Photo of a possible Limia vittata/Poecilia mexicana hybrid. The upper fish is a female Limia vittata. The bottom fish is a possible female Limia vittata/Poecilia mexicana hybrid. I have tried for years to produce a molly/Limia hybrid to no avail until maybe now. Why would I attempt this? ... Read More
Fish
Developing and Setting a New Fish Strain
Photo: A young breeder male Skyblue Dragon Blood Peacock Cichlid. One of my favorite aquaculture activities is the development of new strains of fish with new colors, fins, shapes, etc. That isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy maintaining wild-type fish and pure species as they appear in nature, but ... Read More
Fish Growth Inhibition
Photo: A 55-gallon vat with 144 adult male cichlids 5+" long, showing that our system allows crowding without growth inhibition. See below for the possible reasons. Recently, a hobbyist messaged me: “I’ve heard that fish release a hormone that will slow the growth of other similar fish. Do you ... Read More
Gold OB Peacock
Photo: A breeder male Gold OB Peacock in a five-gallon bucket as he is being processed before being moved back into his breeding colony. WARNING!!! This is a rather long and geeky fish blog for my fishkeeping friends. I decided to kill two birds (or fish, whatever!) with one stone by 1) ... Read More
Xiphophorus alvarezi, Chiapas Swordtail
Photo: A young, three to four month old, male Xiphophorus alvarezi. Xiphophorus alvarezi, the Chiapas Swordtail, is a wild swordtail species from, remarkably enough considering its name, the Mexican state of Chiapas. We acquired this species in the auction at the April 2012 Fort Lauderdale ... Read More
A Bryozoan Lives in the Greenhouses
Photo is of a bryozoan attached to a 1/2" aquaculture netting to show its size. During the last few months, we have noticed a number of these bryozoan creatures (it turns out plural is appropriate as you’ll learn below) pictured above in some of our vats in Greenhouse 2 which mainly houses ... Read More
Update on Scuds (Shrimp, not Missiles!)
Photo by Matt Hill of EcoAnalysts, Inc., our go-to expert on invertebrate identification, of one of our male scuds. One of the livefoods for fish we raise in our hatchery is scuds, also known as Gammarus. We recently sort of got our scuds identified. See this blog for details: Update on Gammarus ... Read More
Giant Green Sailfin Molly
Photo: A large male Green Sailfin Molly from four years ago and one of our breeders used in our attempt to create a giant molly. For about eight years, I’ve been working to develop a very large Green Sailfin Molly, which I creatively named Giant Green Sailfin Mollies (“GGSM” for short for the ... Read More
Litter Worm Update
Litter Worm Update Photo: A group of litter worms (Bimastos heimburgeri) in one of our compost piles. I previously blogged about finally finding a lab to identify our scuds, litter worms, and vat worms. For information about the scud identification and some background see these ... Read More
Update on Gammarus Identification
Photo by Matt Hill (EcoAnalysts, Inc.) of one of our male scuds. This is the first in a series of blogs about finally getting some of our hatchery’s invertebrates identified. You might want to read this blog for ... Read More