That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

It is amazing how little we know about our ocean’s ecosystems! We know that corals can defend themselves against other corals, invertebrates, and to a certain extent fish, but a recent study has found that corals may have another attacker to defend against. Algae has always been a problem with coral and coral reefs as a whole. The rapid growth and expansion of some macro algae will eventually choke out specific corals, killing them in a matter of days. Taxifolia a species of Caulerpa, began invading parts of the West Coast years ago, choking out everything in it’s path as it spread. Normally, we think of the tangling tendrils of green smothering the corals in darkness as they take over, slowly starving them of vital light and nutrients. However, a recent study performed by a professor and his graduate student at Georgia Tech have found algae that can kill coral on contact. Read More »

Dave here again, and I am thinking Spring!  Join us this weekend, May 15^th and 16^th, at our Lancaster, Pa retail store for our annual Spring Pond Sale Event.  Great deals, and a really nice selection of pond plants and fish will be on hand for the event.

When it comes to bargains on supplies, there are some really nice deals being offered: 40% off all OSI pond food; 20% off Seachem pond products; 20% off Tetra filters, pumps and lights. These and lots of other great products from some of our best manufacturers are on sale. And during your visit, don’t forget to check out the newest line – Pure Aquatic Pond Foods.

What I am really excited about for this pond season, is the great selection of Pond Fish and Koi that we have to offer this year.  For the first time, we are offering a new color of comet, the Apricot Comet.  These guys are not your typical red comet, they are creamy orange like an apricot, and their unique scale size makes them look smooth like one, too! Some really neat new fish to add to your mix.  Some of them even have translucent gill covers – the bright red of the gills underneath makes them look like they are blushing.

We also have a great selection of Koi here in the store.  We have nice Domestic Koi, in both standard and butterfly fin forms, in a range of colors and sizes.  For the more discerning pond keeper, we once again have a selection of Koi imported from Japan.  This year’s fish are primarily from Sakai of Hiroshima and Yoshida Fish Farms.  We have both standard fin and longfin Japanes Koi, color varieties include; Sanke, Showa, Utsuri, Ogon, Kujaku, Asagi/Shusui. Kumonryu, and many more.

All of our pond fish and plants will be 25% off all weekend, it is a great time to stock a new pond, or look for that special fish to add to your collection.

Until next blog,

Dave

Hello everyone, Craig here again. If you have read some of my previous blogs, you know that I am a catfish fan. If it is weird and ugly, has whiskers and swims, I probably think it is one of the coolest things ever! Last night I was watching River Monsters. One of the trivia questions posed during a commercial break asked the show’s host what fish had given him his most painful injury. Though answer choices ranged included piranhas, catfish and others, and it was indeed the catfish that host Jeremy Wade said had given him his most painful injury. Apparently, one of the 8 inch barbs from an African species of catfish had run through the length of his finger. Having been stuck by my fair share of catfish (though much smaller species), I can say that a catfish spine can be an extremely painful injury with long-lasting effects. Read More »

At this point, most people are aware of how important the coral reefs are to the world’s oceans and the world itself. With this knowledge, you would think that we would show more respect to this fragile environment. However, this is not the case, specifically in the Indo-Pacific region. This area is infamous for their destructive fishing techniques, using cyanide and dynamite to collect stunned fish. The use of cyanide has been banned for quite sometime, but is still being used by some to collect fish for the aquarium hobby. Cyanide fishing can damage or kill corals that are exposed during the catching process, not to mention that the fish that it was intended will most likely die days or weeks down the road. Blast fishing is just as bad if not worse, a battle that has been fought for decades. Read More »

Every now and then, we find a new fish or invert that jumps its way to the top of our wish lists. My new favorites? The Roundheads aka Longfins, Marine Bettas, Prettyfins, Comets, Devilfish,  Spiny Basslets – fish from the family Plesiopsidae.

There are a few genera in this family that you may see in fish stores and aquariums. The most well-known (although still far from common) are the Assessors – the Yellow Devilfish (Assessor flavissimus) and the Blue Devilfish (Assessor macneilli). Wild-caught Assessors are still few and far between, but tankraised fish are slowly starting to become more common. Longfins, genus Plesiops are also becoming more common. The three you’re most likely to see are the Crimsontip Longfin (Plesiops coeruleolineatus), Northern Devilfish (Plesiops corallicola) and the Sharp-nosed Longfin (Plesiops oxycephalus). A few other fish from the Plesiopsidae family show up every now and then as well, like the Power’s Roundhead Grouper (Paraplesiops poweri) and the more well-known Marine Betta or Comet (Calloplesiops altivelis). Read More »