GuppyLog || Good news on cardinals & even guppies

New to Guppylog?
Immediate Help

Conversions and Calculator
Conversions and Tank volume calculator

Add yourself to our guppylog map
Guppylog Members

* Change as much water as often as you can! *
Inkmaker

Front Page · Everything · News · Ask Guppylog · Diaries

Good news on cardinals & even guppies
By unclescott from the news department, Section Diaries Posted on Fri Sep 19, 2003 at 04:34:37 PM PST

I hope this is not in impropriety on a guppy site, but I feel bad about some disparaging comments I made about cardinal tetras and their supply in relation to Reza's and Scott's new fish. However there are several pieces of good news in the aquarium world relating to cardinal tetras.

It turns out that there are now some cardinals being raised by American hobbyists. A number of projects in the Amazon to encourage sustainable fisheries seem to be afoot.

Not only that, but a fair number of cardinal tetras are now entering the market from commercial establishments in Eastern Europe.

This may explain why they aren't dying off after a few minutes in the shop like it seemed that they used to in the 1980s. Just as neons are much easier to breed than they formerly were, maybe cardinals, still way harder to breed than neons, will be less difficult in the future as they go through more captive generations.

This has happened before. In the 1930s a pair of angelfish could cost a couple of months' wages. They were considered almost impossible to breed. Look at them today.

Fancy guppy prices seem breathtakingly high on some web sites and Aquabid. By my standards they are! However there are sometimes ways - legally - to get those fish without a second mortgage. ;)

Fish magazine ads in the 1960s show fancy guppies for sale for $15-20-25 a pair. When one figures in inflation (the minimum wage was about $1/hour then) today's show guppies, bigger, more diverse and even more magnificant than ever, are not quite so prohibitive.

< And I thought male guppies could dance... | Bigger Tank >

Menu

· create account

· F.A.Q. For Newbies!

· Immediate Help For Newbies!

· search

· Scoop Info

· Our Tanks

Login

Make a new account

Username:

Password:

Related Links

· unclescott's Diary

Good news on cardinals & even guppies | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)

Anything you want to write (none / 0) (#1)
by Scott Lockwood on Sat Sep 20, 2003 at 08:26:03 PM PST

is on topic here. :-)

"I love to visit PetSmart's Tropical Fish Dept. to see what new diseases are around today." -- inkmaker

Even more good news (none / 0) (#2)
by unclescott on Sun Sep 21, 2003 at 09:55:51 PM PST

would include the following from guy who has worked with a Flordia fish farm:

"Fla is now a major source of tank bred neons. One farm was producing over 100,00/week a year ago and was increasing production. My former hatchery was produceing 15,000-20,000/week. Neons are easy once all the proper parameters are met. Water quality is extremely important, but first food is critical [clean Proto,or rotifers are essential]. Cardinals were a different story, never quite got the formula. Got good production, using extremely low tds and low ph 5.5-5 but had problems with fry between 5-10 day post swimup. Never raised in excess of 20% quite often 0%. However any that reached 14 days were almost bullet proof."
- Gerald Lofstead

Be glad guppies don't need the microfoods needed by a number of baby egglayers during the first week or two of life. Marine fish are often even more challenging I am told.

[ Parent ]

Good news on cardinals & even guppies | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)

create account | faq | search