Author Topic: Think Fish Keepers Daily News. (Read 143164 times)

Matt · « **Reply #1700 on:** January 24, 2019, 09:31:38 PM »

I just showed this to Mrs Matt, a mathematician, who has informed me that the glass is in fact full its just half water and half air...

fcmf · « **Reply #1701 on:** January 24, 2019, 10:02:00 PM »

Quote from: Matt on January 24, 2019, 09:31:38 PM

I just showed this to Mrs Matt, a mathematician, who has informed me that the glass is in fact full its just half water and half air...

...although, strictly speaking, with it not being a straight up-and-down glass but getting wider towards the top, it's possibly more air than water.

Littlefish · « **Reply #1702 on:** January 24, 2019, 10:35:48 PM »

Quote from: Matt on January 24, 2019, 09:31:38 PM

I just showed this to Mrs Matt, a mathematician, who has informed me that the glass is in fact full its just half water and half air...

Nice. I like that.

The other way of looking at it is that the glass is half full if it was in the process of being filled....if the glass was full and a drink has been taken/water has been removed, it is half empty....if in doubt, check your parameters & do a water change.

Helen · « **Reply #1703 on:** January 24, 2019, 10:57:11 PM »

In my profession the glass is described as being twice as big as it needs to be (ie 100% redundancy)! Though we build in redundancy in case of failure, which would be more like @Littlefish getting "just one more tank"!

Littlefish · « **Reply #1704 on:** January 25, 2019, 08:15:58 AM »

@Helen thanks for making me laugh, what a great way to start "nearly the weekend" (aka Friday).

jaypeecee · « **Reply #1705 on:** January 25, 2019, 11:21:31 AM »

Quote from: Matt on January 24, 2019, 09:31:38 PM

I just showed this to Mrs Matt, a mathematician, who has informed me that the glass is in fact full its just half water and half air...

Hi Matt,

I guess that there is a link or something that I'm not seeing in your post. What you see above is exactly how your post displays on my PC. Am I missing a trick?

JPC

Sue · « **Reply #1706 on:** January 25, 2019, 12:17:28 PM »

Matt's post was a reply to the "3 glasses" image in Littlefish's post on the previous page

jaypeecee · « **Reply #1707 on:** January 25, 2019, 01:17:15 PM »

Quote from: Sue on January 25, 2019, 12:17:28 PM

Matt's post was a reply to the "3 glasses" image in Littlefish's post on the previous page

Thanks, Sue.

fcmf · « **Reply #1708 on:** January 26, 2019, 05:45:14 PM »

I thought I'd run a cotton bud along the inside rim of the fishtank, where the hood closes down and sits, as I thought I saw a spec of green. What a surprise I got - a cotton bud wasn't sufficient to cope with what was there, so I used some filter wool in addition. Suffice to say that there was enough algae that it looked like almost a teaspoonful's worth!

Littlefish · « **Reply #1709 on:** January 26, 2019, 06:12:44 PM »

Slightly gross, but a great indication of to need to have a deep clean of a tank occassionally.

Littlefish · « **Reply #1710 on:** February 01, 2019, 09:07:06 AM »

Just a reminder to use the community creator and check compatibility.
Nobody likes a pushy tank-mate that invades your personal space.

Littlefish · « **Reply #1711 on:** February 08, 2019, 08:45:20 PM »

I had a day trip to Wharf Aquatics today.
I'd seen it in PFK, reported during a road trip, and as the runner up for Oddball Store of the Year 2018.
The drive took just over 2 hours, and my head is still spinning from the quantity and diversity of stock.
Before the panic starts, I didn't buy anything...though possibly because I was so overwhelmed with choices

fcmf · « **Reply #1712 on:** February 09, 2019, 02:41:22 PM »

Fantastic - you seem to be "on form" (4-hour roundtrips specifically to visit a fish/aquatic shop) although I'm somewhat surprised and at least mildly disappointed that you didn't buy anything.

Littlefish · « **Reply #1713 on:** February 09, 2019, 05:50:19 PM »

I made sure that I left my polystyrene box (for fish transport) at home, which meant that I had a very good, practical reason not to buy any fish, just in case my will power wavered.

As it was the shop has so much stock that I probably couldn't have made a decision anyway.

Sue · « **Reply #1714 on:** February 13, 2019, 03:52:58 PM »

We have been out this afternoon on a trip to the three garden centres very close together. One of them is the garden centre that burned down last year, along with Maidenhead Aquatics.
As we pulled into the car park we could see that the site of the old garden centre is stripped completely; there is a very large new building to one side and in front of that was a new one storey building with Maidenhead Aquatics signs all over it. So I had to go and look.
It's not as big as the old one, but there were 4 ranks of tanks, 2 were empty and 2 had fish in though there were empty tanks even in these two. Mainly bread and butter fish, but hopefully as they restock they'll be getting more unusual fish like they had before.

Since the 4 ranks of tanks formed a U shape, I wonder if they'll all be fresh water. The old MA had a marine section separated from the freshwater section by the plants, baskets of rock and baskets of wood. Though there was something in the middle of the shop that I presume is going to be a pond of some sort. Either that or a hot tub for the staff

Littlefish · « **Reply #1715 on:** February 13, 2019, 05:30:17 PM »

Great to hear that the MA is back after what happened.
I hope it doesn't take long for them to re-stock all of their tanks (and the "hot tub").

Littlefish · « **Reply #1716 on:** February 26, 2019, 03:39:32 PM »

What a strange day, in a good way.
I went to the LFS this morning to get some frozen bloodworms and a black background for a tank. Got chatting about stuff to the staff, and had a bit of a look around.
Another customer came in with some fish, plants, & wood from his tank. We got talking and he showed me pictures of his tank before he'd removed the plants, fish etc. - it was jam packed with massive, healthy plants. Tim (LFS staff) took the drift wood out of the bin liner it had been brought in, and my little face lit up.

The customer who had brought the stuff in gave me a bag of crypts (the bunch on the left of the tank in the picture), and Tim sold me the wood and attached crypts for £25.
To give you some idea of the size, they are in a Fluval Roma 200.
The wood may end up in the river tank, or perhaps in Bertie the BN's tank, and I'm sure we can find somewhere for the crypts in one of the tanks @Matt , but I couldn't leave without them.

Matt · « **Reply #1717 on:** February 27, 2019, 07:11:55 AM »

I'm sure we can!... those are some healthy looking plants! And lots of them!

Having looked at the photo of the left hand bunch there are a lot of white eggs of some kind on the leaves... are you going to treat the plants /quaranteen like this for a while? Do you know what they might be?

Littlefish · « **Reply #1718 on:** February 27, 2019, 07:47:34 AM »

Yes, they will be quarantined like this before use. One of the good things about my total tank chaos is always having a spare tank.

They've got a heater, filters, plenty of water, ferts, and light, so I'll be interested to see what happens over the next few weeks.
The chap who had the plants used CO2, and had quite a fancy set up, so I can't imagine that the plants will continue to look like this with my low tech approach. Still, crypts have always done quite well for me, so we'll see.

fcmf · « **Reply #1719 on:** February 27, 2019, 05:50:08 PM »

Plants look great, Littlefish - you struck lucky there with your timing, etc!

I must have spent an hour yesterday intrigued by some behaviour in the fishtank which has started up again late this afternoon. One of my harlequins (Wee Harley) has a penchant for the snail food and likes to station herself above it, often alongside the other small harlequin (Little Harley); often they jostle for "food rights" and prime position immediately above the food pot. Occasionally, a neon green will try to station itself nearby but gets shooed out of the way. Yesterday, though, an x-ray stationed himself above the snail foodpot, with Wee Harley immediately above. All remained very calm and accepting between them both, with neither shooing the other out of the way.

What seemed to happen every ~10 minutes or so was that the x-ray started swooping and swerving over the snail food, then Wee Harley dived down underneath him, pecked the food and the x-ray avails of the debris she spills when chomping on it. Far, far more fascinating to watch than TV. This is rather similar to what the x-rays used to do with the pygmy cories - they learned to swim immediately behind them and avail of any food debris being dug up (although often took a bite out of their tails in their eagerness). Whoever would have thought the antics in a fishtank could be so engaging for so long!

Littlefish · « **Reply #1720 on:** February 28, 2019, 08:37:28 AM »

I couldn't believe how lucky I was at the LFS.

Your fish antics sounds fascinating. I've seen some of my tetras follow behind corys when they are rummaging through the sand, but I've not seen fish do what your x-ray and harlie were spotted doing. That's genius.

fcmf · « **Reply #1721 on:** March 02, 2019, 05:14:02 PM »

Spring appears to have sprung in the fishtank. I've had to avert my eyes several times as the microdevario kubotai, which I still consider my babies, seem to have "come of age" and are behaving in a certain manner which leaves no question as to what they're up to. It seems to be infectious, as it's now got the harlequins in the same frame of mind. In the absence of any females now, even two male tetras seemed to be behaving in a similar manner among the plants.

Meanwhile, the female snail has taken command of the foodpot and the poor male snail has tried in vain on several occasions to access it but has done a u-turn on seeing her in it each time.

Littlefish · « **Reply #1722 on:** March 07, 2019, 09:32:45 AM »

Glad to hear that your gang are enjoying the season.

On a similar topic, I saw this and couldn't resist sharing it.

fcmf · « **Reply #1723 on:** March 15, 2019, 05:53:22 PM »

Weekly water change performed 2.5-3.5 hrs ago. Been doing other things since. Went back in to view the fish; 1 neon green rasbora missing.

Whole tank gets dismantled in a hunt for it, to no avail. Mr FCMF looks under fishtank cabinet, and there it is at the very back - one very dead neon green rasbora.

I do a head count every morning (and at various stages during the day) and, unless I miscalculated, all were present and correct this morning. I have heard intermittent splashing recently and witnessed a neon green at the surface and responsible for this so I can only assume it was this one, whether during the water change or not. It seemed to dry out very quickly, though!

Littlefish · « **Reply #1724 on:** March 15, 2019, 06:35:18 PM »

Sorry to hear about your rasbora @fcmf

Matt · « **Reply #1725 on:** March 16, 2019, 04:22:37 PM »

Sorry to hear this. Please try not to blame yourself. Doesn't sound like there is much you could have done differently here... fish do jump sometimes unfortunately. Even in nature they can jump out of pools and streams... I've seen fish startle themselves by swimming backwards into things!!

fcmf · « **Reply #1726 on:** March 17, 2019, 05:18:35 PM »

Thanks, both. I've replayed it over and over in my mind and think I am to blame, though - normally, I "forewarn" everyone and calmly chat to them that I'm about to undertake their water change, whereas I was a bit distracted on Fri and a bit too methodical and efficient - whisking out the hornwort and java fern, then realising I'd a couple of cuts on my fingers which were stinging from the water and grabbing a towel, then experimenting with the spray bar which ended up sending the water upwards towards the rear/back of the tank. If the fish had inadvertently accompanied the plants out of the tank, then lifting the neighbouring towel might have sent it skidding under the fishtank cabinet or it may have leapt out of the plants and under the fishtank cabinet while I was rinsing my cuts under the tap before putting on gloves. The fish transpired to be the one which enjoyed surfing the water current and swimming vertically in it along the opposite side of the tank - gutted to have lost the quirky one of that shoal

- so it's possible it may have availed of the several seconds' experimentation with the spray bar and ended up catapulting back the couple of inches straight through the slat.

As you say, though, and given how dry it was when discovered, this surfing fish which had taken to splashing at the water surface and in the hornwort may actually have escaped out pre- water change.

Separately, I have the harlequin with the intermittent lesion on its side currently under eSHa 2000 treatment in the hospital tank - it looks like a recurrent injury but may be a bacterial infection (no sign of parasites) albeit not as deep as the ulcer-like hole one of the female x-rays had. I may have mentioned before that his spine is twisted slightly in an S shape when viewed from above. Post- water change, he was shoaled up with the others rather than in his usual quiet spot near the top on his own, and I noticed how pale he was in comparison with them. I hadn't treated him before now but thought this was the opportunity to do so while he is constitutionally still strong and eating but does seem to be declining somewhat. The treatment may not help but I thought it worth a try before too late and to avoid any regrets.

Matt · « **Reply #1727 on:** March 18, 2019, 08:16:12 PM »

Power cut here... tanks all wrapped up nice and toasty! Not too concerned just yet, will be if it doesn't come back on before bed time. Been an hour so far! Most concerned about the female Goldeneye in the hospital tank. She may have to go back in the main tank tonight if there is no electric, she is just in a plastic tote temporary tank thing.

Matt · « **Reply #1728 on:** March 18, 2019, 08:23:24 PM »

Second bit of advice online!!

Matt · « **Reply #1729 on:** March 18, 2019, 09:28:17 PM »

Back up and running

phew!

Littlefish · « **Reply #1730 on:** March 18, 2019, 09:32:18 PM »

Glad to hear that you have power again.
I'll bet that was a bit tense for a while.

Matt · « **Reply #1731 on:** March 23, 2019, 04:32:03 PM »

Just completed a spring clean of the pond, all set up for summer now

Hoping to get a couple of replacement comet goldfish soon to bring the numbers back up to 6. 2 of each colour variant.

Female Goldeneye is also a lot more active recently. Next weekend I do the final dosage for her, treat the main tank, and then hopefully things will be back to normal!

Rustle · « **Reply #1732 on:** March 24, 2019, 11:57:12 AM »

Good to hear the female goldeneye is on the mend matt. I've put some sponges from a filter i brought to seed in my main tank today to help when i break the tank down in 6 to 8 weeks. I'm really enjoying planning all this at the moment and on tuesday i'm off to Aqua Essentials in devon to have a look around, I'm also going to buy a JBL pro flora c02 system.

fcmf · « **Reply #1733 on:** March 30, 2019, 02:20:50 PM »

Sad news. One of my two smaller harlequins, Little Harley, has died.

He had been in optimum health until yesterday when I noticed he was swimming slightly nose up but nothing otherwise untoward - I just assumed his swimbladder wasn't functioning just as well as usual given his advancing years (3yrs, 10mths) or that he'd maybe overdosed on food. I noticed the same this morning, and, as he was reaching for food, I did wonder if his belly was slightly paler underneath, but didn't think much more of it. Then, just after lunch, I went to sit by the fishtank and couldn't see him. After nudging a few plants, I noticed him lying upside down on the bottom and gasping. It was clear the situation had suddenly deteriorated in the space of less than 24 hrs to the point of no return and therefore I had to perform euthanasia to spare him any further suffering.

Having said that, and despite the tears while performing the above, it's so much easier when it's natural causes than a fatal accident (and, in this case, there hadn't even been the situation of dilemmas over whether to medicate or not as there had been no indication for that). Ironically, his shoalmate with the ulcer-like injuries to his flank, the accompanying bent spine, overall darker colouration, and who spends most of his time floating just under the water surface, lives on.

Sue · « **Reply #1734 on:** March 30, 2019, 02:28:22 PM »

I'm sorry to hear that

As you say, he was getting on a bit, and it is definitely much easier when it's natural causes.

Matt · « **Reply #1735 on:** March 30, 2019, 03:07:25 PM »

Sorry to hear this sad news. At least we can be comforted in that he had a happy and healthy life.

Littlefish · « **Reply #1736 on:** March 30, 2019, 07:23:57 PM »

So sorry to hear that Little Harley has passed.
It is sad and unexpected news.

jaypeecee · « **Reply #1737 on:** April 02, 2019, 09:49:38 AM »

Quote from: jaypeecee on April 02, 2019, 09:46:15 AM

Quote from: Littlefish on March 07, 2019, 09:32:45 AM
On a similar topic, I saw this and couldn't resist sharing it.

Great picture. They don't look 'damned' to me. 'Raring to go' is how I see them.

JPC

jaypeecee · « **Reply #1738 on:** April 02, 2019, 10:02:21 AM »

Hi Folks,

Took this piccie yesterday of a spawning pair of our eight-month old GBRs. This is our sixth pair of GBRs to spawn in the last week!

JPC

Matt · « **Reply #1739 on:** April 02, 2019, 11:31:28 AM »

Quote from: jaypeecee on April 02, 2019, 10:02:21 AM

Hi Folks,

Took this piccie yesterday of a spawning pair of our eight-month old GBRs. This is our sixth pair of GBRs to spawn in the last week!

JPC

Awesome pic, and congratulations! I am hoping to get a few GBRs this weekend... I miss having them so much... can decide whether to get Bolivian Rams instead as they are a bit hardier though... what is your water hardness and nitrate levels?

jaypeecee · « **Reply #1740 on:** April 02, 2019, 03:27:39 PM »

Quote from: Matt on April 02, 2019, 11:31:28 AM

Awesome pic, and congratulations! I am hoping to get a few GBRs this weekend... I miss having them so much... can decide whether to get Bolivian Rams instead as they are a bit hardier though... what is your water hardness and nitrate levels?

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the kind words. Water hardness in this tank is 8dGH and TDS is approximately 300ppm. I normally keep hardness a tad lower at 6dGH and TDS around the 250ppm mark. Nitrate is 15ppm. It's often thought that pH has to be 'low' for GBRs but the pH in this tank is around 7.70 (measured using a recently-calibrated Extech PH100 meter). Tank temperature is 26.0 - 26.5C. I should add that I use RO water as my starting point to which I add Tropic Marin Re-Mineral Tropic electrolytes.

JPC

Matt · « **Reply #1741 on:** April 02, 2019, 07:38:50 PM »

Thanks that's reassuring, mine will be very similar for them.

fcmf · « **Reply #1742 on:** April 09, 2019, 08:12:15 PM »

9 POSTS AT THIS POINT IN THE THREAD HAVE BEEN MOVED TO https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fish-health/fish-health-in-my-tank/ POSTS 52-60, AS THEY SAT MORE APPROPRIATELY THERE.

I HADN'T MERGED TOPICS FOR A WHILE AND, IN MY CONFUSION/PANIC, REALISE I FORGOT TO POST AN OFFICIAL 'RE-DIRECTION' TOPIC - APOLOGIES.

Littlefish · « **Reply #1743 on:** April 11, 2019, 08:08:09 AM »

That awful moment when you have a power cut, and realise that you're not prepared for it.

Luckily, the power cut lasted for less than 5 minutes, but it makes you think about what could happen.

Also very grateful that I wasn't in the shower at the time.

Sue · « **Reply #1744 on:** April 11, 2019, 10:18:35 AM »

The only long power outage we've had was 8 hours - but we knew about it a couple of weeks in advance so I was able to prepare. It was planned work on the substation.
A couple of years ago we had another letter saying we'd be without power for a few hours on this date, but things went awry with that one - the planned repair turned into an emergency repair without notice a few days earlier than planned. The power was off for about 3 hours, and everyone survived despite me not being able to arrange things in advance. (At least we were not in the houses that lost their power in the middle of the night and spent the following day on generators while NEDL repaired whatever it was)

Sue · « **Reply #1745 on:** April 15, 2019, 04:04:28 PM »

A water change with a difference!

I had my second cataract operation a week and a half ago and I'm not allowed to lift buckets of water for 4 weeks. I promised my fish-hating husband I'd do water changes every weeks and a half so he only had to help me with 2 instead of 4. We have just done a joint water change - I filled the buckets with old water and he carried them into the garden and poured them over the dry plants (no rain for quite a while) but as he's had a bad back I could only fill them two thirds the usual amount so more trips outside. Then he carried the new water to the tank for me.
Because he was standing round waiting to carry the new water I didn't go and do something else while the kettle boiled, then forget to fill the bucket, so it was actually quite a bit quicker

Matt · « **Reply #1746 on:** April 15, 2019, 07:46:36 PM »

Mrs Matt found a cherry shrimp in the office today. The little guy had somehow got out of the tank in the sitting room, across the hall carpet and on into the study... quite impressed though equally sad at the same time. I guess it will have been from the final round of esha ndx I gave the tank to deal with any last camallanus worms. The shrimp went to the surface and out of their normal cover when I dosed it.

I moved the Amano shrimp out before dosing but have only managed to find 2 in the puffer tank to move back in so far... might take me a few days to spot them all...

fcmf · « **Reply #1747 on:** May 04, 2019, 09:53:48 AM »

Hmmm. There seems to be a pool of water around the tank occurring too frequently for my liking. This morning's was mopped up pre-breakfast, with the old towel deliberately squeezing into the foam underlay around the base to release any excess moisture there. More water had pooled post-breakfast. A couple of hours later, and there's more...

This may require a swift purchase of a new tank... How big can I get away with?

Sue · « **Reply #1748 on:** May 04, 2019, 10:26:12 AM »

What's the biggest he won't notice

Littlefish · « **Reply #1749 on:** May 05, 2019, 07:02:56 AM »

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