Tag: Aquarium

Leopard Collapse

The aquarium is complete. On the weekend I got 2 new fish, a couple of Leopard Danios. They are very neat fish to watch. A basic silver fish, with very large fins. What is cool about the way they swim is that while they coast through the water the fins collapse so the fish look very sleek. When they flick their fins to get moving the fins seem to grow. These fish are very interesting to watch.

My tank now consists of 1 Tequila Sunrise Guppy, 1 Neon Tetra, 3 Leopard Danios, 2 Orange Platys, and 1 Yellow Apple Snail. I also have a couple live plants in the water, and occasionally I give the animals some fresh food, usually Zucchini.

Tequila Fish

The fish tank was looking a little empty since vacation. Before I went away, I got some new Neon Tetras and within a few days my Swordtails died, and so did all but one of the Tetras. I was very unhappy about this, and when I talked to someone at Petsmart about that, she casually said that maybe the Tetras were carrying something that killed the Swordtails. Grr.

Fastforward a few weeks and it was time to restock. A bit more investigation, and I was told that Platys are pretty hardy, and so are Guppies. I got two Platys, and 2 Tequila Sunrise Guppies.

The Platys require a lightly salted tank, which is something I haven’t done before. I think I mixed it correctly, but I am not totally sure. So far the fish seem fine.

One Guppy has died already. It started looking a little shady in a little under 24 hours after arriving home. I like the fish tank, but it sure isn’t as stable as I would like.

Kicking Fish

In my last fish related post I mentioned that Stumpy had disappeared. He turned up a couple days later, but he didn’t make it. The big mean Barb is still kicking fin and is knocking off the other fish.

I don’t know what to do with this fish. I don’t want him any more since he is so aggressive. Any time I get more Tiger Barbs this guy chases them relentlessly until they die from exhaustion. Grr.

Before I went away on vacation the snail died too. I noticed it hadn’t moved in quite a few days, and when I bumped him with the net, the snails covering fell off and the shell was empty. Very weird. The snail had completely dissolved.

So, what to do with the tank? I want to restock the fish, but I’m afraid the barb will just end up killing them. Yesterday I headed out to Petsmart to get a few things and to get some advice. The lady there suggested that I give the barb away using UsedVictoria. Then get more fish once it is gone. I think I will give that a shot.

Once that fish is out of the way I can go on with stocking the tank with new and different fish.

Reward Tank

Lost: 1 Tiger Barb fish
Doesn’t answer to the name Stumpy, but that is his name
Reward if found.

As mentioned in a previous entry my Tiger Barbs haven’t been playing well with one another. Shortly after that post I was down to 2 barbs, but Stumpy slowly recovered. His fin grew back and he seemed happy in the tank.

Then, last night I was feeding the fish and didn’t see Stumpy. He has completely disappeared.There is no trace of him, not one little piece of carcass. It is very odd

Eating Fin

Fish are weird creatures. I have 3 Tiger Barbs (one considerably larger than the other two), and they are great fish since they are so active. They are considered semi aggressive though, and I have had a few die on me. Wikipedia notes that they can be nippers if there are not enough of them. One of the ones I have now looked close to death a couple times. I thought that since it was hanging in one of the tank corners and not eating.

This morning I went to feed the fish, and noticed that the two smaller Barbs were not in good shape. One had a missing caudal fin, and the other was missing most of the same fin. When I fed the fish after work, these two were just hanging out in the corner together, and did not eat any of the food I dropped in the tank.

Tonight these two are trying to swim around the tank without much success. I’m thinking that they are expending a lot of energy going nowhere, and are not eating. Not long now.

Gross Motoring

In the last week I have lost two of my Tiger Barbs. For a few days, three of the four of them were acting strange. Those three were swimming slowly or just floating, while the fourth seemed normal and actually seemed a little overactive. It was getting close to the water changing time, so I think the water got a little too gross for them.

I changed the water last night, and the tank looks a whole lot better. All the fish seem to be more active, and the snail was motoring around tonight eating algae off the glass. It was very cool to see the snails mouth extend and munch on the glass.

I guess this means that I get to buy more fish this weekend since the barbs like to school, and when there isn’t enough of a school, then can get nippy.

Interesting Tankmate

I had this fabric based plant in my aquarium that started to turn brown. It was looking pretty gross so I decided to ditch it and try my hand at real plants. While at Petsmart looking at the plants I saw that they had some cool looking snails, so I decided to get one of those too.

It was called a Golden Mystery Snail. I asked a few questions about it, and learned that it enjoys eating zucchini. Interesting. It also eats algae. Some of the ones in the tank were pretty fast which surprised me quite a bit.

So now my 7 fish have a new tankmate. Hopefully this will last longer than my plecostamus’s did.