Sad post

So after writing up my carpet disaster this morning, we have had at least four deaths in the rainbow tank, two Bosemani, one red and one dwarf neon. They have all happened today which is odd as the accident happened Saturday and it was Monday night that we moved the tank - it's been two days now and all stats are fine... 

I've done a water change and added an air stone but I'm at a bit of a loss at what else to do. I don't want to transfer the fish in case of disease. The remaining inhabitants look ok but then the Bosemani all looked ok when I went out two hours ago yet two have perished. I am hoping that there will be no more casualties but I'm baffled, what could it be? The only thing I can think of is a ph swing due to changing so much water at once when we had to refill the tank after it lost over 2/3 of it's water but that seems a bit out there as rainbows love big water changes so it wasn't more than double the usual change. The fish aren't showing any sign of disease or distress. They're coloured up (even post mortem, see sad photo!) and not gasping for air as you might expect. I'll do another bucket in half an hour and keep doing that.

I need wine.

Disaster!

So, after a nice day spent visiting a few new fish shops we had not been to before, my husband and I went out on a nice dog walk with the pram. When we returned and hour later there was a bit of a smell...and on walking into the living room we realised that it was emanating from the extremely wet carpet. On further inspection, it became clear that the culprit was the fluval filter on the 240l tank which had come apart at the seal and pumped around 150l of water all over the living room. The fish were happily swimming in about a third of their tank water and it was quite obvious that the carpet was not going to survive so we ripped up as much as we could. 

The next day we realised we could no longer stand the smell from under the fish tank and it had to move. It gave me a chance do do a stock take of all the fish, currently; 

 7 Bosemani Rainbows 

6 New Guinea Red Rainbows 

12 Dwarf Neon Rainbows 

6 Yo Yo loaches (possibly a different species - they're getting very big!)

4 Siamese Algae Eaters (made light work of the black beard algae...love these little fellas!)

2 Bristlenose Plecs 

5 Harlequins 

9 Cardinal Tetra 

Sadly the cories seemed to die, one after the other, until there were only a few left which got moved to the 200l. Possibly of old age as they were among the first fish we got around four years ago now. The angel also got moved and is enjoying trying to spawn with her friend, also a female...

The wood and plants have just been dumped in as the move was a looong job and we had to wait until the baby was in bed to start. But here are a few (pretty rubbish) pictures of the tank after we had re-set it up in it's temporary spot in the hall. One down, one to go...

In praise of Siamese Algae Eaters

Now I have never been one for getting a fish to fix a problem - too many people have one poor sad clown loach living in a 3ft tank because they were told by the fish shop that they eat snails, and I think that's really sad. However, my tank became overrun by black beard algae while I was pregnant and couldn't reach into the tank to maintain the plants. I started dosing with flourish excel and removing the affected anubias leaves but it didn't do much. 

I was starting to feel miserable about the state of the tanks which were usually so beautiful. It was then that I read about Siamese Algae Eaters, the only fish that actually snack on the black stuff! As long as you get the right species, they are peaceful gregarious little guys who grow to about 12cm and are suitable for most communities as long as there is space and the tank is big enough. They're also pretty cute. However, they are frequently confused with other species such as flying foxes, and false SAEs which are not peaceful and do not eat algae, so I think they get a bit of a bad rep. 

 Anyway after much deliberation and studying of photos, I decided to get some. My LFS only had two and they were labelled as Flying Foxes, but I took my phone in and studied them, and compared them to pictures (what smartphones were invented for). As soon as I got them in the tank I knew they were the right fish as they started snacking straight away on all the unsightly black algae. 

 I now have seven of these little guys altogether, three in my 200l and four in my 240l, and WOW what a good job they do! The hair algae disappeared from both tanks in less than a week. They cause no problems to any of the other inhabitants and you can always see them mid tank, grazing on the plants. For me, I would say they have not only fixed a problem but added to the character of the tanks and I am so glad I gave them a try!

Here are some really rubbish pictures of some of my little friends!

One year on!

Well it's been over a year since I last updated my fish blog. And what a busy year it has been! I now have a new addition, and not a fishy one - in November I had a baby girl. Being pregnant and having a newborn to look after don't exactly go hand in hand with the hefty bucket lifting work that is fish tank maintenance but I kept with it (with help from the husband of course!) and still have three tanks; the two Fluval Romas (240l and 200l) and in place of the wave 15 which I closed down when the previous betta died, I have the Fluval Edge set up with a new betta, pygmy cories, two otos, two big amano shrimp and assassin snails which bred in the tank. The two large tanks haven't changed too much. Unfortunately bending into the tank to do plant maintenance has not been possible and the plants have suffered a bit with lack beard algae. The stocking is very similar, there have been a few deaths (guppies, platies and dwarf gourami in the 240 which came with the tank) and a couple of additions - some more cories in both tanks and a few Bosemani rainbowfish in the 240. I will pop some pictures up when I can - it's too sunny to take any now - and hopefully over the next few weeks if I have the time I can work on the plants and get back to a well maintained planted tank. Baby certainly likes watching the fish, maybe she'll be a fishkeeper too!

Baby Assassins!

Shortly after I got the Roma 240, I sold off my other tanks and sadly I had to find a new home for several fish, including Mrs Krib :( When I broke down the tank I found that, sadly and without obvious reason, four of my six assassin snails were but mere shells. The two survivors were moved into the Superfish betta tank. I also sold the wood I had in these tanks, with the exception of one piece wood with a plant attached, which I put in my 20l Arcadia Arc quarantine tank. About 4-6 weeks later I noticed that Viv, my light-coloured angel, had a gammy fin. He or she has always had one deformed fin which means she can't swim fast, even for an angel, and she may have been nipped. I was however concerned it was finrot of whitespot or something else bad. I moved the platy babies inhabiting the tank into the 200l to fend for themselves and then moved Viv into my qt tank (which is far too small for her but as I said, I sold the rest of my tanks off! Just my luck...). I whacked the temperature up and medicated the tank. Anyway... One week later, I noticed baby assassin snails crawling round the tank! Not just one or two; about 9 or 10 at last count! I guess the increase in temperature caused eggs, which must have been on the wood already, to hatch out.... how odd is that?? I never had any babies at all when the wood was in situ - no shells at all when the tank was broken down except those I put in myself. Perhaps it was the temperature that caused them to hatch, I just don't know. All I know is that the eggs must have been at least 6 weeks old at time of hatching, if not much, much longer. Am hoping these baby snails survive long enough to be photographed easily, and looking forward to a new breeding challenge!

Picture update!

Superfish Wave 15

With One-Eyed Willie the Betta, 7 teeny pygmy cories and two assassin snails!



Roma 200

Lookng pretty good if I do say so myself; it's amazing how far the plants have come on!



Roma 240

Currently minus Viv the angel who is in quarantine at the moment - possibly finrot or whitespot but doesn't seem to be going away, or getting any worse?? I am keeping a close eye on him/her...

There are so many plants in the 200 but in the 240 I actually have a good idea of what's in there! There are vallis and giant vallis at the back, also a crinium thaianum (onion bulb plant) which apparently is a good one if your fish like to nibble as it tastes foul - this one has recently split into two bulbs so I have one at each end. The three plants that are the same at the front are cryptocoryne wendtii (crypts). There is a bit of stairgrass and what I think is a variety of bacopa at the back, and big anubias on wood right in the middle. The most recent additions are an amazon sword or echinodorus in the middle/left back and a water violet or (hottonia palustris) in the right hand front corner. There is lots of amazon frogbit floating and the fish love swimming through the long roots. There is also a load of duckweed which the fish love as it provides them cover - I am not so in love with the duckweed as it spreads so quickly but as it does it is removing nitrate from the water, and it's easy enough to scoop out.

The Roma 240 has landed!

So before Christmas, I sent my other half an email with an ebay link for a 240 litre tank about 40 minutes away. It was a very good price due I imagine to it being fully stocked. Anyway much to my surprise, he encouraged me to bid, so I did...and I won! Hurrah.

Fast forward to the start of January, and it was time to pick up the tank! It took several hours to bag all the fish, empty and completely break down the tank, and several cars to move it all, but I got there in the end thanks to the help of my wonderful husband, the previous owner who was extremely patient, and my cousin and her husband who helped transport the tank and cabinet.

We got back to our house about 2.30 in the afternoon in the knowledge that my brother in law and family were shortly scheduled to descend on us, so got to work right away. I am pleased to say that all the fish survived the ordeal, and they seem to be doing really well in their new home. Unfortunately as the whole things was a bit rushed and little lives depended on it going as quickly as possible, I didn't have time to take pictures, but after a few hours it was all in place, and it looked like this:

The stocking has been played around with a fair bit, and is is a mixture of old and new;

21 cardinal tetra
1 angel
1 dwarf gourami
6 loaches
6 cories
7 harlequins
6 red rainbows
2 very bristley bristlenose plecs!

I set up the co2 a week later and am waiting for a new glass diffuser to arrive, as I don't like the JBl ones. It was much easier the second time round! We have since added in a background and it looks like this:

I really like it, and am very glad I went for it. I have been monitoring the water stats and even though we had to move two external filters there has been no sign of any ammonia or nitrite, which is very lucky and a huge relief. We have done one large water change so far, another one is scheduled for tomorrow. It isn't actually too much hard work compared to the two tanks it replaced. In the 200l, there is now;

1 angel
8 danios
5 male guppies
7 five banded barbs
7 glolwlight tetras
7 dwarf chain loaches
1 BN plec
1 blue phantom plec
1 clown plec

I apologise for the state of the pictures, they are a bit blurry I'm afraid! However I hope it shows how well the co2 is working, the plants look fab and I am so glad we did it.

...we rehomed two BN plecs, ten rummynose, several platies and a krib much quicker than I was expecting and broke down the 125l, which has now been sold, and the 65l which we are intending to keep as a spare/quarantine. (Update: we got rid of this one too in a house cleansing exercise!).

That takes our total tanks down to four, including the betta tank and the kitchen tank which currently houses two elderly guppies and some platy fry.
So what is next? Well my plan is to enjoy the fish and the plants for a while, and not add any more fish or change any of the stock. I absolutely love my tanks, they are a fantastic thing to watch and now wherever I go, any living room without a tank looks like a room wasted!