Just for Hasitha LOL

This post is just for my friend Hasitha, who... err... let's say needs some help... I am being totally cheeky here and know he is just going to laugh at me. But hey, it will help clarify it for everyone else too ;)

I am going to show and explain the differences between male and female guppies. Mollies, platies and swordtails are all similar, so you can use the "boy bit" and "girl bit" information for them too.

Adult female guppies are full bodied (stocky) and only have colouration on their back tail. Please note the shape of the anal fin behind the gravid spot. The gravid spot is a dark spot near the vent, which is actually the babies inside the mummy. The darker it gets the more near to giving birth she is.

The vent, btw, is where the fish poop (those long, usually dark, worm looking things coming out of the back of the fish. Don't laugh - I can't count the number of times newbie fish keepers have asked me why there are "worms" in the tank.)

Here is a picture of a female guppy -

The adult male guppy on the otherhand, has longer fins, his body is sleeker and smaller than the female. The males will have colour on their top fin, body AND back tail. (gotta impress the girls :P) He also has a gonopodium (the boy bit) which delivers sperm to the female.

Check out this picture of a male guppy -

Guppies start reproducing at three months old. Imagine just how many babies they have in their liftetime when they breed every month (between 2-200 babies each month depending on the age of the guppy) and live to approx. three years old.No wonder they are nicknamed the millions fish!

Hasitha, if this doesn't help you stop bringing home only girls or only boys, Honey, you need glasses :P Love ya!!! hehehe

Information and pics to help me out were from -

http://board.fishchannel.com/Uploads/Images/76b92168-88ed-4e53-b58a-f6c7.JPG

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Livebe6.jpg&imgrefurl=http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Aqualand%2520Q%26As%2520II%25200306.htm&usg=__TABpSURcxsPcZTI24axHqSnlTec=&h=290&w=427&sz=10&hl=en&start=8&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=C2IWjxIDRphIdM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmale%2Bguppies%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/guppy.htm#sex

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/423206/fish_owner_tips_how_to_tell_the_sex.html

Albino Bristlenose Eggs

I spy with my little eye..... my bristle sitting on eggs!!

Woot Woot

Ima gonna be a mama again! :P

Fishy Update for February

WOW January whizzed by so fast and now February has gone hot on it's heels... where does the time go?

2010 is shaping up to be a really strange year thus far with loads of changes good and bad. I recently have been on a decluttering rampage and the aquariums were not passed by.

The kribensis parents and some of their older babies were sent back to my favourite aquarium shop and swapped for another pakistani loach to add to my collection. The large convicts were packed off to be elsewhere and tanks rearranged to accommodate some common bristlenoses that my friend Mick brought over for me.

Since my albino bristles have not breed again, despite large water changes and conditioning food I have relocated some platys to their tank. The platys breeding cycle will release hormones into the tank water which should jump start the bristles into reproducing again... *fingers crossed*

My first batch of albino bristle babies are growing like crazy. Some went off to live with my friend Ruth, and some to Mick. I have seven good size ones left that I will keep as backup breeding stock. So all future batches will be raised and sold :)

The male and female Princess Cichlids are in a 2 foot tank set up (bottom row of 6ft stand) with lots of caves and rock formations. They have a little way to go yet to reach breeding stage. By next summer they should be producing which I am going to find fascinating.

With the tank reshuffle another 2 foot tank is now available which the polka dot loaches will be calling home. Even though they still comfortably fit in the nursery tank they are currently in, I want to establish them in a more permanent home. They will be kept by themselves - so a species only tank - as I have read in numerous articles how they are ferocious savengers and will even try to get to food inside other fish... weird huh. So definitely not taking any chances LOL

The last 2 foot tank on the bottom row of my 6 foot stand houses some kribensis babies. I am going to keep them around and perhaps keep them for breeding much further down the track. I am still undecided - it will largely depend on available tank space really.

So this reshuffle leaves me with 2 available nursery tanks out of the 5 on my stands top row... hopefully the albino and common bristles will be filling them up with babies soon. :)

The community tank at the end of my hall is looking a little sparse of late. Especially now the platys are with the albino bristles. So this is the tank I am going to be concentrating on for a while to get it to fabulous again ;)

I have decided not to set up the second 6 foot stand with tanks at this stage. With a couple of new active kittens arriving soon I need the extra play room in my bedroom for them. Maybe set it up next summer... time will tell.

Hasitha is going to be so proud of me that I actually sat down and blogged today! hahaha I have promised him and myself that I will be more consistant with the blogging again. ;)

Fishy Update

WoW - it's been along time since I got a few moments to sit down and blog. Life has been hectic with painting, Christmas holidays, a cat with a life threatening illness (that picked two different public holidays to fall sick) which caused a weeks worth of precious little sleep for her and me, my birthday, my youngest son's 16th birthday and now getting things organised for back to school, which will be here before we know it. There hasn't been much time to chat/hang out with friends, blog or even scratch :P so apologies to everyone. I did manage to talk to my friend Hasitha on msn for a little while this morning while he was eating breakfast, who basically told me to blog and blog today, no excuses! hehehe Meanwhile I have noticed he has been blogging HEAPS lately! You can check out his blogs here -

http://keeping-freshwater-aquariums.blogspot.com/ and

http://my-discus-fish.blogspot.com/

He is a very knowledgeable guy - especially when it comes to fish and all things fishy so take time to check his blogs out, he has alot of interesting fish and loads of experience.

Okay onto my fishies and how they are all doing...

My albino bristlenose babies are doing great! They are getting bigger and healthier everyday. Their vivacious appetites make it easy to feed them - they are munching their way through broccoli, zucchini, spinach & lettuce leaves, prawns, algae wavers and of course blood worms. (LOL writing that reminded me about the children's book called The Hungry Caterpillar :P) I have a couple of friends who have been promised some of the babies and they should be able to pick them up real soon now.

The kribensis babies are also happy, healthy and growing. I couldn't help but be amazed at the size of the first batch when I had a good look at them yesterday. Considering how tiny they were when they were born they are now huge. hmm okay reality check... when I say huge I mean they are now around the 1cm mark, (not the taking-over-the-world- size- huge) with a few of them a little bigger than that - compared to the 2mm they were when they were born LOL

The livebearer babies (guppies, mollies and platties) have also grown considerably and some of them have even advanced to my community tank now. Go them!

Sadly I lost one of my Princess Cichlids yesterday, he was always a little on the small side... when I brought them the girl at the aquarium shop gave me an extra one in case the little guy didn't make it. He did pretty well to have lasted so long. The other 4 are growing fast. I notice one of them in particular, the biggest one, is rather dominant. It won't be long now till they are breeding size. I am really looking forward to seeing their breeding behaviour and fry raising as they raise their fry as a community which is very different from other fish I have.

The convicts are all still alive and eating well. When I was talking to Hasitha this morning I commented to him that they are still very skittish when anyone goes near their tank. He assures me this is normal for them and they usually take about 6 months to settle down. I have to remember to ask my friend Mick how the convicts I gave him are doing... I should be seeing him soon as he always turns up around my birthday to give me a birthday kiss, (I did get a call from him though! :D) ooo and he promised to give me some more common bristles next time he was over :D

My community tank is still thriving happily at the end of the hallway. The night after exchanging their tank for one slightly shorter I sadly woke to find one of my bigger Pakistani Loaches dead on the hallway floor in front of the tank. I still have absolutely no idea how he managed to jump out (and really surprised that neither of my cats alerted me to it!) - it must have been one of those fluke jumps too close to the cut away glass corner above the undergravel filter uprights. :(

LOL I just reread my blog and realised I talked about the baby bristles and baby kribensis without ever mentioning that both lots of parents are all doing great as well ;)

hmm.. I think that just about covers all the fishes... ooops forgot Josh's goldfish! Bro and Brah are both doing great - I forgot just how fast goldfish grow! One of Josh's birthday presents was a new tank for the goldfish so now they have lots more room to keep growing. Most people know that fish only grow to the size of the tank they live in... which unfortunately for some fish means their growth is stunted :( but amazingly with goldfish even though their bodies stop growing apparently their internal organs don't! They just keep growing and growing until there is no more room to grow and then the poor goldfish dies. So please be kind to your goldfish and plan ahead before they actually need it. Oh and another random fact about goldfish... studies show that goldfish that live by themselves actually get lonely. So always keep two or more - we don't want any goldfish out there suffering from depression or anxiety issues. I know how stressful it is giving cats tablets every night - imagine having to give them to goldfish!! lmao - just joking! Random fact number three about goldfish.... a group of goldfish is called a Troubling.

If you made it all the way to the end of this mammoth post - Congratulations!!! I am so proud of you - consider yourself Fishy Obsessed too! ;)

remember - fish are friends NOT food!!

Night night everyone - time to go make my dinner :)

edit - OMG how could I have possibly forgotten about my favourite polka-dot-loaches!!! They are happy, playful as always and growing a little bigger... okay, that was a little short and sweet but hey! I'm hungry. LOL Give me a break :P

later dudes!

Indonesia's veined octopus

Indonesia's veined octopus 'stilt walks' to collect coconut shells

check this short video clip out -

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/biology_evolution/article6956352.ece

pretty clever little buggers.

Albino Bristlenose Babies

The babies finally started eating yesterday afternoon, which I am really happy about. They are contently munching on a lettuce leaf and overnight all the algae on a small rock I put in the tank had disappeared.