Shrimps!

We've added a couple of Bamboo Shrimp here lately.

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These guys are filter feeders, sitting in the current, holding out fans to catch various debris to eat.

They're fun, odd, and peacefull all wrapped up together in one package. The clerk warned of them being fragile when we bought them. Well, of course they're fragile in the store with all the changing in's and out's of the store lifestyle. As with all invertebrates, they require stability. And, once home, and settled, they both grew nice colors which range from brown to red depending on mood, it seems, and that lovely stripe down their back.

Unfortunately, things haven't been going so great with other things.

Alec's 10 gallon tank has come alive marvelously. The plan to use used gravel from my tank, and used water from Kyles to fill it initially worked TREMENDOUSLY.

Put in a Betta immediately, and a couple of Neons a week later. 1 neon died on introduction (but where Alec dropped the bag, I was more shocked more didn't). His tank gets some direct sun in the mornings, though, and he had a NASTY case of algae going on. I decided to give a try to an old suckerfish we'd never had luck with.

The Otocinclus.

3 have STRIPPED the entire tank spotless, and are now having to be fed algae wafers! Makes me curious whether they'ld survive my tank...sure solve the more moderate algae problem we got in there, slowly coming under control.

Encouraged by the success of his Neons, we tried some, figuring if they turned into snacks, they could end up in Kyles tank. Nope. Snacks in mine, they didn't tolerate Kyle's either. That's more the carnage one expects from Neons...

Furthermore, the Paradise fish have continued to thin...we're down to 2. And, one of the sun Cat's suffered an injury and has passed. We're down to 1 of those (but not a big deal, remember, they get 18" and were going to have to be removed eventually).

So, it's mostly down to the angels and tetras.

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Silver and Black....fitting.

The Paradise Fish will likely be replaced by some Blue Gourami. I'ld like a couple more shrimps just for fun, and we'll need something to address the algae. (considering even more shrimps) Otherwise, it's just let those angels continue to grow.

New additions.

Many changes since the last update.

Foremost, is the addition of some Lamp Eye Tetras (aka Red Eye Tetras).

From An UnOrthOdOx Aquarium

These guys just together and flit from one side of the tank to the other and back. Not as small as some Tetras, so as to not be seen as food, the Paradise Fish have so far reacted by curbing all agressive behavior, and are clearly unsure how to handle the shoal.

From An UnOrthOdOx Aquarium

We've also added a number of new plants, and a bubble wall. The tetras love the bubble wall, and are often seen playing in it. So do the plecos, it seems. We even had a snail playing in the bubble wall for a while.

From An UnOrthOdOx Aquarium

Speaking of the plecos, the ugly brown algae (always first to a new tank, it seems) has been replaced by the hair algae stuff. The Plecos don't seem to care, and are munching on it all. Next is the green algae most people actually think of when you say 'algae'. All actually promising, and indications of a healthy environment.

Speaking of Healthy, those darn Khuli Loaches... Hide and seek is a normal game with them, but I was thuroughly unprepared to have one living in the aquarium FILTER when I cleaned this weekend. Caught her and tossed her back in the tank. But, I think it may have been a few babies I saw get down the drain before I could catch them...

Food, and Girls...

I guess Kyle got a bit of a show 2 nights ago.

He awoke on the verge of tears to tell Jen one of his fish had killed another.

The Notorious CAE (Chinese Algae Eater) lived up to it's reputation...

Several years ago, we were starting the 80 gallon tank for the first time. And, it being in the front room, with plenty of sun, Algae was going to be an issue. But, I had this brilliant plan to deal with it: Only buying fish that EAT algae.

The Mbuna Cichlids would peck at things just fine, but to clean the glass, we needed a sucker fish. Enter the CAE. We bought several of the 'Golden' variety. The bad temperment they are known for as adults wasn't a concern with Cichlids. The Cichlids were MORE than capable of defending themselves.

Well, in the mean time, Kyles tank served as a maternity ward for 'pregnant' cichlids, and the fry. As such, he really had a bare minimum of fish. But, we threw one of the CAE's in his tank for good measure to keep it clean.

THAT...was a long time ago..

When we took down the 80 gallon tank to redo the floors, we dumped a second CAE in his tank just in case I went the Mbuna route again. And, they've lived happily for 2 years. Munching on the abundant Algae happily. Alone...

Last week, however, we uprooted their world.

Alec wanted HIS tank working. (NEVER buy a 10 gallon tank, it's been nothing but trouble) And, I got this bright idea we'ld empty Alecs tank completely, START OVER. Use some of the leftover gravel from the old 80 gallon tank, clean the crap out of Kyle's, and fill Alec's with the dirty, pre-cycled water we cleaned out of Kyle's.

This ensured Alec was starting with a nice, cycled system. HOPEFULLY enough to prevent the 10 gallon death trap syndrome.

Now...we haven't fed Kyle's cleaners in 2 years, remember. They've just been eating the naturally growing Algae. But, a week ago, we stirred all that gravel up, we scrubbed down the walls, and we ripped out the decorations.

I didn't think about it at the time...but we ripped out their food sources...

As I've mentioned before...

Food and girls are the typical sources of fish aggression.

Lack of food, and yep, they beat the holy crap out of anything.

I wouldn't hesitate to get another CAE. Yes, they get a little grumpy when they're hungry, but hey, who doesnt?

In the mean time, Kyle's learning the law of the Jungle. Yes, the smaller one died...yes, that's the one that's always been "his", and "it was just a kid".

Blame dad. I forgot about food and girls...

Product Review: Hydor Ario

So...

I've been wanting an airstone or bubble wall in this tank. And, while looking over air pumps, I came across the Hydor Ario Color.

The size for an 80 gallon tank is considerably cheaper than an equivalent airpump. And, I liked the idea of everything fitting IN the tank. No mess in the cabinets, no mangled mass of air tubes. The lighting, I thought might be a neat feature as well. So, we bought the Airo 4 with green light for $24.

Excited, I cracked open the box first thing when we got home.

Black airline tubing that looked to be of very high quality was impressive, as was the multitude of suction cups to secure both airline tubing and electrical chord.

The "instructions" to put the thing together was a diagram. And not a step-by-step style diagram, but rather an expanded diagram that was difficult to make out. Thankfully, I've done enough automotive repair with my dad to have seen more than my share of these expanded diagrams, and everything was together fairly quick.

Not the easiest of things to install into a full tank. That took some time to dig everything up and make room to get this all to the glass bottom, under the gravel, get it all set up, (have the parts fall off and reassemble IN TANK) and get the gravel back covering the plate to the proper depth, as recommended for "best stability".

Time for the final test...

The Ario produces a very impressive torrent of bubbels, and a pretty decent current along with them to circulate the water. I have no doubts they are superb aerators. And, the light was as cool as I expected it to be, if a bit brighter.

Here, I found a video of one in action.



HOWEVER.

The box we bought listed among the features "Now with less vibration".

It stands to reason, then, vibration was once a problem, yes? Well, it still is.

The thing was vibrating the entire tank. I could feel with my hand on the glass. The fish were going nuts, and I shut it down after just a few seconds. Reading up, it was claimed this was due to the thing being against the glass. So, I moved it, making sure the entire rig was in the center of the tank, and turned it on again. Same problem.

I even pulled the enitire thing out, stuck it in the sink, and filled the sink with water. Just as much vibration there.

Ah well. It's a great idea for aeration. And, in researching, I've learned they were designed for hydroponics first, aquariums second.

So, to top it off, I'm probably on some watch list to make sure we're not trying to grow something funny.

Ah well, it's not a total loss. I'm sure my other hobby can find a use for a cool green light and bubble making machine...

Hide and Seek.

The War against Algae has begun...

Meet the front-line troops.

Plecos that are not ludicrously ugly and won't get massively large are rather hard to come by.

These guys are a challenge to see...

From Aquarium

From Aquarium

Cycling...

Lots of waiting these days...

Making sure everything is up to snuff before adding new fish.

The Paradise fish are GLUTTONS!

They'll eagerly eat ANYTHING. INCLUDING MY HAND. Would easily be trained to feed out of your hand. And, these last couple days, the Angels have come to where they come right up to the top and grab spots to feed right next to the Paradise fish as well.

Have had some flashes of aggression from the Paradise fish towards each other. As is typical, though, increased feeding curbed the aggression. Usually food and girls are the sources of fish aggression...

Speaking of girls...

From Aquarium

Add a snail to the death toll.

Snails are finicky, though, I'm not exactly concerned.

Old school solutions

Seems to be a theme going on with this aquarium.

Old School. REALLY old school.

First, we have the Paradise fish. It was among the first fish exported for the hobby. Once king of the aquarium.

Then, there was the angels. Who replaced the paradise fish as kings of the aquarium in the early 1900's.

Why then, should one seek out the newfangled shrimp to solve the little growth problem on the wood?

As long as we're going OLD school, let's go OLD SCHOOL.

SNAILS! Keep your shrimp, snails are some of the best cleaners. Old school cleaners.

From Aquarium

Oh, sure, there's the bad wrap of multiplying unchecked and everything...so, we needed something to keep THAT in check as well. Enter the redtail shark. Oldschool solution to snails...

From Aquarium

Within a day of adding these guys, the fuzz on the log is gone. So, we rolled it over to let them pick at the other side. A day later, all that fuzz was gone as well. To my surprise, though, the shark loved it as well.

So, with all that, the current death toll:

1 paradise fish. Cause of death: Getting stuck in the intake on the canister filter. Fixed that situation.

1 eclipse catfish. Cause of death: apparantly choking on one of those newfangled shrimp that got accidentally scooped in with our shark.

Otherwise, this tank is coming along nicely.

From Aquarium

The angels are coming out in the open now.

From Aquarium

More Indy love.

From Aquarium

Grocery day, when given an impromptu perch to rest on.

From Aquarium

Doing it all wrong.

It's been interesting researching the aquarium this time around.

Everyone has their own opinions, and I'm doing it ALL wrong.

As I read up on individual additions or intended additions to my tank, I'm finding sites dedicated SPECIFICALLY to that particular fish. And, universally, they share one common theme:

The goal of keeping fish should be to breed them.

Uh. No thanks.

We did breed our cichlids last time, at first out of curiousity. There is simply not enough outlets to breed fish, especially for the layman. PetSmart/PetCo won't take them. And most smaller stores either can't take the volume a single breeding pair of anything produces, or have been run out of business by the big chains.

For instance, one female, one brood, of our cichlids produced over 60 fish. After giving half away to random folks, we turned them into a local fish store, only to have the same problem a month later and start flushing.

Nah, the goal of this aquarium is for it to be pretty and easy.

What's frustrating, though, is trying to research suitable tank-mates. This site says 2 fish do fine together and quotes this book here. This other one disputes that and quotes this book there...

Yeah, the hell with it. We'll go with what has worked for me in the past.

A lesson learned:

Don't trust PetSmart.

The Eclipse cat was bought with a couple things in mind: I needed something that could hold it's own vs Cichlids if we went that route, yet something that was mild enough for a community tank if we went that route.

The sign at PetSmart listed these catfish as semi-aggressive, maximum size 5", best when not alone. So, we got 3. And, they do tend to dogpile on each other in the tank, and are perfectly content to just sit there and not pester everyone.

However, there was NO, and I do mean NONE, ZERO, ZILCH, information on an eclipse catfish. Turns out they are Sun Catfish.

Baensch reports the maximum length as 130mm. Imports have been recorded larger than this size and the maximum size given elsewhere in hobby literature is 450mm.


So, PetSmart is obviously using whatever Baensch is as it's information. 5-6", just what I needed...however, 450mm translates to 18"! There's some debate whether there are 2 species at play here. THIS is what you get when you buy something on impulse rather than doing your homework.

I may end up having to kill off the eclipse if they do start growinng towards the 18" mark. (sorry, 18" catfish sounds more like a catch than aquarium denizen)

Next came the Paradise fish...

Staring at the tank. Some experience sexing gouramis, and I can't tell any difference in any of the Paradise fish. We buy 7, hoping for a mix of male/female.

Once again, reading up more on the topic, Paradise fish aren't precisely gourami, and turns out we gots us 7 males. No females are for sale locally.

This is potentially a problem since paradise fish tend to have an attitude only comparably to the Siamese Fighting Fish (aka Betta). I have seen a bit of posturing and posing in the tank, but no real hostility. We might have to import some girls if that becomes a problem.

The good news is they like gourami females as well. I might be able to find some of those females locally.

Finally, Wood.

Mopani wood, to be precise.

Following recomendations, we boiled the stuff. Which was a fun process...

From Aquarium

This was SUPPOSED to leach off all the tannins to prevent it from turning the water brown, and kill off all the foreign material.

Nope.

Brown water the next day. Nothing a change of some carbon can't fix. But, the cracks of the logs still have SOMETHING in them, causing some lovely cotton-like fungus to grow.

From Aquarium

Turns out this is normal for the Mopani wood, and not harmfull to fish. But, I sure don't like it. The reccomendations are to get some shrimps to eat it. FINDING said shrimps is easier said than done right now, however.

The angels seem to be enjoying whatever it is, though, and they've slowly been pecking at it. Possibly the loaches as well, though they are sneaky and nocturnal, so it's hard to say.

Denizens

Our current list of denizens.

I'll go into what all is going wrong on a later post...


First we have the "eclipse cat".

I've long believed in getting your catfish first. They are hardy, and the staple of keeping the tank cleaned. PetSmart had these guys listed as "eclipse cats", and they were picked first due to not having decided on the rest of the denizens at that time, I needed something that might be in there with some really aggressive fish and hold it's own.

From Aquarium

Next up came the Paradise fish.

These were a lucky find. Originally intending to go a much different route with the tank, after some Ph tests made me determine I'ld rather not be fighting that battle with the water every time we clean, I was pleasantly surprised to find the Paradise fish not only readily available, but VERY affordable. Among the first tropical fish ever exported from Asia, they fit right in with the house as a whole. We have been a bit negligent at getting some shrimp to better bring out their orange and red coloring, next time we're at the store...

From Aquarium

From Aquarium

Then, the most recent additions came from a trip to the very south of Salt Lake. (12300 south!!!)

First, some of the kid's favorites...

Can you find the Khuli Loaches???

From Aquarium

And finally, what was, at one time, the holy grail of angels...

BLACK long finned angels. These guys right now are being skittish. It was an interesting store we bought these from. Vast numbers of tanks of all kinds of oddballs, and in part to maximize the selection, none had lights...

So the angels are a bit light shy, and try to hide whenever I turn the tank light on. They do eventually get used to it, but we're hoping a couple days of the routine here get's them acting more like angels are prone to.

From Aquarium

Shopping for "Fishies"

Talia loves the pet store, and has been fascinated with the tank Cole is setting up. She was so excited to push this little cart at Petco!




The aquarium is looking even more beautiful with the new additions and fish we added yesterday...I hope Cole can get a picture up soon. His camera is better suited for taking pics of the aquarium.

Discovery

Indy...

You would think, with Kyle's fishtank being up forever and all, Indy wouldn't be QUITE so fascinated with this process.

However. The poor cat is absolutely BONKERS about this big fishtank he's never seen before. Would have sworn there was catnip in the gravel...

From Aquarium

We're not exactly sure how he got IN there. One heck of a vertical, I suppose.

From Aquarium

And, when those first fish came in...

From Aquarium

From Aquarium

All over this little guy?

From Aquarium

The first challenge...

As mentioned, we tore down the aquarium to redo the floors, paint walls, etc.

The first challenge we faced coming back, however, is the oak aquarium and stand now did not really look good next to the mahogony floors...

The original plan was to find a suitable stand/hood combo that would hide the laminate trim on the aquarium and match the floors. Well, turns out they don't make mass-produced stands that have the lip to hide the aquarium trim these days. And, in searching around, a custom designed stand was going to run us over $1000. That was simply not in the budget.

So, I had settled in on the idea I was going to MAKE my own stand. And, since I was making it, I wouldn't need to go with convention, and could make some shelves to hold the Direct TV receiver that also sits under our aquarium.

The cost of wood, however, for a stand/canopy was going to be $500+, and that was going to need to wait till summer.

Then, I saw the PERFECT stand. Pretty much the exact design I was going to try to make...minus the lip to hide the aquarium. I had to show it to Jen, and she agreed it was perfect...

From Aquarium

BUT, we still had that problem of the oak trim showing on the actual aquarium...

THAT would take some genius thinking on my wife's part. Vynil.

From Aquarium

Suddenly, our aquarium matched.

From Aquarium