Cadster
New Member
I just ran across this forum and am glad to have found one that is based in Washington State in case I need to buy or sell or trade fish, and to find out about local events. I just got relapsed into the aquarium addiction about a year ago after a long hiatus. In the past I've never had more than one aquarium at a time, though; this time I quickly went from a 20 gal. Long to (2) 29 gal. a 5 gal and a 10 gal. All the tanks and much of the equipment came off Craigslist.
I seem to be jumping around in interests although sticking mainly with South American and Mexican fishes. A student of Spanish for years, I travelled in Venezuela and in Mexico in the early 80s. It was nothing involving fish at that time, but I saw beautiful diverse landscapes and loved the music and food and architecture. So why not the fish? After all, my 13 year old self spent hours staring at Herbert R Axelrod's books with the grainy black and white photos of men with nets in the South American jungles, and wishing I could do that when I grew up.
A single Angelfish that came with the first tank I got last year, was so interesting that I explored other cichlids (the Angel is getting too big). Having settled on Apistogramma species, I managed to locate 2 unsexed juvenile A. macmasteri which amazingly turned out to be a male/female that have now spawned and I've got 3 month old fry. Meanwhile I raised and sold a bunch of the guppies that came from two different used tanks; raised some Rio Otapa swordtails (wild type, started with juveniles at GSAS auction) A childhood fascination with the South American Annual Killifish revived when I found a trio of those at the Auction. I've been unsuccessful in hatching any of the killifish eggs or even of keeping the females alive for some reason. Another GSAS event got me interested in C.A.R.E.S* program to breed species endangered or extinct in the wild. I came home with 1 pair of Zoogoneticus tequila or "Volcano Goodeid"s, and those small livebearers are breeding well in a ten gallon tank. What to do when there are even more, I am undecided as yet.
The Angelfish is still the centerpiece of a planted South American Community Tank along with corydoras, otocinclus and tetras. In the near future I may want to phase out of the swordtails, although I like them, just so I can make room for the growing Apistogramma fry or the goodeids. I'm trying to resist buying a bigger tank or more tanks because I don't have time or money to go more berserk than I already have! However I am nowhere near tired of this obsession. Staring at fish is a great antidote from work which involves lots of time staring at computers.
I seem to be jumping around in interests although sticking mainly with South American and Mexican fishes. A student of Spanish for years, I travelled in Venezuela and in Mexico in the early 80s. It was nothing involving fish at that time, but I saw beautiful diverse landscapes and loved the music and food and architecture. So why not the fish? After all, my 13 year old self spent hours staring at Herbert R Axelrod's books with the grainy black and white photos of men with nets in the South American jungles, and wishing I could do that when I grew up.
A single Angelfish that came with the first tank I got last year, was so interesting that I explored other cichlids (the Angel is getting too big). Having settled on Apistogramma species, I managed to locate 2 unsexed juvenile A. macmasteri which amazingly turned out to be a male/female that have now spawned and I've got 3 month old fry. Meanwhile I raised and sold a bunch of the guppies that came from two different used tanks; raised some Rio Otapa swordtails (wild type, started with juveniles at GSAS auction) A childhood fascination with the South American Annual Killifish revived when I found a trio of those at the Auction. I've been unsuccessful in hatching any of the killifish eggs or even of keeping the females alive for some reason. Another GSAS event got me interested in C.A.R.E.S* program to breed species endangered or extinct in the wild. I came home with 1 pair of Zoogoneticus tequila or "Volcano Goodeid"s, and those small livebearers are breeding well in a ten gallon tank. What to do when there are even more, I am undecided as yet.
The Angelfish is still the centerpiece of a planted South American Community Tank along with corydoras, otocinclus and tetras. In the near future I may want to phase out of the swordtails, although I like them, just so I can make room for the growing Apistogramma fry or the goodeids. I'm trying to resist buying a bigger tank or more tanks because I don't have time or money to go more berserk than I already have! However I am nowhere near tired of this obsession. Staring at fish is a great antidote from work which involves lots of time staring at computers.
