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Speaking of the plecos, the ugly brown algae (always first to a new tank, it seems) has been replaced by the hair algae stuff.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...

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.

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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...

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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.

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The angels are coming out in the open now.

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More Indy love.

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

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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.

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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...

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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???

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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.

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