fish house « andysworld!

Welcome to the FishHouse Blog!

Corydoras Loxozonus

Sunday, May 7th, 2006

I purchased two unusual Corydoras catfish today, at Ryedale Aquarist Society 7th Open Show and Fish Auction at Pickering, North Yorkshire. I purchased two Corydoras Loxozonus, I’ve not seen this species of Corydoras for sale before, a shame that there were only two, Corydoras look better in larger shoals.

I also purchased some in-expensive small catfish pellets, 2 GBP for 1kg, three 150 watt heaters and a Hagen 301 Powerhead for another Lifegard FB300 sand filter.

A good day out, and at least I came back with some fish!

There was also a breeding pair (this was the claim of the seller!) of Synodontis eupterus that sold for 10 GBP, I’ve not heard of this Synodontis being bred in capativity, but since tiny Synodontis eupterus keep showing up, I assume someone somewhere is breeding them. Almost had a punt on these, but I’ve not got the space, to accomodate two 8″ Synos!

Tags: aquarist, breeding, catfish, cory, corydoras, fish, species
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Corydoras Loxozonus

Eheim 2250 Big Canister Filter Review

Saturday, April 29th, 2006

I liked this review so much, I thought I would link to it.

Eheim 2250 Review by Allister St. Claire

I couldn’t agree more with the review.

Tags: lister
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Eheim 2250 Big Canister Filter Review

Mother of a filter!

Saturday, April 29th, 2006

I’ve spent the last few hours uninstalling an Eheim 2313 and 2315 from my 6ftx2ftx2ft tank (sounds like a computer software program!), cleaning all the filter media in the old tank water from the 6ftx2ftx2ft tank, this is very important to keep the bacterial load in the filter media, remember the filter contains the bacteria not the water! and installing a new Eheim 2250 Mother of A filter, rated at 1000 litres per hour, so it should turn the tank over twice an hour.

I filled the 12 litre canister or dustbin as some people refer to it, with the old media from the other two canister filters, Ehfimech – small pieces of ceramic pipes and Ehfifix – “Easter basket grass” both of these are mechanical filter media, I’ve also added some Practical Fish Keeping bioballs, and some pan scouriers, followed by some old Ehfisynth (filter wool) from the old filters and new wool. Using a ‘T’ junction and Eheim double taps, plumbed it back-in line with two output pipes back into the tank.

With the other two filters, and the L001 growing and “poohing” more, I wasn’t getting the desired tank turnover rate.

Just have to keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels, whilst this 12 litre filter fully matures.

Oh, and I dropped a 50kg UPS on my hose pipe, and cut it in half!

Need another hosepipe now!

Tags: computer, fish, fish keeping, practical
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Mother of a filter!

Collectors Item yet?

Saturday, April 29th, 2006

Animal House Buyers Guide

Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, house
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Collectors Item yet?

Aqualog Books

Wednesday, April 5th, 2006

If you collect or keep Tropical Fish there’s an excellent range of books by the publishers Aqualog reference fish of the world.

Aqualog Books 1

I’ve purchased a few of the years all Corydoras features all corydoras catfish and Loricariidae all L-numbers, these are excellent reference books for indentifying fish with excellent colour photographs. In my opinion well worth the investment. Others Reference books are available on Cichlids, Livebearers, Freshwater Rays, Killifishes etc

Aqualog Books 2

These books can sometimes be difficult to obtain in the United Kingdom, but the following supplier in the UK; Steven Simpson books http://www.stevensimpsonbooks.com can supply them direct.

I’ve just identified some fish sold as Royal Pleco’s L190, as L191 Broken Line Royal Pleco from the Loricariidae all L-numbers reference book!

Tags: andysworld, aquablog, bblog, blog, catfish, cory, corydoras, fish, fishes, plec, pleco, Tropical Fish
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Aqualog Books

Holiday: Mexico & Cuba

Wednesday, April 5th, 2006

I’ve been on holiday to Mexico and Cuba in February/March 2006, hence the lack of posts. I’ll add an entry at a later date on my fish encounters.

Tags: fish
Posted in All, fish house, holidays | Comments Off on Holiday: Mexico & Cuba

Pair of Sturisoma Aureum RIP

Wednesday, April 5th, 2006

The electronic thermotstat failed sometime after 7.00am today and I found the aquarium temperature at 35 degrees C, the breeding pair of Sturisoma Aureum were dead, and 50 percent of the young catfish. I’ve managed to save a few young catfish and moved them to the grow on tank.

I’m devasted at the needless loss of life.

I’m hoping that in the future, I may have a pair from the young catfish, I’ve successfully reared.

Tags: aquarium, breeding, catfish, fish
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Pair of Sturisoma Aureum RIP

Sturisoma Aureum Young Catfish Update

Monday, January 30th, 2006

I’ve moved all the Sturisoma Aureum young catfish from the spawning tank to the 48″ growing-on tank this evening.

The catfish are growing well, and I’m surprised how large some of the young catfish are in such a short time, feeding on a low protein diet of vegetable matter.

I’ve been ill since Monday 23 Jan with a nasty cold/flu viral bug, so bad I had to take a day off work sick, and slept in bed for twenty-four hours. So I’ve not been paying much attention to the fish, I missed a feed on Friday! So not much to report in the blog!

Tags: blog, catfish, feeding, fish
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Sturisoma Aureum Young Catfish Update

Sturisoma Aureum Sixth Spawning Attempt

Saturday, January 28th, 2006

The Sturisoma Aureum spawned again this evening for the sixth time.

Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Sturisoma Aureum Sixth Spawning Attempt

Whoops..and thats…

Friday, January 20th, 2006

..another water experiment that’s gone Pete Tong!

I’ve been trying to sex the hundreds of Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus sp. I have in the fish house, some have now matured, but I seem to have females, and no males, Males can usually be indentified as they have bristles on their noses and cheeks, but some species of Ancistrus both males and females can have bristle on their noses. I would have expected to see bristles by now.

While I was doing this, I overfilled a water butt in the fish house! I need to find a mop….quickly….

Sorry, no posts this week, I’ve been pulling the late shift again in the office, so apart from feeding the fish in the fish house, I’ve not been doing anything interesting to report on.

The large mature Angelfish with “pop-eye” is getting worse, I’ve been looking at photographs I’ve been taking every few days, and the condition is worse that at the begininning of the week.

I will remove this fish from the display tank tomorrow, and re-house in a small quarantine tank, it is possible that the Polyfilter has removed the MelaFix from the aquarium, as it removes organics. It’s much easier to treat a fish in a smaller aquarium and requires less MelaFix.

Tags: Ancistrus, aquarium, catfish, feeding, fish, fish house, house, pete tong, species
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Whoops..and thats…