Canadaqua

Finally. A fish.

Posted by Anja on March 16, 2008 at 19:00 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 19:01

Meet the first resident: Cthulhu, the cutest little Bristlenose this side of Peru:

After a couple of hours of hiding shyly behind the rocks, he’s now happily scampering all over the place, not the least bit fazed by the flash.

Tags: Ancistrus | Categories: 25G South American | Comments Off | Permalink

I got the fitting hood

Posted by Anja on March 12, 2008 at 18:57 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 18:59

Looks a lot sleeker. No ugly waterline, no huge gaps.

Me’s happy.

Aaaand: Lights on!

Could use a leeetle top-up. But otherwise bright and shiny. Yeah. Now, if the parameters keep being good, I’m ready for a fish next week.

Tags: tankbuild | Categories: 25G South American | Comments Off | Permalink

After the big one

Posted by Anja on March 9, 2008 at 08:35 | Last modified: July 10, 2012 03:36

A blizzard dumped roughly half a meter of snow on us since Saturday morning; not only the pond is gone, but so is the fence on the left and half of the lilac. To say nothing of the neighbour’s tool shed.

Categories: Pond | Comments Off | Permalink

The nano apparently already had a snaily inhabitant

Posted by Anja on March 7, 2008 at 18:47 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 18:56

He looks different from the ones I had so far. This one is about 1,5 mm. Ramshorn?

Looking around for the macro snails, I noticed that there’s also a batch of eggs on the Vals:

And here I thought I’d be bored waiting for the fish. ;o)

The eggs seem to be hatching. There are teensy snails in the nano now:

About the size of a quarter pin head. I left the side of the tank in the picture when I cropped, so you get the thickness of the glass and the silicone strip for scale.

And? Is that a Physa?

Anyone want to hazard a guess? To me those triangular horns (see 2 pics below) look quite different from the one I first fished out and think is a physa. But I find it hard to get relevant info on the net. The pages that are there all seem to be disagreeing as far as taxonomy is concerned.

And another one:

Both have been kicked into the nano. I also found more leaves with eggs (they were on the Crypts), which I at this point just threw out. I’m sure there’ll be more.

Found another one in the big tank.

Tags: Physa, Planorbidae | Categories: 2G Brigs | Comments Off | Permalink

And here’s the captured snail

Posted by Anja on March 6, 2008 at 18:43 | Last modified: July 11, 2012 17:01

… that I think belongs to the eggs (or vice versa). It looks like a tadpole snail (Physa), about 2-3 mm:

I put her and the leaf w/ eggs in the nano tank. I was afraid she’d run out of oxygen in the jam jar. Here she’s on her way to the surface to get some air:

Takin’ a deeeeep breath.

Happily munching away.

Here’s a better picture of the eggs:

It’s easier to photograph in the tank than in the jam jar. ;o)

A view of the nano tank after replacing the twisted with the straight Val:

If you look closely, you can see a speck on the glass; that’s the snail heading back down after her breather.

Tags: Physa | Categories: 2G Brigs | Comments Off | Permalink

Posted by Anja on March 5, 2008 at 18:39 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 18:43

Seems I have imported some small snails with the plants:

They’re hard to make out, so I put up a trap. Maybe I can identify them. I want to know if they’re friend or foe. Looking around, I also spotted some eggs on a leaf. Sorry for the poor picture quality. I have to learn to take pics through water. I carefully put the berried leaf in a jar with aquarium water to see what’s going to happen.

Tags: Physa | Categories: 2G Brigs | Comments Off | Permalink

25 g tank up and running – so far so good

Posted by Anja on March 4, 2008 at 17:50 | Last modified: July 11, 2012 17:02

I finally finished putting all the auction loot in yesterday, and now the filter’s starting to clear the water a little.

I’m not in love with the canopy that came with the kit. Not that it’s bad, it’s just the wrong one for this tank. It’s 5 cm too short and not made for rimless tanks. If I can find a light-glo or something similar for not too much money, I might try to sell this one while it’s still new. It’s either that or rig something up that keeps the fish from carpet surfing.

Close-up of the Tiger Lotus:

The flash swallows the colors a bit, but if I try w/out it, the reflections are bad on the glass.

In a few weeks I’ll go looking for a little bristlenose. It was too sad to see those beauties go at the auction and not being able to get one.

But now, the waiting game starts. I should go, read my library books, knit a sweater or something, to pass the time.

Ok, ok, I couldn’t resist. I tried a pic w/out flash, just for the pretty color of the light:

So, sue me. At least I found a position where the reflections are kept to a minimum.

Tags: tankbuild | Categories: 25G South American | Comments Off | Permalink

First Giant Auction

Posted by Anja on March 3, 2008 at 10:51 | Last modified: July 11, 2012 17:03

I came home with an amazing pile of loot, and an OVAS membership card, but too late to do anything but collapse on the couch. Now I’m back with fresh energy, planting some plants. There’s Java Fern (both kinds), Java Moss, Vals (straight and spiral), Crypts, Swords and Nympheas (Tiger Lotus).

I had to move the rock formation to the back and replace a couple of the stones with smaller ones to make room for the big rooted stump I bought. That thing has an amazing volcano-like opening in the top that just begs to be stuffed with plants.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t look half bad. I have quite a bit of straight Val left over (that was a big bag) and some tiny Java Fern plantlets. They’re in the nano for now that I freed up when I took the spiral Vals out.