That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

One of the best products to be introduced to the aquarium food market in recent years is something that you can barely see.  Cyclop-eeze are a microscopic decapod (ten legged) crustacean that have unique nutritional value.  Most aquarium hobbyists are familiar with brine shrimp, a staple food for aquarium use for many years.  Fish breeders and advanced hobbyists have long used fresh hatched brine shrimp, or nauplii, for raising baby fish, feeding planktivorous fish, filter and particle feeding invertebrates.  While brine shrimp are readily available in many forms, and their nauplii are relatively easily raised, they have limited nutritional value, and must be supplemented, enhanced, or fed in large quantities to gain satisfactory nutritional value from feeding them.  This is where the emergence of Cyclop-eeze as a viable food source has made a real impact.

Cyclop-eeze can have more than 40 times the omega 3 highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA’s) than that of brine shrimp nauplii.   Cyclop-eeze also has the highest know levels of Astaxanthene, a critical biological pigment that not only gives the organism a striking red color itself, but when fed to other organisms is a most powerful color enhancer.  Research has also shown that the Cyclop-eeze organism has high levels of Betaine, and other natural attractants, which make it irresistible as a food source.  The Cyclop-eeze is a truly amazing little crustacean, packing nutrition, color enhancement, and attraction in one powerful little natural package.

The Cyclop-eeze is harvested in a remote arctic saltwater lake that is free of other organisms or pollutants, and in fact remains frozen in winter months.  When the ice thaws in spring, natural plankton blooms signal the Cyclop-eeze to hatch and reproduce, which lasts all summer.  The adults are harvested at their peak nutrition and instantly frozen to preserve all their goodness.

Cyclop-eeze are available in this frozen form, as well as freeze dried as whole organisms, which can then be used in either form to feed small or baby fish, feeding planktivorous fish,  as well as filter and particle feeding invertebrates.  Processed Cyclop-eeze is made into flake food and granules for feeding larger fish.  Cyclop-eeze extract oils (CEO) are also used as ingredients in a variety of other products as enhancements to other food and pharmaceutical products.

Give them a try; I think that you will be pleasantly surprised with the results that you will see with using this amazing food source.

Until next time,

Dave

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.

Please see Part I of this article for information concerning typical brackish water plants and algae.

A number of well-known freshwater aquarium plants adjust quite nicely to brackish water.  Given the great variety of species that are available, I’m sure many others will be found.

Experimenting With Freshwater Plants

If you are of a mind to experiment, first research various natural habitats, keeping an eye out for plants that thrive along coastlines, estuaries and in other such situations….these might be exposed to salt water during floods or at high tide.  In general, freshwater plants with waxy leaf and stem coverings make the best prospects with which to begin.

Bear in mind that the change from fresh to brackish water is an extreme one, and can easily shock your plants.  Treat them as you would a new, delicate fish and increase their exposure to brackish water gradually.  For untested species, you might consider dripping brackish water into the plant’s tank via a section of airline tubing during the acclimatization period.

Anachris (Egeria) densa

Much favored by freshwater aquarists and a standby for grammar school science experiments, Anachris is very hardy and highly recommended for use in brackish tanks.  Most agree that it is the most likely of all freshwater plants to thrive in this foreign environment.

Anachris grows well as a rooted or floating plant and, in strong light, can add an inch or more a day to its length.  Cuttings taken anywhere along the stem will grow into new plants.

Temple Plant, Hygrophila corymbosa

This most attractive of aquarium plants does very well in brackish water, but is considered a delicacy by snails, hermit crabs and many fishes.  It and related species, which are native to South and Southeast Asia, can be propagated from cuttings and grow best under bright lights.

Cabomba aquatica

Another popular freshwater plant, this South American native has delicate leaves which cannot withstand the attentions of herbivorous fishes and invertebrates.  However, when housed with halfbeaks, mudskippers and others that will not molest it, Cabomba makes a fine addition to the brackish aquarium.

Aquatic Grasses – Sagittaria and Vallisneria

Sagittaria, relatively impervious to salt water damage and unpalatable to most organisms, is one of the best freshwater plants to use in brackish systems.  The widely-available grass Vallisneria does very well also, even under subdued lighting, but is considered a tasty food by many aquatic animals.

Hornwort, Ceratophyllum demersum

Reaching 10 feet or more in length in the wild and equally at home in cold and warm water, this hardy survivor is an excellent candidate for brackish water tanks.  It can get by in dimly-lit aquariums, but in such situations its foliage will pale considerably.

Water Sprite, Ceratopteris thalicroide

Even in such an unnatural environment as brackish water, this plant will grow quite vigorously if kept warm and under bright lights.  It can be maintained either floating or rooted, and in different situations will develop rounded, bulky or fern-like leaves.  Water sprite’s prodigious rate of growth often compensates for the attentions of plant-eaters.

Chain Swordplant, Echinodorus tenellus

This attractive plant spreads rapidly via runners (hence the “chain” portion of its name) and is fully grown at 4 inches in height.  As is true for its larger relatives, the chain sword requires warm water and a well-lit environment.

Further Reading

Anachris (Egeria) densa is widely introduced in the USA and elsewhere.  The University of California has posted an interesting account of its natural and unnatural history at http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/datastore/detailreport.cfm?surveynumber=182&usernumber=43.

Please write in with your questions or to relate your own experiments with aquatic plants.  Thanks, until next time, Frank Indiviglio.

Hey folks Jose here, we are going to talk about one of my favorite bad boys (and girls), the Dovii, also known lovingly as the Wolf Cichlid. The Dovii  hails from Central America in Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Males can reach sizes up to 28 inches, while females are much smaller at 15 inches. In the wild, the species is an opportunistic piscivore, feeding on smaller fish. This is an easy fish to keep, as long as you have the space and get a compatible pair.

In juveniles, sexing is tough but can be done.  When I picked out my pair at 2 inches, the male was a little larger and he had black dots below the lateral line where as the female had none. In the store’s aquarium, the male was tough on the female, but a week after they went into my 40 breeder, the roles were reversed. They were shy at first, hiding under the caves that I provided for spawns.

Feedings are a blast. They eat everything! The main diet I feed consists of a marine pellet food made by Pretty Bird called Color Up, Prime Reef flakes, and the occasional (once a week) feeding of live crayfish. Now let me tell you how fast they can grow.  The male was 2 inches long and about an inch and a half high when I got him. I have had him for about seven or eight months, and feed them 2 to 3 times a week, and now the male is about 6 inches in length and close to 3 inches in height! They can really fill out fast!

So now they’re spawning. The spawning was not as bad as I thought it would be. The female was almost gold-yellow with dark barring, and close to her vent she started to take on a black coloration. The male’s coloration became a lot more vivid, but the most striking feature setting him apart from the female (wow) was that his lips and fins turned blue!  The Wolf Cichlid’s courting and mating dances consisted of a lot of gill flaring, head shaking and jaw locking.

I provided caves and PVC pipe for them to spawn on, but the female decided  that she was going to lay the eggs on bare glass. OK with me, because they’re easy to spy on there.  I think I’m on batch number 7, and in each batch (laid like clockwork around the end of the month) she numbered close to 200 fry. Not bad for a 3 inch female, though adult females can produce up to 1000+ eggs at a time. The parents are very protective over the fry, even attacking my hands when I’m working on the tank. Oh, did I mention the Dovii live with two Synodontis catfish that happen love the taste of fry? I have not saved any of the prior batches because of space limitations, but my roommate let me borrow his 10 gallon planted aquarium this time, so I was able to net out 30 fry to grow out. The fry are fed crushed flakes, crushed freeze dried brine and crushed freeze dried mysis shrimp. As of right now, it looks like another batch of eggs is on the way!

Until next time,

Jose

Eileen here. One of the most common aquariums problem we are asked about is one that is known in the hobby as “New Tank Syndrome” (NTS). No, its not the compulsive tendancy to spend three-months pay on things to fill your new aquarium. “New Tank Syndrome” is caused by the bacteria blooms that occur when a tank is cycling. Both freshwater and saltwater tanks experience NTS when the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels spike as a result of the cycling process of the tank, but most of the questions come from the “algae bloom” that saltwater aquarists tend to see towards the end of the cycling of their tank.

A few weeks after the tank has started cycling (after live rock, fish or a bacteria culture has been added), you may see a thin brown film covering the surfaces and sides of the tank. This film scrapes or wipes off easily and cutting back lighting doesn’t seem to affect it. No snails, hermit crabs or fish feed on it, but critters moving across the substrate or glass tend to stir it up enough so it “goes away.” So, what is going on at this point?

The “algae” you see is not a type of plant with cells like traditional green algae that most people think of. It is actually made up of diatoms, a type of phytoplankton whose cell walls are primarily made up of the mineral silicate. It blooms towards the end of the cycling process in a tank because of the imbalance of nutrients in the system but will usually die off on its own once the water chemistry in the tank stabilizes.

Here’s an easy analogy for what is happening: Imagine you have a huge set of scales you are trying to balance. To try to get the scales even, you pile bird seed on each side until they are even, but in the process, lots of the seeds spills onto the ground. Flocks of birds come to the field to feed on all that extra seed on the ground but once you have the scales balances, no more seed is spilling on the grounds where the birds can get it so they leave.

The same thing eventually happens in your aquarium. Once the water chemistry balances and there are no spikes in the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or other mineral levels, the diatoms lose what they were feeding on and the bloom will go away on its own without adding tons of snails and hermit crabs and without doing unneccessary water changes that will just slow down this process.

It takes a little patience to get through the cycling process and the diatom algae blooms we know as “New Tank Syndrome” but less is sometimes more in helping your new tank get established and ready to handle all of the plans you have in store for it!

Melissa here. Have you ever wondered if fish actually sleep? Well, wonder no more. They do in fact sleep, just not the way we typically know of it. Fish do not have eyelids to shut when they sleep do nor do they have characteristic brainwave patterns like REM sleep. Fish do, however, appear to have periods of reduced activity and metabolism.

Many reef fish like damsels and clownfish frolic around during the day, then tuck themselves into a crevice or cave to sleep at night. Parrot fish have an odd way of tucking themselves in bed: they secrete mucus to make a little seeping bag for themselves. Some wrasses tuck themselves under the sand while others are like parrot fish and encase themselves in mucus.

I used to have a clownfish that laid on his left side in the back corner of my tank. The first time I saw him after the lights went off laying on his side I thought he was dead. When I approached the tank I must have startled him enough to make him swim erratically for a few moments then act normal. My blue devil damsels have a particular rock they like to sleep in. As soon as the lights go out you can see both devil damsels turn dark in color and head into their rock.

I am sure many of you reading this have seen interesting behaviors with your fish when the lights go out. Please feel free to share.