Table of contents for January 2022 in Practical Fishkeeping

AFTER ENDURING delay after delay, January is the month I’ll finally be moving into my new home. No more house sharing, no more renting, and finally an opportunity to settle down with a couple of ‘forever tanks’ that I can set up for myself and not have to change after a couple of months as I move on to review another. A planted aquascape, a blackwater biotope, even a technicolour coral reef — all of these are currently competing for favour in my mind. I’m so hyped up that I can fully understand how newcomers can make so many mistakes when they start up — I just want to keep everything, and keep it right now, and to hell with waiting. With that in mind, I’ve dedicated a chunk of…

Tankmates - Alone or together? In terms of tank mates, fin-nippers should be avoided on account of N. depressifrons’ tempting dorsal appendages, while small fish or shrimp that could fit between their jaws will end up becoming expensive snacks. Their otherwise peaceful disposition means that anything not viewed as food will be left alone, while excitable, boisterous fish will outcompete them, so suitable companions include the Orange chromide, Pseudetroplus maculatus, Knight goby, Stigmatogobius sadanundio, Sailfin molly, Poecilia latipinna, and the intriguingly christened Crazy fish, Butis butis. Interestingly, in the wild, and in freshwater habitats, they have been found alongside the likes of Three-spot gourami, Trichopodus trichopterus, and Barbodes binotatus, as well as (brace yourself) invasive Plecos, Pterygoplichthys pardalis, that live feral in the region. It’s worth reiterating the venomous capabilities…

Peat is often mentioned as a way of creating blackwater conditions for acidophile fish, but it comes with baggage. The greatest issue is that peat is environmentally unsound (damaged peatlands account for around 6% of all carbon dioxide released annually). Instead of using peat, consider using blackwater extracts, or even relying on various botanicals such as Indian almond (Catappa) leaves and seed pods to create your blackwater. Readily available alder cones mixed in RO or rainwater are a great way to create your own blackwater tonic.…

ALAMY IN MY time as an aquarist, in both the professional and the hobby sense, I’ve been bitten by a lot of things. I’ve felt the slice of sharks cleaving my hands, I’ve had my knuckles crunched by the crustacean-crushing teeth (actually modified scales) of rays, I’ve had the skin rasped from my wrist by furious Spotted tilapia, and I’ve had a Tiger barb swinging from a mole on my forearm. But there’s a small cabal of aquarists, spread far across the globe, who know exactly what it’s like to be bitten by a triggerfish. I’m one of them, and I can testify that it is the most painful bite I’ve ever felt. My other bites have been accidental, or from curiosity at most. Triggerfish, by contrast, are more malicious,…

It’s surprising just how much good can come from lifting someone up. At least, that was always my experience in this hobby. Nathan Hill is editor of Practical Fishkeeping magazine as well as fish magazine. He’s one month closer to settling in to his new house and setting up a fresh aquarium. IN MY own experience, there were two key players in setting my hobby (and subsequently my whole life career) along the path that it has followed. The first was Nigel Chantler, who co-managed a store called Marine Aquatics in my hometown of Hastings. The store is long gone and I’ve lost all contact with Nigel for almost three decades, but I was hired there on long-term work experience and he recognised that I was an awkward, nerdy kid…

questions@practicalfishkeeping.co.uk Win The Question of the Month gets a Tetra goodie box! THE EXPERTS DR PETER BURGESS Peter is our disease expert. Send questions his way if you have pathogen problems. BOB MEHEN Bob is a master of fishkeeping general knowledge and community tanks. JEREMY GAY Jeremy is more than adept when it comes to cichlids, goldfish and marine species. JORDAN STIRRAT Aquascaping prodigy Jordan is the man to go to for all your planting issues. MAX PEDLEY Max is like a living, breathing search engine. Cichlids are his speciality. NEALE MONKS Neale is the man for your technical queries. He loves brackish fish, too. DAVE HULSE Dave is a consultant for the Tetra Advisory Board and a research fellow at Keele University. NEIL HEPWORTH TROPICAL Will these catfish fit…

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SHUTTERSTOCK With the festivities just a couple of weeks away, let’s investigate some of the pitfalls of Christmas and aquaria, for both newcomers and experienced aquarists alike. Absolute beginners! There’s a pretty strong chance that this is your first ever copy of PFK — this may even be a part of your Christmas package along with an aquarium and a gift voucher that you’ll be itching to spend on fish on Boxing Day. So, let’s see if we can stop you racing headfirst into the jaws of ruin, as so many newcomer aquarists are prone to doing… Your first tank — should you upgrade it? Here’s a crazy thing you’d not expect. It’s a whole lot easier to run a large tank than it is a smaller one, and I…

ALAMY CORYDORAS, A perennial favourite amongst aquarists and a catfish more often kept than not. With such a vast following, and over such a long period of time, it stands to reason that various myths and legends have been born around these diminutive bottom dwellers. The catch is that some of these myths, despite being widely perpetuated on social media, could be detrimental to their care. Corydoras is a large genus, with many hundreds of species, and to say that we know everything about them would be folly. Still, there are some things we know not to be true about them. Here, Corydoras expert Ian Fuller picks out a handful of those myths still in common use… SHUTTERSTOCK 1 Corydoradinae catfish cannot tolerate salt This is 100% wrong and it…

AUFWUCHS — A German word used to describe the film of organisms that encrust submerged wood and rock. Typical components of this biofilm include algae, rotifers, sponges, and tiny crustaceans. CHARACIN — Group of fishes native to South and Central America and Africa. They are a diverse group with over a thousand species known, including tetras and piranhas. Most are quite small, but Pacu can weigh more than a family dog. CLEANER FISH — An unusual feeding strategy where a small fish removes dead skin, parasites, and other debris from another, often larger fish. It is a type of symbiosis, where both parties benefit. The best studied examples are the Cleaner wrasses and Cleaner gobies that inhabit coral reefs, but a few examples are known from fresh and brackish water habitats.…