Meeting Notes

May, 2009

Sherry Mitchell gave some short talks before introducing our speaker, Jim Karanikas of Tropical Fish World in Gaithersburg.

Gerry Hoffman gave a talk about planning the 50th anniversary of PVAS, 1960-2010 and put out a call for memorabilia, T shirts, mugs, and pictures of past members. These memorabilia are needed for a CD which will be issued to all PVAS members next year. He wants to scan old issues of Delta Tales into the CD, so anybody willing to contribute past issues for scanning, please contact Sherry or Gerry. The Breeders Award Program is rolling right along, according to Sherry, and JT gave updates.

Jim Karanikas gave a talk about rainbowfish. His store celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, and it has a Facebook page because he says "young people use Facebook more than visiting webpages." However, at tropicalfishworld.com you can see store discounts, specials, and sign up for his newsletter. He has a 150 gallon display tank of rainbowfish at the store.

Rainbowfishes are found in Australia, New Guinea (and Madagascar, as we heard last month). Most have been bred in captivity. They are descended from saltwater "shiners." Westerners discovered rainbowfish in the mid-1800s.

Dr. Gerry Allen introduced many new species. He got a position with a mining company, and he had access to a helicopter and could explore New Guinea, which was mostly closed to scientists and collectors. The remote mountainous terrain in which rainbowfish are found presents a formidable challenge and getting the fish in the wild is very difficult.

Jim talked about the introduction of praecox rainbows, how they were collected, their early introduction to the hobby and breeding. He said Heiko Bleher collected them for Ekwill Fish Farm in the late 1990s. Their starting price was $75.

Rainbows prefer high oxygen content, a lot of water current, and low levels of dissolved organic waste. Frequent water changes are necessary for good coloration. Their preferred pH is 7-8; Kh is 8-12 dKh; gH is 4-8 dGh. Rainbows prefer low nitrates and low phosphates. Jim emphasized that good color comes from good water quality.

They make good community fish. Mixing males with females is best on a 1:1 ratio or 1:2 ratio. They like variety in food (don't we all). They are egg scatters (so use java moss) and they are easy to breed. They are continuous spawners and will spawn every morning if the conditions are right (see above).

It is interesting to note that Jim said to take out the eggs after five days of spawning and use chlorinated tap water until the eggs hatch to keep fungus off the eggs, and they will take about seven days to hatch.

Mark Harnet