Wolf's 20g Long and little 10g

[wolf_eyes]

After some thought and weight out costs, I've finally decided that I'm going to go ahead and buy myself a 20 gallon tank. While I really want to get a 50g when I get out of college, I'm starting to realize that will probably not come true since I'l be trying to find a job, paying back loans, and possibly will be moving around the country. On the other hand, a 10 gallon is a really small tank with limited options. Right now I want to go ahead and get a little bigger of a tank so that I have a little more options on what I put in it. So that's my reasoning. Anyways, onto the tanks:

10 g.
Yesterday I went to the local fish store and temptation got the best of me. I got 4 julii corys that are currently just under an inch. I had to move my little female betta out of the tank because i was worried she would pick on them, she's currently in with the male betta with a divider. This will be VERY temporary.
Current occupants:
7 rasboras
4 julii cory
7 ghost shrimp.
heavily planted.

Future plans for the tank:
1 male and 1 female betta with dividers.
7 ghost shrimp.
moderately planted
I plan on turning this tank into a plant grow out/ betta tank once I get the 20l.


20g long plan:

Definite occupants:
7 harlequin rasbora
4 jullii cory

Possible occupants:
3-5 more rasboras
2 more julii cory
cherry shrimp
some sort of signature fish? (not too sure what will stay small and like a 20l plus wont harm cherry shrimp)

Plants:
Indian fern (1-2)
wisteria(4)
Java fern (2 groupings)
2 logs with java moss
banana plants (2-3)
hopefully 2 water lily if the bulbs grow
amazon broadleaf sword

Technical:
20g aquaclear filter (might add a smaller 10g rated filter of another brand in addition to)
40% water changes every week
150w visitherm stealth heater.
I'm having issues with figuring out lighting. I would like to buy something local but the only decent lighting we have is the Hagen Glo T5 HO Lighting System stands. From what I'm reading online the 24" one only has a single 24w bulb in it which would only give me a little more than 1 watt per gallon, which wont be good for my wisteria, banana plants, sword, and lilies if they grow. They have a 36 inch model that gives off 39 watts which would be better, but how do I make it sit on my tank? also what is the possiblity of using a marine light fixture? ANY ADVICE you can give me on lighting the better guys.

[troy]

How about a honey gourami or a wrestling halfbeak as a signature fish.

[wolf_eyes]

Nevermind about the lighting, I just bought a fixture online. It was a lot of money but ah well...

I just need to know if my stocking sounds alright

[bushwhacker]

your stock looks fine dont mess with them half beaks i looked em up and they aint something you want

[troy]

What's wrong with wrestling hafbeaks. IME they will only hurt small fry and stay pretty small(2-3 inches).

[Sir Tristen]

What fixture did you buy? You have to be careful w/ t5 ho, because they really put out a lot of light. You may be looking at some algae issues. I've got algae problems w/ stock lights in my planted tanks right now.

Your stocking sounds fine. A dwarf gourami is a good addition to that tank, or some ottos, or a smaller plec.

I would definitely get a second filter if you are using only an AC 20, maybe a second AC so you can buy only one type of media to fill it.

Keep us updated! (an aquarium journal maybe :hmm3grin2orange: ) And congrats on graduating (May?) and getting a new tank!

[wolf_eyes]

I bought a Single Satellite Compact Fluorescent Fixtures 30" with a Fluorescent SunPaq Daylight 6700ºK 65W which is sounding like a little much right now. I might have to make something to mount it further away from the tank so that some of the light gets diffused. ah planted tanks.... so troublesome...

10g
So a bit of bad news today, one of the corys died last night. I found him lodged in one of the pieces of wood in the tank. My first thought was that I threw my cycle out for some unknown reasoning and so i began checking like crazy. Things were reading normal so I was getting rather stumped when I remembered that one of the corys seemed pretty out of it when i had brought it home. I also did a really thorough cleaning of the tank and actually took the driftwood and rocks out of tank for 20 min. So he might have died by suffocation too :(. Now I'm down to 3 of them and they seem a little confused as to where their buddy is and are huddling more closer together.

yep may 31 will be the day i go int the real world.... ahh! so scary. I wish i could just stay in school forever.

[Heliwyr]

I bought a Single Satellite Compact Fluorescent Fixtures 30" with a Fluorescent SunPaq Daylight 6700ºK 65W which is sounding like a little much right now. I might have to make something to mount it further away from the tank so that some of the light gets diffused. ah planted tanks.... so troublesome...

10g
So a bit of bad news today, one of the corys died last night. I found him lodged in one of the pieces of wood in the tank. My first thought was that I threw my cycle out for some unknown reasoning and so i began checking like crazy. Things were reading normal so I was getting rather stumped when I remembered that one of the corys seemed pretty out of it when i had brought it home. I also did a really thorough cleaning of the tank and actually took the driftwood and rocks out of tank for 20 min. So he might have died by suffocation too :(. Now I'm down to 3 of them and they seem a little confused as to where their buddy is and are huddling more closer together.

yep may 31 will be the day i go int the real world.... ahh! so scary. I wish i could just stay in school forever.

Me too. And get paid to go there. Ooh that would make it so worthwhile...

[Sir Tristen]

I know how scary it can be. I graduated from college last May, and I haven't had success in finding a job yet, so I'm trying to find out what to do w/ myself.

As for the light, you have a lot of options now. Have you looked into DIY co2 and stuff like that?

[wolf_eyes]

I know how scary it can be. I graduated from college last May, and I haven't had success in finding a job yet, so I'm trying to find out what to do w/ myself.

As for the light, you have a lot of options now. Have you looked into DIY co2 and stuff like that?

Diy co2 is kinda intimidating to me to be honest lol. I've read a few of the horror stories and knowing my luck i would have a thing explode on me. Heli can tell you how wet my room always seems to be with just the 10 gallon in there. Though I have looked at the nutrafin co2 thing and its basically an already made co2 thing, all you have to do is add ingredients.http://www.aquaticbiotope.co.uk/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=1142

I'm planning on getting the tank when I get the light which should be next week. so i have some time to read up on things

[Sir Tristen]

I've seen those nutrafin co2 things. If you do get one, let us know how it does for you :) Good luck!

[wolf_eyes]

Here is a pic of the 10g currently. Mostly everything in here will be transfered to the 20L when i get it

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050020.jpg

and this is one of the julii corys who was nice enough to pose for me

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050040.jpg
I took the deceased cory to the store and they gave me a replacement even though they normally don't do that. They said it was because i was a good customer... whee I feel special haha. The new cory seems to be adjusting better than the other one did. This one wasn't really afraid of my hand when I tried to encourage it into the net after drip acclimation was done. It even decide that resting on top of my hand was a better idea then going into the net. It's pretty friendly.

[troy]

That's a beautiful cory and tank.

[wolf_eyes]

Well today was once again discouraging. I was gone for the day at the wildlife center and came home to an upside down cory. He then went sideways and i noticed a rather nasty looking wound/bruise on his body. You can see it on this forum http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=38082 well not 1/2 an hour later the little one was dead. I went in and removed anything that could possibly have pinned and caused any of the bruising on either of the two juliis. Its so hard to figure out what's going on because my rasobras and shimp are doing perfectly fine and i made sure to drip acclimate them for 45 min.
Ammonia is at 0
Nitrite are at 0
nitrate barely at 5.

Heli was trying to figure out why this was happening for me and read several other reports that juliis tend to be taken from the wild and don't adjust as well to tank life. There seemed to be quite a few reports of juliis suddenly dying. I've made sure the water's been clean and that the parameters are fine after the last one died. These are the first fish I've ever lost and it really upsets me because they're one of my favorites. I'm really at a loss here. I'm going to call the fish store up on tuesday and ask them if they have problems with their/where the fish came from. It really just makes me not even want to bother with them even though they're one of my top favorites..... mer....

[troy]

Really sorry to hear about your corys.:scry:

[wolf_eyes]

I found another julii dead this morning. NONE of these fish have the same symptoms. The one if found this morning had cloudy eyes and was just very pale. I just dont get it, no worms or parasites that i can see....Water is still testing: am:0 nitrI:0 NitrA:5. I did a small 20% water change last night in an attempt to introduce new water and to dilute whatever is killing them if it is indeed something in my water. I put a sinking wafer in this morning before class, came home and it was gone so hopefully they ate it, good sign? On a lighter note, the rasboras are spawning so at least someone is happy with my water. If this keeps up I guess I'll be changing the stocking on the 20 long.... maybe kuhli loaches?

[wolf_eyes]

The last cory from the group has now developed pop eye. The store said that they were wild caught and came from a ph of 6.5. The water in my tank is at 7.8. I did drip acclimate them but I guess it just wasn't enough. It's really disappointing but I guess I've learned not to buy these guys until I have softer water. It still confuses the heck out of me because the harlequin rasboras which are supposed to be semi sensitive are happy. I just wouldn't think that there would be all these problem. Hm... Well after I go to the doctors and do all my chores I'm going to go ahead and euthanize the fish.

So now I'm thinking of a new stocking for the 20

Definite:
7 harlequin rasbora

Possibles:
5-6 kuhli loaches
3-4 more harliequins
female betta

10 G:
male betta on 1 side of divider
cherry shrimp on other side of divider.

[wolf_eyes]

20g
The light fixture for the tank came today, though I haven't picked it up yet. Well assuming the light fixture and bulb are both fine I will be picking up my tank this weekend, YAY!

Heli and I sat down and made a plan for the tank seen below.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/20long.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/legend.jpg
can you tell im an artist ?:D lol

The darker brown will be driftwood.
Tank stocking:
10-13 harlequin
5-6 kuhlie loaches
1 female betta

I'll probably only be able to semi plant it this weekend with the plants I have. I' should have enough money to buy the tank and the glass canopy but nothing else until my check clears, but I don't think it will be a problem. I'll most likely set up the tank friday night/saturday morning.
10g:
Everyone is doing fine right now. nothing really new to report.

[wolf_eyes]

20g
I got the tank today. It was quite the tank shuffle. I had to get the 10g fish into a styrofoam cooler and my male betta (in a breeder net) while I was doing the whole change. The female and male were flaring at each other and she was getting vertical stripes. Rasboras hated the box and got super pale, but they colored back up when they got in the 20. So here are a few process pics:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050339-1.jpg
I thought i was going to go with the red flourite for the gravel part but petsmart was out. So i got eco-complete instead at the LFS. I'm not sure if I like the super stark contrast though. Paths are separated by plastic.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050342.jpg
This is the tank filled up. Pretty clear:)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050346.jpg
Here it is with plants and fish. It's not the way I want it to look so i'll probably go back into it tuesday. I got some Alternanthera reineckii and dwarf hair grass, so now it just needs to grow. So I just need to get the camboda I'll probably go and get some more rasboras tomorrow, we'll see.

10g
Tank is not horribly barren and only has the male betta in it right now. I'll mess with the tank tomorrow to get it better looking.

[KingFisher]

Very nice, Wolfeyes, I like the layout.thumbs2:thumbs2:thumbs2:

[Ellen4God]

It's coming along! Are you still going to redo it?

[wolf_eyes]

It's not really following the layout 100% so I'll probably be getting some rocks/more plants in a few days when my check clears. For the most part though it will stay the same.

[Sir Tristen]

I really like that Wolf Eyes! I think the stark contrast works fine. I would love it if my tanks looked like that! Now you just need some corys to play in the sand!

Oh, I see you have already tried some. Sorry they didn't work out :(

[wolf_eyes]

I haven't updated in a bit. Finals and homework have been bogging me down.

10g
I finally put the two bettas together with the divider. They flared at each other for a few days but now tend to ignore each other. The female is really heavy with eggs and the male keep trying to build a bubble nest for her. Also Heli put two of the baby gudgeons into a breeder net in there. They seem to be doing pretty good.

20g
The 20 is starting to get an ugly algae breakout so i need to go in there tomorrow and clean it out. I added co2 and ever since i did the rasboras have been spawning every day(they're numbrs are up to 10 now). I also added 3 kuhli loaches yesterday and thus far have not seen hide nor hair of them until I actually picked up stuff to see if they were under it. I kinda wished i had gone with cories instead. My cherry shrimp and cabomba should arrive this week so that should b exciting.

[Ellen4God]

Cherry Shrimp!! You'll love love them. :] Congrats on that.

[wolf_eyes]

yep i got a really good deal, 25 for $30 and free shipping. I cant's wait for them!

[wolf_eyes]

20g

The cherry shrimp are getting delayed, the person selling them didn't feel comfortable because the weather is supposed to get into the single digits where they are. I'm a little disappointed but its for the better. At least now my new plants will get here before they do. New plants will be :
Cabomba Carolinia
Phoenix Moss
Flame Moss

Some of you may know this, but I have been looking for phoenix moss of a while. I was really disappointed to see that the only people that were selling it were asian companies. The last time I bought from over seas I waited for a month and the plants never came. I finally got fed up and called them and they send them to my home (i was on break from college) but it still took almost 3 weeks. Well finally I found a person in the states selling some so I ordered it, yey!

On another note I want to tell you all why it is important to stick to your gut feelings and be assertive when buying fish. I went to petsmart to get the kuhli loaches on saturday. When the woman caught them for me I noticed that two of them kept curling up and floating. I pointed it out and the woman said they were being drama queens, but she took it out and got one that didn't look much better. At this point I had a voice screaming in the back of my head to tell her that I didn't want the fish. Of course I didn't, and I took the loaches home. I drip acclimated them for a good 3 hours (my ph is also down to at least 7.4 if not lower due to my CO2) before putting them in the tank.
I didn't see the loaches moving around for 2 days and when I did decide to go hunting for them I lifted up the rock and found them. One was almost clear, another one was pretty pale and the last one was the normal black color. I put them into a hospital tank and noticed that when one tried to swim he swam in a spiral. By now it was too late in the night to take them back to the store so I waited for the morning after. By the time I woke up the palest was dead and the second palest was still not looking too good. So if you're reading this make sure that you don't stay quiet about the fish that you're getting. If one doesn't look good to you, make sure you tell the person. Sure it might annoy them but they are providing you with a service. Make sure you're happy with what you get before ever buying.

I'll get soem pics of the tank and new little fish later tonight:)

[wolf_eyes]

The flame moss and phoenix moss came in this week. I got a surprise of another type of moss with the phoenix moss. It's called willow moss and it's really a nice green.
The tank was getting really bad with algae (diatoms and some green algae, plus cyano) so I went and bought 3 otos. I've been reading up on them and i know how fragile they are but I'm prepared to grow algae for them and buy the vegetables they need. I know they don't eat cyano, i'll have to deal with that one on my own but hopefully they'll help the other two. They're currently drip acclimating and will be doing so for a good 6-8 hours.
Anyways, onto pics!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050397.jpg
this is the tank after a heavy cyano cleaning. I didn't get all of it but it's WAY better than it was. I know this stuff can get toxic so that's why I've been trying to get rid of it. The corys have been doing a good job with their digging so that the cyano can't get on any of the sand.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050393.jpg
one of the ghost shrimp which will be rehomed into the 10g when I get the cherry shrimp next week (hopefully).

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050373.jpg
and one of the little corys. Yes they're pepper cories. They're currently under an inch and adorable. I'm so happy I got them

[wolf_eyes]

10g Heli's baby gudgeons are doing great in the breeding net. The first two are starting to become less transparent and have a slight yellow tint to them. There are a few other babies from the second batch too that made it and you can really tell a difference from them. I kinda hope that some of the littler ones make it so that it will add a little more gene diversity if I try to breed them.... or course that's assuming that her two males aren't related. My female betta is once again heavy with eggs and Neutro is trying to strut his stuff.

20g.
The otos are still alive and getting little tummies, yay! The stock at petsmart wasn't that great looking but this time I made sure to get the better looking ones. I'm a little nervous though because I'll be leaving town for a week when it'll be the transition period for the otos from algae to vegetables. Heliwyr is staying here so I'm sure they'll do fine. I need to go out and get a vegetable clip and some zuchini/cucumber though. I'll probably do that tonight or tomorrow. I also need to go into the tank later today and do trimmings/cyano clean up. It's a lot better than it was but i still am noticing some around.

On another note I'm getting really anxious about the cherry shrimp. The guy hasn't sent a email telling me he's sent them.I'm hoping I'll be here to pick them up and acclimate them. I'll be leaving thursday afternoon/dinnertime so we'll see... *fingers crossed* If not, again Heliwyr will be here so if nothing else she can do all the work for me.

[wolf_eyes]

Well it's been a bit since I've posted. I had finals, and blood tests, doctor's visits and vacations so I haven't been able to post here. So I'll list some thing that have been going on in my life and with the tanks.

The good:
10g:
The first batch of baby gudgeons now have their tail spots and are officially 1/2 inch. The second batch now has their fins growing and are a sturdy 1/4 inch. Both my fatty female and male betta are doing good. This tank, in the next month or so may become a native tank for shiners/darters if I can catch them. Native fish are really quite amazing , some of them have brighter, more beautiful patterns than even some tropicals. Of course before you go collecting, always make sure what species you have in your area and which ones are endangered. I've been reading up on them a lot and i'm pretty excited.

20g: the two ottos are fat and happy, so I'm glad i have a good pair at least. I may be adding more due to the "ugly" part in the 20g. Also the cherry shrimp seem to be thriving even though some of the little tiny babies were initially eaten by the rasboras when they first got put in. I even have a pregnant female.

The bad:
Me:
Found out I have really high blood pressure this spring break, I had to get a lot of blood work done and tests to make sure i was ok. I was really upset about it at first but now I'm improving my eating habits and lifestyle so it should get better, here's hoping.

20g: The cyano and algae in my tank is still pretty bad, but I'm hoping with some serious tank cleaning (pulling plants out, rinsing them off , several big water changes after scrubbings) i can get this stuff dealt with. I also have a small infestation of ram's horn snails but... I guess it's not too bad though, they can help the ottos and shrimp out with the algae.

The ugly:
20g: This one is pretty depressing for me. My rasboras are getting infected with Columnaris. At first, when I came back I noticed my two most dominant males had bad shimmies and had white blotches appearing on their skin(looks nothing like fungus/ich as these were my first two guesses). I did a big water change and hoped for the best but by that morning one male had died and the other was looking much worse. I euthanized the other male and wrote it off as exaustion from stress dealing with sparing and spawning all the time. Then yesterday I noticed two more had these symptoms. That's when i knew something was wrong,went into full researching, and found out it was Columnaris.
Fish get supceptible to this from stress. Water levels are all A:0 NitI: 0 NitrA:5 so my only guess is that at night, due to the cyanobacteria, plants, and co2 the water's oxygen was too low so it stressed them out (even though i have 2 20 g aquaclears on the tank). At least that's the only thing I can think of as I have been doing my water changes and declorinating it religiously.
I really want to treat the fish but....well... my dad just got laid off today, and I just had to dish out a lot of money for my car to get fixed. I went to Petsmart and the only medication they have to treat it is in the biggest pack they have and it's a good 20 bucks. Unfortunately I just don't have the money to spend until the end of this week or next week when i can get my loan money for college out. Right now the two infected fish are out of the main tank and in a sick one for observation.... i may euthanize them tonight....

[Sharon]

So sorry you're having a few problems. When I first started keeping fish, I used to wonder why other people would say it was relaxing! It does happen...everything settles and the more experience you have, the better it gets. If you can't afford meds right now, euthanization may be the best thing. Good luck with the blood pressure....A good diet works wonders.

[PostalPenguin]

If you can find Melafix and Pimafix they are quite a bit cheaper than the pharmaceuticals. I believe an 8oz bottle treats >200 gallons and was only about 5 bucks for me.

[bushwhacker]

for the cyano 1/2 doses of maracyn works wonders check ebay for the powdered i think i paid like 7.95 and a few bucks shipping for 24 packs

[wolf_eyes]

yea i was looking at maracyn for the tank and it was 20 bucks here.

[Lady Hobbs]

Why not just move your 10 gallon occupants into the 20 gallon and divide that 10 for those betta's.

Looks to me as all those in the 10 can go in the 20 easily enough. Larger schools and less species will always give you less problems. People try to add one or two of this and that and pretty soon they have a mess. I would ditch any thoughts of a gourami.

[wolf_eyes]

Why not just move your 10 gallon occupants into the 20 gallon and divide that 10 for those betta's.

Looks to me as all those in the 10 can go in the 20 easily enough. Larger schools and less species will always give you less problems. People try to add one or two of this and that and pretty soon they have a mess. I would ditch any thoughts of a gourami.

This is how the tanks are now

10g:
1 male betta and 1 female betta in a divided tank with a breeder net with 5 baby gudgeons in it(.25-.5 inches)

20g long:
5 rasboras (down from 10 since I've lost some to the disease)
6 corys
2 ottos
~20 cherry shrimp

I'm not quite sure what posts you were refering to when you typed your reply because I have most of the species in their proper school sizes (I'll probably be picking up some more otos after I make sure the tank is safe) and imo, it's not a "one of this, one of that " tank

[wolf_eyes]

So after talking with dave for a little bit and doing some research on my own we actually found out that the disease isn't columnaris but rather NTD (Neon Tetra Disease). I never even looked at the disease because, by the name, it doesn't sound like something that could effect rasboras. However the disease can effect barbs, rasboras, angelfish, and others. The disease looks EXACTLY like what is happening to my fish, whereas the columnaris didn't really look like it but it was the closest thing i could find. There is no cure for it so I'm going to euthanize the infected ones tonight.

[KingFisher]

Sorry to hear that Wolf. Hopefully the other fish will be ok. :11:

[wolf_eyes]

Well all the rasboras became sick with NTD so I had to euthanize them. It's discouraging, but at least the disease didn't kill my whole tank(*knocks on wood*). The corys are doing fine and so are the two ottos. I think I might go this weekend to see if i want to get some new fish. The stocking I'm thinking of is something like this:

6 pepper cories (already have)
4 ottos (+2)
3-4 dwarf platies
OR
6 pepper cories
4 otos
8-10 bloodfin tetras
OR
6 pepper cories
4 ottos
8-10 black phantom tetras

In other news my ottos are spawning today. I woke up from a nap and noticed them acting weird so I assumed they had gotten sick. Upon watching them more though I realized it wasn't that they were sick but that they were ...creating the next generation. We've been having a lot of storm fronts coming through lately so i'm wondering if that's the trigger. My male cories have really been bothering my chubby female so I think they might spawn here soon as well. I might have to put a bucket out and collect some rain water for them

[Kadina]

I recently stocked 10 Bloodfin Tetras in my 37g (same footprint as a 20L) and I love them. They school up in a tight little bunch and then spread out in a line and then back to a ball again as they move around the tank.

Congrats on the otto eggs!

[wolf_eyes]

So last minute I decided not to get any of the fish I was thinking of and instead went with white cloud minnows. the tank's temp. is around 72-74 so they should be fine in there. They're acclimating now so sometime I'll try to get some pics of them.

[wolf_eyes]

I cleaned the tank up today to try and get rid of the rest of the cyano. One of my white cloud's decided "hey that tube looks like fun" and so he went for a trip. Thank god my tube was 1)big enough for him to comfortably get through and 2) in the bucket. I found him in the bucket swimming around a little confused. I thoroughly looked him over and he was perfectly fine. I'm going to have to put my thumb over the tube next time I do a water change to make sure that doesn't happen again....

[wolf_eyes]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050496.jpg
this is the male betta from the 10g.

These are pictures from the 20g. Most of them were taken before I really cleaned the tank so you'll see algae on the glass.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050504.jpg
Here are the new white clouds. These little buggers are hard to get a picture of!
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050494.jpg
And here is the fish that fisherking swayed me into buying. He was the only one in the tank. I'm halfway tempted to get 2-3 more when I get the 30g at home.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050492.jpg
you can't see it but it's a light brown color with a lot of tiny brown dots all over it

[wolf_eyes]

and here's the 20g. I cut down on lighting hours in an attempt to cut down on the algae.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050506.jpg

So on a semi related note, for my fibers class last quarter I had to choose a theme do go with for the whole quarter. Mine was .... you guessed it... fish. Most of the projects only dealt with colors based off a certain fish, but i did get to make some actual pieces that looked like the animals they were based off of.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050509.jpgThis one is based off a spotted mandarin dragonet. It was done through a process called needle felting. Basically you take roving, which is dyed wool fibers, and start stabbing it with needles until you get the desired shape. It's a good stress reliever.... heh heh.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050510.jpg
And this is my pride and joy. I embroidered this fish for I'd say 8-10 hours. It was my first time embroidering too and i have to say that it was a lot of fun. After I got done with this piece I thought it would be fun to make pieces based off of actual people's fish in either the felting or the embroidery but I'm not quite sure if there's a market for that lol.

[Northernguy]

I hope you didn't poke holes in the tire getting some stress releif!:hmm3grin2orange:
I like the fish you embroidered! thumbs2:

[troy]

Very good artwork.thumbs2:

[wolf_eyes]

Thanks for the kind words troy and northern!


Today my white cloud's are spawning. I know they're pretty much a "put a male and female in water and they breed" type of fish but it still cool that they're spawning after 4 days of putting them in the tank. As far as I can tell I have 4-5 females out of the 8. Several of the females are spawning with the males and they all seem to prefer the moss areas. One of my cories is being very naughty though, and keeps going into the moss to try to find the eggs after the white clouds finish their embrace. I'm not too worried about it though, since the only place I could put the eggs is currently being used for baby gudgeons. Right now, I have a "survival of the fittest" attitude. If they're spawning now, I'm sure they'll spawn again.

[wolf_eyes]

Well we had another failed attempt at native fish collection again. We didn't want to make a whole day out of it so that may also help in the not catching anything part. I guess when I get back home to Vegas I'll have buy some online... Makes me kinda sad, but what can you do...

10G
Bettas and baby gudgeons are all doing fine. The smaller babies now have their tail spots.

20g
Nothing to report on this front either. Corys were spawning the other day and the white clouds are at it again also.

[wolf_eyes]

Well I have some interesting news for you all. Big changes will be going on in the next month or so. First one is that I finally found someone who is willing to help me find some of the native fish that I've been looking for. So that looks like it will be happening on May 17, *knock on wood* Their very temporary home will be the 10g if we do catch anything. I'l most likely move my female betta into the community tank, since I know she can get along with other fish. I also had a guy email me saying that he had some natives he wanted to get rid of so I'm going by either today or tomorrow to pick those up. It's only three small fish so I'll probably put them in the community tank

As for my male betta, it looks like he may have a possible new home. I'm still working out the details so we'll see. The reason he has to find a new home is because at the end of May I'm going to be graduating and going back home to Nevada (at least for a while, then who knows where). I'm still debating what I'm going to do with most of my fish, but there are some that are definitely getting shipped home. I still have a month to worry about it so I'll come up with a plan. Now when I do get home, the tanks are going to get upgrades! I'll most likely be doing a 30g community and then a 20gL native biotope which will be great.

Now onto news about the current tanks:
10g:
One of the gudgeon babies is starting to show adult coloring and is a solid 3/4 inches long. The others are smaller but getting there. I'm debating putting my male betta into his smaller tank and letting the babies roam in one side of the divided tank. That way they'll stop bickering as much. The little guys are getting super aggressive with their food and will try to eat thing that are 2 time bigger than their mouths. It's actually quite cute.

20G
My cories seem to be spawning at least every week now. It's quite entertaining to watch all four males dash after the female laying the eggs, ignoring all other living creatures in the tank.I also have a horrible rams horn snail infestation >_< I probably have anywhere from 50-100 in there. It' annoying but there isn't much i can do but pluck them out or smash them. The fish seem to love it when i smash them, as it makes good meals for them them.

The good news is I only have the tiniest patch of cyano left in the tank so I'm very thankful for that. Now i just have to deal with this weird whitish hair algae looking stuff that seems to have taken it's place.

I'll try to get some pics in the next few days for you all :)

[wolf_eyes]

Here's some pics of the new guys

This is a shot of the two together. They like to hang out with each other and seem really peaceful. Of course this may just because they're trying to get used to the new tank. The male is closer to the bottom and the female is closer to the top. She's actually quite lovely. You can't see it in this pic but she has irridscent spots on her body that really shine in the light.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050547.jpg
This is the male. Again this picture doesn't do him justice.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050575.jpg
One of the really cool native plants i got too. I'll have to look it up and see what it is.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050562.jpg

[wolf_eyes]

So i have some crazy news for you all. I really couldn't believe it even as I was watching it! As I have mentioned I'm having a ram's horn snail infestation. As soon as I see one I can grab easily that is a larger one, I crush it's shell and then let it fall to the bottom. I can only kill the older ones because the younger ram's horns shells are flat and don't crush to the point where you can get the meat.

Well I have been noticing in my tank for the past few days that there were soem completely empty shells. I thought it was a little weird because the shells weren't big ones, but I wrote it off as snails that had died of natural causes. Tonight, however, changed my view. I had just crushed a few snails and was watching my cories go to town on them. A normal snail was nearby and my big female stumbled upon it. She picked up the snail with her mouth and turned it over and then grabbed where it's opening for the shell was and started sucking it out! I was utterly shocked by this because I though that loaches were the only species that ate snails. I really want to go reseach the way they eat snails now. Man if I can I will try to capture this on my camera so that I can show you guys proof.

[Sir Tristen]

That does sound cool! Just another reason to love corys thumbs2:

[wolf_eyes]

Here's an update with some pictures. About a week ago i was looking in my tank and noticed a baby cory in there. It was free swimming but couldn't be older than a week. I haven't seen it since so I'm not sure if the cories got to it or not. http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050588.jpg
Here's a picture of the 20 gallon. I had to put my female betta into the 20. She didn't get along with the golden topminnows. I think they're just too close to her size for comfort. She also ate one of my female shrimp so she is in the breeder and not free to roam around the whole tank. When I'm out of college either she or the shrimp will have their own tank so she'll have more room.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050600.jpg
speaking of my female betta, here's a better pic of her.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050591.jpg
Here's one of the male shrimp on my willow moss. I got this as a "bonus" when i bought another type of moss and I have to say it's probably my favorite type of moss.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050604.jpg
and lastly a pic of the new foe I'm trying to kill in my tank. Out of all the algae I've had , this stuff isn't so bad. It's easy to take out and isn't completely unsightly.

So in two weeks I'll be graduating and going back to the desert. It really sucks to be leaving all my college friends behind, but I have to keep my chin up and hope for a good job to come my way. It also sucks but most of my fish are going to be heading to the LFS. I'll probably be taking the baby gudgeons, the shrimp, my hillstream loach, and my female betta back home with me. I would love to take the cories, but shipping gets expensive fast. The Lfs said they would ready them for shipping for me so at least that is figured out. I hope everyone will make it home *fingers crossed*

[Northernguy]

Great pics!thumbs2: The tanks look great too!:22:
I have seen corys go after baby pond snails but never a larger one.They do appreciate fresh crushed though! lol
That would be cool to see!

[Sir Tristen]

Nice set up! Looks great! I hope all goes well with the move.

[wolf_eyes]

Fish are either going to be sent home tuesday or early wendsday.. When i was breaking down the 20gL i found not one, not two, but eleven... yes 11 baby corys. Apparently my corys had more children than i knew about They're so tiny that i'm going to try to ship them home since no store will take them at that age. I had to transport the tank to the beach house we're staying at and i had a few of the shrimp die off. Let's hope everyone else makes the trip

[metallspuerhunde]

I hope the rest of your move goes smoothly.

BTW your tanks and all the fish I've seen in this journal are absolutely lovely. I shall strive to get my 10g to eventually look as good as your gorgeous setups! ^^

[wolf_eyes]

Thanks metal that means a lot to me :)

Well everyone made it home alive, so I'm really happy about that. The gudgeons, shrimp, hillstream loach, and 4 baby cory are in a 10 gallon and my female betta is in a 5 gallon. Unfortunately my female has a little bit of fungus from the stressful trip. I'm treating her tank now, and i hope she pulls through... i would be really sad to lose her.

[MCHRKiller]

Glad everybody made it home nicely! :22:

[wolf_eyes]

Well everyone may have made it home safe, but I don't know if they're going to live. I lost my cycle even though i tried to transport the media home. Some of the shrimp were lying on their sides and half dead this morning. I ran to get a test and my ammonia is reading at .75. I'm doing 2 30% water changes now in hopes that it will help keep them alive. I might have to buy some hornwort or something like that to help. I'm also going to go back down to the store and get some safe start. I really want the shrimp to live but as long as the baby gudgeons make it I'll fine


On the plus side my female betta is looking much better today. She has full color and I don't see any fungus on her.

[KingFisher]

Well everyone may have made it home safe, but I don't know if they're going to live. I lost my cycle even though i tried to transport the media home. Some of the shrimp were lying on their sides and half dead this morning. I ran to get a test and my ammonia is reading at .75. I'm doing 2 30% water changes now in hopes that it will help keep them alive. I might have to buy some hornwort or something like that to help. I'm also going to go back down to the store and get some safe start. I really want the shrimp to live but as long as the baby gudgeons make it I'll fine


On the plus side my female betta is looking much better today. She has full color and I don't see any fungus on her.
Sorry to hear about your cycle Wolf. Keep up with those water changes. Is the water at home very different than the water where you were? If so, this could cause a problem. I hope everything works out ok. :ssmile:

[PostalPenguin]

How did you transport your media home? I took my fish home and the media survived the 3 hour trip fine, sealed in the canister.

For longer trips what I would suggest doing is removing the media, placing in a plastic baggie with tank water and placing in a cooler with ice packs. Don't directly put the media on the ice but chill the media. This will slow down the bacteria's metabolism enough so they will make the trip. Gradually warm the media back up and you should be good to go. Sorry to hear about it and hope they pull through.

[wolf_eyes]

That's what I did but the media still died, it was a 24 hour trip so im assuming that's what killed them.

[PostalPenguin]

Ah yes, a 24 hr trip would be a bit much. With that much distance perhaps pack the media in breather bags with a few drops of ammonia and overnight it to your destination.

[wolf_eyes]

everyone's doing good today. The 10 had no reading of ammonia. I went to the store and got some bacteria culture and some hornwort to help with the cycle. While i was there I saw a platinum crowntail betta and... well.... let's just say I don't deal well with temptation. He's currently flaring at my female in his new home.

[wolf_eyes]

The male betta now has a name: Houdini. I made a makeshift divider out of some plastic mesh for a moss wall. It worked ok for the first few hours but then he found a way to get into the female betta's side. Thankfully the two just did some flaring at each other and I still had the male betta's cup so I put him in it so I could fix the problem. I thought I fixed it, but he got in on her side again. This happened about 6 more times before I finally gave up and put him in the cup overnight. I tried several different ways to fix the problem but the little guy still kept getting over. Today I went out and bought a 10g divider and jury rigged it to fit into the 5. Now there's no way he can get over to her.

As for the 10 gallon, everyone is doing ok. No more deaths, so I'm happy.

[wolf_eyes]

I'm severely disappointed with Aquaspot. They forgot to ship one of my plants I ordered and one of the them was completely melted by the time I got it. The only thing that arrived in an ok condition was the dwarf baby tears. They have good roots but the leaves are a sickly green at best. The best out of US store that I have bought from by far is Aquaticmagic. All of the plants that I've gotten from them arrive healthy and, if not, they are extremely helpful and caring about getting more shipped out to you.

On another note, I have my camera now so I'll take pics of everyone tonight.

[Hailey]

Oh good, I love your pics!
And you tank is giving me lots of inspiration for my 76 gallon that I'll be setting up in a while! I love all the mosses, and how you did the sand!

[wolf_eyes]

Thanks Hailey, I'm glad people like my pictures, I'm also glad that I could help you come up with an idea for your tank. If you want, I could always draw out some ides for you :)

So um when I said I would get pictures up that night I apparently meant that I would get them up two days after the fact... haha sorry guys. Well without further adue...

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050819.jpg
Here's a picture of the tank as it is right now. The hornwort is a temporary thing until I get my xmas moss. Also, I'm probably going to have to get some more HC because the one that I got looks like it's not going to come back. The tank looks pretty bad right now but I'm hoping to make it look like a forest when its all said and done.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050824.jpg
So today I decided to go to a new fish store that I saw on my way going to work. It's the closest one to my house (other than a petsmart) so I was hoping it would be a good one, because my favorite place it's about a 40 min drive away. Well I went in and the place was very big, but the guy was just starting it up so not all the tanks had fish in it. He had more saltwater than freshwater, but it's understandable. Still the place was in good shape, all the fish were in good shape, and I was rather impressed.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050829.jpg
Anyways I saw these guys and thought their eyes were beautiful. I went home to do a little research and found out they were a schooling type of killiefish (norman's lampeye if i remember correctly). So after some thinking I went back and asked him how much they would be. I was expecting somewhere around 5-10 bucks because that was the estimation I read online. Well to my surprise he said ".99 cents each". I quickly said ok and asked for 5. The guy was very generous and gave me 9 fish for 5 bucks. I thought it was really nice of him but I didn't really want that many... but I'm not one to turn down free things.... well....
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050827.jpg
I thought one of the fish he had caught looked funny but he had put the fish in a brown bag and my brother was holding it so I didn't get a good look at it. To my...."delight" I found out when i got home it was a goldfish... yey. For the time being he's going to stay in the tank with the others until he hits about 3-4 inches, then he'll either go back to a store or ... if i get attached to it (doubtful, very doubtful), I might buy it a tank of it's own. Well that's the 10 gallon now... pictures of houdini!

[Red]

tank looks great, and nice goldfish!

[wolf_eyes]

So this isn't one of the best pictures in the world, but between flaring at my female betta and building his bubble nest, houndini doesn't sit still
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050813.jpg

Here's a better picture of his fins and coloring
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050831.jpg
He's really a beautiful fish. I'm really glad I got him rather than the Delta that brought me to petco in the first place. He has a ton of character and isn't afraid of me or my hand.

[wolf_eyes]

Too late for an edit but the clear, blue eyed fish I have aren't actually norman's lampeye, they're blue eyed rice fish. They're still pretty cool and stay about the same size.

[Hailey]

Wow he looks silver! I would love to find a silver betta!

[wolf_eyes]

he's really beautiful, I'm really glad I got him too. :)

So I got some new plants for the tank since I hate the hornwort and all the HC died. I got some new HC and some foxtail green. This time I just bought from someone in the US and the HC looks beautiful. The foxtail's a little brown on the bottom but other than that it's looking good as well. I really can't wait until the rest of my HC, my pygmy chain sword, and my xmas moss comes in, then the 10g will start looking good haha. I'll get some pics for you all soon

[wolf_eyes]

So I found the goldfish snacking on one of my cherry shrimp the other day so today he went back to the fish store. Since the cories were at selling age i decided to take them as well. I'm sad to see the cories go as I love those little guys. It will be a while until i can get some new cory. I think I might try to find either some panda, trillneatus, or sterbai cory next time. Maybe if i clean my room real good and shock my mom she'll let me get a 20. That or I'll move out of the house, whichever comes first haha

So i was looking around the store because they gave me a couple of bucks for the fish and i saw that they had some amano shrimp. I picked up a small group of them and now they're acclimating for the tank

[wolf_eyes]

The first shipment of my xmas moss came in today. I set up the mesh in the tank, but you cant really see it due to the wood and plants in the way, haha. Hoepfully when it grows out you'll be able to see more.I'm still waiting for some more HC and some pygmy chain sword until the tank is fully planted. I think i need to go out and buy some more eco complete. Ideally, I had hoped for more of a downward slope in the tank, but at the time I didn't have the money for another bag. I'm wondering if it would even be worth the effort though because I would have to be careful not to hurt/bury anyone in the process or take all the fish/shrimp out of the tank for a little bit.

[wolf_eyes]

LOL... so uh yesterday i wet out and uh... bought a 20g Long. I really want to get some cories so I thought it would be best to get a bigger tank. I'll probably either get a school of hasbrosus, hastatus, or panda. My water is still too high (7.8) for trillineatus so it kinda makes me sad. I need to move out to Seattle or something, then i can have whatever fish my heart desires, haha.

On another note I saw my rice fish spawn today. I had seen the females carrying eggs around before but I never had caught the dominant male and a female in an embrace. They seem to spawn in the morning and usually I work then. He kinda grabs her with his bottom fins and the two shimmy for what was about 10 seconds before they moved away from each other and the female had eggs in between her fins. The female then went to the moss and clean a spot before putting the eggs in the area.

[wolf_eyes]

I found my male rice fish caught in the plastic mesh I'm using to try and grow a moss wall. I was able to get him out, but he has quite a few scales missing and he's staying up at the surface, panting hard. All the other rice fish are kinda ignoring him when usually he bosses them around. I hope he pulls through... : /

[wolf_eyes]

The male rice fish is holding on. He's not looking great but he's not dying either. He spends time hiding and swims with his fins clamped at times, but he's now going around pestering the females and eating. I'm going to say he's getting better.... I think

On another note, the big tank is going up tomorrow. I have to get it ready for the new plants/fish that are coming. I got my hands on some Endlers and panda cories so I have to get the tank ready before they come in next week. I'm not really sure if i want to keep the whole "forest" theme I was going for as it seems not to be working very well. I'll have to figure out some ideas, maybe. I'll make sure to post some pics of the tank when it's setup. The bettas are going to get the 10g and the 5g is going to be a possible Endler's fry raising tank.

Also, as soon as my room is clean, and a space is cleared, I'll be adopting a lizard from work. The poor thing has been there for 7-8 months and no one has taken him home. One of the doctors offered a 55 gallon tank for him for free, all I need to do is come and pick it up. I figure that I'll keep the lizard in it and let him live the rest of his life living large and when he passes, I can maybe use the tank for fish (not sure what condition it's in though, may not hold water, we'll see). So that's everything that going down.

[wolf_eyes]

So it's been a long time since I've posted. To be honest, I was embarrassed by my tank. It didn't look good and was a complete jumbled mess of plants. Between my two jobs and working on a secret project, i just haven't had the time to mess with it. Well today I went into the tank and did a major redo of the whole thing. Between looking back at the old 20L design, tanks on here, and one really nice tank on line, I came up with the new design. The sand is still settling some, but here's a shot of it now.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050846.jpg
Here's a good shot of a male and female endler together.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050848.jpg

[wolf_eyes]

Two of my female endlers died yesterday so I think I'm going to turn them in to the store. The females are outnumbered by the males and the little ones aren't big enough to breed yet. The males keep chasing the last two females around constantly so I would rather not have them die off as well. I think I'll look into getting some tetras or small rasboras to replace them.

[wolf_eyes]

I'm soooooo freaking terrible! So uh, I now have THREE new bettas... will get pics here soon. One of them I'm keeping for my brother if/when he gets a tank...hopefully for his birthday. The other two... well they were too beautiful to pass up.

In other news, I replaced the endlers with some golden white cloud minnows and I think they finish up the tank nicely. They're more of a top dweller and they school really nicely, mainly because they're playing tag.

[wolf_eyes]

So here's my new bettas:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050886.jpg
This is my first one that I bought. His name is Lloyd, based on one of the characters that my friend made. His fins look like fire when he flares and he's very aggressive. He fits perfectly with the character he was named after.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050890.jpg
This is my brother's betta; a twintail named Mr. Bubbles.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050888.jpg
this is my newest male, bori, short for borialis (as in aurura borialis). he has a blue eyes. he also has a blue sheen to him which you can see in his fins. Probably my favorite colorwise.

[wolf_eyes]

I also bought some pygmy cories that were in stock at one of my LFS. I couldn't believe that someone actually had them in stock. I moved things around and now my 10g which held the bettas now has a group of 6 pygmies (i bought all the ones they had) and my gudgeons. In other news the 20GL now has 2 German blue rams to replace the gudgeons. I had tried them once before from another store and they faded and died three days later. These guys however, are doing really well. They are in full color, eating and cleaning a plant leaf off .... maybe to spawn? Here's a pic of them

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050873.jpg

[Lab_Rat]

Beautiful rams, looks like a very nice pair!

[wolf_eyes]

So this weekend i was dog sitting and away from the house. I came back and noticed that the gold rams had specks of white on them. I instantly looked over all my other fish, worrying that it was ick and I can only see it on a couple of the cories, on the tail fin of two of my platies, and of course on the rams. The day before I left i tried catching the gudgeons and I know that the rams were in the sand trying to swim away from the net, so I'm hoping its just grains of sand. I raised the temp up to 79(over the course of a few hours) and I'm wondering if I should go ahead and do the salt+heat treatment for ich, or hold off until i know for sure

[wolf_eyes]

i think i might just euthanize the german rams. I'm trying to treat the tank for ich, but they just seem to keep getting worse and worse even with the medicine. I'm using quick cure but... i dunno. I suppose some pics would help.. let me see if i can lure them into a light

[wolf_eyes]

heres pics of the male and female.

[Lab_Rat]

Wow Wolf, those look really bad. I can see why euthanasia might be the best option. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[wolf_eyes]

I'm euthanizing as we speak.

I suppose if anyone wants to take anything out of this, it would be that not all fish are adaptable to extremes in ph. If they're a hardy/begginer fish they may be alright, but those that are more sensitive should not be attempted. Guess I'll have to find another "centerpiece"

[wolf_eyes]

So at the end of it all I lost the panda cories and the female betta to ich as well. The good news is that it's finally no longer on any of the other fish. I am still continuing the new treatment for a few more days before I say it's out of there. I'm going to get some pepper cories to replace the pandas, and a gourami to be the centerpiece to replace the rams/betta that passed on.

In the 10 gallon tank I noticed that the peacock gudgeons are spawning. My dominant male looks so crazy as he displays to the female to try and lure her into the cage. I also got a group of boraras brigittae. I asked my brother to put them into the tank for me when the water got to the top, because i had to go out and do something. Well I came home to an overflowing bucket and 5 of the brigittae on the carpet. I'm going to go to the fish store on monday to see if they can't order me some more. right now they onl have a school of 4, so I'm hoping to get about 6 more

[wolf_eyes]

Just to let you all know, yes i am still alive. Life has been crazy busy for me and I have been neglecting online things to take care of real life happenings. With two jobs, a boyfriend, and trying to get myself to start up a dream project, there just hasn't been time for much else. All the fish and tanks are doing good. Nothing too terribly exciting has been going on in my tanks but I'll try to get some pics up here soon.

[Lab_Rat]

Good to hear from you, glad everything is going well. thumbs2:

[wolf_eyes]

I've been looking my tanks over and I really think I want to rework them. I'm really unsatisfied with my 20 long, with it's fish and its decoration. I let my excitement for fish get the better of me and now have more fish than I should in there. I'm going to find most of the fish new homes and aquascape it better. I'm thinking of doing a mostly asian biotope(fish wise) with the tank.

I also want to do something with my 10 gallon so I can see the fish in it more often. I'm almost done with my animation project for my second job, so that should give me some time to work on the tanks. I'll probably try moving things around and try to figure out a better arrangement for the tanks as well. i wish i had a bigger place for a new tank...

[wolf_eyes]

So after 8 hours of work, one sliced finger, and more money than I care to admit, all the tanks got an upgrade. The 20gl got a new 50g aquaclear filter and tank stand, the 10 gallon was upgraded to a 15g, and all the bettas are in one tank with several dividers. They were all freaked out last night, but now the fish seem to be happy with the changes. I need to clean my room up a bit ( last night kinda left it a wreck) but then I'll get some pics for you all here soon.

[wolf_eyes]

So I promised pictures and I have a couple for you. Unfortunately most of them came out bad so I will have to get more later.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050946.jpg
Here's the 15 gallon. I feel kinda silly posting this picture because the tank is going to be remodeled next week. Some of the fish I have in the tank are called least killifish which are a North American native fish. I have always had a soft spot for native fish and tried catching some when I was out in school. I think there's something really cool about having species that come from your own backyard. In fact the only fish book that I (currently) own is about native fish species and how to keep them in an aquarium.

So anyways I decided that I would plant the tank with native plant species. Fortunately some of the plants that I have in there are already native plants so it won't be completely revamped. I will be keeping the hardscape the same so only the plants will change.

The betta tank pictures didn't come out very well so I will get new one when I upload new pictures of the 15 replanted.

Lastly, there aren't any tank shots of the 20GL. I went away for a couple of days and came home to the 20 having Ich... AGAIN. I'd rather not stress sick fish so I have been holding off on rearranging the plants. Hopefully they'll all pull out of this and I can get some nice pics for you all. For now, here's a teaser pic of one of the new inhabitants.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050953.jpg

[WeedCali]

looks really good :)

[wolf_eyes]

Bad luck again. I'm losing fish to the outbreak of ich.... I've been treating the tank at half dose due to the fact that some fish are sensitive and I raised the tank temperature to 80. I added a bubbler to bring in more oxygen as well.I have been dosing per instructions for a week now using api's super ick cure. All the fish but my pearl gourami have ich and I have had most of the fish die on me. Right now I really just want to take the pearl out and let the tank sit for 12 days without any fish in it to fully rid it of all parasites...

[wolf_eyes]

The only fish to survive the ich was the pearl gourami. He still shows no signs of ich on him.I think what i want to do now is take the gourami to a fish store and restart the tank. I think I'll crank the temp up to 85 and let the tank sit for about a week or so to kill off any ich that's still in the tank.

The other tanks are doing great, so I'm happy about that.

[wolf_eyes]

I think that the ich outbreak happened because of me doing too many things to the tank too fast. I wanted the tank to be more of a biotype with the fish, so I swapped the fish that were in there with new fish. The newer fish were bigger than the older ones, but I thought that since there were less it would be ok for the bioload. I bought a new filter and transfered only half of the filter media over rather than all of it because I needed to seed a new tank. I also moved the tank to a different location a few days after putting new fish in, most likely triggering the stress that got them sick. So, if you want to take anything away from my mistake:

1)stock slowly even in an established tank
2) don't try to do everything at once.

I know this is pretty basic stuff, but sometimes the excitement just gets the better of us. I feel pretty bad about the whole thing and know that it was my error that caused the fish to die. The tank is going to sit for a week or two until I get my next paycheck and then I will SLOWLY restock the tank.

I'm thinking something along these lines:

bottom dweller:
6 trillineatus cory
OR
6 sterbai cory

Schooler:
8 von rio tetras
OR
8 rummynose tetras
OR
8 pencil fish (not sure which species is at the store, but the three that it could be stay at 2" or under)

Signature:
3 sanshoku/showa swordtails(1m2f)
OR
2 bolivian rams(pair)
OR
2 red breasted acaras(pair)

[wolf_eyes]

So here are some pictures of the tanks.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050954.jpg
Here the 15 with it's new plants. The colors are a little off but you get the basic idea.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050988.jpg
here's a pygmy cory from the tank
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1050977.jpg
Here is the betta tank. From left to right their names are:
Candy, (no name yet), Yin, Yang, Mr. bubbles (named by brother), Inferno

As for the 20, I was working in it when i saw something very tiny dart at the surface. I thought it was some worm at first but upon closer look, I noticed it was a fry. So far I can see three in there.

[rich311k]

Nice looking tanks!

[troy]

Great looking tanks!thumbs2:

[wolf_eyes]

I did some maintenance on the 20GL to get it ready for new fish on monday. I mixed some pool filter sand with the play sand I already had in the tank. The pool filter sand is much prettier and natural looking, though the playsand seems less course. I also bought this nice piece of driftwood for 3 bucks from one of my fish stores. The guy knows me really well and he's trying to get rid of all his freshwater fish and supplies so he can go straight to saltwater. It was a great deal!
I put the fry into a breeder net to see what they would grow up into. I caught 4 of them, 2 of them are almost double the length of the others, leaving me to believe that whatever fish spawned them did it more than once. It makes me feel a little better to know something survived the ich.

I'm still trying to decide on the stocking...I'm not sure what signature species I want. I kinda want to stick with a south american theme, so that rules out gouramis and bettas. I was thinking :

8 schooler tetras (rummynose or von rios)
6 sterbai cories
and one of these:
1 keyhole cichlid
OR
2 bolivian rams(1m1f)
OR
3 cockatoo cichlids (1m2f)
OR
3 showa swordtails (1m2f)
Since I have a lot of driftwood in the tank and I'm using a water softener resin, I'm not sure the swordtails would be the best idea... though my water is harder out of the tap (7.6). I'm open to any suggestions you all may have.

[rich311k]

I would do the rams or the cockatoos. Both great fish.

[wolf_eyes]

The 20gl is getting fish in it again. So far it has 4(1m,3f) variatus livebearers which are very closely related to platies I got these a week ago. I also got 2 bolivian rams yesterday from the store farthest away from me. They do nothing special with the water and just use straight tap with dechlorinator. The bolivians were looking pretty heathy so I picked one with a visible breeding tube and one without one. They're sticking pretty close together usually, though I bet it's only because they're in a new place. I've been thinking about getting an algae eatting fish for the tank, and maybe a couple more amano shrimp.
Debating between:
3 ottos
OR
1 bristlenose plec
OR
1 farlowella catfish
One of the stores carries albino bristlenose, though I'm not sure if I like them all that much.Any other suggestions? i dont want mystery snails because i have more snails than i could ever want.

[wolf_eyes]

20 gallon
Added the sterbai in today. They are so cute. I forgot how nice it is to have corys in this tank. One of the little guys has shriveled/missing fins on one side of his body. He acts perfectly normal and was acting fine at the store too. I'll have to keep an eye on him. The ram's peaceful ways didn't last. One sticks to the middle and right side of the tank while the other sticks more to the left side. At times they seem to tolerate each other and then at others they start displaying and sparring. No harm is being done and they keep it to themselves... I might wait it out a week to see if they calm down any.

I think that I'm either going to get a bristlenose or the 3 otos. I'll probably go with the bristlenose though.

Pics soon!

15 gallon
I ordered 4 more pygmy cories for the 15. now the little guys will have a proper school.

[wolf_eyes]

My rams are so weird. After a couple of days of sparring I come home to find them hanging out together like they did when I first brought them home. They swam together and every now and again one would push the other on the black spot in the middle of their body. Anyways here's some pics of the fish:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060006.jpg
Here's the female. She's really started coloring up since I brought her home.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060010.jpg
Here's the two of them together. THe male is the one staring at the camera.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060018.jpg
Lastly, two of the sterbai. They're only an inch at the most right now, i can't wait until they're full grown.

[wolf_eyes]

I picked up a 30 gallon tank from a craigslist posting It was $20 but my friend bought it for me, so it was free for me. I even got a roll of black/blue background paper and a divider for free from the guy. He had 8 tanks total and some of them were custom made. By the time i got there he only had the 30 and an nice 60 gallon that was divided in half and had holes for canister filters. Unfortunately I don't have money for a canister or I would have gotten that tank. I haven't filled the tank yet to check for leaks, but hopefully it'll be good. Here's hoping!

[wolf_eyes]

So far so good. the tank has been sitting for two days and i haven't seen any sign of leaks. I'll probably set up the tank on saturday or sunday.

I gave everyone (that was big enough anyways) some blackworms. The betas got extremely aggressive with them and ripped them away from the syringe before i could even inject them into the tank. All the cories dashed to the front of the tank in the 20 and devoured almost all of them. My male ram could barely keep up with the little guys.

[wolf_eyes]

Well after three days of planning, cleaning the tank, finishing the stand, and other things, the 30g tank is up. The fish seem to love the extra space and are exploring the whole tank. I'm rather happy that I decided to get the tank and I love the look of it. I'm going to wait until the plants in the tank fill out some more before taking pics. The male bolivian ram bullied the little girl until she stopped eating. I told my brother to keep an eye on her as I had to leave for the weekend and... of course he didn't. I came home and couldn't find her in the tank. I did a little searching and found her body.

Since I upgraded the tank I think I'm going to get a small group and let them pair off naturally. I get a great deal from one of the local guys. He doesn't sell freshwater at his store but one of his distributors offers freshwater fish. For a 10% markup on the price of the fish in the book, he will special order for me. Seeing as how the fish are maybe a couple of bucks in his books, I can probably get a group of 6 for 15 bucks or less. The original pair was 14 bucks at another store.

The 15 is doing great, the least killifish are giving birth to babies. For those of you who don't know, least killifish aren't actually a killifish but a livebearer. I didn't think I had a male in the tank as I couldn't find one with a gonopodium, but I must have a male in there.

[wolf_eyes]

The plants in the 30 were suffering a bit since I've just been using the 20gl lighting fixture I had. Sine I'm paying for student loans now I really don't have the money to go an buy another $130 aquarium lighting fixture so I went the cheap route and bought a shop light from home depot. Since 36" isn't a standard size... I got a 48". Still it was only $26 bucks for light and bulbs so I'm going to play around with it and see what I can do. Might be a little ugly but oh well lol.

So some of you may know but i have a new betta, which makes 7 now. I just couldn't pass this guy up though. He looks like a fish you would pay 25-40 bucks for and he was only for 13. He's a halfmoon dragon. Dragons are bettas with nearly metallic scales. His name is kotetsu which is japanese for Ironclad. I felt the name was appropriate for his metallic look.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/malebetta.jpg

[Taurus]

Awesome betta and congrats on the new 30g tank! What's your stocking plan for the 30g other than the Bolivian Rams which are very intersting dwarf cichlids by the way.

[wolf_eyes]

I moved the 20g stock into the 30, which is:

7 von rio tetras
6 sterbai cory
(now)4 rams (until they pair up)
4 juvi. bristleplecos (until they pair)

I'm going to add a school of rummynose to the mix. I have 70+gallons worth of filtration and a planted tank so i think another small school will be ok. I really can't wait until the tank fills out plant wise. I think it'll look really nice.

[Taurus]

You should be fine with 6+- rummynose tetra. :ssmile:

[wolf_eyes]

I got my new plants in today. I put them into the tank and think that it looks pretty good right now. Tomorrow I'll take some pics after I put the black background up.

[Taurus]

:worthless:

:wink:

[Brhino]

dragon betta... wow. My wife and I have been thinking about adding a beta tank. That's a gorgeous fish.

[wolf_eyes]

ok ok, so I know I promised picures, and I DID take them, but the boyfriend's asleep currently so I can't find the cord until he wakes up. I will get them up later, I promise!

Last night I went to one of my LFS and they had a bolivian ram there. It was pretty big in size and was bullying the two german rams in the tank. My original male ram has kinda been the boss of the tank and has not been very tolerant of the other rams when it comes to feeding times. I thought since this one was a little more aggressive that maybe it would stand a better chance over the others.

Last night the two stayed pretty far away from each other. This morning however, the two have been inseparable. Neither one lets the other out of sight. They calmly peck for food together and I've even seen some displaying going on. There's been no fighting and both of them are showing really good colors, better than I've seen. They behave a lot better than the pair I originally got. Hopefully this continues. I'll see about getting a picture of them too.

[wolf_eyes]

Brhino: Thank you. Dragons are pretty hard to find unless you're looking at a breeder's site. Bettas are great characters though. All 8 of mine have different personalities. I would recommend one, just be careful that you don't get addicted to them lol.

So as promised here are pics!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060050-1.jpg
A full tank shot. You can see the rams at the bottom together.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060036.jpg
Here's a the closer shot of the two rams. They maybe get about 6 inches away from each other at the most. Most of the time though they stay about this close together. As you can see in this shot the tank is pretty scratched up. I didn't notice it when I got it, but for 15 bucks I can't really complain

[Taurus]

Beautifully scaped tank and the Bolivians are gorgeous. thumbs2:

Great camera work, too!

[wolf_eyes]

Thanks L. The tank has a little growing out to do, but I think it's going to look really nice when it does. The mayaca(group of plants on the left) is getting new growth, which is good. I was a little nervous that it wouldn't grow well in the tank because it isn't high tech and only is slightly above 2wpg but for 5 bucks I thought I would give it a try. I'm glad that I did. The four leaf clover (foreground plant of the very right) is dying off, but I think it's because it was grown emersed. Hopefully it will come back with it's submerged growth.

The rams are continuing to stay together. The male gets moody with her at dinner time and chases her and everyone else away from his food. Other than that they still stay close together. I'm wondering when I should bring the others back to the store, since it's looking more and more like I have a compatible pair.

I also got close up shots of all the bettas I have.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060078.jpg
This is Shepard. My boyfriend is not interested in the hobby. He teases me all the time about my fish obsession and calls me a fish nerd. Well he and I went to a fish store and he was kinda taking interest in this betta. I picked up the betta and took him over to the counter. He looked at me curiously and I told him that this was the first fish he took interest in and it would be our betta. On the way home, he was telling me that I better not let the betta die because it was a symbol of our love. The fish (courtesy of the boyfriend) is named after the main character in the Mass Effect series.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060068.jpg
This is Yin, named for his mostly black body and white tipped fins.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060061.jpg
And this is Yang, named for her mostly white body. It's hard to see in this shot but she has a little black spot on her back.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060067.jpg
This is my wallmart betta, Master(name courtesy of the boyfriend). He's a mustard, basically meaning he has a dark body with yellow fins. I find this one of the more striking types of bettas. Even though he was only a veil tail, I wanted to get him, mainly because I knew he wouldn't fair well at wallmart.

[wolf_eyes]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060062.jpg
Mr. Bubbles is a twintail betta. He was supposed to be my brother's fish, but my parents wouldn't let him have one so now he's mine.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060069.jpg
This is Inferno, a crowntail. He look like he's on fire when he flares.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060057.jpg
Lastly is candycane.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060077.jpg
Obviously not a betta lol. This is one of the least killifish from my 15 gallon. I really like these little guys, they're native fish to north america and livebearers.

[Taurus]

Sounds like normal behavior to me A. I'd bring the others back soon.:ssmile:


The rams are continuing to stay together. The male gets moody with her at dinner time and chases her and everyone else away from his food. Other than that they still stay close together. I'm wondering when I should bring the others back to the store, since it's looking more and more like I have a compatible pair.

[wolf_eyes]

I took the rest of the bolivian rams to the store yesterday. The pair is moving around the whole tank now, instead of keeping to the center left area. They're still peaceful with each other. I got 6 more amano shrimp as a trade in for the rams. I wanted a couple of more rummynose, but their noses had no color in them so I passed.

[EmmanuelJB]

Beautiful Bettas!
Got any pics of the new shrimp?

[wolf_eyes]

Emmanuel: They like to hide a lot but I'll try to get a pic of them since I have my camera back now.

Arg! This male ram makes me so angry! So I took the males out of the tank since they were getting beat up on. The couple were getting along fine. I leave for a day to go out to my boyfriend's house. When I come back I only saw the male. I left room for a bit and then went back in. I found the female hiding under a rock that's propped up to allow for a little cave. I noticed she had some nips in her fins. She tentatively poked her head out and the male started chasing her all over the tank. Urg....

[wolf_eyes]

So I took the von rios back to the store and replaced them with a bigger school of rummynoses a couple of days ago. The look is really amazing. I came home from work and literally just went "wow" as I saw the rummys all schooling together. After I get a couple more rams and wait for them to pair off I think this tank is complete. I don't think I've ever said that about one of my tanks before lol. I have to admit that I really like having all the same fish from one continent. My 15 gallon has fish from several different places and to me there's just something a little off about it. Don't get me wrong, I love my peacock gudgeons, least killifish and pygmy cories, but I think I would prefer to have them all in tanks fitting their biotypes like my 30g.

[Taurus]

The look is really amazing.

:worthless: :ezpi_wink1:

[Rhaethe]

I have to admit that I really like having all the same fish from one continent. My 15 gallon has fish from several different places and to me there's just something a little off about it. Don't get me wrong, I love my peacock gudgeons, least killifish and pygmy cories, but I think I would prefer to have them all in tanks fitting their biotypes like my 30g.

You know, I feel the same way ... is good to know I am not alone :ssmile:

And its not something I can say with any true certainty, and it may be in my own head, but the fish themselves seem to be more comfortable if with others of their biotype.

Yes, maybe I am crazed. :hmm3grin2orange:

[Taurus]

Yes, maybe I am crazed.

Maybe? LOL...anyway..

I have to agree and that's why I keep a South American Tank and an Asian tank.

[wolf_eyes]

So I decided to buy a couple of more rams after the whole male ram inccident. Well the store grabbed me an male and a female. I brought them home and put them into the tank. The new male was bigger than the original male but the original male start attacking him and the new female. He wouldn't leave them alone so I took the original male out and put him into isolation. Within a couple of hours the original female, who at this point I thought was most likely dead, came out of hiding. So far with the original male out of the tank, all the rams are being pretty peaceful with each other. The new female will sometimes chase the other female around but it's only half hearted. The new male will hang out with both of the females but seems to prefer the female I bought him with. He'll also just hang by himself sometimes like he's doing now. This has been going on for 5 days now... hopefully it will last.

The original female is healing up nicely from her torn fins. The other two bolivians I bought also had torn fins. They told me when i bought them that they were a trade in from another customer who had a pair of rams start spawning and got vicious with all the other rams in the tank. They two are healing up well in my tank. I think the reason they all get along together is because they are victims of ram abuse (just kidding!).

I'll get some shots here soon for you J.

[wolf_eyes]

This post is for all those who want to put bettas together, to "test it out". I have a 6 gallon tank with 6 bettas in it. They are separated by glass dividers. The tank came with a hood, but don't like to use it. On the ends of the dividers are 2 slits for air to come through, but small enough that the bettas can't jump through. This is good for the bettas on the far ends of the tank. However, the glass dividers reach to the divider and i fear that it cuts off air circulation to the other four bettas.

The bettas have been in this tank for 5 months now without incident so I never thought to put the hood on. Well last night, sometime around 1-4 am in the morning I heard a splash. I wasn't too worried at the time, half because I wanted to sleep, and half because I thought the noise came one of the other tanks which have good hoods on them. Well when I woke up this morning I looked over to my betta tank, because it's right next to my bed. To my groggy confusion I saw two bettas in the same tank. Then I realized what I was seeing. Yang, my white female betta, had jumped into Master's compartment. I quickly reached my hand in and scooped master out. Well... all I can say is fortunately he's alive. His fins are torn to shreds and he has some scales missing.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060183.jpg
So just as a word of advice to all of those who want to keep a male and female betta together, just know that they can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time. Just because it's nighttime doesn't mean it'll be safe to keep them in the same tank.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060176.jpg
On another note, here's the 15g nano tank. I did a little rearranging of the plants and whatnot. I'm still not totally happy with it but it's a start.

[Northernguy]

It looks great!
Sorry to see your betta so torn up.It had some great looking fins.They should be better in a while.

I have a lone female ram.I hope the male I get will be nice to her.lol

[wolf_eyes]

It looks great!
Sorry to see your betta so torn up.It had some great looking fins. They should be better in a while.


Thanks for the concern NG. Master is healing up well, you can already see some new membrane forming. I put the hood back on the tank and the males have starting building bubble nests. I think I might do a little glass cutting to have more air get through the hood when the water level drops a bit.

30g:

Cories are going crazy today. They're swimming all over the place in groups and then excitedly swimming off in pairs. Seems like spawning behavior, as my peppers did this every time we had a front come through. We do have a front moving in, but I haven't seen any eggs yet. I fed them some live black worms today so I bet this is another reason they're acting this way.

15g:

Got some more pics of the inhabitants I thought I would share.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/nanotankpic.jpg
Here is the group of least rasboras. One of the shop owners lets me look at his list and order what I want off of it. I bought these guys as brigittae but when the shipment came in, I was a little disappointed. They aren't terribly active but at least they give me practice on shooting pics.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/bittycontest3.jpg
Whenever I stare into the tank or taking pictures, all the peacocks come up to the glass to see what I'm doing. Here's one of the males and my little runt female checking the camera out.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/bittycontest4.jpg
Here's one of the female least killifish in my tank.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060224.jpg
And another shot of some least killifish.

[Rhaethe]

Then I realized what I was seeing. Yang, my white female betta, had jumped into Master's compartment.


The fish club I'm a part of had a speaker on bettas and anabantids come to talk last month. He had mentioned that how many breeders in Asia breed bettas is they keep them in clay pots ... and when the female is ready to breed, she'll jump into the male's jar. And breeding can often be a very violent affair (pun only somewhat intended) with much flaring and fin shredding ... and teh female sometimes destroying the bubblenest, making the male build another one until she's satisfied.




On another note, here's the 15g nano tank. I did a little rearranging of the plants and whatnot. I'm still not totally happy with it but it's a start.

I like it! I really need to find a good source for those thin branch thingies.

[wolf_eyes]

The fish club I'm a part of had a speaker on bettas and anabantids come to talk last month. He had mentioned that how many breeders in Asia breed bettas is they keep them in clay pots ... and when the female is ready to breed, she'll jump into the male's jar. And breeding can often be a very violent affair (pun only somewhat intended) with much flaring and fin shredding ... and teh female sometimes destroying the bubblenest, making the male build another one until she's satisfied.
Interesting. I wonder if that is what she was trying to do. Well lol I have no intention of letting her try it again. I don't have enough space in my room for baby bettas haha.




I like it! I really need to find a good source for those thin branch thingies.
I bought mine off of http://www.manzanita.com/aqwood.htm . You don't get to see the pieces before you get them but it was a really good deal. I have enough wood for my 15 and spares that I used in the 30. I snapped off a few piece from the bigger branches to make the smaller ones on the right side of the tank. There is also aquabid in the driftwood section that has some good stuff.

[Rhaethe]

I bought mine off of http://www.manzanita.com/aqwood.htm . You don't get to see the pieces before you get them but it was a really good deal. I have enough wood for my 15 and spares that I used in the 30. I snapped off a few piece from the bigger branches to make the smaller ones on the right side of the tank. There is also aquabid in the driftwood section that has some good stuff.

Excellent, thank you! Is there a particular way to soak or treat the manzanita before it gets placed in a tank?

[wolf_eyes]

Excellent, thank you! Is there a particular way to soak or treat the manzanita before it gets placed in a tank?

Boiling it or scrubbing with hot water both work fine. The wood may be a little buoyant when first placed in.

[wolf_eyes]

So now there's going to be another "thanks to kel" tank in the AC community.

I went out of town this weekend with my boyfriend. His parents live about an hour and a half away in a small town. Well we were heading out there for the weekend when he remembered that our degus needed some dust. Just as an aside, degus are a rodent species that look like a mix between a chinchilla and a gerbil. They're very social and intelligent... sweet little guys...Well anyway, we stopped at a petco on the border of Vegas. This has to be the best Petco I have ever seen. Almost all the tanks types they sold were on display so you could see them before you bought them. They had really clean, good looking tanks, and the employees were holding and playing with the birds, ferrets and small rodents. It made me happy to see that because then you know you're getting a good, socialized animal. Oops... went off track again... So while I was in the fish section, we spotted not one, not two, but three display areas for betta. I have never seen so many good looking bettas. They had several dragons as well. If I had more space and room there were easily 5 bettas that I would have taken home. As it was.... I did grab one little guy. He's a halfmoon plakat dragon. His body is a minty silver that really shines and glistens with red fins.

So for this really unique looking guy, I wanted to make a really unique tank. I had a spare 5 gallon hanging around so I decided to use that. Now I was thinking about making a concrete background. I added up the costs, and while it wasn't too bad, I thought I might be able to find a cheaper solution. I went to the local store where I have it in good with the shop keeper. I bought 5 bigger pieces of rock (white lava rock i think), a big piece of driftwood, and a filter all for 33 bucks. The filter's a "rapids 80gph power filter" the thing was a PITA to prime but it works good once I got it to work. I would have gone with a aquaclear, but I think it would have been too much power for a betta.

Anyways, I'll add some pics as I do progress.

http://baublog.weimerhohl.de/wp-content/uploads/2006/01/degus.jpg <degus

[wolf_eyes]

30g
The new male betta is in a breeding net for the time being due to a setback in the 15. He has built a big, beautiful bubble nest so I guess he's doing good in there. One thing about him though, he does not like any fish coming near his little net. He darts over to the fish and flares at them. I might try a few ghost shrimp with him when he gets into the 5 gallon but I'm not sure yet.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060276.jpg
As promised here's a pic of one of the amano shrimp. I was surprised to see this guy clinging onto the breeder net. They usually hide so well I can't ever spot them. The betta doesn't seem to even notice the shrimp is there.

15g
So it's been a little bit. I got my new fish in, some rice fish. I didn't have the 5 gallon up and running yet so I went ahead and put them into the 15.... bad move. One of the fish must have had ich on them because now the 15 has ich on them. I had to quickly get the 5 gallon up so that I could put the dwarf frogs in. I was nervous about treating the 15 due to the nano fish, but so far everyone's acting normal. Still... I'm mad at myself for not putting the new fish into quarantine.

5g
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/5gallon.jpg
This is the new 5 gallon. I want to put a black background on the back to really make it look nice. Right now though the frogs like to crawl through the rockwork so the light background helps me find them. Ignore the mag-float in the upper right area lol

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060275.jpg
Here's one of the little guys. As I speak the two males are croaking away and I noticed one grabbing onto a female. He grabbed onto her backwards but maybe soon they'll breed.

[wolf_eyes]

30G:
Two of the rams, a male and female, are cleaning one of the slate rocks together. The female cleaning has a breeding tube that is also much larger than the other two females in the tank . The male halfheartedly chased a cory away, which he usually completely ignores them, even during feeding. I don't want to get too optimistic but it seems like pre-spawning behavior to me.

I also got a group of 4 shanko swordtails. They look like koi with black little spots speckled in them. They are very beautiful and I think they round out the tank nicely.

15g:
I was at a petland a couple of days ago. I normally don't buy from places that sell puppies in their stores. Working at a vet's office has made me weary of the quality of these dogs. So many of the sick puppies or genetically deformed dogs we get in are from pet stores like this. Well my boyfriend wanted to look at some ferrets so we went into the store. After playing with the ferrets (some of them were really well socialized, but there was one that looks like it had an ulcer on the eye) we went and looked at the fish. I was looking at the plants, and noticed a lone fish in the tank. I knew he wasn't your normal tropical fish. He was this pure black little catfish, barely an inch long.I thought he was a madtom, so I asked the lady to catch him and get a plant for me.
I got the fish for free and, with the help of toddnbecka, I I.D.ed the fish as a bullhead. I'll probably keep him until he reaches 2-3 inches and then take him to a local store since these guys can get up to 12-15 inches, sometimes even more.

6g:
Nothing to report here.

5g:
I added a few ghost shrimp to the tank. When I do my water change tomorrow, I'll probably put the frogs back in the 15 and add the betta to this tank. THe ghost shrimp will stay in the tank with the betta to see how he does with them.

[wolf_eyes]

AAAAAAAANNNNNNND!
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/P1060301.jpg
EGGS! The bolivian rams as spawning now! I'm pretty excited. After a few months of trying to get a pair, dealing with my overly aggressive male, I finally have a spawning pair. As I like to say, the best complement a fish can give you is to spawn in your tank, so I'm feeling a little bit of fishy pride.

I won't be moving any of the fish, so I probably won't have any babies, but I'm alright with that.

[Owlbehere]

Congrats on the spawn! What an honor!

[Taurus]

EGGS! The bolivian rams as spawning now!

Well, congrats! Patience has its rewards. :shappy:

[wolf_eyes]

Well, congrats! Patience has its rewards. :shappy:

Definitely lol. It took some time but I'm happy that I waited. The eggs managed to make it through the night. The female ram is being a great mother. She stays with the eggs and only leaves when the male come over to relieve her for a few moments. The male more or less will patrol the tank, acting normal. When he does come back to the eggs, anything and everything but the mother is chased away from the eggs. No one has gotten hurt, so I'm glad the father isn't super aggressive with them.

[wolf_eyes]

I can see the "dots and lines" of the spine and eyes in the eggs. I haven't noticed any eggs wriggling, but they should hatch tomorrow or the next day. The mom is just amazing at raising the eggs. I think once they get to free swimming though, they will be a very quick die off due to predation from other fish. Right now I just don't have the room to raise the fish on my own so I guess the fry will have to fend for themselves.

[wolf_eyes]

The eggs hatched while i was at work. I can't see any babies but the parents are still defending the spot the eggs were at with much more intensity and there is a good size pit built. I can't really say that the babies aren't there because right now, due to a back injury, i can't really kneel in front of my tank like I normally due(That was thanks to a dog at work and my own clumsyness. ) The mom's trying to build a pit in the sand so I have a feeling they'll be moving the kids here soon if they have anymore

Edit: I actually just spotted a group of wigglers. They're all in one spot. Looks like most of the ones that were in the eggs are there. Both parents are protecting the newly hatched fry now, whereas in the beginning it was mostly mom. This is really interesting behavior and I have to say that cichlids are getting close to taking away bettas as my favorite "intelligent" fish.

[wolf_eyes]

I had to resist one of the biggest temptations as the fish store today. I had to go get a health card for my third job and since I was in the area of my favorite store, I decided to drop in. Well I looked into one of the tanks with rummynose, to see how healthy they were and I saw.... a male cockatoo cichlid. My jaw dropped and I started talking all excitedly to my boyfriend (who I was on the phone with). I got even more excited when I saw a little female pop up as well. I was about to go hunt down one of the employees when I saw the price on them: $42 for the pair. My heart sank a little but I knew that it was for the best. One of the worker came up to me and after a small discussion he told me that they have a few pairs but they had died off sadly. He told me if I really wanted them, I should come back in a week to see if they were still alive. I probably won't get them as the 15 has peacock gudgeons in it and I don't think the rams would appreciate another cichlid in the tank.

In other news the rams have been moving the wrigglers around from pit to pit. They started a new one last night and then when i came home today I found them in another pit closer to their spawning site.

[wolf_eyes]

Forgot that I took some video of the rams spawning(click on the picture and it will take you to the video)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/th_P1060302.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/?action=view&current=P1060302.mp4)

[Taurus]

Very nice video. Thanks for sharing!

[wolf_eyes]

The fry are free swimming now!(same with the last one, click on the pic to go to the video)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/th_P1060342.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/Whitemushroom/?action=view&current=P1060342.mp4)
Ignore my voice lol

Both parents are now hovering over the babies full time. They are really doing a good job. I saw the male scoop up a baby that was straying away from the group into this mouth and spit him out near the rest of the fry. Feeding time is interesting... I try to get some food to the parents but then it just causes the cories to go over to the parents, who get very angry at them. No harm seems to be done, but I feel kinda bad for endangering their fry.

[wolf_eyes]

So it's been a couple of days since i've posted. I recently got a third job so I can pay my student loans. I have close to a 70 hour work week so it's going to be busy. Anyways, the rams still have some fry left, their numbers are slowly dwindling so either someone's eatting them at night or they're passing away because they can't find enough food. I ordered a batch of microworms which should come sometime next week so at least the remaining fry will have some food.

15g:
Everything's going good in here. The ich is finally gone. I really want to get a timer for this tank, especially since I'm not going to be home as much.

5g: Mint, my plakat dragon male died :(. I think it was either shock or the lack of eating which did him in. I doubt it was the frogs, who hid from him. He wasn't aggressive with them, i just don't think they liked the idea of a bigger fish in the tank. Not sure if I want to put another betta in or just get some cherry shrimp.

6g: my male betta who got harmed by the female passed on as well. I think I'm just going to leave his spot empty and give yin more room to swim around.

[wolf_eyes]

Oi.... what a week. 14 hours shifts are very tiring. On those days I do work 14 hour shifts, I don't get to feed the two main tanks because the lights go out at 10. I think i'll probably change the hours on the timers so that i can at least feed them each day. I know a day of fasting is always recommended, but 3-4 days out of the week doesn't seem like the best idea.

Another thing I found out this week is that my grandpa has cancer and has only 2-3 months to live, so the family is going to go up to Michigan to see him. That's going to be a 5 day trip. I'm nervous about leaving my fish here for that time. I know someone will be around to feed the dogs so at least someone can feed the fish as well.

30g:The babies are all gone now. I think this was either due to predation or lack of food. I bought a culture of mircoworms for the next group of babies though. I think I'm also going to start a culture of black worms so I always have some handy for the frogs and the fish in this tank.

15g: I bought the time for this tank. Now I don't have to worry so much about the times being off.

Betta: another one of the the males passed away. I had him for over a year so it might have been his time to go, but I'm doing more water changes on the tank in case something is up with the water.

5g: frogs are doing fine, I keep finding eggs in the tank. I want to raise them, but I just don't have the time for that at the moment.

[wolf_eyes]

It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry life has been a little hard lately.

30g: The rams spawned again today. They laid their eggs on one of the smooth river rocks I have in the tank.It's kinda funny because they have slate rocks to spawn on but they instead choose one of the smallest rocks in the tank. they made sure to use every surface area they could on that rock though lol.

15g: I saw some galaxy rasboras at one of the fish store so I picked up a group. They are really amazing fish. Simply beautiful and active, but not too active. I'll try to get some pics of them

6g: When I was out of town visiting my grandpa, I had a die off of bettas. The females were the only ones that managed to live. They're doing good now. It makes me kinda sad to lose the other 3 fish though. Thankfully the girls made it and the males in the 15 are good too.

5g: nothing really new to report here. The frogs are doing fine and keep spawning.

[tori.lock]

Sorry to hear about the betta loss. They have so much personality it's not easy when they go. Congrats on the new spawing rams, though and good luck with the babies.

[wolf_eyes]

I am not dead, just... working a lot of hours and dealing with things like my car getting totaled(I'm fine, the car was kinda old and not worth a lot so they considered the amount of damage not worth fixing). Life has not been very kind to me lately so I've had to let some things fall to the wayside, like this journal thing. Hopefully things will turn around here soon .... hopefully lol.

I will try to get some pictures of the tanks. I'll probably take them tomorrow but it may be a few days before I post them lol. All the inhabitants are doing well. There is some definite need for pruning in 3 of the 4 tanks though. Also water changes have gotten a little hard to find time to do, although I am trying my hardest to get some time in. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some tank time in after I do a few other things.