WEEK3: This has been a week of highs and lows. My pair of Skiffia francesae looks to be 2 females but one did drop on the way home and I had one fry survive. there were also 4 fry in the group I bought so I hope at least one will be a male. Fish count on Skiffia francesae is 2 adults 5 fry.

Next is the Characodon lateralis (Los Berros) which have been almost a total loss. I was optimistic last week when I had a few make it through the week with no apparent issues. This week I lost 3 more fish leaving me with just one pregnant female. These fish seemed to be in perfect health and had no problems eating live brine shrimp or flakes. The tank parameters were all stable and all my other fish are in the exact same conditions and I've had no other losses in any other tanks.

Characodon 27 de Noviembre have been doing well and it looks like they are in breeding mode. The male seems to follow the female any time she gets more than a few inches away. I expect a brood to come in the next couple months.

The Xenotoca eiseni (rio Tamazula) have exploded with fry, I don't have an exact fry count but it is now at 23 and it could be as high as 30. I would like to scoop them and get an exact count but I figure it best to just let them be for the first month. So the count on those fish is 2 pair and 23+ fry.

The Xenotoca eiseni (rio compostela)are just the huge pair and it looks like the female may be hit. These fish are so big even the male looks like it may drop. I figure if this female drops there is the possibility of 30 fry, just based on her size.

Last but not least the Zoogoneticus tequila are 4 pairs. They are doing well other than I did notice one male with a nip on the tail. I plan to monitor this tank a little closer and divide out the aggressive male with a female so they can breed and not cause any harm to the other pairs.

The Awards are in, will your fish be a champion?

I'm always looking to expand my horizons and I'm in the process of another remodel of the fish room. I'm going from the current 29 tanks up to 105 tanks at maximum density. I plan to dedicate 35 tanks to CARES fish only, with extensive breeding plans for several species.

So Here is my current cares list:
Allotoca goslinei (ALA 2013 SMP)need proper collection data
Ameca splendens (R.R. Miller)
Chapalichthys pardalis (NO COLLECTION DATA)
Characodon audax (El Toboso)
Characodon lateralis (27 de Noviembre)
Characodon lateralis (Los Berros)
Ilyodon cortesae (Capatitzio Spring)
Skiffia francesae (ALA 2013)
Xenotoca eiseni (Rio Compostela)
Xenotoca eiseni (Rio Tamazula)
Zoogoneticus tequila (Morelia Stock Center)

WEEK 2: I'm happy to say this week there have been no more fish loses and all have settled in well. One of the Zoogoneticus tequila females looks to be holding which is a great sign. It is a young female so I'm expecting a single fry that should be good size. The single Skiffia francesae fry is doing well and has already had some noticeable growth. One of the Xenotoca eiseni (rio tamazula) dropped 13 fry that I can count, maybe one or two more in the tank. Also a young female is ready drop soon so there should be at least 1-4 more coming.

Next week I'll do an official count of stock fish. Also get an exact count of the fry that have been born. I believe I'm well on my way to reproducing all the fish that I got at this convention, including several others not mentioned in this report.

Side note: I think it's best if people offer 6fry for the BAP rather than a single pair. As we all know a breeding colony is often easier to spawn. It's also better for the buyer because even if one or two don't make it they still have a chance for a breeding pair. Lastly fry always seem to do better, especially for goodeids so it would be best to offer them to a prospective buyer as opposed to the pair.

Introduction: I had the opportunity to attend the 2013 convention and while there, picked up a few nice fish. In this journal I will log my experiences, thoughts, and any other relevant information. I will bring you all on a journey from the time I got my fish to, hopefully, the time I return with juveniles to pass on, next year.

Be sure to check in often and see the joys, pains, mistakes, and successes as I make my way through this year in the hobby.

Species:
Characodon lateralis (Los Berros)
Characodon 27 de Noviembre
Skiffia francesae
Xenotoca eiseni (rio Compostela)
Xenotoca eiseni (rio Tamazula)
Zoogoneticus tequila (Morelia stock center)

WEEK 1: At the convention I made sure to re-bag all the fish before they made the 1400 mile journey to Florida. Sadly one pair of the Characodon lateralis had already expired. After the long ride the first thing I did when I got home was check on the fish. I found one more lateralis had been lost and one didn't look well. They were immediately put on drip acclimation and I hoped for the best. I sorted through the other fish and found one whole bag of fish didn't make it but they aren't part of this journal.All the other fish made it through with no issues at all.

One nice surprise was my pair of Skiffia francesae had dropped 7 fry in the bag. It looked like none of the fry would make it because they were all still. I got them into a breeder trap and did see two of them were belly sliders which left little hope they would make it. Amazingly one of them did survive to the next day and did accept some newly hatched brine. So far that fish has been doing very well. In addition one female from the eiseni now looks about ready to drop so I should have a brood report coming soon.

Once all the fish were properly placed in tanks for observation I got some sleep, this was about 36 hours after leaving Michigan. When I woke the first thing I did was check on my fish and they all looked well. A second feeding was offered at this time and I watched as all inhabitants accepted some flake food. This was a good sign and I hoped that meant there would be no more losses. Sadly on the following evening one more lateralis was lost. I checked the water conditions and closely observed the remaining fish for any signs of weakness or disease. All the parameters were within normal range and all the remaining fish looked to be in perfect health. All the other species were doing very well.

With no other casualties, fish that are feeding very well, and the possibility of some fry this turned out to be an acceptable outcome. Figure with fish being stuck in bags for maybe a full week before I got them the survival rate was quite good. Now that they are in my care I hope there will be no further losses and if all goes well spawning reports should come on a regular basis.

Quote:
Sure, thanks for the honor.

Quote: Oh, how could I forget that part, and I also got to sit with some of the smart young ladies from the poster contest. It's nice to see the next generation still has people that can look beyond the Iphone and Facebook, to see what is going on in the real world.

I am in, and I started with 10 species. I have to say Richard is doing a great job and has been very helpful in making sure I get credited for my submissions. I look forward to adding to my current list of 10.

P.S. Don't tell anyone, I didn't do anything, the fish did all the work

After an uneventful 21 hour straight drive from Florida to Michigan, it was 7am, I found myself standing at the doors to the hotel. The glass parted, I entered, my eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the light, no doubt I was road weary. I scanned the room, a familiar figure came into view, sitting in one of the oversized lobby chairs. White Semper fi hair cut, a chisled face, and a cup of coffee confirmed a friend I made at the 2012 convention was already here. Gerard, greeted me with an early morning energy that escapes most people, the next thing I knew I had been standing there for 15 minutes, somehow the road trip no longer had it’s full weight on my back.

My initial thought was to sleep through Thursday and get a great early morning start on Friday. By 11am I had tossed and turned for 4 hours and I knew sleep would evade me like it does a child the night before going to Disneyland. I also made sure to wake my roommate because there is no sense in letting someone else sleep, oh… um…, I mean miss out on the fun. So Tom and I made our way back to the lobby only to find a hoard of seasoned fish keeps had taken over the place. It seems we showed up just in time to join in on the fish shop tour.

On the tour I got to see what “a real pet shop” looks like, I say this because what they call mom and pop in Michigan is two to three times the size of a mom and pop store in Florida. While on the tour some interesting things happened, like the behind the scenes tour of one store that has a QT facility and it’s own breeding program. Apparently Tom thought there was a tropical fish shortage on the way because he was buying up everything in sight. I even heard one of the Michigan guys say “keep Tom busy so I can buy these fish before he sees them”. Those are my kind of people, friendship is one thing, but when it comes to fish all bets are off. The tour ended with “a tour of Scott’s fish room”, and the term room is an understatement. Scott’s fish live in a nicer house than many people would have. Oh, and he also just happens to breed just about everything that has fins. I know the next time I need to find a species the first person I plan to call is Scott.

So lets move on to Friday, with a good nights sleep and the whole day in front of me, I decided to get my fish in the show early. Then I spent a good portion of the morning taking pictures of the other show entries. One thing I didn’t plan on was a show with about 175 entries, my camera called it quits after category #11 out of 19 so I only got pictures of maybe half of the fish. This show was outstanding by any standard in that it had size, variety, and quality. I saw some wild fish that were by far the best examples you could ever see, domestics with amazing size and perfectly proportioned, even the up and coming entries looked to be contenders for next years show.

With the fish show in the rear view mirror Saturday was a mix and mingle marathon. I heard some great presentations from the line-up of speakers. I had the chance to speak with Mike Hellweg and get some great information in response to a few questions I asked. Later in the day I found myself in the company of the ALA president Ron Davis, past president Rit Forcier, and the legendary Rich Serva. Can you believe they let all these guys into the same room at the same time? I’m not sure how I made it past security, but I got in there and took in as much information as I could hear. Later in the evening, during the banquet, I was lucky enough to hear my name called as one of the raffle winners and Rit presented me with a very nice bottle of wine, he did seem to have a very tight grip on it though.

At this point I figured there was no way the convention could get any better. Little did I know there would be a couple of surprises just a few minutes later. They were calling out the winners of the fish show and that’s when they called my name. I was clapping and looking around the room to see who stood up when someone at my table said “Joe, that’s you”, shocked I stood up and made my way to the front of the room to receive my honors. Shortly after sitting down, I heard my name called again, this time I recognized it, and I was lucky enough to claim another accolade. What an amazing honor, my second convention, and my first time ever showing some of my fish, other people noticed them and thought they were special.

Now we move to Sunday, the big auction day, now the gloves come off and friendships get put aside. I had my list of “must have” species and I wasn’t about to let anyone take them away. They would be mine, all mine, you can’t have them because they are mine. Well, I guess someone had got a copy of my list because all those fish that were “mine, all mine” were being bought by not me. So I decided if I was going to hang with the big dogs, I better buck up and learn how to bark. Soon I was checking off the list and claiming fish that I thought I might never get a chance to even see, never mind own. So the top 3 on my list were all on the ALA priority list and now I’ll be working tirelessly to get these fish acclimated, feeding, and hopefully reproducing, so that next year I can do my part and have them available for the next wide eyed newbie that shows up in a world of wonder.