Black Stripe Dwarf Cichlid - Taeniacara candidi - Wikipedia
Minimum Tank Size: 30 gallons
Care Level: Moderate
Tank Conditions: 72-86°F; pH 6.0-7.0;
KH 2-15
Max. Size In Aquarium: Up to 3"
Color Form: Black
Temperament: Semi-aggressive
Diet: Carnivore
Origin: Farm Raised, South America
The Taeniacara candidi is known in the hobby as the Black Stripe Dwarf Cichlid, and originates within the Amazon Basin of South America. The bodies of these fish are extremely slender and elongated, and have a dark stripe that runs horizontally from the nose to the base of the tail. Another distinguishing feature is its unusually low dorsal fin.
The Black Stripe Dwarf Cichlid should be kept in a tank that is 30 gallons minimum, with densely planted groupings. They require plenty of open swimming areas but also need hiding places. A fine gravel to sand substrate is recommended. Although a semiaggressive fish, they are also timid and should not be housed with large, aggressive fish. They require good water conditions, and regular water changes are a must.
The Black Stripe Dwarf Cichlid is an egg layer that prefers to spawn on the underside of leaves or pieces of driftwood. Once the female has laid her eggs, the male will follow to fertilize them. After fertilization, the male then leaves the brood for the female to tend to.
The fry will be free swimming within seven to ten days, at which time they should be fed newly hatched brine shrimp. They are a fast growing species, and the fry will reach sexual maturity in about five months.
The Black Stripe Dwarf Cichlid is a carnivore, and will consume a wide variety of foods. Freeze-dried bloodworms and tubifex, flake food, and both frozen and live brine shrimp and worms will make excellent food for these fish. Approximate Purchase Size: 1" to 1-1/2"
Let's travel to Florida to meet one of the largest of reptiles, the alligator. Alligators live only in the southeastern states of our country, like Louisiana and Florida. Most of the time alligators are pictured in swamps, but many people in Florida have reported seeing alligators in the lakes near their backyards. Having a reptile the size of a lizard in the backyard is normal, but seeing an alligator in a pond is something to get excited about. For such a big reptile, you might be surprised to find that it often isn't easy to spot an alligator in the water.
Two American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), Florida, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Alligators like to float just beneath the surface of the water, with only their eyes and nostrils breaking the surface of the water. The rest of their big body just relaxes underneath the water, legs spread apart and the huge tail hanging partway down. The alligator can float at exactly the right level by using his lungs as a kind of inflatable raft, and keeps just the right amount of air for only his eyes to stay above the water. An alligator stays mostly under water for one of two reasons.
The first reason is to keep his body temperature cool. Like other reptiles, the alligator's body temperature depends upon the temperature of the air or water around him. The sun can get very hot in Florida, and since the alligator does not sweat, there has to be another way for him to keep cool. He first opens his enormous mouth, and that will cool him down a little bit. If the alligator is still too hot, he will go into the water to lower his body temperature even more.
The second reason that an alligator stays in the water is to hide himself and wait for lunch to come by. Alligators can catch an amazing variety of animals to eat, including birds, fish, turtles, and even deer. They are quite at home in the water, swim very quickly, and can dive underwater and stay submerged for an hour, or even more. An alligator usually catches birds sitting on the water, but can raise itself up with a few powerful strokes of its tail to snatch one flying near the surface of the water, or just taking off.
Female alligators use their formidable mouths for another reason, to protect her babies. Baby alligators can already catch their own food and swim, but they stay near their mother for a year or more in order to be safe from predators. Even before they are born, the mother alligator stays by the nest she dug in the dirt to keep others (like turtles) from eating her eggs. When the eggs are ready to hatch, the babies inside the eggs start making noises. Some babies come out of the eggs by themselves, but other eggs are taken into the mother alligator's mouth, where she gently rolls them around until the baby alligator can come out of the hard shell.
This brief introduction to one of the most ancient and interesting of reptiles can be used as a starting place to assemble your own collection of alligator facts. Make sure to watch the next wildlife show about these big reptiles, and considering visiting one the next time you take a trip to Florida.
Many aquarists tend to think of catfish simply as the "cleanup crew" and have them solely to keep the tank free of algae and to consume the bits of food that slip past the fish that feed higher in the tank. However this species is fascinating in its own right and breeding catfish is relatively easy in the home aquaria.
A Bristlenose Catfish (ancistrus dolichopterus) (male) is sitting on a coconut shell (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The bristlenose catfish are popular because of their novel looks and their hard work! Within days of adding a bristlenose to a tank, every trace of algae will be gone. They are easy to breed in a community tank. The mature male has much longer bristles than the female and tends to be larger. They are not overly critical about water conditions but do prefer slightly acidic water, with a pH between 6.5 and 7 and a temperature between 75 and 80 degrees F.
As the bristelnose is a cave spawner you need to make sure that there are plenty of suitable hiding places in the tank. PVC pipe, flowerpots tipped on their sides, coconut shells and bogwood which the bristelnose likes not only for hiding under but for eating as well, are all good choices. They will also welcome thick plants around the perimeter of the tank Keep the water well oxygenated with good filtration, an airstone and pump.
To condition your bristelnose for breeding feed them with shrimp pellets, and some semi- boiled vegetables such as zucchini and cucumber. Quite often a large water change or slight increase in temperature can trigger spawning. Courting behavior varies, some pairs will spend days in preparation while others get straight "down to business". The male chooses a nest site in the PCV pipe or flowerpot and the female will then join him to lay a clutch of around fifty adhesive orange colored eggs. The male then fertilizes them and begins fanning them with his fins to aerate them.
The male is on duty guarding the eggs until they hatch in about three to five days. In another week they will become free swimming and will then need to be fed. Suitable foods are finely crushed vegetables like blanched lettuce, peas, zucchini as well as baby brine shrimp and minced bloodworms. Remember that bristelnose are bottom feeders and make sure that the foods make it to the bottom for them and are not snatched up by the other fish. Another source of food can be created by putting some rocks in jars of tankwater and leaving them on a sunny windowsill where they will grow a good coating of algae. Then place the rocks in the tank for the fry to feed on. Regular water changes together with a varied diet will ensure the healthy growth of the fry.
By Jen Clements
Jen Clements is an experienced fish breeder and aquarium specialist.
Article Source: EzineArticles
Aquarium plant is
very important to aquarium as water is to fish. It add more life to aquarium
and make it to looks beautiful while completing aquarium community structure.
The main object to bear in mind when planting is to form an attractive
background, leaving ample space in from where the fishes can swim undisturbed
and be seen. The tall, grassy type is best planted at intervals in rows, while
the feathery ones look better when they are bunched into small clumps, which
makes them to appear like branching bushes.
When planting
rooted plants, hold the tips of the bunch of roots between the thumb and second
finger and rest them on the sand. Now with the first finger push the upper part
of the roots (where they join the stem) about 2cm into the sand. Without moving
this finger scrape with the thumb and second finger some sand over any
uncovered portion of the root.
When putting in
rootless plants in bunches, the method explained above is repeated, but this
time the lower ends of the stems are placed together and treated exactly as if
they were roots.
It is important
that the water surface should be right up to the lower edge of the top angle
iron of the tank, so that looking from the front the water surface can not be
seen and the viewer gets the impression that there is no water in the aquarium.
If the level is allowed to fall below the top angle iron the tank looks like a
container holding water.
The Mazatlan Aquarium (Acuario Mazatlan) is a great place for your family to visit while vacationing in Mazatlan. While it's not big or fancy, it offers several aquarium tanks with a large variety of marine life, including the Ocean Tank which is the largest in Latin America. In addition, it also has several entertaining shows like a tropical bird show, seal show, shark diving show, and several other attractions.
Photo: Aquario Mazatlan
New Ocean Tank makes a great aquarium experience
The Mazatlan Aquarium (Acuario Mazatlan) has several large tanks which display a large variety of different types of marine life. But the most impressive is the new Ocean Tank. Completed fairly recently (in October 2008), it allows a view into the depths of the ocean, housing many different types of ocean life all living together as they do in the ocean.
Because of the large size of the tank (1,600,000 liters of water), it has room even for large sizes of marine life, like sharks, sea rays, and giant sea turtles.
Other shows and exhibits are the icing on the cake!
Diving Exhibition - in the Shark Tank!
Enjoy the excitement of watching a diver enter directly into the tank with the live sharks. He also interacts with the turtles and other large sea creatures. And to top it off, he teaches how scuba diving equipment works (You just might get the itch to take some scuba diving classes as well while you're in Mazatlan!).
Tropical Bird Theater
This is true entertainment for you and your family! The show consists of a group of tropical birds (Macaws and Cockatoos, along with their trainers) singing and dancing to prove just how intelligent they really are.
Seal Show
The Sea Lions are also delighted to put on a good show for you! In the water and in the air (with plenty of splashing in case you wanted to get wet yourself), Bony, Toby, Cili, Ely, Lili, and Tito know how to move!
What's really special is that each of these sea lions were rescued. They arrived at the aquarium with different injuries, and the Aquarium staff nursed them back to good health and trained them to do the show.
And More!
There's also a botanical garden to explore, crocodiles that you can watch, and a frog habitat.
All in all, the Aquarium is sure to be a fun event for your family during your vacation in Mazatlan. If nothing else, do it as a break from the beach and sun.
The novice aquarist must face a variety of problems when a new tank is started. Beginning aquarium woes often commence with the lack of understanding exactly what is going to happen in the first six weeks the tank is active. Without knowing what processes are occurring invisibly in the aquarium, too many beginners overload the aquarium with fish right away and sentence their new pets to death by their own excretions. The fish actually create the majority of the poisons that kill them!
Often the rest of the deadly compounds comes from excessive feeding that rots and promotes decay. In the new aquarium, Ammonia is produced by the fish and decay processes. It can rapidly build to toxic levels. If the pH is acid (below 7.0) the toxicity of ammonia is often minimal, even in what could be considered high concentrations. However, it rapidly becomes extremely deadly when the pH reading rises over 7.0. The higher the pH, the more dangerous ammonia becomes, even in smaller concentrations.
Nitrogen Cycle in aquariums. Legend: (1) Addition of food and nutrients, (2) Production of Urea and Ammonia by Fish, (3) Ammonia is converted to Nitrites by beneficial Nitrosomonas bacteria, (4) Nitrites are converted to Nitrates by beneficial Nitrospira bacteria. Less toxic Nitrates are removed by plants and periodic water changes. (5) Evaporation. (6) Light, (7) Soil, (8) O 2 produced by plants, (9) CO 2 produced by Fish (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As time goes by, even starting from a sterile environment, beneficial bacteria that specialize in using the ammonia as an energy source establish a foothold. With enough time, adequate populations develop that can reduce the ammonia as quickly as it is produced. They produce nitrite as a by-product. Nitrite has no relationship with pH or any other water characteristic. As nitrite rises in concentration, it is equally deadly for fish in any water conditions. Once again, nature has provided a bacterial strain that will rapidly eliminate nitrite, nitrobacter. The specialized bacterial strains use nitrite for energy and create nitrate as the final step.
Nitrate is a good plant fertilizer, but otherwise is not removed by standard processes in the aquarium. It constantly builds to levels that eventually become harmful to fish. There really is no reliable way to remove it other than by dilution. The standard water change is the most effective method to remove high levels of nitrate with the waste water. Fresh tap replacement water replacement normally has low or non-existent amounts. As new water is added to replace siphoned used aquarium water, the overall levels of nitrate are lowered and controlled by this simple method.
The entire system heavily depends on a strong and vibrant population of two separate bacterial strains (nitrosomonas and nitrobacter) doing their job. In addition there are a multitude of other bacteria that are constantly at work breaking down waste materials into component parts this is the natural decay process. A big part of this waste removal is the production of ammonia. In the very beginning, there are no bacteria of any kind to start with, they have been killed by the chemicals water companies put into the water supply to make it safe for human consumption. Assorted bacteria strains do start to populate quite quickly, but as far as the invisible bacterial world is concerned, ammonia and nitrite reducers are quite slow to replicate. There are many other types that are much faster to exploit a suitable niche and can inhibit nitrosomonas and/or nitrobacter from thriving.
It takes ten days in a perfect environment for a single starting bacteria that reduces ammonia to populate the billions upon billions of its fellows required to eliminate ammonia as soon as it occurs. The bacteria that reduces nitrite to nitrate is even slower to replicate. It has the further disadvantage of being inhibited when there is too much ammonia present. Once the ammonia removing bacteria are plentiful enough to eliminate ammonia immediately, then these weaker strains will begin to grow, taking another three weeks to get to high enough densities to remove nitrite immediately as well.
Biological Augmentation of the bacterial filter
The above is a very brief synopsis of the Nitrogen Cycle, it is meant neither to be complete or exhaustive, but the timing of the bacterial population crests are important. It is this long lag behind many other types of bacteria all fighting for the same space and elements that gave rise to the concept of bacterial augmentation of the biological filter. Although there are disagreements of which particular strain of bacteria that actually do the work removing ammonia, classically it has been defined as nitrosomonas, and few would argue that these are the bacteria that can do the work. In the past few decades, certified pure strains of both nitrosomonas and nitrobacter have been isolated and cultured quite successfully. Even before this advance, it was long felt that if you added these bacteria to the aquarium directly, they would help reduce the length it takes to get the populations up to size as well as keep the actual concentration levels much lower.
In the very early days, this was done by simply grabbing a handful of gravel from an old, established aquarium and adding it directly into the new aquarium. Since both of these previously mentioned beneficial bacteria are lithotrophic and attach firmly to clean hard surfaces, this did work to inoculate a beginning aquarium with the bacteria living in the old tank, whatever the strains. There was always the risk that the older tank had other, less desirable strains that tagged along as well. Many tanks introduced a disease into it along with the beneficial bacteria.
Then came the first bacterial suspensions that contained living bacteria, in the early 1980's. These were actual living and breathing bacteria, bottled active and alive and sold with very short expiration dates. The concept was to provide a concentration of specifically cultured bacteria that do a particular job and supercharge a new system with them. The spikes of ammonia and nitrite were felt to be reduced and the fish had a better chance of surviving the break-in ordeal. The main drawback of this first product was that it went out of date so fast. You had to get it right off the truck and use it immediately, as every hour saw the loss of some more of the bacteria.
Soon a newer product arrived that was able to deliver much higher concentrations of both bacteria, coupled with some of the best waste reduction bacteria in the same bottle. The shelf life, from culture vat to consumer was extended because it exploited the newest technology, which allowed pure cultures of nitrosomonas and nitrobacter along with a few powerful waste reduction strains to be cultured into extremely high concentrations and then shut down and forced to hibernate until the bottle was opened. The advancement of causing the dormancy of the bacteria was thought to be impossible, and although many seem to believe it still can't be done, the success of the product for over 20 years on the market proves it to be viable.
When the technology advanced to the point where billions of bacteria spores and hibernating cells were concentrated into every ounce, the concept of competitive exclusion also became a reality. Unlike throwing a handful of gravel into a new tank and hoping the right bacteria strains make it, the ability to culture a pure strain of bacteria, mix it with other pure strains to form a team allows the knowledge of exactly what is being put into the aquarium. By dosing in recommended amounts every week, the balance of population is shifted in favor of the strains being added. Over time, they become the dominant bacterial strains, which is fine, because if other pathogenic species appear, they are crowded out by the more dominant types. This is the definition of competitive exclusion, inoculating the aquarium with the beneficial bacteria and crowding out potential pathogens.
Many companies have provided products like this to the market, have a friendly chat with your local life fish store about which one of these preparations they recommend. By regularly dosing the filter and aquarium with billions of bacteria every week, the tank stays in better health and actually seems to run with less chance of bacterial disease. Fungus is also reduced as the amount of waste is more rapidly decayed to composite parts before a problem can occur.
Steve Pond
Having kept and bred many different types of tropical fish for the past forty years, I am dedicated to providing information required for the novice aquarist to become successful in this fascinating hobby. Keep tropical fish alive and thriving in your first aquarium through the critical first six week and beyond. Visit my blog website (http://www.noviceaquarist.com/blog) for more detailed information specifically tailored for the novice aquarist on all aspects of the beginning aquarium. Besides my own personal contributions, a variety of other sources are polled and added regularly to the content warehouse available there.
