The temperature began to warm up some, and the pond water was holding at 70 deg F for several daya. I added two six month old female Limia perugiae (melanonotata) and a male Jordenella floridae (American Flagfish) to test water. We then promptly had a cold spell that lasted about 3 weeks where the water tempertature dropped to 58-59 deg F. What I found really surprising was that the fish survived just fine. None of them would not eat until the water got back up into the sixties. I added another 18 female and 3 male Limia, a pair of Xiphophorus nezahualcoyotl (Nezzie Swordtails) and a small koi when the water hit 65 deg F. They all are doing great, even when the water occassionally dips back down into the low sixties. I think that maybe the heaters on the indoor tanks are not really needed.

The original filter I used in the pond did not work well at all and eventually was just worthless. I ended up buying and adding a Tetra Pond ClearChoice Submersible Filter to the pond, and it cleared up the algae bloom in just a few days. The filter is small, submersible and can be connected to many of the existing pump assemblies. I am very happy with it. I found it at an e-bay store for $37 door-to-door.

After 3 months and many batches of Limia perugiae (melanonotata) fry, none of the juveniles, some of which are getting pretty large, have sexed out as males. I moved six of the juveniles to another tank and after just a few weeks, one of them converted to a boy and began courting almost immediately. I have had no other juveniles make the move, so to speak.

I attended the October Hill Country Cichlid Club meeting at the Anderson Lane branch of the Austin Public Library. Mark and Mike gave a lecture on their last fish collecting exhibition to Venezuela. Mark has a home and wife there, so it was not exactly primitive camping. They were not able to bring fish out of the country, so only brought back preserved specimens. The talk lasted 2 hours, most of which covered travel and local life. Only about the last 20 minutes covered the local fishes and habitats. They had a few pictures. After the lecture there was a small question and answer period which proved most informative. Mark explained what two of the largest issues with trying to keep soft water fish in medium or hard water were. First of all, since soft water is very acidic, there is virtually no bacteria in the water, so the fish have evolved to not have a strong immune system. When these fishes are then put in aquaria where bacteria exists, this can lead to problems with their health. Second, since the soft water habitats usually have no conductivity or hardness, there are very few minerals in the water. These fishes kidneys have then evolved to extract all the salts from the water to function. When placed in aquaria with lots of minerals, their kidneys can be overloaded and go into renal failure causing death.

The nighttime temperatures are dropping down to about 65 deg F and the daytime temps are only getting up to about 85 deg F. The pond is staying at a steady 68-69 degF. I decided it was time to fetch the mollies from the pond and put them in the heated garage tank. I was able to fetch two of them (Blackie and Vaughn - Don't laugh at me, I didn't name them - Laura did, blame her). Anyway, the first thing that struck me after netting them form the cold water and then acclimating them for about 45 minutes to the 82 deg F tank is that Vaughn is now a boy - they were both girls when they went into the pond. From the photo it can be seen that she clearly now has a gonopodium. I doubt if it is functional since she was already full grown whe she had the sex change operation. I know some female livebearers can change genders when no males are present, but I thought that this was not the case with mollies. Later I was able to capture the last molly (Pokie). When I placed her in the garage tank it became very obvious that she was pregnant. I know it is possible for some livebearers to store milt (sperm) internally for as long as a year, allowing them to self fertilze at a later date to have fry, but I've had her for 3 months, and my son had her for several months before that - no males present. Do you suppose that Vaughn's newfound gonopodium is functional after all? The following day Pokie had nine fry, but unfortuneatly she ate them all by the next morning, and just as unfortunately, Vaughn presumed father died also. Apparently his acclimation was a complete failure.

So when I was in Dallas this weekend to visit my son and to bring him two of the new juvenile Ansictrus sp. (Bristlenose catfish). I had just sat down for a nice lunch with my son and his girlfriend when I received a somewhat desperate call from my wife. "There's a dead tropical fish on the driveway. What should I do?" O.K., so I know its an open ended question, and the temptation to fill in the blank is almost irresistible, but I was just a little more concerned about how one of my fish ended up dead and on my driveway. Incidentally the fish had been run over by a car (unintentionally, I assure you) so she was not able to identify what kind of fish it was. After several minutes of questions and answers and discussions around the table, we had narrowed it down to three equally unlikely possibilities - all of which were wrong by the way. My wife was certain to explain that to me repeatedly. The first possibility was that it was a molly. I have a small above ground pond in the backyard about 20 feet away from the spot on the driveway where the fish was found. The pond contains three female mollies and no other fish. The pond is going through an algae bloom, so the water is murky (key the mystery music now). I surmised that a cat or possibly a raccoon, caught one of the mollies, and dropped it on the driveway for some reason - perhaps it was scared off by an oncoming car. Now I must explain here that I came to this conclusion even after my wife assured me that she saw all three mollies still in the pond. Looking back, that may have been a mistake. Needless to say it was not a molly. Apparently I'm an idiot. Next. A second possibility, suggested by my son, was that it was one of the fish from the 20 gallon aquarium I keep in the garage. The tank is on a workbench, about 20 feet away from the spot on the driveway where the fish was found, but uphill. I had earlier that day caught two juvenile bristlenose catfish out of that tank to take to my son in Dallas - hence the lunch (Mexican food - not catfish). That left only three fish remaining in the tank - one other juvenile bristlenose, and two female Butterfly Goodeids. My wife assured us that the two Goodeids were still in the tank - he, being smarter than I, did not question her. He surmised that the fish on the driveway was the remaining bristlenose which my wife could not verify was still in the tank. He thought that possibly when I pulled out some of the decorations to gain access to the other bristlenose, that the third one must have been latched on and perhaps fell off outside the tank. Maybe it rolled downhill. May be it crawled into my pocket and jumped out outside. Wrong. My wife explained to us later that she is not so slow that she can't tell the difference between a tiny two-inch bristlenose and a regularly shaped fish. Apparently he's a dope. Laura, the girlfriend, surmised that the body on the driveway that was run over by a car and squished and was not recognizable was in fact a small lizard, perhaps without a tail - it wasn't. Again my wife explained that she is not so blind that she cannot tell the difference between a lizard and a fish. Apparently Laura is - must not have been thinking clearly.

So there you have it - The Great Mystery Dead Fish Debacle. Three solutions - three mistakes. We hang our heads in shame. We had apparently missed the obvious. Did the fish fall from the sky - no. Did the fish walk over from someone else's yard - no. Was it somebodies leftovers - no. I will take credit for eventually finding the solution (some hours later) - this without even seeing the fish. A couple of weeks earlier, my male Butterfly Goodeid died of a heart attack (the surgeons said he couldn't be saved) while removing him from the pond. What do you do with a dead fish. Sometimes I toss them into the bushes. This time however, I tossed him into a trash can I keep in the garage. Every 2 or 3 weeks when the can is full and we take our trash to the street for pickup (on Wednesday in this case), I empty the garage can into the large outside trash can - where? On the driveway. Evidently when I did this, the fish fell out, un-noticed by me, and laid there for several days. He was probably run over several times. Mystery solved. The lessoned learned here is - never doubt your wife; especially when she assures you that she knows of what she speaks. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that she told me in the initial conversation that the fish looked allot like a Butterfly Goodeid (kill the music).

Mike from the HCCC sold me 9 juvenile Ansictrus sp. (Bristlenose catfish). I put 3 into each of my tanks. Each one is about the size of an Otocinclus. Their father was an albino between 4 and 5 inches with huge bristles. The mother was colored normally and was about 3 inches. The juveniles are spotted with a white edge on their caudal fin. They are very cute.

I purchased some Limia vittata (Cuban Limia) from Amazonia Aquariums in Austin, TX.

A couple of interesting observations of the Limia vittata: They are far less active than the Limia perugiae (melanonotata) and spend 95% of their time picking at the green and black hair algae in the tank. In just one day, they have taking care of most of the algae available. The L. perugiae never eat algae as far as I have seen. Also, the dominant male spends most of his time with the smallest female and completely ignores the larger female. The subordinate male spends half his time running from the dominant male and the other half trying to get close to the smallest female. Again he completely ignores the largest female.

I attended the Federation of Texas Aquarium Societies (FOTAS) convention in San Antonio on the 7th and 8th. I drove down from Austin on Friday after work, got home at midnight, drove back down at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and got back at 6:30 p.m. I had no energy to attend the auction on Sunday, and had no intention of buying any fish. FOTAS was hosted by the Hill Country Cichlid Club (HCCC) of which I am a recently a member. The focus was on cichlids, and they had 4 speakers, all of which did a wonderful job. All the speakers had powerpoint presentations which included several underwater videos. Dave Hansen spoke on Aquarium Photography from which I learned a few new Photoshop post processing techniques. Juan Miguel Artigas Azas (author of the The Cichlidroom Companion - http://cichlidae.com) gave two interesting lectures on Central American cichlids. Anton Lamboj gave a a primer on West African cichlids, and Spencer Jack (http://cichlaholic.com) gave two enjoyable lectures on his collecting trips to Suriname and Uruguay. The convention also included a fish showroom, 17 show awards in 9 classes, a banquet, a silent auction, and a fish auction. I did not participate in these - alas, I am not keeping cichlids. They also had t-shirts for sale and gave out a goody bag to registered guests which included enough goods to cover the cost of the convention. They also had other fee things like the last 9 issues of the Buntbarche Bulletin. All in all, I enjoyed the convention very much and I think the HCCC did a great job hosting it.

So having digested a wild hair, I decided to put in a pond. Actually, it's more like an outdoor tank. I intend to use it to raise some of my livebearers. I put together a new page for the pond, you can see the details there. It holds 440 gallons. Immediately after filling it, we had a major storm. Timing is everything. I put some colorful mollies in the pond to test it out.

I purchased some Xiphophorus nezahualcoyotl (Nezzie Swordtails) from Aquatek in Austin, TX.

I have been informed by Bobby Ellermann that the Nezzie swords I recently bought most likely came from his stock. He raised them between 2000 to 2006, and when he moved, he gave his non-spotted breeding stock to Charles at Goliad Farms, which is one of the major suppliers to fish stores in my area. He originally got his nezzies from Greg Sage in the ALA who in turn got them from a hobbyist in San Francisco who had bred them for years. Bobby recommended feeding them 2 to 3 times a day, with a diet rich in meat, such as frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, beef heart/veggie mix and salmon/shrimp mix, Live daphnia, fruit flies, grindal worms, and baby brine shrimp, Hikari micropellets, earthworm flakes, brine shrimp flakes and garlic flakes. Feeding often with a meaty diet will ensure good health.

The male Limia perugiae (melanonotata) is an aggressive courter. I've read [1] that a non-dominant male in small schools of perugiae will not be permitted by the dominant male to mate with any of the females (this does not hold true for larger schools). I have a small group of 2 males and 2 females, with one of the males being quite a bit smaller than the other.

I purchased some Ameca splendens (Butterfly Goodied) and some Limia perugiae (Perugia's Limia) from Amazonia Aquariums and from Aquatek, both in Austin, TX. These are all farm raised fishes from Goliad Farms Fisheries in Goliad, Texas.

Some hobbyists claim that my form of L. perugiae is actually L. melanonotata, the Blackbanded Limia. L. melanonotata is supposed to have a black band along the edge of its caudal fin, whereas the true L. perugiae is supposed to lack this marking. Otherwise, the two species are supposed to look identical. There is some question as to whether L. perugiae and L. melanonotata are just two forms of the same species. In Nichols' and Myers' original 1923 description of L. melanonotata [1], they state "Regan recognizes four species of Poey's genus Limia (of viviparous poeciliids) from the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and San Domingo), two of which (L. nigrofasciata and L. arnoldi) he describes as new from Haiti ..." Later they state "It will therefore be best for the present, following Regan's classification, to consider it [Heterandria zonata] as yet another species of Limia, L. zonata." They do not mention the other single species previously recognized by Regan, but it must have been L. ornata (Regan 1913). Therefore, they do not appear to have considered L. dominicensis (Valenciennes 1846), L. melanogaster (Günther 1866), L. perugiae (Evermann & Clark 1906), L. tridens (Hilgendorf 1889), or L. versicolor (Günther 1866), all of which were previously described from the island. This could easily account for why there might be two descriptions for the same species if indeed they are.

L. perugiae (melanonotata) are found only on the island of the Dominican Republic in the wild. A collection report by Alf Stalsberg [2] for the island mentions several locations where L. perugiae were found.