New Website!

A big thanks to the Minnesota Aquarium Society (MAS) and the Minnesota Killie Keepers Association (MKKA) for hosting us a few weeks ago. I had a ball talking all things fish. It was a great event with well over 200 pairs of killifish! Hope everyone enjoyed our talks during the weekend!

The big news is that we now have a website, AmazonTropics.com. For simplicity, all new posts will be on our website. So there will no longer be updates posted here. In time, we hope to set up a shopping cart while still providing the best information on Tropical and Subtropical species from South America and West Africa. See you over at the new website!

Major News Coming Soon! And We Are Heading to the MAS Show

We have a big announcement to make in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, the guest speaker for the Minnesota Aquarium Society (MAS), Jaap-Jan deGreef was forced to reschedule his trip due to Hurricane Irma. As a result, yours truly will be filling in. Stay tuned to the MAS Website, for more details.

Corydoras duplicareus

We blame Rob McLure for our new found obsession with Callichthyidae or as they are commonly known, Cories. While growing up, our family kept a few Cories in a 15 gallon tall and shortly after working at the local fish store, we acquired both Corydoras seussi and a Corydoras "elegans" type.We truly enjoyed watching them feed and interact with each other. We would even bury the C. seussi's food to watch them force their mouths deep into the sand.

More recently, Rob McLure has spoke at several clubs in the Midwest including our local fish club, the Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE). His talks have intrigued me enough to start working with a few cories. First, we acquired first generation Corydoras panda, the Panda Cory, from Joe Doyle. Second, it was a group of wild Corydoras duplicareus and Corydoras sp. "Green Laser" from Rob.

One day, a friend was over picking up some fish and he was looking through various tanks in the fishroom. He started observing the tank containing the Corydoras panda. All of a sudden he states, you know you have baby cories in the tank right? We had hardly paid attention to the tank but right before my eyes, there they were, baby cories! Our first cory to spawn in our aquaria. Ironically, it was also my brother's first cory to spawn 10 years earlier.

We quickly moved the group of C. panda to their own tank knowing that the eggs and/or fry would stand a better chance of survival. Over the next few weeks to months, we collected several batches of eggs. While the Panda Cories still have never produced large batches of eggs, they are still very young at a little over a year of age. Cories can live to be 8-10 years or more! Patience is key when it comes to fishkeeping.

Soon after, we decided to move our C. duplicareus to the same 15 gallon tall tank mentioned earlier, now 25 years old! We checked for eggs the next day and sure enough, there were eggs. Unfortunately, most of these turned out to be infertile. This was not surprisingly since the group had just been moved. However, over the course of several weeks, we now have around 20 eggs. Our hope is to start offering F-1 Corydoras duplicareus next year! It is truly a beautiful species of Cory and perhaps our favorite but how can you choose just one favorite? Stay tuned!

Tatia strigata

We have some excellent news! Our Tatia strigata fry from our first batch are going strong and are now approaching 3/4"! These will be large enough to be included in the Rare Catfish Auction at Cataclysm! It is a fantastic fish with, as the name implies, striations across the body. They are sometimes called the Pinstripe Woodcat. Unfortunately only a handful survived from the first batch so there will only be one bag of these available.

In addition, we have had two subsequent spawns and have additional fry that are now free swimming and are feeding! The latest batch were laid just this weekend and appear viable. This is all good news but it has caused us to move some fish around. While the parent fish can handle parameters outside of super soft acid water, the eggs and fry cannot. We now have 2-5 gallon tanks of pure R/O water for the fry of this species with a pH of around 5.5-6.0. The largest fry are now in a 50/50 mix of tap and R/O water making their water a little closer to the 6.5-6.8 range. That said, just look at the photo, they are worth it!

Do not forget to register for Cataclysm and do not miss our talk on Auchenipteridae - The Woodcats on Saturday at 11am! For details, please go to: http://catfish-cataclysm.com/ Happy fish keeping!

Cataclysm is Coming!

An honor to be a speaker and listed in the advertisement for Cataclysm in Amazonas magazine! More on this soon along with an anticipated availability list.

ACA Detroit, MI

Hope everyone had a great time at the American Cichlid Association (ACA) Convention this past weekend. While we only attended Saturday, it was great to catch up with friends that we only get to see a few times a year. It was a quick but fun trip. Hope everyone had their share of fish, friends and fun! Cichlids and catfish were both well represented at this year's ACA and there was even a guest speaker who spoke on catfish! With that, the next big event is Cataclysm! AmazonTropics.com will be there speaking on Woodcats! Do not forget to register: http://catfish-cataclysm.com.

Tatia spp., Rare Woodcats Spawning Update

Well a week has past since our Tatia strigata eggs first appeared. We are happy to report that they have hatched and are just days away from absorbing their yolk sac. We are still not out of the woods on these but fingers crossed!

In addition to the T. strigata eggs, we just found T. schultzi eggs last night. While the eggs appear to be infertile, it is a step in the right direction. A simple water change with reverse osmosis water (R/O) seems to have done the trick in this case dropping the pH levels. We will continue to providing R/O to see if this can trigger a viable spawn. Our Centromochlus reticulatus appear to not be far off either. We hope to be able to provide some rare Woodcats in the future! Stay tuned!

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".

Trip to Cinci

A big thanks to Jerry Riegel for hosting us today in Cinci. Jerry is from the Greater Cincinnati Aquarium Society (GCAS). He and his wife, Sue, opened up their home to us this afternoon. We even were able to enjoy food at a local restaurant. We do wish we could have spent more time with Jerry and Sue but there is always next time. While at Jerry and Sue's home, we picked up two wonderful species of plecos, Ancistrus sp. "Snowflake" and Hypancistrus sp. "L411", the Monte Dourado Pleco. If you ever get the chance to visit Jerry's fishroom, be sure to do so. He sure loves his plecos!

On our way back, we made a stop at Gerber's Tropical Fish in Dayton, OH. We have visited Gerber's before but wanted to check out the larger freshwater section. While they did not have a ton of rare species, they did have one of the largest collection of monster fish I have ever seen including large cichlids like Texas and Jaguar cichlids, pacu that were easily 12-14", silver dollars and two really nice Vulture Catfish, Calophysus macropterus. Surprisingly the two 12" fish were getting along just fine and perhaps have grown out of their terrible twos. We did spot an interesting yellow spotted Ancistrus but there was no location from South America given and only a single male fish. The fish was a stunning and every bit of 6"! Until next time Cinci!

GPASI Auction and CAFE Swap

We can't express how much fun we had at the recent Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE) Swap and Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society Inc. (GPASI) Auction. If you haven't been to a fish event, you a truly missing out! Besides all of the rare and unusual fish species, you have the chance at meeting aquarists from all over the Midwest and beyond. We were even able to snap up some rare fish and plants at each event. More on this below.

With that said, we would like to share that AmazonTropics.com will be speaking at the 2017 Ultra-Aqua Show hosted by the Greater Akron Aquarium Society (GAAS) in Akron, OH. This will be a rare chance to see an all species fish show! Akron has by far the largest all species show perhaps left in North America. Year in and year out they host this great show that starts with a swap meet, followed by a dinner and speaker Saturday night. The event ends on Sunday with a fish auction along with announcing the winners of the show. We hope to catch you at this great event! For details, please visit GAAS' website at: http://www.gaas-fish.net/default.asp?pageName=ultraaquashow

Finally, an update on our fishroom. Chris Benes of Pet Suppliers in Highland, Michigan has been importing fish for various events in our region. With the Emerald Green Otocinclus doing so well, we have decided to acquire a group of Zebra Otocinclus, Otocinclus cocama. This species, as the name implies, has some vibrant black and white coloration. We hope to be able to have these breed in our tanks soon. The fish are in excellent health with fat bellies. They are already eating New Life Spectrum pellets. So if you are looking for some great fish, do not hesitate in buying from Chris. He is often at the Greater Cincinnati Aquarium Society (GCAS) auctions. Enjoy the short video below and happy fish keeping!

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!

CAFE Auction and back to Hisonotus

The Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE), recently had their Spring Auction and what an auction it was! CAFE's New and Rare has taken off and has become a driving force to the success of the event and AmazonTropics.com was proud to be a part of such a great event. We hope you took a chance at our offerings of: Geophagus mirabilis, Centromochlus perugiae, Krobia xinguensis (which could soon be red listed) and Ancistrus sp. "Snowflake".

AmazonTropics will continue to provide new and exciting species for fish events. Do not miss us at the Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society Inc. (GPASI) auction on April 30th. For all of the details, visit their website at: http://www.gpasi.org.

One species we hope to offer in the future is of course Hisonotus aky. We have been talking about this species for a while now but we can now share with you the first video of the fry turning green! It has been a journey in raising this species but we now believe we have figured out how to raise groups of fry up. If all goes well, we will be able to offer this awesome species by the end of the year. First though, we must build up our breeding stock. Until then, enjoy this new video!

Hypancistrus spp.

Spring seems to be coming early this year! Our Hypancistrus zebra are back at it after giving us 10 juveniles. The male once again has another female trapped. We will be looking to save some of these back for future breeders but may have some of this fantastic species available soon! The zebra plecos are not the only ones spawning as our group of F-1 Hypancistrus sp. "L-333" Porto de Moz have also spawned. The male is currently guarding the wigglers. These should be released later this month.

If you have checked it out yet, check out Ted Judy's videos on Colombia 2016. Ted is great friend having provided us with many fish species. We look forward to spending time with Ted at Cataclysm 2017 in Madison, WI. Do not forget to register for this great event at: Cataclysm 2017

Geophagus sveni

Just a quick update on our Geophagus. We have had some spawning activity recently but no viable fry. Things should pick up again here in the next month or two. We are going to work on moving some fish around in the hopes of having more spawning. Fingers crossed! Until then, a video of our Geophagus sveni feeding.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from AmazonTropics.com! 2017 is looking to be our best year yet! We have a bunch of things coming to you this year including our new website. Stay tuned for details as we work on constructing our website. A big thanks goes to Dennis Ball of BallAquatics.com for his assistance. Dennis built and designed his website, the current ColumbusFishClub.org website for the Columbus  Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE) along with Stephan Tanner's website, SwissTropicals.com.

The website will likely be our way to offer fish moving forward. However, the best way will be to contact us at our email address, jeremybasch@gmail.com. The website will be our home base for fish information but our blog will continue to be your way of staying up to date with the latest in our fishroom. We look forward to sharing more details on our website soon, stay tuned!

Sturisomatichthys sp. Colombia and Centromochlus perugiae fry

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Christmas came early for us here at AmazonTropics.com. Our catfish continue to produce eggs and fry! Our Sturisomatichthys sp. "Colombia" and Centromochlus perugiae have both produced eggs and fry. Sturisomatichthys fry are somewhat difficult to raise as are all species related to Royal Farlowellas. They require water changes and several feedings daily! As a matter of fact, we have had the best success by twice daily 90% changes and 2-4 feedings each day! It takes dedication to raise such fish but I assure you that we are up to the challenge.

We recently had three batches of Centromochlus perugiae. This is a really neat woodcat that only attains a length of around 2-2 1/4". They are relatively easy to keep so long as extremes are avoided. They are also one of the most popular woodcats but not always available. We are working on changing that. We are happy to report that our first round of fry have survived with 60-80% daily water changes and two to four daily feedings. The largest fish now measure a little over 1/2". This should allow for us to offer these at some point next year and very likely in time for Cataclysm! We are going to try to raise this latest batch of eggs in the same fashion. Hopefully we can secure the availability of this fish species year round! For now, enjoy some videos below.

Hisonotus aky Eggs Developing

Snapped this really cool photo of some Histonotus aky eggs developing. Had to share this photo with you guys!

A Quick Visit with Rob McClure and the GPASI Org.

Fellow Columbus Fish Club Enthusiast (CAFE) member, Bob Townsend and I set out Friday night to pay a visit to the Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society Inc. (GPASI) during their December meeting. GPASI brought in Rob McLure who gave an excellent talk on Callichthyidae. Unfortunately, we arrived a little late due to traffic in Columbus, OH and an error by our navigation system. Bob and I had seen Rob's talk two previous times but the main reason we came out was to show our support.

After the GPASI meeting a large group of us went out for drinks and food. I took the opportunity to talk to Regina Spotti about her recent spawning of the Auchenipteridae, Centromochlus macracanthus. It seems one of the keys to raising the fry may be constant food and daily aged water changes.  A big thanks goes to Eric Bodrock and Regina Spotti for hosting us during our stay! It is always special to see their amazing fishrooms. That is right, multiple fishrooms, four to be exact.

The year is drawing to a close but there is one more local event, the CAFE Holiday party is this coming Friday, December 16th. Awards will be given out for Breeder of the Year for the Breeder's Award Program (BAP), Horticulturalist of the Year for the Horticultural Award Program (HAP) and Rookie of the Year. A special award plaque has been created for each award made by CAFE chairman elect, Paul Wingert. It should be a fun event with great food and great friends!

As mentioned in our previous post, our Hisonotus aky continue to produce viable eggs. Having just returned from Pittsburgh, we counted not less than 30 eggs and 12 fry. It has been difficult to count the exact number of offspring due to the tank being semi-planted. The fry can be found on every leaf of every plant in the tank!

At this point we plan to leave the tank as to not disturb the adults. The old saying, "If it isn't broken, don't fix it", comes to mind here. This species is doing so well that I believe we will be able to offer the first U.S specimens in 2017! So here is to a New Year!

Pictured above is a F-1 specimen measuring a little over 1 1/4". This fish is just starting to show the emerald green color of the wild adult pictured below.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving fish keepers! We have posted a ton of videos to our YouTube Channel. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to stay updated with everything fish related: AmazonTropics YouTube Channel

A few updates for you to feast your eyes on. First, our Hisonotus aky, Emerald Green Otos continue to produce eggs and fry. It is hoped that we will be able to start offering this species some time in 2017. The fry require very small foods to start and can be somewhat sensitive to changes. The species does best in cool, soft water but the adults are very straight forward in their care.

Recently, we obtained a really interesting Auchenipteridae species in Tetranematichthys wallacei. We were able to acquire this cool woodcat from Rivers to Reefs here in Central Ohio. R2R, as I like to call it, is a hobbyist friendly fish store that caters to die hard hobbyist like yours truly. T. wallacei is an unusual woodcatfish species that shares a lot of traits with Ageneiosus. Especially if you look at the head region of the two genera. Tetranematichthys is a very timid species so care must be given not to place them with more active species like Tatia, Centromochlus and Trachelyopterus. However the species does do well with the also timid Trachelyopterichthys taeniatus. For more information on Tetranematichthys, visit PlanetCatfish at: Tetranematichthys wallacei Info.

Happy Holidays!

Hypancistrus zebra and Krobia xinguensis

Fall seems like it is here (most days). Happy that winter is holding off for now but we are sure it is around the corner. With the change of seasons, comes hopefully more spawning in the fishroom. While we do not have a lot of species from Rio Xingu, we would like to highlight two species here, Krobia xinguensis and Hypancistrus zebra, also known as the Zebra Pleco. Both species could be in danger due to the dams that were built along the Rio Xingu. We do not know how well these species will do now with the dams in place but it appears both species are safe in our aquaria, for now.

We are excited to have offspring of both species and hope to get these into the hands of other capable and interested aquarists. The Krobia xinguensis are going to take a little longer to get established in the fishroom as the adult breeding pair were only being housed with us long enough to arrange their move to their new home in Pittsburgh, PA. The H. zebra have been in our aquaria for the last 10 years or so. We have several groups of these amazing fish and are happy that are F-1 breeding group is now producing again. With that said, we will be taking pre-orders on Zebra Plecos for the Ohio Cichlid Association Extravaganza. We have a group of 7 fish that will be ready early next year for delivery or pickup. We are requesting a down payment be made to hold this group of fish. These fish will not be shipped and must be picked up or dropped off (no exceptions will be made due to the rarity of these fish). For serious inquires, please contact us at: jeremybasch@gmail.com. See everyone in Cleveland!

CatCon Wrap Up

CatCon 2016 is a wrap and what an event it was! Between all of the talks and fish sales, it was one of the best catfish related events an aquarist could ask for. If you weren't there, you really missed out! All of "THE" top catfish breeders were in attendance for this one. If you missed this event, you will get another chance at a catfish convention next year with Cataclysm. This three day event was such a hit in 2015, that they are doing it all over again in 2017. And AmazonTropics.com will be there as a speaker along with some of the other greats! For all of the details, visit: catfish-cataclysm.com

Geophagus sveni

Another quick update on our Geophagus sveni. This species has become regularly available recently but they are not cheap. They are certainly worth the cost as you can see in the video below.

CAFE Auction

Today was the local fish club auction. It was quite the auction! CAFE brought in 40 bags of New and Rare species. Certainly some of the species tempted us including some of the killifish, Chromaphyosemion bitaeniatum "Lagos Red" and even the Ctenopoma ansorgii. We did come away with Biotodoma cupido and Apistogramma rubrolineata. Both are species are related Geophagus and in the subfamily Geophaganii.

We hope to be able to work with these two species in the future but for now they have some growing to do. You know the saying, "Good things come to those that wait." Geos and Co. are well worth waiting for. In the mean time, our Geophagus mirabilis spawned and we now have fry. These should be ready at some point in the spring. Good news, time to rest up after a long weekend.

More with Geophagus sveni and Geophagus mirabilis

Just an additional post on some photos we took of our Geophagus. The consensus is that the Geophagus talk may be requested soon so time to update our talk. I will save the best photos for my talk but check out the color of these Geophagus sveni and G. mirabilis below! Incredible! Hope both species spawn soon as they have been teasing us recently with courting and dropping their tubes. In the mean time, several pairs of our Geophagus megasema have spawned and one pair is currently holding.

And do not forget about the CAFE Fall Auction next Sunday, October 2nd at Columbus Courtyard  West. AmazonTropics.com will be there in force likely serving as auction reader and auctioneer. Here is the link: CAFE Website See you there!

Platystacus cotylephorus and Geophagus sveni

Check out our new video on the Eeltail Banjo Catfish, Platystacus cotylephorus and the gorgeous new species of Geo, Geophagus sveni: 

End of Summer

Somehow I missed posting in August but we certainly kept busy with fish related events including the CAFE August Meeting. CAFE brought in Robert Lupton and his lovely fiance, Amanda Myers. Both are avid shrimp keepers having a huge 4,000 square foot shrimp hatchery. The club spent Saturday touring fishrooms and fish shops. Robert will soon be sharing our fun on his YouTube Channel: LupDiesel. We ended the day with BBQ at Tony and Sheri Helwagen's home. It was a great event!

Robert inspired us to start sharing some video of our fishroom. Our first short video is on our Procatopus species also known as Lampeye Killifish. They get this name from the reflection of pigments within their eyes which makes it appear that their eyes are glowing. Procatopus are more well known for the coloration on their bodies and fins than eye color.

In the wild, Procatopus are found in the rivers and streams of central West Africa in countries like Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Here they are found in schools along side fish species like: Pelvicachromis spp., Nanochromis spp., Hemichromis spp., Barbus spp. and Synodontis spp. Most of their diet likely consists of insects, insect larvae and aquatic crustaceans.

In the aquarium, treat Procatopus like smaller rainbowfish species. They need to be in groups of at least a half dozen fish. And a larger group in tank sizes of 30+ gallons can be an impressive sight. Foods can consist of flake food, smaller pellets, brine shrimp, bloodworms, glass worms, grindal worms, white worms and Daphnia.

Overall their care is very straight forward. Avoid large water changes as they can be sensitive to larger changes. This sensitivity is similar to Lamprichthys tanganicanus from Lake Tanganyika but Procatopus are a little hardier in our experience.

The second video showcases how we store killifish eggs. A lot of killifish keepers use this method. It allows for a larger number of eggs to hatch at once. This makes raising the fish a lot easier than having several containers containing several sizes of fry. We hope you enjoy our videos. We will keep producing them as time permits.

Last note, auction season is upon us! The Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society (GPASI) has their fall auction next weekend. Hope to see everyone there! Happy Fish Keeping!

Over 100 For The Day and More Hisonotus aky

Just amazing to have over a hundred views for today. Bet we can hit 200 before the day is out! A few weeks ago, we had the privilege of attending the American Cichlid Association (ACA) National Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. The event was hosted by our good friends, the Greater Cincinnati Aquarium Society (GCAS). It truly was a great event as we were able to catch up with all of our cichlid friends from around the U.S. and the world. A big thank you to the GCAS and the ACA for putting on a great show!

The Hisonotus aky just keep on going. Wish I could get a good photo showing the amount of green these fish have. Below are some photos of more eggs along with some views of the amazing color of this fish. The second photo shows the amazing emerald color of these fish. Enjoy!

ACA Happy 4th of July

This Thursday is the start of the American Cichlid  Association (ACA) Convention. This is always a well attended event. Please be sure to stop by our room and say hi. We will have the below fish available for purchase. This is available, first come, first serve. Email us at: jeremybasch@gmail.com for questions. Thanks!

Cichlid Species Available Common Name Size Price
Geophagus megasema F-3- Rare! Large Spot Geophagus 1 3/4" 5/$80
Laetacara araguaiae F-2 Purple Gold Dwarf Cichlid 1 1/2" 5/$40
Laetacara araguaiae F-1 Purple Gold Dwarf Cichlid 3" 4/$40

Catfish Species Available Common Name Size Price
Loricaria sp. "Rio Atabapo" F-2 (Pre-Order Only) Crying Lipbrooding Whiptail 3-4" 4/$100
Panaqolus sp. "L-398" F-1 L-398 1 1/2"+ $35 ea. 6/$180

Killifish Species Available Common Name Size Price
Aphyosemion elberti "Diang Yellow" Elbert's Killifish 1"+ $15/pr.
Aphyosemion punctatum "Bolo Bai" Red Spotted Killifish 1"+ $15/pr.
Aphyosemion primigenium "GBN 88/10" Primitive Killifish 1"+ $15/pr.
Aphyosemion striatum "Lambarene" F-2 Striped Killifish 1 1/2" $15/trio.
Chromaphyosemion bitaeniatum "Mbanga" Two Stripe Killifish 1" $15/pr.
Chromaphyosemion splendopleure "Ekondo Titi" Splendid Killifish 1 1/2" $12/pr.

Inverts Common Name Size Price
Asolene spixi Spixi Snail 3/4" shell 6/$5
Clea helena Assasin Snails 3/4" shell 4/$10

Daphnia Cultures

Amazing what you can do with carrots, a vitamin pill and water mix in a blender! We are now working on setting up additional cultures. We should have plenty of food shortly. Check out our YouTube Video along with photos below. Enjoy!

The American Cichlid Association Convention hosted by the Greater Cincinnati Aquarium Society

It is just around the corner, the ACA 2016 Convention in Cincinnati Ohio is upon us! AmazonTropics will of course be there with several offers including some rare Geophagus, a few catfish and even killifish (no they aren't always cichlid food). All the details for the event can be found here: ACA Convention 2016

We hope you join us as we enjoy a fun filled weekend of all things cichlids. For those in our hometown, Columbus, OH, do not miss this event! It is only a short two hour drive. Bring the kids and make a long weekend out of it. Cinci has a ton of great things to do and the GCAS has several tours arranged including: the Cincinnati Zoo and the Newport Aquarium. Hope to see you there!

Hypancistrus zebra 2.0

It would seem our zebras have finally settled in and have started breeding again. I expect the first batch to leave the cave shortly within the next few days. We will be holding these back for future breeders so that we might one day be able to produce these on a more regular basis. Once we have enough for future breeding stock, we will offer this wonderful species again to the public.

Also this week, our Centromochlus perugiae have spawned. We will be looking at improving our yields by incorporating a new in tank aquarium system. It should help keep things more stable and allow for a large volume of water for the fry. We anticipate this will increase our growth rates on our fish and allow more flexibility.

Last, we are moving our Emerald Green Oto fry to a 20 gallon growout. We are going to hold these back also for future breeding stock. There are around 20 offspring that now range in size from a little over 3/4"-1 1/4". Our goal is to try to offer as many offspring as CatCon approaches and beyond.

More updates to come!

Hypancistrus zebra

I went ahead and posted some unique fish to Aquabid.com tonight. These include sub-adult zebra plecos! These are close to spawning size. These fish are for pickup only as it is extremely warm out and these fish are just too special to ship. Pickup is available at the GAAS All-Aqua Show. Please email us at: jeremybasch@gmail.com if you have further questions. Follow the link below. Thanks!

AmazonTropics.com Aquabid.com Listings

Tatia gyrina

And today we found Tatia gyrina eggs! A photo is listed below but this is a photo shortly after acquiring them. They look much better now that they are in their prime! Fall is looking like it will be full of catfish in our tanks! Guess we will have plenty for the All-American Catfish Convention.