Dwarf Cichlids at the ACA

[Neil]

Let's here from some of those who went to the ACA about what fish they saw. I have heard from a couple of people that there were a few interesting things there. Some nice West Africans apparently. I think there were a few new species of apisto, but I am not sure. How about other dwarfs? How was the selection in the rooms and in the auction? How were the prices with fewer than usual participants?

 

[Neil]

Oh come now! No-one went to the ACA and saw any Dwarfs!?

 

[Scooter]

Hey Neil. There weren't many dwarfs in the show. I was disappointed to not see any dwarf pikes at all. There were some nice apistos for sale. I saw some cacatouides and some aggies, but I don't specifically remember anything new. There were some really nice Aulonocara's. Many, many people had fish in their rooms for sale. There were many good deals to be had, but I found the prices to be a little high for the things I was interested in. Many of the cacs were going for $8 - $10 and I can get them from my lfs for $5 or less. I didn't really pay much attention to the African prices because I don't keep them. I saw many people leaving with bags of fish, however.

 

[Neil]

Hey Scooter,
I guess that is not real suprising. There are always a ton of Africans, but usually not so many S>A> Dwarfs. However, there seems to always be at least a couple of really interesting things that pop up. But you have to look for them. The prices aren't usually that great for apistos, because not that many people have them and more want them, so there is a supply and demand issue at work. I thought that the Inca50 was going to show up there, but it didn't make it to the states like it was supposed to. I can't believe that someone didn't have any lone pairs of elizabethae, diplos, miua, etc. There is almost always 1 high-priced apisto there to drool over!
Neil

 

[Scooter]

Yeah, in hindsight, I could have done a better job of visiting all the rooms where fish were for sale. I checked the fish board everyday, but not real close. There were probably some apistos for sale that I overlooked, but I don't recall anything. What I really wanted was some dwarf pikes, but no one brought any. I saw some really nice CAs and, after hearing Rusty Wessel's talk, they're starting to grow on me. I'm out of room though, which I guess is the aquarist's curse :wink:

 

[mordor]

I saw borelli, macmasteri, viejita, nijseni, rams on fish show. Unfortunatelly apistos were very shy in empty tanks with sponge filter only, so usually you could only see part of tail from behind I was lukcy to take only one more or less good picture of borelli which won first prize. It was much easier to photograph big CA cichlids Yea, aulonocaras were quite colorful.

 

[Scooter]

I do remember the borellis and cacs, but none of the others really jumped out at me. I guess I really expected to see some apistos that knocked my socks off. I did see some double red cacs that were really sweet looking however. Maybe I just set my sights too high :wink: I'll do a better job looking around next year in Cincinnati and will hopefully have more room for some CAs by then.

 

[Randall]

ACA Convention

At this year's ACA Convention, a beautiful A. borellii took first of class, and I think an unusually red A. macmasteri took second or third. There was also a magnificent prize winning N. parilus. My Hemichromis lifalili took Best of Division B - Non-Rift Lake Old World Cichlids, a very pleasant surprise indeed. All in all, however, dwarf cichlids were under represented in the contest, especially West Africans.

As for dwarfs for sale, Dov Goldstein had some Parananochoromis sp., Pelvicachromis taeniatus et al. And on the South American side, both Dave Soares and Mike Jacobs brought some lovely fish. I got a good deal on some Hemichromis cristatus (nastly little buggers), and there were also H. lifalili, Kribs, Rams and the nicest M. altispinosa I've ever seen.

I'm trying to persude Toyin Ojo to bring some of his West African fish and plants to Cincinatti next year. Some peer pressure from the forum might do the trick, http://www.rehobothaquatics.com/index2.html

Randall Kohn

 

[Neil]

I guess that the interesting stuff was in the Westie catagory this year. By the way, I contacted Toyin and told him about the forum and that we are talking about him some and he was appreciative. I would love it if he come on occasionally to let us know about some of the interesting things that he is getting in. Or maybe we can all help motivate him to bring some stuff to the ACA next year!
Neil

 

[jvr]

MY MY , not interested in Apistos

From all your comments about the ACA, I can see that not to many of you asked or bothered to look for Apisto's. I went home with sp. "winkelfleck" from one of the rooms, I got eutonotus(spelling) in another and yes there were Elizabethae at $100/pr, I did not take those home. I had exspected to see more Apisto's and dwarfs in the show and I was dissappointed. However I went home with 3 types of Apisto's, unfortunatelly one guy just bought the last three pairs of Cac. Orange Flame right in front of me, better luck next time. I had seen probably over ten types of Apisto's and some of them relatively rare.

I had a great time and the beer in the hospitality suite was free. Met Mike Wise, and Apisto Dave. All in all a great convention with the fish I wanted, people I met and all the beer you could drink.

See you in Cincinatti next year.

John

 

[Neil]

jvr,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

Sometimes you have to keep your eyes out and look early in the convention for apistos. There is always a few who bring some along and keep them in the rooms. But sometimes you won't see too many in the auction because it is not a sure bet to get much for them. So people sell them before the auction even arrives. There always seems to be a pair of elizabethae or some other rare apisto floating around. Whether you want to fork over the bucks is a function of how motivated you are, I suppose!
Sounds like you got some pretty nice fish though. Maybe you will be bringing the fry next year .
Neil

 

[findawg33]

Hey Neil, I went to the auction this summer in Atlanta for the ACA and as far as apistos or dwarfs in general go there really wasn't much at all. I ended up with a trio of panduos and six fry. one of which turned out not to be a panduro. but other than that all i recall seeing was some juruensis. there may have been one other kind too, but i can't recall the name. it was my first time going to the ACA show and it was fun. I was just really disappointed in the dwarfs in the auction. I didn't realize until the time of the auction that there was the postings on the board. Oh well. It happens. I will be in Cinci this year hopefully and will be a little wiser as to how it all works.