Practical Fishkeeping January 2024

IT SAYS January on the cover, but I know an awful lot of you are subscribers and will be receiving this issue just after the middle of December. With that in mind, I, and the whole team at PFK, would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year, and would like to thank you for your support throughout the previous twelve months. Without you, there'd be no point doing what we do, and we're grateful to you all. This month we've headlined a fish we've not looked at in far too long—the pu? erfish of Dichotomyctere. Not as common as they once were, they've been making an appearance in stores in recent months, so it was high time we o? ered a low down on their…

FRESHWATER INVERTS Wizard snail SNAILS. LOVE OR hate them, you can't help but admire their tenacity and sheer variation; over one-fifth of described marine fauna can be attributed to the order mollusca. Various estimates have suggested there are as many as between 165,000180,000 mollusc species (including those currently undescribed), of which almost 80% are what are known as gastropods. Or, in layman's terms, snails and slugs. Yet, despite the group's scope, only a select few are found in the aquatic trade, and a quick look through any fishkeeping social media shows the stark division between proponents and critics. Certainly, there are cons to the most commonly available species: apple snails, Pomacea sp., have a voracious appetite for plants, while the fecundity of those in the Melanoides, Planorbis and Lymnaea genera…

THE INTERNATIONAL AQUATIC Plants Layout Contest (IAPLC) is the global equivalent of the Formula One Grand Prix for aquascapers. Founded in 2001 by the late aquascaping pioneer Takashi Amano, it attracts a swathe of planted tank enthusiasts from around the world to compete against each other for a coveted position as creator of one of the aquascapes of the year. In 2023, despite ongoing geopolitical unrest, the contest managed to attract 1850 individual entries from a combined 78 countries: an admirable number for such a niche subject, despite being some 10% fewer entries than 2022. Here we present the top seven aquascapes in the world, as ranked by the IAPLC, alongside the judging panel's comments on each (edited to tidy up some areas of translation from Japanese), as well as…

TROPICAL Suckermouths IMAGINE YOU'RE SHOWING your aquarium to guests, pointing out your rare, expensive, or colourful species. While explaining you suddenly realise that they're not following you, as their attention is focused on a fish that has just unexpectedly (to them) attached itself to the front glass. Sound familiar? For some reason ‘sucker’ fish species have a tendency to steal the limelight from their brighter and more active tankmates. I find them fascinating, too, and can spend hours watching as they make their ways up and down the glass. I think it's the unusual angle—we usually don't see the bellies of our fishes—that grabs the attention. For this entertaining reason, and in some cases for their usefulness in tackling algae issues, I always have a couple of species in my…

TROPICAL Dichotomyctere EVER-ENDEARING, THE pufferfishes are a common enough sight in both the freshwater and marine worlds. But what about their cousins from the realm that's found in between? Although often touted as freshwater pu? ers, the genus Dichotomyctere overall leans a little saltier than this label might initially imply. Being amongst the most commonly-traded and popular pufferfishes in the hobby, they're well-studied but frequently misunderstood characters that just need a little extra care to ensure that they thrive in your aquarium. So, let's look at how to get the best from them. Dichotomyctere? I thought they were Tetraodon… Back in the day, a remarkable chunk of pufferfish diversity was assigned to the genus Tetraodon. However, while that makes things simple to remember, this practice of lumping unrelated animals into…

THE EXPERTS TROPICAL How do I stop these fish breeding? I have a 450-litre planted community tank. Is there a way to stop my mollies having babies? I love the fish, but I must admit that I regret ever introducing them to this tank. IAN BIBBINS NEALE REPLIES: Eggs and fry are often consumed by other fish and, in the absence of zooplankton, many newly hatched fry will starve to death without regular offerings of suitably small alternatives, such as brine shrimp nauplii. But once you start talking about animals with relatively large offspring that are able to consume algae and aquarium detritus, such as snails, cherry shrimps, and most livebearers, things are very different. They are big enough—or mobile enough—to avoid casual predators, and opportunistic enough to thrive on whatever…