The photo shows the author and a son collecting fish using a seine net. Grandchildren are optional equipment when collecting. In Newsletter No. 11 I set up the following contest: “We are continuing the Email Contest and will give a free (including shipping) two pound bag of Simple Pet Products ... Read More
Fish
Fish Breeding: Trichogaster trichopterus, the Blue Gourami
Below is an article on fish breeding from the August 2013 newsletter. I'm reposting these as blogs so that they are searchable on our website. Fish Breeding: This month I’ll talk about how we breed Blue Gouramis (Trichogaster trichopterus). This fish is the easiest of the anabantids to raise. ... Read More
Poecilia latipinna, Mustang Island to Siegen University in Germany
The photo shows the Poecilia latipinna, Mustang Island collection site. This post is about the saga of Poecilia latipinna and Siegen University in Germany. Years ago we got an order from Siegen University for Poecilia latipinna (our native green sailfin molly) from Comal Springs in New ... Read More
Fish tip: Fish Feeding
This post is a section from the August 2013 Goliad Farms monthly newsletter. Sign up to receive the full monthly newsletter here. How to Feed Your Fish: Get plastic fish; they require no care! Okay, seriously, feeding is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the hobby, probably because ... Read More
Gambusia Expedition
Photo: Grandchildren at waterfall where we searched for Gambusia montanaensis. Today I start a new regimen, that of blogging daily (or almost) instead of writing a monthly newsletter. This will allow me to keep things fresh. The newsletter will continue, primarily as an index to the my blogs, but ... Read More
Mollies: To Salt or Not to Salt
To salt or not to salt, that is the question... I often get asked about mollies and salt. Typical of this question is what Mandee Widrick Flanders wrote on our Facebook page: “Hi Ash & Goliad Farms, As someone who is relatively new to keeping sailfin mollies (about 6 months in), I've heard ... Read More
Poecilia latipinna, Mustang Island
We got this very nice Poecilia latipinna during a recent collecting trip to Mustang Island. I wrote about the trip in a previous blog. Pictured is a young male and a young female. The male will undoubtedly be spectacular when he matures. The other young males collected are just as nice. They are ... Read More
Collecting Trip to Mustang Island
Recently my family rented a house on Mustang Island at Port Aransas, Texas for a family outing. Mustang Island is a barrier island just north of and similar to the more famous Padre Island. While there, I managed to arrange a quick collecting trip to two sites. The first was a bayside sand flat and ... Read More
How We Raise Livebearers
This blog results from an email I got from a hobbyist, Christy. She wrote: “Hello, I'm a small hobbyist and I was wondering if you would share your breeding setups for platies and mollies. It sounds like you get a good number of fish from your tanks with the schedule and setup. Best of ... Read More
Poeciliopsis gracilis, the Porthole Livebearer
The photo is of a pair of Poeciliopsis gracilis, the porthole livebearer, male right and female left. We acquired our starting breeders of this species from Rusty Wessel in 2008. Rusty collected the fish from Rio Copan in Honduras. I recently wrote a column about them for Tropical Fish Hobbyist. ... Read More