Photo: A pair of mystery footprints in shallow water on the margins of a pond on a South Texas ranch. At the bottom is the shadow of the author's I-phone for scale. The first week of March this year I got a message from our nephew Darin Rokyta, an Associate Professor of the Department of ... Read More
Fish
Raising Mosquito Larvae for Fish Food
Photo: A mosquito larvae culture system to raise live foods for fish. I originally wrote this as an article in our monthly Newsletter (now dormant, but likely to be revived). I’ve made some edits, but it’s largely the same information. Also, it’s a timely blog since mosquito season will be ... Read More
Arulius Barb
A male Arulius Barb (Puntius arulius or maybe Dawkinsia tambraparniei) in front of a one-inch grid to show size. Note the filaments on his dorsal. Recently I got this email from a customer (slightly edited): “Hi Charles. I hope you guys fared the cold weather well. I just wanted to ... Read More
Developing a Strain from a Single Fish
Photo: Two very young male Bronze Sailfin Mollies showing the improved coloration I selected for. They are too young to sport nice sailfins, but they grew up with large dorsals. As evidence of their youth, look at their gonopodia (anal fin), which are just beginning to develop. How many times ... Read More
Poecilia formosa – Amazon Molly
Photo: Two Poecilia formosa, Amazon mollies, collected from Coleto Creek at Highway US 77 in Victoria County, Texas. December 12, 2017, four of us plus two German Shepherds went collecting on Coleto Creek in Victoria County, Texas (see my blogs: ... Read More
Coleto Creek Collecting Trip – December 21, 2017.
Photo by Anne Rokyta: Coleto Creek at US Highway 77 with German Shepherds, Oso and Maya. December 21, 2017 was warm, an occurrence happening more and more frequently lately. The weather was sunny, and temperatures hovered around 80°F (~27°C). It was a perfect first day of winter for ... Read More
Lucania goodei, the Blue Fin Killifish
Photo: A group of Lucania goodei, the bluefin killifish, in a sorting jar. While collecting fish in Coleto Creek in Victoria County, Texas (I’ll be blogging about this collecting trip shortly) with our nephew (Darin), his wife (Anne), and three-year-old daughter (Sylvie), Darin picked a ... Read More
Update on Poecilia reticulata, McCauley Spring
Photo: a shoal of Poecilia reticulata, McCauley Spring I first wrote about this fish for my column in Tropical Fish Hobbyist, January 2013 issue (http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/expendition-to-mccauley-spring.htm). Here’s a quote from that article about this guppy (the quote comes ... Read More
Fancy Red Tuxedo Swordtails
Photo: Female Red Tuxedo Lyretail Swordtail. As is typical of our strain, females don’t have as bright red coloration as males. We’ve started working on adding three fancy fin types, lyretail, hifin, and plumetail to each of our commercial swordtail, maculatus, and variatus lines. I’m going to ... Read More
Orange Freckled Swordtails
Photo above is a male Orange Freckled Swordtail. The grid behind him is in inches and shows his size. Those of you who have read many of my past articles and blogs know that a common theme throughout my writings is serendipity (could also be called “luck”). This interesting fish arose from a ... Read More
