Well you can see the tilapia spot on the caudal fin, so I am pretty sure its a Tilapia of some sort, possibley Tilapia sparmanni?
To be honest, I'm not sure at all. I got some Tilapia sparmanii last year, wich breeded and protected big batches of offspring this Summer. However, I caught a bunch of small fish from a very big pond and had them put in a smaller pond in my garden, and they also breeded. These are some of their offspring. It may also be Banded Tilapia, if there is something like that? Where do you guys check up on spieces fish?
The fish look a bit stressed, and since they are still juveniles an ID will be quite difficult. How are they doing in the tank so far?
What you mean they look stressed? These photos were taken about 3 or 5 hours after I had put them in the tank. Anyway, today they seem very happy, "playing" in every little corner where they can find sand. I added a glass container now with clean sand, so they can "play" there. I suppose they look for food / algae on the sand, so the fresh sand is not attractive yet. They receive food (little pellets) very well and consume it quickly.
Their colour looks washed out and some of them are clamping their fins slightly. If you moved them to the tank recently that would explain it though.
Love your Lillies Pondman. I have a Capensis in my pond aswell, it's in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=5 I love them, the colour is spectacular.
Great to hear there's other lily growers, Cameron. There's other spiecies also, and unknown (not named / seedlings) plants, but more about them later. The capensis has a great smell too - one have to bow (kneel / bent over) usually to get the reward, but surely worth the while! :funnyh:
Has anyone tried the tropical night bloomers... Red Flare or perhaps Emily Grant Hutchings, which can cope with lower temperatures than the normal night flowering types I'm told?
Do they look better Andre? They just love mosquito larva. They catch the larva and hold it in their mouths, looking like they chew them, but I think they rather drown them... and gulp them down whole. About night bloomers - I imported different seeds last year, also seeds of(f) white and red night bloomers. So far my white night plants turned out to be pink day lilies, so I hope for the best still for the "red" that have not flowered yet. I can't say anything on desireable temperatures - I don't have species spesific night bloomers (yet). All I know for fact is that water lilies in general require 5 - 6 hours direct sunlight (per day) on avarage to bloom well. The more sun, the better. I'm testing a species now that may do better than the norm in shade, but it's a day bloomer...
Looking at their fins they are looking a lot better now. Not the prettiest fish hey Hopefully they improve as they get older
With the light from behind they seem a little dull. The adult Tilapia sparmanii is different though, with darker blueish colour and red colour appearing in breeding time. Very fast swimmers, with great control over their moves, like dead still hovering sometimes.
That is one of the characteristics of cichlids. Its pretty amazing how quickly they can come to a full stop. Not a lot of people have kept these fish before - good luck with them