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Post by kagome on Aug 25, 2009 12:51:57 GMT -5
This is great Kagome! Is there any available tank to separate a pair of the spawning peppered cory cats so as to maybe have a successful spawn? Carl Unfortunately I don't have a tank that I could move them to that would do any good. If I put them in the 20g there are 5 julii cories in that tank so the eggs would still get eaten. I think I have at least three female julii in the 20g so there would actually be more rival females in the tank to eat the eggs. I'm trying to talk my husband into another 20g somewhere, probably a 20 tall. Then I would have a place to put spawning catfish or maybe even move the julii cories to give the rams a chance to hatch out their fry. What I really wish I had was a 40g to put Mickey and Minnie in to spawn by themselves and then take them back out once the fry were big enough. Then I could let the fry get to some size and put them on Craig's list for local sale. I don't know enough about shipping live fish to sell them out of town. But I think I might be able to sell them off at a discount price in town. South Americans are very popular around here since our water conditions are so good for them. I think I could probably sell a good number of the cories as well since they are universally popular but it's the rams I really want to breed. I have so enjoyed those fish and I would love to have some more. I'd love to breed the rainbows, too, but that would mean several more large breeding tanks and a very large grow out tank. That is just going to have to be a very long term goal. Our current circumstances just make that completely unrealistic.
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Post by murdock6701 on Aug 26, 2009 7:24:52 GMT -5
I totally understand and completely sympathize w/ you Kagome - local marketing here is non-existant and the cost lately for filtration media, food and power, let alone general maintenance for 6 tanks is the main reason I had to downsize
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Post by kagome on Sept 3, 2009 2:10:09 GMT -5
My rams spawned again. I was disappointed that I did not get to watch them spawn this time and only got to see the last of the eggs as the cories polished them off for breakfast. Things have just been so crazy that I still have not gotten a tank divider. My peppered cories did end up spawning and once again the eggs got eaten. Boy, cories are rough on spawning, even their own!!
My husband has been a doll and taken over cleaning the tanks while I have been recovering from my knee injury. He cleaned the big tank today for the first time and did a really great job. He followed all of my really anal retentive directions made me really happy.
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Post by Carl on Sept 3, 2009 10:19:52 GMT -5
Sorry you missed the spawn this time, but at least your tanks are doing really well now as these spawns are testament to! Maybe when you have time you can teach your Cory Cats some manners ;D Carl
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Post by kagome on Sept 5, 2009 18:03:36 GMT -5
I am very upset to report that one of my Australian rainbows died today. She spawned yesterday and then was swimming around and eating this morning but I found her dead this afternoon. I'm really sad about it, she was a really big and beautiful rainbow. I've read that sometimes Boesemani and Australian rainbow females spawn and then die mysteriously. She had no visible symptoms, even dead she had gorgeous color and confirmation. All the other fish seem in perfect health and the tank parameters are ideal. I feel bad that the other Australian is now by himself. The different species do school together a bit but they always break into pairs based on species and now the one is just swimming by himself when the others pair off. I hope nothing sinister has broken out in this tank. :/
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Post by goldenpuon on Sept 5, 2009 19:32:08 GMT -5
I'm really sorry to hear that you lost your female rainbow. I wonder why they sometimes die mysteriously after spawning?
Don't be too hard on yourself for this Kagome. It was not your fault. These things happen sometimes. I hope you don't have this problem again.
R.I.P. little Australian rainbow...
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Post by Carl on Sept 5, 2009 19:51:00 GMT -5
I second Renee's thoughts. Sorry about the loss of your female Rainbow. Carl
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supi
Full Member
Posts: 66
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Post by supi on Sept 6, 2009 21:03:36 GMT -5
Renee, I am sorry to hear about your Aussie rainbow. Hugs to you. Supi
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Post by goldenpuon on Sept 7, 2009 14:21:36 GMT -5
Supi, I'm not the one who lost the female rainbow. Kagome was. Though I appreciate the sentiments, you should probably direct them to Kagome not me.
Just read back and I'm sure everything will make sense. I know it was just an innocent mistake.
Thank you for the kind comment though.
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supi
Full Member
Posts: 66
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Post by supi on Sept 7, 2009 16:31:08 GMT -5
Oh dear, crawling under the desk.
Kagome, sorry your lost your rainbow.
Supi
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Post by kagome on Sept 8, 2009 0:27:34 GMT -5
No worries we all get mixed up from time to time. Thank you for extending your condolences. So far everybody still looks ok and all parameters are still within ideal ranges. I'm hoping that this was a simple case of not being able to recover from the stress of spawning. The catfish in that tank are spawning again so conditions must not be too horrible
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Post by kagome on Sept 16, 2009 23:40:42 GMT -5
I have to say that I am really frustrated right now. Because of injuring my knee I am not able to clean my tanks myself and it is driving me crazy. I have to ask my husband for help as I cannot get up on the ladder to clean the big tank and I cannot carry the buckets of water for my little tank. My husband has been a great sport about adding the cleanings to his already very busy schedule but the tanks are not getting cleaned as often as they should. Delays keep happening because of my husband's crazy work schedule and then all the day to day stuff that just goes along with having a toddler, lots of other pets, and being responsible for most of the cooking. Normally I clean the tanks every two weeks always on Tuesdays. One week I do the big tank, the next week I do the small tank and it all works out. But with everything being all crazy and delays cropping up sometimes they're going as long as three weeks between cleanings which really drives me nuts. I'm sorry to whine and I realize that many, many people have it worse off than I do when it comes to physical limitations but I am not used to depending on other people to do things for me and I find it very hard to deal with. I really wish I could just hurry up and heal up this knee so I could get back to normal.
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Post by kagome on Oct 11, 2009 14:16:52 GMT -5
OK, so it has been forever since I last updated my tank blog Luckily everything has been going very well with my tanks. I have had spawns from almost every species of fish: julii cories, pepper cories, ram cichlids, Emerald rainbows, Australian rainbows, and Boesemani rainbows. Unfortunately, I still do not have spawning or fry tanks so I had to let the eggs get eaten However, if I manage to get the job I am currently going after I will have a substantial fish budget to work with and I will upgrade and add new tanks. When I get nervous about going to job interviews I just keep picturing the fancy new tank I will set up and then the butterflies in my stomach go away. lol I would also really like to add an above ground pond on our patio. I think my son would really like that and then I could finally have the red tiger lotuses I've always wanted. That would be so supercool! I ordered a new HOB filter from Carl because the crappy one that came with my tank is dying. I've tried everything to fix it and my husband who is a total wiz when it comes to fish filters gave fixing it a try too and the motor is just giving out. Given how young that filter is and that the motor is giving out already I really don't think it is worthwhile to try and track down replacement parts. I ordered another Via Aqua 200 because I am so happy with my other one. Luckily, I do have redundant filtration on that tank so even if the current HOB dies before the new one arrives it will not be an absolute emergency. I can't wait to play with my new filter and not have the headaches of the old one to deal with.
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Post by murdock6701 on Oct 12, 2009 9:19:33 GMT -5
if it's a top fin hob i believe they come w/ a lifetime guarantee.....
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Post by fishfever on Oct 12, 2009 19:50:19 GMT -5
I think this is true, I had a Top Fin air pump start to go bad after several months (weak output) so I took it back to Petsmart and they gave me a new one. No receipt was needed.
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Post by kagome on Oct 17, 2009 22:58:20 GMT -5
It is a Regent, purchased with the tank as a kit from Walmart. Frankly I've never been truly happy with it and if this one is conking out with this little time and as much cleaning and maintenance as I've put into it I'm really not interested in getting another of the same. Not that Walmart would replace it after this long anyway. The new Via Aqua I got from Carl has arrived I just have not been able to set it up yet because I had the day from Hades yesterday and spent over 7 hours getting a virus off of my computer. I know that I will be very happy with the Via Aqua since I already have one and have been running it now for over a year with absolutely no problems. I love that filter, easy to clean/maintain, easy to get it started and a great size compartment for biofilter media.
I did try giving the fish the new freeze dried brine shrimp that I got from Carl and the fish LOVE it. This is awesome because it is going to take my freeze dried shrimp expense from $10 a month to $1 a month. Go Carl, you are awesome! Other than the frozen blister packs I don't even bother buying fish food from the pet stores anymore. What Carl has is the same brands or better and his prices are sooooo much better, even with shipping figured in. I figured it out and the amount of gas I would spend to drive to the one place way over in the next county that actually sells flake frenzy and spirulina 20 is actually more than shipping costs and the food itself costs three bucks more at that store. No way I'm doing that!
Hopefully things will have calmed down for me tomorrow and I will clean tanks and set up the new filter. I also got a new sponge for the little tank. I got the next size up so I'm going to be playing around with how to best set that up, I think I have it pretty well figured out.
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Post by kagome on Oct 23, 2009 10:48:37 GMT -5
So now I have my new filter in place on the 38g and I am very happy with it. I rinsed put the media from the old filter and put it in the back of the new filter and I used the same sponge prefilter. I think I should be fine as far as biofilter but I am monitoring ammonia levels just the same. So far everything has turned up 0 for ammonia. I am also happy to announce that my knee has recovered enough that I can now clean my tanks myself again, hooray!! This makes me very happy and now things can be done on my schedule again which is just great. I bought a new Boesemani rainbow fish. I had a slot open in that tank because of the Australian dying a few weeks ok. When I went into the LFS to look around I saw this little male with just gorgeous colors and I couldn't resist. If he looked that good eating their crappy food and under those crappy lights then I knew that he would be spectacular in my tank. I was so right about that. A few days of good food and good lights and he looks spectacular. I can't believe how rich his colors are at that size. He is going to look so nice once he has more size on him and I can't wait!
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Post by Carl on Oct 23, 2009 18:16:23 GMT -5
I can't believe how rich his colors are at that size. He is going to look so nice once he has more size on him and I can't wait! Let us see too (pictures if possible) Congrats on your new Rainbow!! Carl
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Post by goldenpuon on Oct 24, 2009 16:17:04 GMT -5
Congrats on the new fish Kagome. It's great that he has such a good person to take care of him. You definitely provide superior care than a LFS.
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Post by kagome on Oct 26, 2009 22:26:42 GMT -5
Let us see too (pictures if possible) Congrats on your new Rainbow!! Carl I keep trying to get a good shot of him but he is so zippy and then the greedy emeralds keep crowding the front hoping for food. I guess I'm just going to have to figure out how to upload a video so you can see him and see just how much all my rainbows have grown.
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