Daily photo - Normal Kuhli Loach

This one has fins and everything.

Daily Photo - More Fish

Harlequin Rasbora showing that I need to wash the glass just a little more.

This is stumpy. I have no real idea how old it is. It was only this year I moved fish tanks and got it a few friends (it did originally have friends, they just didn't survive as well.) I think it's supposed to have stripes like a normal kuhli loach, but it just has a little stripe left on its head, and its pectoral fins are just little sumps now. I'm not sure why, since I have a second different species of the same basic type of fish who is about as old, and still has all its fins. They were in the same tank too. Its also roughly double the size of its new friends.

Daily Photo - Betta

While the new hillstreams won't stay still the betta was willing to freeze for a second.

Daily Photo - Hillstream Loach

Not sure on species yet, but I have 5 fish in quarantine. Here's hoping they're one of the species that breeds in captivity. They were labeled Fireworks Hillstteam Loaches.

Downsizing Fish Tanks

I haven't made up my mind about what I'll be doing with the big tank, but most of the tiny fish are staying. The bigger unfriendly fish are getting rehomed. I might pick up a few harlequin rasboras to keep the single one I have left company as well. While digging through the tank I've found 4 fish I haven't noticed in years, 3 different kuhli loaches, and an extra candystripe pleco in the tank. I thought I only had one left.

Taking down the big tank is going to be sad. When I first started keeping fish my goal was a 75 gallon tank. Sadly, it took years to get to that point, and in the intervening years my interest and finances have waned. It has taught me a bit about interests. Suck it up and after the initial attempt go for what you want rather then taking tons of little steps in between. I wanted a 75 gallon planted tank with lots of lights and little fish. If I'd pooled all the money I spent on smaller tanks and stuff in the intervening years I could have gotten the tank and other setup bits easily enough. I might not have ended up with as many tanks (24 at one point), but I might have gotten what I wanted more, and I might be less annoyed with the tank now.

It's sad but right now I look at the big tank and see something taking up space in my living room using electricity I could do something else with. I still like the fish enough to keep them, but the big tank is just a drain, and though I thought of repopulating it I haven't for several months.

Fish Tank

That little plastic square in the upper right has the one fish fry.

Down to 1 (okay really 3) Fish Tanks

A number of years ago I got a 75 gallon fish tank for my living room. Fast forward to now. I finally put all my little peaceful fish in it (pic tomorrow.) This was the plan all along, I just got sidetrack4d a few months ago by having to remove my two aggressive fish from my kitchen. They went in the 75, and all the really small fish I had disappeared. This of course required setting up two other smaller tanks, one for my evil cichlid, and one for the evil catfish. (If I put them together in a small space I'll end up with only one fish.) This meant I got to take down the java fern infested one in my bedroom. The best part is how little the fish seem to have been stressed. All of them were back to full color within a half hour.

As to the evil cichlid and catfish. The catfish is destined to hang out in his tank for a few weeks, and when I'm sure he isn't stressed he's getting swapped to the good fish store a few towns away. The cichlid will be living in his little tank until he dies, unless I find the pond fish didn't survive the winter in which case he will be going outside.

Downside of all of this is while I was draining the java fern tank I found fish fry, well only one. It is now in a little plastic box floating around the big tank. We'll see how it survives. At the moment it is so small I'm not sure exactly what kind of fish it is.

Daily Photo - SAE Mouth

It was either another fish or some more leaf veins. I'm painfully recoding bits of a ten year old website, so haven't been getting out much. Also random fact. All the images of the site have a ratio of 176 px x 132 px. This is based on the ratio of a digital camera on a camcorder I used to use. The camera was 1.4 mega pixels. You'd think I would have updated, but nope. If I want to keep the thousand pics without redoing them I need to keep the silly ratio. More random. The pic is of the mouth of my Siamese Algae Eater. It is less than 1/2" across, and until this picture I'd never noticed the scrapers.

Daily Photo - Harlequin Rasbora

I'm kind of wishing I still had 15 tanks full of fish. Only two doesn't have as much variety as I would like. BTW this is me avoiding trying to puzzle out why Dream Weaver CSS makes my SPRY menu weird in IE.

Daily Photo - Cherry Barb

More distracting coding sucking up my time. Here's a fish.

Daily Photo - Betta

I spent today redesigning some of my websites. One of them has hundreds of old pics I took of fish. That led me to trying to get a good photo of my betta. Out of 75 almost focused shots this was the best. That's what I get for trying to shoot through plastic.

Unemployed Day 2

I know this daily thing is going to get old mighty fast. All the inhabited fish tanks got their water changes. The kitchen is now clean, as is the living room. The vacuum dried out so all that's done as well. I'm starting to run out of house to clean and it's still freaking raining. I do have plenty of empty fish tanks to scrub out though. I got rid of any of my dying or sickly plants for free on craigslist. All the ones that remain have been lightly tended to but are going to need re-potting soonish (I've still got 30 some odd plants.) I'm also listing all the other clutter causing junk I don't want but can't bear to throw away. Some is for sale, but most I just want gone and prefer someone else use it. Who knew a tub of dirty Legos would get me 15 e-mails in less than an hour.

Daily Photo - Algae Eaters

Algae coated snack for my new fish.

24 hours later.

At least they're eating well.

Daily Photo - I Have to Stay Out of Pet Stores

Back in college I had a bit of an aquarium problem. I think I got up to 15 tanks before I started downsizing. I now have 3-5 running at any time. Today I happened to go to a PetsMart and find this guy and his kin on sale. $1 each. Normally they go for $5 at that store and up to $10 elsewhere. Back when I had lots of tanks I had a pair of these spawn once and I ended up with one new fish out of maybe 15.

Chaetostoma spec. Catfish.

I went to 3 stores and ended up with 7 of them. They're living in my kitchen in a 15 gallon for the next month until I'm sure they don't have any interesting diseases (my last attempt at this grew some kind of yellow fungus and died. I've never seen anything like it before or since.) I think I ended up with 3 different species. Hopefully a pair of at least 2 of the species though. I'm trying to keep myself from driving to another store on the off chance they have more. I'd have them catch just the species I really want, but it isn't really worth it trying to explain which one of the 6 I want. At least I don't mind having extras.

The Best $.47 I Spent This Weekend

I have been ridiculously lazy this year about setting the pond up for winter. I have a nice net, but I bought it on clearance and didn't get a handle with it. Every year I've fished out the critters with my net that disconnects right where I hold it. I decided this year I was not pinching my hands again in addition to freezing. A very helpful Home Depot employee dug through numerous little bags to find a nut to fit. Turns out it was both metric and an off size, nothing like making due with clearance stuff. Even more interesting .47 was the exact change I had with me. It was kind of surreal. I finally caught what remained of the fish today. One goldfish and a bunch of bug eaters.

Daily Photo - Clown Loach

Another flash experiment. Turns out this flash is offset enough to remove most of the nasty flash back I get taking pics into fish tanks, so unlike my last camera I can take fish pics again, and they're much more detailed than the old 3 megapixel ones.

25 Cent Goldfish -> Pond Fish

My recommendations if you want to buy feeder goldfish and put them in your pond, but actually want them all to live. Or alternately to keep them from infecting other fish. Step One, a plastic tub, unused (or only used for fish), 15-20 gallon utility tubs work well. Those ones sold in different colors with rope handles are quite good. Round is best because then there is equal pressure on all sides, so they don't bow out. Step Two, fill the tub with a known quantity of water, 15-20 gallons, fairly exactly. Add a water conditioner to this water. It's best to let it sit, but as long as it is close to room or outdoor temps it should be fine. Alternately you can use water direct from the pond if you're exact about measurements. The reason you want a known amount of water, preferably divisible by 5 will be in step four. Step Three. If possible get only fish with spread and undamaged fins without any obvious abnormalities. At the very least avoid fish that can't stay upright in the water, they are almost guaranteed goners. This is the important bit. Do not use any of the fish store water. Float the fish for a good 20 minutes, and you can add water to the bag, but dump the fish into a net and put only them into the new water. pet store water is often full of whatever diseases the fish have, especially true for feeder fish. Step Four, get a body fungus medication, and treat the fish. most of these medications are listed as how many per 5 or 10 gallons. In my experience with feeder goldfish, and oddly enough chain store bought angelfish, they will have fungus, even if overall they look good they can look fantastic after one fungus treatment. Whether you do a second is up to you, but if the fish look good a week after the first they'll go out in my pond. If you are going to keep the fish in the tub for more than a week, you should probably add oxygenating plants, or a cycled filter. Most fungus treatments however are very damaging to plants, so consider what you put in a loss. Also, I've done this with up to 6 3-4 inch goldfish. You'd need more water for more. The tub is also good to make sure they're eating before you release them with the rest of the fish. I've had to treat non-feeder goldfish for fungus as well. I've found it under treated at pet stores, especially in feeder fish (goldfish, shiners, and tuffies esp.), angelfish, gouramis, and koi. Technically it's also a great idea if you insist on feeding another fish with feeder fish. It's really easy for them to get diseases from their foods, and many feeder fish aren't even fed at the store, so aren't the best nutrition they could be. Predated to break up some daily photos.

(Early) Spring Cleaning

I've been busy with neatening up my life as a way to not spend money. It has partially worked, but led to lots of stuff floating around my house being thrown out. It's also resulted in a renewed interest in half-finished projects. Last year, I believe around May I started building a fish tank stand. It was to hold up a restarted saltwater tank as my current 30 gallon has one fish and infestations of red-bugs and some kind of zooanthid eating snail. I was unimpressed with store-bought stands (too short.) After laboriously cutting chunks out of 2 x 4s with not quite correct precision I finished the frame and the floor of the cabinet. I even found some doors at ikea (As-is department is the best place to shop there) and bought the thin plywood I was going to enclose it with. Almost a year later it was still sitting in my kitchen as a bare frame with a fish tank sitting on it covered in plywood. A few weeks ago I got tired of looking at it. I discovered that what was keeping me from finishing it was not actually wanting to figure out how to get a sump inside it to not wreck the stand with salt-deposits. I looked around my house and evaluated all my other tanks and decided to rework some other fish into the tank. Two days later I finished the stand. I used the paint that was leftover from my kitchen and three coats late it was complete. Some of the more peaceful fish from the basement are back to being displayed, and the only fish left in the basement are the overwintering pond fish. Next I have a few steps and my huge anole cage can be called complete except for sealing. That one has also been sitting 90% finished for months. I'm not sure exactly why that one isn't done yet though, my subconscious most likely has a silly reason like the fish tank stand.

Numb Arms

It never fails. I always put off closing up the pond until the water is so frigid I can't get all the plants up without waiting to thaw. This year After I caught the fish the plants all got dropped back down, and hopefully I'll have an even better lily show next summer. The real reason I'm so slow at it is setting up the winter tank for the fish. Each year they get whatever tank I have empty. Some years They've just gotten big tubs in the basement. They lucked out with a 55 gallon tank. I had 5 goldfish survive this summer, and I think that may actually have been the number I put out. The Paradise Fish was a no show, but he was getting several years old. Plenty of mosquito fish survived as well, but I'm down to one male. Since I'm going to actually be able to see the fish this winter, they got names.

Beach Trash

This July family reunion trip to Cape Cod (it's an annual thing) I decided to go off on my own a bit more. I also cut it short by 3 days, as I really hate a vacation when I just read books while paying $50 bucks a day for the dogs to be kenneled. I visited three of the five Cape Cod National Seashore Beaches (I'm only counting the park service controlled ones, not the town ones.) I went on a number of the nature walks I've been carrying around a map for from 2 years ago, and I went to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at low tide. If you've never been at a sanctuary beach at low tide you're missing a treat. Fiddler crabs run across the trail at many points, so numerous you think they're bugs. You even get a chance to see birds that aren't gulls. I'll admit I mostly go for the footprints. Lots of bird prints on the sand just waiting for me, without many people footprints to get in the way. All the neat stuff low tide tosses up is still there, rather than carted off by the first person who saw it. These are a sampling of the over 1,000 pics I took on vacation. I'd also recommend visiting as much of the National Seashore as possible. Lots of stuff to see...