- The Bermuda Fry

Photo by Jeff Rapps - http://www.tangledupincichlids.com/index.htPml
ISSUE 128
FEBRUARY 2006
FREE
Heros sp. ‘Rotkeil’ or redhead severum
– see page 10 for details
THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY
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Water Fall. Increases oxygen level
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MON—FRI 9:30 AM—6:00 PM
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TEL : 236-1533
FISHTALES
3
The next meeting will be at 8pm on Friday 17th February
at the Police Recreation Club, Devonshire. The guest
speaker for the night will be Ken Davis. He will give a
Powerpoint presentation on a collecting trip to
Honduras.
Sunday February 19th: Annual Home Show Contest –
Ken Davis will Judge the tanks. Entry Deadline Friday
February 17th.
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Call Carol at 236-1533 Mon-Fri between 9:30 & 6pm
A complete list is availble on our web site: www.fryangle.com
President’s Podium
Guest Speaker
Ken Davis
Breeding the Red-Tail
Goodeid
Spawning the Chinese
Algae-eater
Spotlight:
10 Species
• Archocentrus sp. “Honduran
Red Point – Rio Monga”
• Archocentrus spilurum “Rio
Blanco Gold”
• Zoogoneticus tequila
• Heros sp. “Rotkeil” – Red Tie
Heros or Redhead Severum
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.
In this Issue:
NEED YOUR HELP!!!!
Need your articles,
comments, book
or equipment reviews for
future issues of Fish Tales
Bermuda Fry-Angle Society
f you are inerested in joining the Bermuda Fry-Angle Society, just come along to our next
meeting to see what we are about. Meetings are held on the third Friday of every month either
at 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:
hcycles@northrock.bm. 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 also
download an application form from our website: www.fryangle.com
I
Membership fees are $20 for the year, and payable to Bermuda Fry-Angle Aquarium Society.
BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY
4
FISHTALES
PRESIDENT’S PODIUM
ow! I missed a meeting! In the
seventeen years that the society has
been in existence, I have hardly ever
missed a club meeting or event. One year I had
to attend a training course in Barbados at the
same time that our Annual Fish Show was taking
place but I can’t remember missing another
event. Perhaps I missed a meeting or two years
ago when I was working shifts but, if I did, I don’t
remember. Anyway, I somehow double-booked
myself for the January meeting and was
committed to taking my daughter to the theatre,
so I missed the meeting.
From the reports that I have heard, I missed
a very interesting Powerpoint presentation by
Mark Outerbridge regarding the Bermuda killifish
population. I’m now hoping that I can catch the
presentation when Mark next gives it. The club
was also able to present Mark with a cheque
during the meeting. The cheque, for $1,000, will
help to finance the DNA research that may finally
clarify just how many species of killifish exist in
Bermuda.
In February we will welcome back Ken
Davis as the visiting speaker. When Ken last
visited, many of our members were on vacation
or were otherwise committed, resulting in a low
turnout. Ken had brought a lovely selection of
Discus and other species for auction. Despite
the low turnout, the auction was very successful.
On this visit, Ken will again kindly donate fish for
auction so I hope that we have a strong turnout
by the members. Some of the species that will
be in the auction are featured in this month’s
Species Spotlight.
We will be holding our annual Home Show
on Sunday 19th February. This is where the
members travel to the homes of competing
members to see their best decorated aquarium.
W
PRESI
DEN
T
Visiting speaker, Ken Davis, will be
the independent judge. He will
score each tank and the winner will be
announced once all tanks have been
judged. All members are eligible to enter the
Home Show. We will need to have a list of all
competitors by the meeting on Friday 17th
February.
With more and more visiting speakers
switching to Powerpoint presentations instead
of slide shows, the Society is looking at
purchasing our own LCD projector. We have
been fortunate enough to be able to borrow a
projector whenever needed, at no cost, but we
have had some difficulties with the colour
rendition at recent meetings. We will be
consulting members before making such a large
purchase.
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
BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY
FISHTALES
5
THIS MONTH’S GUEST SPEAKER
F R I D AY, 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 AT 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
en Davis has been keeping fish for 43 years, His interest lies
mostly with cichlids and livebearers and he maintains and
breeds 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 on
a 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 near
future.
K
BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY
6
FISHTALES
Breeding the Red-Tail Goodeid
H
(Xenotoca Eiseni)
by Simon Onabowale (BFAS)
December 2005
aving successfully spawned swordtails I
was ready to step up and try another
more obscure live-bearer. The Red-tail
Goodeid is not widely kept in the aquarium
hobby but is a beautiful fish for a community
tank. Color varies from a dull grey to a bright
yellow depending on its mood and water conditions. As the name suggests the tail is a nice
reddish-orange color. A native
of Mexico and Central America
this species is hardy and can
endure wide ranges in both pH
(5.5-8.0) and temperature (13C
to 32C). It stays small (grows
to about 6cm) and is relatively
peaceful - getting along with
other live bearers as well as
gourami and smaller cichlids.
Food
It isn’t fussy about food either
and will eat flakes, frozen or live
food. As it has a small mouth it
is best to feed crushed flakes
and small live food like brine
shrimp. The occasional bloodworm treat is gobbled up. The Red-tail will eat primarily from the
top level but occupies all levels of the tank and
will scavenge food from the bottom.
Sexing
Sexing is easy once the fish is mature. Females
will be slightly rounder with a gray patch on the
stomach just in front of the anal fin. I have found
the males to be smaller and to have a brighter
red tail. They also tend to be pinker around the
gills.
Breeding
As this is a relatively peaceful fish getting them
to breed is not extremely difficult. Like mammals, the male impregnates
the female and she carries
the fry to term (about 60
days depending on conditions). The typical ratio of 1
male to 2 females works
well and reduces the male
Male
sparring that can occur. I
started with a group of 5
juveniles – 2 males, 3
females in a 20gallon community tank shared with
gouramis, swords and
snails. As they grew it
became apparent which
Female were females and which
were males and I kept a
close eye on the condition of the females. As
the fry grew in her abdomen the female seemed
to become incredibly swollen until it appeared
that you could almost see the eyes of the fry
through her skin.
Although I watched closely, I missed the initial
spawning. I woke up one morning to find that
the most pregnant female had released the fry
BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY
FISHTALES
7
during the night. She was looking fit and trim,
but there wasn’t a sign of any fry. Apparently the
others in the tank were opportunistic feeders
and must have mistaken the fry for brine shrimp!
As the second female approached term I decided to remove her to a separate breeding tank. I
used an ordinary 10 gallon setup with a corner
sponge and plenty of hiding places for the fry:
rock caves, java moss and some castles and
things with openings too small for the adult.
Water conditions were identical to the community tank: pH 6.8, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates
<20ppm, Temp 24C. To induce the female to
release the fry I raised the temperature slowly to
27C and performed 20% water changes twice a
week. I’m not sure if it helped or not, but after
about two weeks I noticed a handful of tiny fry
peeking out from the java moss and the caves.
The female was still gravid so it seemed that it
would take some time for her to release all of the
fry. After about 24 hours she appeared back to
normal and there was a noticeable increase in
the number of fry. At best count there were
approximately 30 little guys each less than
1.5cm long.
Caring for Fry
As I previously found out, the fry make little
snacks for other fish including the adults so I
returned the female to the community tank. The
nice thing about live bearers is that the fry are
very well formed, free swimming and able to
seek out their own food. I started with very fine
crushed flakes which they took readily from the
surface. I also added some floating duckweed
which naturally contains minute organisms like
infusoria. I’ve found that this works well for fry
especially when I can’t get home to feed them
their three full meals per day. The duckweed
provides a sort of constant feeder if they get
peckish. If you don’t have floating plants or are
afraid of bringing in bad bugs, the local fish store
sells Liquifry which (I’ve heard) does the same
thing in providing microscopic food. While the
fry will get most of the food, they are messy
eaters and care must be taken to maintain water
quality. 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 fry
get sucked up.
Conclusion
To summarize, breeding the Red-tail Goodeid is
not extremely difficult as long as you can care
properly for the fry. To maximize the spawn size,
isolate the female and provide plenty of hiding
spaces. For feeding, use finely ground, high
quality food in combination with infusoria. Water
quality should be maintained with (at least)
weekly water changes of up to 50%. If all is
done right, just sit back and enjoy this hardy,
pretty fish.
Hints / Tips / Tricks
New handles for glass canopies - most glass covers come with a plastic handle that
inserts 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 and
marbles. Most "marbles" (the toy balls used in games) are actually glass, and come in a
wide array of colors. They make attractive "handles." Place a dab of silicone on the center of the front cover, about one half inch from the front edge. Then, choose a marble and
place it on top of the silicone, using a slight twist (this gives you an even spread of silicone). After 24 hours, your new handle is ready. Silicone works very well in bonding glass
to glass, so these handles are quite durable.
– Joe Ferdenzi
Greater City Aquarium
Society
BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY
8
FISHTALES
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
Gyrinocheilus aymonieri
Common name: Chinese algae-eater
Family: Gyrinocheilidae (Algae eaters)
Order: Cypriniformes (carps)
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)
Max size: 30 cm/ 12 inches
Water 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 the
bigger surprises I've had as an aquarist. A few
years ago I was cleaning out a 50 gallon holding
tank in which I kept fishes that were going to a
new aquarium when the new aquarium was
ready. I also used it for keeping fish I didn't know
what else to do with. At this time this aquarium
was home to twelve blue discus of about 10 cm,
and four albino Chinese algae-eaters that were
about 20 cm. The aquarium was overgrown with
lots of C. Demersum since it had been neglected
a little during the previous months. Now the time
had come to clean this aquarium and try to weed
out the jungle that had formed. To my big surprise I found a small (1.5 - 2cm) Chinese algaeeater fry. After looking around a little more I found
a total of seven fry. I stopped the cleaning and
left the aquarium as it was, since the water quality was good and I didn't want to change too
much. I didn't see any reason to move the fry
since they seemed big enough to be safe from
the discus which I was moving to a 120 gallon
Amazon tank in a few days anyway.
The fry survived and grew relatively fast on a diet
of what they could find in the well-planted aquarium, and boiled lettuce. But I never got the par-
BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY
Continued on page 10
FISHTALES
SPECIES SPOTLIGHT
9
The Honduran Red Point is sometimes called the
Blue Convict but it is not believed to be a colour
morph of the Convict Cichlid (Archocentrus
nigrofasciatus) Rather, it is believed to be a new
species, closely related to Archocentrus nanoluteus.
This pretty cichlid stays quite small and several
pairs can be kept in the same aquarium, as they are
not overly aggressive. The particular strain being
brought to Bermuda is from the Rio Monga, which
is the location where Rusty Wessel and Ross
Socolof first found them in 1989. This strain has
bright red fins on the males and a red belly on the females over a purple/blue body.
PHOTO BY KEN DAVIS
Archocentrus sp. “Honduran Red Point – Rio Monga”
Archocentrus spilurum “Rio Blanco Gold”
The strain being brought to Bermuda is from the Rio
Blanco, which is a tributary
of the Rio Copan in
Honduras, near to the
Guatemalan border. The
males show a nice gold
colour and are much
brighter than the brown
strain that is established in
the hobby.
PHOTO BY KEN DAVIS
Archocentrus spilurum is another small cichlid with a maximum size of about 4 inches. The natural
range of A. spilurum is the Atlantic slope of Belize and Honduras where it inhabits both lakes and
rivers, preferring shallow slow moving waters.
Wild caught pair
Zoogoneticus tequila
This beautiful goodeid comes from the upper reaches of the Rio Teuchitlan Ameca Basin in
Mexico. Actually, it would be more correct to say that it did come from that location. Having only
been discovered in 1990, it now appears to be
extinct in the wild. The species can only be found in
captive populations.
This livebearer is peaceful and very adaptable to a
variety of water conditions. It will do well in an
average community aquarium. The fry are large
enough at birth to take newly hatched brine shrimp.
BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY
10
FISHTALES
Similar in appearance to Heros severum and Heros
appendiculatus, this species is distinguishable by the
bright red collar. It is a fairly new species from the Rio
Itaya in Peru where it eats vegetable and live foods. It
does not grow as large as the Severum and is a relatively
peaceful species.
The peace may not extend through spawning behaviour,
when the species has been reported to stake out a
territory of about 50cm x 50cm x 50cm within an
aquarium, attacking anything that strays into that territory.
A large tank would be beneficial for maintaining a group
of these cichlids with a 75 gallon tank having been recommended by one breeder for an adult pair.
Spawning the Chinese Algae-eater
– Continued from Page 8
ents to spawn again, and the fry themselves
never spawned either. However I would like to
say a few words about how the Chinese algaeeaters had been kept before the spawning, and
which waters they spawned in, to see if I can help
anyone else have success where I failed - to
breed Chinese algae-eaters and figure out what
triggers them to breed.
When I found the fry their parents had been in the
holding tank for about 2-3 months. Before that I
had kept them in a 50 gallon tank which was
heavily circulated and contained very few plants.
Temperature was 25°C/ 77°F. They were kept
with clown loaches and various barbs. I've been
wondering if the fact that they were kept in a
heavily circulated aquarium and then moved to
an aquarium with close to no circulation and
warmer water (28°C/ 82°F) may have simulated a
natural change in conditions that precedes
spawning.
The breeding tank was as I said before, heavily
planted, 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 conditions
as I don't know exactly when the spawning took
place. However the water conditions had been
relatively stable and it is reasonably safe to
assume that the stated water conditions are correct.
The Chinese algae-eaters had been fed a varied
diet which consisted mainly of boiled lettuce and
broccoli, Hikari sinking algae wafers, and
shrimps. They also ate the leftovers from the
food I gave the barbs and loaches, which consisted mainly of different frozen foods.
Sexing the fishes I assume is simple. I believe it's
done in the same way as Corydoras catfishes.
Some fish have much broader bodies and I
assume them to be females; males are more
slender especially if well fed.
Getting the fish into spawning condition seems
to be quite simple if they are fed a good diet.
However the problem seems to be triggering
them to spawn. As I said, I never got them to
spawn again. Maybe you will have better luck!
2006 American Cichlid Association
FOR MORE
C O N V E N T I O N
I N F O R M AT I O N
Get more out of the cichlid hobby!
July 20-23, 2006 – Chicago, IL
BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY
h t t p : / / w w w. a c a 2 0 0 6 . c o m
PHOTO BY JEFF RAPPS
Heros sp. “Rotkeil” – Red Tie Heros or Redhead Severum
BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
President: ................................................................Craig Morfitt
Vice-President: ......................................................Nyon Steede
Treasurer: ..............................................................Nyon Steede
Recording Secretary: ..............................................Peter Marsh
Corresponding Secretary: ................................Wendy Corrado
ELECTED OFFICERS
Librarian: ..............................................................Carol Terceira
Breeders Award Program Chair: ........................David Terceria
Editor: ....................................................................Peter Marsh
Webmaster: ............................................................Peter Marsh
Membership Coordinator:............................Howard Paynter Sr.
SEND US
YOUR IDEAS!
Contributions
are welcomed!
We welcome contributions
SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP
Membership to the Bermuda Fry-Angle Aquarium Society is
open to any resident of Bermuda who has an interest in tropical
fish. The annual membership fee is $20. The Society’s financial
year runs from April 1st to March 31st.
Meetings are held on the third Friday of every month. Meeting
place is either the Police Recreation Club or the Lecture
Rooms, behind the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo.
Occasionally meetings are held elsewhere. Check the
“meeting” column in this newsletter for details of upcoming
meetings.
If you would like further information please contact Howard
Paynter Sr. Tel: 292-3828(w) or email: hcycles@northrock.bm
to Fish Tales, including
articles, comments, book
or equipment reviews,
letters, crosswords,
puzzles etc.…
Any contributions should
be sent to
PETER MARSH
P.O. BOX HM 744
HAMILTON HM CX
or Email:
REPRINT POLICY
Unless otherwise stated, articles appearing in Fish Tales have been
written by local (Bermuda) authors. These articles may be reprinted.
Should another aquarium society decide to reprint an article we ask
that they provide us with two copies of the publication containing the
re-print (one copy for the author, one copy for our Society). We will
abide by the same conditions when re-printing articles from other
publications.
pmarsh@northrock.bm
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WARWICK WK BX
BERMUDA
THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION
OF THE BERMUDA FRY-ANGLE
AQUARIUM SOCIETY
The guest speaker for the night will be Ken Davis
Police Reccreation Club, Devonshire
Friday February, 17th, 8:00 p.m.
NEXT MEETING