It’s a Wrap!

Finally after long months and months of planning, organizing, building and restocking we have finished the entire fish room remodel.  It’s awesome!

All the new racks are in place.  All the lighting has been replaced.  Each section has it’s own switch.  The heater never runs anymore!  We needed to adjust the dehumidifier as it was heating a little too well.  We have a few things to fine tune but those can be done at our leisure.  This weekend we are adding a few 5 gallon fry tanks so we can get those babies pulled and off to a good start.  We have provided room to grow with the way the racks are built. There is a whole top shelf that doesn’t yet have tanks.  Once we get back to a routine we will see how many we want to add in the future but those will be done one or two at a time.

I’ve done some fish shopping to add to the breeding tanks.  There are a few species that I’m working with now in addition to the apistos.  We have a lip brooding loricaria, sailfin tetras (very cool cave spawning tetra), butterfly barbs, clown killies, zebra otos, regular otos, L270s and a bunch more.  We will be downsizing the livebearers with a few going out in tubs for the summer to be sold off in the fall.  We might keep a few for tubbing next year.  Even with the ability to expand we can easily be overgrown with fry if we aren’t careful.

It’s our plan to bring in a limited number of altums this year.  We are aiming for mid to late August.  Incoming shipments will be sporadic this coming year while we rebuild and get the breeding back up to speed.  We plan on having a nice selection of fish for the Catfish convention this fall as well.

We currently have fry from almost all of the apistos.  We currently have double red aggies, blue trim aggies, triple red cacs, double orange cacs, panduro, macmasteri blue, macmasteri red, veijita I (tank raised strain of macmasteri) and borelli opals.  We hope to add a few more in the coming months.  We also have a few other South American dwarfs that are spawning.

Any questions just contact me at bev@theamazonbasement.com.

 

New Fish, New Food and more to come

It’s been a pretty busy week in the basement.  We got in our first order from a new supplier this past Monday.  Cardinals, rummy nose, ruby tetras,  corydoras, L129 and a few more.  We started small and are pretty happy with the first shipment.  The plecos were not identified correctly which does happen.  It’s all that darn aguardiente down there in Colombia.  Having attending the Paso Fino World show I know all about the “fire water”.  I degress.

The cardinals look super.  We got in quite a few mediums, just around 1,100.  They are schooling and eating like pigs.  Out of all those we had a total of 2 losses.  We have heard there have been problems with the cardinals this year but fortunately we are not seeing any issues as all.  The plecos are eating.  The little ruby tetras are doing super.  They are pretty little things.  I may have to jack a few of those for my own tanks.

We are expecting another shipment on Monday, this time from Peru.  I’ve ordered some things I haven’t seen so we shall see if they actually come in.  Peru is a little more difficult to get healthy fish from so I only put in a small trial order to see how it goes.  If I get the things I ordered there will be some nice, interesting fish on the stock list later next week.

Last week I was able to visit with Rachael of Invertebrates by Msjinkzsd.  She has a really neat fish room with all kinds of nano fish.  You could spend hours there and not see everything that is hiding in her tanks amoung all the plants.  The purpose of my visit was to pick up some of the new Repashy foods that she is selling.  I was pretty skeptical but having heard such great reviews had to give it a try.  I have been feeding it to the fry in our fish room and my Uaru fernandezypezi.  While some looked at it like an alien life form most have taken right to it.  The plecos love it as well.  It’s my hope that the fry will be able to pick at this throughout the day and it will increase growth rates and color in the fish we spawn here.  Of course I didn’t leave without grabbing some fish.  I saw these adorable little apsidoras that I just had to have.  They are now swimming in a nice tannin filled tank with my alexrodia stigmatis.  Now to get them to spawn!

I’ll update next week after I return from the airport with the shipment from Peru.  I’m really hoping to get all that I ordered but I know that when dealing with wild caught imports not everything will always come in.

As far as the fish room remodel we are about finished.  All the plumbing has been redone and the existing tanks are in place and  set up.  The last stands for the 36 50 gallons will be built at a more leisurely rate now that we are up and running.  Now to clean up all the scrap lumber, styro  insulation and dust from the remodel.  Then I can finally finish the drywall sanding  of the basement office and family room and get that painted.  Anyone want to work for fish?  :)

Light at the end of the Tunnel

We finally have moved all of the tanks!  Yippieee.   We still have a list of things that need done but it’s organized enough to work in without tripping over ourselves.

There are  now three racks for the fifteen gallon tanks.  Each one holds twenty tanks!  We don’t have enough tanks to fill them yet but will in the coming months.  We will have a total of sixty fifteens for breeding pairs and groups in addition to a dozen ten gallons.  The other side of the room has two racks that hold a total of twenty-four twenty gallon high tanks.  Next to that are two racks that hold two seventy-five gallon tanks each with a total of four thirties over the big tanks.  In the center of the room there is space to expand to thirty-six fifty gallon tanks.  We are contemplating a rack for five gallons.  We have allowed ourselves room to grow or we can stop before adding tanks to the top shelf of the racks.  We are regrowing slowly but surely.

It’s been a crazy but highly productive winter.  Spring however has sprung earlier than anticipated so this weekend is yard work.  In March!  I cannot belive I have to mow the lawn.  In March!

I got a nice shipment of apistogramma this week.  Super nice fish.  Breeding size and colored up!  Can’t beat that.  I’m expecting shipments from Colombia and Peru in the coming weeks as long as my orders can be filled.   I’ll be taking some goodies down to the PVAS Spring auction.  Hey, I have to foot my auction bill somehow.

We have a lot of new spawns in the fish room.  We have tiny fry from one dwarf cichlid and another pair tending a clutch of eggs.  I’m hoping that they eggs are good.  I saw a few white ones but it’s the first spawn for them here so hoping they get better at it.

If you are going to the auction on April 7th and see anything on my stock list you are interested in drop me an email at bev@theamazonbasement.com.  I can deliver pre-orders and save you shipping costs.

More to come tomorrow…fish room visits and new food!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catfish Convention 2012…Here we come!

We are registered for the Catfish Convention in Herndon, VA.  We will be one of the sellers participating in the Friday Night Selling Spree on Three on the third floor of the Hyatt Dulles.

The speaker line up for this years convention is incredible.  We opted to sell from our room so that we wouldn’t miss a minute of the greats talks that are planned for this year.  The fun begins on Thursday  night with a talk by Heiko Bleher followed by a “Get to Know you Social” and runs through Sunday with the all day auction beginning at 10 AM.

We are really looking forward to this years convention and have plans to bring a number of catfish species as well as other South American fish including apistogramma, angelfish and tetras.

Get your hotel reservations in early.  You don’t want to miss out on one of the best, if not the best, conventions in the country.

http://catfishcon.com/#

We are still plugging along with the total remodel of the fish room.  We have made terrific progress albeit a little slower than I would like.

In the past few weeks we have gotten all but two of the 20s moved to their new location.  We are waiting on two spawns of Apistogramma Veijita to grow a little before we move them out of the parents tanks.  I’m looking to pull those fry this coming weekend.

All of the 40 and 50 gallon tanks have been moved and those L052 plecos were so happy with the change of scenery they spawned again.  We have begun selling some of the larger fry from earlier spawns.

We have one small space along the exterior basement wall to frame and insulate and then have to redo the sink area and plumbing.  I say we when I really mean Dale!

The three racks that will hold 2 75s each with a shelf that runs along the top for four 30 gallon tanks are finished and in place.  The airlines and new lights need to be added and we will be ready to move the tanks into place.

There is another rack that will hold another twenty 15 gallon tanks and I think we will be ready to wall the entire room in and insulate.  We will now have a storage area for boxes and supplies as well as a place to set the fridge.

We now have all the apistos set up in 15 gallon tanks.  As of right now we have 5 pairs of panduro, 3 pairs of double red aggies, 5 pairs of fire red aggies, 5 pairs of veijita I, 4 pairs of triple red cacs, and three pairs of borelli opals.  We are looking to add a few more to the mix as we get tanks set up and running.

This past weekend we took a day off and attended the monthly meeting at PVAS.  What a great bunch.  They really need to move closer to us!  It’s well worth the 2 hour drive for us.  They run a terrific show down there.  This month in addition to a great speaker they had a chili cook off.  Friendly folks, informative speaker, good food and awesome fish in the auction.  How do you top that?  Well..there is that Catfish Convention coming up.  We are planning on attending and selling from our room.  We hope to bring some things you don’t see often.  We had considered a vendor spot but would really like to enjoy the convention and hear the speakers as well as spend some serious time socializing.  I hear those crazy PVAS folks have some interesting stuff up their sleeves.

I know that a lot of you have been wondering what our plans are with altums this year.  We have gotten calls and emails from all over the US requesting altums.  It is our plan to bring some in this year.  We have done so well with them previously and it’s just for us a labor of love.

Stay tuned for next weeks update.  I hope to soon have pics to post on the website!

 

 

Hello and Welcome to the Amazon Basement Blog

I’ve been trying to come up with a way to keep you updated without constantly changing the website.  I’m not wordpress savy by any means but will work through it eventually.

 

We have just finished moving a dozen 10 gallon tanks onto their new stand.  Two of the stands that will hold a total of twenty 15 gallon tanks are done, the tanks are on the stands and our breeding pairs are being moved into them over the next week.  We will have enough space to hold approximately seventy 15 gallon tanks when completed.  The racks that will hold twenty four 20 gallon tanks are almost complete and it place.  We have to connect the air lines that will power the sponge filters and then those will get moved into place and provide much needed space for growing out apistos and more.

This coming weekend we plan on finishing the racks for the 20s and adding a few new ones to hold the 40 gallon breeders and the 50 gallon breeders.  If all goes as planned (and it never does) those will be all moved and full of fish by the 18th.  Once that is done we can then finish framing up the walls and insulating.  With ever square inch of the space insulated we hope to keep those crazy utility bills in check.

We are looking to add new species to our breeding program and working on getting back up to doing some importing.  How much…we haven’t decided yet.  I’ll be updating on a weekly basis so keep checking back to see what is new in the basement today.