July2008

CONTENTS Articles

NEWSLETTER

A Time of Reflection p.1 Meet a fellow GHAC member p.2

July 2008

Fish of the Month p.3

A Time of Reflection

Tank of the Month p.4 Plant of the Month p.6

Items of Interest

GHAC Officers p.2 How to contact the GHAC p.2 Useful Websites p.4

By Tim Bell

June was a busy month for the Greater Houston Aquarium Club. We started out the month with a Swap and Sell in my yard. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many people able to make it to this event. This is assuredly something that we will have to do again in the future. I had a blast. Later in the month, we had our monthly meeting at Derek’s (delock) house near downtown. Everybody that was able to navigate the maze of hallways had a blast. During the meeting, the officers asked for club members that would be willing to volunteer to help put on a GHAC auction. The officers are diligently working on making this become a reality. Lastly, the Aquarium Design Group was kind enough to offer their space for us to host a presentation by internationally-known planted aquarist Luis Navarro. Luis is also the president of NASH – the Nature Aquarium Society of Houston. Luis talked about the importance of plant selection, the ratio of thirds, and the fundamentals of aquascaping. After the presentation finished, many people went to the ADG warehouse for a garage sale. What a month!!!

“Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish””

-Mark Twain

Tim looking like he knows what he is doing.

The kids enjoying the wonders of food.

Meet a Fellow GHAC Member This Month: Traci Davis (Imagirlgeek) I would like to be able to say that I grew up surrounded by fish, or that my mom got me my first aquarium when I was young, but the truth is I got my first aquarium in 2002. Many people would tell the story of their first aquarium as being something that they had wanted for a long time, or saved for and researched for months. My first aquarium was a 55 gallon that rmy cousin gave me for Christmas. If I remember correctly, he had upgraded and didn’t want this one anymore. He gave me the tank, stand, filter, air pump, light and gravel. All I had to do was add water and fish! We set everything up and my obsessive research began. I read about New Tank Syndrome, cycling, filtration, pH, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, test kits, you name it and I was reading it. There was so much to learn. I was intimidated and excited all at the same time. A nearby local fish store was going out of business so I went to see what they had. Since they were only 2 days away from closing there wasn’t much left. I ended up buying 2 very small Blood Parrots (Jay and Silent Bob). I had never seen this fish before, but I thought it was interesting and would be good to start with. Plus I had decided I wanted to have cichlids. After all, cichlids are scrappy and have attitude. They redecorate their space if they don’t like the way YOU did it. They establish a pecking order and sometimes their colors reflect who is the boss. Fish with beautiful colors, and control issues…how could I ask for anything more? Everything was going great, but I just didn’t have Continued on Page 5

We want to hear from you. After all, you are the reason that we are here. Email any suggestions, comments, or questions to [email protected]

Your GHAC Officers are: Raul Turner (rrocket2002) President

Tim Bell (armthehomeless) Vice President

David Abeles (Tiapan) Co-Vice President

Loretta Mitchell (fishlady) Secretary

Mary Beth Petranek (Mzungu) Treasurer

Fish Gallery Store Hours Monday-Saturday 10am-8pm Sunday 12pm-5pm

Fish of the Month

The Chocolate Lyretail Killie Aphyosemion australe

Doug Ebeling (TAKO) is giving a presentation about killifish on July 26th at ADG at 2PM.

by Twyla Lindstrom-Peters From Fins & Friends, Regina Aquarium Society, Canada Aquarticles

This beautiful little (max. 6 cms.) killifish comes from Gabon in West Africa. It is a member of the Aphyosemion calliurum group which includes about eight other species. The body shape is typical of other fish of this genus in that it is slender and cylindrical with the wide mouth slanted upwards and the lower jaw protruding slightly. The male of the species is endowed with a beautiful lyretail edged with chocolate brown, (the other color morph is orange) and tipped with white. The body of the male and female is greenish brown to silvery grey. Both males and females have red spots (more and brighter on the male) speckled over the body and into the fins. The males also sport small red wavy lines on their head and gill covers. Females are rather drab silver grey with clear rounded fins and appear the same as most other female aphyosemion species. These fish are for the most part very peaceful although males will spar, tearing each other's fins. (Rips seem very slow to heal and may never heal entirely.) They are also excellent jumpers and can hit the tiniest opening in the tank or jar cover so, keep them tightly covered. I found these fish spawned spontaneously in a dark colored nylon mop. I placed two females and one male in a gallon jar in room temp. dechlorinated tap water (pH 6.8). To this I added a handful of Java moss on the bottom and suspended a dark mop from the top. Lighting was indirect and filtered. The fish were conditioned on brine shrimp nauplii and grindal worms. The fish spawn side by side high up in the mop where the strands are quite tight usually in the early morning. If the water quality declines, so does the spawning activity. I removed the mop daily. Take care to check the mop for fish as on several occasions I found a female fish in the sink as I opened the mop to look for eggs! The eggs are clear, round, and 1-2 millimeters in size. They can be gently removed and placed in a small container with fresh dechlorinated water to which 2-3 drops of methylene blue has been added. The mop is then rinsed out and returned to the jar. The eggs hatch in 10-14 days. The fry should be removed to a clean rearing tank and fed brine shrimp nauplii twice a day. If water quality and feeding is maintained, growth is rapid, and sexes can be distinguished well before 60 days of age. These fish are quite undemanding, requiring no special heat, filtration, light, feeding, or water requirements (besides clean). They can also be kept with other small peaceful fish if spawning is not one's goal. (Just keep the tank covered!) Also, if more than one species of aphyosemion is kept together, the females of each species are very difficult (or impossible) to distinguish from each other.

Tank of the Month We want to see your tanks! Send us a photo of your tank along with a brief description of the flora, fauna, water parameters, equipment used, and anything else you want to include. We will post a new tank each month!! Let us see what you are working with…

Check out our great new website…

www.myghac.org

July TOTM Loretta’s 30 Gallon Tank

, 30 gallon Oceanic Equipment: Coralife 6700K, Eheim 2215 with inline heater, Ehiem Aquaball for aeration of water Substrate: Aquasoil and sugar sand Decorations: river rocks and driftwood Flora: Marimo ball, swords, valisneria, water sprite, lotus, Anubius nana Inhabitants: roseline sharks, german balloon rams, platy, golden rams, rummy nose tetras, clown loaches, ghost, tiger, and red cherry shrimp, rasboras, and a betta

Meet a Member (Continued from page 2) enough fish. I started frequenting LFS on my lunch hours and after work. The problem was that I couldn’t look at fish without buying something. It wasn’t long before I had several African Cichlids – Pseudotropheus crabro, Pseudotropheus sp. Acei, Labidochromis caeruleus, Metriaclima estherae, to name a few. After a couple of months, I had outgrown the 55 gallon. After deciding I didn’t really need the dining room table, I started seriously thinking that I needed another (larger) tank. I bought a new 135 gallon tank and stand. I think you know by now what happened next. A few months went by and again, I ran out of space. Of course, one option is to get rid of some fish, but that is not a reality for me. I wanted to experience them all. These fish greeted me when I got up in the morning, and welcomed me home when I came in from work. They were my companions. I couldn’t trade them in for newer fish. I started looking for used tanks. I finally found one that was exactly what I had been looking for. Custom stand, 135 gallon tank, all fish and equipment included, and the price was right. This was my introduction to Frontosa. My purchase had included 6 Frontosa, a pair of Venustus, a Dimidiochromis compressiceps, a pair of Copadichromis borleyi, and various bottom feeders. Up to this point, I had been unmarried. From what I’ve heard, most spouses frown on having multiple tanks. Not Charles. In fact, when we started dating I had 3 tanks. By the time we got married, we had around 9. Now we have 15. We completely enable each other in our aquatic addiction. Many of our tanks were purchased so that we could expand our Tropheus addiction. We found Tropheus together. We saw some Duboisi at a LFS and decided to buy 2 of them. We knew nothing about them, but felt certain we could handle them and had what we needed at home to take care of them. As they grew, we learned how much personality they have. We needed more. Now we have 9 colonies of different variants. There is no way to compare Tropheus to any other fish. They are hyper and boisterous, and territorial and ornery. They are so very excited to see me every single time I enter the room! I call them my ‘puppies.’ That is the only way I can think to describe the way they respond to us. You know, I never thought I was a ‘fish person.’ I never wanted an aquarium. I never wanted fish. Now I don’t remember what life was like without them.

Derek’s Home 2115 Runnels Houston TX 77003 July 18th, 7:45pm to ???

Monday 11:00 - 6:00 Tuesday - Friday 11:00 - 8:00 Saturday 10:00 - 6:00 Sunday 12:00 - 6:00

Pictures from the June Events

Plant of the Month

Algae Balls AKA Marimo Balls Cladophora aegagrophila By Tim Bell As the name implies, Algae balls are in fact algae. They are non-invasive, and do not seem to be bothered by any common algae eating fish. Tolerant of even low light, they will grow faster with higher light levels, and CO2 addition. Most on the market are about golf ball size, but reports have them reaching up to 10 inches. As they get bigger, lack of light will cause the center to die and become hollow. In high light, CO2 tanks, during photosynthesis, they will float. Good current/ water movement will help them keep their round shape. They do attract some debris, but can be cleaned in the same fashion as a filter sponge. My red cherry shrimp love the algae balls and constantly work at removing any debris that they find on the ball. Propagation can be done through splitting. While they have been around for a while, they have only recently become readily available through various plant sources. There is not a great deal of information available about them yet.