ISSUE 128 FEBRUARY 2006 FREE - Fry-Angle

ISSUE 128 FEBRUARY 2006 FREE

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY

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Heros sp. ‘Rotkeil’ or redhead severum– see page 10 for details

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BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY

FISHTALES 3

In this Issue:

Bermuda Fry-Angle Society

If you are inerested in joining the Bermuda Fry-Angle Society, just come along to our nextmeeting to see what we are about. Meetings are held on the third Friday of every month eitherat the Police Recreation Club or the Lecture Rooms, behind the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum &

Zoo, or contact Howard Paynter Sr., Membership Coordinator at 292-3828(w) or email:[email protected]. He will be happy to provide any further information or just sign you up.Application forms are also available at Noah’s Ark (just ask at cashier’s desk.) You can alsodownload an application form from our website: www.fryangle.com

Membership fees are $20 for the year, and payable to Bermuda Fry-Angle Aquarium Society.

4 President’s Podium

5 Guest SpeakerKen Davis

6 Breeding the Red-Tail Goodeid

8 Spawning the Chinese Algae-eater

10 Species Spotlight:• Archocentrus sp. “Honduran

Red Point – Rio Monga”• Archocentrus spilurum “Rio

Blanco Gold”• Zoogoneticus tequila• Heros sp. “Rotkeil” – Red Tie

Heros or Redhead Severum

NEED YOUR HELP!!!!Need your articles,comments, book

or equipment reviews forfuture issues of Fish Tales

Need more information on Your Fish or Plants?

Well check out our library,we have some great books for

you to borrow and its free to members.

Call Carol at 236-1533 Mon-Fri between 9:30 & 6pmA complete list is availble on our web site: www.fryangle.com

The next meeting will be at 8pm on Friday 17th Februaryat the Police Recreation Club, Devonshire. The guestspeaker for the night will be Ken Davis. He will give aPowerpoint presentation on a collecting trip toHonduras.

Sunday February 19th: Annual Home Show Contest –Ken Davis will Judge the tanks. Entry Deadline FridayFebruary 17th.


4 FISHTALES

Wow! I missed a meeting! In theseventeen years that the society hasbeen in existence, I have hardly ever

missed a club meeting or event. One year I hadto attend a training course in Barbados at thesame time that our Annual Fish Show was takingplace but I can’t remember missing anotherevent. Perhaps I missed a meeting or two yearsago when I was working shifts but, if I did, I don’tremember. Anyway, I somehow double-bookedmyself for the January meeting and wascommitted to taking my daughter to the theatre,so I missed the meeting.

From the reports that I have heard, I misseda very interesting Powerpoint presentation byMark Outerbridge regarding the Bermuda killifishpopulation. I’m now hoping that I can catch thepresentation when Mark next gives it. The clubwas also able to present Mark with a chequeduring the meeting. The cheque, for $1,000, willhelp to finance the DNA research that may finallyclarify just how many species of killifish exist inBermuda.

In February we will welcome back KenDavis as the visiting speaker. When Ken lastvisited, many of our members were on vacationor were otherwise committed, resulting in a lowturnout. Ken had brought a lovely selection ofDiscus and other species for auction. Despitethe low turnout, the auction was very successful.On this visit, Ken will again kindly donate fish forauction so I hope that we have a strong turnoutby the members. Some of the species that willbe in the auction are featured in this month’sSpecies Spotlight.

We will be holding our annual Home Showon Sunday 19th February. This is where themembers travel to the homes of competingmembers to see their best decorated aquarium.

Visiting speaker, Ken Davis, will bethe independent judge. He willscore each tank and the winner will beannounced once all tanks have beenjudged. All members are eligible to enter theHome Show. We will need to have a list of allcompetitors by the meeting on Friday 17thFebruary.

With more and more visiting speakersswitching to Powerpoint presentations insteadof slide shows, the Society is looking atpurchasing our own LCD projector. We havebeen fortunate enough to be able to borrow aprojector whenever needed, at no cost, but wehave had some difficulties with the colourrendition at recent meetings. We will beconsulting members before making such a largepurchase.

PRESIDENT’S PODIUMPRESIDENT

Time to start thinking how you can help run our Society

Our AGM is NEXT MONTH

Friday 17th March, at the

BAMZ Lecture Room All Executive and elected positions are up for grabs


FISHTALES 5

THIS MONTH’S GUEST SPEAKER F R I D A Y , F E B R U A R Y 1 7 T H 2 0 0 6 – 8 P M

P O L I C E R E C R E A T I O N C L U B , P R O S P E C T , D E V O N S H I R E

Ken Davis has been keeping fish for 43 years, His interest liesmostly with cichlids and livebearers and he maintains andbreeds over 100 species in his 12,000 gallon hatchery. A true fish

nut at heart, having owned both retail and wholesale fish operations,his interest now are to breed hard to find or endangered species.Recently he was fortunate enough to fulfill a life long dream to go ona collecting trip with some of his good friends in the ACA to Honduras.The collecting bug has bitten and he plans to go back again this year.He would love to visit Mexico and South America to collect in the nearfuture.

Ken Davis


6 FISHTALES

Having successfully spawned swordtails Iwas ready to step up and try anothermore obscure live-bearer. The Red-tail

Goodeid is not widely kept in the aquariumhobby but is a beautiful fish for a communitytank. Color varies from a dull grey to a brightyellow depending on its mood and water condi-tions. As the name suggests the tail is a nicereddish-orange color. A nativeof Mexico and Central Americathis species is hardy and canendure wide ranges in both pH(5.5-8.0) and temperature (13Cto 32C). It stays small (growsto about 6cm) and is relativelypeaceful - getting along withother live bearers as well asgourami and smaller cichlids.

FoodIt isn’t fussy about food eitherand will eat flakes, frozen or livefood. As it has a small mouth itis best to feed crushed flakesand small live food like brineshrimp. The occasional bloodworm treat is gob-bled up. The Red-tail will eat primarily from thetop level but occupies all levels of the tank andwill scavenge food from the bottom.

SexingSexing is easy once the fish is mature. Femaleswill be slightly rounder with a gray patch on the

stomach just in front of the anal fin. I have foundthe males to be smaller and to have a brighterred tail. They also tend to be pinker around thegills.

BreedingAs this is a relatively peaceful fish getting themto breed is not extremely difficult. Like mam-

mals, the male impregnatesthe female and she carriesthe fry to term (about 60days depending on condi-tions). The typical ratio of 1male to 2 females workswell and reduces the malesparring that can occur. Istarted with a group of 5juveniles – 2 males, 3females in a 20gallon com-munity tank shared withgouramis, swords andsnails. As they grew itbecame apparent whichwere females and whichwere males and I kept a

close eye on the condition of the females. Asthe fry grew in her abdomen the female seemedto become incredibly swollen until it appearedthat you could almost see the eyes of the frythrough her skin.

Although I watched closely, I missed the initialspawning. I woke up one morning to find thatthe most pregnant female had released the fry

Breeding the Red-Tail Goodeid(Xenotoca Eiseni)

by Simon Onabowale (BFAS)December 2005

Male

Female


FISHTALES 7

during the night. She was looking fit and trim,but there wasn’t a sign of any fry. Apparently theothers in the tank were opportunistic feedersand must have mistaken the fry for brine shrimp!

As the second female approached term I decid-ed to remove her to a separate breeding tank. Iused an ordinary 10 gallon setup with a cornersponge and plenty of hiding places for the fry:rock caves, java moss and some castles andthings with openings too small for the adult.Water conditions were identical to the communi-ty tank: pH 6.8, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates<20ppm, Temp 24C. To induce the female torelease the fry I raised the temperature slowly to27C and performed 20% water changes twice aweek. I’m not sure if it helped or not, but afterabout two weeks I noticed a handful of tiny frypeeking out from the java moss and the caves.The female was still gravid so it seemed that itwould take some time for her to release all of thefry. After about 24 hours she appeared back tonormal and there was a noticeable increase inthe number of fry. At best count there wereapproximately 30 little guys each less than1.5cm long.

Caring for FryAs I previously found out, the fry make littlesnacks for other fish including the adults so Ireturned the female to the community tank. Thenice thing about live bearers is that the fry are

very well formed, free swimming and able toseek out their own food. I started with very finecrushed flakes which they took readily from thesurface. I also added some floating duckweedwhich naturally contains minute organisms likeinfusoria. I’ve found that this works well for fryespecially when I can’t get home to feed themtheir three full meals per day. The duckweedprovides a sort of constant feeder if they getpeckish. If you don’t have floating plants or areafraid of bringing in bad bugs, the local fish storesells Liquifry which (I’ve heard) does the samething in providing microscopic food. While thefry will get most of the food, they are messyeaters and care must be taken to maintain waterquality. I did weekly water changes of 20%making sure to siphon the debris off the bottom.A small caliber siphon is best to ensure no fryget sucked up.

ConclusionTo summarize, breeding the Red-tail Goodeid isnot extremely difficult as long as you can careproperly for the fry. To maximize the spawn size,isolate the female and provide plenty of hidingspaces. For feeding, use finely ground, highquality food in combination with infusoria. Waterquality should be maintained with (at least)weekly water changes of up to 50%. If all isdone right, just sit back and enjoy this hardy,pretty fish.

New handles for glass canopies - most glass covers come with a plastic handle thatinserts over the edge of the front piece of the cover. If this breaks, what do you do? Well,you can try to repair them with some sort of glue, but here is an alternative: silicone andmarbles. Most "marbles" (the toy balls used in games) are actually glass, and come in awide array of colors. They make attractive "handles." Place a dab of silicone on the cen-ter of the front cover, about one half inch from the front edge. Then, choose a marble andplace it on top of the silicone, using a slight twist (this gives you an even spread of sili-cone). After 24 hours, your new handle is ready. Silicone works very well in bonding glassto glass, so these handles are quite durable.

– Joe Ferdenzi

Hints / Tips / Tricks

Greater City Aquarium Society


8 FISHTALES

Gyrinocheilus aymonieriCommon name: Chinese algae-eaterFamily: Gyrinocheilidae (Algae eaters)Order: Cypriniformes (carps)Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)Max size: 30 cm/ 12 inchesWater conditions: pH range: 6.0 - 8.0, temperature 25 - 28°C/ 77-82°F

I would like to say a few words about one of thebigger surprises I've had as an aquarist. A fewyears ago I was cleaning out a 50 gallon holdingtank in which I kept fishes that were going to anew aquarium when the new aquarium wasready. I also used it for keeping fish I didn't knowwhat else to do with. At this time this aquariumwas home to twelve blue discus of about 10 cm,and four albino Chinese algae-eaters that were

about 20 cm. The aquarium was overgrown withlots of C. Demersum since it had been neglecteda little during the previous months. Now the timehad come to clean this aquarium and try to weedout the jungle that had formed. To my big sur-prise I found a small (1.5 - 2cm) Chinese algae-eater fry. After looking around a little more I founda total of seven fry. I stopped the cleaning andleft the aquarium as it was, since the water qual-ity was good and I didn't want to change toomuch. I didn't see any reason to move the frysince they seemed big enough to be safe fromthe discus which I was moving to a 120 gallonAmazon tank in a few days anyway.

The fry survived and grew relatively fast on a dietof what they could find in the well-planted aquar-ium, and boiled lettuce. But I never got the par-

THIS ARTICLE REPRINTED FROM Aquarticles.com

And one day there were fry...Spawning the Chinese Algae-eater

(Gyrinocheilus aymonieri)By William Berg

of Sweden, for aquaticcommunity.com

Continued on page 10

FISHTALES 9

SPECIES SPOTLIGHTArchocentrus sp. “Honduran Red Point – Rio Monga”The Honduran Red Point is sometimes called theBlue Convict but it is not believed to be a colourmorph of the Convict Cichlid (Archocentrusnigrofasciatus) Rather, it is believed to be a newspecies, closely related to Archocentrus nanoluteus.This pretty cichlid stays quite small and severalpairs can be kept in the same aquarium, as they arenot overly aggressive. The particular strain beingbrought to Bermuda is from the Rio Monga, whichis the location where Rusty Wessel and RossSocolof first found them in 1989. This strain hasbright red fins on the males and a red belly on the females over a purple/blue body.

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Archocentrus spilurum “Rio Blanco Gold”Archocentrus spilurum is another small cichlid with a maximum size of about 4 inches. The naturalrange of A. spilurum is the Atlantic slope of Belize and Honduras where it inhabits both lakes andrivers, preferring shallow slow moving waters.

The strain being brought to Bermuda is from the RioBlanco, which is a tributaryof the Rio Copan inHonduras, near to theGuatemalan border. Themales show a nice goldcolour and are muchbrighter than the brownstrain that is established inthe hobby.

Zoogoneticus tequilaThis beautiful goodeid comes from the upper reaches of the Rio Teuchitlan Ameca Basin inMexico. Actually, it would be more correct to say that it did come from that location. Having onlybeen discovered in 1990, it now appears to beextinct in the wild. The species can only be found incaptive populations.

This livebearer is peaceful and very adaptable to avariety of water conditions. It will do well in anaverage community aquarium. The fry are largeenough at birth to take newly hatched brine shrimp.

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Wild caught pair



10 FISHTALES

Heros sp. “Rotkeil” – Red Tie Heros or Redhead SeverumSimilar in appearance to Heros severum and Herosappendiculatus, this species is distinguishable by thebright red collar. It is a fairly new species from the RioItaya in Peru where it eats vegetable and live foods. Itdoes not grow as large as the Severum and is a relativelypeaceful species.

The peace may not extend through spawning behaviour,when the species has been reported to stake out aterritory of about 50cm x 50cm x 50cm within anaquarium, attacking anything that strays into that territory.A large tank would be beneficial for maintaining a groupof these cichlids with a 75 gallon tank having been recommended by one breeder for an adult pair.

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2006 American Cichl id Associat ion

C O N V E N T I O NGet more out of the cichlid hobby!

July 20-23, 2006 – Chicago, IL

ents to spawn again, and the fry themselvesnever spawned either. However I would like tosay a few words about how the Chinese algae-eaters had been kept before the spawning, andwhich waters they spawned in, to see if I can helpanyone else have success where I failed - tobreed Chinese algae-eaters and figure out whattriggers them to breed.

When I found the fry their parents had been in theholding tank for about 2-3 months. Before that Ihad kept them in a 50 gallon tank which washeavily circulated and contained very few plants.Temperature was 25°C/ 77°F. They were keptwith clown loaches and various barbs. I've beenwondering if the fact that they were kept in aheavily circulated aquarium and then moved toan aquarium with close to no circulation andwarmer water (28°C/ 82°F) may have simulated anatural change in conditions that precedesspawning.

The breeding tank was as I said before, heavilyplanted, and had little or no circulation at all, due

to the vegetation. The water was old and clean.Dh about 4. I can't say the exact water conditionsas I don't know exactly when the spawning tookplace. However the water conditions had beenrelatively stable and it is reasonably safe toassume that the stated water conditions are cor-rect.

The Chinese algae-eaters had been fed a varieddiet which consisted mainly of boiled lettuce andbroccoli, Hikari sinking algae wafers, andshrimps. They also ate the leftovers from thefood I gave the barbs and loaches, which con-sisted mainly of different frozen foods.

Sexing the fishes I assume is simple. I believe it'sdone in the same way as Corydoras catfishes.Some fish have much broader bodies and Iassume them to be females; males are moreslender especially if well fed.

Getting the fish into spawning condition seemsto be quite simple if they are fed a good diet.However the problem seems to be triggeringthem to spawn. As I said, I never got them tospawn again. Maybe you will have better luck!

Spawning the Chinese Algae-eater– Continued from Page 8

F O R M O R E

I N F O R M AT I O N

h t t p : / / w w w. a c a 2 0 0 6 . c o m

E X E C U T I V E C O M M I T T E EPresident: ................................................................Craig MorfittVice-President: ......................................................Nyon SteedeTreasurer: ..............................................................Nyon SteedeRecording Secretary: ..............................................Peter MarshCorresponding Secretary: ................................Wendy Corrado

E L E C T E D O F F I C E R SLibrarian: ..............................................................Carol TerceiraBreeders Award Program Chair: ........................David TerceriaEditor: ....................................................................Peter MarshWebmaster: ............................................................Peter MarshMembership Coordinator:............................Howard Paynter Sr.


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or Email:

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Membership to the Bermuda Fry-Angle Aquarium Society isopen to any resident of Bermuda who has an interest in tropicalfish. The annual membership fee is $20. The Society’s financialyear runs from April 1st to March 31st.

Meetings are held on the third Friday of every month. Meetingplace is either the Police Recreation Club or the LectureRooms, behind the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo.Occasionally meetings are held elsewhere. Check the“meeting” column in this newsletter for details of upcomingmeetings.

If you would like further information please contact HowardPaynter Sr. Tel: 292-3828(w) or email: [email protected]

Unless otherwise stated, articles appearing in Fish Tales have beenwritten by local (Bermuda) authors. These articles may be reprinted.Should another aquarium society decide to reprint an article we askthat they provide us with two copies of the publication containing there-print (one copy for the author, one copy for our Society). We willabide by the same conditions when re-printing articles from otherpublications.

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ISSUE 128 FEBRUARY 2006 FREE - Fry-Angle