GCAS Auction and Parotocinclus

We would like to share our time at the Greater Cincinnati Aquarium Society (GCAS) Spring Auction. It is a great organization with great people and of course fish! We would like to thank Chris Benes for offering some high quality fish including Satanoperca daemon (which we picked up at the GCAS Swap) and Hyphessobrycon pyrrhonotus, the Flame-back Bleeding Heart Tetra. Both species are going to be on display in our new 120 gallon tank which can be seen as you enter into the fishroom. We also picked up some African Water Fern, Bolbitis heudelotii which is a great looking plant that is easy to grow and attaches to rocks and driftwood.

If you have never been to a GCAS event, we highly recommend their winter auction (or a regular meeting if you can't wait). The auction was packed with aquarists from around the Ohio valley area, over 170 to be exact. Cinci is perhaps the largest auction in the area. It was great pleasure to help read off bags of fish to full house (photos below). We will certainly be at the next big Cinci auction in the fall!

Recently we acquired an undescribed species of Parotocinclus, P. sp. "Bumblebee" from Peru. With our recent success with Hisonotus aky, we took a chance on this species. All arrived alive however one was lost within the first few hours likely due to the stress of shipping. A few days past and a few more passed away from unknown causes. This is not an easy species by any means. It is our hope that things will level off and we can get this species settled in our fishroom. If the opportunity presents itself, we will attempt to acquire another dozen. Fingers crossed that these hold up and one day perhaps they will reproduce!