Fish Tank Mayhem

Okay - officially the bad parts about having a tank are outweighing the good parts.  Even though the water is perfect according to my testing - with the chemicals not with the strips - and to the pet store who tested it for me - there must be something - a disease or bacteria of some kind that is causing issues.

Yesterday I pulled Cousteau and SteveIrwin out of the tank and put them in the old tank with new water with nothing in there with them - no gravel, no ornaments - just fish and water.  Evidently it wasn't soon enough for Cousteau and he was dead when I got up this morning.  RIP little catfish.  Thankfully SteveIrwin is doing better.  When he was in the big tank he was laying on the bottom and his fins were clamped up tight against his body.  In the small tank with new water he is resting for sure but not laying on the bottom.  His fins aren't clamped and a bit ago I got his leaf hammock which he loves out of the old tank.  I sterilized his hammock in boiling water before it went in his new tank.

I checked on him a bit ago and he was resting on his leaf.  I am cautiously optimistic that he is on the road to recovery.

As for the other tank - I think it's destined for the garage - I will sterilize all of the ornaments and silk plants. SteveIrwin will likely be an only fish going forward...ugh.

Ammonia Spike

It's all coming back to me now - the trials and tribulations of having a fish tank.  Its quite a lot of pressure actually - if you screw it up too badly then you have little fish deaths on your conscience - which really stinks.

When I got home from our morning walk I fed the fishes and proceeded to test their water.  Wowser - the ammonia was high!!  This prompted a pretty healthy water change, a thorough vacuuming of the gravel, changing the filter and turning up the aeration.  That seemed to work as ll the numbers are back to normal tonight - thank goodness.

I was very conservative when I fed them tonight - no excess to drive up the numbers again.  The fish all seem to be doing great - they are active and seem to be settled in.  SteveIrwin has gotten over his need to bully the new roomies.  I am glad he is not chasing poor BettyWhite all over the place any longer.  They all seem to be getting along quite well.

Tomorrow morning I will test again to make sure everything is okay...

The Magic Sponge

I ordered the best aquarium thing EVER!  The other day I was telling my husband that cycling a fish tank was such a pain that we should start a business where people could buy fish ready water for their tanks.  Well - low and behold I was looking online at the different readings from my tank and I ran across a link to a place called Angels Plus.  This place sells beautiful angel fish (which I did not order - be proud) but they also sell the magic sponge.

I ordered on of these sponge filters - they had it in their already established, cycled, happy tanks and the good bacteria that you need in a fish tank is already living on the filter.  They overnight it to you and you put it in your tank attached to a bubbler and voila - almost instant happy tank water.  I really mean it - it took less than 24 hours for the reading in my tank to go to optimum.

Like I said - best fish tank item EVER!

Now that the water is healthy - of course - JackHanna seems to have something going on with his fins - so I am off to research that.  The trials and tribulations of aquariums....

SteveIrwin gets an Upgrade and New Roomies

A few years ago I was an avid aquarium keeper having several tanks in several sizes.  I decided that since I would likely never put the top on the small tank I had SteveIrwin in (it would not allow my daily interaction with him) that I would move him to a larger tank.  I dug around the garage and laid my hands on an old 10 gallon aquarium from many moons ago.  After much scrubbing it was squeaky clean and ready for SteveIrwin and his stuff.

I am able to fit all of his ornaments and several real and silk plants for him to play and snooze in.  So - in he goes.  He seems to like it - but its so big and just one fish in there seems so lonely so - off to the pet store to find him some roomies for him.

Meet JackHanna the balloon bellied molly.  He is a teensy bit neurotic (don't tell him I said so) and he is very excited by his own reflection.  He has mellowed in the last couple of days thankfully and I think he is settling in.  SteveIrwin does not seem particularly interested in JackHanna and they coexist quite peacefully.

Meet Cousteau the cory catfish.  He is a cute little devil that cleans up after the others, keeping the floor of the aquarium and the tank ornaments squeaky clean.  So far he is doing a bang up job. SteveIrwin is much more interested in Cousteau and he follows him around.  He is not aggressive towards him - just interested.

So far life in the new tank seems good and SteveIrwin seems happy!  As for his little tank - I am thinking some African Dwarf Frogs in there and starting up the plants...stay tuned for more fishy updates....