The End is Approaching…

The end of the year is quickly approaching! Are you ready for 2019? We are doing our best to prepare. We have a lot going on at the moment. One, we are working on expanding our fishroom. Two, we are expanding our fishroom prior to our return trip to Colombia. We will be visiting Puerto Carreno next year in the Llanos. It will likely be hot and dry, perfect for collecting! Three, we are building our website out to include a shopping cart. For the first time in years, we will offer shipping on our fish.

Please keep in mind that all of this is going to take a lot of time and effort. We still are working full time at our day job so this will not be very easy. You may have noticed our Facebook page, Amazon Tropics, has had a lot of updates recently. We are trying to share information on South American fish we find relevant. We hope you have enjoyed this feature.

At the same time, we have been taking a bunch of photos of fish we will have available next year. The photos will be used not only for the shopping cart but also for sharing information on each species. All of this is being done to give you a special touch that you simply cannot get anywhere else.  So stay tuned, we have a lot of good things coming in 2019!

Hypancistrus sp. “L-345” F-1 Male
We will get photos of the male soon
Hypancistrus sp. “L411” F-1 Female
Ancistrus sp. “Honeycomb” Male
Micracanthicus vandragti Wild Male, Full grown at ONLY 2″! The Nano Pleco
Micracanthicus vandragti Wild Female, Full grown at ONLY 1 1/2″! The Nano Pleco
Tatia gyrina Wild Male
Corydoras duplicareus Wild Female
Corydoras sp. “CW49” F-1 Male

Happy Thanksgiving

AmazonTropics.com is wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone is enjoying their time with family, friends and of course, fish! We have a special video for you today, a fish unboxing! A special thank you goes out to Bob Townsend for his gift to us.  Looking forward to all of the special events in 2019!

2018 Ohio Cichlid Association Extravaganza

It is that time of year, yes the holidays are upon us. But first, there is one last show, the Ohio Cichlid Association (OCA) Extravaganza. This year marks the 24th year of this event and as always, it is bound to be a big one!

There are tons of great speakers, a swap, several auctions and perhaps the big part, many aquarists selling fish from their hotel rooms. If you want to see super rare cichlids, catfish and other species, this is an event not to be missed! Already, several aquarists have posted their fish availability and it looks like this year might be one of the best yet.  For all of the details, visit the OCA website at: OCA Extravaganza.  Below is our availability list. Pre-sales are encouraged as many fish are limited in number. To make your purchase, please contact us at: jeremybasch@gmail.com. See you there!

Catfish Species Available Common Name Size Price
Centromochlus perugiae F-1 Honeycomb Woodcat 1 1/2″ 4/$80
Corydoras duplicareus F-1 Duplicate Cory 1″+ 6/$60
Corydoras panda  F-2 Panda Cory 1″+ 4/$20
Hypancistrus zebra F-2 Zebra Pleco 1 1/2″+ $150 ea. 5/$700
Hypancistrus sp. “L-333” Porto de Moz F-2 Yellow King Tiger 1″+ 4/$100
Hypancistrus sp. “L-345” F-2 (Small) Silver Prince Pleco 1″+ 4/$100
Tatia strigata F-2 (Extremely Rare!) Pinstripe Woodcat 1″+ 5/$400
Invertebrates Common Name Size Price
Asolene spixi Spixi Snail 1″+ shell 6/$10
Neocaridinia davidi Blue Dream Shrimp 3/4″+ 12/$20
Neocaridinia davidi Red Cherry Shrimp 3/4″+ 12/$10
Live Foods Common Name Size Price
Panagrellus nepenthicola Banana Worms Starter $5
Turbatrix aceti Vinegar Eels Starter $5

Corydoras sp. CW107

As we draw closer to our next trip to Colombia, it is not a idea to reflect back on this year’s trip. While the weather conditions were not ideal, it was still like being in paradise! We are a little over 3 months away from our next trip. To hold us off, we are going back through some of our photos and videos. Posted below is a video from our 2nd day of collecting in which we found Corydoras sp. CW107. It is a lovely Cory with golden-orange on the front end and a black stripe through the eye and back end of the fish. Check it out!

Thank You Louisville and LTFF!

A big thanks to the Louisville Tropical Fish Fanciers (LTFF)! We truly had a wonderful time in Louisville checking out some of the local restaurants, bars and club member’s fishrooms. A special thanks goes out to Bill Merkley, Tim Stone, Rusty Wessel and Sandy Carson for sharing their fishrooms. An even bigger thank you to Bill for hosting us during our stay. Hope everyone enjoyed the fish we brought, bidding was very spirited!

 

Add Another to the List!

Well you can add another to the list! Tonight we discovered our Ancistrus sp. “Honeycomb” spawned. This species has one of the most interesting patterns of any Ancistrus. It has gained a lot of attention recently among catfish enthusiasts and rightfully so. Just take a look! Hopefully we will be able to offer this species sometime next year. Stay tuned!

New Spawnings in the Fishroom

We have some great news! The spawning keeps on going in the fishroom. Just in the last two weeks we have had spawns from our Centromochlus schultzi, Tatia gyrina, Scleromystax sp. “CW147” and another batch of our Hypancistrus zebra. Recently, we have had several inquires about our Ancistrus sp. “Snowflake”, well we are happy to report they have finally spawned again! The male is actively guarding the spawn perhaps better than ever.

Unfortunately, the male has previously either kicked out the eggs or very few have survived. This particular batch of eggs looks promising. One positive is that the male is a year older now and more experienced. It appears that there are roughly 25-30 eggs but of course they are hard to count. The male only offering brief views and honestly, we do not want to disturb them. Interestingly, the eggs were fixed to  the roof of the cave. All of our Hypancistrus lay eggs that only adhere to each other and the male freely moves the egg cluster around.

Below you will see a video sharing some of our fish along with an update on the All-American Catfish Convention, CatCon. We are proud to announce that we are donating 4 Hypancistrus zebra, Zebra Plecos to CatCon. All of the funds will go towards helping pay for the great speakers that they are bringing in for the event. We will also have this species and others available for the Spree on Three. Visit http://www.catfishcon.com/ for all of the details including Spree on Three: http://www.catfishcon.com/Program/Activities/Spree-on-Three. A special thanks to SwissTropicals.com and PlanetCatfish.com for the photos of Ancistrus sp. “Snowflake”.

Image result for snowflake ancistrus

Image result for snowflake ancistrus

Potentially Another World First!

It is moments like these that are truly special. We put a lot of time and effort into our work. This makes it all worth it! The only other feeling that comes close to this is collecting a new species of fish. It is with great pride that we share that potential first spawning of Tatia gyrina!

We will be the first to admit that there are probably not a lot of people keeping this species but it has been coming in to the hobby over the last few years quite regularly. It is likely that most of the imports are coming out of Peru. While the distribution of this species as listed as Peru, Colombia, Brazil and Suriname, it is highly unlikely these are all the same species. This would mean a distribution of several thousands of miles and living in rivers that do not connect to each other.

The original description of Tatia gyrina comes from Iquitos, Peru (Sarmento-Soares & Martins-Pinheiro 2008).  Specimens from Suriname are stated to be the same species from Peru but we have our doubts. Further DNA testing may shed some light on this intriguing story. Until then, we will assume that the fish from Peru are the original T. gyrina.

The species itself is pretty straight forward for woodcat species. They reach approx. 2 1/4-2 1/2″ and a 10 gallon aquarium outfitted with a sponge filter is all that is needed. Place aquarium sand, driftwood and some small caves in the aquarium and you have the perfect environment for this species. A diet of frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, Daphnia and the occasional feedings of small pellets and flake foods are all that are needed.

Our fish are now several years old and so it was not so surprising with an increase in water changes and feedings that our group produced eggs. The water we use is half tap water and half R/O water. We have shared this previously with you and this gives us a pH under 7.0 with a hardness of just under 100 ppm. Fingers crossed that we can raise these up! Stay tuned for more updated and do not forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel! For additional photos of the parent fish, check out our photos on PlanetCatfish.com at: Tatia Gyrina PlanetCatfish.com Profile

Colombia and Venezuela Rainy Season

We write this post to share news of the Colombia and Venezuela 2018 rainy season. This year marks the worst flooding in over 40 years! Many families have been displaced along such iconic rivers of the Rio Meta, Rio Atabapo, Rio Vita and of course down river on the Rio Orinoco. Over 4,000 people and nearly 1,300 families have been affected. While this number may seem small, many of these families are the same families that fish for our beloved fish species like Altum Angelfish, Panda Uaru, Blue Phantom Plecos and many more!

Our guide and exporter, Hernando Gil, notified our collecting group of the flooding a few weeks ago. It only seemed like the right thing to do to send funds to people of Colombia. So our entire group worked on pooling our money together to send down. Just this week, Hernando received the funds and will be looking to send some much needed supplies.

Colombia is more than just the fish we collect, it is also about the people. With our group heading to Puerto Carreno, where the Rio Meta and the Rio Orinoco meet, it is important to take care of the people that invite us into their great country. We wish we could do more to assist them and we will continue to look for ways to help. Hopefully things return back to normal for the people of Colombia. Until then, we will be thinking about them.

Dates for Colombia 2019 are Set!

The dates for Colombia 2019 are set. We are super excited to be going back. The plan is to head to Puerto Carreno in northeast Colombia along the Venezuela border. There are many fish that come from this region, in particular, Loricariidae. Such notable species include: Peckoltia sp. “L-103”, Panaqulos sp. “L-104”, Hemiancistrus sp. “L-128”, Hypancistrus debilittera L-129, Leporacanthicus sp. “L-326” and a whole bunch of other species that are not regularly imported!

A lot of planning will go into this trip. There is a long list of things to do before we go such as buying gear, buying a new camera (our old water proof camera is now 8 years old!) and preparing new aquariums for new and interesting species. We are also trying to spot a few places to visit in hopes of finding new fish. If you have never been to South America to collect fish, we highly recommend it. It is a beautiful and magical place with so much to offer. But there is still a long wait until we leave.  Until then, please enjoy a video from this year’s trip.