Werneri can be difficult bit I feel they should have their own tank or at
least share with soft-acid water loving fishes such as P. gertrudae and P,
tenellus. Try to give them the largest tank that you can and plenty of
small live food e.g. vinegar eels and micro worms as they are mid-water
plankton feeders. <....
Either I'm a pretty good fishkeeper or I'm blessed with near perfect water for
keeping Rainbows. I'm a modest sort of guy so I'll go with the latter;-)
I just tested my water 15 mins ago using a SERA test kit. Here are the results:
Tap water Ph 7.4 Tank water (30% w/c yesterday) Ph 7.4
" " Gh 8 degrees " " Gh 10 degrees (NOT a typo)
" " Kh 4 " " " Kh 4 "
Now, the reason I share this with you is to demonstrate that what works or
doesn't work for you is not the end of the story. I felt some of the replys to
Greg Tong's inquiry SEEMED to be very final.
I keep Furcatus, Bool Crk Signifer, Giddy R. Gertrudae and Werneri in the tank
whose water parameters are shown above. All three species have spawned in this
tank. I have raised good numbers of each of these in this type of water. I have
found all four to be fairly easy. Werneri were the most difficult UNTIL, I began
feeding them on infusoria. After that I couldn't kill 'em! The Furcatus produce
lots of eggs, and since modifying my hatching techniques, I grow more fry to
maturity.
I currently keep and occassionally spawn 20 plus species of 'bows, blue-eyes and
Peacock gudgeons. I have even managed to rear L.Tanganicanus in this water. I
DON"T mess with this water. I add 5ml salt per 11 litres. For the likes of
Furcatus I do add shell grit while they're growing. On only one occasion have I
failed to maintain a species and that to my profound dissapointment was
P.Signifer Ross River!! Beautiful fish.
As you can see the Werneri are living and spawning very nicely in decidedly
"un-acid" ;-) water! To further confuse things I have a friend here who just
likes fish. He doesn't read much. He doesn't belong to any mailing lists etc. At
his house he grows Ramuensis the size of Bleheri! In fact all his fish grow
huge. Don't ask 'cos I don't know! His Wanamensis females dwarf my males! Anyway
he keeps Werneri in with Ramuensis,Harvey's Crk Signifer and Furcatus etc. You
guessed it . His Werneri not only survive, they thrive and grow HUGE!! So in MY
experience Werneri are not difficult and do not require acidic water and they
can more than hold their own in a community tank of other like sized fish. I
don't reccommend my friends set up even though it works...for him.
Does this help at all Greg?;-)
Chris Drew