In a departure from the usual format, here’s a fish which is currently arriving in our stores for all the wrong reasons. The Marbled clarias (Clarias batrachus) is a domestic strain of a fish that is also known as the Walking catfish. With an adult size of around 45cm, this tough and rather belligerent food fish is being sold as tiny, adorable youngsters by a number of irresponsible retailers – most of which are unable to house them when customers attempt to return them weeks later, when they’ve eaten their tankmates and outgrown the aquarium. Please, do not buy this fish unless you are prepared to house an 18” long escape artist with an attitude that can make it a challenge to love for a decade or more. In the right hands, Clarias are great pets with lots of personality. If you’re able to help us by taking on one of these rehomes, please get in touch.

If you’re looking for a brightly coloured native plant to cover your pond liner edges or provide shelter (and possibly a stepladder) for young frogs and toads, we can recommend the golden form of Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’). Happy to grow submerged or in damp soil, yellow flowers are a bonus that makes this species useful for pollinators too. You’ll find this hard working hardy plant in most of our pond sections at the moment.

One of the world’s most popular aquarium pets, Bettas have been bred into some remarkable colour forms. Widely known as Betta splendens, studies have shown that these domesticated fish have a mixed ancestry, with a few closely related species contributing to the pets that we know today. A big part of this is probably due to their popularity as fighting fish, with the early part of their domestication selecting for traits that aren’t desirable in aquarium fish. Many generations later, this elevated aggression remains and these fish are best kept in heavily furnished aquaria where sightlines are broken and individuals can avoid each other. For many years the males got most of the attention, so it’s nice to see that the matching females are now getting more frequently imported. These beauties were at our Bridgnorth store.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/fish/freshwater/anabantids/siamese-fighter

At the time they were first imported, Yellow phantom tetras (Hyphessobrycon roseus) were in the genus Megalamphodus alongside the Red and the Black phantom tetras. Now they’ve been placed in Hyphessobrycon alongside the Rosy tetras, their roseus specific name is a bit more confusing, as is the relative absence of yellow colouration. For many of us, this fish first appeared in the Nature Aquarium World books by Takashi Amano and it still makes an excellent choice for planted set ups with peaceful tankmates, being more shoaling than many of its relatives. Settled in a furnished aquarium, its colours intensify.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/fish/freshwater/characins/yellow-phantom-tetra-

There’s a definite Aussie logic to naming wildlife and here to continue this trend, we present the Stripey (Microcanthus strigatus), a shoaling reef fish that certainly lives up to its name. Previously thought to be a type of Butterflyfish, Stripeys have some similarities and youngsters are excellent at consuming pest anemones. Adults may be more inclined to sample LPS though, so are less risky when placed in a fish-dominated set up alongside some of the more noxious inverts such as large soft corals. These fish are less frequently seen here, but are popular with hobbyists in their homeland, who regard them as extremely tough aquarium pets. This fish was seen recently at our Reefkeeper Rugby store.

One of the first of the Mbuna cichlids to be imported for the aquarium hobby, Melanochromis auratus is still frequently seen decades later. There’s no denying that this fish is aggressive, with males being a common sight in our reservoir sinbins, having been returned for crimes against tankmates. The albino strain is slightly less aggressive and certainly colourful, with males becoming mostly pink as they mature whilst females retain the yellow hues of youngsters. Unlike the domestic wild type, females are incapable of darkening into a muddier version of the males due to their lack of melanin. An interesting observation is that the author Ad Konings reports that auratus isn’t very territorial in the wild, possibly due to low population density. Males certainly seem to be keen to reduce the population of their rivals in captivity and are best kept alongside a large number of females in a spacious aquarium. A batch of maturing fish like this one seen at Thornbury is perfect for minimising the risk of buying unsexable juveniles.