CONTENTS

Articles
GHAC Auction p.1

Meet a fellow GHAC

member p.2
NEWSLETTER
March/April 2009
Fish of the Month
p.3

Tank of the Month p.4

GHAC Auction
rd
May 23 Sellers at 10am, Auction at 11am

Items of Interest Location:The Hall on Hammerly

GHAC Officers p.2
How to contact the
GHAC p.2
Sponsors p.3
Useful Websites p.4
10644 Hammerly Blvd.
Houston, TX. 77043
http://www.saintjosephorthodox.org/hallrental.html
Is this auction just for members? Not at all, anyone is welcome to sell, buy
or just come and hang out.
Does it cost to me anything to be able to bid on an item? Not if you are a
GHAC member. Non-members can purchase a bidder card for just $5. Now
check this out…become a member at the auction or before for $5 and register
for your bidder card for free. Sounds easy? Well, it is!

What will be at the Auction? Anything and everything that is a part of the
hobby: livestock of every kind, plants, tanks, filters, heaters, food, drift wood,
Check holey rock…etc.
www.ghac.org
for information GHAC is a social club. We encourage the hobby of keeping aquatic life and
just having fun. We encourage learning more about the hobby, and welcome
on GHAC members of all fish clubs. We certainly hope to see you there. Please tell a
Officer Elections. friend. More information can be found on the GHAC website.
www.myghac.org

Scooby and Rainman’s kids pull out the … and Scooby and Rainman seem to win
raffle ticket winners… all the raffle items. Coincidence?!?!?!
 We want to hear from you. After all, you are the
Meet a Fellow GHAC Member reason that we are here. Email any suggestions,
This month: Empty comments, or questions to raul.turner [at] myghac
[dot] org.

Would you like to share who you are

to the GHAC community? If so,
Your GHAC Officers are:
please feel free to submit a brief
biography about yourself and what
Raul Turner
kind of rfish you keep. Any GHAC (rrocket2002)
officer will gladly accept it. President

Tim Bell
(armthehomeless)
Vice President

David Abeles
(Tiapan)
Co-Vice President

Mary Beth Petranek

(Mzungu)
Treasurer

Fish Gallery Store Hours

Monday-Saturday 10am-8pm
Sunday 12pm-5pm
 Fish of the Month
Opthalmotilapia ventralis
by Eric Rogne
First published in "Splash”, Milwakee Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
Over the past
Opthalmotilapia few years
ventralis catfishashave
is known onebeen
of thebeco
feather-fin cichlids of Lake Tanganyika. The vigorous
personality and vibrant color in territorial males is
what intrigued me about this species.
This species has a large distribution over Lake
Tanganyika with many color variations over different
locations. Males display bright variations of metallic
black and blue with gold, light blue, white, black etc.
highlights. Some yellow forms are even known in the
northern part of the lake. This species has a fairly
streamlined body. Males have extremely elongated
pelvic fins with yellow lappets at the tips. These
yellow lappets are the most realistic egg dummies
known. Males also have slightly elongated dorsal, anal
and caudal fins. Males obtain a size of around 15cm.
with females slightly smaller. Females display a
silver-gray coloration.
In the wild males defend territories on rocks meters
above the lake’s floor chasing away conspecific males
and attracting females. Females school in groups of
500 or more. A male will display and lead a female
from the group to his territory. Males usually don’t
make an elaborate nest in the wild. They usually move
a little sand around that is located on a flat rock. When
courting the male will lead the female in a head to tail
dance while he flutters his fins. At times he will lift his
body from the nest, while his pelvic fins remain in
contact with the nest. Being mouth brooding, the
yellow lappets attract the female to place them in her
mouth. The lappets, being so identical to real eggs in
color and size, ensure proper fertilization of the brood
of eggs. A single female will spawn with various
males in a single brood, generally holding 20 to 30
eggs.
In captivity it is not as hard to spawn Opthalmotilapia
ventralis as it is to get the females to hold for even a
few days. The males are extremely aggressive towards
both males and females of conspecific. I suggest
housing this species in a six foot 100 gallon or larger
aquarium. I recommend the use of sand as substrate. I
also use piles of rocks on both ends of the aquarium
with the middle open. I used limestone sheet and slate
rock. Tall plastic plants can give holding females a place
to retreat from a dominant male. Purchase a group of
Opthalmotilapia ventralis to minimize direct aggression.
I also would mix a large amount of dither fish. Various
Lamprologous species work well, but I found Malawian
Haps of the same size to be more effective. I had the
problem of losing Opthalmotilapia ventralis from a
group and couldn’t get the female to hold longer than a
day for a few years. One day I placed many mid-size to
larger Alonocara, Protomelas and Copadichromis males
into the Opthalmotilapia ventralis 125. These were fish
that I was clearing out of the fish room and wanted to
open up more table space. I over- stocked the tank. A
few days later I noticed another female holding. I didn’t
want to deal with stripping her that day, so I let her be. I
found that with a tank full of large haps the dominant
male Opthalmotilapia ventralis was too preoccupied to
harass the female to hold six days before stripping her
and moving the fry to a tumbler to develop.
The young developed well and were rather large in size.
They also tend to be dominant when housed with other
African cichlid fry. Growth also seems fast, being
similar to that of Malawian Mbuna.
Opthalmotilapia ventralis is an exciting species of fish
to watch with their flashy color and vigorous
personality. Although they don’t always maintain bright
colors, if you add multiple males with higher ratios of
females, at least one male will maintain full color.
Subdominant males will flash colors on and off when
challenging other males. Although a large aquarium and
lots of other fish are needed, Opthalmotilapia ventralis
is certainly worth the space occupied.
 Check out our website…
Tank of the Month
We want to see your tanks! Send us a photo of your tank
along with a brief description of the flora, fauna, water
parameters, equipment used, and anything else you want www.myghac.org
to include. We will post a new tank each month!! Let us
see what you are working with…

March/ April TOTM

Tim’s 30 Gallon Carinotetraodon Tank

Decoration: Driftwood, Live plants

Substrate: Amazonnia Aquasoil
Lighting: 1 36” Compact Fluorescent
Inhabitants: Boraras sp.
Ancistrus sp.
L010A
Neocaridina denticulata sinensis "red"
Carinotetraodon irrubesco
Anetoma helena