then use a length of hard tube or pipe to direct sinking pellets, wafers etc into the pot via the tube. Hey presto food in the tank that only the lucipinnis can access.

[Birger]

If you are clever & able you can introduce a lucipinnis only feeding device - i might patent that name!

Ok then, get a clay flowerpot. Make a couple of holes in it on the sides & maybe enlarge the hole in the bottom. Turn it upside down in the tank. Place larger rocks around it to keep it in place, but so the lucipinnis can find their way in via the side holes. Then use a length of hard tube or pipe to direct sinking pellets, wafers etc into the pot via the tube. Hey presto food in the tank that only the lucipinnis can access.

Brilliant...that would do it.

[L number Banana]

Good idea Richard's LuciPot.
I happen to have a gazillion unused orchid pots that already have holes in the sides. I'll smooth the edges out and give it a whirl.

There's no point in waiting since when I woke up, there were only four fish !
Counted, re-counted, removed the plants in the breeder box. Four.
Nobody floating, nobody on the bottom.
With a flashlight I found one nibbling away in one of the holes of the paving brick at the back of the tank. I think he was laughing.
I called Him Indiana for the adventurous spirit. Made his way too far up the plants in the breeder box and jumped out or the hoplo gave the box a tail flip, not sure.

Will rig it up when I get home from work. I used up the some of my FD brine shrimp as it was getting close to the expiry date, they LOVE it! Siphoned some into the back brick hole where the lone adventurer was too.

Will keep everyone posted on how the LuciPot works out

[andywoolloo]

your wee little lucipinnis are so beautiful!! I keep mine in their own tank. I am planning to upgrade their tank and get some more!

[L number Banana]

Hi Andywoolloo,
I agree, they're just ridiculous little clowns. It's taking away a lot of time right now when I should be doing other things
It's like they have wind-up motors in them and will take a giant leap into the big world once in a while and motor along the wall, down to the bottom, across the sand, up the rock around the corner....whew! All the while they're wiggling away like something is chasing them.

The big black syno must be a mom or a vegetarian They seem to stick right up against her (him?) most of the time. Right in the same hole. If I can't find them, that's where I shine the flashlight and sure enough, they're right up against her. I even checked the temps with another thermometer just in case it was a warmth thing.

Last night I saw one of them ride the rock face down to where the big whiskery snout was sticking out and actually bump right off the tip of the syno's nose and sit there for a minute like it was stunned. I laughed so hard I snorted out loud , all the while terrified that one gulp and goodbye little guy but no, the little guy just geared up again and motored away.

They sometimes cruise around the rock and brickwork like a little wiggly train but I noticed two of them fighting??? I thought that I was going to have to scoop one out but the chance of that happening without emtpying the tank if zip to none. So I just watched and gave them a puff of water with the turkey baster into the brickwork hole and they soon broke it up. I guess just playing or fighting for a good spot?

I am planning to upgrade their tank and get some more!

If they stayed like they are now, I'd want 50! As is, I'm getting rid of the desk in that room and moving my comfy chair in. I guess I may as well just cave in and buy a laptop so I can work in there...Good thing the main tank is in the living room otherwise I'm afraid I'd ignore them a bit over the next while.

[andywoolloo]

They sometimes cruise around the rock and brickwork like a little wiggly train

I love when they do that. Mine are throwing eggs all over the tank. Pretty sure they are eggs. But no babies yet. There are no other fish in there and no snails so I am thinking eggs, looks like the white cory eggs they lay on the glass, same size as my sterbai and peppered cories do. They are on deco and the walls and in the filter as if they get kicked all over. I would have thought they are too small to breed.

Also your tank looks very nice.

[L number Banana]

Andywoolloo:

Also your tank looks very nice.

eek, Thanks. This is very much a transition tank - well on it's way to Orinocco biotope (Pink Pictus Tank) except that all the P.pictus I kept ordering weren't making it out the door of the fish shop. Then someone finally answered my pathetic "need catfish" plea on a forum and poof! It's now going to turn into Rift Vally or tangihoohaa tank once I can spell it. PC could use a verbal pronunciation ap for that word.

Those plants are just kind of thrown in, still in their pots! The pink granite was bought because it's inert but since I live in what the tourists call "The Limestone City", I was thinking the fish may be happier if I redo it with that. I live on the edge of an old quarry

I'm going to try to make limestone plant pots, kind of like those ugly little tree rings that people put around their front yard trees. But I hope I can avoid the ugly part and hook a bunch together to make a sort of English (African?) style wall. Then the plants can have some rooting and the sand in the front can stay less than a millimeter.

The fun aside from the squiggly train will be researching some of the archaeology of those parts of Africa and see if I can come up with a suitable underwater village for my little friends.

The decorative brick will have to stay for a while because I've found that there are lovely holes that are just the right size to poke in a bit of food that no one else can reach. I put some in between the brick and the top rocks and no one else can get in. I've done that after I fed the other two and it doesn't take long for a jumbbly ball of lucipinnis to find the stashes.

I'm going away for four days on Wednesday and will have to leave the little squirts under the care of The Big Guy. A true test of the marriage: You kill my fishes, you be sleeping with the fishes..

Did your little guys ever look like they were fighting?

[andywoolloo]

not fighting as much as I think mating behaviour.

Far as I can tell I may have only one female, not positive on that yet. But one is more short and stubby and the others are long and lean. and they seem very interested in the more chubby one. They twirl around her. It gets pretty fast, but starts out slow. around and around like they are trying to wrap her. Like a betta would? You know?

Course when they notice me it's over. They wait till the cover of night I guess. But it appears more like mating or flirting then fighting to me. It's like similar to the cories, three on one chasing and chasing and twirling.

[L number Banana]

Wow, I guess they get practice young because that's what it looked like but they're so tiny!
The people that got them for me said that the breeder will have more in 6 months so I guess that means these guys are six months old - they DO grow slowly!

[andywoolloo]

mine are very tiny also. Probably the biggest is over 2 inches, maybe 2.5 and the smallest is like under 2 inches.

and the eggs, if they are lucipinnis eggs are very small. seem smaller than corie eggs.

I really do not know , I am only suppossing.