Category: Updates

It has been a few months since our last update. We are happy to report that Jeremy has fully recovered from his kidney stone issues. Now we can focus on the big move coming late July, early August. That’s right, Amazon Tropics is moving! And with that, we plan to release a large inventory of fish to our Fish Availability list.

This inventory are fish we have been holding for breeding stock. Unfortunately, many of our breeding projects had to be put on hold or abandoned all together mostly based lack of available time. There is only so much time in the day as they say! With that we will be releasing a special availability list of fish this coming weekend. Please keep in mind that the fish will be available for pick up only, no exceptions. We can make arrangements to meet if and when time allows.

We would first like to start by thanking Mike and Ben of the Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE). They have been doing a tremendous job with getting our local fish club back in gear after COVID. We know that they have been working tirelessly to come up with some great events for the club and we know they will continue to look for ways to keep things fishy and fun! Check out our upcoming events including an auction with some rare fish. http://Columbusfishclub.org

Now we typically keep things on our big fish related but sadly we should adresss Jeremy’s current state. Unfortunately Jeremy has some kidney stones that cannot be passed. He has been dealing with this condition for about a month as it is impossible to receive help from the health care system in a more timely manner in its current state. It’s truly a sad state of affairs. There is some good news however in that we met with a knowledgeable urologist who will be performing a procedure on Jeremy this coming week to remove the stones.

From there, the stones, which by then will have been pulverized into a sand like consistency will be analyzed for chemical makeup. Our current thoughts are that the stones are a result of a difficult abdominal surgery he had a few years ago causing his body to not be able to process calcium. Long story short, please keep Jeremy in your thoughts this coming Thursday. The recovery time for the procedure is only a few days so he should be back to fish keeping in no time!

Our thoughts will be with those at the Catfish Study Group (CSG) this week as well. Jeremy had to pull out of this convention. Until Jeremy is back on his feet, please enjoy the latest video of the discus. A link to YouTube is provided here: https://youtu.be/Rh3HOoAXSkE

It has been a few months since our last post. We attended the Ohio Cichlid Association (OCA) Extravaganza in Strongsville, OH in November. This event is held every year the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. This year’s show brought in our good friend Luiz Tencatt from Brazil along with Rob McLure from Wisconsin.

Luiz gave two lectures on Callichthyidae (Aspidoras and Corydoras spp.). The talks shared the latest in the world of Corydoras and their allies along with the huge revision of Callichthyidae. More details in regards to this will emerge in time. Right now we are not at liberty to say but will share as soon as we can likely on our Facebook group page. These are exciting times we live in, a renaissance no doubt with the number of not only fish species but with the number of organisms being described almost on a daily basis. Many of the new species are endemic to certain areas in South America. We cannot wait to see what is discovered next!

The biggest news at the OCA Extravaganza has to be the honor bestowed upon our friend Rob McLure who will soon have a fish named after him. Rob has helped Luiz in so many ways and has helped bridge our hobby with science. Corydoras sp. “CW016” also known as the Lieutenant Cory, shall be named in his honor. As a fellow fish enthusiast, this is the ultimate honor as long after we are gone, this species will always be scientifically known under his name. Congratulations Rob! We also have to give a big thank you to the OCA and crew for another great show!

This Friday, the Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE), have their October meeting. I was asked to give a talk by the members on catfish. Sounded like fun since my last talk was back in 2019. This talk will be on some of the interesting catfish our collecting groups have found in Colombia. We will look at a variety of locations we have explored sharing old, new and rediscovered species along the way. Details for the event can be found below. (P.S. We had some fun creating some artistic images for this one).

Please join us for a fun time!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1120766122158592

Greetings! Fall has hit us here in the Midwest. Temperatures have been in the low to mid 70s and lows in the high 40s! It is perhaps our favorite of time of the year with quite honestly perfect weather.

During the summer, we managed to travel back to Colombia. This time to Leticia, Colombia. The goal had been to reach Pebas, Peru which long story short, unfortunately did not happen. Our group did have some fun adventures however and found many species of fish especially on the last day of the trip including a few highlights in Copella vilmae, Apistogramma megastoma and an unknown relative of the common Red  Eye Tetra that was just astounding. We will likely share bits and pieces of that trip here in time so stay tuned!

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when Jorge Garcia of Nation Wide Aquatics reached out to us in regards to fish from Suriname. His exporter had been able to secure a form of Tatia which we had seen photos of and previously shared from a post back from March of 2021. Low and behold, he was able to get us a group of Tatia cf. brunnea! We have labeled them as T. cf. brunnea for now until we can double check the scientific description of the species.

Below are some images of the new fish which I am sure will excite most catfish enthusiasts especially those into Auchenipteridae, woodcats. As you can see, each has a unique pattern. In time we will update the woodcat species profile page to reflect this species and others. A special thanks to Jorge Garcia of Nation Wide Aquatics. Please visit his website for other interesting fish species: https://nationwideaquaticsusa.com

Summer certainly has come on with full force. Daily temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s hit us here in the midwest in early June. It sure seems that those temperatures are here to stay too.

With the warmer temperatures come longer days and longer days can bring on more activity in the fishroom. It seems that our hard work with raising additional brood stock is paying off. Last week we discovered a very young male zebra pleco with fry. The male measures approximately two and half inches and was guarding at least two juveniles. Since then we have discovered one additional juvenile in the aquarium. The tank is a sixty-five gallon aquarium kept around 80-82F and is outfitted with a large sponge filter. Additionally, we found another male in another aquarium with a female inside his cave. Fingers crossed that these and our other groups are soon successful.

Please note that we are still working towards having enough breeding stock of zebra plecos (Hypancistrus zebra) so we have larger numbers of juvenile fish available. Until we reach that point, we are unable to offer this species on our availability list. Please stay tuned for more updates!

Things are slowly going back to normal. We are happy to hear that fish events are starting to come back and we will be attending our first auction since COVID started this coming weekend. The Greater Cincinnati Aquarium Society (GCAS) will be having a full on auction Saturday, March 12th. Details for the event can be found on their website at: http://www.gcas.org. Cincinnati always has a great assortment of new, rare and bread and butter species. It should be a great time and we are looking forward to seeing familiar faces.

A quick update on the fishroom and our next collecting trip. Currently there is not a lot to report in the fishroom. A few interesting species have spawned including our Honeycomb Ancistrus. Unfortunately the number of eggs was small so we have maybe a few dozen juveniles coming up. A few other Corydoras species have also laid eggs recently including a fan favorite and one of our personal favorites, Corydoras duplicareus. With spring approaching we are sure more of our fish will get into breeding condition soon.

As far as our next collecting trip, all looks good for us to head back to Peru via Colombia. We are looking to search for a new woodcat species in the Rio Ampiyacu. That said, this area has been labeled a hot bed for biodiversity as are other areas of the Amazon. Hopefully we can share more details as the trip draws closer. That is all we can share for now. We will share more details prior and after the trip. We are also hoping to share the trip at an upcoming lecture at the end of the year.

Lastly, it is also a good time to mention spring cleaning of filters to keep those nitrates low in your tank. Keep your fish happy and healthy with those weekly partial water changes!

A Happy New Year to all! We are truly happy to enter into a new year. 2021 was much of the same as 2020. Unfortunately 2021 ended with us contracting covid. We ended up having to cancel our trip to the OCA Extravaganza. For those that preordered fish, we are truly sorry as it was out of our control. We hope everyone that could attend enjoyed their time and were safe while at the event.

2022 however does offer hope and opportunity. First up is the Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE) Swap. This is the first event in our home town in quite a while. We hope to see everyone at this event especially those that we missed last fall at the OCA Extravaganza. Details for the event can be found on the new CAFE website: https://www.columbusfishclub.org. See everyone there!

Not a whole lot of news coming out of the fishroom currently. We have numerous spawns from all the normal species. Probably the neatest species to spawn recently are our Corydoras sp. “CW49” or Diamond Cory as they are commonly known as. This species supposedly hails from a tributary of the Rio Vaupes. The Rio Vaupes is a blackwater river. We visited the area in 2018 and the water was soft and acidic. As a result, we have found that this species requires those conditions for their eggs to develop in captivity. They have been a slight challenge but we are now obtaining regular spawns. Fingers crossed that we will be able to offer this species soon.

It’s that time again, time for the Ohio Cichlid Association (OCA) Extravaganza. We have been attending this event for over 20 years straight and we refuse to miss out on this year’s convention.  This event has everything from speakers to hobbyists selling fish from their hotel rooms. It is also a very affordable event for new and old aquarists alike.

Speakers this year include Ad Konings, Paul Loiselle, Les Kaufman, Luiz Tencatt, Eric Bodrock and Charley Grimes. There is a vendor room, be sure to swing by PlecoCaves.com and mention we sent you. In addition, there is a Saturday Swap, a Cichlid and Catfish Show, a Dry Goods Auction and a Sunday Cichlid and Catfish Auction.  Aside from that, there are hobbyists from all over North America and beyond. It truly is fish, friends and fun all under one roof. For more info., visit their website at: https://www.ohiocichlid.com/extravaganza/extravaganza-info Also be sure to check out our Fish Availability page Hope to see everyone there!

We had a fabulous time at last week’s Cataclysm in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a great turn out even despite the recent rise in Covid cases. Our talks were well received with one talk on the Rio Caqueta region and another on updates to the catfish family Auchenipteridae.

A special mention is due to a budding woodcat enthusiast. His birthday wish was to come to Cataclysm and listen to our talks! At only 12 years old, he already knows what he wants to be when he grows up, an ichthyologist! It was certainly the highlight of the trip! We were just amazed by his knowledge at such a young age. Obviously we hooked him up with fish and gear. We hope he continues down that path and we will stay in contact with him on his future endeavors.

Next up is the Ohio Cichlid Association Extravaganza. We will be able to offer only presales for this event. Please visit our Fish Availability page for details.