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! 

YAY! It's the new year.  Maybe that means new fish for some people.

Hope you dudes had a kewl holiday and a have GREAT new year!

I've used blogs before when I was breeding livebearers...hybrids actually, trying to improve certain traits. I fell out of the habit so perhaps this will help me remember. I've recently joined the Kansas City fish club. I've had fish since I was 6 (I'm currently 14), but I started keeping/breeding fish as a serious hobby about a year and a half earlier. My current tank contains: 3 anubias, well-developed wisteria plants (which I'm debating replacing because it looks a bit too much like a jungle for my tastes though recently I trimmed most of the unkempt features off and it has improved), seven molly-guppy hybrids, a mated pair of angelfish, 4 yo-yo loaches, 3 clown loaches (still pretty young) from Sumatra, 2 dojo loaches that spawned in the fall though unfortunantely I could not get the eggs to hatch(my theory is that they spawn in top-plants when a lot of fresh air is circulated near the tank, though others claim they scatter eggs on the ground, mine never did), an Indawgwi stream catfish(Akysis prashadi), a red eye tetra, and a red- tailed shark. Rocks from Jack's Fork and Current river along with a bit of red slate carve out many hiding places. The tank is 125 gallons. I keep the temperature at 79 degrees, the filter is a Rena Filstar xP3. I keep the pH nuetral and have two lightbulbs which are 18k aqua-glow that I leave on around 12 hours a day. My fish are fed on frozen bloodworms, frozen shrimp, freeze-dried shrimp & bloodworms, shrimp pellets, two diffrent kinds of algae wafers (one is Hikari, the other Wardley), the occasional treat of cuccumber or zuchinni, and rarely Omega One. The floor of my tank is gravel and was started in October 2008. I'm beginning to breed angelfish. Soon I will also be breeding Red Lizardtail Whiptails, Discus, various Dwarf Cichlids, and possibly a few others along the way. (I'm a dork enough to have made a list.) I do many other things besides keep fish, but it does seem to be an addicting hobby for me

Aaaah, today has been a busy day.

Started out on a trip to Lawrence to PetWorld for their semi annual sale.  I was second in line at 9:30; the store opens at 10:00.   I tried bribing the two kid brothers that were in front of me, for a dollar, to let me cut in front of them.  They said "no way!".  Nice to see that kind of enthusiasm in the youth.  Of course once the doors opened, they were aghast at the cookies on the table by the entrance...so I strode right past them to the fish area.

Saw a lot of great deals and passed some by.  I'm kicking myself for not getting the congo tetras, zebra danios, and white clouds...but oh well.  Ended up with four Bolivian rams, ten Black Phantom Tetras, four Metae corydoras, and six Skunk corydoras.   Didn't buy any plants or hard goods, but there were decent deals.  Thanks PetWorld for the great time.

Ended the day with the HAAS Christmas party.  It was nice to see alot of the regular folks and a few newer faces.  It's difficult times both economically and just planning things around in general; smaller crowd but it was fun.   Randy and Jenny (sorry if I misspelled your name) got a life time achievement award; which I'm sure both of them were excited and deserving of.  That was really cool.

The white christmas gift exchange went relatively mildly; not much stealing except for some discus.  I scored a L180 pleco.  Not sure what the heck it is, but it's alive and in a quarantine tank for now...so we'll see.   Thanks for bringing that DaveW and sharing that passion.

Time to go for now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bb

Well, whats been going on in my fish room, i shipped java moss...for the 1st time kinda scared not sure if it froze hope not...all the baby angelfish are growing really well...i have some DD blacks that look real real good i cant wait til summer time and they start pairing up..i bought some amazon swords so far so good...i made a co2 thing..thats working good also...and i made a blue light which cost me under $5 which i will blog about it maybe utube..i have been making a lot of utube videos..i like it its fun..didnt get a whole lot of things for black friday..i am adopting a family for xmas well 3 kids...Oh one cool thing my parents bought a lake house so i will be fishing all summer...well i might blog later this month if im not busy...but everyone have a safe and fun holiday...

Peace

This is an interesting week.  This is my first week of my "vacation", or as my wife would call it, months of honey do's.  I will have plenty of time to work on the fishroom but also have to do Debbie's list and the house chores.

Up this week:  got some corydoras schwartzi and corydoras sterbai from Woo.  Other than that, no new acquisitions.  Picked up a couple of 10's from Roger, so we'll be incorporating that shortly.  Added a 55 from Dave, and will be adding filtration to that soon.  After I bap out my africans in my other 55, I'll clear those out and have two 55s for grow out.

Excited for the holidays to pass because I have more fish I want to order.  Specifically, some more cories and apistos.   In terms of wild fish from the southern hemisphere, this is their best collecting time...just when it's the worst shipping time on our side...so will have to work around that.

Good to see a large crowd at the last auciton, I think 40+?

Gotta go do some water changes now.

Bb

Well a ton has changes i sold all my Angelfish, long story short a guy found me on aqua bid and asked if i had an adult angelfish and i said yes he came by and offered me something i couldnt say no to (damn college is expensive)so are girlfriends lol...so now i have an empty 75 gallon, to 20gallons, 40 tall....all i have is my guppies in the 55gallon, and a common pleco and the 75gallon i thought about sell or selling if anyone would trade for the pleco not sure about this idea yet and getting discus or new angelfish...or just getting something new, i do plan on redo my setup by putting the 75 gallon on bottom of my 55 gallon and making a double stand...not sure about it yet but i have empty tanks.if anyone has any idea im might do it..the discus is the idea not sure what kind or how much they even cost but they would be worth it...like i said good or bad...well i well keep you guys posted on what happened or what i pick

Well i have been super busy, went to the swap wasnt really looking to buy anything my girlfriend was looking for discus help me...well an update on the angelfish and everything else. My guppies are doing great just being guppies my angelfish, well as you all know i bought two pairs of platinum pearlscale angelfish, well i posted of aquabid, my auction went for $161 i was so pumped i sent the invoice and that gives whom ever wins my auctions 4days to pay so i could ship out any time in the week, well monday rolled around and the guy never emailed me or nothing i sent an email asking if the wanted the fish or planed on buying them or anything i get a emailing saying that her husband was sick and if i could wait and what not, i said nice sorry you only have till thursday giving them an extra 4 days to pay..i check aquabid all the time to see if i can get a good deal well i see that he or she posted on other fish, i replied nice well i noticed you posted fish just keep in mind that you have till thursday to pay the fish and that if you dont i will leave neg feedback. they right back saying they have been doing fish since like million years and that my fish are crap and stop harassing them..i kindly write back saying its not a harassment its a fact if you dont pay i will leave neg feedback, thursday rolled around i got $100 in my paypal that was only half because you would still have to pay shipping and all..they said it was a down payment i said when will i get the rest of the money they said sunday..i said sure whatev, they then say they dont want to fish they look like crap..so i leave my feedback and repost them kinda suxs but i reposted them and they spawned again and have some more babies..i might make a video on how they are doing and what not the other pair has still not spawned...should have sold them oh well..i will keep you post on what happens to that pair and the other pair..as for as babies tey are fat and eating..i will try and make a video later 2nite and post both videos..

video 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYrzAaeYgwY

Everyone in the tank is doing awesome.  The PN are growing like crazy and I have two males that are really starting to color up.  I am either going to have 4 males and 2 females or 5 males and 1 female.  I may have to order some more to try and get females.  The Zebra Obliquedens are doing great also.  I haven't put a divider in because it seems like everyone is keeping to themselves and the coloration is different enough I don't think they will cross.  We will see.  Anyhow here are a couple of pics from the tank.

Clint

The tank

One of the male ZO

Couple pics of the male PN

Well i have been super duper busy with school work school work..heres the update, i put one of the platinum pearlscale pair on aqua bid thinking i would just make like $50 and make my money back no problem..well the auction needs in 3 days i think well the pair is at like $160 wow cant believe it..its pretty cool and that pair also spawned for me..pretty cool, i started making youtube videos cause i figured i would try it and so far im getting better i think, i plan on making it to the swap dont really have anything to sell but i could buy =)..i think i might video tape it and put it on my utube channel..not sure yet any thought ideas on that would be great..i will keep people posted if i dont blog i might just make videos and upload them it seems easier heres the utube videos if anyone is intersted..im still learning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfZZczhE79c

just click on my youtube thing and i have more videos..hope you guys enjoy if anyone wants a video made on something let me know or if you have any thoughts on making the videos better, i know i say um and sound nervous still getting the hang of things.