Late Reply to An Older Post

[K Kurko <kkurko@email.msn.com>]

Hi Fellow Apistophiles,

My name is Keith Kurko and I live in Seattle Washington.  I've been lurking 
on this list for the past few months, but only tried to make my first post 
a couple weeks ago.

I was surprised, but my post did not go through.  So I contacted the list 
administrator, Francis Brian O'Carroll, and he graciously suggested a 
possible solution to my technical problem.  He also suggested that I try to 
send the list another e-mail to see if my inability to post has been 
solved.

So, I am taking this opportunity to resubmit my original comments again. 
 They are a couple weeks old, but my sentiments expressed in them are still 
valid.

Thanks,
Keith



>I live in KY and find it hard to get any kind of Apis. locally.  CAn 
anyone suggest
>a good mail order company?
>thanks
>Karilena Ann Meyer

Hi Karilena,

My name is Keith Kurko and I live in Seattle, Washington.  About a five 
weeks ago I was looking for a couple pair of A. pandurini.  The few I saw 
in two local fish stores were all F1 females.  I finally decided to order 
two wild pair from Anchor Bay Aquarium in New Baltimore Michigan.

I talked to the owner directly (nice guy), and the fish were packed and 
shipped for 1-day overnight delivery.  The four fish arrived at 10 AM the 
next morning looking a little bit chilled (this was late-February), but in 
very good shape considering their 2000 mile journey.  All were full-grown 
and looked beautiful.  I put the four of them into a lightly stocked, 
heavily planted 90-gallon community aquarium with lots of caves, and they 
quickly looked at home.  My local tap water is very soft and I lowered the 
pH with peat and phosphoric acid (a product called "pH lower" by Fritz 
Industries) to between 5.5 and 6.0.  I also have been regularly adding 
either Tetra's "Blackwater Extract" or "Amazon Extract" by Aquarium 
Pharmaceuticals.  I've been feeding the fish live and frozen foods (they 
won't eat anything else).  The two females soon set up territories on 
opposite sides of the tank, more than 1-meter apart.  The dominant male 
spawned with one female within five days (!) of their arrival date.  The 
next week he spawned with the other female.  This spawning rotation has 
continued, and so far both females have spawned twice.

The cost of the overnight shipping was expensive, but the bottom line is 
that I am very pleased with both the fish and the service that I received 
from Anchor Bay Aquarium.  I would order from them again.

Their web site is: http://www.anchorbayaquarium.com/index.html
And their phone # is (810) 725-1383.

Keith Kurko      kkurko@email.msn.com
Seattle, Washington USA