A Great Time in Akron at the All Aqua Show

A big thanks to the Greater Akron Aquarium Society for hosting us during their All Aqua Show! We had an absolutely fabulous time at this yearly event. This show has been going since 1960 with the show being called the All Aqua Show since 1978! It was an honor to be the banquet speaker, judge and auctioneer.

This is one of the last all species fish shows in the country. This year's show had over 350 entries, up 11 entries from last year. Hopefully this is a sign that some shows may stick around if at all on a regional scale. Showing fish can be risky with moving a prized specimen into a tank that is only set up for a few days. It is not only stressful on the fish but also the owner. The best way to move your prized fish is to use your own aquarium with established water and sponge filter.

A special thanks to Bud White, Rich Serva, Wayne Toven and Larry Secaur for sharing his nearly 400 tank fishroom! Larry had tank after tank of Corydoras, Aspidoras, Apistogramma and Loricariidae. Quite a few people visited Larry's fishroom while we were there including, Roberto Prati, Joe Doyle, Pat Sabourin, Bill Sensor and Robert Lupton of Flip Aquatics. If you were unable to attend, be sure to attend next year and plan to visit Larry and his extreme fishroom!

We now turn our attention to the American Cichlid Association Convention, July 13th-16th. This event isn't always in the Midwest and it is great to have such an event so close in back to back years! This year it is being hosted by the Michigan Cichlid Association. Guest speakers include: Pam Chin, Larry Johnson, Juan Miguel Artigas Azas, Ted Judy, Jeff Michels and local Dale Ernst and are sure to not disappoint. For more details, visit ACA's Convention website at: http://acaconvention2017.com/

Lastly, we had a rare spawning event take place this week of our Tatia strigata. This species gets its name from the striations along the body. It is a very small species of woodcat only reaching 2.5"! The key with getting the eggs to develop is very soft water. We have been using around 80-90% R/O water in hopes to get this species to finally have a successful spawning. Fingers crossed that we can raise this species in time for Cataclysm; which by the way is less than 100 days away! Lastly is a sneak peak at a new Centromochlus species, C. sp. "Rio Itaya".