POTM, 65 gallon, new project, and more!

Alright, I know it's been way to long since my last post.  Sorry, I'm just horrible at keeping up with posting on my blog.  (February 2012 was the most recent post on any of my other blogs, I'm doing good here!)

First some exciting news.  I found a $30 65 gallon tank at goodwill last month! Which I, of course, bought.  This is going to be my South American Biotope now.
Eventually it will have this stocking:
Plants:
Amazon Sword
Green Cabomba
Water Sprite
Dwarf Hairgrass
Dwarf Pennywort
Jungle Vallisneria (Red if I can find it!)
Fish:
2 Bolivian Rams
10 Glowlight tetras
10 Rummynose tetras
1 Angelfish
8 Corydoras Melini
2 Albino Bristlenose Plecos

My 55 gallon tank will be my Platy breeding project! I am going to divide it three ways - Males, Females, and Fry.

Lastly (for now) I am entering my family dog into the POTM (Pet of the Month) competition on the Fish Forum :)  Here are the pictures

 Isn't she cute?? :)

55 Filled!

  The 55 Gallon is officially full! Tonight I'm going to get ammonia and start the cycle.  This should be interesting.  I went to get some more plants today, I got El Nino fern, but apparently it's like Java fern and needs to be planted on a decoration, which I didn't want, so I gave it to my sister for a tank she's been wanting more plants for.  Hopefully the sand will settle soon, then I'll really be able to see how it looks! I keep imagining a big snakehead swimming by the front of the tank, through the murky water, and it would look amazing.  Someday...  Anyways, I completely forgot about my wood today, but I'll probably get it tomorrow.

  This morning I was in a panic because Zip was darting around the little tank, and swimming in tight little circles, then he stopped suddenly, and bubbles came out of his gills and mouth.  He's fine now, except the Platys keep nibbling on his top fin! I think they're starting to feel cramped, adding the Guppies last night did not help with that.  Soon they'll be in the tank though, I'm adding sponges from the 6.6 to the new filter, which will help the cycle.

  I'm thinking about trying "Quickstart" by Api, theoretically it won't hurt, and if it helps that would be good, but I'll skip that.  As soon as it's finished all of my little fishies (except Damien) will be going in the big tank, and I'll be getting my Female Guppies soon after that.  That's later though, I'm going to concentrate on the cycle, and my current fish first.

  Damien is doing well soon, he actually ate a little bit this morning when I fed him! Apparently it's rare for Bettas to eat the day after installed in the tank, but none of mine were like that.  He's such a gorgeous Betta fish, I'm still drooling over how beautiful he is.  I fell in love with him as soon as I saw him in the pet store, and I still feel like it's the first time I saw him every time I look at him! (<--- Sounds like a love song)

  More tomorrow :)

One happy fish keeper.

I haven't posted in a few weeks, so this is going to be a big update! And only one part is going to be sad.

First of all, since I moved Elijah back in with the other platys he's been eating more, and he's definitely more active.  The guppies are happy to be rid of him too, I think.

Sadly Kathrine died about 2 weeks ago.  She is the third platy I've lost, but none of those three were very healthy, and now the others have less chance of getting sick because of them. 

Muddy has been eating most of his food recently, I have to break the discs up so they fit in his mouth, but I only found two little pieces of disc today while cleaning the tank, and I've been giving him 1 disc (3 pieces) every night before I turn off the tank lights.  Pleco are nocturnal, but I've been seeing a lot more of him during the day now.

The most exciting thing happened today.  I found a baby platy! It's the first baby platy I've found, and it's only a few days old I think! Kathrine died about 2 weeks ago, and none of the younger ones showed signs of being pregnant, but I don't think this baby is 2 weeks old, so it's a mystery!

I will be putting sand, and live plants in the 6.6 Gallon soon, with the baby I need plants ASAP, and sand a little later, when it's a little bigger and won't get trapped in the gravel I take out.  This is going to be my fry tank, so I can't take it out and put it anywhere else, except with either 2 guppies, or a Betta, both of which would eat my baby, so that's not going to happen.  I just have to hope that it survives on it's own with my 4 inch catfish, and 5 inch Gourami in the tank with it!

Well that's pretty much it.  Still haven't gotten my 55 Gallon, but I should be getting it soon, I know I've said that in pretty much every post, but for real this time! :p

Something about Platys...

Something a lot of people don't realize about platys, livebearers in general, is that they will eat their own babies, and the tankmates will often eat the fry.  So what is thought to have happened to Kathrine's babies is that she gave birth at her old home, and they ate most of the babies.  All but one as far as I know.  So now I have to wait for Tara, and Lexi to give birth, I'm really excited about having baby fish, even though I won't be able to keep them.

Tank update:
Getting the 55 Gallon tank tonight, and setting it up tomorrow! Tomorrow I will be picking up Java fern, and temporarily putting it all in the big tank until all of my fish are out of the Quarantine tank, and Betta tank, then I'm going to upgrade both to sand, and live plants.  Aquascaping the big tank should be interesting! I've found five pictures of aquascapes on Google that I really like, so I'm going to try and put them all together into one really awesome aquascape! I'm going for a moderately planted, with wood, and rocks look.  After this post I have to find some rocks :)

Fish update:
I will have had my new fish for a week tomorrow! :) I cleaned out from under Muddy's rock this morning, and had to kick him out.  He was spazzing everywhere until I finished and put his cave back together! My platys don't enjoy water changes either.  Lexi has some kind of fungus, or Ich! I'm not completely sure, but it should be easy enough to get rid of.  Elijah still won't eat! He'll be back with his girls on the 15th, at latest.  I'll probably put him back with the girls after moving Kathrine, and Tara out.  So the 12th.  The guppies are the most playful fish I've ever had! I love them, a lot ;p I'm going to pay for 5-6 female guppies tonight, then pick them up in a week or so.  I'm really excited about all of this!

Plecostomus

I found out that the Pleco I have is a type of Rubber lip, or Rubbernose Pleco.  The problem is there are a lot of different Rubber lip Plecos.  Then I found a post on the tropical fish forums that listed the most common Rubbernose Plecos, and I found this link! I believe that he is a Striped Rubbernose Pleco, which according to the Planet Catfish only get up to 4", and he is already about that big.  Muddy the Pleco shouldn't get much, if any, bigger than he already is! Which means I don't have a future 24" long Pleco that would outgrow any tank I'd be able to get, which is a relief :)

I also had to move the male Platy (named Elijah Weston) to the guppy tank because he was harassing my female who is going to give birth within the week according to the people on TFF! 

If any TFF members who have helped me are reading this thank you for all your help! I never would've found out what kind of Pleco Muddy is if it weren't for you people! You've helped me so much.  For anybody who has fish, but has never heard of this site I suggest you look around, and if you like it join! It's a great site, with a lot of really helpful fish keepers to answer any questions you might have.

JUST KIDDING!

Hey... You know my last post?  "Break time"?  That break lasted a week.


I just got 12 free fish.  8 Platys (Gold Twin-bar platys, one of my favorite colors!), 3 Guppies (Red "tuxedo" I think, also my favorite!), and 1 Pleco (unknown type).

This platy is going to give birth soon I think.  She's the biggest platy I have ever seen!

This is the Pleco, I'm not sure what kind of Pleco, so if you know please comment with the type!

Well those are all the pictures you get for now! I need to have something to keep you coming to my blog! ;)
Maybe the Guppies will sit still sometime so I can get a picture of them, like my very cooperative platys!