Werneri are wonderful little fishand you have made a good choice.
Unfortunately a pair will not make much of an impact visually or
behaviourally and if possible please consider buying more to keep as a small
school in a species tank or in a community with other small peaceful soft
acid water preferers.
Wherever I have caught them in the wild they have been in quiet pools,
billabongs and backwaters close to aquatic vegetation. Females and juveniles
tend to swim around in schools while adult males set up small territories
every 2-3' along the front of the plants and display to the females as they
swim past. They usually are in water under 3' deep.
My advice is to keep them warm (80-90F plus), water on the soft side and
neutral or on the acid side. They prefer to feed midwater and have quite a
small mouth - live food such as daphnia, BBS, small mosquito larvae, and
even microworms as well as small dry food (it can be mixed with water and
fed in small amounts)
Fry need the smallest of APR-type of microencapsulated foods and
micro-organisms as found in green water and if you have an outside pond that
is warm enough consider raising them in a greenwater pond. They grow rapidly
if kept warm enough and can be large enough to sex in 3-4 months. Because of
the tiny mouth cannibalism is not a problem with werneri fry and although
small they aren't unduly delicate if their needs are met.
A school of 100 or more adults in a 6 foot planted tank is a memorable sight
Regards,
Bruce ( Hansen )
vicepresident - ANGFA Inc (www.angfa.org.au)
- ANGFA (Qld) Inc (www.angfaqld.org.au)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tyrone Genade" <Tgenade at akad.sun.ac.za>
To: <rainbowfish at pcug.org.au>
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2001 7:50 PM
Subject: [RML] I werneri
> Hello all
>
> Picked up a pr of werneri this weekend. Notas colourful
> as some of the fish in the pics but still very nice...
>
> Anyone got some hints on how to care for these guys. A
> friend got some but they dropped off like flies and fry
> were very sensitive.