Ameca Splendids

[Dangerdoll]

I got these buggers as juvies from Bobnova and what a great bunch of livebearers. They have the personalities of something else though..... they can be nippy toward each other, especially the males and despite their smaller size, they can be male to male aggressive so a bigger planted tank is needed if you are going to have a community of other fish. The first pic is the older male, still a juvenile but rules the roost already. He's buddied up with an angel and will have nothing of the other male in the next pic. The last pic is the younger male doing a dance for the ladies. I am new to keeping these fish and bob has led me through each stage of these guys. The next stage of these minitrout looking fellas is their blue stage. The males will beging to develop an irridescent blue hue to them. I can't wait to see that and will post them when they do.

[OrionGirl]

How big are they as adults? I'm still trying to decide what--if anything--to put in my 12. Has to be compatible with cherry shrimp and snails.

[Dangerdoll]

I do have some cherries and ghosts in with them but not any snails other than common ponds. These guys are about 1.5 - 2 inches and it's said they can get up to 3 or so.

[OrionGirl]

Hmmmm...I haven't had livebearers in years...A trio would be okay in the 12. How are they about dealing with the fry?

[Dangerdoll]

Yeah, these are my first livebearers since I kept guppies, oh in '96, and not wanting to get back into the guppy life, I read what Bobnova had to say about these guys and was quite intrigued. I'm not sure how they are with fry as I haven't had any yet but it's said that the fry are pretty big when born. I will let you know if you haven't gotten any by the time these guys do breed and at the rate they are going, it may be sooner than I would assume. They are quite flirty. I would go for one male and 2 females as you're thinking because the males in my 75 gallon are quite bickery, constantly chasing each other but no damage comes of them such as torn fins or broken scales. In a smaller tank, I would think that the aggression between males would definitely be higher.

[OrionGirl]

Yeah--I would never put 2 males and one female in the 12, of ANY species. Even packed with plants, there's just no room to run away!

I'm in no hurry to add anything--I'm still removing handfulls of snails at this point.

[Lucky_13]

ok, what is that huge black furry thing in the first picture, and the little curl in the second one?

[Dangerdoll]

that's the Neptune ornament that looks lie he is coming out from the bottom and it's got some brush algae on it. The big thing is his arm, if you look to the left, you can see his face in that pic and the curved thing is his foot.

here's a pic of the entire thing.

[Emg]

Hehe.....Cool !

[Lucky_13]

i might have figured that out, but my monitor is really dark so it makes it hard to see some details, like i didn't see his face in the first one, its just a dark blob in the shadow of the plants.