What did you do with your tank(s) today?

[DMD123]

A rare sighting of the elusive chubby pleco

Not even sure how this little guy is alive, not sure what it even eats and it really hasnt grown. The other one I had that I rehomed a while back was probably three time as big. I know it must have been eating the Omega One algae wafer I put in for it to have been so big. This guy is still tiny and cute. It is doing well in the 90g tank and I havent seen any issues with it and the albino bn pleco.

 

[BPSabelhaus]

A rare sighting of the elusive chubby pleco
View attachment 15097
Not even sure how this little guy is alive, not sure what it even eats and it really hasnt grown. The other one I had that I rehomed a while back was probably three time as big. I know it must have been eating the Omega One algae wafer I put in for it to have been so big. This guy is still tiny and cute. It is doing well in the 90g tank and I havent seen any issues with it and the albino bn pleco.

Kind of how I feel about Big Momma the dojo loach in the pond. Except every time I see her she's somehow even bigger lol She seems to have a winter habit of injuring herself somehow. Last year she hid in a planter box via the bottom hole. Somehow she gained enough weight overwinter to get stuck coming out This year she managed to find a zip tie that was holding a 1 1/2 in or so pipe. Must have fallen in during removal of old filter stuff. Got that stuck on her like a hula hoop. Again lol At least with her annual clumsiness I've learned she heals so much faster just staying in the pond.
Every single year she comes out of winter bigger lol Guessing with all the detritus from plants decaying that there is a boom in detritus worms over winter.

 

[lloyd378]

@lloyd378 stopped by and helped thin the guppy population and some blue shrimps. It was nice to catch up with Lloyd as it's been a while.

All fish and shrimp happy in a little ten gallon growout tank….. man, I forgot how aggressive male guppies are in the presence of females. I am going to add some additional females to the tank to spread the “love”.


Also, I was able to pick up a 5” jardini arrowana . My future goal is to downsize my 220g and my 180g and do a 10’ 300g tank in the garage for the jardini, arrowana, and my clown knife I’m growing out. This will be different than my typical big cichlids I’m currently keeping. I figure I’ve got about two years before I need to upgrade the tanks to one large one.

But before then, I’ve been on the hunt for a “cheaper” acrylic 75 gallon tank. Next year, I’ll be teaching a few periods of ART / ceramics, and I’d like to have a tank in the art room with juvenile butterfly koi. I’d chose koi because our former art teacher …3 art teachers ago, did ceramic projects with the kids where they created beautiful butterfly koi figures that hung on the wall. The still have about 5 of his koi intermixed between my plants , and the art room still has a bunch hanging from the walls too.

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Kinda sorta what happened lol. He's been playing games, we've been outside watching the ponds, working on the garden etc... I think the ones that were hatching out may have been aborts. Not entirely sure. Only a few hatched out, the rest seem to be staying the course for now.

 

[lloyd378]

Kinda sorta what happened lol. He's been playing games, we've been outside watching the ponds, working on the garden etc... I think the ones that were hatching out may have been aborts. Not entirely sure. Only a few hatched out, the rest seem to be staying the course for now.

Any pictures of your monster dojo loach? I’ve always enjoyed them, but never wanted to keep them ( except when I’ve fostered a couple once.

I read an article years ago that said some part of western Oregon ( can’t remember where, specifically) that an irresponsible hobbyist released some dojo loaches byat some point and they had begun to breed in the local pond / stream and that fish and wildlife we’re working to eradicate them…..I should look to see if I can find a follow up. Probably 10-12 years back at least.

 

[BPSabelhaus]

She's tough to photograph, but I'll try to get a current one. She's especially fun to try to video climbing on lily pads to grab food lol
I have seen dojo and Chinese loaches in mill creek. Dojo up by the Blue Origin assembly in Renton and Chinese around Boeing in Auburn. Inaturalist is pretty good for finding where invasives might be near you. I saw the dojo long before I started searching for them on it lol It's how I was able to verify the Chinese loaches.
TIL a kayak will fit in a Nissan leaf. So I guess I will be monitoring lake Dollof this summer for water quality every other Sunday. Water testing on a giant planted tank lol King conservation reached out since I steward Lewis lake.

 

[DMD123]

Sad morning, lost my big bala shark. It was doing the spinning, spiraling after I heard a huge splash. Likely it torpedoed into something. The silver dollars were freaking out as it was dying. As soon as I pulled it, they calmed down. Balas are known to freak out and I lost big ones before but this guy was one of the calmest I had ever seen or kept. Its a sad day.

Im really hating the stock in the 300, especially now the bala is gone. The pearsei looks absolutely horrible with hole in the head scars and nipped fins. Ive never seen the silver dollars nip him but he acts weird when they are near him. The bumblebee oscar looks cool but he is nothing like an Oscar. Zero personality and hides in the back of the tank most of the time. Silver dollars are the highlight of the tank at the moment.

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Any pictures of your monster dojo loach? I’ve always enjoyed them, but never wanted to keep them ( except when I’ve fostered a couple once.

I read an article years ago that said some part of western Oregon ( can’t remember where, specifically) that an irresponsible hobbyist released some dojo loaches byat some point and they had begun to breed in the local pond / stream and that fish and wildlife we’re working to eradicate them…..I should look to see if I can find a follow up. Probably 10-12 years back at least.

 

[DMD123]

https://www.dfw.state.or.us/conservationstrategy/invasive_species/docs/oriental_weatherfish_fact_sheet.pdf

Interesting, they are considered an invasive species in Oregon

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Fed the goldfish, watched more tadpoles out and about as well as scuds scurrying about. Mostly got tired of four bushes the dogs always scare things into. They produce inedible / toxic fruit and grow like crazy. So I cut it all down lol
Tomorrow I need to do maintenance on the kiddos tank. Lots of duckweed, lots of java fern growth. Probably going to move some more of the magentas into there. His was a mix of chilis/ magentas/ snakeskins I didn't like. Think I'm moving all the snakeskins over now to focus on the white magenta blondes that are popping up.

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Apparently "cutting it all down" I'd rather exhausting lol I did overfeed the sticklebacks and Bettas. Live cultures are exploding and mosquitoes are finally coming back.
But the kiddos tank is still covered in duckweed. My neck is saying nope lol

 

[DMD123]

Stopped at Aquarium Paradise on the way home and picked up some frozen mysis shrimp for the fish. Saw the tiny $299 jardini… very cool looking but out of my price range for such a tiny little fish.

 

[lloyd378]

Stopped at Aquarium Paradise on the way home and picked up some frozen mysis shrimp for the fish. Saw the tiny $299 jardini… very cool looking but out of my price range for such a tiny little fish.

Buckley has one , or had a jardini last week…$130.

They had two, but I purchased one. Just be careful. It has only double the size of my full grown 2” pearl danios and he has already eaten 5 of them with only 4 remaining….. let me get a pic

 

[lloyd378]

 

[lloyd378]

 

[DMD123]

@lloyd378, what has your experience with jardini been like? Are they are aggressive as everyone says? Are tankmates out of the question?

I would consider a jardini for my 300 but would like to keep the silver dollars and some sort of large bottom fish maybe another bichir or catfish

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Moving the sticklebacks into an outdoor tub. Temperature is pretty close, both are rainwater with tannins, should be an easy transition. They only seem to care about all the live food in the observation container. About half moved so far, probably 4-5 more hiding currently. The first 6 were easy, but the others caught on pretty quick lol

 

[DMD123]

Was super tempted at my last visit to Aquarium Paradise to ask about the54g breeder tank they had in stock. This would make a great little hospital/qt tank for my future fishroom downsize plans. The only real issue is that it has a center brace which I believe then makes it that I can not use an Aquaclear 110 on it but would have to use the smaller 70 instead. I think I would also have to move the beam above it up which would then make the 46g bowfront sit up higher too. This would likely mean having to use a ladder on it to clean also, whereas currently I can work on it without a ladder. Keeps looking like a standard 40B is what I need to be doing in that spot. Since Im focusing on yard projects at the moment, I really dont have a whole lot of time in the fishroom so I can put it off for a bit.

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Enjoying the tubs with everything growing in. Lots of mosquito larvae to harvest at dome point. It's just a nice day and the kiddo is done with class, fed etc... Think I'm going to brew some more coffee and feed the Bettas their first big meal of mosquito larvae in awhile
Really liking how the small raised pond is growing in. Just need to get more soil around it and plant stuff around the base on one side. Most is surrounded by salmonberry, Oregon grape and violets already. Just one big glaring side of rocks that I'm currently staring at that is South facing so no "put moss on it" suggestions lol

 

[DMD123]

Cleaned 2 Aquaclear filters and did some good gravel vac’s on the bigger garage tanks. So both 90’s and 65B’s were done well and had 50% water changes. Want to clean a couple more Aquaclear’s this weekend but will see if I can do it since I’m still doing yard work.