Blue lobster, Cherax quadricarinatus or Red Claw Crayfish because the male has red patches on his claws, absent in the female.
My female Blue lobster has spawned – umm do lobsters spawn, well she is carrying eggs. Did I not mention I purchased a pair of Blue lobsters, Cherax quadricarinatus a few months ago! I thought it would be something different and unusual to try and breed in the fish house.
This is the only freshwater crayfish that you can legally keep if you live in the UK.
Under wraps soak testing in the garden are the final three fish tanks for the fish house, three 250l (approx) 48x18x18 inch 10mm glass fish tanks on a very heavy cast iron stand. These will be used to primarily grow on young fish in the fish house. I wanted to soak test the tanks were watertight before moving and filling in the fish house, but I must get on and move them in the fish house before the temperature drops below zero, and the frost comes. They are wrapped because I wanted to keep the worst of the weather off them before moving into the fish house.
Three (3) 48x18x18 inch tanks, 10mm glass.
These photographs were taken on a Compact digital camera, I think they could be better! So here some more photos:-
I’ve kept these Cichlids twenty years ago, and I’ve been trying to find a pair since, these cichlids have spectacular colours, especially when breeding. I’ve not seen them in the shops, and in the late 80s, was lucky to have three females and one male – long since gone.
I was lucky to find, that a local cichlid breeder, was giving up a very young pair. I put them in a quarantine tank, with a pair of Geophagus proximus, I like to quarantine all new arrivals into the fish house, for four weeks before moving them into breeding tanks. I picked these up on the 9th September, and I noticed the Geos were being bashed to hell, only to notice in a plant pot, fry a few days off from free swimming.
The unusual thing about the Nicaragua Cichlid Cichlasoma nicaraguensis is that the eggs they lay, are not adhesive, and roll-around the floor. I assume so they can move them from nest to nest, unlike most cichlids, that use a surface to spawn on, and their eggs are adhesive.
Female Cichlasoma nicaraguensis with fry.
Female Cichlasoma nicaraguensis with fry.
Male Cichlasoma nicaraguensis with fry.
Male and Female Cichlasoma nicaraguensis with fry.
As previously hinted in a recent posting, I’ve been having difficulties fludizing my LifeGard FB900, the instructions state that a 600lph powerhead should be ample to do this, but I’ve found the back-pressure caused by the sand in the filter affects the powerheads performance, and its not up to the job, I’ve tried a Hagen 301, Maxijet 600, and a Juwel 1000lph powerhead to no avail.
I’ve emailed Pentair in the US, and wait a response, I think I’m going to have to use an Eheim pond pump, but before I had a chance to do this, I left the LifeGard FB900 in my porch, rather than leaving outside, I didn’t want anyone to steal or frost to damage it.
and then my partner knocked it over this morning and smashed it, it had media and water in it, as she was trying to grab the kittens!
I think you’ve got to laugh sometimes, although, I was not too happy this morn!
So I’m trying to obtain another one, which is proving difficult at present!
UPDATE I managed to obtain another, I almost had two! One direct from German Aquatic distributor, and then another new one appeared on eBay, a tenner cheaper!
More Tanks = More Water Changes and so I’ve been busy stocking the fish house with more exciting fish.
Upgrading a Juwel internal box filter from a 400lph to 1000lph power head – easy job – plug ‘n’ play.
But I still cannot fluidize my Lifegard FB900 with a Hagen 301 or Juwel 1000lph power head, it just will not pump enough water into the filter, and causes to much backflow.
Waiting for a response from Pentair Aquatics!
I’ve just been talking to a local fishkeeper recently new to the internet and the world of computing and he recommended I visit the following website:-
This was the comment he made about it:-
An excellent diary of fishkeeping events from andys fish house somewhere in Yorkshire, he breeds Angelfish and Catfish, currently breeding Sturisoma Aureum, also has live webcams from the fish house, and live temperature gauge of internal and external temperatures. Lots of hints and tips from a real fishkeeper. I liked reading his daily ups and downs in the fish house. It’s good to read success and failures, real experiences in the fish house, from a fishkeeper.
Umm. Sound familiar!
I didn’t reveal my identity to him, but I’m sure he’ll be reading this, and the penny will drop!
Okay, back to things, I’ve been busy completing the installation of the latest six tanks, these are now all complete, fitted and filled, filtration is performed by Algarde dual Bio-Foam 200, and heating is provided by Visitherm 200 and 300 watt heaters. It’s taken me a while to tidy-up all the wiring.
I’ve also been very busy, collecting fish from around Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. I’ll take some pictures of all these new fish and list the contents of the fish house shortly. I’m away on a course over the next week, so it will be in a few days. I’ve also got the results of my food trial, which I’ll also be publishing.
This was the suggestion my Vet gave about my Ulcer problems on the Silver Angelfish.
“When they have an ulcer it is a good idea to cover the ulcer to limit the osmotic loss. We usually use orobase, and then give antibiotics in a jelly. The other thing you can do is add salt to the water to help drop the osmotic potential difference.”
If anyone mentions Tahitian Moon Sand!, I’m going to swear at them!
All of the fish tanks in the fish house do not have any substrate. It makes for easier maintenance and cleaning, no gravel or sand for the bacteria to live in, that needs regular use of a gravel cleaner. I do believe fish do colour-up better on a substrate bottom, and we could debate amongst fishkeepers, about breeding as well. The only tank that has gravel as a substrate, is the tank the Green Terror is in, and that’s because he’s emptied the gravel from within the pond plant baskets, to create his only substrate bottom, so I think he prefers to have gravel on the base of the aquarium.
I was given 25l of Tahitian Moon Sand! from a fellow fishkeeper, and I thought it would be a good idea to include it in two of my new breeding tanks! Maybe it was because I didn’t wash it, but the tanks were a right mess, so I decide to empty the two tanks this evening, empty the Tahitian Moon Sand! clean the tanks, and refill with just water!
TIP Always was your substrate very well before adding to the tank. Otherwise you’l’ have a disaster.
I’ll keep the Tahitian Moon Sand! until I create my Dennerle display tank! Coming soon….!
Need to tidy up wires, but heaters, filters, and water are in.
Note to self:- But need to purchase more airline, a few tubes, another couple of heaters, and a Bio Foam 200!
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