Quiet Sunday
Posted by Anja on October 17, 2010 at 12:47 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 15:59A bit of clean-up around the house in preparation for The Big Freeze ™. I was just going to do a round of checking on things, but it was so nice outside that I spent about 2 hours, snipping here, moving there, weeding a bit, storing pots, watching the fish in the pond … Very restful.
Otherwise spent the day around fish tanks, doing water changes and cleaning filters. The guppy family seems to have settled in nicely, as have the little goldfish, who don’t scare the minnows anymore. Not too much, anyway.
Tags: breeding, Carassius auratus, Poecilia reticulata | Categories: 10G River, 10G Tropical, Pond | Comments Off on Quiet Sunday | PermalinkUpdate
Posted by Anja on October 12, 2010 at 17:03 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 16:19The minnows have come out of hiding, the pond tropicals have been moved inside (we’ve had a couple of nights with frost warning, but no ground frost just yet, even though the roofs were white this morning), and the Thanksgiving dishes are clean again (whoot for dishwashers).
Tags: Tanichthys albonubes | Categories: 10G River, Pond | Comments Off on Update | PermalinkWe had another glorious day
Posted by Anja on October 10, 2010 at 23:47 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 16:18… and did the fall clean-up. The tiger raked leaves, and I heaved the tropicals out of the pond (he helped me with the big one) and potted them up, and cut down the perennials. Most of the water hyacinths landed on the compost. I just left three in there to give the fish some cover, but they do turn very icky after the first frost.
Finally I netted the goldfish babies (I found 5) to overwinter them in the tank downstairs. Two of them are about 1 1/2″ inches and thus prolly big enough to survive on their own, but the other three are under 1″, so they all came out. Easier than trying to catch only the little ones, and why take chances.
The minnows immediately schooled tightly and went into partial hiding, but the suckermouths were completely unfazed by their new tankmates:
8°C – rain
Posted by Anja on May 8, 2010 at 17:39 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 16:36We got soaked this morning on our way to the aquarium club breakfast. and it’s friggin’ cold outside. We had fun anyway, though (and a yummy breakfast). I gave away my adult White Clouds, cause I have so many babies swimming in the tank downstairs that I don’t know what to do with them anymore. As soon as they grow a bit, I’ll have to start selling those too.
Tags: Tanichthys albonubes | Categories: 10G River | Comments Off on 8°C – rain | PermalinkShooing fish babies
Posted by Anja on April 19, 2010 at 16:51 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 16:55I finally cleaned out the minnow tank downstairs. It was really, really necessary, but with all the itsy bitsy babies in there I hadn’t dared so far. And while they grew a bit and are now able to swim more strongly, they’re still only a couple of mm long, so it was a harrowing business of constantly checking the gravel vac and the bucket. Twice I had to evacuate an entrepreneurial youngster from the vac, once I almost sucked up one of the little plecos. But he whizzed out of harm’s way under his own steam. *phew*
Tags: Ancistrus, breeding, Tanichthys albonubes | Categories: 10G River | Comments Off on Shooing fish babies | PermalinkFish babies update
Posted by Anja on February 10, 2010 at 00:14 | Last modified: July 8, 2012 21:28Pulled 15 more babies out of the minnow tank. As for the cory hatchling, I haven’t seen it. I cleaned the big tank today very carefully, and left out the corner where I first spotted it, though I don’t know, of course, if it’s still there.
Tags: breeding, Corydoras paleatus, Tanichthys albonubes | Categories: 10G River, 25G South American | Comments Off on Fish babies update | PermalinkMore White Cloud babies
Posted by Anja on February 8, 2010 at 23:36 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 20:41I transferred about 10 of them to the brig tank today, since they don’t reliably stay in the breeder. There were five or so left in the breeder, and I saw one or two zipping around free style in the tank. We’ll see how each group fares, I guess.
I tried to take a picture of the little guys, caught one. Note the frogbit above him for size comparison:
Spawn
Posted by Anja on February 7, 2010 at 22:57 | Last modified: July 10, 2012 04:08We have fish babies. The minnows downstairs have spawned again, and I keep siphoning those itsy bitsy eyelashes into the safety of the breeder inset, but the silly things keep swimming back out thru the slits to where the adults are waiting for a snack. We’ll see if any of them survive long enough to become too big at least to fit thru the slits.
In the big tank meanwhile I saw a single, I believe it’s a cory hatchling, since it hides in the gravel, and the cories are the ones who spawn frequently. I’m always surprised when one of the eggs survives despite the ever hungry tetras, and at this point I don’t think the hatchling’s chances are quite 50/50 yet. Nevertheless both the tiger and I keep peering in to see if we can spot it (we’re a talking about 3mm length here and the thickness of a sewing thread with a pin head attached) and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for it to survive past snack size.
Tags: breeding, Corydoras paleatus, Tanichthys albonubes | Categories: 10G River, 25G South American | Comments Off on Spawn | PermalinkPleco update
Posted by Anja on January 26, 2010 at 10:18 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 16:49All four wee ones seem ok this morning and are munching happily on every available surface. The upstairs pair is way more lively than the downstairs pair, but considering the difference in temperature I’m not surprised. Took me a while to find the two in the Minnow tank, they are perfect ninjas when they don’t move.
Tags: Ancistrus | Categories: 10G River, 5G Betta | Comments Off on Pleco update | Permalink4C and pouring rain
Posted by Anja on January 25, 2010 at 23:04 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 16:48Came home with treasures from the OVAS meeting.
I went for the socializing and to buy some fish food at the mini auction, but in addition came home with a potted Tradescantia (thanks Bianca) and four little bushynose plecos, courtesy of Wayne’s breeding pair. Now, anyone who knows my tanks, knows I don’t really have room for four bushynoses, but so far they’re very wee (~ 1 cm). Two are now in the minnow tank downstairs, and two wiggle happily through the assassin tank, with Max the betta keeping a curious but not evil eye on them.
They should be good in either tank for a while, but the 5 gallon at least will become too small for them when they grow out. More reason to tackle the paludarium set-up, as soon as I’m done with my office.
Tags: Ancistrus, Betta splendens, OVAS, Tradescantia | Categories: 10G River, 5G Betta | Comments Off on 4C and pouring rain | Permalink