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Time for a Fishy Update
Aug. 1st, 2007 10:06 amThere's much to report.
First, we decided that the upstairs tank, the former "hospital tank" (read: tomb of tetra death), had to be completely scrapped and re-done. I used bleach and sunshine to kill off whatever ugly bugs had attached themselves to that tank. The substrate went into the garbage. After several days of drying in the sun, I rebuildt the thing with new gravel and fresh water. I returned the pagoda to it, but only after it got a sun and bleach bath too. I've been letting it sit percolating with just water for several days.
Yesterday, we bought a betta.
Mason named it Johnny/Giant Girl Betta Rounds.
I love it. No doubt this means the poor thing is doomed. Of course, the first thing I did after putting Johnny/Giant Girl in his/her new tank was do a little research. Turns out bettas love it hot. Luckily, when I thought we might put tetras back in that tank, I already bought a small, under the gravel heater. It's been keeping the tank between 78 and 80 degrees F, which according to my exhaustive internet research (I check three whole sites) is what bettas like. I also bought a pH tester and discovered our water is fairly neutral, with a reading between 6.5 and 7.0, also acceptable for bettas.
He's very pretty. A deep blue with reddish fin highlights. I'm rather enchanted wth the way he drifts effortlessly around the tank. I've given Johnny/Giant Girl a lot of fake duckweed to hide in and he loves to sneak around and peep out at us with his grumpy bulldog face.
Oh, I KNOW bettas live in tiny bowls with hardly any creature comforts. Turns out that's one of the great debate among fish keepers. I guess in the wild the live in shallow pools, like the rice paddies in China, so there's a belief that they don't need much in terms of oxygen, etc. Part of that comes from the fact that they actually take in air at the surface as well as using their gills. I guess given all the trauma the upstairs tank has had, I'd rather err on the side of being overly nice to my fish. We did have to turn off the filter because Johnny/Giant Girl's tail got stuck in it. Bettas aren't much for current. I'd read that too, but I would like to have some kind of filteration system, so I'm going to see what I can find that might not stir the tank up too much, while providing decent bio filtration. Any one out there know anything about sponge filters?
They also apparently prefer live food, something I've secretly wanted to try. I promised Shawn that if I fed the betta living things that it would be an occassional treat. No breeding shrimp in the downstairs bathroom. (yet.)
All the other fish are doing well. Joe and Fergus seem happy in their new thirty gallon tank. I gave them some ghost/glass shrimp to eat, which they promptly did. Bob, the fish that went into their old tank, is too small to eat the shrimp yet so I gave him some new companions. I'm really quite fond of ghost/glass shrimp, so it's nice to have a place I can watch them. Who knew I'd be so enamored of fresh water arthropods?
Joe and Fergus are still producing a surprising amount of ammonium. The tank is kind of smelly. I've been changing the water whenever the tests get too green, but I'm worried about slowing down the conditioning process too much. So, I'm trying to hold off a few more days. I forget how long this whole dang thing takes, but I don't want to loose Joe, particularly, since he's been with us since our very first fish moment.
So, that's the fish.
In other news, I ended up having to ask for a short extension on Tate's book. The revisions have required me to restructure the entire last half of the book, so I've been spending my evening writing whole new scenes. Gah. I still hope to have it done by next Monday.
First, we decided that the upstairs tank, the former "hospital tank" (read: tomb of tetra death), had to be completely scrapped and re-done. I used bleach and sunshine to kill off whatever ugly bugs had attached themselves to that tank. The substrate went into the garbage. After several days of drying in the sun, I rebuildt the thing with new gravel and fresh water. I returned the pagoda to it, but only after it got a sun and bleach bath too. I've been letting it sit percolating with just water for several days.
Yesterday, we bought a betta.
Mason named it Johnny/Giant Girl Betta Rounds.
I love it. No doubt this means the poor thing is doomed. Of course, the first thing I did after putting Johnny/Giant Girl in his/her new tank was do a little research. Turns out bettas love it hot. Luckily, when I thought we might put tetras back in that tank, I already bought a small, under the gravel heater. It's been keeping the tank between 78 and 80 degrees F, which according to my exhaustive internet research (I check three whole sites) is what bettas like. I also bought a pH tester and discovered our water is fairly neutral, with a reading between 6.5 and 7.0, also acceptable for bettas.
He's very pretty. A deep blue with reddish fin highlights. I'm rather enchanted wth the way he drifts effortlessly around the tank. I've given Johnny/Giant Girl a lot of fake duckweed to hide in and he loves to sneak around and peep out at us with his grumpy bulldog face.
Oh, I KNOW bettas live in tiny bowls with hardly any creature comforts. Turns out that's one of the great debate among fish keepers. I guess in the wild the live in shallow pools, like the rice paddies in China, so there's a belief that they don't need much in terms of oxygen, etc. Part of that comes from the fact that they actually take in air at the surface as well as using their gills. I guess given all the trauma the upstairs tank has had, I'd rather err on the side of being overly nice to my fish. We did have to turn off the filter because Johnny/Giant Girl's tail got stuck in it. Bettas aren't much for current. I'd read that too, but I would like to have some kind of filteration system, so I'm going to see what I can find that might not stir the tank up too much, while providing decent bio filtration. Any one out there know anything about sponge filters?
They also apparently prefer live food, something I've secretly wanted to try. I promised Shawn that if I fed the betta living things that it would be an occassional treat. No breeding shrimp in the downstairs bathroom. (yet.)
All the other fish are doing well. Joe and Fergus seem happy in their new thirty gallon tank. I gave them some ghost/glass shrimp to eat, which they promptly did. Bob, the fish that went into their old tank, is too small to eat the shrimp yet so I gave him some new companions. I'm really quite fond of ghost/glass shrimp, so it's nice to have a place I can watch them. Who knew I'd be so enamored of fresh water arthropods?
Joe and Fergus are still producing a surprising amount of ammonium. The tank is kind of smelly. I've been changing the water whenever the tests get too green, but I'm worried about slowing down the conditioning process too much. So, I'm trying to hold off a few more days. I forget how long this whole dang thing takes, but I don't want to loose Joe, particularly, since he's been with us since our very first fish moment.
So, that's the fish.
In other news, I ended up having to ask for a short extension on Tate's book. The revisions have required me to restructure the entire last half of the book, so I've been spending my evening writing whole new scenes. Gah. I still hope to have it done by next Monday.
