MrJim's Fishworks

[MrJim]

Also try broccoli, spinach, green beans, and squash. My otos eat those. They don't seem to like apple, orange, and carrot thogh.

Do you clip to side or weight them down? Do any of your other fish nibble at the veggies?

[troy]

I generally just heat them up in the microwave for 3-4 minutes and they sink down to the bottom when I put them in.

[MrJim]

Last night i put in a couple small chunks of broccoli~did what Troy suggested...the corys were on em pretty quick, the GF tried to munch but I made the chunks a bit larger. Both pieces were gone this morning...

[MrJim]

On errands this morning I stopped in at one of our lfs (we have three, two are not chainstores). They must have gotten some new shipments in~loads of corys & plecos (plecs are $$). I would have snatched up all 6 of his pandas (they were wee tiny) but there was ick in the tank on the other fish...first time I saw pygmies there, and there were skunks & leopards & some others too...

And I saw a 30 gal; guess I didn't know they existed. This thread of standard tank sizes:

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ad.php?t=29539

doesn't list one, and I'd not seen one at the other 2 lfs so I didn't know. I like it better than the 29, not as deep with a bit bigger footprint. Now just to find the right stand.

[troy]

Last night i put in a couple small chunks of broccoli~did what Troy suggested...the corys were on em pretty quick, the GF tried to munch but I made the chunks a bit larger. Both pieces were gone this morning...

My pygmy corys enjoy them. I've got a fat *** platy that munches on them too. Good to your fish liked it.

[MrJim]

I rarely do the daily feeding~my wife takes care of that. I was just down looking in the tank and most of the tank gets excited about this time. Even the neons have their noses up against the tank glass and ignore the danios antics at feeding time. One of the otos is perfectly perched atop the pirate head watching the underlings act like a bunch of puppies...

After reading and re-reading older threads (the search option really helps; most questions asked seem to have already been answered) I'm going to go with the estes black marine sand in the 30 gal and I'm going to paint the back wall black also. It's funny but the only time I really notice the decor picture on the back tank is when I take a picture, and then it really stands out to the point of clutter distraction.

The stand for the 30 has been a chore~the only thing I'm finding is a stand at That Fish Place for around $250. Guess the 30 gal isn't really that standard, but I do really like it better than the 29 so maybe that's the way I'll go. The stand also has an available matching canopy~I wonder if the canopy has the lighting hardware and essentially replaces the normal hood?

[Heliwyr]

Why not build a stand? Would be much, much cheaper and you could get it to the proper size.

[MrJim]

Why not build a stand? Would be much, much cheaper and you could get it to the proper size.

A carpenter I am not~and I'm not fond of the block/plywood stand..if only NorthernGuy would come down here

[MrJim]

Busy Day!

I decided on the 20L after all, picked it up along with stand and hood. I went with the Estes Black Sand and got a black background~didn't want to paint.

The only real issue is when I carried the bags of sand in I must have put a hole in one and it leaked sand throughout the living and dining room~it's so fine it wasn't noticed until one of the boys in his bare feet was like "Hey, what's all over the floor"~~yeah, I got in trouble on that one

While I had a brand new heater for this tank already I read a thread this morning about someone's aquarium turning into fish soup 'cause the heater crapped out, my Tetra whisper heater will stay in the package (I bought it some months ago and wish I still had the reciept) and bought a Stealth.

Picked up a new decoration~a cave thing, so I could retire the Pirate Head for later....as I said earlier I have 3 LFSs, and I ended up getting something from everyone, though Petsmart only got the decoration purchase, the private stores got everything else.

So I'm off to begin the setup process. On the filtration I thought over a few things, read some old threads about filter placement. For now I'm going to have the AC30 and spongefilter in each corner (like the 10 gal is set up) but maybe replace the sponge with another AC30. I know another 20L tank at the place I get my oil changed and he's running an AC70 and his tank looks good, just figure then that two in the corners would maybe work better....

****

Project is done for now and everyone is moved in. Took about 5 hours or so. Sand trapped a lot of air so had to work that out, and the danios were a terror trying to catch and put into their new home but other than that all went pretty well.

The stealth heater doesn't have a visible light that it's on~but it working, the temp is where I want it, just not seeing the light gets some getting used to. Pics to come later, I'm pooped

[SamAnthrax]

I swing back and forth on the GF issue, maybe I'll donate her to the lfs pond; bet she'd like the room, though a 29 would be 3x the size she's in now...but I'm not getting anymore GF and maybe being with her own would be better, but then she's been around tropicals most her life anyhow so you can see i'm a real flip-flopper on the issue.

I would definately donate her, since goldfish should not be housed with tropical community fish.