Underwater News April 2016 - Pioneer Valley Aquarium Society

BOARD MEMBERS
OFFICERS
In This Issue
President: Chuck Pixley, [email protected]
Vice President: Jim Cormier, [email protected]
Secretary: Jacob Guinasso, [email protected]
Treasurer: Christina Guinasso, [email protected]
President’s Message
Chuck Pixley
MEMBERS AT LARGE
William Maier, [email protected]
This Month’s Program
Jeff Slade, n/a
Equator-Rivers of the Sun-Amazonia
Michael Liu, [email protected]
A Video Documentary
COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Membership: Don Hennemann
Programs: Dan McKercher
Featured Article
Newsletter: Michael Liu
Apistogramma macmasteri “Gold”
Bowl Show: Michael Liu
Photo Show: Michael Liu
By Robert Prati
Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society
Breeder Award Program: Jim Cormier
Auction Chair: Jim Cormier
NEC Delegate: (open)
NEC Alternate Delegate: (open)
MEETING INFORMATION
Location: First Congregational Church, 42 Lathrop Street, West Springfield, MA 01089
Bowl Show & Photo Show Results
Michael Liu
Trading Post—Items For Sale
We meet on the first Tuesday of the month,
except July and August, at 6:30 PM. Meetings
are open to the public and include a short business update, program or event, door prizes,
mini-auction and refreshments.
Affiliations
PVAS is a member of the
Northeast Council of
Aquarium Societies, Inc. (NEC)
The Underwater News is the official publication of the
Pioneer Valley Aquarium Society, Inc. and is published monthly or
bi-monthly except July and August. The views and opinions printed
herein are those of the individual authors, and are not necessarily
those of PVAS. The Underwater News is provided free to our members as part of their membership.
Reprint Policy: Unless noted by copyright, articles from this publication may be reprinted by other non profit aquarium societies.
Please acknowledge PVAS as the source and mail two copies of the
publication in which the reprint appears to PVAS: Pioneer Valley
Aquarium Society, c/o Michael Liu, 14 Indian Hill, Florence, MA
01062
President’s Message, By Chuck Pixley
President’s Message – April 2016
Spring is in the air!! For me this means allergies! For many of you however I know this means getting your ponds and tubs ready
and stocked with plants and fish for the warmer weather. Good luck and let’s see some pictures and specimens at the end of the
season. The September bowl show will feature a special class for plants and animals that were maintained outside for summer;
with special awards for each.
In May we will have a fish store trip which is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, May 14 th, 2016. Unless we have other suggestions, we will once again head east to Central Mass Aquatics and Uncle Ned’s Fish Factory.
Everyone please remember the NEC Weekend coming up April 8-10. Many great things to see and do including the Giant Auction
on Sunday. For more details, see the flyer at the end of this newsletter.
This month, we will once again discuss the future of our club and what we hope to accomplish. Please try to think about what
you would like PVAS to do within our group to benefit members. Perhaps also what we could do as a group to support some other outside activities.
See you April 5th…
Chuck
This Month’s Program: Meeting Date - April 5, 2016, 6:30 PM
Equator-Rivers of the Sun-Amazonia
A Video Documentary
We’ll have a fascinating
video on Amazonia, the
rainforest region in
South America that is
home to the great Ama
zon River and its many
tributaries. Many of
our favorite aquarium
fish are found in this
vast area, including
catfish, tetras, catfish,
killifish, and cichlids—
hope to see you there!
Featured Article
Apistogramma macmasteri “Gold”
by Robert Prati , Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society
For the origin on this fish species we spin the globe and land on Colombia. Macmasteri are known to only
come from the Río Guaytiquía and Río Metica basins, upper Río Meta system. With that being said, the Apistogramma macmasteri “Gold” variant is a man-made
tank strain. These are often sold under the name of A.
viejita Gold but are really A. macmasteri. I was contacted
by a fellow club member who was putting together a
group buy from a fish importer. As I looked over the list
and the prices I stumbled upon a photo of this fish and
the red coloration on the males face totally drew me in.
That, and the fact that I needed to close the New World
class, I joined in on the order and got myself a pair of
these fish. After a few days these fish arrived and were
looking pretty good.
I set this pair up in one of my seven 10gal tanks on the top
row of the rack. The top tens are placed on end with three
sides painted black. My tank is set up as follows from top to
bottom: I use a size 3 API sponge filter with the air on about
30%. The tank is always filled with plants such as Java moss,
Java fern and or Anubias of assorted types. The tank also
always has a few branchy pieces of driftwood and the
bottom of the tank has a very light dusting of sand.
The feeding of this pair is very easy because I have not
found a single thing that they do not eat. Of course they
love the live foods and that’s what I mostly feed but on
some occasions when I’m too busy or just don’t have time, they will eat crumbles or flake food. The live
foods consist of bloodworms, blackworms, whiteworms, grindel worms, mosquito larva, and different types
of Daphnia. They also eat any of the frozen foods such as bloodworms, glassworms, mysis shrimp, brine
shrimp, and Cyclops.
The pair settled in nicely and after a few weeks they
both had put on some size and were eating very aggressively. This continued for another week when I noticed
the female was trying to entice the male over to her
cave. Due to the color of the female you do not see the
usual bright yellow and black markings as you do with
all other Apistogramma species. I was never sure she
was ready to breed until I would notice her going in and
out of the cave more often and seemed to be protecting it. She would just sit there with her head half
way out of the cave as you can see in the photo.
My lack of patience got the best of me and I decided to go in the tank and take a look. I removed the
cave and drained the water out of it and then
flipped the cave upside down to look for eggs. To
my surprise there were eggs in the cave as you can
see in the photos. I quickly took a few photos with
my cell phone and stuck the cave back in the tank.
After a few seconds the female reappeared and
went back in the cave to check on her eggs.
The female protected the entrance to the cave for a few days until one day I turned the light on and there she
was with a cloud of fry beneath her. She kept the male to the back of the tank as she guarded the fry from him.
The photos here show how close the female would let him get to the fry before she chased him off. The males
grow much quicker than the females, to almost 3 to 4 times larger.
The fry were fed microworms from the day I noticed them. The mom would bring the fry over to where the microworms would be dropping and the fry would pick the microworms one by one until you saw their little bellies become nice and round. Once the fry were no longer just a head and tail and you could see a body shape, I
started to feed baby brine. The fry then started to put on some size, but they were slow growers. Once I saw
they were around a quarter inch or so I siphoned the fry out the parent’s tank and placed them in a 5gal tank.
You can see a big difference between males and females. The males grow much quicker than the females, to
almost 3 to 4 times larger.
I am glad I was able to work with this pair even though since they spawned the male has jumped out the tank
and is now up in fish heaven. I currently still have the female and a bunch of fry growing up from which I will
pull myself a pair or two and keep these guys going in my fishroom for many more years to come.
END
Bowl Show Results—March 2016
1st Place:
Erskine Plummer, Hi-fin Male Swordtail
2nd Place:
Erskine Plummer, Lyretail Male Swordtail
3rd Place:
Erskine Plummer, Tuxedo Hi-fin Swordtail
Honorable Mention:
Chuck Pixley, Apistogramma cacautoides
2015-2016 Bowl Show Standings
19 points Dan McKercher
13 points Erskine Plummer
4 points Chuck Pixley
Bowl Show Rules
1. The bowl show is open to all
members. Members must
bring fish entries and a container to display the fish for
the show at each meeting.
2. There is no limit to the number of entries a member can bring to each meeting.
3. Until further notice, all entries will be judged by the
membership in attendance and winners will be determined based on popular vote. Points will be awarded
as follows: First Place-4 Points, Second Place-3
Points, Third Place-2 Points. Additionally, any entry
not in the top three places will also receive 1 point.
4. Point totals will be kept by the Bowl Show Chair. The
top three entries and the winners will be published in
the next newsletter.
5. The first place entry cannot be re-entered for the current year. Second and third place entries may be reentered in future bowl shows during the same calendar
year.
6. Point totals will accumulate through the December
general meeting. Awards will be presented in January,
and are as follows: First Place-$50, Second Place-$25,
Third Place-Free Annual Membership.
Photo Show Results—March 2016
1st Place: Michael Liu, Herichthys carpintes pair
2nd Place: Michael Liu, Sciaenochromis ahli male
3rd Place: Chuck Pixley, Geophagus abalios
2015-2016 Photo Show Standings
13 points Michael Liu
12 points Chuck Pixley
6 Points Travis & Rebekah Peck
2 points Elva Hughes
Photo Show Rules
1. The photo show is open
to all members. Members must take the photograph and bring the
entry for the show at
each meeting.
2. Members may bring up
to two photos, unframed, each meeting. Photos
can be any size up to 8 x 10 inches.
3. Photos will be judged by the membership in
attendance and winners will be determined
based on popular vote. Points will be awarded
as follows: First Place-3 Points, Second Place2 Points, Third Place-1 Point. Point totals will
be kept by the Photo Show Chair. The winning
1st place photo will be published in the next
newsletter.
4. The first place photo cannot be re-entered for
the current year. Second and third place photos
may be re-entered in future photo shows during the same calendar year.
5. Point totals will accumulate through the December general meeting. Awards will be presented in January, and are as follows: First
Place-$50, Second Place-$25, Third Place-Free
Annual Membership.
6. Winners need to submit their entry digitally if
they wish to have them published in the newsletter.
Trading Post—Items For Sale
FOR SALE from Jacob Guinasso– Good stuff, low prices. I need to sell lots of tanks, plants, decor, and some
fish. Looking for best offers, not trying to make money. Please contact me if you’re interested,
email - [email protected] or phone (707) 718-2866.
125 gallon full setup is sold, I just need to sell off
all that java moss, java fern, rocks and driftwood
with said plants attached, 1 koi, 1 small albino
bristlenose, a few dwarf/pygmy cories,
a Fundulopanchax gardneri, and a deformed cory.
20 gallon with metal stand, dual T5 light, small internal filter. Several Threadfin Rainbowfish, variety of
stem plants, Anubias nana, java moss, floating
plants, Ranunculus inundatus, and dirted bottom.
Two 29 gallons on metal
stand.
Top: mostly dwarf sag or
pygmy chain sword in the
tank, few other stems and
such. variety of plants on
top, such as pothos, wandering jew, etc. on
floating driftwood, HOBs,
and planters. Heterandria formosa, a Dario dario, and a bunch of wild
type cherry shrimp.
Bottom: fake decor with a
ton of marmorkrebs
Immersed plant growing tanks, variety of plants, would rather
sell off really cheap than try to ID all the plants
35 gallon hex, internal
filter. big center piece of
driftwood with java fern
and Anubias nana
attached, potted lily, and
golden shiners
Lots of Xenotoca eiseni (CARES
goodeid) I need to find homes for,
as well as a few Tiger Limia.