niko

This fish is small and almost transparent with glowing irridescent blue eyes. I think that it is very appropriate for a planted tank because it doesn't distract from the plants layout and it it what I call "a subtle fish" - one that is in the tank but often blends with the environment creating a feeling of looking at a natural body of water where the fish are not visible right away.

Only one of the 10 fish I bought yesterday had eggs and she dropped them somewhere in the 10 gal. tank. This morning 3 females had eggs hanging from them. The last picture shows one of the egg clusters deposited among Java Moss:

A male (front) with his longer ventral fin, and a female (back) with a shorter ventral fin and a cluster of eggs:


Female with eggs:


Eggs that were deposited among the Java moss while I was taking the pictures this morning:


--Nikolay

budak

Yeah, they are lovely fish..... the only problem may be that they originate from slightly brackish waters (we find them in mangrove swamps here), so they might benefit from a little salt and harder, more alkaline water, which plants might not.

There's a lot to be said of 'subtle fishes': like glass catfish, Rasbora dorsiocellata, silvery tetra species, lamp-eyes, medakas etc... which have understated colouration that blend (rather than compete) with the plants.

CherylR

Nikolay, you should write an article for TAG about "Fish for the Planted Aquarium -- Beyond Algae Eaters"

Cheryl