Starting over...(South American Biotope)

Well apparently I'm starting over with my 55 gallon tank...

What happened was I missed a water change one week, and wasn't able to do it until the next week.  Meaning my NitrAtes were getting out of control.  Then my guppies started dying.  I was keeping up with water changes again by then, but it wasn't enough to get the Nitrates down far enough, and keep them there. So my guppies continued dying.  Then last week, Zip died (RIP!), and I got the advice to start doing daily water changes to bring down the Nitrates.  The last four or five days I haven't been able to, so yesterday I lost a guppy (Yuki), a platy (Elena), and Muddy.  Today all I have left: 3 guppies, 4 platys, and my sister's 3 snails.

I've decided that I'm going to re-model, and do a biotope.  Meaning I'm going to try and make my tank as much like the fish's natural habitat as possible.  I'm doing a South American Rio Meta, and Orinoco rivers biotope.  My current stocking list is:
1-2 L444 Pleco(s)
6-8 Bandit Corys (A.K.A. Rio Meta Corys!)
8-10 Glowlight Tetras (if my sister decides to get rid of them), or 10-12 Cardinal Tetras
Malaysian Trumpet snails (though not from South America...)
And I also want a "center piece" fish, but I'm not sure what yet.
If I can get away with it I'm thinking about (for more exact stocking):
1 L444 Pleco
8 Bandit Corys
8 Glowlight Tetras
10 Cardinal Tetras
1 "Center piece" fish (possibly some kind of South American Cichlid)

So far plants I'm using are:
Red Cabomba
Duckweed
Amazon Swords
Christmas moss

Other decorations I'm using are:
Rocks, I want more, and I want some different ones.  I'm probably going to get some redish ones, and some more dark grey ones, but I don't really like the lighter ones I have.
Wood.  I'm going to try and find an oak log, and hollow it out before treating it, if I can.  I might hollow it after, but I want a hollow log for them!

Other than the dead fish my fish are doing good.  I've decided to remodel Damien's tank again, but I'm going to do a South Asian biotope with him! Though the shark is staying... :)

(This was part 1 of my South American biotope journal)

RIP

I've lost 2 fish in as many months.  Tara, on of my platys, died a few days ago.  I have been really busy lately so I couldn't clean the tank out as much as I'd like, and with the crowding she got really sick.  Lexi is also sick, but tomorrow I'm going to do another major water change.  Other than that here's a quick update.

Kathrine still has not given birth as far as I've seen, but she must have at least once since I got her, meaning they've been eating all of the babies... Lexi's been too sick I think, even with daily, or every other day water changes her condition only gets a little better then worse that night, I'm going to leave her in the quarantine tank when I get the big tank until she's better.  Elena, Rosie, and Scarlet are all about the same size now, and Elena doesn't seem to be growing anymore.  Tara is still small, but she's bigger than when I got her! I added Elijah back in with the girls so maybe he'll eat, he's already much more active, chasing them around.  He is afraid of Zip though, and every time he chases Lexi Zip swims over and scares him away! Zip's tail is growing back!! Yay! Muddy loves his cave, and I now have some algae growing on a seashell in the tank that he's been eating.  Stefan, and Damon are happy guppies, and at some point I will have four or more females to go with them! 

Still don't have the 55 Gallon tank, but I have tons of rocks for it, and sand.  I just need the plants, and I was recently given a gift card to my local pet store so those will be taken care of soon enough :)

That's it for today's update!

Zip the Gourami

Hey everybody!

Nearly two weeks ago I got a golden Gourami named Zip!

Zip once had a friend (a twin!) named Zipper.  He also had two silver Gourami friends named Romeo, and Juliet, and one kissing Gourami friend named Jaws.  Slowly, one by one all of Zip's friends died, and so Zip's owners decided to get rid of him, and his big 55 Gallon tank.  Then he went to his new owner's house and lives with a bunch of platys, and a catfish.  the end.

That's Zip's story! I haven't gotten the 55 Gallon tank yet, I'm still working on the supplies.  I have sand, I'm still working on rocks, and I need to buy plants.  First I'm going to sketch out an Aquascape plan! This should be a lot of fun!

Other fish update: No Platys have given birth THAT I SAW.  They may have, and then eaten their babies... Eli still hasn't eaten anything since I put him in the guppy tank that I've seen.  Emmett Flare died Thursday night RIP.  He was apparently the oldest, and he's the one who might have had SBD.  Muddy I haven't seen eating either, but they're both still alive, so I think they're eating something!

That's it! :)

The sadest thing to ever happen to me fishwise

I am not going to be remodeling Zoey's tank anytime soon.

I've had fish die before, and it's always sad.  What happened to Zoey is the sadest, weirdest thing that's ever happened to my fish.  She disapeared. 

I've heard betta fish are jumpers, but I've never had a betta fish that jumped before.  There are two places where she could have jumped out of the tank, one is almost impossible, but it's also more likely.  One is in the back of the tank, and she'd have a hard time getting around the stuff on that shelf.  The other one is the little hole that is used for feeding, it's really small.  She was small enough that she could've fit through it, if you read my other blog "The Halfmoon Vampire", you'll know that I also have a dog, and a cat, either of which could've grab Z if she got to my floor.

The reason it's the sadest things that has ever happened to me fishwise is that I don't know what happened to her, there are a lot of possibilities.