African stockists in the UK

[racoll]

I'm looking for good stockists of west African (e.g. Nigeria) and central African (e.g. Congo) species in the UK. A lot of retailers I speak to say the exporters are too unreliable at the moment.

The best I've found so far is Maidenhead Aquatics in St. Albans. They have some really nice stuff, but the prices are a bit steep.

Looking mainly for interesting barbs, tetras and small distichodontids like Neolebias or Nannaethiops. And catfishes of course!

If anyone sees a good shop on their travels, let me know

[gltjc]

Abacus Aquatics and Wildwoods have had a bunch of the 'new' congo tetras recently, e.g. Phenacogrammus 'fantastique' and P. aurantiacus and Bathyaethiops. Could be worth asking what they could get hold of. Not seen many cats at either (but haven't looked that hard). There were some Neolebias trilineatus in St. Albans early this year (about when you posted!) but haven't seen anything else of the 'mini tetra' variety recently.

[racoll]

Cheers gltjc!

Looks like I'm spoilt for choice at the moment. Lots of imports coming through it seems.

I'm glad I waited, as I picked up some lovely little Neolebias sp. "red" (I think probably N. trewavasae) at Pier Aquatics during the Catfish Convention, as well as some really nice sized

Synodontis contractus

.

I'll get some pics of the tank up once it's settled in.

[gltjc]

Please do post pics and let me know what you spot! I have a group of 12 P sp fantastique, 10 P aurantiacus and 8 Enteromius fasciolatus in a 10 foot tank and so have plenty of space for other Congo rarities and a group of small distichodontids would work well - jealous of your trewavasae. Pier is a bit far for me, but could be persuaded to make a journey.

[gltjc]

How are your trewavasae and Syno contracture doing? Do you have pics you can share yet?

My 'congo' (ish) tank is on the UKAPS forum under the name 'congo swamp monster' if it is of interest. Keen to add some of the Trachyglanis or Belonoglanis that are around.

[racoll]

Apologies for taking so long to get the update gltjc!

Here's a shot of the tank at the moment. It's a four footer. I'll try and get some better close-ups of the fish soon.

Stock is as follows:
x18 Neolebias trewavasae
x8 Alestopetersius smykalai
x5 Epiplatys dageti (plus babies)
x5 Synodontis contractus
x1 Gnathonemus petersii
Amano shrimps
Nerite snails
Christmas moss
Bucephalandra
Bolbitus
Anubias 'petite'

Got the Alestopetersius last week as they were very cheap at £2.50 each(!), but they are super skittish, and I lost a male (only one left now), which is a bit disappointing; the females are quite plain. The rest are very settled, but the elephant nose does try to bully the Synodontis a lot, but they just generally ignore it. The Neolebias are excellent fish; not too shy, not too hectic. Hope to breed these one day, but I'll have to set up another tank for that probably. Had a pair of Pelvicachromis taeniatus 'Nigerian red', but they bloated up and died in very short space of time (I suspect dodgy bloodworms). Not sure it I'll get any cichlids to replace them yet.

Your tank is amazing! Any updates? How are the Trachyglanis doing? Those Microsynodontis are monsters!

[gltjc]

Hi. Nice tank. My Trachyglanis unfortunately did not do well. I couldn’t get them feeding well on frozen worms and I lost my them within a couple of months. They were fascinating fish so I was very sad to lose them.