These are the fish I currently keep and breed…
My main passion is the Amazon Dwarf Cichlids, Bolivian Rams and Apistogramma, and the other species that coexist with them in nature such as small Tetras and Catfish.
I have a passion for working with Endlers Livebearers…
originating from Venezuela, slightly North of the Amazon, these tiny fluorescent fish are closely related to the Guppy.
I also have a long passion for our native and local Rainbowfish.
As you can imagine breeding and raising all kinds of fish is a very slow and tricky process and takes a lot of work to maintain quality from start to finish.
I am always trying new ideas, working with new fish and plant species and trying different setups and equipment to further my knowledge and experience and give more variety to my customers.
I have a small scale and very closed operation, with limited space and budget. In my first few years I have not made any profit. I break even and have been able to slowly re-invest any minor “profits” back into the hobby and over time improve and expand my facilities and range.
My fish hobby first has to pay for the extreme power bill it incurs, quality food, medications, as well as minerals and fertilisers, equipment replacements and upgrades, it all adds up very quickly.
My time, experience and knowledge is all donated and I have no actual profit from this venture. I am disabled with Ross River and Chronic Fatigue so this is something that keeps me busy and makes me feel useful even with my now limited energy and strength.
It’s not about the money for me, it”s about the hobby!
It’s about getting better fish out there to the local community.
My main mission is to help support local hobbyists and help improve and inspire the local aquarium hobby in Tasmania.
Utilizing my skills and years of experience I aim to breed and raise some of the best quality fish in Tasmania.
I offer a small variety of less common, harder to breed, mainly smaller species of fish, like Apistos, Rams and Tetras, as well as some smaller catfish species which are all suitable for the planted community aquarium.
With a major focus on quality over quantity, I only raise small batches of fry, so if a Ram lays 150-200 eggs, I will pull out around 50 fry to raise comfortably giving them plenty of space to grow out stress free in some lush planted aquariums with all the care they need and then some.
This way you as a customer will be getting plump, fit, colourful, vibrant fish far superior in health and quality to any imported fish.
These are the fish I currently keep and work with:
Keep in mind all these fish take at least 4-6 months to grow to a sell-able size, after a successful spawn. There are also many things that can go wrong along the way. So I can’t guarantee any fish that are pre-ordered, which is why I do not take any money up front, but I usually have a good success rate with most species 99% of the time after the first 2 weeks of hatching. There is always that one time though something goes wrong, or a power failure that lasts five days for instance.
Most of my fish can be a bit tricky to successfully breed and raise. I like to breed a lot of these harder fish for fun and experience. It’s also great to keep my own lines going and hopefully share the success with others.
Some fish take a very long time to mature before they can be bred like Plecos. Some are easier than others but they all take a lot of full time care, knowledge, precision and luck to breed and raise successfully.
Every species of fish has it’s own little unique ways of spawning and breeding which is what makes it so exciting. This also means I can have some failures as I learn about new species which is completely normal and also means over time I will be learning from a lot of mistakes and gaining more experience which I can share with others.
You can follow my current fish breeding activities on my Facebook page:
Endlers Livebearer
Lyre-tail Japan Blue Endlers
I have been working on my strain of Japan Blue Endlers since early 2020. Originally there were a mixture of sword-tails and lyre-tails so I first worked on breeding out the swords so I now have a solid strain of lyre-tails. I now work on improving the fish with larger tails, larger dorsal fins and great form and colour.
Red-Tuxedo Endlers
My own strain of Endlers I have developed starting from a single male hybrid Red-Tuxedo Guppy x Endler.
This first male was paired off with my old experimental “Jade Endlers” which threw out all sorts of interesting lines which I eventually developed into these Red-Tuxedo Endlers and also the Opal Snakeskins somehow were also responsible from this special male.
Opal Snakeskin Endlers
My own creation. The males of this strain have an amazing array of metallic colours through their bodies reminiscent of an Australian Opal beneath the black snakeskin pattern with large golden fins.
Dwarf Cichlids
Apistogramma borelli
– Dwarf Umbrella Cichlid
I invested in a few different types of Apistorgramma at the end of 2021, one of my long time favourite fish.
Out of three species only the Apisto borelli survived and worked out for me.
The borelli were super strong and took off in no time spawning every month.
I am now raising my 2nd generation of these from some of the lovely young offspring chosen from the first spawns.
I will usually have some of these available every few weeks from the start of 2023.
Mikrogeophagus altispinosus
– Bolivian Ram
I have my own strain of Bolivian Rams I have been working with since I started in 2020.
I just raised my 3rd generation of Bolivian Rams and they look stunning, some are still left available now.
Luke's Tropical Fish 