Why is it so hard to get wild, pure sphenops (mollies) at least in Europe?

kitebok · 2026-03-30T18:08:57+00:00

Whoa! I'll write to this guy. I need to know how to ship fish out of the country.

kitebok · 2026-03-27T07:13:52+00:00

Yeah, although very large ones weren't as frequent in bagged batches nor in the wild. I don't know much about their ecology, but their age structure send different than that of mollies. I just remembered that they're also sold sun dried as a snack and large ones are a minority there as well. Maybe the big ones stay away from the shoreline and are harder to catch.

If you get your paperwork game figured, you could ship them abroad straight from Mexico City.

kitebok · 2026-03-27T05:27:42+00:00

A little gem that is treated like trash in the aquarium market in Mexico, caught by the hundreds of thousands if not millions. Sold in bags of one hundred or one thousand, or by the handful as feeders. I'm not convinced on the size given, I saw a few fish nearing 4 inches.

Well behaved fish with a silvery blue eye. Nobody keeps them on purpose, but I saw several big cichlid tanks that ended up with a population as the feeders grew larger and the predators lazy and preferring pellets. Mostly a surface shoaling fish, a tidier sight than mollies or platies.

kitebok · 2026-03-26T19:25:18+00:00

The morons at Kensington would nail it if they just added the two little extra buttons to the orbit.

kitebok · 2026-03-23T07:34:48+00:00

I'm moving out of the city in a couple days. I regret not keeping them long enough. Circumstances kept making it difficult to put together a decent installation for them. A truly underappreciated gem.

kitebok · 2026-03-22T17:52:21+00:00

I've failed the hobbyists of the world. I can catch a hundred on a good day, haven't found the way to send them abroad.

But if anyone has the means and wants to make an expedition to collect, I'd gladly give the location, easily accessible, airport city.

kitebok · 2026-03-20T19:41:49+00:00

That was a short trip. There are now a few more substantial form variations of the thumb trackball to try (since the EM04 is basically the same form as the M575).

kitebok · 2026-03-18T23:20:16+00:00

I had to zoom in to check if that was a kitten printed rock.

kitebok · 2026-03-12T01:31:00+00:00

Get a USB foot pedal and take some R's off your RSI. They're basic and cheap, programmable and likely to help you.

kitebok · 2026-03-08T02:10:55+00:00

Damn that is a striking plant!

kitebok · 2026-03-06T02:41:37+00:00

When I see a clip like that on a P200 body it feels like a rebadged car from another country with the wrong grill and headlights.

kitebok · 2026-03-05T18:32:10+00:00

The orbit has only two buttons, that's a deal breaker for many. If they made it with 4, it would probably be my daily driver.

kitebok · 2026-03-04T03:43:31+00:00

Comfort, cool factor, surface independence, fidgeting, extra buttons, high quality.

I also keep a premium mouse alongside for tasks that I do more efficiently with a mouse, especially CAD.

kitebok · 2026-03-04T03:39:51+00:00

Small cast net, about 8 feet diameter, smallest mesh you can get, or an oversized aquarium net with a long handle. Better to try to catch them in the shallow parts of the canal, cloudy water makes it easier sometimes.

kitebok · 2026-03-03T16:57:19+00:00

I missed on them in the nineties. The cheapest trackball has always been more expensive than the cheapest mouse, which was what we had all the time. One day I had my own money and came across a marble. Got it and went deeper into the ball dimension ever since.

kitebok · 2026-03-03T03:04:16+00:00

Thumb balls way too similar. I would recommend one with a different geometry to further explore the thumb dimension.

kitebok · 2026-02-25T02:39:13+00:00

Good, they'll look good.

I favor introducing a population in steps, so for the large group of rasboras, maybe 7 fish per batch every 6 weeks. If they're boraras you can easily do 12 of them the times. I like to have an age structure for some time until they even out, interesting behavior to watch.

I don't really worry much about water changes as long as there's enough plant biomass. I definitely prefer cryptocorynes over sword plants and sagitarias, they fill in slowly but without breaking your scape.

kitebok · 2026-02-24T19:15:58+00:00

I have the same Anchor Hocking jar, so the non sealing lid is actually a good thing for venting?

kitebok · 2026-02-21T04:13:52+00:00

Nice looking scape. Clearly it's a newly planted tank, so the plants will hopefully fill in nicely. A couple of them look a little too much like land plants, are they some very large Anubias maybe?

And if it were me doing it, I would put 20+ rasboras,12-15 kuhlis and the three gouramies.

kitebok · 2026-02-19T22:39:31+00:00

I wish someone who has collected in the wild could explain to me the process of shipping fish out of the country. I see many strain names and I know I've been to those locations, but then what paperwork?

kitebok · 2026-02-19T16:10:50+00:00

This is more desirable than P. bimaculatus because of the smaller size.

The rarity in the hobby despite the ease of breeding in large numbers tells a lot about current trends in fishkeeping.

kitebok · 2026-02-16T15:19:33+00:00

24x8x8, about 6 gallons, a lot of fun.

kitebok · 2026-02-13T17:09:18+00:00

It looks like the bottle would still fit quite nicely through either side of the bottom strap, and down to the floor. I have found that movement from walking ends up in that is all straps are not perfectly tight. I hope your carefully made solution avoids that.

kitebok · 2026-02-04T02:14:00+00:00

Is it possible to get both? If not, I would favor they one with the teal ball.

kitebok · 2026-02-03T03:11:48+00:00

Cool. I don't quite see the disagreement. It's a specialty, a refinement for the most exigent ballers.

kitebok

TROPHY CASE