New Release Fish of the Week: Puppy Shark, Chyllosyllium punctatum

Fish of the Week™

Puppy Shark

by Neil Gunther

LATIN NAME: Chyllosyllium punctatum

EATS: fish, crustaceans, worms, dolphins

The Puppy Shark, or Epaulette Shark, is a playful little lump that enjoys to be with the company of people such as divers. In Australia, the Puppy Shark will come and “hang out” with a tourists’ feet. Generally the tourist is alarmed and swims off.

Puppy Sharks are happy little fish. They usually live in lagoons, reefs and tidepools, which make for good protection and plenty of food. Puppy Sharks are so playful that, according to John Charles Delbeek, P.hD, “their few predators are ashamed to eat them.”

Puppy Sharks are not only easy to train, but they are plentiful so people can collect many for the aquarium trade. They are quite hardy and therefore are recommended to new aquarists, but only if they have 30 and up gallon aquariums with other predatory fish, such as morays, lionfish, crevallé, permit, spadefish and frogfish.

If you want to, you can buy one!!! But only if you’re advanced and you keep reef/saltwater tanks. They’re insanely hardy. Feed them on live foods such as crabs at first, then slowly wean them off it and give them sinking massivore pellets.

TEST YOUR SKILLS—and play my new Crossword Puzzle! It. Is. So. Hard…!!

A re-release of a... FISH OF THE WEEK!

Fish of the Week™
 by • Neil


Necessary facts: size: 2 inches, family: Mollies, type species: Poecilia latipina, genera: Acanthocephalus, Alfaro, Poecilia, Aplocheilichthys, Belonesox, Priepella, Limia, Gambusia, Laciris,Micropoecilia, 
Heterandria, Girardinus, Xiphophorus, Quintana.


Guppy (Acanthocephalus reticulatus)


  The Guppy or Common Millions-Fish is a smaller species of the family Poeciliidae. However, the Amazon Millions-Fish (Alfaro amazonum) is 1 inch (2 cm.). The even smaller Tiny Topminnow (Heterandria formosa) male grows to 1-and-a-half CENTIMETERS. Then there’s the 1-and-a-half inch Barred Topminnow (Quintana atrizona).
  Let’s keep talking about Guppies.
  As you can see, Joey put up a picture of two colorful gray Guppies with bright-red fins and wrote at the top ‘Double Guppy Trouble’. “Double Guppy (Acanthocephalus reticulatus) Trouble”. Huh? Whatever.
  Let’s keep talking about Double Guppy Trouble, I MEAN…!


  The Guppy is 2 inches across, making it one of the smallest poeciliid fish. RECORD-BREAKER!!!


  There’s some weird children’s cartoon about Guppies (what's it called, again?) and Siamese Fighting-fish (Betta splendens). I’m never gonna watch it!!
  Some scientists argue about the Guppy’s Latin name —
  “It’s Poecilia reticulata!” “It is NOT! It’s Girardinus guppii!” “You’re both wrong! It’s Poecilia vivipara”, and on, and on, and on, and on.
  Actually, those are junior synonyms. It’s Acanthocephalus reticulatus.


  Guppies eat flakes, frozen, prepared and live foods, and practically none in the aquarium trade are wild-caught.


  I hope you enjoyed this Fish of the Week™!

Anatomy of the Betta (classic edition)

Scales: Are used for protection on the bettas body.
Heart: Use to keep the blood circulation going.
Swim Bladder: To keep the betta from sinking to the bottom.
Tail"Caudal Fin": Makes the betta burst with jolts of speed.
Dorsal and Anal Fins: Keeps the betta upright.
Pectorial Fins: For turning in different directions.
Pelvic Fin: Keeps betta stable

Ich is a highly dangerous disease; kill thousand of perfectly good fish. Luckly we have a cure... raise the heat up ( 85 degrees is fine in a tropical tank, but for bettas, aquarium salt will be fin; you can get at your local petstore.) Then go to the petstore and ask for the chemical "quinine hydrochloride"

Wiki clip Endlers livebearers

Endler's livebearers are hardy and undemanding in the aquarium, though they prefer hard, warm water. The warmer the water, the faster they will grow; however, this also seems to shorten their lifespans. They can be kept at 18–29°C (64–84°F), but their optimum temperature seems to be 24–27°C (75-81°F). This is slightly higher than their guppy cousins, which prefer 23–25°C (73-77°F). They do best if kept in tanks with plants (preferably live plants, but fake will do) to give them hiding places and (although they may be less likely than guppies to eat their own young) give the fry a better chance at survival. Some of them are determinedly suicidal jumpers, so a cover on the tank is a must.

read more at wikipedia :0

Guppy

The guppy is a wonderful fish to keep. Their Latin name is Poecilia reticulata. It is a small fish, growing to be 3in ,and they are native to Brazil and Venezuela. When guppies are 3 to 4 months old, they will start to breed. The male has a genital tube, which is bent forward which he uses to inject sperm into the female guppy. When this is done the female genitals will begin to enlarge themselves. She will then release the babies.

The guppy is rather hardy and likes temperatures between 70 and 80, a 5-11 gallon tank, and a water pH of 7. If your guppy is well cared for, it will have lots of color pigments.

Here is more info by Neil Gunther. ( He will be writing for the blog soon!)

Bloody Jack D

The Jack Dempsey (Rocio octofasciata  ) is a Stupor Mundi, or "Wonder of the World." This wonder is a native fish to Honduras and Mexico in their slow moving, murky water, filled with small tropical fish, worms, insects, and algae, favorites of the Jack Dempsey.

This fish lives in a tropical environment with water that is 60 to 90 degrees, that has a pH of 5 to 7, in which it grows to be 10in (25cm.)

This fish is hardy, requiring the most basic need, almost meeting those of a betta! They are a personal favorite of mine

Despite how wonderful this Stupor Mundi, this wonder may seem, it is very aggressive. Someone quotes the Jack Dempsey as a "assassin" that "uses piranhas as toothpicks, "after he put this fish in a friends tank with $4000 dollars worth of fish, and saw a lot missing fish and a plump, happy Jack Dempsey in the tank as soon as he came back. If you wish to keep this fish, make plenty of caves and plants for the weaker ones to hide in.

Over all I recommend these fish.