# New Old man, Oldman



## Oldman

I am fairly new to this place, I found it with a reference by a friend on another forum. I keep lots of different fish but they are mostly livebearers that are hard to find. That means that I have things like Xenotoca eisenii, a cute little goodeid.








I also keep Brachyrhaphis roseni which I have yet to breed with survivors. This is one of my females.








A few other things in my tanks include two kinds of wild type swordtails, the X. helleri which are the great grandparents of many domestic swordtails and the X. montezumae which are known for having a tail sword that is far longer than the fish's body.
Another thing that might be of interest are the range of goodeids that I keep. Here are a few more, the Xenotoca was one. 
Xenotaenia resolanae called a leopard goodeid








Ameca splendens, called rainbow goodeids - these are 3 amecas








I also keep some Xenoophorus captivus, called relict splitfins, Goodea gracillus, Characadon lateralis and Skiffia lermae. The name splitfins reminds me of another feature of goodeids. They are livebearers but do not show a gonopodium in the males. The group are called splitfins in many cases because of the way you can sex them. Have another look at that Xenotoca. He is a nice male with a typical shaped male goodeid anal fin. It has a short front section of a few rays with a longer back section that take up the rest of the rays of his anal fin,. That is called an andropodium. Now I feel an obligation to show a picture of one of his mates so that you can compare. Here she is and as you can see she does not have that split look to her anal fin but looks like many of the common fish shop female livebearers that we all grew up with. 








When I get away from goodeids I also like the rarer and hard to find fish. My real favorites tend to be the tiniest of the fish like these guys, Heterandria formosa, that rarely reach a size of 3/4 inch when full grown. 
A full grown male at less than 1.5 cm








and a fully adult female shown swimming ahead of a C pygmaeus for perspective. She goes almost 2 cm. When I first got these guys, my wife accused me of buying an empty fish bag at the auction. I brought the juveniles home, put them in a 10 gallon and fed them microworms on pure faith that the person who had sold them to me would not sell an empty bag. She said I was feeding no-see-um worms to no-see-um fish. To this day, I refer to their tank as the tank of no-see-ums. My grand daughter gets a big kick out of the fact that grandma thinks you can't see those fish. 








Other fish in my present tanks include Limia melanogasters and Limia perugia. 
I also keep golden teddies, Xenophallus umbratillis. This is the little male that I tried to use as my avatar, but the size limit pretty much stumped me in those efforts. 








And one of his huge, at 3 cm, female tank mates.








I very recently picked up some black chin juveniles, Girardinus metallicus, at a club auction but have yet to take the time to shoot their pictures.
Going around my fish rooms I also come across other fairly easy to find fish like a tank full of endlers. Mine are called class N because they can be traced back to wild collected fish with no contamination by guppies. I am a registered class N registered breeder and take that responsibility very seriously. The only guppies in my house are not even on the same floor of the house, much less an adjacent tank. Fish do jump and can be moved around when moving plants. 
As is the case with many experienced fish keepers, I also have that one tank that I put almost anything into if it appeals to me on the spur of the moment. Right now mine houses a breeding pair of Herotilapia multispinosa, called rainbow cichlids, these guys.








This shows one in breeding colors along with some of his fry








The tank also has an assortment of rasboras, corydoras, red minors, angels and you name it. The angels are a black lace that struck my fancy last year at a club auction, today they are up to a full 2 1/2 inches of body size and of course the usual fins added to make them look much bigger. They share the tank with an aging angel of about 6 years who has gone blind in one eye and no longer swims vertically. It is as if he swims around half on his side so that he can keep an eye on the surface and not worry about about what is below him. I say him but have no experience sexing angels.


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## marbss

Welcoma to gtaaquaria! glad to have some experienced people onboard here.


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## bae

Welcome indeed, and thanks for all those great pictures!


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## Oldman

Thanks for that Bae. I am here because you left a link here from the CAC site. As it turns out, I spend most of my most of my time on the TFF site as a MOD. That location does not directly compete with this site, since they do not see this as a direct competitor. That does not have anything to do with quality in each site but has more to do with perceptions. Since I am a MOD at TFF, I must support their own interpretations of what is right for our fish. My responsibilities do not affect my personal ideas of what is the best way to go.


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## igor.kanshyn

Hi, 

Your livebearers are very nice. Thank you for pictures.


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## ksimdjembe

welcome! another lover of wild live-bearers! I'm a big fan myself, and your fish look great!


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## Chris S

Great to have an experienced breeder/hobbyist like yourself here! Look forward to learning some from you!


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## TBemba

There are a few Live bearer breeders in our area in Canada. Our club Auctions just started over here and there is one pretty well every month for the spring.

This month I picked up some 6 barred livebearer (Carlhubbsia Stuarti) , 
Goldbelly top minnow (Girardinus Falcatus) ,Limia perugiae, California Tiger Endlers.

I also got some cool egg-scattering Boraras urophthalmoides rare

and Golden Wonder Killie Aplochilus lineatus

Another one is tomorrow I hope I don't spend to much  

But everything is a fraction of the LFS price most stuff there never makes it to LFS.

Greetings Oldman


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## dl88dl

Welcome to GTAA and thanks for sharing those awesome pictures


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## AquariAM

Oldman said:


> I am fairly new to this place, I found it with a reference by a friend on another forum. I keep lots of different fish but they are mostly livebearers that are hard to find. That means that I have things like Xenotoca eisenii, a cute little goodeid.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I also keep Brachyrhaphis roseni which I have yet to breed with survivors. This is one of my females.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A few other things in my tanks include two kinds of wild type swordtails, the X. helleri which are the great grandparents of many domestic swordtails and the X. montezumae which are known for having a tail sword that is far longer than the fish's body.
> Another thing that might be of interest are the range of goodeids that I keep. Here are a few more, the Xenotoca was one.
> Xenotaenia resolanae called a leopard goodeid
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ameca splendens, called rainbow goodeids - these are 3 amecas
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I also keep some Xenoophorus captivus, called relict splitfins, Goodea gracillus, Characadon lateralis and Skiffia lermae. The name splitfins reminds me of another feature of goodeids. They are livebearers but do not show a gonopodium in the males. The group are called splitfins in many cases because of the way you can sex them. Have another look at that Xenotoca. He is a nice male with a typical shaped male goodeid anal fin. It has a short front section of a few rays with a longer back section that take up the rest of the rays of his anal fin,. That is called an andropodium. Now I feel an obligation to show a picture of one of his mates so that you can compare. Here she is and as you can see she does not have that split look to her anal fin but looks like many of the common fish shop female livebearers that we all grew up with.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> When I get away from goodeids I also like the rarer and hard to find fish. My real favorites tend to be the tiniest of the fish like these guys, Heterandria formosa, that rarely reach a size of 3/4 inch when full grown.
> A full grown male at less than 1.5 cm
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> and a fully adult female shown swimming ahead of a C pygmaeus for perspective. She goes almost 2 cm. When I first got these guys, my wife accused me of buying an empty fish bag at the auction. I brought the juveniles home, put them in a 10 gallon and fed them microworms on pure faith that the person who had sold them to me would not sell an empty bag. She said I was feeding no-see-um worms to no-see-um fish. To this day, I refer to their tank as the tank of no-see-ums. My grand daughter gets a big kick out of the fact that grandma thinks you can't see those fish.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Other fish in my present tanks include Limia melanogasters and Limia perugia.
> I also keep golden teddies, Xenophallus umbratillis. This is the little male that I tried to use as my avatar, but the size limit pretty much stumped me in those efforts.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And one of his huge, at 3 cm, female tank mates.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I very recently picked up some black chin juveniles, Girardinus metallicus, at a club auction but have yet to take the time to shoot their pictures.
> Going around my fish rooms I also come across other fairly easy to find fish like a tank full of endlers. Mine are called class N because they can be traced back to wild collected fish with no contamination by guppies. I am a registered class N registered breeder and take that responsibility very seriously. The only guppies in my house are not even on the same floor of the house, much less an adjacent tank. Fish do jump and can be moved around when moving plants.
> As is the case with many experienced fish keepers, I also have that one tank that I put almost anything into if it appeals to me on the spur of the moment. Right now mine houses a breeding pair of Herotilapia multispinosa, called rainbow cichlids, these guys.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This shows one in breeding colors along with some of his fry
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The tank also has an assortment of rasboras, corydoras, red minors, angels and you name it. The angels are a black lace that struck my fancy last year at a club auction, today they are up to a full 2 1/2 inches of body size and of course the usual fins added to make them look much bigger. They share the tank with an aging angel of about 6 years who has gone blind in one eye and no longer swims vertically. It is as if he swims around half on his side so that he can keep an eye on the surface and not worry about about what is below him. I say him but have no experience sexing angels.


 I can help you sex your angels.
Can I buy some juvi multispinosa off you when they're about 3cm? 
I really want some but never get good quality at LFS.


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