Juan Miguel Artigas Azas

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Grupo Mexicano de Ciclidófilos
Cichlid Room Companion

My hobby
The fish
The food
The filtration
My articles
My projects

My hobby

I have love fish since I was six, when I saw some cichlids swimming in a lagoon shore looking curiously at me. I wondered then how those amazing creatures could survive below the water surface. I have steadily kept cichlids since 1978, although even before that I would love to observe them in their natural habitat. At the present time I am specialized in Central American Cichlids, which I keep, photograph, study and breed. I do also keep some livebearers of the Xiphophorus genus and Goodeidae family. As well as some few killifish, mostly north American pupfish, I am just getting to know this fish.

Fish I keep

My tank space is limited, I keep tanks in a fishroom home, I do this to constrain all special piping as well as potential floodings to one place. A place with a drain, as well as a sink and cleaning facilities, it makes things much easier. The tanks I keep are as follows: 1-780 liters (This one I keep it in the dinning room), 4-375 liters, 2-275 liters and 6-60 liters.

I keep right now (May-98) the following species:

Cichlidae

Cryptoheros sajica (Costa Rica)
Cryptoheros spilurus (Moho river)
Cryptoheros nigrofasciatus (Northwestern Costa Rica)
Cryptoheros nigrofasciatus (Honduras)
Cryptoheros nanoluteus (Boca del Toro)
Cryptoheros myrnae (Sixaola)
Cryptoheros sp. "cutteri" (Lake Yojoa)
Cryptoheros septemfasciatus (Sarapiqui)
Thorichthys aureus (Moho river)
Theraps coeruleus
Thorichthys callolepis
Thorichthys helleri (Rio Chacamax)
Thorichthys aff. helleri "Mixteco blue" (Rio Coatzacoalcos)
Thorichthys aff. helleri "Mixteco green" (Rio Uxpanapa)
Thorichthys maculipinnis (Otapa river)
Thorichthys meeki (Laguna de las Ilusiones)
Thorichthys pasionis (Laguna Noh)

Goodeidae

Allodonthichthys zonistius
Characodon audax
Characodon lateralis "Amado nervo"
Characodon lateralis "Los Berros"
Characodon lateralis "27 de Noviembre"
Characodon lateralis "Guadalupe Aguilera"
Hubbsina turneri
Skiffia francesae
Skiffia multipunctata
Xenoophorus captivus (Illescas)
Xenotoca variata (Jesús Maria)
Xenotichthys eiseni
Zoogoneticus quitzeoensis (Camécuaro)
Zoogoneticus tequila

Poecilidae

Poecilia mexicana
Poecilia sphenops
Poeciliopsis gracilis
Priapella intermedia
Pseudoxiphophorus bimaculatus
Xiphophorus gordoni
Xiphophorus helleri
Xiphophorus sp. clemenciae

Cyprinodontidae

Cyprinodon atrorus
Cyprinodon bobmilleri
Cyprinodon fontinalis
Cyprinodon meeki

Food

I prepare my own fish food (actually my wife does :)), my philosophy being, why to spend a fortune in bad food when you can prepare good, fresher, cheaper food yourself ?. So, for many years that's what I do, no complains, my fish breed happily on that. my recipe:

For omnivorous :

1 kg. Saltwater fish meat, I use saltwater fish in order to avoid the possibility of introducing freshwater fish parasites in the food to my aquariums. So, it is a little bit more expensive, but gives me some peace of mind. An important aspect of the fish you choose for your food is that fish meat without may nerves or cartilages should be used. Cartilages will get stuck in the guts of smaller fish and kill them, so be careful in this regard.
1/2 kg. raw shrimp, I maybe would like to use more, but Gee, those are expensive, I use the type where the head has been removed, so I get more meat. I use the shrimp complete, I don't remove skin. It is soft and has many minerals the fish need and appreciate. Shrimp is a good complement to the food because it contains a lot of carotene, which helps to keep or enhance the yellow or red coloration on your fish.
1/4 kg. oysters, I just remove the water they are in, helps me mix the food and contains proteins and carotene. Beware as they tend to rot easily.
1 Lettuce, I add a whole lettuce, the omnivorous fish I am sure they appreciate it and those strictly piscivorous or carnivorous I am sure don't mind to get some salad (never heard a complain from they). Helps me mix the food also as it contains a lot of water.
1/4 kg. Carrots, Again, the carotene, this time from vegetal origin. Lots of fiber also, fiber helps to bind the food and keep it together. It should help fish to do digestion too, at least I think so.
1 cup of Oat meal, I just figured out what other vegetal matter could I add, I decided on oatmeal, don't ask me why, fish like it though.

How do I prepare ?, easy. Just throw all into the food processor and put it in a plastic container in the freezer. Yes, you may be thinking, where is the grenetine/gelatin to bind the food together I read so often about?. well, I don't use any grenetine. the food will bind by itself once freeze because of the fiber, no need to grenetine at all. I add some vitamins, mainly B2 complex to enhance coloration.

For strictly herbivorous :

1 Lettuce, I add a whole lettuce. After all, we love it, so why fish wouldn't ?
1/4 kg. Carrots, Again, the carotene, this time from vegetal origin. Lots of fiber also, fiber helps to bind the food and keep it together. It should help fish to do digestion too, at least I think so.
1 cup of Oat meal, I just figured out what other vegetal matter could I add, I decided on oatmeal, don't ask me why, fish like it though.
Peas, as many as you want, fish just love them!
Vitamin B2 complex, I add this as I feel bad the fish are just getting veggies and may not getting all the requirements, of course, this may only be in my mind.

Some other complements:

For herbivorous,

I throw them lettuce leaves and soft fruits, they love it!, Papaya, Bananas, Mangoes, Water Melon, they sure like them. I have watch them in the wild eating fruits that fall on the water, so I try to duplicate this from time to time.

For omnivorous,

For small fish or livebearers I keep a constant culture of artemia nauplii which I feed to them everyday as a complement, or as a first food for my fish.
I trowel them bugs I collect around from time. That is; mosquitoes larvae, daphnia and those that do not look ugly. Of course I am aware I can also introduce some other parasites with the food but I am not a purist. Yes, my fish have felt ichthy sometimes when I feed them wild stuff but that has happened just sporadically and nothing wrong has occurred.

I feed once a day, but the fry which I try to fed twice. It happens I go out often from town and then I just don't feed one to three days, no problem then. However, It is advisable that if fry is around in the tanks they should not be stop being fed. Otherwise they may suffer, get deformations or just die.

Filtration

In all of my tanks, but one of them, I use automatic water changes in a plain simple way. What I do is as follows; In the fishroom I have 1/2" PVC piping coming from the home reservoir. Those, by means of valves keep dripping new water into all of my tanks, by one rear corner of each tank. An outlet at water suffice, made by drilling a hole through the tanks back pane and fitting a PVC elbow attached to a hose, drains to the house system water that overflows in the tanks.

This system has several advantages:

You don't get sudden changes in your aquariums environment, either in chemistry or temperature. The dripping allows more than enough time for the fish to get used to the new water and temperature and water parameters remains constant.
Water supply disinfectant agents like chlorine or chloramine have time to dissipate or get filtered by you before they accumulate high concentrations, that could eventually harm the fish.
It is very efficient, the water changing rate adjusts very constantly and you can calculate how fast the water in your tanks should be replaced. In this regard you should consider that the water displaced by the overflow is part old and part new, so there is indeed an amount of water wasted, so maybe if you suffer from water supply shortage shouldn't use it. This may be the main disadvantage.

I use three type of filtering schemes, depending on my tanks, as follows:

Large tanks:

Here I use a DIY (do it yourself) dry/wet filter, I build them 22 cm. width (10 inches), 25 cm. height (10 inches) and the length of them is the width of the tank they filter, in this case 50 cm. (20 inches). I do this because I place them in one end of the tanks on top of them. with their length from front to back of the aquarium.

This filter comprise of three chambers, the first one 20 cm. (8 inches), intended for mechanical filtration, which I do using delcron fiber. The fiber is placed on top of a light diffuser (egg crate) sheet on top of some glass guides two centimeters from the filter bottom. Water comes from above, filters through the fiber and cross bellow the plastic diffuser to the second chamber by an opening in the lower part of the chambers division. In the second more narrow central chamber, about 10 cm. (4 inches) the water flows upwards and here I use chemical filtration media when it is required, mainly because of poor quality water supply. Once above, the water overflows to the third chamber, 22 cm. length (8 inches), where spreads on an acrylic sheet full of small holes, acting as a diffuser, the water then goes through a dry/wet filter media, known as DLS. From there, by a hole in a corner the water returns to the aquarium.

The filters is fed with aquarium water by means of an immersed water pump (maxi flow 1000) in the opposite end of the aquarium, a hose takes the water by the corner, crosses the lid of the tank and feeds the filter. I bend the hose with the help of a small piece of light diffuser (egg crate), one end entering one hole and exiting by another.

The advantages of this system are a good mechanical filtration as well as a good interchange of gases, giving as a result a well oxygenated aquarium water. As a backup, I do use a line of air (from a hagen pump compressor), in case something could go wrong with the filter, a rare event.

In these tanks I keep central American Cichlids and some sucker catfish

Small tanks:

Those tanks (6-60 liters) are filtered by a sponge filter in one corner, I always use the largest I can. This filters are good stuff and provide good media for biological filtration. I don't use gravel in these tanks making it easy the maintenance. I do however provide cover for the fish by means of water plants, placed in pots with the proper fine sand substrate.

In theses tanks I keep livebearers and small cyprinodontids.

Isolated Large tank:

This is a large tank I keep in the living room of our home, I don't like tanks being around the house but this is an exception, it is our show tank. There I keep some large central American Cichlids/ As this tank is outside the fishroom piping is not feasible or aesthetical advisable, so I use a mechanical - dry/wet filter with the usual sump. The filter is the same design that those placed on top of the tanks but it is placed below the tank in this case and fed by a overflow. The sump is connected to an external water pump that feeds the aquarium. Filter measures are 60 cm. (24 inches) length, 40 cm. width (16 inches) and 40 cm. (16 inches height). Here I also can't install the automatic water change scheme so I have to suffer to monthly water changes. I know, I know...what's the need in lay to you :-).

Articles

I have written some articles, they are mostly about topics related to Mexican Cichlids, taxonomic status, and their captive maintenance, you can read some of them from here:

Projects

My projects; Well, I am working on a book on Mexican cichlids and expect to finish it one day. After that the second part on Central American cichlids, maybe later go to South America and some day to Africa. Will keep studying distribution, systematic, ecology and behavior of Central American Cichlids as I have done for years now. Livebearers and Desert fish are also of my interest and will be involved in their study, focusing on Mexican species. Hope one day I can build a swimming pool size aquarium in my home for Mexican cichlid species with a wall to my living room. Underwater photography of Central American freshwater fish species will be high in my priorities and will keep working on that. I also will be publishing home pages, one on the Rioverde valley in México is on the works. I will keep webmastering that of the Cichlid room companion and will that of the Grupo Mexicano de Ciclidófilos. Will keep trying to establish the "Grupo Mexicano de Ciclidófilos". I will be involved in conservation efforts as much as I can and keeping long term captive populations on some endangered species. Who says I do not take my hobby seriously ?. Is that all?, no, of course I have family and professional goals as well, I hope I have time for all.

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