Paraneetroplus Melanurus
History: I obtained 12 fish at 1.5 inches from Forest Lake Pets in Forest Lake, MN back in February of 2011. Fish were mislabled as Veija Bifaciatus. Fish were moved around from a 30 gallon to a 75 gallon and now to a 125 gallon. As of October 2012, I only have 4 left. The rest were killed off possibly due to lack of space. I believe I have two males and two females.
Behaviors of the Paraneetroplus Melanurus: Mine are very skittish not matter how much time I spend with them. No matter how hungry they are (I fast my fish every weekend), they won't eat any pellets until I am at least 4 ft away from the tank. Every time I walk into my fish room, they dart everywhere and try to find cover. If I ever get a breeding pair, I hope their skittish behaviors will adjust to raise the fry properly.
These fish are also very aggressive. Way more aggresive than their color-morph brothers and sisters, Snyspillum. My group is constantly chasing one another. This aggression may have been caused by their need of a larger tank. I had the original 12 in a 30 gallon for 3 months, then tranfered them to a 75 gallon at about 4inches.
Behaviors of the Paraneetroplus Melanurus: Mine are very skittish not matter how much time I spend with them. No matter how hungry they are (I fast my fish every weekend), they won't eat any pellets until I am at least 4 ft away from the tank. Every time I walk into my fish room, they dart everywhere and try to find cover. If I ever get a breeding pair, I hope their skittish behaviors will adjust to raise the fry properly.
These fish are also very aggressive. Way more aggresive than their color-morph brothers and sisters, Snyspillum. My group is constantly chasing one another. This aggression may have been caused by their need of a larger tank. I had the original 12 in a 30 gallon for 3 months, then tranfered them to a 75 gallon at about 4inches.
Paraneetroplus Melanurus Group of 4
10/16/2012: The melanurus are quite skittish and tend to scratch themselves or loose a scale almost everytime I walk into my fish room. I really hate this about the melanurus. Last night I observed two melanurus with bright colors guarding the left side of the 125 gallon. It seems that they cleaned off a rock and both are aggressively pushing all the other fish to the right side of the tank. The larger melanurus (assumed male) and the smaller melanurus (assumed female) both were locking lips and flaring to one another. The smaller melanurus also has a tube out by the anal area. I hope and anticipate all of these to be signs of breeding behaviors. The assumed male is about 8 inches and the assumed female is about 7 inches. Both have extremely beautiful dark red/dark orange/brown color. I had no intention of breeding these fish ever only because of their skittish behaviors, but if they breed, that would be nice. Many times, I have posted these fish for sale or tried to give them away to family and friends, but they always end up staying with me due to their amazing colors.
Group of 4 still active
12/24/2012: I decided to take some pictures of this group today. These guys are quite skiitish so I try not to bother them as much. I also moved a few items around in the tank which seems to have helped them establish some territory. Tje 4 are in a 125 gallon along with 3 Herichthys Bocouti and a breeding pair of Honduran Red Points.