Tag Archives: Gymnochanda

Gymnochanda flamea

26. August 2020

A very wonderful dwarf glassfish reached us from Indonesia: Gymnochanda flamea, the red filamentous glassfish. All Gymnochanda species (G. filamentosa, G. flamea, G. limi, G.ploegi and G. verae) are pure freshwater fish, you should never add salt to the water.

Only two species, G. flamea (South-Borneo) and G. filamentosa (Malaysia, Sumatra (?), West-Borneo) have thread-like long dorsal and anal fin rays, red in G. flamea, white-blue in G. filamentosa.

The care of the cute, maximum 4 cm long animals is not very difficult, but they only eat live food. Among each other they are very peaceful, even against other fish, but one should – if at all – only keep these treasures with other tiny and peaceful species. Soft, slightly acidic water (pH 6-7) and a temperature of 24-28°C are recommended.

The animals are egglayers without brood care. The eggs are deposited in fine-grained plants. As far as we know, no successful rearing of the brood under aquarium conditions has been reported so far.

For our customers: the animals have code 419642 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer

Gymnochanda ploegi

28. September 2018

For the first time we received this dwarf glass perch from Indonesia, which was named in honour of Alex Ploeg, who was in the passenger plane shot over Ukraine on 17 July 2014.

G. ploegi is known so far only from West Kalimantan, the part of Borneo belonging to Indonesia. It is a pure freshwater species that lives in very soft, acidic water. The peaceful fish become only 3-4 cm long and is a schooling species. Their care is not difficult, however, Gymnochanda, like most glass-perches, accept only live and  frozen food, the latter only after habituation. It is best to feed such small treasures with live Artemia nauplii.

Only the males have enlarged and red colored fins. Glass-perches often spawn in the aquarium, they are plant-spawners without brood-care. The raising of the tiny young, who often only accept certain food organisms, is, however, a very high school of aquaristics.

For our customers: the animals have code 419622 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesalers.