Practical Fishkeepingの June 2022 の目次

THE SUN has been out on force throughout the four weeks I've been working on this issue, and between editing copy I've been standing forlornly at the window overlooking my garden, trying to work out exactly where I want a pond. Ponds started getting popular again through the Covid lockdowns, so we invited aquatic store manager and new writer Emma Hill to offer some planting suggestions — you can find those on page 58. Emma is one of two new writers we welcome this month, along with Norwegian catfish expert Haakon Haagensen, who makes his grand entrance with an exploration of the Hypancistrus genus on page 22. Lately, I've been getting asked why I don't write as much as I used to, and so I've pulled my finger out and…

questions@practicalfishkeeping.co.uk 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. TROPICAL How do I deal with this muck? When I carry out a water change on my tank,…

PONDS Planting for colour SHUTTERSTOCK An aquatic retail manager for over 13 years, Emma has been a keeper of fish for more than two decades. DID YOU KNOW? The marsh marigold is considered a good omen on the Isle of Man. APRIL THROUGH to September (erratic British weather pending) is a time for koi, goldfish, pumps, filters, and setting up or maintaining ponds. But it's also the key time for pond plants. Pond plants have enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years, largely down to Covid. With many working from home, sales have risen dramatically as more and more people choose to spend money on brightening up their gardens. Well maintained foliage is good for ponds and their inhabitants. For one, wildlife benefits from the extra aquatic flora. And…

ADVICE Fishkeeping Know-how SHUTTERSTOCK Tom runs the Freshwater Fishkeeping Facebook group and has a passion for helping beginners. DIAGNOSTICS IN fishkeeping aren't like CSI or human medicine. We have a limited number of medications available for our pets, and even more limited resources with which to make our diagnosis and then choose a treatment. What does help, however, is having at least a basic first aid kit to hand so that if the worst does happen, (and inevitably, when it does happen it'll be late at night, or on a Sunday when nothing is open) you can at least start the process of treating. Start with a test You might only have one sick fish, but we have to look at things holistically — taking the whole picture of our…

Chris works in conservation research and regularly writes for aquarium publications. ALAMY IT'S ALWAYS a thrill to bump into a fish that you associate with aquaria out in the wild, and even the briefest of dalliances can shed new light on the lifestyles of the most common of species. It doesn't matter how much you think you know about them, away from the whir of the pumps and the confinement of glass walls, you get a tantalising glimpse of another side to the animal, be it a behavioural perspective, habitat preference or simply the fish's social standing in the reef hierarchy. I've been fortune enough to encounter a number of reef aquarium favourites on my travels, but undoubtedly one of my favourites is the Tobacco basslet, Serranus tabacarius. Delightful dwarves…

WELL, IT disappeared for a bit, but now it's back. It's the 2022 Practical Fishkeeping Readers' Poll, your chance to reward your favourite stores around the country. We had to put it on hold while Covid raged on, as it wouldn't have been fair to run the poll while so many stores were limiting the number of customers that could enter. Plus, the rest of us were being told to stay at home and not go shopping. Aquatics stores around the UK are often the unsung heroes of the industry, and especially during Covid where they were seen as essential services. Many a staff member risked infection day in and day out just to ensure that the fishkeepers of the UK could get the staples they needed to keep their…

PLANTS Rare finds JORDAN STIRRAT Aquascaping prodigy Jordan is currently making waves as one of the hobby's fastest up-and-comers. I RECENTLY HAD the pleasure of obtaining some rare aquatic plants that aren't readily available for the everyday hobbyist. Some of them are expensive, most are not commercially raised or harvested, but all are absolutely beautiful. I am always on the lookout for weird, wacky and wonderful plants that aren't often seen in modern aquascaping. There's just something special about owning a plant that cannot easily be found — perhaps it can be compared to collecting rare coins, magazines or canned fish, similar to the PFK editor's obsession. Rare species can come with a hefty price tag, and there's always some level of risk that comes with purchasing plants online. Trading…

NATHAN HILL THE GREAT danger in editing everything is that sometimes I fail to adequately convey the meaning of a sentence, or to express the sentiments of the writer as clearly as possible, and that appeared to happen in the April issue. Subsequently, I was contacted by Frank Van Veen, Professor of Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter, whose comprehensive response is worth reproducing here in full. The email Frank writes; “As a conservationist and subscriber to PFK I was dismayed by a passage in Tai Strietman's ‘Do go chasing waterfalls’ article in the April 2022 issue. While I appreciate him drawing attention to the scourge of deforestation and pointing out that we need to look closer to home in this respect as well, his assertion that the…