Let Them Flash! - Page 11

H.Tanaka · 07/09/2006, 04:48 AM

Peter,

I was very impressed with your story in detail. I want to see their displaying behavior and colorations, and thank you so much.

Ichthyologists always use SL (standard length), and TL (total length) will be deleted when a fish species is described. Book authors use TL for their popular books but TL is sometimes not so accurate or exaggerated. The fish size (TL) will often be based upon expectation. C. bathyphilus reaches 10cm TL as far as I know (a friend in Vanuatu informed me) but some say it will stay within 9cm, and I am not sure.

I have once kept a male of some 12cm TL of Paracheilinus octotaenia and sent photos to John Randall. He immediately replied that he has never seen or heard such a large individual. This species was believed to reach just over 9cm at largest.

Of course, aquarium specimens do not reach their full sizes, as you know.

H.Tanaka · 07/09/2006, 06:21 AM

Here is an ID sheet-1.

P. angulatus, P. attenuatus and P. bellae. I have never kept the last one.

H.Tanaka · 07/09/2006, 06:24 AM

ID sheet-2

P. carpenteri, P. cyaneus and P. filamentosus.

H.Tanaka · 07/09/2006, 06:27 AM

ID sheet-3

P. flavianalis, P. hemitaeniatus, and P. lineopunctatus. P. hemitaeniatus probably has never been shipped to any country.

H.Tanaka · 07/09/2006, 06:29 AM

ID sheet-4

P. mccoskeri and P. octotaenia. A variation from Kenya has a mostly red anal fin.

H.Tanaka · 07/09/2006, 06:32 AM

ID sheet-5

P. piscilineatus, P. rubricaudalis and P. togeanensis. The last species has never been shipped.

blface · 07/09/2006, 10:27 AM

Dr. T. do you think my pic above is of a McCosker or another flasher?? After seeing your latest pics I'm not to sure about the id.

Serioussnaps · 07/09/2006, 01:00 PM

Awesome pics Tanka...thanks for your reply post

Peter Schmiedel · 07/09/2006, 01:35 PM

Hiroyuki,

wonderfull pictures - thanks for sharing! It will enabale everyone to identify their fish. Hope one day we will have charts from all flashers where we will also see the correct females.

this early evening (18:00 - 20:00 CET) the male spawned with 3 females. For a few seconds all for fish where so close together that I assume he spawned at least with two off them - As we where just having diner I could not tell from the distance. It looked like the femals where in waiting line. Sometimes it is an advantage to have most of the tanks in the living room.

Basic behavior pattern is always the same: Male starts increasing rose coloration on the back, starts to approach first femals slowly with color getting more intense, next trun is him approaching the femal in extremly fast donwards or upwards swims (depends on her postition) then they shot to the sureface. During the asscent he shows the most intensive coloration. They do that several times and when the eggs get hydrated and the females cloaca (missing the correct english term here - sorry) si fully open you can gess pretty much when the spawing itself will take place. As my other wrasse before also these do spawn in the full current of the pump outlet.

I will try to shoot a series where you can see it, but have diffculties with the reflection of my 12 tank rack system and the windows in the living room.

snorvich · 07/09/2006, 04:37 PM

Peter, I am extremely interested in your spawning behavior. I have two tanks of fairy wrasses, all of which contain at least pairs. Did you purchase the C. bathyphilus as a pair or a harem? If a harem, how many females (I have a pair). In what size tank is this occurring? Which fish are spawning? Do you have other pairs/harems, and if so which ones? I would love to try and emulate. What is your feeding schedule and what do you feed? Thanks for any information you can share.

H.Tanaka · 07/09/2006, 10:14 PM

Thank you all.

Here is a collection of some male forms in display. You may find some differences between these and their usual colorations in each species. P. attenuatus was photographed by a friend in Tokyo.

H.Tanaka · 07/09/2006, 10:29 PM

blface,

I am not sure if it is mccoskeri, but probably it is that species. When one takes shots of fish especially of Paracheilinus and Cirrhilabrus one need to wait for spreading fins. While a male is folding all the fins it is sometimes hard to identify correctly.

Here is mccoskeri and relatives photos; mccoskeri has several variants as shown and if yours has a single filament and a red and yellow anal fin it would be mccoskeri.

H.Tanaka · 07/10/2006, 03:12 AM

Peter,
Here is the ID guide to females / juveniles of the genus. They are similar and much more plain in coloration than males.

If there is no photo by me I have never experienced the species. Males will often be imported but juveniles or females of most of the species are much rare at retailers.

blface · 07/10/2006, 10:23 AM

Thanks for the new pics Dr. T. Now that he's settled in he's constantly flairing his fins. I'm positive he's a mccosker because I can see the single filament & the red & yellow anal fin now. Man is he awesome when he flares. I still can't get a pic of him displaying yet.

BlueNWhite · 07/10/2006, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by H.Tanaka
Peter,
Here is the ID guide to females / juveniles of the genus. They are similar and much more plain in coloration than males.
...

Thanks H.Tanaka, this is a great picture post. Most pictures you find on the internet will be males, so this is a good summary of how the females look.

Thanks,
Raymond

H.Tanaka · 07/11/2006, 02:04 AM

One of the readers kindly informed me that I have incorrectly spelled for Joachim Grosskopf. I wrote Grosskoph in the photo just above but it is an error. Thank you, friend and I am sorry, Joachim.

Peter Schmiedel · 07/16/2006, 11:41 PM

Here are the first pictures which give you a glimps of how the adult Australian C. bathyphilus are looking:

Female short before spawning. The eggs are already hydrated :

Male with the coloration he shows if he is trying to dominate / impress other fish in the tank. He never shwos any pink / purple color in this behaviour pattern. Note he only shows this colors towards other fish never towards his conspecies:

This is the start of the flashing coloration before he is in courtship behaviour:

In courtship the pink / purple area is bigger and the color gets even more flashy - but then they swim so fast that I could not make good pictures. Also the anal fin is complete yellow like in the picture above, and the belly is white.
I have a lot of unsharp ones where you can see the color better, but the pictures suck.

If you compare the different coloration of the male in regard to his behaviour I believe it does make a big difference if you keep them with the correct femals or only male sof the same or similar genus.

H.Tanaka · 07/17/2006, 03:12 AM

Peter,

Many thanks for the nice and rare photos of the specimens.

These are quite attractive and informative, and let me use these for my furute CD version. Now it is still being revised every week and in prepration to publish.

blface · 07/21/2006, 09:36 AM

I lost my Mccoskeri last night. He got so scared while I was cleaning the glass that he commited suicide & suffered a head trauma by hitting the LR. He was dead instantly!! The search continues for another.

SWfan · 07/21/2006, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by blface
I lost my Mccoskeri last night. He got so scared while I was cleaning the glass that he commited suicide & suffered a head trauma by hitting the LR. He was dead instantly!! The search continues for another.

I'm sorry to hear this. I hope you didn't take him out immediately. Fish have been known to knock themselves out with a blow like that. Sometimes they come around after a couple of minutes.

blface · 07/22/2006, 08:48 AM

I left him in to be on the safe side. In the mourning all that was left was a few bones thanks to the clean up crew.

Triterium · 07/23/2006, 11:11 PM

They look like betas to me...

kileye · 07/26/2006, 07:56 PM

I am soo excited. I have 1 flasher and a solar, they are my most favorite fish in my tank.

CeeGee · 08/07/2006, 01:53 PM

This will probably be a stupid question but I have only had one flasher wrasse (McCoskers) and the flashers I have seen at my LFS all look similar so here comes the question.

Are flasher wrasses a little on the skinny side? All that I have seen no matter what type are kinda skinny. In comparison to my McCosker my Royal Gramma looks like a pig as does my Solar wrasse.

I would like to fatten the fish up if possible. He is very healthy as I have had him in my care since the 3/25/2006. He has neither lost or gained weight in this time.

fish-on-Reef · 08/07/2006, 05:09 PM

I have looked and looked and looked but cannot pinpoint the name of this wrasse.

07/09/2006, 06:21 AM	#252
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	Paracheilinus spp. 1 Here is an ID sheet-1. P. angulatus, P. attenuatus and P. bellae. I have never kept the last one.

07/09/2006, 06:24 AM	#253
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	Paracheilinus spp. 2 ID sheet-2 P. carpenteri, P. cyaneus and P. filamentosus.

07/09/2006, 01:35 PM	#259
Peter Schmiedel Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Brussels, Belgium Posts: 1,628	Hiroyuki, wonderfull pictures - thanks for sharing! It will enabale everyone to identify their fish. Hope one day we will have charts from all flashers where we will also see the correct females. this early evening (18:00 - 20:00 CET) the male spawned with 3 females. For a few seconds all for fish where so close together that I assume he spawned at least with two off them - As we where just having diner I could not tell from the distance. It looked like the femals where in waiting line. Sometimes it is an advantage to have most of the tanks in the living room. Basic behavior pattern is always the same: Male starts increasing rose coloration on the back, starts to approach first femals slowly with color getting more intense, next trun is him approaching the femal in extremly fast donwards or upwards swims (depends on her postition) then they shot to the sureface. During the asscent he shows the most intensive coloration. They do that several times and when the eggs get hydrated and the females cloaca (missing the correct english term here - sorry) si fully open you can gess pretty much when the spawing itself will take place. As my other wrasse before also these do spawn in the full current of the pump outlet. I will try to shoot a series where you can see it, but have diffculties with the reflection of my 12 tank rack system and the windows in the living room. __________________ Have a nice day Peter Current Tank Info: 300g main tank, several others

07/09/2006, 04:37 PM	#260
snorvich Team RC member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Outlander Posts: 40,953 Blog Entries: 46	Peter, I am extremely interested in your spawning behavior. I have two tanks of fairy wrasses, all of which contain at least pairs. Did you purchase the C. bathyphilus as a pair or a harem? If a harem, how many females (I have a pair). In what size tank is this occurring? Which fish are spawning? Do you have other pairs/harems, and if so which ones? I would love to try and emulate. What is your feeding schedule and what do you feed? Thanks for any information you can share. __________________ Warmest regards, ~Steve~

07/09/2006, 10:29 PM	#262
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	P. mccoskeri & relative photos blface, I am not sure if it is mccoskeri, but probably it is that species. When one takes shots of fish especially of Paracheilinus and Cirrhilabrus one need to wait for spreading fins. While a male is folding all the fins it is sometimes hard to identify correctly. Here is mccoskeri and relatives photos; mccoskeri has several variants as shown and if yours has a single filament and a red and yellow anal fin it would be mccoskeri.

07/09/2006, 04:48 AM	#251
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	Peter, I was very impressed with your story in detail. I want to see their displaying behavior and colorations, and thank you so much. Ichthyologists always use SL (standard length), and TL (total length) will be deleted when a fish species is described. Book authors use TL for their popular books but TL is sometimes not so accurate or exaggerated. The fish size (TL) will often be based upon expectation. C. bathyphilus reaches 10cm TL as far as I know (a friend in Vanuatu informed me) but some say it will stay within 9cm, and I am not sure. I have once kept a male of some 12cm TL of Paracheilinus octotaenia and sent photos to John Randall. He immediately replied that he has never seen or heard such a large individual. This species was believed to reach just over 9cm at largest. Of course, aquarium specimens do not reach their full sizes, as you know.

07/09/2006, 06:27 AM	#254
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	ID sheet-3 P. flavianalis, P. hemitaeniatus, and P. lineopunctatus. P. hemitaeniatus probably has never been shipped to any country.

07/09/2006, 06:29 AM	#255
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	ID sheet-4 P. mccoskeri and P. octotaenia. A variation from Kenya has a mostly red anal fin.

07/09/2006, 06:32 AM	#256
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	ID sheet-5 P. piscilineatus, P. rubricaudalis and P. togeanensis. The last species has never been shipped.

07/09/2006, 10:27 AM	#257
blface Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: meeechigan Posts: 958	Dr. T. do you think my pic above is of a McCosker or another flasher?? After seeing your latest pics I'm not to sure about the id.

07/09/2006, 01:00 PM	#258
Serioussnaps Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: North Carolina Posts: 3,703	Awesome pics Tanka...thanks for your reply post

07/09/2006, 10:14 PM	#261
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	Thank you all. Here is a collection of some male forms in display. You may find some differences between these and their usual colorations in each species. P. attenuatus was photographed by a friend in Tokyo.

07/10/2006, 03:12 AM	#263
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	Females & Juveniles of Paracheilinus Peter, Here is the ID guide to females / juveniles of the genus. They are similar and much more plain in coloration than males. If there is no photo by me I have never experienced the species. Males will often be imported but juveniles or females of most of the species are much rare at retailers.

07/10/2006, 10:23 AM	#264
blface Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: meeechigan Posts: 958	Thanks for the new pics Dr. T. Now that he's settled in he's constantly flairing his fins. I'm positive he's a mccosker because I can see the single filament & the red & yellow anal fin now. Man is he awesome when he flares. I still can't get a pic of him displaying yet.

07/11/2006, 02:04 AM	#266
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	One of the readers kindly informed me that I have incorrectly spelled for Joachim Grosskopf. I wrote Grosskoph in the photo just above but it is an error. Thank you, friend and I am sorry, Joachim.

07/16/2006, 11:41 PM	#267
Peter Schmiedel Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Brussels, Belgium Posts: 1,628	Here are the first pictures which give you a glimps of how the adult Australian C. bathyphilus are looking: Female short before spawning. The eggs are already hydrated : Male with the coloration he shows if he is trying to dominate / impress other fish in the tank. He never shwos any pink / purple color in this behaviour pattern. Note he only shows this colors towards other fish never towards his conspecies: This is the start of the flashing coloration before he is in courtship behaviour: In courtship the pink / purple area is bigger and the color gets even more flashy - but then they swim so fast that I could not make good pictures. Also the anal fin is complete yellow like in the picture above, and the belly is white. I have a lot of unsharp ones where you can see the color better, but the pictures suck. If you compare the different coloration of the male in regard to his behaviour I believe it does make a big difference if you keep them with the correct femals or only male sof the same or similar genus. __________________ Have a nice day Peter Current Tank Info: 300g main tank, several others

07/17/2006, 03:12 AM	#268
H.Tanaka Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Miyazaki City, Japan Posts: 613	Peter, Many thanks for the nice and rare photos of the specimens. These are quite attractive and informative, and let me use these for my furute CD version. Now it is still being revised every week and in prepration to publish.

07/21/2006, 09:36 AM	#269
blface Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: meeechigan Posts: 958	I lost my Mccoskeri last night. He got so scared while I was cleaning the glass that he commited suicide & suffered a head trauma by hitting the LR. He was dead instantly!! The search continues for another.

07/22/2006, 08:48 AM	#271
blface Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: meeechigan Posts: 958	I left him in to be on the safe side. In the mourning all that was left was a few bones thanks to the clean up crew.

07/23/2006, 11:11 PM	#272
Triterium Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 1,462	They look like betas to me...

07/26/2006, 07:56 PM	#273
kileye Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa Posts: 4	I am soo excited. I have 1 flasher and a solar, they are my most favorite fish in my tank.

08/07/2006, 01:53 PM	#274
CeeGee Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: TN Posts: 3,272	This will probably be a stupid question but I have only had one flasher wrasse (McCoskers) and the flashers I have seen at my LFS all look similar so here comes the question. Are flasher wrasses a little on the skinny side? All that I have seen no matter what type are kinda skinny. In comparison to my McCosker my Royal Gramma looks like a pig as does my Solar wrasse. I would like to fatten the fish up if possible. He is very healthy as I have had him in my care since the 3/25/2006. He has neither lost or gained weight in this time. __________________ My algae WAS special. Current Tank Info: 75 gallon display, 40 gallon breeder sump, RLSS R6i, ATI Powermodule, Apex, Ecotech MP40's

08/07/2006, 05:09 PM	#275
fish-on-Reef Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Hammonds Plains Nova Scotia Posts: 17	Please help ...wrasse? I have looked and looked and looked but cannot pinpoint the name of this wrasse.