IMPORTANT BLOG NOT GONE IT'S BEEN RELOCATED

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:14:00 -0500

THIS BLOG HAS BEEN RELOCATED TO THE ROOT OF http://ANDYSWORLD.ORG.UK. Look for the fish house category/section/topic.

It's been fives years since I've been blogging with out of date blog software, and I thought it was about time to migrate to WordPress. Sorry old friend time to retire!

I've finished the migration of all the data to WordPress.

New Aquablog Fish House posts will be posted to http://andysworld.org.uk/category/fish_house/

POSTS ARE NOW CLOSED HERE (unless I need to return!)

New Long Term Breeding Project

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:35:45 -0500

Apologies for not posting for a while, life just gets in the way. But with the arrival of some new fish, starts a New Long Term Breeding Project.

I saw mature large "breeding pairs" of these fish three years ago at a local auction in West Yorkshire, they were advertised as a breeding pair, definately males and females but I suspect the owner, had no success in breeding them and hence they were up for auction. To this very day, I regret not keeping my hand up for longer, they sold for little money! and it's taken me that long to obtain some young fish so I can grow on, and hopefully ontain some breeding pairs.

Let me introduce you to the Electric Blue Jack Dempseys

Alot has been documented and written about these fish, click the link above to search for it.

Two sites Practical Fiskeeping Article Blue Jack Dempsey identity revealed and www.bluejax.co.uk have some excellent information, rather than me retype it here.

But first things first, they need to grow......and then I can select males and femles.

Electric Blue Jack Dempseys Pic 1
Electric Blue Jack Dempseys

Electric Blue Jack Dempseys Pic 2
Electric Blue Jack Dempseys

Touch Wood!

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:35:43 -0500

Fish from the auction are settling in well. I've also started my Fish House spring clean, and have emptied some fish stuff from a tug, that was collected when I dismantled the display tanks, when I moved a few years ago! Doesn't time fly!

The repaired tank is currently soak testing, I let the silcone cure for 48 hours before, half-filling with water, I completed filing the tank with water this evening. The tank holds 254 litres of water. Tomorrow evening, I'll be emptying the tank, and adding sand as a substrate and rocks, and re-filling with water at the correct temperatures. I've already got a mature external Eheim Professional 2 Thermofilter filter this tank, that I've had for some months. The special fish will be added on Saturday!

Trends!

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:37:10 -0500

I've noticed more tropical freshwater fish shops converting over to tropical marines only, and I hear rumours that our local Maidenhead@York, and Pets@Home are both adding Marine sections to their portfolio!

Also, have you noticed the popularity of CO2 fertilisation kits in stores, once upon a time, there was only Dennerle! Now we've got kits from Aquamedic, Dupla, Ferplast, Hagen, Hydor, JBL, Sera, Tetra.

There must be a market for growing plants!

Empty and Cracked

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:29:06 -0500

Some months ago, I moved a very heavy 48"x18"x18" fish tank into the fish house, despite soak-testing for many weeks outside, on re-filling in the fish house it cracked!

It's been sat, empty and cracked in the fish house for months, and I've finally decided to do something about it.

I measured it this morning, and purchased some replacement glass, to re-glaze the bottom in hope to patch it up. I purchased a 18"x12" 6mm section, and this evening, cleaned the tank with meths, and siliconed in place. I'm going to leave it cure for 48 hours, and test fill!

Corys, Platies and Mollies by the bagful!

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:51:29 -0500

Well if you wanted any for a pound a bag you should have gone to the 1st Sheaf Valley Aquarist Society Auction today in Sheffield. Congratulations to Sheaf Valley Aquarist Society on a great auction. Auction promptly started at 1.00pm, and closed at 4.30pm, 20 large boxes (lots) of fish and stuff, and the first ever Fish Auction, I've been to where, they had a catalogue of the Lots, booked in, in Advance! Guppies, Platies, Mollies, Swordtails, Corys, Angelfish, Endlers, Bristlenoses (LDA016), and some very unusual home bred corydoras. I purchased the following :-
  • Five Bosemani Rainbow Fish
  • A pair of Nothobranchius rachovii
  • A pair of Bolivian Rams (breeding in the bag!!)
  • Ten Lamprologus ocellatus "Gold"


Arcadia ArcTank

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:35:08 -0500

This is my Arcadia ArcTank, it's the first aquarium I've ever purchased that has arrived in a box! But I think that most modern aquariums arrive in boxes these days.

Arcadia Arc Tank 3
ArcTank 20L Boxed Aquarium

Arcadia Arc Tank 1
The Arcadia ArcTank includes an ArcPod 9w lighting unit, which contains a built-in reflector which a 9w tube fits into. It also includes an internal filter not shown. I've decided to purchase another ArcPod 9w lighting unit because of the plant selection for my aquascape Nano tank, and these plants require lots of light.

Arcadia Arc Tank 2
Only one ArcPod 9w lighting unit is included, I've purchased the second to double the lighting for plants.

To help the plants, I've also order a simple CO2 plant fertilisation set from Sera, called Sera Plant Care Kit, it includes
  • Sera CO2-Start - ideal CO2 fertilization for aquariums from 60 l up to 200 l.
  • Sera CO2 diffusion reactor and the Sera CO2-Tabs plus (20 tabl.).
  • Sera florena, 100 ml - plant fertilizer with iron, minerals and trace elements.
  • Sera florenette A, 24 tabs - growth promotor tablets with macro nutrients
  • Sera guide "Feeding aquatic plants according to nature"


It works by filling a vessel with CO2 from a tablet, which then diffuses slowly into the water. I may have to cut the tablet in half, as this tank is only has a volume of 20L.

I've also purchased a Dennerle Boden-Fluter 4 watts substrate heating element and sera floredepot, which is a long-term gravel substrate with growth promoter for freshwater aquariums. I've also purchased some aquarium substrate called AquaClay.

These are the plants I have selected for my Nano tank.
  • Wood with Anubias barteri, Vesicularia dubyana (Java moss) and Microsorum pteropus (Java fern)
  • Cyperus helferi
  • Echinodorus tennellus
  • Rotala wallichii
  • Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
  • Cladophora aegagrophila (moss balls)

I haven't decided where to obtain these Tropica plants from yet. But I have several local stockists. I maybe able to do a deal with!

Happy British Summer Time!

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:36:45 -0500

It's been months since my last posting, I cannot say I've been busy, just not finding the time to do stuff. But now full of vigor, now that the dark nights have come to an end.

I've just purchased an Arc Tank 20L made by the lighting guys from Arcadia, it's a small 20L "Nano" tank, which I intend to plant-up and add a small number of fish. I've also decided to make some big changes in the next few months in the fish house, and start adding substrates and plants to some of the tanks in the fish house.

Happy New Year 2008

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:04:53 -0600

Happy New Year 2008

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:19:10 -0600

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

External temperature probe has reset itself! It's very mild, wet and damp outside!



It's not above 100 degrees! Trust me!

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 05:59:47 -0600

There's a fault with the temperature probe when it drops well below zero!

So it's not 100 degrees C outside!

Panic over, the house is not on fire!

Bad things come in threes!

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:49:10 -0600

Earlier this evening I was going to post an entry about bad things coming in threes, when only two Fish House issues had occured since Sunday 2nd December, I was going to post, what's the third, well it happened! So let me wind back to Sunday 2nd December

  1. Early evening there was an initial mains power cut of a few minutes (approx 5 mins), too short for me to find a torch, and start-up the generator to power the fish house, after the main outage, the power flickered on and off for a few minutes and then it went off for good. The only problem this time, street lights were on, and the neighbours house lights, so the problem was localised, I found the 32A ring main for the sockets downstairs had tripped, on switching back-on, the main earth breaker tripped! After running around the house, unplugging all sockets, the fault was isolated to the fish house, my concern that the "brownout" had caused some equipment failure!

    At the back of the fish house, I noticed a pool of water, and realised, I'd overfilled one of my tanks, which had back-syphoned into the sump, when the power was off for those few minutes, which had then shorted out a "chocolate block" (terminal block for the layman!) which connects the heater in the sump! This is the only electrical wire on the fish house floor, so if any water gets on the floor, electrics are not affected! You'll be glad to know, this has now been fixed, no "chocolate block" anymore!

  2. Went todo some washing this evening and found water all over the floor again near my water treatment works at the rear of the fish house, started to move everything out, thinking a water pipe/valve/seal had failed, and noticed the water had blood it in! I then noticed that the freezer, I keep my fish food in, hadn't been turned back on since Sunday 2nd December! The fozen bloodworm was defrosting, and the freezer had already defrosted all over the floor!

  3. On Monday 3rd December, I noticed two home bred albino Ancistrus (bristlenose catfish), almost in a trance, not moving, I thought they were dead, in my 6ftx2ftx2ft display tank. They weren't in a very good state, it was strange because all the Angelfish, Corydoras, L number plecos, Clown Loaches were showing no signs of distress, I fished them out and dropped them in a tank full of algae. 24 hours later, they are fit as a fiddle again, and the algae on the tank has gone, so although I cannot see them, I know they are alive and well. (did spot them this eve!).

    Late this evening, I found another Ancistrus (bristlenose catfish) dead in my display tank, this raised the alarm, to check all the water paramaters, still surprised that no other fish are showing signs of distress. The ammonia in the water, was slightly elevated, slightly higher than I'd like, this could have been caused by the dead fish, or another factor, no time to waste, 50% water change with water at same temperature and chemistry, and I've added two large sheets of Polyfilter just as "belt's and braces", I'll re-check ammonia/ph tomorrow evening!


So there we have it, Bad things come in threes! No need to worry about the third!

Corydoras Weitzmani

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:30:04 -0600

This is a rarely seen catfish from Peru. I have a wild breeding group of six.



In this video you can see two young F1 corydoras weitzmani, I have breed, I've left two of them with their parents. I also have large breeding groups of Wild Corydoras sterbai.