Tag: Aquarium fish
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How to include new piranhas to an already existing group?
This has been a long time overdue! A new fish hobby blog has been needed and there will be coming more in the future, that’s a promise! I’ve had a lot going on with my health as most of you know, and I’ve been struggling with income since I can’t work full time anymore. Therefore…
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Do you want a saltwater aquarium but can’t afford it or think it seems difficult? Check out this freshwater alternative!
Did you know, there are some freshwater fish that looks as colourful as they could have been saltwater fishes? True! Take a look at these Mbuna cichlids from Lake Malawi in Africa. Some of these almost look identical to some of its saltwater cousins. Add some great looking rocks and light coloured sand and you…
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Some small updates from my fish room.
The fish in my fish room are mating like crazy. I’ve decided not to make weekly water changes but instead once a month and once every other month. And it has made wonder for my fish. They now thrive like ever before! And they mate more now and successfully at that. Here are some pictures.…
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I got Apistogramma hansloi babies!
In June this year, I got fry from a Apistogramma hansloi pair. Today they are looking good and healthy. They are so extremely cute I just had to share with you guys. A. hansloi mom and dad has done a good job raising these cuties. There are seven new A. hansloi now in the fish…
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A new update on the World’s First!
The little Channa fish babies are growing like crazy. Check these photos out! It’s AMAZING to see this! And I’m astonished how fast they grow! They look bigger every week. Almost every day now. I feed them twice a day. And the parents feed them several times a day too. It’s absolutely wonderful to see…
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Freshwater Stonefish called Three-spined Frogfish or Toadfish.
Batrachomoeus trispinosus. The Freshwater Lionfish Batrachomoeus trispinosus was described by Günther in 1861.They are a common species found throughout the Indo-West Pacific; northwestern Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Arafura Sea, and the Mekong delta. The species is not listed on the IUCN Red List. Most species seen in the aquarium fish trade are…
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Update on the Worlds First!
The fry are growing and the parents are doing a great job. Daddy Channa is showing off how explosive he can be when I feed the fry with live food. He thinks I’m going to take the fry away when I put the little tube in and squeeze out the shrimp. Here they are in…
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First in the World?
I just got home from helping my old mother shopping for groceries and I found this in one of my tanks… The species is Channa sp. Fire & Ice and inhabits the border region between Myanmar and western Thailand, the Salween river system. I have never heard any other breeder to succeed with breeding this…
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A Suriname aquarium. It’s a surprise!
The first surprise is Astronotus ocellatus cichlid, or the “Oscar, Tiger Oscar or Peacock Oscar” as it’s also called. It grows up to 30-45 cm (12-18 in) so it’s a large fish! It’s not an aggressive fish but eats aggressively. Maybe that’s why it’s gotten it’s reputation for being aggressive. Or if it’s kept in…
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If you like this blog contents, help me write more on it!
If you like this blog about the aquarium hobby and keeping aquarium fish, you can do something that helps you getting more content, to get more information and help you in your hobby to get the best out of it. You can LIKE and you can SUBSCRIBE to this blog. It will help me helping…
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One of my favourite tank setups, includes a true rarity!
The Costa Rica aquarium setup. Costa Rica has a versatile variety of species. For instance, 25% of all bird species, lives here. That’s one of every four birds in the world! That’s amazing! Butterflies and fishes are no exceptions. Here is my take on a Costa Rica aquarium setup. If you have any species you…
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Doing water changes! An aquarium necessity?
Doing water changes is an ongoing debate. Should you do 10%, 20%, 25%, 30% or even 50% every week? Well, if I would say, I do water changes of 10-20% once a month or never! Would you believe me? And I have never any deaths in my tanks! Do you still believe me? For those…
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This is my Rio Negro, Colombian tank setup!
Today I’m going to go through my Colombian aquarium tank setup. Colombia is one of my favourite setups with the Peruvian tank setup. I hope you enjoy! Symphysodon discus “Heckel’s True Discus or Brown Discus” 20cm it originates from Rio Negro in Colombia, Venezuela & Brazil. The Crown Jewels in this setup! This Discus is…
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Where did the Cichlasoma oblongum go?
Many aquarists had the popular Cichlasoma oblongum in their aquariums when it came in the hobby. And it was a very popular fish to keep indeed. But where did it go? Many are now searching for it. It is like it has disappeared. And if you search for it in the genus Cichlasoma it’s not…
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If you want a Geophagus communal tank? You should consider a Venezuelan setup.
Yes! A Venezuelan tank setup is the way to go if you want many different Geophagus species in the same aquarium, because these species lives together in the wild. So it’s “normal” for them to live in a communal setup. Check this fishes out! Cleithracara maronii “Keyhole Cichlid” size 11cm (4,4in) ”Rio Orinoco in Venezuela”.…
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A beautiful freshwater stingray from Asia.
I hope I can broaden your horizons on stingrays. You don’t have have one from South America there are other options. The Roughback Stingray (Himantura kittipongi) is a rare species of freshwater stingray in the family Dasyatidae, found over sandy bottoms in the Mae Klong and Chao Phraya rivers and Mekong basin of Thailand. Unfortunately…
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How to maintain a good balance and environment in the aquarium. How do I do it?
How do I do it? First of all I’ve tried it all! What ever they’ve said is a good thing to do on YouTube or fishkeeping gurus, I’ve done it. So why is my conclusion after all of this different ways of keeping aquarium fish? Simple answer? It depends on how much the aquarium is…
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Peaceful Mbuna species.
Mbuna is a Schooling fish. Today there will not be as much to read, but a lot more pictures of different Mbundu species that are so peaceful that you can actually have them in a same tank as Aulonocara species, which is a great controversial subject in the hobby. I hope you enjoy these beautiful…
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A New Oscar species has been found in the Orinoco river!
The scientific name is given to honor Mr. Ivan Mikolji, Venezuelan explorer, author, and underwater photographer. The NEW scientific name added to the genus Astronotus is, mikoljii. This new species of cichlid of genus Astronotus lives in the Orinoco River and Gulf of Paria basins in Venezuela and Colombia. Researchers from Brazil and Venezuela used…
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Update on my illness.
So the doctors office called to day and CANCELLED my appointment this Wednesday this week!!! WTF?!? Man is it frustrating! And believe me, when I say, I complained about their cancellation on me! I told the nurse, that called today, how difficult I’m having it and that it’s hard enough to have been waiting to…
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Want a predatory aquarium but only have a 15-40 gallons tank? Not a problem! Check this out!
What’s a 15-40 gallons (54-160 litres) aquarium tank compared to a 200-270 gallons (720-960 litres) aquarium? HUGH! Not just the space it takes but, the price tag on it as well! Wow! If I only could find predatory fishes that doesn’t grow so large. Well, there are such fishes available, and I’m going to tell…
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Aulonocara stuartgranti localities.
As I’ve blogged about before, you shouldn’t mix different Aulonocara species to avoid mixed hybrid species to appear. But, you can have the same species but from different locations. Aulonocara stuartgranti is a very variable coloured species. Take a look! Aulonocara stuartgranti Chilumba Aulonocara stuartgranti Mdoka Aulonocara stuartgranti Chitande Island Aulonocara stuartgranti Mbowe Island Aulonocara…
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Du you hate making water changes? Then you should consider these fishes.
The snakehead genus I’m showing you today is the Channa family. These species lives in low oxygen, murky and slow moving waters in Asia. In order to represent this in captivity is not to make weekly water changes. Also, simply, because they don’t like it when the water is to “clean”, so to speak. There…
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How to determine sexes in the Geophagus brasiliensis group.
This is the easiest group to determine the sex. Other groups are almost near impossible to determine the sex but when they are adults you will notice the the fins are longer on the males and in several species the males are much larger then the females. The Geophagus family is a South American native…
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How about a RARE South American Predatory Tank!
This tank setup should be at least 648 liters or 180 gallons, size 180x60x60cm or 6ft*2ft*2ft. Astronotus carssipinnis grows to 25cm (10inches). It’s known as the Apaiari, Zebra Oscar or Bumblebee Oscar. It’s a more RARE species then it’s relative, the Tiger or Peacock Oscar. It should be kept as a pair or with four…
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Predatory fish that you can actually keep in a fairly sized aquarium:
South American species: many from Rio Orinoco, surprisingly. To be noted: I have kept most of these fish on this list, so I know what I’m talking about. These fish are meant for aquariums from size, Lenght x Depth x Tall: 120x50x50cm and 300liters or 4ft X 20inches X 20inches and 83gallons to 200x80x60cm and…
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Update on my wellbeing.
I’m still unwell, to say the least. I am not at all doing great. But I feel a bit clearer in my head so I’ve managed to have written two blogposts this last week. To me that’s a huge progress! I hope to be able to keep writing in the future! Again, I want to…
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My favorite African species of Tetras from the Congo river.
Alestopetersius brichardi: The Cherry Red Congo Tetra. It lives in the middle of the Congo river. It reaches a maximum length of 7.9 cm. This species is my favourite of the bunch! Alestopetersius smykalai is Synonym Hemigrammopetersius: This species appears to be restricted to the Imo and Niger drainages in Nigeria but the full extent…
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This can be read on my page today.
NOTIFICATION! Due to a long time of illness, I’ve lost strength and are unable to do my research and follow up with a blog every Sunday. This makes me very sad! But whenever I do feel some strength, I will do what I can, and post a blog. As I’ve done in the past, this…
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There is a NEW cichlid species: Mikrogeophagus maculicauda!
Genus: Mikrogeophagus Species: maculicauda Group: Dwarf cichlids Described: Staeck, Ottoni & Schindler Year: 2022 Geographic area: South-America Locality: Rio Pindaituba (also called Ribeirão Pintaituba), access rivers to Rio Sararé, north of Vila Bella da Santissima Trinidade, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Water perimeter 6-7,5ph, 20-28 degrees Celsius. It separates it self from other species in the genus…
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The ”redhead” Geophagus or Geophagus sp. Tapajos has gotten a scientific name!
The “redhead” Geophagus, “orange head” Geophagus or Geophagus Tapajos has finally gotten a scientific name! It’s now know as Geophagus pyrocephalus. Technically was “redhead” Geophagus this species but “orange head” Geophagus was the common name for Geophagus sp. “Porto Franco” or Tocantins orange head. Anyway, now we have to get use to the new scientific…
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The diagnosis was wrong!
It seems that the old diagnosis with shingles and herniated disks was totally wrong?! It seems more likely that it is my spleen that’s the issue! All symptoms is showing it’s my spleen. I’m going to get an x-ray on Tuesday that’s been issued by my doctor on “very high priority level”. It’s not so…
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This is personal! I’ve been in pain for the past three weeks.
I’ve been diagnosed with shingles and herniated disks sense three weeks back. It started with shingles three weeks ago and a few days later my herniated disks went from not so good to really bad! So since then I’ve been struggling with heavy pains of different sorts and difficulty getting any sleep during the night.…
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Can you make a cute communal cichlid aquarium?
Yes, you can! All species I’ve chosen for this project originates from Brazil. So it’s kind I’m of a biotope aquarium as well. All are peaceful fish and dose very well in a communal tank setup. No one eats plants either, so you may decorate your aquarium as much as you’d like and scape it…
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The Inca Stone Fish.
Most of us think of a fish that looks like this, but it’s not. It’s actually a pretty goody looking fish from South America, mainly Peru, hence the name. It’s Latin name is, Tahuantinsuyo macantzatza, which means stone, macan and tzatza means fish. It’s a peaceful fish and goes well with larger tetras and angels…
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One of my favorite Gourami, and it’s from Africa!
Microctenopoma ansorgii is a small freshwater fish, only 7 cm or 2.4 inches in length, known in the aquarium trade as the ornate ctenopoma, orange ctenopoma, ornate climbing perch, pretty ctenopoma, or rainbow ctenopoma. A suitable tank size is 128 liters, 80x40x40 cm or 35 gallons, 32x16x16 inches. This is the most colourful of the…
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Mosquito-eating fish fight Zika virus in Mexico.
Maybe you’ve heard about. I haven’t. I came across this story online and found it so interesting that I had to share it for you as well. In 2016 an initiative called “Operation Blessing International” was helping fight the Zika virus in Mexico with mosquito-eating fish. The humanitarian group was breeding Gambusia in a pond…
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This is my favourite dwarf cichlid next to the Apistogramma genus!
This is it! What a drop dead gorgeous fish to watch! The Ivanacara adoketa or Zebra acara is my favorite dwarf cichlid next to the Apistogramma genus! It originates from Rio Vauapés and Rio Preto, two side rivers of the Rio Negro of Amazonas state, in northwestern Brazil. It appears to be endemic to middle…
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Additional blogs on older posts may occur because updates on species comes regularly in the hobby.
You may sometimes find that I’ve written about a certain species in the past and then they appear again. If so, they will contain additional information about the species and there can also be details that I want to include. So instead of update older blogs I write new refreshed posts. I only place this…
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The Holy Grail of cichlids, the Madagascar Polleni Stary Night cichlid or Black Diamond cichlid.
My favorite cichlid of all time! “This is an updated blog to an older post that I thought was needed as this contains additional information”. Paratilapia polleni, former Tilapia genus, reaches 28 cm or 11 inches in total length, also known as Madagascar Small Spotted cichlid or Black Diamond cichlid or simply, Polleni. It originates…
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The Vieja regani or Cichlasoma synspilus cichlid. Both gentle giants. Which to choose?
P.S. As a personal note I need to clarify that in the last blog I accidentally wrote the species name “regani” on both genuses but that’s not accurate. I’m so sorry for this. Nobody is perfect! Now back to the topic at hand today. The Cichlasoma synspilus, or now known as Paratheraps melanura, is a…
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A Large communal cichlid tank with big cichlids & calm demeanor! Is it possible?
Wouldn’t that be a treat! There are some of the large cichlids that are more calm and less to no aggression even in the absolute most aggressive cichlid families. Like the Vieja, Cichlasoma, and Parachromis which all are known to be very aggressive genuses. But there are some species, that are exception to the rule,…
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Theme:Western Amazon. (Rio Tapajos-Rio Xingú).
This will be a very red colored fish aquarium and I love it! All fish are from these locations. There are other species as well but I’ve chosen those that doesn’t need a bigger tank than a 540 liters (150 gallons) aquarium. Cichlids: Biodotoma cupido grows to 12 cm (5,7 inches). A docile fish and…
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The Congo River. My favorite African Aquarium!
This is my choice for a 360 liters or 100 gallons Congo River communal aquarium: Hatchetfish: Orange Bushfish, Microctenopoma ansorgii, is also known as the “Ornate Ctenopoma” and is a small related of the more common gouramis. From the Congo river. Grows to 7 cm or 2,4 inches. A very Gorgeous and Rare fish in…
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Theme:Eastern Amazon Aquarium Tank. 648 liters or 180 gallons (Rio Orinoco-Rio Negro Biotope)
Species suggestions. Cichlids: Acarichthys heckelii 20cm Andinoacara pulcher “Electric/Blue Acara” 17cm Biodotoma wavrini 13cm Chaetobranchus flavescens 27cm eats plankton RARE Hypselecara temporalis “Emerald Cichlid/Chocolate cichlid” 30cm Geophagus altifrons 22cm Geophagus winemellri 20cm Pterophyllum altum 25cm Satanoperca lilith 22cm RARE Satanoperca daemon 25cm Symphysodon tarzoo “Green discus” 20cm Tahuantinsuyoa macantzatza “Inca Stone Fish” 12cm Tetras: Hemigrammus…
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The Only species of freshwater Venomous Stonefish.
Notesthes robusta “Freshwater Stonefish” grows to a total length of 30 cm or 12 inches and is a member of the Scorpion Fish Family. It lives in Australia & West Indies freshwater streams as well as saltwater ocean and coastline. They grow large to over 600 grams but get a bit smaller in the aquarium…
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The Most Common Mistakes Made As a Beginner Aquarist.
1. Starting out with too small of an aquarium. A small aquarium can be more difficult to maintain than a larger one and are not well-suited to beginners. Conditions like Ph, Ammonia and Nitrate and tend to be more stable in larger aquariums, and is easier to control, or more time to correct them if…
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Apistogramma macmasteri. Not to be mistaken for A. viejita.
Popular names: Macmasteri dwarf cichlid, Redtail dwarf cichlid, A120, A121 & A122. Nature biotope. Are often available In slow moving, near standstill, black water biotopes. River bottom is often covered with a bunch branches and decayed leaves which provides a lot of hiding places. Water is soft and has a low pH: 5-7,2. Feeding. In…
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Are You Looking for the RARE Oblongus or Chanchito Cichlid?
The Vieja oblongus cichlid is found in Guatemala and Honduras in Central America. The Cichlasoma facetum or Chanchito cichlid is found in Uruguay and Brazil in South America. In the beginning of the fish trade it was the very first exported cichlid and was the most common in the aquarium hobby because of its popularity.…
The Aquatic Studio! 