Category: GCKA – General

By Donna M. Recktenwalt         Most of us who have been in the hobby for a while know that killifish and their eggs can usually be very easily and safely shipped. It’s not magic, and it’s not an art. If the big breeders and importers can do it, so can you.         There are a…

By Donna M. Recktenwalt         It’s not magic, and it’s not an art. If the big breeders and importers can do it, so can you, following a few basic rules. The fish must be healthy; they must have clean water; they must have an adequate supply of air; they must be protected from extremes of…

By Donna M. Recktenwalt         You know why it’s important to use the correct latin names and collection codes for the fish you keep, especially when buying, selling, or trading them. You’ve even gotten comfortable recognizing those names in print, and to some extent, when spoken by others. But you haven’t yet reached the point…

By Donna M. Recktenwalt         We’ve all seen it. We turn on the lights in the fishroom unexpectedly, we move too quickly when working near a tank, or we’re trying to net a specific fish, and all the fish in the tank suddenly go crazy, darting wildly and often stunning themselves against the glass.        …

        Sometimes too many snails can be a problem, even for those who like to keep snails in their killifish tanks.        However, for elimination of the pests it isn’t always necessary to sterilize the tank, or to resort to strong chemical anti-snail treatments.        “When I used to breed killies (mostly Aphyosemion australe) casually in planted setups,…

        If you raise fish, you eventually have to move the fry from one place to another. Catching fry is not always an easy task, especially for those fry that are unusually quick, particularly small, or extremely sensitive to shock due to handling or different water.         One of the simplest and safest methods for…

        Ask any group of aquarists their opinions on snails and you will receive a wide–and often emphatic–range of responses. Snails in aquaria can be highly beneficial, and equally problematical. Your opinion is probably influenced by the type of snails, and the kind of tanks you keep.         “Snails can be a lot of help,”…

      Jack Heller says that if you’re handy, you can fairly easily make a supply of foam filters for your tanks. You’ll need:        · Foam rubber for the filter (from a fabric or auto parts store, or leftover packing material)        · 3/4″ PVC pipe for the stem        · 6″ Ceramic tiles for weight        · Silicon sealant Directions:      1. Cut 5-6″…

By Donna M. Recktenwalt         It’s called fright syndrome, and we’ve all seen it: for no apparent reason, a fish suddenly begins a mad dash around the tank, bumping into walls and knocking into other objects before subsiding, motionless or quivering, on the bottom of the tank. Not only is this stressful to individual fish,…

We’ve all lost new fish as a result of the stresses of shipping and of aclimating them to their new environments. Lee Harper points out that the factors contributing most to the loss of new fish are sudden changes of osmotic pressure in the water (especially a sudden drop), and the results of sudden fright,…