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.

Albino Bristlenose Babies

Oh WoW!

I just did a head count of how many baby albino bristles there are and there is 21!! woohoo! adding the 9 that mysteriously died one night last week that makes 30 babies for their second batch. Pretty good going if you ask me ;)

Convict Cichlids

My convict cichlids finally started eating on the weekend.

My son Alex did some online research for me and found that besides the things I had been trying to feed them they also like beef hearts. So off to the aquarium shop we went to pick up some minced beefheart and blackworms.

They gobbled up the minced beef heart happily and Sunday munched their way through some blackworms. Now that they have started eating I should be able to introduce other foods to them without them fussing too much but have some backups onhand just in case.

Albino Bristlenose Babies

Yesterday I noticed that the Albino Bristlenose babies have finished absorbing their egg sacs and are now busy exploring their tank. Daddy Bristlenose is still in the tank with them to recuperate and catch up on eating, (daddy bristlenoses do not eat the whole time they are caring for the eggs and young babies till their egg sacs have absorbed, he fans and cleans them constantly) but will be moved out in a few days time, back to the other bristle tank.

My Very Rare Catfish

LMAO

Convict Cichlids

The convict cichlids are settling in but not enough to start eating yet. The size of them and the way they all school together looks pretty impressive.

There appears to be 3 females out of the 12. From what I have read online it is better to let the female choose her male rather than just pick one male and a female to put together. I only want to keep one pair - after the warning of more babies that I can ever want, that my friend Hasitha tells me, just one pair will do nicely :P

Rang my good friend Mick and offered him a pair which he was happy about, his 20 something year old son has just moved back home with all his tanks in tow so I knew they would be on the lookout for some stock.

The other thing I have noticed about the convicts is how easily spooked they get and I hear splashes occasionally, seems they are quite the jumpers.

Zanda found this great site with info on convicts -

http://www.aqua-fish.net/show.php?h=convictcichlids

Better Pics of the Albino Bristle Babies

These guys are soo cute with the egg sacs still attached :P The egg sacs are getting smaller and smaller. Shouldn't be too long now :)

There are now 16 escaped babies in the floating container with more than that still left in the terracotta pot.

Albino Bristlenose Eggs Hatching

Looks like the fry are all going to survive this time!

All the fry are still healthy and wiggling around on their egg sacs. I have found other escapees of the terracotta pot and added them to the floating container also. Daddy bristle must be busy in the terracotta pot as I haven't seen him once! Just as it should be :)

I can't wait to see the babies once they have absorbed their egg sacs and are free swimming! Which should be in another day or two.

Convict Cichlids

Whilst checking out Petlink around lunchtime I noticed a local ad for Free Convicts. The ad said there were about 15 convict fish at 3-7cm long, all healthy and some breeding. I rang the guy and yes they were still available. After consulting the train timetable and smsing Josh, I rang the guy back and told him when to expect us.

Ron was really nice, he took us on a tour of his tanks and we talked about our different aquarium experiences. He has some kribensis, which we also chatted about and I told him I have a couple of batches of babies. He expressed interest in them and I told him I would be more than happy to give him the first batch - especially when I was getting 12 (turned out to be 12) large convicts (all the convicts are around the 12cm mark - no idea were he got 3-7cm from...) for free and the kribs parents are breeding every month. I also managed to score a free two foot tank that needed repairing! LOL

As Ron was now promised the krib babies he offered to give us a lift home so he could pick up the babies at the same time. Suited us brilliantly as now Josh and I didn't have to juggle carrying a two foot tank and a heavy bucket of fish to the train station and then home!

Catching the krib babies was fun... NOT, gee they are sneaky little buggers and FAST! I thought I had caught them all but Josh found a few more after Ron left. I was okay with that, as I had always planned on keeping a few from my first krib batch.

I was really happy with getting the convicts as they were on my list of fish to get soon. Only thing is they were meant to be alot smaller :P never mind! Ron promises to stay in touch - alot of his workmates are into aquariums also and will be interested in buying breeding stock from me, and Ron is also interested in the two of us swapping fish another time. He has lots of baby electric yellows which I have my eye on... :P

My new Convict Cichlids....

This pic gives a more acurate idea of their size.

Albino Bristlenose Eggs Hatching

Seems that the bristlenose babies are hatching, from evidence of half a dozen stray eggs found wiggling around the tank this morning. The babies can be seen clearly on top of their egg sacs, which are still attached.

Well at least daddy bristlenose got them to hatching stage this time, although he is still guarding and looking after them all, the escapees shouldn't have been allowed to escape.

I scooped up the stray eggs and placed them in a floating container with an air stone, to protect them from predators.

In this photo, if you look very closely at the egg I have circled, you can just make out the baby attached to it. It was the best pic I could get at this stage.

I also wanted to share how comical it is to watch the eggs move around so I have added a short clip showing an baby attached to the egg on the move :P I apologise that the focus could have been better but you will still get the gist of what I am showing you.

Beware!!!

When working on tanks outside, whether it be repairing them or water testing them BEWARE of neighbours spraying with Baygon!!!

AARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aquarium Photography

After much trial and tribulation with taking hundreds of fishy photos to get maybe six good ones, I decided to do some online research into aquarium photography. I learnt alot.

* The mantra that was repeated everywhere was patience, patience, patience.

* Preparation of the tank is vital. Before hand make sure the tank is cleared of all debris (floating leaves, uneaten food etc), the water is clear and the front glass been given a good clean. A background or piece of cardboard at the back of the tank will eliminate cords and tubing showing making for a nicer photo.

* Wear solid, dark clothing to eliminate you being seen in the glass reflection.

* Just prior to taking the photos, turn off the pumps and filters to eliminate water movement and improve clarity.

* Turn off the flash.

* In the menu settings under white balance, take it off auto and select fluorescent.

* Take the camera out of auto focus mode, select the macro mode feature (usually depicted as a flower)

* Take the ISO speed off auto and choose 800 or 1000. When you take pictures on a higher ISO setting, the camera has to be extremely still, use either a tripod, table or other flat surface. Leaning the camera against the front glass will also stabilise it.

* Take notes! Take lots of photos with different setting combinations to work out which ones work best for you, note which photos are which combinations so when checking your photos you can see which parameters you had better results with.

* Expect to take lots and lots of photos.

* Use very strong aquarium lights or add lighting from the top of the tank when not using a flash. The more lighting the easier your camera will focus and take clearer pictures.

* Focus on a specific spot in the aquarium and wait for the fish to come to it. Resort to adding small amonts of food to the very front of the tank to encourage the fish away from the back of the tank.

* Use a special "photo tank" so you can better control tank conditions such as poor lighting and to narrow down the area the fish can swim/hide in, saving you time. A friend also suggested to me if you have a spare piece of glass, set that a few inches from the front so your fish can be easily seen.

* Check out digital camera sites that focus on aquarium photography. I found these two sites really useful -

http://rkdzines.com/cichlidcellar/Photo%20Tips.htm

http://www.discushatchery.com/phototips1.html

In conclusion, know your equipment, experiment with various lighting and camera settings, and have lots and lots of patience.

Princess Cichlids Profile

I found a very informative site on Princess Cichlids - it covers general information on them, preferred water parameters, suggested tank set ups, feeding and breeding.

http://aquariumate.blogspot.com/2007/01/neolamprologus-brichardi.html

I also really liked the wikipedia page on them. I found it fascinating how Princess Cichlids have extended nurseries with other breeding pairs, and older fry, protecting and raising all the new babies of the group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolamprologus_brichardi

Their scientific name is Neolamprologus Brichardi.

Princess Cichlids are from Lake Tanganyika in Africa.

Albino Bristlenose Eggs - take 2

Once again I was pulling everything out of the bristlenose tank for a cleanout, when I found the male protecting eggs in the flowerpot! What is it with me wanting to do tank cleanouts and him having eggs? LOL

Unfortunately I also found a small cluster of eggs on the ground between the flowerpot and the back wall. :(

So, fingers crossed again - I hope this time, these eggs make it.