Category: Updates

Our big move to the new house is complete. While I cannot say that the fishroom will be larger, hopefully it will become more organized. It was fairly organized in the last house but there is always room for improvement.

However, it is going to be a while before we can say anything is organized. Whenever making a big move, the largest concern is the well being of the fish. And for that, careful observation during and after are required. It is stressful on both the fish and the keeper.

To add to the stress level, you have to prepare the new  fishroom with electric, water and air. Plus some of the overall sizes and weight of the aquariums must be tackled when moving. These were just some of the challenges we faced.

Some issues still exist in that the final air lines need to be run and a reverse osmosis system installed. But for now, the fish have settled and are safe. Fortunately we experienced only a limited amount of casualties. They include a few juvenile Corydoras, a single female Ageneiosus magoi, Tatia gyrina and our lone wild male Duringlanis romani. The Ageneiosus was particularly surprising because the fish were moved in very short order from the old location to new within a few hours. Plus the other fish that were in the same bag showed no signs of stress. The Duringlanis was unfortunate because we had personally collected this fish in Colombia in early 2019. His offspring live on however and we hope they go on to produce many more offspring.

With that, we will draw this update to a close. Below are a few images of the new fishroom. These were taken midway through the the move. Most of the tanks are now 10s and 20Hs. We still have some other sizes though including 30s, 65s, a 100, a 125 and a 150. The total number of tanks is at a comfortable 106.

The next events we plan to attend will be the Greater Cincinnati Aquarium Society (GCAS) Fall Auction, the Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE) Fall Auction and the Ohio Cichlid Association (OCA) Extravaganza. Hope to see you at one of these fantastic events!

We are on the move! We are starting the process of physically moving our fishroom to our new home. It will take pretty much the rest of the month to move all the fish tanks. We apologize if we are unable to respond but will update once complete. We can’t wait to be in our new home!

We can’t wait for this special event! And we get to visit some friends in the process. Perhaps we will even take a little vacation. See you there!

We apologize for not updating our website last weekend. We ended up prepping some things for the move and visiting with family. We will work to update the website as soon as possible.

It has been a few months since our last update. We are happy to report that Jeremy has fully recovered from his kidney stone issues. Now we can focus on the big move coming late July, early August. That’s right, Amazon Tropics is moving! And with that, we plan to release a large inventory of fish to our Fish Availability list.

This inventory are fish we have been holding for breeding stock. Unfortunately, many of our breeding projects had to be put on hold or abandoned all together mostly based lack of available time. There is only so much time in the day as they say! With that we will be releasing a special availability list of fish this coming weekend. Please keep in mind that the fish will be available for pick up only, no exceptions. We can make arrangements to meet if and when time allows.

We would first like to start by thanking Mike and Ben of the Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE). They have been doing a tremendous job with getting our local fish club back in gear after COVID. We know that they have been working tirelessly to come up with some great events for the club and we know they will continue to look for ways to keep things fishy and fun! Check out our upcoming events including an auction with some rare fish. http://Columbusfishclub.org

Now we typically keep things on our big fish related but sadly we should adresss Jeremy’s current state. Unfortunately Jeremy has some kidney stones that cannot be passed. He has been dealing with this condition for about a month as it is impossible to receive help from the health care system in a more timely manner in its current state. It’s truly a sad state of affairs. There is some good news however in that we met with a knowledgeable urologist who will be performing a procedure on Jeremy this coming week to remove the stones.

From there, the stones, which by then will have been pulverized into a sand like consistency will be analyzed for chemical makeup. Our current thoughts are that the stones are a result of a difficult abdominal surgery he had a few years ago causing his body to not be able to process calcium. Long story short, please keep Jeremy in your thoughts this coming Thursday. The recovery time for the procedure is only a few days so he should be back to fish keeping in no time!

Our thoughts will be with those at the Catfish Study Group (CSG) this week as well. Jeremy had to pull out of this convention. Until Jeremy is back on his feet, please enjoy the latest video of the discus. A link to YouTube is provided here: https://youtu.be/Rh3HOoAXSkE

It has been a few months since our last post. We attended the Ohio Cichlid Association (OCA) Extravaganza in Strongsville, OH in November. This event is held every year the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. This year’s show brought in our good friend Luiz Tencatt from Brazil along with Rob McLure from Wisconsin.

Luiz gave two lectures on Callichthyidae (Aspidoras and Corydoras spp.). The talks shared the latest in the world of Corydoras and their allies along with the huge revision of Callichthyidae. More details in regards to this will emerge in time. Right now we are not at liberty to say but will share as soon as we can likely on our Facebook group page. These are exciting times we live in, a renaissance no doubt with the number of not only fish species but with the number of organisms being described almost on a daily basis. Many of the new species are endemic to certain areas in South America. We cannot wait to see what is discovered next!

The biggest news at the OCA Extravaganza has to be the honor bestowed upon our friend Rob McLure who will soon have a fish named after him. Rob has helped Luiz in so many ways and has helped bridge our hobby with science. Corydoras sp. “CW016” also known as the Lieutenant Cory, shall be named in his honor. As a fellow fish enthusiast, this is the ultimate honor as long after we are gone, this species will always be scientifically known under his name. Congratulations Rob! We also have to give a big thank you to the OCA and crew for another great show!

This Friday, the Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE), have their October meeting. I was asked to give a talk by the members on catfish. Sounded like fun since my last talk was back in 2019. This talk will be on some of the interesting catfish our collecting groups have found in Colombia. We will look at a variety of locations we have explored sharing old, new and rediscovered species along the way. Details for the event can be found below. (P.S. We had some fun creating some artistic images for this one).

Please join us for a fun time!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1120766122158592

Greetings! Fall has hit us here in the Midwest. Temperatures have been in the low to mid 70s and lows in the high 40s! It is perhaps our favorite of time of the year with quite honestly perfect weather.

During the summer, we managed to travel back to Colombia. This time to Leticia, Colombia. The goal had been to reach Pebas, Peru which long story short, unfortunately did not happen. Our group did have some fun adventures however and found many species of fish especially on the last day of the trip including a few highlights in Copella vilmae, Apistogramma megastoma and an unknown relative of the common Red  Eye Tetra that was just astounding. We will likely share bits and pieces of that trip here in time so stay tuned!

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when Jorge Garcia of Nation Wide Aquatics reached out to us in regards to fish from Suriname. His exporter had been able to secure a form of Tatia which we had seen photos of and previously shared from a post back from March of 2021. Low and behold, he was able to get us a group of Tatia cf. brunnea! We have labeled them as T. cf. brunnea for now until we can double check the scientific description of the species.

Below are some images of the new fish which I am sure will excite most catfish enthusiasts especially those into Auchenipteridae, woodcats. As you can see, each has a unique pattern. In time we will update the woodcat species profile page to reflect this species and others. A special thanks to Jorge Garcia of Nation Wide Aquatics. Please visit his website for other interesting fish species: https://nationwideaquaticsusa.com

Summer certainly has come on with full force. Daily temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s hit us here in the midwest in early June. It sure seems that those temperatures are here to stay too.

With the warmer temperatures come longer days and longer days can bring on more activity in the fishroom. It seems that our hard work with raising additional brood stock is paying off. Last week we discovered a very young male zebra pleco with fry. The male measures approximately two and half inches and was guarding at least two juveniles. Since then we have discovered one additional juvenile in the aquarium. The tank is a sixty-five gallon aquarium kept around 80-82F and is outfitted with a large sponge filter. Additionally, we found another male in another aquarium with a female inside his cave. Fingers crossed that these and our other groups are soon successful.

Please note that we are still working towards having enough breeding stock of zebra plecos (Hypancistrus zebra) so we have larger numbers of juvenile fish available. Until we reach that point, we are unable to offer this species on our availability list. Please stay tuned for more updates!