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President's Message

Charles Pratt

This is an exciting time at the San Diego Tropical Fish Society. On November 2 - 5, 2006 our Annual show will  be in room 101 of the Floral Building in Balboa Park, which is our normal meeting place. Setup is Thursday, 11/2 from about 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. This is when we will set up benches and tanks. Bring in your fish (and tanks if you did not set them up on Thursday) for display on Friday November 3rd, between 12:00 noon and 9:00 pm. Show is Saturday November 4th from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday November 5th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Breakdown begins immediately at 4:00 pm on Sunday. As a part of this larger show we will also have a Special Guppy Show.  Plastic containers will be supplied for the guppies. For more information Contact Charles Pratt.

On November 12, 2006 we will have our enormous Annual Auction of fish, plants and other aquarium related items. Sellers be sure to fill out your auction form before arriving. It is particularly important that you have these forms filled out as we are in the process of changing the process for the auction. We have been experimenting with the past two monthly auctions, and believe we have developed a system that will make the process easier for buyers and sellers alike. Here is a description of the new process:

Auction Instructions 

Buyers 

Members have been assigned permanent numbers. Obtain your pie plate with the number at the registration table. Non members will be assigned a number at the registration table. Hold your number up high when you bid. 

If you win the bid the item you bought will be delivered to you immediately and you will initial a receipt. Pay when the auction is over. This means you may want to bring styrofoam boxes or coolers to put your fish in after you receive them.

Sellers 

You must be a member to sell. Fill out a sellers sheet which can be obtained from the web site, sandiegotropicalfish.com, or at the registration table. Number all your bags of fish and other items for sale with your member number followed by a dash and the item number, starting with 1. As an example if your member number is 173 and you have five items to sell your first item would be 173-1 and your fifth item would be 173-5. If you do not know your member number you can find it at registration at the meeting. 

Also on your bag put your name, phone number and the number and type of fish. 

Hand the sellers sheet in at the registration table. 

Place your items for sale all together and in numerical order on the auction tables. They will be auctioned in numerical order.

Change of Date for the Spring Auction

Because our Regular meeting date in April falls on Easter Sunday we are changing the date of the Spring Auction from April to March. So it will be on the second Sunday in March. 

Salton Sea Trip October 22, 2006

Charles Pratt

On Sunday October 22, nine SDTFS members caravanned out to Imperial County, looking in our favorite spots to see what the fish were like in those places. We stopped at canals, streams, ditches and the Salton Sea itself. The Salton Sea is always an environment in flux. The creation of the sea as it is today was an accident about 100 years ago.

" In 1901, the California Development Company, seeking to realize the Imperial Valley’s potential for unlimited agricultural productivity, dug irrigation canals from the Colorado River. Heavy silt loads, however, inhibited the flow and new residents of the valley became worried. This prompted the engineers to create a cut in the western bank of the Colorado to allow more water to reach the valley. Unfortunately, heavy flood waters broke through the engineered canal and nearly all the river’s flow rushed into the valley. By the time the breach was closed, the present-day Salton Sea was formed." http://www.saltonsea.ca.gov/histchron.htmSalton Sea Historical Chronology. 

The area has pollution problems in addition to significant weather changes through the year. There have been both tropical fish farms and farms where fish were raised for food in the area, and food fish farms are still a large industry there. Some of the water holes in Imperial county have such aquarium fish as Sailfin (Poecilia latipinna) and Poecilia sphenops mollies, green swordtails, Porthole livebearers, and Dojos that evidently escaped from fish farms. There are many other fish that have been introduced such as Gambusia,  Pup Fish, Red Horse Minnows, Tilapia Mossambica in the sea, and another tilapia (perhaps zillii) in other places. Apple snails and freshwater shrimp can be found in some places.

It is obviously an area of great interest to fish hobbyists. The nine of us on the trip were: myself, David, Amy and Julie Huie, Ben Ivy, Bill Cline, Tuan Tran and new members Rob and Gaye Sewekow.

This is a photograph of the Salton Sea looking South from the North end of the Sea. There is a wide area here that has flooded in the last 20 years, and there are many dead trees and remains of buildings testifying to the recreational role of the Salton Sea some 20 years or more ago. The water in the sea had risen steadily for about 20 years, but seems to have stopped rising about two or three years ago.
This is the same area at the North end of the sea. There are almost always thousands of birds here, and very few if any people. Several of our trip members found additional excitement in bird watching. There are enormous flocks of both brown and white pelicans.
Like on any collecting trip nets and buckets were the order of the day. We used several sizes of dip nets and three or five gallon buckets. We brought along ample large plastic bags, rubber bands and styrofoam boxes with tops. The most important danger facing the fish after being caught is from the heat. We solve that by packing the fish lightly, just a few per large bag and being sure the top stays on the box. We do not carry an oxygen bottle, but generally the fish do well anyway.
Rob watches while Tuan Tran catches sphenops mollies. These fish probably descended from black sphenops at the old del Sargent fish farm. The farm was just across the road you see in the background. The original black sphenops mollies that would have been at the del Sargent farm were developed from fish native to Mexico and Central America.  This one small ditch is the only place here where these fish can be found. The water they are in comes partially from a hot spring that keeps them warm year round and I believe they would not survive without this warm water.
Here we are looking down into a bucket of the mollies. These fish have reverted to colors very close to those of the wild sphenops in their native habitat. I have never caught a solid black one here. The Sailfin mollies that used to be found in the Salton Sea itself did have some solid black ones among them. They were huge and absolutely gorgeous with their high wide dorsals. They did well in much colder water than the sphenops could handle, but the combination of the Tilapia and the pollution in the sea seems to have killed them all off in the sea. We do still find some in streams and canals around the sea, but they are not as large and I never see a black one.
At this point we have moved up to the ruins of the old North Shore Yacht Club. I remember eating breakfast many times on trips over here at the Yacht Club. Now it is just a shell full of pigeon nests. Here left to right, Bill Cline, Tuan Tran, David Huie and Rob Sewekow are on the edge of the sea. They are standing on sand composed primarily of barnacle shells and surrounded by dried up dead Tilapia.

Twenty years ago the water behind them was full of beautiful Sailfin Mollies.
Amy Huie with her daughter Julie at the same location. Amy and her husband David have been among the most energetic volunteers on the 
SDTFS for years. David has just finished a term as Editor of the printed BREEZE, which has now been replaced by electronic communications with our members.
Rob on the left with Ben Ivy standing at the edge of the sea next to the old Yacht Club. This was Rob's first outing with the club. Ben is a board member of SDTFS, and president of the San Diego Guppy Association. He has just retired from his career as Project Manager for the electrical work in many large commercial and academic facilities. Retirement seems to be agreeing with him.
This is a Tilapia Mossambica, descended from fish brought in from Africa to eat algae and as a sport fish. Note the bright red end on the tail. The Salton Sea was known at one time as having the highest fish per hour catch of any California lake. Over the last ten years the sea has become so polluted that most of the fish, including Sargo and Corvina seem to have died out. The Tilapia are probably the last fish still living in the sea, and they are not doing well. We could see many of them from the shore, and instead of nesting as they did 15 years ago they were obviously sick and dying.
David Huie in one of the canals where we found many beautiful fish. This canal was being dredged to remove cattails and other vegetation just above here, and we found very few fish in the area of dredging. At this point where the vegetation still existed we found young Sailfin mollies, Porthole livebearers, Gambusia, one dojo and a single shrimp.
Amy Huie in the same area. This was a spot in the canal where the vegetation had not taken over as badly as in many places. It was obvious from looking at much of the canal that it had to be dredged because the vegetation became so thick it could hamper water flow. In those areas we could not even get to the water to find fish, so had to look for spots like this where we could get to the water. This canal was not deep, but with many rocks on the bottom was a bit treacherous to walk in. We wore old tennis shoes into the water.
Here is a tank full of the sphenops mollies after I brought them  back to my hatchery. Most of these are what I think of as the wild color, basically gray/brown with narrow slightly darker stripes.  You will see however that there are a few marbled among them. Marbled fish like the one in the lower left corner of this photograph are what the solid black mollies sold today in the fish stores evolved from, with the help of many terrific fish breeders.
Here is a normal wild colored sphenops male. The males frequently have a bright yellow stripe at the end of their tail and sometimes some yellow, occasionally some light blue in their dorsal. The fish were adapted to my hatchery water over about an hour, a small amount of salt was added to their tank, and they have done very well. I discarded two that had some body fungus the first night I had them. As I write this article five days after I brought them in there have been no losses.

All of us enjoyed this trip and learned a lot. It was good to be outdoors in this beautiful area. Spring and Fall are the times to visit the Salton Sea and we look forward to going again next year.

Note: Thanks to Bill Cline for proofing this article.