So many things happening...

I don't know where to start. Let's do it tank by tank:

1. Girl Guppies

Major problems with green algea. At least it's green algea which doesn't hurt the fish, but it's a pain in the nether regions none the less. I scrape all of it off the walls every week at cleaning time, scrub all the rocks and wood, filter, heater, thermometer and four days later everything is covered with thick, green growth. In the beginning I thought it was the Spring sun getting too strong so I covered the back walls of the tank which face the window. It's a north facing window and not that much light gets in, but you never know.

That did not seem to make much difference. So I started to feed the fish a lot less. The result? Same green walls and very hungry fish.

And then I realized that a few weeks ago I did some major trimming of plants because it was getting to be a jungle in there. Eureka! Less plants - more food available for algea to grow and more light getting through, again helping the algea. The balance in an aquatic world is truly delicate. I'm hoping that in a few weeks, as the plants catch up, the problem should disappear and for now I put three otos in to help with the algea.

2. Bubbles.

A couple of days ago I noticed two white spots on him looking very much like ick. Not good. I was a bit puzzled though because I keep his tank pristene clean, use about a teaspoon of aquarium salt per galon and also add Aquari-Sol to his water as an ick preventative.

And then I realized why - about a week prior, when I did the last cleaning, the heater did not kick in like it should and Bubbles spent half the day in rather cool water. It just goes to show you - no matter what preventative measures you use, if the water conditions are not up to spec, the fish will get sick.

I raised the water temp slowly to about 82-83 F and was ready to add some meds the next day, but one of the spots disappeared. The second seemed smaller. Since I don't like to overmedicate my animals, I decided to leave the medicine for now and just watch him. The second spot is almost gone and I'm hoping his own immune system is taking care of it but I guess I have to watch him to make sure the cycle of the parasite doesn't repeat. We just finished growing his tail out, for goodness sake. The last thing I need is for him to get ick and then some secondary infection.

Will watch and keep everyone posted.

3. Male Guppy Tank...

The darn SNAILS!!!!!!!! They are driving me up the wall. There are eggs everywhere and their poops are littering the bottom of the tank. I'm trying to scoop some of them out, but it's futile with the sand floor. I've also rearranged the tank a bit a couple of weeks ago and now the Otos are not happy. Not sure if they did not like the remodeling or whether they are bothered by all these snails as well. They hide most of the time (I'm not even sure I still have four in there), or hang on the side of the tank. I have not seen much activity from them at all lately. Today maybe I'll but a slice of cucumber in to see if I can get them excited, that is if the snails won't get to it first and devour it before the Otos have a chance to find it.

If anyone has any ideas on how to get rid of this snaily infestation, by all means, please let me know!

A QUICK UPDATE

Pinkie is doing great, no worse for wear after his "ordeal". I bet he's probably wondering, "What happened???". And of course, he's still playing the pebble Russian Roulette.

Now, if I could only figure out what to do with the major snail invasion that is underway in the male Guppy tank. I swear those things eat and poop more than all the fish and shrimp combined.

FISH SURGERY

Tonight I had to do something I never thought I'd do in this life - perform fish surgery.

Disclaimer: No knives were used and no fish were hurt in this procedure... I did have to use a sharp object though. Here is what happened:

While waiting for my son to brush his teeth before going to bed, I sat in front of the Goldies' tank and watched them scavenge for food. They do that by taking a piece of gravel into their mouths, rolling it around to get any food leftovers or algea off and then spitting it out again. It didn't work that well for Pinkie though. I watched as he popped a larger pebble, rolled it around and... Yeah, couldn't spit it out.

He went into distress rather quickly. Tried to spit it out very hard, contorted his mouth, visibly struggled and every now and again he went limp, as if exhausted. Then start struggling again. My son and I watched him for about 5 minutes hoping he'd spit the pebble out but it was becoming obvious he was in serious trouble. The periods of going limp were becoming more frequent.

We had to make a decision and my son had a fantastic idea to try Clove Oil. We use it to gently euthanize seriously sick fish but I know in small doses it acts as anasthetic. We got the cup one of our bettas came in, poured about a cup of aquarium water in and added two drops of clove oil. Then swished for a good measure so the oil dissipated into the water a bit.

Then we put Pinkie in the cup. He calmed down very quickly and within a minute I fished him out, put him on a moist paper towel and, using the tapered (eye) end of a large sawing needle I very gently lifted his gill cover, inserted the needle between his gills and carefully pushed the pebble out his mouth. He did not struggle at all and we immediately put him back in the tank, after adding a few drops of Aquari-Sol and turning the filter off to prevent him from being thrown around by the current.

He was out of it. That's saying it mildly. He was completely stoned but was breathing, though very shallowly, and just floated on his side. We watched with abated breaths. Soon his breathing became deeper and his fins started twitching. Next came the tail and at first jerky movements. He righted himself and within 5 minutes was pretty much back to normal. My son and I shared a big sigh of relief.

Dufus of a fish! I certainly hope he won't do that again.

Do goldfish shed their scales?

I've heard a while ago that some fish shed their scales periodically, just like birds shed their feathers and regrow new ones. So I've done some research on this on the internet and, well, the verdict is: NO. Goldfish do not shed their scales. Yikes! Why am I asking this? Because in the last week, since the second last change of their water, both Lady Lydia and Pinkie have lost some scales. Not good.

The research suggested they are stressed. I'm pretty sure water conditions are fine as I have tested Ammonia and Nitrite last week and they were both zero. I guess I should check the Nitrate as well, but that usually has not been an issue. Water pH should be the same as I always use the same water and condition it the same way. I did, however, notice they were terribly skittish after that water change. Darting around like crazy when I approached the tank, even bumping into things. As if they have never seen me before or never had their water changed in the past. Silly fish.

Oh well, I guess I'll have to check the Nitrate levels just to be sure and make put a heater in set on very low to make sure the water temperature is at least constant. Maybe the fluctuations due to winter are bothering them. Thankfully they still are eating like horses. Gotta keep an eye on them. Hmmm, no one ever told me owning fish would be like having kids - there is always something!

A Day of Surprises.

Went home yesterday to find one of my store-bought guppy males stricken with some kind of fin fungus. His left frontal fin had a fluffy, white margin and appeared to be disintegrating on the edges. He was not looking right for the past three days or so - moving slowly while his colour was pale - so in a way this wasn't a surprise.

Off he went to the hospital tank. The pet store gave me something called Pimafix (or such - sorry, can't remember the name right now). But I'm not sure it will do the job. I may change to the Jungle Fungus Remover.

Second surprise? My big Guppy momma dropped her fry last night and I had the priviledge of witnessing the event for the first time in 20 years. She was breathing hard and was obviously struggling but every now and then a little tail would appear and then a tiny guppy popped out. Unfortunately, as it often happens in fishy world, the aunts and sisters were more than happy to help the little ones into their mouths... But still, most of them survived. It's truly amazing to watch these little bits of string with two eyes have such a strong survival instinct. The moment one of the bigger fish came over, they zigzagged super fast into the gravel where they could hide quite effectively.

I also noticed a very strange behaviour during the happy event. One of the younger females, who is about 1/2 the size of the momma, kept bothering her. She swam after her and picked at her back, as if saying, "Hurry up and drop them so we can have a feast!". Well, out she went to another tank, STAT!

Can't wait to go home tonight and check them all out. And hopefully this will be the last litter for the big girls, for a while. I'd love to pair them with my red male but really, I'm running out of space!

Lady Lydia's Journal

January 1, 2009

The Keeper has moved us to our new house today. Oh, excuse me, I guess I should introduce "us". I am Lady Lydia, a Comet Gold Fish and my mate is Pinkie, also a gold fish, although I suspect he may be just a common one. Pinkie is a little fellow but very sweet.

As I was saying, we were moved to our new home. It is lovely! Lots more room to swim and stretch our fins. Though I must say the first couple of days it was rather intimidating. So very bright and colourful compared to our old home. And that strange sound coming from one corner... I was quite frightened but having our old furnishings helped me relax. Pinkie and I found a great little spot to hide and sleep in. Right behind our old rock, under the plants. No one can see us there.

It was indeed a perfect way to start the new year. We are quite comfortable now and race around in the evening when feeding time is coming. The Keeper always brings us some goodies and she has done something to that awful noise - it's not there anymore. Just a soothing sound of water gently cascading into our tank.

Welcome to Life In A Fishbowl.

Hello and welcome to my new blog, Life in a Fish Bowl. I'm hoping to write about and document life in my aquariums. Keeping fish is a new hobby for me but I must admit I have become addicted very quickly and now suffer from a full blown MTS (Multiple Tank Syndrome).

It all started with three little gold fish I purchased to keep the mosquito larva down in a small outdoor fountain. My children named them Lady Lydia, Brutus and Prince Paris. Sadly, the original three were attacked by a racoon one night and only Lady Lydia survived, minus a few scales.

That day I immediately moved Lady Lydia (LL) to a small aquarium indoors and my fish keeping education started in earnest. I started reading like crazy in an effort to make sure LL was healthy and happy. I had no idea the amount of knowledge I'd have to absorb but, thanks to the internet, somehow my education progressed.

Alas, even though her aquarium conditions were good, Lydia looked lonely. After a few months we decided to get her a mate - Pinkie. He is much smaller than Lydia and almost entirey pink. He does have some faint orange colouring, but it's hard to see sometimes. I say "he" but the truth is, I have no idea whether either one of them is male or female. I'm not even sure if one can tell. For all I know Lady Lydia is a male and Pinkie is a girl...

While LL was still living outside with her original two friends, my son has talked me into getting a Betta, or Siamese Fighting Fish. Well, these guys looks so pathetic in a pet store, kept in tiny little bottles, that I had a hard time refusing. So Bubbles came home with us.

A friend of ours once kept a Betta in a cool (or so I thought then) setup - in a large glass vase, with a peace lily stuck at the top. We put Bubbles in a similar vase. But he did not look happy and, after more internet research, I discovered how cruel such a setup is. So off we run to the pet store again, to purchase a whole aquarium with all the amenities (filter, heater, thermometer). A few hours later Bubbles was inspecting his very own "house" - a 2.5 Gal aquarium we put in our kitchen. Soon he was making bubble nests like crazy (which is a very good indication of high spirits for a Betta) and chasing away imaginary rivals who appeared in a mirror we put against the side of his aquarium.

But of course, my son wanted something "of his very own", in his own room. He's heard stories of the first fish I kept more than 20 yrs ago - fancy guppies. He wanted them as well and one day, while visiting a local pet store, he wore me down and talked me into getting another aquarium and some fancy guppies. We came home with 4 females and 2 males. At this point, well, what was the point? We also got some neons (4), Otocinclus, or Otos (4), and Long fin Bristlenose Pleco named Freckles. Just this past week we also purchased some Amano (Japonica) shrimp to help with the cleanup in the two larger aquariums.

We very quickly discovered that Guppies breed like bunnies and I decided to implement a bit of birth control... Namely, we planned on separating males from females. I set up a large tank, cycled it for over a month, planted it even (my first experience with under water gardens - and that's a story all on its own) and, when all the parameters were ok, we moved our boys into their own digs. They love it!!!

At some point I became unhappy with the small tank Bubbles was in (our Betta) and set another large tank in the kitchen. We moved him in and then added some of the Guppy girls in small increments. Bubbles was not impressed at first but got used to them very quickly and now pretty much ignores them, except when they try to steal his Betta Bits food. He lunges at it to get it first.

The best part of fishkeeping? Things are never boring. There is always something going on. Be it problems, funny stuff or just everyday fish life - it's all interesting. And I find I can sit in front of an aquarium and just observe the fish for hours. It's very relaxing.

So, I'm going to share here what I learn and observe and hope that anyone who reads this blog will enjoy it as well.