Table of contents for May 2022 in Practical Fishkeeping

ORDER YOURS TODAY FOR JUST £9.99 Habitats and history, conservation and culture, art appreciation, current affairs and cooking; ‘fish’ contains all of this and more. For anyone with a passing interest in the piscine world — angler, aquarium hobbyist, even the lay natural history fan — ‘fish’ offers in-depth stories that are carefully crafted as much for their literary merit as their informative content. In a world of stuffy writing and practicality, we offer musings and entertainment. ‘fish’ is the long read for the long reader. DON’T MISS OUT - VISIT OUR WEBSITE AND ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY. www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/shop…

Florida Gars have been a favourite in the tankbuster scene for as long as that scene has existed, and on the whole, they tend to do relatively well in captive care. Much like lungfish care, the primary concern is space. In an ideal world, these should be the realms of public aquaria sizes, though fish of up to 60-70cm are regularly seen in tanks of a few metres long. Famed UK aquarist Jack Heathcote used to keep them in a tank that was effectively half of his cellar with a huge glass pane at the front. Although they don’t breathe atmospheric air to the extent of lungfish, these gars will still take gulps from the surface as needed, and again, warm, moist air should be provided. Part of their success…

ALAMY THE ART of economising in fishkeeping could quite conceivably, given the globalised financial woes of the 2020s, soon become a new intellectual fringe of the hobby. There’s no part of aquarium ownership that isn’t somehow impacted by a wider, international fuel price hike, from the costs of fish food, to transporting tetras from South America, or the water we fill our tanks with and the electricity that powers the pumps to move it. Some costs are unavoidable. The manufacturing and import of aquarium hardware involves transactions way beyond the hobbyist’s control — if equipment prices rise, as they are likely to, then there is nothing we can do but take that on the chin. Other costs are within our personal spheres of influence, and may be as simple as…

There aren’t many stores that become legends in their own lifetime, but The Abyss Aquatic Warehouse in Stockport has managed just that. Positioned just a stone’s throw from the M60, the store boasts modest forecourt parking space and an external fascia that only hints the scale of the operation within. As business ventures go, The Abyss is a big one. At PFK, we’ve visited several times over the years and are always awed at how the owners manage to utilise extra space in a way that’s relevant to hobbyists. The store has existed in its current form (and under the current name) for some thirteen years, but its history extends back about 35 years, when it was originally known as Manchester Aquatics. It’s a long-standing pedigree that has allowed the…

THIS MONTH I was privileged to have a discussion with many-time world aquascaping champion, Josh Sim. Aquascaping remains a bit of a mixed bag in the hobby — some love it, others hate it — but I’ve had a lot of requests for a plant heavy issue, and here it is. Josh Sim reveals the mindset of ‘scapers working at the highest levels of the hobby, Tai Strietman shows us how that old aquarium favourite, the Amazon Sword, grows in the wild, and after his popular inaugural feature recently, Pete Cookson of Riverwood Aquatics is back with more advice on starting out with greenery. There’s more than plants though. We have a UK first from Elliott Ball spawning a rare Corydoras, and Josh Pickett, author of The Bichir Handbook, offers…

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. HEALTH What’s causing this bloating? I have six Silver Dollars in my tank, and they have given me…

While it’s possible to keep lungfish at home, you need to be aware that they are a big responsibility, in every way, and not without their risks. It’s most likely that you’ll come across the African species if shopping for one, so those are the ones we’ll focus on here. Most obviously, their size needs to be considered. These are big fish, which may have an amphibian charm about them when young, but will soon grow large — even the smaller species, in aquarium conditions, can easily surpass 75cm, while in the wild at least one species is known to reach some 2m fully grown. On the plus side, they don’t require much swimming space, and a tank of 300x100x100cm should accommodate one of the smaller species well into adulthood.…

• Twisty or pale growth — Calcium deficiency • Dark veins with light leaf — Magnesium deficiency • Chalky deposits at base of leaves — Carbon dioxide deficiency • Weak new growth, often pale leaves — Nitrogen deficiency • Old leaves yellowing and dying — Nitrogen deficiency • Tiny holes in leaves, often with yellowing — Potassium deficiency • Yellow leaves with dead patches that die quickly — Phosphate deficiency…

SHUTTERSTOCK ADDING LIVE plants to your aquarium is not only visually appealing, but also brings with it a host of additional benefits, including cleaner water and added security for the tank’s fishy inhabitants and their young. If your aim is to create an authentic looking underwater world, then avoiding the plastic, man-made greenery (or purplery with yellow polkadots) is essential. However, there is more to successfully growing aquatic plants than simply picking the prettiest species and hoping for the best. Just as with house plants, aquatic plants have specific care requirements. For example, adding something like Hemianthus callitrichoides ‘Cuba’ — which demands bright light and high CO2 levels — to a dull aquarium with a gravel substrate and no supplementary CO2 will certainly end in the plant’s rapid demise. SHUTTERSTOCK…

There’s much debate in the aquarium community about the real or perceived dangers of palytoxin. Palythoa and Zoanthus spp. produce palytoxin, but most don’t contain enough to be harmful to humans. As a precaution, wear gloves and eye protection when handling or fragging zoanthids. Avoid aerosolising the toxin such as with a band saw, and never cook, boil, or rinse zoanthids under hot, steamy water. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after handling them, and do not touch your face, especially your eyes. Keep zoanthids and contaminated surfaces and water away from pets and small children who may accidentally ingest them.…

More info: discushobby.com/en I absolutely love trade shows. You can be among the first to see the latest innovations from multinational brands and new startups alike, often involving dozens of fish-keeping products that you never knew existed. There are always lots of red herrings, by which I mean products that, based on your experience, you just know will prove to be useless. But occasionally a real gem can be found. During the Aqua Telford 2022 show I came across a small stand with only a few tubs of fish food on display. Because I couldn’t recognise the logo nor the brand I started a conversation with Wojciech, the gentleman manning the booth — I soon found out that Wojciech is also a keen fish-breeder, specialising on discus. On this occasion…

MY CONTEMPT for the early wave of nano tanks is pretty well documented, but I’ll not miss a chance to gripe again. To this day I maintain that while they (arguably) did the industry good, they set back animal welfare by a decade or two. But here’s a thing — they’re about to come back again, and this time out of business necessity. Family lines If working so long in aquatic retail taught me one thing, it’s that fishkeeping largely runs in genealogies. Young(ish) novices will turn up to a store, fresh from buying their first home and settling into the life domestic, and they want a taste of that sweet nostalgia that comes from copying their parents/grandparents/aunts and uncles who once had a fish tank. Such fishkeepers generally have…