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.