Little stinkers are already starting to fight!

I had SO much fun livestreaming that I decided to do it again the next day. I really can't make this a habit! It's just too addicting!

Anyways, I do want to start "Q&A Demonstrations" - that is, in the livestream I will be doing something, and then people in the chat can ask questions and I will answer them as I get to them. I again had technical issues (skip to 12:00 minutes in lol) but otherwise I thought it went well. It was really fun to share some of my fish room doodling with other fish addicts on a Saturday afternoon :)

Took a quick video of feeding my gardneri killifish and an unboxing of a very special species of killifish...Fundulopanchex sjoestedti Loe!!! This is a different location that the previous Loe than the pair I had a long time ago. I think I have enough room to devote to this beautiful species and I'm hoping that I can do them justice! Crossing my fingers...

I made a "Keeping and Breeding Pygmy Sunfish (Elassoma spp.)" video because I was getting a lot of questions on how to care for these little gems at the San Francisco Bay Area Killifish Association meeting last Saturday (PS YOU GUYS ROCK!) The species I keep hasn't been described yet - it is Elassoma sp. affinis evergladei Three Mile Creek, Elberta, Alabama.

For such a little fish, they have a couple of big challenges you must address:

1) They will only eat live food. I've had this particular species for over 6 generations from wild-caught and they still won't take anything that isn't moving. I feed primarily grindal/white worms to adults/sub-adults, and BBS and walter/banana/micro worms for the babies.

2) They are shy. Set the tank up so that the feel secure - LOTS of live plants, mops, pots, dark gravel, etc. No sudden movements near the tank. Mine come right out when they see me, but that trust was built over time.

3) The fry are TINY. You need to provide them with lots of microscopic food. I stuff their tanks/jars with lots of fine-leaved live plants. Having a timer or putting the tanks in natural light helps a lot too. 

Hi all! Life's been crazy so far this semester - I'm teaching medical microbiology again at USF this Spring, and I also started my credential program at SFSU. Busy is good! 

Just wanted to share a short video of a beautiful pair of Betta pallifina that was gifted to me at the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society talk! Thank you so much Ryan R.! I am crossing my fingers for fry very soon!

Exciting news!! The September/October issue of AMAZONAS is going to be a special on bettas!! I cannot wait to get my hands on this issue :) Here is the AMAZONAS preview.

Here also is a video special on Betta macrostoma. I WILL have this species one day!!!

Check out the new Betta rubra page in the Wild Side section. These guys are a blast to own - colorful, friendly, and spawn almost too easily. Love this species!

Can't help it - he's one of my favorites :) HIs page can be found in the Wilds section here.

I was elbow deep into his 20 tall tank while doing a water change a couple of weeks ago. Mr. Beautiful Idiot freaked out and jumped STRAIGHT INTO MY FACE. It was a vertical leap of about 2 feet. The first time I have ever screamed fishkeeping! I guess there is a first time for everything.

This is the first new species I have acquired in over a year. I'm very excited to see what happens! This pair from Eirose seems to be particularly colorful. The male seems to have a little trouble swimming, possibly due from some swimming bladder damage from being bagged up for transportation (which happens occasionally to show fish that are shipped to a show). 

I've got some up and coming blog posts (sorry for being lazy about updating lol). I finally had a couple of successful traditional PK and also a CTPK spawn. Spawn logs to come! I also have a nice show report of our CBS show last weekend in the works. Stay tuned!

I transferred my lovely (and dependable!) pair of burdigala into their new home, and of course they started cuddling right away. I got a spawn later that day and collected them for artificial hatching. I love these guys!

I also just put together a couple of new spawns (CTPKs and red traditional PKs) so fingers crossed!