OCTOBER 2008
VOLUME 17 ISSUE 10
October 5th Meeting:
Wild Angelfish and Discus Populations—Update
Speaker: Anthony Mazeroll
Anthony’s back! Once again,
Dr. Mazeroll, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies
at Soka University of America,
spent part of his summer doing
field research on the population
genetics of wild angelfish and discus, this time working in Peru with
the Stingray Aquarium and local fishermen, studying fish such as
the wild Rio Nanay spotted discus shown. Join us for an update on
these beauties.
Horrible News!
It’s time to do that club election thing again—run for office, hold elections. Put your name up for one of our hugely powerful positions so
you too can enjoy all the perks of office-hood. Descriptions inside.
Board of Directors
Article Hunter Auction Chair Auctioneer Director Editor Forum Moderator Membership Chair Photographer President; disc gp Program Chair Publisher Vice President Secretary, Corres. Secretary, Record Treasurer Web Admin; Food Welcome Chair (Open)
Ronald Nash
[email protected]
Duncan Mahoney
[email protected]
Richard Marelius
818-360-7102
Charlotte Marelius
[email protected]
Kristian Downs
562-868-7145
Jeff Long
714-847-3967
[email protected]
William J. Scott
760-955-8133
[email protected]
Brian Downing
858-759-4841
[email protected]
Charles Clifford
760-579-8208
[email protected]
Mike Khalid
818-892-2456
[email protected]
Kirk Bean
858-361-8745
Nathan Okawa
[email protected]
Larry Guillow
[email protected]
Jim Herman 626-335-8327
[email protected]
Tom Varin
[email protected]
(Open)
Sponsors
Aquarium Systems
Casco (Sea Clear) http://www.casco-group.com
Danner Mfg, Inc. http://www.dannermfg.com
Drs. Foster and Smith http://www.drsfostersmith.com
Hamilton Technology http://www.hamiltontechnology.com
HBH Pet Products http://www.hbh.net
Hikari http://www.hikariusa.com
Instant Ocean
Jungle Laboratories
Marc Weiss Companies http://www.marcweissco.com
Marine Enterprises Inc http://www.meisalt.com
Marineland
Novalek, Inc. http://www.novalek.com
Oceanic Systems http://www.oceanicsystems.com
Omega Sea Ltd http://www.omegasea.net
Perfecto Manufacturing
Pet Solutions http://www.petsolutions.com
San Francisco Bay Brand http://www.sfbb.com
Seachem http://www.seachem.com
Tetra
PROVIDING EDUCATION AND CAMARADERIE TO PEOPLE
WHO ARE INTERESTED IN KEEPING TROPICAL AND TEMPERATE FISH AND OTHER AQUATIC LIFE
The Showfish is the newsletter of California’s Organization of Aquatic Show Tropicals
(COAST), a 501(c)(7) not for-profit association registered in California. It is published
six to twelve times a year and is a benefit of membership in COAST. The information
and opinions expressed in articles are those of the author and may not reflect those held
by COAST or other COAST members.
Showfish is printed and distributed at cost by Mike Khalid, 6607 Valjean Ave. Van Nuys,
Ca., 91406. Reprint Policy: Articles and graphics which are marked with a © symbol or
an-notated as Copyrighted or “property of …” may not be reprinted without the owner’s
permission. Unmarked articles and graphics may be reprinted by other fish clubs;
please send two copies of the newsletter containing the reprint to C. A. Marelius, 16229
Armstead St. Granada Hills, CA 91344 or email a copy to [email protected].
Exchange Policy: COAST will exchange newsletters which contain information about fish
and the fish hobby with other fish clubs. Please notify the Showfish Editor, C.A. Marelius, if your club would like to participate in an exchange program.
Election Time – it’s almost here!
Brian Downing
Well folks, it’s almost election time again. I don’t want to have anyone miss
the next couple meetings due to elections, so I am trying not to make this a focal
point of any meeting if possible. I am looking for members who are willing to be officers or directors, starting now. Most of the positions require very little work beyond
showing up at most of the meetings.
The most demanding positions take only a few hours a month in addition
to the meetings. Most positions can be done with as much or as little time as you
have available. Please look at the positions described below and email me directly
at [email protected] if you are willing to volunteer or would like to nominate
a member.
Existing officers and directors are more than welcome to run again, you’ve
all been great. If you don’t want to run again, that’s ok, just start looking for someone
to nominate! New members can run too!
Here are the officer positions:
The President represents the organization in all business matters, conducts both
general and board meetings, appoints any other position should it become vacant
between elections, implement all organization mandates in a timely manner. One
nominee.
The Vice President assists the president and committee chairpersons in the
performance of duties and replaces the president should that office become vacant.
One nominee
The Recording Secretary maintains a written record of monthly organization activities, all general organization correspondence, keeps and maintains notes
recording all directives and declarations of policy adopted by the Board as well as
true copies of all official documents.
The Corresponding Secretary writes letters to solicit donations, maintains
records of donations received, sends acknowledgment letters in appreciation for
support received on behalf of the organization.
The Treasurer is responsible for collecting and disbursing COAST revenues, responsible for maintaining a documented record of all monetary transactions,
presents verbally an officer’s report at Board meetings as well as quarterly written
statements and an annual summary
The Editor is responsible for the publication and mailing of a newsletter
called Showfish and for any special publication the organization mandates. One
nominee
Here are the Director Positions:
Program Chair (gets the speakers)
Website (updates the website monthly)
Membership Chair (renewals, new members)
Auction Chair (at the computer during the auction)
Publisher (mails the newsletter)
Auctioneer (auctioneer!)
Member Profile
By Dr. Anthony Mazeroll
I have been in the hobby since I was 7 years old. During the summer of my
7th year, my father, who was an elementary school teacher for 35 years, brought
home a tank full of guppies that one of the other teachers asked him to take care of
for the summer. I was mesmerized by those fish... A few years later I advanced to
breeding angelfish, and got my first discus when I was 12. Now, my Fountain Valley
house is filled with aquaria, one of which is a newly constructed 400 gallon plywood
tank in my family room that is a filled with tetras.
I grew up in the Southern California desert (Imperial, CA); the son of a
school teacher and a housewife. My parents taught me early on the value of an education and the importance of different cultures. Both my parents were first generation
Americans. My fraternal grandparents were French Canadian; my mother’s father
was from India and her mother from Mexico. Thus I was surrounded by four different
cultures: French, East-Indian, Mexican and American.
From a young age I wanted to study “the ocean”; more specifically fish. Most
children go through a phase of being intrigued by the ocean. I just never grew out
of it--I consider myself a fish ecologist now. I conducted research for many years in
the Red Sea (Egypt, Israel, and Jordan) and am currently conducting research on
population genetics of Angelfish and Discus in the Amazon.
I started my college life at Imperial Valley College where I earned an A.S. in
Life Sciences. Then transferred to UC Santa Barbara, where I graduated with a B.A.
degree in Aquatic Biology. I earned a Master’s degree in Zoology from Northwestern
State University of Louisiana where I conducted research on the effects of paper mill
discharge on channel catfish. I then entered the Ph.D. program at Louisiana State
University. After one year, they booted me out because I got a C in one class (considered flunking there). From there, I entered the Ph.D. program at Northern Arizona
University, where I conducted research on daily migrations of brown surgeonfish in
the Red Sea.
I have been a college professor since 1991. I spent the first part of my
career in Texas as an associate professor in the Texas A&M system. During the
1999-2000 academic year, I was a Fulbright Fellow to Jordan where I conducted
research on mate acquisition and movement of Red Sea clown fish (way before
Nemo came out).
My wife and I moved back to California in June 2000 for family reasons.
She is now the Executive Director of the Cardiac Program at St. Joseph’s Hospital
in Orange, where she was the GE Cardiac Administrator of the Year for 2007. I
worked as an administrator in the school of Biological Sciences at UC Irvine for
a time, then in May 2002 I accepted a position as a professor of Biology at Soka
University of America in Aliso Viejo. I now serve as the Director of the newly established Environmental Studies Concentration.
[Editor: Anthony joined COAST in May, 2006. He uses the proceeds of his auction
sales to help fund his research on discus and angels populations.]
Plant Profile—Canna sp., “Longwood cultivar”
Common name: Water Canna, true Water Canna
One has to be careful when buying the “water canna”: two species and
four hybrids plants are sold by that common name. Fortunately, all of them:
grow 4 to 6 feet high by 2 to 3 feet wide in full sun to partial shade
thrive submerged in shallow water (about 8 to 12” over the crown) and can live
in the wet-to-moist soil on the margin of ponds
are winter hardy in Zones 8 thru 10 (prime Southern California valley and coastland area)
are not well liked by area bugs or diseases
are perennials that work as an accent plant or a mass planting
One species is Thalia dealbata (rt), which has
18” long, broad leaves with moderately oval ends and
purple blossoms. The second species is Canna flaccida, which has long, sword-like leaves and bears a
yellow blossom.
The four hybrids were created by geneticist
Robert Armstrong when he worked for the Longwood
Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania in the late
1960’s and early 1970’s. They are known as Longwood cultivars and are crosses between the South
American native, Canna glauca, and different terrestrial cannas. The four hybrids are (1) ‘Endeavor’ (red flowers), (2) ‘Erubus’ (salmon
pink flowers), shown to the left, (3) ‘Ra’ (yellow flowers) and (4) ‘Tanny’ (burnt orange flowers). They have broad leaves that narrow into a distinct sharp point and
blossom July thru September on spikes that rise a foot above the leaves. Seed
pods form after the blossoms fall off, but propagation is usually done by separating
rhizome clumps.
Both Thalia dealbata and the Longwood cultivars are available from
www.thewatergardenshop.com/info.html in Oregon, as
well as nurseries that have a good selection of water
plants. Rhizomes are $4 to $7 dollars and should be
given a generous sized pot to grow in. These cultivars
are an excellent tall background plant for a whiskeybarrel water garden and require little effort or knowledge from a gardener to survive.
(Thalia dealbata photo from Wikipedia; ‘Erubus’ photo
by Charlotte Marelius.)
In Defense of Convicts
Text and photo by Brian Downing
Cichlids of one family of fish that could use a tremendous amount of help
in the public relations department are the fish of the family Amatitlania, formerly
Cryptoheros and ten minutes before that Archocentrus. Until recently the Central American cichlids have received little taxonomic attention; however, this has
changed, and we are probably due to see many more name changes.
Archocentrus nigrofasciatus, labeled as “convicts” with the original convict
(1867), is well known inch for inch as one of the toughest, meanest fish around.
This is perhaps less than justified, with the knowledge that most cichlids are more
aggressive when guarding fry, and this fish is always guarding fry!
The rest of the family are much less aggressive, although no less determined in the defense of their offspring. The young are very easy to raise on
crushed flake food or any other food small enough for the to eat. Growth is dependent on the amount of food given and the frequency of water changes. The
preferred breeding location is in a spawning cave but any flat rock will do if no
alternatives are available. All of this family are excellent parents and rather easy to
breed. This, combined with the variety of colors and their small size, makes these
fish very desirable.
Most of these “convicts” have a maximum size of about 3 inches for males
and 2 inches for females. All have essentially the same body shape. Breeding
can start at the size of one inch! Nigrofasciatus is the largest of the family, with
older males growing to 4-5 inches long. The females are smaller and often more
colorful than the males, especially in the belly area. The dorsal and anal fins of
mature males are more elongated than in females. Females do not always have
the rounded fins you’d expect, though. In most of the family, the female has a spot
in the center of the dorsal also.
The following is a list of available types of fish related to the convict
cichlid:
A.
nigrofasciatus, the original Convict Cichlid, so known for its vertical black
stripes and aggressive nature. This fish is variable in pattern and has several
aquarium varieties including a pink and a marbled version. This is the least color
ful of the family, but individual populations do show a lot of color in the belly region,
especially in the females. Found in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
A.
septemfasciatus, a very attractive fish that’s extremely variable in coloration, but that may be because many of the other members of this family have
been lumped into Septemfasciatus by some people of authority and especially in
the pictures of their published books. Found in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
A.
myrnae, the Topaz Cichlid. A very attractive fish with a brassy gold color
on its sides. I’ve found these to be a bit more sensitive to environmental problems
than the rest.. Found on the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica and Panama.
A.
siquia “Honduran Red Point” A brilliant cobalt color mixed with broken
black stripes with mature males developing a reddish blue caudal fin. This fish
was discovered only in Honduras and is the newest member of the family to be
described.
A.
Sp. Cutteri, from Honduras, Guatemala and Belize, an extremely beautiful fish of yellow and blue coloration that turn white with seven vertical black bars
when spawning.
A.
nanoluteus, one of the most colorful of this group of fish, being an incredible gold and black pattern, especially when breeding. This fish is from the Atlantic
side of Panama in the Guarumo River basin
A. spilurus, the blue eyed cichlid,
far from the most colorful of the group
mostly either grey or blue, the male
of this species can grow a considerable nuchal hump rarely seen in other
members of this family. This fish is
found on the Atlantic slope of Central
America from Belize to Nicaragua.
A. sajica, the T bar cichlid. A couple
of varieties exist in the hobby, not as
brightly colored as some but very atArchocentrus spilurus male at ACA 2008 Convention
tractive in their own way. The group
I keep are grey with reddish-purple
fins. Found on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.
Resources: www.fishbase.com
SUMMARY OF LAST MONTH’S MEETINGS
Board of Directors meeting:
Treasurer’s report: club is running in the black; a discrepancy in accounting was forgiven, as the cause could not be found. The Community Center charged
us a room clean-up penalty in August.
PR progress: Kristian Downs reported that his efforts at publicizing the
club on forums was yielding inquiries from the occasional manufacturer about
placing a link or advertisement on our website. Brian said we traditionally have
done that in return for a link to us on the manufacturer’s site.
Showfish: We will begin publishing the current-month’s Showfish to the
website in addition to mailing it. It will be accessible via a link sent to members
through email as soon as the webmaster receives the electronic Showfish from the
publisher (typically 4 to 7 days before the meeting).
The Membership Roster was sent to the publisher at the end of August.
Look for it in your mailbox soon.
Club T-Shirts: more shirts in sizes already out of stock will be ordered.
Elaine McCabe’s design is definitely a hit.
General meeting:
Speaker Tim Hovanec gave an excellent slightly technical presentation on
water characteristics and water parameters of major continental sections. He explained how pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and water hardness all effect each other.
He included bar charts of major mineral salts in the most common water ways of
cichlids and other tropical fish. He donated several bottles of his Dr. Tim’s Aquatics
aquarium seasoning bacteria colonies to the raffle table. Many thanks, Tim.
BIG-TICKET RAFFLE SERIES
This month we will begin selling tickets for one
55 gallon tank with stand, light strip, and power
filter. Of course the logs, plants, and fish are not
included.
Tickets will be $2 apiece, and a minimum of $250
worth of ticket sales is required before the winning
ticket will be drawn. The tank will not be brought
to the meetings; a picture of it is below.
The tank was brand new for the Pet Expo earlier
this year and was donated to us by Marineland.
MEMBERSHIP BRIBE INCENTIVE PROGRAM!
From November through May, any member’s hobby-related article of 500 words
or more that gets published in the Showfish will garner the author a free one-year
extension of membership. Articles can be
submitted to the editor via email to [email protected].
More of Brian Downing’s ACA 2008 Convention photos.
Member Gossip:
This month Vinny Kutty is the featured speaker for Pacific Coast Cichlid Association in
San Jose. He will be discussing pike cichlids.
Tom Varin will be recuperating from planned surgery; Jim Herman will handle the refreshments for next three months.
Brian Downing fell in August, breaking ribs and puncturing a lung—which is why he
was so quiet and sat so still during the September meeting. The ribs and the inevitably
bruised nerves that lie alongside them take a long time to stop hurting, but he will make
a full recovery.
Past Due This is your last Showfish
57
Chris Breitkreutz
18
Wanda Jacobson
New, Renewing Members
THANK YOU & WELCOME
417
Mayko Alonso
418
Eric, Jennifer Bell
294
Norman Brown
416
Gary Fultheim
384
Larry Guillow
420
Tim Hovanec
66
Luke Roebuck
383
Brian Anderson
251
Steve Ehrlich
143
Lauro Seijo
Phone 951-490-4894
Expired Memberships
This is your last Showfish
378
Carlos Barrientos
380
Diane Brown
14
Ken Hengstebeck
70
Russ Madsen
348
Eduardo Millan, Jr.
382
S. Sheik Shahabudeen
Due This Month
387
Dick Au
364
Perry Ciampaglia
113
Ron Hongo
385
Tien-Yeo Hsu
363
Victoria Kuhl
237
Ron & Mamie Nash
16
Mike & Elaine McCabe
386
Sandeep Sasi
388
Jeff Sevening
Due Next Month
296
Charles Clifford
390
Mike Ganotisi
389
Raul Giles Rodas
Time and place we meet:
Time: the first Sunday of every month from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
MEETING AGENDUM:
12:30 Board Meeting
1:00
General mtg, announcements
1:30
Presentation begins
2:45
Auction begins
4:15-4:30 Auction check-out begins
5:00-5:30 Vacate the room
Place we meet:
We meet in the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center
in the Victoria Room (usually) or the Harper Room. The Center
is a brown brick building between a fire station and Lion’s Park. Closest major intersection is 19th and Harbor Blvd.
Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center 1845 Park Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA
Discussion Group: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/coastfishclub/ Website: http://www.coastfishclub.com
Newsletter: The club’s newsletter, the Showfish, is published
at least six times a year (usually 10 to 12) and mailed to arrive
a day or two before the meeting. The current issue is published
on our discussion group in the “Files” section around the 25th of
the month, and previous months’ Showfish are published on our
website.
Meeting dates for 2008
All meetings will be in the Victoria Room unless otherwise noted.
October 5
November 2
December 7
Largest Tropical Fish, Plants & Accessories
Auction in California. Guests Welcomed.
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center
Victoria Room
1845 Park Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA
MEETING OCTOBER 5th, 2008
http://www.coastfishclub.com
c/o C. A. Marelius, Showfish Editor 16229 Armstead Street
Granada Hills, CA 91344-3009 CALIFORNIA’S ORGANIZATION
OF AQUATIC SHOW TROPICALS
COAST is a 501(c )(7) Not-For-Profit Association