# Japes' Introduction Thread - Photos + Setups



## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

Greetings fellow hobbyists,

Decided to put this thread up for two reasons. One to show a few of you that may be interested in what I keep, and the second to try and grab some attention to make myself feel awesome. Most of these shots would have been posted over at Aquatic Photography, and MonsterFishKeepers, so for those who are members of either or both you may be familiar with them.

Little information about my setups.

165G System (140 + Sump)

1x _Hypselecara temporalis_
2x _Heros efasciatus_
4x _Acarichthys heckelii_
3x _Satanoperca leucosticta_
1x _Geophagus altifrons_ 'Tocantins'
8x _Corydoras panda_

70G setup (140 upgrade in the works)

7x _Geophagus_ sp. 'Araguaia Orange Head'
4x F0 _Laetacara dorsigera_
14x _Hemigrammus rhodostomus_
8x _Pristella maxillaris_
1x _Ancistrus_ sp.
2x _Rineloricaria eigenmanni_
5x _Corydoras julii_

.. and photography information.

Canon EOS400D 50mm @ F1.8 - Pretty much do all of my fish shooting with this lens, I love it. Also have a Fuji S6500FD that gets a work out every now and then.

Here's some of my favourites from the last month or so.










_Acarichthys heckelii_ - Could have used a little bit of post editing to remove specks etc, especially on the right border. Took out February POTM over at MonsterFishKeepers.com




























_Geophagus altifrons_ 'Tocantins'










_Satanoperca leucosticta_










_Heros efasciatus_










_Hypselecara temporalis_










Half tank shot of the 140.

I'd have some *full* tank shots but they're both under quite significant reworks at the moment so I wouldn't be happy with them.

Cheers,
Ryan.


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## RayQ (Sep 26, 2007)

Welcome 

Great looking fish, tanks and photos!

Ray


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## Howler33 (Dec 10, 2004)

Beautiful pictures Japes, I especially like the A. Heckelii. I currently have two Heckelii in my 150 and they get a nice burnt orange patch of color over the front half of the fish, have you noticed this coloration on yours?


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## edburress (Jun 9, 2007)

Really nice fish and pictures, everyone mentions the _heckelii_, so I have to give a shout out to the _leucosticta_, I can't wait to see them as adults :thumb:

Ed


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## HiImSean (Apr 5, 2007)

japes you picture whore, now they're everywhere 

great stuff, keep it coming.


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## DiscusQueen (Jul 16, 2007)

Japes... as always love your fish and your tanks wherever you post them... =D> =D> =D> Sue


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## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

The pictures are incredible! ...and the fish are equally incredible


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## CHK (Jan 12, 2007)

stunning pictures! :thumb: Post more when you can


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Nice to have another "pic-whore", now I don't feel so bad .

:lol:

Very nice and healthy fish, welcome!

You don't appear to use OH flash/fill flash so I'm curious about your settings as I'm not seeing much ISO graininess. f5, 1/80th, ISO 800 would be my guess based on DOF, motion blur and lack of ISO grain? Are you processing some of the graininess out or is your tanks light intensity enough that you're able to shoot with a slower ISO? Call me a curious cat.... 8) I've missed you on APF - do you go under the same member name?

I'm with Ed, the _Satanoperca leucosticta_ is a lovely specimen, the markings on it's head are quite hypnotic, I look forward to seeing more of this fish (and your others.) Make sure you get a tank shot up when you're ready!

Nice to have another Canon man on the team, we'll eventually show Gerry, aka NorthShore, that Nikon turner :lol:.


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## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

blairo1 said:


> You don't appear to use OH flash/fill flash so I'm curious about your settings as I'm not seeing much ISO graininess. f5, 1/80th, ISO 800 would be my guess based on DOF, motion blur and lack of ISO grain? Are you processing some of the graininess out or is your tanks light intensity enough that you're able to shoot with a slower ISO? Call me a curious cat.... 8) I've missed you on APF - do you go under the same member name?


50mm @ F1.8, 1/50th or 1/60th generally, ISO100 

Obviously F1.8 means that focus has to be absolutely pin point, which means that manually focusing I get about 5 fantastic photos from every 200 or so shots. I tend to spam photos out when the fish sits still very minor differences in focus and sort through later - the beauty of digital. I'm a DoF whore 

Automatic White Balance, so post editing generally consists of.. Auto Colours/Contrast/Levels, manually adjust colour balance depending on how well that's picked it up - resize, use a dull blur around the black/background areas to dull or remove some of the major specs in the water, and then usually a 50% sharpen on the whole image and cut it back or leave it unsharpened if it's too harsh.


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## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

Few more shots of mine that I liked - not my fish.



























_
exCichlasoma salvini_ (Female)



















_Amatitlania nigrofasciatus_ (Female) - Not fantastic shots but I like them personally.


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## lilstephii143 (Feb 19, 2009)

all these fish are african? i never see these fish in the LFS stores. they must of cost you $$. but great looking tank and fish. i wish i seen fish that had stand out colors like that in the LFS.


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Realy incredible!!!! Gorgeous fish in a very good shape, healthy nice filled and very nice colored and oooh I'm so jealous at your photographic skills!!! Awesome and thanks for sharing :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:


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## Howler33 (Dec 10, 2004)

> all these fish are african


Central American


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## Howler33 (Dec 10, 2004)

Central American in the second set of pictures that is.


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## exasperatus2002 (Jul 5, 2003)

Gorgeous pics!


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

Pretty amazing pics of some fantastic fish. Your _Hypselacara_ really shows off why they're also called "Emerald" cichlids.

Wish I had an F1.8. How much lighting are you using? Tripod?

-Ryan


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Of course I've seen these pics over on MFK, but it's always nice to see them. I love the dorsal coloratin in the _Satanoperca_ ...

I think you'll enjoy it over here, more dwarf and eartheater keepers. :thumb:


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## KoalaBear (Jan 13, 2009)

I'm not sure which to be more jealous about... The gorgeous fish or the wonderful ability to take pictures... I am almost certain that the fish win though! Can't wait to see more!


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## Sulander (May 31, 2005)

Just a quick post to make you feel awesome! 

Mate, absolutely amazing photography and beautiful fish.
I really need to get a new camera.


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## knotty dreadlocks (Oct 31, 2008)

those are some nice looking fish you got there and also those photos are great


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## ktluvsfish (Jan 13, 2008)

Wow  Your fish are gorgeous! I truly admire your photography skills. My dad is a photographer and I didn't inherit any of those genes from him. My fish photos are barely passable :lol:


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## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

70G










140.

Chocolate and Peppered Corydoras are now sold too so I'll need to get another shot up at some stage.


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

may i ask why you got rid of the sevs? chocolate also?
are you going for just an eartheater tank or crowding issues?

your pics and fish are really fantastic. i love it.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Probably more eartheaters. He likes his Cichlasomines, but loves his eartheaters. :lol:


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## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

I made the initial mistake when stocking the tank of having too few of each species of Eartheaters. I had to sell an incredibly nice _A. heckelii_ a couple of months back because my current large dominant male was beating it into submission constantly.

I never liked keeping single specimens, so I decided on pairs or trios. This does of course lead to a pecking order, and if the weaker is too weak, or the dominant is too dominant, you run into problems. 12 months down the track and with whole lot more experience under my belt, I've expanded the numbers of my Eartheaters so a legitimate pecking order allowing for a spread of dominant aggression can be present.

Due to my current living constraints, I have limited opportunity to expand to larger or more extensive setups, and although I loved my Heroines and was quite attached to them, I had to sell them, thankfully to good homes. Even though I could probably 'get away' with keeping all of the current species in a tank when they're closer to full size, they'll either be rehoused into a 6x3x2 that is in the works, or split into other tanks.

Here's a few new shots from today, unfortunately on the Fuji.




























Inevitably within the next few years I'll have a very well put together "breeding setup" (species only display tanks) and will breed some of the species I currently don't have room to keep.


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## Rafael. (Apr 8, 2005)

Impressive pics!! =D>


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## Shifty (Jan 18, 2009)

Those are some beautiful tanks!


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## Valous (Jan 30, 2011)

As always your photos, tanks and fish are outstanding. I keep looking at your eartheater tanks for inspiration for when I am ready to do mine. Keep up the good work and I hope to have a few questions in the future for you.


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## DempseyDude (Apr 4, 2005)

Beautiful!


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