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I find my son's little tetras adorable!! He is away in Vermont this week with my parents, so I'm fish-sitting.

One interesting thing I've noticed about the way the cardinals sleep - almost vertical. The first time I noticed them I became worried that they had died... they looked so eerie!!! Two of them were floating and actually bumped into each other... neither budged.

My husband & I will be joining my son on Friday, so we've set up the automatic feeder to make sure it works. So far so good. I'm a little worried about leaving the lid open all the time, I'm really hoping the little guys don't jump out.

I like the way they feed in the morning, they all come to the top to eat now. The cardinals are just getting there, they used to wait for food to drop before. Guess they weren't getting their fill and realized they better be more assertive!!

The fish are so interesting and fun to watch... who could have known??

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

It sure sounds like you're starting to catch the disease. Be very careful, or soon you will be coming down with the dreaded MTS.

Hopefully, it's not too late for you and you may want to check into early prevention as once it takes hold it's almost impossible to cure.

Jim

---

Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Yes... I'm afraid I'm addicted... the first step towards recovery is admitting you have a problem!!



Oh and... my husband has mentioned he'd like to get a saltwater tank someday... it's just talk, but the fact that he even said it is interesting...

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

How long are you going to be gone? If it's only going to be a couple of days your fish will be fine, they don't have to be fed everyday

-Josh

We'll only be gone three days this weekend. I know they don't need to be fed every day, but I don't like the thought of them not eating. Plus, my son would worry.

I set the timer so a little less than what we normally feed comes out. The next step up seemed to be a little more than what we normally feed so I figured less would be better, especially knowing they can go for a few days without food.

Today I came home from work early and caught all the Glowlights playing in the air bubbles...

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

Cardinals are strange fishes in some rspects ... if you catch them early in the morning while they're still asleep, you'll also notice that their colour is considerably altered from thier daytime dress, as it were ... and consequently it takes them time to get used to daylight, so a suddne transition from darkness to 'lights on' isn't to their liking.

Bear in mind that Cardinals live in the wild in rivers and streams that are partially or completely enclosed by rainforest canopy. As a result, they'll adopt odd orientations in a subdued light environment because they have no immediate cues surrounding them to allow them to differentiate between 'up' and 'down'. I'm willing to bet that if you went snorkelling in the darkest reaches of the Rio Negro with an underwater image intensifier camera, you'd see Cardinals in all manner of odd orientations, possibly even upside down!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Wow... very interesting. I have noticed all the fish seem to take a little time to "wake up" in the mornings when the light comes on, the Cardinals seem to take a little longer. So I set the timer to go on 15 minutes after the light comes on.

I wish I could do something about the sudden change from dark to light and vice versa. I'm sure they sell something... would it be worth the investment??

And... at first I thought it was just because the light was off, but now that you mention it I have noticed their color is slightly different early in the mornings... even when the light was on.

Fascinating creatures, these little fish are. I can't imagine what will happen the day we decide to expand the tank. We always say "if" but I have a feeling it's more like "when."

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

Hi there,!
Welcome to the world of fish keeping!
Its great isnt it?!
I have a feeling it will be when that you upgrade too,
as chinese algae eaters grow to 8-11 inches and will
need a tank at least 55g to live to maturity in.


Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

they should have a 12 step program for fish keepers lol i started out with a goldfish in a bowl (like you it was my sons fish) lol then whent to a 20gallon and 4-10 gallon tanks and 6 bettas in bowls lol that was like a month after we got the goldfish lol and that was like 5 years ago i did get out of the fish scene for a while and just started up a 55 gallon a few months ago i missed my fish when i didnt have them and i am so happy im back in the game lol. but like everyone said once you start your hooked and it will be a when not if and it will grow from there but enjoy and have fun with it. also keep on this site cause the people on this site are so helpfull and nice and makes keeping fish alot easier and alot more enjoyable then trying to do it yourself with not knowing alot about things i have learned so much from people on this site so enjoy have fun and ask questions on this site if you dont know even if you think its a stupid question cause the people that respond dont judge you by your question

I'll not only second what Purple has said above about a willingness to ask questions, but go further. Anyone who thinks that their question might be a stupid one to ask could be pleasantly surprised and find that they've alighted upon a topic requiring some in-depth responses.

Posting answers to people's questions here has made me look more deeply at my own fishkeeping. For example, I began exhorting everyone to take notes of their fishes' behaviour etc., with the idea that by doing so, a fishkeeper can refer back to them, and the light bulb could possibly go on over the head sometime with respect to, for example, spawning and breeding a recalcitrant species. However, I've found that the light bulb has gone on over my OWN head after reviewing my own posts about Beckford's Pencil Fishes!

Basically, I started keeping this species in 2003. Now all the textbooks will tell you that the Beckford's Pencil Fish, Nannostomus beckfordi, is a peaceful shoaling Characin that is fairly typical of the Characoids. Well, I've found out the hard way that Beckford's Pencils can surprise the unwary - I put three males and three females into the Panda Fun Palace, and within a few weeks, the males began behaving more like Melanochromis chipokae Cichlids than Characins! The males systematically carved up the aquarium into territories, then set about beating up the females, before turning their attentions upon each other once the females were exterminated. Eventually, I was left with one solitary psychotic male.

Then the light bulb came on over my head a few nights ago.

The Beckford's Pencil Fishes I had were, in effect, the dominant fishes in the aquarium. They had no larger, predatory-looking fishes to keep them in line and cause them to engage the shoaling behaviour. Prior to that, my Lemon Tetras were the top dogs, and they too flipped across from shoaling to territoriality (at least the males did!) though in the case of the Lemons the 'jousting' contests between the males were all show and no fury. With the Beckford's Pencils, however, once they found themselves with no competition (and the Lemons took no interest in them), they immediately switched to territorial behaviour, and in doing so revealed a hitherto undocumented dark side that these fishes possess. Therefore, from now on, I shall recommend that Beckford's Pencils are kept alongside something that will keep them in line - pop an Angelfish or a Pearl Gourami in with them!

I'm willing to bet that if I conduct an experiment with two different shoals of Beckford's, one in an aquarium where they're top dogs, and one in an aquarium where they're kept in line by an Angel Fish, the ones that are 'top dogs' will assert this behaviour again, and that an experimental swap of the two shoals will see the shoal introduced with the Angel Fish calm down, while the shoal moved into their own tank start behaving like Mbuna ...

In fact, if anyone out there has a couple of spare aquaria going, they might like to try this themselves and report back on the results!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Cali,
interesting observations of your Beckford's Pencils!
In my 10g tank, my Beckford's Pencils are indeed
the top dogs as well, sharing the tank only
with some c. hasbrosus and some ghost shrimp.
However, Ive had no problem with them going psycho
and killing each other. The dominant pair do harass the
sub-dominant pair quite a bit, but so far they have been
all good for about 8 months.
I was however considering removing the sub-dominant pencils, just because they would hide less in another tank, and the dominant pencils wouldnt have anyone to pick on.
I have kept pencils with big fish, and havent really noticed any behaviour changes, my pencils are just a semi-peaceful, mildly aggressive fish, that bug each other but not too bad....no more squabbling say then a group of
bolivian rams!

Fish are so fascinating!
Cali - I actually was thinking of doing like a "Blog" type journal of my N. Transvestitus observations. Seems worthwhile to me.

And MTB - ask questions, share what youve seen, know,
want to know! Thats why we all come here....this site is definitely by far the most openminded of all the fish sites.



Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

Well, I'm also a member of a mountain biking forum, so I can totally relate to having a place to come to talk about a passion where people don't look at me like I have three heads.

So far this site is great, friendly people and very informative.

I do have it bad, we came home last night and when my son stood in front of the tank to say hello to his fish, I swear they all gathered near the front as if they recognized him. They even swam up near the top, looking for food!!

We definitely were excited to see each other...

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

More on odd Cardinal behaviour .. I have another cave dwelling one.

I've commented on this before, and noted that my 'cave dwelling' Cardinals, when they manifest thisbehaviour, are principally males. Furthermore, they spend time enticing females to come and join them. Presumably for spawning. Which, in the wild, is an activity that Cardinals conduct in stretches of blackwater stream that are completely enclosed by forest canopy, and thus have extremely low ambient light levels even in daytime. Less than 1% of the ambient daylight present above the canopy reaches the surface of those streams, and thus the waters are very dark indeed ... which also explains the photosensitivity of the Cardinals' eggs - they've lost the ability to withstand normal intensity light shining on them and die if they're not kept in darkness while hatching. Neons have similar photosensitive eggs, and spawn in a similar fashion in darkened waters.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I have always loved aquariums, and have had a few in my time. When I first started living with my wife her daughter had goldfish in a ten gallon. We bought her another gold fish that had ick from Walmart, and crashed the tank. After that it went down hill, first I redesigned the tank for tropical fish and bought tetra and cory, I think Being only a year and a half ago it seems like forever. The small tank was having problems being stable even though I was regularly changing the water and such

After we had my son I bought my daughter a 29g trying to make her feel special also with everyone wooing over my son, I turned it into a planted tank and that was the end of my restraint. I soon bought a 27 then a 55, 29, 20 and a 20l and another 55. I now own a 160, 2 100's, 2 90's, 3 60's, a 55, 2 29's, 20g and 20l, 2 10's and a 2.5g I also have a 35 that I need to replace a pain of glass in. AND I am still buying tanks for my fish room.

So I caught the bug and it was just a cold it was more of a plague.

If anyone wants an aquarium setup that will keep them entertained, construct a version of my Panda Fun Palace.

Believe me, when you have 14 Panda Corys all frolicking like mad in an aquarium, providing a never ending stream of slapstick comedy antics, exuding personality by the container vessel load as they do so, charming the socks off everyone who sees them, you will be hooked beyond ANY hope of a cure.

I would one day love to see a big setup with 200 Pandas in it. That would be a riot. I'd probably die laughing watching them ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Cali were can we see your panda fun palace?

Here you go ... Panda Fun Palace

Current population, 14 Pandas, 11 Cardinals and 4 Otocinclus.

Trouble is the Cardinals tend to spend a lot of time behind the Amazon Swords so you see them less often than the Pandas.

That shot was taken when I still had the Lemon Tetras.

This is a shot taken during a water change (note my home made gravel vac )

Another shot

I'll have to do a recent view of it as the Amazon Swords have grown a bit since these were shot


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002