Expect our usual selection of rare and fancy fish, plants and
new and used aquarium supplies. We also offer a raffle of both live and dry
goods from our members, manufacturers and local supporters.

You need not be a member of an aquarium society to buy or sell
auction items. Caterers will again provide hot breakfast, lunches, etc.

www.motorcityaquariumsociety.com for more info.

>-> Please join us at our new auction location
<-<

Madison Place
876 Horace Brown Dr
Madison Heights MI

                                                                                                                      (13 Mile Rd @ I-75, 1 block east of I-75, south on Montpelier to end)

If you wish to pre-register, send an email to:
GaryD.MI@netzero.com

SPRING

TROPICAL FISH AUCTION

Saturday March 24th, 2012

Registration
9am        Auction @ 11am

Home School
Building

 5625 Burlingame S.W.

Wyoming, MI
49509

(Grand
Rapids Area)

FISH, PLANTS, SUPPLIES

Raffle of
donated items

For auction rules and further
information check us out on the web at:

www.grandvalleyaquariumclub.org

To pre-register call or e-mail Roger Miller

miller.roger1@att.net
or 231-652-2207

33rd+ ANNUAL SPRING TROPICAL FISH AUCTION

SATURDAY, March 10,
2012

Registration: 9:30 ? – 11:00 a.m.
Auction Starts: 11:00 a.m. -
????

Fish, plants, and supplies will be auctioned until every item has
been sold!
Buyers and Sellers are invited to participate.

Location: Krum Center
Schoolcraft, MI

For further
information:
Dave Hemmerlein
Phone: 269-353-9585
E-mail:
pupfishmich@aol.com

Directions: From US-131
go to East Cass Street
and go across the railroad tracks. The Krum Center will be on the north side of
the road.
Parking is available in front of the building and across the road.

ANNUAL
WINTER SWAP MEET

SATURDAY JANUARY 19 2013

10:00 AM TO 2:00 PM

LOCATION: THE HOME SCHOOL BUILDING

5625 BURLINGAME, WYOMING, MI 49509

BUY AQUARIUM FISH, PLANTS AND SUPPLIES

ADMISSION: $3.00 INDIVIDUAL, $5.00
FAMILY

For
more information or if you would like to sell contact Patrick Miller at pmlife4@att.net.
each! No splitting. No parking lot sales.

Spawning the Reticulated Hillstream Loach

Sewellia lineolata

Sewellia lineolata have been
on my must have fish list since I first saw pictures of them back in 2007. They
are an exotic looking, beautifully patterned hillstream loach species with
spots and dashes of gold over a dark brown body color. These loaches are native
to fast flowing streams in Vietnam, and are built for life in a torrent. The
adult body shape is flattened, with the overlapping pectoral and pelvic fins
spread out to the sides like butterfly wings. The whole body shape is perfectly
adapted for maintaining a suction cup like grip on the rocks of their native
fast flowing streams where they feed on aquatic invertebrates and algae.

I finally had my opportunity to obtain a group
of lineolatas when Blue Fish Aquarium received a shipment of them in mid 2009. They
are not exactly inexpensive fish, but not outrageously pricey either. Expect to
pay at least $10.00 a piece for these fish. Sewellias should probably be sold
for much more than that considering how long it took to catch them out of the
store tank. These have to be one of the hardest fish to catch because of their quickness
and ability to instantly hold fast to the smoothest of surfaces. I found the
easiest way to catch them is to keep a small pleco or cichlid cave in their
tank and after the fish swim in to the cave hold a net under the cave opening
and slowly drain the water out. Most of the time they swim out with the water,
straight in to the net. This is much easier and less labor intensive than
trying to get them off the glass! I’m sure it is less stressful on the fish
too.

I have found that
maintaining these fish is relatively easy. As long as they have some cover and
smooth rocks to graze from they appear quite content. Larger rocks appeared to
allow the fish to establish some sort of territories, and allowed for easy
escape during their frequent quarrels. In their natural habitat the bottom
consists of hard base rock, with little or no substrate or cover. I chose to
add a fine layer of sand to the tank bottom for aesthetics. As with all my
fish, I used straight Lake Michigan city tap water for 75% water changes that
were performed every two weeks or so. I fed them a mix of pelleted, flake and
algae wafers along with the occasional live blackworm. I don’t think they ate
the blackworms though, since a colony of them became established in the tank. I
also rotated algae covered rocks from my other tanks so they had a constant
supply of new pasture.

Male and female Sewellia
lineolata are relatively easy to tell apart, if you know what to look for. When
viewed from above or below the males have a more angular outline from the head
to the transition point of the pectoral fins. Females have a smoother outline
when viewed from above or below. Males also have a bit more frill to the edges
of the pectoral fins. Breeding was very easy once I gave them the right
conditions. Being hillstream loaches you’d think they would need to spawn in a
cave, under a rock or in a sand pit and require a lot of current and cooler
water temperatures. Actually these fish spawned for me in a 20 hex with only an
air driven sponge filter for current and a temperature of 76 degrees. Provide them
with a tall tank, good diet, and no back or canister filters. The secret is
that these fish spawn in the water column and their eggs and larvae are
planktonic. Looking at pictures of these fish in their natural habitat over a
solid rock bottom, this makes sense. Obviously the impeller from a back or
canister filter would be detrimental to the survival of the eggs and larvae, so
I chose to forgo the addition of an external filter to increase the chances of
success. I have read instances online where aquarists would find babies in
their filters, so if you do use one check the water in it before dumping it out
during maintenance.

I did not realize my fish
had spawned until I observed very tiny fry zipping around near the base of the
rocks. Since the lineolatas were the only fish in the tank, these little fish had
to be their offspring. I was able to observe spawning behavior shortly after
seeing these first fry. It occurred shortly after the light on the tank was
turned off. The male would rapidly swim down and around the dorsal area of the
female as she was stuck to the aquarium glass. It looked almost like he was
nibbling along her back. He always started on her right side, and worked from
head to tail, then tail to head on the left side. I never saw them spawn, but
have read accounts of the event. After this courtship of back biting, the male
and female rapidly swim up to spawn in to the water column. I do not know how
long the eggs take to hatch, but on occasion I would see very small larvae
wriggling through the water column a few days after seeing the courtship
behavior. As I watched the first fry over the next week I realized they looked
nothing like the adults. Their body shape was that of a more typical loach, not
flattened out at all. They appeared to grow rapidly on a diet of First Bites,
Tetra Tabs and infusorians. I would often see them picking at the rocks and
sponge filter. Over the course of two months the body shape of the fry morphed in
to that of their parents. This was quite a rapid and amazing transformation to
witness. As their body shape changed they began spending more time on the glass
and rocks instead of the sand, and appeared to graze on the rock bio cover more
aggressively. They also frequently chased each other around just as the adults
did. I never saw any physical harm come from these quarrels.

The Sewellia lineolata were
a rewarding and very interesting species to keep and breed. There are great articles
online at www.loaches.com with more information on breeding and there are also some
great pictures of the fish in their natural habitat. The web site www.brianstropicals.com
also has an interesting page with pictures.

We will also have our usual raffle of donated items and a mini-auction.

The following species can be found occasionally at local auctions and swap meets, and are usually listed by a number of breeders on AquaBid.

Purple Striped Mystery Snail (Pomacea bridgesii):

This is a color variant of the common pet shop Mystery snail. Besides the usual wild type brown coloration, they come in a wide variety of colors including gold, albino, blue, ivory, and purple with and without stripes. Unlike other snails that often infest your tanks, apple snails are not asexual, and require a male and a female to reproduce. They lay pink egg clusters above the water line of the aquarium, usually on the glass lid. If you don’t want babies, simply remove the egg case. The eggs stay here for a few weeks, until the young snails start hatching out and falling into the tank. If the egg case does fall into the tank, it must be removed from the water for the eggs to survive. If necessary the case can be placed in a make shift incubator consisting of a small piece of egg crate or other type of rack set above the water line in a Tupperware container. The babies are small and transparent, but soon grow quickly in good conditions. I’ve had hundreds in a 20 long from a pair of prolific breeders. According to The Apple Snail Website, www.applesnail.net, this is the best apple snail to keep in a planted tank because they prefer a diet of fish food and dead or rotting plants. I personally have not tried the adults for an extended period of time in a planted tank, but they left the plants alone when housed with them briefly. One thing I have found entertaining with these snails is their fast rate of travel, and how they will occasionally parachute from the water line down to the tank bottom, using their foot as a kind of underwater hang glider.

Giant Columbian Apple/Ramshorn Snail (Marisa cornurieties):

Often mistakenly referred to as a ramshorn snail, this species is an apple snail and does not reproduce nearly as fast as the red ramshorn snails. Unlike the Pomacea bridgesii above, they lay gelatinous egg masses under the water, which remind me a bit of frog spawn. If babies are unwanted, simply siphon off the egg mass, which is very easy to spot in the tank. I’ve found these a bit harder to breed than the bridgesii, but this may have been attributed to the size and age of the snails. Like the other apple snails, the Marisa has a breathing siphon and goes towards the surface occasionally for access to the air. Their respiration system consists of both a gill and a lung, and this combination is an adaptation to the tropical waters where they live, which in the dry season can dry up or have low oxygen levels. I have kept adults in my planted tank for extended periods, and did not experience any plant loss. The Apple Snail Website states they are not suited for planted tanks and are voracious eaters of all things green. I guess I got lucky, or else had really bad tasting plants. Mine seemed to feed mostly from the wafers and left over pelleted fish food on the bottom of the tank. Either way, the experts do not recommend housing this species with plants. One snail I had liked to cruise the front of his tank, where I had some low growing crypt plants and a moss ball. Occasionally the snail would get behind the moss ball and push it across the tank. I regret never getting that on video.

Spixi (Asolene spixi):

The spixi snail comes from the south east of Brazil, from a region with a sub-tropical climate. It is a slower moving snail, compared to the other two species above, and is reported as mainly nocturnal. The group I house in a bare bottom breeder tank stay “camped out” within a few inches of the surface for most of the day, occasionally venturing forth, especially when they detect food. The small group I am housing in my planted tank is more active during the day, and I would guess it is because of the sheltering effect of the plants. I have read reports that Spixi snails will cross breed with Marisa cornurieties, so best not to mix the two species. The Spixi snails also deposit their egg mass under water, and do so on a regular basis on the underside of plant leaves. These are one of my favorite snails, with their attractive coloring, distinctive banding and smaller size, and so far I haven’t seen them munching on any of my plants. I have read some conflicting information on their plant eating tendencies, with some people writing they have had problems with these snails and soft leaved plants. They also appear to be one of the more popular snails on AquaBid, and usually go for a good price. I’ve only seen them offered once at a GVAC auction a couple years ago, so I’m not sure how many people actually keep them in West Michigan.

If you are looking for something different to add to your aquarium, give one of the Apple snail species a try. Detailed species descriptions, along with maps of their native and introduced ranges can be found at The Apple Snail Website. These snails provide some interesting color and movement, and perform a useful service by cleaning up any uneaten food. If the opportunity arises, give them a try. They could also provide an interesting and unusual BAP point.

I purchased the plant, like so many of the plants that I buy, at one of our club’s auctions. There was only one plant in the bag when I purchased it. I put it into my 90 gallon tank where the leaves easily reached the water surface.

The substrate in the tank is 2” of dirt with 2” of sand on top it. The lighting for the tank

consists of two 55watt florescent lights with reflectors about 10” above the water surface. The water temperature fluctuates between the low 60’s and the mid 70’s. The tank is filtered with a Fluval 404 canister filter. Other plants in the tank have included; V. spiralis, Elodea canadensis, water lettuce, A. madagascarienses, Java fern and many others. The fish in the tank have included mostly livebearers and native fish.

The plant seemed to take a little longer than V. spiralis to adjust to the tank. After about 1 month I noticed a runner and some new leaves. A few weeks later I noticed another new runner. After about 5 weeks I figured I had enough growth on the first couple of runners to bring them in to a meeting for my HAP point.

I turned V. americana in for HAP back in 2005. I still have this plant. I almost got rid of it but decided that it would make the new tank set up when I stripped its tank down and rebuilt it in 2008. During this move the plant sat in a bucket in my basement for about 2 weeks as I resealed the tank and moved it to a different location. The adjustment time when it was put in the new tank was much quicker than when I originally purchased the plant and it put out new runners very quickly.

I am glad that I have kept this plant because in just 6 months it has taken over about one half of the 90 gallon tank it is in with leaves reaching over the entire surface. I have had to thin it once already and will thin it again at the end of this April. The plants are currently flowering and I have counted 5 flowers each from a different plant.

If you have a big tank I would recommend this plant as it seems to be hardy plant that will flower.