That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.

Those who believe that one must look to the sea for really bizarre aquatic life forms have no doubt missed the frog mouthed catfish. If ever a freshwater fish were to qualify as a true oddity, something along the lines of a marine anglerfish, it is certainly this Southeast Asian native. In its appearance, movements (“walking” rather than swimming) and ability to vocalize (the sound it makes, “chaca-chaca” has given rise to the Genus’ name), this unusual creature seems to straddle the line between fish and amphibian.

Catfish Heaven
I first came upon the frog mouth catfish in a book translated from Japanese. As I learned upon visiting Japan, catfishes of all types are incredibly popular there – one store I frequented had over 50 tanks of various species! The fact that Prince Akishino (son of Emperor Akihito) studies catfishes has increased public awareness and appreciation of these often over-looked creatures.

Fortunately, I had a number of contacts in Japanese pet stores and public aquariums…this was paradise for me, and I was able to learn a great deal about catfishes that I had not encountered before, including the frog mouth.

Description and Range
The frog mouth catfish is a squat, mainly brownish fish, possessing a huge mouth that gives a square shape to the head. The tiny eyes are nearly invisible, and from the wide head the body tapers sharply. Cutaneous flaps of skin help to break up the body’s outline and add to the camouflage effect as the fish lies on the river bottom waiting for prey.

Native to southern Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo, the frog mouth catfish is not common in the US pet trade but is becoming increasingly available. Best kept by those with some aquarium experience, it is well worth searching for.

A Shy and Sedentary Captive
Although not an active fish, the frog mouth does require quite a bit of room, as it reaches nearly 1 foot in length and is stressed by close confinement. A 30 Long Aquarium is the minimum that I would recommend for a single animal, with a 55 Gallon Aquarium sufficing for a pair or possibly a trio. It spends most of its time hunkered down on the bottom of the aquarium, preferably under cover of some sort, and even at night does not actively hunt for food.

The frog mouth catfish is best kept alone, as it can swallow prey nearly half its own length. Also, it is very prone to stress and does not do well in aquariums housing actively swimming fish.

Click here: Introducing a Cafish Fancier’s Dream: the Frog Mouth or Angler Catfish, chaca bankanensis – Part 2, to read the rest of this article.

Eileen here. The oceanographic and scientific community lost one of its pioneers this past weekend with the death of a renowned Swiss oceanographer, Jacques Piccard. Piccard was one of the first deep-sea explorers and, along with Lt. Don Walsh from the United States Navy, reached a greater depth than any other scientist.

Jacques Piccard had science and discovery in his genes from birth. His father, uncle and aunt were revolutionary aeronauts and balloonists who helped the scientific community understand jet streams and atmospheric currents. Jacques’s own son is continuing this family tradition and completed a trip around the world in a balloon using his grandfather’s knowledge of the air current and his father’s research of deep-sea currents as inspiration.

Jacques Piccard is most famous for his 1960 dive into the Mariana Trench with Lt. Walsh. The Mariana Trench is located near Guam in the Pacific Ocean. It is the deepest point in the oceans known to man and Piccard’s dive went to about 35,797 ft below the surface to reach the bottom of part of the trench. Piccard is quoted as saying one of the most surprising parts of the 20-minute dive was the life discovered there, life that many marine biologists said could not possibly survive because of the extreme pressure at that depth. The submarine used for the dive reportedly started leaking during the dive and cut the trip even shorter than planned. That submarine, the Trieste, was eventually retired and inspired other naval research submarines as Piccard continued his research with the Untied States Navy until a few years ago. Piccard was 86 years old when he passed away on Saturday.

Read more about Jacques Piccard:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/world/europe/02piccard.html?em
http://www.physorg.com/news144769379.html
http://www.legacy.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Piccard

Until next time,
Eileen

Happy Halloween fish blog readers! I thought I might stay in the theme of things and introduce some of the more frightening and bizarre fish you might find in the tanks here at That Fish Place. I’ve always been drawn to fish that a lot of people find to be ugly or plain, I just don’t think they get the credit they deserve. I think that a fish or invert with bizarre characteristics is way more fascinating than the more popular pretty stuff.

One of my favorite types of fish is angler fish, or Frogfish. Though there are examples of brilliantly colored frog fish, most of the ones that we see have muted colors, brown, grey, pale yellow, nothing too exciting. Frogfish are masters of disguise, mimicking their surroundings to blend seamlessly with rocks, sponges, floating seaweed, and other articles in the reef. They can even change color over time to blend if necessary. This ability to blend is essential as they are ambush predators. They lay in wait for prey to pass close enough for them to snatch with lighting speed. Anglers have some unique anatomy that allows them to be effective predators. They have a lure on their head that can extend and jiggle, attracting smaller fish and inverts to within striking distance. Their gill openings are found behind their modified pectoral fins so the movement is hidden from the view of prey. And another amazing feature is their capability to swallow prey their size, accommodated by a huge mouth and highly expandable abdomen. They’re a ton of fun to watch, and they’re adorable in their own lumpy, grumpy way.

Sea Goblins are aptly named; these guys would fit in just right in Jim Henson’s monster shop. They and their scorpionfish and stonefish cousins are intimidating in appearance, but by nature are not aggressive with the exception of their predatory nature. They are content to blend like the anglers, waiting for unsuspecting prey to pass by. Some of these fish are brightly colored, too, but many are cloaked in colors to blend with rock and the sea floor, many even have fins, spikes, and frilly skin and appendages that help them to blend and make them even more ferocious looking. Many, with faces only a mother could love, are not respected for their unique looks, but for their needle-like venomous spines, reliable means of defense.

Trumpet fish are weird and amazing predators. They seem so docile and shy, their long, slender bodies hovering on and above the rock reef. Unassuming prey should not underestimate the stealth and speed of these hunters. With incredible speed they swoop in and suck down their prey like a vacuum with their long, specialized snout and mouth.

I really have to give some freshwater fish props too. With the exception of piranhas, I don’t think people find freshwater fish to be as intimidating and scary as many marine fish. There are, however, lots of freshwater fish that are pretty unusual and frightening to look at, even if they don’t have demeanor to back it up. Take for example, the vampire tetra. Even when they come to us at only a couple of inches in length, their fierce fangs can give you a shudder. Same goes for Goliath Tiger fish and Alligator Gar, especially if you’ve seen any articles on the adults.

In a previous article, Frank Indiviglio posted a profile of blind cavefish. Fish with no eyes? Pretty creepy!
Glass catfish and Indian Glass fish are two fish that share a unique trait. Both of these fish are crystal clear! Neither of them is remotely scary, but it’s rather a strange characteristic. You can feed them different colored flake foods, and actually see the foods in their guts. Fun.

No wonder the Sci-fi channel never runs out of ideas for Saturday premiere original movies! With crazy creatures you can find at the local pet store leering at you from the dark corners of aquariums, it doesn’t take too much imagination! Come on in and check out the selection, and have a terrific Halloween!

Hey everyone! Gearing up for Halloween, I’ve been looking at some of the freakier fish that I’ve been introduced to over the years. We get a lot of weird things in here, some are lumpy, some are crusty, some have large fangs, and some have no eyes. But some things we don’t often get to scrutinize are obscure deep water marine species, for obvious reasons. I’ve watched a lot of documentaries and read lots articles on deep sea species, newly discovered and others, and I always find them fascinating and frightening at the same time. With the increasing ability of scientists to explore the depths of the world’s oceans, it seems like we’re introduced to a new and amazing creature or creatures at every turn. One segment of the Blue Planet series on Discovery Channel was entirely dedicated to creatures nearly no one had ever seen before, all from ridiculous depths and conditions. From the crazy little pea-sized predators to huge lurking sharks and cephalopods, it truly is the most alien environment on the planet.
I came across this article of some rather ghostly fish recently in the news, the deepest living species filmed yet, and I thought I could share it with you all. These pasty white snailfish fish remind me of big tadpoles or brotulinas. Apparently they’re social creatures that swarmed to the bait dropped 5 miles down to the bottom of this Pacific trench. They’re simple yet you have to be amazed at the conditions where they exist with unimaginable pressure, temperatures and darkness. Anyway, the article is pretty interesting, so please take a minute to read it if you haven’t seen it anywhere already.

To read the article, click here, or check out the video below.

Thanks and enjoy!

Patty

Have you ever gotten bored with your house and completely re-arranged your furniture just for fun? We here at That Fish Place/That Pet Place do it with our display aquariums. We get tired of looking at the same old tanks and get ants in our pants to re-model them. The most recent benefactor of this behavior is the 350 gallon acrylic cylinder tank in our Custom Aquatic Design Studio.

Over the first five years of operation, the display cylinder has had a few different themes as far as the fish that we had in the tank. For the last couple years its been a brackish community with puffers, scats, monos and catfish.

The decoration in the tank has been largely the same over this time, and was fairly limited because of the design of the tank. The tank itself is 4’ tall, and 4’ in diameter. Pretty big, however, there was a center overflow box in the tank that dominated the design. We hid the box as much as possible with a few hundred pounds of hand carved lava rock, but it was still the dominating feature.

The first thing we decided to do as part of the display’s extreme makeover was to remove the overflow box. We changed the filtration method from an overflow box wet/dry to a closed loop system. This would open up the tank visually, as well as add approximately 50 gallons to the total volume. To accomplish this, the overflow box had to be cut out. With the help of a few power tools and couple of busted knuckles later, the box came out without too much trouble. With the overflow removed, the interior of the tank was wide open, so I took advantage of the opportunity to repair some of the scratches that were on the inside of the tank. Anyone who has an acrylic tank can appreciate how easily they scratch.

Seriously limited in available space for filtration under the aquarium, I needed to come up with a system that would give us good performance, at the same time take up as little space as possible. What I decided on was a combination of a Aqua Ultraviolet Ultima II canister filter, and a series of Pentair aquatics Lifegard modular filters. The Ultima II filter will handle the mechanical and biological filtration. The Lifegard modular system includes a mechanical canister for water polishing, a chemical canister for activated carbon (or other chemical media), and a heater module. A 15 watt Aqua Ultraviolet sterilizer rounds out the filtration, and is the only carry-over from the original filtration set-up.

To really change the appearance of the aquarium, we kept the furniture to a minimum. A large
piece of driftwood is the centerpiece of the new decor, and it also acts as a cover for the central filtration return. Some strategically placed rocks and artificial plants hide the rest of the internal plumbing, as well as provide some cover and habitat for the new fish.

The new inhabitants will primarily be schooling tetras, and other South American community fish. The new, open design of the aquarium will be really spectacular as the numbers of schooling fish increase and mature.

One of the interesting aspects of cylindrical aquariums is the visual distortions that are created by the curved surface, everything inside looks much larger that it really is. Without the overflow box in the middle, everyone’s immediate reaction is that the tank looks much bigger than it used to, now that you can see all the way through the tank. This effect will really show off the brilliant colors of the tetras and other fish as they mature. So far the makeover has been a big hit.

Hmmm, what can I tear apart next?

I’ll let you know when I decide, so stay tuned for the next project!

Thanks,
Dave