Fish Popular

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Trout Underwater: Patrick Clayton Joins Our Team

Brown Trout (c)Patrick Clayton/Engbretson Underwater Photography

One of the best parts of operating a stock photo agency is acquiring exciting, new photographers to represent. Our newest contributor is Patrick Clayton, one of the country's best-known and most talented trout photographers. Patrick's dynamic and colorful images of stream trout, taken underwater in the legendary streams of the American West are without a doubt some of the best ever made. As you can imagine, this collection of brilliant photography took thousands of hours to collect. But as I always say, "If it were easy, everybody would be doing it."

Patrick's love and admiration for these fish are apparent in every image he makes. These magnificent fish finally have a photographer who has seemingly captured every nuance of their intrinsic beauty time and time again, in photographs that also celebrate the pristine back-country streams they call home. I've been a long time admirer of Patrick Clayton, and you'll become one too after seeing his pictures. You can view Patrick's outstanding work in our Patrick Clayton Gallery here.

Patrick joins Bryce Gibson, Todd Pearsons, Christopher Morey, Isaac Szabo, Paul Vecsei and Roger Peterson on our "dream team" of the USA's best freshwater fish photographers. His work can be licensed for commercial and editorial purposes by contacting us here at Engbretson Underwater Photography.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Clownfish For Sale

There are so many types of fish. Tangs, wrasse, blenny, clownfish, damels, cold water, carnivore, herbivore and more. In this short and sweet article I will summarize the easiest way to go about choosing your fish selection or even adding new fish to an existing aquarium.

Clownfish For Sale

Nearly all fish you see in a saltwater aquarium come from the wild. So the first step is research the fish and here are some things to consider. Was this fish caught responsibly? Is this fish over collected for the aquarium trade? Who is the importer? Do they use cyanide? Or even better is the fish aqua cultured? Doing some simple research you are helping to make this hobby more sustainable for the future by not making uninformed purchases.

Clownfish For Sale

Next you want to consider if you are purchasing a fish for a "Fish Only" or "Reef Tank". Depending on what type of aquarium you are keeping there are many fish you want to stay away from as they are not compatible in certain situations. For instance mandarin fish would not survive in a fish only aquarium as they require a large diet of small invertebrates. Many types of wrasse are also very detrimental to the health of a reef tank as they actually consume coral as a part of their diet. So do your research and make sure these fish are compatible to your current aquarium situation.

Clownfish For Sale

How big will this fish get? Be sure to find out exactly how large your new addition will grow to. Many tangs grow up to 2 feet and no serious aquarist will recommend one in a tank shorter than 6 feet and 2 feet wide. Wild caught fish have never ending swimming space. How would you like to be locked in a 10x10 room for the rest of your life? Give them some room to swim. If you have a small tank, get small fish that don't swim to far in the wild.

Clownfish For Sale

If you are going to be keeping a reef tank on of the most important things I can stress is to choose fish based on what actually swims the reef and is generally beneficial to your aquarium.

Clownfish For Sale

Parasites are never a good thing so find a type of fish such as a scarlet wrasse which eats flatworms and other unwanted pests. But stay away from fish that need to stay in the ocean such as cleaner wrasse.(Removal of Cleaner Wrasse fish is very detrimental to wild reefs as they are what keeps those wild fish parasite free).