Second-Hand Fish (I need ideas for names)

This is long because I am catching up on a couple of months. Here is a summary:

1. I had a 20 gal that I bought from Conway Tropical Fish, and just kind of threw together with gravel and some fake plants.
   
2. I got some sticklebacks this fall, only one made it.
   
3. I acquired a dwarf gourami that Kaosu got for free with some Sculpin Snacks. She also gave me an anubias.
   
4. I had to take down my tank because the shelf it was on couldn't hack it. So the boys moved into a cozy 5 gallon hex.
   
5. Then I acquired a female betta and some frogbit from Kaosu. The three fish have been living (mostly happily) in the hex while I was cycling the 20.
   
6. I got some pondweeds and duckweed just before New Year's, we went to Petsmart, I ended up getting a male betta that I think is awesome looking.The plan was to put the community into the 20 and let the betta have the 5. In the meantime Kaosu gave me the bowl my gourami came in.
   
7. Just before the 20 would have been ready, I found a deal on a 29 complete that I couldn't pass up. I got some media from Kaosu to seed, as well as some leafy plant, java moss, pennywort, and more ramshorn snails. At some point previous to this, the frogbit melted.
   

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is the awesome piece of driftwood found up at Larabee. It's currently wired down to a piece of granite.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The odd lighting is because I can't put the hood on with two filters on the tank, and the table lamp wasn't enough so I grabbed a portable fluorescent to light the left side. I think the effect is rad. I'm debating whether to put a backdrop on the tank. I like green, and the green wall looks good with the brown scaping and gray substrate.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is the local plant from Kaosu. It should grow nice and tall (its semi-emergent in her 10 gal) and fill in the back nicely. I'm not sure what it is, or if it's truly native. It's not in our native plant book. The driftwood has a bowl on the end of it. I'm going to plant something there, just don't know what.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I think the java moss will fill in the gap under the driftwood. I got it from Kaosu, of course, and had it in the hex for a few days. I used the rock to hold it down for now so it wouldn't all get stuck in the filter intake (which some still has, of course.)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is a local plant that I found. I think it's Richardson's pondweed, or clasping-leaved pondweed. It was very prolific in the frozen pond I got it from. The original leaves are melting in warmer water, but new ones are growing in.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

All I had to attach the driftwood to the granite was floral wire. It's coated and I made sure the cut ends were under the granite.


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is the bowl my poor gourami was living in, with glofish. Kaosu gave me the bowl since she wasn't going to use it for anything. The philodendrons have helped immensely with keeping his water clean. The snails probably help as well.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I saw this betta and almost couldn't pass up buying him. But I had no where to keep him. We were at Petsmart two weeks later and he was still there, and on sale, so it was fate.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The hex still has the most stuff in it, although I moved some plants over to the 29.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The anubias is currently wedged into a lava rock that came from Hawaii with a lily planted in it. I'm going to put the rhizome in to a crevice in the crook of the driftwood once I get that tank cycled.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Kaosu's betta has taken over the tiki hut. When I feed she grabs a flake or bloodworm wad and goes in there to eat it.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This piece broke off of Kaosu's native when I moved it to the 29, so I'm leaving it here where there is less water movement to see if it grows roots.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This may be duckweed.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Snail eggs! There are more on the seals of the tank. I missed getting a picture of the batch that hatched. I don't know if they lived or were eaten, but its officially the first thing to reproduce in my tanks.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Some moss escaped when I moved it to the 29 and was stuck under the filter.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The gourami and the stickleback are best buds. Everyone is afraid of the betta though, although no one has done any damage or seems to bullying.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

There are at least a half dozen snails in here. I never see them.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is more of what I think is pondweed.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I dunno what this is, there's not enough foliage to tell yet. Horsetail maybe. I don't know where it came from either, it just suddenly turned up one day in the tank.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The snails are pretty fast. This one made it all the way up to the anubias before I got done taking pictures.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The stickleback is getting bigger by the day. Originally about a half inch, now about two.

So, in review:

29 gallon (cycling)

• Kaosu's mystery local plant
  
• pondweed
  
• wad of java moss

1 gallon bowl

• veil tail male
  
• 2 ramshorn snails (no offspring or eggs yet)
  
• pondweed
  
• lots of philodendron starts

5 gallon hex

• male dwarf gourami
  
• three spine stickleback
  
• female betta
  
• lots of ramshorn snails, eggs, and possibly babies
  
• large anubias
  
• errant java moss
  
• pondweed
  
• a sprig of Kaosu's local
  
• 1 chain of pennywort
  
• 1 chain of possibly duckweed
  
• 1 stem of horsetail or milfoil
  
• 1 tiny sprig of possibly duckweed, or perhaps returning frogbit

Very nice. They look very peaceful to watch/look at!

I enjoy them, but unfortunately at the moment all the fish are in very small tanks...

I also am realizing that I now spend about three waking minutes a day in the room with the tanks unless I am actually doing stuff with the tanks...

Cool pictures. I don't sit in my room neither. But I do go in quite often. Just to look. And Billie had it right. Your setups do look peacful. Hmmmm.

Very nice look

Well that room is my bedroom. But between not having any online classes (and also winter break) and signing off all the MMO's I was playing, I don't spend any time on my desktop anymore. So the only time in there is on fish business, or sleeping. That will probably change as my homework load picks up.

I get paid today, so a trip to Clark's is probably coming soon, once the horrendous weather clears up. I probably won't get any new fish just yet, but I want plants!

Very nice looking tanks

An update is in order. I collected a lot more plants and several pieces of driftwood, and finished decorating the 29 gallon. I only have one picture because I don't have a properly working camera at the moment.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The gourami and the stickleback have been moved over for now.

The 29 is looking really good. Very nice aquascaping.

Looks nice. I like the driftwood.

I haven't updated in a long time, due to the development of a busy schedule. (If only I was making money!)

So, rather than lots of photos, I decided to just do some videos. I currently only have 2 tanks. The first being a 29 gallon tropical community.



Fauna:
1 Dwarf Gourami male
3 Sterba's corydoras - 1f 2m
4 Oto's
10 Rasbora Hets (they are like dwarf harlequins) - though I suspect some are not
2 Zebra danios - 1f 1m I think

Flora:
Anubias
Braz. Pennywort
Southern Waternymph
Val grass
Java fern
Crypt of some kind
Java Moss
some strange floating thing

Equipment:
Aqua tech 20-40
a random heater from Kaosu
A Whisper air pump running 4 stones
A 15w light that came with the setup, and a Wal-Mart grow light under a reflector I made out of metal roofing. (I didn't show that part)



My male betta is now residing in a 4-ish gallon tank on my desk. Recently, he got some tank mates.



Fauna:
Betta splendins (m)
3 Pygmy cory (havent sexed)
3 BABY STERBA'S CORIES OMG!!!
- My cories breed like rabbits, but none of the eggs were escaping being eaten. So I set up a 10 gallon for a grow out. My research lead me to believe that the eggs should hatch within a week. After letting the eggs sit in the 10 gallon for a few weeks with no sign of fry, I decided they hadn't survived, so I dropped the pygmy cories and 2 danios in that tank for QT when I got them off of craigslist. That was almost 2 months ago. Last week I decided to take apart the 10, and move the fish into their intended homes. To my surprise, there were 3 tiny, pale-yellow, spotless corycats. They are happy and healthy and growing like weeds.

Flora:
Philodendrons
eared water-moss (salvinia)
1 remaining pondweed
a poofy mystery plant

Equipment:
Tetra heater
Whisper 10i filter
Hood with a CFL bulb (100 watts?)

More cory fry:
After giving up on the grow-out tank, I got a net breeder and started dropping the cory eggs in there. I use a soft-bristled toothbrush to collect the eggs, it works great. I had a batch of fry of different sizes in the breeder box for almost a month (I was up to about 7). However, one day I was away from home all day and didn't get a chance to check on them. When I woke up the next morning, the female betta was in the breeder box AND HAD EATEN ALL MY FRY. I now have a new batch of fry, though, which just hatched this week. Next time I set up a grow-out, I will either go bare-bottom, or get white sand instead of gray.

The female betta:
Kaosu's female betta died quite suddenly two days after eating all my cory fry. I think she might have gotten injured or just stressed from getting into the box, or possibly the babies did not agree with her. She was always somewhat aloof, except when there was food. And I have 3 cories and a lot of snails, so I never even saw her body. She was there one day, then the next evening I looked for her and there was no sign of her.

The stickleback:
The stickleback was a victim of an older heater. I had to put a heater in the tank for my growing tropical community. The stickleback seemed to adjust to the warmer temperatures okay, provided that the heater didn't go berserk. Unfortunately, it did. He did fine for a couple of months, then one morning when I woke up the tank temp had spiked to almost 90 degrees (instead of hovering just below 80 as it had been) and the stickleback was beyond recovery. He was still moving his gills, but was listing on the bottom of the tank so badly that snails had attached to him, so I put him out of his misery.

Next:
I need to replace some furniture, so until then I'm not changing anything. I have decided that I want a grow-out tank for cory eggs (hopefully the pygmy cories will start breeding as well) with some shrimp, a cold-water tank for local plants, and a paladarium, also for local plants. I have the tanks and equipment for all of this, just not the shelf space. Hence needing new furniture.

Thanks for looking!

Okay, so...

I now have 6 Sterbai Cory babies in my betta nano, along with two pygmy cories (which are now smaller than most of the baby sterbai). I realize this is kind of crowded, especially if the sterbai are in there much longer. There is also a new juvenile guppy male. I've never had a guppy before, and there are not a fish that I had planned on having, but I was at the store and always like to check out eh guppies and bettas (since they have so many color variations) and saw a male that was very unique (at least of the guppies I have seen). I'm always curious what they will look like after a month of recovery and allowing their fins to go without damage. The pygmies also laid about three dozen eggs one night, most of which appeared to have hatched. I expect in a month or so I will find some new fry.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I have plans prepared to make my 3 x 10gallon stand, and the materials. I just havent had the time on a nice day to do it. But within the next two weeks it should be done. Then I'll have a 10 gallon riparium, a cory spawning tank, and a cold tank, probably with guppies now that I have a male.

My community tank has one new addition: I finally got a girl for my dwarf gourami. She's adorable, and they seem to have hit it off quickly. Right now my nano is where all the excitement is, though.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Great tanks...That betta is a lucky fish. I like that tank. Looking great!

I like that one too. Aside from the three ten gallons I want to have, I would love to have more tanks that size as well. The shelf my 29 sits on would hold four of them nicely. It's an odd size, though. I think its about 3.5 gallons, and I've never seen one the same size.

Thanks to finishing my stand, setting up a tank for my cories, and Dan in Everett who was giving away plants, I redecorated a bit.

First, the big tank. I got a bunch of dwarf sag (I think is what he said. It's all grass to me.) to put in my foreground. I also opted to move some things out of this tank. One is the java moss. I removed all of the free floating moss, leaving only what was carpeting a rock and attached to logs, and put the rest in my cory grow-out tank for the fry. I also removed my java fern to the nano, with better substrate and light. Incoming was all the guppy grass from the nano--it had completely taken over and the betta was not happy about it. (The cories were delighted.) I moved the pennywort from the back to the front next to my couch, so I can more easily sit and look for eggs. I put a sponge on my intake to keep my new 60 gallon filter from sucking up all the guppy grass.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Next, the 10g I setup for a grow out. I hope to get something larger, like a 20 long, eventually. For now if I need more space I can setup a second 10g. I put light play sand from Bobbie in here so I can see the fry better when they are tiny. Wouldn't you know that as I was removing eggs from the 29 today, they started hatching? I had put them in a specimen jar, so I got to see a couple fry hatch. For right now the eggs and newborns are hanging in the jar on the side of the tank. Since they don't have much occassion to swim up, I don't think the fry will get out. I may look into getting a breeder box just so I can watch the eggs more closely. There wasn't much sand left, so its very thin. I put all my java moss in here, and one of the new plants I haven't identified yet.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Finally, in my nano I removed all the guppy grass. My betta, who has been sulking for the past week or so, and had me rather concerned, is much happier already. I realized today that because it has such high watt per gallon, the guppy grass was going nuts. I decided to give up the space for something that could use the light and richer substrate (it has a bit of soil mixed in). So I put my java fern and a new, as yet unidentified, plant in it's place. There are at least two new fry in this tank (or were), and I think they are from my pygmy cories, since the other sterbai are only a couple months old.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Also, I found this snail in the plants. I dunno what kind it is yet.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I still want a riparium, but I think it might be a ways off, since I want something taller than a 10 to do it in. I might just setup a 10g to start collecting the plants for it.

So, I got two nice tanks from a guy at my aquarium society meeting. A 29 gallon and a 20 long with a light. The 29 is going to be my coldwater tank, and the 20l is the upgrade for my cory tank. I had to build another new rack for the tanks (the other one was 1/4" too narrow) and it turned out pretty nice. There's about a dozen pygmy eggs in a DIY tumbler.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The snail was an MTS, but it was dead.

I also think its about time I named some of my fish.

How did the dwarf gourami and female betta get along? I'm cycling a 20 gal tank currently with the intention of putting 5-6 female betta in it when I'm done. I have room for other fish so I'm looking at my options. I like gouramis a lot, but I know they tend to be a little dominant. How did your two fare?

Mine got along alright, but my gourami was very reclusive at the time. I wouldn't try it again.

Betta tank on the desk
5gal with at 10g whisper internal filter
I just removed a lot of plants because it was packed and had no water left.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This is Riker

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]



The corner of my room with my racks. I think I will be setting up at least one 10 gallon, possibly two if I can find a spot.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]



The 5 gallon hex with a 10g filter (baffled)
You can see Worf in the corner. My dog sits and stares at this tank all night, and tries to eat Worf, who tries to eat him right back.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]



The guppy tank. The male snakeskin is gorgeous, and I now have a female to match, but he killed the first four females I got as well as my awesome endler hybrid. I went camping for a weekend and went from 7 guppies to two.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

There are currently 3 females - a sunset, a snakeskin, and a really neat snakeskin with yellow stripes that look like a bee. There are also hypothetically 4 otos in here somewhere (I see them sometimes.)



Finally, my new pumpkinseed. Biggest fish I have ever owned. He's very picky and right now will only eat snails and frozen prawns.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


I missed getting any picks of the cory tank. I got some new pygmies and the Sterbai are still breeding. I'm up to 10 from 3, not counting all the ones that have gone.

Very nice tanks, I think you've been infected with multiple tank syndrome. I had to start sneaking tanks into my house after I reached 15.

Been a while. First, the small tanks

The hex is back on the desk next to my computer again, where it started a year ago back when it was my only tank. Right now, the only resident is Worf, my cranky double-tail from Clarks. You can see in old pictures that his color has changed some (to my dismay). He was in the tank with my gouramis back when they were breeding, and the male nipped his fins pretty harshly before I could make room to move him somewhere else. The pictures aren't great because I have a light rigged up kind of weird right now.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Worf used to be chocolatey-black with fire orange fins. Now he is an iridescent copper with red-violet finnage (still pretty, but not as cool as he was.)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I packed up a printer I wasn't using so that I could put my 5 gallon on top of the desk (making room for the hex on the desk). I really like having it up above eye level while I'm on the computer. It's my favorite tank still. I love the color of the red ludwigia with all the green plants. It has a random look to it (go figure). I only have two pygmy cories remaining (they have proved difficult for me to raise), and tonight I moved Riker back into this tank, swapping him with the guppy male that had been isolated here after going on a murderous rampage with the other guppies. (The pygmy cories put him in his place pretty well).

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
You can see how Riker's eyes are blue now. They weren't at first, but changed when his color lightened up.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I think I still have a male and a female. I don't know if I want to get more pygmaeus, or try habs again. (They are a bit larger.)

Next is the 20 long. The male dwarf gourami killed Boo, his girlfriend, a few months ago. I still have 9 cories, including my original trio. Two more will be going to new homes within the next few days. They haven't spawned in quite some time, and I don't know if they are too cramped, or just in the off season.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The dwarf gourami (who I still don't have a name for) is the fish I have had the longest now, followed by Riker, and then Cora and her consorts.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Cora on the right, my original female, with some of her offspring.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is my 29 gallon guppy tank. Heavily planted would be the term here. In fact, I just heavily thinned the plants before taking these pictures. I had a bunch of sunset guppies out of my first female, but they are slowly being fed (more on that later). I really like patterned guppies more than tuxedos. I love the snakeskin male I have, but he is a bastard and has killed several females and my awesome endler hybrid. I just returned him to this tank now that a lot of the females are much bigger than he is, but I may have to move him back out if he doesn't chill out.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
There are lots and lots of small babies in here. Some are from an awesome female that had bumble-bee stripes on her tail, but my male killed her. They are already coloring up, but too small and quick to get good pics of.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
A female with a pink tail. I got her in a group from Petco (I know), and that was an interesting adventure. She's the only one left.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
My favorite female. She is probably a sibling to my snakeskin male. I love her orange tail with blue dorsal fin.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
A new male I got last week. Dark blue body with yellow fins and tail. He has a more Japanese fantail shape than my others (though I actually like it less).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Sulu, my rat bastard snakeskin male. He is awesome looking, and so far has made some great babies, but he murders the other fish.

Finally, my BABY. This is my sunfish. I am still trying to come up with a great name for him. (I think its a male.) This fish is AWESOME. He is a coldwater fish, a type of perch. Most likely he is a pumpkin seed variety. (It's the same thing as a blue gill, only a different color and pattern.) This summer when Kaosu had him he had much more orange. Now his body is darker, and his fins are edged in powder blue. He's gorgeous, has a ton of personality, and spends a lot of his time staring at me. He is freaky aware of whats going on outside the tank. Since all my large tanks are in one corner, he gets to spend a lot of time picking out which guppy looks delicious.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The tank is not finished, but I am doing all native plants and the weather is too cold to go wading into ponds this time of year. There are 6 bullfrog tadpoles in here as dithers for the time being.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
He is very hard to get pictures of. He comes out whenever he sees me, thinking I will feed him, but doesn't like the camera. I put the dollar bill down for scale. He's about 7 inches. This tank could be upgraded as far as a 65 gallon with the stand its on, and I do plan to upgrade so he has more space in the future, but for right now he seems pretty happy to be fed.

Great pics!

really really nice piece of bogwood on last tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks I really like it. I found it under an overpass on the local creek. There's another small piece that I had to break off to get it to fit (a shame if I ever upgrade tanks). Its very, very light, though. That piece has three chunks of granite wired on the back.