Red Lizard Whiptails

[Lennie]

Hey guys,

Today, I've seen red lizards for the first time in my LFS, and I just fell in love with them. 

I wonder if anyone has any experience with Red Lizard Whiptails. Internet does not have a lot of info on them, and it is hard to come by fishkeeper experiences.

We have chatted with @CJs Aquatics about them as I've seen their breeding topic today. They helped me a lot!

I've read probably all info online by now, including a previous topic created in this forum around 2 years ago. 

But I would love to hear some personal experiences if anyone here has any.

If you had any chance to keep them;

- How many have you kept together under with what parameters/temp/tank size?

- What was their diet like? Did yours like blanched veggies? Do they like to graze on algae and biofilm, or make any noticable difference?

- If kept more than one, what was your m:f ration in what tank size?

or any other stuff you'd like to share!

 

Many thanks,

 

Here is a cute pic online:)

 

 

Edited February 19 by Lennie

[Biotope Biologist]

I have not had red lizard before but have had whiptails. All farlowella cats seem to be fairly similar in tank requirements:

 

They prefer softer water with heavy wood and plant features. They are incredibly shy at first, especially wild caught. They love blanched vegetables and mature algae to feed on. After a while mine became far less shy and hung out on the front glass. They would eat live blackworms on occasion although I’d say pretty sparingly. Maybe once a month.

 

They are very cute and cannot recommend this oddball genus enough. Although not sure if red lizards are technically a part of the farlowella genus. 
 

edit: according to wikipedia sources whiptails were moved into the genus Rineloricaria. 
 

My tank was the following:

As babies a 29 gallon high 3 females 1 male. Kept with 5 baby angels and 10 neon tetra. Heavily planted with several large pieces of driftwood. Water in Seattle comes from the tap soft and I think my ph was 6.8. They all moved into a 128g for several months before something went awry and killed everything. Only survivors was an adopted goldfish and a bristlenose pleco named Mushu

Edited February 19 by Biotope Biologist

[Lennie]

Thanks @Biotope Biologist!

When I was at LFS, I spent an hour reading everything online there to make a good decision, I ended up getting two. I've read them being shy aswell, but since I introduced them to the tank, they are active nonstop! They were not really active at all in the LFS tho. They have been moving around woods, rocks and jumping from one plant to another. They loved to play around the  waterfall current of HOB. No schooling behavior, but they randomly socialize with each other if meet each other on a wood or so.

I guess red lizards can't be wild caught, as it is not documented that they exist in wild from what I've seen so far. People still don't know their exact origin but assuming they are a result of breeding certain whiptails. Maybe that is why they were not shy at all.

Kinda regretting not getting a third, but any more than the third can be economically challenging to me rn. Even though they are tank-bred, red ones seem harder to breed from here:

https://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/shanesworld.php?article_id=419

so they were kinda pricey.

If they are not heavy grazers, I think I can do 3 in a 33g, but if not, 2 seems good for now, as I don't want my nerites and whiptails competing each other nonstop.

Hope I can provide them a good care. I'm so excited

 

Edited February 19 by Lennie

[Biotope Biologist]

I gave mine lots of veggies so they didn’t compete with the snails. And eat up all the algae. I think 3 in a 33 would be fine! If you can find it in your budget 😋

[Lennie]

On 2/19/2023 at 9:30 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

I gave mine lots of veggies so they didn’t compete with the snails. And eat up all the algae. I think 3 in a 33 would be fine! If you can find it in your budget 😋

I guess I got two females. Couldn't see any bristles around their face. I wanna go get a male now :') Maybe they are too young to show their gender yet. They are about 6 cms. They seem to have really tiny bristles anyway, so It is hard to see

I've seen this video on youtube, but didn't want to stress them with flashlight. I will try to see more when the lights are on tomorrow.

 

Edited February 19 by Lennie

[CJs Aquatics]

Wonderful chatting with you earlier, love the topic and love the species and look forward to what everyone has to say, I’ll try to keep things brief…

I tried a few types of caves as I heard they are a cave spawner and they seemed to like right fitting, open ended pvc the best cut to approx 6 in, although this one is checking out a larger longer piece. (Sorry for the algae)

offered them many size caves both open and closed, this one was in the uplift tube of a coop sponge filter, never showed breeding activity in it but loved to hang out there 

it’s a relatively heavily planted 10 gallon running an undergravel filter with a deep layered substrate however I have had them in different set ups, it wasn’t until this one I saw eggs but it may have been bc they were finally mature enough. This pic is to show a potted anubias I have in the tank that I had to bring over from there last tank bc they loved laying in it so much, when I can’t find them I look here first you can vaguely see 2 of them in there currently.as far as feeding goes, I feed a varied diet, many many options. Mine don’t seem to care for blanched vegetables, there favorite foods are protein rich, carnivore pellets and they do well with larger sizes as shown in this picture. They graze on the algae all day or at least appear too but really get active when new foods are introduced, sometimes I feed flakes or nano pellets or wafers also but it’s important it gets to the bottom bc they don’t seem to travel up for the food they wait for it to hit the substrate. 
typical breeding behavior looks like this, very similar to plecos they breed in caves and are egg layers, then the female is kicked out and the male fans the eggs to keep them from growing fungus. I’ve seen eggs twice, relatively small clutches and haven’t for quite a while and neighter time saw any fry so this is as far as I’ve gotten. I’m hopeful I will be able to breed and successfully raise this peaceful fish, they are super fun to watch. 

[Lennie]

@CJs Aquatics they are looking great😍

Has anyone tried spirulina tabs with them? Planning to order some sera tabs, I’ve seen other whiptails enjoying it.

Well at worst case, my snails will enjoy it anyway I believe :,)

Edited February 20 by Lennie

[CJs Aquatics]

I’ve done spirulina flakes, and algae wafers with spirulina as well as the sera tabs and they like all 3 

[Lennie]

On 2/20/2023 at 10:06 AM, CJs Aquatics said:

I’ve done spirulina flakes, and algae wafers with spirulina as well as the sera tabs and they like all 3 

Alrighty, added to the shopping cart 🙂