Attention Bowheads

Has anybody here ever raised Gertrude's Rainbow Fish (pseudomugil gertrudae)? A trip to Mr. Google will show you what striking fish they are. Anyhow, I found some and am sore tempted to give it a try. The little rainbows are gorgeouser than heck.

John,

You'd do the best to get a mop. It's WAY cheaper if you can work it out. Finding them is the thing. I'll ask on the Bowheads! forum and see if anyone has some.

John,

One of my friends found them for you!

Check out: http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/aucti...ows&1219373747

I'm not really crazy about that seller... I've heard some not so positive things about her from 2 different people. But, she's got them.

Let me know if you get them!

Later,

Angela

I think that's the seller I contacted but will double check. Right now, Phoenix is too hot to risk shipping any live fish or plants. Probably late September will be OK, and I think I'll inquire about the mop thing. Sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion.

The guy says he puts a little salt in the aquarium for the rainbow fish. Do you think that's a good idea?

I just checked Aquabid, and now there are two sellers for Gertrude's Rainbow Fish. I emailed the seller about buying some eggs or juveniles in late September. Since I still haven't gotten fabulously wealthy from raising angelfish, maybe the pot of gold will at the end of the rainbow aquarium.

I don't know about the salt. I don't put any in my tanks. But I don't have any pseudos either.

The Bowheads! forum is down right now, but they have a link on there for the Rainbowfish bible they call it, and I was going to link you to it. I'll try again later.

Thanks. I just entered an offer on Aquabid, and it got raised quicker than you can say pseudowhatever. The mop idea is sounding better all the time.

That proxy bidding can really get you!

Mops are the way to go, and a lot of people are willing to trade, so it's good. Plus the eggs are more resilient in the heat.

Good Luck!

Well, it turns out that neither seller wanted to sell eggs. However, I did finally win a bid for eight juvenile Gertrude's Rainbow Fish. The seller tells me they don't need salt, they will survive the trip to hot Phoenix, and he'll ship them on Monday. I have a 15 gallon tank and some new spawning mops all ready for them, so very soon now I'll have some dumb questions for you. Maybe even a picture. The eggs still sound like the best idea, and impatience may have just won over good judgement. We'll see.

Grats!

I would LOVE to get a mop from you... (WINK) I'd trade you!!! LOL!!!

I actually also spent a big pile of money on Aquabid today. I bought a breeding group of Regular Bristlenose, and a breeding group of Calico Bristlenose with the longfin gene.

So welcome to the newest angle of one of the oldest habits... LOL!!!

GRATS!!

Hey, a mop swap sounds like fun, especially if I wind up with some live fish and can get them to spawning size. Do I let the mop float, sink, or flop?

Here's a link to a mop making thread on a different forum.

Well... either the site's down or my computer isn't working properly... I can't get Bowheads or planetcatfish up right now... I'll get the link afterwhile...

It's right up your alley John, this guy is pretty funny... even though he isn't really nice to us... cichlidiots as he calls us... Which is all in fun... He's answered all my questions about the mop making.

The only things I have to add are... if you use spherical styrofoam for your float, make the threads longer, because the styrofoam tends to float on the flat, not the round... dissappointingly so... And... if you have a shower with a tub faucet, make yourself a hanger at the top of your mop... then you can hook that loop over your shower pully uppy thing... and just run warm water down over the mop for a while... getting it good and soaked. This will make the bottom of the mop sink... like it's supposed to, and the styrofoam will make the top of the mop float. That's the ticket! Oh, and don't make the mops too thick... It's a bear to pick out the fungused eggs...

Or another thing... I could send you a mop of Parkinsoni... you could hatch them out... dump my mop in your gertrude tank in a couple weeks, and then send me back my mop! LOL!!! - Can't ya tell I'm dying for some... (Like I've got ANYWHERE to put them right now!!!!) I'm sending out 1 mop, 1 16.9 oz culture of vinegar eels and 85 juvy angels today! Shew... I'm tired...

I bought some mops through AquaBid, but i didn't know that getting them to flop was all that involved. If i get a good spawn of Gertrude's Rainbow Fish, I'll be happy to swap some mops, thus becoming both a mop flopper and a mop swapper. I'll try sopping and floating one as soon as the partial water changes are done today. In the meantime, somebody listed a bunch of aquariums and stuff (65, 29, two 20s, stands, lights, gravel, etc.) on craigslist, and i'm negotiating. That would make 24 aquariums in my small house but would give the angelfish some more room and make way for rainbows and fancy guppies. Insanity, they say, is hereditary: you get it from your kids.

John!

I found it! Good grief that took a while.

It's right here:
http://bowheads.org/aquafacts/forums/wiki/index.php/ Making_a_Mop_for_Breeding_Rainbowfish

Let me know if you have any questions.

Later!

Thanks. I just put it on my favorites list. The Gert's have not arrived yet, but Phoenix is enjoying a cool spell (98 or less) so i may actually get a live delivery. Can't wait.

I sure hope they get there ok!

Since im a computer idiot, the bowhead form would not let me register. Maybe Wednesday will be better. So are rainbows actually killifish? Arizona has some kind of desert frog or toad that reproduces much like seasonal fish.

I'm not sure how that works... sorry. I'm sure they talk about it on the forum. They have a whole section devoted to killifish. And the eggs are similar, but from what I understand, you can keep the killi eggs a lot longer than bow eggs.

I just don't know much about it. Sorry.

They're here, healthy, and active. I took an hour to drip acclimate them and am going to leave the aquarium light off for a few hours. The guys are little enough to handle baby brine shrimp, so the hatchelfluffen is already installed. Am i crazy to get excited over eight little minnows? YEP!

NO! You're not crazy! LOL!

I think they're just SOOOO pretty!

They're the prettiest 6 minnows you've ever seen!

Let me know when you want to trade a mop! Or I can just send you some, and you can keep some and send me back 1 with eggs!!! LOL!!!

The little guys are already hanging around the hatchelfluffen and looking good, but it's still too early to predict any sort of success. I even managed to get on the bowhead website, and the pseudomugil gertrudae Aquabid auctions apparently got quite a bit of interest. Aquabid also has a killifish section, and a lady who lives near Phoenix is offering some spectacular looking orange somethingorother killies. Maybe i can extend the path in the fish room and still not knock over an aquarium when i stand.

I saw you on there!

Awesome! There's tons of bow info on that site.

Feel free to ask questions, the people are pretty good about not roasting you... LOL!

Then I guess, I'll just roast right back.