Plecos and Stephanie Arrived Last Night!

Both Stephanie and my new plecos made in safe and sound last night. Somehow I ended up with four plecos instead of five, and the longfin albino ended up being a normal longfin. No big deal, that's plenty to do the job for now. I'll probably need some more if I want to try and set up a breeding colony, but that's still a way down the road.

I got the new tanks Sunday, too. They are a little grimy and need some scrubbing, so I've got my work cut out for me. They also are all painted on the back - yuck. I have had luck painting tanks, but I do it a little more nicely than these. I avoided the ones painted dayglo colors and managed to pick out mostly blues and one that's kind of maroon colored. I haven't decided yet if I'll scrape the paint off or not. Probably will, just because.

It's going to be 100+ degrees for the next couple of days and I really need to get them scrubbed out, but I know if I can take the heat. I guess I could do it in the middle of the night when it's a nice, cool 85. Ugh.

Still no pictures. Hopefully soon.

My 55 Gallon Office Tank, Part Two

Of course I haven't even finished detailing the fish in the 55 and I already have added three more and have a couple more on the way.

Picking up where I left off, I've also got a male/female pair of Nigerian Red Kribensis, Pelvicachromis taeniatus var. 'Red'. I bought them from Nikolay, originally intending to get just a female and he threw in a male for free. Apparently when the females get full of eggs they get extremely feisty and terrorize everyone else in the tank unless they have a male to attempt to mate with. I think I just went through a misfired spawn with these guys as they both got really, really red for a couple of days and she had a big round belly. After a couple of days everything went back to normal, so she probably laid her eggs somewhere in the rocks. There's no way they could successfully spawn in this tank as the loaches will scarf down all of the eggs very quickly if no one else eats them. When I get the new tanks set up I may try to breed them as apparently they aren't too tough.

I also have one Siamese Algae Eater (SAE), Chrossochelius siamensis. It's not an overly attractive fish, kind of plain, but invaluable for eating algae in the tank. You have to really know what you are getting with one of these guys because the local stores often mix them up with several other species of Flying Fox. They all look similar, but the breeders in Asia often have them labeled wrong and some of the rookies that work in the stores don't know the difference. The other species don't eat algae, so if you're buying for algae control you don't want to end up with one of those. They are all pretty neat little fish. I was in a store last weekend that had chrossochelius siamensis and Epalzeorhynchos kalopterus in the same tank labelled as Flying Fox. The latter is a Flying Fox while the former is an SAE. Too bad they didn't figure it out as SAEs are in much greater demand than flying foxes. There also is another species that often gets mixed up in here, so a bit hairy until you know what you're looking at.


One of my favorite fish is a small, wild-caught Blue Ram that I have in this tank (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi). It is a beautiful little fish with outstanding colors and a great personality. I wish I had more as I'd like to breed these guys. Apparently with the right conditions, much like the Nigerian kribs, they aren't too tough to breed. A local friend just had a spawn, so if his eggs hatch and the fry grow up (a very big if) maybe I'll buy a couple from him. I don't know what sex my fish is. I do know he's wild-caught, which means he was caught in his natural habitat and imported as opposed to bred in a tank. The wild-caught specimens are believed to be more hardy as many have had trouble keeping the tank bred fish alive for more than a year. He's from the Orinoco River Basin in South America, so I think it's kind of cool to know that he actually came out of the river down there.

Finally, my showcase fish, my angelfish, Pterophyllum scalare. These guys occur in the wild in the Amazon River Basin, though wild-caught fish are very rare in the hobby because they breed so readily in the tank. There also is only one common color morph in the wild, whereas in the hobby we have selectively bred for a wide range of colors and markings that would never be seen in the wild. Most of these guys would get eaten in a heartbeat in the wild because you just don't see a shiny gold fish in the Amazon River. That's like wearing a neon sign on your back for predators.

As of Friday I am up to seven angels in the 55. I have a pair of Koi, a pair of Zebra Lace Veils, a big pair of Albino Pearlscales, and a Gold Veil that's probably going to end up as a superveil. The terms veil and superveil refer to the style of their fins, each getting progressively longer and more ornate. The subject of angelfish breeding and genetics is a fascinating one and there is a ton of information on the internet regarding which genes are present in which morphs and what you'll get when you cross various different morphs. All but the zebras are pure bred, and the zebras may be, I just don't know as I bought them in a local store. The zebras have defective pelvic fins, which makes me think they probably aren't pure bred but that isn't necessarily true. They could easily be pure bred that were traded into the store due to the genetic defect instead of being culled, which is what most serious breeders would have done.

To wrap up the fish descriptions, I thought I try to insert a couple of quick pictures. There aren't my best work as they were quickie photos taken with the phone. I haven't even taken the time to try and edit them at all, just posting up here for a little eye candy. Soon I'll get out the good camera and tripod and take some good ones.

This is the new gold veil. I believe she will grow up into a superveil but it will be a few weeks until I know for sure.

This is one of my zebra lace veils. The lace refers to the markings on his fins. You can see the genetic defect in the pelvic fin when you compare to the others. This guy is missing his left ventral fin and the right one is a bit misshaped, but I don't mind because his marks are so beautiful. The picture doesn't really do him justice.

And here is one of the new albino pearlscales. The red eye is not from the camera, he's albino, so he has no coloration pigment in him at all (supposedly). All albinos of any species have red eyes. These guys were a little more expensive, but compared to my other angels they are HUGE. He still has plenty of growing left to do, though. Check out the bling bling on this bad boy! Again, the picture doesn't really do justice. The pearlscales are so named because their scales all look like little individual pearls. Very shiny.

 

Now I'm kind of inspired to get the camera out and take more pictures as the whole "embedded photo" thing went much more smoothly then I expected.

I *might* do a post on the plants soon. It will be a bit laborious digging up all of the scientific names, so it may or may not happen.

Multiple Tank Syndrome Strikes Again

A quick pause in the details of the office 55 gallon take for a weekend update. More tanks and fish coming! They are coming faster than I can type about them all.

Friday I got a quick chance to pick up some pure bred angels from a friend in town. She helped introduce me to the world of angelfish and has easily 15 tanks with nothing but angels, bristlenose plecos, and a couple of SAEs. She does have one cichlid tank with a blood red parrot and some beautiful white labs, but really she is an angelfish specialist.

I bought three new angelfish from her, two that are bigger than a silver dollar and one that's about quarter-sized. And for the record, when we discuss angelfish size we refer to their body size without their fins.

I'm looking to add some BNPs myself and there is a guy with a great reputation that breeds them on a pretty large scale and is semi-local. He's down in Cleburne, which is really too far to drive for a couple of fish. It turns out Nancy, my friend with the angels, is driving down to see him today so she is going to pick some up for me. I'll swing by her house on Monday on the way home from the airport to pick them. Thanks goodness for the great friends that I've met through the local fish enthusiasts group - they save me a lot of money and help get much better quality livestock.

I also have a shipment of Red Cherry Shrimp (RCS) coming next week. I ordered them from an online auction site, aquabid.com, and they'll be shipping from Florida Friday. I got screwed over recently in my first purchase from aquabid - the jackass who sold me some RCS from Chicago screwed up on the packaging and they all got cooked in the heat before they got here. This seller has assured me that he can get them here alive, so my fingers are crossed. Since then, another kind member of the local club has offered me some for free, so if these don't make it I'm going that right. She also has offered me a marbled crayfish, which look and sound very cool, so I may go that route. That will be an interesting post as that's an invertebrate that can clone itself without a mate. I'd really like to get one, I just need to make sure that I've got a tank to put him in where he'll be happy and he won't eat the other fish or plants.

Now for the Multiple Tank Syndrome (MTS) attack. MTS is what we call the overwhelming desire to get more aquariums, often at great expense to your finances and living space. I've got it bad, that's how I ended up with seven tanks in less than a year. Well, one of the local club members is unloading a bunch of tanks and is offering some twenty long tanks very cheaply - ten dollars a piece if you buy five. I couldn't resist, as Stephanie and I are starting to talk seriously about converting our barroom into a fish room. I figured we could throw them in the attic if we don't use them right away and have them when we are ready for our next tank. They are a nice size - 30" x 12" x 12" deep, I think. We have one now that we use for breeding and growing out guppies. I'm going to pick them up today.

Then another friend, Tony, is selling a 5.5 gallon setup with everything -filter, heater, light, top, the whole bit - for $40. I'm very tempted as that would be a great shrimp tank. I've got a ten gallon that I'm using for RCS and plant grow out now, but I'd love to get another shrimp species. They come in a rainbow of colors and are very, very cool. I haven't made up my mind on that one, but it's tempting. Maybe I can talk him down to $30. Even at $40 I think it's a pretty good price considering everything that's included.

If you know anyone local that might be interested in buying a beautiful, custom-built pool table send me a note via comments - I need room for tanks!