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Rainbowric

Calgary & Area Member
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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Calgary
  • Interests
    Breeding and raising Rainbowfish

    Currently 32 different species of Rainbowfish and growing daily.

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    Calgary

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  1. You did very well catching that moment! When the M. Macculocki "Skull Creek" first came to North America, it was argued that the Skull Creek did not have a stripe when spawning. It took months before someone was able to catch a picture of one of them spawning. Yes a thanks to John for breeding as many as he has over the last years. I have a post in My Journal that says little about this nice dwarf rainbowfish. http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?/topic/38149-melanotaenia-maccullochi-skull-creek/ Cheers Ric
  2. Usually you get better responses to your questions here on AA then this one.I too have been running canister filters for years and have had Cystall clear water and have just recently switched to a sump system. Was blown away with all the confusion about sumps. But once you figure them out, get them running right, they are pretty sweet! I believe what your wondering about is that you are not happy with your 20 gallon "Sump" that you acquired and want to go with a larger sump. The sump pump is part of your sump system and you don't make them, but buy them. jvision answer was a recommendation on a pump you could buy for your sump. The pump you select can be of many variations ac powered vs dc powered, with different flow rates specified that needs to be selected on size of tank you have. The height the pump (head) has to pump the water up to, and about how much flow you want. A 2000 gph flow pump may only pump 1000 gph at a head of 5 feet. How much flow you need is determined by many factors but to start with you might look at 5 to 10 times your tank volume, so a 1000 gph pump would work on a 110 gallon tank. I have read where some guys run as low as 3 tank volumes with few fish, some like it really high ( the reefers ) high bioloads 10 times + the tank volume. If you were going to go with ckmullin suggestion and have only plants it would be child's play to figure how how little flow you would need. Now as far as your other side of your question about a different sump. ...not sump pump...you can purchase one from Big Al's online. They are pricey but very nice ...I had just purchased one of there Trigger sump systems. I see they have a 20 gallon trigger sump which would probabably work well for your 110 but at ~ $400 you might want to build one if you are handy. I bought the Cystall elite 36 which gives you about 35 gallons of sump volume running it on a 150 gallon. More money You could probably have one of the tank builders put one together for you cheaper if you figure you are not quit capable. But you might have to spec it out for them even though they could probably build one with you saying you wanted 30 gallons of volume. You will still need to do much more homework before making a decision for which ever way you go. Further on Sump Pumps which are normally submersible .... on my sump I run two pumps backing each other up....both pumps having a reputation to be being very quiet, (mag drive pumps have been known to be a little noisy and like to consume electricity ) a power hungry ac powered Eheim and a dc powered Tunzi which consumes about half the power of my ac pump, quieter, smaller, and has a variable flow rate, unfortunately is more money to buy again. Lots of research and what sucks is most of the info on the web for sump systems and pumps for those systems is with regards to saltwater. Google BRS videos ...Bulk Reef Supply.com ...they have many videos about setting up sumps, sump systems, and overflows, and some videos on sump pumps designs, however keep in mind again these are videos for salt tanks. But because it salt don't totally disregard it as some of these reefers are pretty sharp fellows!
  3. Nice post Andrew ... almost sucked me into breeding again. Indeed you can rest assured about getting healthier fish and even save money from buying from local breeders. Thank you for your support! However the issue with fish of lower quality and health from your LFS is not nessesarily the total fault of our LFS. I know of a number of LFS owners that are very happy to receive healthier fish from me. I have brought in fish from excellent breeders, not fish farms from around the continent and they do take a beating being shipped in small packages, with many fish, for long periods of time. A bad apple in a bunch can happen quite easily ... I have taken a number of hits! As much as people make take precaution about catching the flu or a cold it happens ...someone at the office gets sick ...then everyone is sick. In our tanks with a couple of dozen fish the risk is lower but in a LFS where there is thousands the risk is ten fold. My mother was telling me 60 years ago when she worked for Woolworth Dept Stores how the fish shippments used to come in where 25 to 50 % were dead. Breeders have less fish and less risk and more time to care for the fewer fish. I could go on with a number of reasons, paragraphs, why it is difficult for our LFS owners to bring us in heathier fish but I think my point is being made. I think we should throw a little more support for them ...most of them, do try there best ...unlike us there livelihood depends on it! However don't stop supporting your local breeder! Cheers Ric
  4. I have a Coralife Turbo Twist 3x for sale ...
  5. Hikari frozen shrimp or baby shrimp? The baby stuff is very small ..almost dust ..? Mostly for fry feeding. Bigger fish might not get to excited about it ... Cories and pleco's will clean any of it up that does not get sucked up by the filter. Cheers Ric
  6. It would be easier for you to obtain this fish from a breeder in USA rather then here in Canada. I do not know of any breeders in Canada that will ship any kind of bow to the USA. Just to difficult getting them over the border ...sorry but your USA Customs and Immigration! I have had many collectors in the USA contact me over the years and there is just not a safe way of effectively doing it. Most of the reputable breeders I know in the USA unfortunately do no ship in the winter or mid summer because of high or low temperatures. Eric Bodrock of Alloddballaquatics does ship year round and I have seen him auction this fish a number of times recently on Aquabid. However shipping out of season can be a little more expensive ...by using special shipping containers and faster means to compensate for harsher temperatures. You can contact Eric as he has a number of auctions all the time on Aquabid, where you can obtain contact information. He might have a bunch that is close to ready to go, and he does sell other then auctuions. In a few months Gary Lange in the USA will start shipping again. I have in the past had Gary ship me fish off season however state to him immediately on contact that the cost of shipping is not your slightest concern. He might ship to you then ... "Courier next day service" usually that is Fed-ex or you being on the states UPS. He will determine the safest way to get them to you. Gary can be contacted by PM through the forum ...www.rainbow-fish.org ... Username "rainbowfish" you can even try to PM him on this forum, as he did at one time have an active acct under the Username of "rainbowfish" here as well. Breeders don't normally offer to ship! To do it safely for the fish it becomes expensive ..almost double the cost of buying them direct. To me worth it! So you might pay $10 dollars for a fish plus another $10 dollars for shipping of that fish. Okay to buy a quality fish, usually with a pedigree from a reputable breeder, as reputable breeders do not waste there time breeding crap fish, for $20 versus paying almost the same for a farmed fish out of a LFS? Cost is one thing but also it does take a bit of extra time to prepare, package, and ship the fish, so if you find someone willing to give you that time ...consider yourself lucky. Drop me a PM if you need any further help. Ric
  7. Indeed there was a huge demand to bring fresh blood of this species back into the hobby! One collection rumored that a pair of wild caught praecox went for $2500 in Asia and that there were no females available to buy from this pair. Then all of a sudden we had lots of F1's available thanks to Gary Lange and this collection and distribution efforts ...he brought me up a mop loaded with eggs and I sold over a hundred of them and then Gary brought up egg kits to Edmonton and Calgary Spring Workshops and it seamed that everyone had F1 praecox "Pagai" available. I kept a pair of F1's, loss the female after a couple of years, replaced them with 2 F2 girls...kept the old boy quite happy for almost 4 years and just recently lost him. I gave the two F2 girls to AA member geleen who has an F2 boy, who now has a bunch of F3 fry! Again thanks to John as I don't know of anyone else that has kept track of this fish ...yes there are praecox around ...they are in the LFS, not near the quality of the original Pagai, lower end praecox ...couldn't say if they are from Pagai or for that matter what generation they might be from the wild. I had both fish in one of my show tanks at the same time ....F1 praecox "Pagai" and F1 Wapoga Lazers (stripped praecox) and IMO the Pagai praecox was a much brighter neon blue with much longer deeper red fins then the Lazer! I would much rather have a colony of them to show then the Lazer fish! Cheers Ric
  8. Personally I prefer the "Northfin" Veggie pellet ...however it is not a staple food for my fish ..."Frozen" Bloodworms, Shrimp, and Daphnia covers about 75% of there diet, soaked in Boyd's Vitachem and a little garlic juice. They just get the "Northfin" veggie pellets and a bit of flake for the odd treat. Based on the ingredients on the packages, Angelfins and HBH, and HBH use to be one of my choices, if you want to stick with a flake, HBH is probably one of the better. If you wanted to go with a pellet, RD' s suggestion sounds good as well. However if I was going to completely change my Cory's diet I would consult with AA syno321 or AA Quill - Paul Hawks from Regina. Cheers Rick
  9. You may want to think again before placing an order with Ed's ...it was an excellent flake, however lately it has been questioned. In addition it appears that finding quality flake in the states is becoming an issue as well. See thread below. http://www.rainbow-fish.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2831 I do think the flake that Angelfins sells is pretty good, however the protein content is a little higher then you are looking for! I have and use the "Spiralina", and as well as the "Super Color", and the fish go nuts for it. It does hold it's shape better then Ed's ...I find Ed's when it get's near the bottom of the bag ..quite powdery, although still okay for young fry. I have also noticed a few others buying the same, plus the "Breeders blend" ...as I see it coming in on the group orders. http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=21_14&zenid=8a238e3f3eb874a7fe8c5184cb2556a4
  10. Well it is about time that I started a thread on this new species of Rainbowfish. It has been around for a couple of years but was only brought into Canada December of 2013. At that time this species which Gary Lange collected had not been released anywhere in North America. Today it is only owned by 3 people in Alberta ... 4 in Canada. I have been, as Gary slow to release this fish until more is learned about it scientifically. But recently I did release a pair to a local breeder here in Calgary so there should be some young available soon. I rather doubt that this fish will ever see the LFS. It is a little shy ... well shy compared to other Chilatherina's and blends in quite well with it's surroundings. If only had a male .. it would not be an enjoyable fish. However when it flashes for the females or spars with another male over a female it can be quite entertaining! The 2 pairs that I have are originally from Gary Lange and would now be about 14 months old now ...Christmas of 2014. They are about the same age as the Chilatherina alleni "Wapoga" that I posted in the alleni thread. Pcike them both up from Gary at the same time. They are in with a couple of younger pairs of Chilatherina bleheri (nicely bred and raised by AA geleen) that might be 3 months younger then them.. So they are a little bigger. There are a number of similarities to the C. bleheri which you will see as I will post a picture of them both together. They are in a tank with a dark blue background, dark Eco-complete substrate, and a couple of anubias plants with black hair algae hanging off them. This first picture is of a male feeling well after a water change and a good feeding! Chilatherina (species) Upper Tor River He is just starting to show some interest in a female and you will notice some blue in his chest and the tips of his fins brightning up. Now he is starting to show his stuff for the lady! But what is this ....competition ! another C. sp Upper Tor River ? No a young Chilatherina bleheri figures he should get into some of this action! however the bleheri did not stay long ...maybe he relized that it was not his girl .... they are quite similar, except the Upper Tor girl has a little more color and a lateral band. For more information about this great little fish which was on the cover of a number of fish magazines in Europe ... click on the link below... http://www.rainbowfish.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2906 Hope you enjoyed! Cheers Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!
  11. A big thanks to flyfisher ...giving geleen a couple of girls for an old boy of his.....apparently "dozens" of eggs in the hatching stage at geleens. Good chance there will be some P. gertrudae Aru ll available by the end of winter! Cheers Ric It appears that there is quite the demand for this little fish. I would suggest letting geleen know your interest as I believe they will go very fast!
  12. Thanks John and Jay for you kind complements! Still quite a few people out there that don't realize how important the location name is on the fish. Never see it in the LFS ..well except in case of the trifiasciata ...Goyder River, Wonga Creek, Running Creek etc.etc. but then there are probably close to 50 different kinds of trifasciata's so they need to include the location name. The first Chilatherina alleni I had, bred and raised was the Chilatherina alleni "Siriwo" .. it was the first C. alleni to hit the hobby and was scientically analyzed by Dr. Gerald Allen. To whom the fish was named after. There had been other collections of the alleni but they were all very similar fish. The C. alleni "Wapoga" claim to fame was it's coloration ... lots more red and of course people like to see red in fish. But now after raising both fish I can see a few other differences. One being the Siriwo grew faster and was also a little wider. It to was a very high energy fish compared to any other bows and higher energy then the other species in the Chilatherina genus, however it was not quite as crazy as the Wapoga! Just thought I would post a picture of the Siriwo fish in this thread. Many breeders in North America have dropped this fish and now have the Wapoga fish in there collection, which is kind of sad for the Siriwo fish. Fortunately Mark Nicholson in the USA is maintaining a colony of the Siriwo and so they should be around for a while. Chilatherina alleni "Siriwo" Cheers Ric
  13. Very nice shots Jay! Quite obvious that you have that Macro lens mastered! Cheers Ric
  14. I guess it is time to update this post . Pictured below is one of the boys above, now 5 months older, almost four inches long. In a relaxed state ... unaware of a approaching female! Like all bows ..on comes the colors for her! And now the flash up the nose ! Now just over a year old ...say ~ 14 months ...starting to look like a pretty nice boy! Cheers Ric
  15. John hit the question pretty much right on ....even though he didn't say he ever had rams. the wife and I have run GBR's, EBR's and the goldens for years with pretty much all of the dwarf bows ...praecox, Lazers, M.macculochi Skull Creeks, Threadfins, and a number of the blue eyed species i.e. furcatus, gertrudae, etc. we have even run some of the larger bows with them ... "young up to 3 inches" . All bows can be a little veracious at feeding time, and it can be a little tricky when it comes to getting some food to the rams. Many of our Rams let the bows know they were getting hungry, typical cichlid , and the bows did respect that! Rams should be more than an inch though. We have had the rams breed many times in front of the bows and no issues. However later in the dark of the morning hours the cats/BN Pleco would consume the eggs. A 3 inch plus lacustris would not hurt them but might not be quite so respectful watching them eat in front of them. The rams were the wife's choice of fish and had bred them a number of times over the years. The bows would've been in big trouble with her if they ever messed with her rams! Ric
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