In 2009 we acquired an ornamental Ancistrus labeled as Super Red Bristlenose. Throughout 2009 and 2010 we raised many standard fin Super Reds in substantial numbers. We also continued to keep Brown, Albino, and Blue-Eye, in Longfin and Standard (wild-type). I remember having a few discussions with Steve concerning putting longfin into the Super Red but we knew we were at least two years behind the curve on creating them. We expected the longfins to show up any day from Germany or from one of the US breeders that were working with Reds. Some of the early stock we were working with: Early in 2011 we had plenty of standard Super Red in the hatcheries but for some reason we...
I've enjoyed working with more types of fish than just angelfish since I was a small child. I've always had fancy livebearers of some type, usually guppies, but often other ornamental types. There was a period about 25 years ago that I had some amazing swordtails. They were huge, vigorous and prolific fish. I hadn't seen anything like them in years. I was keeping my eye open for something similar, but never ran across any. Finally, I decided to try to create my own. I usually go back to wild when I want fish that look and act like they're supposed to. My search for good wild stock led me to Select Aquatics, where I purchased a few strains from...
I would like to describe a few of the many breeding projects that we are currently working on. A little history will be necessary due to the fact that making changes to the genotype and phenotype of animals obviously takes time. My focus is and always has been, working to improve the Koi angelfish. Although Steve and I have collaborated on breeding projects a number of times over the years, a few years ago we made the decision to combine our facilities. It was obvious to both of us that it would be far easier to accomplish many of our goals if we worked together. This would allow us to keep a number of different lines for each variety. It...
There are some items that are used frequently in the average fish-room. We use lots of different nets for several things, various sieves for sorting food sizes, different tools for removing algae, siphons of all types and lots of other useful tools to get our daily work done. The thing we probably use most is scrap foam that we recover from our filter-making operation. We use it for so many things, that I would probably rate it the item I would least want to do without. This tutorial will demonstrate a few of the things we do with the foam. Hopefully, you get a few useful ideas out of it.
Many aquarists know that new fish should be quarantined, but most don't really know what a truly effective quarantine consists of. The video will go over what we consider the important reasons why you should quarantine and how to do a quarantine that really protects your existing stock.
