Weekends mean Water Changes
Took the spawn to Connecticut to stay with their Grandparents for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!!!!!1 !1!11!!!1!!one ! ! !1!eleventyone! And Angie is in Ireland. That's right, I have a big honkin' can of...
Yes! Wife-B-Gone, for occasional relief of Spousal Duties. Now improved and Fortified with patented Kidz-A-Way, child repellent. (For occasional use only. If symptoms persist, contact your lawyer.)
While I was up there, my brother's common law fiance (or my girlfriend in law, if you prefer. Awesome lady: total competence, nicely packaged, fun to talk to.) gave me a 45 gallon high bevel front aquarium, like the one to the left, but twice the size, and no stand. She had been using it as a mosquito farm until my dad pointed out to her that if she turned it upside down she could avoid that use. I need to ckec it for leaks, decide where to put it and build a stand. The conundrum is that I think I would like to use this as a corner tank, to have the biggest span of glass pointed forward. That means I won't be able to use the lid or light. so I may go open topped with this, and suspend the lighting from the ceiling. Can't find a good picture anywhere, but I am thinking of planting a pair of peace lilies in the corners, putting a bigass hunk of slate across the back to hide the hardware, and stocking it with angelfish.
I have had a massive algae problem in the big tank, and I came home to find that the Amazon tank had heated to about 88 degrees and developed an algea problem of it's own. Also, the Guppies (with one notable exception-more on that later) seem to be doing really well in Lizzie's tank, so I think that's where they will stay for now.
So, today I found this place in Gaithersburg: Tropical Fish World (Their Web Site). Most excellent store. Mostly Freshwater, but some saltwater. Couple of the employees keep fancy plecos of various sorts, so I figured I ought to be able to find the bushynose plecos I wanted. Bushy-noses are some of the best algae eaters out there.
Yeah, they grow up sort of Lovecraft, but they really keep the tank clean, and they top out around 5 inches (as opposed to common plecos, that get up to 20", seriously.) I got three babys, an inch to and inch and a half long, too young for the bristles to have come in, and they are happily working away at the gunch on the sides and back of the big tank.(Bought a better algae scrubber to help it along too.) Since the big tank is allegedly Southeast Asian, the plecos are migrant workers. I haven't named them yet, since I won't be able to sex them for a while, but males will be named Paco, Roderigo, and Manuel, and females will be Rosalita, Dolores, and Inez
So the big tank is set for now. All the fish seem to be acclimated except the kuhlis, which are rearely seen. he cherry barbs are starting to get big - 2" or so. Almost time to pull out the corys and switch the loaches back in.
While I was there, I got a school of 6 glo-light tetras for the Amazon tank. The orange and olive make a really nice contast to the black and electric blue/silver on the black neons, and the Glo-lights tend to hang out lower in the water than the neons. If I put a black background on the tank (which I really ought to do. It'll really help with the algae) they'll look even better
I vacuumed out the tank and took out about 3 gallons, then added in about 3 ½. I also rinsed out the filter medium, as it had gotten clogged with all the algae I scaped off the side of the tank. Mr. Pleakly is really laying down on the job. I may yet net one of the Bushy Noses out of the big tank and give it a vacation in the Amazon tank when I switch out the Cory's and Loaches. Kind of like a remittance.
Over to Swirly's tank. Did about a 50% water change. Vacuumed what gravel I could. Put a double dose of AmQuel in the replacement water, and put ammonia reducing chips in the filter. Rinsed the filter meduim on that one too. Unfortunately, the problem there was not algae, (Jumbaa seems to be keeping up nicely) but the bacteria culture from the sponge from the old filter. Kind of sucks I had to rinse it off, as it too cuts back on the ammonia, and Swirly is a regular piss machine.
Another thing I got up in Connecticut: a quarter pound or so of earthworms. I chopped a couple up and tossed them in, and Swirly did chow mightily. He do like his worms. (Tossed a couple finely chopped into the big tank too to see if the corys or kuhlis will enjoy. The cherry barbs were looking them over when I left). Since I moved the Fancy Guppies to Lizzie's Tank, I got him 10 feeder guppies. That's like 5% of the price of the fancy gppies that were in there, and I still get to toss any fry I get from them in with Swirly. Hoping some of the feeders survive to breed, but not counting on it.
I was a little worried that Swirly was getting some fungus around his neck, but it turned out to be dog hair. (Norwegian Elkhounds can projectile shed through a steel plate, so aquarium glass is no problem.)
The Lavender Prism of Doom is shedding its lambent glow over an empty room for the next couple of weeks. All but one of the fancy guppys are thriving in there. one of them seems to either have continuing transfer shock, or a swim bladder problem - clamped fins, shimmies, lassitude, problems with keeping oriented in the water. I put 2 tbsp of Aquarium salt in there and a double does of AmQuel in the change water. I took out about 2 gallons and replaced it. If I can find my vial of All-Cure, I'll drip some of that in too.
Netted a bunch of mosquito Larvae and pupae out of the kiddee pool (I got every pupa I could lay hands on. Feeding the larave to the fish is a servie to the fish. Feeding the pupae to the fish is a service to the community.) Every tank got a share, and 2 hours later, not a wriggler to be seen.
That's it for now.