Ala Species Maintenance

[OldMan47]

This year's American Livebearer Association species maintenance target species is Ataeniobius toweri, the blue tailed goodeid. I was fortunate enough to get 3 pairs of them and am keeping them in an unheated 29 gallon in my fish room. As of today, the colony has already added somewhere between 15 and 20 fry to their tank. There was a very low survival drop about a week ago, with only 3 survivors found, followed by another a few days ago that boosted their numbers to between 15 and 20. It is a bit harder to count the larger numbers but I am fine with that. When it comes to species maintenance, the more the merrier. If they manage to outgrow their present 29, I am more than willing to turn over my common molly 55 gallon grow out tank to them.

 

[Coool]

lucky

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Coool.
What kinds of fish are you most interested in?

 

[OldMan47]

A quick update here. I have so many maturing A. towerii that I intend to return to the ALA convention with a few of them along for sale and I am going to attend a local auction in March and bring some to sell. I am hoping that their rarity in the hobby will contribute to their value and that anyone who receives some will see fit to breed them and once again distribute a few. That is how species maintenance really works, breeders sell off their surplus and more and more people have a population. Ultimately, I would love to see them so common that the ones I offer for sale are almost worthless. At that point, survival of the species would be almost certain, even if something caused me to lose mine.

 

[nigel siddall]

i comend your dedication oldman ive allways had a soft spot for the rarer livebearers. i was in one of my local fish shops last month wile a gent was bringing in some humpback limia so i purchesed a small group fom him ive only ever kept red tailed goodied but would love to try others.

 

[OldMan47]

This year the ALA offering is Chapalichtys encaustus as the SMP species, Nigel. If you are a serious livebearer breeder, this may interest you. Otherwise, many of us are members of ALA and advertise our own fish in the Livebearer Trader that I am responsible for publishing on paper. It is available only to members of the ALA, the American Livebearer Association, so you may not see it in other locations. As a publication for club / association members, it provides valuable information but for non-members it remains not much more than a teaser. If you wish to join the ALA, it can be found easily by using Google search. If you are not in a position to make good use of an American forum, please ignore this post. The BLA is another location that I frequent. The ads and announcements there affect me less since I rarely travel to the UK, but when I do the posts on that site definitely are ones that I pay attention to.