Rainbowric

I noticed in probably the same LFS ..... ballon Electric Blue Rams ..... and I believe they were ballon incisus or ballon red Rainbow. They were discussing them on the European Rainbowfish forum with similar comments as It is pretty sad as the rainbows were covered with parasites and not for sale, but even if the parasites were gone I doubt if they would live long. The wife .... who's favorite is the EBR was very disappointed as well to see the deformed rams. Why would anyone do that to a fish this nice .... Was not a nice visit for either of us to the LFS that day. Ric

It is good to hear that you are having fun with this fish Jay. I believe it to be in the top 5 species of bows when it come to having fun with. No doubt an excellent species to practise with but I think now, you will find the rest of the species will be almost as easy. When are you going to breed your boesemani "Lake Aytinjo" It won't be long for these young to be dining on the micro-worms, another great food that you can introduce to them in the next few days is Arctic Copepods. Especially for this species, as it really brings out the red in them. You will notice the high Astaxanthin levels in the write up, so this food should only be used as supplemental. Will be looking for further updates. Ric

Thank you .... I hope that I will be able to provide you more! Wishing you success with your Rams! Thanks to your work John with this species, and now Paul's, I think we have done a pretty good in establishing this excellent strain of M. boesemani in the province! Cheers Ric

Picture taking .... you know it is nice to have a DSLR camera to take pictures of your fish for a number of reasons. What is a real bonus is having a 100 mm Macro IS USM lens to go with it. Sometimes though pictures taken with this setup can be a little deceiving although very informative as you can see things that the eye cannot. For example .... you can take a picture of a 1 inch PF shrimp and turn it into a 10 inch monster ...pending the size of your monitor. For getting a good look at a young fish it can be really helpful! I have 6 pairs of young boesemani "Lake Aytinjo" that I have been stuffing with live bb and a whole bunch of good stuff for about a month now wondering if they will be worth all my efforts. This species .... one of the unfortunate things about it is that it grows very slow! The other thing is when they are in a group you will only see maybe one or two really color up as young they are shy and submissive. These are a couple of reasons why many breeders keeping this species of boesemani don't breed them. In addition when they are only a couple of inches long they don't look much different in the LFS then the other boesemani at $9.88 each, which is no where the fish that the Lake Aytinjo is. Yesterday I had a bunch of bloodworms that I was feeding to another species that I was collecting eggs from, with a few left over I threw them in with these young boesemani which in addition also had a water change earlier that day. In the afternoon I came down to check the fish that I was breeding and saw a couple of bright spots coming from the tank of boesemani. So grabbed the camera, after not using it for a few weeks and managed to get a couple of interesting shots. As you can see they are not much larger than a cory catfish.... or not as big as a young praecox .... Nice color on these young fish ..... These would be cousins to my 2 year old 3 inch plus twins, that I posted earlier that I hope to use with to line breed with later. Indeed the 100 mm macro lens does help you see just how good a 1.5 inch fish really looks like. I believe these to be winners again when they get older. Cheers Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

Yes you are correct as I provided Greg with his colony, I was hoping that someone else in Alberta was breeding them.

Yep .... if you know where an alder tree is, you will find some there in the fall!

They can be hard to find ..... try Angel Fins, where I purchased some before. If the site indicates sold out, email Jarmila anyway and ask, she might have some coming in. If you are unsuccessful, I might be able to provide you with some. I have some that I am not using, but like to keep them on hand.

Yes indeed it was good news to hear that you got your colony producing again John. I was thinking that I might have to put this fish on my list for when I go down to the USA this spring. Between you and I, we must have sent out a couple hundred out to new homes. For those of you that don't remember these active and bright little fish you can click on this link to view a video of them .... Is there anyone else in the province that is breeding this fish or does anyone know of someone? They really are an easy fish to breed, a link that will tell you how easy it is ... Breeding the Gertrudae Aru II with lots of good pictures of them. Do they make a great little tank with Cherry Shrimp? Another link to answer that question for you .... Gertrudae and Cherry Shrimp Thanks John for keeping that colony of yours going! Cheers Ric

I heard this and experienced this as well in the past. In the community tank they spawn quite regularly with pleco's and catfish watching them. It can take some time for them to get use to a smaller 10 gallon. Not saying the size of the tank, we have done lots of breeding in a 10 gallon with rams, but just the change of there new enviroment. Were they getting RO water in the community tank? The litttle critters are very sensitive to changes in water conditions. Maybe do a water change on the community tank then next day use water from it to change the breeding tank. They do like slates to lay on! must be clean! We would put slates down in the community tank and then catch them in the community tank laying eggs and when they were done, we would slip in and pick up the slate and move it to the hatching jar pictured above, before the plecos and cats nailed it. Be aware that they will attack your hand, but don't worry the bleeding will stop in an hour or two. Hang a airline and stone just beside the eggs to try and simulate fanning from the female. If no water movement at the eggs, they can fungus up on you. Back to why they are not laying. Have you tried alder cones. Natural anti-fungus, anti-bacterial, but also they can help to create a favourable breeding enviroment. Frozen food .. does that include blood worms? Daily water changes I would back off of and go every 5 or 6 days with 20 to 25% change should be more than good with 2 small fish in a 10 gallon tank, or same as what you were doing in the community tank! If you are using tap water for your community tank and the PH is about 7 buffer it down below 7. Alder cones can help also in the buffering down. If using a sponge filter or any kind of filter, conditioning it with bacteria from the community tank can help. That's about it that I can think of at the moment. Wishing you the best of luck, Ric

You are both correct! There is a tank within a tank and an airline coming in with an airstone on it. The larger surrounding tank has a heater in it and it is used as a heat bath. The smaller one that the red slate is in might be 1 gallon, difficult to put a heater in. Indeed they do like to lay eggs on a flat surface especially slate! Ric

Fresh/frozen is not a main staple in the diet of my fish ... absolutely not! Maybe a quarter to a third of it. No doubt the nutrients of the fresh/frozen by the time it leaves the manufactuer, to the distributor, to the retailer while being 90% defrosted, :cry: to my fish tank has dropped considerably. Live bb, NLS, freeze dried blackworms ... live if I can be sure they are fresh, and now Northfin fish food, to name the majority of it. Most of the breeders that I have spoke with, including the two that I mentioned in my earlier post that use Vitachem, insist on a wider variety of foods. Now I am speaking specifically on Rainbowfish. I have no doubt that the "raw ingrediants" of NLS are up to standard, however I believe that possibly, the same as with food for people as soon as the processing begins those levels begin to drop with the exposure to air and time. The dog food manufacturers backed by teams of nutritionalist, veternarians,and scientist indicated the same for dog foods. That it had it all! ( No... we are not referring to Science Diet scam ) The thing that we found out is that yes the raw ingrediants were in fact there at time of processing, by the time it reached the dogs stomach those nutrient levels had dropped considerably. In addition, maybe they were close the first few days after opening the bag but after each day opening and being exposed at room temperature there was not much left in it after a couple of weeks. How fast do fatty acids spoil? Maybe you got a jar of NLS that had been sitting in a warehouse for 6 months. This is one of the reasons that no one food is a main staple for my fish, no matter how good it claims to be. However as I indicated in my first post this subject indeed has been debated considerably in many forums around the world. For this thread I believe that Jay is correct in adding the Vitachem to his fish diet. He has a concern with the health of his fish's fins and myself with fish like his I would definitely try it as it won't hurt! I believe that he is doing his best for the health of his fish and should be applauded for doing eveything he can! I doubt that we could get him to separate his fish and give some NLS only and the others a variety of good food with Vitachem . All my fish don't get vitachem ...but the ones that can't be replaced do. Sincerely Ric

It is nice to see some pictures of quality Angels and I believe a person would want to put the best care they could into these.... and Jay your pictures are quite nice for "rough pics" How soon before we see some eggs? As far as the use of Vita-chem....society has been questioning the benefits of vitamin supplementation for people now for decades ... why when everything is in the food? However we are finding out though that the quality of the food we eat is not quite up to what it is suppose to be. In the 10 years or so I spent with the Canadian Kennel Club, top breeders were supplementing there dogs more I think then they were there own children , I knew most of these breeders that showed champions for the title of best in Canada as I sold them vitamins that I brought in from Europe, at Dog shows. I would say that maybe 1 out the 10 used "only" the best dog food! It is a subject "Vitamins for Fish!" that has been beaten to death on the North American and European Rainbowfish forums for some time now, rarely mentioned anymore for sake of argument. Can't say what it will do for Angelfish, but as I see the best Rainbowfish breeders in the world displaying pictures of there fish, two of them has informed me about there strong belief in vitamin supplementation and I see strong healthy finnage in there 3 year old fish .... alot don't even have 3 year old fish or don't dare to show them....it is even more noticeable in the aggressive species of bows ... there fish are amonst the best! As far as one of Vita-Chems suggestions of adding it to the tank, yes indeed I find that a little hard to believe and definitely would not agree with doing that! I let it soak in a mixture of frozen shrimp and bloodworms, a little spiralina powder, and of course a little Garlic juice for a minimum of 2 hours before feeding it to them. As far as being a true believer, after useing it now for close to a year now .... weeelllll .... I still give it to them, and I do recieve compliments for my fish from the boys in Germany and Australia who can't believe the health of ...and quality of finnage on my older ... 2 year old plus, fish! Wishing you continued success with these beauties.... Cheers Ric

It is obvious that you have not done a lot of research on Aquarium Heater Specifications. It is not worth my time to list all the different types of glass, and glass used in Aquarium Heaters. It only takes a couple of minutes with Google and you will learn a lot.... I certainly did! I am not saying that Jager is the only heater to use as there are a number of them that will provide the same or close performance or specifications. Just be aware that "glass is a glass is a glass," and that the only thing that separates them is the price! Other then glass you will find other issues to consider of a heater's performance which other experienced aquarist in this thread have stated. Issues relating to the sensing element, and the thermostatic control. Lastly we must not forget safety as I hear at least once a year of someone burning themselves, or melting a canopy, or worst a burning and killing of fish! As Jayba stated in a earlier post the glass used on a Jager is a laboratory Pyrex/shatterproof ...(developed for research purposes/they state) In addition it is 2 mil thick glass which is double which most others specify. Yep .... most of the cheaper ones just specify glass. Glass like a incadencent light bulb? Other statements that Eheim/Jager state is ... It is free from pollutants that could be released into the water. It is resistant to chemical and biological substances. It doesn't have any fissures and hair cracks through which condensation could penetrate. And even extreme fluctuations of temperature that can occur during a water change do not harm this glass. It increases the heating surface, condenses the heat, ensures optimum even heat emission and forms a heat shield (touching it doesn't harm the livestock). Yep .... have seen lots of times in cheaper heaters, condensation forming and yes ... cracks and leaks. Yep ... many, and many, and many a water change, and I have never had a break when cold water added to tank with the heater out of water and plugged in, and yep .... it has been many years since I have seen a fried fish stuck behind a heater! That alone has got to be worth spending another 5 to 10 bucks for! Have sold a lot of eggs to people over the years and have them come back ... Ahhh... I kinda cooked the eggs ... darn heater! Eheim specify's the temperature control accuracy is + or - 0.5 deg. C. I will have 5 or 6 Jagers available to use in my hatching tank area, and I hatch my eggs at 81 deg. F. + or - 1.0 degrees F. I put them in the tank, plug in the heater and forget about them! I will also have another 5 or 6 Jagers available for fry tanks set at 80 deg. F. + or - 1.0 degree F. Same with them drop them in and forget about them. Have cooked a lot of fry in the past useing cheap heaters. With all my 30 plus tanks up and running I can move fish from tank to tank and know that there will not be more than a 2 degree change in temp that the fish will need to adjust to. Check the specifications on the cheap heaters, many won't list them, do a Google search on them ... tons of reviews on heaters out there .... and please be sure, for safety sake have them in the water before plugging them in! However the really excellent thing about Jager is everyone buys them! and everyone sell them! the competition has driven the price down so low on this excellent instrument that they are almost considered now to be a cheap heater! I would list a couple other brands as well, however I think I have said enough! Cheers Ric

Hey I have a box full of used cheap heaters that you can come and get anytime, some may have cracks in the glass and some have shattered as they were put in the box! I also have a box of used Jager that I sell for $10 each. Hurry though as the Jager's are almost gone! As jcgd said ...When you get them, calibrate and set them, and that is where they stay! Can't say that I have ever broken a Jager! Have a number of Hydors on several of my show tanks with canister filters for some time now and they have been flawless!

James ....Paul .... great and not so great to see you guys on the forum! Now I really got to be careful what I say with you two experts watching me. As soon as I get a breediing tank free, I could get a mop of eggs fired down to you in a nice little styro box and heat pack. New stuff ....Gary is still sitting on them.. stripped praecox ..... couple of very nice Chilatherina's and the Glossolepis kabia.... He is pretty set on waiting for warm weather before shipping now though.

Young multisquamata at about 2 inches .... just starting to color up ... The praecox in this picture is about 1.5 inches ... Will post a couple more pictures in a couple of weeks. This time of there developement is quite rapid! Ric

Glossolepis multisquamata - Pagai Village ....another Glossolepis ....I think my favourite! The Glossolepis wanamensis was talked a lot last year but I had raised well over 100 of them and they were thought to be extinct in the hobby, mostly in the USA. The Glossolepis dorityi we were lucky to have a group of wild caught in North America so we saw lots of F1's available. You will see that there is quite a few similarities between the 3 species ....why they are all in the Glossolepis Genus or family. What makes this Glosso one of my favourite is how strong and healthy it is. Sure they are a little more difficult to breed and they do take a long while to mature. I obtained a group of F2's from Gary Lange about 2.5 years ago and immediately raised a small group of them. Not really knowing how fanstastic they looked when they fully matured out, I had 3 pairs from Gary and ended up selling the small group that I raised up. This species of Rainbowfish does extremely well in a group and not so well by itself. When I kept them as a group they thrived and put on many wild shows for me over the years. When I separated them they did not do so well. So I believe that if you want to keep this species you should have at least 2 pairs of them so you will experience the many color variations that this fish has to offer. You may notice that the colors can be quited different based on the mode of the fish from the pictures I will show you. This is one of the males that I obtained from Gary ....F2 There anal fin is long but not quite as long as the wanamensis. The anal fin does tend to fray a little but my wanamesis fry quite a bit as well. The female ...well not advised to be mixed with females from the wanamensis or dorityi. They are fairly pale in color and the body shape quite similar as well between the three species. Probably one of the reasons contributing to so many hybrids in the hobby! When these males gets worked up the red, starting from the head, really starts to come out of them! As with all rainbows the dominant male strip down the nose during breeding! I think in this photo above he also had some competition to deal with for the female! Yes we have seen this kind of color change with a number of rainbows during spawning and sparring with other males but with the multisquamata it was daily. They are so prolific! I put together a few mops of eggs for some breeders and within a couple of days there were 100's of eggs in the mop. After chasing around the other females for the morning and sparring with the other males you might see him just relaxing in the shade of the bog wood and see him in a different set of colors. Here is a post that I did on the Glossolepis multisquamata last year on the Rainbowfish forum. Two males sparring with each other and then a spawn. You will notice that there are not to many pictures with the fish having the same coloration. By having all the colors of the rainbow ....I think this fish definitely deserves to be called a Rainbowfish! Hope you have enjoyed these pics .... Regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

Cyclop-eeze is available frozen, freeze dried powder, and flake or as they refer to it.... a Wafer. Excellent supplement food for fry, once the fry is capable of eating live bb, to fish ~ 2 inches. Supplement with live bb with ~ 30% Cyclop-eeze. Unbelievable Color Enhancing properties with it's high levels of natural Astaxanthin! Very high HUFA levels for nutrition! Excellent to use as a supplement if live bb is not available! I have used it for years now with some amazing results. Fish in my show tanks or breeding tanks don't get it, only grow out tanks. Shrimps go nuts for it! - Most fish will eat it, but many need to be accustomed to it. Very easy to accustom to if young! - Some it scares the he** out of them..as the red sparkles hits the water. - I still have most of the can left of flake that I purchased well over a year ago.....not recommended! - Will spoil quickly after time exposed to air .... fish will not like it. :tongue: Keep it sealed in tin... I keep it in the fridge after being opened. Fisher your fish were weaned on it ...

Gary brought eggs and fish to Calgary John, so he might have brought both to Edmonton. Unfortunately Paul and James from Regina took the eggs home from the Calgary auction. My boy posted is just about 2.5 years old, as he was almost a year when Gary brought the fish and eggs to Alberta. All of the fish and eggs that Gary brought up were F1's from his group of wild caught. Ric

I thought that you might like this fish Jerry ....looks very similar to the Glossolepis incisus (Red Rainbowfish).. actually a recent DNA test, not official, has indicated that this one the G. incisus and G. multisquamata are all the same fish. Not official, some say we need a better DNA test... but regardless they are quite similar. In addition I have seen a few pictures of the G. dorityi fish from Lake Jaigum that are almost all red. Hmmm .....wonder which one they had used for the DNA test. Are you still keeping the G. incisus? If you are I would be happy to start a thread for the G. incisus. I won't run a thread for it unless a specimen of adequate quality it is available in Alberta. Currently I am not aware of any pure stock left in North America. Many were crossed with the very familiar G. psuedoincisus (Millenium Rainbowfish) which has damaged both the psuedoincisus & incisus reputation. Sad ...because once, the Glossolepis incisus was probably the most common Glossolepis Rainbowfish to be seen in the LFS ... The Red Rainbowfish... now it is probably a cross and if it isn't few experts could not tell you if it was or is not. I know of one Rainbowfish collector of over 20 years experience believing he had a colony of psuedoincisus, was told by Heiko Bleher who discovered them, that they were not. He took the hit pretty well saying that at least now he has one of the nicest colonies of incisus. Well many would believe they are to nice to be incisus.... I don't believe that the G. incisus is totally lost as there are a few colonies in Germany that appear to be pure and of course the nicest colony of G. incisus can be viewed here .....Glossolepis incisus in Bulgaria! I like to pass this link on to people that ask also if Rainbowfish get along well with Discus. Thanks for the compliments of my photography! I am hoping some day that my skills may be of that of Aquasaur from Bulgaria. Ric

Thanks for the feed back Raymond! It has only been in the last year that I have become aware, from feedback from other breeders, of not just the C. fasciata "Faowi Village" but all the species in the Chilatherina Genus....letting the eggs hatch and then letting the fry live in the same tank with them. I have seen C. bleheri do it, syno321 has noted it with C. alleni, and few others with the C. fasciata "Faowi Village" . I don't know how you were able to convince geleen into trying a Chilatherina, I had been working on him for months.. maybe a year... to try a pair, then he told me one day that he got some!

Glossolepis dorityi "Lake Nenggwambu" or sometimes known as the Zig Zag Rainbowfish! So far we have only spoke of one other species from the Glossolepis Genus....Glossolepis wanamensis. You will notice a fairly similar body shape. No not quite as long fins and not green! Don't see many fish from the Glossolepis Genus as they are a little more difficult to breed. Much smaller fry and they do not grow quite as fast. Before you will see them in the LFS at the same size as the Melanotaenia species, they are probably two to three months older then them. They also take more time to develope the colors they have, so they are not quite breed as much. Lake Nenggwambu was facing disaster with Global warmings so Gary Lange made an expedition to collect some of these wonderful fish before possible extinction. He was able to bring home a sample of these fish (wild caught) and I was able to get some F1 eggs from him. Below a picture of one of my males. The female ..though not quite as colorful... has plenty of attitude to make up for it. In addition if you never had the female you would never be able to see just how magnificiant the male can be. Here he is in the shade of a plant flashing the red strip down his nose...letting the female know where he is. Hope you have enjoyed these pics .... Regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

Well last week it was the Gold female that spawned. Now this week the GBR is spawning on the other side of the tank with the other EBR! Female laying eggs .... and the male EBR is fertilizing.... These EBR's are getting nicer each day .... now with two dominant males in the tank. A little sparring and bunting but nothing to bad yet between them. GBR's boy ..... Gold's boy ....

My F2's are starting to look pretty nice! These little ones are just over an inch, with lots of spawning taking place in the tank each morning. Watch for an advertisement next week!

Would not matter much having F1's, I believe that it will be at least F6 before we "might" see some deterioration in the quality of this strain! Having rainbowfish F5 or better is pretty good today!