DanGofCalgary

I think he means Alberta Aquarium club(ACE) or Calgary Aquarium Society (CAS) member.

Bolivian rams. They love having a rock to guard. Most of your apistos seem to be better in small gravel, even sand. Any that I have had seemed much happier when they could sift sand, rearrange the substrate and such. The exception that I have seen was the Bolivian rams. They just love to have a little flat rock to guard and claim as their turf. I put pieces of slate in that they claim as their turf and have little turf wars over. Edit: Changed Brazilian to Bolivian.... Wonder what was on my mind... :smokey:

Truth is, we are very blessed in Alberta to have 2 of the best auctioneers around, with at least 2 more that are fully capable. I was going to sub in for a bit, but they were on a roll, and time was tight. As well at it's a bit intimidating to follow that act! It's got to be entertaining for the people that sit there for almost a full day, and for the auctioneers who have been doing this for years. The mistakes are rare, and it goes so smoothly it amazes me. It's a fun comedy show, and their ability to ad lib is near legendary. It's a pretty good time and some good stuff to be had too! :smokey:

Could also come down to the Calgary auction, on April 3. it was interesting to see the price that the cherry shrimp were going for. I tend to cull mine very hard. If the females aren't a nice dark red, they are severum food! The males have to at least have a good solid pink look, or they get to be food too. It makes for a nice strain of them, but at an auction you can't really tell unless you have looked at them in advance, or are a runner or auctioneer so you get a close look at them. I was so tempted to bid on those greens and yellows, but have too many breeding projects going right now to dedicate a tank to them. Maybe in the future I will work on some higher grade shrimp. For now my low grade cherrys and CRS will have to do!

blah blah blah plants. :boxer: What interesting wild bettas/kililes/alsorans did they have? :smokey:

I got sore feet from running! I should know better than to work the whole day like that, but it is fun to be a part of things and feel like you are contributing. The best part about being a runner though is getting an up close look at all the fishies! I got a few HOB filters, 2 tanks that I don't need and should put in the Calgary auction (but probably won't!). Did get the amano shrimp, with 2 of the 4 berried up nicely. Very excited about spawning these. I realy like amano shrimp. There were about 12 billiion bags of cherry shrimp, and 25 billion bags of asolene spixi snails, which sold a lot better once people found out from me that they eat hydra. As always, the ACE folks did a hella good job running the auction. Thanks for putting on a great work shop and auction!

I might be interested. Maybe I could finally grow a plant! haha!

Fair enough.

you're breeding amanos? In fresh water? :boxed:

Your assasins dont' hurt your other snails like the spixi? I was wondering if they would attack larger snails like zebra snails or apple snails etc. if put together. Mine had no problem eating all the little pond snails in their tank but none were bigger then the assassins. nope. AND I have baby spixis in the tank growing up. Vince thinks that the assasins can only take down babies. I finally have the population somewhat under control, but I don't think the assasins do much. I've seen cherry shrimp riding around on them and spixi cleaning their shells. Very embarrassing for them I would imagine...

same. I have assasin snails in a tank with shrimp, CPO, nuisance snails (ramshorn and those other annoying pond snails) and Asolene spixi. I am regularily 'squashing' pond snails as the assasins don't do a very good job of killing them off. (Although, possibly my assasin snails from Vince had taken a vow of non violence). And thye certainly don't bother the shrimp. Maybe the shrimp was dead and the assasin snail was investigating the corpse?

yah. At about a month, month and a half maybe? I'd start crushing a bit of flake and dropping it in before you feed the bbs. eventually up the flake, drop the BBS. With Jack Dempseys it will be a pretty quick transition. Last i recall, they eat anything that fits in their mouth and a lot of stuff that won't! (like any guppies or fish that might be food to them.)

Time wise it's kind of hard to call that. It is going to depend on the species, any special needs, growth rate, tank size that they have grown in, how fussy as a species they are etc. But as a rule of thumb, I'd guess at least a month. Outside of the dwarves (apistos etc.) most SA and CA cichlids will eat the bbs. flake, pellets, and will likely try to eat the containers they came in, just to be sure they got it all. Typically with them I'd try feeding a bit of crushed flake just before the brine shrimp. Watch to see if they are eating it. Usually they are so hungry everything that fits in their mouth is considered food, so I wouldn't think you'd have too much trouble converting them. Do you have a picture of them? What size are they now?

I know. I have zero time in Edmonton. I need a female betta picta, and don't have time to hit up Big Als while I am there to see if they have one.... And you do deserve payback. First time I have auctioneered since JC was a Cowboy, have never known ANYTHING about plants and you blindside me with that. hehe. I was trying to stick Ken with all the plants when we double teamed the auctioneering. As Werner has stated, I might have to actually start reading up on plants....

Yah I know. That was quite annoying. other folks have found similar meters for good prices in Canada. There is another thread on this around here somewhere. Luckily for me, I was able to have it sent to a US adress while I was in the states, and bought enough stuff that the shipping was free too. Quite annoying the markup in Canada...

Don't lock me out!!! I will be there as soon as I can, but likely about half way in to your talk on Rainbows. Sorry, can't make it sooner. commitments. As it is, I will be carrying my auction fish with me as I don't have time to drop them off before the talks! hehe! Also: So, I took a bunch of US money out of the bank to bid on these, and I am guessing now that if they are donations to the club we will be bidding in cdn dollars, not US? I know we are paying for our preorders in US, and have that covered, but I got confused on this part. Thanks Dan

Let's do the time warp again.... I guess I forgot to have this removed 4 months ago... I've since bought a TDS meter from Big Als online in the U.S. when I was down there. Cost me $25 US and measures temperature as well. I also couldn't find the Hannah meter locally, but did call a hydrponics store. They wanted around $150 for a very advanced meter. more advanced than I needed. so I'm set, but this still might be of interest to other folks. Peace.

watchoo talkin' 'bout Willis? :smokey: I'm with you on this Jayba. I goof off too much already just reading posts and PMs.... For those interested in fishy chat though, I believe Bcaquaria has a chat section. Could always head over there for some 'hot fish chat'. Not sure that they have all hours chat though, as was stated its a hella big work load for the mods. peace.

FCG's post about plants she is bringing to the auction got me a bit excited to find out what people might be bringing. I'll be looking for killies, Bettas that do NOT end in splendens, and anything else that I find interesting! That steam distiller that I got at your last auction was AWESOME! It cost me about $50 to rebuild/refurbish (a pittance compared to it's value) and it produces amazing water. We are using it for our drinking water as well as the fish! I still can't believe I got that for $160! There are some fantastic buys at your auctions! I will be bringing the following (and some other stuff too) Cherry shrimp - with at least 2 very dark red, berried females in the bag. Asolene spixi snails 5 in the bag. roughly marble size. these are the hydra eating snails. Pair, or possibly a reverse trio of Aphysemion australe 'orange'. One of the males is just amazing coloring. If I didn't have another male about the same, I wouldn't even consider putting him in the auction. 1 or 2 pairs of Xenotoca eiseni (orange tail goodeid) 1 pr Skiffia lermae pr or trio of girardinus metallicus white cloud minnows. And just to annoy Vince for not making the auction, I might put in a pair of Lacustricola katangae. Am also contemplating putting in a bag of Simpsonicthys santanae eggs (annual killie) but I should probably check with the organizers first and find out if that is acceptable to put in killie eggs? What interesting things are other folks bringing? PS: ACE mods, if this post is innapropriate, feel free to delete.

I won't be there in time to see your talk or heckle you AM. Hoping to make it for the 3:00 pm photography session, but starting to look like it might be the banquet that I make... Could you please kindly heckle yourself for me? Just randomly insert lines like 'you betta speak up! I can't hear you in the back!' 'My betta is betta than your betta!' ok. that is all I have right now.

Just wanted to add, you take amazing pictures RD. I've always envied your photographs.

I am now breeding them. I brought them in from a breeder in Ontario. You don't need a membershipt in CAS (Calgary Aquarium Society) or ACE (Aquarium club of Edmonton) to go to their auctions/workshop weekend. I assume you are in Calgary? @Ron: Where did you get that? How much was it? Does it kill invertebrates like shrimps and snails as well?

I have hydra infestations, as I feed a lot of bbs. I bought asolene spixi and have them in most of my tanks now. I haven't seen a hydra in months. The spixi have all but eradicated them. They say that the spixi aren't plant eaters, but I've had a few folks say that really delicate plants get devoured by them, so buyer beware. I will have a bag or two of spixi snails in both the Edmonton and Calgary auctions. I posted some pics around the net somewhere of spixi snails chomping down on my hydra. Can't recall where though. might have been here? Good luck with them!

he might have been told that about amano shrimp, or someone might have confused the information from them. Amano shrimp I am told, do require salt water to hatch. I have a tank full of cherry shrimp however that have never had any salt added to the tank.

haha! For some reason this post reminded me of that old joke: What's the difference between a poodle and a pitbull humping your leg? You let the pitbull finish...