The Lateral Line

Volume 5, Issue 4 December, 2012

Inside this Issue:

Keeping Cichlids Outside Year Round—Ghetto Style!

Iranocichla hormuzensis, Coad, 1982 C.A.R.E.S. Yssichromis piceatus

Spawning Corydoras Axelrodi...Sort of!

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The HCCC is a proud member of the Federation of Texas Aquarium Societies.

The HCCC is a proud member of the Federation

of American Aquarium Societies.

On the Cover - Alcolapia alcalicus Editorial 3 Keeping Cichlids Outside Year Round—Ghetto Style! 8 - Greg Steeves Iranocichla hormuzensis, Coad, 1982 12 - Dave Hansen C.A.R.E.S. Yssichromis piceatus 18 Spawning Corydoras axelrodi...Sort of! 19 - Keith Arnold http://www.hillcountrycichlidclub.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/hillcountrycichlidclub

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Editorial First off, to all HCCC members and other clubs that we exchange publications with, let me apologize for the lengthy lapse between Lateral Line issues. 2012 has seen some changes in the club and 2013 is go-ing to see even more. I feel the time of growing is fantastic for the longevity of our organization and I’m very confident that the future will bring only better changes to the Hill Country Cichlid Club. While from the outside looking in it might seem as though 2012 was not an active year for us and for some that might be true. For others, it was more than busy enough with club business. We held three successful auctions with a ton of new faces attending. We have actually changed some aspects of the auction including the methods of payment and greatly shortened the time that sellers receive payment. Diane Tennison has almost solely been responsible for revamping the system and deserves all the credit for our success in this area. Another hugely active area of involvement within our club has been the HCCC Facebook site. Our presence here has allowed us to reach a much larger audience as well as publicizing our existence to lo-cal hobbyists who had no idea there was a cichlid club here. If there is a dark side to the Facebook site is that it has become so active that it has actu-ally taken away some of the activity that we tradi-tionally seen on the HCCC message board. What I would like to see is someone step up and publicize informative posts received on Facebook to our HCCC forum and vice versa. I would like to recognize one of the pillars of our group, Dave Schumacher of Dave’s Rare Aquarium Fish for what he does. Dave borrowed a great idea that the East Coast Cichlid bunch do at their auc-tions. This was the catfish raffle. I was told this was well received and is something we want to in-corporate into future auctions as well. Dave pro-vided the fish for the raffle and together with his wife Amanda, secured our permanent location for club auctions. Starting in 2013 we will be holding our first ever Swap Meet here as well. I will make the information on this available just as soon as I can.

Dave and Amanda have been searching for a loca-tion where we will permanently move our meetings to. The plan is to have an HCCC meeting every second month at the same day and time (ex. every second Saturday at 6pm). The meeting will include a BAP and members auction, a speaker that will present on a subject relevant to our members inter-est, and snacks for all. The plan is to turn our meetings into an event that anyone with even a passing interest in cichlids that lives in the area, would not want to miss. We were hoping to have a location locked in by now but we are still searching. Ideally we would like to find something on the Northside of San Antonio, Shertz, New Braunfels or San Marcos…..or anywhere in between. If you have an idea for a location or know of someplace we could frequent, please let us know. I fully ex-pect that we will eventually need meeting space for 100 people. The club is willing to pay for a loca-tion willing to house us but it must be reasonable. In speaking with Dan Schacht, our BAP Chairman, BAP entries have been slow in coming this year. I know by seeing some of the species that people have breeding on our Facebook site, that next year could be a record breaker. Troy Veltrop is not only our club CARES Chair-man, but also the CARES Preservation website master. He has asked, told, beg and asked me again to update my CARES species and I am yet to do that. Some shining example I turned out to be! I will be doing that and sending my information in to him and I would urge those of you already regis-tered to do that same. Those of you with CARES species that have not registered them should do so. You can reach Troy on the HCCC website. A list-ing of CARES fish can be found at http://www.carespreservation.com. On the CARES bandwagon, three HCCC members recently appeared on the Under The Sea Radio Show. These shows are all archived and can be lis-tened to at your leisure anytime. All had both CA-RES and HCCC content. Artist/ Paleontologist/Aquarist Ken McKeighen painted three works and donated them to the CARES program. These beau-tiful paintings are in my procession right now. One will be auctioned at the North East Council of Aquarium Societies Convention in Cromwell CT.

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April 5th-7th. http://convention.northeastcouncil.org/ The second will be auctioned off at the Greater Chi-cago Cichlid Classic on Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago. http://www.gcca.net/. The third will be auctioned off at the HCCC Spring Auction and stay tuned to the website http://www.hillcountrycichlidclub.com for informa-tion as soon as it is available. Here are the paint-ings generously donated by the artist. Each is signed and dated by Ken McKeighen. The organization responsible for commissioning Ken to do these amazing paintings was Mary and William Forrest of the Under the Sea Radio Show.

Ken McKeighen

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September 28, 2012. Mr. Greg Steeves has been scheduled to be on the Under The Sea Radio Show to dis-cuss the C.A.R.E.S. Preservation Program and what aquarium hobbyists should know about every species at risk that are involved in the aquarium hobby. http://underthesearadioprogram.yolasite.com/the-fine-art-of-cares-lake-victoria.php November 16, 2012. Caroline Estes will be by to talk about the Tropical Fish Industry and about the Cichlid Hobby. Caro-line Estes is the former owner of Amazonia Aquariums from Austin Texas and will provide a unique view on the hobby today. Including raising money for projects that are related to the tropical fish keeping hobby. http://underthesearadioprogram.yolasite.com/cichlidae-discussion-caroline-estes.php November 30, 2012. The Under The Sea Radio Show is pleased to have Mr. Troy Veltrop be a guest on the show to dis-cuss some of the very interesting species that hobbyists can help out in keeping with the C.A.R.E.S. Preservation Program while learning about the behavior of these wonderful cichlids of Lake Victoria. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wm-aquaculture/2012/12/01/the-fine-art-of-breeding-lake-victoria-cichlids January 11, 2013. C.A.R.E.S. Preservation Program generally is a program designed for aquarists to aid in the conser-vation of endangered and extinct species in the wild that usually can be kept in a home aquarium. The Under The Sea Radio Show and Mr. Ken McKeighen are pleased to be working with this organi-zation and Mr. Klaus Steinhaus who is scheduled to be on this show is the C.A.R.E.S. club repre-sentative. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wm-aquaculture/2013/01/12/cares-preservation-program--klaus-steinhaus .

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This past year was full of great fish events for those of you so inclined to attend. Our sister clubs the Houston Aquarium Society and the Texas Cichlid Association both held numerous auctions through-out the year. Also the TCA held a Swap that Lee Ann and I attended. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for the next one. The annual American Cichlid Association conven-tion was in Indianapolis Indiana and by all accounts was a very good gathering. This year the ACA is in Denver Colorado. That’s driving distance! It is sure to be a great time. Bob Grauer is one of my best friends and also the convention chair. I know this will be a show you won’t want to miss.

The TCA went way over the top with the FOTAS convention this year. What a great time! Next year we are all flocking to Houston, the sight of FOTAS 2013. I want to remind everyone that a club is only as good as its membership. If you would like an active club, you have to be an active member. There are several of us who have been doing the same jobs in the HCCC for several years. There is always room for someone that wants to take a role in the opera-tion and future of our club to do so. Don’t be afraid to ask. As we get ready to close the door on 2012 and jump head first into 2013, I encourage everyone to share your fish experiences with the rest of us. Write an article, tell a story, share some photo’s attend a show and auction. The only things fish people love more than their fish, is other fish people!

Darby's Tropicals 5514 IH 35 S, New Braunfels, TX.

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Leadership Group Evan Bowers Diane Tennison Greg Steeves Dave Schumacher Dan Schacht JB Edmundson Robert DeLeon Finances - Diane Tennison BAP - Dan Schacht CARES - Troy Veltrop Events - Dave Schumacher Lateral Line - Greg Steeves Membership - Diane Tennison

Publication Exchange - Greg Steeves Raleigh Aquarium Society Brazos Valley Aquarium Society Chatham Kent Aquarium Society Houston Aquarium Society Texas Cichlid Association Oklahoma Aquarium Association Aquarium Club of Lancaster County Durham Region Aquarium Society North Jersey Aquarium Society Any clubs interested in exchanging with the Hill Country Cichlid Club, contact Greg at gasteeves@gmail.com.

Retail Store Hours: Tues-Sat 10am-7pm Sun 12pm-5pm CLOSED MONDAYS

12315 Wetmore Rd. San Antonio, TX 78247 (210)653-8880

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After many years of fishkeeping, there comes a time when adding another tank is just not enough. For most serious hobbyists I know, the next step is gen-erally a trip to see and/or collect fish in their natural habitat. We are truly fortunate here in South Texas to be able to easily do both. Many of my friends have gone to Mexico for cichlids and livebearers or on the Amazon for some exotics. There are even several friends that have gone to Africa to collect on the Great Lakes. I have not made those trips yet but they are in my bucket list. I always admired the large tank full of Malawians at the San Antonio Zoo and figured it it could be done there, why couldn’t I figure out how to keep these fish outside as well. After a little research it became apparent that the Zoo had access to better funding than I had. Still, where there’s a will there’s a way.

Now I have to admit that keeping tropical's out of doors was not a revolutionary idea in any way. My friend Jeff Johnson had been doing it for years. The difference is that Jeff had been using the vats he kept out of doors for growing fish in the warm weather. When the water turned cooler he either sold his stock or brought them inside. Jeff had given me great advice on a number of questions I had including the “growing” season. He, quite cor-rectly, advised me that fish could be maintained out-side safely from April 15th to October15th. During this time there are other potential problems to deal with such as oak and cedar pollen and animals. Geographically I had figured that we were close in latitude to Florida. This is where the majority of North American tropical fish farms are. There are only two big differences that we have to be con-

Keeping Cichlids Outside Year Round—Ghetto Style! - Greg Steeves

The cichlid pond in all its glory.

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cerned with. That is heat and cold. It gets way hot-ter and much cooler here than the subtropical cli-mate of the Miami area. This however, I considered a drawback, not a game stopper. For the last six years we have kept fish in containers of some sort outside in the yearly time period Jeff had suggested. These containers amounted to old plexi-glass vats at first and then into kiddie pools. I had experimented with some home made filtration systems, some effective, some not so much. Three years ago my buddy JB gave me a large above ground pool. Im-mediately I realized that this was the going to be the framework for my conquering the year round outdoor cichlidarium! Initially I set the big 5500 gallon pool up, added the stock filter that came with it and let it run. Within a week the water was so green that I could not see any-thing. Extra piece of equipment number one, UV sterilizer to handle the green water. A small power hear ran water through the sterilizer rather than hooking it inline with the filter. I wasn’t sure the high water flow would be as effective as a slower flow through the UV. It took about two weeks but the UV Sterilizer did the trick and kept the water crystal clear. It was now time to add some fish. I can’t remember what species I added first but I do remember that shortly after the fish went in, the oak trees that sur-round our property, started shedding oak pollen pods. When they inevitably hit the pond, the water immediately turned a crappy tea colored and again I could not see what was in the water. After the pol-len fall had ended, I was able to drain the pond and basically start over. Needed item number two: some sort of cover to keep the pollen pods from the water. Thinking that I had pretty much everything figured out, we went on to have the hottest summer on re-

cord. If I remember it was nearly 100 days in a row of temperatures in excess of 100F. The pool water heated to a point that I could not cool it or turn it enough to keep a descent oxygen content in it. The fish did not do very well. I decided that the next piece of equipment that would be necessary was a pump capable of turning the water better than what I had set up. While searching for an additional pump I happened on a sand filter unit that had what I thought would be needed and extra filtration! This was external item number three.

One other design flaw was that in the summer heat, the sides of the pond generated a great deal of heat and in the winter, there was nothing to insulate the water from the chill of the air. We added silver in-sulation commonly found in fish crates and used in shipping as well. We pieced these together with duct tape. While not ascetically pleasing, it turned out to be very effective for both purposes. We ordered a “solar blanket” to keep foreign ob-jects out of the water and as an added bonus, it con-verts the suns rays into heat. It is very noticeable when the weather is cooler. The top comes off after the April pollen fall and will go on with the onset of cooler weather around November. On warmer win-ter days I don’t remove it but I do peel it back.

The sand filter unit replaced the original stock pump and filter unit.

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The fourth and final piece of equipment was a pond heater that I found by accident. It only engages on very cool nights. Since installing all the extras, and despite a continued night time temperature in the 20’sF the lowest the water temperature has gotten is 66F; quite acceptable for the fish I keep. Even in the heat of summer, the fish have done just fine.

We added several trays containing pool filter sand and planted with a native species collected locally. These plants have absolutely exploded! They look lush and green. As an added bonus, the mbuna don’t bother them at all. In the very middle of the pond is a reef built up mostly of holey rock that I have bought at club auc-tions and were too large for my tanks. The fish love this and this area is always full of newborn fry who use the holes in the rock as a refuge. I should men-tion that I added slate tiles to the middle portion of the pond so that the holey rock would not puncture the lining.

Equipment list: Intex Above ground pool. 16’ diamenter, roughly 5500 gall- ons. Speciality Pool Products So lar Blanket. Free floating cover. 25 Watt UV Sterilizer com bined with a 500 gph power head. Clepco 1500 w pond heater. The inhabitants of the pond are all cichlids from Lake Malawi and haplochromines from the Lake Victoria region. There are also several paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis) that were popped in there after spawning in one of our smaller ponds. These fish were either housed here previously, picked up at auction or given to me (primarily from Troy Vel-trop, Nick Andreola and Dave Schumacher). All the fish have grown with most now reproducing. I had a lot of help from Dave Schumacher assisting with adding species that were not likely to hybrid-ize. The fish both act differently than behaviors I have observed in the aquarium. Aggressive species coexist with other more docile species in the larger body of water.

The thermostat and pond heating unit.

This floater supports the heating unit and keeps it off of the bottom. You can see the underside of the solar blanket that has been peeled away to show a

large group of Pseudotropheus saulosi.

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Perhaps the most enjoyable part of our pond experi-ment is being able to jump in and snorkel with the fish. It’s a lot of fun to hand feed them however, as they have gotten use to Lee Ann and I in the water and associate us with feeding, they have lost their fear of people. This has resulted in us being bitten. The two species that are the worst are Psuedotro-pheus saulosi and Astatotilapia latisfasciata. Feed in excess before jumping in the water! Species list: Astatotilapia latisfasciata Cynotilapia aurifrons Cyrtocara moorii Gephyrochromis moorii Labidochromis caeruleus Macropodus opercularis Paralabidochromis chromogynos Paralabidochromis sauvagei Pseudotropheus acei “white tail” Pseudotropheus flavus Pseudotropheus lombaordi Pseudotropheus saulosi Pundamilia nyererei Pundamilia sp. “red head” Copadichromis sp. "Kawanga no spot" Metriaclima sp. “elongates Chailosi”

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Many aquatic hobbyists pursue rare fish. Scarcity in the hobby however, does not necessarily translate into a species being difficult or interesting to main-tain. I am fortunate to possess a group of the un-common and fascinating cichlid Iranocichla hor-muzensis. The first challenge is undoubtedly locat-ing this fish. Once you have found I. hormuzensis, breeding can be a daunting chore. I will explain the obstacles I have encountered during this article. Iranocichla hormuzensis is the only cichlid found in Iran and is the lone member of the genus (monotypical). It is a maternal mouthbrooder with an extremely limited range along the southern coast of Iran being restricted to rivers draining into the

Strait of Hormuz. The word “river” can be mislead-ing as I have seen pictures of this species being col-lected in ankle deep water flowing at a snail’s pace. Every waterway seems to be slightly different, rang-ing in width from 1-50 meters. Often the streams will experience diminished flow rates and will settle into pools. Some years the pools may have fish and others they do not. The parameters of the water of its habitat vary wildly in regards to both salinity and temperature. This is a large portion of the chal-lenge in keeping these animals. Normally when I learn a fish comes from a system of fluctuating measurements, I associate it with a species that is easy to keep and a little bit more tolerant of the wa-

Iranocichla hormuzensis, Coad, 1982 - Dave Hansen

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ter when what we put into their tanks isn't perfect. The challenge is not in the daily maintenance of I. hormuzensis , but in matching those conditions when trying to induce spawning. These waterways have not been studied as extensively as most leav-ing many gaps in regards to addressing their water quality needs. A large portion of the terrain in close proximity to these rivers, consist of salt domes. This can cause to the water to be highly sa-line. Consequently, any influx of freshwater into the system will cause the salinity level to fluctuate. These are mostly small bodies of water and I would consider the conditions to be anything but stable. In addition, the water found in several oasis where this fish is found, consists of pure fresh water.

If challenging water conditions were not enough, the area is exposed to extreme temperature changes. Winter temperatures range from 12-30 C while in summer this environment can swell up to 44+ C. Unlike many of the waterways associated with other cichlids, there is very little vegetation along the banks to provide any shade. This combined with the reduced water levels in the summer make for tough living. I have had discussions concerning the state of the fish in its native waterways with several people, in-cluding several prominent ichthyologists. Some think the fish is in serious peril because farmers are using the water for irrigation and industrialization of the region. The other camp maintains that the fish is not at any greater risk than they previously faced based on limited distribution and tough environ-mental conditions. The thought process is that the region is so undesirable and desolate that it has es-

caped the industrialization found elsewhere. With-out treatment, the water is too salty to be used for farming. I have not heard much middle ground and the opinions seem to be far apart. This is an absolutely stunning fish when it matures. I. hormuzensis is relatively small at a maximum length of about 4”. While somewhat undersized, it processes a very stout body. Juveniles are slightly elongated and one can clearly see the convex shape of the head developing early on. At this point, any hints of future coloration are non existent. The young maintain a silver-green coloration with no pigmentation in the fins. The body exhibits 7- 11 vertical bars that become less obvious as the fish matures. The dorsal fin contains an easily recogniz-able tilapia spot. In the description of the species, it is stated that males can be differentiated from fe-males by a greater head length, larger pelvic fins, and greater interorbital width, but frankly I was un-able to accurately sex these fish until they began to display certain behavior and color changes. When looking closely, you begin to notice white spots on the silver fish. Slowly the male begins to exhibit darkening shades of gray until it appears as a light black. When in breeding dress, the male is in-tensely black with white and turquoise iridescent spots scattered throughout the body and caudal fin. There are no spots on either the anal or pelvic fins. The dorsal contains some spots, and has white band-ing that occurs in the otherwise black fin. The speckling on the body begins behind the gill plate while the cranial region is black. If you look at other images and read through the limited material available, you will find that males also appear with a black body and a brick-red lower side along with the bottom portion of the jaw. The species descrip-tion mentions both of these variants without further elaboration on potential reasons for the differences. It could be diet, water condition, or locale variants, but all of this is simply speculation on my part. Hopefully as additional taxonomic work is done with this cichlid we can fill some of the gaps in our knowledge. The females maintain the silver colora-tion and vertical barring. I have seen them darken up a little bit, but it is just very light gray without all the spotting. Unlike the males, the tilapia spot is easily seen in the females. The differentiation in hues of the females to a strutting male makes for a stunning display.

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I acquired my “group” of fish in November 2007. I say group, but it was only four individuals. This is a species I had been chasing for a number of years and was always near the top of my “must have” list. I was appreciative to obtain them, but will admit only having four individuals made me feel a little nervous. I was unsure of how to maintain them so this really didn’t give me very much room for error. The fish had just been released from the mother about 7 days previous to them coming into my pos-session and were extremely tiny. When I first gazed into the bag I couldn’t even see the fry at all. I poured the contents of the bag into a coffee cup hoping it would be easier to see them. I made out 4 sets of tiny black eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.

I am not a scientist and the idea of playing chemist with water parameters had me a bit anxious. The key factor I was trying to determine was the salt content of the water. I had a couple of weeks to prep and enrolled the help of my fellow fish geek, Nick Andreola, to figure out how I was going to set the tank up. The actual physical setup was easy. I prepared a 113 liter long as I would for any other cichlid I had maintained. I used a slightly oversized hang on the back filter and because I knew the fish were small I used a sponge over the intake tube to keep from siphoning them up into it. I employed pool filter sand as the substrate and dotted it with several medium size pieces of holey rock and tied in some artificial silk plants. These fish are accus-tomed to warm water, so I submerged a heater into the tank and set the thermostat for 23C. I filled the tank with water and looked at the volume of water and said to myself, “now what?” I had done as much research as possible on the specific waterways these fish were found and as I mentioned earlier it varies wildly. Even if I had exact readings, I had no

idea how that would actually be executed in the tank. Nick was on the case though. I had total con-fidence he would figure this out for me. He called me to discuss and after listening to him explain in great detail; I had no idea what he was talking about. I don’t think Stephen Hawking would know what he was talking about! He had a mouthful of equations and numbers and you need this measuring device and oh by the way do you have access to an electron smasher? Maybe I added the last part, but this was giving me a headache. If these fish can’t survive in my tank how in the heck will they avoid disappearing in the wild? I hung up with Nick and told him I would call him later after I absorbed his information. Hopefully he isn’t still sitting by the phone. It took a little longer than it should have, but I decided to reach out to the few other hobbyists I knew of, who had kept them to uncover their main-tenance secretes. I asked three people and got three different answers. One of them kept them in pure freshwater, another said a large soup spoon of salt per gallon, and the other said a small palm worth per gallon. Great, what are your local tap water conditions, what size are the soup spoons in Europe, and how big are your hands? After fretting over this for a couple of weeks I decide I will use a soup spoon worth of salt per gallon. I went to grab a spoon from the drawer and my wife asked what I was doing. I went into great detail to demonstrate how smart I was and I was using this spoon to salt the tank. “You are not using one of my nice spoons for your tanks” was her reply. She handed me a ta-blespoon from an old cutlery set and said I could have that one. So after weeks of research and dis-cussion I am using a tablespoon per gallon of salt.

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Fish Hobby Supply

http://africancichlids.net/fhs/

I had the tank prepared for a week before I received the fish. Once they were in my hands I slowly ac-climated them to their home. I was in my con-stantly, checking on, and trying to count the four of them. I was never able to get above three and lost the one very early on. This kicked my stress level up a notch.

The fish has an elongated intestinal tract consis-tence with an algae based diet (Lamboj, pers comm.). I fed crushed spirulina flake for quite sometime. Growth was slow, but they were grow-ing. This was a positive sign. Of course during this point it came time to do my first water change. I drained about 30% of the tank into a bucket and then poured the bucket into a gallon milk jug to pre-cisely measure how much water I had taken out of the tank. I was determined to replace the salt con-tent grain for grain. Half the water ended up on the floor as I was pouring it into the milk jugs. I. hor-muzensis was my first foray into any type of fish-keeping involving salt and it wasn’t going well. I have had prouder moments in the hobby than this disaster in the making. Water was seeping all over the floor and I had no idea how much salt to replen-ish. Keep in mind how difficult the conditions are that these fish exist in the wild and this makes all of this obsessing bordering on silly. I was living in the moment though and determined to do this right. In hindsight I am sure a little less/more salt wouldn’t have bothered them much. I now use guesstimation and mix some salt and water into a bucket to fill the tank back up. I mixed it well and proceeded to si-phon the water into the tank from the bucket. The

bucket was empty. I looked in the pail and 90% of the salt had stayed in the bottom of the bucket. I walked over and shut the door to the fishroom. I didn’t need my family witnessing this spectacle. I grabbed the hose and went about filling the tank back up. I reached for the spoon, estimated what I needed to get close, and called it good. I atten-tively watched the fish for the next couple of hours waiting for them to keel over from the shock to their system they must surly have been experiencing. Amazingly they survived their first water change. Subsequent water changes went much smoother. I operated under the motto, “What doesn’t kill them only makes them stronger”. I drained the water, added dechlor, and slowly filled the water up and added salt as I was filling and it worked fine. As I discovered while tinkering with water parameters, these fish are extremely hardy. I had no false illusions that this trio would be breed-ing anytime soon. The dialogue I had developed with the other hobbyists, keeping I. hormuzensis was a wonderful source of information. It would be around 24 months before I could expect them to breed. I was concentrating on maintaining healthy fish while focused on water changes and feeding. Three fish in a 113 liter tank was not taxing the fil-tration system at all, but I performed a rigorous schedule of 30% weekly water changes. In addition to the spirulina flake I introduced algae tabs and the occasional protein flake which were greedily con-sumed. The fish were putting on size and aggres-sion was not yet an issue. Despite no dithers or tar-get fish in the aquarium they were not a shy species

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at all. I enjoyed watching them slowly develop. After a year, one of the individuals began trans-forming from silver to a light gray. Over a few months the coloration became a darker and darker gray until eventually the body was light black. The speckling became a bit more prominent during this time frame as well. There were still no signs of real aggression but this developing male had one side of the tank to himself and the other two tended to keep to the other side. All three would move freely with-out any aggression issues, but the tendency of the group was to stay on their own sides. The male was really coming into his own in regards to his colora-tion and was now in full bloom. This did not trans-late into any courting behavior though. Several months went by and the other two fish were starting to spar somewhat. As time drew on, a full out battle between the two females ensued. The two females spent several weeks rushing at each other and jaw locking. I was observing this closely as I could not afford to lose any of the fish. Despite the battle royal no visible damage was being done to either fish. Eventually this activity subsided and one of the females was now hanging out with the male in his rock pile. By no means were they exhibiting pairing behavior, but were definitely getting along enough to allow each other in the same area. The other fish stayed in her half of the tank. I have not seen any fighting between those two since that one frenzied period. The male was now in breeding col-oration at all times and could be seen displaying to the female often. He would sashay across the tank and court the other female as well. This went on for several weeks before I actually witnessed a female with buccal cavity full of eggs. Over several months I had a female holding three times and never more than a week. The next time it happened I de-cided I would strip the eggs and tumble them. Un-fortunately there has not been a next time. While the male has maintained his vibrant hues and occa-sionally shimmies up to a female, there has been almost zero courting behavior.

More time passes I determine it is time to start tink-ering with some water parameters to see if I can trigger a spawning. The nervousness I exhibited a couple of years ago is now gone and I am not too concerned about playing mad scientist. Many fish will spawn during a rainy season because they have learned that along with the rain come enhanced food

sources. The first thing I do is to slowly lower the salt content in the tank. Once lowered, I would maintain it for at least a month. By the time I have tweaked it down as far as I felt comfortable with; the salt levels were about 25% of the original quan-tity. This wasn’t working. Next I varied the diet and begin feeding mosquito larvae I was collecting in a bucket outside. I also increased the frequency of the protein flake. With little effect, I tried a dif-ferent brand of food, again, with no luck. The next factor to alter was temperature. I began by lowering the temperature of the heater and eventually turned it off. The lowest temperature the water reached was about 18C. I also proceeded to alter the salt content again as I was experimenting with the tem-perature. Once this failed to trigger any responses I began to crank the temperature up and had the heater up to 31C before deciding not to go any higher. I will admit while I was frustrated it was an enjoyable challenge as well. These fish were mak-ing me work to entice a spawning and I was having fun trying to outsmart them. After many months of this I still had nothing as far as spawns, but still had 3 healthy fish that appeared no worse for wear. I reached out to a friend who wasn’t having any luck and he was able to pass along 4 females from his group all in the name of getting this species to breed. While there has been increased courting be-havior only one spawn has been witnessed and it

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was aborted several days later. The shifting of pa-rameters has resumed and different variations are being attempted. I have a friend who has proven he can spawn almost anything. He lives close by and we have moved the fish over to his house so he is working with them as well. It is more important to me to achieve a spawn and be able to share these fish than it is to keep them in my fishroom just for the sake of having them. The slightly alarming sequel to my story is that most of the other known groups in captivity have stopped spawning and no one is producing any fry. Iranocichla hormuzensis has been the most chal-lenging fish I have kept to date and I am as enthusi-astic today about them as I was when I was lucky enough to obtain them. It is an absolutely stunning fish that would be the highlight of any collection. I hope the attempts to spawn this fish are successful and more people will get the opportunity to enjoy them. This will only lead to more awareness of a beautiful cichlid and assist in expanding our knowl-edge base.

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Over a decade ago, I purchased two groups of corys. One was sold to me as Corydoras axelrodi, while the second group was sold as C. “deckeri”. I later learned that “deckeri” is a nomen nudum used for loxozonus. [The term, nomen nudum, refers to a scientific name which has never been formally de-scribed, hence has no standing]. I could not distin-guish between the two groups, so I wrote to a well-known catfish expert for his input: he never replied. Since I couldn’t tell the two groups apart, I decided they were the same species and placed them in a 10-gallon tank, where they have been ever since. According to David Sands (1983. Catfishes of the World, Vol. 1, p. 88a. Dunure Enterprises, Dunure, Scotland) C. axelrodi lacks the lateral body colora-tion of C. loxozons. However, Burgess (1992. Col-ored Atlas of Miniature Catfish. T.F.H. Publica-tions, Inc., Neptune, New Jersey) notes that C. loxo-zons has an anterior dark bar on the dorsal fin which

joins the strong lateral line; the latter runs onto the lower portion of the caudal fin. C. axelrodi lacks both of these characters as do my fish. Both species come from the Meta district of Colombia. Sands (op. cit) cites Rio Meta as the origin of C. axelrodi, and the Rio Ariari, a tributary of the Rio Guaviare, as the source of C. loxozonus. It may be that both occur in the same river drainages, thus leading to the high similarity in color pattern or the two spe-cies may have evolved from the same ancestor in which different populations were “captured” with separation of river drainages. Sands (1984. Supple-ment 1, p.48b) lists 20 species of Corydoras which have either a mimic or species with a similar color pattern; mimics usually occur in the same rivers, those with similar patterns may or may not inhabit the same river. Despite heavy water changes, rich foods and strong aeration, I never saw any spawning activity. In the

Spawning Corydoras Axelrodi….Sort Of! - Keith Arnold

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meantime, Java moss in the tank prospered as did a type of slimy alga. On November 3rd, in preparation for the 2011 FO-TAS convention, I removed about one-half of the Java moss, intending to place this in the FOTAS auction. On November 7th, while feeding my fish, I thought I saw a small cory in the axelrodi tank, but I couldn’t be sure. The next day I saw at least two small corys around an inch in length. So, on No-vember 19th, I removed all of the Java moss, drained about 60 per cent of the water and replaced it, and placed a HOT magnum on the tank. After about 30 minutes, as the water cleared, I began to see three, four, six. young corys one inch in length or less. At this time I have conservatively estimated 12-15 young corys, probably from two or more spawnings, based on size differences. In seems obvious to me, that as these corys spawned – probably IN the Java moss – the dense nature of the Java moss served both as a refuge for the fry as well as an excellent source of food. Now, I am anx-ious to discern just how many young C. axelrodi are in the tank.

The great items up for grabs at the HCCC Fall Auction Catfish Raffle.

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The Lateral Line is the official publication of the Hill Country Cichlid Club. Reprinting freely permitted to non commercial organizations.