Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i Practical Fishkeeping

FIRST ISSUE + FREE GIFT Then pay just £9.99 every 3 issues thereafter (anytime cancellation) JUST 99P! Free bookazine WORTH £9.99 Subscribe to Britain's best-selling fishkeeping publication and receive monthly inspiration and advice from the industry experts. Every issue also includes in-depth species showcases, incredible features on habitats from around the world and reviews of the latest available products. This class will take you through all of the core but essential areas of the hobby. Over the following pages, we’ll be looking at water quality and chemistry, filtering and the nitrogen cycle, fish physiology and habitat, disease management, and aquarium husbandry. IT’S EASY TO BECOME A SUBSCRIBER! www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/99p 01778 392498 & Quote PRFK/PRINT T&C’s: This offer is available on direct debit only, go to www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/subscribe to view the full range…

HABITAT Waterfalls Do go chasing waterfalls… As Jeff Goldblum famously says in Jurassic Park, ‘life finds a way.’ As Tai Strietman explores some inhospitable habitats, he realises how true that is. TAI STRIETMAN Tai is a freshwater habitat specialist currently working on a new book project. Biotope aquaria are his passion. SOMETIMES YOU look at a habitat and think ‘fish would hate this place.’ You’d probably be wrong and your assumption might be based on our very human perspective of the natural world; the spot may be muddy, murky, extremely fast flowing, terribly loud due to crashing water, full of detritus — there are so many things that we might assume make somewhere uncomfortable to live, but for fish, it might just be the perfect place to call home. A…

TEMPERATE What can I add for algae control? We have a lovely 260-litre Juwel Vision aquarium that houses a selection of coldwater fish and, if my calculations are right, is stocked correctly — but please let me know if I’m wrong. It houses one Oranda, three Moors, three Calico fancies, eight Zebra Danios and a Hillstream Loach. All the fish are juveniles. I’m looking for a bit of a clean-up crew and something to help with the algae. The single Hillstream Loach does its best — there were others, but they didn’t last. We’ve also had Nerite snails in the past, but their eggs were difficult to remove from the wood, and Cherry Shrimp were an expensive snack for my Oranda. Is there anything else we could consider? TREV, VIA…

POND Can I get some Koi for this pond? The house I’ve bought has a pond in the garden, built by the previous owner five years ago. It looks very natural, with loads of plants in it. It’s constructed using a liner and there’s a filter system hidden in a little shed which keeps the water crystal clear. I asked the previous owner a bit about it, and he said it holds in the region of 11,250 l. In spring most years there is frog spawn and tadpoles, and I’ve also seen a newt. But the issue is that I don't see the fish much. Even when I feed them, I have to sit and wait five minutes before they come up, quickly grab the food and then disappear. The…

TROPICAL Pangasius ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS Pangasiids are one of those groups of fish that never seem to go away, despite their many problems in captivity. Steve Grant takes a look at these aquarium giants. STEVE GRANT Steve is an amatuer ichthyologist who has a catfish named after him and has described several other species. SHUTTERSTOCK SAY THE name Pangasius to an aquarist and they might think of the name ‘Iridescent Shark catfish’. As common names go, it’s a great one, and brings visions of a shimmering, graceful shark, gliding through an expanse of open water. Unfortunately for lots of Pangasius in private aquariums the reality is far from that vision. In this piece I shall cover the Pangasius family and some of the species, with the aim that the…

Welcome THIS MONTH has turned out to be an exploration of niches in the hobby — which is saying something, given how niche a hobby fishkeeping is to start with! Rather than standing in the middle of the road, we’ve gone all out exploring the deeper recesses of the hobby (literally, in the case of Tai Strietman exploring the space behind a waterfall), grappled with some biology (such as those fishes that are totally transparent, or those that use electricity to ‘see’), as well as dabbled with a little unusual water chemistry (as in the water conditions demanded by the delicate Sulawesi shrimps). It’s not all just small stuff, either. An interview with tankbuster owner Mick Booth sheds light on caring for aquarium giants, while Steve Grant’s exploration of Pangasius…

TROPICAL Gymnotiformes THE KNIFE EDGE Are there any fish more unique than those with the shape of a blade, and the ability to sense electricity itself? Rebecca Bentley examines these mysterious creatures of perpetual twilight. REBECCA BENTLEY Rebecca is an ichthyologist in training who spends her days browsing the collections of the Natural History Museum. MAX PEDLEY GYMNOTIFORMES ARE striking and unusual, with a body shape unlike any other fishes. They lurk like ghosts from the darker corners of the tank, encouraged out only with the promise of food. Like the mormyrid fishes of Africa and Asia, they are amongst the few vertebrates that generate electricity for communication and navigation. In the aquarium they can prove to be a challenge though. What are Gymnotiformes? Gymnotiformes are an order of South…

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.…

MARINE How easy are sea fans to keep? I've recently seen some sea fans for sale, which would look amazing in my 400 l reef tank. I keep mainly LPS corals and they're doing very well. But at £35-£40 each I don't want to buy these sea fans if they won't survive. I have a Yellow Tang, a Pyjama Wrasse, a Royal Gramma, two Percula Clownfish — no dwarf angels or anything 'nippy'. Inverts are snails and reef hermits and a Peppermint Shrimp that I rarely see. Would the fans need any supplementary feeding? CHARLIE ELLIS, VIA EMAIL JEREMY ADVISES: Sea fans vary from being as easy as a Leather Coral to harder than the most sensitive Acropora. This is because there are two main types: photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic, often…

ADVICE Know-how Aquascaping staples Where do you start if you’re looking to get into a planted layout? Jordan Stirratt offers a handful of suggestions that can make any aquascape come alive. JORDAN STIRRATT Aquascaping prodigy Jordan is currently making waves as one of the hobby’s fastest up-and-comers. RICCARDIA CHAMEDRYFOLIA Here is one of my favourite ‘moss like’ plants to use, and although it’s often labelled as moss it is in fact a type of liverwort. Also referred to as Jagged Germanderwort, Mini Pellia or Coral Moss, this plant is a staple in the home aquarium. But, while slow growing, it will form large bulbous clumps if not maintained. Riccardia chamedryfolia is polymorphic, meaning that it will assume different forms dependent on its environment. If grown in lower lighting and with…

MARINE Sponges FOR GOOD OR BAD? If you own a reef tank you probably haven’t thought about buying sponges. And perhaps you shouldn’t, given their many problems. But then again, they do look lovely… WORDS: NATHAN HILL ALAMY ON BALANCE, there are probably more reasons that you don’t want to keep a sponge in a reef tank than reasons you do. But that’s not to say that sponges aren’t cool beasts. I mean, what other aquarium resident could you punch a few times, cut up with a knife, punch again, throw into a blender, spread the bits around a tank and expect to regrow everywhere? Sponges are born survivors, as long as they stay underwater. They’re one of the simplest life forms around; not as advanced as corals or anemones,…

OPINION Tailpiece NATHAN HILL There’s no escaping the fact that 2022 is getting expensive. But I suspect that how it’ll affect our hobby this coming year will be down to how much we let it. THING ARE about to get messy, it seems. Globally we’ve had a tumultuous time this last couple of years. Brexit had a greater impact on hobby prices and availability than most people expected, then Covid came along and really screwed things up. As I write this, Russia has attacked Ukraine, sending stock markets into despair, with warnings of more inevitable hikes in the cost of living — not to mention the irreplaceable cost in lives. How things will pan out by the time this magazine hits the shelves, I have absolutely no idea. Skyrocketing livestock…

TROPICAL Stiphodon Stipho-do’s and Stipho-don’t’s! When taking on a wild fish, it’s imperative to understand how it feeds, writes Tom Ackrill. The gorgeous gobies of Stiphodon are a perfect example of just that. TOM ACKRILL Tom runs the Freshwater Fishkeeping Facebook page and has a passion for helping beginners. NATHAN HILL Top tip Introduce some broad-leafed plants like Anubias and let them get smothered in algae. The gobies will love it. THE STIPHODON family is one that I hadn’t really jumped into in any great detail up until this point on my daunder through the fishkeeping hobby. I’d occasionally seen one or two somewhere on social media, thought they looked cool, and then moved on. But towards the end of 2021, things changed. I found myself suddenly drawn to the…

ADVICE Fishkeeping Answers TROPICAL How do I prepare for an extended holiday? Question of the Month I’ll be abroad for a five-week holiday in a couple of months’ time. My tank is 120x60x60cm with an external heater/filter. It’s a heavily planted community set-up with CO2 injection. I normally do a 25% water change each week. It contains a mixture of fecund Platies and Bristlenose Catfish, plus Cardinal, Glowlight and January Tetra, Boesemani Rainbowfish and Corydoras. I can feed most of the fish via an automatic feeder and I might be able to get someone to occasionally feed the plecs with tablets and cucumber. I can also get some fertiliser into the tank while I’m away, using a Dennerle Dosator. My main concern will be the filter and the absence of water…

ADVICE Fishkeeping Answers TROPICAL How do I tackle this stinky algae? My tank, which I’ve had for many years, is plagued with what I suspect is cyanobacteria. It’s relentless, covering the tank and everything in it in double-quick time. It’s also a very smelly algae, giving off an almost stagnant odour when I remove ornaments to clean them. I’ve tried regular and intensive cleaning, supplying new filter media, frequent water changes, special shop bought algae treatments, but it never completely goes. We’ve tried leaving the lights off for days which hasn’t worked. There are no fish in the tank — I lost them a while ago and I’m reluctant to buy any more while the algae is rife. The lights are only on for 6-8 hours a day, and the tank…

PLANTS Can I stop my fish digging up my plants? I’m trying to replant an established 90cm tank which, prior to this, was planted mainly with Anubias and Java fern. I'm now planting Cryptocoryne and Vallisneria — or I’m trying to — but my corys and bristlenose just uproot everything overnight. Is there a trick to preventing this? I was going to root them with some lead weight around the base but presume this will restrict their growth eventually, so any tips would be welcome. MARK SIMMONS, VIA EMAIL BOB REPLIES: There's no denying that many fish prefer a planted tank, and aesthetically most tanks look better with the addition of live plants. It can be difficult to get plants to establish in tanks where enthusiastic diggers dwell and, while…

TROPICAL Transparent fishes Clearly superior! Fiction writers have long fantasised about the concept of invisibility cloaks, but for many fish being completely transparent is a normal way of life. Neale Monks sheds some light on the phenomenon. NEALE MONKS Neale is a longstanding aquatics author with a particular passion for brackish water species. ALAMY HIDING IN plain sight is especially useful if you live in open water where there’s nothing to hide behind. Transparency has evolved many times among aquatic animals, not just among fish, but also things like jellyfish, crustaceans, even squids. Quite a few fish families include species that are transparent, in both freshwater and the sea. Among the best known to biologists are the larval forms of eels and their relatives. These are the famous leptocephali larvae,…