march 2007 volume 16 issue 3

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MARCH 2007 VOLUME 16 ISSUE 3

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eeting: March 4th from 1:00 5:00 p.m. opic: Research into Costa ican fishes and their families eaker: Dr. Ron Coleman of UC Davis

ell known in cichlid circles for his study of macichla tuba and his research into cichlid egg aracteristics, Ron Coleman is back (with his usual tertaining style) talking about his travels and search in Costa Rica.

Ron teaches anCalifornia Statthe lab and in America countwhy parent fis Ron has kept fcurrently keepthe American Cserving severa

hat’s in the Showfish this month – hen and where we meet .......................................2 Ad: Tanks, staeeting dates for 2007 ...........................................2 Sponsors .......print and exchange policies ................................2 Board of Direcnouncing automated auction forms, bag labels ..2 Foray into aqu: Rino’s Caves ...................................................3 Beginning a Bmmary of last month's mtg .................................3 Bag Labels ...embership News ..................................................3 Membership A

MARCH 2007

NEXT MONTH’S MTG: APRIL 1

d does research on fishes at e University, Sacramento, working in the field in Costa Rica and other Latin ries. His main interest is in how and hes take care of their kids.

ish since he was a young boy and s cichlids and catfish. He is active in

ichlid Association and has been l terms as their webmaster.

nd for sale ....................................3 ........................................................4 tors ................................................5 atic gardening ...............................6 reeding Program ............................8 ......................................................13pplication / Renewal form ..........14

PAGE 1 OF 14

When do we meet: COAST meets the first Sunday of every month from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Meeting agendum: 12:30 Board Meeting 1:00 Meeting begins; general announcements 1:30 Presentation begins 2:45 Auction begins 4:15-4:30 Auction usually ends; check-out begins 5:00-5:30 Vacate the room

Where do we meet: We meet in the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center in the Victoria Room (usually) or the Harper Room. The Center is a brown brick building between a fire station and Lion’s Park. Closest major intersection is 19th and Harbor Blvd.

Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center 1845 Park Avenue Costa Mesa, CA

Upcoming meetings for 2007: March 4 Ron Coleman, Costa Rican Research August 5 Speaker and Topic: April 1 Speaker and Topic: September 2 Speaker and Topic: May 6 Speaker and Topic: October 7 Speaker and Topic: June 10 Speaker and Topic: SECOND SUNDAY November 4 Speaker and Topic: July 1 Speaker and Topic: December 2 Speaker and Topic:

Discussion Group: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/coastfishclub/ (members only)

Website: http://www.coastfishclub.com

⋟⋘ (⋗ ⋟⋘ (⋗ ⋟⋘ (⋗ ⋟⋘ (⋗ ⋟⋘ (⋗ ⋟⋘ (⋗ ⋟⋘ (⋗ ⋟⋘ (⋗

New Self-Filling Auction Forms Available – There is now an MS Excel spreadsheet, named “Bag-Auction form1.xls”, in the Discussion Group (Files section) that automatically fills in the Auction Registration Form from information you put in the bag labels. All you have to do is enter information in the yellow areas of the bag labels and the Auction Registration form (the two worksheets in the file) and voilá! the bag number, quantity, and description magically appear in the Auction Registration form. There are enough labels for 24 items, and the form will not let you accidentally enter information in the wrong places. The editor can also email you the form if you request one by email. The Showfish is the newsletter of California’s Organization of Aquatic Show Tropicals (COAST), a 501(c)(7) not for-profit association registered in California. It is published six to twelve times a year and is a benefit of membership in COAST. The information and opinions expressed in articles are those of the author and may not reflect those held by COAST or other COAST members.

Showfish is printed and distributed at cost by Mike and Elaine McCabe of McCabe Printing, 11918 E Rosecrans Ave Suite B, Norwalk, CA 90650.

Reprint Policy: Articles and graphics which are marked with a © symbol or annotated as Copyrighted may not be reprinted without the owner’s permission. Unmarked articles and graphics may be reprinted by other fish clubs; please send two copies of the newsletter containing the reprint to C. A. Marelius, 16229 Armstead St. Granada Hills, CA 91344 or email a copy to [email protected].

Exchange Policy: COAST will exchange newsletters which contain information about fish and the fish hobby with other fish clubs. Please notify the Showfish editor, C.A. Marelius, if your club would like to participate in an exchange program.

HTTP://WWW.COASTFISHCLUB.COM MARCH 2007 PAGE 2 OF 14

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/coastfishclub/

http://www.coastfishclub.com/

mailto:[email protected]

Summary: Meeting of February 4th The General Meeting: The meeting started at 10:00 a.m. so

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it could be finished in time for people to get home to watch the Superbowl. The turnout was good for an early meeting, inspite of being up against such competition. There were some excellent plant specimens and rare fish on the auction table as well. Purchase prices at the auction were lower than usual and proceeds did not cover the cost of the room rental.

Our speaker was Mike Hellweg from the Missouri Aquarium Society, columnist for aquariumfish.com and author of articles in all the major American fish magazines. Mike spoke on his rewarding and fascinating work with uncommon small fish, both in understanding them and breeding (or not breeding) them.

He gave some excellent pieces of advice about fishkeeping, among them: 1) keep a journal recording the species you

ave worked with, the parameters of their care (water, temperature, tank setup, weather, food, etc.), if and why ou had success or failure; 2) experiment fearlessly if what you’re doing isn’t working, being careful to change nly one thing at a time in order to assess response to a single change rather than a cumulative series of hanges, 3). use active participation in fish club tasks/ activities as a way to overcome the natural reticence of eople in the fishkeeping hobby, who tend to be introverted more often than not even when they’re experts in heir field (actually he said something to the effect of withdrawn people working by themselves with unusual nimals in dark corners).

e stressed that pristine water, not a pristine tank, was generally the most important maintenance aspect in the are of breeding stock’s environment. He also feeds a variety of live food as well as frozen or dry food, saying hat the biggest difficulty in breeding fish and raising fry is sometimes just finding out what they eat and what riggers eating behaviours or patterns. One of his pipefish, for example, couldn’t recognize anything as food nless it moved correctly; the fish turned out to be a not very picky eater once that criterion was met.

o board meeting was held before the general meeting. The club refreshment chair, Tom Varin, brought onuts, bagels, fruit, and coffee for the buffet table, the Jacksons brought hot chocolate, and someone (Jeff ong??) donated a platter of submarine sandwiches. If anyone left hungry, it was by choice. Those members ho stayed to clean up the room got to take home the leftovers. Yum!

embership News ew Members:

TTP://WWW.COASTFISHCLUB.COM

ike Hellweg (honorarium)

enewing Members: and C Marelius Tom Varin

emberships Due in March: rank, Ilan Chang Craig Fries arry Heller Kevin Hromin ichard Lin John, Anne Niemans lfred, Selma Paul Phil Rodriguez

oshua Tenbroek

Past Due – This is your last ShowfishMark Binkley Kenaan Tabikh John Fuqua Richard Woon Janice Hazeltine Christina Marvel Ron Harlan Anders Eriksson For Sale: Ron Jackson is selling tanks – 714-638-8445 40 gallon aquarium, oak stand and hood (will sell separately), 55 gallon aquarium Email: [email protected]

MARCH 2007 PAGE 3 OF 14

mailto:[email protected]?subject=aquariums%20advertised%20in%20Showfish

Manufacturers and Vendors Supporting our Club Please support these companies when shopping for food, products, and equipment. Eugene Danner Manufacturing, 160 Oval Drive, Islandia, NY 11749 Hikari Sales, Shawn Bonham, 2804 McCone Avenue, Hayward, CA 94545 Energy Savers Unlimited, Inc., 910 E. Sandhill Avenue, Carson, CA 90746 Omega Sea, Ltd, Marty Crews, 3767 Lane Rd. Ext., Unit B, Perry, OH 44801 Jungle Laboratories, Lisa Hendrix, 120 Industrial Drive , Cibolo, TX 78108 Hamilton Technology Corp., 14902 S. Figueroa St., Gardena, CA 90248 Marine Enterprises International, Inc., Bob Spellman, Sales Mgr, 8800 A Kolso Dr., Baltimore, MD 21221 PetSolutions, 802 N. Orchard Lane, Beavercreek, OH 45434 Aquaculture Tech, Inc., 5935 Ravenwood Rd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312 Doctors Foster and Smith, Janine Fuchs, 2253 Air Park Rd., Rhinelander, WI 54501 Perfecto Manufacturing, Inc., Susan Rogers, 20975 Creek Rd., Noblesville, IN 46060 Aquarium Systems, 8141 Tyler Blvd., Mentor, OH 44060-4889 Seachem


Board of Directors Brian Downing Pauline Jackson Rahul Kumar Ron Estrada Ron Jackson Rick Marelius

Mamie Nash Kevin Hromin Kirk Bean Charlotte Marelius Tom Varin Ron Nash

PRESIDENT Brian Downing [email protected] 858-759-4841

EDITOR Charlotte Marelius [email protected] 818-360-7102

DIRECTOR Rick Marelius [email protected] 818-360-7102

VICE PRESIDENT Kirk Bean [email protected] 858-361-8745

PROGRAM CHAIR Rahul Kumar [email protected] 310-824-1787

DIRECTOR Mamie Nash [email protected]; 714-226-0045

TREASURER Pauline Jackson [email protected] 714-638-8445

TREASURER APPRENTICE Barry Heller [email protected] 818-848-1069

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT / ADMIN Tom Varin [email protected] 714-962-8541

RECORDING SECRETARY Kevin Hromin (Does not have email) 949-283-9779

AUCTIONEER Duncan Mahoney [email protected] 310-391-3704

PUBLISHER Mike and Elaine McCabe [email protected] 562-868-1992

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY Ron Jackson [email protected] 714-638-8445

MEMBERSHIP Ron Estrada [email protected] 949-488-8082

AUCTION CHAIR Ron Nash [email protected]; 714-226-0045















A foray into aquatic gardening – Setting up a medium-tech planted tank for the first time by Charlotte Marelius I have long greatly admired people who can establish and maintain a lush planted aquarium. Even with land plants, I have a remarkable ability to kill any plants but weeds, so I did all that I could to arm myself with knowledge I before I set up a an actual planted tank (as opposed to sticking plants in gravel here and there). I read, I watched videos, I absorbed presentations, I surfed the internet way too much, and I talked to people who were exquisitely successful with their planted tanks. Here is what resulted.

First things first: I had decided I want a split level arrangement, so I could place plants that needed more light higher up in the tank and because our minds are pretty much keyed to think of geographical features which are farther way are higher on the horizon. I would be building rock walls and use two caves. My available plants were valisneria, dwarf sagittarius, Hypgrophila polysperma (for my little Corydoras pygmaeus), Echinodorus tenellus, Cryptocorne wendtii, java moss, Bacopa caroliniana, and Anubias nana. I used the “golden triangle” method for laying out where the centers of attention or focal points are for my twenty gallon tank. I did this in both the floor plan (for left-right and front-back locations) and for the elevation (for top-bottom locations). Did I mention I am a tad obsessive? As the most common viewing angle would be from left front to right rear corners, I chose the two focal points closest to that diagonal.

Building the walls was next. I had a cardboard box that was big enough and strong enough to hold rock walls during construction. I had purchased 20 pounds of river pebbles when on sale at Michael’s Arts and Crafts and had silicone adhesive for aquariums on hand as a matter of course. I sketched out the line I wanted one of the rock walls to follow, and started laying the pebbles down.

hen laying the stones down with a blob of adh e on the bottom, I learned fairly quickly to tip the stones rward then seat them when I laid them on the preceding course so the adhesive would tend to squeeze more

ut the back than the front. I also discovered a use for all those @#$% blank plastic credit cards mass mailed to eople who have been pre-approved to receive offers of credit cards: trimmed into strips, they make good

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isposable miniature trowels to smear silicone adhesive round or scoop off the excess. I also discovered that ree courses is the maximum number that can be laid ithout stopping to let the adhesive cure overnight (and at two courses was safer that regard if the stones ere more round than

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re pliant wires. They looped in free form style, not in regime ion. Hydor cautions not r

The project was closely supervised by an expert.

athwthinwflat). I laid the stones so the wal would lean

backward slightlyand widened the bottom course of stones

for a more stable base. Small gaps were left in the silicone “mortar” to provide the possibility of water flowing through the wall though it didn’t seem all that likely the water was likely to do so. I was caref to have the stonesat the ends of the wall conform to the edges of the box – I didn’t want to hato glue the finished wall to the sides of the tank to prevent gravel from spilling out from behind the wall. While the walls were being made and curing (it’s a good idea to ventilate the room; quite a bit of silicone is used and its fumes lie heavy in the air for hours if you don’t), I ordered a Hydor cable heater and Hydor temperature controller (the one without the LCD screen, having just one dial like most any other aquarium heater) from Drs. Foster and Smith. I probably should have ordered a shorter cable. I expected to be able to lay the cable in rows with tight corners and neat, straight lines, but in reality the wires are jacketed in silicone and a nted rank and file format

to have the cables cross on top of one another as the cable gets hot enough to suffedamage from the resultant heat build-up.



The non-digital display controller is accurately labelled for temperature and has been rock-solid reliable. he tank will be viewed from left front corner to right rear corner, with focal point being where the triangle lanter meets the right side wall. In addition covering the floor of the tank, Flourite gravel was used to fill in

e planters.

he tank (with a camera-flash-exaggerated ackground of someone else’s planted aquarium) as planted with Echinodorus tennellus (pygmy

hain sword), Cryptocorine wendtii, Bacopa aroliniana, dwarf sagitarrius, Hygrophila olysperma, and valisneria. Hagen’s CO2 reactor an be seen on the right side back wall, a smoke-rey plastic rectangle with horizontal channels.

hich the garden was laid out. In real life,

ackground is better at staying in e background.

o the water. dicine deadly to

r two weeks to ’s horn snails that were on

lants and wendtii. After a couple of months, more snails were observed (I’d been waiting for that—ram’s horns are the equivalent of cockroaches in an aquarium, as far as kill-ability is concerned).

Tp

th Tbwccpcg This picture was taken from roughly the vantage point for w

the background is nowhere near as bright as in the photo above—this photo was taken without a flash, and the bth Flourish tablet fertilizer was pushed into the gravel and Flourish liquid was added tFluke Tabs, an anti-parasitic mesnails, was added at double dose fokill the ram the sword p

The tank was lit with four household compact fluorescent bulbs, producing about 60 watts of light total. Twas more than most of the plants appreciated and I had an extended period where brush and slime algae beca problem. There were no fish in the tank to comple

his ame

ment the Flourish fertilizer (I was waiting for the isappearance of all snails) and that assisted in the growth of algae. The Hagen CO2 setup could not supply the

ter all signs of snails were gone, I added the fish—a dozen Corydoras sterbai and C. pygmaeus nd two pair of young Jordanella floridae. (flag fish). The pygmaeus were ecstatic about finally getting into a

I hoped

. Substrate heating and vigorous root rowth was supposedly capable of preventing this souring of the gravel by keeping water flowing through the

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owth and decrease algae, which was still a problem. The econd source of carbon dioxide finally brought the level up to what the plants needed, and they grew rapidly,

l of the hydrogen sulfide gas in the

ahead of the hydrogen sulfide

damount of gas needed for the rapid plant growth the high lighting encouraged, and the plants got somewhat leggy. A Marineland Penguin filter was used at the back of the tank, covered with a sponge prefilter; careful maintenance of high water level prevented excessive surface agitation. Eventually, afaplanted tank (and pygmies are particularly fond of H. polysperma) and they spent most of the first month spawning. The flag fish appreciated the eggy snacks once they finally figured out that pygmies in the plants meant eggs. The flag fish, however, are a valuable asset in the tank, as they eat brush algae with vigor;at least some of the pygmy eggs would escape notice. Once the fish were added, I paid more attention to the tank, both in terms of taking care of it and tracking its status. It wasn’t long before whiffs of hydrogen sulfide were suspectedggravel so anaerobic bacteria could not get a foot hold. Allowing the plants to process mulm and bits of leftovefood did not reduce the traces of rotten egg smell. Vacuuming up mulm and bits of leftover food did not fix it either. As far as written and verbal advice goes, I was doing pretty much the right things for success. To supplement the plants with more CO2, I added Red Sea’s CO2 generator with powerhead venturi dispersal of the gas in the tank, hoping this would increase plant grsgiving dense foliage and strong stems with runners sprouting nicely on the swords and grasses. The algae finally lost its battle for supremacy, and the flag fish resorted to munching on algae wafers and occassionally ripping a chunk out of the polysperma leaves. The water was monitored for pH and hardness, both of which stayed near tap water values—in my case 7.4 pH with around 120 ppm general hardness.

The rotten egg smel

gravel just got worse, tainting the air of the entire living room, and the fish began to suffer for it. The least diminishing of filter flow left the fish up at the surface and breathing heavily. About nine months after being set up, the plant growth was consistent and lush, requiring thinning monthly. The fish were in good color and body weight and the pygmies were spawning as they pleased, pretty much dependent upon keeping


problems. The sterbai did not do much in the way of spawning, but they stayed close to the gravel, were more crowded by the vegetation, and the tank is basically too warm for them to be very frisky. The flag fish were in xtraordinary color but did not engage in spawning behaviour either (which was okay with me—the tank was at

e

k off for real. Every

e f the

spite of following the best of set up practices and good maintenance practices, the tank was in a

e. A larger grain gravel (1/8” it. d

Tas it turned out the common viewing place had changed over the months. The tanchemical warfare again, using Fluke Tabs in several series so that adults and newldestroyed. After that, the fish will be reintroduced, this time with a pair of dwarf p w enough density to add some Botia striatia if necessary, should snails be accidental

The beauty of the lush planted tank, even though I failed to manage some aspect oin the gravel, is totally addicting and gives a tremendous feeling of accomplishmen able to get that special fish to give you fry. So, I’ll see how this setup, which flieswisdom (hey, current day wisdom didn’t work for me), looks in a few months and

Beginning A Selective Breeding Program Part One By Greg Sage I have kept community tanks for over 30 years and about 5 years ago decided to d with just one livebearing strain, and learn to breed and develop that strain for enjocouple fish. I remembered the large delta tailed guppies from the '60's and have alwinvolved with them, and have also admired the large wild swordtails such as the X ead about but have never seen. After maintaining at least one 55 gallon over the yearscichlids, I felt pretty confident of my fish keeping skills; I even took pride in my a

es.

elife-form capacity as it was and another of my tanks has spawning flag fish in it, some fry of which survive thpredation of loaches).

And then, a ram’s horn snail or two got into the tank, probably a baby one riding in on a Python tube during a water changing day. As soon as I saw it, I picked it off and threw it away, but my worst fears were realized: it was not alone and it had laid eggs. Before long, I was coming home and picking out a quarter cup of snails every couple of days, but the @#$% things were doing their favorite dinner activity, chewing through the ground level stems of the cryptocorines and sword plants. Then the snail population tooleaf had egg plaques and snails. Every plant had snails chomping at the base. A cup of snails a week went intothe garbage without visible change in the population (once the hiding snails crawled out of the gravel late at night). The biological oxygen demand went through the roof, along with the amount of waste and slime. Thpolysperma began to look like lace plants, the snails ate so many holes in the leaves (and then ate the rest oleaves).

Three of the flag fish suffocated, and still the snails increased. There were easily a dozen pea sized snails per cubic inch on the plants, plus the gravel was home to many more. Curiously, their shells were very thin and fragile, so I suspect the CO2 was altering the hardness, even though the general hardness for which I had a test kit was not showing significant change. The smell of the tank hit you in the face when you walked in the house. Clearly, interminal downward spiral less than a year after it had been started. It had to go.

Last week I tore up all the plants; nearly all had portions of the roots rotting, with the valisneria suffering the most and the wendtii and bacopa having the best roots. I lost some pygmies to the rotten water resulting from the plants being pulled and they are none too spritely in their holding tank now.

Some of the plants were salvaged and stripped of snail egg plaque as far as possiblplus) was put in the tank on top of a Perfecto undergravel filter with a Marineland reverse flow powerhead on I’m keeping the Penguin power filter as well, for the current if nothing else. The substrate heater coils were laion top of the filter plates. The rock wall planters were repositioned—one of the walls separated into two when

he focal point was changed, k is currently in a state of y hatched snails will all be

it was lifted out by one end, but that has allowed a bit more flexibility in layout.

uffers and stocked in a loly introduced again.

f it so that toxic gases built up t every bit the equal of being

in the face of current day how long it will last.

evote my ddtanks to workingyment and possibly sell a

ays wanted to become . Montezumae, that I had r, and breeding various bility to maintain beautifully

planted tanks. I had long been in the habit of testing the water, and certainly did at least weekly water chang HTTP://WWW.COASTFISHCLUB.COM MARCH 2007 PAGE 10 OF 14

The entire journey has proven to be an exciting learning process for me. Over the past 5 years of developinmultitank breeding system I have found that I knew far less than I thought, and was less prepared than expectto be successful. I have had to totally reevaluate why I keep tanks and what it is that I enjoy in the hobby. TodayI feel I have been successful with 4 consistent lines of X. Montezumae, two of them al

g a ed

bino that I have begun to

arefully trimmed Watersprite (Ceratopteris) and Vallisneria, and I had given away all of the fish. My goal was imming between the plants. Doesn't that

t delta tailed Guppy stock I could find. Through the classified ads in the back of one

ed me

y of

el. Besides hiding organic waste that can contribute to r

vive,

n using 5 gallon baby tanks with frequent

e bottom glass painted black to bring out

develop from mutations that originally appeared in my tanks. To get to this point I had to learn to do many things differently and I hope to share some of that information with those considering the `effective maintenance and development of specialty fish. ` Initially, I had a well planted 100 gallon "show" tank filtered with a well aged trickle filter underneath and a mature fluidized bed filter on the back. I kept trays of peat beneath the gravel to support large trunks of cto have these beautiful surroundings with big delta tailed guppies swsound lke a good idea? And there were a couple 20 gallon tanks for babies, quarantine, etc. Then I set out to buy the besof my fish magazines I contacted a couple breeders and even set up appointments to tour their fishrooms. One of them involvd a 7 hour drive to L.A. from Sacramento, and it was worth the effort! I told them what I wantto do and that I was willing to spend a little money to get a few good quality fish from them. They warned that my planted 100 gallon tank idea was probably not a good one. I ended up running into problems before I even had the fish sent to me. To prepare for their arrival I was told that I would have to totally clean everything with bleach. Tanks, filters, nets, siphon hoses, tubing, everything. All of the biofiltration had to be destroyed, and for evermore any fish from outside of my system had to stay outside of my system. These top quality fish were comng from totally disease free environments, and must be introduced to a similar setup. All of the breeders I visited even kept a dipping bucket that all nets were put into when being used between tanks. Then, at least for the guppies from these breeders, salt must be added to the water at 1 tblsp. per two gallons of water. It became obvious that everything had to be kept clean, clean, clean. With the decaying vegetable matter and the salt in the water I began to understand why I saw no plants at anthe champion breeders I visited, some having as many as 100 tanks. They also strongly discouraged me from using gravfungal infections, gravel limits your control over the overall cleanliness of the tank environment. With hardiespecies, such as those brought from the wild, all of these precautions may not be required for them to surbut to raise your fish so that they grow to their maximum and your system stays disease free, these practices are the best way to go. And obviously, multiple barebottomed single species tanks are going to be much easier to maintain. So now I was faced with a dilemma. These expensive fish obviously need a cycled, ready tank. I can't cycle the tank until fish have lived in it for awhile- 4 months in the case of the big trickle filter on the 100 gallon. But I can't put any other fish in the tank! I came to realize that the mechanical and biological filters were no longer going to be the primary means of filtration in my tanks. It was going to be water changes. Today I still do a minimum of two 50% water changes a week on every tank, and whelive brine shrimp feedings I change 50% of the water daily for the first 2 weeks. When possible I hang new babies in net breeders in a much bigger tank (30 gallons or more) and the normal twice weekly changes of the tank is fine. Then all fish are fed shrimp by putting it into the breeder first and having it fall through the netting past the new babies. Water conditioners are always recommended, and I also use Aquarisol as a disease preventitive with all my water changes. An ultraviolet sterilizer is not a bad idea, but it generally isn't necessaryand does begin to get in the way of keeping things simple and inexpensive. Disease resistence will not be lowered in your strain by keeping them in these conditions. Highly bred strains are prone to fungal infections primarily as a result of compromised circulation to highly exaggerated fins, such as the delta tailed Guppy. So now I have a couple of bare bottomed tanks, with the outside of ththe colors of the fish, no plants, a couple trios and a huge 100 gallon tank empty except for the clear water cycling through the pristine filters. I needed more small tanks. The books say 4 tanks per strain; a male grow-out tank, a female grow-out tank, a baby raising tank and a mating/breeding tank. That's great until you have more than one female pregnant at a


time, and if you breed your line in trios, as you should, that problem will present itself almost immediately. I have come to accept that what any particular tank is used for can change often, and problems are often solved

e e

nd air

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n't compromise or take short cuts. So often I felt I could ||make an excepton

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irst.

eks and hung in the baby grow out tanks (fish of up to one month). At

full

t is more than enough!

with the ability to utilize another tank. I recommend keeping as many tanks as you can effectively provide maximum care for, cull ruthlessly to keep numbers down, and keep the number of strains you choose to become involved with to a minimum. Don't let your strains multiply as you get a neat looking cull or two unless you arwilling to take care of it properly! And if the females look alike, the potential for an accidental cross may not bworth it. Greater numbers within a strain also increase your odds for the appearance of a desired mutation. Keep in mind that you should establish two lines for each strain that can be crossed about every 5th or 6th generation to maintain genetic diversity and vigor. I cover each tank with plastic "egg crate" lighting cover sheets cut to size with standard 4 ft. shop lights hangingover the tanks. I believe in doing things as cheaply as I can, and when buying all of these filters, heaters apumps (or a blower), research the mail order companies. The savings are well worth it. Make every effort to keep things simple. All that the tanks require is a strong and consistant air stream to a large box style cornefilter in every tank with charcoal and polyester floss, to be kept clean, and I use a heater on each tank. Heaters are an extra expense for some, but I want to hang out in my fish room so that I enjoy working there, I don't wit to be 80 degrees as well as humid! Certainly with more than a certain number of tanks however, the utility bills must be taken into consideration. Do things right the first time, and doto what I was told only to find that all I was doing was satisfying some need to have things proven to me. Change the floss every two weeks, and everything else comes down to regular water changes, types of food fedat least 4-6 times a day, proper temperature and airflow, constant critical observation and patience. I also read constantly from every book and magazine I can find on the fish I am currently working with. You must feed newly hatched brine shrimp and a good dry food daily, and a beefheart or chicken liver mix couple times a week. I also feed freeze dried bloodworms and raise earthworms to feed. With these swords I have today I also drop in slices of boiled zucchini a couple times a week. Be careful of any aquatic live food that can carry disease, the risk is simply not worth it. When culling down to your best fish, large size is the most difficult trait to regain if lost, so choose for that fThen select for form, finnage, color and level of activity. A beatiful fish that rests on the bottom isn't of anyvalue and lowers the quality of the strain. Today that 100 gallon is a grow-out tank for the montezumaes, with a divider separating the A and B lines. They are sexed at 2-3 months (guppies are sexed at 3 weeks), and are culled 1down to 2-4 fish per spawn, and put into one sex only tanks. The culls go to a friend's pond. From there the best ones are mated in 5 gallon tanks, with weighted and teased out plastic pot scrubbers and plastic plants added when the female is ready to drop. Males are removed before young are born and the female is removed immediately after spawning. I feed the female heavily to minimize the number of young she will eat and do daily water changes the few days before she drops to stimulate spawning. I never put females in breeding traps. Babies are carefully caught andput in net breeders for their first two wetwo weeks they are let out of the breeder, and those at a month old go into the 100, and so on. I do use plants with the swords because salt isn't necessary, and they benefit from the vegetable in their diet. Adult fish infinnage are sold to local pet stores or sent to other breeders. I keep a notebook and jot down everything I learn, food mix recipes and tips, and the dates of the spawns of each of my breeder females. I find that I'm constantly challenged, and pleased with new and interesting things that happen almost daily. I often thought it could become a burden, but the secret is to keep it simple and within your time, energy and budget. And I happen to think that the bare bottomed tanks look great- I don't miss the gravel and landscapingbecause the emphasis is now totally on the fish and tha


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