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’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’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.
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.
The nights are getting shorter and colder, the minimum fish house temperature has dropped to 20 degrees C during the night, I’ve now started to unwrap my “curtain” which is an old pink blanket, I use over the fish house external door to keep the cold draught out, and I’ve blocked the fish house entrance with a spare off-cut of jablite, I had to remove these during the summer because the fish house temperature rose to a staggering 40 degrees C. NOTE to self start to move items under the metal roof beams before condensation starts in the Winter and drips over items outside the fish house! Coming soon real-time temperatures of aquariums in fish house displayed via the web.
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