Tuesday, August 23 our area experienced a 5.8 earthquake, which was a dramatic and very rare event for us. I was at my desk (where else?!) and the house began to shake with a rhythmic pattern, and the noise was deafening. I could not understand what was happening, and at first did not think of an earthquake. It is just not what comes to mind when you grow up in the mid-Atlantic area of the country. I tore downstairs as quickly as I could, since my reptilian brain wanted out of that house, pronto, and when I got to the kitchen I saw my sister, nephew and the twins in the pool, gawping up at the house in wonderment, mouths hanging open. I truly thought for a second that one of those large personnel carrier helicopters was landing on my roof or something, lol. Then I realized the sound and shaking was coming from all directions, and it must be an earthquake.
I made it outside, and they told me they could not feel anything while floating in the pool, but they saw the house and the plants and furniture on the deck shaking violently. The dogs were not particularly alarmed, though they were eager to head outside to confront this potential threat, until they got out there and could not determine where the threat originated! They were confused but not at all upset. I was very surprised that there was no damage to my house. The shaking was such that I immediately felt like my solidly built and well constructed home was the flimsiest thing ever built. Nothing even fell off the walls like they did in 2000 when we had a much smaller quake here.
Next up, Hurricane Irene. Today is 8/27/11 and the hurricane is pretty much here, at 4:18 p.m. A lot of gusty wind and we've had a ton of rain since early this morning. The pool is overflowing. A few branches down but not too bad. We still have power, but I expect that to change pretty soon - it has flickered off and back on several times already.
Rick is at the boat in Kinsale, where the storm is going to be much worse, and I wish he'd come home. He wants to be there to adjust lines on the boat as the storm surge causes the water to rise many feet higher than normal high tide, but I think it will be dangerous for him to be there. Also, if the gusts get more than 50 mph they'll close the bridges, and he needs them to get home. I don't want him to be injured or trapped in the direct path of the storm, where "devastating" winds are forecasted. We've got "damaging" winds forecasted here. This storm reminds everyone of Isabel in 2003, which caused us to be without power for 6 days, though not all neighborhoods had it that bad. My sister, who lived no more than a couple of miles away, lost power for only one day with that storm.
So, with Isabel fresh in our minds, we've made quite a few preparations, and I think we've done what we can. We have two generators, a small one that is relatively quiet and can be expected to run all of my fish tank filters, since they all have pretty low wattage, and also a fan or two, and then we have a very large generator we got when Isabel hit, and that one can run the refrigerator and a few other things if it looks like power will be out long-term.
Maybe I've got selective memory, but I grew up here and I don't recall hurricanes. Not at all. I'll have to ask my mother, who will be able to tell me more, but since we've moved back here after living in Florida for 9 years we've had more trouble with hurricanes here than in South Florida. In fact, the reason we moved back to Virginia at all was because of the devastation of hurricane Andrew in Homestead, which alarmed my husband enough to want to move away. He was in construction and volunteered his time to inspect homes there to determine if they could be saved or were a total loss from the storm. It hit him very hard to see first-hand what a storm like that could do to a community. Then we move back to Virginia and have had several hurricane scares, and a tropical storm (Gaston) that caused widespread flooding here.
I will check back in when all is said and done.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
What goes up must come down
This past weekend I decided I had to take down the 45-gallon with the leopoldi angel, black neon tetras and cardinal tetras. My work schedule is such that it has become tricky to maintain all these tanks, and the tank itself was not enjoyable for me. I had planned on stocking it more to make it more interesting, but I am going to have to put together a snail tank for Otis, so something had to go.
Since I'm down to only one leopoldi it was hard to justify keeping this tank up, when he could be moved to the 40 heavily planted community with tetras and one wild ram. My wild ram and the wild caught leopoldi angel are both snail eaters (more so than a domestic cichlid, interestingly) and I cannot keep a population of snails going for my puffer, Otis.
I've therefore taken down the 45, and relocated the angel into the 40, along with the black neons and cardinals, and all is well, for the time being. I'm not terribly optimistic about the angel, since this is a wild caught fish who has difficulty settling into new situations and does not like to be moved. On top of that I put him into a relatively brightly lit, heavily planted tank, and this is really not the ideal setup. He should have a deep, dim and branchy tank with floating plants only, but I can't really do that for him at the moment. We shall see. I put the 45 into the eaves for my next adventure!
I kept a dedicated snail tank once before, but it ran aground at some point due to my inability to keep it as clean as I'd like - the water likely became too acidic and the snails died out. I kept it on the floor (no available lateral surfaces!) so I had to use a Python to do PWCs, and this would suck up eggs and babies, but I could not get a siphon going with a regular siphon with it so low to the floor. *Sigh* Anyway, I obtained a very large supply of snails from an Aquabid dealer and she was VERY kind and informative, and gave me full instructions on maintaining a good healthy colony. She can be found on Aquabid under Nelly's Fishy Friends, so hit her up!
I have resurrected Otis' old 10-gal and set that up with calciferous sand, rocks and driftwood, and a lance-leaved anubias plant. This is home to some of my new ramshorns, most of which are a very good pencil-eraser size and larger, which impressed me. I have put about 25 of them into my tank at work, which is where I have been harvesting snails from for Otis of late, though they are thin on the ground. Now that I'm going to be working full time I can take special care to feed that tank and support the new population of snails.
Now I want some tankmates for the snails in the 10-gal at home, and envisioned a nano setup with celestial peal danios or some of the nifty micro rasboras, for instance, but I am picturing the wee fishies snacking on tiny snail babies, and decided I needed to rethink this. What about shrimp? Crystal reds? Would they eat eggs and babies enough to prevent my snail colony from thriving? I'm off to email Nelly and get her advice on this.
Update: Nelly does not see any reason why I could not keep shrimp with the snails, but she has not done it. She keeps guppies with hers. I do think I'll try some very small shrimp species and see what happens. I like shrimp anyway, and this will be a suitable setup for them. She mentions that the most important thing for a snail tank is the GRAVEL, since that's where they breed and the babies can safely hunker down in the crevices, but this is, as mentioned, already set up as a sand tank. I'm hoping this is going to be okay! There is irony in the reality that so many aquarists have nuisance snails they have trouble getting rid of, and here I am, trying desperately to cultivate them.
I've said it before, but here it goes again: If you have an uncontrollable snail population I promise you are overfeeding your tank. If the fish get all the food the snails will die right out. This is why I have had poor results at work - I'm there only three days a week and the fish don't get fed during that time, and they go 4 days without food when we aren't there every other Friday. I'm not getting the molly babies I'd expect, either. That's not such a big deal, but I'd like to have more than one tank for snails, since if something goes wrong I'll have a backup. My schedule is switching to 5 days a week at work, so I am positive this will result in a thriving snail population (that is a gravel tank!) and more molly babies.
The jury is still out with regards to the angel in the 40-gal, but this was the right choice for me right now and hopefully he will settle. An interesting thing is going on, though, and that is that these fish suddenly do not like flake food. I watch carefully and they all take it up and spit it right out. I'm not sure what's up with that. They also do the same with the tiny NLS "growth" pellets that are about 1-2 mm in diameter. I don't really know what kind of food they want.
Since I'm down to only one leopoldi it was hard to justify keeping this tank up, when he could be moved to the 40 heavily planted community with tetras and one wild ram. My wild ram and the wild caught leopoldi angel are both snail eaters (more so than a domestic cichlid, interestingly) and I cannot keep a population of snails going for my puffer, Otis.
I've therefore taken down the 45, and relocated the angel into the 40, along with the black neons and cardinals, and all is well, for the time being. I'm not terribly optimistic about the angel, since this is a wild caught fish who has difficulty settling into new situations and does not like to be moved. On top of that I put him into a relatively brightly lit, heavily planted tank, and this is really not the ideal setup. He should have a deep, dim and branchy tank with floating plants only, but I can't really do that for him at the moment. We shall see. I put the 45 into the eaves for my next adventure!
I kept a dedicated snail tank once before, but it ran aground at some point due to my inability to keep it as clean as I'd like - the water likely became too acidic and the snails died out. I kept it on the floor (no available lateral surfaces!) so I had to use a Python to do PWCs, and this would suck up eggs and babies, but I could not get a siphon going with a regular siphon with it so low to the floor. *Sigh* Anyway, I obtained a very large supply of snails from an Aquabid dealer and she was VERY kind and informative, and gave me full instructions on maintaining a good healthy colony. She can be found on Aquabid under Nelly's Fishy Friends, so hit her up!
I have resurrected Otis' old 10-gal and set that up with calciferous sand, rocks and driftwood, and a lance-leaved anubias plant. This is home to some of my new ramshorns, most of which are a very good pencil-eraser size and larger, which impressed me. I have put about 25 of them into my tank at work, which is where I have been harvesting snails from for Otis of late, though they are thin on the ground. Now that I'm going to be working full time I can take special care to feed that tank and support the new population of snails.
Now I want some tankmates for the snails in the 10-gal at home, and envisioned a nano setup with celestial peal danios or some of the nifty micro rasboras, for instance, but I am picturing the wee fishies snacking on tiny snail babies, and decided I needed to rethink this. What about shrimp? Crystal reds? Would they eat eggs and babies enough to prevent my snail colony from thriving? I'm off to email Nelly and get her advice on this.
Update: Nelly does not see any reason why I could not keep shrimp with the snails, but she has not done it. She keeps guppies with hers. I do think I'll try some very small shrimp species and see what happens. I like shrimp anyway, and this will be a suitable setup for them. She mentions that the most important thing for a snail tank is the GRAVEL, since that's where they breed and the babies can safely hunker down in the crevices, but this is, as mentioned, already set up as a sand tank. I'm hoping this is going to be okay! There is irony in the reality that so many aquarists have nuisance snails they have trouble getting rid of, and here I am, trying desperately to cultivate them.
I've said it before, but here it goes again: If you have an uncontrollable snail population I promise you are overfeeding your tank. If the fish get all the food the snails will die right out. This is why I have had poor results at work - I'm there only three days a week and the fish don't get fed during that time, and they go 4 days without food when we aren't there every other Friday. I'm not getting the molly babies I'd expect, either. That's not such a big deal, but I'd like to have more than one tank for snails, since if something goes wrong I'll have a backup. My schedule is switching to 5 days a week at work, so I am positive this will result in a thriving snail population (that is a gravel tank!) and more molly babies.
The jury is still out with regards to the angel in the 40-gal, but this was the right choice for me right now and hopefully he will settle. An interesting thing is going on, though, and that is that these fish suddenly do not like flake food. I watch carefully and they all take it up and spit it right out. I'm not sure what's up with that. They also do the same with the tiny NLS "growth" pellets that are about 1-2 mm in diameter. I don't really know what kind of food they want.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Tank Updates
Yesterday was devoted to tank maintenance in my office, where I keep a 40-gallon planted, which contains a single wild caught ram (the mate died recently of bloat - I may have mentioned I have horrible luck keeping rams alive, like many people), the ember tetras and het rasboras. This tank gets overgrown very easily with the plantings, and the floating salvinia needs to be scooped out regularly. There is a curious substance all over the sand that I can only describe as an algae, but the rest of the tank has no algae whatsoever. It is a debris that is dark and coats the sand in clumps, and it is not possible to suction it out with a siphon. I stir the sand regularly, what little there is, and I'm not sure why this tank suffers from it, though it does make the sand look "natural," lol. I'm increasing the PWCs in an effort to gain control of it. If that does the trick then I'll know there is some kind of nutrient imbalance.
I did a PWC for dear Otis, who is just a dream in his 20 long. No issues there other than the persistent diatom algae, but this tank easily gets higher nitrate levels due to his meaty diet, and the brackish water seems to have this problem more than a similar tank that was fresh. No worries, though - he's looking great and I'm content.
The HOB filter on the 37 gets clogged quickly and I'm constantly having to clean it out, when it does not seem that dirty. At least not dirty enough to cause the clogging. Even after I rinse everything out and put it back together it seems to run as if the filter pads are clogged. I don't have any extra media trays in it at all. Recently I noticed that the water level was dropping dramatically - more so than the other 3 tanks in the room, and yesterday I found out why: the curtain hanging next to the tank was being splashed by the filter, which was clogged and not flowing properly, and the curtain was sucking up the water up its entire floor to ceiling length! I cleaned out the filter, again, and did a big PWC, and took down the curtain.
The reason I did such a big PWC was so that I could pull the rocks and get out the extra leleupi, which was cramping the style of the pair that has formed. Slowly but surely all six have whittled down to two, and now that they have the tank to themselves they are much calmer and hopefully will spawn for me. Even the one stunted little leleupi left in there was a huge distraction for them, despite the fact that he kept to an upper corner, completely out of their way. They took turns all day long chasing after him. I sold (what appeared to be) an extra dominant male initially, once that situation made itself clear, then one day my daughter happened to find a leleupi on the floor next to the tank, and my husband was able to save it and got it back into the tank alive. It was quite clear that the fish was being bullied and chased and needed to go, so I put it downstairs in the 150 with the other Tanganyikans since I had nowhere else for it to go, and the frontosa and Altolamps in that tank are of a decent size now so as not to be bullied by the wee leleupi. That left 3 fish in the 37, and it soon became obvious which fish were the pair, and yesterday I got the third one out and put him downstairs as well. I'm not sure how that is going to work out, but, again, I have nowhere else for him to go and he is very small still, so he'll either sink or swim downstairs. I fear the leleupi and the Paracyprichromis in the 150 are doomed once the frontosa get bigger, but we shall see. It is remarkable how relaxed the leleupi are in the 37 upstairs now that they are alone together. They can concentrate on making babies now! If one of them decides it wants to "own" the tank and bullies the other, then I'll just sell the pair off and take down the tank.
That leaves the 45-gallon in the office, and sadly I lost another leopoldi angel last week. It was wasting away and looked like it had been beaten up, though I did not see the other bullying it. I think it was just ill, or old, and it did not make it too long after I noticed its deteriorating condition. I now have one single leopoldi left, with some black neons and a few cardinal tetras. This tank is a puzzle to me because I don't like the looks of it and would just as soon put all the fish in the 40 with the others, but I don't think the 40 is a good place for the leopoldi. Too many plants and too much light. I think I will create a community in the 45, with more tetras and perhaps some catfish of some type. Deborah will help me determine which species would work.
This week I'll need to do a PWC on the 150 and the 20 high goldfish tank (love this tank! Too cute!). The frontosa are getting big and it is nearly time for me to swap out the small, fussy stacked rocks for larger boulder type rocks so they don't knock everything over. I'm looking forward to going rock shopping, which is something I very much enjoy, lol. I've got a great landscaping place right up the street and they've got a huge pile of the right type of rock for me to look through.
I still have all of the Altolamps that I originally put in this tank, so there are 8 of them, and the 5 Paracyps, 4 Kapampa frontosa and now the two small leleupi. I just went down to check on the new leleupi addition, and what do I see? He's somehow gotten behind the overflow box where the filter intake is located! How on earth did he squeeze into that spot and how on earth am I going to get him out??? I just swore and walked back upstairs when I saw that..... I've got work to do first before I even begin to tackle that. The hood is in the way for me to lean over at the right angle to get a net back there, so I might have to get Rick to help me take the hood down first, and then I might be able to get him if I stand on a high stool. I suppose he was chased and he was able to squeeze back there. The gap is only big enough for fry, so I'm not sure how he pulled it off. I suppose I should have them siliconed in place but I wanted more flexibility with the setup so I have it wedged, hiding the filter intakes and heater. *Sigh* I knew there'd be something, since it is hard to add a fish to a well established setup without something happening. I'll need to get some pictures of the 150 soon to show how the frontosa have grown, and how great they look. I'm really eager to see them reach their final size, when the tank will really show off well.
I did a PWC for dear Otis, who is just a dream in his 20 long. No issues there other than the persistent diatom algae, but this tank easily gets higher nitrate levels due to his meaty diet, and the brackish water seems to have this problem more than a similar tank that was fresh. No worries, though - he's looking great and I'm content.
The HOB filter on the 37 gets clogged quickly and I'm constantly having to clean it out, when it does not seem that dirty. At least not dirty enough to cause the clogging. Even after I rinse everything out and put it back together it seems to run as if the filter pads are clogged. I don't have any extra media trays in it at all. Recently I noticed that the water level was dropping dramatically - more so than the other 3 tanks in the room, and yesterday I found out why: the curtain hanging next to the tank was being splashed by the filter, which was clogged and not flowing properly, and the curtain was sucking up the water up its entire floor to ceiling length! I cleaned out the filter, again, and did a big PWC, and took down the curtain.
The reason I did such a big PWC was so that I could pull the rocks and get out the extra leleupi, which was cramping the style of the pair that has formed. Slowly but surely all six have whittled down to two, and now that they have the tank to themselves they are much calmer and hopefully will spawn for me. Even the one stunted little leleupi left in there was a huge distraction for them, despite the fact that he kept to an upper corner, completely out of their way. They took turns all day long chasing after him. I sold (what appeared to be) an extra dominant male initially, once that situation made itself clear, then one day my daughter happened to find a leleupi on the floor next to the tank, and my husband was able to save it and got it back into the tank alive. It was quite clear that the fish was being bullied and chased and needed to go, so I put it downstairs in the 150 with the other Tanganyikans since I had nowhere else for it to go, and the frontosa and Altolamps in that tank are of a decent size now so as not to be bullied by the wee leleupi. That left 3 fish in the 37, and it soon became obvious which fish were the pair, and yesterday I got the third one out and put him downstairs as well. I'm not sure how that is going to work out, but, again, I have nowhere else for him to go and he is very small still, so he'll either sink or swim downstairs. I fear the leleupi and the Paracyprichromis in the 150 are doomed once the frontosa get bigger, but we shall see. It is remarkable how relaxed the leleupi are in the 37 upstairs now that they are alone together. They can concentrate on making babies now! If one of them decides it wants to "own" the tank and bullies the other, then I'll just sell the pair off and take down the tank.
That leaves the 45-gallon in the office, and sadly I lost another leopoldi angel last week. It was wasting away and looked like it had been beaten up, though I did not see the other bullying it. I think it was just ill, or old, and it did not make it too long after I noticed its deteriorating condition. I now have one single leopoldi left, with some black neons and a few cardinal tetras. This tank is a puzzle to me because I don't like the looks of it and would just as soon put all the fish in the 40 with the others, but I don't think the 40 is a good place for the leopoldi. Too many plants and too much light. I think I will create a community in the 45, with more tetras and perhaps some catfish of some type. Deborah will help me determine which species would work.
This week I'll need to do a PWC on the 150 and the 20 high goldfish tank (love this tank! Too cute!). The frontosa are getting big and it is nearly time for me to swap out the small, fussy stacked rocks for larger boulder type rocks so they don't knock everything over. I'm looking forward to going rock shopping, which is something I very much enjoy, lol. I've got a great landscaping place right up the street and they've got a huge pile of the right type of rock for me to look through.
I still have all of the Altolamps that I originally put in this tank, so there are 8 of them, and the 5 Paracyps, 4 Kapampa frontosa and now the two small leleupi. I just went down to check on the new leleupi addition, and what do I see? He's somehow gotten behind the overflow box where the filter intake is located! How on earth did he squeeze into that spot and how on earth am I going to get him out??? I just swore and walked back upstairs when I saw that..... I've got work to do first before I even begin to tackle that. The hood is in the way for me to lean over at the right angle to get a net back there, so I might have to get Rick to help me take the hood down first, and then I might be able to get him if I stand on a high stool. I suppose he was chased and he was able to squeeze back there. The gap is only big enough for fry, so I'm not sure how he pulled it off. I suppose I should have them siliconed in place but I wanted more flexibility with the setup so I have it wedged, hiding the filter intakes and heater. *Sigh* I knew there'd be something, since it is hard to add a fish to a well established setup without something happening. I'll need to get some pictures of the 150 soon to show how the frontosa have grown, and how great they look. I'm really eager to see them reach their final size, when the tank will really show off well.
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