Now the geos are at a good size to start thinning out the group, as a I have a dominant male who seems to have chosen a mate and staked out an area of the tank. This is not causing any problems, since this species is pretty peaceful, but I'd like to remove about 8 or so of them and see how things develop. I sold 4 yesterday to a CVAS club member (thanks, David!) and I've got another 4 ready to go at the end of the week (thanks, Chuck!), so I'll have my group pared down a bit. I may wind up removing more down the road, but it will depend on how the male/female ratio works out, and how big they get. They are not the fastest-growing so I have some time. Their colors are just starting to express themselves, especially in the dominant male, with blue in his ventrals and tail along with the red stripes. The others are coloring up too. The Bolivian rams have great color as well, though they look a bit washed out on the video below:
I'm keeping the 45 cycled because I have been wanting to add wild angels to the 150 to complement the geos, who occupy the bottom. My single wild P. leopoldi could benefit from some tankmates, though I don't plan on more leopoldi, unfortunately. I'm more interested in the Peruvian scalare variety, with more impressive finnage.
However, the wild imports I've been keeping my eye on are pretty expensive for me right now. I was hoping to simply save up for them, but maybe it's not worth it to me - the wild fish need very special attention and slow acclimation, and I'm not sure I have the time (well, I KNOW I don't have the time). When I worked at home this was much more easily accomplished, but I'm at work full time these days. Not only do the fish need to be quarantined in water conditions close to their native environs, they also need to be dewormed and treated for parasites before introduction into the show tank. I don't mind quarantine, and I strongly recommend it even for fish bought and traded locally, but for wild fish this is mandatory, and my tap water is very different than what the wild fish are accustomed to. The wild leopoldi angels I got previously sat at the LFS for quite some time before I got them, so the acclimation and deworming had already taken place.
I came across some domestic wild crosses, or a wild crossed with a domestic silver. The wild is described as a "Peruvian altum," which is, in fact, not an altum but a scalare from a particular collection point that produces higher-finned and more altum-like scalares than other locales. This fish is crossed with a domestic "zebra" silver, and the fry I'm getting are the offspring. I'll be getting 10 dime to nickel-sized fry and they'll reside in the 45 for a while as I see how they do. I will likely retain a pair for the 45 and the rest go into the 150 to see if they pair off, and hopefully they won't wreak too much havoc on the tank when that happens. There might be enough room for a pair to stake out some real estate without having to kill off other cichlids. This is always a possibilty with angels. I will almost definitely be looking to remove extra angels from the 150, since 8 will for sure be too many once they are grown.
Fortunately, I belong to a growing aquarium club, the Central Virginia Aquarium Society, and have contacts with local fish stores so finding buyers for the extra fish ought not to be too difficult. I'm anticipating impressive finnage on these fry, and though the wild types are not terribly sought after in general, I think they will be attractive and have some appeal, at least for those wanting to insert some wild blood back into their breeding program.
I've been spending quite a bit of time on Finarama lately, as well as The Angelfish Forum (TAF-2) and have a renewed obsession with angelfish. I really want to focus on them now, and may be able to set up additional tanks for breeding pairs. I freely admit that I have an aversion to "engineered" fish, and have probably mentioned this in my blog before, but there are some angelfish phenotypes that I like. I strongly dislike long-finned versions of any fish (my goldfish prove this statement to be hypocritical, or at least highly selective) and do not find veiled angels in any way attractive. This goes for plecos and cory cats with long trailing fins, long-finned tetras, etc. To me it looks like a defect rather than an adornment. I do hold interest in the blue/silver variety, which looks like a wild fish but with a gorgeous peacock blue. I also like black angels, especially when you can still see the wild stripe.
So, in the 45 I have some H. bentosi, a single female BN pleco and a pair of Bolivian rams. I'll probably move out the tetras when the angels arrive Tuesday but I'll see how things look. I cleaned the filters last week and today did a large PWC on all tanks. This is something of a chore, but with the Python and the fact that all of my tanks are now on the first floor, it goes more quickly than you'd think. We're watching the summer Olympic games while I work on the tanks. With the planted tanks and the snail tank there is quite a bit of tidying up that is required, especially the tanks with almond leaves (catappa), which gradually soften and disintegrate. The snail tank is just gross, with quite a bit of debris that collects. Otis, the F8 puffer, has a messy tank too, with quite a bit of mulm that I can never seem to get ahead of, even with weekly 70% PWCs. I keep 100% marine water mixed in 5-gal jugs and use that mixed with tap water to get the brackish conditions he needs. I have a specific gravity gauge that floats in the tank, so I can see how much SW needs to be added. Otis has proven to be a very hardy fish, now with me 4 years.
The goldfish tank's only challenge is trying to suck up the poo, which is too heavy for the Python, even with the water going full blast out of the tap. I change about 80% of that tank weekly, since it is a relatively small tank (20H) for 3 full-bodied fancy goldfish.
The bettas tanks are easy, slurp them into a cup, rinse out the little tank under the tap, wipe down the inside walls and you're good to go. These are the fish belonging to my daughters, but of course I wind up doing the water changes!
The water out of the cold tap this time of year is around 80, which is a bit on the warm side for some of my fish, but I can't do anything about that. I can add an ice cube or two but that's hard to calculate. In a couple of months I'll be standing there with hot and cold taps running, with my hand under the water waiting for the perfect temperature to be achieved.
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