Posts Tagged ‘Ancistrus’

Sheaf Valley Aquarist Society Fish Auction Report

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

I went to the Sheaf Valley Aquarist Society fish auction today, this is the second time I’ve been to a Sheaf Valley Aquarist Society fish auction. I received a very warm welcome from members of the society, and despite leaving late from York, and driving like a Forumla 1 driver, got to the auction before it started. Auction started shortly after 1pm, and was well catered for with refreshments, drinks and food, fanastic because I’d not eaten all day (I don’t do breakfast!), so it was nice to get a can of pop during a break, when I wasn’t bidding!

Just a list of the few fish that came up for auction, Corydoras (approx 10 different species), Platies, Mollies, Guppies, Angelfish, L-number catfish, Ancistrus (approx 5 different species), Cichlids, Danios, Gouramis and Killifish. I think there was something for most fishkeepers from beginners to experts, and also for sale F1 (local breed) King Tiger Plecos L66s, it wouldn’t be fair to list prices, just make sure you go to the next auction.Lots of dry goods, filters, food, electrical items, tanks. In my opinion, most tank breed local fish are always better quality than whats available in the local tropical fish shops. (if available).

The next auction, and it’s the last auction of the year is on Monday Evening 12th October at The Pheasant Inn, 822 Barnsley Road, Sheffield, S5 0QG. Auction starts at 20:00hrs.

This is the list of items I won today at auction

  • 6 x Pearl Danios (Danio albolineatus)
  • 2 x “Black Nose Sturisoma” (Sturisoma nigrirostrum)
  • 2 x L147 “Head Spot Pleco” (Peckoltia sp. (L147))
  • 2 x Pairs of “Line Breed Half Snakeskin Round Tail Moscow Guppies” (Poecilia reticulata)
  • 6 x Corydoras Kronei (Corydoras barbatus (Sao Paulo))
two boxes of fish!

two boxes of fish!

Again congratulations to members of the society for a execellent auction.

I was also lucky enough to win a few times in the Sheaf Valley Aquarist Society raffle today, and for first prize I selected a new Aqua One external filter and later some ceramic hoop filter media. So it’s always worth purchasing a strip to help out the society.

Raffle Prizes

Raffle Prizes

I also passed Simply Aquatics, 84 – 86 The Common, Ecclesfield, Sheffield, S35 9WN on the return journey, and this is one excellent shop. Excellent  slection of tropical, coldwater and marines, and very well maintained, and clean setup. Five stars and highly recommended, it will be on my places to visit next time I’m in the area. It’s only been open 6 months, and is definately worth a visit, whether begineer or expert. I also met David Marshall, Secretary of Ryedale Aquarist Soceity purchasing fish in Simply Aquatics as well (I didn’t know, I’d been sat next to him in the auction for three hours!). Just Google for David Marshall, Ryedale (click link and you’ll see who I’m referring to). He beat me to purchasing a very nice catfish, I must contact him, and ask him for the latin name, I also bought, what David Bought.

Purchased from Simply Aquatics,

  • 6 x Purple Zebra Danios (Danio rerio)
  • 5 x Spotted Silver Dollars (Metynnis lippincottianus)

The Zebra Danios were described as purple, but they look red/pink to me, the shop is a member of OATA, and assured me they were not dyed, and were true purple/red/pink direct from Malayasia. David and I were interested how these young danios develop and if they breed true. If DEFRA come knocking at our doors, we will know, thay they are GM fish! The Silver Dollars are to grow on for my large oddball tank.

Interesting!

Interesting!

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Fish House Stock List – July 2009

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

I’ve been meaning to put this list together for a while, so I’ve “audited” the fish house today, and this is some of the fish which are currently in the fish house.

Catfish

Ancistrus

Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus brown sp.  (many breeding pairs)

Albino Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus albino sp. (many breeding pairs)

Gold Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus gold sp.

Corydoras

Corydoras Aenus (breeding group)

Corydoras Aenus Albino form

Corydoras Aenus Green stripe

Corydoras paleatus

Corydoras Loxozonus

Corydoras Sterbai (wild breeding groups)

Corydoras Weiztmani (wild breeding groups)

Synodontis

Polka-dot catfish Synodontis Angelicus (my pet Spotty, he’s now twenty this year, cost me alot 20 years ago, from Blagdon Water Gardens, Plymouth. He’s been with me a while)

Large spot catfish Synodontis Ocellifer (my pet Dotty, also twenty this year! He’s been with me a while also!)

Synodontis Petricola
(wild breeding group)

Cuckoo Cat Synodontis Multipunctatus

“Plecos”

Giant Whiptail catfish Sturisoma aureum (breeding groups)

Goldspot pleco L001 Pterygoplichthys joselimaianus

Goldy pleco, L014 Scobinancistrus aureatus

Sailfin pleco Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps

Snowball plecos, LDA33 Baryancistrus LDA-33

Characins

Bleeding Heart tetra Hyphessobrycon erythrostigma

Buenos Aires tetra Hemigrammus caudovittatus

Cardinal tetra Paracheirodon axelrodi

Congo tetra, Phenacogrammus interruptus

Neon tetra Paracheirodon innesi

Cichlids

Electric Blue Jack Dempseys Rocio octofasciata (Cichlasoma octofasciatum)

Nicaraguen Cichlids Hypsophrys nicaraguensis (Cichlasoma nicaraguense) (breeding groups)

Green Terror Aequidens rivulatus (breeding pair)

Geophagus proximus (breeding pair)

Geophagus sp?

Jack Dempseys Rocio octofasciata (Cichlasoma octofasciatum) (breeding pairs)

Kribensis Pelvicachromis pulcher (breeding pairs)

Quetzel cichlids Vieja synspila (Cichlasoma synspilum) (breeding pair)

Yellow or Tricolour cichlids Cichlasoma salvini (breeding pair)

Cichlids – Lake Tanganyika

Tropheus Moorii Ikola (wild breeding group)

Tropheus Moorii Bemba (wild breeding group)

Tropheus Moorii Kasanga
(wild breeding group)

Tropheus Moorii Ilangi (wild breeding group)

Loaches

Clown Loach Chromobotia macracanthus (Botia macracantha)

Candy Loach Botia striata

My Odballs

Boesemani Rainbowfish, Melanotaenia Boesemani

Black Ghost Knife Fish Apteronotus albifrons

Spotted climbing perch Ctenopoma acutirostre

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Bad things come in threes!

Thursday, December 6th, 2007

Earlier this evening I was going to post an entry about bad things coming in threes, when only two Fish House issues had occured since Sunday 2nd December, I was going to post, what’s the third, well it happened! So let me wind back to Sunday 2nd December

  1. Early evening there was an initial mains power cut of a few minutes (approx 5 mins), too short for me to find a torch, and start-up the generator to power the fish house, after the main outage, the power flickered on and off for a few minutes and then it went off for good. The only problem this time, street lights were on, and the neighbours house lights, so the problem was localised, I found the 32A ring main for the sockets downstairs had tripped, on switching back-on, the main earth breaker tripped! After running around the house, unplugging all sockets, the fault was isolated to the fish house, my concern that the “brownout” had caused some equipment failure!

    At the back of the fish house, I noticed a pool of water, and realised, I’d overfilled one of my tanks, which had back-syphoned into the sump, when the power was off for those few minutes, which had then shorted out a “chocolate block” (terminal block for the layman!) which connects the heater in the sump! This is the only electrical wire on the fish house floor, so if any water gets on the floor, electrics are not affected! You’ll be glad to know, this has now been fixed, no “chocolate block” anymore!

  2. Went todo some washing this evening and found water all over the floor again near my water treatment works at the rear of the fish house, started to move everything out, thinking a water pipe/valve/seal had failed, and noticed the water had blood it in! I then noticed that the freezer, I keep my fish food in, hadn’t been turned back on since Sunday 2nd December! The fozen bloodworm was defrosting, and the freezer had already defrosted all over the floor!
  3. On Monday 3rd December, I noticed two home bred albino Ancistrus (bristlenose catfish), almost in a trance, not moving, I thought they were dead, in my 6ftx2ftx2ft display tank. They weren’t in a very good state, it was strange because all the Angelfish, Corydoras, L number plecos, Clown Loaches were showing no signs of distress, I fished them out and dropped them in a tank full of algae. 24 hours later, they are fit as a fiddle again, and the algae on the tank has gone, so although I cannot see them, I know they are alive and well. (did spot them this eve!).

    Late this evening, I found another Ancistrus (bristlenose catfish) dead in my display tank, this raised the alarm, to check all the water paramaters, still surprised that no other fish are showing signs of distress. The ammonia in the water, was slightly elevated, slightly higher than I’d like, this could have been caused by the dead fish, or another factor, no time to waste, 50% water change with water at same temperature and chemistry, and I’ve added two large sheets of Polyfilter just as “belt’s and braces”, I’ll re-check ammonia/ph tomorrow evening!

So there we have it, Bad things come in threes! No need to worry about the third!

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Male Ancistrus

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

If you’ve come via a bookmark or RSS Newsreader “thru’ the backdoor”, you will not have noticed that I’ve changed the image on the Home Page.

It’s given me an opportunity to try out a new digital camera, the “boss” doesn’t read the blog, so she’ll never know, unless you tell her, and I’ll know!

I’ve still got a Digital SLR, which gives great results, but a decent Canon macro lens and flash is very expensive for such a camera, and you can get good macro fucntions in smaller compact Digital Cameras, you can also get closer to the glass with a compact Digital Cameras – this one was a bargain!

So here’s the first picture I took with the new camera, which is also featured on the home page, if you missed it, here it is again.

Male Ancistrus
Male Ancistrus sp. Bristlenose catfish to most of us fishkeepers, this one is rather special because it doesn’t have the usual colouration as most common, it is almost black with white spots, and it will not breed with any of the common females!

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Male Ancistrus

Wednesday, March 14th, 2007

Spending some more time in the fish house, and used my Python Syhphon successfully with the new “drain” to partial water change two 90l tanks, in less than 30 minutes. An excellent time saving device. I’m not using it to top up water, because the incoming water is too cold, and would chill the fish, so I use a much bucket of pre-heated water to top-up.

Now that my Ancistrus that I’ve breed are maturing, I’ve noticed that I have very few females, most of the young fish are males. I will be selecting a pair shortly and hoping to breed more of these.

As for Bettas Splendens, not heard anything about a replacement yet.

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Whoops..and thats…

Friday, January 20th, 2006

..another water experiment that’s gone Pete Tong!

I’ve been trying to sex the hundreds of Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus sp. I have in the fish house, some have now matured, but I seem to have females, and no males, Males can usually be indentified as they have bristles on their noses and cheeks, but some species of Ancistrus both males and females can have bristle on their noses. I would have expected to see bristles by now.

While I was doing this, I overfilled a water butt in the fish house! I need to find a mop….quickly….

Sorry, no posts this week, I’ve been pulling the late shift again in the office, so apart from feeding the fish in the fish house, I’ve not been doing anything interesting to report on.

The large mature Angelfish with “pop-eye” is getting worse, I’ve been looking at photographs I’ve been taking every few days, and the condition is worse that at the begininning of the week.

I will remove this fish from the display tank tomorrow, and re-house in a small quarantine tank, it is possible that the Polyfilter has removed the MelaFix from the aquarium, as it removes organics. It’s much easier to treat a fish in a smaller aquarium and requires less MelaFix.

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Nobody told me there’d be days like these!

Thursday, December 8th, 2005

Overcome by the smell of acetic acid (vinegar smell) after re-sealing Aquarium No.9, I’ve left the fish house early this evening. I’m surprised this fish tank held water, because after cleaning it out, the silicon sealer in the fish tank, just fell off – well this tank is 18 years old! – only new aquariums seals, are guaranteed for 1-2 years today.

L001
L001/L022 feeding on courgette with the help a Screwcumber.

Ancistrus feed on cuc
Albino Ancistrus sp. feeding on cucumber with the help of a Screwcumber.

It’s the Christmas Party tomorrow evening, so I don’t expect I’ll be adding a blog entry tomorrow!

There’s a little yellow idol to the north of Katmandu

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Tropical Fish Update

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005

Female Platinum Angelfish
Recovering well, after a week of MelaFix, I’ve completed a 50% partial water change this evening with my new toy, more on that another day, on the tank, and added two Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus to eat the algae that the MelaFix has encouraged to grow in the last week.

Sturisoma Aureum
All the fry have hatched in the second batch, and are hanging around the tank, they are not free swimming yet, More have hatched in this latest batch. The first batch are ferocious eaters, and are eating well, on spinach. More have hatched in this latest batch. There is some doubt at present as too whether these are Sturisoma Aureum, need to take some better photographs to have them correctly identified.

Royal Pleco, Royal Parnague, Panaque sp. nigrolineatus L190
I forgot to mention a few weeks ago I purchased two small L190s from Tropica in Knaresborough (and if you’ve never been there your missing out!), when I purchased them, they were in individual tanks, the reason I was attracted to them, is they have different colourations to the existing L190 I have and have usually seen, these are a grey/blue slate colour. They were going to go into different quarantine tanks, but…due to fish moves, they went into the same quarantine tank. For the first 24 hours, they were fine, but then they started fighting like cats and dogs, and almost tore each other apart, so they were isolated, and have been doing very well since, on algae wafers and Sera Crisps, and Bogwood.

PFK has an article this month on L190s, and it’s featured on the front cover, so if you don’t know what one looks like, it’s on the December 2005 Issue, (scroll down the page – it’s on the right!)

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Ancistrus sp. on an algae holiday

Tuesday, November 8th, 2005

I kept forgetting to upload these photographs after the Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus sp. had completed their little task.

Most of the catfish I keep and have mentioned before consume algae wholly or as part of their diet. I use various prepared manufactured foods that contain algae that I feed to my catfish, but I do prefer that they have a chance to eat the real mccoy. It’s quite a challenge to grow alage of the correct type and quantity to satisfy the vegetarian catfish.

I’ve found that using a Sunglow & PowerGlo tube in combination stimulates high algal growth on two shelves in my fish house. I harvest the algae produced and use it as a food source in other catfish tanks and on occasion my catfish have an algae holiday.

Before

Before the introduction of two albino Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus sp. into an 18x18x18 cube, heavily covered in algae.

After

After 72 Hours. You can see one Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus sp. in the picture. There is still algae on the floor on the tank, that they not yet consumed.

I have also found with experimentation, that Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus sp., “Plecos” and other L numbers, become lazy, at eating natural alage in the aquarium, if they are reguarly feed on algae wafers!

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Platinum Angelfish Second Spawning

Thursday, November 3rd, 2005

While I was in the fish house this evening, fussing over the Sturisoma Aureum taking photographs, I noticed the Platinum Angelfish madly chasing the Ancistrus catfish, which I have since removed, remember what happened last time! I quickly grabbed my camera (I’ve changed from the Sony Mavica 2 Megapixel to my Leica Digilux camera, yes I still cannot take pictures in focus, so don’t let the man in the shop tell you that a more expensive camera is better, it’s the person behind the lens!)

here are some pictures:-

Platinum Angelfish Spawn
Platinum Angelfish Spawning, Female is at the top of the sponge filter uplift.

Platinum Male Angelfish Pic 1
Male Platinum Angelfish getting very agreesive with me, female in the background.

Platinum Male Angelfish Pic 2
Male Platinum Angelfish, sparing at the glass!

Sorry for peeps, that don’t have broadband, this site isn’t dial-up friendly! Does any one do dial-up anymore? If you dont got to your local library and take the url with you!

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