May

The
Lateral Line
Volume 5, Issue 1
May, 2012
Inside this Issue:
Down and Dirty Do It Yourself Plants
Breeding and Raising Synodontis petricola
Breeding Cytocara moorii
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Down and Dirty Do it Yourself Plants
- Walter Wooton Jr.
Breeding Synodontis perticola
- Mike Kaaki
Cytocara moorii: A breeding report
- Greg Steeves
Cover: A beautiful shot of two Ugandan fisherman casting into Lake Victoria.
Photo by Lawrence Kent
The HCCC is a proud member of
the Federation of Texas
Aquarium Societies.
What? Finally a new issue of the Lateral
Line? Indeed. This is the May issue and
was started last December. Unfortunately,
contributions have been slow coming to me
and it seems that whenever I had planned to
sit down and crank an issue out, something
always came up. This got me thinking, I’ve
been editor for three plus years now. I had
taken it over from Robert who, quite frankly,
I think felt the same way about things that I
do now. I love the Lateral Line. I’ve always thought of it as showcasing our members talents and abilities when it comes to
fish keeping. I especially enjoyed helping
new contributors see their writing efforts
transformed into great articles. I would like
to assist with putting the Lateral Line together in a timely manner, but it is time for
me to pass the torch. If you are interested in
becoming the Lateral Line editor, please let
me know. You should not be intimidated at
all. The software is easy to use and as I said,
I intend to stick around and help out where
needed.
Last month we had a great auction! There
were lots of new faces and lots of cool fish,
The HCCC is a proud member of
the Federation
of American Aquarium
Societies.
plants and equipment to bid on. I got some
great fish for the pond and didn’t bid against
Lee Ann on anything (that I know of). I
think that’s a first. Charles and Rare Dave
did the entire auction. Diane is now handling finances for the HCCC as well. The
auction went very smooth and checks were
sent out in a timely manner. All in all, a fantastic event. We’re still working on setting
up a summer auction and the Last Sunday of
July is the date mentioned. Stay tuned close
to the website for further details.
If we can get enough people interested, the
club will be hosting an outing at Aquarena
Springs in San Marcos the last weekend of
June. This will include a glass bottom boat
ride and who knows what else. The last
time we did this, we all had a great time.
If you guys get a chance, there’s a good road
trip opportunity coming up June 17th. The
Houston Aquarium Society is holding their
summer auction. Any HAS auction is always a blast. Don’t forget about FOTAS in
Irving September 14-16. Lets have a good
HCCC contingent attend!
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Down and Dirty Do It Yourself Plants
- Walter Wooton Jr.
There are times that we would like to add
some green to our tanks for various reasons
from ascetics to necessity. We don't do live
plants
because
of
"black
thumbs," incompatible water parameters or
the fish we keep will destroy them.
The option of putting in fake plants is a option and if you are just adding a few accents
picking up few commercially made ones isn't a big deal but if the need or desire is for
a heavily planted look it can get to be quite
expensive. I recently had a need for doing a
"heavily planted tank" and I was able to do it
for around $40.00. The list of tools and materials is short and simple as is the process to
do your own personnel creations.
Tools: A pair of tin snips or wire cutters, a
pair of scissors, hot glue gun with glue sticks
Supplies: Needle point cloth, silk plants
from a craft store
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Preparation and assembly is simple too.
Wash all your plants to make sure there is
nothing on them that can foul your tank then
cut the individual stems from the bunches
while your glue gun heats up.
Next step is to take the individual stems and
poke them randomly through the needle
point cloth so they just come through. Do a
few at a time securing each one both top and
bottom to the cloth with the hot glue. If you
try to do to many at once they will fall out so
just work it slowly till you get the desired
effect you are looking for then cut away the
extra cloth
the way to the bottom. The weight of the
sand will do a good job of holding your design in place. These can be made as big or as
small as you want from a "forest" to a single
stem (2" X 2" seems to work for smaller
pieces). A piece of flagstone can be used
instead of the cloth if you desire just glue the
individual stems on and hold each
one until it is cool. I like the cloth better
since after it is placed in the tank
you want to change it up (or move it to another tank) it is a simple mater of pulling it
out and cutting the cloth to get the new design. It can also be removed and more added
to it if you would like to make it
denser. Another option to secure the stems
to cloth of stone would be an aquarium safe
silicone, but it will take longer to set up and
requires 24 (minimum) to 48 hours
(preferred) to cure enough to place in the
tank. A little imagination and a little effort
you can tank a tank form this:
to this:
Placing the pieces in the tank is easy. Insert
the rear of your mesh forward of where you
want it to be and work it under the sand by
sliding it back and forth till it is buried all
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Breeding and Raising Synodontis petricola
- Mike Kaaki
Synodontis petricola is a small catfish from
Lake Tanganyika. They look very much like
S. multipunctatus except they are smaller.
They prefer hard water and warm temperature at 79 degrees. They grow to about five
inches long. I found it easy to tell the difference between adult males and females.
Males are thinner and smaller while females
are larger.
I started with three pairs that I purchased
from a fellow hobbyist in our club. I did a
little research on the web and found that it
was difficult to get accurate information.
Synodontis petricola scatter their eggs, and
they are not host layers like S. multipunctatus. Immediately, I set up my 40 gallon
breeder tank with a clay pot and a bowl full
of black marbles. It didn't take too long before the first pair started the breeding process. I had eggs everywhere between the mar-
bles, and I couldn't easily remove them. I
had five fry that made it to a 2.5 gallon tank.
I started feeding them small amounts of first
bites after a few days.
They started spawning again a few weeks
later. My goal was to find away to easily
collect the eggs when I find them. I had an
old fishnet with large holes, so I decided to
cover the bowl with the fishnet and place the
marbles in it. It worked for me. I was able to
collect the eggs and place them in a hatching
jar. I collected many fry from the second
spawn. Their growth is slow but steady. After 35 days, they are about half an inch long.
At this point, I feel I am still learning about
them. I have raised two broods and have
made many mistakes with each one of them;
however, I feel that I have also learned from
my mistakes. My next goal is to raise a large
brood.
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Breeding Cyrtocara moorii, The Blue Dolphin
- Greg Steeves
A stunning male Cyrtocara moorii from Lake Malawi, in the author’s aquarium.
It has been a while since I’ve deviated out of
my comfort zone and wrote about anything
other than haplochromine cichlids. Although I consider the former group of cichlids my favorite, many of the species from
Lake Malawi slide in a close second. I, as
most cichlid hobbyists, would someday like
to go to this great African Rift Lake and see
those colorful fishes first hand
The nomenclatural history of Cyrtocara
moorii is not nearly as complex as the name
game with other Malawian fishes. It is, in
fact, fairly simple and the players are familiar names within the haplochromine realm.
The British scientist George Albert
Boulenger initially described Cyrtocara
moorii, a monotypic genus, at the turn of the
20th century (1902). In 1935, Ethelwynn
Trewawas, the first in a line of remarkable
British female ichthyologists reclassified the
species as Haplochromis moorii. For us oldtimers, we can recall that in the not so long
ago past, everything that came out of Lake
Malawi that was not an mbuna, was usually
called “Haplochromis”. Trewawas cited a
Regan (another one of those British fish scientists) hallmark for inclusion into the
“Haplochromis” group considering “a continuous margin in the dorsal fin” as reason
(Konings, 2007). Eccles and Trewawas
again examined the fish in 1989 reinstated
Boulenger’s original genus name
“Cyrtocara” and that is where we stand today, one of the few monotypic cichlid genus’ of Lake Malawi. .
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A portion of the breeding group of Cyrtocara moorii.
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A holding female C. moorii. The buccal cavity extension can be subtle.
The genus name stems from Greek roots.
“Cyrtocara” translates to “curved-face”
while “moorii”, the species name, is in dedication to J.E.S. Moore, the first collector of
this species. At an adult size of 20cm, I consider this to be a gentle giant in our tank.
The striking powder-blue coloration is
shared by both sexes. Some black blotching
or faint vertical barring along the flanks is
visible and largely mood oriented. The most
striking feature of this fish has to be the
large nuchal hump that again, both sexes
possess. This fleshy head bump causes a
resemblance with a well known aquatic
mammal. Hence the common name of the
dolphin or blue dolphin cichlid. Large lips
line a weak jaw and are used to forage food
that other digging species uncover and leave
behind. So there you have it, a little background. Now let me relate my experiences
with this fish.
In 2007, our club hosted FOTAS in San Antonio. On of the speakers was Spencer Jack.
Spencer brought some really great fish along
with him. As the guest of Lee Ann and I,
he, after the convention, had a few C. moorii
fry left over. Instead of making arrangements to fly them home to Winnipeg, he graciously gave them to Lee Ann. There were a
dozen or so and I did my best to hide my
feelings that these fish would be taking up
valuable tank space that I could better utilize
for a vic! Fast forward ahead to 2009: The
C. moorii are now about 10 cm in length and
I’ve killed all but six. I am experimenting
with outdoor ponds (thanks to J B) and I decide to test my water quality by throwing
these in. This is what I refer to as the “sink
or swim” method of fish acclamation.
Shortly after their introduction, something a
rookie pond keeper like me hadn’t bargained
for occurred. The water got pea soup green
and had lost every bit of clarity. I discovered
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Cyrtocara moorii was recently placed on the CARES priority list by Ad Konings.
the magic of UV sterilization the next year
For the remainder of the summer however, I
had no idea if they were still in there alive or
not. I had forgotten (sublimely on purpose)
that Lee Ann was less than thrilled on my
putting her dolphins outside without her approval. 2009 was a long summer but she
started talking to me again when I drained
the pond and not only still had her six C.
moorii but discovered they had nearly doubled in size with a coloration that could only
be described as using the cliché as
“stunning”!
distinction would be a bonus). Wouldn’t
you know it, the only tank I had available to
house the C. moorii was the 125 gallon tank
it could share with L. melanopterus. Despite
my carelessness, this combination has
worked very well. These two species of
similar temperament, have co existed in this
aquarium ever since. I have not been able to
witness the behavior (engulfing the snout of
the brooding donor female) that I wanted to
see from the L. melanopterus, but I’m very
satisfied with the pleasing display these fish
present.
Now, as fate would have it, I had just acquired a group of Lipochromis melanopterus, a paedophage from Lake Victoria. As
the name would imply, L. melanopterus is a
baby eater in nature. I really wanted to see
this behavior if only I could find a compatible species that was not overly aggressive, a
ready spawner, and fairly attractive (that last
I have a tough time sexing these fish based
on sight alone. When considering aggressiveness, colorations and displays, Lee Ann
seems to think we have five males and a female. I would agree with this as we have
only had one fish brood. The spawn we got
from C. moorii nearly went unnoticed. We
realized that one fish hadn’t eaten in some-
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time and, as generally a species with a ravenous appetite, we were pretty sure something was up. There was very little sign of a
buccal extension so we figured that the
spawn was very small. After at least a
month, curiosity got the better of me and I
tore the tank apart to catch her. Finally
managing to get her into the net, the female
immediately spit out about 30 fully formed
and free swimming fry. I think the fry were
probably ready to be released a week beforehand but she held on to them out of fear of
them becoming a snack for the large L.
melanopterus or the Synodontis ocelifer that
some how found their way into that tank as
well. Up until this point, that was the only
spawn we have saved but just recently, the
lone female has dropped an ovipositor and is
drawing much attention from what seems to
be the most dominant male.
We have found that feeding C. moorii is not
a difficult task. They readily take everything from live foods (blood worms, brine
shrimp, etc) to flake and pellets and even
algae wafers. As of late we have switched
our regiment of feeding prepared foods to a
new product called Repahsy Super Foods.
This powdered product allows the aquarist
to easily configure the food to whatever is
needed. I won’t present a commercial on
this product but I will say that to me, it is the
greatest innovation to happen to fish keeping
since the invention of the breathable bags
and Bag Buddies. We are able to easily adjust the protein content for the various species we keep including C. moorii. The fry
are fed the same formulae as given to the
adults only instead of feeding gelled cubes;
we mash the product for easier ingestion.
As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve become
kind of attached to our dolphins. Before
each auction I have tried to bag them up and
sneak them out of the fish hut. I consider it
good fortune that my efforts were repeatedly
foiled. Because now, not only are they a
cool dither fish, if I had to, I might just allow for an aquarium devoted to Cytocara
moorii.
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The Lateral Line is the official publication of the Hill
Country Cichlid Club. Reprinting permitted to non
commercial organizations.