diamond geezers

I've been planning on setting up a diamond tetra tank for the last while and I finally did it over the last week. I have 7 tetras and today I bought 8 wild diamonds from Seahorse. I'll post some photos of the tank in a few days, when the water has cleared a little and the blackwater effect is more obvious. I really just wanted to show a few pics comparing the wild and captive bred fish

Diamond's have always been a favourite of mine and, I think, are very underrated. They're the really ugly ducklings of fishkeeping that start off silvery and bland but grow into one of the most subtly stunning fish in the hobby.

First up, a comparison of juveniles. the two fish in the centre of this photo are approximately the same size, but the paler one is captive bred (in my own tank) and the other is wild. Same fish, same lighting, same age.


An adult female and a few wild juvies. The juvies look like they're lit from the inside! And there's only a 9w light on this tank; it looks much darker in real life than the photos suggest.


And finally, a mixed bag. I have to stress that my own diamonds otherwise look great. They're stunning fish, especially under subdued lighting, preferable with some kind of side-lighting... but when the wild tetras mature, I think they're just going to leave them in the shade... so to speak


Thanks to Darren for the chat... though when I told the wife my fish came with genuine Venezuelan bacteria she was still suitably underwhelmed!

Sound real interesting. Looking forward to updates and some more pics

Cheers. Hopefully I'll have less dire photos then

I have to admit i love the so called ugly ducklings that look drab in the LFS. Congo tetras are another fish that colour up beautiful. Lovely looking fish you have there. Interested to know what sort of set up you have for them ?

Eric

Eric wrote:

I have to admit i love the so called ugly ducklings that look drab in the LFS. Congo tetras are another fish that colour up beautiful. Lovely looking fish you have there. Interested to know what sort of set up you have for them ?

Eric

If I had a tank big enough, Congos would be on my list too.

I'll post a video in a few days. It's a 55L tank filtered by a Nirox sponge filter with a Juwel Rekord powerhead connected to it, 400l/h. I siliconed a piece of mangrove root into one corner and in the corner with the filter and heater I put a basalt rock with Java fern glued to it. There's only a fine sand substrate. I've got 4-5 Katappa leaves (thanks ger310) soaking in the tank; the water has already started to take on a darker tinge. There's Salvinia natans (thanks Lydia) floating on the surface to break up the already weak light.

The whole idea is to recreate a blackwater stream. To be honest, I've noticed it really seems to come into its own at night

Sounds like a real nice set up. If you want the water even darker i find alder cones are excellent for colouring the water and look nice in the tank as well


Eric

I have them and I might use them but I want to see how dark the almond leaves get it first

Sounds really nice...pics of tank.please

The slight bacterial bloom has cleared so I thought I'd post a few more photos with a video to follow later.

This is the whole setup.


As I said, it's a 55L filtered with a Juwel powerhead attached to a sponge. I know it's a bit unsightly but it provides gentle enough flow that the leaves won't be spinning around the tank. Hopefully the Java fern will grow to cover it somewhat.

And another picture for a WILD Vs CAPTIVE-BRED comparison.


Front and centre is my largest male captive-bred diamond tetra. You can see how the juveniles behind him are reflecting much more light, despite their age.

Please excuse the dodgy camerawork

Very nice fishes, the setup is really natural