Romeo Posted September 30, 2008 Report Share Posted September 30, 2008 The other night at Spoon's I managed to pick off a couple of Inanga, aswell as the monster bully. Now that he's gone I'm left to tend to my awesome Inanga! They're about 8-10cm long with lovely green and brown leopard print patterns. Now... What do they eat? I've got a lot of goldfish flake on hand? How long should they take to settle in? Can I train them to eat out of my hand like it says on the Niwa website? What illnesses do they get? What lighting do they like (currently 8 hours a day)? Do they need caves or are they happy hiding in my plants? Is 50 litres (80*30*30) + 1 koura suitable? I've got a new Eheim 2010 on the way, with 500 LPH max. At the moment they're just chilling under my plants. But when it's dark they come out and swim around, holding stationary in the power head outlet. I don't think my Koura's noticed them - so that's a good start. I plonked a worm right infront of the big one, but it completely ignored it. They're probably too stressed from just being caught right? Anyways, These are the first fish I've ever had, so ANY advice is welcome. Cheers, Romeo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted September 30, 2008 Report Share Posted September 30, 2008 I dont know a great deal about natives. All native fish are prone to white spot, so watch out for that. :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted September 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2008 RE Heir Oh yea, Spoon gave me a bag of special aquarium salt. But wasn't too sure as to how much I should apply? I don't want my Koura getting too salty after all ;P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb Posted September 30, 2008 Report Share Posted September 30, 2008 What do they eat? I've got a lot of goldfish flake on hand? They probably wont eat flake for a start until they have settled in, besides, there are better things for them. Try frozen bloodworm or mysis shrimp How long should they take to settle in? Depends on a variety of things, lighting etc Can I train them to eat out of my hand like it says on the Niwa website? Yes What illnesses do they get? Many, as mentioned White spot is common when they are settling in, otherwise they are quite hardy but things always can go wrong down the track What lighting do they like (currently 8 hours a day)? Well they aren't plants so they aren't too fussy! A single T8 tube should be enough so you can see them, dimmer the better provided your plants have enough (this depends on what species you have) and you can see them, especially if you dont have a chiller Do they need caves or are they happy hiding in my plants? No they dont need caves Is 50 litres (80*30*30) + 1 koura suitable? I've got a new Eheim 2010 on the way, with 500 LPH max. You havent said how many inaga you have! Oh yea, Spoon gave me a bag of special aquarium salt. But wasn't too sure as to how much I should apply? I don't want my Koura getting too salty after all ;P. dont use this as a preventative, clean water with stable parameters is much more important Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted September 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2008 RE DavidB Thanks for all the info, I've only got 2 Inanga about 10cm long each. I'll make a trip to the LFS and see what I can find, food wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted September 30, 2008 Report Share Posted September 30, 2008 Cool! I love the 'leopard print' description, that is so accurate! DavidB covered things pretty well. Flake will mostly be wasted by them. THey will eat it if hungry enough, mostly they will spit it out in a billion pieces. As David said, frozen bloodworm etc are good, and they are easy for newly-caught fish to identify as food. Don't worry if they don't 'get it' immediately, they will eat when hungry enough. They can go a week or so without eating. I find bloodworms are not nutritious enough. My fish all get ox heart and they are doing so much better. It may take a while to get them onto such a different diet, so stick to the bloodworms for a bit. Ox heart is great for getting fish to feed from your hands. They will settle faster if things are less scary. Walk very carefully near the tank, don't throw the curtains open dramatically. These things do make a difference. As they are hanging by the powerhead outlet they may like a little more current. See how they go over time. Inanga don't like it swift, but seem to appreciate a little current. They are drift feeders. They do exactly what you described while waiting for food to come downstream to them. Inanga are midstream fish, they don't hide much like the others. Always good to give them the option, but if there are plenty of caves for your cray then it is sorted. Whitespot and columnaris are the main ones natives get. Have a look at the whitespot section on www.skepticalaquarist.com Very good info as there are a LOT of pervasive myths about it. Both are treatable with salt. 1/2tsp per litre for whitespot and 1tsp per litre for columnaris. As David said, there are many others too, but these are definitely the two you come up against most. David is right about not using salt as a preventative, but focusing on water quality. Having added more load to your tank, the biological processes in the filter etc will take while to catch up. Do some extra waterchanges over hte next couple of weeks, but as gently as possible. Just drain and fill from one corner so they don't freak out. THey are pretty much full sized at 10cm. In the wild they have a one year life cycle as the die after spawning. In captivity... well I had a three year old very elderly inanga, but I have seen a five year old 15cm inanga! Some do well, others get egg-bound and die. Tis pure luck. Hmm, ok so I just meant to write a short post.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted October 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 RE Stella Thanks for all the info! I'll have a good read when I get home from work - right after I pick up my new 500lph Eheim! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted October 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 So I got the new filter in, stressing the hell out of the Inanga in the process. Finish up, go upstairs and get some 0.99 cent shrimp that I feed my Koura occasionally. Cut it up into little pieces - to give my Koura something to hunt around for - microwave them out of their frozen slumber, pop them in... AND THE INANGA START WOLFING THEM DOWN! Success! They've even started to eat a bit of flake aswell. I just know these guys are going to make great pets, the lights don't even seem to bother them either ;D! PS: I've got an Eheim 2010 500lph internal filter, and it rocks, but it's pretty huge - the outlet of the filter is right at the surface. Can I lay it on a 45° angle to fit it in a bit better? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snorkel Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Yep, I got a 2008 that I use as a spare. It goes completely sideways no problems at all. I think it would go upside down ok too. Good luck with the Inanga. I'm jealous. The shrimp You got are the supermarket models right? We got shrimp in the billions up here, but I'm not keen cause everything in the wild here has white-spot. My fish had it when I got them and one still has it. It has proven extremely difficult to erradicate. I can't wait till the day my water is clear and not some shade of green or blue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 woohoo Romeo, that is great! Snorkel, whitespot is annoying to eradicate but should be gone for you by now. The main thing to remember is that in cold water it takes MUCH longer than in tropical. It usually takes about three weeks for a light dusting to be killed off. They can ONLY be killed in the free swimming stage, not at any other point in time. This is their lifecycle: [list=]attached to fish fall off fish mature in gravel hatch into billions of free-swimmers attach to fish. In cold water this takes about a week to complete. If they don't attach to a fish they die in about two days. It is also possible for them to attach to a fish's gills and are thus not visible. So it is important that you keep treating for AT LEAST one week after the last spot falls off, if not two in a difficult case. The other thing is native fish often come in with parasites *under* their skin that look similar to whitespot but are non-infectious and non-damaging. They are just part of a complex lifecycle and after a few months or so they pass out of the fish. There is a photo of this here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefis ... 4014438146 Excellent info here on whitespot, complex but dispels a lot of the myths: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml I hope that helps, whitespot sucks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Oh, Snorkel I forgot. The shrimp will not get whitespot as they are not fish, BUT it is possible for the whitespot to mature on a shrimp (after it has fallen off a fish). About the same risk as taking a tiny stone from the wild and placing it in your tank. But again, if you leave them in quarantine for a week they will be fine. Then again EVERYTHING from the wild should be quarantined (fish for two weeks). I learned that one the hard way and then the really, really hard way... do'h! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snorkel Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Sadly, that seems to be the best way to learn something! I will never... I mean NEVER.... not quarantine animals, plants, even little pebbles before I put them in my tank again. It's just not worth it. I nearly had the white spot sorted, but I went away and before I went, I done a half water change and this must of diluted the chemical enough for it to start over again. Doh! Once again, thanx for the great links. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spoon Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 romeo do u want the other inanga i have in my goldfish tank or should i return him to the stream? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted October 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2008 Thanks for all the info folks! Spoon I think I'll stick with two for now, but I'll probably be out to your place again to get a few more ;P! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted October 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 Just a bit of an update and a few questions folks. I've had them for about 3 weeks, and they're slowly settling in. They're sneaky little buggers, you NEVER see them happily swimming around the tank - UNLESS you creep in at about 10pm, then they're going crazy. Darting around, rubbing on each other, scooting around in and out of the powerhead, wriggling through the plants and teasing the Koura. I've been giving them frozen bloodworms. The AquaOne 1cm³ blocks every 1 to 2 days. I'll throw one in, they'll completely ignore it, then I'll come back into the room an hour or so later and the tank's spotless - it's bizarre! They get on really well with my Koura as well, and vice versa. I've noticed on some occasions my Koura will be wandering about, doing the rounds, and one of the fish will be in it's way. What it'll do is gently push the fish out of the way - I thought Koura were carnivores?! I'm just a bit iffy about the way I feed them. Is it a good idea to just throw the entire cube into the tank? I used to feed them by hand with a drinking straw, but they got too accustomed to it and wouldn't eat floating food - it HAD to be on the stick or they wouldn't touch it. Oh, and I'm moving house soon. What's the best way to move a fish tank? I was thinking that I might try and bottle or bag as much tank water as I can, so I can reuse it at my new place. Other then that I haven't got a clue, so any advice would be greatly appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted October 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 Here's some pictures of the offending Inanga... Here's the link tothe larger pictures if anyone's interested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spoon Posted October 17, 2008 Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 with ur koura and inaga syphon a bucket or two of water put inaga in 1 koura in other completely drain tank get some 1 to help u lift it leave gravel in if possible and get it set up again at new place asap use tap water leaving enuff room for buckets of water with fish in it to fill it start filter chuck fish in and do regular water changes during 1st 2 wks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted October 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 Awesome, thanks Spoon! I want to change my gravel aswell, I don't particularly like the coloured stuff and want to go for all black stuff. Does this mean I'll have to re-cycle my tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted October 17, 2008 Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 Use river sand Its fairly dark and looks natural. and you wont need to recylce the tank if you keep the filter going in one of the buckets for as long as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Hi Romeo, Lovely inanga - very strong markings! Inanga can be quite skittish. They may relax more if in a small school (5 or so) but that depends on if your tank is big enough for them. When I feed bloodworm I defrost the cube first by putting it in a really fine tea strainer and running it under the cold tap. There are a lot of nutrients in the water frosen around the bloodworms that just go to feeding the algae. Also the sudden influx of food means they all get a go (when there are more fish in the tank). Your powerhead will swish them around and hopefully look alive and enticing to the inanga. I found frozen bloodworm was not a great food. Convenient and good for getting them adjusted to captivity on, but not much value in it for growing fish. I use oxheart mostly now and they are FAT Some crays are less aggressive towards fish than others. I think it kinda depends on if they have discovered how tasty they are yet... Technically in the wild their diet is 95% vegetarian. I use gravel from a local stream in my tanks. Looks really natural. It is a big job moving your tank. Spoon has some good advice there, particularly keeping the koura separate! Do save as much tank water as possible. I can't remember what sort of filtration you have. Of course undergravel will require complete re-cycling. If it is internal or external, try to have it unplugged for as short a time as possible. If need be, have it plugged in and running on a bucket or something, just to keep the bacteria alive. A moved tank should be treated pretty much like a newly set-up tank. Lots of regular waterchanges. Oh and don't move the tank late at night like a friend did, and drop it out of sheer exhaustion.... If you can, move the tank on a seperate day to your main move, so you can dedicate the time and energy to doing it well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted October 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Thanks Stella, excellent post! All taken on board ;D! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supasi Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Niwa website? Just like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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