A Thread for River

[Kittiee Katt]

Welcome back, Rivers looking great, any chance of getting a mate for her?

Thanks

Na, I don't have the tank space or the money to upgrade so she'll just stay single I recon. If by some miracle we stumble across a large enough tank it may be considered if I can work out a way to avoid babies... But even then I doubt I'd find a male I deemed "pretty" enough for her down here any time soon..

I've been keeping fish for almost seven years and I'd never ever seen a silver GT here until River, and usually when I see orange ones they're lacking in "swag", they're very pretty fish but always seem to have no personality and I'm the weirdo that would rather a dull cichlid that wants to be my friend than a pretty one that doesn't want to talk to me.

 

[DarylMac]

It's normal for them to grow the way you described. It's like they "fill out" between actual growth spurts.

Mine are doing the same thing.

They were all the same size when I put 5 in my tank. 3 have grown. 2 have not. The 3 are now at least twice the size of the others I'd bet, if you measured by displacement. But if you go by length alone the smaller fish are say 3.5" and the largest is maybe 4.5". Maybe. They are just way taller and thicker.

 

[MrsE88]

River is beauty! I never see any silvers around here. I think if I ever find one I'll be needing another tank. Haha!

If you want a way to avoid babies(if you later decide to get a male) or something to do with her eggs, I was feeding mine to my goldfish and koi. It worked great for me since mine laid her eggs on a rock so I just took the rock out and dropped it in my koi pool. They went crazy over the eggs.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

It's normal for them to grow the way you described. It's like they "fill out" between actual growth spurts.

Mine are doing the same thing.

They were all the same size when I put 5 in my tank. 3 have grown. 2 have not. The 3 are now at least twice the size of the others I'd bet, if you measured by displacement. But if you go by length alone the smaller fish are say 3.5" and the largest is maybe 4.5". Maybe. They are just way taller and thicker.

Awesome, its good to know that's normal and I haven't just been adopting cichlids with weird growth patterns lol

River is beauty! I never see any silvers around here. I think if I ever find one I'll be needing another tank. Haha!

If you want a way to avoid babies(if you later decide to get a male) or something to do with her eggs, I was feeding mine to my goldfish and koi. It worked great for me since mine laid her eggs on a rock so I just took the rock out and dropped it in my koi pool. They went crazy over the eggs.

Thanks! I'd never thought of the moving eggs over for my goldfish to eat, that's a great idea! I'm sure they'd love an eggy treat every few months of I ever do get River a mate.

 

[Alexxxxsv14]

She looks great, good job. Lol so she talks to you huh? She's your roomate in a room with glass walls always nice to have fish who are not shy and actually come to the front of the tank and interact with you

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Hi all! I'm VERY behind on updates but now that I have a spare min I thought I'd update River's thread.

She's doing really well and growing nicely, she hasn't really gotten much longer (maybe a centimeter if that) but she's gotten a fair bit taller and thicker.

She still shares her tank with the black widow tetras and so far they've all gotten along. I've moved Sir Elton (L397 plec) in with her and haven't seen him since I know he's still in there because the poop piles up under the wood after a day or two and I have to stand on a chair to vac it out, but I haven't seen the actual fish in weeks...


Anyway, back to River. She keeps laying eggs! She's laid probably 4-5 batches since we got her in December. Its kind of worrying because as she grows she gets more aggressive with the widows (only when she has eggs though) and I'm worried that if she gets too much bigger she might actually hurt them, I'll be keeping an eye on that...

She doesn't like the power head in the back corner of her tank and constantly rips it off the wall and tries to move it around the tank, I honestly didn't think she'd have the strength to get it off but she does, she's surprisingly strong for a small fish. I was putting it back every time I noticed it off the wall but I've since given up on that, I need a chair to do anything with this tank so putting a power head back in place three times a day is just a pain. I've been thinking about just taking it out all together but I need some kind of flow at that end of the tank and even if it hangs weirdly facing the wall it's still better than nothing I guess.

She still doesn't like one of my mates - like, she hates him! I've had to ask him not to go near her tank because she slams the glass so hard that I'm worried she will hurt herself


Photos!
A photo from late June, she looks very blue here:


A photo from mid July, taken about three weeks after the one above:


And a couple from yesterday, you can see the power head hanging awkwardly underneath her:

Her dorsal and anal fins are starting to get little trailers on them, its so cute! I couldn't be happier with her.


Although a question for Stanzzzz7 if you don't mind... Will she ever get the beautiful tall body that yours had? If so, at what age/size should I start to see that?

 

[Stanzzzz7]

Although a question for Stanzzzz7 if you don't mind... Will she ever get the beautiful tall body that yours had? If so, at what age/size should I start to see that?

Hi Kittiee,
A lot of that will depend on genetics. Rivulatus that are close to wild stock tend to be more torpedo shaped.
A lot of rivulatus that are bred in Asia tend to be taller bodied.
I must say I think yours look very similar in shape to my females at around the same age.I think yours will be very much like the shape of mine.
I would expect it to become noticeable after 1 year to 18 months.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Hi Kittiee,
A lot of that will depend on genetics. Rivulatus that are close to wild stock tend to be more torpedo shaped.
A lot of rivulatus that are bred in Asia tend to be taller bodied.
I must say I think yours look very similar in shape to my females at around the same age.I think yours will be very much like the shape of mine.
I would expect it to become noticeable after 1 year to 18 months.

Thank you for the reply, I'm not sure how old she was when we got her but hopefully I'll start noticing her body getting taller in the next six months or so. I hope she gets the tall body, I think they look so cute when they look like little swimming rectangles, either way though she'll be great.

 

[MrsE88]

She is so beautiful!
Her attitude sounds like my female. She is a boss I've had to give up on the tank looking the way I want and just let her decorate it. That usually means rooted plants floating at the top. Ugh. The things we put up with when we love a fish so much

I'm behind on updating too. It's funny, I was just taking pictures this morning for Olivers update. Haha time flys!

Oh, do keep a close eye on those tetras. My girl just killed the orange one she's never been a fan of I didn't see her do it, otherwise I would have saved the poor thing.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

She is so beautiful!
Her attitude sounds like my female. She is a boss I've had to give up on the tank looking the way I want and just let her decorate it. That usually means rooted plants floating at the top. Ugh. The things we put up with when we love a fish so much

I'm behind on updating too. It's funny, I was just taking pictures this morning for Olivers update. Haha time flys!

Oh, do keep a close eye on those tetras. My girl just killed the orange one she's never been a fan of I didn't see her do it, otherwise I would have saved the poor thing.

Thank you. I had a large (13"ish) male geophagus brasiliensis so I'm used to not being able to decorate the tank without it looking completely different half an hour later. If River is able to do the same amount of devastation to the tank as he could at half his size, I'll be amazed.

I will keep two close eyes on the tetras, 7 went in and there's still 7 swimming around. So fingers crossed it stays that way.

Do you mind if I ask (approximately) how old Oliver is? His body looks much taller than Rivers. I love the taller body look and I'm hoping sooo bad River gets it..