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December 20, 2005
Ahhh....
Nothing quite as pretty as a tank freshly scraped of algae. Things seem so much clearer and prettier now. =)
Think I overfed the fish the other day as both female koi swords are mucho fat!
If it weren't for the fact that she's not koi, my female black sword would probably be my fav in the tank. She's quite active and oblivious to the other fish in the tank, just goes about her business looking cute and doing whatever it is she does.
The clown plec's finally getting used to his environment I think as he's becoming more visible. Seems a bit territorial though. Either that or hungry.
Posted by ronin at 2:22 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2005
Ups and downs...
Man, those yoyo loaches really know how to clear up a snail infestation. Less than a week and I don't see any snails at all anymore in the 5.5 gal tank. What a relief! Normally I'm not much of a loach fan but they do kinda grow on you. The yoyos at least have a pretty cool body pattern, will try to take a pic or two in the future. They're also thin as a rail so they can squeeze their way just about anywhere. I had picked up another 3 of them from The Pet Shanty over the weekend and when I first introduced them to the tank, the sole remaining loach from the first purchase didn't seem to like the newcomers cause it would chase them around the tank. But things seem to have settled down now.
One of the new ones though seems to be three-quarters blind. It's missing the right eye completely and the left eye seems much smaller than normal. But I guess it still does ok if it already can reach its current size. Anyway, so far they seem to be pretty peaceful, not even harassing the pygmy cories which are at most half their size.
Very bizarre incident happened earlier this evening as I was feeding this tank. One of the ottos completely flipped out and shot all around the tank before apparently launching itself out of it completely and falling behind the bookshelf that the tank sits on top of. I saw it while it was zooming around in the tank but didn't see it fly out of the tank. Only reason I knew was cause I heard it hit the wall and then thumping against the bookshelf as it was flipping about. Was a pain in the ass to try to rescue it though as I had to pull the fully loaded bookshelf away from the wall and then the neighboring couch as well. Unfortunately it wasn't until after I picked it up and dropped it back into the tank did I see the full extent of its injuries. Had blood on its head and probably a broken back cause about two thirds down its body it was all torn up and from that point down to its tail was pretty much crooked. It definitely looked fractured and there was a chunk taken out of its side. Probably got injured while I was moving the bookshelf to try to find it. =( Anyway, I doubt it'll live for much longer but I took him out of the 5.5 gal tank once I saw one of the loaches picking at the open wound and put him in the quarantine tank along with the male koi sword. Don't really want to toss it while it's still clinging to life although it may be the most humane thing to do. =( Argh.
Posted by ronin at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2005
What the?
While cleaning out my spare 3 gal tank to put it back into use as a quarantine tank for my new male koi swordtail who seems to have either ich or a bacteria infection, one of the side walls cracked! Pretty straight crack running from the top edge halfway down the side. Crap! I could still use it as a quarantine tank I guess although it's gone from a 3 gal to a not quite 1.5 gal. Grrr.... Oh well, gives me an excuse to go buy one of those nice seamless glass tanks. =)
Posted by ronin at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)
December 8, 2005
Killer filter...
Damn! Last night I had added 2 yoyo loaches, 1 true Siamese algae eater and a very young longfin Ancistrus to the 5.5 gal tank and by the time I came back home tonight my Stingray filter had claimed the lives of one of the loaches, the algae eater, and one of the existing pygmy cories! @#$)!#@"*)@$#!!!!! Basically they got caught between the filter and the glass and then got themselves stuck halfway into one of the filter intakes. The second yoyo loach was in the same situation as well but he was the only one to survive. I'm going to have to switch to a small hanging filter to stop this madness. Probably for the better since it's a pain to have to take the entire filter out of the tank periodically to give it a thorough cleaning. Urggh!!!
And the Ancistrus died as well for unknown reasons. No idea what happened there. =(
Posted by ronin at 5:55 PM | Comments (0)
December 4, 2005
Touched by Death...
Man, leave the apartment for one day and the fish start falling like flies. Came back in the evening to one dead black swordtail in my 12 gal, one dead female guppy in my 6 gal, and one dead chocolate gourami in my 5.5 gal. Damn.
The black sword had what I thought was a bout of ich earlier in the week so I had been dosing the tank with ich medicine and Melafix. The ich seemed to have gone away but I noticed that she had her fins clamped most of the time for unseeable reasons. Was going to move her and the newer koi female out to my old 3 gal which I pressed into duty as a quarantine tank but she died before I could do that. =( So I just moved the new koi female who had just been moping about the tank lately. Not eating, dorsal fin usually clamped, hiding in the back. Not sure if she's sick or just being picked on by the old koi female. Hopefully she'll start eating while under quarantine. Right now I just have it dosed with Melafix, Pimafix and Maracin Plus.
The female guppy was one I had brought over from my mother's place last weekend and she had been in bad shape then so it wasn't a surprise really. Actually she probably died a few days earlier, I just didn't see her remains until now. She had lived a pretty full life I think, gave birth a few times, her offspring was probably in the same tank when she died.
The chocolate gourami was a surprise. When I had seen him at The Fish Tank, he was one of only a few left and his color was a bit faded but a few hours in my 5.5 gal and he had regained his color and was seemingly swimming around without a problem and wasn't being harrassed by any of the existing gouramis. I hadn't seen him eat yet though but I doubt he died from starvation. So not sure what happened with him. Guess water conditions still wasn't good enough. These chocolate gouramis are sure turning out to be pretty picky.
Posted by ronin at 4:17 PM | Comments (0)
December 2, 2005
Big changes ahead...
Well, probably not so big. But I gotta clean the hell out of this tank. Too much algae and waaay too many snails. Needs a good scrubbing.
On the other hand, I picked up a cheap chocolate gourami from a relatively new fish store here in northern NJ called The Fish Tank. Surprisingly, he's still alive in this tank and seems to be doing ok. Haven't seen him eat yet though...
On a side note, The Fish Tank is the first store I've found in the area that has seamless, curved glass tanks larger than 3 gals available! I'm so excited! Been looking for these for quite awhile. Expensive as hell though. But after we move I'm probably going to get rid of all my current tanks, pick up a big 46 or 55 gal and then one of these small 8 or 11 gal tanks. Gonna be great! =)
Posted by ronin at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
Two replacements...
Somehow lost 2 of the 3 peppered cories this past week so picked up 2 more (of the long-finned variety) at AF the other day. They're really young and small but really damn cute. Hope they last though.
Two of my 4 swords don't seem to be very happy though. The new koi is just drifting about with clamped fins usually and one of the blacks is still pretty active but also has clamped fins. I may separate the 2 out into a quarantine tank for awhile to see what happens. They may be harrassed a bit much by my old koi female and the 2 rams.
Posted by ronin at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)