fml.

School started back up. I'm taking a printmaking class and so far, I've made a print of the dwarf seahorses from the Tennessee Aquarium and I'm working on one of my white angelfish.

I bought three Firemouth Cichlids from Atlantis Aquarium. Two days later, Laylah, the female Bolivian ram of the first pair I bought, died.

Two weeks later, I named my angels. The orange is Aki, which is Japanese for summer. The white is Haru, which means autumn. The next day, Aki died.

I got another gecko too :) I'm hoping this one is a male; I'm very sure that Kiwi and Papaya are females, and I can't see any pores on Mango so I think that one's a female too. The newest one, Guava, was only 6 days old when I got her a week ago, so it's too small to tell the sex yet.

You don't want

to find one of these in your aquarium.....
It's really disgusting.

Not going as planned

I decided to make the 110 into a paludarium with around 45 gallons of water and house some crested geckos in the top. I've got my little geckos (which are sooo cute) and I've been working on a 3D background to give the tank a more natural look and help the geckos feel more comfortable. I'm making it out of pink insulation styrofoam as a base, Great Stuff sprayable foam, concrete, and silicon. It has lots of ledges for the geckos, a waterfall, and a tree thing. I'm going to use more silicon to glue some eco-earth dirt to the top part for the geckos, since their skin is soft and easily ripped. I also got my riparium planters and made room to glue them onto my 3D background.

My mom wanted to move the 55 into the wall, so we cut a hole into the wall (a storage area was on the other side) and moved it behind the wall. It turned out great and looks fantastic.

I've decided

to convert a tank into a riparium. I ordered some hanging planters and floating trellis rafts from ripariumsupply.com and they should be here soon.

I sold my golden dojo loaches for $5 each to a very nice lady who told me that she got a nice full 90 gallon set-up from an estate sale for only $35.

So I found an estate sale near-by that was selling aquariums. They had hundreds of glass aquariums, mostly 110 gallons and up. I got a 110 gallon with a blonde maple stand and canopy and supplies for $160, which is a steal since I found the same stuff for $1500 online.

So I'm keeping the 55 as a full aquarium and putting the 110 together as the riparian system and moving all the 55 fish into it.

I'd like to sell two of my spotted bushfish and keep only one, but keep it in the 55 with maybe a Turquoise Severum or Electric Blue Jack Dempsey and something else that's slightly large. My dad has been wanting an electric catfish, so maybe even one of those!

dang itt

Tiger the scarlet badis disappeared. He was swimming around all happy and stuff, then I didn't see him for about a week. So I took everything out of his tank, emptied it and everything, but I never found him.

A couple days ago, I bought a plakat betta from PetCo and named him Taze. With Tiger gone, Taze can have his own little tank instead of the jar I had him in.

Liberty is in a small jar out of the molly tank since she was struggling with the current. I also feed the mollies a lot more than my bettas, so she was getting really fat.

I found two more baby mollies, which are both orange and black like the first one. So now I have four molly fry and two catfish fry :D

I've been thinking lately that just plain fish tanks is starting to get boring. About a month ago, I wanted to convert the 20 into a paludarium with a salamander or fire-belly toads or something, but then I got the mollies and I'm glad I didn't do it. But now I really want to convert the 55 into a riparium and its going to be super cool.

All my babies ♥

All four of themmmmm   :D

Georgia Aquarium

I went to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta last Monday, and it was better than Tennesseeeee.

Tennessee Aquarium

I went to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga over Spring Break, and it was coooool.

Baby mollies!

A gold dust lyretail, of course.

I saw him swim out from under a rock, then go back. So I picked up the rock and there was this one and a black one hiding under it. They were the only two babies in the tank, so I tried to scoop them up real quick. But I wasn't fast enough and I think my betta got the black one :(

This little one is in the container with my baby catfish for now; they're almost the same size even though this molly is a whole month younger.

Well that sucks

The Aquarium Store called me two weeks ago Monday and said they were going out of business - everything reduced to 50% off. So I went there and got three Leopard Ctenompoma for only $10 and a new heater for the 55 (the old ones finally stopped working) for $20. I went back that Saturday, which was their last day open, and got two Sailfin Mollies (both male), four Lyretail Mollies (two male, two female), five Flame Tetras, a Clown Pleco, and a Marineland Magnum 350 canister filter for $140. It was a reallyyyy good deal.

The filter came with a bunch of media for the first "run-through" (idk) until it needs cleaned. It came with a bio-wheel type of thing that removes little particle from the water. The new filter has already cleared all the tannins from the water, so it's super clear and looks soooo much better now. One of the tetras has already died, but everything else is going great.

Two of the three baby catfish are still alive, but one of them has just one eye. I would cull it, the friend who wanted them when they hatched doesn't mind it only having one eye. And it's my very first batch of fry, so I just can't kill it anyway. The mollies I got are too fast for me to get a good picture of them, but I promise to have one sooon.

My catfish had babies!

They laid eggs four days ago and most of them got eaten before I even noticed them. I managed to save a few and three of them hatched! So I need to get some baby brine shrimp tomorrow to feed them once their yolk is gone.

Sorry it's been so long!

I've been reallyyyy busy lately with school projects and term papers and important tests and whatnot. I'll try to get all my fish-of -the-month things made up by next week.

All my shrimp have died, so the only thing in that little 2.5 is Tiger the scarlet badis. I moved the other badis, who I've named Slater, into the other 2.5 that I have and gave him an anubias and split the moss and wood between the two tanks. They both seem pretty happy with it. I still haven't really seen Tiger eat much since I got him, but he's gotta be eating something if he's still swimming around. I also added sponge filters to each of their tanks to keep the water from getting stagnant.

My betta Liberty is in the 20 with Trooper the snail and a big bunch of anacharis and a few rocks with no gravel. I only have a MarineLand Duetto 10 running with the tank half-filled with water. They're both doing pretty well too. The anacharis is really messy with the tiny leaves and they could clog filters pretty bad. It lost all the leaves when I put it in the tank, but they grew back within two weeks and it's growing like crazy now, so I'm using it as floating plants in my little badis tanks. They really like it.

Both the Bolivian rams I got in the mail died. They were great quality, but I shouldn't have put them in the same tank with my others until they were around the same size. They were being bullied and weren't getting enough food because the bigger ones were too dominant. Three of my Flame tetras disappeared somewhere and I never found them, even when I cleaned out the filter and everything; one of the others seems like it's about to die. So the 55 has the two butterfly fish, three cory catfish, two dojo loaches, four Bolivian rams, two Flame tetras, two angelfish, and one Bristlenose pleco.

Oh and I had a calico butterfly tail goldfish, named Spot, for about three weeks. I got him as an impulse and put him in a 2.5 gallon even though I knew he needed a bigger tank. So after three weeks, I called someone who has other goldfish and recently lost one and asked her to take him. And Slater is in the tank Spot used to be in.

Mail order fish?

Awesomeee. I got my scarlet badis (Dario dario), a regular blue badis (Badis badis), and two more Bolivian rams from liveaquaria.com. They all looked healthy when they got here, though the rams were a bit skinny. But I really can't complain since every ram I've gotten, even from local stores, has been skinny. I haven't had any problems with any of them, which is good since it's the first time I've gotten fish online.

The scarlet badis, named Tiger, is in the 2.5 gallon with four cherry shrimps and Trooper the snail. He's a little smaller than the shrimp, but they've been hiding since he was introduced. I've offered him some frozen Cyclop-eeze a few times, but he doesn't seem to want it; I've seen him pick stuff out of the java moss, so I guess he's just eating the live microfauna growing in it. As long as he doesn't die, I don't care what he eats.

The blue badis is in the 55 in the betta's net, since he's about the same size as Tiger. I'll move him into the rest of the tank once he's bigger.

Both rams, a male and a female, are in the 55 with the rest of them. They're a bit paler and smaller than the other four I have, but I think the other four are all from the same spawn.

I moved all the fish out of the 20 into the 55 and drained it. I'll probably clean in this weekend. I rearranged everything in the 55 again, and both the German rams died, but I kinda figured they would. I'm not all that great with nitrate-sensitive fish, even in a planted tank.

Meanwhile, in the 55

I put the large pieces of Mopani wood in the middle around the big Amazon sword and cut off the new plants. I've gotten four baby plants so far from it and there's four more growing on it now. I got a "crispus" plant with crinkly leaves that seems to be doing alright in the tank, though the water may be a bit warm for it. The wood has turned the water a reddish color with tannins; the fish really don't seem to mind.

Two of the tiger barbs and both angelfish had a bad case of fin rot on their tails and a green barb was missing a few scales on his side, so I got some PimaFix and dosed the tank every day for a week, did a water change, then dosed every other day, did a water change, and now I'm dosing every few days. I noticed the healthy barbs had been picking at all the fish with tail rot and figured that they must be what caused it.

I got rid of nine of them. Dumped them all into a bag and took them over to the Aquarium Store. I kept the two with fin rot and the one with the missing scales. I decided I wanted to try a South American river theme and traded the barbs for two more Bolivian rams. The only exceptions to the theme will be the African butterflies, since I didn't pay for them.

I moved my betta into a jar and the green barb into her net so the other fish wouldn't pick at his fleshy nasty. I'll move the betta back into the net once I ditch the rest of the barbs, but that won;t be until they're looking healthy again. She doesn't really seem to mind the jar anyway.

I also got two German Blue rams, both of which are female, from the Aviarium. I went back to get a couple males today, but they only had females left so I got six Von Rio Flame tetras instead. I'll probably check the Aquarium Store sometime for some male GBRs.

So it's definitely been a while since

I last updated this thing. I've been pretty busy that past month with school and stuff. But whateverr.

I got two more shrimp for the 2.5 gallon tank; bringing the population to a total of four, two females and two males. Both females were pregnant and have since given birth. So I have a bunch of little clear baby shrimp jumping around inside the little tank. I also rearranged the stuff inside with a piece of African Mopani wood in place of the old driftwood; I think it was starting to rot, and it just looked odd.

If I can keep the shrimps breeding regularly in the tank, I won't really have to feed that fish once I get it; I've always found self-sustaining tanks to be quite interesting. Though I doubt that'll happen.

Fish of the Month — January

The Bronze Cory Catfish.

(Corydoras aeneus)

Bronze Cory Cats are schooling fish, and need at least 4 in a group to be happy. They are very peaceful bottom-dwellers that need at least 30 gallons. They need to have room for swimming and lots of hiding spots. They get along great with other fish in any level of the tank, as long as they get enough food.

Bronzies come from South America; they're native to the Amazon River in Brazil and Peru. Their habitat consists of lots of driftwood and plants. The water is stained yellow with tannins and has a slow current.

The only way of sexing these fish is by comparing a group; the females will be slightly larger with more extended pelvic fins. They need perfect water with a slightly acidic pH. Doing a water change with clean water of a lower temperature will help induce spawning. The eggs are adhesive and are often attached by the female to the glass wall, filer intake, or broad plant leaves.

Bronze Corys are adaptable to many parameters. They thrive in soft, slightly acidic water with a pH between 6 to 7 and dH between 6 to 18. They can tolerate any pH from 5.5-8 and dH between 4-20. An ideal temperature for them in the aquarium is around 68-82F (20-28C). For breeding purposes, the pH is best just around 6.5.

Bronzies grow up to 4 inches. They accept any food, but need to be able to eat before their tankmates have eaten it all. Since they are bottom-feeders, sinking omnivore pellets should be a staple.

They are somewhat attractive; an iridescent green and grey body with a white and pinkish belly. Their fins are short and clear. Many people keep them because they are great scavengers and pick up any uneaten food.

Pros:

-they eat leftovers
-they're socially active
-they're easy to feed

Cons:

-they don't have super flashy colors
-they are timid if they aren't in a large group
-they hide a lot

Red

is a very stunning color. Especially against green and black and brown.

I got a big floating plant (giant duckweed?) and two Red Cherry shrimp for that little nano tank today from the Aquarium Store. One of the shrimps is carrying a bunch of eggs. If they breed like most websites say they do, the little babies will help feed the fish I ordered (well, I don't plan on raising any baby shrimp anyway).

The fish I picked to go in this tank is a Scarlet Badis (Dario dario) and it isn't supposed to grow even an inch long. The only thing I'm a little worried about is how everything says they won't accept prepared foods; they have to be given live food. I got some frozen Cyclop-eeze to use as the fish's staple once I get him. I just hope he likes it. I won't know until I get him after next Wednesday.

Oh, and happy new year.  :)