Betta-mania

Uh oh, I think I have become unhealthily obsessed with bettas again. I am growing out a spawn from my multicolor HM male and green HM female at the moment and so far they are all doing fine. Only problem is they grow so damn slowly, despite the fact I am chucking in microworms in their thousands.

Anyway, in a bid to do some good in the world I just designed the new header logo for Steve Bell's www.bettasplendens.co.uk website.

What do you think?:



Can't wait to put my next pair together. I think it's going to have to be my male copper HM and the same green Hm female, as if my genetics research is correct I should get a spawn containing both green and copper HMs, which would be great.

Things are getting worse on the EBJD front, as I think I realistically only have two youngsters worth saving from the 30 or so EBJDs I originally kept from the brood. The rest are belly-crawlers or deformed. Will be interesting to see if I can get more from the parents' new spawn - currently living next door to their sibliings.

I sold on my pair of Jack Dempseys and my male Paratilapia polleni on Thursday morning, plus 5 Ancistrus. Made £40 which will go straight back into TetraPrima. This is great news as I now have a spare tank.

My pair of gold marble angels spawned and are now looking after fry, which will be free swimming tomorrow or the day after I guess. It wasn't a big spawn, but they look strong. Need to put another angel pair together, but want to get my next pair of BGJDs going first.

Lookig forward to the EACG auction on Friday.

Wow - been so busy

So things have moved on quite a bit since the last post, which is hardly a surprise given that was 4.5 months ago!!!

Finally got rid of the Nicaraguans (took them to Maidenhead Aquatics in the end). The Pantosctictus went in an auction (I concluded they were both male). I sold all 20 bristlenoses at the same auction.

I've had some horrible losses. I was snowboarding over Christmas and came back to find all the synspila dead along with my remaining male istlanum. Then I lost my male Rotkeil severum to pop-eye, closely followed by my male cutteri (who was, quite frankly, murdered). Then a couple of days ago one of my gold marble angels jumped out of their tank and snuffed it! Talk about an unlucky few months. To cap it all I nearly lost my stunning blushing paraiba angelfish male because the female I paired him up with got seriously nasty and tried to end him. Luckily he has made a full recovery.

So, is there any good news to report? Why yes, yes there is. Most importantly: I AM GROWING OUT MY FIRST EVER EBJDS!!!! When their parents spawned I was pretty sceptical that any of the fry would be EBJD, but lo and behold the genetics worked and I now have growouts. Unfortunately a lot of them will end up being culled as they have not developed their swim bladders properly, but I would say I have 5 that swim normally and given some more time should turn out rather well. All very exciting.

I also managed to get some amazing halfmoon bettas from a chap called Steve Bell. his website is www.bettasplendens.co.uk and I can't recommend it enough. Truly stunning fish and if you buy his home bred stock the prices aren't too bad either. I've only had my four a short while and already I've had four spawns. I have an additional two plakat bettas I bought at PetPaks in Hardwick for peanuts - they were a lucky spot and the male is gorgeous. the difficulty now is getting any of the fry I have to adulthood - they are TINY!

In other news, I am trying to sell off a lot of my stock to make room to put more BGJD pairs together and also breed my angelfish. I finally managed to sex a pair of gold marbles, so I'm expecting to have more angelfish eggs (this time in a tank to themselves where other fish won't eat them!). I'll be putting the blushing paraiba and his violent ex back together in the next couple of week too as they were outstandig parents - the only reason I don't have growouts is that they spawned in a divided section of my BGJD growout tank and the fry sadly all became food for the ravenous horde.

Right, I am starving, so time to go find some grub.

September...already?

Where has the year gone?! I can't keep up!

First off, let me reassure you that the cutteri arrived at their destination fine, so yet another happy customer and yet another successful delivery by Royal Mail. Nice work chaps.

Also, the two guys who picked up all those fish from the 6' tank also took the two P. melanurus I got from Don Conkel all those months ago. I forgot to mention that in my last post.

Right. So what's happening now?

Bad news first: Sadly I have lost two of my beautiful wild-type Angelfish. I'm not sure what the cause was, they just wasted away. I treated for both white spot ( one of the symptoms) and hole-in-the-head disease, but sadly neither made any difference.

Another slight downer is that the 'pair' of istlanum turned out to be two (admittedly stunning) males. So I'm now short on females. Needless to say, I feel another trip to see Ross coming on.

Now for the good news:

My koi angels are doing REALLY well. One of them is practically adult sized already. Twice the size of his siblings.

Noel has taken away all his fish, so no more worrying about their survival. I have to admit to being quite relieved.

I have a massive brood of lovely marble convicts growing out - I separated them from their parents this week and they are already 0.5" long and fat as anything. I know I shouldn't be that proud to have a massive spawn of convicts, but you don't see marbles that often, and the parents are really quality fish. Hopefully I can pass the fry on cheap. Either way I'm hoping to take a few bags to the BCA auction on the 26th.

The two remaining pantostictus are still alive and well. They are cohabiting in a divided 30" tank right now, putting on weight. Sadly I still can't tell what sex they are. I had a hunch they were male and female, but now I'm not so sure. They certainly don't weem very interested in each other thus far.

The bifasciatus pair have spawned again! This time I really must try to save some fry.

The Mayan pair are also looking like they might spawn soon.

I caught around 20 Ancistus youngsters earlier tonight. Very healthy they look two. They've gone into one of my small cube tanks for easy netting. These will also be going to the BCA auction.

Once again, the circle of life has come round again to make up for the losses. Even the Jaguar cichlids look like they might spawn this week. Things are on the up.

If only I could move on my young Nicaraguan cichlids - for someone reason no-one wants to buy them!

What's goin' awn in August? Read on...

So, some action has finally taken place. Noel has collected his pair of Kribs, group of five African butterfly cichlids and the white-tip Synodontis, which leaves the shark (Labeo frenatus) and the neon tetras to go. As a result I have set up another pair of Kribs (another pair that I bred myself - the male is the brother of the one I currently have looking after a healthy brood of free-swimming fry, both lovely 'super reds'). I've sadly forgotten the history of the two females...

Yesterday I posted a couple of spare cutteri to London. Still waiting to hear if they arrived okay - always a bit nerve wracking! Hopefully it will all be fine, as Royal Mail are surprisingly reliable.

Okay...I wrote the above on Tuesday, it's now Sunday and much has happened since then....

First of all, the cutteri arrives safe and sound, so I can add another success with Royal Mail to my untarnished record.

On Friday morning I finally met Ross Evans, of Oddball Express fame. Amazingly it has taken me nearly 2 years to work out that the Oddball Express unit is literally 6 minutes from my work office!!! I couldn't believe it when I put the postcode into Google maps.

The set up is amazing. Stunning rare cichlids galore. As usual I was like a kid in a candy shop and despite meeting Ross at 8:15am, I was still trying to work out what I was going to take home with me at 9:00! There was so much I wanted, but in the end common sense prevailed and it came down to how much space I could provide. I came away very happy with a stunning pair of exCichlasoma istlanum, who spent the whole day in the boot of my car until I got them back to Cambridge from Stafford. They went into the dining room tank, which started off a whole chain of events that have made this weekend a bit stressful!

First off, I decided that the Istlanum pair were too precious to be left alone with my horrible F2 hybrid convct/HRPs, so I promptly caught them all up and removed them from the tank. They were unceremoniously deposited in the 6' tank in the fishroom.

On Saturday morning I went in to the fishroom to find all the fish in the 6' tank gasping for breath and looking genereally miserable - too many fish sharing too little oxygen. Crap. So in I went with the net, this time to catch all but two of the big F1 convict/HRP males. Their time had come to be culled and removing them would drop the stocking levels on the tank and hence improve the situation for the rest of the tank inhabitants.

I was really undecided about the cull, as I find culling adult fish pretty traumatic, but I decided that seeing as I have no intention of spreading hybrid convicts throughout the UK, I should just get on with it. I dispatched them promptly and humanely and the bodies went back into the 6' tank as a large meal for the other fish. In retrospect this was a dumb move.

Switch to this morning, when I enter the fishroom to find it stinking of rotting fish, all four dead bodies left untouched by the other fish and all of the latter looking miserable. Big problem. Quickly I removed the offending bodies and disposed of them. I had already started down the path of culling fish and getting rid of the extras, so I put an ad in two places online offering the following fish for free if picked up today:

- Piar of Brown acaras Male 7" Female 5"
- 2 x Vieja melanurus 7"
- Paratheraps bifasciatus (unsexed) 10"
- 2 x Rotkeil severum 5"

Within an hour I had someone offer to takle the lot!

When they arrived things were going from bad to worse in the 6' tank, but all the listed fish were doing okay and the guys who came to pick them up were very happy. To be honest they got an amazing deal, I reckon they got well over £100 worth of fish for diddley squat!

Then fish started dying. I lost the loach that has been terrorising that tank since the day I got it (sad about that even though I hated his guts for abusing my other fish). Then some of the small hybrids started dying - they went straight into my Jaguar cichlid tank. But then my male Blockhead was lying on his side, followed by two of the Paratheraps synspiuls from Rusty Wessel. Oh....MY....GOD! I went into panic mode. The Blockhead went straight into a spare cube tank, as did the two synspilus (both held upright by a stone each). Then I started a huge water change and crossed my fingers.

The end result? Well, thankfully I think the 2 synspilus have pulled through, as has the Blockhead, so all in all I lost one loach and two hybrids convict/HRPs. It could have been sooooo much worse. I just hope the fish I gave away have all made it safe and sound.

What a day! Seriously, sometimes I wonder how I cope with the stress of it all...

Oh the misery of this hobby sometimes!

Another long overdue update. I keep saying to myself that should do more writing; that somehow this might open the door to new things; that I should finish off that damn book about EBJDs...somehow life gets in the way - or more accurately I get in my own way.

There has been an EACG auction since I last posted. It was a bit of a let down, to be honest. Great to see friends and listen to a wonderful (if excessively long) talk from Juan Miguel Artigas on the cichlids of Mexico, but the auction was depressing - not enough people and too many lovely fish going back from whence they came. I put it down to bad timing, rather than poor promotion of the event.

Anyway, I came home with a bag of 'super-red' Kribensis grow-outs, a lovely pair of marble convicts (now with free-swimming fry) and three Herichthys pantostictus which I obtained for the princely sum of just £6!

My joy has been short lived. I have been losing precious fish over the last few weeks. Just before the auction I lost my female Amphilophus cotrinellus 'Costa Rican Red Head' after the male beat her up (post spawning). Then I lost one of the pantostictus (turns out they really can't stand large water changes). Finally today I found my stunning male Green Terror lying dead on the tank floor having been very obviously beaten up. That's a real tragedy as he was beautiful.

On the plus side, I have my spawn of marble Convicts, my healthy colony of Israeli bred guppies, a seething mass of baby bristlenoses and the latest bifasciatum spawn to contend with. Two of my Rotkeil Severums have also finally paired up and I have plans to breed my two remaining pantostictus (if they do indeed turn out to be a pair, as I suspect they are).

I have been fish-sitting for my buddy Noel for several months now and will be giving the fish back soon, so hopefully I'll have a bit more space soon.

I wil undoubtedly have baby kribs in a few weeks' time and probably another spawn from my Jaguars and Fliers. However I've got so many busy weekends for the rest of the year that I don't know when I'm going to do all the necessary water changes.

So much to think about. I do way to much of that. Less thought and more action required!

Happy hybrids

A quick photo of one of my pairs of F1 convict x HRP and their fry. They are merrily defending them against a 6' tank full of other Central American cichlids as if it was child's play.


I was in the fish room with a torch just now and it looks like I have even more fry: the new guppies have already started giving birth and, best of all, I was wrong about the bristlenoses - I shone the torch into a pot and it was full of baby Ancistrus!

Sad news and good news

First off, the sad news: my breeding male EBJD died about a week ago. I started treatment too late and he was gone in days. Absolutely devastating to lose such a beautiful fish.

However, my other fish have cheered me up by breeding away merrily. I never got those baby suckers I mentioned in my last post, nothing came of the eggs, but currently in my tanks I have:

- Mayan cichlid wrigglers

- Flier cichlid fry



- Nicaraguan youngsters (1.5") (I sold the breeding pair on eBay, posted last Friday)

- Paratheraps bifasciatus fertile eggs!!!



Also I have pairs of Kribensis, CRRH midas and Cutter's cichlid getting ready to spawn.

So much new life!

My shoal of BGJDs is also still doing well, growing at a good rate and keeping their bellies fat.


Recently bought some Israeli bred guppies from Swallow Aquatics - they are lovely green cobra tails, so I'm looking forward to breeding them en masse if I can.