Tannin Aquatics
CCA Members
Sometimes it's really fun to look back on the fishes that got me all excited as a kid, back in the days before I ruined everything by taking the hobby so seriously. Yet, progress is progress, and it's fun to resist these old friends and take a look at them in a more contemporary light...Here's the latest in this occasional "series" on the fave fish of my youth!
I think the first truly "exotic" fish I ever owned was a Kuhli Loach (Pango kuhlii or P. semicincta, depending on who you talk to). I added this fish to my venerable 5 gallon community tank when I was around 7 or 8 years old. I obsessed over this fish for months before being able to afford one, and when I added it to the tank, it was one of those memorable moments we get to enjoy in fish keeping. Of course, "having" is not always as good a thing as "wanting", in the case of some fish, and this guy was a bit of a let-down, in that I practically never saw him. Of course, with a finer-grained sand, I knew that the fish would probably bury itself from time to time, but this was more like the rule, rather than the exception with this fish.
(Pic by Kathy Porritt)
Now, part of this could be attributable to the fact that these guys are generally found in small groups in the wild, and are surprisingly gregarious fish. Housing one alone, even in a relatively small tank with no large fishes, resulted in this fish "falling back" on his more instinctive secretive behavior.
Fast forward a few decades... (click to read more)
I think the first truly "exotic" fish I ever owned was a Kuhli Loach (Pango kuhlii or P. semicincta, depending on who you talk to). I added this fish to my venerable 5 gallon community tank when I was around 7 or 8 years old. I obsessed over this fish for months before being able to afford one, and when I added it to the tank, it was one of those memorable moments we get to enjoy in fish keeping. Of course, "having" is not always as good a thing as "wanting", in the case of some fish, and this guy was a bit of a let-down, in that I practically never saw him. Of course, with a finer-grained sand, I knew that the fish would probably bury itself from time to time, but this was more like the rule, rather than the exception with this fish.
(Pic by Kathy Porritt)
Now, part of this could be attributable to the fact that these guys are generally found in small groups in the wild, and are surprisingly gregarious fish. Housing one alone, even in a relatively small tank with no large fishes, resulted in this fish "falling back" on his more instinctive secretive behavior.
Fast forward a few decades... (click to read more)
