We had a great trip to Colombia! We saw so many fish, plants, inverts, insects and other animal life. The people of Colombia are so welcoming! They made are stay so enjoyable. I hope to share some of our adventures on our website.
Right now we are gearing up for a speaking engagement in Raleigh, North Carolina for the Raleigh Aquarium Society (RAS). Putting together a new talk takes a lot of time and patience to get things looking professional. As a result, we will not have much time to work on the website. For now, the easiest way for us to post, is through social media. Please stay tuned and visit our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/133731800111727.
Have you checked out our YouTube Channel yet? We have been adding content to our channel and are looking to share our knowledge with you. With over twenty-five years of experience, we want to pass on our knowledge to other avid aquarists and the next generation.
A lot of how we keep our fish is not difficult to replicate but what sets us apart is our passion. Our tanks are set up sparsely often with sand, driftwood, river rock, oak leaves, a sponge filter, heater and light. We feed our fish nothing but the best foods including frozen, live and prepared foods. Water changes are typically one to two times per week especially for juvenile fish.
Our YouTube Channel will showcase a lot of our successes and how we maintain our fish. We want you to be successful with the fish you purchase from us. As they say, if you want to be the best, learn from the best. Stay tuned and check out our YouTube Channel at: AmazonTropics.com YouTube Channel!
We provided an update last week on our fishroom. We are well on our way with providing some new and interesting fish. All of which I should mention are tank raised! We take high quality stock and provide the best conditions possible in the hopes that our fish will spawn in our aquaria. So far, we have had a lot of success however we still want more!
For now, we want to make the most of what is regularly spawning for us including: Wild Hisonotus aky, F-1 Hypancistrus zebra, F-1 Hypancistrus sp. “L-345”, F-1 Hypancistrus sp. “L-333”, Wild Tatia intermedia, F-1 Tatia strigata, Wild Centromochlus perugiae, Wild Centromochlus schultzi, Wild Corydoras duplicareus and F-1 Corydoras panda. We do have other species reproducing but catfish are the current focus. We are still working with other species like killifish and lampeyes. And the Geos spawn from time to time. Eventually we will spread our fish out even more in the hopes of being able to offer even more tank bread species. We will share more about these other species in the near future.
Recently we have acquired some new fish. We will share these with you in time but for now they are growing and being conditioned. Some of these species may take a few years to reach maturity to spawn but this hobby is a thing of patience. Enjoy this update!
It is with great excitement that we announce the first potential spawning and successful fertilization of Centromochlus schultzi. We are probably setting ourselves up for some sort of disappointment but so far so good. The eggs are now approaching 48 hours old and appear to be developing right on schedule with the first development being noticed.
What is interesting is how many eggs were laid. The female measuring between 3.5-4″ laid over 200 eggs! She physically looks emaciated after laying that many eggs. Most Auchenipteridae almost balloon up while incubating eggs and return to a more normal weight and look after laying them. So far this has not happened with my female Centromochlus schultzi. She has laid eggs previously which were either infertile or the water quality was not quite right for the development of the eggs. After laying this clutch of eggs, she also looked emaciated.
You may recall that we also had the first spawning of Liosomadoras oncinus, the Jaguar catfish. Since the first spawning in 2014, we have had one other spawning event that also ended with the eggs being infertile. In the near future, we will start seriously working with this species again.
In the meantime, we have had success with several other species of woodcat including: Centromochlus perugiae, Spinipterus acsi, Tatia intermedia and Tatis strigata. All of these will be available through out website next year. Some species will be limited in number but we are working towards trying to keep tank bred fish regularly in stock.
Centromochlus schultzi is endemic to the Rio Xingu and could be at risk due to a new damn that recently went into operation on the river. All the more reason for us to be super excited to see eggs in our aquaria. Stay tuned for more details in the near future. For now, enjoy our new video of Centromochlus schultzi eggs.
I hope everyone had a great time at the CKG Extravaganza. A big thanks to the CKG for putting on a top notch event this past Sunday. We had no less than 20 killifish enthusiasts from as far away as Detroit, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Cleveland! There were over 100 pairs of killifish available along with plants, inverts, live food cultures and killifish journals and magazines. The fish themselves were from all over the world! There was literally something for everyone!
Great job guys! Below are some photos from the event. Stay tuned for details on next year’s event! For more details, visit the CKG website at: http://columbuskillifishgroup.org
A big warm welcome to AmazonTropics.com! With over twenty-five years of experience, we are a trusted authority on freshwater tropical fish. We specialize in fish species from Neotropical and Afrotropic zones. Our goal is to provide a premier website for purchasing and referencing information on South American fish.
You may be familiar with our blogspot, AmazonTropics.blogspot.com. Over the course of the next few months, we will be moving over the information from our blog to our new website. This way, all of our content is located in one convenient location. Please allow us some time to move over this content. Very soon, we will have a full list of available South American fish along with other species.
Recent spawnings in the fishroom also include: Centromochlus perugiae, Sturisomatichthys sp. “Colombia” (photo below), Otothyropsis piribebuy Pseudomugil furcata, P. cf. paskai, P. ivantsoffi, Melanotaenia praecox “Pagai”, Aphyosemion elberti “Diang Yellow”, A. exgoideum “BWW 00/2”, A. amoenum “Sakabeyeme” and Fundulopanchax fallax “CI98”. This should set us up well for the fall!
We recently had a spawn from our Sturisomatichthys sp. “Colombia”. Here is a photo showing a female with a nice red coloration and the male behind. The fry require constant water changes and feeding for the first month but we think they are well worth it!
