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This is likely to be a very small thread, as I'll only post pics that are reasonably clear - this is not usually the case with my pics.

I thought this one didn't turn out too bad, so here is my male Apisto Bitaeniata Tefe. At least he was sold a Tefe, but how do I know? Someone has told me that the ones from Tefe have a more yellow face - whereas mine has a blue face (as you can see). This person thought mine is a Apisto Bitaeniata, but one of the Peru varieties. Until someone can tell me otherwise, I'll still call him what LFS did, but if anyone recognises which of the Bita strains he is, that would be nice to know.

I hope you like him.


Cheers
TW

Robyn,

This is your best Apisto picture so far, and I am sure you will get even better ones in the future

We have talked about your apistos in your threads, so no need for me to repeat myself here again.

But - now go ahead and get a shot of the female that is at least as good as this one

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

It was a fluke. I have been trying all night to get a good shot of her or my other apistos. All shots were rubbish.

Cheers
TW

That's a great looking apisto! /:'

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Thanks illustrae

But - now go ahead and get a shot of the female that is at least as good as this one

Well LF, I've been trying ever since to do just that. This shot is not as clear as the one of the male, but here is the best shot I've managed so far of Mrs.Bitaeniata. She is still in her breeding dress, as she is into about day 22 or 23 of guarding her single remaining fry. I think the fry is starting to wander away now though.


Cheers
TW

What a difference a day makes. This is Mrs.Bitaeniata today. I would normally only post clear pictures here, but I'm fascinated how this fish can look so bright & pretty one day (see the pic above, taken of her yesterday) & the next day (today), you'd think she was a different fish. Either she has decided 24 days is enough to guard, or her fry is no longer answering her call, or her fry is no more. At the moment, time will tell, as I'm not sure.

Anyway, here she is in her drab everyday dress.


Cheers
TW

One of our clowns, with a damsel looking down.


Cheers
TW

That is a great looking apistos. it has very nice colors. where did you get it, ive never seen one in a LFS around heere that looks that good. also, nice clown fish, keep up the good work, the tank looks great

Thanks boil

I'm in Sydney, Australia. I got the apisto from a small LFS in Mattraville - a suburb of Sydney. I'm knew to apistos & don't know much, but LFS who sold the pair to me, told me that this type rarely come to Sydney. I don't know if I was just an easy touch & got sucked in, but because of the alleged rareness, the pair were quite pricey (at least for me).

In the end though, I just plain liked them - he was worth the extra & I just had to have them. He has such nice fins & nice colouring.

Thanks for the compliment.

Cheers
TW

nice clownfish and apisto, they are really neat fish

Thanks hev77

Sadly, the male apisto passed away over night. He was a gorgeous male & I'll miss him

Edit: Female has surviving fry. Fingers Crossed.

Cheers
TW

Here's a picture of my Pelvicachromis taeniatus Nigeria Red male. I hope you like him.


Cheers
TW

Question.

Does your camera have the ability to shoot in manual mode?

Does it allow you to set shutter speeds and aperture manually?

The BIG trick with fishes is depth of field. Because they're moving, you need as great a depth of field as possible to keep them in focus. Depth of field is marked in terms of "f-numbers", where the small values (such as f2.8) correspond to a wide aperture, and the large values (such as f11) correspond to a narrow aperture. To increase depth of field, you need to narrow the aperture. Of course, this immediately causes a problem - indicated shutter speeds drop through the floor because you're allowing less light to reach the CCD chip (or film in a film camera). So ... to bring the shutter speed back up to 1/60 second or faster, which is what you need to 'freeze' their motion, you need more light ... time to pop up the flashgun.

If you run with a setting such as 1/125 second shutter speed, aperture f11, and full intensity flash (assuming your flashgun has different intensity settings), then this will 'freeze' your fishes in motion, and also provide the depth of field required to keep everything in focus.

Also, autofocus mechanisms are NOTORIOUSLY bad at tracking fishes - they tend to focus on the background or the aquarium glass. The trick here is to disengage the autofocus mechanism, set the camera to manual focus, then follow the fishes. This will have an additional benefit - instead of there being a delay while the camera autofocus sets itself when you fire the shutter, the shutter will fire instantly, meaning you have a MUCH better chance of tracking your fish and catching it in the pose you want.

Dig out the manual for your camera, find out how to set the camera up for manual focusing, and manual selection of shutter speed and aperture (assuming your camera has these facilities) and try shooting some photos in fully manual mode. You'll find that with a little practice, you'll be able to take pin sharp shots of your fishes whatever they're doing. Basically, your brain (and its ability to anticipate what's going to happen next) is ALWAYS going to have the edge on the ability of the camera electronics to track a difficult target. If I want to shoot my fishes in action, I disengage the autofocus because I know it's a waste of time using it on fishes - by the time the autofocus mechanism has decided where the focus point is (and it can take two seconds to do this on my camera!) the fish has well and truly moved out of shot. Put it in manual focus, and when I fire the shutter, the shutter is fired instantly, capturing the fish where I want it.

The only autofocus mechanism I've seen that can cope with fishes on the move is the autofocus system built into top end Nikon and Canon digital SLRs - and I'm sure you'd rather spend £8,000 on fish than a camera!

The camera I have is supposed to be a decent one - though I got it second hand at a bargain price, it's a £500 camera when new, and consequently is supposed to have a decent number of features that work well. The autofocus mechanism, however, is definitely its weak point - for anything other than holiday snaps, the autofocus is next to useless. If I want to photograph fishes, or use it to photograph insects in close up in the wild, the autofocus is told to go and take a nap because it's about as much use as a chocolate teapot for those applications.



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Hi Calilasseia

Does your camera have the ability to shoot in manual mode?

No, it's auto mode or nothing. It is the most basic & cheapest of the Kodak easyshare systems. I cannot take anything that moves & when I get one that that is even as clear the the Nigerian Male, it is a fluke & it took many hopeless shots before I got that one. Turning the flash on or off & fixing red eye is about as fancy as it gets.

Cheers
TW

Robyn, why don't you post up some more about your SW tank in the marine forum....we'd love to have another member back there to increase activity. Nice clown btw. It looks a bit like torch coral or galaxia or something behind the clown, what is it?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Ah, you're stuck then.

Time to cultivate a friednship with a fellow aquarist with a decent digicam then!

Unfortunately there's the little matter of around 12,000 miles between us - a bit far for me to cycle I'm afraid () - otherwise I'd lend a hand.

If the funds ever become forthcoming for a better model, look out for one that allows you to take over ALL of the camera's functions manually. This is ESPECIALLY important with some of the Fuji models, because they use a different type of CCD chip to the norm, which seems to exacerbate the issues I've already outlined. Needless to say mine's a Fuji, and I've learned the hard way that with this camera, close up pics of fish make it necessary to ditch the autofocus mode because it takes two seconds to lock onto a target (by which time the fish has well and truly swum out of view) - you can actually see the lens go "whiirr" in and out while it's locking on!

If the funds will run to such a beast in future, try and get a camera that has readily available macro attachments too - attachments that won't cost an arm and a leg to purchase (unlike my Fuji, where the macro bolt-on is a whopping £87 here in the UK, partly because we pay VAT, aka sales tax, at a crippling 17.5%).


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Calilasseia, wouldn't that be nice if you were close enough to cycle over to take pictures of my tank.

why don't you post up some more about your SW tank in the marine forum

The reason is it's my hubbys & it's not really being set up how I'd like it, if it were mine. But he loves it & that's how it should be.

It looks a bit like torch coral or galaxia or something behind the clown, what is it?

That is a bit of mistake we made. We must go back to the LFS with pen & paper & write down all the names, as we didn't do that. Maybe that will be another good reason to post pictures, as maybe people can help identify things. I'll try to get some pictures up over the weekend.

Cheers
TW

Hi mods

Just wondering what might have happened to my earlier pics in this thread. Are they able to be restored at all please? Thanks in advance.

Anyway, here is further proof of my poor camera skills. These are my first bettas. Alvin is on the right and I've had him the longest and Theodore is on the left. They're in a divided tank, but I'm not happy that the glass is see through, as they stress a bit seeing each other. I'm going to get a piece of frosted glass cut as a replacement divider, that way they'll have more privacy


Edit: All my pics are back now.

Cheers
TW

Hi, Robyn , still can't see the earlier pics . How long have you had the Bettas ?. Do you find them difficult to keep ?. I really love them but never had any success years ago . Love some advice.
Garry