The breeding notes revealed a blatantly obvious yet hitherto unthought of (by me) theory: Why big Cichlids tend to have more male offspring than female. This theory rests upon three well-known facts:

 

  (a)  Big Cichlids (especially the Guapotes of subgenus Nandopsis such as dovii and managuense) have large spawns, often numbering 500-1000 fry,

 

  (b)  These fry tend to sibling cannibalism, ie they eattheir brothers and sisters, and

 

  (c)  Male fry tend to grow faster than their sisters.

 

The net result? The bigger male fry eat a lot of the small female fry. What to do about it? suppose that grouping the fry by size would help if not eradicate this problem. Stick all the 5-10mm fry in one tank, all the 11-20mm fry in another, and weed out the one "super-fry" that invariably grows ten times as fast as the others. A divided tank would work just as well, as long as filtration is taken care of on both sides of the barrier (unless it is a permeable one). Does this situation have an analog in the raising of Australian and new Guinean Rainbowfishes? Possibly, but it would not be as severe, as the intra-sibling cannibalism is nowhere near as bad.

 

Another point of note is the division of Cichlids by spawning method (this being an indicator of likely behaviour patterns and therefore having a bearing on how they are kept). I had previously thought that the Cichlidae could be neatly divided into Mouthbrooders and Egglayers, but now I know that this is not the case. Not all Mouthbrooders act alike, a gross over-simplification on my part. Dr Loiselle divides spawning method into Monogamous (single partner) and Polygamous (multiple partner) with Polygamous Cichlids being further divided into Haremically Polygynous (single male with multiple female partners, a state that some Egglayers attain, not just mbuna) and Openly Polygamous. At this stage it gets a bit complex, with further divisions based on behavioural characteristics, and if you are interested then I suggest that you read the book yourself.

 

Rest assured that if you are interested in breeding Cichlids, or even in just successfully keeping them alive, (the two often go hand in hand) then you should look at this book. I have kept a few species of the Nasty Biting Fish over the years and a lot of what Dr Loiselle says makes perfect sense and explains losses of fish and their fry owing to incorrect filtration, feeding, or housing. Members with a keen interest in Cichlid keeping would probably save a lot of money in the long run by buying a copy of this book.

 

Dr Loiselle has a good writing style, easy to understand, although the less technically minded might need to keep a dictionary handy to comprehend the liberal sprinkling of ichthyological and behavioural biology terms.

 

It is just another of the fine books available for nothing from your club library on monthly loan.

 

 

I believe that the new quarantine regime will raise prices of aquarium fish, and lead to fewer being imported. What this will mean is that unless someone breeds more fish in Australia there will be fewer fish available. The short answer is that unless aquarists learn to breed their own fish, they will get quite expensive, although granted this may lead to raised demand and a more efficient Australian commercial fishbreeding industry. But from a purely selfish point of view, Australian aquarists need to start breeding more of their own fish to stock their own tanks, to ensure an adequate supply.

 

What has this to do with conservation? To over-simplify: the fewer fishes taken from the wild to satisfy the needs of aquarists - the better. This applies equally to the one-tank fishkeeper's Cardinal Tetras and the native fish specialist's "sticky" Rainbowfish.

 

One of the traditional arguments used by the scientific community against the "amateurs" is that captive breeding (a) changes the fish; and (b) may introduce disease into the wild with re-release. How are the fish changed? I have been involved in several discussions over the years with members of the native fish fraternity about this question. There is the question as to what colour the tail of the wild Melanotaenia herbertaxelrodi is - it seems to vary with who you talk to, and more importantly what side of the Atlantic they live on. Generally speaking. aquarists tend to keep the more appealing specimens of a particular species to breed with, and over several generations these "improvements" become quite noticeable. Other species tend to lose a lot of colour intensity. Colour is important to some species in recognition of potential mates.

 

Then there are the changes that can occur in a single generation - loss of predator avoidance behaviour and obesity amongst others. To anthropomorphisise, the fish may become "complacent".

 

The disease angle has not yet been fully explored - but there is some evidence to suggest that the virus which has decimated certain Queensland frog populations may have been introduced via imported aquarium fish.

 

Then there's the problem of the fishes themselves - exotic species are a potential threat to native species, if introduced, and even native fishes from one part of Sahul could be a pest in another. On the plus side, aquarists have a much greater keeping capacity than all the "zoos" in the world, if this can be utilised effectively. There are untold millions of litres of tank water available in our homes.

 

 

So what can be done about these concerns, and liaison between "amateur" and "boffin"? I believe that the best bet is with hobbyists being represented by effective organisations.

 

They exist on two levels, local and national. Local organisations would do well to encourage members to breed fish, whatever the species, to build a knowledge base so that when specimens of an endangered species come their way they are able to do something about it.... Too often I have seen lovely fish disappear from the local scene because they ended up in the hands of inexperienced aquarists who killed them, or at least lacked the nous to breed them, which is effectively the same thing in the long run. Local branches of national organisations that are concerned with the keeping of particular brands of fishes such as Cichlids or Australian/New Guinean natives have a particularly important task - that of coordination with similar branches interstate/internationally.

 

Why is this coordination important? I am of the opinion that much effort is wasted because of a lack of a "big picture". Species that may be of concern, such as the Lake Eacham Rainbowfish Melanotaenia eachamensis, are now common enough that their continued care seems to have been given over to the commercial sector, which is never a good idea. The aquarium trade, as a whole, is in the business of making money. They will sell what the market demands. What will happen to M.eachamensis when the current Rainbowfish fad passes? They may be gone forever with a comment of "Oh, well, their DNA is the same as other fishes in the area, so there's no loss". Many species have vanished from Australian fishkeeping for the crime of being "common". That is why a management program needs to be implemented for them and other species of concern. Rob Wager proposed something along these lines at the 1994 ANGFA Conference in Brisbane, and while many thought it was a good idea at the time, nothing has come of it yet, as far as I know.

 

 

My argument - and it is by no means mine by origin or exclusivity - is that a National Register of Endangered Fish Species held in captivity would identify which species are in danger of disappearing from our tanks forever. This is something that hobbyist organisations could do themselves - leaving field studies of the situation in the wild to a coordinated effort with the "pros" - with enough will and a little cooperation. I know the Cichlid folks tried this a few years back, but it failed from what I understand was inter-state rivalry. This Register is especially important in the case of the New Guinea fishes and the Cichlids - they have traditionally been difficult to bring into Australia. Equally important are Australian species that cannot be exported overseas, and I think it a good idea that regional groups give priority to local species.

 

There are several natural human tendencies that need to be overcome before this Register could eventuate. The first being greed. If someone has the last male whatever and someone else the last female (extreme example - by the time it got to the last pair it would be way too late for that species) then one of them is going to have to be willing to part with their precious beast for the good of the species. Then there is the other sort of greed, that of wanting what you don't have, even if you don't have the tankspace or expertise to accommodate it. These two facets explain why many are unwilling to disclose exactly what species they keep for even a local breeding registration scheme. There's pride - the willingness on the part of someone who has been keeping fish for thirty or more years to listen to a national body who may have a request to make of them which conflicts with their own view of themselves as a fish-breeding guru. Personality conflicts between different state branches will get in the way of any national effort, as they have always done. And it's only human nature to keep the fishes that you like, and if they happen to be what everyone else likes, then no-one will be looking out for the grubby little colourless fishes - such as some of the Gobies - which are aa lot rarer in captivity now than they have been in many years, which I think is a shame. If the job of looking after the less popular species was spread in an organised fashion, I am sure it would be a less onerous task!

 

So what is this Register for?
As mentioned above, it is the only way we can gauge a true picture of the captive stocks of Australian aquarists' fishes. What follows is a coordinated series of breeding programs for identified species, and a watching role on all the others. It will be a big job, of that I have little doubt. My guess, and it is only a guess, is that a higher percentage of dedicated native fish keepers are members of organisations such as NFA, ANGFA, SANFA etc. than is the situation with Cichlid or Killifish keepers in their respective bodies, but I stand ready to be corrected. But any sort of breeding or habitat surveying program possibly in conjunction with appropriate boffins would be better than nothing.

 

I would urge all who read this to have a think about what I, and many others before me, have said. Because in the end, it will be ourselves who suffer, because we are denying ourselves and our children the opportunity to keep a wide range of fishes. It is a bit hard on the fishes we are watching disappear as well!

 

It may well be, for the reasons outlined above, that the captive bred fishes can never be returned to the wild, or in some cases there is no "wild" left to return them to, and all we can hope for is to preserve or "archive" the fishes we choose to save. In the long run I fear that it will be a matter of our choice as aquarists which species survive and which do not. We have reached a critical juncture in Australian fishkeeping - habitat is being lost both here and overseas, fewer fishes will be coming in, governments are looking at what species can and cannot be kept - it is up to us what we do about it.

 

The amount of current needed to give a person an electric shock is surprisingly low. With a 240 volt supply, a current of only 10 milliamps through your body to earth can give a painful shock, and a current above 50 milliamps is likely to be fatal. Not very much when a 200 watt beater draws something like 800 milliamps. While the possibility of a dangerous failure in modern commercial aquarium equipment is very, very slight, nevertheless a risk still exists. I've never seen any report of a person being killed by a shock from their aquarium in Australia but I have seen a report in an English newspaper of this happening, and have vague recollections of reading that several people die each year in the U.S.A. by electric shocks from their aquariums.

 

If your aquarium equipment is plugged into a normal household switchboard, with standard circuit breakers, it is highly unlikely that they will cut-out in the event of a fault in the equipment leading to a possible leak to earth of the low magnitude needed to cause a bad shock. Fortunately there is a simple, but unfortunately fairly expensive, safety measure which can be taken. This is to install a CORE BALANCE EARTH LEAKAGE CIRCUIT BREAKER, or ELCB for short, into the wiring system for your aquariums.

 

These devices work by continually monitoring the current in both the active and neutral wires of the circuit, and if a fault develops in the circuits leading to the leakage of current to earth, then the device instantaneously breaks the circuit. They are set to break the circuit only above a certain current loss, since some home appliances such as water heaters and freezers naturally have small current losses. The cut-off level ranges from 10 milliamps to 30 milliamps, with 30 milliamps being suitable tor the aquarium.

 

Three types of ELCB are available. The first is wired into the main switchboard of a house and can give protection to all power points in the house, not just the aquarium power point. I'm not sure of the cost of this in Canberra, but with installation by a qualified electrician, it could be around $200 or more.

 

The second is a wall mounted model, which is a straight replacement for a standard wall socket and looks very similar. Installation is straight forward and most would feel confident about doing the work themselves The only possible complication is if the socket is part of a ring circuit with more than three wires going into the socket. If in doubt, get an electrician to do the installation. The cost of a wall mounted model is about $80 at one of the specialist electrical shops at Fyshwick. They are rarely to be found at the general hardware stores.

 

The third type of ELCB are portable models. These are self-contained units which plug into a standard socket and into which you plug your aquarium equipment, similar to an extension cord. They have the advantage of being able to be used wherever needed around the house, for instance with power sawss hedge trimmers etc. but are quite expensive. The only one I've seen in Canberra was over $100. If you would require a wall mounted model to be installed by an electrician they may be worth considering, but their portability is largely wasted in an aquarium setting because it is virtually never free to use for other applications.

 

The choice of whether to install an ELCB or not is up to the individual. They are expensive; $80 would buy a nice power filter, let you set up that extra breeding tank, or buy some very nice fish, but what's the point if you aren't around to enjoy it. Me, I've put off buying that Eheim filter I've had my eye on for a while!

 

A most likely primary cause would be that the tank is over-stocked with fish, giving rise to unduly eutrophic (nutrient rich) water. To some extent this may be countered by the presence of plenty of actively growing higher plants but there are very definite limits to this strategy alone.

 

Another important factor is lighting and an aquarium should never be located near a window, where it will receive too much sunlight (only a maximum of 2 hours is permissible).

 

By world standards, Canberra tap-water is very soft and this also favours algal growth. In general, a GH of 6 or higher is to be recommended, although certain special fish, such as Discus and some South American Tetras, require softer water.

 

Some snails will eat algae but they are seldom able to control it effectively. The same can be said of certain fish, such as Gyrinochellus and some Malawi cichlids, which cannot be kept together in a tank in sufficient numbers. However, the Bristlenose Catfish, Ancistrus temmincki, is perhaps a notable exception. Such fish (and also, many cyprinidae) actually need algae as part of their diet and the maintenance of suitable levels of growth, without allowing the algae to take over their tank, calls for some nice judgment of stocking levels and water quality management.

 

Other points to be noted are:-

 

  1)  A fast flowing filter will help to control algal growth, which is always diminished in turbulent waters.

 

  2)  An algal bloom nearly always occurs in a new tank but this will normally subside as a state of maturity is reached.

 

  3)  Sometimes a golden film will appear on the water surface but don't worry: this will soon disappear.

 

  4)  Algal growth is seasonal.

 

  5)  Green algae grow if there is too much light; brown algae grow in under-lighted conditions; blue-green algae generally indicate problems of water chemistry.

 

  6)  Never use garden soil for aquarium plants in a tank or ornamental pool as this will provide a starter for algal growth.

 

  7)  Dense algal growth in an aquarium, if not controlled, will eventually kill off most of the other plants.

 

  8)  Most algicides also harm other plants and fish in a tank.

 

  9)  Covering a tank with a dark cloth for a week will kill off algal growths but the other plant and fish life will survive the treatment.

 

  10)  Every tank has its own special conditions and there is thus no standard cure-all treatment; therefore try to solve its problems through a blend of useful tips acquired from others and from personal experience.

 

ACRIFLAVINE: Cures fish while turning aquarists' fingers yellow.

 

AIR PUMP: A clever device that makes unbearable noise when it works and kills fish when it doesn't.

 

ALGAE: The most popular aquarium plant.

 

AMAZON SWORDPLANT: A beautiful plant that everyone else can grow.

 

ANCHOR WORK: Useful for keeping fish still for observation.

 

AQUARIUM CEMENT: A type of putty that holds tanks together firmly while allowing them to leak freely.

 

AQUARIUM SOCIETY: A gang of proven idiots who like nothing better than keeping dozens of smelly old fish tanks, spilling water and talking about Cichlids.

 

AUREOMYCIN: Medicine that you buy with a 25% chance of curing fish that are worth no more than half of the cost of the aureomycin in the first place.

 

BRINE SHRIMP: Darned expensive critters supposedly good for all those darned expensive fish.

 

CHILL: A misfortune that can cause all sorts of ichy problems.

 

CHLORINE: A gas put in tap water to kill bacteria, algae, and tropical fish.

 

CONDITIONING: Feeding for breeding.

 

 

FILTERS: Aquarists persist in dreaming that these will clean the water without having to ever be cleaned themselves.

 

FISH: Slimy creatures of low intelligence commonly found on floors, behind aquariums, in filters, and in dealers’ shops under signs that read "rare $25.00 a pair". Often cause divorces, suicides, murders and riots (particularly at aquarium society meetings).

 

HEATERS: Electrical devices used in aquaria for cooking fish.

 

ICH: Causes many white spots on tropical fish and, eventually, in aquarists, hair. Usually brought on by chilling (what the dealer says you did when you got your fishes home). Many remedies will eradicate ich, along with a few of your favourite fish.

 

INFUSORIA: Tiny forms of life that are supposed to thrive in those smelly old cultures.

 

LEAKS: See the water seeping out of the tank.

 

LEECHES: Bloody little suckers that become quite attached to your fish.

 

METHYLENE BLUE: A remedy for fish diseases that works by turning the water so blue that you can no longer see that your fish are sick.

 

MOUTH FUNGUS: Gives fish bad breath and causes them to lose their sex appeal.

 

NUMBER OF FISH PER AQUARIUM: Determined by taking the number of fish now in your tank and divide by three.

 

OXYGEN: What your fish come up to gasp for.

 

POP-EYES: What aquarists get when they see that new pair of Discus the dealer just got in.

 

QUARANTINE AQUARIUM: What everyone should keep their newly purchased fish in until their diseases have progressed far enough to be contagious when introduced into other tanks.

 

SHOW RULES: Irrational laws used to govern fish shows.

 

SNAILS: The only things in my tanks that never seem to die and always spawn continuously.

 

SPAWNING MOP: A device used to wipe up spilt water.

 

TAPPING ON GLASS: Makes fish more lively.

 

TORN FINS: An injury sustained by fish immediately prior to shows.

 

 

Clear Water: This can be achieved in a tank heavily planted with plants. Best are Vallisneria, Riccia and Hygrophilm. The more plants in the tank, the clearer the tank will be.

 

Elodea: Most species are not suited to the majority of aquariums because they need a DH (water hardness) of 7.5 - 10 with a great deal of calcium. These conditions are hard to duplicate in our tanks.

 

Winter maintainance of your fishpond: If you have a big pond, you should have a sump in the middle measuring 60 cm x 60 cm x 60 cm. The bigger the pond, the bigger the sump. This is the place that your Goldfish can go to hibernate if necessary.

 

You should clean your pond by the end of Autumn. This way your fish and plants are not disturbed in the Spring, when the Goldfish should be starting to spawn. They should commence spawning in September, but they won't spawn at all if the water temperature doesn't fall below 4 C. (Editor's Note: I must disagree with Joe here. A couple of years in a row I spawned the same fish that hadn't been outside in a pond since I bought them as inch-long juveniles. Their minimum water temperature wouldn't have fallen below 10 ' C, at the very least.) When the water is cold the fish won't eat at all. At 8 C they begin to feed, but eat little. You must feed your pond fish very little in the winter. The same thing can happen to so-

called tropicals too. I noticed with my White Clouds that they didn't eat below 10 C, and only recommenced feeding when the water temperature had risen to 13 C.

 

In my experience the Canberra Winters are not so bad as far as frost goes, my pond has only frozen twice in 10 years. It you have ice on the surface, smash it so that oxygen can enter the water. In open spaces you can expect ice sooner than in a sheltered garden.

 

Only top your pond up with water. Goldfish will tolerate acid or alkaline water, but cannot adjust suddenly from one extreme to the other.

 

DH (German degrees of Hardness): 1 degree DH is equal to 10mg of Calcium oxide per litre of water. Calcium and Magnesium produce Carbonate Hardness. Soft Water is in many cases good for your fish, but is no good for water plants.

 

Unwanted Guests: It is a good practice, before adding aquatic plants in your tank, to put the plants in a container of water to which is added one teaspoon of Alum per litre. This ensures that most if not all aquatic life on or between the plants is killed. Simply leave the plants in this solution for about ten minutes and then rinse before putting them in your aquarium.

 

 

The Friday after the Melbourne trip, the entire garden around our house was upset with a shovel to extract as many earthworms as possible and because of recent wet weather, this was no problem. The next day, all necessary camping, fishing and fish transporting equipment was packed in my PAJERO Four Wheel Drive. The best place to catch Catfish near Canberra is Wyangla Dam, which is located about 45 kilometres Northeast of Cowra. My wife, Robyn, and I left Canberra about 2pm and were setting up camp on the waters edge just as the sun disappeared behind a big hill at the rear of our campsite. The trip was a good test of our new Four Wheel Drive vehicle, as the area had a couple of deep gullies and a lot of large granite boulders which made progress slow. Robyn cooked dinner while I attached hooks and sinkers to the four small fishing rods.

 

The rods were all about six feet long and the reels were spooled with a four to six pound monotilament. I used six number four long shank hooks with a minimum amount of lead sinker, just enough to cast the bait about twenty feet from the bank. I walked a few paces from the campsite to the waters edge, then, with the aid of a torch, threaded two or three fat wriggly worms onto each rig and threw them out into the cold, black as ink, night. Each one of the rods was set up along the bank about ten feet apart with them being supported by a small stick stuck in the mud.

 

The waiting was made very easy by a nice big fire, Robyn’s good cooking and a couple of cans of Fosters for desert. After dinner we went to check the rods, all of the lines were pulled tight and were snagged on underwater obstacles. I rerigged all the lines and cast them back into the water, this time I held one of the rods in my hand, in no time at all I had a plump Cyprinus carpio, (European Carp), on the bank. The time spent waiting by the rods was not very pleasant, by 8pm there was already a heavy frost on the ground, so the procedure was to warm up by the fire for ten minutes and spend ten minutes cooling down by the fishing rods. By 10pm I had caught three Catfish, all were 12 to 15 inches long and the chilly night air    got the best of me, so I packed it in for the night.

 

When the three captured specimens were placed in the garbage bin and the aerator turned on, the next problem was to keep them from freezing. The dam water was 11C and the air temperature was definitely below freezing.  I had to decide whether to leave the bin partly submerged in the dam throughout the night risking the wind blowing up which would cause waves that would turn the bin over, or to put them in the vehicle and risk the little fellows getting frostbite. There was a slight breeze blowing, so I chose to put them in the vehicle. When I went to check on them in the morning, all three were lying on their side and I thought the worst, the fish looked dead but were still a little limp. A water change was carried out ' just to see if that would help and in about an hour, all three were swimming about, apparently revived from their semi-frozen state.

 

The Catfish have three poisonous spines, if you are unlucky or careless enough to be spiked by them. They won't make you ill, but it is very painful and sometimes the affected area will remain sore for a couple of days.

 

The three fish are currently residing in Canberra. One is at "The Tackle Box" fishing tackle store in Oatley Court, Belconnen, swimming around in a large display aquarium. One is at the Lakes Ecology Labs in Kingston and the other is awaiting transport to his new home in Melbourne.

 

Tandanus tandanus has a large range on this continent, they are found in the South Australian Gulf area, throughout the Murray Darling River System and east of The Great Dividing Range from South of Sydney to the North of Cairns. They can withstand temperatures as low as 4C and as high as 35C. This Catfish is easy to keep in captivity and transports well. For those of us  that eat our friends, they are also highly regarded as a table fish. Put a tandanus in your tank and he will settle down very quickly, temperature is not important, pH does not matter as long as the water is clean. These Catfish do not have any scales and appear to break out in sores if kept in a polluted environment.

 

They will eat pieces of the tail from the bait prawn, earthworms, small fish and SNAILS (they even dig up burrowing snails). They are peaceful towards fish that wont fit into their mouths but will outgrow all but very large aquariums.

 

The best time of the year to capture small specimens is from November through to March. Anyone in the Society interested in putting a tandanus in a tank, see me and we will arrange to go and catch some in November when the weather and Wyangla Dam have warmed up considerably. Fish collecting is fun and every fish in your aquarium that you have collected has a good story to go with it.

If lucky enough to get to one of the big interstate auctions, you can have a wonderful time. You will certainly see some fishes that are never available in Canberra, and pick up some terrific bargains. Conversely, you may also pay more than the retail price or buy diseased or deformed fish. You may even be lumbered with hybrids.

 

How can this be avoided? First, decide what fish you wish to buy before getting to the auction hall. Make a list but be prepared to be flexible. Do you want juveniles (the most common stock at auction)? Or are you after an adult female, perhaps of a species, such as the Red Devil Cichlid, whose males can be very aggressive towards them? Youngsters will of course be cheaper and if the price is right, buy a dozen or more of them (provided you can house them properly). After bringing them home, keep the best pair for yourself and sell the rest to pay for the original purchase. Be sure to have adequate spare tanks free for each type of fish: hard-water nasty (such as African cichlids), soft-water nasty (such as Cichlasoma dovii, etc.), soft-water peaceful (Tetras etc.) and so on.

 

The two auctions I have attended those of the N.S.W. Aquarium-Society and the N.S.W. Cichlid Society, allow prior viewing of lots, before the auction starts. Each lot is numbered, so bring your pen and notebook and cross-reference your wish-list against the available lots irrespective of quality.

 

So under 'Gold Severum' you might have 'lots 62-65 OK, 66 has one dead fish in bag'. Do not immediately write off lots that include dead or diseased fish but do take this into consideration. If you cannot secure the one healthy fish in a mixed bag at a fraction of the retail price, forget it. Bear in mind that some diseases are easier to treat than others. A bag of baby Frontosas with white spot or ragged fins is still a bargain at $10. Be cautious of 'Adult Breeding Pairs', as I have bought such that were neither adult nor breeding and in one case, paid a lot of money for 2 males. Know your fish and if you are after African cichlids, STUDY KONING'S BOOKS! There are many people who do not realise they have hybrid cichlids, especially African cichlids, and so bring them to auctions in good faith. Ad Koning's "Tanganyikan Cichlids" and "Malawi Cichlids" provide a means for recognising such hybrids and passing them by, and these two excellent books are available through the club library. If a fish doesn't look anything like the from-the-wild pictures in these books, give it the miss.

 

Ask people with experience from similar auctions about any peculiarities that their rules may allow. For instance, the N.S.W. Aquarium Society has a clause whereby a successful bidder for a first bag may take any or all of the other equivalents at the same price. Thus, if you are the highest bidder at $10 for a first bag of 3 Lionhead Cichlids, you have the option to take any others that may be on offer for $10 also.

 

Also at this Society's auctions, there is a tendency among the auctioneers to start the bidding at the price a similar lot achieved earlier in the evening. E.g., one bag of 6 Bronze Catfish fetched $5 earlier on, so we'll start the bidding at $5 for the next, similar, lot and go backwards in price until someone 'bites', then forwards again until a high is reached. This can take, a long time, so be patient.

 

At N.S.W. Cichlid Society auctions, the bidding is much faster, so you must have your act together, in terms of noting numbers of desirable/undesirable lots. Mr Norm Halliwell, who usually performs as auctioneer, whilst being a perfect gentleman, is not above spotting a desirable lot and bidding for it himself. It is also possible to obtain credit at these auctions, though I am not sure exactly how to go about it.

 

There are certain considerations about pricing to bear in mind when going to buy fishes from Sydney. There they have 'blooms' of particular fishes at times, including many that we haven't seen in Canberra. An example was the Green Terror, Aequidens tivulatus. A couple of years ago these fish were relatively rare and priced accordingly. Then people learnt to breed them and the fish were as common as dirt in Sydney, around September 1989. Breeding-sized adults could be had for as little as $15 each but now the local aquarists seem to have killed some off, prices are back to normal.

 

Mention Bristlenose Catfish in Sydney and our New South Welsh cousins seem to lose all their composure. Maybe it's something to do with their water, but they just can't breed the species in numbers to meet demand. I have seen 5 little bristles in a bag fetch as much as $18. Other species that are relatively common in Canberra, such as Texas Cichlids, excite similar interest. On the other hand, such things as Sailfin Plecos, which make us foam at the mouth, are common in Sydney, if not over cheap.

 

If you are at a big auction for the first time, be prepared for a king-size shellshock, as your mind becomes overloaded with information. You will see fishes them that you have only imagined in your wildest dreams, at prices that will make your mouth water. But just remember that you won't be able to afford to buy them all and you wouldn't be able to house them if you could. But you are guaranteed an interesting and enjoyable time, in the company of fellow 'lost souls', or aquarists, at they are known.

 

Society member John Fleuren was saying the other day that ACT tap water, while it is very soft, actually contains high levels of phosphates. These phosphates are a major cause of excess algae in home aquaria, and are harmful to fishes. He puts the water for his tanks through a Reverse Osmosis unit, which removes most of the impurities, Including phosphates and chlorine. RO is all the go in American discus hatcheries at the moment, so there must be something to it.

 

TFH magazine April 1993 has the start of a column by a vet, Erik L. Johnston, titled "Your Fishes' Health" which contains some very good advice for all of us. The part I found most interesting was that most fish deaths are caused by poor or unsuitable water conditions, yet are blamed on parasites or diseases. I am sure that this advice will save many lives. This is a very responsible inclusion by the staff of TFH, and I can recommend that members should read this column.

 

Who do we blame? The media was full of suggestions. Was it 'The Farmers' and their superphosphate? Was it 'The Townies' and their overflowing sewerage works? Or was it just the great rivers themselves, finally laying down to die?

 

The answer was a little of all three, yet actually none of the above. The Murray-Darling River Commission put out a report titled "Investigation of nutrient pollution in the Murray-Darling River System" (Gutteridge, Haskins and Davey, January 1992). one review of the report reads as follows:

 

 

Interestingly enough, those among us who condemn the New Guinean government for allowing cyanide from gold mine tailings to leach Into the Ok Tedi and thence the Fly Rivers are partly responsible for the damage by nutrient pollution of Australia’s biggest river system. Maybe we should clean up our own act first.

Snails have a bad reputation. When I first started keeping fish around 12 years ago, I was told by many ‘reliable’ sources that snails were bad news: “They will eat your plants”, “they will breed like crazy and turn your tank into a creeping mass of snails”, “they will foul your water”. Not suprisingly, for several years I have treated snails with an amount of disgust and contempt. However, over the last few years I have discovered that snails are actually a very useful and decorative creature. I hope the following account will encourage some of you to give snails a go.

 

Along with creatures such as Clams and Oysters, snails belong to the phylum Mollusca. A generalised trait of molluscs is that they are soft-bodied creatures lacking supporting structures such as bones or exoskeletons. The topic of this article, snails, belong to the class Gastropoda. Gastropods are distinguished by their having a single shell. This shell is usually coiled and is part of the snails living body. The soft-bodied section of the snail can be withdrawn into the shell, thus forming a defence against predators.

An important thing to know about snails is that they have been on this planet probably longer than us, the primates, and our pets, the fish, combined. Snails appear in the fossil record around 500 million years ago. They are easy to find around many of the limestone cliffs on the Australian coast.

 

Snails are a very successful species, there are around 80,000 species of snails that have been identified. The majority of snails, approximately 55,000, can be found in the marine environment. The remainders are land snails and freshwater snails. Water snails breathe through gills whereas land snails breathe through a hole in their body near the base of the shell.

 

Land snails are hermaphroditic, that is, each snail has both male and female parts. They still must mate to reproduce, however. A hole near the head is the genital orifice where the snail mates and also from where it lays its eggs. Aquatic snails have both hermaphroditic and heterosexual reproduction. Most snails lay eggs, however, a notable exception to this is the Malaysian Trumpet Snail, which is a live-bearer.

 

The shell of the snail is largely calcium carbonate. This chemical is familiar to aquariasts as the buffering agent that promotes pH stability. As a consequence of this, snails generally tend to prefer harder and more alkaline water. In fact, acidic water tends to dissolve the shell and leave its occupant open to attack from predators - either to the joy or the horror of the fish keeper.

 

Apart from their shells, other features that generally distinguish gastropods from other molluscs is that they have an eye located at the base of each tentacle. The ‘foot’ of the snail is a muscular appendage used to ripple its way across its environment. Under the tentacles is the mouth. Inside the mouth there is a rasp-like tongue that acts like a saw. It shreds the snails' food much like a grater sheds cheese.

 

This leads me to a topic that may be of interest in the context of the home aquarium - snails’ eating habits. The diets of snails vary depending on the species. Indeed, some snails are carnivorous and will actively hunt down other gastropods. Generally though, snails eat algae, plants, and on occasion the decomposing flesh of dead animals.

 

The fact that snails eat algae and decomposing flesh can be of great benefit to the aquarium keeper. I am sure that many of you keep Bristlenoses and other algae eating catfish. While I do not want to criticise these valued fish, for they do make fantastic pets in themselves, their algae eating capacities are often over estimated by their owners. Snails however are very thorough cleaners of glass and rocks and can get into the nooks and crannies that catfish may miss.

 

Some species of snail are renown as decorative plant eaters, however, in my opinion, only the pond snail should be regarded with any real suspicion in this regard. Most healthy aquarium plants produce cyanides and other poisons that prevent animals such as snails from making meals of them. The myth that snails can destroy your plants probably originates from observations of snails eating the leaves of plants that are already highly deteriorated or close to dying. At this point, the plant was probably doomed and at least the snails are preventing the plant from decomposing, a process that can potentially unbalance aquarium water chemistry.

 

Another great advantage of snails is that they are less likely to eat the eggs of fish. While eggs laid by fish in or around the substrate of the aquarium are vulnerable to attack by Bristlenoses and the like, snails are much less likely to embark on such raiding excursions. Consequently, if you are keeping egg-laying fish in a tank with alkaline water specifically for the purpose of breeding then snails are probably the solution. They will keep maintenance down by cleaning your glass but will not scoff the eggs at the first opportunity. For instance, I am currently keeping a breeding pair of Neolamprologus ocellatus (see Tank Talk Vol 26:2) in a two foot tank and rather than keeping Bristlenoses, I have a crew of Red Ramshorns to keep the tank clean. Interestingly enough, in nature these little cichlids, which originate from the hard waters of Lake Tanganyika, adopt used snail shells as their homes. They keep their shells immaculately clean, hide in them when threatened and eventually lay eggs and raise their young in them. Although they are brave little fish, the heavily armoured Bristlenoses that I keep tend to be oblivious to the attacks of the ocellatus, presumably their eggs would be helpless at night.

 

Lastly, snails make interesting and hardy pets in themselves. They can be quite attractive, especially in the case of the Mystery Snail. They also have interesting habits and life cycles.

There is no doubt that snails can get out of control. Unfortunately, given the right conditions of hard alkaline water and without natural predators, snails can multiply very rapidly. I have experienced this first hand in the case of the Malaysian Trumpet Snail. Several years ago, in a four foot Malawi tank that I was keeping at about 250 ppm of total carbonate hardness, the floor of the tank almost seemed alive. The plague of snails was most unsightly and remedial action was called for.

 

There are several ways to keep snails in check:

 

  ·  The “predator” method. Several species of fish just love snails, for breakfast that is. The most common snail eater is the attractive Clown Loach, Botia macracanthus. The Clown Loach will grab the unprotected soft part of the snail and literally suck the poor gastropod out of the shell. If you don’t mind me saying, this can be quite entertaining. In the marine tank, Pufferfish are good snail eaters and will crunch the shell of the snail and eat the soft parts. In fact, some people grow snails specifically to feed to their Clown Loaches and Pufferfishes. I have to admit that my Red Ramshorns live side by side with a healthy Clown Loach. Perhaps I overfeed him.

  ·  The “bait” method. Run some hot water over a lettuce leaf and just before you turn the lights out, tie a piece of cotton around it and drop it in the tank. It will sink to the bottom and in the morning you should find it covered in snails. Remove the lettuce, snails and all. Repeat until the snails are under control. In fact, this was the method that I used to remedy my Malaysian Trumpet Snail problem. Needless to say, persistence may be called for.

 

  ·  The “starvation” method. It is important to note that most snail blooms are caused by overfeeding. In these cases, the only reason that the snails are overpopulating is because they are feeding on the excess food that the fish leave behind. Watch your fish when feeding, if they do not eat all their food after 3-4 minutes or less then you are overfeeding.

 

  ·  The “local fish shop” method. There are some commercial snail killers available that local fish shop owners might try to sell you. If used as instructed these remedies may well kill your snails. However, these chemical based solutions should be avoided because they tend to kill the bacteria that keep ammonia and nitrite levels in check. In turn, this may also kill your fish.

 

Prevention is usually better than the cure. If buying plants from a local fish shop or even at a CDAS meeting and you don’t want to accommodate any hitchhikers then I suggest that you take the following action. Before introducing your plants into the aquarium, make the effort of soaking them in warm salty water. After ten minutes remove the plants and wash thoroughly. This should remove or kill any unwanted gastropod guests. It will also remove potentially harmful parasites such as White Spot (Ich).

I have to admit that despite my first impressions, I am now very happy to see a few snails in my aquarium. When kept in check, they can form an integral part of a well balanced aquatic environment. So, why not give snails a go?

 

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The peculiar word axolotl is an Aztec word, probably one of the few in use in our language. It is a species of salamander known as the tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum. This species has a very broad distribution for a salamander. It occurs in Western North America and extends South into Mexico, hence it's association with the native Aztec people of central Mexico. The axolotl is a peculiarity in the normal life cycle of the tiger salamander as you will read.

 

Normally the tiger salamander follows a conventional pattern in its life history. Adults are terrestrial. A migration of males and females to the breeding ponds occurs in late winter. Certain sites are the scene of courtship activity and mating. The eggs are not fertilised as they leave the females body but males deposit lumps of a gelatinous substance tipped with a whitish ball containing hundreds of spermatozoa on the bottom of the pond. The female crawls over this 'spermatophore’, takes up the fertilising tip, then within her body the eggs are fertilised and they are laid within a few hours.

 

The larvae are small and have bushy gills. They resemble a tadpole with feet. By autumn they are full-sized and ready to leave the water and take up life on land.  The gills shrink and lungs develop, the tail also undergoes a change. The tiger salamander then begins its life on land. This is typical of many salamanders. They are predators and eat insects, snails, slugs and any other small creatures, including salamanders, that they can find.

 

How the axolotl comes about is an interesting part of this story. In the highland lakes of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains the salamander larvae never change into adults. They grow to adult size but remain aquatic retaining gills and a large fin-like tail. This is termed 'neoteny" and it was this form that the Conquistadors of Mexico found and learned the Aztec name axolotl. The sexes breed in water and the larvae develop into adults and remain there (but the chain may be broken).

 

The neoteny described above is triggered by cold water. If the water becomes warm or some other factor occurs (like a nice terrarium) that seems favourable towards a terrestrial existence, the axolotl will emerge from the water and become a land-loving creature. Once this happens, it cannot be reversed.

 

Axolotls like deep, cool water. During a Canberra summer, they should be moved to an air-conditioned room or a few ice cubes should be placed daily in their tank. In captivity axolotls do well on unwanted fish but will also thrive on pieces of meat, fish, prawns and earthworms. An albino form is often available but remember that all albino forms of animals suffer 'discomfort under strong light. And with axolotls, remember to keep the water cold.

 

Firstly I had to nag my dad. This is an essential part of any large undertaking in my household. When he finally caved in, we jumped into the car and headed for Revolve. By pure luck, Revolve was having a $5 TV sale. I found the perfect specimen: a large 26 inch TV, probably one of the earliest models.

 

When we arrived home again, I began the "gutting" process. I had heard from a friend that old tellies were still dangerous because of something called capacitors, which could store electricity for many years. Letting my dad do the dangerous bit of removing everything [dads are good for things like that... editor] but the external dials, he soon discovered the hard way which thingies were the capacitors. Later, when our telly was hollow, I scrummaged around under the house and found a large square of thick chipboard (actually it was a cupboard door from our old kitchen). I screwed this to the base of the telly to stop the tank crashing through it (you may be surprised how much a full fish tank weighs).

 

After sanding back and estapoling the outside of the telly, I was ready to get mathematical. I had to design a hole in the top of the telly that was big enough for the glass lid to be lifted in and out, but small enough for the light to sit around the hole. I designed my access hole to fit my two foot light, but if you don't mind a slightly duller tank, a one foot light can be disguised using the shell from an old VCR to fit the theme.

 

I marked out my cutting lines - then I had to work out how exactly to cut them. I don't own a jigsaw, so I had to use some pretty tricky drilling and hand sawing to cut out the hole. It worked, but after that effort I would not recommend trying it unless you are fairly skilled. Try to borrow or hire a jigsaw from a friend or hire store.

 

When planning my Telly Tank I was intending to have a new tank custom made to fit the TV but to my total surprise, my existing extra tall two foot tank fitted perfectly. I even had enough room to have the power board and airpump behind the speaker section so that all that came out of the TV was one white lead. I reattached the TV stand and began to refill my tank.

 

Important things to remember when building your Telly Tank are that your TV needs to be in fairly good nick, or be finished in plywood. This way you can sand it back, which just isn't an option with a laminated telly. Another point is to either have your TV gutted by a professional or be very careful, you might not be as lucky as my dad (who claimed it only felt like a shock from a spark plug). And lastly, don't try to get tricky, like wiring your light cord through the power button (I really wanted to do this), it's just not safe because moisture and electricity don't mix. [also check with an electrician...... editor]

 

The whole project only cost me the $5 for the TV, but if you don't have the luck at finding useful items like I did, it may cost up to $25 [plus tank costs.. editor]. Still pretty cheap for such a great tank stand.

 

I would probably have joined the club before we purchased our first tropical fish. These didn't last too long, and were the first link in the chain of guilt associated with the early demise of so many of our finny guests through the years.

 

I would have never overcrowded tanks the way I did. This caused filter breakdown, algal blooms, and death of plants and fishes. You can only keep so many fish, so recognise your limits and work within them.

 

I would have always done water changes religeously, 25-30% every single week on every single tank. This would have partially mitigated the overcrowding.

 

I would have bought good heaters, and always had one or two spare for the inevitable breakdowns.

 

I would have studied diseases more, and bought more cures, thus enabling me to save fishy lives once they are under the weather'.

 

I would have fed live foods at least once a week to all our fishes.

 

I would not have joined the Committee until I knew what I was letting myself in for.

 

I would have read more books.

 

I would never have tried to keep marine fishes in 'natural' aquaria.

 

I would have taken the time to adequately explain the hobby to my long-suffering spouse, Julie. Don't laugh, there are several aquarists that are single today because their 'Significant Other' didn't understand and therefore became hostile towards what is otherwise quite an innocent pastime. (Compared to, say, drinking Scotch before lunchtime or Big Game Hunting.)

 

I would not ever ever ever have impulse-bought fish. They invariably died gruesome deaths. Try and confine each tank to one particular type of fishes, such as warm/soft water/small/inoffensive or big/mean/piscivorous, and stick to it while the other inhabitants please you (ie, it is not yet time to replace the lot. Those of you that have put an inch-long Oscar in a heavily planted Tetra tank will know what I am talking about - it's OK, for a ' while, but sooner or later the Occy will eat all the other fish in the tank and destroy all those beutiful plants). If you want to keep Rift Lake Cichlids, fine, by all means do so but buy them their own tank and look after it.

 

It has taken me several years and thousands of dollars to realise that one hundred tanks are worse than nothing if you don't have time to adequately maintain them. I now keep fewer fish than at any time in the last seven years but am satisfied that everything that can be done is being done. If only I had a few more breeding tanks....

 

I would not have tried to spawn every fish that I had at the same time. Patience is indeed a virtue when breeding, and those fry which are today only 2mm slivers of silver on the tank glass will be 2 cm or longer shortly, and they need room to grow properly otherwise they are best left unbred or killed (‘culled’) at hatching time.

 

I would have stuck to a couple of worthy species that needed to be maintained, such as Desert Gobies and Peacock Gudgeons. These little fish have all but vanished from the local fish scene because they were guilty, in their day, of being too common, and we were all a bit guilty of neglecting them accordingly.

 

I would never have kept tanks strewn throughout the whole house on coffee tables and stands made of planks and bricks.

 

I would not have bought a single fish with the motive "I could make some money out of this one", especially where it involved breeding them.

 

I would not have sold a fish that I suspected was sterile or ill, even to a perfect stranger.

 

I would never have encouraged other fishkeepers to do things that I was not prepared to do myself.

 

I would not have ever bought a second-hand tank, or first-hand Chinese Algae Eater.

 

I would have learnt not to put Ammogon into the canister of a Fluval 303, or to entrust relatives with the transport of valuable fishes that I had not yet bred from.

 

And finally, I would then have no regrets. But we live and learn. All that you can do is learn as much as you can so as to combat the ignorance that kills our fish.

 

"What do I want those things for?"

 

Let me state, at the start, that cichlids are not for everyone. If you like really dumb fish that swim backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, then that's your affair and good luck to you. Aggressive? Stick a male Siamese Fighter in with your Tiger Barbs and see what happens. Predatory? No more than any other creature that eats fish in the wild (like the big sooky Malawi Eye-Biter in our kitchen tank - he gets pushed around by Tanganykan Dwarfs almost half his size). But here are a few reasons why I and many other aquarists keep at least one species of Cichlid.

 

Basic Interest: Cichlids are interesting fish to watch. You don't have to be a behavioural science major to appreciate their intelligence, cunning, bluff, feeding patterns etc. They can learn to recognise their owners (Handy Hint: Most Cichlids love flies. Swat the flies, it's good exercise and less toxic to the environment than flyspray. The baby flies that seem to hang in droves about one's ceiling fans are good for small mouthed Dwarf Cichlids. The big fellas, like Oscars and Red Devils really go for the blowies. Soon you'll have them eating out of your hand, which is a good way of keeping a close eye on their health). In fact, cichlids of the Parapetenia complex of Central America are accounted the most intelligent freshwater fishes. Common Parapetenlas are C. dovii and C.manguense (or Heros managuensis in its latest incarnation). Be warned though, they get quite large. I stopped keeping them when I sold my 5 1/2' x 2' x 2' tank. Big fish will, generally speaking, eat smaller fish. This applies to Goldfish, Australian Natives, and of course, Cichlids.

 

But there are smaller Cichlids for the financially less adventurous. It's all a matter of what in appropriate for the individual Cichlid keeper. In the Africans there are many species that are quite content in a twenty gallon tank, notably the Tanganykan Dwarfs (kept as a species tank many of the Neolamprologus sp. will breed quite happily, each generation caring for the younger ones. I have seen this happen with N. Pulcher and N. brichardi). The South American Dwarf species, notably the Apistogramnas, need a little more care as to water quality and feeding. The Central American Dwarfs, some of which aren't that small, include the Firemouth (Cichlisoma meeki) and the "Convict Complex" (Cichlisoma nigrofasciatum, the common Convict Cichlid, can be a nasty little so and so and is best kept in a species tank or in the company of larger fishes. Nicer are the Blue-Eyed Cichlid, C. spilurum, or C. sajica, it you can find them).

 

Breeding:   It is quite thrilling to see your first cloud of Cichlid babies. Usually they number in the hundreds. There are quite a few species available that, generally speaking, if you can keep them alive long enough, and have a true pair, they will spawn. There are, conversely, species that are hard to breed. It is wise to start with the easy ones to avoid disappointment. For a beginner, looking for the next stage of aquaristic development after livebearers, they are hard to go past. 29% of fishes bred in the club last year were Cichlids. There are many species that need to be maintained by breeding to survive in Australia now that they are off the Allowed Imports list, otherwise we may never see live specimens again.

 

There are so many different ways that Cichlids spawn. The general run will deposit eggs on a rock, the female fanning the eggs while the male protects the spawning territory. This spawning method is known as "Cichlid fashion" when applied to non-Cichlids such as Purple Spotted Gudgeons (Mogurnda sp.). There are several variations on the theme. Some spawn in a cave, others in the gravel of the tank floor. Some prefer the rock to be flat, others at an angle. Sometimes mum will chase dad away and do all the work herself, or vice versa. Some will spawn on plant leaves. The major alternative spawning method, usually the province of the African Cichlids, is mouthbrooding. The female takes the eggs into her mouth and looks after them there. The fry, when they emerge, are mostly quite large. Labeotropheus sp. (well, the colour morphs we get around here, anyway) are colour-coded right from the time they come out of mum's mouth, yellow for girls, blue/black/brown for boys, This makes them easier to sell. Which brings me to my next point.

 

Profit: Is it possible to make a profit from breeding fishes in your own back yard? Pretty hard around the A.C.T., where it is too cold to get away with not heating tanks (unless you read Rene Jez's articles and build yourself a solar fishroom). It is possible, however, with experience and forethought, to recoup a fair bit of your ongoing costs by breeding the right Cichlids. Angelfish (Pterophyllum sp.) are one thing that springs to mind. If you are really keen you could try Discus, but be warned, a lot of people have spent thousands trying to get-rich-quick off of the big flat colourful things, and very few have succeeded. Africans were a big craze a few years back, but you need to research the market carefully. Some friends of mine spent a bit of money and quite a bit of effort breeding large numbers of Tanganykan Dwarf Cichlids, only to find that no-one around here wanted to spend money on them (except for me, of course. I knew how hard they are to breed properly and ended up with quite a few for nothing! Most of the rest of you missed out). They hadn't flooded the market, they just had overestimated the demand. Cyphtilapia frontosa will probably always be in demand. Oscars would be a good species to try, but they need a fair bit of room to raise properly. Other large American Cichlids, should they come back into 'fashion', might be worth a try, such as Black Belts and Quetzal Cichlids. For the breeders of small delicate creatures, Apistogrammas and Crenicaran might do well with enough care. It is easy to flood the limited Canberra market with too many fishes of a particular species and thus force prices to crash. Fishes that will probably always be cheap are Kribs and Convicts. At the mome+t there are a lot of Red Devils around, but I suspect that this will change with time. You may have to take a trip to Sydney every couple of months to sell the surplus.  But keep a close eye on the shops. What is common as dirt today may be rare tomorrow. 'Haplochromis' similis is a good example of this. I bred hundreds of them in years past, but now they are getting a bit pricey. Karl Puse spawned heaps of Texas Cichlids (Heros cyanoguttatus, I think they are now), sold a lot around here and several hundreds to Sydney aquarium shops, and where are they now? So you have to judge what the market can take, and either cull the rest (fancy talk for feeding the poor unfortunates to Fred the Red Devil) or find some tank space to hang on to them a bit longer. Even the commonest Convict can be worth good money as a nice adult specimen, or as half a pair. Therein lies another of the great secrets. The general run of aquarists are too impatient to raise juvenile fish to adulthood with a view to breeding them and would much rather have the fait accompli, the breeding pair, even if they have to spend a small fortune obtaining them. You can cash in on this by keeping your fry until they get to a respectable size and selling them off as pairs. Be warned, you will soon get a bad name for flogging two immature females off as a "proven breeding pair", and no-one will intentionally buy your fish. Under no circumstances should you breed hybrids or breed from them. This is "committing a crime against the species" (to quote a famous Zoo curator) which may harm the gene pool of that particular fish in Australia forever. Any CDAS member that deliberately rips off another shouldn't be a member, in my book.

 

Keep a close eye out for hybrids when purchasing fishes. If you are after Rift Lake Africans, come and borrow the appropriate Ad Konigs book from the library. Does the fish look like the one in the book? Some allowance must be made for colour, but body structure should look the same. The Cichlid hobby contains some of the nicest and most helpful people that you would ever meet in fishkeeping circles, but also some of the biggest rogues. Some will sell you hybrids out of genuine ignorance, without malice, but that doesn't really excuse them.

 

To summarise, Cichlids make great pets, are fascinating subjects for study, good fun to breed, may pay for their own food and some of the electricity bill, and are nice colourful things to have around to impress non-fishy friends and relatives who think that fish is cheaper by the kilo. For the would-be boffins they are a great biology learning experience. In the end, though, we tend to keep the fishes that we like. This should be the most important consideration of all. A loved fish gets it's water changed, it's food fed, it's filter changed. And if you get sick of it, there will always be another Cichlidiot around to buy it off you.

 

To borrow from American Cichlidophiles, Semper Cichlidae.

 

The two-word system we use (genus and species) is called the 'Binominal System of Nomenclature'. It was devised by the Dahish scientist, Linnaeus, in a series of ‘Systemae' begun in 1739. It literally means 'two name system'. He published twelve editions, the last of which appeared in 1768. The 'two name system' was first employed consistently in his Tenth Edition of 1758. This is the starting point of the Binominal System we use today.

 

The reasons for the development of an international naming system are quite obvious. Communications among countries was becoming commonplace in the late 1700's and a mammal or bird that might be called by a name in one country might be called by another name in another country or even the same country. For example, the Mallard duck, scientific name Anas platyrhynchos, in America alone is called greenhead, gray duck, English duck, stock duck and by some. thirty other names. It has only one scientific name. A different example using birds is seen with the name Magpie. The Australian species is not closely related to the American and European species for which it was named by early settlers. Using fish examples, how many different and unrelated fish can you think of named 'bass'? The scientific name, however, defines one kind of bass. This provides a basis tor communication.

 

Scientific names are mostly derived from the Latin language. Why Latin? At the time Linnaeus was working, Latin was considered the only international language and the language of scholars. To this day legal documents in some countries are still being written in Latin. So it was natural tor Linnaeus to have chose that language. No matter what language a scientist uses in the text of his books or articles, the scientific name of his animals are always the same.

 

Linnaeus' system is based on the logical hierarchy of organisms. Using the guppy as an example consider the following:

 

 

One can ascend up the hierarchy much further but for our purposes, the above is sufficient. Each family generally consists of a number of genera (Latin plural of genus) and above that level other genera in the family Cyprinodontidae are classified exactly as the guppy.

 

There are a few basic rules that are standard conventions which you may have already detected. In animals, the family name always ends in 'idae'. Each genus begins with a capital letter and the species name always begins with a small letter. This is true even if the species is named after a person such as the Black Neon Tetra, Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi, or Hart's Rivulus, Rivulus harti. The genus and species names are always italicised (printed in Italic characters) or underlined (when in English),

 

You May also have noticed that frequently after the Latin name there is the name of a person, often in brackets. This is the author's name, that is, the name of the person who first described and named that species. If the name is enclosed in brackets, this indicates that the species was originally described in a different genus from the one in which it is now placed. To a person who wants to find more about a species, the presence of brackets around the original describer's (author's) name signals that some work has been done on the group after the original description of the species. To cite the examples above, the Guppy Poecilia reticulata (Peters), was originally described by Peters as Lebistes reticulata, but later transferred to the genus Poecilia by another author. You will discover that most fish have been originally described in genera other than the ones they are in now. This is because there is much 'taxonomic' (the study of the classification of organisms) interest in fishes and new discoveries often lead to the other. And, not too infrequently, a taxonomist discovers the original genera was the proper one for the species after all. This is all very confusing to the non-specialist but it is generally not unexplainable. Incidentally, you way have noticed the name of the Carp as Cyprinus carpio (Linne). The author is actually Linnaeus. After he was knighted he became Baron Karl von Linne and the species he described after that event have his name spelled that way but it is, in fact, the same person we have been talking about.

 

You may have seen this combination as the scientific name of the green discus fish A Symphysodon aequifasciata aequifasciata (Pellegrin). This three part name indicates that a taxonomist has divided the species Symphysodon aequifasciata into subspecies. Subspecies (also known as races) are populations that have some characteristics in common with one another but differ slightly from other populations. Subspecies are based solely on geographical separation. The members of one subspecies are able to successfully interbreed with members of another subspecies but being separated geographically (in the case of the discus by different rivers and lakes in brazil) they rarely come together in nature. Of course, in our aquariums anything can happen!! By definition two subspecies of the same species cannot occur at the same locality. It they do, then either the taxonomist has made an error or a catastrophe, such as a flood or river-course change caused by an earthquake, has occurred to get them together. When, and it they do, their distinctive characteristics will be 'blended' in their offspring.

 

To follow up on the subspecies situation, in the discus fish we have the following combinations which were listed in the 1976 version of Axelrod et al. loose-leaf 'Exotic Tropical Fishes'.

 

 

 

All of the above occupy different river or lake systems in Brazil. They have distinctive characteristics but can, and do, interbreed freely with one another producing fertile offspring when they are given the opportunity in an aquarium.

 

Generally, the scientific names have logical meaning. Many Of the names are from Latin origins, others are from Greek. There is no general rule for this but it is usually so. Once you begin to pull apart some of the words and learn their derivatives, you will find the names more interesting and meaningful. In the next part we will look at some familiar names and their origins.

 

End of Part One.

 

White's Tree Frog (also commonly known as the Green Tree Frog, which isn't very helpful, we have several species of Tree Frogs that are green) is one of the largest of the Hylid frogs in Australia, and is certainly amongst the most successful interms of numbers and distribution. They ate extremely hardy (for frogs) in captivity, which has endeared them to frogkeepers all over the world. They are extremely loveable with their bright glossy green skins and eternal smiles.

 

I came across mine in a petshop in Sydney, where the two of them were not very happy at all. They had been kept in a crowded plastic aquaria half full of dirty water for long enough that they were a bit emaciated. I bought them anyway. I figured (probably arrogantly at the time) that any care I gave them would be better than they had already. It turns out I beat lan McGuinness to them by about five seconds, he was standing behind me at the cash register as I paid for them, asking if there were any more. Sorry Ian! You've got first pick of the litter when they spawn. [We'll holdyou to that ... Editor]

 

All I had on them was a couple of paragraphs in a Tetra Terrarium book. It said (in quaint German-structured English) that they should be kept warm on a newspaper substrate. In that funny way things have of working out sometimes, Rodney and Deborah Ralph had a spare tank that they had Graeme Maloney build for them that was big enough to take a full sheet of newspaper folded once. How' s that for luck? I crafted a lid out of an old melamine-covered shelf, covering the large hole in it with plastic gauze to let air but not cats in. An old light-fitting served as a way to stop the frogs jumping onto the coloured 40-watt globe that I used to heat the tank (I feared dreadful burns if the frogs' soft moist skin came into contact with the bulb). Several US correspondents swear that the frogs know not to get too close to the bulb, but I wasn't prepared to take the risk at the time (and I guess I'm still not).

 

In it's final iteration the tank is as described above, flat untorn newspaper substrate (which is quite conevnient come cleaning time), a plastic two litre aquarium for a water/swimming bowl, and a log to hide in. There is a ceramic foodbowl for feeding livefood that might otherwise crawl under the substrate and escape (such as Mealworms).

 

I applied for a permit to keep them, and I am happy to say that it was granted. As far as I know it is a legal requirement to have a permit to keep all amphibians in the ACT, and to maintain accurate records which are submitted annually. The Wildlife Protection Unit of ACT Parks and Conservation have all the details.

 

Food must be alive when given - I have never heard of a White's Tree Frog taking it otherwise. I have personally fed mine pinkies (day-old mice), Bardi (Lawn) Grubs, worms, slugs (not recommended - they stick to the newspaper and dry out!), Christmas Beetles, Crickets, Mealworms, Waxworms, Cockroaches, Moths, and Butterfles. They especially seemed to enjoy the Crickets and Cockroaches, the larger the better. I give them a good feed about once a week and in between they are fed according to opportunity - whenever a big Bush Cockroach turns up in the garden!

 

So how do my frogs live differently than their cousins kept overseas, mainly by Americans? Generally it is in the humidity. Most of the tanks "over there" have a lot more water about the place, usually in the form of half the tank siliconed off to form a pool. 1 have avoided this because of a fear of a bacterial condition called red-leg - it seems to be associated with excessive humidity and dirty conditions. Cleanliness is good, and when you have an animal that can sometimes leave a semi-liquid deposit some three or more centimetres long and a centimetre round, then the cleaning can be quite a chore! Which is where the newspaper substrate comes into it's own - it is just rolled up and thrown away. Most Americans seem to go in for a lot of foliage in their frog-tanks, but the soil in the pots can harbour bacteria as well.

 

So I have an interesting situation, where the frogs are perfectly happy and healthy, but according to most reports, not in enough humidity to breed. I have given this a great deal of thought, and taking into consideration the fact that they could live another twenty years (the record in captivity is twenty-eight) I have decided to leave them the way they are. That way I trust they will be around to delight my grandchildren as they have my young children.

 

White's Tree Frogs, TFH Publishers (details unavailable at present).

Digest for the Successful Terrarium, Richard D. Bartlett Tetra

TerraFauna 1989 ISBN 3-89356-035-1

Keeping and Breeding Amphibians, Chris Mattison, Blandford 1993 ISBN 0-7137-2328-9

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