One of our local stores has had an influx of new staff, and I think new ownership. Previously I would not go to this store due to the attitude of the management. I don't care if you are an acknowledged world expert, if I say this fish is this fish thats what it is and if you don't like it there is the door. Those where the words I heard being used to a lady and it definitely put a bee in my bonnet and the money in my pocket elsewhere.

Anyway the previous folks are now gone and the store has a new name to go with it. I went in and spoke with the manager of the freshwater fish section at some length and he offered to take my cell number and email address and said if he ever found any new corries he was not familiar with he would give me a call and he would be thrilled for me to take pictures and get them verified. Talk about a horse of a different colour?

Then this morning I got an email from him with a link enclosed saying this was his main supplier and he was happy for me to look it over and if there were any I specifically wanted he would certainly try to get them in for me.

Consequently my new list of most wanted now consists of:  C: Caudimaculatus C: Guapore          C: Aeneus Black C: Similis and last but not least C: Atropersonatus.  These of course have absolutely no bearing on the auction of Dr Steve's Cory collection specifically speaking the Tukano. The Adolphoi of course are for Otto/KingLucky

I am seriously impressed by this guy to begin with and I call the store and start talking to him about the C: Reticulatus and where it is from and what river system (info gathered from Corydorasworld of course) and he starts laughing. So of course I have to ask why are you laughing? After he calmed down a bit he explains he knows the river system personally as that is the area he grew up in! He admits he never went fishing there or collecting fish but he did add if I ever want to go there to let him know as his Mother has a room she rents out! A small small world.

Well here we are almost half way through January and major transformations are going on in the fish room.

We decided that we had a 120 that was really not needed for how we are wanting to proceed  and consequently we put it up for sale on the Wichita aquarium club site and sold it within 24 hours! 

We have had an air blower/pump for a while but have not had the necessary funds to run the pipework and buy the valves to get everything set up. The money we got for the 120 will allow us to order the multiple gang valves   http://www.jehmco.com/html/air_accessories.html plus the upvc piping and fittings.  It is our intention to run the pipe either high up on the wall or hang it from the ceiling (yet to be decided) with two of the larger manifolds on two of the walls and two of the smaller ones.  This will probably be way too many but I would rather have to many than not enough when all is said and done.   

Vicki has also made contact with an electrician friend of hers that will be coming over to check out what needs to be done so that we do not have the breakers going off all the time.  Having said that once we are using fewer air pumps I think that will make some difference, time will tell.

I have been making a serious effort to spawn my Corydoras Zygatus but they seem just as determined not too.  I have been doing daily 60 degree f water changes to no avail.  The males get all excited but the females are not interested at all.  I have been feeding them frozen blood worm almost exclusively but for whatever reason it is not doing the trick.  Back to the drawing board and see what else can be tried.  The guys in the UK are using live bloodworm but it seems impossible to get these here.   I asked the local store if they could get California blackworm on a regular basis but they were not interested due to the shipping costs  and me being the only one that wanted to buy them.

Smile, it makes people wonder what you have been doing.

Steve/Woo

I got a text message with a picture attached from Vicki yesterday of a Corry I had not seen before, the message read "may I buy some of these"?

I thought they "maybe" Agassizii, and we already have six of these but I thought heck why not, what are the chances Walmart would have them anyway?

We sent the picture to Corydorasworld.com for verification,  lo and behold we have Corydoras Delphax.  A new species to us so we are both pretty happy as these are not usually easy to get hold of, and as far as initial research shows there are no reports of them being bred in captivity. So who knows maybe we will be the first! 

We got our share of ice and snow last night so I am going to get the day underway a little earlier than usual.  Drive careful everyone!

Steve/Woo

Well it is Sunday and Vicki and I are not up to doing as much as we would have liked but we got some stuff done around the house, the biggest thing we did was get all the airline and electrical cables tidied and placed out of harms way.  

Believe you me it was a like dicing with death getting between the two big stands, if it wasn't for airline it was cable, and if it wasn't cable it was airline! At least for now everything is running nicely, all eighteen ten  gallon tanks on the new stand have sponge filters running in them, some of them are the smaller ones but as and when the opportunity arrives we will exchange them for the larger ones from www.fish.com.

If you haven't checked out their site yet for sponge filters I highly recommend them.  First class customer service, and they genuinely care what you think about them.  How many times have you been called back by a company to ensure you were happy with their service and mailing times and been given a specific person to deal with and to ask for?   To say I was surprised and pleased is an understatement.

As per the previous blog we are trying a different tack with one specific specie of Corry.  C. Zygatus they are recorded by professionals and amateurs alike to spawn up to 2000 eggs per female.  The water reduction program has started and the catfish are very active, maybe just maybe I have hit upon something, time will tell.

We are definitely thinking of upgrading the electricity in the fish room as we cannot put all the lights on above the tanks when the heaters are running.  I am beginning to know by feel exactly which power breaker needs flicked.   I had thought about putting a larger breaker in that spot but apparently it causes the wiring to overheat and the next thing you know is the fire department is doing water changes for you and the water they are using is probably full of chlorine and chloramines and we all know what that can do to your fish. Not to mention the fact that Vicki's brother in law is the head fire chief for Southern Kansas, so I am thinking he would be leaping up and down on my head with great alacrity if I was to even contemplate it.  Back to the drawing board on that front.

Well folks it is 9 pm in Wichita in the words of the immortal Walter Cronkite "And that's the way it is."

Steve/Woo

Friday was an easy day,  I am getting three day weekends for the rest of the year (yes I am bragging) pottered around the house did some water changes on the 135's and ran out of live blackworms all is not lost as I still have three pound of frozen bloodworm,  I will know to buy more next time and maybe go with a pound for breeding purposes and a pound for feeding, darn that would be two 10 gallon tanks taken up, oh wait there is a leaker in the garage that will work quite nicely as a breeder and there is plenty of time tween now and then to find "just one more" 10 gallon tank on craigslist, after all there is always room for just one more tank, yes?

A new colleague at work was given a 36 bow fronted tank and all related paraphernalia but had absolutely no clue about how to put the filter together or how much substrate or what substrate was for that matter. Woo to the rescue,  all of an hour later and the tank is up and running as silent as a lamb.  The biggest part of that time was defrosting her hose from outside as it had not been drained and what water was left in had gone solid with our first true frost of the year.  Not a bucket to be found so we worked that hose till it came free.  Apparently the city she lives in was where two railroads met, one came from Colorado (somewhere) and the other from Wichita so the city was called Colwich.

She was a little disappointed not to be able to put a Parrot Cichlid (shudders)  in it straight away and when I told her that he/she would probably make mince meat of anything smaller that was placed in the tank they fast became not so much her favorite fish.  I told her that I will help as and when I can to get her up and running with fish as soon as possible.  We have guppies galore so that should not be too much of a challenge.

Saturday and all is well in Wooworld.  A trip to the local store to pick up some Corrie Venezualanus  for Walter and seeing as the show tank was down on numbers I bought 20 Serpae Tetras.  As of the time of writing they are shoaling nicely from one end to the other, ignoring and being ignored by all other residents.  I thought 20 would look good but after seeing them I am thinking of at least another 50 or 60  is called for, that way they will really make a visual statement.

Well thats about it for now for anyone that is nuts enough to continue reading my blurb I wish you well and keep taking the tablets, they wont help the craziness but they may make you feel better.

Experts have come to the conclusion birthdays are good for you, the more you have the longer you live.

Steve/Woo

Well I am going to try and do a daily blog and this is going to be my first attempt, more like a daily diary I suppose but hey time marches on and yesterdays diary is todays blog. Where did the word "blog" originate from anyway?  Enough blabbering get on with it!

Checked out the 150 show tank last night and spent a few minutes just sat watching the fish do their thing.  The plants are looking really good at the moment, not entirely surely what I have done to encourage them to all of a sudden take off in the way that they have, but hopefully they will continue to do so.

While I was sat there I realized that all the fish in there consist of four species groups  Gourami's, various Corries, red velvet  swordtail's, Clown Loaches and the obligatory Plecostomus, this one is a little different from the run of the mill,  it is a milk chocolate albino Pleco.   The Loaches seem to be getting bigger and bigger every day, I will try and get some pictures posted if they stay still long enough to have their picture taken.  The biggest one I call Barb (just because she has the biggest barbs) and she is definitely the lady in charge.  Reminds me of a poster hung above the checkout at one of the stores in Jamesport MO.  Do you want to speak to the man in charge or the woman who knows whats going on? 

The Clown Loaches as a group tend to stay hidden until feeding time,  if I drop in a few algae wafers it is circus time as they live up to their names and perform their crazy antics chasing one another around the tank at top speed until they realize, "oh wait a minute there is some more of that stuff here" and then all settle down to having some dinner.  

The Brown Bristlenosed adults have all been moved into a 45 gallon and we added a couple of ceramic burritos to hopefully spur them on to doing what comes naturally.  I remember reading a long time ago that "all fish want to breed, we just need to provide them with the right conditions".  Well heres hoping they like what they have! 

The ABN's seem to have gone on strike as far as breeding at the moment, I moved them from a 45 to a 135 and gave them lots of wood to chew on and caves to hang about in, a big fat ZERO! Seeing as today is the first day of my three day weekend I intend  giving the tank a good cleaning with the python this obviously gives me the chance to do a major water change and see if that does the trick ( for those not in the know  a python in Aquaristic terms is a siphoning device to remove fish poop and other nasty stuff from the bottom of your tanks without getting your hands wet,  HA! good luck with not getting your hands wet!!)

The experiment using nothing but Black Worm as food to entice my various Corries to breed seems to have failed, so onto the next stage which consists of lowering the water by 25% over a week and then giving them a full tank to play in again.  

So basically it is like this,  Monday remove 25% of the water, feed blood worm, Tuesday leave them alone apart from feeding bloodworm.  Wednesday remove a second 25%, feed bloodworm.  Thursday leave water at previous level, feed blood worm. Friday remove final 25% and feed bloodworm, Saturday feed bloodworm, Sunday refill tank with cooler water and feed bloodworm and pray like a mad man you have convinced them that now is the time! If still nothing but total frustration, go and beat a tree with a big stick for a while before realize your arms are sore and this is not helping your breeding efforts and it is back to the drawing board.

My Corrie Aeneus are giving me almost daily spawns at the moment but again they are going to have to be moved out of their current home and downsize (its the economy you know) into a 10 gallon and then we can use the 45 as a grow out tank before moving them into the 135 with all their cousins as a final playground before moving them onto the stores.

I had a really nice phone call this morning from one of the stores that took an order of juvenile albino aeneus corries  from me a couple of  weeks ago, he told me that he has not lost one of the 30 I took in and as soon as he gets low he will give me a call as he wants to buy them from me on a permanent basis.  I do not think I will ever get rich from selling my Corries but if it only buys food every little bit helps.

 The upstairs living in room is currently in a state of flux as we try and get it redecorated, once the decorating is completed we are bringing a 45 gallon tank upstairs and we intend to have nothing but Yellow Labs in it, my one venture into keeping African Cichlids.  I looked at a piece of Holy Rock yesterday and had it weighed, 42lbs and at $3 a lb I am thinking it can stay on the shelf .  Smaller Steven think smaller.

I have never really fancied African Cichlids but these are sure pretty and I want them to feel as at home as possible so I am using crushed coral as a substrate and using SMALLER pieces of holey rock to provide them with caves and holes to dart in and out of.

Well thats it for anyone crazy enough to have read my psycho babble I wish you all the best.  

Do not forget, if a sign says Duck or Grouse it is not referring to birds!

Steve/Woo    

I was in a Doctors office the other day (nothing new there I am in and out of Dr's offices all day) and saw a Styrofoam cube box roughly 14 x 14 x 14 the walls of which are about 2" thick as opposed to the boxes that fish are delivered to the stores in which are only about 1/2" to 3/4" Apparently the suppliers of insulin provide the Doc's with free samples that are delivered in the boxes. They are surrounded by freezer blocks that can also be used for keeping things cool on summer float trips, such as "BEER".  

After confirming the companies that supply the Doc's are not interested in getting the boxes back, I asked if the Docs wanted them for anything, "are you kidding? We throw them away, how many would you like? Of course my reply was as many as you can give me, talk about happy nurses "anything that saves us a trip to the dumpster is a plus" was their comment.

I now have about 5 or 6 in the garage for the next auction or the next club meeting I get to. I am not a big fan of shipping fish personally so any I get will be up for grabs, or of course if your Doc saves them for you I wont have to bring them up to KC.

Just another idea from your resident crazy Scotsman.

Well here we are at the end of yet another year and the weather has finally turned really cold down here in Sunny Wichita.

My attempts at getting the Corries to do their thing with the Blackworm has not shown any successes as yet, but as any good aquarist we are still hopeful.  

The Loxozonus and Caudimaculatus were my most recent additions and hopefully once they are big enough they will go on to become proud parents.

Picture courtesy of Ian Fuller.  Corydoras Caudimaculatus

Picture Courtesy of Ian Fuller Corydoras Loxozonus.

My Aeneus are now in a 45 and spawning on a regular basis, but we are considering moving them to a 10 gallon and then once the eggs are laid move the parents.  

Picture courtesy: Peter Burgess & Stan McMahon. Type locality of Corydoras aeneus.

 The last time we did it this way we had roughly 400 babies, these are now big enough to move them onto the stores.  Three out of the four stores give us cash (cash is good) the other one gives us mopani wood/store credit.  I am currently in the black with them to the tune of about $150, which is always nice if you need to get that heater or filter or whatever it is you might just "have to have" when you do not have the time to wait for the likes of the online stores.  (Patience is not one of my better virtues)

A while ago we bought a large air blower and are now getting closer to where we are in a position to start plumbing in the pipework around the ceiling .  As in many other fishrooms we will run airline from the main down to each tank and have sponge filters to each of the tanks.  One for the 10's and two for 20's.  The large tanks have one or two sponge filters plus the Emperor 400's, and we also have three of the Rena Canisters one on each of the 135's.

The cost of the piping and fittings etc is roughly $100, which is a lot less than I initially expected.  

So given that all I need to say is we wish you and yours a very merry Christmas!

Steve/Woo

Well here we are one third through November and so much going on.  I am in contact with a friend/colleague of Ian Fuller called Hans Georg Evers from Germany.  

If Ian is the number one Cory guy in the world Hans George is definitely number two.  When we have another big show like the Expo I am going to recommend we ask Hans to come and speak.  The guy lives, eats and breathes fish and has traveled up the Amazon on more than one occasion and he is also the editor of a German fish magazine called Amazonas,  sadly it is not produced in English.  Hey Otto, how are your translation skills?

Check out the link for one of the articles Hans Georg wrote on Plecos.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/shanesworld.php?article_id=267

Credit to Brian of Brian's Tropicals for the picture.  Also a neat write up of his trip to Germany, and his visits to the different stores there.

Hans is the guy in the middle and is a big Rammstein fan.

Check out Brians website if you would like to see a fish room to "die for".  When I grow up I want my room to look like his!

http://www.brianstropicals.com/basement.html

http://www.brianstropicals.com/index.html

Anyway Hans suggested a change in the feeding regime as opposed to just water changes may be the way to get Corries to spawn.  The majority of the folks in Europe seem to suggest live Tubifex as the food of choice to get Corries into action.  Sadly I am not able to get any live food in the quantities I can afford apart from Black Worm,  (see previous Blog about my hopes for that).  

I do not know a fish store in the UK where you cannot buy live Daphnia, Bloodworm or Tubifex in small plastic bags.  Not sure why we cannot gain access to them here, but hey I could not go anywhere near the number of tanks in the UK that I can afford here, so its a case of what you lose on the roundabout you gain on the swings. Who was it that sang that song?  When Ian was over I asked him what a 10 gallon tank would cost over there and he told me about $45, so you see we do have a good deal!

Anyway as a result of the suggestions by Hans Georg I started feeding frozen bloodworm to all my Corries to see if we have any success.  One of my favorites is Corydoras Zygatus, these are capable of spawning between 1500 to 2000 eggs.  Hans Georg said a friend of his has a group including two females that spawned 4000 eggs between them and he raised 3000 to maturity,  I should be so lucky to get 200 but if you don't try etc.   All being well I will include the live Blackworm into the regime and will monitor the success rate or otherwise as the case may be.

We recently had a spawn of Corydoras Sterbia and the eggs seemed to be doing just great but for some reason we only have four surviving fry out of about 100 eggs, so a little bit disappointing,  but now I have an idea of how to get them to spawn we can always try again.  Basically I had them in a 10 gallon tank (no surprise there huh?) with two sponge filters with the air going through them at a fair rate and they seemed to be quite happy muzzling around in the gravel and just sitting there looking pretty.  Thanks to Mr Otto "Kinglucky" Seebold I read an article written by an aquarist from Canada who advised the best way to get Sterbai to get their act together was to up the water turnover, so I added a small hang on the back filter and hey presto within 48 hours we had about 100 eggs.

Vicki and I will be travelling up for the AGM and are staying with the Griff and his beloved Julie, there will be some trading of Corries with Slim that he got in from the first WetSpot order, and you can bet dollars to doughnuts we are definitely looking forward to seeing all our KC buddies again.

In one of our 135's we have probably 250 juvenile Albino Corries, one or two people have expressed an interest in some of them.   We will be bringing a couple of bags for the mini auction after the meeting so bring your pennies, see you all there.

Steve/Woo

Well we visited the "new store" this evening  that Vicki found.  Not too bad a little on the small side in comparison with others here in the Wilds of Wichita but mainly a pet store.  One of the Pet Land group, the staff seem very young but I have noticed more and more people are doing that these days, weird huh?   Makes me wonder where they all come from.

ANYWAY,  they want to buy some of our Albino Aeneus (25 for starters) at a dollar each, we saw what the manager called an Albino Chocolate Pleco, definitely something different from anything I have seen before, but they are taking delivery of the corys on Sunday and we are trading him 10 of them for the ACP.

Anyone who is interested they have a $1950 Cockatoo that has fallen head over heels in love with Vicki, all donations gladly accepted.  I told Vicki she could have it but despite wanting him/her/it she decided against it.

In the immortal words of Mr Zebedee "time for bed".

Keep your hands wet and full of fish.

Woo