New arrivals, tragic losses (again)

Sadly I lost a whole group of baby jags after moving their parents to the 4' tank. They all got either fungus or Lympho. Horrible having to watch them die one by one each day. The tank they were in now holds a supply of live river shrimp and a coupld of female Bettas who are in recovery.

To add to this, the jag pair had a big bust up, so I had to divide them. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the temperature in their tank being higher than they're used to.

On the positive side, I have over 10 baby guppies from the red-tailed females I bought (from Ely Aquatics) a couple of weeks ago. The females don;t appear to be eating their offspring, so hopefully the babies will turn out to be 'pure strain' and I can establish a pure breeding colony.

Even better news is that the pair of super red kribs I picked up at the CDAS meeting have just brought out their first spawn (hence the recovering Bettas!).



Things are ticking over nicely in the fish room. My biggest challenge at the moment is working out how to overcome the problem that many of the tanks have suspended matter in the water as a result of having no substrate. Makes for some pretty nasty photos.

BCA, FoF...recents changes

Much has happened since I last posted. The BCA meeting was great fun. Some lovely fish for sale (I was extremely hard pushed to hold back and only spend £3.00!). I sold some Jags, Cutter's, G. brasiliensis and my pair of Bangui. My only pick up was a bag of six juvenile Aequidens sp. Peru, which I am now convinced are a geographical variant of A. tetramerus. Lovely little fish from Andrew Wood.

The Festival of Fishkeeping was really interesting. Some very informative displays and some great fish.

The meeting worked well from the point of view of attracting new members, but I do feel the location (Hayling Island) meant that many established members were put off and didn't show. As a result the auctions followed a recurring theme of being fantastic for buyers, but pretty rubbish for sellers as most lots went for very close to their reserve.

What else has happened?

Bullets:

- the Firemouths lost their eggs (I think the Bristlenoses finally had them);
- the crowntail fry never made it (temperature too cold or perhaps eaten by snails - they did hatch);
- Amber and I moved the 30" tank from upstairs into the fishroom (it now holds the Ports, female Paratilapia and female BGJD);
- I set up a 24" tank underneath it for the larger baby Jags;
- I have moved the Jag pair into the lower 4' tank (they're not too happy!) and all the fish from that tank into the 6' tank;
- the salvini pair are also now in the 6' tank;
- I still have six baby Vieja hybrids doing well;
- I separated the hybrid cons from the Redhead Midas yesterday. Both species are so fat!
- I now have Humpbacked Limia fry from one female, they have grown incredibly fast;
- I also have baby platies!

I now have an external flash for my camera. I'm so pleased with it, it has made such a difference to my fish photography:



I think that's about it for now, other than the fact that I successfully sent some Jags to Newquay (to Nev) and they arrived safely.

Happy days

Looking forward to the BCA meeting tomorrow. Should be a really good road trip with two Simons and two Martins in the same vehicle!

Have more good news today as the salvini are getting ready to spawn and my crowntail bettas are spawning as I type. Mum is visiting at the moment and she was really impressed by them! Lovely fish.

The Firemouths still have their eggs too, which is amazing given that there are two Ancistrus in the tank. The parents look amazing right now.

Not looking forward to getting up at 4:30am tomorrow to bag fish...

Snakehead tragedy....again :(

No more snakeheads for me. They were looking unhappy two days ago so I decided to up the heat. BAD IDEA! They were all dead yesterday morning. I think I have a long way to go in my fishkeeping abilities before I take on dwarf Channa spp. again.

On the plus side, my Firemouths have spawned in the mixed community tank in the fishroom.

CDAS, new fish, more fry!

Went to the Corby and District Aquarist Society (CDAS) meeting on Sunday 5th. I was really impressed with how well organised the whole thing was. It was such a shame that the horrible weather put most people off coming. The talks were excellent, particularly Uli's talk on keeping and breeding snakeheads. The talk was so good in fact that I had to part with some money and buy six of his young Channa sp. Turquoise! I also picked up a pair of super red P. pulcher for a few quid.

I managed to sell about £12 of fish too, which offset my expenditure nicely and confirmed that it is indeed possible to sell the fry from the xanthic carrier Jag brood. Simon did much better, coming away with a profit after buying four pairs of dwarf cichlids and six Corydoras.

Talking of Corydoras, I spent my £40 credit at Maidenhead Aquatics (Coton) on five Corydoras sodalis, which I hope to breed at some point, and three very gravid blue/silver Platys (for fun).

A good thing happened yesterday evening: I separated my most gravid Humpbacked Limia into her own spawning tank and she produced around ten huge fry! They are super cute and eating well, so hopefully my shoal will increase from five to fifteen in the near future. I'm so chuffed about this, as I was sure something would go wrong.

At the CDAS meet I was hoping to sell my pair of Hemichromis sp. Bangui and some spare Blockheads, but in the end I had to bring them back home. I stuck the Blockheads in my Central American community tank and it seems like they're having a great time. I think two of them are a pair! Typical that I nearly sold off a matched pair of fish. It's funny because the other fish really don't know what to make of these clowns.

More Ancistrus and other news

Picked up another pair of Ancistrus temminckii yesterday for £15. Seemed reasonable to me and they are nice fish. Hopefully they'll pay for themselves in the future by producing more babies. I put them in the melanurus tank in the hope they'll clean up the algae for me.

Submitted my lots for the BCA auction last week, but now having second thoughts about taking some of the fish as I might want to hang onto them!

Hopefully going to the Corby and District Aquarist Society auction on Sunday with Simon M. I'll be taking a few lots with me in the hope of shifting yet more fish.

More fun and games

Turned out the Vieja spawn did survive. Hundreds of free-swimming fry. The parents were fantastic this time thanks to the mirror I put in with them.

Unfortunately when they were both in breeding dress it was clear that they weren't true synspilus or melanurus, so yesterday I removed the fry to their own tank and took the parents back to Maidenhead Aquatics in exchange for a £40 credit note. I'm going to keep the fry as 'Vieja Hybrids' and see what they turn into. I reckon they'll be stunning if the parents are anything to go by.

Last week I went to Terry's (Telboy) to pick up two 2' tanks, two Platydoras, a pair of marble cons, a huge pair of salvini, a plec and a Tiger loach. Lovely bloke. Gave me a very good price for everything.

I also stopped at Wildwoods on the way and bought what is supposedly a BGJD female! Time will tell. She's only small, but I hope to breed her to my male EBJD once she's big enough.

The salvini are amazing. The male is over 8" long - a real monster! I'm hoping that the two mirrors I stuck on the tank will stop hiom beating the female and convince them to breed for me.

Picked up a pair of Gold Saums on Wednesday on the way back from Hastings (for the last time!). They had fry in the tank, so I know they are a proven pair. A steal at just £8 the pair. They are looking great in place of the Viejas.

Had to fence off the big Port today as he won't stop killing the other fish. He's already killed two other Ports and a female cutteri, so I'm not taking any more chances.

Treated my marble cons with AZOO tabs today to try and perk the male back up. He's been lying on the floor looking miserable since I got him home from Terry's.

Culled the deformed Paratilapia female. Obi was very happy!

Sold £20 of fish on Wednesday: 3 Tinfoils, 3 Ancistrus, 2 Angels and a small group of Endlers. Not bad.