Foiled Again!

Today I had a buyer for my Geophagus red-head "Tapajos" (orange head, red head? I don't know!) and last time I sold fish from this group I snatched them up in the dark early in the morning. I caught 4 on one occasion and another 4 the next week when I had another buyer.

I plan on keeping most of the rest of them since I want to grow them out and see what I get in terms of pairs, but I promised 4 more to a Central Virginia Aquarium Society club member, Alleykat (thanks, Chris!) but I was able to catch only 3. They really got wise to me this time and dove for the rocks. The group was getting really stressed so I had to stop trying.

This is the problem with selling fish out of a display, but I don't really have anything but display tanks, so that's how it will have to be. :-/

Once they get 6-7 inches it will be harder for them to hide, though, and I can thin the group out more then.

A Banner Day!

Here's some pics of Peckoltia L147, which is a species that is often accidentally caught with Clown Plecos (Panaque maccus), so they are often sold as such. I received the fish from a member of my fish club, the  Central Virginia Aquarium Society (thanks, Donald!).

My daughter named her (we're pretty sure this is a female) Banner, because of the flag-like tail fin extension. She's now in my 150 gallon with lots of hiding places, and she's staked out a cave for herself. I don't expect to see her out and about much, but I can drop food into her vicinity easily. This is not a pleco that is going to suck on the glass and scrape algae, but will dine on sinking veggie/catfish tablets for the most part.

She's about 6" long with the tail (as you can see she barely fits into the fish transfer box) and is full grown.

*Cue the Choir Singing*

Only a matter of HOURS after adding the Tetra SafeStart, I am measuring zero nitrite and 5 ppm nitrate, zero ammonia. This is a wonderful product. I think my little issue was temporary anyway, and likely would have resolved in the coming days anyway, but I don't like to have any measurable nitrite in my tank and this was easy enough to resolve. I'm very impressed and relieved!

I shut down the bubbles and all the fish are acting like the greedy little pigs they are! My lil' Angels.....

You Can't Win for Losing (what does that even MEAN?)

I had a bit of an issue today. Yesterday I got a plant assortment ("low light") that included 12 species of plant, but I got extras of some species. These plants came in looking wonderful, and I have to give a shoutout to Mike's Wet Pets  on Aquabid. What a load of wonderful healthy plants it was! 

Cabomba purple (really purple) and green; hornwort (a bit the worse for wear, but anyone who has shipped this plant knows to expect this); three varieties of java fern, with the regular M. pteropus, the lace windelov, and then a third variety that I can't for the life of me remember the name of - the leaves are large and long with a single split on each leaf, like the thumb on a mitten; two Crypt species, the wendtii and spiralis; several pots of anubias, coffeefolia and I don't know what else, valisneria (at least 10 separate plants) and several of those large and clumsy-looking jungle vals. All of the plants are very healthy so I'm thrilled. 

I put the cabomba and hornwort in the snail tank (I removed the Gambusia from this tank previously - definitely eating the snails!) and put some extra valisneria in there as well, along with a pot of Anubias for safekeeping until I know what to do with them. I'll definitely have too much so I'll share with friends.

I have had only a thin layer of sand in the 45 because I had plans to put Geos in there, so I needed more sand for the rooted plants. The 150 has too much sand, though the geos really do enjoy digging around in it and when they are larger they'll move more of it around. However, I could spare about 4-6 cups out of there no problem, and it is the same type of sand in both tanks. I scooped it out and gently poured it into target areas of the 45 where the plants would be placed, along the back and left side, and in the middle in a hollow made by a driftwood branch. I planted the jungle vals and the regular valisneria along the back, where tall narrow plants are needed, and the spiralis crypt on the left next to the C. walkeri that I brought home from Rufus' tank (the red betta) at work. I planted the C. wendti in the middle of the tank where the driftwood branch splits. That piece of driftwood is just a narrow split branch so it frames the plant beautifully.

I placed the java fern and Anubias pieces around here and there and got things like I wanted. The fish were out and absolutely loving the plants, poking around in them and enjoying the cover they provide. I stayed up to 2:00 am watching the tank. It was a tiny bit cloudy initially from adding that fine dusty sand (I rinsed it outside on the deck prior to putting it in since it had not been properly rinsed when it went into the 150 originally) but cleared by the time I went to bed. I got video for my YouTube channel.

This morning the angelfish looked odd, not acting ill or gasping at the surface but all clustered around the driftwood in a way they don't usually do. The rams were begging for food and the single cardinal and the bentosi tetras were skittering around like they do when they know I'm going to feed them. I decided to test the water and found low levels of NITRITE! Yikes. The tank is cycling. Lawd-a-Mercy.

The key to this mystery, however, is something I found when I planted the new plants: anaerobic pockets in the existing sand. I could not believe it. I could smell the rotten egg smell and saw that the old sand was darker when I planted. WHAT??? There was scarcely a 1/4" of it in that tank! Most of the bottom had rocks on it anyway, and the underside of the rocks were black. No actual bubbles came up when I did the planting, so I didn't think it was too bad. 

I did a very large water change last night after that discovery but I'm sure that is why the tank cycled, or I'm guessing so. I had not messed with the filters or removed anything from the tank - only added heavily rinsed sand and a ton of plants. I also put 2wpg on the tank to get the plants going - I have a pair of Coralife double-bulb strips from the 40-gallon I recently took down, with each strip having 2 21-watt T5 bulbs, and that is very nice lighting, so I'm hopeful the plants will be able to get rolling and oxygenate the water. I left the lights on all night to give the plants a boost, since the lights are off all day.

This morning after discovering the issue (no ammonia and low nitrate) I cranked up the bubbles big time, since I had cut them back to a mere trickle and may eliminate them altogether if the plants suffer from it, and added SafeStart, that Biospira additive from Tetra that I've kept on hand for emergencies. I started using BioSpira when it first came out as a Marineland product, one that had to be kept refrigerated, and it gradually became unavailable. It was sold to Tetra, and either Marineland developed it into a bottled additive that could be stored at room temperature on the shelf, or Tetra did after buying it. At any rate, I saw it advertised and have been pleased with how it helps to cycle a new tank.

I also went over to the 150 and scrounged around for some trumpet snails, and added them to the sand in the 45. I know the rooted plants are going to travel through the sand but I have zero problems with anaerobic sand in the 150, since I stir that pretty vigorously once every couple of weeks and never find any discoloration at all - looks pristine. The geos are too small right now to really get all through the sand that's there and I know the snails help. I will just deal with any overpopulation in the 45 by picking them out by hand - that is better than anaerobic pockets. The 45 hasn't even been set up for that long! I'm baffled as to why such a thin layer of sand in the tank for only a few months would go anaerobic on me.

The angels are very young, still dime to nickel sized, and I'm hoping they'll get through this okay, especially since it has not been like this for long, and I've taken action. I may add a bit of Otis' marine saltwater solution if they look to be suffering. I'm sure by tonight this will be resolved, but YIKES.

The annoying thing is that I was due to take a Panaque changae from a club member who wants to rehome it, and that would mean catching the bristlenose Ancistrus from the 45 and move her out to the 150 with the other BNs I have there. This Panaque is territorial and would really appreciate having this little woodpile all to himself. Now I think it will be a bad idea to tear up the tank to catch the BN, and also a bad idea to add this Panaque to an unstable tank. We'll shelve that for now, and I'll see if the guy in my club is willing to hold onto the catfish a bit longer for me. Here are pics of the tank this morning when I discovered the nitrite, after planting everything last night:

Gray and Proud (OFF TOPIC!)

WARNING:  If you are one of the two's of people who read this blog, this is not about FISH! Run for cover........

This post is about Gray Hair. Yes, I "transitioned" several years ago to a head of mostly silver, with a good bit of brown in the back. You'd not think this was a subject worthy of a blog post, but, sadly in our world it is notable. 

I pulled my first white hair from my head in 7th grade, and have slowly been sliding towards silver ever since. My father began going gray at a very young age, around 18 or 20, so I come by it naturally. I spent most of my young adulthood coloring my hair, not necessarily to cover the gray but for fun and to change my look frequently. I stopped coloring when I was pregnant, both times, but resumed soon afterwards, especially after the last pregnancy when the gray was really evident.

My husband, Rick, began to make noises about me perhaps letting my hair go gray, and I laughed - are you kidding!?  In this day and age to take a step to actively make yourself look older when everyone else is clamoring to look younger?  It was counter-intuitive.  Then I began to really examine why I did not want to let my natural hair color grow in. Do I have something to hide? Am I really fooling anyone? Is there a good reason I should not look my age?

My hair grows very quickly and that gray stripe began to appear about every 3-4 weeks, when I'd break out the good old headband, scarf or hat and soldier on until I could get a touch-up. The coloring treatments can be expensive, and since my hair was relatively long it was difficult for me to do it myself properly, though I certainly did plenty of times when cash was low. It would come out uneven in the back, where I could not see, and I got sick of the mess and chore of it. Professional dye jobs can be exorbitantly expensive, as most women know, and this was starting to seem like an unnecessary expense.


Then, and this is a demonstration of my rebellious personality, I began to be offended that society was telling me I had to color my hair, and I was doing it willingly. I was living the hardcore punk rock life from my teenage years to my early 20s, and I don't like being told what to do, from WAY back, as my mother will tell you. I don't even like an automatic transmission in a car deciding when to shift - I'll make the decisions when I'm behind the wheel, thank you!  Here I was, going along with this social norm because I thought I should, and I was vain enough to think I would no longer be worthwhile or valued if I had gray showing. People go to such great lengths to cover their gray, after all; the consequences must be DIRE! 


The older I become the more annoyed and now offended I get with the ageism in this country (uh oh, here she goes....). We value the young, which is fine, but we'd prefer to let 18-year-olds make decisions for us, apparently, because everyone is desperate to look 18, so 18 must be the age when we've got everything under control, right? As a former 18-year-old and the mother of a 19-year-old, all I can say is, "HA!" The older we get the more we know, and the more we have to offer. We're still the same person we were when we were 18 and looked 18, except we are so much smarter, and have learned so much about life. This is not recognized, but it is reality. I am mainly speaking about life as it pertains to women, mind you. I'm not really a feminist, but it is certainly true that you fellows can go gray and still achieve plenty of success in your professional lives, but women might not get that promotion or get that new job based on looks, specifically if she looks "old." 


"Old" means worn out, out of touch, unhealthy, closed-minded, apathetic, boring, sluggish, depressed and depressing. Young women, or young-looking women, are exciting, up to date, hip, interesting, active, knowledgeable, capable and fun. Two women of the same age applying for the same job don't have equal chance if one colors her hair and the other doesn't - the one who colors is likely to get the job if both are qualified. The one who doesn't color her hair has "let herself go" and is therefore less valuable as a person.


This all upsets me quite a bit, as I'm sure it does everyone as they age, but considering that everyone is aging (sorry, young people, it will happen to you, too, God willing) you'd think the older people of the nation would unite and work on changing the societal norm of being youth-obsessed. No, this is not the case, they are the ones pushing supporting the ageism movement. 


Now, once I got good and riled up, and wanted to rebel against society telling me what to do, lol, I agreed to stop coloring my hair and see how it went. Rick was very happy about this, because he admires "natural" women, whom he considers to be strong, powerful and attractive. He thought I'd look great with gray hair. Silver ladies, pray he, or a guy like him, is the one to conduct your next job interview.

For anyone who has lived through the transition of growing out hair color without literally buzzing your hair down to the skull, it is not much fun. I'm sure women who are well endowed in the chest know the feeling, but this is the opposite - people's eyes constantly flit upwards to your hairline instead of down to your boobs. You can see their mind pass over the reasons you've allowed your roots to show:  she's really low on money, poor dear; she doesn't realize she needs a root touch-up, poor dear; she's MUCH older than I thought, poor dear.... etc. I, like many women, resorted to wearing headbands when the white stripe was too strange-looking. I had one tipsy guy at a party once lift the edge of my headband and say, "It appears that the color of your hair is very different at the front than at the back." Congratulations! You win the Observant Award! Then he asked me why.  Why? Because I'm letting my gray come in, dummy. I had a question or two for him about his look and grooming habits, but I was raised better than that. 


The real question was, "Why aren't you covering the gray in your hair?" This went on and on, and on and on, because it takes years to grow out color, and it takes years before you don't look like something went horribly wrong on the top of your head. Styling choices took on new meaning - a bun means your dark color-treated hair is plopped right atop the shining white part, and you look like you have a fake bun, but wearing it down shows the clear line where the new growth was not colored and it is more noticeable. You can cut it all off or not, try low-lights or color washes to ease the transition, etc. It was a long road!


It became part of my identity, and still is, obviously, since I'm blogging about it. It gets brought up nearly every day by someone, depending on how many places I go. Now that it is mostly grown out, or at least it looks natural and the darker areas are in the back and at the ends so it doesn't look like a beauty school accident I don't get the odd looks, but people do the double-take. I'm 46 so certainly not one of these really young women who sport gray hair (this is a stunning look!), but people definitely seem surprised when they realize I'm not a much older person, or I'm guessing that's the reason. When I'm paying for something, or dealing with the general public directly I often get compliments about my hair, or with a new or casual acquaintance they'll say, and this happens a lot to me, "Well, it looks good on YOU, but I could never do it." To me this is not a complement, but I'm not sure why, though they surely mean it to be. Am I really getting away with something? That's sad!

My own mother, who is in her 70s and still colors her hair brown, was initially upset that I was letting my gray grow in - she was not happy having a daughter with gray hair. Most of my other family members were supportive, and even a cousin or two told me they were going to do the same thing. Someone even told me that I would be "unhirable" and that you must keep yourself up to get a job these days, with unemployment so high. 


The main thing I get is that I'm "brave" to do it. If this is bravery, what do you call what our troops are up to in Afghanistan? I guess in our culture it IS brave to take something that can so simply and easily be corrected, and choose not to correct it, like not shaving your legs. 

My hair is so much healthier and shinier, and it feels soft. It takes a bit of extra attention to conditioning so it doesn't look frizzy, but that's not hard to accomplish these days with the array of hair care products available. I use a blue/purple shampoo to keep the white bright, since it can yellow with sun, chlorine, pollution, etc. I feel freer somehow, like I have a secret, though I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would recommend I resume coloring it. I saw a woman recently who is in her 50s and has a gorgeous straight angled bob of gleaming silver hair, and she looks wonderful - I don't know that I'll look wonderful but I'm looking forward to my hair being more gray than brown. 

To that end, I can say the worst is over and I'm on the road to pure silver. Hopefully this will not keep me from succeeding professionally, but the medical field is a little more forgiving than some other fields might be when it comes to appearance. Being well-groomed and professional in manner and attire can make up the difference, I hope. At the least maybe it will give others the idea that maybe they don't need to color anymore, either.


Ultimately, I am happy I did it, and far more people give me truly genuine and heartfelt compliments. My husband loves it, and is my biggest supporter - he considers it his life's work to do what he can to make me feel beautiful. Well, maybe until I stop shaving my legs, but that's another post. ;-p

The wee fishies are here: 12 wild crossed with domestic silver (50/50) angels. I ordered 10 but got a few extras. All are in perfect condition and very healthy, packed 4 to a bag. They were packed beautifully - very carefully done with cool packs. Big shout out to Jim Scarola (Prontodelivery on Aquabid) for some lovely specimens. He was very, very prompt to get back to me to answer my questions and shipping was fast and just as requested.

Sorry for the crappy pic but I'm at work and using my phone. They're acclimating slowly to the local water (my house is 5 minutes away) and I will bring them home and acclimate them again to the tank they're going into, which has params very close to this tank at work, except the tank at home has almond (catappa) leaves to acidify the water slightly, giving it some antiseptic properties.

Today's the Day!

My wild Peruvian "Altum" (scalare) angel cross fry come in today! Will post video later.

Summer Shakeup

The tanks have been in a static situation for the past few months. I've been watching the Geophagus grow and start to color up, and am keeping the 45 gal cycled and using a quarantine for new tetras. I've obtained quite a few more H. bentosi, or at least something like that - there are several very similar species on the market right now that mostly resemble bentosi, though I'm sure I have "rosy tetras" too, H. rosacea. They are doing well in the 150 and I wanted a nice large group.

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.