Are there any pseudomugil luminatus keepers on here?

[VSA]

I have had 7 of these since 2018 so had a great run with these and they have always been happy and well behaved. But the numbers have reducing. Recently I have come down to 2 now.

I’m now seeing the dominant one chasing the other one constantly. The tank is heavily planted but the dominant one can turn up anywhere in search of the second one.

I’m wondering if this is simply down to the fact the shoal is down to 2?

 

[chromedome52]

I have had 7 of these since 2018 so had a great run with these and they have always been happy and well behaved. But the numbers have reducing. Recently I have come down to 2 now.

I’m now seeing the dominant one chasing the other one constantly. The tank is heavily planted but the dominant one can turn up anywhere in search of the second one.

I’m wondering if this is simply down to the fact the shoal is down to 2?

Most likely that is the reason. But am I to understand that you've had these fish for 3-4 years and never had them spawn? They're not that hard to breed, given their own tank.

 

[VSA]

I never really looked out for spawning but it’s possible that they did. Spawning is probably a much better explanation for why I had consistent numbers over 3 years than my initial thought that I was just lucky and the original batch lived longer than expected.

 

[Gudgie]

I'm fairly sure Demeter has that species. If you've had them 3-4 years, they're definitely getting fairly old, so not surprising you've lost some. I'd guess spawning as well, if you think it's a M/F pair that's left. Although I'm impressed if that's the case, based on their age.

 

[Demeter]

These guys do not live long if they are anything like their cousins, the gertrudes. My group of gertrudes is on it's last leg with a single pair and 2 fry. You'll be lucky if they live 2 years, let alone 3-4.

Even spawning males will not harass the females to the point of it looking like aggression. They are very easy to sex so you should be able to see what you have. My little group of 6 luminatus (might be 5, not sure anymore) has just one female and she is not bullied by the males. The males do not seem to bully each other all that much either. Males will flick their fins at females but 2 males fighting will have their fins completely erect as they size each other up. I've never noticed any hardcore bullying and mine are in a little 7.4gal planted cube.

That being said, I have 3 fry together. One is a luminatus and the other 2 are gertrudes, the largest 2 occasionally have little spats of chasing each other away. Hoping that stops when I add in the next batch of 3 luminatus fry.

 

[VSA]

Thanks. Really interesting to hear about these fish. My remaining two are a male and female. The chasing seems to have stopped. The chasing started after a heavy trim of their tank but seems to have subsided now.

I really like these fish. If I have a chance, I’m hoping to move these to a larger tank and add another 6. But I’d need to see if my LFS has stock and if I have space to move out the betta that lives in the other tank.