Why do I love Mondays?

Oh wait! I don't. I came home today and Gary was dead. He was the oldest fish I had, even though I just got him earlier this year. I guess that BettaPlus stuff isn't really all that great, or maybe I'm just not good with bettas; I'm going with the latter. So now the only betta I have is Liberty, and she's doing great. She still swims around all over her little tank, and her fins and scales are all healthy. Anyway, I got a replacement tiger barb today at PetCo. He seems to be doing pretty well, though he's a bit bigger than the rest of mine; oh well.

Nobody likes a sore loser

And I don't think I am one. I didn't win that 75 gallon tank, but I did win a $25 gift card in the Aquarium Store's raffle. Anddd, since everything in the store was 20% off, I bought a bamboo shrimp. He's super shy, and he hasn't really moved much since I put him in the 20 long. While I was scrubbing some junk off the leaves of the big Amazon sword, I noticed there wasn't much of a current coming from the filters, so I opened them and they were really clogged up. I flipped the sponges around and the filters are working again, but I'll need to buy some new media soon.

I cleaned the 55 gallon today. I scrubbed algae off the walls, vacuumed the gravel (that was nastyyy), and changed out 10 gallons. I also moved around everything and added a bigger cave, along with about 5 pounds of gravel. I took out the pine log; it had been in the tank since I set it up, and it still wouldn't sink. With the new cave, the tank seems less plain, so I don't feel like I need anything else to make it complete. A tiger barb disappeared a few days ago though, so I think I'm getting a replacement sometime next week. Anyway, the bichir seems to really like his new cave, and the cory catfish have taken up residence in his old one.

Ohhh, and I finally got a clear picture of all the tiger barbs swimming as a school.  :D

Here's a couple videos

This is the bichir having a snack:



And some fishy porn:

It's been a long weekend

But still not long enough; I hate that Sunday evening "omfg, I don't wanna go to school tomorrow" feeling.

So yesterday, I volunteered to help with the cats at PetsMart in the LifeLine Animal Project group. I helped someone else clean out the cages, then hung around for a while and answered potential adopters' questions. The adoption coordinator said they need a volunteer for next weekend, so I'll probably do it again. While I was at PetsMart, I got some more feeder minnows for the bichir.

After I got home, my dad took me over to the Aquarium Store. I've been wanting some tetras for the 20 long, but I decided to look around at the other fish too. We saw a couple African Butterfly fish, and my dad decided he wanted one. I was looking at the tetras they had, which were next to the tank with their plants and invertebrates. I noticed a freshwater clam at the bottom of the inverts tank, and the saleslady said she'd give it to me for only $5 since the Butterfly was $15, so I got it. I also got a big clump of java moss, along with all the baby snails that were attached to it.

After spending a bunch of my dad's money, I got five raffle tickets for the "big event" that the store is having next weekend. They're giving away a 75 gallon tank, and a bunch of other stuff too; I really don't need it, nor would I have anywhere to put it, but I'm sure I'll find somewhere for it to go. You'll probably see me on one of those hoarding shows when I'm older.

So I got home and tossed the clam into the 55 without acclimating it, put the Butterfly in the 55 to float in her bag, and twist-tied the moss to the wood in the 20 long. The new plant had more snails than I thought, and the tank is now infested with them; good thing I didn't get rid of Trooper yet. Then after researching about the Butterfly a bit, I found out that she comes from the same place as the bichir and is also a carnivore. They prefer crickets and other surface insects. They like soft acidic water, do not like floating plants, and are aggressive to any other top-dwelling fishes. So I won't be getting another kissing gourami.

Soon after I released the Butterfly into the tank (I think I'll name him Maxwell), my tiger barbs were acting pretty funny. So I watched them for a bit. The males were chasing each other all over the tank, and then going back to the females (who seemed to be eating something out of the gravel) and twisting around them. They were mating. I doubt I'll get any babies though, since tiger barbs eat their spawn. I have more males than females, so the males that wanted to mate (all of them) were having trouble keeping the other males away from their claimed female. The one deformed female didn't get any lovin' though; she's super chubby, and oddly shaped in general. But anyway, I tried to catch a few of the eggs with my brine shrimp net before they got eaten and I dumped them into the breeder's net that I used for the gourami's isolation. So they might, possibly, maybe, perhaps have a chance at hatching and growing up.

I went to PetCo today for some crickets and feeder minnows (all the ones from PetSmart died, so I'm not getting anymore from there), and I got six Bloodfin tetras. They seem to be doing pretty well, and the Bolivians are already starting to gain their confidence back. It was well worth it, and I might even get a couple more; they look amazing against the green plants and dark background of my tank.

Of course, even getting 3 or four minnows every day, the bichir decided to eat the clam today. It hadn't even been in the tank for 24 hours, and it's already an empty shell. I think I'll leave the shell in there though for decoration. I'm blaming the whole thing on my dad though; I wanted the clam to go in the 20 gallon, but he said that since he was paying for it, he wanted it in the 55. I knew it would be eaten, and I am so peeved, but my dad just laughs about it.

Cleaning day for the bettas

So after four hot hours at the horse farm this morning, I decided to clean my betta tanks. I started around 2:30, emptied and scrubbed the first one, then set it back up around 4:30. The second one only took an hour, then I had to scrub the jar that Gary was in. I got everything done and the fish were in their tanks by around 6:30. I didn't really expect it to take all that long, but I really didn't have anything else to do.

While I was filling the tanks back up, I wanted to try out the NutraFin Betta Plus that I got the other day. The directions said to use 1 capful per 1/2 gallon, but the bottle is so small. I mostly just want to see how my bettas do with the Indian Almond Leaf extract in their tanks. So I only put two capfuls in each tank, then used my Aqueon conditioner. I didn't bother to scrape the bubbles off anything in the tanks yet, but they'll come off eventually anyway.

Gary really seems to like the new tank. He has more horizontal swimming space than he did in the jar, and he has more light than what the kitchen window provided. As soon as I put him in the tank, he was already looking for food, so that's a good sign. But I noticed that his gill plates are looking pretty bad, so I hope that Betta Plus stuff works.

Liberty is just swimming around like she always has. The lighter-colored gravel makes her colors stand out better, and she looks a little more purple than before. It's super cutee.

After I got done with cleaning the tanks, I decided to clean my room (hahahahah). I got most of it clean, but  I'll be finishing some other day. That pretty much means it'll never be done. But I feel pretty good about my weekend; I accomplished more than I had originally planned.

Productive way to spend a Saturday?

I think so. My dad took me to PetCo to return a bad light bulb I got the other day. Then we went to PetsMart and got a Flora-Glo 20 watt bulb. The saleslady let us put it in one of the display light fixtures to see if it worked before we bought it, and it did, so I gathered up a few other things I needed and left. I changed the bulb when we got home, and the new one sort of makes my tank look red? It's really weird, but I'm sure the yellow water doesn't really help.

The other stuff I got was for a diy CO2 diffuser. I decided last night that I was going to make one for my 20 long. So I followed the instructions on here, but I used a milk jug, along with more sugar and a whole packet of yeast. I didn't seal the the hose in the cap because my dad used a drill bit smaller than the hose's diameter and pulled the hose through with pliers, so it's a pretty tight fit.

After I got everything ready, I hooked up hoses and airstones and everything and put them behind my filters. While I was messing with the filters, I cleaned the sponges and everything; that was disgustingg. I also hooked up an air pump with a timer set opposite my lights. If the water's surface doesn't break, then it will trap CO2 in the water, and when there isn't any light, plants use oxygen and produce CO2 instead. With the extra CO2 that I'm adding, there would be quite a bit of it building up while my lights are off. All the CO2 at night would also cause pH fluctuations, which are never good. This would make my fishies die, and we do not want that to happen.

I decided today would also be a good day to pick off all the dead leaves on my plants, scrape some algae off the wood, and replant everything that came up in the process. I also changed the direction of one filter to go the same direction as the other, rather than having them both pointed toward the back wall. Now the current is going around the entire tank.

The Bolivians seem to be really shy since I took Liberty out. They always flip out and hide now when I come near the tank. So these guys definitely need some dither fish. Next weekend my dad said I might be able to get some tetras or something, probably either serpaes or cardinals.

And one thing that ruined my day? My kissing gourami died. Josh said his other eye was missing, but my dad fished him out of the tank and flushed him before I even woke up. I feel pretty bad about it, mostly because I'm the one who took him out of isolation. And I didn't even get to say goodbye to him. My dad said that when we get the tetras, I might be able to get a new centerpiece for the 55 too. I don't really know if I trust the bichir enough for that though.

Tomorrow, I'm going to take both of my 2.5 gallon tanks and dump them. I'll scrub the decorations with something, not sure what yet, but I don't really want the algae coming back. I'll replace the gravel with some regular stuff, then set them both back up. Gary is finally going to have an actual tank again, so I think he'll be pretty happy with that.

No more bettas for meee

JayJay has been acting really off recently, and he's been sitting on the gravel at the bottom only coming to the surface to breathe and eat, which isn't very often. He also had a very mild case of fin rot, which I seem to have horrible luck with. Today when I got home from school, he was laying on his side, not moving at all, so I thought he was dead. I nudged him with a net and he shot up towards the surface to get a breath, then sunk back down to the bottom. So I left him there, and about four hours later I came back to check on him. He died. So I took him out and flushed him. Since I don't have very good luck with bettas, I don't think I'll be getting any more of them. I'll just stick with Gary and Liberty.

And the good news? I took the kissing gourami out of isolation today. Since he lost his eye, he's been a lot calmer than before. He doesn't struggle when I catch him in a net, and he doesn't flip around in it or anything like he used to. So I let him out into the tank and he swam off into the back corner; he positioned himself so that his blind side was by the wall and he could look over the entire tank. I watched him for a few minutes to make sure he was doing alright, then checked up on him about once every hour. I turned off the light already, so I'll probably check on him again in the morning.

Since I have an empty 2.5 gallon tank, Gary gets to move in to it! Yayy for him, but I need to clean it first. I think I'm just going to dump the gravel that's in it, and put some regular stuff in. I'll probably tear Liberty's tank down too and replace the gravel. I hate that blue-green algae that invades all my tanks. I read somewhere that it's toxic to fish, and that's why nothing will eat it; you have to scrub it off, then it just comes back within a few days. Once it has been on something, it's going to come back no matter what. And it's not fun. It's all over the big piece of wood in my 20 long, and even took over my red temple plant that came uprooted. It's basically a big mass of green at the surface of the tank now.

Since most of my plants in the 20 long aren't doing very well, I've decided I'm going to get a few more fish for the tank. After all, it only has the two Bolivians and a snail. Since I don't have any CO2 going into the tank, I think that's why the plants are starting to die; so maybe if I get more fish, which will in turn produce more CO2, they might come back? So I've been thinking about neon tetras, and maybe a wood shrimp. The neons would love the yellowy water and live plants, and the shrimp would probably help me keep the water a little cleaner.

Time for a change

Recently I've noticed that Liberty, my female betta, is really fat. She's always the first one to the food in my 20 long, and she pigs out since the Bolivians are slow eaters. She likes to swim a lot, but she still stays fat. So I decided she's going on the same diet as my other male bettas – a small pinch of bloodworms every two or three days. 

After 6 or 7 hours on Lake Lanier, my mom took me to PetsMart to get another 2.5 gallon tank. I set it up next to JayJay's tank, and I have to find a new place for Gary since there isn't enough light for all three to be on my dresser. She seems to be doing alright so far in her new home, and I hope it stays that way. 

While scooping out some water from the 20 long to help acclimate her to the new tank, I noticed that the water was yellow, and realized why all my pictures of that tank are so yellowy; the wood from the farm is leaching tannins into the water since I hadn't soaked it before putting it in. Tannins don't really do anything besides color the water. If you really don't want any tannins though, you can soak the wood for a while in a bucket, changing the water out every few days or so until they're gone. 

At the lake, Christine and I saw some huge bluegill sunfish. We tried to lure them out from under the boat, but they didn't seem to like the food we offered. We also saw a small freshwater jellyfish (Craspedacusta sowerbii) that was about the size of a quarter. I had heard of them before, but very rarely, so I wasn't entirely sure it existed. But it does! It was about the size of a quarter, and it was clearish with white organs, so it looks sort of like a little flower. My dad swam over to it and put his hands under it, it floated away from him, then shot off into the depths. I've decided that I want one. I found a website for reported sightings and some information about the jellies, and sent in an e-mail about the one I saw. They're usually seen in large groups of over a thousand!