Halloween Mini Auction
Posted by Anja on October 25, 2010 at 23:11 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 15:57You know winter’s in the wings when the flannel bedsheets make their reappearance and, of course, when the Halloween costumes come out. I was a wicked looking witch at the OVAS Halloween meeting, but I forgot to take pictures before slipping out of the makeup. :o/
Came home with a mini filter, a huge piece of driftwood for the paludarium, some guppy grass and a bag full of CRS. The latter are relatives of my cherry shrimp, but supposed to be more delicate. For the moment they’re all happy in the guppy tank, but from what I read about them they’re hard to breed in under 20 Gallons, so I might move them into the big tank at some point. We’ll see.
Tags: Caridina cantonensis sp. Crystal Red, loot | Categories: 10G Tropical | Comments Off on Halloween Mini Auction | PermalinkQuiet 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:
To Do on the Weekend
Posted by Anja on October 8, 2010 at 12:19 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 16:15We’ll be doing fall clean-up and getting the tropicals out of the pond before they melt. Nights are getting chilly, and the weather is supposed to be nice for outside work. Who knows if there’ll be another opportunity before first frost.
Tags: fall cleanup | Categories: Pond | Comments Off on To Do on the Weekend | PermalinkGuppy babies
Posted by Anja on October 5, 2010 at 15:29 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 16:14We came home to more guppies than we had left. Three wee ones were swimming in the tank. We were quite surprised. The parents are so small that I didn’t think they were grown out yet. The female must already have been gravid when I got her.
The hatchlings are huge, compared to the parents. I’m used to the teensy minnows and can’t believe there were three of these inside their still very small mom.
The baby’s swimming right underneath Dad here:
