Chalceus macrolepidotus

[Alex Odesit]

Want to share good news, finally got my hands on several 3" Chalceus macrolepidotus (Pink Tail Chalceus).
I had 2 of them around 10 years ago in one of my 180 gal tank. Looking at the picture of my newly occurred juv, it's hard to believe how beautiful they become when adult. I had 10" Torpedo keeping they ground with several tough fully grown CA cichlids.
I always have soft spot for these guys, but until recent can't find a large enough space. Now they are in 860 liters and I am looking forward to grow them large!
Just curious, how many others here have Chalceus macrolepidotus, adult pictures with info will be great
And sorry for bad picture, these guys can move

[Mark Smith]

Great looking characin!

[Pam Chin]

Oh! I really like those too! I haven't had any for years. I want to try them again!

Cichlid Power!
Pam

[Alex Odesit]

Thanks, indeed they are nice.
IMO, critical point first couple of days when they just arrive.
They very easy to stress and sometimes even killing themselves by hitting tank lead, side glass, deco, etc.
But once they settle, they are fine, and better not to move them again, specially when they are adult.
Here picture of my old Pink tail, I was talking above, they are sub adults there, around 5-6 " and were able to gulp whole Tetra jumbo stick I use to feed my fish from time to time!
Oh and it's not Flowerhorn there, don't flame me, it's a dull true Trimac female
Alex

[Pam Chin]

Alex,

I was wondering if they were all wild?? Or are these farm raised. I do remember them being quite the jumpers.

Thanks!
Pam

[Alex Odesit]

Alex,

I was wondering if they were all wild?? Or are these farm raised. I do remember them being quite the jumpers.

Thanks!
Pam

Hi Pam,
To the best of my knowledge I believe they all F0, never heard that they were breeding in captivity.

Alex

[Lisachromis]

In one of the Breeding Aquarium Fish books, there is a description in there of someone breeding pink-tailed chalceus. I'll try to see what one it is if I remember later.
**********************
Breeding Aquarium Fishes book 1
Herbert R. Axelrod
TFH 1967

Breeding Aquarium Fishes book 2
Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod
TFH 1971

Breeding Aquarium Fishes book 3
Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod and Lourdes Burgess
TFH 1973

Breeding Aquarium Fishes book 4
Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod
TFH 1976

Breeding Aquarium Fishes book 5
Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod
TFH 1980

Breeding Aquarium Fishes book 6
Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod
TFH 1980

[Alex Odesit]

Well Lisa,
Here the information I have, book edited in 1990. May be something change from that time, but I am not aware of it.

[dogofwar]

Pink Chalceus are great fish... I've always wanted to have a large group of them in a really big tank with Uaru, Prochilodus, Geophagus, etc.

I had two of them in a 125g with a big bichir and some large cichlids. They can more than hold their own - they get some visible teeth as they get larger. One grew to nearly 10" and the other was thinner and grew to about 8". They're fast swimmers and I found that the 6' tank actually felt small for them. I've found that they're not at all picky about water parameters: I've kept them with both Haps and South American fish with good results.

Back in the day, I had one "disappear" over a vacation. Some months later I found a dried chalceus under a love seat...in a different room (like 40 feet away)!

[Alex Odesit]

Pink Chalceus are great fish... I've always wanted to have a large group of them in a really big tank with Uaru, Prochilodus, Geophagus, etc.

They're fast swimmers and I found that the 6' tank actually felt small for them. I've found that they're not at all picky about water parameters

agreed with both above.
The best looking large group of chunky Chalseus I have seen years ago, in the huge tank at Coney Island aquarium Brooklyn NY..
That day I become in love with them.
Unfortunately I am down to 2 largest one from 5 I got, several days ago. Pearsei really like their taste, I have smaller dithers, various barbs, red tailed and rainbow sharks, and some of smaller convict fry and they wasn't touch... No doubt I read that native Indians treat these guys as delicates

[Dean Hougen]

Well Lisa,
Here the information I have, book edited in 1990. May be something change from that time, but I am not aware of it.

Most of the information in that book is from many decades before 1990.


Dean

[Alex Odesit]

Well Lisa,
Here the information I have, book edited in 1990. May be something change from that time, but I am not aware of it.

Most of the information in that book is from many decades before 1990.


Dean

Do you have more recent info for this particular fish?

[Lisachromis]

Found it.

It's in book 6, pages 186-206. (It's the one with the spawning khulis on the cover)

It's mainly pictures, but I'll summarize what's in it.

Bred by Mr. Hiroshi Azuma from Japan. Actually, there's a nice photo of his 300 tank fishroom.

Said mid 70s are good for keeping but should be a "little warmer" for breeding. At about 8" females start getting stouter than males. His fish were 4 years old before they spawned. They were 10" long. As the spawning season came the female became obviously full in the abdomen. The male turned a silvery blue colour with a dark horizontal bar along his flanks. He put the pair in a 150g (A 6'). Temp of 82, pH 6.8. Similar spawning habits to neons; male chasing the female all over the tank. They spawned over some bushy plants he had in the tanks. Eggs are 1 1/2 mm, and they sank slow to the substrate. In 2 1/2 hours the pair laid 3-4,000 eggs. There are pics of the wrigglers and fry in here. Mr. Azuma siphoned out a bunch of eggs for a hatching tank. They started hatching in 48 hours. Freeswimming in 4 days. He fed them on bbs, and they grew quickly. At day 20, they were 1/2" already. Then he added live tubifex to the diet. At 4 months they were 2 1/2" and had started showing some of the colouration of the adults. Then fed feeder guppies and small worms.

[Alex Odesit]

Great Lisa,
Thanks for taking your time to find and post these details!
I appreciated.
Alex

[Dean Hougen]

Do you have more recent info for this particular fish?

Lisa beat me to it. Thanks Lisa!


Dean

[Alex Odesit]

Do you have more recent info for this particular fish?

Lisa beat me to it. Thanks Lisa!


Dean

wow, it looks like you know about the same event as Lisa, I guess it does happen very rarely, almost never. Both people point to the same person who breed them, while many 1000's fish living in captivity.
Alex

[Lisachromis]

I think the only reason I remembered was that I actually read the book when I first got it, and was amazed by the picture of the fishroom, and that he'd bred these fish. Shortly after I read it, I saw a few juveniles in a petstore. I think that's why the basic story stayed in my head initially.

[Dean Hougen]

Yes, I think breeding these fish is quite rare.

My comment, though, was directed mostly at the book. Just because it says copyright 1990 does not mean the authors updated it with everything that was known in 1989 and sent it out the door. The breeding report Lisa quoted was from a book with Axelrod's name on the cover from 1980, so one would imagine the information in that book would make it into your book which also has Axelrod's name on the cover and was published in 1990. As you can see, that is not so.


Dean

[Alex Odesit]

I agree that books not always reflect the latest and even old info correctly, as well most of the internet web sites, so I am not take in book writings for granted.
The reason I believed that Chalsea wasn't breed is captivity, is that I being in the aquarium hobby for several decades, never seen info about breeding these fish in captivity, and I did pay attention to the fish I have for so long.
But it does look surprising that the same author publisher (dr. Axelerod) or who ever use his name didn't update the book with new information.
Alex

[Dean Hougen]

Yes, it is pretty odd to see the same "author" not keeping track of his own info, until you see his name!

For books (and magazines) in general, one thing that I have noticed is that information from different parts of the world doesn't seem to travel very fast. A fish that is bred and reported on in Europe, for example, will be listed as still not having been bred for many, many years in books written in the US and vice versa. I believe the Internet will help with this.

One very nice Internet resource related to fish books (and magazines) was created by my friend Ken Ruzek. It is called the Master Index of Freshwater Fishes (MIFF). It is located here: http://www.webcityof.com/mifftitl.htm If we look up Chalceus macrolepidotus in MIFF, we find this:

Chalceus macrolepidotus
(Cuvier 1817, JG:254, Bi:76, Ge:342, B3:108 Chalceus erythrurus ?, B1:244, AS:183, SS:34, AxB:151, Ve:34, ABE:335, St:166, Sf:73, Ax6:186, AV:F-165.00, TF:58 2/79) Plethodectes erythrurus, Brycon erythrurus, Pellegrina heterolepsis, Chalceus ararapeera, Brycon macrolepidotus, Creagrutus pellegrini "Yellow-Finned Chalceus" "Pink-Tailed Characin" "Pink-Tailed Chalceus" `Glanzsalmler` `Südamerikanischer` `Großschuppensalmler` `Schlanksalmler`

Everything in parenthesis is references to books and magazines. One very notable part of this list of references is "Ax6:186" which decodes to page 186 (and following) in "Axelrod, Herbert R. 1980: Breeding Aquarium Fishes, Book 6 (T.F.H. H995) , T. F. H. Publications, NJ. Pages 285." Since this is a reference to a book on fish breeding in aquaria, it would be a good place to start looking. Fortunately, Lisa already did since she has all these books memorized and doesn't need the MIFF!


Dean