After almost 60 hours in a bag, these three guys made it to NC from Uruguay.
Floating in their quarantine tank, minimal setup so it's easy to keep clean. I had a huge issue with external parasites (Ich) with the fish I brought home from Uruguay last December, so the pump runs a UV sterilizer to eliminate that problem. Simple sponge filter, no heater. Change 25% of the water everyday. Parameters: pH 7.2, TDS: 69 micro siemens, temp: 78* (only while in quarantine, then lower, 70-72* range). No chemical parasite treatment, only salt.
In Uruguay it was 10 degrees celcius, and in those conditions they do not eat, so these guys are quite thin, but very healthy. They get live black worms everyday, and already accept vegi-flakes, but no interest in pellets yet.
These pictures are from the day after their arrival, so they are ragged and stressed out still, but are settling in well, and fattening up too.
I imported three (7-9cm), hopefully one of them is a male that this female will fancy. I brought her back from Uruguay last December. She is 14cm, so it will be 3-4 months before the others can be put with her. They have some growing to do first, otherwise she might view them as lunch instead of potential mates.
In the wild they grow to 22cm, and are only found in the Rio Cuareim, that forms the border between Uruguay and Brazil, and a few of its tributaries.
They are in quarantine for 4 weeks, then into a 180g tank. I'll do an update on that, in the mean time this will have to do. Maybe with a little luck and cooperation, I can be only the third person to breed them in captivity. cheers,
Ed
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