Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i Practical Fishkeeping

TROPICAL Cave fish A FISH WITH NO eyes? Although sightless, this fish is most definitely not helpless. Over the millennia, evolution has shown over and over that it has a way of helping life adapt to even the most extreme of environments. The fish we're looking at today is the blind cave tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, a characin from Central America. It's not the only blind fish out there, but it is the most readily available within the hobby, with many of the other species being critically endangered and illegal to collect. It's worth noting that there are surface-dwelling forms of this fish too, and unlike their underground kin have perfectly functioning eyes. These are found in rivers and ponds throughout Mexico and even in some southerly parts of North America,…

SLOPEHEAD CATFISH A-gen-ay-oh-susmag-oy Tounder20cm VenezuelaandColombiain the Orinoco Basin Openwaterriverandriverbank dwellers, often in murky and turbid waters 120x45x45cm Somewhereclosetoneutralwater; 6.5-7.5pH, 4-12°H 23-26C Afisheaterthatneeds to be kept with larger tankmates Largemeatyfoodsoffer fish flesh, river shrimp, earthworm as well as sinking pellets Requiresspecialistcatfishstores expect to pay around £150 for a good sized specimen “In terms of tank-mates, the size of your dolphin will again be the deciding factor. All dolphin catfish are voracious feeders and will make short work of anything that will fit within their deceptively large jaws”…

PERHAPS THE MOST enduring symptom of the coronavirus—for me at least—has been lasting isolation. During the course of that pandemic, I learnt that it was easy to stop catching up with friends, but much harder to get them back. I have, quite frankly, become something of a fishkeeping hermit, though I hadn't really registered this until I attended the Catfish Study Group Annual Convention, this weekend just gone. There was much to prompt self-reflection. The English poet John Donne once wrote that no man is an island. As a society, humanity as a whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts, but every human is an essential part of that sum. And while no man is an island, I would like to posit that perhaps every person is…

FISHING THE AMAZONAS main channel along the vast beaches and shifting islands isn't particularly exciting until you pull a long seine net to the shore and see hundreds of silver fish glinting amongst the fabric. Virtually everything here is silver: in the muddy, ochre-hued water of the river, visibility is low. The fish that live here have little need for colour, and for the schooling species, bright silver is the predominant choice of marking to stand out. Daytime net hauls bring thousands of tetras of various sizes: Moenkhausia and nondescript small characins, alongside juveniles of larger species like Brycon, Myloplus, Prochilodus, and some of their predators, such as Raphiodon and Hydrolycus. Pulling all these fish from a net requires a certain degree of care, because often equally silvery Pimelodus, Hassar…

TROPICAL Uaru THERE ARE OVER 1650 described species of cichlids spread across the globe, displaying a surprising array of colour, variations in body shape, and behaviour. Found in a majority of the world's rivers and lakes there's a species to suit anyone's taste. Yet, for me, none of them rival the subtle beauty and genial, gentle nature of the Uaru. There are only two described Uaru species: Uaru amphiacanthoides and Uaru fernandezyepezi. A third fish, once described as Uaru obscurum, was later found to be a synonym of U. amphiacanthoides. Uaru amphiacanthoides—the more common of the two—has gained an array of common names over the years. I've seen them labelled as the triangle cichlid, the chocolate cichlid (most of us knowing the true chocolate cichlid as being Hypselecara temporalis), and…

TROPICAL Spiny eels SPINY EELS ARE the most widely kept ‘eels’ in the hobby, but their familiarity doesn't take anything away from their weirdness. These are, after all, perciform fish, more closely related to such things as gobies and cichlids than the true eels and morays. They are also much more widespread than aquarists might realise, found all the way across Asia from Turkey to China, while reaching their greatest diversity in Africa. What's in a name? At first glance, you might assume that spiny eels are all much of a muchness, differing primarily in size and colouration, but otherwise occupying similar sorts of niches wherever they live. That turns out not to be true. Spiny eels do have a certain approach to life, but within the family Mastacembelidae there…

SIMPLY PLUGGING THE term ‘dolphin catfish’ into a search engine can bring about some bewilderment. Common fish names are an ongoing cause for consternation amongst aquarists, and as well as having individual fish known by many names, we also have many fish known by a one name. The leaf fish is another prime example. Geographically speaking, ‘leaf fish’ could be referring to any of Ctenopoma acutirostre, Monocirrhus polyacanthus, Nandus nandus, or Polycentropsis abbreviata (and that's before we include the marine leaf fish too), so the devil really is in the detail. The same confusion applies to dolphin catfish, and given the variation in size and behaviour amongst the many candidates, it's important to clarify exactly who we are, and are not, referring to. Of all the species that have been…

TROPICAL Anomalochromis IT'S A FACT of human nature that we're rarely satisfied with what we have. You could have a car perfectly suited to all of your needs, but when a new model comes to the market you would sell ‘old faithful’ without hesitation. It's similar in the world of aquaria: when a new and colourful fish is discovered almost everyone rushes to get it, ditching their previous favourites. In the pursuit of the new we often forget about the ‘classics’, the fishes that shaped the hobby in the past and are still around to entertain us. This article is about one old timer that undeservedly slipped under the radars of the fishkeeping community. I must admit that I'm also guilty of neglecting the African butterfly cichlid, Anomalochromis thomasi, for…

Win The Question of the Month gets a Tetra goodie box! HEALTH What's wrong with this cichlid? I have a female parrot cichlid. She is 9-10 years old. Due to a back injury, I had not been keeping up with water changes and nitrates became high as a result. Over the past few months, she has become pale in colour, and I've noticed that her eyes have begun to look swollen. Now she has developed a large swelling on the right side of her abdomen and is not eating. The scales are slightly protruding on her side. Ammonia and nitrite levels are 0, but nitrates are 40-60mg/I. Do you have any suggestions please? JEN KRUEGER PETER REPLIES: Your fish is exhibiting signs of dropsy, namely swollen eyes and raised scales. Dropsy…

MARINE Anemone feeding DID YOU KNOW? Where an anemone has a resident clownfish, that fish will often bring chunks of food to its host and feed it, thus ensuring the wellbeing of its chosen home. ANEMONES ARE ONE of the big draws in the marine aquarium world. Frequently coupled with their clownfish guests, they paint an idyllic picture of an interconnected underwater environment; their tentacles swaying in the current almost Elysian. However, success with anemones in the home aquarium is remarkably low. The reasons for failure are numerous, and in some cases not clear, but one of the most readily correctable errors is on the nutritional front. Much like some other marine invertebrates, anemones are regularly mislabelled as the plants or flowers of the sea. Anemones are animals much like…

AQUASCAPING Arian Bacmeister I FIRST MET ARIAN Bacmeister in my local aquascaping specialist store down at Huntingdon, near Cambridge. After a brief chat I soon realised that despite Arian's relative short time in the hobby, her aquascaping skills were both unique and exceptional. While many aquarists start as hobbyists and progress to a job in the industry, Arian took a career route to the hobby. After moving in with her boyfriend who owned a small aquarium, the pair went shopping for some aquatic moss. Their nearest shop, the esteemed Aquarium Gardens, stocked the moss but was also advertising for staff. Being new to the area and seeking employment, Arian applied for and then got the job. And so, her passion for aquascaping started with a transformative journey, being surrounded during…