Table of contents for March 2022 in Practical Fishkeeping

PRACTICAL Fishkeeping FIRST ISSUE + FREE GIFT Then pay just £3.99 a month thereafter (anytime cancellation) JUST 99P! 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 of credit/debit card…

IDENTIFICATION Tiger barbs EASY TIGER… For a fish that’s one of the most common in the trade, it might be surprising to learn that we know so little about it. But that’s exactly where we are with this ID mystery, writes Max Pedley. MAX PEDLEY Director of Ornamental Aquatics Wholesale, Max has a history of aquatic retail and teaching. SHUTTERSTOCK EVERY NOW and then I have a ‘Eureka!’ moment. As rare as it is, the most recent one came whilst discussing Tiger barbs and their proper identification with a friend. It seems that for years, we have been erroneously referring to ‘common’ Tiger barbs as Puntigrus tetrazona. The genus Puntigrus contains only five species at present and the name itself is a Portmanteau of Puntius — a traditional catch all…

CULTURE Aquatic pioneers Women in fishkeeping Women are making an increasingly visual presence in the world of aquatics, and the hobby has a long history of female pioneers. So why don’t we hear more about them, asks Ingrid Allan. INGRID ALLAN A freelance writer with a day job in education, Ingrid is a huge fan of anabantoids and biotopes. ALAMY IT MAY not feel like it when you’re lugging buckets of water around or scratching your head over a mysterious fatality, but we fish-keepers have never had it so easy. With thousands of species readily available and a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips, it’s important to be thankful to those who made it all possible. Much has been made of the Amanos and Axelrodis of this world, but with…

HABITAT Caquetá basin A trip in time: THE CICHLID HUNTERS OF CAQUETÁ A historic cichlid-seeking visit to Colombia came up trumps when a new species was uncovered. UWE WERNER Uwe is a prolific author and writer who boasts over 40 fish seeking trips to West Africa, and the Americas. BACK IN April 1995, three friends and I flew to Columbia to search for new fishes, our main interest being cichlids. The last days of our trip were spent in the Caquetá-drainage, in a province named ‘paradise’ by its inhabitants. Here, we fished east and west of Florencia. Some of our fishing locations we’d already read about, starting in the Quebrada Aguas Calientes — ‘the hot waters’ — a small river 28km west of Florencia; in some brooks between Belén and…

ADVICE Fishkeeping Answers TROPICAL What’s causing this white ‘powder’ in my tank? Every time I carry out a water change of 25% or more, overnight my plants, glass and heaters become covered in a white powdery substance which tends to disappear after a few days. Could this be something to do with my tap water? I always treat it with conditioner before adding it. The temperature in the aquarium is 25°C, pH is 7.3 and all water parameters are fine. MEGAN RICHARDSON, VIA EMAIL NEALE SAYS: It’s hard to be exactly sure from the photo, but my first thought is plain vanilla silt. Silt is, of course, the finest particles that make up the substrate or soil in any given habitat. In aquaria, the most common source of silt is sand…

ADVICE Fishkeeping Know-how Get to grips with HARD SCAPE Considering it’s the most obvious furniture in our aquaria, you’d have thought more people would pay attention to décor. Riverwood Aquatics owner Peter Cookson offers some tips. PETER COOKSON Peter is founder and owner of Riverwood Aquatics, a specialist aquascaping store in Assington, Suffolk. NEIL HEPWORTH HARDSCAPE IS the foundation to a beautiful aquarium, and can range from a stunning diorama of a weathered mountain range, complete with trees, valleys and pathways, to a basic, three-stone Iwagumi layout. Bearing in mind a few easy design techniques and simple placement ‘rules’ anyone can put together a strong hardscape, and thus lay the foundation for a stunning aquarium What is hardscape? Hardscape is effectively the non-living materials we use to create our underwater habitats. Mostly…

GEAR & REVIEWS GEAR BOOK REVIEWS THE ELOQUENCE OF THE SARDINE THE SECRET LIFE OF FISH & OTHER UNDERWATER MYSTERIES We review two new books for your literary pleasure Author: Bill Francois Pages: 192 RRP: £16.99 (hardback) ISBN: 9781472134035 More info: littlebrown.co.uk Reviewed by: Nathan Hill The Eloquence of the Sardine, as implied by the name, is not a book that focuses on any particular niche of the aquarium hobby. Neither husbandry nor instruction is to be found within its pages. Instead, it is a wider exploration of those fish that have shaped the world, those that have changed history, those that have given rise to great myths (such as the origins of the fabled Golden Fleece). It is exploration, the author seeking out fish both figuratively through concepts, as well as…

COMPETITION WIN ONE OF SIX GAGE BEASLEY PLUSHIES While we wanted to be greedy and keep the Gage Beasley plushies to ourselves at PFK, we’re giving them away — except the Yellowfin tuna, which editor Nathan refuses to put down. Gage Beasley is an online business that specialises in hundreds of plushies ranging from Giant squid to Horseshoe crabs, Cod to Anglerfish, Axolotls to ants and so much more. By keeping the business online only, Gage Beasley is able to offer these toys at a saving of up to 70% on retail prices, and all products come with an exchange guarantee in the unlikely event that there’s a problem. We have six plushies to give away — Oarfish, Arowana, Flounder, Frilled shark, Flying fish and Axolotl — with chosen at…

Welcom FISHKEEPING REALLY does read like a mystery sometimes. You think you know a fish, then it turns out that you were completely wrong. Look at the humble Tiger barb, for example. Max Pedley writes all about them in this issue. We all know Tiger barbs, right? We all know which species the Tiger barbs from farms are, right? Best of luck with that, even the experts can’t match the farmed fish up with any of the known wild species. Barbs in general seem to have a reputation for being ‘also ran’ fish. When was the last time you set up a tank with some as your centrepiece? Aside the showy Denison’s, or maybe some large Filament barbs, it never really happens. Daniel Konn-Vetterlein has taken time out this month…

WOMEN IN FISHEEKPING TIMELINE 1800 1849 Cornelia Clapp Born. The first woman to be awarded a PhD in the United States 1859 Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’ published 1850 1862 Mary Kingsley born. English writer, explorer and autodidact zoologist 1900 1900 Ethelwynn Trewavas born 1900 Mary Kingsley dies 1902 Grace Pickford Born 1904 Cornelia Clapp becomes the first womens proffessor of the zoology dept. in a Massachusetts college 1907 Rachel Carson born 1921 Rosemary Lowe-McConnell born 1925 Ethelwynn Trewavas publishes findings on amphibians and fish 1935 Sylvia Earle Born Deep sea explorer 1935 Cornelia Clapp dies 1939 Ethelwynn Trewavas publishes paper on Lake Malawi 1950 1951 Rachel Carson publishes her second book ‘The Sea Around Us’ 1964 Rachel Carson dies 1970 Sylvia Earle led the first all-female aquanaut…

THE DRAGON BEHIND THE GLASS Author: Emily Voigt Pages: 336 RRP: £12.99 at Blackwell’s ISBN: 9781451678956 More info: https://www.simonandschuster.com Reviewed by: Joost de Leeuw If one fish turned into a commodity, it is Scleropagus formosus, the Asian arowana (or Dragon fish – arowana is an Amazonian word). It is big, ancient and tough-looking, but what started the journalist Emily Voigt on a journey around the world is what this fish inspires in humans. The Dragon Behind the Glass opens with the murder of a Malaysian breeder, which turns out to be far from an isolated incident. Dragon fish are big business and the arowana in-crowd is like the cast of Netflix’s Tiger King. Voigt’s quest starts in safe Singapore, where Kenny the Fish (‘a big fish in a small pond’)…

IDENTIFICATION Tiger barbs Nathan Hill’s thoughts: Who IS the farmed Tiger? Welcome to the melting pot of fish farming. The problem we have is that the fish commonly traded as a Tiger barb — the ones we see in shops — doesn’t correlate exactly to any of the known wild species. With its bright red ventral fins, P. anchisporus seems to be the closest ‘at a glance’ but the problem there is that our farmed fish don’t have complete lateral lines, whereas P. anchisporus do. So, what has happened? Potentially one of three possible options present themselves. The first, and perhaps the likeliest, is that in the early years of Puntigrus aquaculture, multiple species were mixed together, hybridising the Tigers in such a way that would even make Seigfried and…

SPECIES SHOWCASE Splitfins The SAN MARCOS REDTAIL Goodeids aren’t at the top of most aquarists’ to-do lists, but for the feel good factor of preserving a species, there’s little better, writes Heather Walford. HEATHER WALFORD Founder of the Birmingham Aquatic Club, Heather has over 15 years of fishkeeping experience JJPHOTO.DK IMUST ADMIT, not a lot of information exists on endangered species of livebearers in the world of fishkeeping — many people perhaps don’t even realise they exist. True to form, this feature covers a special endangered species of goodeid that you might not have heard about before. Xenotoca doadrioi, also known under its common name of the ‘San Marcos Redtail splitfin’, is a livebearing fish in the goodeidae family from the Mexican state of Jalisco. This small and colourful species…

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.…

HEALTH How do I treat this sore? My Angelfish has developed a sore, which it’s had for about five weeks now. I’ve tried treating with Pimafix and Melafix, but without any success. It started out as a light brown spot but has gradually got darker and more red, and it has grown by about 2-3mm in the last couple of weeks — it’s now around 7mm in diameter. I do a 25-30% water change every two weeks as the tank is very heavily planted. Unfortunately, I do not have a quarantine tank, although the other fish are okay. What I should do? KENNY JOHNSTON, VIA EMAIL PETER REPLIES: We can see from the photo you sent that the fish has an open skin wound, which has breached the skin’s layers,…

OPINION Tailpiece NATHAN HILL When it comes to seeking out the truth, maybe we should look beyond asking a bunch of random people on the Internet. Nathan Hill is editor of Practical Fishkeeping magazine as well as fish magazine. Follow his musings over on Instagram at fish_the_ literary_magazine THE ORIGINS of one of our favourite fish have somehow remained out of the public eye, despite the astonishing backstory. The domestic and colourful Cardinal tetra, quite unlike its bland wild cousin, was created from a synergy between American fish farms and up-and-coming genetic enthusiasts in one of the earliest projects for what was to later become Monsato, the infamous GM oligarch. Both parties won; the farms keeping and breeding from the brighter genetically modified fish, while Monsato proved their technology worked…