Homalopteras, do they jump?

[hx]

Hi you all Homaloptera keepers. I finally saw Homalopteras on a stocklist and ordered what are specified as orthogoniatas. Remains to be seen if I get them and what they really are, if so.

My question for you people with experience on these is: do they get out of the tank easily? Jumping or sucking their way up the glass?
Thanks.

[Doc]

Potentially they can jump quite a distance and they are capable of coming of of the water to a degree. If in any doubt then cover wherever possible.

[hx]

I know, their shape leads to believe they are regular missiles.

I have been in doubt of every species I have added to my open front paludarium, but haven't gotten one casualty so far. Well, fish casualty. I find shrimps on the floor regularly.
Yunnanilus seem to stay in the water, Sewellias and Gastromyzons are ok, they don't climb the glass, all tetras I keep there are fine.

I am in doubt and I know I should play it safe. But I would be interested to hear if anyone has kept Homalopteras in a tank without cover. Succesfully or un-.

[Jeremy]

I have had 6 Ortho's in a tank with out a cover. In my experiance the way they will get out is via the h.o.b. filter if you don't have a cover on the filter. Although I have not had any issues as sugested before a cover would be better than no cover.

[hx]

Oh, yes, I'm sure they love to do upstream like mad.
I don't have an HOB filter in the stream-tank. I've had a lot of fish that love to go into them, other hillstreams and pretty much all spiny eels I've kept.

Thanks for the comment. I might try them in the uncovered.

[hx]

Pls bare with me, but: one more time, anyone here had a Homalop carpetsurfing, ever?

[hx]

Oh, my. They came. Ten of them.

I'm so excited, they are beautiful little fish. Pretty sure they are orthogoniatas, just short of 2 inches long little fish.

Love them already.

[Jim Powers]

Congratulations!!
They are great fish that I hope to obtain again, soon.

[hx]

Thanks, Jim!

I've been looking these (or any other Homalops) for quite awhile now.
I have placed an order every time I've seen them on a wholesaler's lists, but have come up empty every time 'till now.

They are in excellent condiion, very active and not at all thin as I have understood they often are when reaching LFS.
I'm a bit puzzled by the fact that they are smaller than what I expected and very uniform in size. Could it be that they are being bred somewhere these days?

[Jim Powers]

I don't know of them being commercially bred, but I have heard of someone (who used to post on this site) finding fry in his river tank.

[hx]

Ok, then. Perhaps they just catch them at a certain size. No story on my fish, whether they are CB or WC.

But they are lovely:


Judging by the first couple of days, I would say there is no huge risk in them jumping out of the tank.

And they do like current more than the other hillstreamers (Gastros and Sewellias) in the tank.

[Jim Powers]

Very nice!!!!