Editor: Alan De Angelo

Publisher: Daryl Hutchins

Contact: [email protected]

Greetings and foliage-changing salutations!

It’s October and the weather is beginning to get downright chilly for some of us. Fall is in full bloom here in the MidWest while it has already finished up in the North Country. Having been in northern Minnesota the first 10 days of October, I have had the pleasure of experiencing the peak color up there when I arrived, the peak of color throughout Wisconsin driving home and now, in Illinois, full color is finally waning. What a beautiful few weeks I have had.

Convention News!

The 2021 Convention is scheduled for the St. Louis area. Many people are looking forward to seeing old friends and getting to talk about their fish again. If you have never been to an ACA Convention, you have missed out on a great experience. Pat Tosie, Convention Chair, and the Missouri Aquarium Society will be our host. A hearty thank you to them all.

Hopefully, CoVid19 has faded away by then and we can have an unencumbered good time. Check out the website for the convention date, site and schedule. It is also listed on the ACA Convention FB page.

Cichlids and Livebearers

One thing that I have noticed in my aquaristic career is that many cichlid-keepers are also fans of livebearers. We all keep tetras, barbs and danios, etc, too, but for many, livebearers also take up a significant part of our fishrooms. I do not know what the correlation is there but I do notice it.

Take for instance Rusty Wessel: Mr Cichlid, big and small CA cichlids, Thoricthys, and others fill his fishroom but you know what? He also keeps oodles of livebearers. Next time you look into a cichlid guy’s fishroom, scan the tanks for other fishes. Many times you will find livebearers, too. If you are not keeping swordtails with your Firemouths or Cryptoheros species, look into doing it. Add a bunch of floating plants to keep the fry safe and you’ll get double the reward.

You can do this really well if you have outdoor ponds, too. Next season, toss in a few livebearers in with your cichlids.

Stay safe, stay healthy and remember that things have got to get better in 2021.

– Alan

PSSSST:
Don’t forget the OCA Extravaganza, coming soon ⬇⬇⬇

LOCAL CLUB EVENTS

Send your cichlid-related news/events to the AN Editor at [email protected] and we will be happy to help you spread the word about your local events. Please allow six weeks lead-time.

WHERE ARE YOU?

Please ensure that the ACA has your current e-mail address. Otherwise we could lose touch … e-mails not arriving, fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, rivers and seas boiling, 40 years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes, dead rising from the grave, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together – mass hysteria! Oh, wait …

Your street address and/or mobile/phone number could prove useful too … just in case.