Sunny days are starting to win as night frosts dwindle. This is the signal for many of our pond plants to put on some serious growth and start to flower. In pond sections up and down the country, our plant benches are becoming more verdant. Late frosts can knock a few plants back but placing them deeper in the pond if cold weather is forecast can help to protect them from overnight lows.

Pond plants at Maidenhead Aquatics store

Another previously undescribed catfish gets a proper binomial as the Peruvian Corydoras sp. C115/C116 gets a scientific name that honours Ian Fuller, a dedicated enthusiast well known in the catfish-keeping community. Corydoras fulleri can be seen in a number of our stores that stock a wide range of these ideal community fishes. Like its relatives it’s best kept as a group of five or more specimens in a tank with a sandy substrate and water that’s not excessively alkaline.

 
All of our stores sell koi but not all of them specialise in high grade Japanese fish. These Ueno Tosai Showa have been selected by the team at our Wenvoe branch and are just some of the quality carp which this store is known for.

Ueno Tosai Showa at Maidenhead Aquatics

Domestic Bettas have been popular aquarium pets for decades and recently it seems that the short-finned forms of the 'Siamese fighting fish' have really come into their own.
This Black Mamba Samurai Plakat (Betta splendens var.) at our Morden branch is a real eye catcher and is the first of a range of black-based varieties heading for our stores.
Read more about their care requirements here: https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/.../anabantids/siamese-fighter

Siames Fighter Fish at Maidenhead Aquatics Wenvoe

As the focus switches to the pond sections at this time of year, it’s important not to forget that there’s some spectacular corals on offer in our marine specialist stores. Home reef keeping is dominated by captive propagated coral frags, which are essentially cuttings. This enables desirable specimens that are now generations away from the reef to be cloned and grown with no impact on wild habitat, especially if these are cultured in their country of origin. The rise of these clones has led to a minor revolution in naming too, as hobby names have taken over from the dry binomial scientific names to describe corals.

corals at Maidenhead Aquatics