June 2009 - Kitchener Waterloo Aquarium Society

J U N E 2 0 0 9
May Name That Fish
Submitted by Zenin Skomorowski, KWAS (zenin@golden.net).
Melanotaenia praecox - Photo by Zenin
This month’s first “Name That Fish” guessing game featured
three Dwarf Neon Rainbows Melanotaenia praecox. They were
donated by Jerry Draper from the Tropical Fish Room in
Brantford and won by Jamie McDougall.
The origin of Dwarf Neon Rainbows is New Guinea in South
East Asia. Commercial farms now produce most of the stock
found in the retail stores. These fish have a silver grey body
with a shimmering blue metallic sheen. Their fins are red, and
like all Rainbowfish, have two dorsal fins. The females are
usually a bit smaller and have less intense colours. On the
males, the first dorsal fin overlaps the second. Reproduction is
by scattering sticky eggs. The young are very small for a long
time, so be careful when doing water changes. The water
should be soft and have pH of around 7.0 for reproduction, but
they will live in a wide range of pH and water hardness. They
are an omnivore, which means they eat pretty well anything
from flake foods and small pellets to live and frozen foods.
Orange Calico Pleco - Photo by Kathleen Gallagher
range of 5.8 to 7.2 for breeding, but they will live happily in the
8.2 pH of Kitchener tap water. Softer water is appreciated, so
add some rainwater. A male will encourage a female to lay her
eggs in his lair, that could be a rock cave or a hollow part of
bogwood. After fertilizing the eggs, the male will chase away
the female and tend to the eggs himself. He will protect the fry
for quite a while until they use up the egg sack and venture out
on their own. Blanched vegetables, algae wafers and algae
growing in the aquarium makes up their diet. Plants will not
be eaten.
These plecos are good community fish with tetras, pencil fish,
livebearers, and most barbs, but avoid the larger aggressive
cichlids as tank mates.
The Dwarf Neon Rainbow should be kept in groups of 5 or
more. They are an excellent addition to a small, peaceful
community aquarium since they rarely get larger than 5 cm ( 2
inches ).
This month’s second “Name That Fish” featured two Orange
Calico bristle nose plecos. They were won by Terry Clements.
These dwarf plecos originally came from tributaries of the
Amazon in South America. They are readily bred by local
hobbyists. These plecos are also known as the Red Marble or
the Orange Marble bristle nose. They are all in the genus
Ancistrus, but no specific collecting location or breeding
information is available.
A good aquarium setup would have some bogwood for them to
rasp on, and a few hiding places. Water pH should be in the
Terry Clements won the second name that fish. Unfortunately we didn’t
get a photo of Jamie McDougall and his new Rainbows.
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