Goldfish

The darling goldfish trio keeping the cycle in the 150 are now parked in a ten-gallon bare aquarium until I work something out for them. I am fond of them and they are very attractive specimens, but I just don't have a good place for them.

I could bring them to work with the mollies, but that is not a satisfactory arrangement - the tank at work is set up specifically for mollies, with some salt, which is fine for the goldfish, but it is too warm (80F) and has quite a lot of tender plants, which would be destroyed by the goldfish, most likely. The goldfish would also eat the molly babies that we have so far. That's not a huge issue, but the patients at work like seeing the babies in the tank, and it adds something to the mood of the tank to have little baby fish tooling around. I've become a snob, and though many people mix goldfish with other tropical species often enough without any apparent trouble, I think a goldfish tank ought to have sand, no live plants (except perhaps some hardy and thick-leaved Anubias), and be cool and unheated. The decor is lmited only by imagination and safety for the fish. You can get quite fun with it when it comes to goldfish, at least for me.

My coworker is interested in setting up a tank and it could be that she will get herself something set up soon, in which case she can start with these three goldfish. I recommended at least a 29-gal, which is going to seem big for these small fish, but they should grow, and she can get her cycle going, with assistance from some of the biobugs from one of my tank filters. She may be able to add a few more small fantails in the future, but goldfish need a lot of gallons per fish.

That said, I am going to do my best to keep my opinions to myself and let her do what she wants - if she decides to throw some tetras in there with them, so be it, and it could work out just fine - it is only for me, who fusses over every detail and agonizes over every tankmate, that things go south and fish die. People who have a more relaxed approach to life, or at least to aquariums, often have perfectly wonderful setups that go strong for years and years, even though they don't have experience with fishkeeping.

Anyway, the goldfish are a bit confused about the transfer, but they are doing fine so far. I have to say they made the perfect resident for the 150 all these months, almost four, while I have gotten my ducks in a row and waited for the funds to stock it like I wanted. They have held the cycle nicely and been charming little outgoing fellows.

The very best thing about them is that in this very large tank with rocks and hiding places they were absolutely no trouble to catch and remove once the time came. If I had tried using mollies or something else they'd have dashed for cover the second the net hit the water, but these guys just toddled right over to investigate - I had all three out and in a bucket in under 30 seconds. I was almost embarrassed for them, since even the simplest, smallest, most biologically primitive fish would hide from a "predator" like a net, but these goldfish, I suppose due to having been tank bred and raised by humans for a couple of centuries, no longer fear the net at all. Oh well - I am glad I chose to use them to keep the cycle in this tank. It worked out quite well indeed. Maybe someday I will convert the 150 over to a large goldfish tank and raise some quality supersized specimens of my own. They are enjoyable and easy to manage.

Mmmmmm... Tangy!

Everyone is settling in very, very nicely. The Moba fry arrived healthy and with great color already, and the leleupi are a lovely shade of yellow. I have a pic but it is a horrible one. It shows the color on the Moba, and how nice and fat they are, but it is blurry, with reflections and noise. However, the room is dim, even during broad daylight, the tank is dim, and I'm having a bit of trouble getting a good shot of the tank. I think I need to get a very strong light and put it on the tank divider, facing down, and brightly illuminate the tank for photos. The frontosa prefer a dim tank, since their wild-caught parents resided in deep, dim waters of the lake, and it is preferable to keep a dim tank for them, but for photos I'd like to show them off.

All fish are eating well and come out when I approach the tank, which is good. Usually these fish will be skittish and hide, which may happen later, but for now they know I might put food in the tank for them. The additions have even brought out the Altolamprologus, which are flaring and showing good color in response to the competition. So far no true aggression, but mild posturing as everyone stakes out their territory. I am quite pleased.

I am not very happy with the rockwork, however. There is a lot of it, which is good for all of these fish, but especially for the leleupi and the Altolamps, since they spend a lot of time in the rocks. Visually, however, it is messy and contrived looking to me, and in my tanks I strive for a balance of visual appeal and appropriateness for the fish.

In this pic you can see a large mostly black rock, with a small black rock to the right of it, and those are the rocks I want to get more of, and remove a lot of the small, flat river rocks. They are pretty and would be great for any tank, but I don't like how messy it looks in this tank to have a million flat rocks the size of the palm of your hand. Visually distracting and cluttered. I know I can get more of the black rocks from the local landscape supply, where I got these in the photo, and I want to get a half dozen that are watermelon sized, at least. Large rocks. This will greatly reduce the caves available to the small fish, however. I can keep some of the smaller rocks and build caves behind the larger rocks, and, as usual, try to achieve balance of what I want to see in the tank versus what the fish need.

That is for sometime in the future. For now, I'm going to leave things alone and let all members settle in. I'm very glad to have the frontosa, finally, and my large Tanganyikan community is ready to go. This has been a setup I've always wanted to have, and I'm thrilled to finally be getting there. I am NOT known to be a patient person, especially when it comes to my aquariums, so for me to wait all this time, cooling my heels, is unprecedented, and I'm quite proud of myself!

Cyphotilapia frontosa "Moba"

Well, kids, it is happening, finally - I'm getting my frontosa today. I found a source not too terribly far from me and will receive 10 Moba fry, plus 5 N. lelelupi.

I had decided not to get leleupi, one of my absolutely favorite Tanganyikan cichlids, since they most likely will be meals for the frontosa a year or two down the road, but it could be a while before that happens, and I will enjoy them in the meantime. There is a whole lot of room in this tank for the time being.

I will figure out something to do with the goldfish, though I wish I had a little tank for them, too. I have grown quite fond of the three of them - they are happy-go-lucky little bobbling things and I will miss them, though they sure don't belong in the 150, especially now.

I will post some pictures when I get them settled.





....yay.....

Angels in the River "Sticks"

I redid the angel tank, the 37-gallon, and removed all remnants of how it was when goldfish were in residence. That means no more bubble wand (!!), no more plastic plants, no more solid glass chunks, etc. I harvested some willow and oak branches and created an environment that seems to have made the fish more comfortable. This is more like the area where they came from in the Rio Negro, with floating plants, tall weeds and branches. It has certainly encouraged them to come out more and they appear more relaxed, less spooked and likely to hide. The pic is from my phone, so my apologies for the quality of the shot, but you get the idea.

The hornwort is melting since I reduced the lighting, so that will soon be gone, but the anacharis seems okay. I might get some more Anubias sp. to put in there as well, since I'm not exactly sticking to the biotope here, though I am making an effort.

Altolamprologus Time

Back again, and the Altolamps have established residence. It will be another month or so before I will have any frontosa, so last month I decided to take advantage of some very good prices at the LFS on some A. compressiceps and a trio of what are alleged to be A. calvus "inkfin." I am not sure about the compressiceps, though they ought to be gold heads, but at the small size it is very difficult to tell what you have when it comes to comps. I got three that I thought were small at 2", but then I got another pair of comps that are much smaller, and wonder if it was such a good idea. The three larger ones are out in the open, waiting for food, but the smaller ones hide and are chased into rock piles. I have one very nice calvus that stays out with the comps, so it would appear that I have 3 2" comps and one 1" calvus, though there are two more calvus in the rocks and two more comps in the rocks as well.

I simply adore these fish. They have to be, without question, my favorite genus of aquarium fish. I used to be partial to calvus, but the comps have their place in my heart as well. There is something bulldog-ish and pugnacious about their jaw and head shape that I think is great, and I could watch them endlessly.

My rationale was that if I had to wait so many months for the frontosa, which are almost guaranteed to be about 1.5-2" in size themselves when I get them, then that would give me time to grow out some Altolamps if I found some at a good price, which I did. Finding 3"+ adults is harder, and the price is high for them, typically, due to what has been a lot of food and care put into getting them to that size. I probably don't need to point out that this genus is veeeerrrry slow growing. Very. Startlingly. A fish a year old looks like fry of other types of fish. Therefore, I risk losing these fish if the frontosa grow up quickly and decide to make lunch out of the altolamps. I hope the rockwork I have in place is adequate.

Now, if you notice from prior posts, I have not mentioned the goldfish. I had three rather sizable fantail fellows, great chaps, full of energy and good humor, quite attractive, in fact, and three of the same sort but smaller versions. I had to remove the three larger ones, because they seemed quite interested in the comps and calvus, and I was worried they'd try to eat them. The goofy goldfish do not take the cues of these pint-sized cichlids (okay, fingernail sized....) and I felt they were being stressed. Plus, goldfish have completely wrong energy for this tank, but I kept them in place to feed bacteria until I got my fronts. I sold them back to the store, reluctantly, because I found them so attractive, but had nowhere for them to go. :(

Now I have the three small goldfish still in residence, but they do not belong there, sadly. I don't know if they are contributing the wrong thing to the tank, with their filthy goldfish-ness. I don't wish to detract from their appeal, because they are very nice specimens and have beautiful finnage and lively behavior, but they JUST DON'T GO with Altolamprologus. I am sure I'd be hauled away in chains if any cichlid snob happened by the house - you just don't do this kind of thing! However, for the time being I'm keeping them together, as incongruous as it appears. I don't think these three goldies provide the same bioload as 10 1-2" frontosa fry, but it sure helps.

I have tried to get some pictures of the new additions, but they dart into the rocks when I bring out the camera. I need to get them used to it. Another issue is that the tank is very dim, by design. Well, it is not so dim as to not be viewable, but it is dim for taking pictures. The ideal frontosa tank, to me, is dimmer than your average aquarium. What I will need to do is mount some sort of lamp inside on the glass divider to put extra light when I want to take photos. This will spook the fish, though....

As for lighting, there have been changes, and I've got mixed feelings. I had amazingly simple puck lighting in the hood, which consisted of a round "puck" comprised of 50-60 LED bulbs, connected with a detachable 12" cord, which was in turn connected to another puck, etc. I had about 6 of them dotted around the inside of the hood. They provided almost a spot-lit effect, pretty dim, but nifty looking. You could unscrew and remove any individual puck without putting out the rest of the string.

Well, it was designed for under-cabinet use in the kitchen, and I suppose the humidity of an aquarium hood was too much. One by one each puck started going out. There was no scorched cord, no short that I could see, nothing visibly amiss, but obviously this was not going to work. I decided to rethink the prospect. I once again went online and began shopping for LED fixtures meant for the aquarium. Sticker shock! Really? Must I pay such prices for a light fixture? I suppose at some point they will become more popular and the price will go down, but honestly, I can't justify it. I'd sooner take one of my old fluoro fixtures and stick it up there.

Fortunately, or not, the Christmas Season is upon us, being a couple of days past Halloween at the time I was looking into things. The other fortunate thing, or not, is that LED Christmas lights are wildly popular now, and you are almost criminal for buying the regular old-fashioned kind these days. LED = Green, and, like Kermit says, it is not easy being green. Expensive, really. However, a string or two of LED lights, simple round balls, was not too much for me compared to the cost of a full LED aquarium fixture. For stringing around my tree and possibly (or not) throwing out with the tree, it is highway robbery. I digress.....

I spotted, at a very reasonable price, a ROPE LIGHT that had white LED bulbs inside. I have a rope light already, purchased several years ago with the intent of lively holiday decoration, but never used it. I plugged it in and it looks downright yellow for the aquarium application. The box of Christmas lights, all kinds of them, specify whether they are "warm white" or "bright white," so I chose bright, and installed the rope inside my hood. It came with the clips that hold the rope, so I had everything I needed. The light is perfect, though a bit on the dim side. How about two? Okay, better, but still...... I wound up with one of those net lights that you plop upon your unsuspecting azalea or boxwood, making your neighbors think (lol) that you individually strung your bushes with lights. I stapled one of those (LED, bright white) up inside the hood, and now we are, as they say, cooking with gas.

These lights, rope and net, all promise indoor as well as outdoor applications, meaning they ought to be able to handle some humidity, nay, pounds of snow and subsequent melt, or rainstorms, so they ought to work inside my hood, right? Let's hope. I am certain that they will last a few months, at least until the Christmas aisles are all vanished from the stores and the rain boots and fertilizer is on sale at Target, and then they'll give out. We shall see. I am determined not to pay several hundred dollars for an LED fixture for this aquarium, however.

Waiting for the Money Train

Who isn't, right? Well, the tank is completely 100% ready to be stocked with frontosa, and it has been for a couple of weeks now. One day all parameters just magically slid right into place, and we are set. The pH is perfect (8.1) and I've got a hint of nitrate and zero ammonia and nitrite. Hardness is up there where I want it, and I am very pleased with the buffering properties of aragonite sand, and whatever calciferous rocks I have in there (not many - going for visual appeal and most calciferous rocks are too coarse and/or geometric for my taste).

I have now solved the problem of my background, and it worked out quite well in the end. One thing keeping me from taking the plunge (other than having enough money gathered together) and getting my Africans is that every time I walked by the tank I was bothered by the reflection of white sand on the back glass. You will recall that I simply had the plastic paper type of black background, taped to the back outside of the tank.

I kept kicking myself for not handling the background problem when the tank was empty, which is the rational and sensible time to do it. The idea of making a custom 3D background, all the rage on the aquarium forums, just gave me a headache to think about, and besides that I would always know it was not really rock, but faux rock. That, over time, would begin to bother me for sure.

I had the idea I was going to get sheets of Plexiglas and smear silicone on them, and then sprinkle black sand onto the silicone, and create a matte background that way. This could simply be cured and slipped into the tank as-is, without draining the tank and starting things all over.

I went to the hardware store and was alarmed at the cost of the Plexiglas. I saw next to the Plexiglas was some plastic board, which is hollow and made of styrene, I think. Very light and can be cut to fit with a hobby knife. I was pondering the idea of this material and its safety in an aquarium when the concept of slate crept back into my mind.

I had been to the landscape supply yard several times this summer and did not find any flat rock that was thin enough (I thought) for this application. After debating about my silicone and sand concept for a while I abandoned this and decided to head back over there and go ahead and get some slate - I knew I could get pieces 24" x 12", and that meant I needed 4 pieces, leaving room for the outflow box (this hides my intakes) and giving me a couple of extra inches that was not critical. I could place them along the back of the tank without having to drain the tank and starting over. They could be propped along the back and give a sheer solid wall effect that would not be completely natural looking, since the slate pieces are rectangles and very obviously cut by hand, but I thought they would blend in and be unobtrusive. They would be made of actual rock, and I preferred this.

I went to the landscape supply and picked out 4 slabs, and brought them home. They were very cheap. I scrubbed and rinsed, scrubbed and rinsed for a while and then happily began to install them.

Whoops! I know my tank is 24" tall and because of the large canopy I did not have to worry about the slate sticking up out of the water just a bit, right? Wrong! I forgot about the thick glass center brace that covers about the middle third of the tank. This means the slate was too tall, except on each far side. Ugh. You can't imagine my frustration. I just wanted a simple fix and plopping these straight pieces in side by side was going to be perfect. Now what? I hauled them out and decided I'd use a small hand held sledge type hammer (no shortage of hammers around here, of all shapes and sizes) and chip off the tops of these pieces. I thought about using a saw with a diamond blade, but that would be a delay, and I am not having delays once I get something started!

Also, I thought a jagged edge on the top would be a nice effect if it would be visible. I started by placing one of the slabs (1" thick) on the bottom step of the porch and stood on it, then leaned over and began to strike the top edge with my hammer. Nothing. Harder and harder I struck, getting out not a small amount of frustration on this stone. Nothing. The pieces were too thick. I tried to find the heavy chisel (it is actually a splitting maul but has worked well for me on stone in the past) and called my husband in desperation in case he knew where it was. To his credit, he did not even ask me why I wanted it! He could hear the stress in my voice and decided to leave the subject be for the time being. He gave me some clues and I hunted it down. This produced no results, either.

Well, the last strike of my hammer did not chip off anything from the top, but the entire slab broke in half on the diagonal! This was not a good thing. I needed 4 pieces, and now I was down to 2. I can't stack a triangular piece with the large side on top to match up with the opposite piece, if you see what I mean, so I was quite bummed.

Well, previously I had attempted to split blue stone slabs with a chisel, and though it worked to some extent, the pieces never split perfectly in half due to the fissures and other defects in the stone, and I gave up on that type of stone. I decided I'd give this a try on the slate. Well, let me tell you, slate splits beautifully! I had a 24" x 12" x 1" slab and next thing you know I had TWO 24" x 12" x 0.5" slabs! It is a lot of fun if you are into that type of thing. I don't know why, but it is very satisfying.

Anyway, I split the remaining three slabs and I wound up with more slate than I needed, and thinner pieces, which was better. The other good thing is that once they were split to half-inch thickness I could chip off the tops just fine, and I was able to line them up across the back of the tank without any difficulty. Whew!! Sometimes I get lucky, let me tell you.

You can see in the pic above (still home for the goldfish, which are going to go to a tank in my office at work when I get my frontosa) the finished product, with the slate and the jagged edges on top. The far right piece is one that broke accidentally on the diagonal, but I don't mind it and it is where I will suction my powerhead that is to go on that side of the tank. I am very happy with how this turned out, and am also happy that I have been able to wait an entire month to allow the tank to settle in somewhat. Another month would not hurt, and with my schedule as it is right now it may, in fact, be another month before I exchange goldfish for frontosa, as well as a trio or two of compressiceps, I think.

Please do not forget to admire how I have painstakingly managed to hide equipment. The outflow box on the far left that houses my intakes and heater is completely hidden in shadow, and the outflow pipes are next to it, but you can't see those, either, due to careful placement of my puck lights. This is a huge accomplishment for someone who really hates to see any equipment at all, not to mention this being a bare tank without decor to hide things like I have always done in the past with ease. Driftwood and plants have always been key players, but I don't have those in this tank, so hiding equipment has been on my mind a lot in the planning of this tank. It still looks bare and unfinished, but I can picture the blue and black frontosa gliding about, and it is going to look great someday!

Please answer in the form of a question.....

Still waiting. This is actually not so bad - the fish are happy and cavorting around, and I don't have to do hardly anything. No wringing of hands, no anxious examinations of potential signs of illness, nobody off their feed, no algae, no cloudy water, just status quo. When the Africans come in it will be a different story, and I will be Nervous Nellie once again, but for now we just test the water and wait.

My husband had a suggestion, and it really demonstrated how much he has learned about a hobby in which he takes ZERO interest, and often seems to baffle him. He wants me to put a rock or two in the 150 from another tank, or run one of my many duplicate filters on the 150 for a little bit and try to jump-start the bacterial colonies. What brilliance! I have been avoiding doing this very thing (I have not cycled a tank the old-fashioned way in YEARS!) but I was actually wanting to see how it went, rocking it old school, so to speak. I just think it shows that some of this stuff is really sinking in with Rick, and I was very impressed that he came up with this (so was he).

Anyway, I decided to humor him and I put in two smallish rocks from the 40-gallon leopoldi tank and we will continue to test the water, and Rick can see for sure what affect this will have. I was a bit leery about moving these rocks, since this tank has quite a few Malaysian Trumpet Snails that I don't want in the 150, but I scraped everything off the rocks that I could see. Likely as not the 150 will become infested with MTS anyway - such is life with this particular snail species. I don't have any other large rocks that I am willing to move that might have less potential for transporting vermin. I mean snails.....

I could move the large glass chunks from the 37-gallon, but they do not have very much surface area in spite of their size, being completely nonporous and smooth, and also the leopoldi pair in that tank has just now started coming out into the open since being moved in there a few weeks ago, and if I go rummaging around and removing structures they will take to hiding again, and I hate to stress them. Wild caught fish have to be handled with kid gloves sometimes. I sincerely doubt I will get a spawn from them, but I needed to thin out the group in the 40-gallon and I have become so attached to these fish that I'm content to keep them in their own tank (I am positive it is a male and female, with one male and two females in the 40-gallon, plus the domestic of unknown sex).

So, we'll see what happens with the small rocks, and maybe I will move one of the extra canister filters from the 40-gallon to the 150 for a week or so and see what it does to the nitrite value, mainly so Rick can see that he was right, and validate this little chemistry/biology lesson. I think every science class in middle school ought to cycle a fish tank. Things like temperature and pH will influence the progress of the cycle, and you can get as geeky as you like with it depending on the age group. It would also drastically limit the Failed Fishkeepers of the Future. This group is vast, an epidemic, really, and though a reduction in membership would mean far, far fewer cheap tanks at yard sales and on Craig's List, more people would find success and we could raise the geek quotient. I'm just sayin.

I have not mentioned Otis the puffer in a while, but he's The. Best. Fish. Ever. He's fat and a good solid 2", probably his full size. He enjoys his brackish tank that is open on all sides to the room, and is wickedly overfiltered with an AquaClear 70. Yes, I said 70. As mentioned long ago I had great plans to transition Otis to a 20-tall setup, which is a huge space for a 2" fish, but after having him for at least 18 months now there is no question that more water is better for puffers. He is a voracious eater, and even has nipped me when he's hungry and I reach in to do maintenance. He is always hungry, by the way. He has nice bright blue eyes and an almost fluorescent green pattern to his Figure-8, so I know he's healthy. His tooth plates seem well maintained, with about 90% of his diet being snails, which I cultivate avidly. Ramshorn snails, specifically. Woefully, MTS are much too hard for him to manage, but if he could eat them I'd have plenty.

I have coral rock in the tank with a bit of java moss that is miserable, and one remaining sprig of java fern that is perhaps even more miserable than the moss. I don't know why I can't grow brackish-friendly plants in this tank, but I have a horrible time. The tank is lit by a 13w CF bulb, plus overhead fluoro lighting sometimes during the day, the temperature is good, etc., so I'm not sure of the problem, but I don't sweat it too much. The tank looks like a SW setup with the coral anyway, so plants don't look particularly correct, though the java fern has a marine algae-like appearance that works. I have made arches and caves in the middle, so he goes through them to get from one side to the other. This gives him something to do. I think it would be good to build up the central structure a bit higher for more architectural interest for him. As long as I rearrange the furniture from time to time he is kept content. I am enjoying this fish immensely, in case you can't tell! I worried about getting him at first, since I'd never kept brackish and I'd never kept a species with such particular needs before, but it is working out okay.

Jeopardy Music = Waiting

Nothing new to report - the tank is experiencing a nice nitrite spike, and in the presence of nitrate that means we won't have much of a wait. The goldfish are happy and look healthier than ever, with careful PWCs and a LOT of water for them.

Many, many people disagree with using fish to cycle a tank, and woe unto you if you dare discuss doing this on an aquarium forum!! (Go ahead.... I dare you! :)).

There are many species of fish that cannot tolerate this process, but there are several that do. I have used ammonia to cycle a tank, the rotting shrimp method, fish food with no fish method, etc., and in a small tank frankly I would not use fish to cycle it unless they were extremely small ones (like Endler's or very small guppies) - it is close quarters and the effects of ammonia and nitrate are quite stressful to the hardiest of species. I have enough tanks running that I could start a decent sized tank with filthy filter media from my other tanks, but I don't have enough to get a 150-gallon started, and I have found, in this particularly large tank, that hardy fish tolerate the cycle.

So we will sit back and wait. This last part of the cycle can linger on and on for weeks, so patience is tested at this stage. Patience is not one of my strongest traits (!!) but there is no way I am going to put an expensive Tanganyikan in this tank until the water is very stable. They are extremely sensitive. When I was keeping calvus (one of my favorite tanks setups) even though I took care to keep the water change water as close as humanly possible to the tank water, with once weekly changes on a strict schedule, the fish would lie down on their sides on the sand every time I changed the water. Obviously there was some parameter that did not match, and the slightest thing sent them into dramatic exclamations. This did not seem to have any long-term deleterious effect on the fish, but I always felt horrible. I did not have this happen with N. brichardi/pulcher or with N. leleupi.

At any rate, the goldfish are showing no fin damage, no change in activity (can't get a decent still shot of them ever) and are eating like pigs so I'll soldier on. They look pretty cool in this tank, and I try to imagine what it would look like if they were much larger in this same tank (it would look COOL) but that is a tank for another time. This one is slated for Africans, specifically deep water Lake Tanganyika Africans, so I look forward to the day in the coming weeks when I can proudly post pics of my shiny new black and white with blue striped baby frontosa. Or Kodak box yellow leleupi. Or golden-headed compressiceps... spotted calvus... Ahhhhhh.....

Goldfish? Dew Whut?

Here are some goldfish in the new setup until I decide what to do about the Africans. The pH is very nice and steady at 8.1, compared to 7.4 out of the tap. This is completely the result of the aragonite sand. I'm going to leave the goldies in residence for a couple of weeks and then order my frontosa.

I'm reading more and more about them and it seems that the best bet is to have no tankmates - they can be either nippy and damage the trailing fins, stressing the fronts, or they will be too small and become meals for the fronts.

I think I might try a colony of N. leleupi, some of my favorite Lake Tang species, and see how it goes, especially while the fronts are small.

Liz + Rocks = OCD

I redid the rocks, again. I think if I'm not soaked to the armpit and pruny then I just don't feel like it has been a good day.

I scared up a few much larger stones to complement my plethora of small ones. I spent several hours stacking, restacking, adjusting, adding, removing, and scratching my chin and squinting at the tank.

Now I am happier with how it looks, though a rock background would really make me happy. That, however, is for another day. I will let the tank run for a while, but possibly I'll add some black mollies to see how things go. I have cycled this large tank with fish before, since the ammonia and nitrite are so diluted that the fish do not seem to stress or suffer, it seems.

I do not want to spend $$$ to ship delicate species (seems like Lake Tang fish are much more sensitive than other cichlid species, and thereby are always more expensive) and have them all keel over after being added to the tank. I need to put some inexpensive fish in there to ease my mind that all is well. The problem is that I will then need to remove said "test" fish and that might be quite a trick. Maybe I'll use the goldfish in my 37g and be sure they do okay, and they are easy enough to net out as they come bobbling over to see what that net thing is all about. I'll sit tight for now.

Leopoldi Crammed into a Closet

Here is a pic of where the P. leopoldi now reside, though it is too small for them all and I'll need to split up the group in the near future. I like this tank, in spite of my previous comments about all my tanks being overplanted with no room for fish. This is a 40-gallon breeder and was the quarantine tank for these leopoldi when I got them.

Het rasboras and ember tetras are in residence as well as a balloon ram. I'm not proud to own such a fish (I'll admit I'm a snob and prefer my aquarium fish to be close to what is found in the wild - long-finned this, albino that do not appeal to me typically), but she was very pretty and I've never had luck keeping rams and hoped I could do it this time. I lost the male but she's been holding her own for quite a while now.

There is also one domestic silver/wild type in with the leopoldi and you can hardly tell him apart from them, except he has red eyes, leopoldi do not, and his nose has a bit of an upturn, whereas theirs is turned down a bit.

Apocalypse

The 150 is emptied and reconfigured. I had quite an adventure in the process. Netting out each species for relocation to various locales, arranging meetings with other hobbyists and even turning in unwanted individuals for credit at the LFS, all accomplished in a day. Then I had to deal with the play sand. I highly recommend regular play sand for most any tank - it is very fine and soft so appropriate for the delicate barbels of catfish.

Aside: This is a very important aspect to keeping cories, in particular, and one that is very often overlooked! If you have cory cats in a tank with gravel, you will likely find the cories have a shorter lifespan, unless you observe meticulous maintenance habits. These fish sift through sand in the wild and they will very much appreciate sand in their habitat. There are many aquarium sands that are sharp and can damage barbels, so choose carefully. Play sand is one that works very, very well.  *EDIT:  Be aware that this is my own personal opinion. I can't say, truly, what cories "like" best, but I prefer to use sand for them, and soft sand that is not sharp.*

Back to the story! Why, you ask, do I not simply keep the play sand for my Africans? Well, originally I had planned black sand substrate, so I intended to remove every speck of play sand. Somewhere along the line when I bailed on my background project and realized I would have a solid black background and dark rocks, I decided black sand would be overkill and white sand would be preferable. Since my rocks are river rocks and are not calciferous limestone (like I was planning at one time) I decided to use aragonite sand, which is a buffering substrate, and will help me maintain a pH closer to 8.

I recognize that the fish I will likely keep have been tank bred in the US and may never have seen water as alkaline as their wild cousins in Lake Tanganyika, but it is easy enough to use a buffering sand and give the alkalinity a boost. Couldn't hurt. I do not have plans to go to great efforts to buffer my water at this point. The other benefit is that the aragonite sand I purchased (CaribSea) is white white white, and offers a very nice contrast.

Ok. Here's how it went. The tank was emptied and cleaned out.

The filters were also cleaned down to new floss and completely scrubbed out to eradicate the MTS infestation, and replaced under the tank. Heavy job! On the left is the Rena Filstar XP4, and on the right is the Fluval FX5. On the far left is my CO2 tank and regulator, which is parked in storage there for now, as I won't be using it on this tank in the near future. I am keeping the pH monitor running, as that is handy.




















I used the overflow box from when the tank was drilled to hide my large and unsightly filter intakes. If you look closely in the center of this photo you can barely make out the horizontal slits cut into the overflow box. The vertical PVC pipe is the strainer for the drain in the bottom of the tank, which came in VERY handy during the emptying and cleaning of this tank. At the beginning of this blog you can see how this was configured, with a hose bib on the outside of the stand. I connect a garden hose to that and turn the hose valve to drain the tank out the door, and I used another garden hose connected to the outdoor faucet and washed out the tank, with the water going down the drain. Love that. The overflow box is not siliconed in place, but stands quite firmly in place with tiny gaps next to the glass to allow better water flow. I may wind up adding more slits to this box to increase flow to the intakes, but we will see how the filtration looks. I have quite a bit of flow in this tank and don't think the box gets in the way too much. It is very effective at hiding the intakes, and it blends right in with the black external background.

Here's where I started stacking rocks and adding sand.


The sand was just a bit problematic. I read up on it and decided not to rinse it first, since I wanted to keep all of the buffering properties. Everyone says how it "clears up in a few hours...." It didn't. I had to drain and refill and rinse the sand in the tank after all. This is not much of a problem, though, with my drain hose as described above.


Cloudy. Hmm. Better drain and fill one more time. This time I'll use the Python and fill it from the sink as well as use a garden hose from outside to make things move along more quickly. Oops.

Oh well - no worries! We have technology to suck water off the floor! *Ahem*

Anyway, I kept at it and finally it started clearing, and I started playing with rocks. I have to say I'm not entirely happy with these rocks, as they are too small and it makes the tank look cluttered in spite of the spare decor.
I redid it several times. And redid it several more times.... I had to stop because the wet arm and sopping shirt gets annoying after a while.

OH! I forgot about the lighting! I'm very pleased with that. I used "puck" lights from an under cabinet fixture. Each puck is daisy-chained together so you can add or remove a fixture as necessary. The fixture I have came with 4 pucks, each connected with a removable wire about 12" long. I installed them randomly in the hood. Each puck is about 3" in diameter and has I don't know how many individual LED lights.
Here is a shot of the lights. I have since taken out all but two of them (this tank needs to be relatively dim), though the fixtures are still there. The frame is screwed in and connected by the wires, but the actual light component can be unscrewed and removed, without the other pucks going out. Love this fixture, and it was under $20, unlike the LED fixtures made for aquariums ($$$$). I will install a small fan under the hood to reduce humidity that will no doubt damage this fixture.


















I finally got the water to clear up after 4 days. Again, I'm not entirely happy with this tank at this point. I wish I had a DIY internal background, either some sort of real rock veneer or a carved styrofoam background coated in concrete and painted to look like rock, but I did not have the energy to deal with the styrofoam method and I could not find thin rocks that would 1) not be too heavy, 2) not break the bank, and 3) not look contrived or too deliberate. I don't really like the rock decor but they are growing on me.

















I will put a trio of N. leleupi in there to start things off. Their bright yellow is going to show up very well in this tank, and they will love the rocks.

A word about the rationale behind how this tank is being 'scaped: C. frontosa are deep water Lake Tanganyikan fish and are accustomed to dim conditions. Again, I realize the fish I'll likely get have never seen the lake, and may have spent their entire fry-hood under fluoro lights, but I do think they will feel more comfortable in conditions closer to that of the lake. If you look on You Tube for Lake Tanganyika videos you will see what I mean. There are rocks and sand and that's pretty much it. Few plants, and certainly no driftwood and flower pots, lol.

I have kept aquariums for nearly 30 years now and as I've matured I've been leaning towards natural looking aquascapes, with lots of plants and wood and rocks and such, which is pretty, but it is one of the reasons I took down the 150 - I'm tired of the fussiness and overcrowded way I tend to keep aquariums: lots of lush plants layered together with artfully arranged driftwood and rocks, and hardly room for the fish. It is pretty but I yearn for a minimalist tank that is simple and clean. This will certainly be that! More later.

Switching Gears

I'm afraid it's time to take it down! The 150 planted tank is scheduled for a makeover. I really hate to do it but I have to admit I'm bored. The setup practically runs itself and all I do is feed and do water changes. The fish are healthy and they all get along great. I've built my stock up and it is a very agreeable community. To recap, the inhabitants include:

• 5 wild caught P. leopoldi angels (2 males, 3 females as far as I can tell)
• 1 wild-type domestic silver leftover from some I bred
• 1 festivus cichlid (plant eater to some degree!)
• School of loretto tetras that inhabit the upper strata
• School of cardinal tetras and rummynose tetras that inhabit the mid and lower regions
• School of C. trilineatus
• School of C. sterbai

I now plan to completely take this down to empty and start over with a Lake Tanganyikan cichlid setup. I have kept Tangs before (species tanks of N. brichardi and pulcher at separate times, A. calvus and N. leleupi) and have always loved them more than cichlids from the other lakes (which I have also kept!). Now that I have a large tank, I'm interested in, of course, C. frontosa. You could have predicted that, right?

The plan will be to remove everything from the current setup (always save your decor, even if you don't think you'll use it again - you likely will) and net out the darling fishies. I would love to sell them to a hobbyist but I don't want to ship them and if I don't hear anything from my ad on Craig's List and the Exotic Fish Forum (many members local to me) then I'll take them to my LFS for credit. This is the shop where I got the leopoldi in the first place, so I know he knows how to care for them properly, and will hopefully find a proper home for them.

These are not very commonly imported and I would love someone to have them that knew about them and could look after them properly. If they are to spawn (which would be a real boon since the babies would go for a great price with their heritage) then you'd need to get the pH down, way down, in the 5's, and that would likely do the trick, at least according to Heiko Bleher, who was the one to positively ID these fish for me when he happened upon pics of them on a forum. If they are kept in higher pH they won't spawn, but they school together and live quite well in a group. For anyone who knows angels this is pretty much impossible when you have a group of mixed sexes. It is really neat to be able to keep a graceful group of good-sized angels together.

Anyway, after the fish are out and the sand is mostly scooped out I can then take a hose and flush out the last of the playsand down the drain my husband most thoughtfully installed in the bottom of the tank, since it had a hole drilled there already. It has a spigot on the side of the tank stand and if you attach a hose to that and run it out the door, you can scrub and flush out the tank to your heart's delight and not have to do any siphoning. I don't want a single speck of white sand to remain. In my 37g goldfish tank I had the same idea but was not quite able to get every bit of white sand out, and even though it looked like I had, now that I have black sand in there the white flecks are everywhere.

Then, I want to tip the tank on its side on the stand with the back of the tank facing down, and the top of the tank facing the room. This way I can silicone large flat, thin rocks to the back of the tank. I have visited the local landscape supply and they have some very nice rocks used as a veneer for faux rock walls and for fireplaces and such, and though they are heavy they would be appropriate. They will also create very subtle cave structures for the Altolaprologus calvus (or compressiceps) that I plan to add.

Where things get creative and perhaps impractical is that I plan to reinstall one of the overflow boxes in a rear corner to hide the filter intakes, outflows and the heater. It is black acrylic and was in place when I bought the tank, since it was drilled for a sump. I took out the boxes and siliconed thick glass over the holes since I was not planning that type of filtration due to my plans for plants. Now I plan to reinstall one of the boxes after sawing slits or drilling holes into it at the location of the intakes. There are already slots in the top where the outflow would be. I'm not sure if this will work or if it will impede filtration too much. I have a Fluval FX5 and a Filstar XP4 for filtration. I can also install a powerhead at the opposite rear corner to improve flow if that is a concern.

This overflow box I plan to disguise by either spreading it with silicone and sprinkling black sand on it, or gluing flat rocks to it like the background (that sounds better). This really depends on what rocks I plan to go with and how smoothly that procedure goes. I have read so many articles and forum threads about DIY backgrounds that I'm exhausted with the possibilities. Many people create them using styrofoam, using knives or saws to carve rocky shapes into it, going over it with a heat gun to soften the edges, then coating it with pigmented concrete or the like, to have a lightweight and removable background. Truth be told, if I'm going to be laying tarps down, with dust and bits of stuff flying around the house, cutting, drilling, sawing and mixing concrete I'd at least like to have a new kitchen when I'm done!!

This type of project is definitely up my alley, I must say, but these days I just don't have the energy or time to do it right. I also very much prefer the idea of natural rock. I know this is a somewhat permanent addition to the back of the tank, but I am not concerned. I can razor the rocks off just like I razored the overflow boxes off, and even if I go back to a planted tank the rocks will certainly be appropriate there as well, or even if I kept oscars or goldfish, for that matter.

So, I will then have black sand and a rocky background, and hidden equipment (huge, huge issue for me when aquascaping!). Next I will need a few large rocks for decor for the open part of the tank. This tank is going to have a simple, spare look to it, however, so I don't need much. What I'd like to use is limestone, since it will buffer the water and perhaps obviate the need for additives to boost the alkalinity. The tap water is already moderately hard with a pH of 7.4, so it won't take much to get things up to 8, but that's where I'll need to be.

At the same landscape supply yard (Pete Rose's in Richmond - awesome place) I found some limestone rocks that would be perfect, and they also contain tiny fossils that would likely show up very well when wet. These rocks are variable in height and dimension, but look easily stackable. I want to be sure to get at least one relatively tall rock or rock stack, since in such a deep tank you need something to draw the eye up to the top of the tank. I don't need but a few of these rocks, then I'll be done.

We are heading up to the mountains of Virginia for a day hike on Sunday and I hope to collect some rocks there as well, so my final decision will depend on what I see up there. Mostly what you see there are round river rocks, which may or may not work for me, but I'll see what I can find.

Once the tank is up and running I will want to stock with about 8 frontosa (not sure which type) as well as calvus or compressiceps, depending on availability and variety. I much prefer inkfin calvus but they might be practically invisible in this dark tank, so I'm leaning towards some of the lighter morphs, or the compressiceps species. This is going to be costly! I might have to do it in phases, depending on available funds and what I can get for my current stock upon turning them in.

I will take pictures along the way and we will see how it goes!

Festi-Wha??? Or, The World's Worst Blogger Picks Up the Story

Well, back again for another update. The festivus in the 37-gallon DID spawn for me, and in a big way. There must have been 200 babies. Note in the photo the clamped fins and stress bars - the parenting thing really taxes the resources of these fish, apparently. They are very nervous, and prone to attack anything, including the Mag Float algae scraper, siphon hose, my hand, whatever. This is serious business.

The rummynose, which I have determined to be H. bleheri , were moved down to the 150 and are very, very happy there. They school with the cardinals and all is well. I very much like the visual interest their markings add to the tank, especially in contrast to the vivid deep colors of the cardinals. It has now been 3 months or so and I have not lost a single one of them, and have not lost any cardinals, either, which is unusual for me!


Back to the festivus. The babies grew, and the parents became more and more nervous as they spread out, in spite of the adults' efforts to keep them corralled. I don't know if I mentioned that also residing in the 37 is a Chaetostoma sp., whom I have named Chet, and I'm baffled as to why I purchased him! He's adorable, that's for sure, but it was an impulse buy, and anyone who has been in the hobby for any length of time knows that impulse buys are doomed to failure, in most cases. Chet would prefer cool waters with lots and lots of current, and though there is a lot of water movement in this tank the temperature is a bit high. However, I needed it so for the babies, which will grow faster and reach sale size more quickly.

Things were rolling along like this for a good while until the adult festivus, whom I dubbed "The Thugs" (I am not fond of these fish, having a thick, pugnacious appearance and aggressive personalities) spawned again. This caused confusion, and they started eating some of their first spawn in response to the arrival of their new batch of wigglers. No biggie, I thought, since there were WAY too many babies to grow out in this tank anyway, and I wanted to see what would happen. I did not have another tank to move the babies into, and no time to raise fry myself - if I was going to keep a breeding pair I require them to raise the babies, like the angels, Agnes & Frank, did so well.

Well, they ate the second spawn, and over time, perhaps several weeks, I began to lose more and more fry from the first spawn. At this point I was rather disgusted. Not only with these fish, which I did not particularly like (I DO, however, very much like the festivus that remains in the 150 with the wild angels, as I believe that fish is a different species and has a lovely, graceful appearance and a peaceful personality), but also with the tank itself, which had become overrun with algae of every description, and finally cyanobacteria. I have to blame the 24/7 lighting and the excessive waste in the tank due to the feeding of so many fry. You wind up putting a lot more food in the tank so all the babies will get access to it, and even with frequent PWCs you could tell there were way too many nutrients. I got some anacharis (not one of my favorite plants but in the right conditions grows like a weed and sucks up a ton of nutrients from the water column) to hopefully help with the algae and provide cover for the fry. This was left floating, and worked pretty well, thriving on the lighting and the abundant nutrients.

Also, pretty much the minute The Thugs spawned the first time they terrorized Chet, driving him into his cave network just about 100% of the time. I dropped food back there and he was eating, and after about a week of debating what other tank he could go in, I decided to just leave him be and see how he fared, and keep him there until I decided what to do. He adapted well and seemed to do fine. He was not a good choice for these cichlids, though I thought he'd make a perfectly fine tankmate for them.

Next, the cyanobacteria began taking over, and the tank looked a wreck. It was getting too hard to keep things under control. I made a big decision: I would take The Thugs in to the LFS for cash or credit, raise whatever babies were left, and then turn the tank into a goldfish tank. Raising fry seems profitable to me, as I did get good money for the large spawn of the angelfish Agnes & Frank, but I think it is a wash in the end after you consider the cost of food and increased PWCs. It's fun, but I don't really have the time, and I basically need my tanks to run themselves.

I thought I'd try to leave the anacharis and anubias in the tank (goldfish are notorious plant eaters but may leave these species alone), remove the driftwood, which was decaying and contributing in a big way to the excess DOCs in this tank, and switch to black sand. There is a black background, and I thought this would be a nice contrast to whatever goldfish I wind up getting. I can then lower the tank temperature to better suit Chet, and hopefully he can dwell with a couple three fancy goldfish in peace.

I caught The Thugs without difficulty and took them in. I am fortunate to have three LFS that will take my fish just about anytime, so that was done, and I was glad to be shed of these two. Sometimes certain fish just don't make me happy, and these two were those fish. I returned to the tank to assess how many babies were left, and was surprised to see I had only three left! Oh well. What now. Do I keep this tank going and raise the three? Get rid of them (they are about 5 mm long), OR...... put them in the 40-gallon angel tank?

Now, about that tank. I am sad to say that I lost Frank last week, apparently suffering from dropsy or something similar. The conditions in this tank are pristine, with very heavy plantings and a rigorous maintenance schedule, but for whatever reason he got sick and died. I could have removed him to a hospital tank and medicated him, but I have not had success in the past doing this, and you have to consider the stress of moving him combined with the cost of medications and time and energy, and..... oh well. He gave me one fabulous spawn with Agnes and that was a great experience. I still have one of their progeny in the 150 with the angels, and he is now about as big as the leopoldi. He's a very handsome fish and I'm proud of him.

Anyway, I thought I'd take Agnes in as well and completely restock the 40, but then I decided that she's such a nice fish (very attractive, IMO) that I'd just get her some schooling fish, maybe some type of catfish, and create a mixed community around her. The plants are doing very well in this tank and I hated to redo anything. SO, to make a long story longer, I decided to put the three festivus babies in with Agnes and hope for the best. The plants are so dense that I am hoping at least one will survive, and maybe I can keep one in there. This is depending on the plant-eating tendency of the fish, however. In the 150 the festivus has caused a great deal of damage to the "red rubin" sword plant that is a centerpiece of the tank, and there are holes in most of the other plants. They also tend to be snail-eaters, and the 40-gallon continues to be a snail farm for my dear figure-8 puffer, Otis. This may or may not work out, but we've got plenty of time to see what happens.


Well, above is what we have in the 37-gallon today. The Estes black sand is down, Chet's cairn/cave is augmented, and I added a piece of solid glass that is about the size of a football. This is waste glass from a glass factory, and is quite interesting. It is very sharp and jagged, but looks like ice in the tank. Chet seems to be holding his own after the redecorating and I am now ready for a couple of small fantail goldfish, I think. I hope they leave the plants alone but I'm ready if they don't. I have some pieces of slate that I thought I'd add, but when I put them in there I just don't like they way they look - even though they are broken they are too uniform looking and do not have an organic appearance, so I took them out. If the plants are wiped out I may need to rethink things, but we'll try it like this for now. I cut the temperature back to 76-78.


Above is the 40-gallon today. Agnes is somewhere in there, lol, but I just turned the lights on for the photo and she was still in the sword plant where she sleeps. I know it is very much overgrown but I like it. I might get some sort of schooling fish next - not sure - but for the time being it will remain Agnes' domain.


As for the 150, I wound up taking out both Ancistrus, since the male was too, too aggressive, charging at all of the other fish in the tank and keeping all of the cories in hiding. It was quite unusual behavior for this species, from what I understand. I then added another half-dozen C. sterbai since I had a credit at the LFS and they had some on hand. They are lovely little things.

Here is a short video (I was trying to capture the aggression of the bristlenose) of the 150, and in it you can see the red rubin sword in the back to the right, which is full of HOLES! It is a horror, but I can't bring myself to get rid of that lovely festivus, which is otherwise a perfect citizen in this tank. Note the difference in his appearance compared with The Thugs. Night and day.

Chh-chh-chh-chh Changes......

It has been however long it has been, and the festivus still hide.

Friday 1/8/10 we lost our dear bullmastiff, Stella, to apparent metastatic cancer, which invaded her lungs in a very acute and dramatic way, ending her life in a matter of hours. We had no idea, as she had no symptoms, and the biopsy of a mass on her side was negative. The vet said she thought the mass was indeed cancer, and the small biopsy missed it months ago. She would have had her 4th birthday this week!

Anyway, Saturday the family decided we needed to get away, and we took a short road trip to Virginia Beach and visit the awesome pet store, Animal Jungle. If you have the opportunity to go there sometime, don't miss it. They have a very impressive stock of aquarium fish - not like anything you typically see - as well as reptiles, parrots and small animals, plus all of the supplies and gear you might ever need.

I was in the market for C. sterbai or trilineatus/julii, as well as cardinal tetras, all of which they typically have in stock, and needed to round out the 150. I had the guy catch me a net full of cardinals, but on close inspection most of them were actually jumbo neons, and the rest were not so great looking. Cardinals are tricky to keep healthy in dealer's tanks, and that's why you don't often see them at the LFS. I don't judge a pet store by a tank of bad-looking cardinals. I was disappointed, though, and set my sights on a female ancistrus, since they have a TON of bristlenose types, and I thought perhaps a mate for my boisterous and pesky male in the 150 might help distract him. Turns out I ought to have thought to get two or three females, as that would likely be better for this fellow, but I was so distracted by the many, many tanks of every fish you've ever heard of that I chose only one. I need to bring a list and stick to it next time I go in there - I get scatterbrained!

In the tank with the BNs was a small school of H. rhodostomus or H. bleheri, not sure which these are (!), AKA rummy-nose tetra. I have never kept these delightful little things as I have often thought them to have a somewhat odd appearance, with the greyish body, striking red nose, and white and black tail, but I knew they'd work well in the 150, with the soft, slightly acidic conditions and the plants, a complement to the cardinal school that currently resides there. They had about 10 and I took all of them.

Also, I knew I wanted to put a school of dithers in the 37-gallon with the festivus to hopefully calm them out of hiding. I was planning on doing this with cardinals but thought the rummy-noses would do just as good a job. Once the festivus either came out and got over their distress, or died, I would move the rummy-nose to the 150 and either let the festivus to their spawning duties or keep the tank in a holding pattern for (hopefully) another batch of angel babies that have been such a boon to me in financing various aspects of the hobby for me. Agnes & Frank have been good to me!

I got home with my finds and settled the rummy-noses in with the festivus, and the female BN in the 150. All seemed well, though the dithers did not seem to be having the desired effect in the 37-gallon. The festivus were still in full stress bars, with clamped fins, and cowering under the lip of the HOB outflow. Weird! The water is obviously in good condition, based not only on test kits but also the markedly red noses of the tetras, since poor water conditions are readily evident in these fish, as they lose their red noses when stressed or in unhealthy water.

This was just boggling my mind and I was getting impatient. I tried some delectable foods, and this did bring out the festivus briefly, but they'd scurry back under cover with the slightest movement from me. Obviously they feel very vulnerable and skittish in this tank, though it is not exactly bare - there is a huge piece of driftwood that reaches from bottom to the top of the tank, as well as a few Anubias plants.

I had an idea today, and fortunately was off work and had the time to implement it. I scooped some sand from the 150 (it has excess) and added it to the bottom of the 37, and planted a smallish Amazon sword plant that I robbed from the 40-gallon (you don't notice its absence in that tank - it is very heavily planted). I stacked the rocks attractively in the 37 and planted the plant.

Well, do you believe the festivus are now out and about? I also switched lighting on this tank, which had very, very dim lighting, since it had been a fry growout tank and I did not really plan on making it any kind of display tank, and did not need plants in it, either, but it seems these fish need the whole shebang to feel comfortable. They are acting almost normally, just with the addition of a single plant and slightly brighter lighting. Deborah said as much, that it was the decor that was throwing them off, and she was quite right.

I am so relieved!

Now I need to see if I can find another female ancistrus locally to add to my bullying male's harem in the 150, and I will continue to search for healthy cardinals. There is a local PetsMart that often carries them, and I'll check in with them. I will also soon add the rummy-noses to the 150 as well, and consider more of them. I cleaned out the Fluval FX5 on the 150, which is a HUGE job, and is physically taxing, in fact.

I am switching up filtration in the 10-gallon and 40-gallon. I'm happy with the small Eheim Ecco canister plus an AquaClear 30 on the 10-gallon (this seems SO ridiculous when I type it out, but honestly it is great for the messy little F8 puffer who makes such a mess - I still need to do PWCs about every 3rd day as well!) but I am not happy with the filtration on the 40-gallon. It has only an Eheim Classic 2213, and that is not enough. It is cheaper to put a monster HOB on the 10 gallon (AquaClear 70) and put the Ecco back on the 40 with the Classic than it is to buy another canister for the 40. I tried putting the Emperor 400 on the 40-gallon with the Eheim Classic, but the thing makes so much NOISE that I can't tolerate it. The grinding is just too much. I replaced the impeller but that did not solve the problem.

So, I've ordered an AC 70 for the 10-gallon (this too seems ridiculous!), and will again have two canisters back on the 40-gallon for Agnes & Frank. Hopefully they will spawn again for me.

This week I need to do staggered filter maintenance, since I still have the Rena XP4 on the 150 to clean (I did not want to do that one at the same time as the Fluval shop vac) and the 3 canisters running on the 10, the 37 and the 40, plus 2 HOBs (10 and 37).

I have made a lot of progress at my new job, revamping the solo practice of a doctor, which was slowly going downhill from lack of staff and neglect, and my spare time at home is more my own, so hopefully I can still devote a decent amount of time to my aquarium hobby. It took a while - I was putting in extra hours at the office in order to get some systems in place - but much of this work is done after two full months, plus the end of the year being behind me, and I am able to be more productive on the days that I do go in.

I was very concerned that I'd have to take down some of my tanks due to being too busy at the office and not having enough time at home, but hopefully that won't be the case. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! My tanks have been running on autopilot up until recently, and fortunately they are set up so that works out okay, but there were still things I want to do - always....

I also have a great dane at home, Sirius, who is getting much more attention now that Stella is gone, *snif*, and I hope to be able to devote extra time to him in his training. He's actually turning out to be much better as the only dog, since now he does not have to worry about "getting in trouble" with Stella, who was just as much a boss of him as his human owners are. Now he does not have to worry that obeying a command from us would mean stepping on Stella's toes, or causing her to lash out at him, so he's more relaxed. This is a blessing.

The Stress of the Fest

I finally unloaded the last of my angel juveniles, 29 for this last batch, and the 37-gallon was free to receive the festivus pair from the 150. Typically, these fish are curious and relatively fearless, and it seemed I'd be able to net them out at feeding time. They are not as cautious and nervous as the wild angels.

This further proves my theory that animals sense energy, even the lowly aquarium fish. I have noticed over many years that when I attempt to net out a specific fish from a group, such as an ailing fish, or perhaps a gravid female that I want to move to her own setup, the fish I want is the one that hides, and the others swim about, minding their own business, oblivious to the dangers of The Net. When I kept many tanks of Endler's livebearers, I'd frequently redistribute the fish according to gender, or if I had a buyer for a quantity of males I'd be hunting all of the males, and the females would be unconcerned. If it was females I was after, the males would poke around in the open without a care. I know dogs perceive and respond to human energy, much more than we could possibly realize, and we hardly need to even vocalize to them our wants and desires. Cats likely perceive this as well but since they have absolutely no interest in pleasing humans or doing our bidding, we do not see their response to our telegraphed thoughts and emotions.

Anyway, the festivus pair knew I wanted them, no matter how much I tried to block the thoughts of moving them upstairs. I used mosquito larvae in a large net and the other angels and the spare festivus spent quite a bit of time inside the net eating, but the pair in question kept to the periphery. My husband, with infinite patience, managed to catch one, and later on I did a water change and took advantage of the lowered water level to remove decor and catch the other fish.

That done, I acclimated them to their new tank over a period of almost 2 hours, and things have not gone too well since. It has been almost 24 hours and they are wedged behind objects, full stress coloration, and fins completely clamped. Not happy. They were not looking good last night and I was prepared to find them expired this morning, but at 4:30 a.m. when I got up the both of them were out and swimming. I thought they had just been indulging in a little bit of a pout and would be fine, but an hour later they were cowering and gasping. I did a PWC like I do in the tank where they used to reside, but 5 hours later they are still cowering in corners with fins clamped and full zebra stress pattern. Ugh.

Well, it had to be done. Things could not continue like they were in the 150, and though the tank looks much more empty and way understocked, the mood is peaceful. I will obtain another dozen or so cardinal tetras and try to get perhaps as many cory cats, of the julii or sterbai species, perhaps. Most of the ones I have now are C. trilineatus but I do have one single C. sterbai, and he is adorable, so I'd like to have more of them. I have a large store credit from the sale of my last batch of babies, and I'll need it for sterbai cories, since they are expensive compared to your average cory cat.

Meanwhile, I hope the festivus pair recover from the move and spawn for me. If not, if they give up the ghost as a result of being moved, I am not sure what I will do with that tank. I want to preserve the cycle, so maybe I can find a breeding pair of bristlenose cats to live there, which could remain even if I put angel fry in there some day.

I will try to get pics one day soon when my schedule permits. I generally have to take about a zillion pictures, with four zillion changes of settings, in order to get one good shot. :-/