CONTENTS Articles

GHAC Auction p.1 Meet a fellow GHAC member p.2 Fish of the Month p.3 Tank of the Month p.4 Plant of the Month p.5 Items of Interest GHAC Officers p.2 How to contact the GHAC p.2 Sponsors p.3 Useful Websites p.4 & 6

NEWSLETTER

September/October 2008

“Big fish swim at the bottom.” -Chinese Proverb

GHAC Auction 2008 By Tim Bell

The September edition of the GHAC newsletter got washed out along with the September Auction. Because of Hurricane Ike, the GHAC officers elected to push the date of our very first large scale auction back to October 25th. The time and location will remain the same. The auction is at the “Hall on Hammerly” and will start at 11am. Sellers can start checking in at 10am. Nobody knows quite what to expect at this auction – that is part of the draw! The club has managed to gather donations from multiple local fish stores, private groups, as well as distinguished nationwide retailers. This is certainly guaranteed to be an auction that will be talked about for months to come! See you there!

…and this is the first person who beat David at Air Hockey that night.

David looking like he knows what he is doing.

The Hall on Hammerly 10644 Hammerly Blvd.

Houston, TX. 77043

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Your GHAC Officers are:

Raul Turner (rrocket2002)

President

Tim Bell (armthehomeless) Vice President

David Abeles (Tiapan)

Co-Vice President

Mary Beth Petranek (Mzungu) Treasurer

We want to hear from you. After all, you are the reason that we are here. Email any suggestions, comments, or questions to raul.turner@myghac.org.

Meet a Fellow GHAC Member Want to introduce yourself to the GHAC community? All you have to do is to send the editor a quick little blurb talking about you and what aquarium related experiences you’ve had. Many people have chosen to talk about their favorite fish as well. You can read about other GHAC members by scrolling through the previous newsletters that are located online at www.myghac.org.

Fish Gallery Store Hours

Monday-Saturday 10am-8pm Sunday 12pm-5pm

Megan’s Tropical Emporium Hours Monday 11:00 - 6:00

Tuesday - Friday 11:00 - 8:00 Saturday 10:00 - 6:00 Sunday 12:00 - 6:00

Megan’s Emporium will be closing their doors to the public in the coming months. Megan’s Emporium has been an avid GHAC supporter from the beginning, and will be sorely missed. We wish Megan the best of luck on her next venture!

Traci Davis (imagirlgeek) Secretary

Fish of the Month Niger Otocinclus Hisonotus leucofrenatus

By Bhushan Dalvi

I came across this inconspicuous but interesting fish about 6

months back at a local fish store (LFS) which gets in some interesting fish once in a while. The first time you see this fish you will probably pass it up as a baby common pleco (Hypostomus Sp.). But I assure you the similarity ends right there. Hisonotus belong to family Loricariid and are more closely related to the Otocinclus Sp. than the Hypostomus Sp.

When I first saw these little buggers I was not really sure if I wanted them. They were labeled as Otocinclus “Niger”. Talking to a knowledgeable LFS employee revealed that these were wild caught and did not come in quiet often. I decided to get the last 3 they had. After having them for a while now I regret that I could not get any more. I haven’t seen them offered for sale around the town for a while now.

Coming back to my purchase, I came home and added them to my then newly set-up 10 G tank, “Boraras Dream”. The tank was already thickly planted and all three of them quickly disappeared in the thicket of Hemianthus Micranthemoides and Microsorium pteropus “Needle”. I saw them again after a couple of days grazing away on the diatoms and green spot algae on the back wall of the tank. From my experience I can now say they are herbivorous and excellent algae eaters. They are a perfect addition to a planted tank.

From what I have read about their biotope and my own observations of their behavior I would say that they love well oxygenated water with decent flow. In my tank they love to hang around the filter outlet right under the leaves of Microsorium pteropus “Needle”.

This portion of the tank has the maximum flow. Another thing which I have observed is they don’t like to be photographed. You have to be really careful in approaching the tank if you want to get a good picture.

The temperature in my tank varies from 75-78°F, but a lot of references point out that these catfishes can withstand far lesser temperatures. I haven’t seen any breeding behavior from my trio yet, but it would be really hard to tell as these fish are egg-scatterers and do a really good job of hiding their eggs in a well planted tank. I am hoping I will find some babies when I take down the tank.

Finally, I would say don’t miss an opportunity to keep this very interesting fish if you happen to come across some and always get at least a group of three.

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9426 Laurel Wind Court Houston, Tx 77040 August 15th, 7:45pm to ???

Tank of the Month We want to see your tanks! Send us a photo of your tank along with a brief description of the flora, fauna, water parameters, equipment used, and anything else you want to include. We will post a new tank each month!! Let us see what you are working with…

October TOTM Tim’s 30 Gallon Planted Tank

Decoration: Driftwood, Slate Substrate: Aquasoil Amazonia II Lighting: Coralife 1x65W 6700K Power Compact Inhabitants:

• Veil-tail Albino Bristlenose Pleco (Ancistrus sp.) • Red Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda (var. Red)) • Chocolate Killifish (Aphyosemion australe “Chocolate”)

Check out our new website…

www.myghac.org

October 25th

10am- ???

The Hall on Hammerly 10644 Hammerly Blvd.

Houston, TX. 77043

Plant of the Month Shield Pennywort

Hydrocotyle verticillata By Bhushan Dalvi

Hydrocotyle verticillata even tough a common marsh plant through out the southern states of North America is not as establish in the planted tank hobby as the other member of the genus Hydrocotyle leucocephala. This probably is attributed to the difficulty of growing this specie underwater. H.verticillata is commonly known as the Whorled Pennywort or Shield Pennywort. Hydrocotyle verticillata can be found growing all year round throughout Texas wherever there is moist to wet soil. There are a few people I know who ordered this plant from online dealers later to find out this plant growing like weed in there own backyard. I have found large groups of this plant growing in quiet a few place around my house. Even though considered as a perennial plant this plant suffers quiet a bit in the Texan summer. I have found that during summer only group of plants in well shaded locations survive. H.verticillata can be found growing submersed in large groups in fast flowing water of San Marcos River all year around. The water temperature of this river stays around 72 °F all year.

H.verticillata growing on the bank of San Marcos River.

H. verticillata is considered a moderately difficult plant to grow submersed. It requires a lot of light supplemented with good carbon dioxide addition and regular fertilization. Lack of nitrogen will cause quick yellowing of the older leaves. It also likes soft and slightly acidic water. I have been growing this plant both emersed and submersed. H.verticillata is a fast growing weed when grown on land in sunlight as well as when grown emersed under lights. But its rate of growth significantly differs when grown underwater. It grows painstakingly slow. The stem of this plant grows along the substrate with 1-2 leaves growing upright at each node. The height of leaf stalk in an aquarium is decided by the amount of light. I had this plant growing under 65w of light in a 10 gallon aquarium. The maximum height to which it got was 1-1.5”. In low light tanks the leaf stalks try to reach out towards the light and hence can have long stalks. When I first started with this plant I planted it in two different tanks one with Aquasoil Amazonia II and one with just plain river sand. The few nodes which I planted in Amazonia II sent out new leaves within a couple of weeks of planting, but the ones in river plant took a lot longer than that. This makes me believe that it appreciates a nutritious substrate. This plant can also be grown as a floating plant. If grown as a floating plant it will appreciate a lot of nutrients in the water column. This plant has small white flowers growing in tight group on the tip of the stalk.

Pictures inside the Hall on Hammerly

See you here on October 25th!!

I haven’t seen H.verticillata in use by a lot of aquascapers in their aquascapes. This probably is due to the unique leaf shape which makes it difficult to incorporate in a scape. Mr. Takashi Amano has used this plant in quiet a few of his earlier scapes as a foreground plant. The most memorable use of this plant was in his scape called “Grace of Angles” from AquaJournal Vol.18 (December 1995). A picture of this scape pops in my mind every time I see this plant. H.verticillata’s unique leaf shape and easy availability prompted me to use it in “Boraras Dream”. It was placed in this scape on the extreme left corner to draw attention of the viewer to that corner while adding interest to that shaded section. In a small aquascaped tank H. verticillata can be used as accent plant to draw attention to its unusual leaf shape. In larger tanks it can be used as the main foreground plant. I believe a lot of aquascapers will appreciate the slow growth of this plant underwater. It does not get unruly like Glossostigma elatinoides or Echinodorus tenellus. If you can satisfy all its need H.verticillata can be a great addition to any aquascape.

Bhushan Dalvi is an active member of NASH (Nature Aquarium Society of Houston) and was kind enough to let us use his articles in this issue. For more information on Mr. Dalvi, go to his blog at http://bhushandalvi.wordpress.com.

Some pictures of the GHAC Auction Volunteers!