Oxquo

Anyone have a good recipe to share? I absolutely hated the gelatin meals what a mess. I was thinking along the lines of more solid and using a hamburger grinder this time instead of the blender. Oh and yes these were used for fish only, my dehydrater does a nice job an I intend on doing alot of daphnia this year maybe some mosquito larvae as well, crushed dehydrated earthworms get gobbled up really well too. My thoughts on a food was frozen though, something like, a lb of bloodworms, 1 lb of mysis, 1 lb of raw shrimp or bbs, 1/2lb of clam meat, 1/2 lb of pollock, 1/4lb spinach leaf, 1/4 lb green beans or zuchinni, 1/2 bottle of sera fishtamins and a teaspoon of naturose. Any other suggestions aside from beef heart or liver as I find it often rots in the tank and goes un eaten.

I guess someone should post here. I have this weird bloom happening in some tanks. In the spring and fall I use double dechlorinator to help kill the extra chemicals, for anyones interest you can check how much nastier at http://www.epcor.ca/pages/water/waterquali...ly/wqdaily.html As you can see our wateris loaded with great stuff. Weird thing is that I know several people with the same problem. The cloudiness only haunts certain tanks not all, 1 is an african tank hard alkaline and 2 are soft and acidic tanks. The soft tanks are 50% tap and 50% RO and the african tank is 100% tap. These three are the only ones affected out of 24 tanks, I have even changed water from another tank into these tanks with no results. Any answers? The tank water all comes from the tap via the same Python water changer, only difference is that my soft tanks come through the water softener and the hard tanks don't. Anyone else having this mess? In one of the tanks are mixed africans, they seem fine, another holds rinolocaria and C.Sterbai juvies, all good and the last tank has my beloved Gymnogeophagus Rhabdotus which are guarding a clutch of eggs, they all seem fine although the fishes colors would come out nicer in clearer water. I have switched filters from clear tanks and no change.

go to www.kensfish.com that is where I got mine 2oz go's a long way so you don't need alot. I have also enhanced my daphnia using naturose it works great no matter how you use it.

Oh there is much more to tell but we'll make another column altogether for that, lol.

Well thanks, The big guy is behaved, the littlke one is crazy, I meant to put him in a bag for you with all the other goods, lol.

sorry wasn't sure what cata gory to put this demon in but since he spends most of his time in the fishroom terrorising my geophagus I figured this might be the place.

Yeah he is some kind of stunted english/bull mastiff cross, we rescued him from a terrible place and he's turned out to be quite an awesome dog.

look forward to seeing your pics. There are so many areas of fishkeeping we can not be pro's at them all I've always said. We do have have members that aren't breeders as well. Any fishkeeper is a potential breeder. I remember my first guppy fry, the excitement was huge yet I had no idea what to do with the fry. I'd say that these days with the internet your answers can be as close as a message board like this. Success is always the key. Raising guppy fry successfully leads to breeding other fish, fish we never dreamed of breeding. Our success is now in a group based on both the success and failure of others. Our group is alot different in the sense that we talk fish under no format or guidelines. Our topics can range from Hydra to Discus in 5 seconds, I think that is a good learning experience for all.

A Boston Terror fry's first victim....

Be very afraid!!! Cichlids of mass destruction? Jaguar? Wolf cichlid? hahahaha here is one the World fears to even mention. Please take caution and don't let the cute face suck you in, whatever you do don't breed them and don't feed them after dark... A tight lid is a must, I have learned my lesson, 2 carpets later and a dozen of poor abused stuffed animals later we were lucky to get out with our last breath to warn you. This fish will stop at nothing, it harms it's victims usually by driving them clearly insane. Take heed my warning this picture may be quite disturbing.

And his accomplice with Dad.

I know they need a shave..

I would like to share my experiences with you on spawning this beautiful but stubborn little catfish. I am sure that many have tried and failed, as I am one of those many times over. After using many cory spawning techniques to no avail I have found one that works amazingly and now they are one of my best spawners. Let us first go through a rundown of the corydoras sterbai for those who are not so familiar with this great looking catfish. My first spawn was based on luck, impatience and frustration, the following spawns are repeating those first steps with a little more calmness and patience. Overview; Corydoras sterbai from the family of Callichthyidae and sub family Corydoradinae Origin- Brazil in the upper Rio Guapore and Bolivia in the Rio Guapore. Water; Clean water with good movement, pH 6.5 – 7.2, Temp 73 – 81 F, Soft to medium hard. Size ; 2 ¾” Females, males are slightly smaller. Corydoras Sterbai are a great community fish but make sure you feed them as any bottom dweller. They are diurnal showing signs of consciousness at night as well as during the day. I feed them the same as any other cory up until conditioning time using, catfish tablets, brine shrimp, even flakes if they get to the bottom. They even begun to enjoy my pleco miracle food canned green beans frozen on a cookie sheet and thawed to serve. Now onto my breeding tank. Breeding tank setup, I condition my fish here but it can be done in the maintenance. The problem I have found with conditioning any fish in the maintenance tank was mess. To condition these fish it is important that they eat A) variety of high fats and that they eat often up to 4 times a day. Your breeding tank should be filled with aged tap water and running at a desired temp, I prefer about 78 F. I use a black sand substrate but any smooth fine substrate will do, just enough to cover the bottom. Also I use only an air driven sponge filter during conditioning. This makes them a bit more comfortable it seems and they find their food better. Providing that they were not starving in the maintenance tank, conditioning shouldn’t take much more than a week. My water properties I keep fairly high at this time, pH 7.4,temp 78 F and hardness around 80 ppm. With a water softener I do not adjust my hardness for them. Now when my females are almost bursting with eggs, I will put her with the lone male. Part of my early frustration was using 2 females to 1 male; it seemed that the male was confused. Also cold water changes weren’t working. Adding pre spawned in water from other cories didn’t work either. Getting mad finally brought about eggs. My tank is ready now, as are my fish. I take out 50% of the water usually from a 10-gallon tank. I replace it with 3 gallons of RO and 2 gallons of snow or rain whatever you can get. If it were rain I would cool it off in the fridge for awhile just until it gets icy. Mix the water together and slowly add 1 gallon at a time. At this point you want to take out your big powerhead filter and place it facing long ways in your tank, I face mine a little into the side to get the maximum current I can. I don’t add plants but adding Java fern or Java moss in the way of the current works if it doesn’t blow away. Now every half hour I add 1 gallon of water as your temp should slowly drop to around 72 F but keep an eye on it, I set my thermo at 70 F just incase it starts to dip too fast. Raise your powerhead as you raise the water so it is bashing the top of your water well. By now your cories should look quite uncomfortable as though they can’t rest. This is what you want don’t turn off the filter to let them rest. Now that your tank is full and current is heavy, sit back and wait for the show. It should be almost immediately that they begin to restlessly clean the glass and plants if you use them. Feed them up until they start to lay as feeding during spawn, which can span over hours, may encourage egg eating. I honestly can’t say how many eggs to expect as my fish love caviar so I pick the eggs as fast as I can. I would say that my female has lain around 80 eggs at one time to which I retrieved 20. They eat fast! The eggs I put in a vase as in flower vase, I like the shape for aerating purposes. I add an airstone and fill it to the small neck of the vase with tank water adding 1 drop of methyl blue. I find the eggs hatch with great success, strange with all that current, although a few do pass on in the coming days. In 4-5 days I usually have hatches and their egg sacs depleted in another 4-5 after that. Temp seems to play a big part here so watch your fish close don’t just feed them in 4 days as they may not eat yet. The fry once hatched are very long but also very skinny. Using dark sand in the container you hatch them in help to see them easier as well like most catfish fry they develop fungus on their bellies with no substrate at all. As soon as the yolksac is gone, I start feeding with microworms and after 5 days, BBS and sera micro food. I feed them about 4 times a day when possible so it is a good idea to do up to 50% water changes every day. I keep them in the vase up to 2 weeks and then transfer them to a 5 or 10 gallon tank. Once in the bigger tank I only do 10% water changes daily because I am cheap and water is expensive, hahaha. The fry grow slowly, but start gaining color as early as 2 weeks. They are fairly hardy at this point and start to move around a little more especially at night, which I find is the best time to feed them. As they grow a bit they accept a lot more foods and can be tried with frozen daphnia, frozen BBS; grindal worms even small catfish tablets. The most important part is to keep them in clean fresh water for best growth. The part where I got mad was when they wouldn’t spawn but the female was almost falling over because she was so ready. I felt I’d teach them a lesson by giving them a good snow chill down and blast them with my biggest powerhead. Well they taught me. Aside from all of this spawning talk these are some great fish to keep very pretty and quite entertaining. They get big for cories and are one of my favorites. Obviously they are quite expensive and a good challenge to breed but they are pretty hardy fish over all. I guess I should finish off by giving snow some credit as in the last two months I can accredit snow to 15 spawns in my tanks from tetras to cichlids, I am going to miss it more than most Albertans and will welcome it back next year with open spawning tanks, oops, I mean arms. For a nice change or a good spawning challenge I suggest and wholeheartedly recommend this awesome catfish. NOTE: If you do spawn these fish and are blessed with eggs beware of this and don’t repeat my mistake. The eggs unlike most other fish don’t turn dark much before hatching. If they are not totally fungus filled or rotten, don’t throw them out yet. My eggs have been totally white even with hair starting on them and had little tails pushing them around. I could not see any eyes in them or black whatsoever yet managed 19 fry out of 20 white eggs. I threw out my first batch of eggs thinking they weren’t fertile, talk about learning from mistakes. The only bad part about spawning these fish is you don’t want to get rid of any, hahaha.

Aspidoras Goia The aspidoras goia is from Brasil Gets to 4 cm or 1 ½” Ph 6.5 – 7.2 Temp 22 – 25 or 71-77 F I keep mine at a pH of 7.0 and temp around 74 F. Also I find they like strong to moderate filtration and spend a majority of their time in the current. This small catfish is much like corydoras but aside from its long slender body and fewer dorsal rays; it has very small eyes. I feed my aspidoras, brine shrimp, grindal worms, small mysis, crushed flake and pellets. Since they have small mouths a white worm would simply rot on the bottom. They seem to have no spawning condition time and spawn freely whether before, after a water change or often in between. This is a great beginner fish for spawning and a very forgiving fish just for the beginner to own. As for spawning, Males are notably smaller, shorter and skinnier, females seem to be very active at most times where as the male is a lot more laid back. Before a spawn the females go through a ritual of cleaning the entire tank at high speed, they may even come out and clean your house as well. They swim sideways back and forth across the tank opposite the filter flow in a sort of frenzy shortly before laying eggs. After that they go into the typical cory spawning position where the male forms a T- shape in front of the female and shimmers against her barbels to stimulate her. The egg is then pushed out into the females egg basket and fertilized there before it is time to lay. The worst part is that they lay eggs one at a time and scatter them everywhere. I find that in a small breeding tank though that the eggs are more in uniform and clustered atleast in the same general area, it is in the display tank that one with all the plants that is almost impossible to collect from. I have though had them spawn right inside my aquaclear 500, also I’ve had fry hatch in the maintenance tank and make it to adulthood how long it lived in the aquaclear filter I don’t know. Whether mine spawn in typical aspidora fashion or not I can’t tell except that this is what I have observed in my own tank with 2 generations now. Raising the fry is simple; I collect the eggs and place them in a small sterile vase. I add one drop of blue meth to about 1 litre of tank water and a good steady supply of air bubbles but just enough to move the eggs. You don’t want eggs flying all around just shimmering. Depending on the temperature the eggs should hatch in 4-5 days, usually 4 but that also depends on when you find the eggs, as these guys are not too big on caviar. Once hatched I wait 3 days and then begin the microworms as soon as they are free swimming and the egg sacs are depleted. They will eat sera micro at birth but the survival rate drops in this manner. Feeding micros for a good 3-5 days after free swimming guarantees a good healthy fry rate. They grow fast after that on BBS and good quality fry powder. Even as fry you will notice they are always busy and always hunting for food, this behavior never seems to stop right through adult hood. Note; without a fine substrate on the bottom of the rearing tank the fry tend to develop a fungus on their bellies and pass away quite rapidly. Why should one keep the aspidoras goia? Why not? Thy are one of the cutest little fish I have ever kept. At the same time they have earned my heart when one of my young females began to follow my hand every time it was in the tank, even to the point that one day she laid an egg in my hand, not once but twice. Don’t believe it? Good thing I got the camera on the second one and have a picture to prove it. She still chases my hand and lays in it when I let her and has since been moved to my special fish tank in the office. I can’t guarantee yours would do the same but I can guarantee that you will enjoy this little catfish regardless of who you are. Give em a try, that is if you ever find them in the stores again. Oh yeah, a word of warning, keep your substrate dark or you may even forget you have these little fellows in there. If you are looking for a small catfish that is active, cute and easy to breed this one is for you. A great community fish for a gentle community an even better addition to a nicely planted tank. By the way, anyone looking to swap a few for stronger strains get ahold of me anytime. Written only by personal experience

I have 1 peckoltia Pulcher 1 adult breeding pair of A. Dolichopterous 30+ fry of bristles left ranging from 2" down to 1" Rinolocaria Microleplidigastor L010a Loricaridae 1 lonely female Sturisoma Aureum 1 lonely male 1 Gibbiceps which I am not attached to at all hint hint lol.

these caves are the best, they look natural, provide shelter and rasping material for plecos and have become spawning sites for many of my fish, even my 5 1/2" pleco, kribs love them as do many apistos, they have been spawned in, on and even flipped over by my bigger fish and used. I will post the how to and pictures following it. http://groups.msn.com/FintasticFinatics ... lbumlist=2 1) drain coconuts of milk 2) use 2 1/4" holesaw to cut opening, this makes a smooth hole and is less messy than other ways. 3) Place hole side up in miterbox, bandsaws work but it makes a huge mess. 4) cut down middle of opening. 5) place each half separately in microwave on high for 3 minutes, use paper towel on top because it will pop like mad. 6)remove hot piece and do the other half. 7) let sit for about 10 or more minutes till meat separates from the shell and peel it away with a spoon. wash in hot salty water and rinse well, done. husks can stay on or come off with a torch before you wash the halves, my plecos enjoy rasping on them so I leave them on.

This is my best pic ever of one of my german blues.

Basically the messages via email or phone will only have info about meeting dates, locations and hosts. We like to save all the good fish chat for the meetings although I am never too bored to just talk fish. With membership will come the newsletter The Brood via mail. I look forward to posting some of my spawning reports and many articles on this site hoping that they may help some people and help to make them better aquarists. Don't get me wrong though, the fact that I am still learning means I am still struggling in areas of fishkeeping so an exchange of info is what I am looking for. The great part of our hobby is that you can never know it all that is why we seek other aquarists and realize that even the novice aquarist can open your eyes. I remember having some problems with a certain tank and a newbie to the hobby asked me"what are your water properties?" After telling so many newbies to test their water I realized that I myself could only answer"likely around this pH and that hardness and probably few to no nitrates. After testing my water I realized my pH had blown through the roof and my RO unit needed new filters. I am a terrible photographer as well so any pointers there would be a help. I have only ever taken one of what I consider a good photo of my Rams I will test it to see if it works here as I like to tell stories with pictures regardless of my bad photo skills. As for the group We have many members in Calgary, in Edmonton I think we are around 6 so far although we have just begun and this will be only our second meeting as TFBA. I feel we could grow fast but don't want to step on toes. I have already gotten some nasty emails about bringing this group to Edmonton and I mean nasty. I would hope that the other Edmonton groups would look at our group as a reason to better themselves and offer their members something more as opposed to trying belittling tactics against us. Look forward to seeing you with us in the future.

Next meeting will be in Millwoods I believe at 7:30pm on Friday 21st. This Thursday's bargain finder will contain my phone number again or email me direct for my number to attend. Thanks

The Tropical fish breeders association begun in Calgary around 2 years ago. It's goals and morals were above and beyond any club I have ever seen which is why I pursued the merge so hard. Meeting in other members fishrooms and being surrounded by fish for one makes for excellent conversations as well as seeing each members DIY ideas in motion. I have yet to walk out of a meeting with fish or plants and our newest members will say the same thing. Conversations bounce around from guppies to groupers as each member tries to create interest within their own favorites. Politics which are so important in other clubs are left behind and so are money issues. We charge an annual membership fee which covers 4 huge newsletters which are well written and renewal is only $15.00 per year. Our meetings in Edmonton will go throughout the Summer as I also keep fish in the warmer months where many clubs close meetings due to lack of interesr, we feel if 2 people get together to talk fish it was a meeting well worth it. Our group not only focuses on breeding but every aspect of keeping fish, plants and cultures. In our attempts to advertise and grow without attacking other clubs we expect members to spread the word. I personally believe it is good to join many clubs to create a wealth of knowledge within each group and ourselves. A few of us have swapped breeding pairs and groups with each other which creates a great interest in the species we love and gives you the extra push to go down to the fishroom when the interest starts to subside. We have no awards programs which I find promotes secrets instead of the desire to show or teach someone how you did what you did or spawn what you spawned. I still can't say our club is for everyone, but if you enjoy getting together with a group of friends or soon to be friends who have similar interests in the Worlds greatest hobby and discussing the hobby by putting our fish first before ourselves, relishing in group discounts via bulk sales and where the members ideas and suggestions are taken into account of how the group can become bigger and better. Also creating stronger strains of fish not breeding for points or rewards but because that particular fish is a joy to us and we want others to share in it. Let's face it, have you seen a really exceptional kribensis lately? Angels and discus who instinctively raise their own fry the natural way? These are the fish that we want as members of our club as well. You don't just buy a membership for you, it is for your whole family and fish in this club are family. I guess I could go on and on but I won't hope you have some questions answered, I will post the link to our web page for all interested and the next meeting will be on a friday due to members response not this one but next one. Email me to get on our mailing list if you like as we cannot post members addresses in the bargain finder ad's. Attending a meeting to check us out is free but each person must phone for location and state the number of participants attending before each meeting so we can have the room and enough beverages for all. I am out of fingertips now so here is the link.TFBA

Hi all, and thanks to ABwildrose for telling me about this site. I have been an aquarist for about 16 years now and have strayed from species to species just to keep the interest going like most aquarists. Believe it or not of all the years I am just now awaiting my first mouthbrooder spawn, a young Haplichromis Nyererei. As I mentioned my interest has swayed from time to time but always I have been most intrigued by the Geophagine family. As with breeding any fish I believe it necessary to begin with the easy and work your way to the hard, such as breeding Cory aeneus to get to Cory sterbai, I have bred Geophagus Brazilliensis and just recently Gymnogeophagus Rhabdotus on my quest to breed the ultimate satanoperca daemon. Breeding is just one of my interests in the hobby, I am often found experimenting with cultures, foods and herbs in my tanks as well as inventing new and more creative ideas to make the hobby a better one. I guess we all have our lists of wants and needs in the hobby and our recent merge of our small fish group with Calgary's Tropical Fish Breeders Association has been a great step. Although we are a small and growing group, I encourage any Edmontonians to find out what we are about as nothing but good can come from it. We are looking forward to the induction of the Canadian fish database which will allow members to exchange new strains and stock country wide. Here are a list of my fish: sturisoma aureum (I have a male and desperately need a female or two) L010a loricaridae (I have a female and no males) Ancistrus dolichopterus spawned pair and many young through out my tanks. Cory sterbai wild trio and many juvies the trio is at a friends place right now hopefully spawning for him. Geophagus Brazilliensis Gymnogeophagus Rhabdotus Geophagus leucosticta Geophagus Xingu Microgeophagus Ramirezi Rhinolocaria Microleplidigastor Aspidoras Goia P.Pulcher Pseudo Saulosi M. Johanni S.Fryeri Hap, nubilous Hap nyererei Hap Obliquedins A. Limax Fundulo Gardneri Lafia Fundulo Spoorenbergi Crenicichla Striggatta Discus Fish I am looking for include: Gymnogeophagus balzanii Gymnogeophagus australe Sturisoma Aureum or other sturisoma species. Of course any geophag or gymno geophag not yet mentioned Biotodoma Cupido Santarem. In additio to this I enjoy feeding live foods and am searching for a way to access Microfex worms I have seen them on aquabid and would like to get these and spread these around a bit so we don't lose them. For info on my fishroom, articles or the TFBA in Edmonton feel free to contact me directly. Or check out my desperately needing an update homepage. My Webpage