aquarius, aqualitus, aquaticus

Added some Harlequin Rasboras to m 55 gallon tank. This is the first time I've kept these fish. Day 1:

Day 2. Possible mating behaviour?

More Day 2:

They've much more color in person than I expected, and after just 1-2 hours in the aquarium, they brightened up a great deal. They mostly school(there are 8 of them), but the school sometimes breaks up into two smaller groups.

I lost the larger of my two clown loaches(chromobotia macracantha) this winter. I had her for abouot 10 years.  I am uncertain whether she died due to old age or trying to eat an entire vacation feeder in one meal.  The other loach, of the same age, seems to be doing just fine.  Of course, Loach #2 has noticeably grown without Loach #1 to compete with for food.  I wish we knew more about the proper lifespans, etc. for these fish. 

Knowledge has increased since I first got them, as very small clowns, and brought them home to my 29 gallon tank.  At that time, I was urged on by fellow hobbyists online, who told me what delightful fish they were.  Last year, the idea that I had two clown loaches in a 55 gallon aquarium was greeted with horror by aquarium hobbyists online.  I console myself that 10 years is a good lifespan for any aquarium fish.

I've added two gravel covered PVC caves, inspired by http://aquarium.shuru.com/ to my 55 gallon aquarium. I'm hoping that having the additional caves will make the clown loaches more confident. So far, no change. I did sort through the tangles of java fern, using them to cover the new caves. I also rearranged some of the other plants and added some stones.

The most recent addition to my aquarium is this Bushynose Pleco.  This suckermouth catfish is also known as a Bristlenose Pleco or an Ancistrus.  They are related to the common Pleco, but Bushynose Plecos only gro to 5-6 inches in size, which is much smaller.  Another key difference is that the Ancistrus will not eat your aquarium plants, yet they still eat a great deal of algae.  I spent several years trying to acquire one for my tank, and finally a new Petco opened in town this year that was willing to order one for me.(The local fish stores in the area never managed this)  So far, this fish lives up to it's reputation.  It's shy during the daytime, generally not coming very far out of hiding until the lights go out, and therefore challenging to photograph.

I've just set up a new 5.5 gallon aquarium on my desk at work. I have a desk lamp with incandescent 60 watt bulb. Bulb will be replaced with a screw-in CF bulb soon. Also have a Penn-Plax Small World filter. I cut the ends of the cartridge off, emptied it, and filled it with a cut up AquaClear sponge. So in effect, I now have a small air-driven sponge filter. Also a small aquarium heater that was previously used on a 10 gallon aquarium. Substrate is plain gravel, temp target is 78F, and Ph target is neutral. The water comes out of the faucet a bit harder than that, but I've mixed it with bottled water to get it down a wee bit.

Plants so far: Java Fern, Java Fern Windelov, Wisteria, 1 small Wendtii Crypt. All taken from my main 55 gallon tank.

Inhabitants so far: So far: two Malaysian Trumpet Snails. Soon, I hope to add a ghost shrimp or two, and then in a few weeks, after vacation, I plan to add a couple of small tetras, barbs, or other small fish. I'm trying to resist the temptation to go out and buy fish right now, because I'll be on vacation for a couple of week of the holidays, and I want to be here daily to sort possible problems when I do add fish. I'm also still making final decisions about just what fish to add. Tetras? A couple of Cherry barbs from my home tank? Not sure yet.

Also still tweaking the plants/layout, etc.

 

Here are a few video clips of my 55 gallon inhabitants. Cherry barbs, brilliant rasboaras, and clown loaches.

You'll often see these fishes used as algae eaters.

They will do a fine job of polishing the aquarium glass, but beware that they will also polish off most any plants! (except for Java Ferns so far!) Not suited for most planted aquariums, but can be useful and interesting to watch in an unplanted one...

Click the images to enlarge them:

 

Plecos need to have some uncoated driftwood in the tank to gnaw on.

Plecos will eat lettuce leaves, and slices of fruits such as papaya, mango, nectarine, and apple. (see above picture)

They can get BIG. A foot long or more. So plan for that when buying one.

Some people keep these quite successfully in goldfish tanks to eat algae. Keep the temperature 76-78 degrees F. for this compromise situation, and watch your pleco closely. Depending on individual temperament, there have been reports of them sucking on the sides of goldfish. I've never seen one do this myself. Perhaps these are instances where they were not well fed.

Plecos are a suckermouth catfish. There are bony plates on their sides, and hard spines in their fins. Sometime they prop themselves up on their fins.

There are many kinds of suckermouth catfish sold as various "plecos" in the aquarium trade. Many kinds do not make good algae eaters, but look cool, so research what you are buying.

The loaches are doing well after all this time, and growing slowly larger. I hadn't realized how much they've grown in the last year until I looked at some old photos. One is much larger than the other, of course. My aquarium is doing well. The Java Fern and Wisteria have just about been doing too well lately. I just threw away about a gallon worth of plants. I got rid of my corner corkbark that was covered in java fern a few months ago. between it and the corkbark cave, which was is also covered in java ferns, the tank was one clogged mass of java fern at one point.

I was just recently out of town for about 4 weeks, and a friend made sure the automatic feeder was filled, etc. I came back to a tank so chocked with Wisteria that the fish were invisible! I went ahead and ripped almost all of the Wisteria out, and a lot of Java Fern. My digital camera's flash has died, but here's a current photo of bad quality:

(38 gallon tank)

(The address on the photo is the old location of this blog, long ago)

These are delightful little schooling fish. They liven up the tank and provide a good "dither" effect, making the clown loaches show themselves more. Great for everyone, including beginners! BE SURE to get at least 5 of these fellows.

Wal-Mart calls these Brilliant Rasboras and you can find references to them on the internet as Red-Tailed Rasboras or as False Magnificent Rasboras.

Most photographs do not so these guys justice. Once they're settled in and have been on a good diet for a while, they're really pretty. There's a bright reddish orange spot on the tail fin, and a black stripe runs along the side with a flourescent yellowish/green stripe right against it. The scales on their tummies look almost like aluminum foil when they're doing well.

Sunday, January 18, 2004-I picked up two more of these today, and seeing how washed out their colors look straight from Wal-Mart reminds me how poorly cared for many fish are in many stores. They'll be in the quarrantine tank for a while.

I made this aquarium hood for my 38 gallon aquarium. After having made and lived with the Top-Lifting design, I decided to try something different. I made this hood based on many I've seen at assorted pet stores. One Hint: My old hood was heavy, so on this one I used thin boards, and had problems with screws splitting them. I'd recommend 1/2 inch thick wood as a happy medium.

Here is a sketch of the plans, so you can make your own:

Here's a photo of the new 38 gallon tank after set-up. I just moved the canister filter from the old tank to the new one. No bothersome cycling that way. There's a piece of corkbark in the corner, and a small cave towards the middle made of it. I have more to add, but weighting this stuf down's real fun. My loaches appreciate the hidey-hole qualities of it though.

Moved to a new town, and there's a great pet store up the street. They were having a sale, and my new living room is big, and just needed a larger tank. 38 gallons is the best my budget can do right now. I've been busy setting it up...

1. This rock was my crackerjack surprise in a bag of flourite for my new tank. Found it when I was rinsing the stuff. It's a fist-sized chunk of Flourite. You can see the several colours mixed through it. I'm going to tie a bit of Java fern to it, or something, and put it in my new tank.
2. Built a New DIY Hood for the new tank. Look for the plans in my DIY section.
3. I used my old DIY Screw-in CF lighting in this new hood. Info can be found in my DIY section.
4. I have the new tank set up with rinsed flourite and a little gravel mixed, and water. I have a small filter going to remove the rest of the flourite dust.
5. I'm just migrating everything form my old 29 gallon tank over to the new one. 

Three babies were hiding in clumps of plants when I moved I still have one big beuatiful red adult...

Xiphophorus Maculata or Xiphophorus Variatus.
These fish come in red, blue, oranges, yellows, and other colours. They are from Mexico. The Platy is a fish I like because it is very colourful and peaceful. Many of them will graze on green algae to some extent, and enjoy nibbling on the edges of plants a wee bit.

The babies will come along plentifully too. Platies are livebearers, and give birth to fry instead of laying eggs.

You need only separate the babies right at first. After a week or so, you can put them in the tank with the adults. My Platies seem to not eat their young if they are well fed. You should, however, cover the intake of any power or canister filters with a piece of nylon stocking or sponge.

I would not recommend them right off to other newbies, however. After a few months of experience, it seems to me that they get sick very easily. Then again, I think the real problem is that most stores carry platies that are already carrying diseases. So if you struggle through the months of disinfecting them, to get a healthy strain, they can be great livebearers.

Definitely quarrantine them for a good while.

If you get these fish, then you should take the suggested temperature range seriously. Mine seem happiest at 76F-80F. 

 

They eat soft green algaes off of the tank glass and plant leaves. I'm down to two, after the move...

They're like miniature plecos, but are great for planted tanks. They only get 1-2 inches long. Very peaceful. They really like good water quality though. The consensus online seems to be that if you get them to live through the first week or two, they can live a long time, but many newly bought ottos die quickly. The journey to the fish store seems to be hard on them, and many store don't seem to feed them enough algae tabs.

While looking for cheap lighting, I was inspired by the DIY light plans at The Idiots Guide to Planted Tanks.

 

Click these images to see a larger copy.

I found, for $1.97 a piece, at Wal-Mart, these little light socket adatpers. These plug into any electrical outlet, and you just screw a compact flourescent bulb into them, and have an instant light fixture. So I combined these sockets with 99 cent extension cords. I then found some compact flourescent screw in bulbs on sale. So i just put the bulbs in the sockets, plugged the sockets into the extension cords, and sealed all the seams with silicone to make it water resistant. I mounted these in my aquarium hood with wire and screws,and was rewarded with my plants pearling for the first time ever!!!

For a DIY light reflector I used to recommend mylar. Easily obtained by cutting up the bags that potato chips come in. The problem is, that after a while, it deteriorates, and flakes apart, leading to plastic "snow" in your aquarium. I now recommend aluminum foil, shiny side down.