Practical Fishkeeping的October 2025目录

WHAT A TREAT we have in store for you this month, including one feature which involved a little self-indulgence on my part. When you get the opportunity to revisit some old friends – well, guppies – and build a display for a zoo, you just don’t turn that down. If this loose Trinidad habitat inspires you to have a go at your first biotope aquarium, Tai outlines the basics on how to go about planning and researching your chosen locale. If mean looking fish eaters are more your thing, Neale outlines some characterful and predatory fish that don’t get too large. They are a realistic, long term, option for many of us hobbyists, unlike some of the whoppers that pop up from time to time. Marine wise, we have an…

LAKE TANGANYIKA COMMUNITY • Tank Dimensions: 120×50×50cm (48×20×20”). • Equipment: • Filter with a flow rate of around 1550lph. • Lighting: 1x 70w LED light – full strength for 7 hours. • Blue to white foil if using an LED background. • CO2 injection: Not required. • Cover glasses: Yes (prevents fish jumping). • Additives: None required. • Water parameters suitable for inhabitants: The water should be hard and alkaline with a pH of 7.4 to 8.5 and between 5 and 25°H. Maintain the temperature of the aquarium between 23 and 27°C (74-81°F). • Décor: Large river boulders, the addition of empty snail shells is also required if the Neolamprologus multifasciatus are included in the display. • Substrate: Pale aquarium sand. • Fishes: • Calvus cichlid (Altolamprologus calvus). • Masked…

EVERY YEAR, WE, at PFK, host the highly anticipated Readers’ Poll as a way to give you, the aquariumshopping public, a clear voice on who you think has excelled in the last 12 months, or perhaps a store that has been consistently great for many years. For the shops, receiving an award in any, or several, of the multiple categories is a huge achievement that should be celebrated. More importantly, perhaps, is that it is a great way to show your appreciation for the staff for their help in keeping the hobby going, providing advice and helping us all enjoy keeping fish. When a customer has an issue with their tank, they feel that pain too, and this is your way to thank them. Without them where would this hobby…

Fancy being featured in the next issue of Practical Fishkeeping Magazine? Showcase your work and share your photographs with the Fishkeeping community – if you have a tank you’re proud of, we want to see it. For a chance to be included, simply send us your tank photos with a little bit of information about you and your tank. This month’s Tank of the Month will receive an Aquadip care package!* Submit yours to us via email at editorial@practicalfishkeeping.co.uk or visit our website here: practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/gallery. WIN AN AQUADIP CARE PACKAGE AQUADIP Liquid Filter Medium - 500 ml AQUADIP Plant Food+ - 500 ml AQUADIP Liquid Carbon - 500 ml AQUADIP H2O Maker - 500 ml Plus AQUADIP Aquascaping Towel TANK OF THE MONTH - JOSH NEWTON Aquascaping helped me through lockdown…

GUYANA ESSQUIBO BASIN FOREST STREAM • Tank Dimensions: 75×40×25cm (30×16×10”). • Equipment: • Filter with a flow rate of around 800lph. • Lighting: 1x 38w LED light – Full strength for 7 hours. • Yellow-orange foil if using LED background. • CO2 injection: Not required. • Cover glasses: No. • Additives: Blackwater extract. • Water parameters suitable for inhabitants: The water should be soft, acidic and tinted, with a pH of 5.5 to 7.0 and between 2 and 15°H. Maintain the temperature of the aquarium between 24 and 27°C (75-81°F). • Décor: Bogwood, jungle vines. • Substrate: Aquarium plant soil, orange aquarium sand. • Botanicals: Seed pods, leaves, twigs. • Plants: You could use a variety of houseplants with ‘jungle’ origins for this display. I chose to use Philodendron hederaceum…

1 The tank is drained ready to begin work on the new scape. We opted to leave the substrate in as it is full of beneficial bacteria. 2 The largest rock required both of us to lift it into the tank. This will be repositioned as other pieces of slate are added. 3 A second piece of slate is added, and small cobbles are placed behind the largest rock to help keep it stable and secure. 4 The left hand side is built up to provide height to the scape, starting to build towards a triangular composition. 5 More rocks are added to provide extra depth and height. It also created a better balance between the hardscape and negative space. 6 A branch is added, as if it had tumbled…

Without you, and your all-important votes, there would not be a Readers’ Poll! So, by way of a thank you, we automatically put your details into a prize draw. This year, Pettex Aquatics – a trusted name with a fresh look – are delighted to support Practical Fishkeeping’s Readers’ Poll by offering five lucky winners the chance to win a 10kg bag of Pettex Aquatics General Purpose Mixed Sticks, worth £40 (RRP)* each! This is a comprehensive pond feed, with a highly digestible and balanced formula ensuring that your wet pets have the healthy diet they need. It provides a balanced range of proteins, fibre, vitamins and trace elements which will satisfy all your fish’s nutritional requirements, together with spirulina for colour enhancement. These sticks have a prolonged floating period…

Email: questions@practicalfishkeeping.co.uk WIN! Our Question of the Month letter will receive a Tetra goodie bundle worth up to 100* THE EXPERTS [ TROPICAL ] Will these fishes' whiskers grow back? I bought six peppered corys from a fish shop for my community tank. When I got them home, I noticed that two of them had hardly any whiskers left, just stumps where they should be. They don’t look infected or anything. Will they regrow, or should I take them back to the shop? They seem to have settled in okay and are swimming around the tank with the others. Please can you advise? SHIRLEY CRAIG BOB SAYS: Barbel, or whisker, erosion in catfish, particularly ‘corydoras', is relatively common, and is usually a sign of exposure to poor water conditions and…

Walk into a local fish store and you will see numerous types of substrates ranging from bright and gaudy gravel to some very high-end aqua soils designed for planted aquariums. Often, we tend to not put much thought into the substrate of an aquarium aside from what colour you want. Exceptions to this usually come with specific tanks such as African cichlids, planted tanks, or saltwater aquariums. All of these have almost predetermined substrate choices. African cichlids and slatwater tanks get some type of aragonite to help buffer the water. Planted tanks get either a dirtied tank or some sort of nutritious pelletized clay to help with plant growth. Aside from that, the standard is to throw in some gravel or sand and get the tank cycled as soon as…

RETAILER OF THE YEAR Big or small, chain or standalone, all we want is for you to tell us the single best store you know of. ONLINE RETAILER OF THE YEAR This doesn’t have to be ‘only’ an online store, but any store with a website you can buy from. INDEPENDENT RETAILER OF THE YEAR Specifically, we’re asking you about your favourite store that isn’t part of a larger chain. We like to let the little (and often not so little) guys shine. MARINE FISH RETAILER OF THE YEAR Who would be your go to for saltwater fish (not corals) in the UK? CORAL RETAILER OF THE YEAR Who would be your go to for saltwater corals (not fish) in the UK? ODDBALL RETAILER OF THE YEAR Everything freshwater and…

LONG BEFORE JOINING the magazine as editor, and even before I started writing for the magazine on occasion, I admired the images and words of Gabor Horvath. His skills as a fishkeeper, and photographer, were obvious from his features, something I could only dream of producing. There was one image that has always amazed me of a freshwater pipefish. The details provided of such an intricate species were truly amazing, it far exceeded many of the images seen in animal or wildlife photography contests. Having now worked closely with Gabor on features since October last year, we finally managed to meet in person. You will have read a little about this during the retailer focus feature a few pages earlier. After our visit to the store in St Mellons, we…