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Post by brenda on Apr 26, 2009 0:15:21 GMT -5
Wow, you do have a lot going on...That is a really good update, I enjoyed reading it. I don't know how you know all that is going on either as you do have a lot of fish. Well, I guess if it were me I too would know what is going on so I do understand how you can keep up on it. lol
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Post by eve on Apr 26, 2009 0:16:10 GMT -5
holy crap how are you able to keep track of all of your fish??? and then with scientific names too??? Honestly, I try not to get anything I don't know anything about. When talking to Brenda in email, I'll just say my NO (Neochromis omnicaeruleus) or my "Dayglows" cause she knows what they are. I try to keep my posts informative, and spelled correctly, so if someone wanted to look one up, they can copy and paste them. It's important to me to know the scientific names...it's for most of them the only name they have. well, i think it's just amazing i also think what you're doing is absolutely great i hope i will be able to do something in that direction some day keep up the good work on saving these amazing fish
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Post by kagome on Apr 26, 2009 0:17:31 GMT -5
It is so funny that you said that, I do that all the time from your posts because I don't know many of the species so I copy and paste so I can look them up. I do learn a lot from your posts, they're awesome.
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Post by barbara on Apr 26, 2009 0:17:54 GMT -5
If you let me know what interests you, I can try to hold back some fry when you get ready. I don't sell fish, but I'd love to get some of these species into different areas.
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Post by eve on Apr 26, 2009 0:21:02 GMT -5
If you let me know what interests you, I can try to hold back some fry when you get ready. I don't sell fish, but I'd love to get some of these species into different areas. that sounds great i will definitely let you know once i'm in that stage to be able to do that thanks for that offer
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Post by barbara on Apr 26, 2009 0:31:02 GMT -5
Wow, you do have a lot going on...That is a really good update, I enjoyed reading it. I don't know how you know all that is going on either as you do have a lot of fish. Well, I guess if it were me I too would know what is going on so I do understand how you can keep up on it. lol Thanks Brenda. I figured you would know all of this...you sometimes know my numbers better than I do! There is a lot, and a lot of work. I'm pretty committed to this, but I may end up having to downsize a little. I am going to have to prioritize what I am keeping. Certain fish will always have a place in my home, regardless. There is no point in keeping fish if you don't enjoy it! I got to go to a chat with Greg Steeves and Pam Chin about fishrooms. The timing is great, since this summer we plan to convert our garage into my fish room. I asked for the one primary piece of advice in building a room like this....both said that having enough room to enjoy the fish was really more important than the number of tanks. I'm trying to keep that in mind when moving forward. Some tanks have to just be for pleasure.
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Post by barbara on Apr 26, 2009 0:32:25 GMT -5
It is so funny that you said that, I do that all the time from your posts because I don't know many of the species so I copy and paste so I can look them up. I do learn a lot from your posts, they're awesome. If there is more information on something that you want from first hand experience, please ask. I'm really pleased you said that you learn from me, that's the whole point of me posting. That may have been the best compliment I've gotten in a long time. Thank you.
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Post by Carl on Apr 26, 2009 9:39:21 GMT -5
It is so funny that you said that, I do that all the time from your posts because I don't know many of the species so I copy and paste so I can look them up. I do learn a lot from your posts, they're awesome. I have to agree with Kagome! Being able to cut & paste with correct scientific and even common names makes it much easier to follow and learn & not just from your posts, but Brenda's, Jon's & anyone else here on the forum. Carl
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Post by Carl on Apr 26, 2009 9:50:02 GMT -5
Just a thought Barbara (& other with multiple tanks) Would it be possible to provide pictures or urls of the photobucket (or elsewhere) pics of each of your tanks to paste onto the members picture page. We can make a small thumbnail with embedded text (when you bring the browser over the pic) to describe which tank is which. The reason I ask is I really have a hard time following every ones tanks without a "scorecard", especially with my busy often 16 hour days, yet I really want to follow these as it is both interesting what members post and educational. Carl
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Post by barbara on Apr 26, 2009 11:11:54 GMT -5
I will see what I can do. I'm going to try to get pictures today...I have some work to do on various tanks, and I'll make sure the tanks are clean...LOL
I know Brenda wants to know how I have this many tanks crammed into my house...and I've been promising her pictures of the baby room too. My husband is the photographer in the house, so I think I can convince him to work on this for me.
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Post by barbara on Apr 28, 2009 21:00:35 GMT -5
No go on the photos as yet....but some updates already.
Must be something in the water...all of my males seem to want to spawn.
My Paratilapia sp. "Marolambo" are moving some serious sand around the tank. I have not witnessed a spawn from them before, so I'm finding this behavior interesing. I thought they would spawn on a rock or a piece of wood, but they are certainly creating a hole.
My Neochromis omnicaeruleus male is fired up and trying to entice a female. She starts the dance, but doesn't seem to want to complete it. I love watching him try, though.
My Mbipia cf. Lutea is in rare coloration. If I can get a shot of him, I will, dirty glass or no.
My Haplochromis sp. "Kenya Gold" male seems in the mood for love as well. I can't figure out which female he is courting yet, but it's a good sign.
And, to top it off, I seem to have a 1 inch Platytaeniodus sp."Red Tail Sheller" holding. I'm shocked over that. She's so tiny, I don't really expect viable fry at this age, but she has got a mouthful!
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Post by brenda on Apr 28, 2009 21:59:27 GMT -5
Woohoo...I hope you are getting your tank ready for the "special" fish. lol
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Post by barbara on Apr 28, 2009 22:17:19 GMT -5
I have a tank ready to go! I'm very excited to be getting those.
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Post by barbara on Apr 28, 2009 22:20:24 GMT -5
None of my fish want their picture taken. I sat in front of the Mbipia cf. Lutea tank for at least 10 minutes, tried feeding them, and the dominant male just wouldn't cooperate. He stayed in hiding the whole time. Normally I can't walk through the room without them getting excited...how strange.
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Post by brenda on Apr 28, 2009 22:43:50 GMT -5
They know what you are up too.... lol
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Post by kagome on Apr 29, 2009 0:56:33 GMT -5
I do learn a lot from your posts, Barbara. You rock!
I have one suggestion for your fish room. My friend had a really nice fish room, pretty big too, 20X20. He had really comfy chairs and bean bags in his fish room and we would hang out in there for hours when we would come to visit, sort of like how you tend to gather around a TV in other houses. But instead of sitting there mesmerized by a TV we would watch the fish and talk and drink tea, it was awesome. He used folding canvas chairs, almost like camp chairs but more bowl shaped and so they were very comfy but also were easily moved around or folded and put out of the way when he was working on his tanks. Just talking about this really makes me miss him, he moved away and we lost touch. He had the most beautiful angelfish I've ever seen.
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Post by barbara on Apr 29, 2009 15:12:43 GMT -5
Kagome, you have great ideas. I have like a 1 1/2 car garage to work with, and I was hoping for a seating area in there. I'll be sure to add one now. I don't know if I'll add a lot more tanks than I have right now, unless my husband (who is a genius) can figure out a system that is both easy to work with and easy to view. I have no doubts he can do this, but again, I want to be able to enjoy my fish. Sometimes, with so many tanks, I forget that I am supposed to get pleasure from them, and that they aren't supposed to be all about "work" and breeding. Getting his planted tank redone has reminded me of that.
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Post by barbara on Apr 30, 2009 7:54:36 GMT -5
Well, with the new job came a hard decision. I try not to give out fry before they reach a certain age, or size. Because I'll be gone for a length of time, it concerned me about a group of babies I have, week and a half old Haplochromis sp. "Kenya Gold." I have the only colony in the area that is actually producing fry, and this fish seems to be in fairly high demand. With their young ages, I'm concerned that at this tender age that depriving them of food will possibly stunt their growth. Walt and I talked about it, and we found a friend that we trust with baby fish, and have offered him this group of fry. Our friend is estatic at our trust, and the ability to receive fish so difficult to acquire. I think this is the best decision at this point...the fish are going to a trusted breeder/keeper, and this will spread another colony out there. I'm sad to see little ones go, but this seems wise in the long run. I try to keep in mind it's not always what I want, but what is best for the species, and I think this is it.
One of the things that seems to terrify all keepers of rare fish is a single location incident. It's one reason that some will give out their first spawn, instead of keeping a back up colony. This scares me to no end...what if a tank crashes or a disease breaks out? This has just happened to me. I have lost my colony of Yssichromis sp. "blue tipped." I'm unsure why I lost these fish, as the outbreak of Columnaris was weeks ago, and these fish were unaffected. No treatment I tried seemed to help, and unfortunately I lost the entire colony in just a couple of days. I am heartbroken over this, as these fish are so rare, and getting a breeding colony was so important. This means that only Greg Steeves has these fish in the US now, and that is a very scary thing for a fish keeper. He offered me another group, but until I figure out what went wrong, I am afraid to accept. Even with the Columnaris outbreak, I didn't lose fish at 4 a day...so I don't know what this was. My best guess is a Strep outbreak, but I just don't know. Of course, it is the most rare, most difficult to replace fish in my house that were lost.
I have bleached the tank that they were housed in, and yet I am still afraid of using that tank for anything at risk. I'll probably give it another bleach treatment, as it is easy to maneuver to do this outdoors. I'm using a much higher concentration of bleach, since I can move this tank around to rinse it well. That's really all I can do at this point. The heater and filter and substrate are all soaking in bleach as well, although I may just dump the small amount of sand that I had in the tank.
No other tanks are showing problems at this point. I'm trying to maintain what I have, and not adding anything new until I'm sure I have this under control. I did begin to disinfect my nets and python after use, but I never expected this tank to have a problem, so I don't know if I disenfected after doing maintenance on this particular tank. I have added no new fish since February, and they were all added at the same time.
The only other fish I have lost since the Columnaris outbreak was one Paralabidochromis sp. "Fire," and this didn't actually surprise me. I have too many males in that tank, and the females are at risk. As soon as I'm sure of the health of the fish in that tank, I'll be removing several males and taking them for trade for another couple of females. This colony will be housed in a smaller tank, a 42 gallon corner tank that Walt is in the process of resealing. Their 60 gallon will be a welcome addition for a grow out for some other fish I want to keep. The other thing I lost was one Green Fire tetra, but I have found tetras to not be extremely hardy in my house. I lose them fairly regularly, without much concern. When I lose loaches and Gouramis, I know I have a problem, and they all seem fine. Even "Stumpy," the gourami that lost his top fin, is making a fantastic (fintastic?) recovery, and is managing to grow part of that damaged fin back.
Water changes start today, since I am leaving Sunday morning. I don't want to leave this until the last minute, and I want to stay in some semblence of a routine. I'm trying to move forward past this loss, and hope that this does not spread.
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Post by Carl on Apr 30, 2009 19:55:49 GMT -5
Sorry to read about the Yssichromis sp. "blue tipped". I hope you can get everything under control before you leave Sunday morning. Did you observe any different behavior or changes in water parameters before the loss? Carl
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Post by barbara on May 6, 2009 0:35:44 GMT -5
Sorry to read about the Yssichromis sp. "blue tipped". I hope you can get everything under control before you leave Sunday morning. Did you observe any different behavior or changes in water parameters before the loss? Carl I noticed nothing. The only thing I ever noticed was that the Synodontis lucipinnis I kept in that tank died if I looked at the tank wrong. If I did a water change, I knew I'd lose some. I added Melafix, and watched one turn upside down. They were all added at the same time, so I don't see that being the cause. Everything seems fine after my trip. I lost one fish...in a tank with a dominant male coming to the front. I did expect to have some probelms with that tank until the male is sure of his dominance. Not too bad thought, all in all. Everyone else was frisky when I got home tonight.
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