It may be chilly but spring is in the air and we’re preparing for the upcoming pond season. Traditionally Easter sees the start of things and we’ll spend the next weeks making sure that our fish are ready to face the British weather head on. Stores that have overwintered their fish outside will have a head start, but as things warm up the indoor systems shouldn’t be far behind. Koi can sometimes struggle at the lower end of the temperature scale, as their immune systems function best above 12C and for this reason, stores with colder systems will often stock them more gradually.

As there’s more to water parameters than temperature, it’s good to take care when acclimatising new fish to your pond, wherever they’re moving from.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/fish/freshwater/pond-fish

Straighten out a seahorse and you’ve got yourself a pipefish, as well as a possible charge of animal abuse of course. Unlike their chess-piece relatives, Snake pipefish (Corythoichthys intestinalis) can be housed alongside other species in a not too rowdy reef tank and will supplement a diet of foraged copepods etc with some nuisance inverts that can plague SPS corals, such as Montipora bugs. As they’re reluctant to eat prepared foods other than frozen, this is a species best added to a mature set up that doesn’t have too much in the way of competition. This batch were looking suitably quirky at our Swindon branch.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/fish/marine/miscellaneous-fish/snake-pipefish

Rainbowfish take time to develop and are easily overlooked as juveniles. Occasionally we see batches that are with us long enough to develop adult colouration, and these Red-lined rainbows (Melanotaenia rubrostriata) were showing the start of the red spots that give them their name. Kept as a group in a large, planted aquarium, they will become even more stunning than they look at our Cardiff branch.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/fish/freshwater/rainbow-fish/red-striped-rainbowfish

A popular fish for small, raised pools in their country of origin, the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) has been bred into a variety of forms, a number of which are available in the UK. Current legislation makes it an offence to keep this species in outdoor set ups but varieties such as these Platinum fish look striking when viewed from above in an open-topped aquarium – just make sure that the water level is low enough that they won’t jump out. Room temperatures are no problem for this hardy fish and they’ll easily cope with short periods around 10C. They’ve also been studied in space, so the journey home from the shop isn’t even one small step for a fish. These were spotted at our Shrewsbury store.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/fish/freshwater/killifish/yellow-princess-rice-fish

Named after their superficial similarity to the Kribensis (Pelvicachromis pulcher) possibly by someone overdue an eye test, the Rock Kribensis hap (Haplochromis sauvagei) is a Lake Victorian native which deserves to be more widely known. Males can go through a number of colour changes with dominant fish often becoming blue grey with red fins. Single males can be kept alongside the more familiar peacocks and moderately sized Malawian haps, or a female heavy group can be maintained in a species set up and bred. This batch were looking good (and breeding) at our Ascot branch.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/fish/freshwater/cichlids/african-cichlids/rock-kribensis-hap