Fellow red neon blue-eye keepers? (pseudomugil luminatus)

[californiascape]

Anyone else keep these wonderful fish? I'd love to see them and hear about your setups.

I have a group of them breeding actively in my high-tech 17g at 7.6 ph, 7 gh, 6 kh. They seem to be pretty hardy, and not much of a jumper, for me at least. I've only ever lost one male from jumping, and my tank is open-top.

The males display daily at each other and the females. Interestingly I ocassionally see females flare their fins at each other too, I hadn't read about that when I was researching these fish. Obviously it's harder to tell though, because their fins are more transparent. These fish have the coolest behavior though, they're always doing something different whenever I look in the tank. Scavenging for food in the plants, displaying at each other, schooling in the high-flow area, all spread out exploring, males chasing little groups of females... the list goes on haha.

They're very easy to breed, but raising the fry is harder. That's my next challenge to overcome, I'd love to hear any tips and tricks you guys have in the fry-care area.

 

[Coradee]

Lovely tank & fish, hope you get some responses today from other members who keep them

 

[californiascape]

Lovely tank & fish, hope you get some responses today from other members who keep them

Thank you! I appreciate it

 

[RobM]

Raising luminatus is the same as rainbows (they are technically not rainbows but are from some of the same areas) so if you find any info on them it would apply. I had some for a while but no longer keep them.

For fry you need micro powdered foods, Sera micron or 50-100 Golden Pearls. Both as pretty easy to source during normal times. You just sprinkle a tiny bit on the surface of the water. Once they get a little over 1/4" you can start feeding them baby brine shrimp or something like Hikari first bites. You can also give them crushed flakes but the previous two are a bit better nutrition-wise for growing fry.

Other than that just give them clean filtered water between 75 & 80 and they should do fine.

Once they are older you can give them a tank with some amount of current. They are said to grow longer fin extensions with current, making for a better looking adult.

 

[californiascape]

Raising luminatus is the same as rainbows (they are technically not rainbows but are from some of the same areas) so if you find any info on them it would apply. I had some for a while but no longer keep them.

For fry you need micro powdered foods, Sera micron or 50-100 Golden Pearls. Both as pretty easy to source during normal times. You just sprinkle a tiny bit on the surface of the water. Once they get a little over 1/4" you can start feeding them baby brine shrimp or something like Hikari first bites. You can also give them crushed flakes but the previous two are a bit better nutrition-wise for growing fry.

Other than that just give them clean filtered water between 75 & 80 and they should do fine.

Once they are older you can give them a tank with some amount of current. They are said to grow longer fin extensions with current, making for a better looking adult.

Yep, I ordered 50-100 micron Golden Pearls along with some BBS eggs to hatch once the fry are big enough, thankfully the order came pretty fast even with the pandemic situation. My current batch is about 7 little fry, as I spot new ones in the tank I add them to the group. Cute little things. They seem to be pecking at the Golden Pearl dust (are they supposed to act more voracious?).

Oddly I haven't had any luck in collecting eggs, my adults don't show any interest in the spawning mop I put in there. Not sure where they're laying their eggs otherwise, they seem to be displaying all over the tank, so I don't even know where to guess haha.

Yep, these fry will definitely get a tank with flow as they get larger. My adults love the flow in the big tank. I'm cycling a 5g as a fry growout at the moment!

I'd love to be able to collect the eggs easily and start raising multiple batches at once. These fish fetch a good price!

 

[RobM]

With all the plants you have in your tank they will almost certainly ignore the spawning mop.

If you want to collect a bunch of eggs you could put them in a bare tank (any large container will do, a 5g bucket even) with just a mop & heater. Check the mop often as they will eat some of the eggs and do 50% water changes every two days. Within a week you should have enough eggs and can put the adults back into the planted tank.

 

[chromedome52]

Thought I already commented on this. Oh, well, better late than never.

Get some Riccia fluitans. Let a small raft of this grow floating on the surface. Not only will they spawn into this, the fry can get into the middle and avoid the hungry adults. IME the fry prefer to stay at the surface, so they need cover plants like the Riccia to hide in.

 

[californiascape]

With all the plants you have in your tank they will almost certainly ignore the spawning mop.

If you want to collect a bunch of eggs you could put them in a bare tank (any large container will do, a 5g bucket even) with just a mop & heater. Check the mop often as they will eat some of the eggs and do 50% water changes every two days. Within a week you should have enough eggs and can put the adults back into the planted tank.

Oh, yeah that makes sense haha. I will consider doing that... maybe before I add the fry to their growout tank I can collect eggs in it? Or maybe I'll wait until after the fry are grown up? Not sure yet how much fry raising work I want to take on lol. Thanks for the tip though, that helps.

 

[QCAquaholic]

One LFS just got some of those in, and I would happily buy them if I didn't just get some gertrudae on Wednesday.

 

[californiascape]

One LFS just got some of those in, and I would happily buy them if I didn't just get some gertrudae on Wednesday.

Oooh, yeah. When I first started this tank I considered mixing the pseudomugils because I love all of their colors, but decided against it. It probably wouldn't be the best for them, though I've seen other people do it, and it is possible. I still wonder what type of hybrids you could get though lol.

 

[californiascape]

Thought I already commented on this. Oh, well, better late than never.

Get some Riccia fluitans. Let a small raft of this grow floating on the surface. Not only will they spawn into this, the fry can get into the middle and avoid the hungry adults. IME the fry prefer to stay at the surface, so they need cover plants like the Riccia to hide in.

Yo, that's a good idea too. I have a jar of riccia somewhere in my plant growouts haha. I think Riccia will probably be hard for me to spot eggs in, but that's probably a plus, the adults won't be able to spot them to eat 'em.

They definitely do prefer the surface, my 7 I've collected stay at the top most the time. I have a lot of red root floaters in my tank that they're surprisingly good at hiding in, it's kind of stressful since I need to remove the floaters before they take over, I'm afraid I'll remove some fry (or eggs) with them.

I'm keeping my fry in a cup floating in the main tank separate from the adults at the moment to keep them safe.

 

[QCAquaholic]

They look pretty evenly matched.