Boring fish post

I'll put the nice pictures above the fold, and boring words below.



Those two pictures are two of the discus in the planted tank. I bought 8 discus last summer to go with the 2 Bolivian Rams and bunch of algae eaters. Out of those 8 discus, 4 made it. Mostly because I think some didn't get over their shyness enough to get food to stay alive. So they're gone. but you know who else is gone? The two cute little rams. I really liked those guys because they made a batch of babies (who all eventually got eaten by Placo I think). So i have 4 good looking discus in that tank, a couple shrimp and some algae eaters. i had moved Placo over to the cichlid tank a long time ago so he could stop harassing the discus. I am really pleased with this tank. It seems to stay pretty healthy, aside from the worms the fish got (what killed the rams). I thought the blue discus had worms, which I'm pretty sure he did, and after I added the medication he was still not eating and was hiding for a long time. Finally just a couple weeks ago he just snapped out of it. Everyone seems happy and growing. I just noticed how big one of the pigeons seems. Now I've jinxed it, and they'll all die tomorrow.

Anyway, CO2 cylinder seems to be doing the trick. the reactor was clogged for who knows how long, so the pH got off a little. I also moved the probe further away from the reactor, so it takes longer for changes in pH to register and turn things off or on. The major thing I did was turn up the temp from around 82ish to 86ish. I hope to induce spawning, because I think the blue and one of the pigeons are taking a liking to each other. The temp probably needs to go higher, but I don't want to kill the plants and algae eaters (breeders usually have spawning happen in bare tanks so the water is always clean and you don't have to worry about collateral damage with chemical/temperature shifts. Th last thing I did with this tank is cleaned out about half of the plant growth, as the tank was pretty much getting overrun. I have ordered a couple new plants to add some variety and color. Hopefully they'll take.

OK. Now the cichlid tank. This one has been causing me some serious problems. I just got over a green water breakout after cleaning the tank. There are no plants in this one, so where did the green water come from (it was so thick i couldn't even see when Placo died and the algae eaters picked him to the bone)? I wonder if there was something in the water (tap water) but I also wonder if the lamp for the gecko cage shines too much on this tank. It's not a very powerful bulb, and it's shining only indirectly on the tank. Anyway. Filtration on this tank was a hang-on-back Wisper, which did a fine job but didn't get the fine particles (sand substrate = dirty). So I had put a Magnum micron filter on. This seemed to help the green water a little, but only after adding multiple doses of flocculant. The green disappeared, but there was still cloudiness. Maybe that as bacterial, but it seemed to hang around too long.

So with this latest incident I decided it was time to finally upgrade to a canister filter. I had also been thinking about a UV sterilizer to prevent the next inevitable green water episode. Guess what I found. A canister filter with built in UV!! For not really any more than the canister itself. Now the first brand I found was a no name, and I of course didn't do the proper research by looking it up on the fish forums. But it didn't matter because I never got it hooked up. It came (internet order) with a shattered quartz sleeve. the sleeve is water tight and protects the bulb from the water. So it that thing is cracked, and you can't remove it to replace it, then the whole unit is just collecting dust. Which reminds me I still have to call for a return sticker.

So last weekend while I drove up to PA to a giant fish store and found another brand of canister/UV. I also bought a bunch of rock to redo this tank. I didn't really explore the store too much because it was starting to snow and we had an hour's drive still. I think they had big lizard and fish rooms, but I didn't see. I dropped Hubby off at the bar to watch football with our friends while I played with the new filter. Now that I have it running, and I hear that it is totally silent, and I see that the tank has never looked better, I know that my 5 freaking hours of rassling with the hoses was worth it. I really think 1" OD tubing with 3/8" wall is a bit excessive. Those tubes are totally non-pliable. Where ever they bend they go, You can't force them anywhere. Oh yeah, I made the mistake of filling the canister (smallest size with UV is 4 gallon capacity) before getting it under the tank, so that was another reason to be screaming at the thing. Anyway, finally got it hooked up, hoses somewhat secure, leaks taken care of. It's all good, because the tank looks awesome. Except for the algae I can't scrape off.

Fishwise, the momma cichlid has at least one baby in her mouth, and I'm hoping she doesn't eat this one like every other one. Also, with Placo gone the baby might stand a chance. The only additions I have planned is more fish, since there's only two real ones in there. I want a peacock tank, with all different colors of males. The rocks I got have big holes in them for hiding, so hopefully everyone will feel at home. I wanted to get enough rock to totally stack up along the back to the top, but the four that are in there are already 62 pounds. It's Tufa, and it must be pretty dense.

That picture shows the new shiny rock in the back, one of the older rocks I kept in the bottom left corner, a real old fake rock that all the fishes love in the bottom right corner, momma in the middle, and the intake of the new filter. Also all the algae I couldn't scrape off.

OK, I think that's all about fishes.