Hypancistrus sp., photos

These photographs are not of the best quality, but they are of a very special little fish and will be added to the gallery.

 

In 2010 I ordered some Peckoltia compta, L134 at the time and the fish below came in as one. After some speculations on various sites it seemed to resemble the L080, a Peckoltia species. 

 

Having taken some photographs of its dentition it was however confirmed that it was a Hypancistrus species.

 

I have been in contact with people around the world that keep a similar Hypancistrus and there is a possibility that this is a so far unidentified species. 

It has a total length of around 10cm and seems to be an adult male.

The fish has been an absolutely joy to keep, a real character fish.

 

Corydoras panda, photos

Next up to get its own gallery is possibly my favourite aquarium fish the panda cory or Corydoras panda:

 

Corydoras schultzei black, photos

I have started to add additional categories of photographs, this will be a slow process but I do have plenty of shots so eventually I think it will be worth it to divide the gallery up in sections.

First of is the black form of Corydoras schultzei who have gotten its own page starting with the pictures below:

Corydoras panda, flukes/flatworms

I was recently lucky enough to get my hands on a wild caught male Corydoras panda to expand the bloodline of my breeding group.

The fish was isolated but foolishly I never de-wormed the fish. As I wanted to breed this particular male he and three of my best females were introduced to a breeding tank. They almost instantly started to breed on a regular basis. The fish seemed to be in great shape and behaved normal.

But all was not well and soon tiny “growth” started to appear on the fins and occasionally on the bristles of the fish in the group, especially the male.

At first I was panicking, thinking I would lose my breeding group. Having consulted www.planetcatfish.com I received excellent advice. As It turned out the "growths" were actually flukes, parasitic flatworms.

The tank was treated with Kusuri Wormer Plus and within a day there was no sign at all of the parasites.

Edit: I would recommend that especially if it's a heavy infestation to repeat the treatment after the initial seven days as a new outbreak might occur otherwise.

Even though I’m not recommending this there were eggs and larva/fry in the tank when it was treated and so far I have not seen any ill effects on the fry. In fact, I did not see any negative reactions to the treatment at all.

Perhaps my experience and the pictures could be useful for others trying to identifying this parasite. I have certainly learned from my mistake of not treating this wild caught specimen in the quarantine tank.

The fish are back to normal, all and all it's a happy ending!

Melander

Mature community tank, 30+ years running

Update 20.12.2013

20.12.2013; black beard algae has taken over the tank

22.12.2012

22.12.2012; first photograph in this series

Just wanted to share a couple of pictures of this mature aquarium.

The tank holds about 360 litres, run by two internal filters; one Eheim and one unidentified. The tank is heated by a Jäger heater.

This aquarium was bought second hand in 1980, it was moved once in the early eighties and had a leak once also in the early eighties. Apart from those disturbances the tank has been running since.

I would probably have chosen a different background and substrate today but has it been there for that long it can be there for while more.

The inhabitants have changed; the main difference has been if there has been Discus or Angelfish inhabiting the tank.

The stocking today:
5 Angelfish
around 100 Cardinal tetras
around 20 Platys
3 Bristlenoses

I was saddened not to find the 10-15 year old Banjo catfish I spotted last year, I hope it’s still around in there though.

The interior has been the same, the small piece of bogwood in the middle once took up 1/3 of the tank and the Anubias originated from one plant.

I really, really regret not having taken one photo of it per year as it would have been very cool to have seen the evolution of the tank. This is something ill try to do with other tanks from now on and that could be an idea for fishkeepers in general.

Melander

Ancistrus sp., sexing revisited

Ancistrus sp., females with bristles

It now turns out that I was right about the young female, one of the males however turned out to be a female which im very happy about.

In the end it seems that both males and females grow bristles quite early, it is however still possible to somewhat accurately sex the juveniles by the amount of bristle growth.

Juvenile male, one year ago:
 














Juvenile female, one year ago:
















The male, today:

The females today:

They still need to put on some weight but I am hopeful about getting some fry from these next year.

Melander

Microworms

I have finally started to use these fantastic worms, and I must say that I’m very happy with them as a food source. 

Microworms belongs to the Nematodes or roundworms. As the name implies they are a very small species barely visible to the naked eye and as such are only suitable as a food source for smaller fish and fry.

There are several positive aspects to these worms, firstly they are so easy to care for and multiply very fast which means that with a bit of planning you should never run out of worms.

Secondly your microworm culture will contain worms in different stages of development; this means that your culture also contains a food source for fish of various sizes. I for instance use the same culture to feed fry and juvenile cories in different stages of growth.

So what do you need to get started?

Not much is the answer. 

You will need one, preferably two containers. Plastic food containers of pretty much any sort will do with 10-20 holes in the lid. Make sure that the holes are as small as possible to lessen the risk of contamination. 

The culture material can be of varies number of organic material, I’m still trying out different materials, at the moment I use porridge which seems to work well. The material needs to be soupy but not too runny. It should be wet enough to settle as an even surface in the container. Use enough to cover 1-1.5cm of depth. Lastly you will also need a starter culture of microworms, you should be able to find one either from the fish community where you live or else buy one online.

I mentioned two containers; this is because it’s very handy to keep two cultures going at the same time, one started about a week or so after the other. Not only will you have a greater supply of worms, but having two cultures means that you always will have a spare culture to start a new one from should one crash.

Keep the culture in room temperature away from direct sunlight and the worms should do well. If the culture starts to dry up just add some water and stir. Once the culture(s) is running it takes 1-2 weeks before you can perform your first harvest. When the culture is ready you will start to see tiny worms climbing the sides of the container. To harvest the worms, simply use a paint brush and brush the sides of the container, catching whatever amount of worms you need. Stir the brush in a cup of water and use a pipette to select the chosen amount. Make sure not to get any culture media into the tank while doing this, also always use a clean brush not to cross contaminate the different cultures and try not to get tank water into the cultures.

If your culture starts to become miscoloured or mouldy it is time to terminate it. This is another reason why it is good to have several cultures running at the same time so that you always have a fresh culture to start off a new one with. After about a month or so it’s it likely that you will have to start a new culture and discard the old one. Simply wash the container and follow the steps above again.

Source:

Hellweg, T., M. 2008. Culturing Live Foods: A Step-by-Step Guide for Culturing One’s Own Food for the Home Aquarium. T.F.H Publications, Inc.