Sunday, March 28, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Just Changed the Tank Around Indoors
I finally decided today that I should move excess fish out to the big outside tank. I chased down 2 Maingano, 1 Acei, 1 Northern Blue female, 1 Saulosi male before deciding that was enough. In order to catch them however, I needed to remove all the plants and rocks from the tank otherwise they just hid. Having done so, I decided to move everything around. See pix of before and after.
I removed all but one section of the PVC piping to make the tank feel more natural. The penthouse is now on the right.
The Gibbiceps was very casual during the whole enterprise and just chilled out on a rock.
The named ones...
I removed all but one section of the PVC piping to make the tank feel more natural. The penthouse is now on the right.
The Gibbiceps was very casual during the whole enterprise and just chilled out on a rock.
The named ones...
Stock
STOCK
» Labidochromis caeruleus (Electric Yellows) x 5 plus babies
» Aulonocara stuartgranti Cobue x 4
» Cynotilapia afra Cobwe x 4 plus babies
» Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (Msuli) x 4
» Metriaclima callainos (Blue Cobalts) x 3 plus babies
» Metriaclima lombardoi (Kenyi) x 2
» Iodotropheus sprengerae (Rusty Cichlid) x 8 plus babies
» Melanochromis (Northern Blue) x 3 plus 3 babies
» Pseudotropheus saulosi x 4 plus babies
» Hemichromis lifalili (Red Forest Jewel) x 2
» Sailfin Gibbiceps Plecostomus x 1
» Marbled Bristlenose Plecostomus x 2
» Bristlenose Plectostomus x 17
» Botia lohachata (Pakistani Loach) x 2
» Pimelodus pictus (Pictus Catfish) x 2
» Tropheus Orange Bemba x 5, Dubosi x 10
» Albino Bristlenose Plectostomus x 2
» Melanochromis auratus x 6
» Botia rostrata (Ladder Loach) x 3
» Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (Maingano) x 6
» Labidochromis caeruleus (Electric Yellows) x 5 plus babies
» Aulonocara stuartgranti Cobue x 4
» Cynotilapia afra Cobwe x 4 plus babies
» Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (Msuli) x 4
» Metriaclima callainos (Blue Cobalts) x 3 plus babies
» Metriaclima lombardoi (Kenyi) x 2
» Iodotropheus sprengerae (Rusty Cichlid) x 8 plus babies
» Melanochromis (Northern Blue) x 3 plus 3 babies
» Pseudotropheus saulosi x 4 plus babies
» Hemichromis lifalili (Red Forest Jewel) x 2
» Sailfin Gibbiceps Plecostomus x 1
» Marbled Bristlenose Plecostomus x 2
» Bristlenose Plectostomus x 17
» Botia lohachata (Pakistani Loach) x 2
» Pimelodus pictus (Pictus Catfish) x 2
» Tropheus Orange Bemba x 5, Dubosi x 10
» Albino Bristlenose Plectostomus x 2
» Melanochromis auratus x 6
» Botia rostrata (Ladder Loach) x 3
» Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (Maingano) x 6
All Quiet...shhh let's not make a noise
I bought some sand at last for my outside tanks. I wanted to see how it went in there. It arrived the other day from my favourite online store -> Age of Aquariums specifically the Eco Complete African Cichlid Sand which comes in 9kg bags along with some Protozin 120ml $25.00 to treat Protozoas and fungal infections, a bottle of Myxazin 120ml also $25.00 to treat bacterial infections and Sterazin 120ml $25.00 for treating parasites.
I was going to buy the big bottles of these medications but thought I was just being a bit paranoid as I haven't had any outbreaks in my fish since the whitespot when I first got my fish which I treated with no medication other than increased water temp and salt.
The reason for this sudden purchase is that I have had a few fish mysteriously perish recently with no rhyme or reason. In case it continues to happen I want to be able to treat for the most likely suspect parasites...the other two meds are for my ability to go way over the top and also because these meds are generally much more expensive and I love a bargain and it costs me $7.50 whether I buy one item or 50 at AoA so I generally buy lots of stuff at a time.
Anyway, the sand went in during the weekly water change tonight and my Trops went nuts. They were burrowing and swishing the sand around, making it even muddier and having a ball. I had a little bit left over so I dumped it in a pile in the upper tank and looked up to see the Cory's and BN sitting on the mound of sand, looking just like they had claimed it as their own patch.
If all goes well with the sand outside I might look at buying some more for the inside tank as it would look fantastic as it is black and white.
Another thing I did a while ago was buy some AOA Fish Food to replace the slightly more expensive pellets I have been getting from my fave fish store. I assume they are similar in composition to the Spectrum brand, not that anyone will say so but the phrase "Extremely similar to leading German Brand" leads me to think this is who they are probably talking about.
Anyway, I have been feeding my fish this new food for about a month now and they love it. It costs about half of the other pellets I was getting which were also similar to "that" brand with 1kg costing $35.00 which is very good value for money. I also feed them their HBH Veggie Flakes as usual (these are by far the best for my cichlids IMO). Their colours are vivid and they all look extremely healthy. Before anyone suggests that maybe the food is causing the unexplained deaths, the deaths started some time before the food was introduced).
I was going to buy the big bottles of these medications but thought I was just being a bit paranoid as I haven't had any outbreaks in my fish since the whitespot when I first got my fish which I treated with no medication other than increased water temp and salt.
The reason for this sudden purchase is that I have had a few fish mysteriously perish recently with no rhyme or reason. In case it continues to happen I want to be able to treat for the most likely suspect parasites...the other two meds are for my ability to go way over the top and also because these meds are generally much more expensive and I love a bargain and it costs me $7.50 whether I buy one item or 50 at AoA so I generally buy lots of stuff at a time.
Anyway, the sand went in during the weekly water change tonight and my Trops went nuts. They were burrowing and swishing the sand around, making it even muddier and having a ball. I had a little bit left over so I dumped it in a pile in the upper tank and looked up to see the Cory's and BN sitting on the mound of sand, looking just like they had claimed it as their own patch.
If all goes well with the sand outside I might look at buying some more for the inside tank as it would look fantastic as it is black and white.
Another thing I did a while ago was buy some AOA Fish Food to replace the slightly more expensive pellets I have been getting from my fave fish store. I assume they are similar in composition to the Spectrum brand, not that anyone will say so but the phrase "Extremely similar to leading German Brand" leads me to think this is who they are probably talking about.
Anyway, I have been feeding my fish this new food for about a month now and they love it. It costs about half of the other pellets I was getting which were also similar to "that" brand with 1kg costing $35.00 which is very good value for money. I also feed them their HBH Veggie Flakes as usual (these are by far the best for my cichlids IMO). Their colours are vivid and they all look extremely healthy. Before anyone suggests that maybe the food is causing the unexplained deaths, the deaths started some time before the food was introduced).
Ultimate Article- Cycling Your Tank
Okay, that is it. From now on if someone wants to talk cycling tanks they had better read this first...
Absolutely everything I can find from some pretty heavy duty research hours...
What Is Cycling and Why Should I Do It?
When we talk about cycling a tank we are not asking you to take your tank out on a nice little jaunt on a bike.
Cycling a tank is the process of beginning the cycle of waste breakdown and conversion to harmless and beneficial products. It is called cycling because of its circular nature. The dangerous chemicals that cycling deal with are Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite. There are other cycles that exist in a tank as well, such as an Oxygen cycle and a Phosphate cycle but these cycles are generally overlooked or generalized over in favour of dealing with the Nitrogen cycle.
The reason you should cycle a tank is so that your fish will live longer, look better and be happier. The perfect tank would be its own little environment with its own recyclable water, plants and water life with no intervention from us just like a mini world going on in a cube. We would have no need to top up the water because the water would never really leave this little world and anything that died would just naturally recycle back into the ecosystem. Plants would feed from the waste and decayed life and everything would be wonderful and in balance. There are many websites around that talk of this type of micro-environment.
See http://www.eco-sphere.com/care_manual.htm for an article on Eco-Spheres.
Okay now back to reality. While we can get close to this type of aquarium, it is almost impossible to have it exactly as the ideal.
What we can do is minimise the amount of work an aquarium can have for us.
What Is The Cycle?
The cycle we talk of is commonly called the Nitrogen Cycle. The reason for this is because Ammonia's (NH3) composition is one Nitrogen atom to three Hydrogen atoms (if the water has a lower pH than 7 then the Ammonia becomes Ammonium with an extra Hydrogen atom so it is NH4- this form of Ammonia is much less harmful to fish), while Nitrite (NO2) is one Nitrogen atom to two Oxygen atoms and Nitrate (NO3) is one Nitrogen atom with three Oxygen atoms. As you can see, as the cycle progresses different atoms adhere to the Nitrogen.
What Causes Ammonia/Ammonium To Rise In A Tank?
There are a number of things that contribute to your tanks Ammonia/Ammonium. The key things that contribute to it are:
1. The water from your tap in the form of Chloramine, which is NH2Cl (Nitrogen plus 2 Hydrogen atoms and 1 Chlorine atom). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
2. Fish waste. If it eats, it excretes and excreta is basically Ammonia with extras.
3. Uneaten food. In itself not high in Ammonia. However, as the food breaks down it begins to convert to Ammonia and other chemical byproducts.
4. Dead plants/fish. Both of these things rapidly break down into a tasty chemical soup.
How Do I Lower the Ammonia Levels?
As your levels rise in the tank a bacteria that exists everywhere called Nitrosomonas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrosomonas) begins to convert the Ammonia. The more it converts the more of itself it produces until all the Ammonia is consumed by this first bacteria. This causes the levels of Ammonia to drop. If more Ammonia is introduced to the tank the Nitrosomonas will again start oxidizing/feeding and reproducing. There is some information on the web stating that in fact the bacteria responsible for converting the Ammonia is one called Nitrosococcus though generally information talks mostly about Nitrosomonas. Both of these are in the same genera so are closely related.
So Where Does The Ammonia Go?
The Nitrosomonas "eat" the Ammonia by oxidizing it and their consumption alters the chemical makeup of the water, converting it to Nitrite (NO2) laden water. Essentially the bacteria strips the Hydrogen from the Nitrogen then sticks the Nitrogen and Oxygen together to form the Nitrite the same as water oxidizes iron into rust.
Now I Have A Tank Full of Nitrites and Nitrosomonas- What Happens Next?
With all that Nitrite sitting around in the tank the next thing that happens is that another bacteria starts to grow. This bacteria is called Nitrobacter (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrobacter). The Nitrobacter oxidizes the Nitrite and this provides them their energy to reproduce so once again a chemical change occurs, the levels of Nitrites drop as the Nitrobacter feed and this time we are left with Nitrates. Once again, there is some information on the web that states that Nitrospira are what actually convert the Nitrites but once again they are in the same genera as Nitrobacter and so are related. See http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/cycling2.htm for more on this subject.
What Eats All This New Nitrate I Have In My Tank Now?
A number of things eat Nitrate. Algae likes to consume Nitrates as do your aquarium plants. It is not unusual for new tanks that have plenty of light to succumb to algae bloom primarily owing to the Nitrates and lighting. If your lighting is low then it is unlikely you will get algae to any great degree in your tank. You may even want to promote it a little for any algae eating fish you have. Having algae does not mean your tank is "sick", in fact it is quite healthy. If you do not like the thought of algae in your tank this is the time when you would begin water changes to lower the Nitrate levels in your tank.
Water Changes Are Only To Stop Algae?
Water changes lower the Nitrates which might otherwise rise to dangerous levels for fish, though the Jury is out as to what constitutes "dangerous".but probably no higher than 10ppm. Water changes will also often remove excess food particles, excess fish waste and provide some oxygenation to the water. Water movement has been shown to assist with natural removal of Nitrates by the breaking down of the adhesion of Nitrogen and Oxygen which then allows these to naturally dissipate into the air.
What Are The Types of Cycling For An Aquarium?
There are two categories of cycling, fish cycling and fishless cycling. Fish cycling involves the use of live fish to introduce the Ammonia into the water in order to begin the Nitrogen cycle. This method involves taking a new tank and adding a number of cheap fish such as Guppies, Goldfish, Tetras, etc to it. Cheap fish are used as the likelihood of losses is quite high. Once the tank has cycled the fish are disposed of either by putting into another tank, adding bigger fish to the tank and using these smaller fish as feeder fish or euthanizing them in some way. The reason these days that the fishless cycle is so heavily promoted is so that these smaller fish are not made to suffer the torture of the cycling. Losses from this are guaranteed since even if they survive the cycling process they are, as stated, then often fed to other fish.
What Are The Methods For Fishless Cycling?
This is where it gets interesting as there are many methods for fishless cycling. I am going to cover the major ones so that you, the reader, have as many options open to you as possible.
The Ammonia Method
The Ammonia method introduces Ammonia into the water over a period of up to 8 weeks depending on the source. This method was designed in 1999 by Dr. Chris Cow, who has a PhD in Organic Chemistry, as a means to provide an alternative to the fish method. See http://malawicichlids.com/mw01017.htm
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fres...leAquarium.php states using the following method:
1. Introduce pure ammonia to cycle the aquarium. You can buy unscented ammonia with no additives from a supermarket or a bottle of ammonium chloride.
2. Add ammonia from a dropper, 3 - 5 drops per 10 gallons of water per day to get and maintain a reading of 5 ppm.
3. Initially there will be no nitrites. Monitor nitrites daily and continue the daily ammonia dose until you get a nitrite reading. At this point you can reduce the daily amount of ammonia to 2 - 3 drops per 10 gallons. Continue this until both the ammonia test and the nitrite test reads 0 ppm.
4. This method can take as little as three weeks or up to six weeks to complete the nitrification cycle, but adding a starter culture as described above can speed the time up considerably.
5. When the cycle is complete reduce the temperature slowly back to 74 ° to 80 ° F(26 ° - 28 ° C). Reducing it quickly can stress the bacteria.
6. Do a major water change, about 90%, and add activated carbon to remove any possible additives which might have been in the ammonia.
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm says to:
Use 100% pure ammonia.
Using a dropper, add 5 drops of ammonia per 10 gallons of aquarium water. If you don't get an ammonia reading with your test kit, add some more drops until you start to see an ammonia reading. Keep track of how many drops you've used so you can repeat this process daily. Continue to dose the tank with ammonia until you start to get nitrite readings with your test kit. Once you can detect nitrites you should only add 3 drops of ammonia per 10 gallons of aquarium water, or if you added more drops originally to get an ammonia reading cut the amount of drops used in half. Continue this process daily until you get nitrate readings with your test kit. Do a 30% water change and your tank is ready.
http://www.bluecrayfish.com/cycle.htm is a bit different. The article on cycling states:
Next, you will add ammonia. You will need to put the ammonia into a clean dropper bottle, if it didn’t come in one. Label that dropper bottle immediately, with the word “AMMONIA” in capital letters. Simply add drops of ammonia until your ammonia reading goes up to 5.0 ppm, which is very high. It took me about 30 minutes of adding ammonia and then testing for ammonia and then adding drops and then testing for ammonia until I got the 5.0 ppm ammonia reading. Keep track of the total number of drops it took for you to get the desired 5.0 reading. After the first day in which you add ammonia, you should test for ammonia and nitrites every day. Then, every day, after testing for ammonia and nitrite, add the same number of drops of ammonia until you see a nitrite reading. On the first day that you actually see a nitrite reading, add half the number of drops of ammonia that you added on the first day, and keep adding that amount every day until you test and have zero ammonia and zero nitrites. At that point, you will need to do a massive water change.
I did a 99% water change, and I still had to do a few more partial water changes the same day, to get rid of the high nitrates in the tank. A fishless cycle uses much more ammonia then would normally develop with other methods, and therefore the leftover nitrates can be quite high. My nitrate reading was 160 ppm when I was done with my first fishless aquarium cycle. Don’t add any pets to the aquarium until your nitrate reading is 10 ppm or less. You can do multiple water changes in the same day, until the desired nitrate reading of 10 or less is achieved. This works because the good bacteria is in the substrate, and in the filter, and remains after the water change. When you have zero ammonia, zero nitrites, and 10 or less nitrates, your aquarium is fully cycled, and ready to house your aquatic pets.
It took me three and a half weeks to accomplish my first fishless cycle. But someone who follows the above recipe, and uses all the tips to speed up the cycling process would probably be able to get it done in 2 weeks.
http://www.aquariumguys.com/freshwat...p-article.html is very similar to other Ammonia methods.
This method takes time, but is simple. Your tank should be completely set up with only the lights off. Now, "feed" bacteria by adding drops of pure ammonia, available and inexpensive at your grocery store (there should be no perfumes or additives). Test your ammonia levels after about half an hour - you want to get them to about 5 ppm.
After about a week, test again. Ammonia should have dropped, while nitrite will now appear. Add more ammonia to get the level back up, then wait another week or so. You may see nitrite spike when ammonia begins to fall - this is a good sign. In a few weeks, your ammonia levels should be dropping more quickly, your nitrite levels should be falling, and you'll see the appearance of nitrate.
At this point you can do a 25% water change, using water conditioner to prep the water. Repeat the process, replenishing conditioned water when it evaporates. Along the way you may see white cloudy water - these are bacterial blooms and will go away within weeks. Eventually you will have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, with low nitrate levels. At this point your tank is cycled.
Almost every site I visited had the same basic details for the method.
1. Using pure Ammonia get your water reading up to 5ppm of Ammonia.
2. Add more at intervals.
3. Change water.
Some sites recommend changing various amounts of water during the process, some only at the end of the process.
The Feeding Method
This involves feeding your empty tank with fish food.
From http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fres...leAquarium.php again:
1. You simply feed the tank with a fish food, presumable daily to keep an ongoing decomposing process. As the food decays it will to produce ammonia and get the biological filter started.
2. This method takes about the same amount of time as the fish method above.
3. The main drawback to this method is that it is difficult to get a large enough initial bacteria colony. So when you introduce the fish, they may add a larger ammonia load than the colony can handle. Consequently you may get some additional ammonia and then nitrite spikes, though they should be less dramatic and shorter lived than the initial cycling spikes.
4. Another drawback is that the decaying food, besides producing ammonia, can add other by-products such as phosphates.
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm simply says:
Using Fish Food
Drop in a few flakes every 12 hours. As the food decomposes it will release ammonia. You will have to continue to "feed" the tank throughout the process to keep it going.
As Animal World stated getting the Ammonia levels high enough to cycle your tank properly may be more difficult than using pure Ammonia and it may take longer to cycle your tank.
The Raw Prawn Method
This method involves the use of raw prawns or fish that you simply drop in and allow to rot down in the tank.
Back to the Fishlore website which states:
Use a small piece of raw fish or a raw shrimp
Drop a 2 inch by 1 inch chunk of raw fish or a raw shrimp into the tank. As it decomposes it will release ammonia into the tank.
Personally, I am not sure as to how pleasant an idea this may be with a piece of rotting flesh in your tank but there are a number of people who swear by it.
The Seeding Method
What many sites offer you in addition to the Ammonia Method is the Seeding Method. Seeding can be a great process in and of itself.
The basics of this method amount to the following:
1. Gather material from an established tank such as gravel, filter material, plants and decorations.
2. Purchase active biological material that comes in bottles kept cool to slow down the death of the bio matter. This often has an extremely short shelf life.
3. Place items in tank and cycle the tank using the seeding material and one other method.
As an alternative, just use the seeding method alone. The reason for the success of this method is because most of the work is done for you already owing to the active population of Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter already present in the seeding material. The only thing you have left to do is to build up the quantities of these two bacteria so they can deal with your bio-load (the amount of fish you stock in your tank). This is probably the single most important step helping you cycle your tank as you can probably start to populate your tank in as little as 1-2 weeks (always test for the 3 Nitrogen types before doing so).
The following sites are just a few that talk about the seeding method:
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fres...leAquarium.php
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
http://www.bluecrayfish.com/cycle.htm
http://www.aquariumguys.com/freshwat...p-article.html
http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Fishlesscycle.htm
http://www.algone.com/fishless_cycling.php
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articl...cle/Page1.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/faustus...a/fishless.htm
http://www.aquariumsecrets.com/Fishless.htm
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/article...ss_cycling.php
http://aquamaniacs.net/forum/cms_vie...cle.php?aid=31
My Water Went Cloudy- What Does It Mean?
Depending on when it went cloudy and what colour it is will tell you what it means.
http://www.fishlore.com/CloudyWater.htm provides a good list of what each means but breaks down into the following:
WHITE
If this occurs shortly after first setting up then it is most likely particulate matter from the gravel.
If this occurs some time after you have set up the tank (2-6 weeks for example) then this is most likely a bacterial bloom. It will settle down as the tanks cycle continues.
GREEN
Most likely algal bloom. This is caused by there being an overabundance of food for the algae. Do some water changes, lower the light levels or lower the amount you feed your fish, you may need to do all three if you want to combat your green water. If none of this works then as a last resort you can use an anti-algae treatment but be careful as some algae treatments use copper which can be harmful to invertebrates.
YELLOW
This can be caused by things like driftwood leaching out its tannins or even coloured dyes leaching out of gravel. It can also be caused by fish waste and other dissolved organic carbons (DOC). Generally water changes will fix both of these. Some driftwood can take months to leach out their tannins so do not despair if this is what is turning your tank yellow. If it is off-putting you can always take out the offending wood and boil it for a few hours, changing the water every hour until no more colour leaches out. The best way to deal with fish waste and DOC is to vacuum it out of the tank during water changes and not overfeed your fish.
There are many variations on the methods I have outlined above for dealing with your Nitrogen Cycle but I hope I have provided readers with a better idea of what to do. Feel free to provide me information with some of your variations you may have used and whether they were successful or not.
LL
<:>>< - fish
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Absolutely everything I can find from some pretty heavy duty research hours...
What Is Cycling and Why Should I Do It?
When we talk about cycling a tank we are not asking you to take your tank out on a nice little jaunt on a bike.
Cycling a tank is the process of beginning the cycle of waste breakdown and conversion to harmless and beneficial products. It is called cycling because of its circular nature. The dangerous chemicals that cycling deal with are Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite. There are other cycles that exist in a tank as well, such as an Oxygen cycle and a Phosphate cycle but these cycles are generally overlooked or generalized over in favour of dealing with the Nitrogen cycle.
The reason you should cycle a tank is so that your fish will live longer, look better and be happier. The perfect tank would be its own little environment with its own recyclable water, plants and water life with no intervention from us just like a mini world going on in a cube. We would have no need to top up the water because the water would never really leave this little world and anything that died would just naturally recycle back into the ecosystem. Plants would feed from the waste and decayed life and everything would be wonderful and in balance. There are many websites around that talk of this type of micro-environment.
See http://www.eco-sphere.com/care_manual.htm for an article on Eco-Spheres.
Okay now back to reality. While we can get close to this type of aquarium, it is almost impossible to have it exactly as the ideal.
What we can do is minimise the amount of work an aquarium can have for us.
What Is The Cycle?
The cycle we talk of is commonly called the Nitrogen Cycle. The reason for this is because Ammonia's (NH3) composition is one Nitrogen atom to three Hydrogen atoms (if the water has a lower pH than 7 then the Ammonia becomes Ammonium with an extra Hydrogen atom so it is NH4- this form of Ammonia is much less harmful to fish), while Nitrite (NO2) is one Nitrogen atom to two Oxygen atoms and Nitrate (NO3) is one Nitrogen atom with three Oxygen atoms. As you can see, as the cycle progresses different atoms adhere to the Nitrogen.
What Causes Ammonia/Ammonium To Rise In A Tank?
There are a number of things that contribute to your tanks Ammonia/Ammonium. The key things that contribute to it are:
1. The water from your tap in the form of Chloramine, which is NH2Cl (Nitrogen plus 2 Hydrogen atoms and 1 Chlorine atom). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
2. Fish waste. If it eats, it excretes and excreta is basically Ammonia with extras.
3. Uneaten food. In itself not high in Ammonia. However, as the food breaks down it begins to convert to Ammonia and other chemical byproducts.
4. Dead plants/fish. Both of these things rapidly break down into a tasty chemical soup.
How Do I Lower the Ammonia Levels?
As your levels rise in the tank a bacteria that exists everywhere called Nitrosomonas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrosomonas) begins to convert the Ammonia. The more it converts the more of itself it produces until all the Ammonia is consumed by this first bacteria. This causes the levels of Ammonia to drop. If more Ammonia is introduced to the tank the Nitrosomonas will again start oxidizing/feeding and reproducing. There is some information on the web stating that in fact the bacteria responsible for converting the Ammonia is one called Nitrosococcus though generally information talks mostly about Nitrosomonas. Both of these are in the same genera so are closely related.
So Where Does The Ammonia Go?
The Nitrosomonas "eat" the Ammonia by oxidizing it and their consumption alters the chemical makeup of the water, converting it to Nitrite (NO2) laden water. Essentially the bacteria strips the Hydrogen from the Nitrogen then sticks the Nitrogen and Oxygen together to form the Nitrite the same as water oxidizes iron into rust.
Now I Have A Tank Full of Nitrites and Nitrosomonas- What Happens Next?
With all that Nitrite sitting around in the tank the next thing that happens is that another bacteria starts to grow. This bacteria is called Nitrobacter (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrobacter). The Nitrobacter oxidizes the Nitrite and this provides them their energy to reproduce so once again a chemical change occurs, the levels of Nitrites drop as the Nitrobacter feed and this time we are left with Nitrates. Once again, there is some information on the web that states that Nitrospira are what actually convert the Nitrites but once again they are in the same genera as Nitrobacter and so are related. See http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/cycling2.htm for more on this subject.
What Eats All This New Nitrate I Have In My Tank Now?
A number of things eat Nitrate. Algae likes to consume Nitrates as do your aquarium plants. It is not unusual for new tanks that have plenty of light to succumb to algae bloom primarily owing to the Nitrates and lighting. If your lighting is low then it is unlikely you will get algae to any great degree in your tank. You may even want to promote it a little for any algae eating fish you have. Having algae does not mean your tank is "sick", in fact it is quite healthy. If you do not like the thought of algae in your tank this is the time when you would begin water changes to lower the Nitrate levels in your tank.
Water Changes Are Only To Stop Algae?
Water changes lower the Nitrates which might otherwise rise to dangerous levels for fish, though the Jury is out as to what constitutes "dangerous".but probably no higher than 10ppm. Water changes will also often remove excess food particles, excess fish waste and provide some oxygenation to the water. Water movement has been shown to assist with natural removal of Nitrates by the breaking down of the adhesion of Nitrogen and Oxygen which then allows these to naturally dissipate into the air.
What Are The Types of Cycling For An Aquarium?
There are two categories of cycling, fish cycling and fishless cycling. Fish cycling involves the use of live fish to introduce the Ammonia into the water in order to begin the Nitrogen cycle. This method involves taking a new tank and adding a number of cheap fish such as Guppies, Goldfish, Tetras, etc to it. Cheap fish are used as the likelihood of losses is quite high. Once the tank has cycled the fish are disposed of either by putting into another tank, adding bigger fish to the tank and using these smaller fish as feeder fish or euthanizing them in some way. The reason these days that the fishless cycle is so heavily promoted is so that these smaller fish are not made to suffer the torture of the cycling. Losses from this are guaranteed since even if they survive the cycling process they are, as stated, then often fed to other fish.
What Are The Methods For Fishless Cycling?
This is where it gets interesting as there are many methods for fishless cycling. I am going to cover the major ones so that you, the reader, have as many options open to you as possible.
The Ammonia Method
The Ammonia method introduces Ammonia into the water over a period of up to 8 weeks depending on the source. This method was designed in 1999 by Dr. Chris Cow, who has a PhD in Organic Chemistry, as a means to provide an alternative to the fish method. See http://malawicichlids.com/mw01017.htm
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fres...leAquarium.php states using the following method:
1. Introduce pure ammonia to cycle the aquarium. You can buy unscented ammonia with no additives from a supermarket or a bottle of ammonium chloride.
2. Add ammonia from a dropper, 3 - 5 drops per 10 gallons of water per day to get and maintain a reading of 5 ppm.
3. Initially there will be no nitrites. Monitor nitrites daily and continue the daily ammonia dose until you get a nitrite reading. At this point you can reduce the daily amount of ammonia to 2 - 3 drops per 10 gallons. Continue this until both the ammonia test and the nitrite test reads 0 ppm.
4. This method can take as little as three weeks or up to six weeks to complete the nitrification cycle, but adding a starter culture as described above can speed the time up considerably.
5. When the cycle is complete reduce the temperature slowly back to 74 ° to 80 ° F(26 ° - 28 ° C). Reducing it quickly can stress the bacteria.
6. Do a major water change, about 90%, and add activated carbon to remove any possible additives which might have been in the ammonia.
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm says to:
Use 100% pure ammonia.
Using a dropper, add 5 drops of ammonia per 10 gallons of aquarium water. If you don't get an ammonia reading with your test kit, add some more drops until you start to see an ammonia reading. Keep track of how many drops you've used so you can repeat this process daily. Continue to dose the tank with ammonia until you start to get nitrite readings with your test kit. Once you can detect nitrites you should only add 3 drops of ammonia per 10 gallons of aquarium water, or if you added more drops originally to get an ammonia reading cut the amount of drops used in half. Continue this process daily until you get nitrate readings with your test kit. Do a 30% water change and your tank is ready.
http://www.bluecrayfish.com/cycle.htm is a bit different. The article on cycling states:
Next, you will add ammonia. You will need to put the ammonia into a clean dropper bottle, if it didn’t come in one. Label that dropper bottle immediately, with the word “AMMONIA” in capital letters. Simply add drops of ammonia until your ammonia reading goes up to 5.0 ppm, which is very high. It took me about 30 minutes of adding ammonia and then testing for ammonia and then adding drops and then testing for ammonia until I got the 5.0 ppm ammonia reading. Keep track of the total number of drops it took for you to get the desired 5.0 reading. After the first day in which you add ammonia, you should test for ammonia and nitrites every day. Then, every day, after testing for ammonia and nitrite, add the same number of drops of ammonia until you see a nitrite reading. On the first day that you actually see a nitrite reading, add half the number of drops of ammonia that you added on the first day, and keep adding that amount every day until you test and have zero ammonia and zero nitrites. At that point, you will need to do a massive water change.
I did a 99% water change, and I still had to do a few more partial water changes the same day, to get rid of the high nitrates in the tank. A fishless cycle uses much more ammonia then would normally develop with other methods, and therefore the leftover nitrates can be quite high. My nitrate reading was 160 ppm when I was done with my first fishless aquarium cycle. Don’t add any pets to the aquarium until your nitrate reading is 10 ppm or less. You can do multiple water changes in the same day, until the desired nitrate reading of 10 or less is achieved. This works because the good bacteria is in the substrate, and in the filter, and remains after the water change. When you have zero ammonia, zero nitrites, and 10 or less nitrates, your aquarium is fully cycled, and ready to house your aquatic pets.
It took me three and a half weeks to accomplish my first fishless cycle. But someone who follows the above recipe, and uses all the tips to speed up the cycling process would probably be able to get it done in 2 weeks.
http://www.aquariumguys.com/freshwat...p-article.html is very similar to other Ammonia methods.
This method takes time, but is simple. Your tank should be completely set up with only the lights off. Now, "feed" bacteria by adding drops of pure ammonia, available and inexpensive at your grocery store (there should be no perfumes or additives). Test your ammonia levels after about half an hour - you want to get them to about 5 ppm.
After about a week, test again. Ammonia should have dropped, while nitrite will now appear. Add more ammonia to get the level back up, then wait another week or so. You may see nitrite spike when ammonia begins to fall - this is a good sign. In a few weeks, your ammonia levels should be dropping more quickly, your nitrite levels should be falling, and you'll see the appearance of nitrate.
At this point you can do a 25% water change, using water conditioner to prep the water. Repeat the process, replenishing conditioned water when it evaporates. Along the way you may see white cloudy water - these are bacterial blooms and will go away within weeks. Eventually you will have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, with low nitrate levels. At this point your tank is cycled.
Almost every site I visited had the same basic details for the method.
1. Using pure Ammonia get your water reading up to 5ppm of Ammonia.
2. Add more at intervals.
3. Change water.
Some sites recommend changing various amounts of water during the process, some only at the end of the process.
The Feeding Method
This involves feeding your empty tank with fish food.
From http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fres...leAquarium.php again:
1. You simply feed the tank with a fish food, presumable daily to keep an ongoing decomposing process. As the food decays it will to produce ammonia and get the biological filter started.
2. This method takes about the same amount of time as the fish method above.
3. The main drawback to this method is that it is difficult to get a large enough initial bacteria colony. So when you introduce the fish, they may add a larger ammonia load than the colony can handle. Consequently you may get some additional ammonia and then nitrite spikes, though they should be less dramatic and shorter lived than the initial cycling spikes.
4. Another drawback is that the decaying food, besides producing ammonia, can add other by-products such as phosphates.
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm simply says:
Using Fish Food
Drop in a few flakes every 12 hours. As the food decomposes it will release ammonia. You will have to continue to "feed" the tank throughout the process to keep it going.
As Animal World stated getting the Ammonia levels high enough to cycle your tank properly may be more difficult than using pure Ammonia and it may take longer to cycle your tank.
The Raw Prawn Method
This method involves the use of raw prawns or fish that you simply drop in and allow to rot down in the tank.
Back to the Fishlore website which states:
Use a small piece of raw fish or a raw shrimp
Drop a 2 inch by 1 inch chunk of raw fish or a raw shrimp into the tank. As it decomposes it will release ammonia into the tank.
Personally, I am not sure as to how pleasant an idea this may be with a piece of rotting flesh in your tank but there are a number of people who swear by it.
The Seeding Method
What many sites offer you in addition to the Ammonia Method is the Seeding Method. Seeding can be a great process in and of itself.
The basics of this method amount to the following:
1. Gather material from an established tank such as gravel, filter material, plants and decorations.
2. Purchase active biological material that comes in bottles kept cool to slow down the death of the bio matter. This often has an extremely short shelf life.
3. Place items in tank and cycle the tank using the seeding material and one other method.
As an alternative, just use the seeding method alone. The reason for the success of this method is because most of the work is done for you already owing to the active population of Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter already present in the seeding material. The only thing you have left to do is to build up the quantities of these two bacteria so they can deal with your bio-load (the amount of fish you stock in your tank). This is probably the single most important step helping you cycle your tank as you can probably start to populate your tank in as little as 1-2 weeks (always test for the 3 Nitrogen types before doing so).
The following sites are just a few that talk about the seeding method:
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fres...leAquarium.php
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
http://www.bluecrayfish.com/cycle.htm
http://www.aquariumguys.com/freshwat...p-article.html
http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Fishlesscycle.htm
http://www.algone.com/fishless_cycling.php
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articl...cle/Page1.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/faustus...a/fishless.htm
http://www.aquariumsecrets.com/Fishless.htm
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/article...ss_cycling.php
http://aquamaniacs.net/forum/cms_vie...cle.php?aid=31
My Water Went Cloudy- What Does It Mean?
Depending on when it went cloudy and what colour it is will tell you what it means.
http://www.fishlore.com/CloudyWater.htm provides a good list of what each means but breaks down into the following:
WHITE
If this occurs shortly after first setting up then it is most likely particulate matter from the gravel.
If this occurs some time after you have set up the tank (2-6 weeks for example) then this is most likely a bacterial bloom. It will settle down as the tanks cycle continues.
GREEN
Most likely algal bloom. This is caused by there being an overabundance of food for the algae. Do some water changes, lower the light levels or lower the amount you feed your fish, you may need to do all three if you want to combat your green water. If none of this works then as a last resort you can use an anti-algae treatment but be careful as some algae treatments use copper which can be harmful to invertebrates.
YELLOW
This can be caused by things like driftwood leaching out its tannins or even coloured dyes leaching out of gravel. It can also be caused by fish waste and other dissolved organic carbons (DOC). Generally water changes will fix both of these. Some driftwood can take months to leach out their tannins so do not despair if this is what is turning your tank yellow. If it is off-putting you can always take out the offending wood and boil it for a few hours, changing the water every hour until no more colour leaches out. The best way to deal with fish waste and DOC is to vacuum it out of the tank during water changes and not overfeed your fish.
There are many variations on the methods I have outlined above for dealing with your Nitrogen Cycle but I hope I have provided readers with a better idea of what to do. Feel free to provide me information with some of your variations you may have used and whether they were successful or not.
LL
<:>>< - fish
<:[>>{ - fancy fish
It's Getting Old...More Babies...
Okay, I know lately all I seem to do is report on YET more babies but at least this time it isn't Rusty's or Salousi's or Cobalts.
This time it is babies in the lower outside aggro tank of Tropheus's etc.
Seen this morning the following:
1 x baby Hongi
1 x baby Auratus (soo cute)
1 x baby Tropheus Orange Bemba (can't be dubosi as it isn't spotted)!!!
Not sure how to get a pic of them as they are in the lower tank which is high on reflections off all the other surfaces but I will try to do so when I work it out.
Might I add again that large piles of cheap river rocks are excellent for keeping babies safe as the crevices they make are fantastic for babies to hide in.
The only negative lately has been a few deaths, some of my older Rusty's have died as well as a few others which has saddened me. I have not yet worked out what is killing them but most are coming from my big indoor tank. I had a Red Forest Jewel in there that had been ailing from other more aggressive fish in the outdoor tank so I brought it inside and this may have brought in something. I will probably add some salt to the water in case it is a salt sensitive pathogen and see how I go. If that does not work I may have to add a little general treatment chem to the tank.
UPDATE
I managed to count 24 babies in the inside tank. At least 3 of the females in the inside tank are currently holding so it is going to get pretty cramped in the inside tank very shortly.
This time it is babies in the lower outside aggro tank of Tropheus's etc.
Seen this morning the following:
1 x baby Hongi
1 x baby Auratus (soo cute)
1 x baby Tropheus Orange Bemba (can't be dubosi as it isn't spotted)!!!
Not sure how to get a pic of them as they are in the lower tank which is high on reflections off all the other surfaces but I will try to do so when I work it out.
Might I add again that large piles of cheap river rocks are excellent for keeping babies safe as the crevices they make are fantastic for babies to hide in.
The only negative lately has been a few deaths, some of my older Rusty's have died as well as a few others which has saddened me. I have not yet worked out what is killing them but most are coming from my big indoor tank. I had a Red Forest Jewel in there that had been ailing from other more aggressive fish in the outdoor tank so I brought it inside and this may have brought in something. I will probably add some salt to the water in case it is a salt sensitive pathogen and see how I go. If that does not work I may have to add a little general treatment chem to the tank.
UPDATE
I managed to count 24 babies in the inside tank. At least 3 of the females in the inside tank are currently holding so it is going to get pretty cramped in the inside tank very shortly.
Babies have arrived Xmas Eve!!
Well look at me, the chuffed proud viewer of about 9 or so new babies.
My daughter and her partner were over Xmas Eve and I was telling her about my new batch of babies from a few weeks ago.
She said "oh, yeah I see them, wow look how many there are!"
"Oh only 1 is living over that side," I reply.
"No there are heaps of them."
"WHAT!!!???"
And sure enough Ms saulosi has outdone herself and let loose a soccer team of babies. No wonder she looked like she had swallowed a football.
They are all doing fine in the tank, and the Pictus don't appear to care that they are in there, although the babies are definitely keeping a low profile. The key to having babies in a tank are lots and lots of hidey holes for them and they can be pretty small holes too.
The babies are about ->___<- this big so can hide almost anywhere. I would love to take some pix of them but no-one would see them in the photos :)
I will try to get some pix today but no guarantees...
Some time later....
http://myaquarium-loachlovers.blogsp...as-babies.html
My daughter and her partner were over Xmas Eve and I was telling her about my new batch of babies from a few weeks ago.
She said "oh, yeah I see them, wow look how many there are!"
"Oh only 1 is living over that side," I reply.
"No there are heaps of them."
"WHAT!!!???"
And sure enough Ms saulosi has outdone herself and let loose a soccer team of babies. No wonder she looked like she had swallowed a football.
They are all doing fine in the tank, and the Pictus don't appear to care that they are in there, although the babies are definitely keeping a low profile. The key to having babies in a tank are lots and lots of hidey holes for them and they can be pretty small holes too.
The babies are about ->___<- this big so can hide almost anywhere. I would love to take some pix of them but no-one would see them in the photos :)
I will try to get some pix today but no guarantees...
Some time later....
http://myaquarium-loachlovers.blogsp...as-babies.html
More Babies
Well there I was, feeding the finned minions when....
...a baby poked its head out to feed. Another Rusty (my oh so prolific ones) you ask?
No, I reply, with an extremely smug look, this one is YELLOW so is either an E. Yellow or a Saulosi (either is awesome).
Oh plus there are yet more baby rusty's.
Plus another Saulosi is carrying so here is hoping my cup will overflow with babies soon
So that means I am in Rusty heaven and all my other little pigs with fins are finally doing the naughty long enough to produce more little minions so I can take over the world...Mwahahahahahh...ahem... that is if I can work out how they can do so from the safety of the tanks...
On a sad note I lost a couple of my fish the other day. I think they were bullied to death, hard to tell since there wasn't much left of the bodies the next day, so I moved one of the Jewels out of the big outside tank and have put him in the small inside tank with the gouami's. He was the odd man out with the Jewels since the other two had partnered up.
One of my Saulosi is masquerading as a female to hide from the dominant male in the tank but I caught him out trying to lure one of the females over to him with his shimmering (she was having none of it). I thought he looked suspicious since his bars were showing through the disguise a bit (the girls bars are very pale, almost invisible) I may move him and a female into a different tank to see if I can get his colour up a bit.
Sigh I really need yet another tank for my fishes, three is just NOT enough...sigh...
:D
UPDATE
Turns out there are almost a dozen micro minions in my 4' tank. 2 yellow babies, 2 very pale ones and more than 6 that may be Rusty's.
...a baby poked its head out to feed. Another Rusty (my oh so prolific ones) you ask?
No, I reply, with an extremely smug look, this one is YELLOW so is either an E. Yellow or a Saulosi (either is awesome).
Oh plus there are yet more baby rusty's.
Plus another Saulosi is carrying so here is hoping my cup will overflow with babies soon
So that means I am in Rusty heaven and all my other little pigs with fins are finally doing the naughty long enough to produce more little minions so I can take over the world...Mwahahahahahh...ahem... that is if I can work out how they can do so from the safety of the tanks...
On a sad note I lost a couple of my fish the other day. I think they were bullied to death, hard to tell since there wasn't much left of the bodies the next day, so I moved one of the Jewels out of the big outside tank and have put him in the small inside tank with the gouami's. He was the odd man out with the Jewels since the other two had partnered up.
One of my Saulosi is masquerading as a female to hide from the dominant male in the tank but I caught him out trying to lure one of the females over to him with his shimmering (she was having none of it). I thought he looked suspicious since his bars were showing through the disguise a bit (the girls bars are very pale, almost invisible) I may move him and a female into a different tank to see if I can get his colour up a bit.
Sigh I really need yet another tank for my fishes, three is just NOT enough...sigh...
:D
UPDATE
Turns out there are almost a dozen micro minions in my 4' tank. 2 yellow babies, 2 very pale ones and more than 6 that may be Rusty's.
BABIES- not Rusty's this time (At Last)
Yes!! Finally something other than a rusty has produced babies. I am now the proud mum to at least one baby Northern Blue and to a baby Aul. stuartgranti, both of which showed up in my big outdoor tank for the first time yesterday. There may be more babies but I set the tank up to have lots of safe zones for baby fish so only time will tell as to how many I have exactly.
On a sad note I lost one of my Northern Blue adults last week while I was away. My poor partner had to fish her out while I was away and dispose of the body for me since I didn't want her to rot or get eaten in the tank until I got back. This also means I am not sure why she died. although it may have been because she had been holding the babies and just didn't recover which I believe does sometimes happen.
I have had to move some of my male rusty's to different tanks to stop them harassing every fish in the indoor tank when I found 2 of the male rusty's and my saulosi male as well as my cobue male all going at it fighting in the centre of the indoor tank.
I moved one into the small indoor tank with the Gourami's (to keep an eye on him) and the other rusty went to the more aggressive lower outdoor tank with the Bemba's, the dubosi's the hongi's and the auratus'.
The indoor tank has become a lot more peaceful since the removal of the two aggressive males. I left the least aggressive male in the tank as he is much further down the pecking order than the other two were.
I also moved one of the Jewels out of the outside tank as he is the odd one out of the three I had and looks very subdued at the moment. He is very grey looking and his fins are clamped, this may be due to stress or something else, so I am keeping him in the small indoor tank so I can keep an eye on him and see if he stops stressing and regains his colour.
On a sad note I lost one of my Northern Blue adults last week while I was away. My poor partner had to fish her out while I was away and dispose of the body for me since I didn't want her to rot or get eaten in the tank until I got back. This also means I am not sure why she died. although it may have been because she had been holding the babies and just didn't recover which I believe does sometimes happen.
I have had to move some of my male rusty's to different tanks to stop them harassing every fish in the indoor tank when I found 2 of the male rusty's and my saulosi male as well as my cobue male all going at it fighting in the centre of the indoor tank.
I moved one into the small indoor tank with the Gourami's (to keep an eye on him) and the other rusty went to the more aggressive lower outdoor tank with the Bemba's, the dubosi's the hongi's and the auratus'.
The indoor tank has become a lot more peaceful since the removal of the two aggressive males. I left the least aggressive male in the tank as he is much further down the pecking order than the other two were.
I also moved one of the Jewels out of the outside tank as he is the odd one out of the three I had and looks very subdued at the moment. He is very grey looking and his fins are clamped, this may be due to stress or something else, so I am keeping him in the small indoor tank so I can keep an eye on him and see if he stops stressing and regains his colour.
Yet More Rusty's
Supermum produced yet more babies and now her offspring have started holding with 1 of the 2 Easters now with a mouthful. At least I have more than 1 female in the tank now. The excess males will have to find a new home though as they are getting quite aggressive to each other. If someone in the Perth area wants to add some male Rusty's to their collection 2 of my boys are available. Send me a private message and we can set up a transfer.
Settling In
All my new fish have settled in well and I even opened up the bottom tank so all the fish could mix. This has been very successful with plenty of room for all the fish as there are 29 cichlids and 4 BN in the lower 5' tank.
The 6 little Maingano's in the inside tank are also well settled in though I need to look at moving some of the Rusty's to another tank or selling them as they are beginning to outnumber the other species and the 2 biggest males are constantly aggressive to each other which results in their mouths looking a bit off.
Today I noticed my female Cobalt is holding (yay) and she wasn't a couple of days ago so in 4 weeks I should have some different babies in the tank for a change. I hope they all turn out as beautiful as their father who is almost an Ice White Cobalt in normal light (his pix though show him as a normal coloured one) and as stunning as they come.
Outside it looks as though my Northern Blue lady has finally dropped the babies as she is hiding out in the rocks but has lost her mumps jawline. She isn't coming out yet so she must be keeping an eye on her babies but should show up in a few days and I should start seeing the babies in about a fortnight or so I hope.
There should be a few babies roaming around the big tank outside but with all the rocks I have in there they are safe from prying eyes such as mine as the rusty girl dropped her first set as well.
The 6 little Maingano's in the inside tank are also well settled in though I need to look at moving some of the Rusty's to another tank or selling them as they are beginning to outnumber the other species and the 2 biggest males are constantly aggressive to each other which results in their mouths looking a bit off.
Today I noticed my female Cobalt is holding (yay) and she wasn't a couple of days ago so in 4 weeks I should have some different babies in the tank for a change. I hope they all turn out as beautiful as their father who is almost an Ice White Cobalt in normal light (his pix though show him as a normal coloured one) and as stunning as they come.
Outside it looks as though my Northern Blue lady has finally dropped the babies as she is hiding out in the rocks but has lost her mumps jawline. She isn't coming out yet so she must be keeping an eye on her babies but should show up in a few days and I should start seeing the babies in about a fortnight or so I hope.
There should be a few babies roaming around the big tank outside but with all the rocks I have in there they are safe from prying eyes such as mine as the rusty girl dropped her first set as well.
New Fish
Well, I settled on my new fish today and have bought the following:
6x Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (Maingano) in the inside 4' tank (yay) a moderately aggressive horizontal striped fish with alternating bands of light and dark blue. They grow to about 4" (10cm) so are smaller than the Northern Blues.
5x Labidochromis sp. "Hongi" in the lower outdoor 5' tank LHS beautifully coloured fish with vertical stripes of light and dark blue but with yellow heads and dorsal fins and sometimes the yellow extends to their belly and lower fins. The Hongi's get to 6" (15cm) so are a good size with the males defending territory actively against other Hongi males.
6x Melanochromis auratus in the lower outdoor tank LHS- the males are basically black and white with brown lower halves while the females are more yellow and black horizontal stripes. Auratus get to 5" (13cm) in length and are very aggressive fish within their species especially male to male so you can really only have 1 male in a tank. These guys are going into the Tropheus tank so should do fine with the others.
2x Metriaclima lombardoi also in the lower tank (all they had in stock) LHS- these fish are the opposite to the Ps. saulosi with the male orange and the female with light and dark blue stripes. These fish are highly aggressive to each other and every other fish as well which is why they are being placed eventually with the Tropheus as they have a similar temperament. They get to 6" (15cm).
I didn't end up with the other fish because there were none of the desired ones in stock but I am thrilled that I got my Maingano's at last.
To compensate for the addition of the Maingano's I will be moving the Northern Blue female and the Acei out to the bigger tank to be with the others out there. I am hoping that I will end up with all my Northern Blue females holding. The Acei seem disinclined to breed atm and since they are monomorphic there is no way to tell if I have all males, all females or just a mix of lazy fish.
If my Rusty's keep breeding the way they are atm I will have to start selling the babies off as we have the 2 from Easter, 2 from May and 2 from July all in the tank now and Rusty Supermum is holding yet more of them, this doubles the original 6 I got with only 2 being female and only 1 female having produced so far.
The Cobalt in the inside tank is trying his hardest to get one of his 2 girls interested but so far no luck. Mr E Yellow is busily flirting with his 2 girls with about the same luck, while Mr Saulosi is courting his 3 girls and my Cynotilapia afra (Cobue) has worked out at last that there is indeed a female in the tank with him.
Outdoors in the big tanks we have my Aul. stuartgranti (Cobwe) keeping his girls busy with 2 of them holding atm and Mr Northern Blue is trying his hardest to get his second female to take him up on his offer.
The female Rusty outside is also holding so there will be even more babies soon and Mr E Yellow outside would like to get his female to hold some eggs but she is a bit small yet so I am glad she is holding off on holding.
The Firebirds, Dragon's Blood and Maleri Gold are not large enough yet to breed and as for the Red Empresses I don't even know if I have male or female yet as they are still too young to colour up.
Speaking of colouring up, my dubosi are beginning to colour up nicely with 2 of them having nearly lost their baby spots. The yellow is beginning to stand out quite nicely and the Bemba are displaying their colour slowly as well even if some of them still have grey heads.
I keep hoping that my stunning Red Forest Jewels will grace us with more eggs and today he was dancing around her so I will keep my fingers crossed.
I have a new hose draining system that attaches to my gravel vacuum so this has made my life much easier (and my partners too as he had to carry out buckets previously) which just goes straight out to our drain. When I want water back in the tanks I just remove the vacuum and hook up the hose to a tap and off I go filling up the tanks.
LL
6x Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (Maingano) in the inside 4' tank (yay) a moderately aggressive horizontal striped fish with alternating bands of light and dark blue. They grow to about 4" (10cm) so are smaller than the Northern Blues.
5x Labidochromis sp. "Hongi" in the lower outdoor 5' tank LHS beautifully coloured fish with vertical stripes of light and dark blue but with yellow heads and dorsal fins and sometimes the yellow extends to their belly and lower fins. The Hongi's get to 6" (15cm) so are a good size with the males defending territory actively against other Hongi males.
6x Melanochromis auratus in the lower outdoor tank LHS- the males are basically black and white with brown lower halves while the females are more yellow and black horizontal stripes. Auratus get to 5" (13cm) in length and are very aggressive fish within their species especially male to male so you can really only have 1 male in a tank. These guys are going into the Tropheus tank so should do fine with the others.
2x Metriaclima lombardoi also in the lower tank (all they had in stock) LHS- these fish are the opposite to the Ps. saulosi with the male orange and the female with light and dark blue stripes. These fish are highly aggressive to each other and every other fish as well which is why they are being placed eventually with the Tropheus as they have a similar temperament. They get to 6" (15cm).
I didn't end up with the other fish because there were none of the desired ones in stock but I am thrilled that I got my Maingano's at last.
To compensate for the addition of the Maingano's I will be moving the Northern Blue female and the Acei out to the bigger tank to be with the others out there. I am hoping that I will end up with all my Northern Blue females holding. The Acei seem disinclined to breed atm and since they are monomorphic there is no way to tell if I have all males, all females or just a mix of lazy fish.
If my Rusty's keep breeding the way they are atm I will have to start selling the babies off as we have the 2 from Easter, 2 from May and 2 from July all in the tank now and Rusty Supermum is holding yet more of them, this doubles the original 6 I got with only 2 being female and only 1 female having produced so far.
The Cobalt in the inside tank is trying his hardest to get one of his 2 girls interested but so far no luck. Mr E Yellow is busily flirting with his 2 girls with about the same luck, while Mr Saulosi is courting his 3 girls and my Cynotilapia afra (Cobue) has worked out at last that there is indeed a female in the tank with him.
Outdoors in the big tanks we have my Aul. stuartgranti (Cobwe) keeping his girls busy with 2 of them holding atm and Mr Northern Blue is trying his hardest to get his second female to take him up on his offer.
The female Rusty outside is also holding so there will be even more babies soon and Mr E Yellow outside would like to get his female to hold some eggs but she is a bit small yet so I am glad she is holding off on holding.
The Firebirds, Dragon's Blood and Maleri Gold are not large enough yet to breed and as for the Red Empresses I don't even know if I have male or female yet as they are still too young to colour up.
Speaking of colouring up, my dubosi are beginning to colour up nicely with 2 of them having nearly lost their baby spots. The yellow is beginning to stand out quite nicely and the Bemba are displaying their colour slowly as well even if some of them still have grey heads.
I keep hoping that my stunning Red Forest Jewels will grace us with more eggs and today he was dancing around her so I will keep my fingers crossed.
I have a new hose draining system that attaches to my gravel vacuum so this has made my life much easier (and my partners too as he had to carry out buckets previously) which just goes straight out to our drain. When I want water back in the tanks I just remove the vacuum and hook up the hose to a tap and off I go filling up the tanks.
LL
Want Moar Fish!!!
Heavy sigh...
I want more fish in my life, but cannot decide what I want.
Here are some of my choices:
Maingano pack- ever since I started my cichlid tanks I have wanted these guys. I was meant to get them from a fish fancier but he never got back to me. Now I feel as though they are missing from my tank (loads of yellow fish not enough blue?)
Loaches- Zebra or Polka-Dot would be nice and could go in either cichlid tank except the Tan tank (pH waaaay too high) but both are hard to find and quite pricey.
Pseudotropheus crabro pack- sigh, more yellow fish but the colouration is stunning
Tropheus sp "Red"- high cost, gorgeous colouring
Tropheus moorii- see above
Labidochromis sp. "Hongi"- very delightful looking fish and moderately tempered would fit into either Malawi tank fine.
Metriaclima lombardoi- fairly aggressive fish but could go into the Tropheus tank with all the other aggressive fish and would break the darkness of the Orange Bemba and dubosi nicely.
Melanochromis parallelus- juvies are black and white while the adults look like Maingano's. They have the same temperament as all Melanochromis and are aggressive but less problematic since they would be going into an established tank.
Suggestions anyone?
LL
I want more fish in my life, but cannot decide what I want.
Here are some of my choices:
Maingano pack- ever since I started my cichlid tanks I have wanted these guys. I was meant to get them from a fish fancier but he never got back to me. Now I feel as though they are missing from my tank (loads of yellow fish not enough blue?)
Loaches- Zebra or Polka-Dot would be nice and could go in either cichlid tank except the Tan tank (pH waaaay too high) but both are hard to find and quite pricey.
Pseudotropheus crabro pack- sigh, more yellow fish but the colouration is stunning
Tropheus sp "Red"- high cost, gorgeous colouring
Tropheus moorii- see above
Labidochromis sp. "Hongi"- very delightful looking fish and moderately tempered would fit into either Malawi tank fine.
Metriaclima lombardoi- fairly aggressive fish but could go into the Tropheus tank with all the other aggressive fish and would break the darkness of the Orange Bemba and dubosi nicely.
Melanochromis parallelus- juvies are black and white while the adults look like Maingano's. They have the same temperament as all Melanochromis and are aggressive but less problematic since they would be going into an established tank.
Suggestions anyone?
LL
Oops
Well...I was doing water changes yesterday on the inside tanks...I filled the little 30L tank and then went off to do other stuff. Hours later I returned to see the tank was only half full...the venturi on the pump had been lower than the water level and it had set up a siphon effect so 15L of water all over the floor. I was lucky that I keep the power off the floor or I might have fried them and myself.
Lesson to be learnt... make sure your venturi inlet is higher than your water level.
We lost one of the little Gouramis to a swim bladder disorder and had to flush her to fishy heaven. My son wanted to feed her to the Axo but I suggested it wasn't a good idea saying we would have to cut her into bits as she was too big for the Axo's mouth. Also, I wonder if I am just too soft, as I was grossed out that I should feed one dead pet to another live one... I may have to watch him though as he suggested anytime we don't want a fish to put it in the tank for the Axo to eat... :(
Lesson to be learnt... make sure your venturi inlet is higher than your water level.
We lost one of the little Gouramis to a swim bladder disorder and had to flush her to fishy heaven. My son wanted to feed her to the Axo but I suggested it wasn't a good idea saying we would have to cut her into bits as she was too big for the Axo's mouth. Also, I wonder if I am just too soft, as I was grossed out that I should feed one dead pet to another live one... I may have to watch him though as he suggested anytime we don't want a fish to put it in the tank for the Axo to eat... :(
Review of Eden 501 Ext Filter
UPDATED
The Eden arrived promptly today which was a nice surprise (thank you to Age of Aquariums for their prompt postal services).
Eden 501 External Filter
First off this filter is from Italy and the packaging is good and compact. On first view this filter is tiny. I hope that what it is lacking in size is made up for in punch but since it is only filtering about 16L of water and is rated to do up to 60L it should be fine. The total dimensions of the filter are a microscopic 16.5cm x 15cm x 9cm so there should be no problem with sitting the filter almost anywhere as it is about the size of a smallish Tupperware container.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Instructions
A very good instruction manual comes in the box, with a guide to all the parts (lots of them- 15 coded parts for replacement). The instructions are simple and easy to follow with easy to understand illustrations showing the steps.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Setup
Also very easy, taking perhaps 15 minutes from start to finish. The biggest issue being that the size of the parts allows for a much larger tank (approximately 3' or 90cm tank) which is much larger than the one I was setting up which is only an 18" tank.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Noise
The filter is a little noisier than I would have expected when it first started up but after half an hour the noise disappeared and it was completely silent except for the spray bar.
Overall
My first impression is that I might be a little hesitant in using only this to filter my water in a 60L tank and would be inclined to add at least a powerhead filter to it as well but for the small tank I have which only holds 16L it is more than capable. The really telling part of the review will be in a week when I check the water of the Axolotyl and see how it has improved over what it is now. Since Axo's are incredibly messy creatures it will be the real test for the filter.
Scoring
Value for Money- 5/5
Flow Rate- 4/5
Noise Levels- 5/5
Ability to Clean Water- 4/5
Maintenance Level- 4/5
Total- 22/25 88%
Conclusion
The cost for the Eden is $79.00 plus delivery charge of $7.50 (which can be offset by purchasing other products at the same time) bringing the total for this filter to $86.50 which is very cheap for an external filter. The Eden also comes with a 2 year warranty and is rated at 5 Watts which is as tiny as its footprint. I would recommend using this for sub 50L tanks if space is an issue internally and for tanks 50-60L if you use additional aeration, though time will tell on how good it really is at cleaning tanks of any size greater than 30L.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Update
After running this for a while now I can say that it is an awesome little filter. It has kept the messy little axo as clean as a whistle, a not easy task let me tell you :) I have upgraded the score to reflect its awesomeness.
The Eden arrived promptly today which was a nice surprise (thank you to Age of Aquariums for their prompt postal services).
Eden 501 External Filter
First off this filter is from Italy and the packaging is good and compact. On first view this filter is tiny. I hope that what it is lacking in size is made up for in punch but since it is only filtering about 16L of water and is rated to do up to 60L it should be fine. The total dimensions of the filter are a microscopic 16.5cm x 15cm x 9cm so there should be no problem with sitting the filter almost anywhere as it is about the size of a smallish Tupperware container.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Instructions
A very good instruction manual comes in the box, with a guide to all the parts (lots of them- 15 coded parts for replacement). The instructions are simple and easy to follow with easy to understand illustrations showing the steps.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Setup
Also very easy, taking perhaps 15 minutes from start to finish. The biggest issue being that the size of the parts allows for a much larger tank (approximately 3' or 90cm tank) which is much larger than the one I was setting up which is only an 18" tank.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Noise
The filter is a little noisier than I would have expected when it first started up but after half an hour the noise disappeared and it was completely silent except for the spray bar.
Overall
My first impression is that I might be a little hesitant in using only this to filter my water in a 60L tank and would be inclined to add at least a powerhead filter to it as well but for the small tank I have which only holds 16L it is more than capable. The really telling part of the review will be in a week when I check the water of the Axolotyl and see how it has improved over what it is now. Since Axo's are incredibly messy creatures it will be the real test for the filter.
Scoring
Value for Money- 5/5
Flow Rate- 4/5
Noise Levels- 5/5
Ability to Clean Water- 4/5
Maintenance Level- 4/5
Total- 22/25 88%
Conclusion
The cost for the Eden is $79.00 plus delivery charge of $7.50 (which can be offset by purchasing other products at the same time) bringing the total for this filter to $86.50 which is very cheap for an external filter. The Eden also comes with a 2 year warranty and is rated at 5 Watts which is as tiny as its footprint. I would recommend using this for sub 50L tanks if space is an issue internally and for tanks 50-60L if you use additional aeration, though time will tell on how good it really is at cleaning tanks of any size greater than 30L.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Update
After running this for a while now I can say that it is an awesome little filter. It has kept the messy little axo as clean as a whistle, a not easy task let me tell you :) I have upgraded the score to reflect its awesomeness.
Updates
Update on the New Filter
Okay so the new filter has been in for a few days and wow what an improvement! I have to say, this filter is awesome, with the biggest problem being the spray bar- it's noisy :P
I thought the old Heto filter was doing okay, and it was just okay but the JHW is really very good. I will be checking the levels soon since I changed all the tanks at last (have had swine flu so I have been really sick for the last 2 weeks).
The Heto is doing better in the little 5 foot tank with only 20 fish in it so all round it has been a success.
Warmer Weather Approaches
The only thing I am starting to worry about now is that soon the cooler weather will be over and I will need to deal with the hot weather and the outside tanks as I don't think my partner is going to let me have the 5 footer inside and there is no way I can afford a chiller unit for it and I am not sure what to do when the patio gets to 45C (thoughts of kicking the kids outside and moving the tanks inside??).
Getting Jiggy with It
I just went outside and my big blue Peacock male is dancing around with yet another female. All the other fish are stuck up one end of the tank while he and his girl dance away at the other end. Woe to any of the others who dares come within a foot of the end he is. The only one who dares to come over is the Northern Blue as he is the alpha of the tank and he wanders over just in time to slow the dance down and make for one very frustrated Aulonocara.
So now there are two Peacock females holding as well as the Northern Blue girl in the outside tank.
Unfortunately, the only thing happening in the inside tank is the Rusty males are going at each other, probably because they all want some action from the only known female Rusty in the inside tank.
Bristlenoses
Though having said that I am reminded that the Marbled BN are cosying up together lately and have the look like they are seeking out suitable accommodation for egg laying. Sadly spots are in short supply as I haven't planned on BN's needing a cave yet. Also it looks as though the Albino BN are M/F too with one of them getting bristles and the other decidedly lacking in that department even though they are the same age and size, so fingers crossed there too. The Marbled are a good 10cm long so are definitely the right size for pairing up. The Albino are about 8cm so are probably a little young yet to get frisky but there is still hope for them when they get a bit bigger.
Time will tell on the normal BN as to how many of each we have, with a known 9 of them (technically 14 but I can only find 9 atm) we should have plenty of pairings up down the track.
For some reason the Marbled and the Albino have grown well yet the commons have been slower to mature with none of them from the early batches getting any bristles whatsoever despite the first pair being the same age as the Marbled and Albino.
4 foot tank Readings
pH 7.4
Ammonia 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
GH 10- 179 ppm
KH 5- 89.5 ppm
5 foot tank Readings
pH 7.4
Ammonia 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm (slightly elevated)
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
GH 13- 232.7 ppm
KH 7- 125.3 ppm
5 foot Tan tank Readings
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
GH 10- 179 ppm (slightly lower than usual but alkaline salts not added yet)
KH 9- 161.1 ppm (as above)
Tests were done with a new API Master Test Kit so are probably more accurate than other readings.
Okay so the new filter has been in for a few days and wow what an improvement! I have to say, this filter is awesome, with the biggest problem being the spray bar- it's noisy :P
I thought the old Heto filter was doing okay, and it was just okay but the JHW is really very good. I will be checking the levels soon since I changed all the tanks at last (have had swine flu so I have been really sick for the last 2 weeks).
The Heto is doing better in the little 5 foot tank with only 20 fish in it so all round it has been a success.
Warmer Weather Approaches
The only thing I am starting to worry about now is that soon the cooler weather will be over and I will need to deal with the hot weather and the outside tanks as I don't think my partner is going to let me have the 5 footer inside and there is no way I can afford a chiller unit for it and I am not sure what to do when the patio gets to 45C (thoughts of kicking the kids outside and moving the tanks inside??).
Getting Jiggy with It
I just went outside and my big blue Peacock male is dancing around with yet another female. All the other fish are stuck up one end of the tank while he and his girl dance away at the other end. Woe to any of the others who dares come within a foot of the end he is. The only one who dares to come over is the Northern Blue as he is the alpha of the tank and he wanders over just in time to slow the dance down and make for one very frustrated Aulonocara.
So now there are two Peacock females holding as well as the Northern Blue girl in the outside tank.
Unfortunately, the only thing happening in the inside tank is the Rusty males are going at each other, probably because they all want some action from the only known female Rusty in the inside tank.
Bristlenoses
Though having said that I am reminded that the Marbled BN are cosying up together lately and have the look like they are seeking out suitable accommodation for egg laying. Sadly spots are in short supply as I haven't planned on BN's needing a cave yet. Also it looks as though the Albino BN are M/F too with one of them getting bristles and the other decidedly lacking in that department even though they are the same age and size, so fingers crossed there too. The Marbled are a good 10cm long so are definitely the right size for pairing up. The Albino are about 8cm so are probably a little young yet to get frisky but there is still hope for them when they get a bit bigger.
Time will tell on the normal BN as to how many of each we have, with a known 9 of them (technically 14 but I can only find 9 atm) we should have plenty of pairings up down the track.
For some reason the Marbled and the Albino have grown well yet the commons have been slower to mature with none of them from the early batches getting any bristles whatsoever despite the first pair being the same age as the Marbled and Albino.
4 foot tank Readings
pH 7.4
Ammonia 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
GH 10- 179 ppm
KH 5- 89.5 ppm
5 foot tank Readings
pH 7.4
Ammonia 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm (slightly elevated)
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
GH 13- 232.7 ppm
KH 7- 125.3 ppm
5 foot Tan tank Readings
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
GH 10- 179 ppm (slightly lower than usual but alkaline salts not added yet)
KH 9- 161.1 ppm (as above)
Tests were done with a new API Master Test Kit so are probably more accurate than other readings.
Reviews: Canister Filters- Heto & JHW
UPDATED
Trial of the Heto NEO-501 Canister Filter
Some time ago (7th April) I wrote about the Heto external filter stating it was pretty good value for money. It is, but with some reservations. Numerous months down the track I have been concerned that despite its rated flow rate it does not really put out as well as it might.
The negatives definitely start to accumulate:
1. Tricky set up- priming is somewhat messy in that you need to completely fill the canister through the breather hole at the top and this can involve spills.
2. Water flow is in no way as impressive as with the Eheim- this is more of a trickle than a flow while the Eheim still outputs the same rate as the day I first hooked it up.
3. You do need to clean this filter every couple of months as it does fill up with muck that just does not want to break down fully. The Eheim on the other hand was opened once to take out the active charcoal pad and that is it.
4. The inlet cover can be knocked off more easily than I would like. While covers should not get knocked around generally, I think that in case of accidental bumping from children, animals, etc the inlet cover should be a little more secure.
5. Because of the low flow rate you cannot expect the Heto to also aerate your water sufficiently. The Eheim has no issue with aeration, flow or cleaning as it really pumps the water through.
Conclusion
Still a good purchase- I would probably put it in a 3 foot tank rather than a 4 foot one and would definitely not go any bigger than 4 foot for the Heto-501.
I would also put an internal filter in to assist in aeration. Even a cheap $10 powerhead would probably do making the cost of the Heto still good for an economical canister filter. Does it really stack up against the Eheim 2217? No, but it isn't terrible either and if you really cannot afford the Eheim range then this is not too shabby.
Initial Review of the JT JHW-303B with UV
This is going to be the replacement filter for the inside 4 foot tank. I am constantly seeking to improve this tank and I can watch it 24/7 checking out noise, flow rate, etc from the comfort of my computer only a few feet away.
So now the Heto is being moved out to the smaller volume 5 foot tank housing my Tans to see how it goes with a smaller bioload and a smaller volume of water to clean.
In steps the JHW.
First Impressions
With the arrival of the box comes the fun of looking at the packaging and then the opening of the box with all the bags of bits and pieces. First thing is that there are no internal instructions- they are all on the box, so do not throw the box away or you lose the instructions.
The translated text was interesting but better by far than some of the text I have had to decipher over the years and with the excellent pictures putting everything together was not hard at all.
Operating Guide (as stated on box)
1. According to the diagrammatic representation, the buckle (1) and (2) should be unfolded at first, which will separate the main body and barrelhead.
2. Putting the draining skeps with filter medium into the main body in turn. And pressing the barrelhead with your hands to combine the main body and the barrelhead. Then you should fasten the buckle (1) and (2).
3. Pulling the securing buckle to take out the input and output discreteness. After this, the input and output pipes should be installed and they will be fastened by nuts. Later, putting the input and output discreteness to the former place and press the securing buckle to fix the input and output discreteness.
4. According to the diagrammatic representation, installing the input and output curvy bar in the aquarium. (Notice! The curvy bar with spray bar is output curvy bar, and the curvy bar with dirtiness entrance is input curvy bar.)
5. According to the diagrammatic representation, pressing the blue buckle forcibly and leave it immediately. The blue buckle will rebound. And the input bar absorb water into main body at the same time which compel the air out of main body through output bar. When the level of water in output bar is equal to the level of aquarium, you may electrify the equipment to make it work.
6. Things under the transparent cover are control switch of UV light and indicator light of electricity. (Notice! Because of the life of light tube, it doesn't mean the UV light is ok when the equipment is working. So it is necessary to check the UV light regularly.
The Method of Replacing the UV Light Tube (as stated on the box)
1. According to the diagrammatic representation, you should loose the six bolts to separate the barrelhead and the cassette mechanism.
2. According to the diagrammatic representation, separating the contact of electric wire.
3. Turning the nut anticlockwise till they disjoin completely.
4. According to the diagrammatic representation, pulling out the bad light tube.
5 Installing the new light tube.
On the opposite side to the operating guide is the contents of the box and the diagram for building the filter.
I have to say that the company has made a nice looking filter. It is almost an Apple styling to it and has some nice little bits on it that even Eheim didn't add to their parts list, like the "Dirtiness Entrance" which is a skimmer for the filter to catch up all those floating nasties, shame I have floating plants that would just end up in the filter otherwise I would be adding it. The filter also has multi-length inlet so if you have a very tall tank or a very short tank you can just add or remove a section to the inlet pipe. The cover for the inlet is quite firmly on (yay) and there is also a 2 part spray bar so you can adjust the sprays if you want to having 2 levels of spray (1 straight down, 1 horizontal maybe? who cares I like the feature).
The filter also comes with a priming button (the quite large blue and grey button at the top) you pump it and the filter fills up with water.
The box provides a number of options as to the basket contents such as ceramic rings, active carbon and Bio-balls but only came in the box with the "Biochemical Cotton". However, the online company I purchased this from also provided the ceramic rings and active carbon free of charge when I bought the filter.
I opted out of the activated carbon debacle and instead filled up my baskets with "Super Zeolite", the free "Breathing Bio-Rings", and the "Nitric Back Base" (volcanic rock) all from 101 Fish. I opened up the 2 net bags the bio rings and the volcanic rock were in so as to distribute more evenly over the baskets but the zeolite was left in the bag as it is quite fine and I did not want to ever have to pick it out bit by bit plus recharging in a bag is much easier.
Starting Up the Filter
I took the new filter outside for its first run as after the mess of the Heto I decided trying to get a new filter working without carpet around would be a good idea.
The priming method is very good, creating a siphon effect so that very quickly the filter fills up with water. The filter itself is very quiet almost noiseless. The waterflow is excellent looking to be the same as the Eheim it was sitting next to.
Setting Up the Tank and the Filter Together
Here is where the real test will lay. Fitting up the hoses to the inlet and outlet pipes so that the water can begin to flow. As always, try to heat up the silicone tubing so that it becomes more pliable. The connectors are the slip on and screw down type at both ends so once on will not come away easily.
After some dancing around removing the old and putting in the new this morning, I now have the JHW in place. Firstly, either I have my tanks quite full or they make spray bars to go way too low, as mine is sitting at a 30 degree angle half in and half out of the water. The only way it will just sit out of the water would be if I propped the "Curvy Bar" up higher but I have had this problem with even Eheim and no real solution that isn't unsightly.
Also, I took one of the joins out for the inlet and it still sits on the bottom of the tank so the joints are quite long. I am considering removing a second one to raise it up further... ok I removed one of the additional sections of the spray bar and now it is somewhat shorter.
The noise level of the filter is almost silent with the noisiest part being the water return via the spray bar. I would say that it is more quiet than the Eheim but without a decibel test I cannot say how much quieter.
The unit is fairly tall by the way so if you have very limited height you may have issues putting the canister into certain spots.
Conclusions
I have to say it, this is a definite competitor to the Eheim and at $156.50 delivered to my door it is very good value for money. The filter would have been even cheaper if I had opted for the non-UV model which is $136.50 delivered (the same price as the Heto when it was on special).
The Eheim 2217 is rated at 1000L/hr and costs $260.00 approx. and scores 82% (2.5/4.5/4.5/4.5/4.5)
The Heto NEO-501 is rated at 980L/hr and costs $136.00 approx. and scores 54% (3.5/1.5/4.5/2/2)
The JT JHW-303B with UV is rated at 1400L/hr and costs $156.50 approx. and the score is 98% (5/5/5/4.5/5)
The JT JHW-303 no UV is rated at 1400L/hr and costs $136.50 approx. and has the same score of 98% (5/5/5/4.5/5)
Update
I have completed the scoring on the JHW now and it has romped in over the competition. Tanks in the future that I buy will definitely be filtered by the JHW filters.
Scored as 20% value for money, 20% flow rate, 20% noise levels, 20% ability to clean the water and 20% maintenance level.
BTW thanks to The Age of Aquariums Pty Ltd for their timely supply of the filter- coming from Queensland to Perth in 8 days and only costing $7.50 delivery always makes me happy.
Next Week
Next week my sons Axolotyl is getting a filter system so I will be installing the EDEN 501 300lph when it arrives. If you are interested in if this a good filter for your small tank ( under 60L) then stay tuned and find out if this filter might be what you are looking for ;)
Trial of the Heto NEO-501 Canister Filter
Some time ago (7th April) I wrote about the Heto external filter stating it was pretty good value for money. It is, but with some reservations. Numerous months down the track I have been concerned that despite its rated flow rate it does not really put out as well as it might.
The negatives definitely start to accumulate:
1. Tricky set up- priming is somewhat messy in that you need to completely fill the canister through the breather hole at the top and this can involve spills.
2. Water flow is in no way as impressive as with the Eheim- this is more of a trickle than a flow while the Eheim still outputs the same rate as the day I first hooked it up.
3. You do need to clean this filter every couple of months as it does fill up with muck that just does not want to break down fully. The Eheim on the other hand was opened once to take out the active charcoal pad and that is it.
4. The inlet cover can be knocked off more easily than I would like. While covers should not get knocked around generally, I think that in case of accidental bumping from children, animals, etc the inlet cover should be a little more secure.
5. Because of the low flow rate you cannot expect the Heto to also aerate your water sufficiently. The Eheim has no issue with aeration, flow or cleaning as it really pumps the water through.
Conclusion
Still a good purchase- I would probably put it in a 3 foot tank rather than a 4 foot one and would definitely not go any bigger than 4 foot for the Heto-501.
I would also put an internal filter in to assist in aeration. Even a cheap $10 powerhead would probably do making the cost of the Heto still good for an economical canister filter. Does it really stack up against the Eheim 2217? No, but it isn't terrible either and if you really cannot afford the Eheim range then this is not too shabby.
Initial Review of the JT JHW-303B with UV
This is going to be the replacement filter for the inside 4 foot tank. I am constantly seeking to improve this tank and I can watch it 24/7 checking out noise, flow rate, etc from the comfort of my computer only a few feet away.
So now the Heto is being moved out to the smaller volume 5 foot tank housing my Tans to see how it goes with a smaller bioload and a smaller volume of water to clean.
In steps the JHW.
First Impressions
With the arrival of the box comes the fun of looking at the packaging and then the opening of the box with all the bags of bits and pieces. First thing is that there are no internal instructions- they are all on the box, so do not throw the box away or you lose the instructions.
The translated text was interesting but better by far than some of the text I have had to decipher over the years and with the excellent pictures putting everything together was not hard at all.
Operating Guide (as stated on box)
1. According to the diagrammatic representation, the buckle (1) and (2) should be unfolded at first, which will separate the main body and barrelhead.
2. Putting the draining skeps with filter medium into the main body in turn. And pressing the barrelhead with your hands to combine the main body and the barrelhead. Then you should fasten the buckle (1) and (2).
3. Pulling the securing buckle to take out the input and output discreteness. After this, the input and output pipes should be installed and they will be fastened by nuts. Later, putting the input and output discreteness to the former place and press the securing buckle to fix the input and output discreteness.
4. According to the diagrammatic representation, installing the input and output curvy bar in the aquarium. (Notice! The curvy bar with spray bar is output curvy bar, and the curvy bar with dirtiness entrance is input curvy bar.)
5. According to the diagrammatic representation, pressing the blue buckle forcibly and leave it immediately. The blue buckle will rebound. And the input bar absorb water into main body at the same time which compel the air out of main body through output bar. When the level of water in output bar is equal to the level of aquarium, you may electrify the equipment to make it work.
6. Things under the transparent cover are control switch of UV light and indicator light of electricity. (Notice! Because of the life of light tube, it doesn't mean the UV light is ok when the equipment is working. So it is necessary to check the UV light regularly.
The Method of Replacing the UV Light Tube (as stated on the box)
1. According to the diagrammatic representation, you should loose the six bolts to separate the barrelhead and the cassette mechanism.
2. According to the diagrammatic representation, separating the contact of electric wire.
3. Turning the nut anticlockwise till they disjoin completely.
4. According to the diagrammatic representation, pulling out the bad light tube.
5 Installing the new light tube.
On the opposite side to the operating guide is the contents of the box and the diagram for building the filter.
I have to say that the company has made a nice looking filter. It is almost an Apple styling to it and has some nice little bits on it that even Eheim didn't add to their parts list, like the "Dirtiness Entrance" which is a skimmer for the filter to catch up all those floating nasties, shame I have floating plants that would just end up in the filter otherwise I would be adding it. The filter also has multi-length inlet so if you have a very tall tank or a very short tank you can just add or remove a section to the inlet pipe. The cover for the inlet is quite firmly on (yay) and there is also a 2 part spray bar so you can adjust the sprays if you want to having 2 levels of spray (1 straight down, 1 horizontal maybe? who cares I like the feature).
The filter also comes with a priming button (the quite large blue and grey button at the top) you pump it and the filter fills up with water.
The box provides a number of options as to the basket contents such as ceramic rings, active carbon and Bio-balls but only came in the box with the "Biochemical Cotton". However, the online company I purchased this from also provided the ceramic rings and active carbon free of charge when I bought the filter.
I opted out of the activated carbon debacle and instead filled up my baskets with "Super Zeolite", the free "Breathing Bio-Rings", and the "Nitric Back Base" (volcanic rock) all from 101 Fish. I opened up the 2 net bags the bio rings and the volcanic rock were in so as to distribute more evenly over the baskets but the zeolite was left in the bag as it is quite fine and I did not want to ever have to pick it out bit by bit plus recharging in a bag is much easier.
Starting Up the Filter
I took the new filter outside for its first run as after the mess of the Heto I decided trying to get a new filter working without carpet around would be a good idea.
The priming method is very good, creating a siphon effect so that very quickly the filter fills up with water. The filter itself is very quiet almost noiseless. The waterflow is excellent looking to be the same as the Eheim it was sitting next to.
Setting Up the Tank and the Filter Together
Here is where the real test will lay. Fitting up the hoses to the inlet and outlet pipes so that the water can begin to flow. As always, try to heat up the silicone tubing so that it becomes more pliable. The connectors are the slip on and screw down type at both ends so once on will not come away easily.
After some dancing around removing the old and putting in the new this morning, I now have the JHW in place. Firstly, either I have my tanks quite full or they make spray bars to go way too low, as mine is sitting at a 30 degree angle half in and half out of the water. The only way it will just sit out of the water would be if I propped the "Curvy Bar" up higher but I have had this problem with even Eheim and no real solution that isn't unsightly.
Also, I took one of the joins out for the inlet and it still sits on the bottom of the tank so the joints are quite long. I am considering removing a second one to raise it up further... ok I removed one of the additional sections of the spray bar and now it is somewhat shorter.
The noise level of the filter is almost silent with the noisiest part being the water return via the spray bar. I would say that it is more quiet than the Eheim but without a decibel test I cannot say how much quieter.
The unit is fairly tall by the way so if you have very limited height you may have issues putting the canister into certain spots.
Conclusions
I have to say it, this is a definite competitor to the Eheim and at $156.50 delivered to my door it is very good value for money. The filter would have been even cheaper if I had opted for the non-UV model which is $136.50 delivered (the same price as the Heto when it was on special).
The Eheim 2217 is rated at 1000L/hr and costs $260.00 approx. and scores 82% (2.5/4.5/4.5/4.5/4.5)
The Heto NEO-501 is rated at 980L/hr and costs $136.00 approx. and scores 54% (3.5/1.5/4.5/2/2)
The JT JHW-303B with UV is rated at 1400L/hr and costs $156.50 approx. and the score is 98% (5/5/5/4.5/5)
The JT JHW-303 no UV is rated at 1400L/hr and costs $136.50 approx. and has the same score of 98% (5/5/5/4.5/5)
Update
I have completed the scoring on the JHW now and it has romped in over the competition. Tanks in the future that I buy will definitely be filtered by the JHW filters.
Scored as 20% value for money, 20% flow rate, 20% noise levels, 20% ability to clean the water and 20% maintenance level.
BTW thanks to The Age of Aquariums Pty Ltd for their timely supply of the filter- coming from Queensland to Perth in 8 days and only costing $7.50 delivery always makes me happy.
Next Week
Next week my sons Axolotyl is getting a filter system so I will be installing the EDEN 501 300lph when it arrives. If you are interested in if this a good filter for your small tank ( under 60L) then stay tuned and find out if this filter might be what you are looking for ;)
What to put in a tank...add Bristlenoses
Every time I get a tank running I always run into algae. This is good and bad. Good because in order for algae to live the water needs to be good. Bad because it can take over the tank and I cannot see the occupants. Solution? Add more Bristlenoses to the tank until it is clear. This has worked time and time again. The best case in point is my outdoor 5 foot tank that disappeared behind a wall of green. I added 1 Bristlenose. Hah. Still too much green. I added 4 more baby bristlenoses...no that was not enough. I added another 8 babies and voila the green goes away and I now have many hungry bristlenoses keeping the tank clean as a whistle.
Now to my Tropheus tanks.
I noticed that my central tank which houses the plants and most of my snails has a hard brown algae on the glass of the tank...so I add 4 baby bristlenoses.
Slight improvement. So I think okay I had better just add 8 more baby bristlenoses to fix it like the last tank...hmmm how many bristlenoses do I have now?........about 22 at last count across 4 tanks. OMG I am cornering the market in bristlenoses...18 of them are just normal bristlenoses... maybe I should just let all these ones work out who are the boys and who are the girls and just leave them to make more themselves...but I still have to clean the tank of the algae...okay so maybe only 2 more slightly larger bristlenoses this time....maybe I will grab a boy and a girl albino BN and hope they start making little BN for me.
I wondered what I was doing with the end tank...now I know...making Bristlenoses for my other tanks :)
Now to my Tropheus tanks.
I noticed that my central tank which houses the plants and most of my snails has a hard brown algae on the glass of the tank...so I add 4 baby bristlenoses.
Slight improvement. So I think okay I had better just add 8 more baby bristlenoses to fix it like the last tank...hmmm how many bristlenoses do I have now?........about 22 at last count across 4 tanks. OMG I am cornering the market in bristlenoses...18 of them are just normal bristlenoses... maybe I should just let all these ones work out who are the boys and who are the girls and just leave them to make more themselves...but I still have to clean the tank of the algae...okay so maybe only 2 more slightly larger bristlenoses this time....maybe I will grab a boy and a girl albino BN and hope they start making little BN for me.
I wondered what I was doing with the end tank...now I know...making Bristlenoses for my other tanks :)
Yay Another Female Found
Looking in the big outside tank today at my pigs with fins and saw one of the Rusty's holding...yay...talk about more ass than class...happened to put a pair of Rusty's into the tank and now I will have MORE Rusty's.
Also, finally spotted a female Cynotilapia afra (Cobue) amongst all the female Aulonocara stuartgranti (Cobue) in the outside tank, dang they look so similar and just noticed Yellowhead with one as well in the inside tank, so 2 Cynotilapia paired in each tank, darn I am good- lol.
Now if I can just get something other than Rusty's to breed it will be all good.
Also, finally spotted a female Cynotilapia afra (Cobue) amongst all the female Aulonocara stuartgranti (Cobue) in the outside tank, dang they look so similar and just noticed Yellowhead with one as well in the inside tank, so 2 Cynotilapia paired in each tank, darn I am good- lol.
Now if I can just get something other than Rusty's to breed it will be all good.
Spotted!! Bwahahaha
es! I finally spotted the baby Rusty's from Mumma's last drop. Two again- tiny little things they are. They were/are hiding out in a pile of rocks I have holding one of my plants in place, I moved two of the rocks and out swim the little fellows. Now since she is holding again, if she pops out another 2 this will double the investment so to speak :) I just hope she is producing females (fingers crossed) otherwise I will have to sell off the excess males as she is the only female amongst 5 males already and the last thing I need is 11 males.
This time I got to watch Mumma and Dad spawning (Fish Porn) which was so cool and quite a display. He dances around her, showing off, fluttering all his fins and rubbing up against her. She then drops an egg onto a flat surface, picks it up and then rubs up against his egg spots. Both of them shimmy the whole time and the males colour is beautiful for the whole thing. His body goes violet and his fins go bright browny yellow. It took them about 45mins from start to finish and it was great to watch (does that make me a pervert?). I can now tell from the attitude who the father is as he is more aggressive atm in the tank. Rustys are not normally very aggressive at all so it is something to watch when he gets all protective and chases all the others off.
Would still like to add a few more fish to my tank inside. I was looking at the Maingano's again as well as the Lombardoi so might need to look into the natures of both of these... Okay the Metriaclima lombardoi are very aggressive so probably not a good idea with my not very aggressive other cichlids, shame... the Maingano though would be a nice addition to the crew.
This time I got to watch Mumma and Dad spawning (Fish Porn) which was so cool and quite a display. He dances around her, showing off, fluttering all his fins and rubbing up against her. She then drops an egg onto a flat surface, picks it up and then rubs up against his egg spots. Both of them shimmy the whole time and the males colour is beautiful for the whole thing. His body goes violet and his fins go bright browny yellow. It took them about 45mins from start to finish and it was great to watch (does that make me a pervert?). I can now tell from the attitude who the father is as he is more aggressive atm in the tank. Rustys are not normally very aggressive at all so it is something to watch when he gets all protective and chases all the others off.
Would still like to add a few more fish to my tank inside. I was looking at the Maingano's again as well as the Lombardoi so might need to look into the natures of both of these... Okay the Metriaclima lombardoi are very aggressive so probably not a good idea with my not very aggressive other cichlids, shame... the Maingano though would be a nice addition to the crew.
Fish Getting Bigger
Sized Up
Just wandering around looking at all my fish after doing the rounds of tank cleaning. Grief some of them are turning into monsters :D
The Gibbi was always the biggest fella on the block but we have some contenders getting darn close now.
Our male Northern Blue is 4 1/2 inches (11.5cm) long and looking spectacular with the girls coming in at 3 1/2 inches (9cm). These guys get to 6 inches (15cm) so he is almost fully grown.
Next in size is our Aulonocara Stuartgranti (Cobue) male who is 4 inches (10cm) and has coloured up well though I wonder if his ventral fins are going to get the red colouring they are supposed to get. If they don't colour up I will suspect that he isn't really a Aul. St. (Cobue) but one of the others like...well I don't know which one because he has no red or orange or yellow at all and the closest he comes is Aul. stuartgranti (Chirwa Is.) though even Chirwa have yellow in their tail. Hopefully he colours up properly though and the red is just slow to show up.
All the Bristlenose are growing large with the biggest being the marbled ones in the 4' tank inside. These guys are getting BIG and bristley. Next in size of the BN's are the Albino's in the little 30L tank, they keep growing like that and I will have to move them outside to the Tropheus tank to give them some room. The 2 common BN that I got originally are catching up in size to the Albino's and are about 5mm shorter. One of these is still in the 30L tank while the other is in the 5' outdoor tank. All the newer BN I got to clean up the outdoor tank (4 and then another 8 little baby BN) have all shot up in size and almost match my original BN for size (okay they are 1/2-1cm smaller but they were only 2.5cm to start with and now they are 4-5cm). The outdoor tank is now absolutely green free so the BN are now wandering around in the open, scrounging any particle of algae they can find (I love these guys !!!!) the tank had been completely disappearing behind a wall of green but now the entire tank is like it has been scrubbed clean :D
A bit of a surprise was the size of one of the Pictus catfish we have in the 4' indoor tank. I finally spotted the two of them side by side and wow has one gotten big! He (she?) is almost an inch longer than the other one.
My two rusty babies also continue to grow with the pair of them starting to really venture out into the main swim area of the tank. Easter 1 is the bigger (just) but Easter 2 is growing well. I hope both of them turn out to be females as as far as I can work out all the other ones except their mum are male. No sign though of the new babies that Mum dropped a while ago so I don't know if they are alive or not. Easter 1 is swimming with one of the Clown Loaches (I have not seen the other 3 Clown Loaches in some time and I think they may have perished) :( but with no bodies I cannot tell for sure and as we have the Pictus and the Pakistani Loach we may never find their bodies. If the poor little things have passed into the great fishbowl in the sky I won't replace them again with yet more Clown Loaches as I hate to lose fish and they really are the Canaries of the fish world. The one swimming around seems to enjoy being with the baby Rusty so I will leave it be.
Strange
The outdoor tank has the biggest fish in it for some reason I cannot fathom. They all get fed the same food so it isn't like they get extra treats or anything. The only significant difference is the outside tank is 5' instead of 4' and it is outside.
If I compare the Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (Msuli) indoors to outdoors there is a sizeable difference to the indoor one (3 inches) vs. the outdoor ones (3 1/2 inches). They were all bought at the same place at the same time and grew the same until 3 were put in the outdoor tank. The outdoor ones are now 1/2 inch larger. Obviously natural light suits the fish better than indoor lighting.
Strangely the Yellow Labs that are outdoors are both bigger and smaller with the biggest being very big and bright and colourful with an excellent black dorsal marking while the smaller of the two is very small, bright and has only a very fine line of black on the dorsal and no black anywhere else. Big male/small female perhaps? The ones inside are between the two from outside with average size and nice colouring and with moderate black dorsal lines.
Colour of Cobalt
Despite the Metriaclima callainos (Cobalt Zebra) supposedly being monomorphic (males and females look the same) I have noticed that the males are generally the lighter and brighter of the two, while the females are darker and more like a navy version of the male. This may be due to them colouring up for breeding but is something to look for if keeping them.
Colour Changes
My Pseudotropheus saulosi have finally decided that they will colour up and I appear to have one male and 3 females at this point. They are still changing colour and so at the moment the boy is sort of a bit muddy looking with occasional times when he goes into a nice blue coloration and other times he washes back out again. All the Ps. saulosi and E. Yellow have decided to swim as a school and do laps of the tank together.
The Cynotilapia afra (Cobue) male that I have in the indoor tank has been one of the alpha males for the entire tank for some time. He really is a bantam as he is a dwarf mbuna with the audacity of a shark. This week I noticed that one of his siblings has also started to colour up and so of the four we got, we have 2 males and 2 females. Luckily his brother is in the outside tank so we won't have to move him out.
New Kids- Line Breeding
The new kids on the block that I got (the 2 Aul. Stuartgranti Maleri Gold, 2 Aul. Jacobfriebergi Firebird, 2 Protomelas taeniolatus Red Empress and 2 Aul. Dragon Blood) are all doing well and growing as expected. I wish they would colour up some more though the colouring on the Firebirds is pretty good already but I want to see how the Red Empress and the Dragon Blood colour up (especially the Dragon Blood to see if I got two nice coloured ones).
Each one of these fish are slightly different to my other fish. Generally I do not go for fish that have been overbred or crossed like Flowerhorns and so on but the Red Empress is a line bred fish as is the Maleri Gold and the Firebird. The Dragon Blood is argued amongst people as to it being either line bred or a hybrid. Now I do not see the issue with a fish being line bred or even to some degree hybridized providing care is taken to not feed them back into their natural habitat but I know many fish societies will not allow hybrids to be sold either on their site or at auctions etc. My belief is that cichlids are diverse because they have made themselves diverse so humans doing a bit to help them along is neither here nor there. We are not talking of chicken-fish or cabbage-sharks after all but enhancing aspects of a fish to make them more attractive by using the best colour from one of that species with another of the same species. If a fish can breed naturally with a similar fish owing to their shared genetics then chances are these fish may breed naturally anyway. Do those resultant offspring look attractive to us? Maybe, how many fish are in Lake Malawi that are not being exported because they are not as attractive as others? If you aren't sure as to whether line breeding is ethical ask yourself the following question:
How many different distinct species started out in Lake Malawi when it first became a lake about a million years ago?* 10, 20, 50, 100, 500? Don't know? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopatric_speciation if you want to start your own research.
from http://fish.mongabay.com/mbuna.htm
*Oh and there is thought to be in excess of 500 species in Lake Malawi now.
Tropheus
The Tropheus are all doing excellently and growing well. None of the Orange Bemba have gotten any more colouring and I don't think they will at the moment. Maybe if I break them up into pairs they might but otherwise I think the colour is going to stand as is for a while. The dubosi are all looking cute still with them still retaining their spots but also getting a bit of barring to them so they look a bit funky for now. I weaned them off from the Spectrum food they were being fed and all the Tropheus now eat the Veggie Flakes and Pellets I give to all my fish. They don't get any of the bloodworm I feed the other fish though as I don't think they need the protein of the worms.
I used to feed each tank only 1 frozen pellet but lately the two tanks of cichlids have had 3 bloodworm pellets each and they were definitely happier after not having to fight quite so hard to get a bit of the treat.
Outdoor Tanks and Weather
Nights have been a bit cold here in Perth but only erratically so when it drops down past 10C I have started to put doonas on the outside tanks. This has worked excellently and it stays nice and cosy for the fish the entire time.
The big 5' tank has had both heaters put in it now with one at each end of it and the tank is staying nice and warm all night. The smaller Tropheus tank still only has one heater in it but the temp on it has been raised to 27C to assist with keeping the water temp up and as the tank is divided the fish can swim around in the warmer tank or move to the cooler one if they want to. I will be putting a heater in the centre tank soon though in order to make it more comfortable for the Tropheus.
Just wandering around looking at all my fish after doing the rounds of tank cleaning. Grief some of them are turning into monsters :D
The Gibbi was always the biggest fella on the block but we have some contenders getting darn close now.
Our male Northern Blue is 4 1/2 inches (11.5cm) long and looking spectacular with the girls coming in at 3 1/2 inches (9cm). These guys get to 6 inches (15cm) so he is almost fully grown.
Next in size is our Aulonocara Stuartgranti (Cobue) male who is 4 inches (10cm) and has coloured up well though I wonder if his ventral fins are going to get the red colouring they are supposed to get. If they don't colour up I will suspect that he isn't really a Aul. St. (Cobue) but one of the others like...well I don't know which one because he has no red or orange or yellow at all and the closest he comes is Aul. stuartgranti (Chirwa Is.) though even Chirwa have yellow in their tail. Hopefully he colours up properly though and the red is just slow to show up.
All the Bristlenose are growing large with the biggest being the marbled ones in the 4' tank inside. These guys are getting BIG and bristley. Next in size of the BN's are the Albino's in the little 30L tank, they keep growing like that and I will have to move them outside to the Tropheus tank to give them some room. The 2 common BN that I got originally are catching up in size to the Albino's and are about 5mm shorter. One of these is still in the 30L tank while the other is in the 5' outdoor tank. All the newer BN I got to clean up the outdoor tank (4 and then another 8 little baby BN) have all shot up in size and almost match my original BN for size (okay they are 1/2-1cm smaller but they were only 2.5cm to start with and now they are 4-5cm). The outdoor tank is now absolutely green free so the BN are now wandering around in the open, scrounging any particle of algae they can find (I love these guys !!!!) the tank had been completely disappearing behind a wall of green but now the entire tank is like it has been scrubbed clean :D
A bit of a surprise was the size of one of the Pictus catfish we have in the 4' indoor tank. I finally spotted the two of them side by side and wow has one gotten big! He (she?) is almost an inch longer than the other one.
My two rusty babies also continue to grow with the pair of them starting to really venture out into the main swim area of the tank. Easter 1 is the bigger (just) but Easter 2 is growing well. I hope both of them turn out to be females as as far as I can work out all the other ones except their mum are male. No sign though of the new babies that Mum dropped a while ago so I don't know if they are alive or not. Easter 1 is swimming with one of the Clown Loaches (I have not seen the other 3 Clown Loaches in some time and I think they may have perished) :( but with no bodies I cannot tell for sure and as we have the Pictus and the Pakistani Loach we may never find their bodies. If the poor little things have passed into the great fishbowl in the sky I won't replace them again with yet more Clown Loaches as I hate to lose fish and they really are the Canaries of the fish world. The one swimming around seems to enjoy being with the baby Rusty so I will leave it be.
Strange
The outdoor tank has the biggest fish in it for some reason I cannot fathom. They all get fed the same food so it isn't like they get extra treats or anything. The only significant difference is the outside tank is 5' instead of 4' and it is outside.
If I compare the Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (Msuli) indoors to outdoors there is a sizeable difference to the indoor one (3 inches) vs. the outdoor ones (3 1/2 inches). They were all bought at the same place at the same time and grew the same until 3 were put in the outdoor tank. The outdoor ones are now 1/2 inch larger. Obviously natural light suits the fish better than indoor lighting.
Strangely the Yellow Labs that are outdoors are both bigger and smaller with the biggest being very big and bright and colourful with an excellent black dorsal marking while the smaller of the two is very small, bright and has only a very fine line of black on the dorsal and no black anywhere else. Big male/small female perhaps? The ones inside are between the two from outside with average size and nice colouring and with moderate black dorsal lines.
Colour of Cobalt
Despite the Metriaclima callainos (Cobalt Zebra) supposedly being monomorphic (males and females look the same) I have noticed that the males are generally the lighter and brighter of the two, while the females are darker and more like a navy version of the male. This may be due to them colouring up for breeding but is something to look for if keeping them.
Colour Changes
My Pseudotropheus saulosi have finally decided that they will colour up and I appear to have one male and 3 females at this point. They are still changing colour and so at the moment the boy is sort of a bit muddy looking with occasional times when he goes into a nice blue coloration and other times he washes back out again. All the Ps. saulosi and E. Yellow have decided to swim as a school and do laps of the tank together.
The Cynotilapia afra (Cobue) male that I have in the indoor tank has been one of the alpha males for the entire tank for some time. He really is a bantam as he is a dwarf mbuna with the audacity of a shark. This week I noticed that one of his siblings has also started to colour up and so of the four we got, we have 2 males and 2 females. Luckily his brother is in the outside tank so we won't have to move him out.
New Kids- Line Breeding
The new kids on the block that I got (the 2 Aul. Stuartgranti Maleri Gold, 2 Aul. Jacobfriebergi Firebird, 2 Protomelas taeniolatus Red Empress and 2 Aul. Dragon Blood) are all doing well and growing as expected. I wish they would colour up some more though the colouring on the Firebirds is pretty good already but I want to see how the Red Empress and the Dragon Blood colour up (especially the Dragon Blood to see if I got two nice coloured ones).
Each one of these fish are slightly different to my other fish. Generally I do not go for fish that have been overbred or crossed like Flowerhorns and so on but the Red Empress is a line bred fish as is the Maleri Gold and the Firebird. The Dragon Blood is argued amongst people as to it being either line bred or a hybrid. Now I do not see the issue with a fish being line bred or even to some degree hybridized providing care is taken to not feed them back into their natural habitat but I know many fish societies will not allow hybrids to be sold either on their site or at auctions etc. My belief is that cichlids are diverse because they have made themselves diverse so humans doing a bit to help them along is neither here nor there. We are not talking of chicken-fish or cabbage-sharks after all but enhancing aspects of a fish to make them more attractive by using the best colour from one of that species with another of the same species. If a fish can breed naturally with a similar fish owing to their shared genetics then chances are these fish may breed naturally anyway. Do those resultant offspring look attractive to us? Maybe, how many fish are in Lake Malawi that are not being exported because they are not as attractive as others? If you aren't sure as to whether line breeding is ethical ask yourself the following question:
How many different distinct species started out in Lake Malawi when it first became a lake about a million years ago?* 10, 20, 50, 100, 500? Don't know? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopatric_speciation if you want to start your own research.
Quote:
| Mbunas are thought to have evolved from riverine Haplochromis and Tilapia species. As a result of the reluctance of mbuna to cross open, sandy regions in the lake, different population tend to develop isolated from one another. |
*Oh and there is thought to be in excess of 500 species in Lake Malawi now.
Tropheus
The Tropheus are all doing excellently and growing well. None of the Orange Bemba have gotten any more colouring and I don't think they will at the moment. Maybe if I break them up into pairs they might but otherwise I think the colour is going to stand as is for a while. The dubosi are all looking cute still with them still retaining their spots but also getting a bit of barring to them so they look a bit funky for now. I weaned them off from the Spectrum food they were being fed and all the Tropheus now eat the Veggie Flakes and Pellets I give to all my fish. They don't get any of the bloodworm I feed the other fish though as I don't think they need the protein of the worms.
I used to feed each tank only 1 frozen pellet but lately the two tanks of cichlids have had 3 bloodworm pellets each and they were definitely happier after not having to fight quite so hard to get a bit of the treat.
Outdoor Tanks and Weather
Nights have been a bit cold here in Perth but only erratically so when it drops down past 10C I have started to put doonas on the outside tanks. This has worked excellently and it stays nice and cosy for the fish the entire time.
The big 5' tank has had both heaters put in it now with one at each end of it and the tank is staying nice and warm all night. The smaller Tropheus tank still only has one heater in it but the temp on it has been raised to 27C to assist with keeping the water temp up and as the tank is divided the fish can swim around in the warmer tank or move to the cooler one if they want to. I will be putting a heater in the centre tank soon though in order to make it more comfortable for the Tropheus.
Photographing Fish in Your Aquarium
From time to time I see people on various forums including this one bemoaning the fact they have trouble with taking pictures of the fish in their tanks or even of taking pictures of the tanks themselves.
As a former lecturer of digital imaging I thought I would provide a little insight into how to take better photos.
1. Muddy, dark shots of blurred fish- Light, light and more light. The more light you have, the faster your camera will capture the fish. The faster the camera takes the shot, the less likely your fish will be blurred. Turn on all tank lighting as well as any room lighting, heck if your room is still dark bring in your portaflood to add to the lighting (do keep it about 8-10 feet away though so it gives the tank an all over glow as you don't want blind fish :) or glare). Try limiting the amount of lights pointing directly at the tank though as this can add to glares on the glass. If you cannot find an angle where there is no glare turn off the offending light or move it so it bounces off a nearby wall rather than directly on to the tank.
2. Glare from flash or other lights- move the camera around so it is at a different angle. You see a flash reflection because of the angle of the camera in relation to the light so that as the light bounces from the glass of the tank it comes back at the lens. Pointing your camera slightly downwards, upwards, left or right often assists with deflecting the light away from the camera lens. Always try to be as close as possible to the glass of the tank.
3. Lens shake- caused by slow shutter speeds. Adding more light can fix this as you can then have a faster shutter speed. If you cannot add more light for whatever reason you should be adding a tripod or similar (like a stepladder or even crates or boxes) and setting your camera up on that in order to take your shot (also remember to GENTLY depress your shoot button as the simple act of stabbing the button can cause considerable camera shake).
4. Fish out of focus but stuff in front or behind is in focus- usually caused by not focusing your camera carefully. It is often difficult to focus your camera with small objects like little fish that rarely will just sit still for you. Your camera will usually have a point or points where it focuses. It may be the centre of the viewfinder or it may be at multiple points around the viewfinder. You will need to work out where your camera focuses. Often a camera has a half depress state that allows you to lock the focus of the camera then move the camera slightly so you can take a better composed shot before depressing the button fully. The camera will often have an image either a circle, a box or similar that will appear to show the camera has locked on. It will usually show up where the focus has locked. Find out if your camera has this function and learn to use it by practicing lots and don't be discouraged, you can always delete anything that doesn't work.
Remember:
*If you are using digital cameras you can take as many shots as you like and delete the bad ones- they don't cost anything except time.
*Even professional photographers only keep one or two out of each set they take.
*Clean the tank glass on both sides. Don't ruin what would otherwise be a great shot because you got the drip marks from water runs outside or algae inside the tank.
*Get hold of a photo editing program so you can crop away the bits of the images you don't like, adjust colours and so on. I currently use Adobe's Photoshop but there are plenty of great programs out there for little to no cost.
Try the following:
http://www.gimp.org/
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/sof...hotoplus-9.asp
http://picasa.google.com/
http://www.photopos.com/PhotoPosLiteInfo.asp
*If you have a lot of trouble with reflections it is possible to get hold of polarizing filters for your camera. These filters can be turned so that as they turn they polarize the light and reduce the reflections. If you have a compact camera you can still use one of these but you will need to hold it and turn it manually in order to get the polarizing effect.
*Save your photos in the largest size your camera can take. If you have a 5MP camera save in the largest format possible even if you are going to put it on the web. Many editing programs can save a copy of the image for web but you want to have the original in the largest size you can.
Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have on taking photos and I will do my best to help you.
Regards
LL
As a former lecturer of digital imaging I thought I would provide a little insight into how to take better photos.
1. Muddy, dark shots of blurred fish- Light, light and more light. The more light you have, the faster your camera will capture the fish. The faster the camera takes the shot, the less likely your fish will be blurred. Turn on all tank lighting as well as any room lighting, heck if your room is still dark bring in your portaflood to add to the lighting (do keep it about 8-10 feet away though so it gives the tank an all over glow as you don't want blind fish :) or glare). Try limiting the amount of lights pointing directly at the tank though as this can add to glares on the glass. If you cannot find an angle where there is no glare turn off the offending light or move it so it bounces off a nearby wall rather than directly on to the tank.
2. Glare from flash or other lights- move the camera around so it is at a different angle. You see a flash reflection because of the angle of the camera in relation to the light so that as the light bounces from the glass of the tank it comes back at the lens. Pointing your camera slightly downwards, upwards, left or right often assists with deflecting the light away from the camera lens. Always try to be as close as possible to the glass of the tank.
3. Lens shake- caused by slow shutter speeds. Adding more light can fix this as you can then have a faster shutter speed. If you cannot add more light for whatever reason you should be adding a tripod or similar (like a stepladder or even crates or boxes) and setting your camera up on that in order to take your shot (also remember to GENTLY depress your shoot button as the simple act of stabbing the button can cause considerable camera shake).
4. Fish out of focus but stuff in front or behind is in focus- usually caused by not focusing your camera carefully. It is often difficult to focus your camera with small objects like little fish that rarely will just sit still for you. Your camera will usually have a point or points where it focuses. It may be the centre of the viewfinder or it may be at multiple points around the viewfinder. You will need to work out where your camera focuses. Often a camera has a half depress state that allows you to lock the focus of the camera then move the camera slightly so you can take a better composed shot before depressing the button fully. The camera will often have an image either a circle, a box or similar that will appear to show the camera has locked on. It will usually show up where the focus has locked. Find out if your camera has this function and learn to use it by practicing lots and don't be discouraged, you can always delete anything that doesn't work.
Remember:
*If you are using digital cameras you can take as many shots as you like and delete the bad ones- they don't cost anything except time.
*Even professional photographers only keep one or two out of each set they take.
*Clean the tank glass on both sides. Don't ruin what would otherwise be a great shot because you got the drip marks from water runs outside or algae inside the tank.
*Get hold of a photo editing program so you can crop away the bits of the images you don't like, adjust colours and so on. I currently use Adobe's Photoshop but there are plenty of great programs out there for little to no cost.
Try the following:
http://www.gimp.org/
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/sof...hotoplus-9.asp
http://picasa.google.com/
http://www.photopos.com/PhotoPosLiteInfo.asp
*If you have a lot of trouble with reflections it is possible to get hold of polarizing filters for your camera. These filters can be turned so that as they turn they polarize the light and reduce the reflections. If you have a compact camera you can still use one of these but you will need to hold it and turn it manually in order to get the polarizing effect.
*Save your photos in the largest size your camera can take. If you have a 5MP camera save in the largest format possible even if you are going to put it on the web. Many editing programs can save a copy of the image for web but you want to have the original in the largest size you can.
Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have on taking photos and I will do my best to help you.
Regards
LL
New Stuff
A bit has happened since the last post. Mumma Rusty has finally got her figure back and is eating like she has had a mouth full of babies for the last month...she has put them somewhere unknown like last time.
Up late one night I decide to remove the charcoal from the Heto filter, so I unhook it, take it into the bathroom to disgorge the contents only to find a dead cichlid in it and a just alive Pakistani Loach. Three days before my grandson (3) had been over and knocked off the inlet filter. The poor cichlid and the Pakistani had gone up there and got caught in the filter. Luckily there is space at the top of the filter or they both would have died. This is my first cichlid fatality out of more than 70 something cichlids and wasn't even bloat or anything, just bad luck on the part of the cichlid. Hard to tell what the poor thing had been since when it died it turned a nondescript grey colour but I think it was a Cobalt.
Fortunately for the Pakistani there had been something for it to eat during its stay in the filter. I got him out and though he was very pale and lethargic he has now made a full recovery and is back to being his intrusive self.
In the outside tanks my bristlenose brigade have finally made inroads into the algae problem...considering there are 13 of the little fellas you would think the tank would be sparkling by now but they were very small so I suppose I shouldn't expect them to work too hard with their tiny mouths. Mind you, the ones I have spotted have got so much bigger and have increased from being 25mm long to 35mm long in the short time they have been in there. The biggest one from the 4' tank indoors has grown to 60mm which is also good.
In the lower tank the Tropheus collection are in full energy and have taken to their changes really well. One of the little T.dubosi has started changing colour slightly and is this weird combo of spotty and barred. They are growing really well with all of them showing a good increase in size. The T. Bemba are the larger of the two types and the more aggressive with one being the definite Kingpin of the tank. The dubosi do seem to be catching up fast though in regards to size.
My Marbled Bristlenoses are getting very bristly which is awesome, not that I get to see much more than a couple of tails as they both have niches they hide in with only their tails hanging out. They popped out for a minute the other day before realising that they were being watched and scuttling back in to their hideouts. Mr Gibbi Rex hung out on the glass for a few minutes yesterday showing off his spots before magically disappearing which is interesting as he is by far the biggest thing in the 4' tank and yet is the best at hiding out even at 15cm, personally I think he has a dimensional warp he hides in...
Tank readings:
30L Community Tank
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 1 (probably owing to not having done water change yet)
Nitrate 40
pH 6.6 (not sure where acidity has come from)
200L Malawi Tank
Ammonia 0
Nitrite <0.5
Nitrate 80 (will put in Nitra-zorb to lower may have been caused by the addition of a small amount of Mala green treatment affecting bacteria and a dead fish in the filter)
pH 7.5
300L Malawi Tank with crushed coral substrate
Ammonia 0
Nitrite <0.5
Nitrate 40
pH 7.8
GH 14 (250.6ppm)
KH 9 (161.1ppm)
175L Tropheus Tank with plants and crushed coral substrate
Ammonia 0
Nitrite <0.5
Nitrate 20
pH 8.5
GH 15 (268.5ppm)
KH 10 (179ppm)
I needed to retest the pH on the 300 and 175L tanks as the pH looked to be too low for the hardness tests (they initially read 7.4 and 7.5 which I thought was wrong after doing the hardness- the above testing was after using a pH tester capable of reading higher than 7.6) results are too variable on the colour chart of a test that can only read up to 7.6
Nitrate levels higher in tanks than previous, possibly owing to slightly more feeding, will lower feeding rate in all tanks to compensate and perform additional water change tomorrow followed by regular change Sunday. I keep the water temperature at about 22-24C to accommodate possible fluctuations of Nitrogen.
Up late one night I decide to remove the charcoal from the Heto filter, so I unhook it, take it into the bathroom to disgorge the contents only to find a dead cichlid in it and a just alive Pakistani Loach. Three days before my grandson (3) had been over and knocked off the inlet filter. The poor cichlid and the Pakistani had gone up there and got caught in the filter. Luckily there is space at the top of the filter or they both would have died. This is my first cichlid fatality out of more than 70 something cichlids and wasn't even bloat or anything, just bad luck on the part of the cichlid. Hard to tell what the poor thing had been since when it died it turned a nondescript grey colour but I think it was a Cobalt.
Fortunately for the Pakistani there had been something for it to eat during its stay in the filter. I got him out and though he was very pale and lethargic he has now made a full recovery and is back to being his intrusive self.
In the outside tanks my bristlenose brigade have finally made inroads into the algae problem...considering there are 13 of the little fellas you would think the tank would be sparkling by now but they were very small so I suppose I shouldn't expect them to work too hard with their tiny mouths. Mind you, the ones I have spotted have got so much bigger and have increased from being 25mm long to 35mm long in the short time they have been in there. The biggest one from the 4' tank indoors has grown to 60mm which is also good.
In the lower tank the Tropheus collection are in full energy and have taken to their changes really well. One of the little T.dubosi has started changing colour slightly and is this weird combo of spotty and barred. They are growing really well with all of them showing a good increase in size. The T. Bemba are the larger of the two types and the more aggressive with one being the definite Kingpin of the tank. The dubosi do seem to be catching up fast though in regards to size.
My Marbled Bristlenoses are getting very bristly which is awesome, not that I get to see much more than a couple of tails as they both have niches they hide in with only their tails hanging out. They popped out for a minute the other day before realising that they were being watched and scuttling back in to their hideouts. Mr Gibbi Rex hung out on the glass for a few minutes yesterday showing off his spots before magically disappearing which is interesting as he is by far the biggest thing in the 4' tank and yet is the best at hiding out even at 15cm, personally I think he has a dimensional warp he hides in...
Tank readings:
30L Community Tank
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 1 (probably owing to not having done water change yet)
Nitrate 40
pH 6.6 (not sure where acidity has come from)
200L Malawi Tank
Ammonia 0
Nitrite <0.5
Nitrate 80 (will put in Nitra-zorb to lower may have been caused by the addition of a small amount of Mala green treatment affecting bacteria and a dead fish in the filter)
pH 7.5
300L Malawi Tank with crushed coral substrate
Ammonia 0
Nitrite <0.5
Nitrate 40
pH 7.8
GH 14 (250.6ppm)
KH 9 (161.1ppm)
175L Tropheus Tank with plants and crushed coral substrate
Ammonia 0
Nitrite <0.5
Nitrate 20
pH 8.5
GH 15 (268.5ppm)
KH 10 (179ppm)
I needed to retest the pH on the 300 and 175L tanks as the pH looked to be too low for the hardness tests (they initially read 7.4 and 7.5 which I thought was wrong after doing the hardness- the above testing was after using a pH tester capable of reading higher than 7.6) results are too variable on the colour chart of a test that can only read up to 7.6
Nitrate levels higher in tanks than previous, possibly owing to slightly more feeding, will lower feeding rate in all tanks to compensate and perform additional water change tomorrow followed by regular change Sunday. I keep the water temperature at about 22-24C to accommodate possible fluctuations of Nitrogen.
There is Easter...and there...
There I am sitting watching my fish in the 4 foot tank and I see Easter, my little Rusty fry, under in Penthouse Rock.
"oo look, I see Easter". Over comes my partner and says "Oh, yeah I see her under the smooth rock there."
"No here, in the Penthouse."
"Hmm and here too it seems."
...
...
"OMG we have 2 babies!!!!!!" screeches me all excited.
Turns out our little mumma Rusty obviously popped not 1 but 2 little ones out and we have just not seen the other one and Easter at the same time.
Now I am wondering how many she is holding this time... :D
I may have to isolate all the males to stop her from breeding yet again- she is nearly half the size of all the other Rustys because she spends all her time with a mouthful of babies and so isn't eating. I get the feeling she is the only female Rusty in the tank. I hope the two she has dropped are females so they can take over the breeding and give her a rest for a while but if they are female they will all be holding all the time.
So if you want a cichlid that breeds easily try the Rusty as they will be at it from the time they get to 4cm, and they just don't quit :)
Cobalts Courting
My Cobalts want to breed...well one does anyway. He has turned a brilliant icy blue and his egg spots have turned very iridescent. The female he is desperately trying to court has turned a much deeper blue like a light navy in colour. He is so funny, he dances around her flaring and writhing and edging her to the Penthouse while she looks around bored and then scoots off at the last second. Poor boy is going to end up gnawing his own fins off in frustration.
Cynotilapia afra Courting
Yellowhead has taken up residence in two places. He is timesharing the Penthouse with Mr Cobalt as well as having a little side residence under the Poly condo where he is currently trying to woo one of his girls. Unfortunately he is having about the same amount of luck as Mr Cobalt and has turned himself into something resembling a traffic light. Yellowhead sees a female, his colour springs to life, he dances around her, she wanders past, unimpressed, his colour goes down to dull again. Rinse and repeat.
Pseudotropheus saulosi
The males are starting to show their colour and are about halfway through their colour change act. They are also starting to show an interest in the ones not changing colour so we may have them breeding too.
Melanochromis "Northern Blue"
One of my NB has found a spot cleaned it out and then added a pile of black pebbles to it, he has also found an odd purple stone and put that at the front of his den. This is the first time I have seen one of my fish decorate his place. All of the fish have just moved the pebbles around and never collected a type before. He is not in the dominant colour so maybe it is his way of attracting a female. I hope it works for him but I am not even sure if any of the other NB are female.
"oo look, I see Easter". Over comes my partner and says "Oh, yeah I see her under the smooth rock there."
"No here, in the Penthouse."
"Hmm and here too it seems."
...
...
"OMG we have 2 babies!!!!!!" screeches me all excited.
Turns out our little mumma Rusty obviously popped not 1 but 2 little ones out and we have just not seen the other one and Easter at the same time.
Now I am wondering how many she is holding this time... :D
I may have to isolate all the males to stop her from breeding yet again- she is nearly half the size of all the other Rustys because she spends all her time with a mouthful of babies and so isn't eating. I get the feeling she is the only female Rusty in the tank. I hope the two she has dropped are females so they can take over the breeding and give her a rest for a while but if they are female they will all be holding all the time.
So if you want a cichlid that breeds easily try the Rusty as they will be at it from the time they get to 4cm, and they just don't quit :)
Cobalts Courting
My Cobalts want to breed...well one does anyway. He has turned a brilliant icy blue and his egg spots have turned very iridescent. The female he is desperately trying to court has turned a much deeper blue like a light navy in colour. He is so funny, he dances around her flaring and writhing and edging her to the Penthouse while she looks around bored and then scoots off at the last second. Poor boy is going to end up gnawing his own fins off in frustration.
Cynotilapia afra Courting
Yellowhead has taken up residence in two places. He is timesharing the Penthouse with Mr Cobalt as well as having a little side residence under the Poly condo where he is currently trying to woo one of his girls. Unfortunately he is having about the same amount of luck as Mr Cobalt and has turned himself into something resembling a traffic light. Yellowhead sees a female, his colour springs to life, he dances around her, she wanders past, unimpressed, his colour goes down to dull again. Rinse and repeat.
Pseudotropheus saulosi
The males are starting to show their colour and are about halfway through their colour change act. They are also starting to show an interest in the ones not changing colour so we may have them breeding too.
Melanochromis "Northern Blue"
One of my NB has found a spot cleaned it out and then added a pile of black pebbles to it, he has also found an odd purple stone and put that at the front of his den. This is the first time I have seen one of my fish decorate his place. All of the fish have just moved the pebbles around and never collected a type before. He is not in the dominant colour so maybe it is his way of attracting a female. I hope it works for him but I am not even sure if any of the other NB are female.
Going...,going...go-
Well just before my tank completely disappears behind a wall of green algae I thought I had better buy some more bristlenose to attack it. So 8 more in the tank today- they thought they had gone to heaven and promptly set upon it all (is it too hopeful that by tomorrow my tank will be immaculate?? lol). They are only tiny little things though so I don't think they can do it all in one night but it would be nice.
I also got 2 dwarf gourami for the little tank much to the horror of my golden gourami male "Mr Bully" who just sat and glared at them- I think he was beside himself...if he had been a cat he would have had all his fur stand on end. He was so bad I think he almost imploded. The biggest issue though was the Pakistani Loach who didn't like his tank being invaded and chased them around for about 10 minutes before being sidetracked by his tummy rumbles and his need to eat everything he can get his mouth onto. Ahh belly wins over invasion apparently so there he was getting into everything again and stuffing his little face. All is quiet in there now except for the Pakistani who is hoping I will feed him "just one more time"...
I also got 2 dwarf gourami for the little tank much to the horror of my golden gourami male "Mr Bully" who just sat and glared at them- I think he was beside himself...if he had been a cat he would have had all his fur stand on end. He was so bad I think he almost imploded. The biggest issue though was the Pakistani Loach who didn't like his tank being invaded and chased them around for about 10 minutes before being sidetracked by his tummy rumbles and his need to eat everything he can get his mouth onto. Ahh belly wins over invasion apparently so there he was getting into everything again and stuffing his little face. All is quiet in there now except for the Pakistani who is hoping I will feed him "just one more time"...
10 Happy little spotted fish
My T. dubosi are happily swimming with the T. Orange Bemba and together they look so awesome. I have overcome the problem with the dubosi eating too much Veggie Flakes by feeding them the Spectrum first and since it is put through a grinder most of the OB don't go for it, then add the Veggie Flakes without crushing them so the bigger Bemba get to attack the flakes and the smaller dubosi only get the smaller bits. Hopefully, this will mean that the dubosi won't suffer the "100% guaranteed bloat" that my nervous breeder warned me about.
Private breeders are a strange creature...they are so devoted to their fish but are just like sports people who get convinced that they have a lucky sock or need to turn round 3 times before a game :)
I am not convinced that I also need to wear that lucky sock in order to have happy, healthy fish. They can also be very cavalier with those creatures that are not their pride and joy (obsession) and give them a much more relaxed care and slightly less devoted attention. Funny how these creatures often do just as well/better than their doted upon loves.
I think if I start going down the rabid breeder path I might need to get my partner a large mallet so I can be brought back to reality quickly and painfully (fyi-for use on me not the fish) :D
Private breeders are a strange creature...they are so devoted to their fish but are just like sports people who get convinced that they have a lucky sock or need to turn round 3 times before a game :)
I am not convinced that I also need to wear that lucky sock in order to have happy, healthy fish. They can also be very cavalier with those creatures that are not their pride and joy (obsession) and give them a much more relaxed care and slightly less devoted attention. Funny how these creatures often do just as well/better than their doted upon loves.
I think if I start going down the rabid breeder path I might need to get my partner a large mallet so I can be brought back to reality quickly and painfully (fyi-for use on me not the fish) :D
Tropheus dubosi (Maswa)
I picked up my 10 new fish today from a local breeder and they are awesome and so beautiful.
When they have settled in a bit I will take some pix of them- they are sitting at the front atm all glaring at me :(
They haven't eaten yet but will be fed tonight and I will see how they go then. Until then I will leave them be.
Desperately need to buy yet more bristlenoses before my outside tank completely disappears behind a wall of green.
I think I might need to up their size to 6-8 cm ones before the cichlids disappear for ever...
Well I went to feed the Tropheus dubosi and they have moved in with the Orange Bemba and want the Bemba's food instead of their own food so they got the Veggie Flakes despite me trying to give them the Spectrum that the breeder gave me... fish are stubborn little things at times - lol
When they have settled in a bit I will take some pix of them- they are sitting at the front atm all glaring at me :(
They haven't eaten yet but will be fed tonight and I will see how they go then. Until then I will leave them be.
Desperately need to buy yet more bristlenoses before my outside tank completely disappears behind a wall of green.
I think I might need to up their size to 6-8 cm ones before the cichlids disappear for ever...
Well I went to feed the Tropheus dubosi and they have moved in with the Orange Bemba and want the Bemba's food instead of their own food so they got the Veggie Flakes despite me trying to give them the Spectrum that the breeder gave me... fish are stubborn little things at times - lol
Photos of the Tropheus...
it's harder than you think...
They move so fast!
Well at least they are healthy...and sooo cute...they don't think my dog is too good though as he is at the same height as them. All their fins go up when he walks by.
Despite having put a pile of algae eating fish in the outside tank they are not winning against the stuff. All of the crew in the upper tank are slowly disappearing behind a wall of green.
Other than that all is going well.
Oh that and I had an offer of T. dubosi at $15 each. I said I would take 10 on Friday.
They move so fast!
Well at least they are healthy...and sooo cute...they don't think my dog is too good though as he is at the same height as them. All their fins go up when he walks by.
Despite having put a pile of algae eating fish in the outside tank they are not winning against the stuff. All of the crew in the upper tank are slowly disappearing behind a wall of green.
Other than that all is going well.
Oh that and I had an offer of T. dubosi at $15 each. I said I would take 10 on Friday.
New Fish
Well just as I think I have enough fish the LFS goes and gets more in...sigh...so now I also have 2x Auloncara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri Gold", 2x Auloncara sp. Jacobfriebergi "Firebird", 2x Protomelas taeniolatus "Red Empress" and 2x lovely hybrids called Auloncara sp. "Dragon Blood". These have gone into the 5 foot tank.
I also found 2x Pangio khuli and a Pangio doriae (Golden Khuli Loach) for my partner who has wanted Pangio khuli for ages. These have gone into our little community tank with the other Khuli's.
I also got 6x Tropheus sp. "Black" (Pemba) aka Orange Bemba. These guys are going to be a handful as they traditionally dislike others of their species. These have all been placed into the lower right hand tank with my spare heater and my powerhead out of the 4 foot tank.
I got some laterite into the centre tank and planted out everything but the vall for the moment as I have left the vall in with the Tropheus to make them feel a little less out in the open.
Wow I just did a count on how many species of Cichlids I have- 14 which is fairly good IMO.
I also have 6 Loach species and 6 types of Catfish (if you include the Corys in that).
I also found 2x Pangio khuli and a Pangio doriae (Golden Khuli Loach) for my partner who has wanted Pangio khuli for ages. These have gone into our little community tank with the other Khuli's.
I also got 6x Tropheus sp. "Black" (Pemba) aka Orange Bemba. These guys are going to be a handful as they traditionally dislike others of their species. These have all been placed into the lower right hand tank with my spare heater and my powerhead out of the 4 foot tank.
I got some laterite into the centre tank and planted out everything but the vall for the moment as I have left the vall in with the Tropheus to make them feel a little less out in the open.
Wow I just did a count on how many species of Cichlids I have- 14 which is fairly good IMO.
I also have 6 Loach species and 6 types of Catfish (if you include the Corys in that).
Rusty Holding
Looked in the 4 foot tank today and watched the fish swimming for a while. I noticed that the Rusty is doing the whole dislocated jaw thing again so she is obviously holding again- yay :D and she is only a bit bigger than she was when I got her- she has a very protectful male Rusty doing the "clear the tank" thing as though she were about to explode- she is much more collected about it, with Easter being her first success I cannot wait to see how many make the second batch grade. Little Easter is hanging out with the Loaches and the Bristlenoses as being the safe ones to hang out with in the tank. A bit longer and I think we will see her out in the open, swimming with everyone else.
Looks like one of the Northern Blue has decided the Rusty's shouldn't be the only ones to get into the groove, he has been digging out his nest under the slate and chasing all the other fish away except the Yoyo (they are invisible to Cichlids lol). Not to be outdone Yellowhead is staking his claim on one of his females and trying desperately to get her to "come and see his penthouse" at Penthouse Rock.
The 5 foot tank is also in the running for an oscar in most males wanting a partner with Big Blue, Jewel Boy, V Stripe and Yellowhead Jnr. all vying for a girl. The only males in the tank not caring about females atm is the E. Yellow male swimming around doing his "hey, don't look at me- I don't want ANYTHING except a camera for my good side." that he gets whenever I lift my camera up to take photos. You would think I had 20 identical E. Yellows with him posing in as many shots as he can. I have had to delete about 10 shots of his face sticking in the camera going "LOOK AT ME"...
Surprise of surprises I actually saw one of the Khuli's last night- it flew up to the top of the water then shot back to under the treasure chest pod- total visiblility of 2 seconds- possibly a record viewing for our lot of 4. The only thing I can say about the one I saw was "gotten bigger". Who knows with them, there may be 300 of them there for all we know. So much for my partner picking a funky looking
Looks like one of the Northern Blue has decided the Rusty's shouldn't be the only ones to get into the groove, he has been digging out his nest under the slate and chasing all the other fish away except the Yoyo (they are invisible to Cichlids lol). Not to be outdone Yellowhead is staking his claim on one of his females and trying desperately to get her to "come and see his penthouse" at Penthouse Rock.
The 5 foot tank is also in the running for an oscar in most males wanting a partner with Big Blue, Jewel Boy, V Stripe and Yellowhead Jnr. all vying for a girl. The only males in the tank not caring about females atm is the E. Yellow male swimming around doing his "hey, don't look at me- I don't want ANYTHING except a camera for my good side." that he gets whenever I lift my camera up to take photos. You would think I had 20 identical E. Yellows with him posing in as many shots as he can. I have had to delete about 10 shots of his face sticking in the camera going "LOOK AT ME"...
Surprise of surprises I actually saw one of the Khuli's last night- it flew up to the top of the water then shot back to under the treasure chest pod- total visiblility of 2 seconds- possibly a record viewing for our lot of 4. The only thing I can say about the one I saw was "gotten bigger". Who knows with them, there may be 300 of them there for all we know. So much for my partner picking a funky looking
Surprise!!
Went to feed the fish in the 4 foot tank today and while I was sitting watching them stuff themselves I saw this little flicker. Hmm, I don't recognise the flicker as one of my fish so I go to have a closer look.
After looking under the bogwood I see a small fish. Not one I have bought. I look closer and realise that there is a very young Rusty cichlid looking back at me from under the log. The Rusty that was holding when I got her obviously has managed to keep this little fellow very quiet despite us uprooting 3/4 of the tank when we moved half the cichlids out. He has been happily growing and is now 2cm long. He is the perfect little Rusty with lovely colour, yellowish finnage and a gorgeous chocolate body. We will call him Easter since it is so close to Easter and he is chocolate coloured :D
If you want to see Easter go to my Blogger:
http://myaquarium-loachlovers.blogspot.com/
After looking under the bogwood I see a small fish. Not one I have bought. I look closer and realise that there is a very young Rusty cichlid looking back at me from under the log. The Rusty that was holding when I got her obviously has managed to keep this little fellow very quiet despite us uprooting 3/4 of the tank when we moved half the cichlids out. He has been happily growing and is now 2cm long. He is the perfect little Rusty with lovely colour, yellowish finnage and a gorgeous chocolate body. We will call him Easter since it is so close to Easter and he is chocolate coloured :D
If you want to see Easter go to my Blogger:
http://myaquarium-loachlovers.blogspot.com/
More, On the Move and Filter Review
More
Realising that we were short of our biological control media, namely bristlenoses, since the move we bought 4 more and put them into the 5 foot tank outside.
On the Move
So we finally managed to halve the inmates in the 4 footer and add the last lot to the 5 footer. There are about 27 in each tank now which is a good amount for both of the tanks. The lower 5 foot tank is currently still our water storage area for water changes for all the other tanks.
Filter Review
We went out today and have picked up a Heto NEO-501 External Canister Filter from our favourite LFS which cost $139 on special. We are going to see how this compares to the Eheim filter.
We are putting it on to the inside 4 foot tank which is currently using an OTTO PF1200N Internal Power Filter which has been working okay but not brilliantly considering I had a considerable bio-load, I should not be too surprised. I am opting for the external canister as there should be much less handling of the messy filters (yeuck!).
...2 hours later...
Okay read the manual, then re-read the manual. Rinsed and fitted all the bits together, turned it on and suddenly there is a leak. Turn it off, pull the offending connector off...mop up water from forgetting to turn valve off...remove connector reconnect hose to connector...turn on...mop up water from not turning inlet connector off first, then outlet connector, then turning power off... mop up from removing vent plug to check it and having water go everywhere...put vent plug back and lock it...read instructions again...open the bottom valves...reconnect outlet hose...turn on...turn inlet off...turn outlet off... turn power off...mop up water from leaking connector...curse...dismantle outlet connector...check time...curse again...put to one side... clean top power filter sponge and wait until tomorrow so I can get a replacement connector...
Apart from the errant connector the Heto NEO-501 was reasonably easy to set up. The noise levels were comparable to the Eheim which is almost silent. The instruction manual was broken up section by section with each language covering the same part- this made it a little confusing and I suggest using a highlighter to go over the parts you need to read for each section so you don't miss anything. The Heto comes with a 1 year warranty which is normal with filters.
The Heto has more and different filter media than the Eheim as they are designed slightly differently.
The Eheim has the inlet at the bottom and the water passes up through different media, gets to the top and passes out back into the tank.
The Heto has both inlet and outlet at the top so has a separate section which the water passes through at the front and this holds numerous filter pads to filter out the initial lot of water. The flow then passes into the larger section which houses, from the bottom upwards, charcoal, foam and ceramic noodles each in their own tray with a fold down handle and then out and back into the tank.
The Eheim was purchased for $260- Model was the 2217
The Heto was purchased for $139- Model was the NEO-501
Canister capacity of each was about the same at 6.6L for the Eheim and around 6L for the Heto.
The carbon with the Eheim is a pad, on the Heto it is small pellets.
The noodles with the Eheim are smaller than the Heto ones.
Both the Eheim and the Heto have baskets for holding media- the Heto additionally has fold down handles.
Both the filters have 2 types of sponge that water is filtered through. A coarse grade and a finer grade.
Both filters have room for additional media to be added such as bioballs or ceramic foam as to your whim.
Both of the filters are very quiet.
The Eheim's rated flow capacity is 1000L/hr whilst the Heto's is 980L/hr.
Both of them are for up to 600L tanks.
Eheim's power usage is 20W/hr while the Heto comes in at an economical 8W/hr.
The only part of the review left for me to do is to replace the connector and then run it to see how the Heto shapes up against the Eheim.
I will provide the data over the next few weeks.
The Eheim 2217 is as great as it was supposed to be and I can definitely recommend them to anyone who wants a great external canister.
Here is hoping that the Heto also manages to stack up against the Eheim and fills the budget bracket.
Realising that we were short of our biological control media, namely bristlenoses, since the move we bought 4 more and put them into the 5 foot tank outside.
On the Move
So we finally managed to halve the inmates in the 4 footer and add the last lot to the 5 footer. There are about 27 in each tank now which is a good amount for both of the tanks. The lower 5 foot tank is currently still our water storage area for water changes for all the other tanks.
Filter Review
We went out today and have picked up a Heto NEO-501 External Canister Filter from our favourite LFS which cost $139 on special. We are going to see how this compares to the Eheim filter.
We are putting it on to the inside 4 foot tank which is currently using an OTTO PF1200N Internal Power Filter which has been working okay but not brilliantly considering I had a considerable bio-load, I should not be too surprised. I am opting for the external canister as there should be much less handling of the messy filters (yeuck!).
...2 hours later...
Okay read the manual, then re-read the manual. Rinsed and fitted all the bits together, turned it on and suddenly there is a leak. Turn it off, pull the offending connector off...mop up water from forgetting to turn valve off...remove connector reconnect hose to connector...turn on...mop up water from not turning inlet connector off first, then outlet connector, then turning power off... mop up from removing vent plug to check it and having water go everywhere...put vent plug back and lock it...read instructions again...open the bottom valves...reconnect outlet hose...turn on...turn inlet off...turn outlet off... turn power off...mop up water from leaking connector...curse...dismantle outlet connector...check time...curse again...put to one side... clean top power filter sponge and wait until tomorrow so I can get a replacement connector...
Apart from the errant connector the Heto NEO-501 was reasonably easy to set up. The noise levels were comparable to the Eheim which is almost silent. The instruction manual was broken up section by section with each language covering the same part- this made it a little confusing and I suggest using a highlighter to go over the parts you need to read for each section so you don't miss anything. The Heto comes with a 1 year warranty which is normal with filters.
The Heto has more and different filter media than the Eheim as they are designed slightly differently.
The Eheim has the inlet at the bottom and the water passes up through different media, gets to the top and passes out back into the tank.
The Heto has both inlet and outlet at the top so has a separate section which the water passes through at the front and this holds numerous filter pads to filter out the initial lot of water. The flow then passes into the larger section which houses, from the bottom upwards, charcoal, foam and ceramic noodles each in their own tray with a fold down handle and then out and back into the tank.
The Eheim was purchased for $260- Model was the 2217
The Heto was purchased for $139- Model was the NEO-501
Canister capacity of each was about the same at 6.6L for the Eheim and around 6L for the Heto.
The carbon with the Eheim is a pad, on the Heto it is small pellets.
The noodles with the Eheim are smaller than the Heto ones.
Both the Eheim and the Heto have baskets for holding media- the Heto additionally has fold down handles.
Both the filters have 2 types of sponge that water is filtered through. A coarse grade and a finer grade.
Both filters have room for additional media to be added such as bioballs or ceramic foam as to your whim.
Both of the filters are very quiet.
The Eheim's rated flow capacity is 1000L/hr whilst the Heto's is 980L/hr.
Both of them are for up to 600L tanks.
Eheim's power usage is 20W/hr while the Heto comes in at an economical 8W/hr.
The only part of the review left for me to do is to replace the connector and then run it to see how the Heto shapes up against the Eheim.
I will provide the data over the next few weeks.
The Eheim 2217 is as great as it was supposed to be and I can definitely recommend them to anyone who wants a great external canister.
Here is hoping that the Heto also manages to stack up against the Eheim and fills the budget bracket.
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