My blue blushing and gold(both veils) are set up in the 35g. Getting rid of four or five pb plats as they aren't up to breeding standards as well as a blushing half black veil with a bent dorsal fin. The fish from Damon are doing well. Genes/strain type include: -> 3 Blue zebras with gold gene (pb/pb) Mike Gibbs stock -> 3 Pinoy zebras (pb/pb) Pat Thobe stock -> 1Pinoy clown (pb/pb) M. Gibbs stock -> 1Pinoy zebra(pb/pb) M. Gibbs stock 
-> 7 Rainbow Paraiba fry(pb/pb) some may be Pinoy as there is at least one dark gene. Parents were from Neil Oyama and Carol.


I placed an order with City of Angels (Pete) for 3 blue koi and 3 paraiba koi which are all threadfins. I am also bidding on some lavender het pb leopards on aquabid. 

Ordered 4 turq. blushers from blacklace22 which will shipped when the weather warms

A pair of whiptails and a pair of farlowellas were released from quarantine and placed inside the 125 gallon. I will supply various sized caves for them in the hopes they will spawn.

My Hemichromis lifillae (jewel cichlids) have spawn a few times but not raised the fry successfully yet. One jumped out a few nights ago but my mother saw him and threw him back in. She was a bit disturbed but the little guy lived!

Setting up a 55 gallon that I recieved for Christmas. It will be heavily planted with an inch and a half of top soil covered with an inch or two of sand. I will be putting the carpet in and only leaving a bit of water to keep the soil moist as it grows out. I am not using any co2 but a method that I found on theplantedtank.com and the Aquarium USA. Plants will be ordered from azgardens. I want to try V. maasi once the tank is complete (forktail loach) and attempt spawning them despite the fact it hasn't been done before. Once they get settled in I may add angelfish and use a divider in case the loaches decide to breed. 

Learning more about angelfish genes. My gold female is a g/p-v/z I believe. I've also learning that her mate which is a blushing smokey has a blue iridescent due to fecal matter? Supposedly its a type of pigmentation. I'm not totally convinced on that one. My black angelfish is a hybrid black. I'm guessing B/M because it has a white streak near its belly (which I heard also happens on black angelfish so I may be incorrect). I'd appreciate any input or further knowledge as I'm going to be breeding angelfish more often with new varieties.

My hemichromis lifalili are getting more red coloration.
I don't believe I've mentioned my Discus colors but I have 2 orange (one is paler with freckles), two striped snake skin, and a blue.
I've added some pictures of the angels and the discus if you'd care to look. They aren't the best pictures.

I now have a blue discus and ten new angelfish.

The new angelfishes' genes are as followed(in case I lose them)
6 Blue Platinums<Blue Parents. Genes- Philipphine Blue, Platinum, Pearlscale.
 I believe I purchased them from Micheal Jarvis? (Have the bags mixed up already). In any case, they are quite lovely little guys.

The other angels were 1/2 black blushing angels purchased from Gary Mclivaine. They have excellent fins.
I do believe the discus was from Jack.

I came out of the auction with much success and only a loss of 50 dollars. Right now, I have the angelfish in my 50 gallon as I wait for them to grow out a little. They're in there with 5 adolescent discus so there's been quite frequent water changes. I want them to be big enough to prevent my other angels from picking on them in the 125 gallon.
I'll soon be purchasing a 35 gallon that I plan to plant and use as a breeding/quarantine tank. Hopefully my spawning success rate will increase.
Aside from wanting to add an additional tank for apistos, I'd like to breed honey gouramis soon and hopefully will be getting some more stunning angelfish from Damonc. Ah, the excitement fish bring me.
On another note, I have planted tanks that I want to add more plants to. I've noticed most people have special equipment. Would that be needed? My plants seem fine without it.  

Everyone has been so helpful on here! I'm so glad I've joined. I'd like to thank everyone for the black angelfish tip. I mentioned to the lovely owner I'd heard she'd gotten them in from here and she seemed really pleased. She showed me her membership flyer from 1977! Wow! I could only afford two, but I'm praying they'll get along with my other angels and pair up so I can have some black fry!

My 6 cichlids I bought from the swap are doing really well, their bellies are nice and round after feeding them brine shrimp today. The one discus I bought to add to the other three seems to be a female, as the males are displaying which leaves me with 2 adolescent pairs on my hands! What luck! I am concerned however as she's very jumpy, tends to remain in a single corner and won't eat (even blood worms). Still adjusting? :/

This leaves my 125 gallon planted tank with 6 cichlid fry from the swap, 4 kuhlis (of which I hope to add to), 4 yo-yo loaches, 1 indawgyi stream catfish, 4 angels counting the new two.

My 50 gallon planted now has two pairs of discus (various strains) and two threadfins who I just can't seem to spawn with a fake mop. (Extra java moss anyone?)

--Now for some dwarf cichlids and eels!
Special thanks to everyones help on here!

Today I noticed my two largest angels cleaning off a large clump of the radican marble queen sword leaves and their breeding tubes are dropped and ready to go.  It's a shame, because when I noticed it I had just finished cleaning out the cabinet under the tank so I could hook up the Fluval 404.  I also need to vacuum.  I am afraid if I try either I will disturb them.  I'm not putting a whole lot of faith in their success though.  With nearly two dozen tetra and four other angels I don't think these two have gotten intimidating enough to prevent the eggs from getting snacked on.  

This is the second time I have witnessed the angels spawn.  The first was four weeks ago when they spawned on the intake tube of the Emperor 400.  The tetras had an elaborate system of distracting the parents and picking off the eggs which in turn caused the parents to eat the remaining eggs.  Ahhh nature. 

Meanwhile in the same tank the male Montezuma Swords are still performing their courtship dance. I am amazed at their ease and speed when they swim backwards and their ability to contort their bodies at 90 degree angles.  Who knew fish were so flexible   And like a good girl, the female still appears to be ignoring them. Her gravid spot had darkened but it has pretty nearly disappeared since so apparently she was pregnant and dropped fry but they were eaten.  I doubt they could have survived since there is no moss or similarly fine plant matter for them to hide in.  So it looks like it will be another month or so before I get another chance at Monty fry.

And finally, this tank has significantly fewer pond snails since the introduction of assassin snails a couple months ago.  Those guys are amazing.  I had to quit harvesting snails from the big tank for fear that the assassins would run out of their food source! 

Man, it's been a while since my last blog.  Looks like it's been a long time since anyone else has been blogging.  Maybe we can change that.

The biggest news in the Bolen Fishroom is the fact that I've emptied four 20 gallon tanks, two 55 gallon tanks, and four 10 gallon tanks in anticipation for the Spring collecting season.  I'm looking forward to collecting in a few spots, namely, my parent's stream near Emporia, KS; then a place that Jeremy (Peanut_Power) has told me about, and maybe NW Arkansas or SW Missouri, if I have time.  Mainly looking for darters or other smallish fish; although I am looking to acquire a couple of pairs of Longear Sunfish.

Other new things in the fishroom include spawns from Apistogramma agassizi "double red" (ate their eggs), Apistogramma eunotus (Orangeshwanz), and Apistogramma schwarzkinn "black chin".

We did a group order from aquariumplants.com and I got tons of crypts, swords, and vals for pretty darn cheap.

I'm also ordering SIXTEEN 75 gallon tanks here in the next week from L&L Pets in Emporia, although, I won't be setting them up for several months, maybe even a year, until I have enough time to build the new fishroom in the garage.

The auction was GREAT.  I didn't have the opportunity to buy anything because I was working the registration/check out table, but still had a great time.  I sold almost 50 fish, which was an attempt to clear out the tanks listed above.

All in all, I'm happy with where I'm at in my hobby.  And I'm super stoked about spring on it's way!

Thanks for stopping by!

Bb

After a month and a half of ordering odds and ends equipment, planning, replanning, surfing the internet and replanning again I finally just decided to jump in.  My main plan for the tank was to set it up for my angels so I decided on an Amazon biotope.

Last week I set the tank up, cleaned all the components that came with the tank, gravel, aquarium decor.  I put together the new light fixture, tried to map out where everything was going to be plugged in - the basic stuff.

Wednesday  the boys and I went to House of Rocks and picked up some rocks then we swung by Home Depot to pick up terra cotta dishes to anchor driftwood and egg crate to elevate the rocks.  When we got home I couldn't find the masonry drill bit.  I also realized one of the rocks I bought was too wide for what I wanted so the project was stalled there.

Thursday we picked up some amazon sword from Jack and went to Home Depot again.  I  picked up a blade to cut the rock and a masonry drill bit.  It didn't take too long to put everything together, maybe an hour or two, but when I went to fill it up both of our outside hoses were frozen.  I ended up using 5 gallon Homer buckets!  Tony helped by using a pitcher while I used the buckets.  30 minutes in I told him he could stop but he said he didn't want to because it is about time we put some fish in there.  lol.  When I told him no fish for a week he brought me a bathtub fish toy to add.  I explained why that wouldn't be a good idea.

Of course at this time the filter didn't work.  I took it apart again and realized I didn't have the impeller engaged completely.  Thirteen  hours later the tank is running.  I went to sleep hoping the filter wouldn't quit or the aquarium wouldn't spring a leak.

Here are some pics.  It looks very vacant.  I am going in on the plant order next week so hopefully this time next week I will be able to post photos of the completely planted tank   I'm going to read up on fishless cycling too so I don't know if it will have swimmy residents next week or not.  I know I am not going to do huge, daily 50% water changes until I have a trash can on a dolly and a hose attachment for my bathroom sink.

Here is the overall tank:
[img]http://sites.google.com/site/auroraphoenix/home/75 gal.JPG[/img]

The left side.  The driftwood has java fern attached.  The plant on the far left and center are water sprite.  Behind the rock wall I plan to put A. Reinecki for a splash or reddish/green and add some stargrass to the right of the driftwood.
[img]http://sites.google.com/site/auroraphoenix/home/75 gal left.JPG[/img]

This is the right side of the tank.  My mom found the driftwood at the lake this past weekend.  Ignore the big rocks weighing it down, I didn't soak it long enough and once the water got 3/4 up the driftwood it started to float   Anyway, it also has java fern attached and the tall and shorter plants behind the driftwood are swords.  The short ones will eventually grow too huge for three to take up the space if Jack's are any indication of what size they will grow to, but for now I have three.  I am going to order a couple more of the taller swords and some smaller foreground plants.  [img]http://sites.google.com/site/auroraphoenix/home/75 gal rt.JPG[/img]

I know, too much info for my first journal entry.  If you are still reading, thanks for hanging in there

So began the second month.  We'd already learned that tanks have to be cycled.  And we had already gone through 4 fish.  Fish keeping might very well be the hardest thing since finals week in college.  We contemplated giving up the hobby, but my personalty wouldn't let me give in so easily.

We decide to wait a week without fish, to give the tank a chance to "heal", whatever that means.  A week passes, and so back to the pet store we go.  I pick a mostly black dalmation molly and Meredith picks a sunburst platy.  We decide to start small, we'll get just two fish.

Two weeks go by, the fish are doing well, we decided to add a couple more.  This time I go alone.  I pick a mostly white dalmation molly, a silver (white) molly, and an all-black molly.  I was afraid to mix it up too much since I didn't know much about fish compatibility.

Our ten gallon tank is up and running, algae is forming on the glass, and according to "the google" that means it has successfully cycled.  Woo hoo!  Nothing to worry about now.  Everything remains status quo for the next few weeks, until one day we come home from work.  The day was July 4th (yes we both worked on July 4th.  It's a long story).  Anyway, when we got home from work and what do we see in the tank but a bunch of little tiny tadpoles, some yellowish-orange ones and a bunch of little grayish clear ones.  Wait! Those aren't tadpoles, they're babies!

Oh, I can't begin to describe Meredith's excitement.  I didn't know fish would reproduce in captivity.  How is this possible?  Google becomes my best friend for the next two hours.  I learn all kinds of interesting things, like the type of fish we have are called "livebearers" they don't lay eggs, and you can tell the males from the females by looking for the gonadopodium, and you need a breeder box or a breeder's net to take care of babies and ensure they don't get eaten.

The next day we rush off to the pet store to buy a breeder box.  Rush right home, get out the net and start fishing for fry.  Those little buggars are quick!  We determine the only way we're going to get them out is if we remove the ornaments.  I rush to the garage, get a bucket, and rush back in as if I were a kid running down the stairs to get my presents from Santa on Christmas.  First the rocks then the plants, then we pluck the babies and put them in their new home.  All told, 4 yellowish-orange ones and 12 grayish-white ones. 

I read online that if you take some flake food and crush it into a fine powder, you can feed it to with the tip of a pencil or a toothpick.  Like a proud papa, I keep watch, feeding them daily, being sure to take care of the little ones.

Lessons Learned:

1) Fish can have babies in captivity, they're called "fry".
2) Some fish "give birth", they're called "livebearers".
3) Fry are fast!
4) Fry can be fed crushed flake food.
5) Fry need a safe place so they don't get eaten.
6) Livebearers can be sexed by examining them for gonadopodium.  Livebearers with more of a fan-shaped anal fin are females, those with a more pointy anal fin are males.

I had an aquarium as a kid.  As I recall, it was a 10-gallon, I had three small fish, and I don't really remember which type of fish I had.  As I recall, I knew absolutely nothing about fishkeeping.  I likely overfed them and neglected their water and upkeep.

So roughly 25 years later, with my Fiancee in tow, we decide to look at the fish at Walmart.  Instantly, I fall in love with a beautiful pictus catfish, and she with a flowing blue betta.  Still knowing absolutely nothing about fishkeeping, we purchase a very small (quarter gallon?) betta bowl with a built-in divider. 

We take our prizes home, fill the tank, and put the betta in one side and the pictus in the other.  I wanted to learn more about my pictus, so I did some googling, where I soon found out I was already way in over my head.  This betta bowl was FAR too small to keep a pictus.  So, I pull an old 1-gal glass jar out of the closet, treat some water, and my pictus just gained 8x as much real-estate.

We kept our fish status quo for about two weeks, when I convince the Fiancee, the pictus doesn't look happy.  So off to Walmart we go.  45-minutes later, we're back home opening our brand new 10-gallon aquarium.  I open the box, the glass is broken all on one side.  So back to Walmart we go.  After a successful exchange, we're off to the races.

Fast forward a couple weeks, the poor betta didn't make it in it's little betta bowl.  But the pictus is doing fabulous all by itself in the 10-gallon.  But it looks lonely.  So off to Petco.  Meredith picks a dwarf gourami, and I pick a second pictus.  This will be good, Spot (the name I gave the first pictus) has a new friend named Rover (going with a dog's name theme), and Poseidon the dwarf gourami will keep watch.

About 4 days pass, the gourami gets very sick, has white spots.  We rush to the store for meds, but it's too late, Poseidon expires.  We continue to treat, but don't know what to think, one day later, Rover follows with Spot going soon after.  What could possibly be the problem.  Spirits are down, maybe we should give up pet fish.  The inquisitive mind in me, decides to read online about what may have caused the white spots and all of the fish to die.  Cycling?  What could fish possibly have to do with the Tour de France?

Off to the pet store, let's buy a water quality testing kit.  OHHH, so ammonia needs to be zero, nitrites zero, and nitrates around 2 and that'll be the all clear for adding new fish!  This really seems complicated at first... but after a while, it becomes clear it's purely a matter of patience.... Wade and patience don't mix.

Lessons Learned:

1) Know the requirements of the fish you buy.
2) Do your homework... tanks have to cycle.
3) If at first you don't succeed.... blah blah blah... don't give up.
4) Don't name your fish, it'll just break your heart.

It's been a busy couple of weeks since the last time I posted.  I had a real nice Bolivian Ram spawn.  The mother was doing great, but I got paranoid she was eating the wigglers, so I stole most of them and placed them in a 10 gallon.  They started jumping yesterday, but I went to the fishroom this morning and they were all dead.  She did eat all of her fry in the community tank as well.   Next time, I'm letting her parent raise until the fry are free swimming.  I say once they are freeswimming, they should be ok.  The apisto fry are doing great.  The double red agassizi age her wigglers, but I have two females in that tank, and both are gravid.  Should have eggs shortly.  The other apistos look like they are on the verge of, if not have already, spawning.

The fishroom got down to 68 degrees while we were gone, which wasn't good.  Might have lost power, but not able to tell.  The digital thermometer I have measures lows and highs for the past 48 hours...I've since put some plastic up across an open wall, and the fishroom is a comfy 75.

Hope everyone has a safe and fun New Year.   2009 has been great, looking forward 2010.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bb