Sculpin tank

these are awesome fish! with tons of personality, the large female knows what her food dish looks like and will dance if she sees it^_^

Tank: 22 gallon (soon to be upgraded to a 35 gallon)
Filtration: 1-45 gallon HOB, 1-25 gallon hob, 1-55 gallon air pump and large disk
these fish need high DO,
they grow to 6-8 inches..males being on the larger size females smaller.

logs were collected by me locally, Plants are 3 large anubis, 1 large clump of java moss, and new clump of pennywort

Inhabitants: 1- 4 1/2 inch Prickly sculpin,
2 -1 1/2 to 1 1/4 inch prickly sculpin
2 - 1 1/2 to 2 inch mottled sculpin
never ending supply of guppies i breed my self, and a hand full of red ramshorn snails

these are cold water fish and cooled by a window fan perched atop my lights, i keep the tank below 70o
they also change colors allot!
..its hard to get a still shots, of the smaller ones atm
They eat everything!! anything i drop in the tank
: night crawlers, guppies, scuds,chopped shrimp/prawn, chunks of any fish i have in the fridge, frozen blood worms, frozen krill, frozen silver sides, various pellets...there are more ..but i cant think of them ATM lol...anyway here are some pics!!!
Tank:
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'AngryFish'.. prickly sculpin..recently got pics so you can see why she is called prickly as well ^_^
the little goose bump looking things...are why she is 'prickly' this was the first time i had seen it..
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ok....first baby prickly
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2nd prickly
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1st mottled
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2nd mottled

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thoughs r cool looking ,,, kinda camoed in ur background and rocks ..

endangered cichlids wrote:thoughs r cool looking ,,, kinda camoed in ur background and rocks ..

yeah i like the natural look...trying to recreate there habitat as much as possible, ^_^ brings out the best in them.

whered u get these guys??

Billiethekid wrote:whered u get these guys??

well these sculpin are extremely common in the US in fast flowing streams and rocky lake shores ...they are very rarely up for sale on aquabid.

these were given to me by a family member, who brought them home while catching crayfish..didn't know what they were and threw them in there fish tank, after eating most of there fish...they asked if i wanted them.

ahh mk.. i may have to go fishing >.>

..one or two of the smaller ones might need a home next spring as they get bigger

..love shots where it shows her looking around...they have a bone in the back of there neck most fish lack that allows them to look around and up with there head..she was waiting for her dinner so i taped the top to look up.^_^...and some shots of her eating
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..startled her, when she moved she had a rock on her head....and shes such a fatty now!! she looks like a whale
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she is sooo fast when striking its hard to get a shot....especially with my cheap camera like mine
Her mouth is bigger than her body when she fully opens it
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while uploading pics i was looking threw old pages...and boy had she grown! i found pics from when she was in her 10 gallon....
then
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now
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as well as some amazing tank progression
first set up and scaping (time stamp was off,,,,that would be 2010)
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^_^yesterday
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enjoy!

looking good

Thank you ^_^

tht looks amazing!

thank you..just picked up a new tank and am setting it up for her....from 20 gallon to 40. (in progress)
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Love the tank! What are those thick, green leafed plants attached to the logs?

Cool collection!

protocl wrote:Cool collection!

thank you, more pics soon

TRD_Power wrote:Love the tank! What are those thick, green leafed plants attached to the logs?

^_^ thank you, ill get new pics up as i start swapping things over, those are anubis plants some of the leafs are huge

update on the 40 gallon...plants and garnet as well as some of the logs from the other tank going in soon.

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Kaosu wrote:

TRD_Power wrote:Love the tank! What are those thick, green leafed plants attached to the logs?

^_^ thank you, ill get new pics up as i start swapping things over, those are anubis plants some of the leafs are huge

Cool, thanks!

^_^np they are easy to get a hold of hope you find some..

they grow slow and the ones you see in my tank have gotten that big over a few years.

Update on the tank!!
3 of the 4 young suclpin are now in the 40gl.
started breaking down the 20 gallon and moving plants and logs over,
added the black background (peace of cloth tacked to the wall)
my camera makes it look cloudy....*sigh* its not..just a crappy camera its acutely crystal clear.
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I bet there are no guppies by tomorrow.

there will be:P none of the babies can eat any of the guppies in the tank they are all to big...now i might try to get a video if putting the large female in....than the guppies will be gone in a night or two.

I haven't braved the LOL cave in a while to see your sculpins. How big are they now?

^_^ they are doing good....here are some shots to show how clear the tank is

and the 3 sculpin the the 40 gallon now.

mottled sculin 2inches
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prickly sculpin
2 1/2 inches
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prickly sculpin just under 2 inches
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i couldnt get another shot of the last mottled in the 20 but i will

update on the big girl ^_^ last i measured her she was 4 1/2 shes around the 5 inch mark now and fat. She will be going in to the 40 gallon ..in about a week.
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I caved today and bought a master test kit with my petsmart card if you ever want to use it. I figure when we go up to bellingham next week I'll probably want to get some stuff at Clarks while we're there, so I want to make sure the tank's done cycling. Your pennywort has given me two new leaves since its been here.

40 gallon almost done!

2 prickly sculpin and 2 mottled sculpin ( all under 2 1/2 inches) are now in the tank as well as about 20 guppies growing out for the Angry Fish.

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...ok update shot of the tank..i think i have it settled out how i want it^_^
few shots of her and the juveniles as well.

Enjoy!
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update!!

Tank moved stuff around a bit...and took out a log it was getting to cluttered.
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Tribute to Scott ^_^ his last few angry days in the breeder box before going to his new home.
he was nearly 4 inches.
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Added 2 nirate snails^_^ they are awesome clean up crew and i plan to add about 4 more.
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Last but not least Angry fish!!!!aka Shelob...she is close to the 6 inch mark now and fat.

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neat fish. where does one go about catching such a fish? my buddy is building a pond and it could use some cool inhabitants..

they are occasionally for sale on Aquabid.com

so its been a while sens i updated...im now up to 6 tanks..Ill be making threads for each but for now ill update on my little monster.^_^

she is a thick 7 inches now.
no longer in the 40 tall sens she has gotten older she has taken to long days of pretending to be a rock until she sees her food ..witch mostly is pellets she is so lazy now she barely goes for feeders..though she took out an 1 1/2 inch long convict the other day.

this is the last shots of her 40 gallon before she was moved to a 20L.. with a 50 gallon filter.(pics to come)
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and a crappy one of her under her cave in her new tank.
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large updates on all of my tanks to come soon.

Cool little fish! Keep up the good work!

few quick shots of the beast in her jungle

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Nice, thanks for the updates. She quite the little monster!

She's a beauty!

Just great! I love her camouflage

Thank you guys ^_^ she is my pride and joy...and the reason I got further in to this hobby ..

she came out last night begging for food so I got a few more pics.

...Im going to get her out of the tank soon and get a good measurement on her

Enjoy.

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...this is her WHERE IS MY FOOD look.... just before attacking the surface for a pellet...gunna try to get video of her feeding soon.



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and...such a fatty

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..caught her out hunting before a water change.

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hunting a new batch of convict fry.
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...My wanna be lion fish ...begging for pellets.

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Getting the camera all warmed up for the next POTM?

Great pics, thanks for sharing!

DMD123 wrote:Getting the camera all warmed up for the next POTM?

Great pics, thanks for sharing!

^_^ trying..seeing if i can get any good shots


not that my sculpin will win over the cichlids

Hey I voted for it last time. You had composed the picture quite well. Had a cool effect with the bubbles trapped in time. Just need to make sure we have at least 10 entries so Zerc cant compete. He has a pretty wicked electric blue Dempsey.....

^_^ i know

i was thinking of using pics of my cons this month..but Im just gunna stick with sculpin pics to be different .. and not give in to the cichlid fad...I have a few good shots of my wood cats as well...and maybe some of my tinanti....can we submit more than one photo?

The wood cats are pretty cool, are they willing to pose for you?

they do ^_^

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Nice pictures... hope to see ya enter the january contest!

Up date of the beast!

I finely got my 20 rack up...and she moved to the top of it now she is eye level with me..but while i was moving every thing (and upgrading my 40 to a 65^_^) i got some good picks..she is so thick and her head is huge!

7 inches????

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she was really docile in my hand..but than again she always has been!
she is now trying to take pellets out of my hand..though every sens the move she has been pouting..soon as hunger hits though she will be back out begging again!.

fist pic is still with the 40 gallon up...in the middle of moving the sculpin tank to the top

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and 65 up!..milky from new sand ...and sculpin tank decorated and up^_^
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Looks really good, I'm sure they appreciate the upgrade.

Cool rack of tanks.

Great work on the fish, she really turning out nice.

Ratlova30 wrote:Looks really good, I'm sure they appreciate the upgrade.

yeah i upgraded my community tank^_^

sculpin is on the top of the tank rack..puffers and killifish in the middle..convicts and danios on the bottom ..ill get upgraded pics of my community tank up soon!