Tails
04-12-2007, 11:47 AM
Hi everyone
I havent posted in ages cos our internet has been a bit funny, and hasnt been allowing access to certain (actually most) sites. *sigh*
That aside, much has happened in our tank since our last posting (by "our" I mean myself and Pinepages of course).
We have a few more plants, 4 new algae eaters (Darrel and Darrel are Chinese Algae Eaters, and Brandy and Mr Whiskers might be Golden Algae Eaters or a variant of, cos they're almost albino, but with some orange - I'll try get pics soon), and 4 new swordtails (currently still unnamed). Unfortunately we're down to 4 neon's from our 10 that we started with (actually, my dad -Pinepages- counted this early morning and got 5, and my sister counted last night and also counted 5, but when we count now, we can only find 4!! We have NO idea where the last one is or if they just miscounted!!??).
Our one female swordtail gave birth, and we found we have 4 babies (one is showing its colour nicely!). We figure the others (if there were others) were eaten :(. We gave them some Elodia to hide in, which they seem to enjoy :)
My dad also purchased some bloodworm (not sure if we mentioned that in our last posts - it was a while ago) which they like, and also a co2 thingamajiggy which the plants seem to like (he can elaborate on it further, as he's been the one reading up on the co2 stuff).
We also had quite a scare with some algae that was a very intense green, and was covering an entire rock (and a few small ones), most of the plants and spreading to the gravel (was almost making a web across the leaves of our plants). Someone told us it could be hair algae, but from what we've researched and looked at, I dont think it was hair algae...?? Anyway, we scooped out the contaminated gravel and the smaller rocks, and dad trimmed the bad leaves off the plants (unfortunately, snipped the actual "necks" of the plants, rather then plucked off the bad leaves lol so they're now looking a bit bare) and brought down the amount of light time the tank had. This was also the time we went looking for our 4 algae eaters lol. Anyway, a few days or so after all this, the algae on the rock was mysteriously gone!! I thought my dad had scrubbed it off, but apparently he didnt...very odd but very pleasing! :)
Our algae eaters are rather fat now, and one of our swordtails who we were told was a female is actually a late-blooming male (we tried to get 1 male to 3 females as we've read the males harrass the females quite a bit) lol.
Anyway, after that essay, here are some pics:
The tank (you can kinda see the c02 thing on the right hand side, but dont confuse it with the windowsill in the background, just behind the tank):
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
The male swordtail, the tail of the main female, and Darrell, our Algae Eater on the floor:
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
Here you can see Mr Whiskers (I think...not 100% sure) on the rock:
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
I havent posted in ages cos our internet has been a bit funny, and hasnt been allowing access to certain (actually most) sites. *sigh*
That aside, much has happened in our tank since our last posting (by "our" I mean myself and Pinepages of course).
We have a few more plants, 4 new algae eaters (Darrel and Darrel are Chinese Algae Eaters, and Brandy and Mr Whiskers might be Golden Algae Eaters or a variant of, cos they're almost albino, but with some orange - I'll try get pics soon), and 4 new swordtails (currently still unnamed). Unfortunately we're down to 4 neon's from our 10 that we started with (actually, my dad -Pinepages- counted this early morning and got 5, and my sister counted last night and also counted 5, but when we count now, we can only find 4!! We have NO idea where the last one is or if they just miscounted!!??).
Our one female swordtail gave birth, and we found we have 4 babies (one is showing its colour nicely!). We figure the others (if there were others) were eaten :(. We gave them some Elodia to hide in, which they seem to enjoy :)
My dad also purchased some bloodworm (not sure if we mentioned that in our last posts - it was a while ago) which they like, and also a co2 thingamajiggy which the plants seem to like (he can elaborate on it further, as he's been the one reading up on the co2 stuff).
We also had quite a scare with some algae that was a very intense green, and was covering an entire rock (and a few small ones), most of the plants and spreading to the gravel (was almost making a web across the leaves of our plants). Someone told us it could be hair algae, but from what we've researched and looked at, I dont think it was hair algae...?? Anyway, we scooped out the contaminated gravel and the smaller rocks, and dad trimmed the bad leaves off the plants (unfortunately, snipped the actual "necks" of the plants, rather then plucked off the bad leaves lol so they're now looking a bit bare) and brought down the amount of light time the tank had. This was also the time we went looking for our 4 algae eaters lol. Anyway, a few days or so after all this, the algae on the rock was mysteriously gone!! I thought my dad had scrubbed it off, but apparently he didnt...very odd but very pleasing! :)
Our algae eaters are rather fat now, and one of our swordtails who we were told was a female is actually a late-blooming male (we tried to get 1 male to 3 females as we've read the males harrass the females quite a bit) lol.
Anyway, after that essay, here are some pics:
The tank (you can kinda see the c02 thing on the right hand side, but dont confuse it with the windowsill in the background, just behind the tank):
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
The male swordtail, the tail of the main female, and Darrell, our Algae Eater on the floor:
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
Here you can see Mr Whiskers (I think...not 100% sure) on the rock:
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]