Aquarium Thread

[Act162this]

our bristlenoses were busy at first and worked really hard cleaning the decorations and walls, but as they got bigger and discovered flake food and pellets, they got a bit lazy (or liked the flakes better).

the last one definitely had personality, though. his loach friend would come by and just lie down on top of him (on his back, on his face) and he'd just sit there and take it. they'd cruise around the bottom of the tank and watch the snails go by (instead of eating them).

when he heard the front door open, he'd rush over to the side of the tank and look to see who it was. if it was me, he'd climb up the sides trying to see. if it was my wife, he'd turn his back to her and ignore her.

[Hee_Haw]

Shucks. This is the best I could do when his fins are flared out. He's a mover and shaker!

(I'm posting this from the office; taking a break after another 4 hour blitz on the computer; I think I'll go for a walk shortly, I'm here til 9:00!)


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[Act162this]

Originally Posted by Hee_Haw

Shucks. This is the best I could do when his fins are flared out. He's a mover and shaker!

(I'm posting this from the office; taking a break after another 4 hour blitz on the computer; I think I'll go for a walk shortly, I'm here til 9:00!)


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i hear ya. i just got back from picking up lunch/dinner and back to the office.

we're so busy during the days in meetings that i need the nights to catch up on actual work. dunno how long i will be here tonight, but we're out of the office tomorrow so need to try and keep up.

[Hee_Haw]

I'm so impressed.

The tank is, I'd guess, 75% algae-free. Little spots here and there, but even the tracks he made are cleaned up, and the background glass is pretty clean! I will sponge the glass on Monday (day off) and vac the gravel. Is that too soon? (1 month established) I don't want to remove any beneficial bio-components that help keep the ammonia, nitrate, and pH levels "good". I'd better take aspects' advice and get a water test kit.

Great job little pleco! (Haven't come up with a name, but my daughter calls him Sucky the cleanerfish)

On the good news, wife wants another panda cory. Anytime the wife wants fish for the tank, I will oblige! But I think we need to make the tetra school bigger.

[Hee_Haw]

Hmmmm....

The neon tetra school, is not. Schooling, that is.

And we're down to 7 neons (from 12). Four of them died and were removed, one just disappeared, no body or even remains. And none of the fish seem capable of chomping it (the pleco arrived after the last fish went MIA)

Talked to my friend at the pet shop; he said that neons are kind of hit or miss; sometimes they will school nicely and sometimes they just do their own thing. He thought the danios (from Petco) would keep them schooled (because danios are hyper fish).

So, thinking of getting head-and-tail light tetras. Pretty good schoolers, not too expensive, and look pretty good. Just awaiting the okay to "invest" in a school of a dozen or so. We will see.

Tank is really clean! Good work little pleco.

[Hee_Haw]

New residents!

Got 3 Head-and-taillight tetras from the store with my "fish day" funds. Costs less than a Filet-O-Fish.

I don't think that was a good comparison.


So far so good. I'll snap a pic as soon as my (dead) phone is charged up.

[Act162this]

Originally Posted by Hee_Haw

New residents!

Got 3 Head-and-taillight tetras from the store with my "fish day" funds. Costs less than a Filet-O-Fish.

I don't think that was a good comparison.


So far so good. I'll snap a pic as soon as my (dead) phone is charged up.

heheh....

son doesn't like eating fish in front of our fish - they can watch us at the dinner table from their vantage point. we always get a little self-conscious eating fish for dinner because it looks like they're watching us (and possibly plotting).

[Hee_Haw]

The head and tail lights are integrating nicely with the neons, and they're all schooling! Not the fluid movement I had hoped for, but they putter around in formation which is nice.

And they're funny to watch when they eat too. I thought one of them were dying, it was just suspended, sideways to upside down, fins flipping...I thought it had shock or something. Then it took off and gobbled two big pieces of Tetra Min--it was positioning itself for a better angle! LOL

The three are doing great and I'm saving my change to buy three more next week. My relaxation solution without alcohol.


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[Hee_Haw]

Yesterday my wife and I went to the pet shop near my office while picking up our kids from summer camp. In addition to dog food, she picked up these pink tetras. I think they're painted glass fish, but they are pretty well done if they are! Not like the fluorescent painted gaudy fish, these look almost like aweoweo in coloration, or opakapaka.

Funny story of the day; she also bought 24 feeder shrimp; there was a display with head and tail lights, and rummy noses, in a lovely 5 gallon cube, with shrimps swimming about. The pet shop owner said no guarantee with our setup because of the Corys and the pleco, but at 8 for a dollar, she said "why not?"

It looked great as the shrimps made their way to the deep as I released them. But all the fish, neons, danios, loaches, all started chasing the shrimps around! LOL was hilarious!

Today I counted 7 shrimps. I guess our fishies had nice dinner last night.


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[Hee_Haw]

Ai-yaah.

We took a trip to the windward side and inexplicably ended up at the pet store we were just at; we planned to eat at the Chinese Restaurant next door for dinner...

My wife bought more shrimps; basically fresh water opae. The store owner gave her some "bonus" shrimps and encouraged her to raise and try breeding some.



Here is her shrimp "farm". A 2 gallon round glass vase now is the main tank, and we're getting ready to have some breeding trays or bowls if needed.

What are we getting ourselves into?


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[Hee_Haw]

This is awesome.

My false C.Julii catfish feeding next to one of the 12 opae shrimp that reside in the tank. Found out that most of the first two dozen shrimps were fine and living in and under the rocks in the tank. Only the tiniest ones were chomped.

Two shrimp from the second batch in the farm tank have eggs and were waiting for those to hatch. Pretty neat!


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[KenTwo]

Originally Posted by idiosyncratic

^I find it fascinating that there are others who are actually considering what I thought was one of my wacky ideas: a man made fishing pond. Mine will have tilapias, guppies, and whatever else that can coexist with them... comets seem to be one since I have one swimming with my tilapias in my aquaponic system.

I may have to consider other species of fish if I'm to move to the mainland someday since tilapias can't survive winter temperatures.

FREE: I have a 50 gal tank that has a leak, I'm sure it's fixable if someone has the time to reseal the edges. The leak is at a corner up about 2/3rds of the way up. I actually have put water in it and it still holds, it's just when I fill it up to the top is where you'll see it leak. Glass is still good. If anyone is interested, let me know. I'll post this in the classifieds when I have the time later. I'm in Kalihi.

I always wanted a long trough like pond infront of my house with a walkway bridge that went over it to the front door.

Anyway, my aunty had a huge pond with a gazebo infront of her house. She lived on the big island so it was easier with the lava rocks and natural spring water.

[Hee_Haw]

Originally Posted by KenTwo

I always wanted a long trough like pond infront of my house with a walkway bridge that went over it to the front door.

Anyway, my aunty had a huge pond with a gazebo infront of her house. She lived on the big island so it was easier with the lava rocks and natural spring water.

Awesome! I'd like to make a small pond here at our home, and our landlord is pretty good with it, but my wife knows I'd have a hard time with even a small (like 2 x 4 feet, 1 foot deep) above-ground pond. The regular maintenance part (especially since it would not be filtered).

Plus over here has lots of toads; a friend made a decent sized pond (10' x 10', 2' deep, hand laid corner pavers forming a square form, and laid a vinyl liner, then filled with water and finished with flat rocks as a border.) for his water lilies. He only put medaka in the pond to control mosquitoes, not anything substantial like tilapia, koi, or cichlids to control tadpoles. Within 2 months the pond was inundated with (what looked like) zillions of tadpoles! He ended up draining it and putting the water lilies in smaller wet pots.

[Hee_Haw]

Tank population as of today:

7 Neon tetras
2 longfin danios; one gold and one zebra
3 Head-and-tail-light tetras
3 Dyed skirt tetras (pink)
2 Panda Corydoras
1 False C. julii Corydoras
1 Green Corydoras
2 Kuhli Loaches
1 plain plecostomus
1 Gold fantail guppy
20 shrimps (opae)

It's a pretty good mix now, tank is active yet somewhat peaceful, not much drama...the gold danio is a homo fish I think (keeps trying to mate with the zebra, but I think they are both males), Pleco makes a habit of trying to latch on to fish now (good for laughs), and my wife gave up on trying to raise shrimps so she dumped the whole farm into the tank now. Looks great but I think that there will be less shrimps as the fish all grow bigger (or if I get a cichlid to "clean them up"). The pet store guys tell me that kuhli loaches are like dojos, and they love shrimps.

[Hee_Haw]

Updated tank population;

6 Neon Tetras
6 Head and tail light tetras
3 Dyed skirt Tetras
2 danios (one zebra one gold)
1 plecostomus
2 Kuhli loaches
2 panda Corydoras
1 F. Julii Corydoras
1 Green Corydoras

Shrimps all but gone. Lots of them jumped out, most got eaten.

And I have my first algae bloom. Growing on all my plants. Going to trim some of the affected "leaves" and do a water change. I'll leave enough for the little pleco to have food.

[KenTwo]

Need some planted tank help.


Anubis and Amazon swords growing ok. Lots of it have some remnants of BBA. Overall, plants not growing how I'd like, but I have run out of CO2 and been lazy to fill it up for the past couple of months.

Deciding if I should just shut it down, get better soil, or lights...

[ArchangelX]

Well, this thread is fairly recent.