Northern Lights Aquatics

Hi, I just started a new fish blog at Northern Lights Aquatics.

You'll find more fishie news and updates there!

I hope you'll stop by and say hi.

Comments4aCure June 4-6

Just a reminder, it’s time for Comments4aCure.

Leave a comment at Mystical Beauty’s Musings from now until Wednesday, and I’ll donate $1 to the Susan G Komen Foundation, up to $50.

For other participating blogs, or for more information visit The Beauty Blog Network’s Comments4aCure page.

Cory Eggs!

We have cory eggs! I'm so excited.

We got three cories last week, and I noticed one was getting fat the day before yesterday.

I told DH that I got up expecting to see cory eggs yesterday morning, but I didn't.

Today around 9:30 I noticed there were eggs on the glass walls of the tank.

They must have spawned between 7 am and 9:30. DH fed the fish this morning, and didn't notice anything. I've been sitting here since 7:50, and didn't notice it either.

We moved all of the inhabitants of that tank to another tank, leaving only the cories, and two juvinile bristlenose plecos.

After we make sure they are done spawning we will move the other fish out as well.

I'm so excited.

Rodeo!

I just found out that my betta likes to play rodeo!

One of my african dwarf frogs, Uncle Arthur, was floating at the top of the water, and all of a sudden Captain Jack swam up between his legs, and Uncle Arthur floated down on Captain Jack's back!

I wish I'd had a camera handy! I still can't believe what I saw.

I know the frogs are skinny - I got them so they wouldn't starve to death. The store they were at was only feeding them flake food, and the frogs aren't supposed to eat flake food. They need frog bites! If you're frogs are this skinny they are probably starving, so ask for help from someone who knows about frogs.

More Babies

DH just called me upstairs.

We have 12 new baby guppies.

I'm not even sure who's they are.

Unfortunately Freckles died 2 days after giving birth.

I've read that the stress of the move from the fish farm, to the pet store, then home can cause so much stress that the stress of giving birth is too much for them to handle.

Another batch of babies was born about 5 days after Freckles fry were born, and thee are about 20 of them left.

Daredevil, the first baby to survive is now getting pretty big. He's actively trying to mate, and his once blue tail now has a hint of red or orange at the top.

We are going to try to separate the males and the females - we just have to get them large enough so that they won't be eaten by the angelfish.

15 wait 19 new babies

We have at least 15 new babies.
13 are safely in the breeders tank, and DH is busily trying to catch the rest.

It took us an hour and a half to catch the first 8, at that time we thought there were only 2 more, and we didn't want to stress the fish more, so we quit.

We then did a partial water change, and after about 15 after that was finished I noticed 6 more.

Wow.

LOL DH just caught 4 more, and found 4 more, so that's at least 17 babies.

Daredevil is living up to her name, swimming up to the python to check it out, and almost getting caught.

She's trying to get into the tank with the babies, but since she is swimming with the adults now I told DH to leave her out.

I better go help him, I'll let you now how many we have.

These are Red's I thought she'd given birth or aborted this morning, but we didn't see any babies until tonight.

I'm not sure if she's done giving birth, or if we interrupted birth with a partial water change (oops) but she's acting normal, just smaller. I can't imagine where those 6 babies were hiding while we were doing all of the moving around though.

Anyways, I'm off to help DH catch more.

If I'm calculating right Blue Girl should be due Sat!

Wow.

We might have to get a heater for our 10 gallon and get it going as a fry tank.

Marshmallow

I went to Walmart last night, and fell in love with another betta!

Since I have an empty one gallon aquarium just sitting there....

Well, I had to get him.

I tried not too, really I did!

But right when we were about to leave I asked DH to come look at him again with me, and we got him.

DH said we could get him a bigger aquarium, but I figured that we could wait. A 5 gallon was only $30, and I probably should have gotten it, so we can use it as a quarantine tank when we get a bigger tank....Yes I've only had the big tank a month, and I've already got another one gallon up, and plans for a bigger aquarium so DH can have some fish too.

When I saw Marshmallow in the store he had a white body, with a touch of pink irredescense to it, and white fins with a touch of blue.

After less than 3 minutes in the new one gallon, with clean water, and a bit of java moss, he turned pink with lavendar fins. You can still see a touch of blue and white in the fins, but he looks like a completely different fish!

He's still a little nervous, and I just cleared out the area around the tank of everything red, since he is flaring and hiding when we bring a red cup near the tank.

I've heard most bettas flare at red, although Captain Jack doesn't. I'm not sure why that color sets them off though.

This bottom picture is a picture of Marshmallow while he is still in the cup from the fish store, the top one is of Marshmallow right after we put him in his new aquarium.

What a difference! I'd heard that you could bring a betta home from the store and realize that he was a completely different color at home, in less stressful conditions.

I was surprised at how different Marshmallow looked in his cup, and how quickly he changed after we moved him to his new tank.

Since smaller tanks don't cycle, and have to be cleaned more often I've heard that it's ok not to put gravel in the tank - that way it's easier to clean the tank, and if you're not doing a water change that day, you can just take a turkey baster, and suck up all the gunk from the bottom of the tank to keep the tank cleaner between changes.

I've also moved one of the treasure chests from the old aquarium into the new aquarium so that Marshmallow would have a little place to rest.

Anyways, if you want to read more about the fish (or see pictures), they have their very own squidoo lens at My fishies.