MEET AN AQUARIST SERIES: London, UK
Richard T1Karmann

By Theo Wyne

Original to Aquarticles

A frontal photo of Richard's aquarium

An introduction to Richard "T1 Karmann"

Richard "T1karmann" is an active and well known member on internet forums devoted to the keeping of large predatory fish. Richard lives in London, England and currently has one of the most beautiful Asian arowana community tanks I have yet seen in person. Thanks to another prominent UK keeper of Asian arowana (see: MEET AN AQUARIST SERIES: London, UK - HPLow Asian Arowana Importer), I was able to pay a visit to Richard's home in January 2008 to interview him and check out his fish collection.

For the past 20 years Richard's special interest has been arowana, though he is also an accomplished keeper of exotic freshwater stingrays and Siamese tiger fish. He kept black South American arowana for seven years before moving on to Asian arowana. He has never kept South American silver arowana as he finds they always end up with drop-eye. His first Asian arowana was a banjar red, a fish he really regrets keeping. He found the adult fish colouration weak and nondescript. Richard's advice for anyone starting out with Asian arowana is to purchase a red tail gold, as they offer very good value.

In addition to keeping arowana, Richard is also a very accomplished keeper of black freshwater stingrays. He is one of the relatively few people in the world to have captive bred the P. leopoldi (P-14). Most of his current collection of cross back gold arowana were obtained through a trade he made with some prestigious stingray breeders from Holland (See : Meet an Aquarist: The Netherlands - Nico and Frank). Richard has also kept many Siamese tiger fish over the years, along with a few flagtail prochilodus, Metrodontous tigrinus cats, and pig nose turtles. I am sure he has kept may other fish, but those mentioned above are the ones I made a note of in our meeting.

Richard's Collection - Its History and Composition

A lovely collection of fish

A fine trio of P.leopoldi rays (P - 14's) - photo 1

A fine trio of P.leopoldi rays (P - 14's) - photo 2

As already mentioned, Richard's arowana collection is the result of his trading a pair of breeding P-14 rays with the fellows at www.freshwaterstingray.nl. Richard may be starting all over again with his ray breeding, since thanks to Frank and Nico he also has a trio of young P-14's. Richard hopes to breed these fish one day. The juvenile colouration and marking of these rays is fantastic; vibrant blacks and whites, nice definition, and a profusion of spots - all hallmarks of high quality fish.

The top center arowana is missing a scale or two. On the whole the tank seemed
quite harmonious without there being too much fighting amongst the fish

I found Richard's eight "Electric Blue Cross Back Gold" Asian arowana from Quian Hu to be on the whole a wonderful group of fish - especially since not one of them has any drop eye or protruding lower jaw. Concerning the entire collection of Asian arowana, Richard thinks he may have spoiled the fish by overfeeding them on a diet of king worms. Too much high protein food fed too often can lead Asian arowana to bulk out too fast. This added size seems to come at the expense of stronger colouration. I'll leave it to Richard to offer this critique of his fish. Personally, I look forward to seeing how the fish look in another few years when their final adult colours should be set.

Richard's large and striking Siamese tiger fish (D.pulcher) was initially raised by him, but then sold. He then bought it back, only to sell it once more. He finally bought it back for a third (and he tells me final) time. The price paid for the tiger fish went up from 125 to 250 to 525 pounds. Who knew that owning a fish could be such a good investment? Richard also has a thin bar Siamese tiger fish as well as a small New Guinea Datnoid.

A fine D.pulcher Siamese tiger fish

The tiger fish (D.pulcher) pictured above is quite valuable now. This particular species of fish is no longer available from its native Thailand due to a combination of over fishing and habitat loss. Consequently the value of such fish already on the market has sky rocketed. This fish has been trained to eat sinking carnivore pellets - something hard to do with this notoriously piscivourous fish.

Thin bar Siamese tiger fish.

Richard had recently acquired the fish pictured above and was still quite excited about him; he tells me (and I believe him) that it is hard to find such a fish with a full collar (bars that continue all the way around the fish). There is also a small New Guinea Datnoid in the background of photo (blurred).

The final fish in Richard's collection is a fine 16 inch prochilodus. Richard raised this fish from a small size. As many keepers of Asian arowana already know, a flagtail prochilodus or Fei Feng (as it is known in Asia) acts a good scavenger.

A beautiful flagtail prochilodus

Measuring about 16 inches, the fish pictured above is likely full size in this tank. Richard told me the story of another similar fish he once had with some large black rays. The rays cornered the fish one day and sucked its eyes out! Richard regretfully euthanised that fish, there being no real alternative for such an unfortunate situation.

Until recently, Richard owned a 22 inch Merodontus tigrinus catfish. Although happy with the fish, Richard found that its long tail streamers were frequently eaten by his rays. In chatting with Richard we found that neither of us has had much luck with young tigrinus catfish. Some kind of "sudden death syndrome" seems to be common with these catfish when they are bought young.

Photos taken from far end of tank

Not a drop eye in site!

Fantastic colouration and patterns on these rays

A large golden or yellow hued Siamese tiger fish (D.pulcher) is a beautiful fish.

A few words about Richard's Tank and Filtration

Only one Eheim Pro 3 filter is visible here…

Richard's tank holds 1400 liters of water (350 gallons) and is made of plexiglass. He chose plexiglass due to its lower weight compared to glass. Richard's tank has hard edged corners as opposed to the rounded ones more common on plexiglass tanks sold in North America.

Richard's philosophy for filtering is simple - you can never filter enough. Thus, he currently runs four top of the line Eheim Pro 3 filters and an external pond canister filter. In addition, he runs two internal Eheim filters which together process "easily 1200 liters per hour." These two internal filters have been running continuously without problems for 12 years. Altogether Richard reckons his filters process about 9500 liters per hour. His tank holds 1400 liters (350 gallons), so this works out to almost an 8 times filter flow through rate per hour! In addition, Richard told me that all this filtration adds another 200 liters of water to his tank's effective volume, boosting it to 1600 liters (400 gallons). Richard periodically uses an ultraviolet (UV) filter as well.

Richard goes through some trouble to import a special filter wool from the USA called "Polyfilter." He has been told the product is used in dialysis machines for filtering the blood of kidney patients. His thinking is that if it is good enough for this use it must be good enough for his fish too.

The temperature in the tank is kept at a constant 86 F. Richard's heaters are 300 watt external heaters from an Italian company (www.hydor.com). Richard keeps the Ph a neutral 7.

Richard does a 25% water change twice a week. He uses a python-like system to siphon water out; afterwards he doses his tank with Seachem water conditioner (to remove chlorine, chloramines, etc.), hooks a hose up to a faucet, adjust the temperature of the tap water, and fills the tank up. I was surprised that Richard does not treat the water before adding it to the tank. Given the health of his fish - and that he is an accomplished stingray breeder - I am not going to disagree with him.

As Richard and I chatted about his tank, he mentioned that he would love to build a seven foot long planted refugium or overhead sump filter; we agreed it would look stunning if it was mounted to the wall above his tank, just below the ceiling…

Feeding Time

King worms kept under the tank

Richard feeds his fish a mix of live king worms (which he keeps fed with meal inside a holding area below the tank), Hikari sinking carnivore pellets, and frozen market prawn. He feeds the fish twice a day, but is now ready to move toward daily feedings.

You can read the enjoyment, pride, care, and attention in Richard's profile as he feeds the fish. These fish are Richard's pets and are treated accordingly.

Getting the food out from below the tank, Richard's movements are followed closely by the large D.pulcher

And now it is feeding time!

Note how the large D.pulcher is especially excited to get sinking pellets

Richard makes sure each fish gets some food (note the New Guinea Datnoid in the bottom right corner of the tank;
I inadvertently missed properly photographing this smallest of Richard's fish.

Richard seems satisfied with the appetites of his fish

The big D.pulcher searches for the odd sinking pellet missed by the rays

Night Time in the Tank

"Night" shot of the tank

Richard finds that his addition of a blue light system lessens aggression between his Asian arowana. I have seen blue lighting used for marine set ups before, but never for Asian arowana.

Fish such as this beautiful black ray can take on an added dimension when seen in such a novel way as this blue light.

Poetry in motion - the bubbles of the internal filter, the swift movement of the fish,
and the blue light all combine to produce a novel effect.

I found Richard to have a top-notch aquarium display. All his equipment is the best you can buy, the foods he uses are high quality, and he maintains a tight schedule of water and filter changes to ensure optimal water conditions. His care and attention to detail are justifiable when you consider the retail value of his collection. If you are familiar with the prices for the fish in his collection you will recognize the extent of his investment.

It seems inevitable that Richard's collection will continue to change in the future. Once his fish reach full size they will either need to be housed in a larger aquarium or else have to be reconfigured as a collection. I look forward to following the development of the tank.

I'd like to once again thank Richard for opening his home to me and sharing his knowledge and inspiration. Seeing his aquarium reminds me how much I miss keeping similar fish - and how much I look forward to keeping them again in the future.