Rainbowric Posted October 17, 2012 Report Share Posted October 17, 2012 (edited) This thread is about a specific species. I was wondering which species I should put in first. My first thoughts were to go with the most popular however after attending last weekend's Calgary Aquarium Society Auction I thought I should do a thread on this species right away. I was surprised and noticed that there was a number of bags of this fish that went up for auction. I found out who put them up and they came from a good breeder. I thought I would let those people know what they really got! It does not look like much up until about 2 inches in lenght and the ones at the auction weren't much more than an inch. Actually up until an 2 inches they look rather pathetic.. Jayba did a thread of this species last year in the Freshwater Photography section .... unfortunately he removed many of his good pictures of the fish when it was young. But there are still many pictures posted by other owners left, showing what the fish looks like after 2 inches. http://albertaaquati...opic=32406&st=0 This fish is relatively new to the hobby and was first collected by Gary Lange in 2005. I brought this fish to Alberta around 2010 after recieving a colony of them from a fellow breeder of Rainbowfish in London, Ontario. The colony that I recieved had been bred down already 2 generations from Gary's breeders that Gary had collected. The ones in the pictures would then be ones that I bred, now 3 generations down from Gary's. This fish is amazing with colors ...not bright brilliant but ever changing multiple colors changing all the time with his mood, personality, and the conditions he is in. Of course he looks his best in a planted tank and worse in a bare tank. Probably won't see many of these in the LFS because of that. Very high energy for a Rainbowfish, swimming circles around most other rainbowfish. He is one of the easiest Rainbowfish to breed .... in fact he is one of the few species that will let young live and grow up with them. Most will eat there own eggs and if the egg survives, the fry make a tasty snack. I am not going to say much more about this fish as there is plenty been said about it in the thread that Jayba posted......except there are at least two other very good breeders in Alberta ...besides myself, that are breeding this species. So a person should be able to acquire this fish rather easy. This is a picture of my older guy, three generations from Gary's breeders, would be a brother to the pics in Jayba's post, now about 2 years old! The female to this species has less color and finage, unfortunately as most of the other species of rainbows. The more females he has around ...the more he likes to show off! And you will probably never see him in full color like this without a female in the tank with him! If you think this fellow looks nice .... well he does ...but I have a young colony of this species that are direct from Gary's breeders that are starting to look pretty nice. I hope to add some of there photos to this thread later this month. Hope you enjoyed and for the ones who the bid on all the young at last week's auction ....they will be of the same generation as this one above and the breeder who bred them knows what he is doing ....... you got yourselves a good deal! Best regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours! Edited October 19, 2012 by Rainbowric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainbowric Posted October 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 (edited) Ok I promised you some pictures of some young C. fasciata "Faowi Village" ......but first! I heard that there will be some bags of young C. fasciata "Faowi" at this weekends auction in Edmonton! There will be probably more rainbows as the president of the Edmonton Club has good stock and is a pretty good breeder of Rainbowfish. Anyway the ones I know that are going up are from a very good breeder here in Calgary. He uses even more live food for his young then I do so these fish will have a good start in life. Many ask me why buy young white unknown minnows when I can buy them larger with more color in the LFS. First... most of these young whiter minows are from reputable local breeders. Jayba once did a post about some baby plecos he had for sale. He stated that you could buy them from him now at much less then 1/2 the price or later when they are grown at full price. So price is usually cheaper! In the USA now to buy any quality rainbowfish from a reputable breeder you would be lucky to find one over 1.5 inches. They usually sell them in a bag of 6 and you usually recieve 7 or 8. Well you can raise them for a couple of months, pick out the nicest pair .....or two and sell the others to help pay for your initial investment. Fish take a major beating being transported to stores. Sure they may be alive when you purchase them, but for how long, or will they ever produce young for you, or will they look there best when they are mature. When you get them young they will be raised in your care, so they will probably be better fish and live longer. Must breeders aren't going to be breeding hybrids or the weak, so the fish you get from them will probably be pure and of good genetics. The other reason why breeders are selling fish so young is shipping costs. The bigger the fish, the more water and water is weight and up goes the cost to ship. Lately in the states the fish are even getting smaller as shipping costs are rising. Ok so a pic of a young.... this young one is not even 24 hours old yet! What you can't see it ......well lets blow up the pic a bit. It is amazing what you can see with a Canon T4i with a 18 megapixel sensor and a 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. Jayba was kind enough to give me access to his photobucket account and permission to use any of his pictures in my Journal! This is a picture of a young Foawi Village boy he once had that was almost 2.5 inches.... Here is shadowed by a Angel fish about 3 times his size. Here is a picture of one of my young males ....this fellow came right off of one of Gary Lange's breeders...almost 3 inches long! Interesting how I acquired this nice group of 3 pairs that came right from Gary's breeders. AA member jcdg won a bunch of eggs that Gary auctioned off last year at Calgary's 2011 Spring workshop. Justin raised them up to almost 2 inches, then gave them to me! I don't think he realized what he had. Here is another male with a female just above him. And now for the picture that I promised you that was 1 in a billion ever to be taken!!! Wish I could claim taking it You can see the small herring that the whale is feeding on jumping around the boat....Don't go Kayaking in a school of herring...I guess the Kayaker did make it back to shore safely..... When I get around to my care and raising rainbowfish post I will pass on a number of tips that will help you bring out the colors like I have with these pictures of young males that I have just posted. Best Regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours! Edited October 23, 2012 by Rainbowric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainbowric Posted October 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Reserved for future use..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfong Posted December 11, 2012 Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 Adding to Ric's notes, I did lose my adult breeding pair but good thing I had gotten lots of fry from them before that. They spawned quite easily in a 15 gallon tank filtered by a Hamburg Matten filter. I had one group hatch out in the same tank and the adults left the fry alone so this is a good one to have if you want to breed rainbows and have limited tank space. I did give a young trio to geleen so he has those now as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainbowric Posted December 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 (edited) I had one group hatch out in the same tank and the adults left the fry alone so this is a good one to have if you want to breed rainbows and have limited tank space. I did give a young trio to geleen so he has those now as well. Thanks for the feed back Raymond! It has only been in the last year that I have become aware, from feedback from other breeders, of not just the C. fasciata "Faowi Village" but all the species in the Chilatherina Genus....letting the eggs hatch and then letting the fry live in the same tank with them. I have seen C. bleheri do it, syno321 has noted it with C. alleni, and few others with the C. fasciata "Faowi Village" . I don't know how you were able to convince geleen into trying a Chilatherina, I had been working on him for months.. maybe a year... to try a pair, then he told me one day that he got some! Edited December 11, 2012 by Rainbowric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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