Lateral Line March 2011 - Hill Country Cichlid Club

The
Lateral Line
Volume 4, Issue 3
March-April, 2011
Inside this Issue:
Aulonocara sp. “stuartgranti” Maleri Island
“DYI” LED Lighting
Cares Species Sheet Iranocichla hormuzensis
Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus
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The HCCC is a proud member of
the Federation of Texas
Aquarium Societies.
The HCCC is a proud member of
the Federation
of American Aquarium
Societies.
Contents:
Cares Species Sheet Iranocichla hormuzensis
Fish Rooms: Managing the Cost
Chapter 3: Lighting - Making LED affordable
- Dan Schacht
Do You Know? Aulonocara sp. “stuartgranti Maleri” (Maleri Island)
- Kory Watkins
My experience with Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus
- Walter Wooton Jr.
Spring has sprung in South Texas. Unfortunately we have had a lack of rain which will
surly affect the annual wild flowers. I haven’t seen a single blue bonnet yet.
The fish have started getting spring fever
though and some great spawns are in the
works. I hope the rest of you HCCCer’s are
experiencing the same thing.
In April we will head on up to Austin for the
annual Amazonia cichlid Symposium. This
years speakers are Dave Hansen, Walter
Wooton and Caroline Estes. This is going to
be a great event! Next up will be the ACA
in Washington DC. Looks like we’ll have
good representation from the club. Hey,
what about that auction? Great crowd, good
deals and lots of super fish, plants and
equipment! I’m not sure when the next auction will be but certainly by September we’ll
put another on.
FOTAS CARES is coming up fast! There’s
still lots of work to do. The facility is incredible. I’m really looking forward to this.
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This issue of the Lateral Line is going to be
well read. Walt gives us the benefit of some
of the tricks he employs to breed bristlenose
plecos. Kory Watkins writes a breeding account on Aulonocara sp. “stuartgranti
Maleri”.
It’s been a while since I’ve
worked with peacocks and this is one I’ve
never tried. We continue highlighting a CARES species in each issue. This month is
Iranocichla hormuzensis.
I would absolutely love to work with that fish!
The talk in the club as of late, has been LED
lighting. Dan relates cost comparisons between running LED’s against other types of
lighting.. He then explains how to acquire,
and assemble LED’s.
The BAP is coming to life lately too. There
has been a huge resurgence in reports and
new entrants scoring some big points. The
race for Breeder of the Year is certain to be
worth watching. Benjamin set the bar high
last year. Will anyone be able to top his single year point total?
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Fish Rooms: Managing the Cost
Chapter 3: Lighting - Making LED affordable
- Dan Schacht
This aquarium full of lush live plants is lit solely by LED lighting. Photo by David Fair.
will have to bear with me as each and every
As I write this I am reminded of one of my
chapter requires research, experimentation,
favorite authors. He is publishing a series of
and practice. We as cichlid keepers have an
novels that I enjoy so very much. As he is
ever increasing need to manage the costs
writing book 5, the next book due out, for
associated with raising our fish. As we grow
some reason the publication date just keeps
the number of aquariums in our care, the inon moving further and further into the fucreased cost of not only the fish and the food
ture. He is now a good year and a half late
mater, but also the monthly support costs
and there is not even a glimmer as to when
that waste away our household budgets matthe novel will be released. Finally, as I finish
ter as well. In each installment I will discuss
writing an article that I have promised to
the areas that I have identified in which
release for 5 months, I think I understand. I
management of costs matter the most. The
hope you enjoy it and that it is worth the
articles will follow the following topics, but
wait.
not necessarily in order.
1. Space
For everything there is a budget and every2. Water
thing has a budget, even if we don’t know
3. Lighting
that it has a budget. Our beloved fish are no
4. Heating
exception to the budget rule. Many of us,
5. Filters
myself included have had to scale back the
6. Air System
fish room and expenses as the recession has
7. Foods & Chemicals
dragged on for what seems like an eternity. I
am introducing a series of 7 articles that I
Due to popular demand, I have selected item
plan on writing over the next few years. You
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#3 for this article. Lighting is the 3rd largest
cost in my fish room and as such it raises
two primary concerns. The first is the capital
installation cost and the second is the
monthly electrical bill. The age old question
arises, “If you had $1000 and you could
spend it however you choose, what would
you buy?” It is a good thing that I don’t have
$1000 to spend, as I would have one of
those new fancy LED HD TVs sitting in my
living room if I did. The upfront “capital”
cost of lighting falls into this category.
Would your $1000 go into replacing your
fish room lighting? This upfront cost is the
primary reason that LED lighting has not
gained a stronger foothold inside of the
United States.
The largest problem that exists with LED
lighting is the capital cost. Retailers and
manufactures are marketing the products at
such high margins that it is cost prohibitive
for the average Joe cichlid keeper with about
20 aquariums to upgrade his lights. The only
people that can even scratch the surface of
LED lighting are those that have only one or
two aquariums. The rest of us are just left in
the dark (well, not literally in the dark, we
still have our fluorescents…).
In aquaria there are many systems of lighting. I am analyzing only three. Of the three
systems of lighting, two are my own DIY
home creations, and as such are designed
with my needs in mind. The third system is a
system commonly found in aquaria installations. Today we look at the three installations:
1. The Shop Light
2. The Compact Florescent
3. The LED Light
The Shop Light is by far the most common
lighting system in use today. Although now
as wide spread, many people around the
United States have started using a CFL
(Compact Florescent Light) design installed
in their fish rooms as well. The primary purpose of a CFL design is to “save space”
above the tanks. This is a concern because,
although strip lights are cheaper, they take
up 3” of space above an aquarium and get in
the way when performing maintenance. In a
rack situation the space saving design was
critical and my primary purpose in designing
the light installations #2 and #3.
My Test Setup:
In all of my experiments, I am using a three
tiered rack design. My test design will house
six 20 Breeder aquariums. The 20 breeder is
an uncommonly sized aquarium with near
ideal dimensions. The dimensions on the 20
breeder are approximately 24” long, 18”
wide, and 12” deep. This is great for juveniles and fry grow out, and can even house
pairs of fish that are not overly aggressive. I
stacked the tanks so that I will have 10” of
clearance between the top of an aquarium
and the bottom of the next shelf. Two
aquariums are going to be installed on each
shelf, making the entire setup 80” from the
floor to the top of the top aquarium. This
height was chosen because I can feed the
fish in the top aquarium without a stool, ladder or chair as it is just within reach.
In the below sections, I outline the type of
installation, the impact the installation has
on “space” above the aquarium (how much
it eats into the 10” of clearance I left in the
rack), the impact of upfront costs, and the
monthly maintenance cost of the setup. In
conclusion, I will summarize the cost of
ownership by year for the first 5 years and
any thoughts and opinions that I have on the
subject.
I wish to make it clear now, that my home
made designs are not “approved” for use
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above an aquarium and I take no responsibility for any mishaps or injury that you may
occur from the installation. I do my best to
offer safety features to limit and minimize
the risk of harm that might occur, and I recommend that everyone follow and install the
safety items that I have included. Even with
these safety features I cannot guarantee that
the system is “safe”. If you follow in my
footsteps, do so at your own risk. One of the
most important steps is that all light should
be installed on a working GFCI outlet.
When working with power please turn the
power off at the breaker (or unplug it) before
you start.
I must make some assumptions for this article for the efficiency and monthly cost calculations. I assume the cost of electricity is
$0.12 per kWh. This figure was chosen because it is the average of what I pay at my
house in central Texas. I understand that
there are others that may pay much more,
and others that will pay slightly less. To
make the comparison more accurate for
yourself, replace the $0.12 in my calculations with the average that you pay
from your last few monthly electricity bills. I also assume that installation is free, no matter how difficult and the lights will be on for 6
hours a day, 30 days a month
(controlled via timer for accuracy).
lamps. For the material costs associated with
installing a shop light, refer to Table 1.
The energy used in the two T8 lamps is approximately 66 Watts (32 Watts x 2 + Ballast Losses). This power consumption makes
the shop light the most energy hungry device
in this comparison. For a calculation of ap-
proximate energy usage see Figure 1. Multiplying the energy cost by what I would require to supply my fish room (25 fixtures), it
would cost me $35.75 a month just for my
fish room lighting! There has to be a more
efficient way to supply the fish room with
light. Even with this disadvantage, the shop
The Shop Light:
A standard shop light is available at the local
hardware store and is relatively inexpensive.
I checked prices at Home Depot and they
cost about $20+tax per fixture without the
light offers many advantages. (1) The lamps
are relatively inexpensive, (2) there is a wide
range of color temperatures available to satisfy the tastes of each fish keeper, (3) they
are cheap and easy to install. In my opinion
however, the largest one striking disadvantage is that the shop light consumes 3” of
valuable space between levels on the rack.
With a 3 level rack, this consumed 9 extra
vertical inches. That space doesn’t seem like
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much, but 3 inches of space on a single layer
aids in the removal of rocks and decorations,
the catching of fish and maneuvering of
nets, and in the removal of hang on the back
filters for maintenance. This one disadvantage is why I ruled out the shop light as my
primary fish room light.
Compact Florescent Light (CFL):
In an attempt to install a light fixture that
resides 100% within the 2x4 frame of my
racking system, I devised the installation of
compact fluorescents. There are a plethora
of choices when selecting the CFL. The
most common CFL is the twist lamp
that most of us use in our homes. I
chose not to use the twist in style CFL
lamps, but rather a pin based plug in
lamp with a GU24 base. This design
was intended to simplify the eventual
upgrade of the lamps to LED lamps
which commonly come in the GU24
base. At the time I had not discovered
an affordable supply of LED lamps,
but I knew that one day I would find
one.
After a careful selection, I selected a
ballast and CFL that would work for
my situation. The selection was primarily based on cost. I found that the
ballasts are so expensive that they
dwarf the cost of the rest of the fixture.
While searching, I looked for something that
is less than 3 ½ inches tall AND less than 14
inches long. The length was important because if the lamp were longer, I would not
be able to install or replace it inside the rack.
The selected lamp is 1½ inches tall and 8
inches long and I found affordable ballasts
that can operate two of the selected lamps
each.
After much research, I assembled a material
list and started to order. As I practiced in-
stalling I discovered that the installation of
this design is not simple or easy. It took me
a good 2 hours of trial and error research to
discover how to properly wire the ballast to
the lamps. The ballast came with 9 different
wiring methods and only one of the 9
worked. In Table 2 is a list of what I ordered. These were the best prices I could
find anywhere I looked, both locally and
online. As I build the lights I continued to
improve on the design. As can be seen in the
photos, I do not have the Stainless Steel foil
as a grounding base behind the lamps as I
added that to the design as a later date.
The ballast was purchased from
1000bulbs.com which is based in Garland,
Texas. The part number is “BFWH2120CC”. I also purchased my CFL
lamps from the same company. The catalog
number for the CFL lamps is “FC13G24Q141OD”. I ordered the lamp base from
LightBulbEmporium.com, the same place I
ordered the LED lamp bases. The CFL lamp
base is similar to that of the LED’s, but it is
a little different. The part number for the
base is “90-1549”. Many of the smaller
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items were purchased at Home Depot for
convenience. The fuses and fuse holder were
purchased at Radio Shack and the Stainless
steel foil is available online at many different retailers.
Since the CFL lamps were still using a significant
amount of
electricity I
installed a
method to
switch half
of the CFLs
off unless I
was in the room. The other half of the CFL
lamps would be controlled by a timer. This
The CFL offered one HUGE advantage. The
three inches of lost space from the shop light
was now reclaimed! This improvement
would have a return on investment that was
immeasurable. Although there were 3 major
disadvantages to the CFL, this still ranked
higher in my book than the shop light.
I prepared to install these lights all over my
fish cave, but I was gladly distracted by the
discovery of the final light source, LEDs.
LED Light:
would helps me reduce the cost of light
throughout the day to day operation of the
room while retaining the flexibility I required when wanting to view or show the
fish room to others. For the calculated energy usage of the CFL fixtures, see Figure 2.
For one level of the rack I estimated that I
would need 4 lamps to maintain adequate
light in each tank. This brought the total installation for one rack level to near $80. This
is not insignificant by any means, but I it is
acceptable and that I would just install a few
at a time as the budget permitted until I had
the full fish room installed. I justified the
extra cost based on the additional 3 inches of
space that I would save above each tank
verses installing a T8 shop light.
The LED lamp I have selected a lamp that is
available for order directly from China. I
understand the backlash that I will receive
from the “Buy American” group, but I will
ask that group this; please find ANY light
bulb in ANY store that is not “Made in
China”. I failed in all of my searches. All
light manufacturers have their factories in
China. All I suggest is to remove some of
the “middle” men that will end up raising
the cost of the lamps and purchase the lights
directly from the factories in China.
I searched long and hard for a lamp that I
could afford that would still emit enough
light to satisfy my requirements. One day I
randomly stumbled upon a website called
www.alibaba.com. The prices for lamps was
affordable, but I had one HUGE barrier. I
would be ordering directly from China AND
I was required to order in lots of 100+
lamps. I was nervous about spending over
$1000 ordering lamps from China with no
guarantee that I would even get what I ordered, or that what I ordered would even
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The schematic used to wire LED lighting.
Top of Rack Lights –
All Safety Features Included
Fuse Holder Box – The fuse holder has a
0.5 Amp fuse and is supplying 4 lights
Close up of Rack Light –
All Safety Features Included
Corner of installation with light switches
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All Lights On
Left Light Only On
Right Light Only On
Underside corner close up – Lights off
Angled view above of rack lights – Lights on
Close up of the wiring
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even get what I ordered, or that what I ordered would even work. I then noticed a link
to a smaller website that was owned by the
same parent company. This is where I found
an order for a lot of 30 lamps for almost as
low of a price. I was much more willing to
risk $300 than I was willing to risk $1000.
The lamp I selected for my trials was purchased from www.aliexpress.com. This is a
whole sale site that targets the smaller customer. I have successfully made a purchase
from this website and I will purchase from
them again. (I warn you that you are offering
your e-mail address to China and you WILL
see an increase of spam messages.) When
searching I searched for “LED GU24 SMD
5W”. This is the SMD style LED with a
GU24 base and a 5 Watt power rating. I also
selected the filter for a shipping method of
“Free Shipping to the United States”. Be
wary of the high shipping cost of some of
the vendors on the site (much like eBay).
You should be able to find the lamps (lamp
only) with free shipping for about $10 each
if you purchase lots of 20-30 at a time.
The base needed is a G24D-3 base which I
obtained from LightBulbEmporium.com for
$1.14 each. On
the LightBulbEmplorium.com website, you can enter
“clearance” in the coupon code section to
receive free shipping on all orders of $8.00
or more. Search for part number “90-1548”
and you will find a G24D- 3 base. The remaining items were purchased from amazon.com, eBay, Home Depot, and Radio
Shack. I trust that anyone searching for these
items can find them somewhere with a little
effort. For the compete list of material ordered reference Table 5.
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As part of the safety feature, I am installing
one fuse per level per rack. This means that
in some racks I will fuse the circuit for 4
lamps (fewest) and on others I will fuse the
circuit for 9 lamps (most). Fuse sizes needed
for my installation are ¼ amp fuses (up to 5
lamps) and ½ amp fuses (up to 10 lamps).
Try to load fuses to about 80% of the fuse
rating to reduce blown fuses, but keep the
fuse rating as low as possible for safety.
When calculating the energy costs of the
LED lamp, I was able to use four 5 Watt
lamps for a total of 20 Watts. This compares
to the shop light power consumption of 66
Watts and the CFL consumption of 56
Watts. We finally found a way to reduce the
monthly maintenance cost of the lighting.
I was pleasantly surprised how affordable
the LED lights are compared to the CFL fixture. The LED fixture actually costs less,
puts out more light (see section on testing),
and uses less energy. Wow, can you say we
have a winner? I sure can. Although the
LED has clear advantages, to be fair, I must
recognize the disadvantages that the LED
fixture has as well. For a complete list of
advantages and disadvantages, please refer
to Table 6.
The LED/CFL Installation:
The great thing about the LED lamp chosen
is that it does not require a ballast to operate.
The connection is directly to the 120 volt
wall outlet. Concerns that arose in the installation is that to maintain a semblance of following local and national codes, you have to
install a #14 or #12 AWG copper wire
throughout the entire installation. The lamp
base is such that it only accepts a #18 AWG
solid copper wire. The only way I could devise to reduce the wire size and still protect
the wire from over current conditions is to
install the in-line fuse. This limits the current to 5 amps and below (5 amps is the
highest the in-line fuse holder I purchased
can go) which is under the rating of #18 wire
(rated for up to 10 amps).
The fuse alone does not remove the hazard
to your safety. Even ½ and amp can kill you
if there is a low resistance path through your
body (aka. You are wet). To reduce this risk,
I recommended a GFCI protected outlet as
your power source. In fact, every outlet you
use in your fish room should be protected by
GFCI outlets or breakers. To help a GFCI
work properly, the GFCI will need to have a
proper ground. The ideal solution would be
to ground the rack frame, but if your rack is
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rack frame, but if your rack is like mine,
then you are up a creek. Wood is not a good
grounding conductor.
As a backup solution, I thought to install a
stainless steel foil sheet behind all of my
lights. I need to ensure that I am touching
the Stainless steel sheet whenever I am
working with the electricity in the fish room.
Doing do will ensure that if I get shocked, I
will probably not be killed. I selected
Stainless steel foil for 2 reasons. (1) it doesn’t rust and (2) aluminum was not a good
option because it reacts in humid environments with copper and I am using copper
wire.
For other instructions on how to build the
light fixture, I recommend trial and error and
look at the pictures. It will be for me to explain ever little thing that needs to be done
when building the lights. I figured that the
best I can do is take pictures of the installation from every angle and let you figure it
out for yourselves.
The Testing:
In an attempt to be as scientific and unbiased
as possible, I borrowed a light meter from
work. I placed the light meter at ten inch intervals down the length of the rack. I placed
a white reflector underneath the test meter
and another white reflector on the shelf
above the test rack. The readings were taken
six inches from the front of the rack and six
inches from the back of the rack. Figure 4
displays the test locations while comparing
the three lighting systems. The measurements were taken after each light had five
minutes to warm up and with all other room
lights off.
The test results are displayed in Table 7. All
units of measurements are in Foot-Candles,
a standard measuring unit for light levels.
The T8 light fixture had by far the highest
output light level of the 3 systems, but it also
has the highest power input. The T8 lamps
were also 3½ inches closer to the light meter
because they intrude into the clearance space
between the rack and the aquarium. In a
comparison of light per watt of electricity,
the clear winner is the LED light fixture. To
increase the light level, additional LED
lamps can be installed if desired.
Cost of Ownership Analysis:
As part of the cost of ownership I must include the following items:
1. Capital Installation Cost (100% in the
first year)
2. Monthly Electricity Cost
3. Lamp Replacement Cost
CFL lamps have an average life of 10,000
hours. This means that they will require replacement every 4 ½ years. In comparison,
the T8 florescent lamps have an average life
of 25,000 years and will only need to be replaced every 11.5 years. The LED lamps
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The LED lamps have a life of 50,000 hours
and should not need replacement but once
every 23 years.
The electricity usage from Figures 1, 2, and
3 above convert into the annual energy usage numbers found in Table 8.
The true cost of ownership is displayed in
Table 9. In Table 9, the installation cost and
one year of electricity is summed in the first
year. In the second and subsequent years,
only the additional cost of electricity is
added into the previous year. In year 5 for
the CFL, the cost of 4 replacement lamps is
included.
Conclusion:
In part to manage my costs, and in part to
keep my wife happy, I am in the process of
building a new fish room. I have removed all
of my aquariums from inside the house and
relocated them to my “hobby room” which
is built onto the side of the garage. In all its
glory, my original fish room (100% inside
the house) consisted of 32 aquariums and
over 1200 gallons of water. At the moment I
am only running eight aquariums at only 350
gallons of water while I finish construction
of my fish cave. As I expand the fish cave I
am replacing and installing the LED lights
on all aquariums. When I finish building the
fish room I will have 45 aquariums with a
capacity of 1500+ gallons of water. I will
have over 120 of the LED lamps installed
throughout the room, and will be paying a
measly $6.50 (only ½ on at a time unless
photographing or showing the room) a
month for my lighting. The room is being
built to optimize all the costs outlined in the
introduction of this article. As I progress,
additional articles will be written to expound
on my findings in other areas.
I hope you find the information objective
and informative as it helps you decide how
to manage your ever increasing costs.
It will take just over four years to see any
return on investment for installing LED
lights. These numbers only hold true if you
were to purchase the shop light fixtures. If
you already own the shop light fixtures, and
you were to purchase the LED lamps as a
replacement, it would take an additional two
years (six total years) to realize a return on
your investment.
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Do you know? Aulonocara sp. "stuartgranti Maleri" (Maleri Island)
-Kory Watkins
A beautiful male Aulonocara sp. “stuartgranti Maleri” in the aquarium of the author.
I bet many of you have heard someone say
that they have a Sunshine Peacock. Most are
probably correct. However I would also bet
that some of the time, they in fact, have been
misguided. There are a few different species
of peacocks that are referred to as the
“sunshine peacock.” There are many beautiful Aulonocara species from Lake Malawi
but the true Sunshine Peacock is eye candy.
The Aulonocara sp. "stuartgranti
Maleri" (Maleri Island) is an extremely attractive peacock from Lake Malawi in Africa. When growing up, males and females
are pretty much identical and can not be
sexed on sight. If you have several different
breeding species of Peacock it is a must to
separate the fry. At 2-3 inches the males will
start to mature and the first tinges of color
start to appear. Females will always retain
the same dull color with faded vertical lines.
Once the males are fully grown they will
display a bright blue and yellow color that
will make you gape for days.
At present, the species is included in the A.
stuartgranti complex by virtue of its similar
behavior and body shape. It is separated
from others in the complex as it appears to
form an isolated population in the lake, suggesting it is a distinct species. There are several geographical variants available, as well
as a couple of man-made forms that exhibit
a deep orange/red colorations. It should be
noted that neither these, nor any other species or morph of Aulonocara should be
mixed in the aquarium. Females of the various species are almost identical and they
may hybridize. Please make sure you are
certain which species you are working with.
The "stuartgranti Maleri" has not yet been
described to science but is everywhere in the
hobby. The appearance in color and pattern
is very close to an Aulonocara baenschi. It is
very often referred to as a “Sunshine” or
“Yellow Peacock”. If you compare the
snouts of the two they can be told apart. In
A. baenschi, the profile of the snout contin-
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Aulonocara sp. “stuartgranti” Maleri Island in the aquarium. Photo by the author.
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ues in a convex curve over the eye. In A. sp.
"stuartgranti maleri", this line is much
straighter. Knowing this is very important.
You do not want to get two different species
and think you have the same thing. You
could come out with hybrids which is
frowned upon in the hobby.
Konings (1995c: 198) provides the following behavioral notes in the wild:
All forms of the stuartgranti group behave in a similar manner. They are rather
common in the intermediate habitat
where females and juveniles are found in
small groups (or singly) feeding from the
sandy patches between the rocks. They
are most numerous on gently sloping
coasts where many rocks lie scattered on
the sandy floor. Males excavate nests between rocks and territories are marked
with a shallow rim of sand at the entrance
of the spawning-cave. Digging is rarely
observed in Aulonocara, although males
of several species have tunnel-nests between stones.
I myself have a group of A. sp. "stuartgranti
Maleri" that consists of two males and eight
females. The group is in a standard 55 gallon
aquarium with a group of Cynotilapia Axelrodi from Nkhata Bay. The tank has two
sponge filters rated for 40 gallons each. For
my substrate I use pool filter sand that you
can get at the Home Depot costing six bucks
for 50 pounds. In addition to the pool filter
sand I also use some breeding caves and a
few pieces of Texas Holey Rock. The breeding is non stop and the temperament level is
very calm. Out of the 20 plus aquariums that
I maintain, this is by far my favorite one.
If you are into Cichlids and wanting to try
something with a striking yellow and blue
color, you might want to look at getting Aulonocara sp. "stuartgranti Maleri" (Maleri
Island) . When doing so remember to go to a
reliable and knowledge source when shopping for this species or any species of peacock. I recommend Dave’s Rare Aquarium
Fish. Great selection and the species are always pure. There are a handful of peacocks
that are similar to others so we as hobbyist
must make sure we are getting the correct
species that way there is no risk of crossing
our fish.
After reading this short article I hope you
have learned and few things about the
Maleri Island peacock and how it differs
from the other close species of peacocks.
Finally please remember to get you Peacocks or any species of fish from a good reliable source!
References
Konings, Ad. 1995. Malawi Cichlids in
Their Natural Habitat (Second edition).
Cichlid Press.
Fishandtips.com http://fishandtips.com/
displaydb.php?ID=39
USAFishBox.com
http://
usafishbox.forumotion.com/t5-aulonocarasp-stuartgranti-maleri-island?
highlight=aulonocara+sp+++stuartgranti
The female Aulonocara sp. “stuartgranti”.
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HCCC Leadership Group
Robert De Leon
Dave Hansen
JB Edmundson
Diane Tennison
Dan Schacht
Evan Bowers
Greg Steeves
HCCC Webmaster
Robert DeLeon
HCCC Database Guru
Evan Bowers
HCCC Treasurer
Dave Hansen
HCCC Membership
Diane Tennison
HCCC Librarian
Takeru Garcia (Austin)
Walter Wooton (San Antonio)
HCCC Lateral Line Editor
Greg Steeves
HCCC BAP Chairman
Dan Schacht
HCCC CARES Chairman
Troy Veltrop
HCCC CARES/International
CARES Committee
Claudia Dickinson
Dave Hansen
Barbara Wooton
Troy Veltrop
Greg Steeves
Box Exchange Committee
Dave Schumacher
Marc Garcia
HCCC Honorary Life Members
Spencer Jack 2004
Robert De Leon 2006
Anton Lamboj 2007
Dave Hansen 2007
The HCCC Would like to thank the
following club supporters. Without
you, we wouldn’t be what we are!
Omega Sea
Aquatek
Lisa’s Lair Bookstore
Dave’s Rare Aquarium Fish
Cichlid Press
San Francisco Bay Brand
Zoomed
Central Aquatics
Petfrontier
Leslies Pool Supply
Darby’s Tropical Fish
Fish Hobby Supply
USA Fish Box
Amazonia International
Cichlid News
Ginger Products
Aquadome
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Schedule of Events
April 9
Amazonia International’s Annual
Cichlid Symposium
Speakers:
Walter Wooton Jr.– Comal River Natives
Dave Hansen - Tilapines
Caroline Estes - Cichlids for any sized Tank
Begins at noon, Admission is free
Bring a chair. Austin, TX.
May
Event TBD
June
Event TBD
July
HCCC Meeting
At the Capital of Texas Zoo
Austin TX.
Speaker Michael Hicks
August
Event TBD
September
HCCC Auction
Scherts TX. (tent.)
October
Event TBD
November 4th - 6th
FOTAS CARES
San Antonio TX
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My experience with Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus
- Walter Wooton Jr.
A male Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus on his spawning cave with fry. Photos by the author.
Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus, locally known as the
bristlenose, is a wonderful little addition to
just about any tropical tank. I have these little "algae eaters" in almost all my tanks save
those that have other species of "plecos" or
tanks with hyper-aggressive species. The ph
of these tanks range from 6.7 to 8.2, water
temps from 68F to 81F (20C -27.2C)
planted, to bare bottom and they all seem to
suffer no ill effects from the different tank
setups; instead they seem to thrive in each.
The size of these makes them a much better
"pleco" to be sold in fish stores since they
stay under 5 inches (12.5 cm) instead of
growing to 13+ inches (35+ cm) like the
Pterygoplichthys pardalis which is generally
sold in pet stores. Feeding is quite simple
since they will eat just about anything that
you give them, but a vegetable based diet is
best. I feed mine some algae wafers each
evening after turning out the lights and some
zucchini once a week, along with maintaining a piece of wood in the tank to help with
digestion. In my planted tanks they leave the
healthy plants alone while keeping the
leaves free of algae, even my Madagascar
Lace (Aponogeton madagascariensis) is not
damaged by them. Mixing these in a community tank is quite simple since they are
quite gentle and seem to never quarrel with
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success if I can
time it with a cold
front
moving
through the area.
To breed, the male
will get the female
into the cave
where she will lay
the eggs and the
male will fertilize
them, then fan
them with his tail.
It doesn't take long
for the eggs to
hatch I seem to
have a new batch
of free swimming
fry every other
week in my breeding tank.
Multiple generations of bristlenose in the same aquarium.
any other species including other bottom
feeders. They will fight amongst themselves
over a cave or hide and other than that they
seem to claim no territory.
Sexing and breeding is quite simple. Males
will get soft fleshy growths on their nose
that reminds me of "Velcro" and females
will be mostly smooth, but may have some
growth but it will be much shorter then a
males and not as many. To breed them it is
almost as easy as getting a mature male and
female and throwing them in a tank with a
cave, but not quite. It is best to prep both
your male and females before breeding by
feeding a diet of fresh vegetables and a little
bit of a meaty food. Caution - too much
meat will cause bloat which may cause
your fish to die. I believe this diet helps the
female in her egg production and the male to
build up a energy reserve that he will use
while incubating and protecting the eggs and
fry. I seem to be able to stimulate breeding
by doing a 75% water change with more
Once the fry are
free swimming the male is ready to breed
again. Bristlenose don't seem to be picky
about what they call a "cave" so as-long-as
they can squeeze into it and feel safe they
can call it home, this seems to apply more to
the males as they are home body's while the
females seem to roam more. Caution make sure all aquarium decorations have
sufficient room for them to get in and out
since they are not very flexible. While it is
possible to have breeding in a community
tank, the mortality rate of fry can be very
high due to predation. A separate tank is recommended if breeding is the main goal. If
the goal is to use them as part of your algae
control program they readily mix with just
about any species in all but the smallest of
tanks as-long-as you give them plenty of
hiding places and provide a steady diet of
veggie based food. Go ahead, give them a
try, you won't be disappointed.
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The Lateral Line is the official publication of the Hill
Country Cichlid Club. Reprinting permitted to non
commercial organizations.