Fish Folk

SEPTEMBER 2023 Brothers! Fieryblack Shiners beginning to mature. They only get better and better… A male Jungle Endler. I started breeding these to provide my Nanochromis parilus a snack. They leave adults alone, but eat some fry here and there. Caught this Stone-roller. New species from our creek! Released after taking photo. Brought Swordtails indoors as summer tubbing season closed down. They either only will spawn outside, or they eat all their fry indoors. Here’s the lone male Bluefin Killifish who hatched out in our summer tub from water lettuce shipped from Florida. He lives happily with the Swordtails.

AUGUST 2023 A shot with a Dwarf Rainbow in with the Congo Tetras. This was a zany community tank… Discus, etc. as well. Love the pink Lotus. Every planted aquarium should have one. For us, aquarium fish and sport -fishing are not mutually exclusive. We catch and release, mostly. Top photo is a Yellow Perch, next is a Largemouth Bass, and bottom is little brother just gettin’ the hang of things. Was gifted a new line of wild-caught Rainbow Shiners from Alabama. When happy, possibly the most beautiful fish on the planet.

JULY 2023 Tubbing season in full swing! This was the Swordtail tub. Turned out a Bluefin Killifish egg cane along for the ride on the Water Lettuce. Hummingbirds loved the tall flowers. Acquired some Congo Tetras from a friend who had to shut his tanks down. Very beautiful! Also got three young Discus. Beautiful! No idea why everyone thinks these are hard to keep. They have consistently been some of the hardiest species we have kept. This photo came out nicely! Sweet introduction to a young male F1 Fireyblack Shiner. Greenhead Shiners are beneath / behind.

JUNE 2023 We moved the fish from the HS classroom tank to home. Caught these two in one frame passing. Lots of colors! Sometimes under LED, the Rainbow Shiners appear impossibly beautiful. Males get a full blue head and fins. They will spawn anywhere conditions are right, firing up year round. They turn hot salmon-pink. It is by far the most exciting thing to walk into the fishroom to in the morning. Mr. and Mrs. Southern Redbelly Dace. She is full of roe! A new acquisition: Dwarf Congo Cichlid (Nanochromis parilus). Female here, just added. There was a shipping error, so the fella arrived the next month. Cousins to Kribensis, these are riverine species that spawn in caves. Males can be aggressive, but females are peaceful and much more beautiful.

MAY 2023 Get the boyz OUTSIDE! That’s the mission for warming weather. My son’s love catching and releasing creek fish. We haven’t set up any tanks to keep them at home, but we definitely enjoy them in nature! This male Fantail Darter was very colored up for spawning season. Sculpins are fascinating bottom dwellers. We have a unique species, taxonomically named by an acquaintance up the road who teaches Ichthyology at a State University - “Blue Ridge Sculpin” (Cottus caeruleimentum). Blacknose Dace put on amber hues for spawning season. We got some Lowland Shiners (Pteronotropis stonei) and some Red Swordtails for an outdoor tubbing project. I honestly can’t recall who I ended up selling the Lowland Shiners to. They were nice looking, but a bit feisty towards con-specific species. A new friend built a custom Aquaponics system for me. It has been a marvel to learn about!

APRIL 2023 Breeding this annual Killifish species was a special triumph! Nothobranchius rachovii males are gorgeous gemstones, suitable to small tanks. They rarely live longer than 1-year. This female Rainbow Darter has been with me awhile now. Secretive, she is hard to take a nice photo of. King of small peaceful NANF, this Banded Sunfish (Enneacanthus obesus) rarely swims out under good lighting. But when he does… Kept a few little Electric Blue Rams. Unfortunately, only one proved healthy. Impulse buys. You understand.

MARCH 2023 Worked awhile with “Blue Sapphire” Guppies. A few males presented nicely, but there were so many culls, I eventually moved them along. This was a lesson in buying confirmed lines to start a breeding project. Fry born in your own water will almost always do better than fish you buy. These come as the first species I was part of catching the wild: Greenhead Shiners (Notropis chlorocephalus) from the Catawba river drainage in North Carolina. They’re hardy! But very tricky to persuade to spawn in home aquaria. Rainbow Shiners firing up in my son’s HS Biology Classroom. In the upper right corner, the red-tinted floating flow-through fry container already was holding fry. We raised a bunch with the class over the semester! This fully agitated male Tessellated Darter also came home with us from the Catawba River NC trip. Still living today, but has never presented these colors so dramatically since.

FEBRUARY 2023 Proud of this little fella, coloring up. I bred and raised a number of Rainbow Shiners (Notropis chrosomus). There’s a special thrill to see them color up as they mature. Among the more interesting fish species we’ve kept, the Ornate Climbing Perch lists high. Microctenopoma ansorgii are Anabantids — like Gouramis and Bettas — but they behave much more like Apistogrammas. Sadly, ours would not spawn for us. The group made a nice gift to some fellow aquarists. On his day, wearing his tux, the male Southern Redbelly Dace cuts a beautiful image. Chrosomus erythrogaster are native US fish, fairly easy to acquire from NANF sellers. This one was in no a group I set up in my son’s Biology Classroom at School. Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish (Elassoma gilberti) have been a fascination of mine for awhile. This young, subdominant male can’t fully hide his blue potential. My son kept this beautiful male Apistogramma agassizii awhile. In my view, he was one of the most stunning fish we’ve ever kept. Something sudden happened to him, and we sadly lost him without warning. I sold out most of these “Precious Metals” Guppies. There is something special about a large breeding colony of livebearers. Took this photo near the end of the colony in this tank.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Went through my phone, and selected fish photos taken from each month of 2023. Lots of species. Lots of memories… JANUARY 2023 Some German Blue Rams we raised (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi). I sold out this line, and miss them. It is hard to find good Rams at local LFS where we live. Buying from reputable breeders is a must. Breeding our own is always do rewarding. I have tried multiple times to sell all of my Fundulopanchax scheeli, but fry keep appearing, and the process goes ever on and on. Mature males are stunningly colorful. Tried working awhile with several pairs of these beautiful Blue Gularis Killifish (Fundulopanchax sjostedti Loè) but the efforts fizzled out. Never got any viable eggs. These wild-caught (F0) Mountain Redbelly Dace (Chrosomus oreas) have yielded over a thousand fry. My lirtle 2-yr old solved the critical breeding trigger by flipping the light timer switch off so they went for 72-hrs with constant light. Turns out that’s what they need! We sold off excess Discus, making our Fish Club auctions very exciting. I kept this small “Blue Man Crew.” (n.b. two in this photo are females).

Those are Mystery Snail egg clutches!

Just got a couple cool shots of males flaring at each other…

Mr. is guarding eggs very well. Probably a slow hatch, temps are a bit low. I will look for free-swimming fry by Wednesday evening.

It may help us better respond to your situation if you describe your goals. Are you trying to propagate plants and Bettas for sale? Are you breeding Bettas yourself, or are you buying them in bulk and selling individually? Exactly what species of plants are you growing? Are you sure that you need any Co2? Do you have any photographs you could add to this post so that we can all see what your design is? Flow in an aquarium is best achieved with something mechanical -- either a Canister Filter, HOB, or Hydor circulator. Betta splendens, however, live naturally with virtually zero flow. Are you dividing / separating spaces to keep males from aggression? See if you can help answer a few of these, and we can better understand and respond intelligently. Thanks!

Thanks kindly! I realized just now that I uploaded the wrong video. Check it out again, and you’ll see the pair embracing. Male is guarding eggs in nest now.

Woah! “I saw Mommy kissin’ Santa Claus!”

Lovely tank! You could add some long Valisneria Americana grass. I can really fill in the background, or a desired side... I always like the way that Roseline Sharks (aka Denison Barbs) look with mid-size Gouramis. I'd study on them a bit. Check here for helpful info. A school of these would be amazing in there... THIS IS THE WAY

I hoped to cross her with a sibling who was turquoise, but he passed away before maturity, and she died before I could spawn her. I think that the line was weak, and traits were recessive. I got there by crossing a Gold female with an electric blue male. Their fry were all muted gold and pale blue, but once they spawned, the results were fantastic. Some desired traits skip generations. As a rule of thumb, I like to think that fish often look more like their grandparents than their parents. You are right . . . it is difficult to know exactly where you're starting with fish. Even if you keep careful records, it can be difficult to know where you began unless you go back to F0s in the wild. For this reason, it is more satisfying, as a breeder, to work with US Native fish, where it is relatively easy to catch them from the wild and build a healthy line. I like cold water species more recently, because they are easier to keep. Here are some wild caught (F0) Notropis chrosomus from Red / Lime Hills region of Alabama that I hope to breed this year. I also have a hobbyist bred line that I could cross them into as well...

From the intro to Mandalorian, Season 3, episode 6 "Guns for Hire," a single fish is fed to the female Starship Captain while in what appears to be a Bacta Tank...

That Ram looks amazing! Wow. I’ll relate a strange story to begin this response… About 6 years ago, I was attending my son’s soccer practice. He was too young to leave there alone, so I would try to bring some work along. I got distracted, though, by this guy who would be training dog owners by the side of the field. Every practice, people showed up with hyper, out-of-control dogs, and within minutes, this guy had the dogs totally obedient and calm, obeying his commands. It was crazy. Then, he would teach the owners everything they were doing wrong, and send them on their way home with instructions. I talked with him one day, and learned that he had studied animal psychology, and trained dogs for police and military over many years. The reason I am remembering this just now is that he told me that early on in his career, he lived with his uncle in Germany who bred Alsatians. His uncle told him that the old breeders used to breed every 3rd generation to a wolf in order to maintain desired traits. Fact or fiction… I do not know. But that might be a decent rule of thumb for crossing in a new line. Maybe breed your F2s or F3s to a different Black Ram line. If you can find another Black Ram breeder, you could be doing each other a favor by exchanging the best from each line to build in stronger genetic diversity. Livebearers can go 7-8 generations inbred before deformities consistently show up. The situation is complex with Rams though their traits are different… weak genetics show up earlier. We tried breeding an Opal Ram. We got an interesting couple of possibilities, but the line was weak…

Trying again with Betta splendens. Little tweaks, here and there. I remain focused and optimistic!

Trying to multiply Daphnia colonies…

I use a large net -- ca. 6" x 8 " -- and use the technique described above to move the fish into the net. Don't worry if you get other fish caught in the net. Once you have your Flying Fox, you can immediately remove and other fish by hand back to the aquarium.

Daphnia thriving!

Going to need some more information. What is the photo period? Wha are your water parameters in the 5.5 gal? How often / how much do you change water? What animal life is in the tank besides the plants? How well cycled is it? What you are describing sounds initially like it may be a cloud of bacterial bloom. I fI recall, it is heterotrophic, and arises because your ammonia processing bacteria and nitrite processing colonies are deficient. As it congeals, you may get these slimy, fuzzy bacterial concretions in your photo. You say you have a HOB and a sponge. Are you somehow decimating your bacteria colonies? Are you changing or washing out the HOB media? Are you squeezing the sponge filter to death? I run several 5.5 gal tanks. I rarely change water or squeeze sponges. I just top water off. I recommend you use FritzZyme 7 Nitrifying Bacteria for Freshwater Tanks as directed for your tank size. It will bringing some bacteria in cyst form that will help to establish the tank better. Dr. Tim's Nitrifying liquid bacteria bottles are also very good. I cannot personally vouch for others. (1) Build healthy, thriving nitrifying bacteria colonies. Use FritzZyme 7, or similar product. (2) Add lots of healthy plants, and maintain a regular photoperiod with a light timer. When you add Java Ferns, do not bury the rhizome (twiggy / stalk). Just set it on the bottom, and put a small stone or piece of wood on to keep it from floating. (3) Add some snails. Give the tank a few weeks to balance. (4) Add fish.

Do you want two more Marlieri? DM me if you do and live in the US lower 48. I ship with reasonably good success. I have two from a friend who had to tear down his tanks that are not breeding. Fish that won't breed for me typically do not stay long in my Fishroom.