2009-09 Tank Talk
ptember 09
The President: chairs all Committee and General Meetings; represents CDAS as required, or nominates another Committee Member as contact; and signs all docu-ments which require their signature as official head of the Society.
The Vice President: helps the President in his/her role and acts as President in his/her absence; and carries out the administration of the Auction and Table Shows.
The Secretary: keeps full and correct minutes of all Committee and General Meet-ings of the Society; and maintains the members list and notifies members of meet-ings and subscription renewals.
The Treasurer: manages CDAS revenue and expenditures; makes payments as authorised by the Committee, keeps correct accounts and books showing the finan-cial affairs of the Society; and provides a financial report at each CDAS meeting and prepares the annual financial report.
The Breeders' Awards Chairperson: encourages the breeding of fish by CDAS Members and maintains breeding records; and administers the Breeders' Awards Programmes and presides over any fish-breeding sub-committee that is established.
The Librarian: maintains the CDAS library; and recommends to the Committee publications for purchase by the Society for the library; and recommends to the Committee publications for purchase by the Society for the library.
The Web Page Maintainer: maintains the CDAS website; andencourages CDAS Members to contribute material and/or suggestions for the website.
The Editor: is responsible for the publication and distribution of the quarterly Tank Talk; encourages Members of the Society to contribute material to the So-ciety journal; and with the approval of the Committee correspond with related organisation about exchanging journals.
The Public Relations Officer: is responsible for promoting CDAS in the Can-berra region, and ensures that all GMs and other CDAS activities are publicised widely.
The Junior Representative: ensures that CDAS considers the opinions and rights of junior Members of the Society, and assists in the activities of the Soci-ety.
In this issue we conclude Lee Miller’s trip report. This issue also includes a story from two of our members. However, you’ll note we had to beef it up with some freely available internet content. So to help us increase the local content, get your typewriters out and start typing. Surely everyone who keeps fish and/or aquatic plants has at least one story in them!
Robert Fenner (http://www.aquarticles.com)
What are your goals in keeping aquatic life? Status quo maintenance of your livestock? Or are you shooting for maximized/optimized growth?
Overview:
There are several important factors that affect fish growth; some may be manipulated, others not. Further is the question of whether and how im-portant it is to drive an organism's size.
Introduction:
In actual aquaculture, "the controlled growth of aquatic (source) protein for human consumption", maximizing growth against cost of feed, labor, time, filtration among other costs is of premiere importance. In pet-fish aquarium culture a similar challenge exists at the production/commercial breeding/rearing establishments. But what about the hobby aquarist and pond keeper? How can they, should they make efforts to optimize or maximize growth of their livestock?
Initial Limitations:
Consider what you cannot change or control: 1) the genetic heritage and 2) developmental history to date of your charges.
1) Think about this; no matter what you do, your livestock will not, cannot become more or different than what their genes will allow.
Gauging the potential of koi, goldfish, tropicals, et al. is part art, part sci-ence, and part voodoo. In the most fortunate cases, you'll be able to check out parental stock or at least members of the same population (brood, school, area) that may give you solid ideas of what might be in the way of growth rate, a maximum size, conformation (very impor-tant), color...
As an example, consider a variety of nishikigoi (koi), the yamabuki oh-
gon. This is a classification of single-colored, golden metallic fish that by and large grow bigger, faster than other "types" of koi; although koi, like domestic dogs are of a single species. Also, like canines that get bigger, ohgons exhibit larger heads, pectoral and unpaired fins as young.
A similar corollary can be made for neotropical cichlids among other groups.
Important Controlling and Controllable Factors:
1) Foods & Feeding:
I've more than touched on nutrition in previous pieces. Let's briefly re-cap.>
(1) Feeding proper foods/nutrients, (2) in palatable formats, (3) at appro-priate times and intervals, (4) in suitable quantities is critically important in optimizing growth. (5) Some foods, ingredients, natural, biological and chemical contaminants and additives have been shown to have negative effects.
What's a mother to do, feed them Total? At the more sophisticated end, you can study up, experiment and optimize processes per the above cri-teria. For most of us mere mortals, frequent, smaller than possible feed-ings, less often than absolutely possible/practical, rotating, mixing in oc-casional new fresh and prepared foods is about all we can handle.
Water and Water Quality: What is this stuff anyway? Wa Wa!
This will not be an exhaustive list, but let's make some general state-ments concerning parameters & ranges.
There are several (from the middle English meaning many) chemical and physical phenomena that we can/do concern ourselves with at times as aquarists. Many/all of these are important in determining growth. Many of these are important in determining growth. Myriad parameters interact antagonistically/synergistically reducing/accentuating effects. My favorite and most important example is the relationship between ammonia, pH, temperature and dissolved oxygen (D.O.). Coupling some ammonia (let's say @ 1.0 part per million) with a "higher" pH (upper 7's for freshwater, mid 8's for marine) is an invitation for disaster. Lowering ammonia and/or
pH will reduce toxicity immensely. Add in an reduced temperature and/or low D.O. and you've got real trouble. This association is very likely the number one cause of captive aquatics death and hobbyist attrition.
All known measures of water quality have their optimum point, range and sustainable limit. Once again, as with nutrition, you can study up, get the best filtration system and religiously followed maintenance schedule go-ing and more or less constantly test/monitor & modify your water quality; or be simply serendipitous (& probably more effective) and just do fre-quent partial water changes; geez (see biblio.). Weekly, bi-weekly vac-uuming of gravel along with water replacement goes a long way in dilut-ing pollutants, promoting biological filtration/conversion, and keeping the system "steady-state" (homeostatic) chemically and physically. Make it a regular routine.
One last shot, or, okay, dig at all you tinkerers and tinkering. After twenty eight years in the trade and longer (collectively) as a passionate hobby-ist, I can assure you that more livestock has been bumped-off (emphasis mine) from people fooling with their water than all other causes combined. Benign neglect goes a long way.
Should You?:
An article of this length and scope should make mention of at least some of the pitfalls of "pushing" growth. So here goes; reasons why you shouldn't:
1) Allometry: The overall body shape, or better expressed, conformation will be different for an individual grown under different conditions and time frame. A certain desired body plan may not be easily sped up. This is so; fish achieve different shapes with varying growth rates.
2) Life Span: There is evidence that getting too big, too fast to some de-gree shortens fish (and other organisms') life spans. Slow and not-so-steady growth wins the race, if nothing else than by outliving the competi-tion.
3) Color: intensity/depth and pattern may be compromised, sacrificed through accelerated growing.
4) Cost: Is the growth you're getting worth the bucks in food, feeding, fil-tration and maintenance?
Other Notable Factors Affecting Growth: Disease:
Infectious & Parasitic Diseases: Note that other "deviations from a nor-mal or healthy condition have been elucidated under environmental and nutrition "disease" areas in this article. Here I want to mention the fact that infection/infestation by detrimental fungi, bacteria, viruses, protozoa et al. take their toll on growth/girth/overall index of fitness.
Social: Yes, I'm serious. How crowded with their own and other species, under what other circumstances; e.g. food, cover, temperature... can/does have growth consequences. Sex ratios, initial and widening size differences likewise are important.
As a rule of thumb, undercrowd to exacerbate growth and keep the peace. Another timely generality: maintain schooling species in small odd numbers. This seems to promote getting along and bullying. The use of "dither-fish", and mixing other species, I've more than mentioned in other pieces on various aspects of chemical communication. See them for some interesting insights into aquatic chemical/social behavior.
Ending: Thus my collective ideas & feelings on the issue. Fish do "grow" throughout their entire lives. They can "shrink" given food privation and disease. Growth can be maximized. Optimization is a different matter, taking into account consideration of costs for food, feeding, filtration among others, balanced against loss of color, pattern, body/fin conforma-tion and possibly reproductive potential.
Do you know how to enhance your livestock's size? Should you?
Further Reading:
Bob F. in FAMA Foods, Feeding, Nutrition of Nishikigoi (Koi Carp), Cypri-nus carpio and Other Cyprinid "Pond" Fishes. 8/92 issue. Frequent Par-tial Water Changes. 4/89. Chemical Communication in Fishes, Phero-monal Behavior Effects, Growth Inhibiting Substance(s) of Fishes, and Schreck stoffes: Alarm Substances of Fishes, not yet in print as of this writing.
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Our next trip was to Cape Maclear where we stayed at the Chembe Lodge – Cape Maclear‘s most up-market establishment. Along the beach in front of the Lodge were schools of thousands of fry, no bigger than a centimetre or two, that were seeking shelter in the shallows from the predators in the deeper water. As we walked along the beach these fry would flee into the deeper water, only to return to the relative safety of the shallows as we passed. From the Lodge we headed off in the Lord Justin to snorkel at Domwe Island, Otter Point, Thumbi West and Zimbawe Rocks.
At Thumbi West we saw Cobalt Blue fry swimming amongst the rocks in the shallows, where they had plenty of cover, they were spectacular and really stood out compared to most of the other fry that we saw.
Zimbawe Rocks is the tip of an underwater mountain and is not a large area. It‘s the home of the Sulphur Crested lithobate. We saw couple of nice males but they usually live quite deep and Paul
Talbot claimed that he almost burst a lung trying to follow one down to its home turf. Given the relatively small size of the Zim-bawe Rocks area and the small number of lithobates that we saw, I would guess that there are probably more of them in Australia now than there are in Lake Malawi.
But Otter Point was by far my favourite, the small strait between the Point and Otter Island contained such a variety of fish that I‘m sure we didn‘t see half of them, even after three or four visits. It was here that we saw huge male Rostratus preparing to spawn – and trying to scare snorkelling tourists from their breeding sites! We also saw single Ps. aurora males with BIG territories, they are gorgeous but they really do like their own space.
Otter Point was also where we saw the most Aulonocaras. They tend to spend the daylight hours in caves or under ledges where it‘s reasonably dark - which makes identification reasonably diffi-cult. The ledges are also usually fairly deep, so by the time you‘ve snorkelled down to have a look, you can‘t stay long because your
lungs are starting to burn. But it wasn‘t unusual to see 20, 30 or even up to 50 fish resting under a ledge. Another thing that we no-ticed about wild Aulonocaras – they just don‘t get as big as our aquarium raised fish, and they probably don‘t live as long. It‘s a tough life for a fish in Lake Malawi!
We were then taken on a four day ‗Animal Safari‘ to the South Luangwa Valley National Park in Zambia. Our guide for this trip was Mark Sprong, an ex-pat South African who lives in Lilongwe and runs his safari business from there. Mark was good value, he had an excellent knowledge of the wildlife and also knew how to look after his guests. Our accommodation was next to the Luangwa River, which was full of hippos and crocodiles, and in our first hour there we saw elephants across the river. In the park we saw more elephants (the South Luangwa Valley National Park is supposed to have the highest concentration of elephants of any-where in Africa), we also saw hippos, crocs, giraffes, zebra, wart hogs, baboons, antelope, gazelle and impala. We didn‘t see any lions or leopards but did hear lions across the river one night. The numbers of animals was amazing, and they were all very easy to approach – from the safety of the safari truck.
The meals here were served in a large, thatched roof, open sided, dining area in the centre of the complex. We finished dinner one night and went to return to our individual chalets but we couldn‘t – there was a herd of twenty or so elephants grazing their way through the grounds. In this type of situation it makes sense to give ‗right-of-way‘ to elephants, so we waited.
The trip to Zambia was perfectly timed to ensure that we didn‘t get bored with the lake or the fish. A few in the group were, at one stage, considering skipping this trip to stay at the lake, but they did-n‘t and we all had a fabulous time and were as keen as ever to get into more snorkelling when we got back to Malawi.
At the end of our trip we had a few days in which we had to make our own arrangements. So most of us went back to Cape Maclear and stayed at the ‗Fat Monkey‘, a sort of motel and pizza bar, Ma-
lawi style. The rooms slept two and were five dollars a night. For that you got a bed and an electric light that went out when the gen-erator was turned off at about 10:00pm. But it was on the beach! Just walk 20 metres down to the water and start snorkelling.
Of the beach in front of the at the Fat Monkey we snorkelled over a sandy bottom with a fair covering of ‗val‘ type plants. The fish here were mainly Nyassachromis species. I didn‘t see them but Paul (Simpson) and Steve told me that they saw Cyrtocara moorii (Blue dolphins) here.
The pizzas at the Fat Monkey were good, but you had to pay up front so they could go and buy the ingredients then wait for the oven to heat up. They probably tasted so good because we were really hungry by the time they were cooked. But it was easy enough to keep busy while you waited, we learnt to play a local board game called ‗bow‘ (like a very early version of backgammon) which kept us amused – you just don‘t play the locals for money, they‘d wipe you out pretty quickly.
Cape Maclear attracts few travellers, mainly backpackers, but I did-n‘t see any other cichlidiots while we were there. We met four Irish nurses who had been working in a Malawi hospital on some sort of aid program and a couple of obviously well-off South African gents who had a bit of an arsenal in the back of their Range Rover (parts of Africa can get quite dangerous – and it‘s not just the animals).
We finished our trip to Africa with a mini-bus trip (cosy with eleven of us, three ‗crew‘ and a heap of luggage and souvenirs) back to Lilongwe and a one-night stay at the Golden Cockroach (oops, that should read ‗Golden Peacock‘) before flying back to Johannesburg and then on to Sydney.
The trip was an experience of a lifetime, whether interested in cich-lids or not. Lake Malawi is a beautiful and fascinating place, the locals are friendly and helpful, and Stuart and Esther Grant are wonderful hosts. And of course my eleven co-travellers helped
make the whole trip fun. If you ever get the opportunity to travel to this part of the world grab it – you won‘t be disappointed!
This was the final instalment of Lee Miller‘s article.
By Terry Ranson
Here's a simple quiz to test the knowledge of aquarists:
1. Keeping aquariums is: a) A science b) An art c) A hobby d) None of the above
2. The most difficult fish to net out of an aquarium is the: a) Coolie loach b) Managuense cichlid c) Marbled Hatchet fish d) None of the above
3. The most beautiful fish is:a) The Blue Gularis b) The Moorish Idol c) The Discus d) None of the above
4. The most difficult fish to breed is: a) Any saltwater species b) Discus c) Large catfish d) None of the above
5. If an aquarium is filled with water to fifty percent its capacity, it is:a) Half empty b) Half full c) Twice as large as it needs to be d) None of the above
6. The most dangerous aquarium inhabitants are: a) Piranhas b) Lionfish c) Sharks d) None of the above
(answers are at the end of this document)
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People ask you how many you have, and you tell them how many tanks you have.
You try to hide the power bill from your spouse.
You don't buy fish, you sell them.
You don't sell fish, you give them away.
"Fish Fry" has no culinary mean-ing to you.
Your house is nicely humid, even in the winter.
Mosquitoes and Japanese Bee-tles aren't pests; they're live food.
There are some things in the refrigerator you don't talk about.
If that dead one isn't too big, you "let the snails take care of it"
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Maximum size (min-max): 45-50 cm ( 17.72-19.69 in )
pH: 6.0 - 8.0 _Page_01_Image_0003.jpg)
Water hardness (dGH): 4—18 °N
Recommended temperature: 23 - 30 °C
Compatibility (temperament to it's family): peaceful
Compatibility (temperament to other fish species): peaceful
Place in the aquarium: Bottom levels
Breeding method: Spawning
Place of origin: South America (where it is an important food fish)
The Leopard sail fin pleco was sci-entifically described by Kner in 1845 and given the name Ancis-trus gibbiceps. The species was moved to the genus Pterygoplich-thys in 1980 and then to the genus Glyptoperichthys in 2003. It has the designated L-numbers L083 and L165.
The sailfin pleco has one pair of barbells on each side of the mouth. The barbells are not very big. The pectoral fins are big and almost reach the middle pelvic fins. The dorsal fin is really big, and this is why this fish is called sailfin. This treat is even more notice-able in juvenile specimens.
The base colour is black to golden brown. On this base, cream col-oured lines form an irregular pattern which has given the fish its common name. The pattern is present on both body and fins and the markings are bigger on the body and smaller on the head. Small fishes tend to have spotted markings while big fishes nor-mally have reticulated markings.
The body colouration and pattern changes as the fish grow older. In really old specimens, it is common for the patter to disappear
completely.
It is important to provide sailfin plecos with a varied and nutritious diet. Ideally combine large amounts of vegetable based food with smaller servings of meaty food. Sailfin plecos are known to appre-ciate algae based prepared foods and vegetables such as lettuce, kale, spinach and green peas. Small specimens can be given shrimpmix while large specimens have no problem devouring whole shrimps and prawns. The sailfin pleco needs driftwood in the aquarium, since it needs to rasp wood in order to stay healthy.
Make sure that the sailfin plecos actually eat; sometimes faster fishes in the aquarium gulp down all the food before the plecos get a chance to find it. A sailfin pleco with a hollow stomach is starving.
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Andrea Watts (http://www.aquarticles.com)
Following is a list of some suggestions for alga control in your aquarium.
1. Dense planting. Planting your aquarium densely from the onset will help to deter the establishment of algae. Rapidly growing ―bunch plants‖ (plants that are grown from cuttings and sold in bunches at the LFS) fall into this category. They will utilise the nutrients in the aquarium very quickly, making it difficult for algae to compete.
2. Water changes. Regular, large water changes help to eliminate the nitrogenous waste and phosphates that algae need to thrive. Replace half the water every week (or at least every second week).
3. Introduce algae eating fish. There are many suitable species that can be introduced into the aquarium to help control algae. They should be added sooner, rather than later. Do not allow an alga problem to de-velop before adding the fish. Most fish will not be able to eat enough al-gae in an all ready overgrown aquarium. If they are sparingly fed, they will be forced to look towards the algae as a food source. Suitable addi-tions include: Otocinclus spp. dwarf plecos, whiptail catfish, and mem-bers of the Loricariidae genus and most live bearers (e.g. Mollies). Large plecos are not suitable, as they tend to munch on plants and outgrow the tank. Members of the Corydoras spp. help to stir up the substrate and help deter algae from settling and taking hold.
4. Light starvation. Decreasing the amount of penetrating light that an aquarium receives can sometimes control algae. This action may be as simple as reducing the amount of time that the lights are in use or posi-tioning the tank so that direct sunlight is limited. Blackwater extracts or wood (tannins) can help to darken the water and starve algae of the light needed for photosynthesis. Floating plants may help, however they will also reduce the amount of light that penetrates down to your plants.
5. Physical removal. Filamentous algae can be reduced by gently combing and winding the strands around a small brush (e.g. toothbrush). Ornaments/décor can be lifted from the tank and brushed or soaked in bleach or potassium permanganate. Remember to thoroughly rinse the décor to rid it of residual chemicals before returning it to the aquarium. Algae scrubbers are a cheap investment from the LFS.
6. Chemical control. A product called Health Guard (from Seachem) is excellent for controlling all algae, including blue-green algae. It is safe for all plants and fish. When all else fails, the addition of copper sulphate can be considered. A weak solution of copper sulphate (bringing the cop-per concentration up to around 0.3-0.5ppm) will kill algae but may kill some aquarium plants too. It must be measured exactly – overdosing will result in plant and fish deaths. This is truly an act of desperation and should not be considered lightly! When dosing is completed, be sure to replace the water and use activated charcoal in your filter to remove traces of copper.
7. Ultraviolet sterilisers. These lights are set up after the filter unit so that all water passes within a specific distance to kill any microscopic plant or animal life within the water. They are very expensive units to buy.
8. Other methods of control. Some others methods of algal control in-clude: ozonization, reverse osmosis and resin exchange filters. Bottled or distilled water for water changes can help exclude the addition of tap wa-ter contaminants.
Extra Notes. Some methods of algae control also present a ―clean-up‖ problem. If the dead algae collect on the substrate as sediment, the cycle of decomposing organic matter produces more nutrients for more algae. The addition of a coagulant or flocculent assists in the collection of this dying matter by causing the single-celled plant forms to clump together. They can then be netted with a fine skimmer net, vacuumed or filtered.
Don’t overfeed your aquarium. If a fish dies, remove it immediately. Both overfeeding and decaying fish add to the nutrient load in your aquarium.
Remember: Prevention is better than cure!
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Jane and Morgane Smee
Well what can we say? I think we should be able to write a book called ‗Danio Breeding for absolute Dummies‘. Even though we have probably done everything the wrong way, it still looks like we will have about 30 surviving fry.
Morgane and I were cleaning out her tank about four weeks ago. We decided to really get into it as things were starting to go wrong. I think seven Leopard Danio in a 22-24 litre tank might be a bit of a strain. Things had been ok for a couple of months but six of the Danios took a dislike to the only Long Tailed Danio and thought she might look better without a tail and part of her fins. We promptly took her out of the tank and placed her in the 30 litre tank along with approx. 20 Mosquito Fish (Yes, I know NOW that they are a BAD fish). We thought she was a goner but she has pulled through and her tail is slowly growing back.
We were tipping the last of the tank water down the kitchen drain as we had chemicals in the tank to treat white spot and didn‘t think it should go in the garden. We were getting to the last couple of litres when I saw some microscopic movement. We grabbed a torch and shone it into the bucket. Lo and behold, there were what seemed like hundreds of tiny tiny fry. After our initial panic and Morgane‘s hysterics be-cause ‗Mum had been tipping them down the drain‘, we transferred them to a large ice-cream container.
We seem to have muddled through the last few weeks learning very quickly what we should not try (for example moving them into a deep glass jar so they were not in the dirty dregs from the tank). We bought
Wardley Small Fry liquid food and they seem alright with that. We can-not believe they are soooooo small.
Thought we should let you also know about our latest near catastrophe. Last Saturday I thought we should move the fry back into a fish tank as even though I bought a smaller quieter pump for the air-stone, the noise was still irritating me. We went to a shop and bought a Net Breeder Separation Box. We put it all together and placed it into the kitchen bench tank. The occupants being one Golden Sucking Catfish (another refugee) and the one long tailed Leopard Danio. I spent a fair amount of time slowly adding tank water to the ice-cream container to get the fry used to the water tempera-ture. When we had de-cided everything would be ok, I very slowly poured the content of the container into the Net Breeder.
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Kapow......Instant panic... The fry immediately swam straight through the holes in the net into the tank. Well, it was my turn to be hysteri-cal. Luckily fish don‘t understand English because I was calling the Danio every swear word I knew as I ran for the fish net to scoop her out of the tank before she ate every baby. The catfish wasn‘t a problem as he just hid under the filter as always when we are in the room. My hus-band and eldest son thought the whole scene was the funniest thing they had ever seen. (They didn‘t offer to help me in my moment of desperate need) Morgane was away on a Scout Camp so she missed her Mum act-ing in a very stupid way.
To cut a long story very short, I then very carefully for the next hour used a turkey-baster to suck out 32 fry and put them back into the ice-cream container. They will remain there until I am absolutely positive that they are big enough NOT to fit into another fish mouth.
Quiz Answers: All the answers are: d) None of the above
1. Keeping fish is neither art nor science, nor even a hobby. It is an addiction.
2. The most difficult fish to net out of an aquarium is the one you most want to catch. All the other fish in the tank will swim into your net as you attempt to catch the one you are after.
3. The most beautiful fish is one that is healthy and displaying its breeding col-ours.
4. The most difficult fish to breed is the one you most desperately want to spawn for you.
5. If an aquarium is filled with water to fifty percent capacity, it is leaking.
6.The most dangerous aquarium inhabitants are whatever is in there as you reach in for that light fixture you dropped in the water, especially if you are barefoot on a wet concrete floor