The balance of power has changed in my 6 foot oddball tank, after introducing Arnie (the Arrowana), after 24 hours, I noticed that Ernie the Giant red tail gourami, had been attacked, I’m not sure if it was by Bert (the Zebra Tilapia) or Arnie (the Arrowana).
So I’ve moved Ernie into the large quarantine tank with Cedric II! (the rescued pleco!).
I’ve got a new tankmate for Bert (the Zebra Tilapia) and Ernie (the Giant red tail gourami), a Silver Arowana, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum, and he’s called Arnie!
I’ll take some pictures, when he’s settled in to his new surroundings.
I’ve introduced another tank buster into my 6 foot display tank, to join the Giant Red Tail Gourami, Osphronemus laticlavius and commom pleco, a Zebra Tilapia, Tilapia buttikoferi. It’s about 6-8 inches. Tilapia buttikoferi are extremely intelligent and aggressive aquarium fish, like most Cichlids! It’s a large African tilapiine cichlid fish that can be found mainly in West Africa, specifically Liberia. (Fish Distribution here on PFK). I’ll have to regularly check, that it’s not starting to attack the other tankmates. Although I collected this fish in a large bucket, I acclimatised it, to tank water conditions, by floating in a very large fish bag for 45 minutes, and changing water in the bag for tank water every 10 minutes. I had to collect Lindsey from the bus station, and when I returned, the Tilapia buttikoferi was swimming around the tank, and the Giant Red Tail Gourami, Osphronemus laticlavius was in the bag!
Now that’s what I call magic!
Trying to get the gourami, out of the bag was another matter!
A few other little problems, my Male Quetzal Cichlid, Vieja synspila (another very agressive cichlid – even with me!) has bashed his head, I’ll have to keep a watch on this, and may start treating with Melafix tonight. The male fish has a pronounced hump, called the the “nuchal hump”, and one of my large Clown Loaches, Chromobotia macracanthus, (8″-9″) has died, of what looks like over-eating! Greedy fish, looks like he’s eaten all the cichlid pellets for the Gourami and Tilapia, and it’s stomach has exploded, with over eating, there’s a message here I think!
and finally, at long last, after 12 months of hassle, I’ve successfully managed to get a replacement aquarium replaced under guarantee. Last year a 48x18x18 glass aquarium leaked in my fish house, and I remembered it had a five year guarantee, after tracking down the initial credit card statement, it was only four years old, and the bottom aquarium seal had failed. It’s taken me over 12 months, to get it resolved with manufacturer, wholesaler, and reseller – finally I collected the replacement last week on Friday.
Blog post of the tank leaking – https://andysworld.org.uk/2009/04/19/the-leaking-fish-tank/
Here’s a picture of the new tank
new aquarium for fish house
So sometime this week, I need to clean, move the old tanks out of the fish house, and move this tank in!
Thanks to Chris at The East Riding Koi Co Ltd for arranging the replacement of this tank!
Here are some pictures of my Giant Red Tail Gourami, Osphronemus laticlavius, it’s approximately 12 inches long. It’s still recovering from some damage inflicted when it had outgrown it’s owners tank, and so they took it to Maidenhead Aquatics, Beverley – whilst there it was attacked by another tankmate, and caused some serious damage, I believe it was red raw, so is healing well, although it still has the battlescars! These may disappear with time. It’s currently on a varied diet, of mussels, prawns, crayfish, Tetra doromin, Hikari Cichlid Staple and Gold, peas and cucumber. (not all at once!). It’s a little baby at present, and can grow up to 20 inches.
My Giant Red Tail Gourami
My Giant Red Tail Gourami
I’ve made a decision with the largest aquarium (6ftx2ftx2ft – 700l) I have in the fish house, I used to use it to hold my breeding angelfish stock, but it’s been rather empty of late, as I’m not breeding angelfish currently anymore, so I’ve finally accquired some large fish for it. (it’s being filtered and heated, so I might as well use it to house some tankbusters). The first was a young Giant Red Tail Gourami Osphronemus laticlavius, I introduced a few weeks ago. (I’ll get some pictures), and yesterday evening I was called by my local vets that had rescued a large common “pleco”, approx 12 inches – they had it in their aquarium but thought it needed a larger aquarium, someone had brought it in to them because it had got too big for their aquarium.
common "pleco"
It could be a Hypostomus plecostomus, the problem with these suckermouth catfish, they are sold as “common plecos”, small specimens to people that have algae problems, but they don’t realize how large they can grow, and then they become rather boisterous. They don’t do well, in my opinion on algae wafers entirely, and require shrimp, mussels and prawns to flourish.
![[Valid RSS]](http://andysworld.org.uk/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")