This months Practical Fishkeeping Magazine October 2005 have a special offer, get three copies of the magazine by subscription for 6 GBP and save 38%. Offer closes 31st October 2005. Order on line at www.greatmagazines.co.uk/flip
Also Free API Stress Coat and Stress Zyme samples, and the chance to Win a Year’s Supply of API products.
Another warm day in York, and the fish house temperature increased to over 33 degrees C. No adverse effects noticed, apart from the perspiration on my brow at feeding time.
Air pumps and filters are proving enough aeration at present.
I found one of my stock black D/D (double black) angelfish dead this evening, these angelfish our the offspring of Frank the dangerous killer angelfish, which has decided in the last 12 months to kill anything that he shares an aquarium with.
I have read and discussed with other angelfish breeders, that D/D angelfish have a “killer gene” which makes them slow growing and die easily, due to the dark pigment colouration.
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 in need of some garden peat to acidify some of the aquariums in the fish house, but it seems that all gardeners, are bio-plant friendly, and most composts are peat-free and I cannot find a small bag of peat anywhere, so I visited our local Wyevale Garden centre today at York, which also has a recent addition of Maidenhead Aquatics. I could not find a small bag of peat, they only have 60l bags but did have a look around the tropical fish.
I’ve noticed that Maidenhead Aquatics, have switched all the substrate from gravel to sand in all the tanks. I was very surprised at the cost of fish, 15 GBP for three Poecilia Endlers, 5 GBP for one very small Ancistrus Sp. They had 15 small white, possibly platinum Angelfish with red eyes at 5 GBP each, or 2 for 10 GBP. I was very tempted to purchase the tank of 15, but I’ve currently got no where to put them as all quarantine tanks are full.
I’ve been shuffling fish around the aquariums in the fish house today, I’ve moved most of the Zebra Danios back to my large holding tank of stock angels. I use zebra danios to cycle and mature the aquariums in the fish house, the only problem is, they are very difficult to catch, once their job is done, they usually share the tank with their permanent inhabitants, because I cannot catch them all. I’ve still got two to catch in a few tanks.
I’ve also moved a few ancistrus into tanks, that had bad algae, I forgot to take a pictures for a before and after shot, I’ve got one tank left with bad algae, I’ll make sure I included a picture here. They are great for eating algae, great little live algae magents, it saves me cleaning the tanks and purchasing Algae wafers.
I don’t know what’s been happening today in the fish house, maybe it’s the weather. I found a another zebra danio, on the floor after it had decided to jump out of the tank.
And one of the Purple Spotted Gudegon had decided it didn’t like it’s quarantine tank, must have jumped out and decided to jump in with a Breeding Pair of Marble Angels, which promptly attacked and killed it!
I’m confused, as to how these fish escape, when I’ve tight fitting condensation trays on all the tanks!
I spoke to Pentair Aquatics, the manufacturers of the Lifegard range today, excellent customer service, gave me the required part numbers, and arranged for the UK Distributor to call me, and suggested retailers, where I can purchase my replacement water deflector, I didn’t know that Pentair is a very large commercial company that also specializes in water treatment products for domestic consumption and have deployed massive mobile treatment plants into New Orleans to pump/treat the water, after the Katrina Hurricane Disaster.
It is alleged, that the prime reason for the Import Ban on Hikari products into the EU, is because Hikari have to prove the source of the ingredients, the EU is concerned that products do not contain contaminated blood or meat products from infected animals. Until the Japanese company can provide adequate documentation, the products will not be allowed to enter the EU.
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’ve setup a new catchall email address so you can contact me. aquablog@gmail.com
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