New camera, new photos (Picture heavy)

Just wanted to share some new photos. Finally got the camera I've been waiting on for over half a year. Fish are mostly the same just a little better pics of them. I'll work on tank shots now to post to the gallery but need a nice day with lots of good light. Hope you enjoy what I have been able to gleen.

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Nice specimens.

Thanks Wes...I forgot this one...my Kyoga male...he is really hard to get a pic of

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Nice snap shots Donna. One day I'll upgrade from my phone to a real camera too

cichlid-gal wrote:Thanks Wes...I forgot this one...my Kyoga male...he is really hard to get a pic of

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love the color on that one.

fishNAbowl wrote:Nice snap shots Donna. One day I'll upgrade from my phone to a real camera too

I'm still on auto mode with this camera...I just unboxed it...but I have a course in that is supposed to help me graduate from auto mode to "real" photography...wish me luck and I'll try not to bomb you guys too often and only when a pic is really worthy...but this was my 1st goaround so I had to have a little fun sharing

SiRWesDragon wrote:

cichlid-gal wrote:Thanks Wes...I forgot this one...my Kyoga male...he is really hard to get a pic of

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love the color on that one.

You should see him in the mornings Wes...he is so RED....I missed him this morning. I'll keep trying and see if I can get that great shot of him as he's totally worthy of the effort.

Good looking pics, what camera are you using?

DMD123 wrote:Good looking pics, what camera are you using?

Thanks DMD...its the camera...not me....but I hope to change that....and its a Nikon D7100

Amazing pics Donna.

That's a real camera alright.   The photos are great!

Great pics! Looking forward to getting bombarded with more of them! Doesn't it add another whole new dimension to keeping fish?

Keep them coming!

Thanks Madness, PBmax and Tom...I am hoping to learn a lot more about photography.

The fish photography is exciting...a whole new dimension. I just saw some pics on cichlid forum of baby fishes eyes shining out of mom's mouths and toofies showing...WOW...what shots. And I'm always in awe of the great fish photographers that are out there. Total inspiration.

I love the first pic in the second post. What an amazing looking fish

lloyd378 wrote:I love the first pic in the second post. What an amazing looking fish

Thanks Lloyd...that's my mini bad boy P. multicolor victoriae ..those are tough little guys with lots of personality.

After seeing the pics, I pulled out my old DSLR and played around taking pics.

Thanks for the inspiration cichlid-gal.

DMD123 wrote:After seeing the pics, I pulled out my old DSLR and played around taking pics.

Thanks for the inspiration cichlid-gal.

  

Here's a couple more...new pics...new fish

This is my new male Dwarf Blue Panda guppy
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and one of my new male Threadfin Rainbow (Iriatherina werneri)
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and my 1st shrimp (I got six of these, lost one in transport, of the remaining I only see a couple of them around the tank so I'm not sure if the rest made it..I guess time will tell)
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Nice. Where did you get the shrimps? Wilson in Issaquah?

SiRWesDragon wrote:Nice. Where did you get the shrimps? Wilson in Issaquah?

...

Thanks Wes...shrimp came from Aquarium Co-Op

cichlid-gal wrote:
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WOW, Look at that blue!!!

fishNAbowl wrote:

cichlid-gal wrote:
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WOW, Look at that blue!!!

I've been seeing them at the coop for a while and I never saw them that blue before!!! WOW! My neck still hurts from the double take when I opened up the page and saw that pic!

Here's the original pic...when I cropped it I upped the contrast...thinking from all your comments that I should share the big pic to show how really blue he is ...just wanted to make sure not to mislead if that pic is doing that...but I don't think so...anyway  ... you decide (oh...and I think its my water hmmm...maybe the lights? I don't know...fish are happy...yes...that's it!!!)

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Nice pics CG! Do you have an external flash? The auto focus on the newer models sure is improving. Try manual focus and move the camera in and out=closer/farther slightly to fine tune focus rather than focusing the lense.

Thanks plaamoo. I'm just using the flash on the camera right now as I don't have an external flash. And I'm taking an online photo course (working my way through it)...that will help me with the manual stuff.

cichlid-gal wrote:Thanks plaamoo.  I'm just using the flash on the camera right now as I don't have an external flash.  And I'm taking an online photo course (working my way through it)...that will help me with the manual stuff.  

Not supposed to admit photoshop unless asked still the silver/blue is really neat!

Some great shots there, cichlid-gal! I still haven't advanced past the point and shoot setting.   

fishNAbowl wrote:

cichlid-gal wrote:Thanks plaamoo.  I'm just using the flash on the camera right now as I don't have an external flash.  And I'm taking an online photo course (working my way through it)...that will help me with the manual stuff.  

Not supposed  to admit photoshop unless asked ;)still the silver/blue is really neat!

I'm not ashamed that I use a photo editor sometimes (and its not photoshop...I have Paintshop). For contests I believe photos should be untouched but for personal sharing if you want to make the fish look its best, minor tweaks are all good with me. Oh...and the shrimp had a contrast adjustment also as I cropped that pic too. All the others are from the camera as is.

I'll continue with picture post...I'll just make sure to let you guys know if I do a contrast thing ... again, not my intent to mislead and it seemed that that pic did by the comments about it being so "blue" made me feel like I needed to clarify that.

Nothing at all wrong with post processing, as long as you maintain the integrity of the original photo. You won't see a photo in any magazine that hasn't been enhanced.

Betty wrote:Some great shots there, cichlid-gal! I still haven't advanced past the point and shoot setting.   

Betty...thanks...and you take some great photos  and thanks plaamoo, very true

I have to admit ... that last one is a very pretty feeder maker.  

dwarfpike wrote:I have to admit ... that last one is a very pretty feeder maker.  

No feeder maker comments allowed   

Okay, bad joke aside ... what's the fish in the second pic of the first post? Am curious about wild type livebearers for the more mellow crypto's and other centrals.

dwarfpike wrote:Okay, bad joke aside ... what's the fish in the second pic of the first post? Am curious about wild type livebearers for the more mellow crypto's and other centrals.

I am so happy someone asked about him...he is a Characodon lateralis, or rainbow goodeid.  These are an endangered species currently listed as such on the IUCN red list and listed as critically endangered on the CARES priority list.

I started with a pair of these (the beautiful male in the pic) and a nice healthy female.  My male will show stunning red color when in spawning mode.  The females tend to be more silver/olive with a blotchy midline and larger than the males.  I currently have the original pair of these along with some midsized fry and some little babies just born day before yesterday.  I have shared a pair of these and sent a pair to the GSAS auction.  I was excited to be able to do this with them as they are not common.

I (personally) would not recommend keeping these fish in a community tank because of their status and the fact that they are a rather peaceful and quiet fish and I think the activity levels of other fish might make them stay in hiding.  The C. lateralis do require cooler water temps and should be kept below 75 degrees with ranges of 70-74 degrees being the best.  

My group is housed in a 20G long tank, sand substrate with plants (live and fake), 2 AC50 HOB's, water temps of 72.2, PH 8.0, gh/kh 9-10.  They seem very healthy.  They eat flake foods with frozen/live supplements.  I feed some rephashy for the fry.

I believe there is currently a lot of effort going into saving this species and its remaining habitat as well as planning for possible reintroduction in the future (Cory shared with me that there had actually been a couple of attempts to reintroduce these guys but I haven't found the articles yet).  Anyway, I would highly recommend, if you can, making room or finding a special tank that you could dedicate to these special fish.  They are beautiful in the tank and a joy to watch.

For further information
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PS...this is my second typing of this message as I hit the dang back button by accident and everything was gone when I came back.  My other post was better but this will have to do.

Again...thanks for asking about these guys.

Hmmm, cooler than what I would want to keep them for. That male is a pretty fish though. The red really stands out. Hopefully you can snap a few pics with the male in breeding colors, it might help get more people interested in them.

dwarfpike wrote:Hmmm, cooler than what I would want to keep them for. That male is a pretty fish though. The red really stands out. Hopefully you can snap a few pics with the male in breeding colors, it might help get more people interested in them.

There is some line breeding being done with these to get more "red" in the males. You can see those fish here
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Mine will never look like that and even in breeding mode my male is not that red.

Mama and a couple of the babies...she and the male managed to raise up quite a few of the babies in the big tank fighting off many others and protecting them 24/7.  It amazes me every time I watch this group...they are not large fish yet they are very strong and dominant fish...they protect their young from all others that might come near.  Dad has since moved on but Mom is still in the watching mode, keeping them safe.  Out of about a large group of fry (25-30 probably)...I can still count about 11 that have survived.  I'm in awe

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Cute photo. I used to have a breeding pair in my 7 foot tank. The idea was that my dwarf predators could have more of a natural environment hunting fry . However, the breeding pair turned out to be tougher than I thought & the group would migrate throughout the tank and all other occupants would cower- hiding in the nooks and cracks. I truly respect the Krib, beautiful fish.

Very cute.  I like baby pics.  At first glance, from that angle, I thought I was looking at an auratus!  

fishNAbowl wrote:Cute photo. I used to have a breeding pair in my 7 foot tank. The idea was that my dwarf predators could have more of a natural environment hunting fry . However, the breeding pair turned out to be tougher than I thought & the group would migrate throughout the tank and all other occupants would cower- hiding in the nooks and cracks. I truly respect the Krib, beautiful fish.

Yes...they are tough and beautiful little fish.

Betty wrote:Very cute.  I like baby pics.  At first glance, from that angle, I thought I was looking at an auratus!  

Thanks Betty. Getting pics of the babies is hard. My camera has trouble focusing on those tiny guys. These kribs have a lot of yellow in them. I'll try to get a good pic of one of them all colored up. They are beautiful even though they are not the fancy ones.

Contrast and brightness adjusted...but boy does he look great.  He was in spawning mode this morning...jetting around the tank and showing off.  I love this guy

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Beautiful!