OASE BioMaster Thermo 350

OASE external canister filter in shipping box. Photo by author.

Last month, I posted about the OASE company. I mentioned in that post that I would be receiving a BioMaster Thermo canister filter for review. It arrived!

As you can see in the photo above, OASE sent me the 350.  The 350 is one of three in their external canister line. Designed for 90g tanks, the 350 is the middle size of the three. The 250 is the smallest and designed for 70g tanks. The 600 is the largest of the three and makes a big jump from the 35o, specifically designed for 160g tanks.

Stay tuned!

Cichlids and the status of the CARES priority list

Following up on the previous post about the IUCN Red List, have a look at this recent journal article, which gives a status update on the CARES (Conservation, Awareness, Recognition, Encouragement, and Support) preservation program. CARES is comprised of multiple organizations and, like the IUCN, it also maintains its own priority list. Interestingly, the status of a species in CARES doesn’t always match that of the IUCN. As of May 2019, the CARES priority list contained a bit less than 600 fresh water fish species with nearly half of those being from the Cichlidae family.

To learn more about CARES, visit their website. Also see the interview I did with Greg Steeves. Greg is the coordinator of the Lake Victorian cichlid species for CARES.

 

OASE aquarium products

Image from https://us.oase-livingwater.com/.

If you’re a pond person, then you’ve probably heard of OASE. They’re noted for their pond and water feature pumps, which drive many of the hotel water gardens and fountains around the world. In fact, founded in 1949, the German company claims to be the world market leader in water gardening products. For the past several years, the company has been busy expanding via the acquisition of several competitors, including the Italian pump company Eden as well as Atlantic Water Gardens.

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Filter redundancy

Image from https://www.cafepress.com/.

Have you ever gone out of town for a couple of days, returned, and discovered that the filter you have on your tank(s) failed at some point (e.g., just stopped working)? Many aquarists rely on a single filter to both clean the water and provide surface agitation. If you’re in that group and the filter fails, your fish will suffocate long before they’ll die of poisoned water. So how do you address that? Filter redundancy.

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Hey, find your own spot!

75g Tanganyikan community tank. Photo by author.

Territory disputes? With both species only and community tanks, this can be a potential problem. It can be mitigated by overcrowding, i.e., having so many fish that no single fish can claim a territory. Even if your tank isn’t overcrowded, you can still sometimes ease such disputes if you move things around in the tank frequently (e.g., rocks, caves, decorations).

Continue reading this post…Hey, find your own spot!

Interesting research or just bad science?

Male Maylandia greshakei. Image from https://de.wikipedia.org/.

Do you feed your cichlids commercial foods that contain probiotics? Many of the larger market food brands (e.g., New Life Spectrum, Cobalt) and even some smaller ones (e.g., AquaLife) offer probiotic infused foods espousing the benefits to fish digestion.

I came across a recent study (October 2017) in the World Journal of Pharmaceutical Research that looked at the effects of probiotics on reproduction.

Continue reading this post…Interesting research or just bad science?

Ohio Cichlid Association (OCA) 25th Extravaganza

In less than three months, the Ohio Cichlid Association (OCA) will be hosting their annual Extravaganza. Billed as the “…largest celebration of cichlids and catfish on the planet,” the event takes place November 22-24 at the Holiday Inn in Strongsville, Ohio.

To register, go to the 25th Extravaganza registration page. I plan to attend and I hope to see you there. If you attend, introduce yourself to me, let me know you read the blog, and what you think about it. Good or bad, I’m always interested in feedback and I love to meet other cichlidophiles.

More information about the event, including the speaker list, can be found on the 25th Extravaganza website.