Practical Fishkeeping May 2024

I HADN'T planned on this issue being so cichlid heavy, but now I look at it there's a big chunk of them featured—which is great! They're easily one of the most popular fish families out there, and it's easy to see why. Michel Keijman wants to remind you all that ellioti cichlids are as beautiful as ever (p.26), while Gabor Horvath finally gets to breed Discrossus filamentosus, a species he's long felt has been a worthy project (p.10). Tai Strietman also gives us a taster of what we might find in his forthcoming book, too, when he sets up a stunning Pantanal habitat tank, showing us that not everything natural looking has to be brown and leafy (p.60). Not that there's anything wrong with leaves—Alex Bell takes them to the…

TROPICAL Diamond tetra FISHKEEPING HAS BEEN a hobby in the UK since the 1850s, and since those early days, and their paucity of fish choices, it has blossomed into what we see today, with hundreds (if not thousands of species) available to us. Amongst so many fish there are some real gems. There's even a diamond. A stand-out, often underappreciated species, the diamond tetra, Moenkhausia pittieri, is a divinely deep-bodied characin, draped in a pastel-purple colouration and shimmering scales. In the wild it's a species endemic to Venezuela, but in the home setting it could be exactly what you've been looking for in an attractive community tank resident. Ironically, the diamond tetra is found with relative ease across fish shops, despite its elusiveness and scarcity in the wild—like so many…

SOME SAY THAT chess is boring, others think the same of fishkeeping. I agree to disagree. While watching chess is not my cup of tea, getting involved in a good strategy game with a worthy opponent can be invigorating—especially if you win. Fishkeeping is similar to chess in many ways. Before starting a new ‘game’ (a breeding project) you should be well prepared, learning as much as you can about the strategies and your ‘opponent’ (the new fish). Based on this information you can work out a game plan and prepare the board (your fish tank). Then—quite often—when something unexpected happens you just throw your gameplan out of the window and go with your instincts. And, as with chess, while challenges are important, you should always know and respect your…

I FIRST MET KNIGHT gobies, Stigmatogobius sadanundio, when I was at an especially early and naïve stage of my fishkeeping journey. Unaware of their needs, I initially housed a pair of them in a small tank with gravel and decoration that was ‘of its time’. The water was tropical but fresh, and it may have only been down to the fact that my tapwater was harder than depleted uranium that they did so well in it. Acquiring some literature (this being a pre-internet age of print), I discovered that they would benefit from brackish water. What luck! I had a brackish set up running at that time, and so in they went, where one of them promptly choked to death trying to swallow a young bumblebee goby. The remaining singleton…

A CLOSE LOOK AT the eartheaters of the genus Satanoperca may evoke several mental images—the following being some of the favourites I've heard over the years. Fish with a horse's head. Hmm, yes to the equine look, actually. In adult fish, the head in relation to the body does look striking, and with minimal imaginative effort it can indeed resemble that of a horse. Another term for these cichlids is ‘vacuum cleaner fish’. There is some truth to this association, too. On the whole, they do spend most of the day burrowing in the bottom, digging through it thoroughly, and blasting up dust in their wake. For anglers, at a casual glance both the appearance and behaviour of Satanoperca may bring to mind the popular perch. That's not too much…

IT WAS FEBRUARY 2001 and I was in Mexico with Hans van Heusden on a fishing expedition in search of cichlids. We were just south of Lake Catemaco, not far from the ‘Reserva especial de la Biosfera Sierra de Sta. Martha’, on the relatively flat plains of the state of Veracruz. Specifically, we were looking for a very special cichlid named Paraneetroplus nebulifer which was rediscovered in the area a little while back. But we also had the opportunity to seek out the ellioti cichlid, Thorichthys maculipinnis (named at that time as Thorichthys ellioti). We drove towards Hueyapan de Ocampo, seeking the Río dos Caños. After passing a little town, we saw the river to our left. It flowed through a deep riverbed, which was probably formed during the wet…