Mouth Almighty Cardinalfish (G. aprion)

[Fallen_Leaves16]

Purchased one a year or so back with the intent of eventually forming a breeding colony; unfortunately, other matters got in the way and that never happened, so I eventually gave the fish to a reasonably close friend of mine (the fish was constantly being shuttled back and forth across tanks and I felt pretty bad about that). My LFS recently got a small group of Mouth Almighties again and I figured I'd give them another shot.
They definitely need some TLC, but it's not too bad and I suspect they'll be fine if I can get them to eat.
Current setup is a 75G community (mainly misc. South American fish w/ the exception of these guys and two gouramis); there's a random tangle of vallisneria and cordifolius swords that I've yet to plant, and a piece of driftwood that I've tried to sink for a whole year and miserably failed.
So far, they seem to have no interest in each other whatsoever, and group dynamics seem virtually nonexistent.
Anyone have any info on growth rate and anything important to know about these guys? From what I've seen, once they eat well, they're pretty much set and don't grow very fast (~3cm per 6-8mos or so); not sure if that's true for the species in general, though.

 

[qldmick]

I caught an egg holding Mouth Almighty in salt water and successfully converted it to fresh water, the eggs were in a ball stuck together not individually like Africans, it released its fry but they wouldn't eat prepared foods so I lost the babies.

Good luck and let us know your progress.

 

[Fallen_Leaves16]

I caught an egg holding Mouth Almighty in salt water and successfully converted it to fresh water, the eggs were in a ball stuck together not individually like Africans, it released its fry but they wouldn't eat prepared foods so I lost the babies.

Good luck and let us know your progress.

Thanks! Fascinating to hear that the eggs survived a transition from full salt to full fresh, and that the male didn't swallow the eggs out of stress. What prepared foods did you try to feed the fry, and how big were they? Also, how big was the male? I'm not entirely sure when they hit sexual maturity; the ones I have right now are pretty young and probably need a good year or two before they're old enough to spawn, but I'd really appreciate any confirmation or . What's starting to be a bit of a major concern is how skinny nearly all of them are; on two of them, their ribcage is visibly sticking out and all of them have concave bellies; one or two of them seem to show mild interest in brine shrimp (didn't really expect them to, but quite reassuring to see that they're somewhat interested) but the rest of them just keep doing their characteristic hovering routine.

 

[latapy10]

Purchased one a year or so back with the intent of eventually forming a breeding colony; unfortunately, other matters got in the way and that never happened, so I eventually gave the fish to a reasonably close friend of mine (the fish was constantly being shuttled back and forth across tanks and I felt pretty bad about that). My LFS recently got a small group of Mouth Almighties again and I figured I'd give them another shot.
They definitely need some TLC, but it's not too bad and I suspect they'll be fine if I can get them to eat.
Current setup is a 75G community (mainly misc. South American fish w/ the exception of these guys and two gouramis); there's a random tangle of vallisneria and cordifolius swords that I've yet to plant, and a piece of driftwood that I've tried to sink for a whole year and miserably failed.
So far, they seem to have no interest in each other whatsoever, and group dynamics seem virtually nonexistent.
Anyone have any info on growth rate and anything important to know about these guys? From what I've seen, once they eat well, they're pretty much set and don't grow very fast (~3cm per 6-8mos or so); not sure if that's true for the species in general, though.
View attachment 1515775

it would be interesting to know if he also eats frozen blodworms...

 

[Fallen_Leaves16]

I managed to get four out of five mouth almighties to eat f/t krill with the shell removed in the late evening yesterday; one or two of them show mild interest in pellets tossed in there for some of the other fish but none have tried to take any. Being visually-motivated ambush hunters, I doubted that they'd eat anything that's dead, but I guess I didn't really need to worry much. Bellies are all still concave, though.
They seem to do much better in a group, as if one attempts to eat something, the others often follow suit unless the first deems the object inedible. Loose "groups" are formed (though this may be more coincidental than anything else) around cover, and they seem rather ignorant to other tank inhabitants. Anything even barely large enough to present too challenging a meal is completely disregarded and the fish are quite passive. Kind of amusing to watch one of the apistogrammas flare at them to no avail.
I think one of them may have eaten my smallest L213, though; it's nowhere to be seen and one of the almighties have an unusually large bulge in its stomach. Hopefully it's just krill.

 

[Fallen_Leaves16]

it would be interesting to know if he also eats frozen blodworms...

I did feed the tank bloodworms (as I usually do for the woodcats and apistos to pick at), and one mouth almighty did seem to stare at a clump of them, but an angelfish beat him to the worms and the mouth almighty lost interest in them. I think they're too small for them to really take much notice.

 

[qldmick]

I can't remember what I tried feed the fry sorry, think would have been powered flake or very fine fry, I think I had electric blue fry at the time so one of those to feed them. I don't even remember feeding him but he was in much better condition to yours and probably twice as long. I would probably try feeding them live earth worms, maybe them just some dead ones if it they take them them onto frozen food/pellets if they ever take them. I know my saratoga never want to take pellets but got him onto fish pieces, them pellets soaked in a bag of fish pellets, then pellets everyday.

 

[Friller2009]

looking good man! Gotta get me some next time i go up to FNQ.
There is an article in Fishes of sahul about breeding Mouth almighties

Here's the info I gave for the fish of the day thread about almighties.

They get to about 20cm max. And that would be a huge mouth almighty, usually 10-15cm.
They are mouthbrooders and the males put on an awesome colour during breeding time.
I’d recommend a tank that is kinda tall, as it gives them more space to hide. Chuck in floating leaves and they will love you. They hide in it and lay motionless waiting for food, kinda like a baby barramundi. Driftwood cover is a must. They love plant cover. Lots of live foods.

As far as water, pH 4.5 - 8.1. Can tolerate temps up to 34 degrees Celsuis. Mate of mine bred them in a tank 22-24 degrees and was filler with java moss.

A pair would go fine in a tank about 2ftx1.5ftx1.5ft, but I consider that the bare minimum. 3ft and upwards would be great.

 

[qldmick]

These guys are great predators!


I have caught these guys in lake Wivenhoe(Brisbane South East Queensland) and Townsville (North Queensland)
I have heard that they grow biggest In Tinaroo Dam(Atherton Tablelands North Queensland)

 

[Fallen_Leaves16]

Thanks guys! qldmick, they look pretty fun to catch. What lures do they usually hit? Kinda interested in how they'd compare to some NA centrarchids.
Friller2009, 22C is fairly cold; what's their tolerable temperature range? Quite interesting to hear that a (presumably) warmwater/tropical species willingly spawns in temperatures that low. By "awesome color", do you mean something like what qldmick's second image shows? Have to agree with you on the tank structure; tall tanks definitely seem like the way to go for mouth almighties, asmore height allows food to stay in the water column longer, which seems crucial to getting them to eat dead/prepared foods. What's odd is that none of the mouth almighties seem to like hanging out near a dense floating plant thicket, and instead seem to hover around a small floating chunk of wood.

Also a small update: 3/5 ate more krill and one or two ate small chunks of silverside on Wednesday, but yesterday all but one refused to eat, which was kind of concerning. Parameters were the same as they were on Monday; ammonia-0, nitrate- ~20, nitrite-0, pH-~6.7, temp.- ~25?C, TDS- ~200. Will upload pictures later.

On a possibly related note, my largest male super red ancistrus (cf. cirrhosus) suddenly swelled up to an extreme degree within a matter of minutes at around 1:45 PM yesterday- within five minutes, he went from nibbling at a NorthFin Carnivore pellet to struggling at the surface, swollen like a balloon. He perished in an isolation tank at around 7PM the same day. Tried epsom salt and a light dose of Kanaplex with no avail. Never seen a fish swell up so quickly; nothing seemed to help and none of the other fish seemed to be affected at all. I have the body frozen in a plastic bag with some tank water; not sure what to do with it, though.