Gastronomy

[mikev]

Just for fun of it, here is a Gastro Sandwich:



The "lettuce" is the algae that formed on the top glass in the tank (above the water), I'm not fully sure how to utilize it best (it is fairly thick and looks tasty), for now I put a couple of pieces under the stones...maybe it can grow under water too. After a fight, the cteno you see below owns this place:



I __think__ he actually ate some of the stuff, the green on the Gastro itself are the algae threads caught in the fins:



There are a few losers sitting around and waiting for him to leave....

[Martin Thoene]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand the prize for best post title of the week goes to Mr Mikev!

Cool pics. So you've discovered the joy of the 'green slime from hell' that grows under cover glasses in a River-Tank eh? Scrapes off like seaweed or something. I was considering selling it to the local Sushi restaruants

Martin.

[botiaboy]

Ah yes,the algea that collected on my hood under my light...some of it was brown and for a bit I thought my hood was melting from the light

[mikev]

Thanks, Martin,

There should be a good way of using "Green Slime from Hell". Gastros do seem to eat it....

This should have been The Cool Pic, but none of the shots got focused (:oops:) :



Here is the smart loser: grabbed a seaweed string and munches on it from behind another stone.

Anyway, only in the last couple of days I'm discovering "the joy of Gastro". I bumped them to a proper 29g a while back and as of yesterday they finally feel confident enough to be interesting. I'll probably move Sewellia's into the same tank very soon, lets see if they have the same dietary habits.

[mikev]

Could not resist trying it yesterday and made a similar tent in the Sewillia's Q-tank. They ignored it...but when I went back to recheck at 2am, the largest male was sitting under the "seeweed" in exactly the Gastro way.

Makes me think that this fish would appreciate plants with large low leaves....

[Jim Powers]

They do like plants. I have Java fern in every tank and the hillstreams love to rest on, or graze on algae on the leaves.

[mikev]

Under exactly this assumption I moved them to the Beaufortia tank which has Java Fern just now.

Might have been a mistake: the "Hoffmanni" is going nuts trying to attack them....and they do not seem to be able to answer as well as Beaufortias do.

(The darn thing goes nuts with any provocation: food, new fish, even water change are all signals for it to attack the roommates.)
....

nay, scrap it. Sewellia's seem to be quite capable of dealing with the problem.



after being topped a couple of times, it lost interest in attacking them.

[mikev]

Martin,

Ya know, maybe it worthwhile trying to give this seaweed stuff to your Sewellia and see if you can induce what-you-want.

I'm seeing a little unusual behavior on the Gastro part today. They finished most of the algae, and are dancing on the stones where the algae was, pushing their heads against the midbody of others. It is not sex, since four are involved, but something possibly connected to it, some kind of foreplay. (All four are cteno's, stellatus' took no part in either the algae or the game).
No way to sex them, right?

[LES..]

They do like plants. I have Java fern in every tank and the hillstreams love to rest on, or graze on algae on the leaves.

"Leaf surfing" is how we have come to call it ;-) One of our female cheni has a favourite Java Fern leaf which sits in the powerhead outflow, she seems to love resting on the leaf completely ignoring that fact it is being bounced up and down in the current.

[Martin Thoene]

Leaf Surfing.....there's one for the Glossary

Yes, mine do it too. Anubias are where they like to hang ten.



Martin.

[Martin Thoene]

Mike............


..............FEMALE..............................................................MALE..................

You have to have well conditioned fish to see the differences. The female's back will be more noticeably arched as well. This pretty much applies to all Gastromyzon species.

Martin.

[mikev]

Thanks, Martin,

It seems like you are talking about the snout shape here, with males being more square. Essentially the Sewellia dimorphism, but much less pronounced, and no fin ridges to help.

(I googled around trying to find an explanation, noticed this link:
http://aquaworld.netfirms.com/Cyprinoid ... omyzon.htm
with a mysterious phrase:

Breeding: A unique breeding report can be found at www.loaches.com

)

[mikev]

Some more gastronomical experiments, forced by a Seaweed collapse into the tank:

Nothing surprising about this guy liking the food:



But most of the excitement came from these guys:



Albeit, soon they found an easier way to feed:

[Graeme Robson]

I've always thrown this stuff away from my tanks. Interesting.

[mikev]

Try it, I doubt this stuff can be dangerous. Most hillstreams here would at least taste it.

Confuzona's, btw, are still eating it and playing around it....I wish i had better photo skills.