CONTENTS

Articles
Election Year
Amendment Proposal
p.1
NEWSLETTER
January/February 2009
Meet a fellow GHAC
member p.2

Fish of the Month ELECTION YEAR

p.3 Raul M. Turner

Tank of the Month p.4
Plant of the Month p.5
Items of Interest
It’s hard to believe it, but it’s close to that time for Club Elections. It seems
like only last week that the club was formed. GHAC has grown by leaps and
bounds these past two years. GHAC membership is steadily growing,
monthly meeting attendance is incredible and we had great events including a
successful Auction.

During the March meeting we will be discussing the elections and creating a
GHAC Officers p.2 Nominating Committee. The committee shall determine who is able and
willing to serve in various offices and formulate a slate of nominees at the
How to contact the April meeting. Interested candidates may submit their names to the
GHAC p.2 Nominating Committee. No one may be nominated for more than one office.
Elections will be held in June.
Sponsors p.3

Useful Websites p.4 An Amendment Proposal shall be presented at the March meeting and voted
upon.

“And in that heaven of all their wish, there shall be no land, say fish.”
-Rupert Brooke

At the January GHAC meeting: “No, Taken seven second prior… “No, I’m not
I’m not cold.” cold.”
Meet a Fellow GHAC Member We want to hear from you. After all, you are the
James Schrodt (JStrider) reason that we are here. Email any suggestions,
comments, or questions to raul.turner@myghac.org
James got into the hobby about a year ago after
starting his first job with Chevron Philips following the
completion of his MBA from Texas Tech. His start has
been slow and steady with the purchase of a 30 gallon
aquarium. He bought the aquarium from a fellow
Houstonian who suggested he join the HoustonFishbox
while picking up the tank. After bringing the tank home
he looked up several types of substrates and decided on
fluorite. r
This decision prompted him to go to Mike’s
Tropical Fish and Pets as suggested from people on the
box. Mike was able to fix him up with most everything
he needed to get his tank started. He came home with
three long finned rosy barbs (Barbus conchonius). With
the barbs he also went and purchased several pieces of
African root for tank décor. The following February he
decided to go to a GHAC Meeting. There he purchased
seven sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) as well as
three baby electric blue crayfish (Procambarus alleni).
The crayfish have since grown up and found a new
home with a fellow box member.
More recently he has added an albino
bristlenose pleco (Ancistrus sp) to his community tank
thanks to “Hawgunter”. At the HAS Auction, he
purchased four emperor tetras (Nematobrycon palmeri)
and four Harlequin rasboras (Trigonostigma
heteromorpha). He has also added five dojo loaches
(Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) which are currently his
favorite. To complete his community tank he has about
ten nerite snails for garbage duty and temporarily three
albino long-finned bristlenose pleco babies. Also in his
tanks he has a marimo ball, java fern and corkscrew
vallisneria. In the future James is planning to invest into
a larger tank for his kitchen and continue improving on
the ones he currently has.

Fish Gallery Store Hours

Monday-Saturday 10am-8pm
Sunday 12pm-5pm
 Fish of the Month
Synodontis multipunctatus
by Harold and Derek Walker
First published in The Darter, Missouri Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
Over Over the past
the past few few
yearsyears catfish
catfish havehave been
been beco
becoming
more and more popular. One of the reasons is there is
more information being released on spawning these
wonderful creatures. There are thousands of different
species available throughout the hobby. Some of the
more popular types come from Africa. Synodontis is
one that is found in lakes and slow moving streams.
Some Synodontis reach only a few inches in length,
while others can exceed several feet. They are
distinguished from each other by the shape of their
mouth, the number of fin rays (anal and pectoral),
teeth, eyes, color and so on.
Synodontis are omnivorous creatures. They feed on all
sorts of meaty food as well as plant material. All of the
Synodontis I have had readily accepted the frozen food
I offered. I also feed them some sort of spirulina or
algae flake. Almost all of the species are said to be
nocturnal. They hide by day and search for food at
night. The ones I have will come out at daytime but
any sudden movement and they will dart into a
flowerpot or anything to hide under.
These particular catfish are very hardy. They can
withstand a wide range of water chemistry, just as long
as extremes are avoided. Some species can live in a
pH level of 6.5 to 7.5, while the Rift Lake catfish need
a pH level of 8.0 to 8.5. Temperature could be
between 21 to 29 C. There are no special requirements
for filtration. As long as you do your water changes,
Synodontis are fairly easy to keep. Make sure you have
a tank sizeable for the species you want to keep.
Synodontis multipunctatus are also known as Cuckoo
Catfish. They received this name when it was
discovered that they use mouthbrooding cichlids as a
host for their eggs to hatch. S. multipunctatus are fairly
easy to spawn. It is hard to find fully mature adults.
We were able to acquire a trio of multis from Chad
Christen. He has been spawning them for a while now.
Between reading different books, articles and picking
Chad's brain, we also have been able to spawn them.
Once we received our trio, we placed them into a 90-
gallon tank. We used Haplochromis sauvaei as the host
fish. The tank set-up was simple. We put three terra
cotta caves in the tank. The catfish took to them rather
quickly. After a couple of weeks the fish became
accustomed to their new home. We fed them heavy
doses of meaty foods to condition the females to spawn.
This also helps out the host fish. Without a good host
fish, you will not get babies.
The time was close as we noticed that the male
Haplochromis sauvagei was trying to entice his females
to breed. Once this happens, the male S. multi will patrol
around and investigate the breeding attempts of the
Haps. If it appears it is going to happen, the male will
then go and get his female. At this time the female will
exit her cave to take a quick look for herself. If she does
not feel it is going to happen, she will go back into her
cave to hide. If she feels like it is going to happen, the
male will chase her around the tank until the host fish
starts the spawning process. Just as the host female lays
her eggs, the multis will rush in, often eating the Hap.
eggs and at the same time releasing their eggs while the
male fertilizes them. When this is done the female host
will think it is her eggs, so she will pick them up to
mouthbreed. This whole process can be lengthy because
when the catfish come in the host male will often try to
chase them away.
The S. multipunctatus eggs will begin to hatch in about
48 to 72 hours. The multi eggs develop quicker than
those of the Haplochromis. After 72 hours, the Synos
are ready to eat. They will start eating the undeveloped
Haplochromis eggs one by one. If they are not stripped
by this point, some will even turn on themselves.
Our first spawn produced 14 multi fry. We fed them a
wide variety of frozen brine shrimp. We started with
baby brine but after a month we started to feed adult
brine and some chopped up bloodworms. They seem to
always be hungry. Several feedings a day may be
required to meet their needs. With a good diet and water
changes our newly hatched Synodontis reached ½ inch
in about 2 months. At this rate it won't be long before
these guys are producing young for themselves.
 Check out our great new website…
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 www.myghac.org
to include. We will post a new tank each month!! Let us
see what you are working with…

January/ February TOTM

James’ 30 Gallon Blue Lobster Tank

Decoration: Holey Rock, Driftwood

Substrate: Sand
Lighting: Fluorescent
Inhabitants: Procambrius alleni
 Plant of the Month

Dwarf Water Clover

Marsilea minuta
By Tim Bell

Some of you may be aware that I recently began a planted

tank with pressurized carbon dioxide and moderately high
lighting (greater than three watts per gallon). I have never
had foreground ground cover in any of my previous planted
tanks because I was under the impression that they were
difficult to take are of. After doing a bit of research on the Swap ‘n’ Sell Pictures
subject, and asking some of the local plant experts - the
members of the Nature Aquarium Society of Houston – I
discovered I could not have been further from the truth.

Marsilea minuta is relatively easy foreground plant. I even

found that it will grow in tanks without CO2. According to
several online resources, Marsilea minuta does not have the
tendency to clump when growing dense carpet that other
foreground plants like Glossostigma elatinoides, AKA
“glosso” do. Part of the fact that this plant is more forgiving
must lie in the fact that it is actually a fern.

I received a significant amount of this plant from Luis

Navarro along with directions on how to plant it. As
opposed to planting the Marsilea minuta as I received it (in
one large clump) I was advised break it apart into many
little pieces… and plant each piece individually in a grid
like pattern. In order to best plant each piece, one should
twist the roots together. This allows a smaller insertion
diameter into the substrate – in my case ADA Amazonia
Aquasoil. Try fumbling around putting these small plants
into the oil using my big fingers. That would defeat the
point of creating such a small insertion point. To plant this
sot of plant – long tweezers were needed. After trial and
error, as well as some advice from Shane (spyke1969), I
became halfway decent. One could definitely tell the
difference between the left hand side of the tank – which
was where I started – and the right hand side. This method
for planting Marsilea minuta allows for quicker coverage
across the entire bottom of the tank. I look forward to
seeing what it looks like next month!