Free food from the garden, I’ve recently found plentiful quantities of small
earthworms gathering under the lids of my compost bins, these earthworms are
small enough to feed to my Angelfish, and Hoplosternum Catfish, and Gudgeon. I’m
sorry I couldn’t make the picture more interesting.
I went to the Harrogate Flower Show today to purchase some garden peat to
condition some water in hope to get some breeding pairs of Angelfish to spawn.
Unfortunately, there was no peat or even compost on sale so on returning from
Harrogate, visited Moorland Nurseries, Forest Moor Road, Knaresborough, North
Yorkshire HG5 8JY to collect some garden peat, I purchased an 80l bag, which was
very heavy a bit overkill for my needs, but I can use the rest for potting on
seeds and plants.
Whilst at the garden centre also had time to visit
Tropica, the
tropical fish shop and my local
Dennerle stockist!
This is an excellent tropical fish, with an excellent display of tropical fish,
Tropica plants, dry
goods and the full Dennerle
range. Some very interesting Botia loaches were on display from Asia, their
mail order business on the internet at
Tropica, carries some
very useful information on the
Dennerle range.
I purchased a pair of Discus Spawning Cones manufactured by JBL, I prefer these
"tough plastic" cones, to ceramic/terracotta, as they are easier to clean and
disinfect and are un-breakable, and much cheaper from this tropical fish shop,
than purchasing from eBay!
Back to what’s happening in the fish house, all fish are well, air ring main
is currently undergoing pressure testing, air pump is connected up, fixed in
place, and I’ve tested for air leaks, using a water mister and washing up
liquid, no leaks were found, touch wood! It’s currently violently
aerating an 18l container of water with an airstone. One of the display tanks,
has an algal bloom, possibly causes by too much vegetable matter from courgettes
and cucumber, partial water change required this week, I’m working the late
shift at the office, so I’ll have to re-plan my evenings.
I
awoke this morning by a loud knocking at the front door, it was the post person
wanting me to sign for a small package. My Five Pack of Screwcumbers had
arrived. Here’s a picture of five new sealed twin packs of Screwcumbers
available from
Gary Evans at Opti-Fish. I’m sorry to flog these to death, but they are
a fantastic invention and worth every penny. Every Ancistrus, Pleco, Gibbiceps,
L number lover should have one. With NO Hikari imports expected into the UK for
many months until the situation is resolved with the EU, NO algae wafers these
are a lifesavers in feeding cucumbers and courgettes to my L Numbers, Gibbiceps,
and Ancistrus sp.
The yellow tug beneath the screwcumbers is filled with aquarium water soaking
the filter media I "found" the previous week..
The
Hailea ACO-208 arrived today by ANC Courier to my Office address. I purchased
this from
POND-SUPPLIES-UK,
Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. Excellent customer service. This compressor is
much smaller than I had imagined, although I had the technical specification, I
never thought to look at the measurements, I thought it maybe a similar size to
my Clearseal LP40, 40 litre per minute air pump. It’s certainly in a very small
package at 25 watts delivering 45 litre per minute.
Installation was trickier than expected because the air output nozzle is
suited for 8-10mm pipe, I need to connect this to, 19mm bore pipe, so I’ve used
different widths of Eheim tubing glued so I could connect it directly to the
pump, two jubilee clips should finally secure in place. Another feature of this
pump is the air inlet, which I’ve connected small Eheim tubing to, which I’ll
route to the outside of the garage to bring in cooler air, I may have to check
this, because this may decrease tank temperature, by bleeding cold air into the
fish tank. I need to spend some time, locating to air compressor in it’s
permanent position, and migrating the airline to the tanks.
I
purchased a 5mm HSS drill bit, and armed with my drill and new bit (I don’t know
why I bought another two drill bits, because shortly after looking for something
else in my toolbox, found a 5mm drill bit!) was ready to start drilling holes in
my air ring main to accommodate 6mm Algarde straight connectors, this was more
difficult a task, than I had thought, and it would probably been easier if I had
pre-drilled the holes, and inserted the connectors before installing the ring
main in the ceiling, with hindsight, I think 90 degree elbow would have been
better, because trying to pull the airline off a test connector it removed it
from the air ring main. I’ve got a few elbows, so I’ll just have to wait and
see, I’m not going to be removing airline much anyway.
Here is a picture outside the fish house on the opposite side of the jablite
partition, in the un-insulated part of the garage. You can clearly see the Eheim
tubing waiting to be connected to a air supply, I’ve not purchased yet.
I’m finally happy with the flowrate in my test bucket, no media is at the bottom of the bucket, so it was time to install the filter in the aquarium. This is currently installed in a 170l aquarium.
Three Angelfish, Kribensis and Albino Ancistrus sp. can be seen in the picture. This filter is driven by a Maxijet PH600 powerhead, I cabled-tied some spare filter media onto the media adaptor supplied with the powerhead. I usually obtain my cable-ties and other electrical bits and pieces from the following website JLB Electronics, a small business located in the West Country of England, fantastic customer service, delivery and good quality products, the cable-ties are excellent. If they don’t list it on the web site, just ask them JLB Electronics. This stops any large dirt particles getting into the media. I’ve mislaid the water deflector which helps to aerate the water, I’ve emailed PentAir for a replacement, so to aerate the water, I’ve fitted a Eheim diffusor, this ads some back pressure, so the media is not fluidized completely at present, to add additional aeration to the aquarium, it is necessary and important to do this because bacteria in the fluidized bed filter can reduce the oxygen content in the water to dangerous levels.
One of my Purple Spotted Gudgeon Mogurnda Adspersa, next to the legendary Screwcumber. These are made of high grade stainless steel and are idea for holding down cucumber, courgette or lettuce. I use them to feed all my vegetarian fish. Contact Gary Evans for details.
I’ll have to regularly check the gudgeon, as four seem to be fighting, in the quarantine tank.
This picture represents the fish house mission to bred good quality Angelfish. If you look carefully at the photograph, you will notice that some of the angelfish have red markings on the gill plates, these reddish markings are called a “blush”, and shows the red gills, because there is no pigment in the gill plate. These angelfish are sometimes referred to as “red angels” in the trade and local tropical fish shops, not to be confused with the real red angelfish!
These are fish that have been kept because of their unique qualities and traits.
I purchased a box of 250 airstones many years ago which I’m still using, and
I found a duff one, I never found an airstone to be duff before in all my
years of fishkeeping, what is there to go wrong, airstones are not that
complicated are they? I thought my pump on my display tank had ceased
working.
I found some filter media on my travels, approx 150l of various types,
that I’ve decided to soak and clean in the garden before re-using in an Eheim
2260 external canister filter which is expensive to fill, because it has a large
filter chamber.
Unfortunately, the poorly Purple Spotted Gudgeon has died. It’s always sad
to loose any fish, no matter how small or large, when you’ve tried
very hard, and done all you can to try and save it.
I’ve collected some Adult Angel fish, Syndontis Angelicus, An Orange Gourami and a handful of Kribensis from a local breeder in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, they have decided to concentrate on Discus. All the fish are sexually mature and will help the gene pool here at Angelfish house. These fish have all gone into quarantine for four weeks, until, they are moved to other tanks. All quarantine tanks are now full in the fish house, so no more fish purchases for a month, and I wanted to purchase a trio of Ancistrus. I’ll have to find some room, anybody got any space in the cupboard. Here are the fish as promised:-
Black Male Angelfish
Female Koi Veiltail Angelfish
Koi Angelfish – sex unknown
Male Half Black Angelfish
Male Koi Angelfish
Male Koi Veiltail Angelfish
Male Silver Angelfish
Syndontis Angelicus – not an angel fish, but a cracking catfish!
On a happier note, I’ve finally managed to purchase a powerhead Aquarium Systems Maxijet PH600 to drive my Lifegard FB300 Fluidized Bed Filters, the Hagen 201 powerheard I’ve had for about 100 years finally died, by welding the impellar housing into the body of the powerhead. Sand or Fluidized Bed Filters are extremely efficient high capacity filters, just make sure your oxygenate the tank well, as oyxgen in the water decreases! Ideal for overstocked tanks of fish, but this is not an axcuse for regular water changes and regular testing of water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. They are also fascinating to watch, remember those Sand Pictures in the 80s! TIP Before installing in the tank run for several days after filling to remove all the dust from the filter media, or you’ll end up with a very cloudy tank.
Lifegard FB300 Fluidized Bed Filter on test in the garden before installing into aquarium.
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