What's in store - September 2021?

It’s a great time of year to pick up bargains in our pond sections, as this year’s fishes have grown through the year and are ready to go into garden ponds that still carry the warmth of the summer. One species that enjoys the warmer weather is the Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon Idella), a blanketweed-munching beast for large ponds where plants aren’t important to their keeper. They’ve even been seen eating grass where the lawn meets the pond. These albino youngsters at our Scotsdale store look ready to view the vegetarian menu.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/help-and-advice/freshwater/pond-fish/grass-carp

Cichlids are a successful group of fishes but there aren’t too many that are native to Asia. One of the few is the handsome Canara chromide (Etroplus canarensis), a recently rediscovered gem found in southwestern India. Unlike its relatives, this chromide is found far inland and favours soft, acidic conditions. This batch were looking very happy at our Farnham store.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/help-and-advice/freshwater/cichlids/canara-pearlspot-chromide

It seems that there’s a clear career path for a number of Asian fishes that grow up in streams. Shallow, oxygen-rich water exposed to sunlight are the perfect conditions for growing algae and so there’s plenty of opportunities to become an algae eater. These Spotted garra (Garra spilosoma) will take all of the usual aquarium foods but are keen and sociable grazers for aquaria that duplicate the streams they’d naturally call home. Like many algae eaters, they won’t thrive in the old nitrate laden aquarium water that fuels the fastest algae growth but will busy themselves with helpful housework in systems where water changes are regular. This batch of youngsters was found at our Swindon store.

They’re not from Germany and are far less blue than some strains, but this handsome domestic Ram (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi) at our Woodford store was so keen to have his photo taken that it seemed a shame not to feature him. Thanks largely to the efforts of German aquarists decades ago, domestic rams are robust and colourful fish for softwater set ups and far less delicate than their wild ancestors, which need careful handling to thrive.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/help-and-advice/freshwater/cichlids/ram/

Sometimes display tanks in our stores give us the opportunity to showcase species that are easily overlooked as juveniles. One such example is this handsome Tiger silver dollar (Metynnis fasciatus) at our Knutsford store. These piranha relatives are a great choice for large aquaria and thrive alongside large peaceful cichlids and other jumbo community fishes that would make a meal of smaller shoalers. Tiger dollars are a fairly recent addition to the line up of big round silvery characins for the home aquarium but have the same requirements as their kin – lots of space, a good number of their own kind and a plant based diet that they’ll gladly add aquarium plants to.