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I've been out and about with the camera again, now that I have two batteries to power the camera, and this trip to Maidenhead Aquatics includes a whole brace of wonderful fish highlights tht will delight everyone here once I upload the photos to Webshots and post in The Photo Booth. This time my trip had an ulterior motive - namely to buy a Siamese Algae Eater to deal with my breeding aquarium's rampant blanket weed - but in the meantime, I had some fun photographing the fish.

First, the Rift Lake Cichlids.

These included:

Cyphotilapia frontosa (again - 2 inch specimens at £18 each)
Tropheus duboisi (1 inch juveniles were £10 - ouch)
Cyprichromis leptosoma (2.5 inch specimens were £12 each)
Melanochromis johanni "Electric Blue"
Copadichromis borleyi "Red Fin"
Nimbochromis livingstonii
Nimbochromis venustus
Cyrtocara moorii
Labidochromis coeruleus
Iodotropheus sprengerae
Melanochromis auratus
Aulonocara baenschi (somewhat washed out juveniles)
Neolamprologus brevis
Lamprologus ocellatus "Gold"
Plus a "Mystery Tilapine" whose scientific name began with "O" at the shop, but which I can't even find in The Cichlid Room - anyone know of a Tanganyikan Cichlid with a black masked face that might fit the bill?

Next, the non-Rift Cichlids. These included:

Parachromis managuense juveniles (the adults from last time had been sold)
Aequidens rivularis juveniles
Hemichromis guttatus
Archocentrus nigrofasciatus
Archocentrus octofasciatus
Benitochromis nigrodorsalis (£25 a pair!)
Cichlasoma panamense (First time I've seen them!)
Anomalochromis thomasi (Yay! Only £6 a pair!)
Paratilapia polleni from Madagascar (!)
Numerous Discus including a very nice 'wild type' display aquarium

The Gouramis featured the following:

Trichogaster microlepis
Trichogaster pectoralis
Trichogaster trichopterus (blue and gold)
Colisa lalia "Neon Blue"
Colisa chuna wild type specimens

Among the Characins, there were:

Hyphessobrycon rosaceus
Hyphessobrycon pulchripinnis (nicely yellow too)
Hyphessobrycon innesi
Hyphessobrycon callistus serpae
Hyphessobrycon sweglesi (Red Phantoms)
Hyphesobrycon megalopterus (Black Phantoms)
Hemigrammus pulcher (Garnet Tetra)
Hemigrammus ocellifer
Hemigrammus nanus
Hemigramus rhodostomus
Boehlkea fredcochui

Plus a mystery tetra called a "White Spot" Tetra that looked as if it should be an Aphyocharax species but because they were in a dark tank, I couldn't get the camera to lock onto them - but Fishbase has come up trumps and identified them as Aphyocharax paraguayensis, go take a look at the photo here!

Barbs were pretty numerous too - including Odessa, Arulius, Pentazona and Checker Barbs, but I passed them by (sorry Barb fans!) because there were a LOT of other things I wanted to cover, and you'll see why soon ...

However, the BIG news on the freshwater front was this - the store had Botia sidthimunki in stock! And I got pictures of the tiny juveniles! They must have been only about 15 mm long if that! Someone is definitely breeding them commercially now (BruceMoomaw said something about this a while back) and now the offspring are starting to come on stream! Cheap by the usual standards I associate with these fishes too - £7.50 each ... I was expecting £15 per fish ...

Also, they had Galaxy Rasboras! At only £4 each ... ye Gods, I never thought I'd see that! The only problem with photographing those was that they were tiny, and practically impossible to lock onto against a matt black tank background ... sigh ... still, I tried capturing some in the edge of the field of view by photographing the nearby Amano Shrimps ...

Corys were very thin on the ground today (they only had Bronze and Albino in) and the only catfish of note was an L-316 that refused to come out of its PVC pipe to be photographed (sigh), but, one cannot have everything ...

Oddballs ... Carinotetraodon travanicorus Dwarf Puffers (and they were almost as tiny as the Galaxy Rasboras) and - wait for it - specimens of Butis butis, the Crazy Fish, which actually posed for the camera ... ! Oh, and the big freshwater display with the Denison's Barbs now houses some Silver Arowanas too ... the Leporinus that were there last time have gone.

Now for the marines. Oh, did I capture some delights this time round!

The marines included this little lot:

Centropyge tibicen (BEAUTIFUL specimen, NEVER remained still for the camera - sigh)
Centropyge eibli
Centropyge flavissimus
Geniacanthus lamarcki which DID pose for the camera!
Chelmon rostratus
Zebrasoma desjardinii
Acanthurus xanthurus
Naso lituratus (lovely specimen too!)
Pterois volitans (nice showy juvenile)
Sphaeramia nematopterus
Nemateleotris decora
Neoglyphidodon oxyodon (lovely specimen)
Naso vlamingii in the display aquarium
Xanthichthys aureomarginatus Blue Chin Triggerfish
Rhinecanthus aculeatus Picasso Trigger
Calloplesiops altivelis Marine Betta - LOVELY specimen!
Canthigaster valentini which posed for the camera!
Neoglyphidodon melas
A Damselfish tentatively identified as Pomacentrus alleni that was a GORGEOUS iridescent blue (sharing their aquarium with a juvenile Regal Tang Paracanthurus hepatus)
Parma microlepis juveniles (not much bigger than my thumbnail!)
Dascyllus trimaculatus (LOTS of them)
Dascyllus reticulatus
Dascyllus aruanus
Dascyllus melanurus
Amphiprion ocellatus
Amphiprion frenatus
Cetoscarus bicolor Parrotfish
Cryptocentrus leptocephalus symbiotic goby plus shrimp (which went into hiding when I photographed the fish - sigh)
A truly AMAZING juvenile Dragon Wrasse Novaculichthys taeniourus which was BRIGHT GREEN and swam like a Spanish Dancer nudibranch ... !
A mystery Fusilier (Caesio species) that defies identification even via Fishbase (I seem to remember Little_Fish shot a similar looking species on one of his photo expeditions)
Pseudocheilinus hexataenia
Pseudocheilinus octotaenia
And ...Oh wait till you see this! There was an AMAZING ruby coloured wrasse that at first I thought was one of the Fairy Wrasses (Cirrhilabrus species) but which had the most STUNNING extended filamentous dorsal fin, and which when it was annoyed with the Tomato Clown in its tank, it flared its fins, and they turned iridescent sky blue! I've since identified it courtesy of Reefkeeping.com as one of the Flasher Wrasses, Paracheilinus cyaneus, and if you EVER see this fish in life, be prepared to be COMPLETELY blown away!

So, give me a few days to upload the photos, and ... I'll show you the fishes!

Oh, and I got my Siamese Algae Eater - it's only a little one. I'll show photos of that in due course.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

All those fancy names mean nothing to me...............

but I like looking at your pretty fishies.

It sure seems that they sure have a nice variety of fish to purchase. We're lucky around here to have a dozen or so total varieties in any of the stores, including the big box stores.

Your Maiden Head reminds me of a couple of LFS that were in Las Vegas, NV back in the early 70's. One store in particular had over 100 tanks of fish for sale. Haven't seen anything like that since.

Waiting patiently for the photos.

Jim

---

Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

No idea what you said (too long. . didn't read it)! (just kidding)

Bring on the pics!!

---

"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

You must have had some great time there...looking forward to the pics.
BTW, that gives me a nice idea to spend my Sunday

Uploading the pics now ... it's taking time because there's a lot of them and they're 2.2 megs each on average ...

Plus I have to add captions to them all


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Double post.

Pics uploaded!

View them in this thread in Photo Booth.

Enjoy!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Bump.

Just got back from the second visit to pick up the other SAEs. Full report in due course, complete with LOTS of fish photos in Photo Booth once I've uploaded them (I took about 90 pics this time!)


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Bump.

Newest photos to be found here. Usual rules apply, namely if you're on dialup, be prepared to wait aeons to see them because the originals are 2048x1536.

Otherwise, enjoy!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002