January 13, 2015 London Aquaria Society Tommy Lam from Shrimp Fever Will Be Coming to Do a Presentation for Us
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Volume 59, Issue 1 January 13, 2015 London Aquaria Society www.londonaquariasociety.com Tommy Lam from Shrimp Fever will be coming to do a presentation for us. Golden and Dwarf (Nannostomus beckfordi) and that can fit into it. For my pets, Pencilfish Profile dwarf pencilfish (Nannostomus I usually offer them occasional marginatus). Generally they are feed of brine shrimps and I add www.allabout-aquariumfish.com rather shy and would some- the finely crushed food flakes Guest post contributed by Mark Edgar (California) times become motionless, swim- that are specially made for tiny ming at the same spot. The tank fish. Sometimes I even took the Pencilfish is a tiny and that houses the fish should be a effort to introduce a variety of peaceful community fish charac- well-planted aquarium with at foods to enrich their diet such terized by its thin body which is least 50 percent of overall area as growing live daphnia or col- made up of three different color covered with dense vegetation lect these from ponds coupled stripes. There are quite a num- to provide a good hiding spot. I together with mosquito larva if ber of different species that even took the effort to add I happen to bump across these form the pencilfish family group some small empty clay pots so as well. What I notice is that of fish and each has its own dif- that the fish feels more like at my pencilfish simply love these ferent appearances depending home for them. Pencilfish prefer until I find myself unable to on the location on which they to move in groups and if possi- find constant food supply to were caught. Based on my own ble get at least 7 -8 of them or feed them. Nevertheless, investigation and casual conver- you can even consider adding spending my time in search for sation with pet shop owners, neon fish, zebra danio, hatchet their favorite food is always some of them claim that certain or killifish as they all make per- something worth the effort. species actually originated from fect tank companion. the rivers of Amazon while cont’d on page 3 some were caught and im- Feeding the pen- ported from the French Guy- cilfish can be ana. However, presence of quite a challeng- these fish is very rare nowadays ing task because and I can hardly come across your main con- aquarium pet stores that openly cern is that since offer the fish for sale. their mouth size is so small, there Two of the most popular are only certain species is the golden pencilfish types of food President Ron Bishop….…….........519-457-7907 [email protected] Vice-President January 13, 2015: Tommy Lam from Shrimp Fever Nancy Egelton………….519-666-2775 will be coming to do a presentation for us. [email protected] Treasurer/C.A.R.E.S. Rep. February 10, 2015: To be announced. Annette Bishop…....…....519-457-7907 [email protected] Member at Large Unsung Hero’s of the Derek Tucker……….........519-639-1183 London Aquaria Society [email protected] Jennifer McNaughton…..519-719-8546 Over the years there have been so many Members who [email protected] have given up their time to help run our club, never asking for Nancy Egelton……...…..519-666-2778 anything in return. This year, I hope to mention some of [email protected] those Members to tell them how much we appreciate what Secretary / Correspondence they do for us. Sharon MacDonald……..519-453-0094 sharonmacdonald62@gmailcom Gina & Derek also play a part in the running of our Membership Chair club. Nancy Drummond……...519-644-2753 They take time out of their day to visit aquarium stores [email protected] in the Toronto area for our Bus Trip and they are also busy, Library helping the club out at our monthly and yearly Auctions. James & Margaret Kelly…519-681-0717 B.A.P./H.A.P. Thanks Gina & Derek Stephen Gregson….…..…519-649-5019 [email protected] Table of Contents Newsletter Editor Our Unsung Hero’s………………………..…...…..……………2 Lorraine Gregson….........519-649-5019 [email protected] President’s Message……….…..……………....……………..…..3 Monthly Jar Show The Peacock Gudgeon Saga……………………….…………….4 Sarah Lee……...…...…....519-686-3473 [email protected] Breeding the Bumblebee Goby………………………………….6 Advertising Breeding & Raising Bada bada…………………………………..8 Bob Steele……...…..…...519-473-5648 [email protected] C.AO.A.C. Events Calendar..…………………………………...11 Auction Chair BAP/HAP AWARDS……………………………………………..12 Jennifer McNaughton…..519-719-8546 [email protected] BAP/HAP ANNUAL STANDINGS……………………………...13 C.A.O.A.C. Representative The Habitat of a Plecostomus………………………………….13 Annette Bishop….….......519-457-7907 [email protected] New Species Found……………………………………………..15 Website C.O.A.C. Report………………………………………………...16 Eric Geissinger……....…...519-672-9168 [email protected] President’s Message January is here as well as 2015 so Happy New Year to one and all. On behalf of my family to yours, I wish all the best in the future and all the happiness that a new year can bring - like plans for the new pond in the back yard, a new addition to the fish room or that big aquarium you always wanted . For January, we are having Tommy Lam from Shrimp Fever coming to do a presentation for us and I trust this will be very interesting. Shrimp are a new facet to our hobby and this part is growing very fast. I hope we have a great meeting as this is somewhere new we can venture. The pot luck Christmas dinner went off quite well. All the special recipes and everything tasted great. There were lots of prizes to choose from so Thanks to all who donated and congrats to the winners. The fish show for January will be in Gup- pies, Open Class and the Open Class for Plants. The auction will be there as usual. Happy New Year and have a great 2015 Ron Bishop President London Aquaria Society Golden and Dwarf Pencilfish Profile cont’d from front page Breeding the pencilfish can be quite tough to achieve because basically what you will need to do is to construct a proper egg collection mechanism to prevent their own parents from gobbling up and make a good meal out of their own eggs. What I did was to purchase a type of fine wire mesh and put the layer on top of the aquarium surface so that when the eggs are dropped to the bottom, the parents won’t be able to reach them. Iden- tifying which of the pencilfish is a male or fe- male is a close to impossible feat to achieve as they all look almost the same. I could only tell the different gender apart based on their activ- ity when the males start to chase after the fe- males. Once the eggs hatched, it will take about 5 to 6 days before the fry become free swim- ming in search of food. London Aquaria Society Page 3 The Peacock Gudgeon Saga http://cdas.org.au/main/node/97 By Rodney and Deborah Ralph from Tank Talk Volume 11 No. 1 1987 In July of 1985 we purchased a lovely pair of Peacock Gudgeons (Tateurndina ocellicauda) at the club's auction. Being new members then, our first intention was just to put them in our commu- nity tanks just another pretty fish. However we became more involved in the hobby and had seen two articles in the Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine, Volume 31 Book 8 (# 326) April 1983 pages 56 to 60 inclusive, involving the Peacock Gudgeon. We decided then that we would definitely try to breed these lovely looking fish. We placed them in a 27 litre (6 gallon) tank with a 20 cm (8 inch) depth of water. Inside the tank we had put one and a half to two inches of gravel, a ceramic bridge and a corner filter. It was also well planted. The water was well aged tap water with a neutral pH and a constant temperature of 26 degrees C. We conditioned the pair on a mixture of freeze dried foods and live Daphnia, fed alternately twice daily. About four months after purchasing, the pair were ready and willing to breed. The male was approximately one and a half inches long and the female slightly smaller. The female's tummy started swelling and turned a deep yellow Colour and the male proceeded to chase her and display around her at any opportunity. The male's colours became brighter as well as showing the contrasting red and blue colour at it's best. The male at this time was searching for a spawning site and after choosing it under the ceramic bridge, he cleaned it out and spent his time either under the bridge or chasing the female. Eventually, he enticed the female to join him under the bridge. Over the next two days the eggs were laid sus- pended from the underside of the bridge. The female was then in no uncertain terms kicked out. There were approximately 50 eggs laid but it was difficult to see them while hidden under the bridge. They were yellow in colour and suspended individually by a fine thread. The male stayed un- der the bridge guarding and fanning the eggs, only coming out occasionally for food but mainly wait- ing until the live Daphnia swam to him. The eggs seemed quite small to us but it was our first intro- duction to the breeding of egg-layers. We had recently bred Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) 2-4 weeks before and these were in the same tank, thinking they were too small to eat the newly hatched Pea- cocks.