The Top Ten Reasons I loved the Aquarium Hobby in 2004

(by theAquarian April, 2005)

Another year has past, and though the article is a little late...it is longer and more thought upon than last year...so that means it is better right?  Enjoy the top 10 reasons I loved the hobby in 2004!

Year-End Top Ten
10	Chalinochromis brichardi
9	Albino Paradise Fish
8	Gold Sexfasciatus
7	Trapdoor Snails
6	ACA
5	FITN is dead! Long live FITN!
4	Angelfish Tank
3	Plecos
2	Croaking Gourami
1	Cryptocoryne Sereni

10 - Chalinochromis Brichardi

This is one of those fish that has been on my list for along time. When I saw them at the Spring auction I immediately knew I was going to finally get some. For whatever reason I've always really liked the long body juli-like cichlids of Lake Tanganyika. The Chalinochromis brichardi is certainly one of the better looking fish of this body type, with stripes at a younger age that disappear as the fish grows older leaving a grayish-white body that has a wistful ghost-like appearance.

The fish keeps black markings around the face, which provide a very nice contrast to the silky body. This is a great fish to get and keep, and another of the many great fish from the lake.

9 - Albino Paradise Fish

I'm a big fan of Anabantids, and few fish have a longer history in the hobby than Paradise fish. The albino paradise fish is a fantastic example of selective breeding of this fish, with vibrant orange/reds that make this fish quite attractive to look at.  I even managed to get a decent picture of the fish, which for some reason always gets me a bit more excited about the fish.  Anabantids are always best hen they are displaying, and while the body on the shot here, it nevertheless gives a good feel for the beauty of the fish.

At the fall auction for the local fish society I scored on two pair of these and have been moving them about the house looking for the ideal tank to breed them in.

8 - Gold Sexfasciatus

I've been hunting Gold Sexfasciatus for years. I nearly bought a group of 4 at $20 a piece a couple of years ago, but then decided I just didn't have the space that they needed. When I saw 2 beautiful pair come up at the spring auction (the first time I'd ever seen this fish there) I bid on the bag and took home all 4 beauties! Unfortunately, perhaps due to keeping them in a slightly smaller tank, I lost one while I was on a business trip. The remaining 3-some hasn't really paired off at all, which is unfortunate as I'd seen eggs not long before the trip. I've been afraid to move the fish as I worried I might lose more, but the desire to get some fry out of the fish will likely help them into one of my largest tanks in the near future.

7 - Trapdoor Snails

After having so much fun with invertebrates in 2003, I have remained on the look-out for interesting inverts and found some interesting snails labeled trap-door snails at a pet store I stopped by while visiting friends in another town. The snails were really interesting looking with some strong resemblances to the saltwater nerites snails I'd worked with during my schooling days. Taking them home I soon found out the reason why...these were Olive nerites, a Florida brackish cousin of the saltwater variety. I've been keeping them in a 60 gallon tank that is dedicated to inverts, in our unusually hard Utah water. They've done great, though the brackish connection and the reproductive cycles of saltwater inverts means I have little likelihood of producing any baby snails. Still a fun venture in something that looks a little different.

6 - ACA

I've always been interested in attending the ACA, but never had the time or money to be able to do so. This year with the conference being put on in conjunction with the Great Salt Lake Aquarium Society I and being located just a days drive away in Denver I decided it was time to make sure that I attended. So in July of 2004 I braved the heat and made a trip to Denver with my family in tow. I hit the fabulous Denver aquarium and got to check out their great display on rivers in India, which covered my ever-favorite anabantids, and of course I got to check out a lot of great presentations put on by the ACA. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the Sunday auction, but hanging out with so many fish enthusiasts and friends from the site was a fun, memorable experience.

5 - FITN is dead! Long live FITN!

2004 saw a lot of changes in FITN. After a booming 2003 brought many people to the site problem started to arise. With so many people on the site the different opinions that were held by the members became more evident. The moderators were bombarded with requests to take care of different threads, often by people asking for the exact opposite thing to be done to the same thread. This lead to the moderators becoming quite split, which lead to a great falling out after the rift overwhelmed both sides of the divide.

When all the smoke cleared, usage of the forum dropped to two-year low levels. While many people bemoaned (or cheered) the death of the site a funny thing happened. The main portion of the website built up to the largest number of visitors it had ever received. As time went on I found myself actually quite happy at the fallout. I had come to dread coming to the forum, as I found myself consistently trying to solve arguments, most of which were not related to fish in any way shape or form. With the fallout everything finally became related to fish again, without the fighting and bickering of before. In the end it was addition to subtraction and the website has marched on into its sixth year.

4 - Angelfish Tank

When I went to the ACA I left my tanks in the charge of a trusty neighbor. Unfortunately they faced the nightmare you hope no-one caring for your tanks has to face. After being gone two days 1/3 of the fish went belly up in my front room show tank. The tank had been a collection tank for rainbow fish and had two 4 year old bosemoni rainbow fish that were absolutely stunning in the way that fish is only when it gets up to a very large size. I also lost a full-grown Aulonocara stuartgranti in the mess.

Coming home to a tank that contained a catfish, two loaches a single neon blue rainbow and of course a wonderful assortment of plants, I decided the tank needed to go a new direction. After thinking about it for awhile we took a trip to the local petstore where each member of my then 5 member family pick out an angel fish. I picked a natural looking stripped angel, my wife a blushing angle, my oldest daughter a pearl-scale gold angel, my next daughter a black veil and my youngest got some sort of leopard angel. Taking my 5 angels back we populated the tank with young fish that my family and I have enjoyed watching grow. We should be able to continue watching them grow for many years to come.

3 - Plecos

The tropical fish hobby is an interesting thing. Unlike a lot of hobbies it doesn't have excitement in it over the newest thing available. That is likely because the newest thing available is such a localized phenomenon. When a new fish is discovered somewhere in the world it is often years before it becomes available to the average fish-keeper. Instead, the fish hobby moves forward as people in the hobby become excited about different things within the hobby. Most people start with cichlids, but if they stay in the hobby they'll move onto other fish types as well. This year I got excited about plecos and worked hard to get some breeding plecos. After bidding casually for weeks on different auctions I finally found exactly the fish I wanted and bid heavily on some L134s. I won the bid and the seller was nice enough to send along another pair of catfish. I was ecstatic about the chance to finally take a stab at some beautiful plecos.

Unfortunately tragedy struck. The same week I had to pass on my dream job my plecos arrived...unfortunately they were all doa. I threw them in the tanks in hope of reviving them out of a coma from being overly chilled, but it was to no avail. I did take some quick picks of the well-preserved specimens, and that is the only memory I get to keep of what almost was. The seller was kind enough to refund my money, and so I await another day to try these interesting creatures.

2 - Croaking Gourami

There are few things in the hobby that are more fun for me than breeding lesser-known anabantids. This year I had the luck of getting 5 young and very scrappy looking Croaking Gourami. The breeding was actually an accident, or at least I didn't notice it at first. I noticed the fantastic coloration that seemingly all anabantid fish show only when they are breeding, and wasn't surprised to find fry at the top of the tank several days later.

The next task was to get the adults out of the duckweed infested tank without taking out a lot of the fry with them. The next 3 weeks I spent in a mad fashion of every 5 hour feedings that including feedings at the crack of dawn. Slowly, but surely, nearly all the fry passed on...geeze am I terrible with anabantid fry. I figured for the amount of time I put in and the lack of value of the fish I am totally wasting my time as an anabantid fish farmer, I'll leave that to my cichlids, but the real fun as always is watching my anabantids as they grow...the few that are left that is!

1 - Cryptocoryne Sereni

Hah! A plant is number one! Who would have thunk it? Honestly I'm not a good plant guy. The water in Utah is hard and alkaline making it very difficult for plants to live. I do however try to grow plants in everyone of my tanks. Sometimes it works, sometimes it works very well, and sometimes, despite the tank set-ups appearing to be identical, the plants only grow in one of the tanks. One thing I have learned over time is that Cryptocoryne plants are the best thing around. They almost always seem to grow in my tanks, and they send out runners with even more plants!

Over time I've taken a group of about 20 of the plants and turned it into thousands that can be found in nearly every one of my 30 aquariums. At the spring auction this year there was a new Cryptocoryne up for auction that I'd never seen. This crypt had beautiful arrow-like leaves. I knew that unlike the many Amazon sword plants I've killed over the years this was a plant I probably wouldn't kill. I bid the plants up to $13 and was shocked when everyone else stopped bidding. Taking the plants home I found that I'd actually bought not one but 5 of the beauties. I quickly spread them about to my tanks and turned the 5 into 15 plants as they sent out runners. This is one of the best looking plants I've ever had, with large leaves that make it a show quality specimen in every tank it is in. Being a crypt it is easy to grow if you have patience, making it, in my mind, the world's greatest plant!

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