Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping => General Fishkeeping Chat => Topic started by: Sue on March 03, 2020, 03:12:11 PM
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[Had been thinking a while back that the original Think Fish Keepers Daily News thread was fit to burst at 193 pages of posts, so have split the topic and started this as a new thread denoting the year. Moderator FCMF. C:-) Sue's post below is the first in this new thread.]
Yesterday I did a water change on the main tank. I took the filter off the bracket to clean that too, only the bracket came away with the filter. Yes, the suckers were rigid rather than flexible. So I tossed the bracket in the bucket, filled it up with water and took it outside where I tried to get the suckers off. They were stuck tight. Luckily I have a spare bracket so I put new suckers on that and finished emptying the tank. But before refilling I used a stanley knife to cut the suckers off. The first one went fine - sliced the flat part off, then cut the neck away from the bracket. The second didn't go as well. Instead of slicing the flat part off, the blade slipped, cut half the flat part off then embedded itself in the pad of my left index finger. One temporary dressing later, my husband had to help me refill the tank. I went to the chemist this morning to buy a dressing more suited to the end of a finger, she looked at it and told me to go to urgent care because it was so deep. I only waited 25 minutes, I've waited longer at an appointment with the GP. My finger is now dressed with suture strips and a bulky dressing and I'm on a course of antibiotics. If I'd gone yesterday they could have glued it together but today they had to leave ventilation holes.
Apparently I'm the first woman they've had with a stanley knife injury. Men yes, lots of them, but no woman till today.
The moral of the tale is - leave using a stanley knife till after you've refilled the tank, then go to A & E/urgent care straight away.
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I've found the local Minor Injuries Unit very good in the past too - thorough, good care, kind staff. Glad you've been treated appropriately. What an accoloade re the first woman being treated for such an injury - who'd have thought?! :D
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Congratulations on your "first woman" title Sue.
I hope that your finger heals quickly & neatly.
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I had not realised just how tricky it is eating a meal when you can't use your index finger with a fork. I've got chasseur stains on the new dressing ;D
I should have cleaned the betta's tank today, for some reason hair algae has appeared in that tank and I need two hands to pull it all out.
I have wondered - the algae appeared soon after I removed the cherry shrimps to rescue them from the attentions of the betta. Do cherry shrimps keep hair algae under control (the stuff with long stands)?
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I managed to clean the betta's tank this morning, with a bit of help. I used a large size Aldi freezer bag secured round my wrist with sellotape which kept the dressing dry. And my husband held the 'colander' (yogurt pot with pots of holes) while I poured the new water through it. I couldn't use the same freezer bag as I'd never hear the end of it if I touched the tap and kettle with fish tank water.
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Earlier this week, I noticed my laid-back, fussy-eating cardinal tetras get uncharacteristically over-excited by a fruit fly outside the tank. I've always had reservations about frozen food - https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fish-food-and-feeding/shell-less-brine-shrimp-eggs/msg46332/#msg46332 - but felt it was perhaps time to let the cardinals have a try of some, and now that their mouths are a little bigger. The Superfish Tropical Mix that I bought this morning seemed to go down well, if not a little perturbing when it looked as though one of the two females was going to choke on a large piece of bloodworm.
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When I feed bloodworm, I feed half a cube and put the other half back in the freezer. With the half I use, I then slice thin slivers off about half of it before thawing and putting it all in the tank. This means that about half of what goes in the tank is large pieces of blood worm and the other half is small bits of blood worm for the small fish.
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Hey guys, long time no speak eh! With uni and everything cancelled, I may as well rescape and restock my shrimp tank. I have bolstered the Ember Tetras up to 9, shrimp to 30+ and got 2 Pygmy Corys. I would have gotten 6 if the store had any more and they wont get any for a whole due to COVID-19. Hope you are all well and expect pics later! :))
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Good to hear from you, @apache6467 - sounds like lots has been happening ie you're off to uni now (where and what subject?) and have got new fish. Sounds good!
:cheers: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1:
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Good to hear from you, @apache6467 - sounds like lots has been happening ie you're off to uni now (where and what subject?) and have got new fish. Sounds good!
:cheers: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1:
Hey Fcmf! A lot has been happening, managed to get into Aberystwyth University to study (you're gonna love this) Marine and Freshwater Biology! Had to come home early due to COVID-19 but oh well! Yeah had a few new fish over the past few days to keep my local shop alive (£52.25 today :yikes: ) and got 2 tanks going strong. Hope you are doing well!
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Congrats! I did wonder / had hoped you might have gone to study a subject like that. Great!
The new fish will be lovely for you to enjoy while we're in this situation for the next while. Ember tetras were next in my own stocking plans but, for various reasons, that plan is on hold. I currently have 2 tanks on the go - the main tank and a care home tank for elderly fish who need a gentler water flow from the filter and therefore some relative peace and quiet at this stage in their lives.
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:cheers: @apache6467
Great to hear about your uni course - very appropriate. ;D
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Hi @apache6467
Good to 'meet' you. I will know who to go to now when I have questions about freshwater biology. Excellent!
JPC :wave:
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Hi @apache6467
Indeed to think how much I’ve spent on fish over the years... £25 on one fish was my max though and probably never again... there are fish which cost a lot more than that out there!!
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Hello to you all :D Glad to hear you are all doing well! All the new fish are settled and feeding, although I definitely need to get some more pygmies as the 2 I currently have is definitely too few, although they are often swimming all over the tank without a care at the moment ;D
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Social distancing is not required among tank inhabitants.
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Given these unusual times, I have taken the opportunity to write a bit to do list and there are a few things on there from a fishkeeping perspective... cutting my own hair was also on the list and this was a disaster so fingers crossed for more success with the things I’m more experienced with!!!
So I cleaned out the pond filter yesterday. It always surprises me how much mulm collects in the bottom of it which is suspect is explainable by leaves which enter and decompose in the pond among the other usual things. I have an oase filter which has a sponge you can squeeze with a little handle on the outside of the unit without opening it which I had been keeping reasonably on top of - diverting the dirty water onto the garden and allowing the pond to refill naturally in the rain. With the dry spell we’ve been having it needed a bit of water adding this time. It was the crud in the bottom of the canister though which was more surprising... it’s quite well designed in that it can collect there without impacting things too much but I suspect this is a job I need to do more frequently - opening the lid and siphoning it out... eugh there was a lot of it, though it was not particularly smelly or anything, and hopefully the grass appreciates it! There is lots of frogspawn and frog activity at present so I was uncomfortable doing much more in the way of maintenance at this point.
There is a mouse which lives in our garden, regularly going from near the pond across to our shed in search of anything edible (including seeds) and bedding (including the car washing sponge). It has been hard at work digging an extension and some of the builders rubble that resulted has slipped down the slope towards the pond so I will target that for removal once the system has topped up a bit in the next rainfall.
The weather has been so nice recently we’ve taken full advantage and sat out to eat with our 9 month old (significantly less floor cleaning required!!) and have been looking after the garden which is springing into life now and looking great. We’ve been running the waterfall on the pond too which has been lovely.
It’s time to do the canister filter on the community tank soon too and I have a bit of an ich to do a bit of a rescape, not sure if this will come to fruition but will keep you posted of course if it does...
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I also managed to get out into the garden for an hour this weekend, just to do a bit of weeding & have a look at the containers that relocated with me.
Apart from that, work is so busy that it's as much as I can do in the evenings to sit on the sofa and wonder why I don't have the energy for anything else. ::)
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The heater bracket, taken out for a clean. Clearly a favourite spot for my snails!
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They get everywhere :)
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Since I added my dwarf puffer to my community tank (I realise I m lucky to be able to do this!) they quickly got to work on the pest snail population and now I haven’t seen a single one for many weeks. The result has been a significant increase in the shrimp population. I always though the goldeneye dwarf cichlids were to blame for the lack of shrimp but it does not seem that this was the case. We’re we not in the current state of lockdown I would be considering trading some in at my local fish store for credit...
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I feel like a mother that's just walked in on a teenage party and discovered that her children are not the perfectly behaved children she believed them to be while the hyperactive older neighbour (predictably) and the sensible gentle elderly neighbour who informally baby-sits them (uncharacteristically) are also joining in the fun.
The 5 cardinals are usually very sedate and close to the bottom but, whatever angle the filter outflow is at, it's caused both females plus one of the males to surf through the current, get tossed backwards, then start again as though cramming in ride after ride at a rollercoaster-ride theme park. (Anyone would think they'd overheard the comment I made to Mr FCMF only yesterday that I was semi-glad that they don't have any particular quirky traits that have made me get too attached to them.) The neon green rasbora is even more hyperactive than usual and joining in the fun. To my shock, though, even the elderly lady (Wee Harley) is joining in - although in seeming optimum health, I didn't expect these sort of antics to be happening!
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Sometimes things happen for the best.
I was disappointed to have to think about reducing my numbers of tanks for my relocation towards the end of last year, especially as I had already bought some extra tanks and equipment earlier in 2019.
However, after cleaning, maintenance & water change on the axolotl tank yesterday I noticed that the drain valve on the FX4 filter was leaking. I had a bit of a fiddle with it, but couldn't resolve the issue. Luckily I had a spare FX6 in a cupboard, so after a quick rinse I just swapped over the media and hooked up the pipework.
Ok, so quite a large filter for the tank (approx 450L), and axolotls don't like much water movement, so the output nozzles are angled towards the water surface or back wall of tank, but it's a functional filter and I haven't flooded the house. :)
The panic I felt when I realised I couldn't fix the leak easily. :yikes:
Luckily the Maidenhead Aquatics in Windsor is still open, so I guess I could have gone there to get another filter. I'm also fairly sure that with a bit of fiddling, possibly removing the drain port & refitting, the FX4 will be fine. I'm also thinking that if not, perhaps some PTFE tape (which I don't currently have) may resolve the problem.
Still, calm and rational thinking isn't always easy when a problem arises during lockdown.
Last week I checked all my fish meds were still unopened & in date. I also have enough food (including frozen) to last another month.
I have a spare heater in the cupboard, so I think I'm probably ok to deal with most things.
I've also got some Pozzani filter cartridges (nitrate, etc.) which fit nicely on the garden tap, so even though it's not RO, and it takes quite a while to run the water, at least I can provide softer water for some of my tanks, and I can still deal with the nitrates in my tap water, all without having to drive to Windsor.
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Been having similar thoughts here too... I’m glad I don’t run CO2 for my plants... imagine trying to explain that journey to a local copper. Also glad not to have the expenditure at the moment... anyone noticed the price of food has gone up?
I’ve been tackling the garden today - well the side return bit. Full of house renovation rubbish and invasive weeds. The weeds are gone but the council arnt doing the garden waste bin collections so there’s a pile of plants waiting. A pile of chopped logs - they are staying of course, and a a pile of renovation rubbish - also now realised I can’t take that anywhere... ahh well it’s looking a lot better anyways...
Also planted a load of sweet peas for which the seeds had been soaking overnight. I’m waiting on lettuces and courgette to make an appearance too. The sweet peas I’m planning to grow up a trellis I’ve fashioned along the side of the shed which you can see from the house. De mossing the lawn was quite a job, halted by a lack of grass seed too but again what I’ve done will look so much better in a few weeks. That’s if the birds don’t eat the seeds!! They have been caught red handed numerous times already.
A lot of frog action in the pond but there didn’t seem to be much successful frogspawn this year, there is quite a bit of algae as there always is at this time of year but it already seems to be decreasing and the balance restoring. A little mouse family has set up home nearby and unfortunately they have been digging in the bank above the pond which has released soil into the pond and will do doubt have triggered the algae in part. The duckweed does not seem to be bad this year though.
Gosh that is all a bit of a random update... hopefully it makes for enjoyable reading though. :))
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That’s if the birds don’t eat the seeds!! They have been caught red handed numerous times already.
Shouldn't that be red beaked ;D
Luckily I have enough food to see the fish through to autumn, and having slow growing plants I don't add much fertiliser.
My tomato seeds came up in record time this year thanks to the weather - the pots are on a sunny south facing window sill.
Our older son has passed all his electrician exams but there's a lot he can't do yet. Well, he can but a lot of work would have to be inspected at a cost of several hundred pounds. He intends doing a notifiable job as soon as he can and get it inspected, then he can register with a competent person scheme and won't need to get jobs inspected. But in the meantime, there are jobs he can do - and is allowed to do in the lock down. Emergency electrical work is allowed and he's just done a job where the dining room light had stopped working. It was a danger because to get to the kitchen, the house owners had to walk through an unlit room, so there was a trip hazard. As luck would have it, the man of the house was working from home, and as part of his job had a list of allowed work. So our son is allowed to do emergency electrical work of the non-notifiable kind - and gardening work as long as he remains outside the house. He has a few clients for whom he does gardening work as part of his handyman business.
His wife is a key worker - banking - and she is now working a lot of overtime. Most UK banks use call centres in India and they are closed. So the UK call centres are having to cope with their own workload and the workload usually handled by the Indian call centres. At the bank daughter-in-law works for the Indian call centres employ 5 times more staff than the UK call centres and with many UK staff either self isolating for underlying health reasons or off sick there are about a tenth of the normal call centre staff currently answering calls. This is why banks are asking people not to ring unless they have to - and why it takes so long to get through if you do call.
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I have noticed several times in the past that my fish have certain tastes in music - my goldfish seemed to swim more calmly/serenely when some classical music was played. I've just witnessed Bendy Harley having a jig in his tank to some '80s music - even Mr FCMF commented on it, switched off the music (jigging stopped), switched it back on (jigging recommenced).
:fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1:
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I have noticed several times in the past that my fish have certain tastes in music - my goldfish seemed to swim more calmly/serenely when some classical music was played. I've just witnessed Bendy Harley having a jig in his tank to some '80s music - even Mr FCMF commented on it, switched off the music (jigging stopped), switched it back on (jigging recommenced).
Hi @fcmf
I can't resist the temptation to ask how your fish respond to Handel's Water Music! Corny? Yes, but why not? I can hear the groans up and down the length and breadth of the land!
JPC ;D
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Not corny at all!
Results of test:
Not the same degree of excitement for Bendy Harley as '80s music but some acknowledgement it was playing, judged by slightly enhanced movement.
As for the main tank, curiosity followed by more active swimming from the neon green rasbora, followed by resumed normal activity by all.
Video footage to follow, ideally once I've established their musical 'tastes' as defined by more extreme reactions. Unfortunately, Handel's Water Music doesn't "make the cut" for them. Any other equally suitably themed suggestions welcome for me to try out.
Useful articles on this topic:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6061163/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31941064 [dogs]
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0376635713001228
http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=TR2013000953
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0144860913000046
https://www.livescience.com/39692-goldfish-bach-stravinsky.html
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Hi @fcmf
Thanks for the feedback. Look forward to the videos. The links are very interesting.
JPC
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There has been a lot of "activity" in the fishtank overnight. Early this morning when I went to do the morning headcount, the snail foodpot had moved from its location at the front of the tank to the middle of the tank - it might have travelled further had it not been pushed up against the wood; its contents had vanished too, and the snails were nowhere to be found. However, there were white snail eggs everywhere. Then I noticed the snails stuck together behind some spare sponge that I keep under the filter. This afternoon, they've been clearly enjoying one another's company:
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Those eggs look very familiar ;D
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Ah, yes, they do appear to have been quite busy. :)
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Those snails have been rampant all week! They've been in the foodpot since before sunrise and remain active in there. I'm semi-minded to move the snail eggs into another container and see if I can breed them in salt water.
Mr FCMF has been Vax-ing the carpets today - although no carpet in the fishtank room, clearly sand has been traipsed from there into the carpeted rooms and not picked up in Mr FCMF's standard weekly vacuuming.
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An extended lockdown update... from a house with a baby that is currently on a three hour nap...
I have struggled recently to get decent cardinals and my group is now down to 4 hardy individuals - I tried to increase numbers about 6 months ago and most of the newbies didn’t last very long at all - this is the second time I’ve had this problem - anyone else observed the same thing with these fish? Everyone else is of course very healthy indeed...
I have still got the Pygmy puffers in there and they are doing absolutely fine with the other fish. As such I have taken down their old tank (can’t remember if I’ve said this before...) the plants are now in the main tank with them.
No signs of fry from the Nanacaras constant breeding but if they lay in a visible area again (only happened once) whilst we are still in lockdown, I might try and remove the eggs and raise the fry.
I believe the ember terras have started to reach a point of old age (they only live a couple of years) and I have lost a couple from the group of 12. In the heavily planted tank with shrimp and snails I never see any evidence of losses so it’s not too bad really.
The shrimp themselves have benefitted from the puffers decimation of the snail population - I have both a Neocardinia and Cardinia species in the tank (red and orange) - there are often more than 20 visible out and about. So there’s probably over 100 in the tank overall. There are a couple of Amano shrimp in there too but I never see them - only their moults
I have been trying to make the main tank as low maintenance as possible... it is now down to just one slowish growing stem plant (Bacopa) and I have added floating plants to increase fast growing plant mass - they are not CO2 limited so are a very good supporting plant with fast growth to limit algae/excess nutrients. They can also be used to identify any nutrient deficiencies in the water column before it significantly impacts the other plants which is useful. In this way I can minimise my nutrient dosing. I have also added Vallis back into the tank which is reasonably fast growing and I want the volcano like appearance the leaves will give appearing over the hardscape at the back. This is also able to be trimmed from the surface without need to ‘get arms wet’. The floating plants can be removed when there are too many (every fortnight) and the Vallis trimmed from the surface.
I am currently doing a 10% water change one week and a 50% the next with no adverse effect noticed so far - if I ever pluck up the courage to remove the planting substrate from the tank - put filter floss down to contain it as a barrier behind the rock work - and replace it, this will stop the stuff from seeping through on the foreground cosmetic sand which is the only reason for the 10% changes to clean it off the sand - then I will be down to the fortnightly 50% change only.
My aponogeton is growing again after a dormant period and has sent two flower spikes up to the surface too. It’s definately one of my favourite plants so I like to see this growth. It’s similar by smaller to crypt balansae if anyone is more familiar with that - with its awesome crinkly textured leaves.
I’ve sold 2 meters of Bolbitis rhizome which goes to show how much of this stuff I had in the tank and how overcrowded it was becoming - it’s nice to be able to see the hardscape again now! There’s still more available if anyone does want any... limited amounts of Java fern too...
Gretta the Bettas tank is still going strong - i had been debating whether to make this into a biotope tank but for now I have added hornwort from the pond ( @Sue you kindly sent me this years ago!) and have transferred the polysperma (someone on here also sent me this years ago...) today (fast growers) and have turned the little air powered sponge filter off... bit of an experiment (I’ll be looking after Gretta don’t worry!!) to see how the tank will get on and whether the plants can deal with the fish waste effectively enough. Keep you posted!!
Anyway enough ramblings... hope some of that is interesting to members...
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Always great to hear about your tanks @Matt :cheers:
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Indeed - great update. Thanks for sharing. :cheers:
Re the cardinals, it seems they're almost all wild-caught, which may in itself mean all the stronger need to ensure that their requirements are closely met. I can't remember your PH but I know I've been a bit concerned that my own alkaline PH is the extreme of their range, although my very soft water is fine for them. As you know, I lost one to dropsy when only a few months old, and I'm fairly sure I know who'll be next to go - a rather large female who is eating herself obese and breathes heavily a lot of the time (I've also read of others finding this with cardinals), as well as a couple of other changes I've noticed which may or may not be of any concern. What changes did yours undergo and what did yours seem to die of?
As for Gretta, I can't link to the instagram account just now (will do so later if I can), but I love Amber/Ambee Wieland's colourful aquascapes, and she has a wonderfully planted bowl containing a beautiful betta and with no filtration, so fingers crossed that you can also achieve a planted tank minus filtration for Gretta.
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I know Ambee’s Betta Bowl from Instagram too - actually just got off a live chat with her and hers is 17litres so mine is slightly smaller than this, but... she has a guppy in with hers so I actually feel reasonably confident. She has quite a long photoperiod too so that gives me more confidence still! Fingers crossed!! I should highlight to any novice fish keepers reading this that the tank is heated and very well planted which performs the function of the filter in this case with extremely low sticking levels. This does not mean that fish don’t need filters!!
The cardinals just didn’t seem to settle into the tank - lack of colour would probably be the only real symptom I could suggest - overall I’d say it was stress of transport etc, they didn’t last long. I recognise the stuff themselves silly behaviour and would go so far to say this is not wholly unusual for the species. That have done better in the tank for this now there is a bit more competition for food from the rummynoses
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Great re having been in touch with Ambee.
Sorry about your cardinals. That is different from mine - mine have been well-coloured but took ages to start eating, except for the one that died; now, I have two females who stuff themselves silly, fight over food, and the 3 males have to make do with any leftovers. ::) I wonder if the fish having presumably been in the shops for longer now might work out well for you - they might be more robust in a "survival of the fittest" manner, rather than having been shipped halfway across the world in the previous week as you might have been dealing with before.
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That’s a good point @fcmf
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MOVING 2 POSTS RE CARDINAL TETRAS FROM HERE INTO NEW THREAD
fcmf C:-)
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Went to MA to get some RO water for the first time in months.
:)
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Mr & Mrs Snail were "stuck together" on the glass and have just fallen off together. ::) Watching with intrigue to see what happens next - ordinarily, I find him lying upside down on his own but really hoping she doesn't abandon him to his own devices.
Update: Both upright and "stuck together" elsewhere in the aquarium. No point in doing a water change / tank clean until after the inevitable eggs have been laid everywhere, in case there's a few that can be removed. ::)
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I have noticed several times in the past that my fish have certain tastes in music
They certainly do not like Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, that's for sure - everyone sought refuge under a plant!
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Ten months down the line, and I'm definitely able to identify who's who among the cardinals, aside from differences in sizing/colouring - each has developed its own characteristics and 'personality' and is on the verge of being named. Argh - and I was half-hoping this wouldn't happen so that I wouldn't get so attached to each...
:fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1:
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I keep more than just fishkeeping things in the cupboard under my main tank, and this morning I wanted one of those other things. Funny, I thought, no humming noise so I checked the multisocket. The filters and heater were not plugged in and hadn't been since the water change last Wednesday :yikes:
Plugged them all in and waited half an hour then tested ammonia and nitrite. Phew, bright yellow and sky blue. One of the benefits of floating plants and a mature tank. And the temp had only dropped to 23 deg C so the fish weren't too cold.
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:yikes: but :cheers:
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Wow, that's amazing.
Great to hear that everyone is alive and well. :cheers:
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I also changed the filter in my betta's tank a few weeks ago. It used to be a sponge filter powered by an air pump but there was so much algae growing on the sponge that I couldn't tell it was a sponge. And water sprite has never survived in this tank, it just disappears bit by bit. So in anticipation of the filter change, I bought some Amazon frogbit, and once that was showing signs of growing, I swapped the filter with no media swap. I got an Eheim Pickup, the smallest one. This has an adjustable flow rate and an adjustable direction of flow. It is set on the slowest speed and it is on a side wall near the back corner with the outflow pointing at the back wall. I also moved some water sprite from my main tank.
To my delight, there's never been a trace of ammonia or nitrite in the tank. The frogbit now covers three quarters of the surface, and I have experimented with planting the water sprite in the substrate. I know there were 'filter' bacteria on every surface in the tank, and that 1 single betta does not make that much ammonia, but again the floating plants seem to have done their job.
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I also have an Eheim PickUp 45, for my quarantine tank.
Out of interest (mainly into how you're succeeding in getting your Amazonian frogbit to actually grow as well as not turn yellow/brown), do you have lighting in your betta tank?
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I was a bit sceptical about the frogbit since I discovered that a lot of sellers are selling European frogbit rather than Amazon frogbit and this is the reason it dies in a lot of tropical tanks. But so far, so good. Apparently you can only tell the difference when it flowers.
It's an AquaOne tank, though it was sold as just the glass, nothing else - no filter, heater, light etc. But I already had those so I was glad to get this tank quite cheap. It is a 30 cm cube, 27 litres to the brim so slightly less than 27 litres water. With the substrate in I measured 23 litres water. It now has the Eheim filter and an Eheim heater and an Aquael clip on light, the Leddy Smart (https://www.aquael-aquarium.co.uk/produkty/aquaristics/aq-lighting/leddy-smart-2/), the 'plant' version.
To be honest, this light does confuse me a bit. I know that plants need a spectrum with red and blue light and some green. The K rating of this spectrum is 6500.
There are two Leddy Smart lights - 'sunny' and 'plant'. They give the K ratings as sunny 6500, and plant 8000 which means the 'plant' version is too blue and not enough red. They used to show the spectra on the website but it is on the box and that shows that 'plant' has a peak in red while 'sunny' does not. And I can confirm that 'plant' has red, blue and white LEDs.
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Thanks, that's useful. I've since moved some of my Amazonian frogbit out of the fish feeding rings I keep them in to 'contain'/ protect them from the filter outflow and buffeting around the tank, to see whether the 'unrestricted' or 'contained' versions do better.
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Something I missed out - I feed the tank with Seachem Flourish Comprehensive Supplement.... every week or when I remember. I did have two pieces of wood, one with java fern and one with bolbitis, but the bolbitis never did well in this tank so I took it out last week. I moved a branchy piece of wood from my main tank which has bits of java moss on it, I'm thinking about adding more from the clump in my main tank. And of course I have frogbit too. As an experiment, I've planted a couple of smallish pieces of water sprite in the sand. If that does survive, I'll probably need root tabs for that - unless Matt says the liquid feed is enough.
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Water sprite isn’t a massive root feeder and so it’s not likely to benefit hugely from root tabs :)
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Thank you :) I'll stick with the liquid fertiliser. The java fern and frogbit need that.
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Been more of a back seat reader of the topics lately. I have just posted a new fish store review and decided that I’d post what I’ve been doing the last month or so. I now have a fully stocked main tank, unfortunately some of the Pygmy Cories have passed away but I’m sure I’ve pin pointed what caused the deaths. After some twice daily testing and additional water changes I believe it was accidental starvation (as my Embers are aggressive eating machines) or too high nitrate levels as I’ll explain why now.
I removed some dead melting background plants and replacing them with some fast growing stem plants from Tropica. These are growing well and I hope to fill the void at the back of the tank in the next few months. I also swapped my API Leaf Zone with TNC Complete, dosing 1.5ml a day and then realising my mistake of using a website that provided EI dosing and not cross checking the bottle instruction. So with complete I’m adding Nitrogen, which when over dosing caused my nitrate levels to spike. I have now reduced my dosage to 0.5ml x 6 days a week just to track my nitrate levels as I didn’t want it to be the reason why my Cories passed. In addition I have added more food for the Cories and tried to target feed whilst the Tetras are Bingeing on their food.
In more exciting news I have been gifted my second tank (which was a complete surprise) I am now a proud owner of a Jewel Lido 120 which has been cleaned and water tested. I needed to by some spares for it as it came with missing parts but overall has been cheaper than buying it all new. I’m hoping that project will start next year as right now my main tank is still under 1 year old and I have other commitments outside the hobby.
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Congratulations on the new tank :) As you say, even with replacing the missing bit, it's a lot cheaper than new.
TNC Lite contains the same trace minerals but no nitrate of phosphorus.
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Thanks Sue, It was just sat in a garden looking very sorry for it self as the person has upgraded to a monster size Saltwater tank and I couldn’t say no! I even got the stand if I ever decide to use it but with our theme of oak style in our flat Mrs Simon may advise me not to use it :rotfl:
I did see that they do a “Lite” range which I will swap to but as I brought a 1 Litre bottle I don’t want it to go to waste. I guess it may last long enough to serve the 120 Litre once it’s running. Unless I can pass it on somewhere to somewhere it will be used.
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I have just found my betta dead :'( He was fine during the day yesterday but didn't want to eat in the evening. he was lying on the bottom of the tank when I got up and i found him dead this afternoon.
I have been thinking for a while that when he finally passed away I would turn the tank into a shrimp tank with maybe some variety of blue cherry shrimps. But as I was removing the body I saw a juvenile red cherry shrimp in the tank which must have come in with the water sprite I put in the tank during the week. I have noticed that there aren't nearly as many cherry shrimps in the main tank nowadays, so I've caught about half a dozen and put them in the betta's tank. I hope one of them is female - or that I can catch more in the main tank.
I have been concerned about the bettas I've bought in the last few years not living very long so I had already decided this betta would be my last.
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Oh no! :'( Sad news.
Not sure if this is of much consolation but I've also read elsewhere of bettas not living very long nowadays - in fact, it seems there are quite a few species of fish nowhere near as hardy as they used to be.
A shrimp tank sounds a great plan.
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Sorry to hear this @Sue :'(
Can I ask where your purchased your betta from? And how long you have him? I don’t know if where we purchase our fish makes any difference in reality as they may come from the same breeders ultimately but it is also something I feel it would be worth knowing/factoring in if anyone decides to get one.
I am also thinking of perhaps having a shrimp tank next time round. The option to go filterless and heaterless (I am already filterless for my beta) is very attractive to me - from an environmental perspective. Do you think you might also try this out? I have noticed more algae in the tank since going filterless but I am hoping the ecosystem will balance itself again soon. The downside to shrimp for me is their unattractive feces - it never seems to take long for them to accumulate and for some unknown reason I never really seem to see fish feces in my tanks.
Also interested to hear what you think might have affected your cherry shrimp population in the main tank - I’m convinced pest snails before the introduction of the dwarf puffers were out competing my shrimp for food. Dwarf cichlids have sometimes gone for them too but they have never done so well since the introduction of the puffers. I now regularly see 15-20 out and about - given the heavily planted nature of the tank I’m convinced I probably have getting on for 100 or maybe more in there (there’s always more than you think it seems with shrimp!)
You should still be able to get your blue shrimp by the way - neocardinia and cardinia is species don’t cross breed and the cherries are neos and the blues normal cardinias I believe. Check this theory before you go for it as I’m no expert but it might still be possible.
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Quick reply as I need to turn off - betta from Maidenhead Aquatics, 9 months ago. Pearl gouramis eating cherry shrimp.
Better reply tomorrow.
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Now I have more time to type:
I bought this betta (white with pink fins) from Maidenhead Aquatics, the branch nearest me, in October 2019. This is the shop that keeps the bettas in a rank of small tanks where water flows into the top row, overflows down to the next and so on to the bottom. They are not very big tanks, the bettas can't swim round, but at least they run on a central filter system.
Going back in time to 2010 my bettas have been:
white/pink fins, veiltail; Maidenhead Aquatics; 9 months.
Pale peach or cream, veiltail; MA; 9 months
Plain blue, veiltail; Aquatic Finatic, Northallerton; 5 months
Pale blue/red fins, superdelta; MA; 3 weeks
Orange, blue streaks in tail, delta tail; MA; 7 months
Peach, halfmoon; MA; 291/2 months
Blue, delta tail; MA; 23 months
Blue, HMPK; Ebay, 7 months *
White/red/grey dragonscale, superdelta; Paddock Farm near Darlington, 241/2 months
* this was the fish that either had lymphocystis or tumours, never knew which.
As you can see, several years ago my bettas lived a good time for this species but more recently they have not lived very long.
The shrimps were fine until I got the pearl gouramis in January, then their numbers started to decline. That can't be coincidence. The shrimps tended to congregate in the floating water sprite in my main tank, looking for food in the roots. But that's also where the gouramis hang out, and they are quite big fish now, certainly big enough to kill and eat cherry shrimps.
The frustrating thing is that there is currently someone on Ebay selling blue dream cherry shrimps - collection only 5 miles away. But I can't mix different colours of the same species or I'd end up with tank of nondescript brownish shrimps. I may see if I can locate some fire red or red sakura or bloody mary cherry shrimps as they are redder that the fish shop standard cherry shrimps.
Most blue shrimps are cherries - blue dream, blue velvet, blue jelly etc. I have come across Tai mosura shadow shrimp and blue bolt shrimp which seem to be colour variations of tiger shrimps, but they just don't appeal to me like the blue cherries.
I would be afraid to keep anything in a heaterless tank as our house drops below 18oC at night in winter, and that's the minimum for even fish like white clouds. And at the moment there aren't enough plants for filterless. Though shrimps don't have the bioload of even one betta. I am working on plants though :)
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Real shame to see the issues with your Bettas lifespans so clearly declining with time @Sue and we can be sure of course that it’s not the care they receive with you... their rise in popularity and poor genetics as a result obviously to blame... I wonder if the shorter finned plakat Bettas are any better? These may not appeal of course - I’ve had mine about 13 months.
Temperature wise shrimp are ok down to 14 degrees - or at least cherries are - you may need to check for your intended blue species also.
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I actually prefer plakats, the problem is finding them. I have never seen one in a shop near me and when I resorted to Ebay the results were not good - https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fish-health/tumour-or-lymphocystis/
ProShrimp give the minimum temp for cherry shrimps as 19oC. Where did you get 14 deg from?
I don't know what to do about blue shrimps ??? I can get some very local to me - same water etc. But they are Neocaridina davidi so I can't keep them with the red ones I currently have. If I got the blues I would have to try to catch every single one of the red ones and put them back in the main tank. There are two problems with this - what happens if I miss one, and if they go back in the main tank they'll probably get eaten.
Or I could try to source more red ones, and one of the redder variety, but that means buying on-line.
Quandaries :-\
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Something always happens after a fish died - after the second cardinal tetra died at the end of May, literally the following day the little male that had befriended her took a turn for the worse and then ultimately died a couple of days ago, while the female cardinal tetra seemed to grow overnight. In the past couple of days, that female has grown even more - although it's a very pleasant change to have a large female that's not bloated (touchwood!) but simply large in stature!
:fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1:
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My condolences about your Betta @Sue, unfortunately after much research into wether I decide to keep Bettas I get the feeling that due to their popularity, treatment before loving homes and genetics they are no different than Guppies which unfortunately is a fish off my list just because their health is in decline in the hobby thanks to the similar treatment like bettas.
I’d love to have shrimp but I too have a Gourami and he/she likes the snails 🐌 so don’t want to risk it, perhaps something for the next project.
I’m excited for your large female cardinal @fcmf I’m definitely considering a large group :fishy1:
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I made my mind up today after finding 5 nice red shrimps in the main tank and removing them to the 23 litre.
Back when I first got shrimps I had problems keeping them alive and Natalia helped me a lot. She told me that I also need to add new 'blood' every so often - in fact we swapped shrimps as she was passing near to where I lived so we met up. It's a long time since I got my last shrimps so I've bought some more - fire red cherry shrimps. They should arrive on Wednesday by Royal Mail before 1 pm next day service.The seller has 100% feedback so fingers crossed.
I decided after seeing how these bright red shrimps stand out, and maybe blue shrimps would blend in with the plants too much.
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The shrimps have arrived by Royal Mail Special Delivery by 1 pm. I bought them from an Ebay seller on Monday evening, he promptly messaged me to ask if it was OK for him to post them yesterday (Tuesday) for delivery today (Wednesday) so I said yes.
They arrived in a cardboard box. Inside the box was a polystyrene box. Inside the polystyrene box was a tube of a quilted metal fabric stuff. Inside this was a scrunched up standard size fish bag and under that was another bag. This bag was secured by a knot and elastic bands and inside that another bag secured with a knot and elastic bands. And finally inside that were my shrimps and a clump of moss :))
They are currently acclimatising........
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Sounds like a good/responsible vendor who cares for their shrimp's welfare. Exciting news and looking forward to seeing a photo or video soon.
:D
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There were a few sellers with the shrimps I wanted at a reasonable price but most of them were in London where I know they have hard water. I know mine is not as soft as most parts of Scotland but I went with a seller from Cowdenbeath.
I put them in the tank then checked half an hour later. A female was obviously ready to mate as there were males swimming everywhere, but I have no idea if it was a female I rescued from my main tank or one of the new ones. The new ones were small (because juveniles travel better than adults) and pale from their experience so it was quite hard to tell how many males and females there were especially as they were hiding in the moss in the bag. But it doesn't matter if they were all the same sex as I know I moved both males and females from the main tank.
It'll have to be photos as I don't have anything to take videos ;)
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Looking forward to the photos Sue. I’m quite jealous of your new shrimp tank actually...
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It's not exactly a new tank, it's the betta's old one ;)
I've been altering things around - removed the algae ridden bits of wood and thrown away the java fern and bolbitis; planted some water sprite; moved a piece of wood from the main tank and tied the java moss onto it - the moss was hanging round in a clump in the main tank and I know shrimps like it.
A few weeks ago I bough some java fern latifolius but as it was grown in vitro it had no roots or rhizomes worth speaking of. I left it in my main tank just sitting on the bottom to see if it would grow but it does not appear to have done anything. I left one of the bits of algae covered wood to sit outside in the sun for a couple of weeks and have now pushed the bits of JF latifolius into the crevices and put it in the shrimps tank. I'll see what happens.
The tank has an Eheim Pickup filter. The slits are big enough to suck up shrimplets so as there are at least 3 berried females I have covered the front of the filter with a footlet - those socks that you wear under shoes and can't be seen, only made of the same stuff as tights. I only had very pale ones in the drawer so it does look a bit odd. I'll have to try and find some black ones.
And of course my camera died. It was my husband's old Fuji camera which he bought for our son's graduation in 2004. When I googled the problem it turned out to be a fault with the light sensing chip (or some such) which was common in cameras made between 2002 and 2006 so it did well to last as long as it did. I bought a new camera a couple of weeks ago and I'm still learning how to use it. [My mobile phone doesn't take photos, it's a very basic model which makes and receives calls and text messages, that's all].
I'll get some photos eventually :)
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Photos of the shrimp tank :)
To be precise, two copies of the same photo, one of the shrimp tank and the second showing where the shrimps are.
The tank is a 30 cm cube with glass covers. It had an AquaOne label on it but was being sold as just the tank. The filter is an Eheim Pickup 45; the heater is an Eheim; the clip on light is an AquaEl Leddy Smart 2 Plant. The background is matt black card.
The shrimps are a mixture of the ones taken from my main tank which include the paler ones, and the five new fire red shrimps.
The floating plant is frogbit.
The tall piece of wood has moss newly tied onto it - I think it's Java moss.
The plants in the substrate are water sprite, an experiment.
The small piece of wood just visible under the filter has the tiny bits of Java fern latifolius pushed into crevices.
Substrate is Unipac silica sand that's been in there for years.
Please excuse the nappy on the filter, I'm working on something less obtrusive :-[
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Stunning tank and beautiful inhabitants. :cheers:
Always great to get the detail of what's in the tank, so that's much appreciated too.
Please excuse the nappy on the filter
:rotfl:
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Great tank, great pics. :cheers:
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We went to Maidenhead Aquatics this afternoon to see if they had nerite snails. They don't. They are on order but it could be next week, next year or even never when they get more in :( But I also bought a new net. I have an old one with a very fine mesh which was wearing at the corners so I bought a new one. The new net is larger than the old one, which was just the right size. The black netting has now been removed from the old net and placed over the filter intake in the shrimp tank. It looks a lot better than that light beige footlet :)
And I also caught three more bright red shrimps in the main tank and transferred them over.
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Just catching myself up with this @Sue
The tank looks great - I think the water sprite should be fine, the Java fern would probably benefit from getting a decent amount of light as it gets settled - perhaps move it a bit more out into the open if you can.
I always find it funny when shrimps hang upside down from floating plants - mine we’re doing it earlier too - they seem to stay there motionless for a good while too... odd little things - I don’t imagine there’s much to eat on the underside of a leaf!
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Water change day, and I moved the filter from the side wall to the back wall so the wood with the java fern is now not shaded by the filter. I don't know why I put it on the side wall, silly place really :)
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I've had two deliveries this morning. The one from ProShrimp contained Hikari Shrimp Cuisine and a plant.
I dropped some of the shrimp food in the tank just after lunch and have been to look - I counted 12 shrimps where I dropped the food, another on the underside of the filter and #14 on a piece of wood. Since there are berried females amongst them, the population should increase.
The plant was [tries to get the spelling right] Schismatoglottis prietoi. I though I'd put it instead of the water sprite in the shrimp tank. It came in a plastic 'pot' with that beigey stiff round the roots which I gently removed. There were several plantlets all joined together and careful separation gave me 10 small plants. They are currently in my quarantine tank just in case I've damaged any beyond repair by separating them.
https://www.pro-shrimp.co.uk/aquarium-plants/4091-schismatoglottis-prietoi-dennerle-4260614760417.html
The other package was from an Ebay seller - 5 nerite snails. After my experience with the snails I bought from ProShrimps a couple of years ago (they all died!) they are also in the QT where I can keep an eye on them. So far all 5 are busy crawling everywhere. The ad was 5 mixed snails; any 5 from 3 types at random. I have 3 zebra nerites and 2 of those orange red ones with black markings.
I had only 3 nerites left after the 9 year old zebra died - one of those orange red ones also 9 years old and a greyish one in the main tank and a yellow and black striped one in the shrimp tank. While the new snails are still small, I'll put one of each type in the shrimp tank and move the yellow/black one into the main tank together with the other three new ones. This does mean I'll have two of each of 2 types which could result in a lot of eggs.......
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Good to read the update, @Sue, and hope all goes well with the shrimps' diet, the plant, and the nerites (in spite of the likely increase in eggs).
As described elsewhere, I'm smitten with my fish, but the newbies have yet to learn that my approach of the tank doesn't always mean that food follows.
Quarantine tank = FCMF approaches > each fish darts up to the surface, one by one, excitedly and as though food has already landed.
Main tank = FCMF approaches > fish watch, wondering if it might be yet another admiration of them, yet another bit of tank tinkering, or one of several treats that appear regularly (but not particularly excited at the prospect of the latter given that they're spoilt with such a variety of food, so will only deign interest if it happens to be their particular favourite food and ignore anything else that isn't). ::)
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My fish always assume that humans = food. Because of all the water sprite on the surface, in my main tank I have a feeding ring made by cutting the rim off a polystyrene tub and the pearl gouramis didn't take long to work out that's where the food appears. If I take too long I have a few noses jumping out of the water in anticipation :)
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My fish are going to bring me to an early demise! ::)
Just looked into the quarantine tank - both espeis there, 2 cardinals missing. Time and again, I counted. Filter was switched off so that the water was still, and I could re-count. Still 2 missing. I thought I saw a flash of something blue, then realised that indeed a cardinal was wedged down the back of the spare filter sponge in the tank. Out came all the decor. Still 1 missing fish. Then I saw his 'body', lying upside down on his back/dorsal fin, face tilted up, in a section at the top of the filter. "Aw, no, no, no..." I sighed out loud. Tried to dislodge him with aquascaping tongs to no avail, so got out the fishnet and tried to move him with both. He swims off, seemingly none the worse for wear, other than his blue stripe has been replaced with an all-over red stripe.
I need a chamomile tea!!!
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Well it stops you getting bored :rotfl:
Fish can be infuriating things at times.
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In seeing how often the QT's heater light is on, it reminded me that I'd been thinking for months that I must check the main tank's heater as I haven't seen its light switched on for many months but repeatedly assume that the ambient room temp must be sufficiently warm that it's never needed to auto-switch on. Any time I've checked the temp by putting the thermometer in, admittedly during the daytime, it's always been above the temp it ought to be at.
Today, having been reminded of the frequency of the QT's heater light .v. that of the main tank, I've hunted the fishkeeping cupboard and its numerous contents about 5 times but can't locate the thermometer anywhere to test out the main tank... ::)
Fed up with hunting high and low to no avail, I took out the heater and immersed it in a bucket of tap water to see if it switched on automatically. It didn't. :yikes: Suffice to say that a new fuse inserted rectified the problem immediately. I'm beginning to wonder if the fuse blew when the power went off / came back on at the end of March and if the heater hasn't been working since then. :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: I feel somewhat light-headed and stomach-churned at the thought of what temp the tank has gone down to during the night repeatedly over the space of nearly 5 months... I'll never forgive myself if this has caused any long-term damage in my fish or, worse still, accounted for the demise of two cardinal tetras.
:vcross: :-[ :sick: :-[ :vcross:
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At least you got it working before winter sets in.
One tip I read years ago is to get in the habit of touching your tanks as you walk past. They will feel cool when the weather is hot and warm when the weather is cool, but if they both feel the same then either both heaters are working or both of them are not working (much less likely). And if one feels cooler than the other, check both with a thermometer - the warmer one may have a heater stuck in the on position or the cooler one could have a non-functioning heater.
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Indeed re it happening pre-winter, and thankfully my home is naturally warm (and the main tank room gets sunlight in it unlike the QT room) which is of some consolation. Thanks for the tips, Sue - very helpful.
I've had a good think and I realise that I have my hand in the tank most days, including early mornings, either when scooping out water in a mini container to pre-soak the fish food or my fingers end up in it when aquarium tools don't quite reach their intended target (eg upside-down nerite, food or plant debris). It's never been noticeably colder that I've been perturbed by it - and one time when I did think it was cooler recently, the thermometer didn't suggest that it was different to usual. Time to have yet another hunt for that thermometer, though...
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...Suffice to say that a new fuse inserted rectified the problem immediately. I'm beginning to wonder if the fuse blew when the power went off / came back on at the end of March and if the heater hasn't been working since then...
Hi @fcmf
I'd be a bit concerned about the heater itself. If it blew a fuse, then something's amiss. If the fuse in the mains plug was a 3A fuse, for example, then the heater would have to consume at least 700W. And, if it was a 13A fuse, the heater would have to consume at least 3000W! In a nutshell, it sounds like your heater is faulty. What make, power rating (W) and model number is it? I think it would be wise to treat your heater with caution.
Just my two penn'orth.
JPC
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Haven't seen the light on at all today (after its light seeming to work once a new fuse was inserted yesterday...) :o Have also misplaced the thermometer - have been through the cupboard about 20x now to no avail, and have consequently had to send off for a new one.
Thanks, JPC. Re heater itself, it's a Hagen Marina 50W that came with the 54L tank nearly 6 years ago, and a 3A fuse. I do have a spare heater (in addition to the one for the QT) but don't want to discard the original one if it is actually still working, so the thermometer will have to be put to use daily to verify that or not. If need be, though, I'll discard it and replace with the spare one.
Updated to add: New thermometer arrived and all has been fine ie temp levels consistent. Great thermometer https://www.finest-filters.co.uk/ista-13cm-glass-aquarium-thermometer-with-suction-cup/ . It seems as though the heater itself is functioning perfectly fine but the light is extremely faint and difficult to see unless bent over and looking at it directly, so the thermometer's hopefully-permanent position in the tank will be the best indicator of heater's continued function.
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So far, so good in QT. 3 weeks complete, so hoping to do The Big Transfer next week, all being well. The newbies have been getting regular jugfuls of main tank water to acclimatise them to the main tanks' inhabitants and any of their pathogens, and I've just started doing vice versa ie adding quarantine tank water to the main tank to get main tanks' inhabitants acclimatised to quarantine's inhabitants and any of their pathogens. Fingers crossed all round. I think the newbies will be delighted with their accommodation upgrade but have to hope that everyone gets on after The Merger takes place.
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All the best for it... I’m sure they’ll be just fine
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Thanks, Matt. A bit worried about tank politics, when thinking back to the ferocious battles between Wee Harley and the large female cardinal following the death of the other female a few months ago, but will just have to hope there's no bloodshed in the pecking order re-establishment among these feisty females and the new ones!
One positive sign over the duration of quarantine is among the espeis - when I got them, one looked strong and the other much weaker (in fact, it seemed to have cocooned itself in the corner of the bag brought home, and toppled over on its side a couple of times during the acclimatisation process, then seemed to be pursued by the other for a few days), but all soon calmed down, both have grown, and now I can't distinguish one from the other as they're much more robust.
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Great news regarding the espeis, and best of luck with the merger. Exciting times. :)
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The merger took place yesterday but I wasn't able to post on here ( not because of the fish, though :) ).
Wasn't the smoothest as I drenched the length of myself and the wall in tankwater when a siphon moved and directed itself at me, got tankwater in my eye when sand from QT was dropped into main tank, swore uncharacteristically frequently at the filter which took 3 attempts to get functioning once the media was merged, and 3 separate jugfuls were required to move the escape artistsfish due to difficulty catching them.
An induction meeting seemed to take place in the clearing under the filter for a while with all present at that end, then a guided tour the length of the tank, going up the back wall, pausing at another clearing, and down the front wall. Cardinals immediately shoaled together and the large female took on a motherly role presiding over the others. The espeis attempted to shoal with my elderly harlequin Wee Harley who was quite ambivalent about this, and one attempted to "square off" with her which concerned me given her age. The lone neon green rasbora's usual high activity levels evolved into a bizarre rampage, hitting herself off the tank walls, which concerned me as to whether she wasn't happy about being the only species with no new shoal-mate. At night-time/lights off, the neon green rasbora and two espeis were hyperactively playing at getting tossed backwards by the filter current, and Wee Harley sought refuge up at the water surface - I've ordered her a betta hammock.
Today has been calmer, thank goodness. Having spent the past few months shoaled up with the cardinals, Wee Harley has joined the two espeis and they have largely been swimming actively in a threesome, the cardinals loosely shoaling or dispersed and foraging in the substrate, and the neon green rasbora either swimming actively as usual or attempting to hang around with the cardinals.
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Glad to hear everything has gone ok :cheers:
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That sound like a successful integration. :cheers:
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I am getting old.
The sand in my 180 litre was looking a bit thin after several years so on Monday we went to the shop where I got the sand, and luckily they still stock it. I was surprised that although it was in 25 kg bags, you could buy as much as you wanted so I bought 10 kg.
On Tuesday morning, I washed the sand. 4 batches, 6 rinses each.
On Tuesday afternoon, I carefully siphoned the sand out of the tank and washed that with warm dechlorinated water. That took longer than washing the new sand, I couldn't believe how much muck was in there. Then new sand in the tank and old sand on top and refill tank. By bedtime I could hardly move.
Wednesday - still stiff but that wore off during the day. The cloudiness had subsided enough to see that the sand was all piled up in the middle of the tank. And there was an incredible amount of fish and snail poop on the bottom for just 1 night. I siphoned the mess off and pushed the sand around to try and level it. I had put an extra filter in the tank filled with filter wool so I changed that as well.
Thursday - with the light off, the water looks clear but it will only know for sure when the lights turn on.
There are also two pieces of azalea root soaking in the QT in the garden. Apart from the floating plants, all my plants are attached to wood, and most of them are tiny bits of wood. So I decided to replace the small bits with a couple of large bits.
And I have more fish.
There was an ad on another forum for someone who wanted some shrimps. He swapped the shrimps with 3 juvenile kribs. Time will tell what sex they are - the big one is a male but the other two are still too small to tell.
I had already moved the 3 elderly Boraras urophthalmoides into the shrimp tank, and the shop on Monday had them, B. brigittae and B. maculatus in stock. I somehow came home with 10 B. brigittae which are now also in the shrimp tank :o Unlike the urophs, which hid at the back most of the time, the brigittae are everywhere; and now they have company the urophs have stopped hiding as well.
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Great to read your tank updates ( fish and snail 'outputs' for one night don't surprise me - my snails always feel the need to re-mark their territory the night after a thorough siphoning and water change ::) ), and esp good news about the new fish.
:fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1:
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Hooray! New fish! I'm always interested to hear about new fish. Don't forget pics when everyone is settled. :)
I can't believe how much I ache after tank maintenance, so your extra work involving the sand must have been quite demanding. Well done, and I hope the aching has eased.
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The two pieces of wood I bought had labels on them - Aqua One azalea root. I googled it when I got home as I remembered reading about some kind of wood that wasn't safe. I found one reference to it killing fish, and another saying someone had heard it wasn't safe and was asking if it was it OK to use (the replies all said yes it's safe). Every other hit was a site selling it.
Has anyone ever used this wood? Given the number of sites selling it, I would have thought if there was a problem with it, there would be a lot more about it on-line somewhere, but I'm a bit worried after finding that first site.
It has just about sunk, I'm amazed at how quick it was especially as I'd had a tiny piece of wood soaking which has still not sunk after 3 weeks.
My legs still feel a bit sore after all that crouching down washing sand. But it will pass :)
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Azalea root is commonplace in aquascaping and totally fish safe :) great hearing about your tank development and I’m also (unsurprisingly...) keen to see some piccies when you get a chance!!
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Thanks Matt.
Now the water has cleared I'll be able to take some photos of the kribs - and the rearranged shrimp tank, though the fish are smaller than adult cherry shrimp so they may not show up ;D
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Ah, had forgotten the brigittae were the chilli rasbora - my fave nano fish. Definitely looking forward to their photo. :)
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Some photos - please excuse the state of the glass, it needs cleaning but I wanted to wait until the mess from the sand settled first.
I have 3 kribs, big middle and little. The breeder assured me that big was male and middle & little were female. I have no experience with kribs so I don't if he was right.
Big chases the female rice fish; middle chases little.
I have only 5 rice fish left, all female. Since added the new sand, all five of them have gone from pale yellow to bright gold. The last male died at the end of last week, i do wonder if that has anything to do with it.
Photos:
two of big and middle together
little
female rice fish
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Wow - those fish are all gorgeous. I knew what kribs looked like (and yours are as lovely as I know them to be) but I had no idea the rice fish were as beautfiul as that.
8) :fishy1:
Edited to add: a potential future project for you, @Sue - have been reading about folk buying Oryzias latipes eggs (medaka) lately and their updates on them hatching, etc.
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An update on the 23 litre.
Since I shared the first photo, the tank has been rearranged and fish added.
The filter has been moved to the back wall and a black net used to stop the baby shrimps being sucked up.
The water sprite in the sand has been replaced with Schismatoglottis prietoi.
I gave up on the java fern latifolius which did absolutely nothing and replaced it with anubias bonsai on the small piece of wood.
There is new frogbit on the surface which is why the roots are a bit bent. The water sprite in the main tank is going a bit off so I moved all the frogbit from the 23 litre into the 180 and put the new frogbit in here. There's also some more water sprite Ceratopteris thalicroides 'fein' floating as it arrived with all the roots cut off and this is the tank least likely to have new roots nibbled. Once it grows a bit, it'll be moved over.
And finally, I moved the last three sparrow rasboras (Boraras urophthalmoides) in there a couple of weeks ago and on monday they were joined by 10 chili rasboras (B. brigittae).
The first photo is from the end of July, the second from yesterday
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With Daisy's rice fish, the eggs first appear as clear bubbles hanging from the female. As she swims through decor, they are pulled off. I would hate to try and find these eggs, though if they were in a breeding tank with spawning mops it would be easier. Since they need to be kept in water until they hatch presumably they have to be posted in a well sealed tub of water.
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Great looking tanks and great looking fish :cheers:
I agree with @fcmf that I had no idea the rice fish were as beautfiul as that.
Kribs are wonderful characters -you probably know I’m a fan of dwarf cichlids!! Having done some reading on them just now it looks like they eat quite a bit of algae in nature though I also haven’t heard of dietary issues with them being fed normal fish foods. Not sure if the second female may get picked on if a pair forms - but I’m sure you know this as have advised me regards this issue with dwarf cichlids before. They seem quite easy to breed which is exciting. I can see you have some caves in your tank which they will appreciate - I once saw them in a shop tank which was very bare and they did not look comfortable at all - the tank had a 3D background on it and they were forcing themselves into little crevices within that looking for shelter... it was not a nice sight. Can’t wait to hear more about their antics :D
Schismatoglottis prietoi always seems to never be quite happy with me - staying short and only occasionally deciding conditions are right for a bit of growth. How have you found it? It looks like you might have a planting substrate under the sand from the photo is this right?
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Great pics of lovely tanks. :cheers:
Glad to see your new arrivals are settled & exploring their new home. I'm looking forward to hearing about them and seeing more pics in the future.
:)
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Matt - the shrimp tank had Unipac silica sand but it wasn't thick enough having lost some tiny bit by tiny bit over the years. But in the shed I had a small amount of the sand that's in the main tank so I added that. I know it'll end up with a layer of the finer grained sand in the bottom and the larger grained silica sand on the top so I didn't mix it in as well as I should have :-[ I was also afraid of trapping newly hatched shrimps if it did any more vigorous that a gentle stir.
The schismatoglottis is new so I'll have to wait and see how it does. It arrived as one big clump; I split it into a few smaller clumps, some in the shrimp tank and some in the main tank. There are a couple of new leaves beginning to show in the shrimp tank though I did disturb the clumps in the main tank. It's an experiment as I've never really used plants which are rooted in the substrate.
I know that at least one of the kribs will have to be moved on. They could be all male, all female, 1m + 2f or 2m + 1f. Despite the chap being certain they were 1m and 2f they are far too young to tell.
I had also read about them being algae eaters but the way they hunted down the shrimps I had missed makes it obvious they like crustaceans as well. 'Little' has also taken to picking at the edges of the nerite snails >:(
The female rice have only been that colour for a few days. I bought 15 of them 4 years ago and discovered 18 in the bag. I also had 4 fry hatch in the betta tank after I moved a bit of water sprite in there (he was the betta who ignored everything and the fry grew big enough to move into the main tank). For the last year, the rice fish have been dying one by one - males seem to die faster than females. The last male died just over a week ago, leaving these 5 females. The males were pale metallic blue, about the same colour as dwarf neon rainbowfish. The females were pale yellow. The male died on Thursday, I got the kribs last Sunday, then redid the tank on Tuesday which left it very cloudy. On Wednedsay, when I could finally see the fish, the female rice fish were that gorgeous bright gold.
What made them brighten in colour? The death of the male? The kribs ('big' does chase them)? Or me messing about in the tank?
The pieces of azalea root are still soaking. They sank quite quickly, I was surprised. The water turned brown and there was a layer of oily stuff on the surface after a couple of days, so I changed the water, which then started to go cloudy. It is still cloudy after a couple more water changes.There is no sign of that translucent mould but there's no way it's going in the tank till the water stops going cloudy.
The one reference I've found to azalea wood harming fish is a thread started in 2016 when the poster put new azalea root in the tank without soaking and next day the water was cloudy and the fish gasping at the surface. A reply in the same thread earlier this year said their azalea root killed a hillstream loach and left the rest of the fish gasping.
The oily residue on the surface when I first soaked the wood could probably have prevented gas exchange causing the fish to gasp at the surface. But i don't like the cloudy water, it'll have to stop doing that before I risk it anywhere near my fish :-\
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Just an update:
The kribs are going to Maidenhead Aquatics - I've just phoned them. They've been in the quarantine tank for the last week.
1. they hunted and killed the shrimps that were left in the 180 litre
2. they were pecking at my nerites and making them pull back in their shells. I've found the poor snails on their backs with the trapdoor tightly closed several times since the kribs arrived
3. the big one relentlessly chased the remaining rice fish.
The azalea root is still in an old tank in the garden. The water is still cloudy and one piece of wood is covered with a translucent white goo. I'm very wary of putting it anywhere near my tank especially after the reviews on Aqua One azalea root on Amazon. I'm going to look different types of wood in MA when I take the kribs in.
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Definitely the correct decision under the circumstances!
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Sounds like the kribs have made a rod for their own back!
I’m not too worried about the wood personally @Sue - the white goo is completely normal and should clear in a week or so - the cloudy water perhaps less so but I can’t help but think it will clear up in time too. My tank is full of azalea root!!
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I've already got wood which came with an Aqua One label but I don't remember what it was. I know it was Aqua One as I was surprised they did things like wood so it stuck in my mind. And I do remember having wood at some point which had white translucent goo on which the nerites snails and honey gouramis ate without ill effect.
If it wasn't for the cloudy water in the old tank in the garden I wouldn't be worried; it's just that when the cloudiness appeared I started googling and found people who had fish die after putting Aqua One azalea root in their tanks. The ones that didn't have a problem boiled it first but as these pieces are almost 18 inches long (that's the tank length) I don't have a pan big enough.
I'm half thinking about moving the tank into the house, putting a heater in it and adding some 'pest' and Malaysian trumpet snails. If they eat the goo and survive, it should be OK :)
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The three kribs and one of the male pearl gouramis are now at Maidenhead Aquatics.
The chap who gave me the kribs said the big one was male and the smaller two female. Looking at photos on-line, I began to suspect that the big one was actually female. The chap in MA looked at them and said, one female and two too young to say.
I bought 5 pearl gouramis earlier this year. Because my quarantine tank is not very big I bought 3 then 2. The first three were supposed to be a male and 2 females from the branch of MA I've just been to. But in the QT I began to suspect that one of the females was actually a juvenile male. They went in the main tank and I got 2 more females from a different MA as we were passing that way. Once in the main tank it became very obvious that I actually had 2 m 3 f. Now that they are mature, the males have been bickering quite a lot so one of them had to go, unfortunately.
But I came home with a big chunk of wood labelled 'mangrove' (different structure from the azalea root) and new tank backing.
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I hope that your remaining fish are enjoying the peace and quiet. :)
I hope the new wood doesn't make the water cloudy.
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Since I moved the kribs into the QT a week ago, the last remaining shrimps have come out of hiding. I caught 3 yesterday and put them in the shrimp tank, and there was another this afternoon.
The gouramis look a bit shell shocked at losing one of their number, but at least the male I still have has no other male to pick on, and the three females now have the attentions of just one male instead of two.
The mangrove wood/root is currently floating in the QT vacated by the kribs. it was so heavy I thought it might sink, but no.
I've been changing the water regularly in the old tank in the garden, and pouring boiling water over the azalea root as I don't have a pan anywhere near big enough to boil it. I think the cloudiness is getting less but they do feel slimey when I lift the wood out.
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Nooooo! Something seems 'morally' wrong here... My 5yr, 4.5mth old harlequin rasbora is mating with one of the new espei rasboras under a plant leaf.
:yikes:
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:rotfl:
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Errrrrrr........
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I've been shopping. We went to the next but one nearest MA this afternoon and came home with a few things.
Some more wood. One piece has a 'mangrove' label on it; the other looks similar but nothing on it but the price. This is now floating in the garden in another old tank together with the piece I bought a couple of weeks ago which still hasn't sunk.
Two bunches of elodea.
And some kuhli loaches. I asked for 10, and the chap said he didn't know how many were in the bag but there were at least 10. There are 12 of them.
The filter media in my main tank contains virtually no bacteria as I know from the end of last year when it took a full 6 week fishless cycle before the 'mature' media could process 3 ppm ammonia in 24 hours. The loaches are now in my quarantine tank with the two bunches of elodea and a chunk of water sprite from my main tank. Just the water sprite alone dealt with ammonia from 3 kribs a week or so ago so they should be fine. I will keep an eye on ammonia and nitrite though.
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All sounds good, @Sue, and particularly exciting about the kuhlis. :cheers:
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Ammonia and nitrite zero this morning and the loaches are busy swimming up and down the back of the tank.
And one of the pieces of wood I bought yesterday has already sunk :o But the other piece and the one I bought a couple of weeks ago are still floating.
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I didn't think I'd miss a tiny wee fish/species so much. :'( Wee Greenie and the neon green rasboras in general brought such activity to the tank.
This evening, the tank is so sedate - very calm, so much so that the cardinals have moved from the bottom echelon to the middle echelon, sharing it with the harlequin/espeis, most likely no longer getting stressed out by the energy above. It probably suits them well but it's highlighted what a void she has left. :'(
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I must admit I love my ember tetras for the same reason - they seem to fill out the tank somehow the smaller fish don’t they? Sorry about the loss of Greenie @fcmf
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Thanks, @Matt. They do indeed - just a shame that the smaller fish (pygmy cories, neon green rasboras) have never fared well in my tank, for whatever reason. Maybe it'll be a case of 3rd time lucky and ember tetras will some day... (except for that I've been banned from having any more fish given how upset I get when they die)...
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I lean towards active tanks, and I find it very noticeable when a tank is calmer than I've come to expect. I can image that the loss of Wee Greenie and the rasboras have been quite a blow. :(
Congratulations on your new kuhli loaches @Sue
I think they are great fish and have lovely faces. :)
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Have you ever tried to remove 12 kuhli loaches from a quarantine tank? I ended up with about 50 ml water in there and I had to pour that into a net to get the last one out........
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:rotfl:
I gather they can be quite speedy little blighters.
I guess their net evasion techniques are quite advanced too.
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Being worm shaped, they can squeeze through that tiny gap between the net and the tank wall >:(
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I remember when I got my Khulis that the shop staff were all trying to palm off catching them onto each other and they did indeed look a nightmare to catch - I remember the guy that eventually got he job being quite violent in his technique!!
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The chap in MA didn't do too badly catching them as far as I could tell - I was standing back a way social distancing - but then he said 'I don't know how many are in the bag but there's at least 10'. I can only assume he caught several in the net at once and couldn't get the extras out of the bag.
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The third piece of wood finally sank. At last. So today has been water change and sort the decor out day.
Instead of lots of little bits of wood, there are now 3 large pieces and 3 medium pieces.
A few weeks ago I put Amazon frogbit on the surface and started removing the water sprite (sold as Ceratopteris cornuta). It was getting very tangled and messy, and I've just taken the last pieces out as the frogbit now covers the surface.
Large wood #1 is cylindrical with a sort of knob on one end. At the knobby end is now a large anubias (I have forgotten the name :-[ ) and at the other is a small species of anubias I've had for years.
Large wood #2 is also roughly cylindrical, and one end is hollow. This has 3 species of bucephalandra attached - crisped leaves, wavy leaf and Catherine.
Large piece #3 is flattish and has bolbitis on one end and java fern windelov on the other.
Medium piece #1 has 3 stems of bucephalandra Maia; these have been on this wood a few years.
Medium piece #2 has java fern narrow leaf
Medium piece #3 is standing on its end in the corner with moss attached.
Planted in the sand I now have:
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'green'. This arrived in the post yesterday and I am aware it will most likely melt.
A small bit of Schismatoglottis prietoi (the rest is in the shrimp tank)
A couple of pieces of Ceratopteris thalicroides 'fein'.
The plants on the new wood are tried on with thread and look a bit flattened. Once they've attached themselves and i can remove the thread, I'll take some photos. I'm not sure if I've overdone the wood. It looks a lot different from when there were lots of bits of wood in there, but the kuhli loaches will probably love it.
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Iva always really admired your approach to ‘greening’ your tanks Sue as I think you have struck a great balance between easy maintenance, enhancing the environment for the fish and having a good looking tank. Can’t wait to see the pictures.
Unfortunately I can’t report such positive news here. Many regular will recall @Sue recounting her luck with Bettas over recent years and the discussion we had about poor genetic diversity etc within the market. This too how now finally taken its toll on my own fish. She had not been eating well for a long time though otherwise seemingly in perfectly good health and water conditions were always perfect despite her being in a filterless tank, the plants did their duty well. Tonight though she was found floating in the corner of the tank near one of her favourite resting places in the Bolbitis. She is no more.
For now the tank will remain a shrimp only tank, it may become a retirement home for the last of my dwarf puffers at some point - though they seem to be living well into old age already and show no signs of stopping anytime soon... for now it is Grettas old house.
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I'm sorry to hear about your betta. They do not seem very hardy these days. I too have a shrimp tank instead of a betta tank. It's actually more interesting than it sounds.
My tanks have evolved rather than being planned. I started off with a 60 litre tank and plastic plants. Then a 60 litre and a 25 litre with plastic plants. Then a 125 litre, 60 litre and 25 litre with plastic and silk plants.
Every live plant I tried died. So I gave up.
Then I got some java fern and attached it to some plastic decor. It survived and grew!!
The 125 litre was upgraded to 180; the 60 litre developed a leak and was replaced by a 54 litre (which was eventually closed down). Gradually, the plastic decor was replaced by bits of wood about the same size as those plastic logs and twisted root ornaments, with more and more live plants attached. So I ended up with lots of bits of wood with plants attached. And the 180 litre looked bitty.
I gave up on the azalea root as it still felt slimey and the water it was soaking in was still cloudy. But the three pieces of 'mangrove' are fine, now they've sunk.
And I am actually experimenting with plants growing in the substrate. The crypt I bought is supposed to be 'easy' and can grow in low light, so we'll see if I manage to kill that as I used to.
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Sorry to hear that Gretta has passed @Matt :(
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Great to read your updates, Sue, and very much looking forward to seeing the photos.
Aw - what very sad news about Gretta, Matt, but possibly of some comfort that she had a quality life and lived and ultimately passed away peacefully/naturally without any medication dilemma / potentially aggressive intervention required.
On the topic of quality of bettas, I was just reminded recently that they can succumb to dwarf gourami iridovirus (https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/fishkeeping-masterclass/week-4-disease-management/practical-fishkeeping-diploma-week-4-day-2/) - I don't know whether that might account for any of Sue's or anyone else's bettas' demises?
I've removed all the stones from my tank, with the exception of the pieces of Tufa rock, so that Mr Snail's numerous episodes of lying upside down on the tank floor don't result in further cracking of his shell. I have an inkling, judging from his locations, that a few of his plunges have resulted from attempting to walk on the Amazonian frogbit which is contained in a fish-feeding ring and misjudging their ability to support his weight. ::)
This week, I put some pea in the tank which I hadn't done as regularly as I ought to have - Wee Harley is the only fish excited by it (the harlies and the x-rays loved it) but I decided to leave what fell on the tank floor overnight. Good news - the cardinals and snails must have had an overnight feast as it was all gone by the morning rather than morsels developing a fungus, and the snails had left their appreciation by virtue of white snail eggs all along the back wall of the tank which often follows a feast.
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There has been some debate about which other fish can catch dwarf gourami disease but it's usually confined to other gourami species. I have not come across anywhere else saying bettas can get it. But my bettas never showed any of the symptoms listed in the link, so in my case it's probably due to some inherent weakness that seems to affect bettas these days :(
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I've found a few Australian papers which refer to DGIV as a strain of infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV), and, in turn, this https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa182 does include betta on the list from this original source https://www.researchgate.net/publication/10610777_The_Pathology_of_Systemic_Iridoviral_Disease_in_Fish In other words, although I can't access the full text, it might be that bettas may be susceptible to a/some viral infection(s) which affect the spleen and kidneys - unfortunately untreatable.
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There could be related viruses which don't show external symptoms, just internal if we could look inside the fish. Without a microscope and knowing what to look for, I suppose we'll never know :(
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some comfort that she had a quality life and lived and ultimately passed away peacefully/naturally without any medication dilemma / potentially aggressive intervention required.
Very true indeed - I’m going to have to move some more shrimp over into the tank - the absence of Gretta is too striking at the moment and the tank needs some more life in it... I’m going to remind myself of DG iridovirus now and see if anything matches... Edited to add - apart from loss of appetite nothing matches fortunately/unfortunately (depending on perspective :o )
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The loss of a fish on its own, of a pair or trio (I imagine) or a fish with very particular characteristics distinct from the others is indeed very strongly noticeable. I think new life in a tank, in a completely different form (more shrimp in your case), will definitely help.
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Anyone noticed their fish behaving oddly today with the time change? Even although we got up midway between 'usual old time' and 'new time', my fish started moving around at 2pm with a look of expectancy that the light would come on (usually it's at 3pm), then started getting increasingly active with a questionning/intrigued-borderline-alarmed look at me as time wore on. I decided to put the light on manually at 2.30pm and immediately they seemed to relax as though all was now right with the world.
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Fish do expect the lights to come on at a certain time.
A couple of years ago I stopped changing the timers. I have 2 LED tubes over my main tank and they come on at different times - one half an hour before the other and again a half hour split off time - so there are 2 timers. The timers are in a dark corner and I have to get a torch out to alter them. It is such a hassle trying to hold the torch between my teeth while I hold the set button down with one hand and alter the hour with the other so I decided not to bother. And since I'm not altering that tank, I don't bother with the other one either :)
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I haven't seen my fish much lately as Mr FCMF has been busy working up until bedtime and over the weekends lately, and he works in the Fish Room aka living-room. However, I managed to get a proper look at them today - and what a change! [I have done tank maintenance, but with military precision and slickness, with no time to admire the inhabitants.]
One of the newer cardinals has grown so much that she's almost the same size as the original large female. I seem to have 2 definite females, 2 definite males, and 3 likely females (curvy but smaller in stature than the other two) - either that, or I have two runts plus five healthy fish.
As for the rasboras, I can see some initial signs of ageing in Wee Harley - she's much paler, her gills are starting to look disproportionately large relative to her body, she's positioning herself lower in the tank or away from the espeis, and slightly nose up with a bit of concerted 'wading' to keep herself horizontal. I noticed a tiny missing portion off the end of her bottom caudal fin and also an espei chasing her, so likely it was bitten off. All very subtle but a reminder that she's almost 5-and-a-half years old. When her time is up, I'll add to the espeis to ensure that they have a proper shoal, but would prefer to keep the hospital/quarantine tank free in case I need to transfer Wee Harley into it at any stage for use as a palliative/hospice care tank.
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I recently moved my big tank from the sitting room to the kitchen as part of a bit of a reorganisation of our furniture to make more play room for toddler and after Xmas I will be receiving an upgrade in the nano tank to double its size - a custom 40cm x 30cm x 25cm (to work with existing equipment and cupboard top space etc) which is far more suitable for a small shoal of nano fish - the place I’m getting it from are super busy at the moment with everyone doing up their homes etc etc as a result of the virus and I’m really happy for them as they are a local firm. I’m searching through seriously fish finding all the species that it’s recommends for a 45x30 tank and getting myself excited.
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I think Wee Harley may be en route into the next world. This morning, she was immediately under the tank water surface beside the heater, and spent at least half an hour there. A little later, when I next checked up on her, she was down with the cardinals, but by lunchtime was back up under the tank water surface. Of some consolation is that this simply seems like natural causes and that her time is almost up. It will be sad when she goes as she's the last of the original gang - the 3 older cardinals are only just over a year old.
Updated to add 10/11/2020: Looks as though it's going to be a slower demise than I'd thought - phew, as I do like time to 'prepare'.
Updated to add 21/11/2020: She's getting increasingly pale and floppy-looking, and her panting has been getting increasingly faster; was hoping she'd make it to her 5-and-a-half 'birthday' in 4 days' time but I doubt it now... Just hoping she goes of natural causes rather than requiring any intervention or move to the hospice tank...
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The fish aren't getting their usual regular meals and treats today.
Wee Harley is "in the departure lounge", rested up against the filter intake at the top of the tank, panting fast. She's upright and not stuck/trapped as I discovered when I went to sit beside the tank and she moved and did a 'circuit' of the tank, floating backwards and around in the current. However, I don't want to disturb her again, hence keeping a distance from the tank (and therefore not feeding the others). I don't expect her to survive the day, as she's been so grey and weak-looking, despite my best efforts to place Hikari First Bites powdery food in front of her lately to encourage her to get some nutrients. I'd also rather she ran out of puff where she is than drops down towards the substrate where she was early this morning, getting prodded by some cardinals, or starts rolling around or lying upside down in which case I'd need to intervene which I'm reluctant to have to do. I've lost count of how many times I've peered in the tank over the past 30 hours or so to check on her welfare...
Updated early afternoon: Argh - went back to investigate, by which time she was lying on her side at the filter intake, panting fast. Weeping in distress but realising there was no option by this stage, I got out the Euthanasia box and the solution prepared. In went the net to scoop her out - and off she went on a backward circuit of the tank, propelled by the current. I probably ought to proceed as I'd only be bringing forward The Inevitable by an hour or so - but can't when there's still some life/consciousness displayed. I think I'm going to hide / seek refuge away from the tank for the next hour or so, in the hope that she passes away naturally, while my nostrils feel like they're burning with the smell of the unused clove oil...
Updated again, late afternoon: She seemed to experience a fit, then started rolling around on her back on the tank floor. I reached towards the E box and she rectified herself. However, the others (cardinals in particular) were showing undue interest and biting her tail, so I've now set up and moved her into an isolation/hospice tank, where I'll leave her be for a while.
Updated yet again, early evening: She's actually doing better in this tank ie mid-tank, maintaining an upright position better rather than sucked into the filter inlet or being bitten by tankmates, and looking much less distressed. As her eyes are bulging and she's looking increasingly swollen, I decided that there was absolutely nothing to lose by putting in a drop of eSHa 2000 for bacterial infection... it might alleviate any suffering (temporarily) or 'send her over the edge' by bringing on a swifter demise to an already weakened fish (and thereby hasten her departure but meaning less time suffering if indeed she is).
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RIP/SIP, Wee Harley, and the last of original cohort of fish to the tank (ie all current inhabitants less than 15 months old). :'(
I left her in peace late last night, where she seemed (albeit I knew better) to be comparatively fine in the isolation/hospice tank - mid-tank, swimming against the current but panting fast, engaging with me as I chatted to her (felt like I was an ICU Fish Nurse), even showing an interest in going for food. If I were an inexperienced fishkeeper, I'd probably have gone to bed quite optimistic and renamed her Lazarus. However, I was 99% convinced it would be a repeat of what happened to Wee Greenie. Sure enough, up I got this morning and, even with the room lights off and only the hall light on, could see her lifeless body and exposed white belly as she lay upside down on the tank floor. Of some consolation is that, however it happened, at least no-one was nibbling at her if/when semi-alive. I just hope she enjoyed her long life as much as she enriched mine.
I think I might remove the chair by the fishtank, in an effort to avoid getting so emotionally attached to my fish. Maybe if I only view them from a distance, avoid eye contact, don't interact during feeding or maintenance, etc, it will make the end easier to bear.
At some stage in the coming months, I'll get the espeis some additions to their shoal.
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I'm sorry to hear about Wee Harley. But as you say, at least she spent her last hours in peace in the hospital tank.
You did the best you possibly could for her.
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Thanks for your kind words, Sue - much appreciated.
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So sorry to hear the sad news about Wee Harley @fcmf :'(
She had a happy and rich life with you, and a peaceful end.
The loss of the last individual from an original batch of fish is always particularly difficult too. :(
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Thanks very much too for your kind words, Littlefish.
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Not sure what I can add to Sues and Littlefishes sentiments other than write something brief to say sorry to hear such sad news...
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Thanks, Matt.
As an antidote, I could do with hearing some joyful updates on antics in others' fishtanks, when time permits. Not a lot to report from here lately besides Mr Snail's lying-on-his-back antics, which seem to be from being knocked off the glass by an espei, attempts to take shortcuts from the top of the tank down the glass wall, thinking that floating plants will bear his weight if he climbs onto them but not learning from the previous fall, etc.
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My husband bought half a cucumber. I hate cucumber so it lasts a few days. He cuts the dried edge off each day and throws it away before cutting more slices for his sandwiches so I rescued one of the dried slices before it got to the bin, cut the rind off as it was impossible to wash it as a thin slice and put it in the shrimp tank. It was amusing watching the shrimps climb all over it. When there were a lot of shrimps clinging on, the cucumber sank; when a few 'decucumbered' it floated. The following day there was just a tiny piece left being wrestled by one of the big shrimps, which was having trouble controlling it. They were drifting around the tank on the current from the filter.
I must encourage him to buy cucumber more often :)
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Kuhli loaches. I've not kept them before and everything I've read says they hide all day being nocturnal. My new kuhlis haven't read the book. One of them likes to hang suspended from the frogbit. The rest can be spotted scurrying over the sand from log to log.
And that's another thing. "Kuhlis should be kept on sand not gravel as they like to bury themselves" Really? I must have the only non-burying kuhlis in existence ;D
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Absolutely loved both the shrimps and kuhli loaches stories, Sue. :rotfl: :cheers:
Inspired by the cucumber story, I decided to put some in the tank at lunchtime, having to weight it down in the snail foodpot with a pebble. The female nerite, who had been nearby on the wood, crawled immediately onto it and stayed there for a while. I've just nipped through to see what was happening and she's clearly shown her appreciation for it, judging by the mess she's left on the catappa leaf (most likely a wood-and-cucumber combination)! ::)
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I don’t know that my Khulis bury themselves but I do only very rarely see them due to their nocturnal habits so perhaps that explains a few things - you definately have ones that arnt conforming there Sue
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I tried to post a photo and it disn't work; after clicking 'post' all I got what a plain white page ???
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You have quite a few of them - more than most I think - it might be that they are therefore more comfortable in their group in your tank me thinks...
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I got them from MA which had them for so much each or 5 for this much. So I asked for 10 expecting some to die within a few days. Because of social distancing, I had to stand back while the chap caught them, then he said 'I don't know how many are in the bag but it's at least 10'. I counted them out of the bag and there were 12 - and none have died. I think I'm probably overstocked with kuhlis :-\
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...and here we go again: the Fish Broodiness Alert level is now very much at its highest level (for some additional espeis).
:fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1:
[It is also apparent that I need to get some more anyway - the male has become very territorial and thinks he occupies the entire left of the tank, sending the female to the other side, so ~4 more ought to help challenge his assumption and territoriality.]
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I found my last pygmy cory dead this afternoon :(
I was expecting it as s/he had been behaving differently for a few days. It had been on its own for about a year and was from either the batch I bought in September 2015 or the batch in August 2016. It was at least 4 years old and stressed from being on its own, so I'm not very surprised.
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Aw, sorry to read about this, Sue. :'( [Your pygmy/pygmies certainly did better than mine - I recall my final ones died in Sept 2015, none of them having made it to one year, so 4-5 years is a good life.]
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Sorry to hear about your last pygmy cory @Sue :(
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Today's observations:
(1) Seachem Chlorella flakes (bought ages ago but only opened a few days ago) are very popular with cardinal tetras but not at all with espei rasboras;
(2) Nerite snails have good table manners ;) : after lights-out time last night, I belatedly dropped in a Snail Stixx which missed the food pot but which I didn't want to move so as not to disturb the fish any further; by this morning, it had been pushed it into the foodpot and was being enjoyed by Mrs Snail.
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Your snails have impeccable manners @fcmf ;D
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...although they've also eaten their 'crockery'. I bought them a lovely bamboo foodpot a year or two ago, which they developed a fondness of 'cleaning', to such an extent that there are now holes in the bottom of it!
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:rotfl: