Hi there!
I have a moderately planted 29 gallon tank. I have had 18 young fish that were sold to me as pseudomugil paskai in there for about two weeks now, and I have some questions.
First, based on research I have come to understand that they are likely p. luminatus, which used to be referred to as p. cf. "paskai." If I understand correctly, there is a p. paskai, but it is rarely traded - and I may be wrong about that. I only found one article that made that statement. They definitely have the blue neon stripe but (at this point) are a clean yellow, not orange/reddish, and the photos of the parents displayed the same colors - is it likely that they are mislabeled luminatus, which the pictures always show as orange/red? I will try to get pictures of my fish but they don't seem to want to cooperate with that, and I don't have a proper camera - just my phone. I may try to upload a video.
Also, they behave differently that I was led to believe they would. The original plan was for this school to act as dithers for CPDs to be added later as they were described as mid-top level dwellers. This doesn't seem to be the case - they use every inch of my tank, and some of them seem to prefer the lower levels. From what I can tell, those would be mostly the females or immature males, but even my mature males go everywhere. As for schooling, they don't really. Unless you want to call the feeding rush schooling. Can anyone who has kept them tell me if this is normal behavior? I am also seeing a LOT of sparring and chasing - more than I ever saw from the CPDs I used to keep. My tank is moderately planted with a large amount of anubias, java fern, and a little bit of bolbitis, plus two or three sprigs of what I suspect is some sort of crypt that came as a freebie with the anubias. More than 3/4 of the top of the tank is absolutely covered with salvina minima (there were also red-root floaters but they are mostly choked out) - I am going to have to thin it again soon. I have ordered some moss covered cholla wood to add more cover, but do I need to plant much more heavily or is the posturing/circling/chasing unlikely to cause any real stress/damage?
I am also confused as to why these fish are recommended for nano tanks. Yes, they are small, but with as active as mine are, I would not be comfortable putting them in anything less than a 20 gallon long.
Finally, their only tank mates are 20 or so wild-colored neocardina and 8 blue ramshorn snails. With the behavior they are exhibiting, I am contemplating simply upping their school size to 30ish and maybe throwing in a small group of ottos instead of adding the CPDs: I don't want to detract from the space they seem to need, and to be honest I am becoming as enamored with these guys as I am with CPDs; I may try to breed them at some point.
I have a moderately planted 29 gallon tank. I have had 18 young fish that were sold to me as pseudomugil paskai in there for about two weeks now, and I have some questions.
First, based on research I have come to understand that they are likely p. luminatus, which used to be referred to as p. cf. "paskai." If I understand correctly, there is a p. paskai, but it is rarely traded - and I may be wrong about that. I only found one article that made that statement. They definitely have the blue neon stripe but (at this point) are a clean yellow, not orange/reddish, and the photos of the parents displayed the same colors - is it likely that they are mislabeled luminatus, which the pictures always show as orange/red? I will try to get pictures of my fish but they don't seem to want to cooperate with that, and I don't have a proper camera - just my phone. I may try to upload a video.
Also, they behave differently that I was led to believe they would. The original plan was for this school to act as dithers for CPDs to be added later as they were described as mid-top level dwellers. This doesn't seem to be the case - they use every inch of my tank, and some of them seem to prefer the lower levels. From what I can tell, those would be mostly the females or immature males, but even my mature males go everywhere. As for schooling, they don't really. Unless you want to call the feeding rush schooling. Can anyone who has kept them tell me if this is normal behavior? I am also seeing a LOT of sparring and chasing - more than I ever saw from the CPDs I used to keep. My tank is moderately planted with a large amount of anubias, java fern, and a little bit of bolbitis, plus two or three sprigs of what I suspect is some sort of crypt that came as a freebie with the anubias. More than 3/4 of the top of the tank is absolutely covered with salvina minima (there were also red-root floaters but they are mostly choked out) - I am going to have to thin it again soon. I have ordered some moss covered cholla wood to add more cover, but do I need to plant much more heavily or is the posturing/circling/chasing unlikely to cause any real stress/damage?
I am also confused as to why these fish are recommended for nano tanks. Yes, they are small, but with as active as mine are, I would not be comfortable putting them in anything less than a 20 gallon long.
Finally, their only tank mates are 20 or so wild-colored neocardina and 8 blue ramshorn snails. With the behavior they are exhibiting, I am contemplating simply upping their school size to 30ish and maybe throwing in a small group of ottos instead of adding the CPDs: I don't want to detract from the space they seem to need, and to be honest I am becoming as enamored with these guys as I am with CPDs; I may try to breed them at some point.