sidney

[Sorathien]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/Celeste_Eden/fish%20and%20aquariums/SANY0490.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/Celeste_Eden/fish%20and%20aquariums/sid-1.jpg

[S t e p h]

Aww, So Cute!

[rainbowbrat23]

that is a freaky lookin fish!

[Caitandcritters]

He's pretty kick butt! How big will he get?

[Sorathien]

right now, including tail, sid is about 3" he will get about 6"

[Caitandcritters]

Wowww! Ha, I thought he'd get even bigger than 6 inches. But even so, that's pretty big! He's really awesome.

[Sorathien]

nah, he's not really a tank buster. in the wild they can get 8" or so, but in captivity, only about 6". a 30g tank is minimum for one. i have sid by himself in a 45. after i move and get better lights i'm going to make it an african biotope with some congo tetras.

[Caitandcritters]

Ohhh wow! That will be awesome... Congo tetras are also really neat looking fish.

[Serenity]

Wow, what an interesting looking fish! He's lovely.

[gothicangel69]

He's getting big. Does he have the spines on his gills yet?? I don't think mine got his until he was 1 1/2 years old..
Your lucky Sid is so photogenic. If I want to get a good picture of Mr.Perch when he's not hiding, I have to wake up at 3:00 in the morning and sit by the tank for a while until he comes out. He's crazily shy and won't come out if he thinks people are watching.
I was at a pet store the other day, and they had just gotten in a shipment of spotted climbing perches. I was talking to one of the guys about how I had one, and he was still growing at 4 inches, he told me that I must have a different type of fish since spotted climbing perches only got 2 inches long. I laughed and told him that no, they got 6 inches. He then tried to tell me that I must have a morph or something because I didn't have the same type that they did (even though when I bought mine, it was from the same store, and looked the exact same) I also checked their ordering book, and found out that there is only one type of spotted climbing perch that they can order, and.....they get 6 inches! Some people are so ignorant, lol.
Glad to see that Sid's doing good. What are you feeding him now?

[Sorathien]

Sid knows his momma. whenever i come near the tank he's right there looking at me, and he knows where his food comes from. when he sees the net that means baby guppies, or the tube on the syringe that means blackworms, he's RIGHT there the second its in the tank ready for food!

[Shellie]

Awwwwww, he's growing up so fast now! When did he get the little spines on him??

[Sorathien]

the spines on his dorsal and anal fins he's always had. that's just how they are. i don't see any spines on his gill plates yet that would mean he's a boy though.

[gothicangel69]

How old is he? They might just not have grown in. He looks like a male though. The females usually don't have as many spots.
I wish Mr.Perch would eat frozen foods. The only things he'll eat are tetras, and if he's really hungry and the only thing available are white clouds, he'll eat those, but he prefers neon tetras.

[Sorathien]

i don't know how old sid is. about a year now, but he's only 3" he's growing very slow. i'm hoping he'll pick up his growing pace in the bigger tank with more interesting foods.

i don't feed him frozen foods anymore, he gets live blackworms and guppy fry.

[gothicangel69]

They do grow very slowly. I believe it takes them 3 years to reach their adult size. 3" at a year old isn't bad. My guy's still not full grown yet and I've had him for at least 2 years.
Do you have a pic of the whole tank setup? I would love to see it. I know with my tank it took me forever to set it up because since Mr.Perch is so shy, his whole tank needs to be a hiding place, lol. I'm surprised my bolivians have room to swim. You never see any of the other fish in the tank (besides his food) because they're too busy hiding and swimming around where you can't see them.
I have his tank set up as an amazon biotype and he loves it. I even dimmed the lights and bought this expensive black water extract. He loves it and it keeps the pH very stable and the water very soft.

[Sorathien]

actually, the tank is pretty bare right now. its a 45g, and its just got sand substrate, a piece of driftwood that hasn't sunk yet, and some hornwort floating at the top. the light is so weak i can't have any other plants but floating ones that are close to the light.

eventually i want to get an AHsupply.com reflector, a 96w kit. that's about the only way i'm going to get enough light into a tank that deep to have plants.