White Lily Dreams

Northern Lights Aquatics

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:14:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 23:51:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:32:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:25:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:14:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 03:28:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:57:00 +0000

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.

New Fish!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:45:00 +0000

Unfortunately it looks like only one of the fry has survived.

I'm not sure if it's a male or a female, but I call "her" Daredevil. She has been swimming with the adults for about 3 days now, and although Red will go after her every once in a while, she doesn't run too far.

I saw a teeny spot of black on her tail around 1/21/2007, and on 1/23/2007 I noticed a little yellow color right at the base of her tail. DH thinks its red though, so we'll see what color it really is.

We also got 3 spotted cory cats last night.

They look like they are having a lot of fun, and 2 seem to be swimming around together while the third one is off by himself.

They are pretty fast, so it's hard to get pictures of them, but we are trying.

I was planning on getting oto's to clean the tank, but while we were at Petco they put a sign on the oto's saying they weren't for sale...then at Petsmart there were more dead ones than live ones in the tank.

I knew oto's were hard to acclimate to the tank, since they are usually caught in the wild, and I just don't want to deal with more dead fish :-(.

The spotted cories help clean the substrate (we're actually using aquating planting media), and the main reason I wanted the oto's was to clean the algae and the substrate.

Fortunately I realized that the magnet algae cleaner we got from walmart really works, so I don't need to get a fish specifically to clean the algae off the glass.

Finally...a Picture or Two

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 01:00:00 +0000

Well, I finally have a picture for you.

Unfortunately the babies are so small, and they like to hide, so I couldn't get a picture of them.

I have noticed a smaller baby, so I'm almost thinking that we have two batches of fry a couple of days apart. I've only seem two fish at a time for the past several days, but I just noticed that one of them was a lot smaller than the other this morning, so I'm not sure what's going on.

We did buy another decoration, with holes that are small enough for the fry to get in, but not big enough for the adults, so hopefully that will help they fry survive

Guppy Fry Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:22:00 +0000

I saw 2 of the fry at the same time this morning.

They are getting a little bit bigger, and a lot more daring.

Both of them were seen swimming out into the middle of the tank, and when one of them was chased by Captain Jack, the betta, he leisurely made his way to his hiding spot.

Ok, it wasn't really leisurely, but it was nowhere near as fast as he was swimming yesterday.

3 of the fry were seen at the same time yesterday morning.

They all look so similar, it's hard to tell them apart, but one of them looks like it has the faintest black outline along the edge of it's body.

I can't wait to see them all grown up, and I'm so glad they made it this far.

Guppy Baby Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:33:00 +0000

I was sure all of the fry were dead yesterday, because I hadn't seem them all day long.

Finally, shortly after DH got home, I saw one tiny fish swimming around, then this morning I saw all 3 of them, right after I turned on the lights.

They are pretty good hiders, which is great.

Captain Jack the Betta loves to chase them, and has un unnatural attraction to the breeder grass since one of them was hiding in it yesterday!

I was so excited when I saw the 3 of them together this morning!

New Guppy Babies

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:59:00 +0000

I woke up this morning, and found all of the fish awake and swimming around.

I knew something was up, since they are normally not moving when I get up, so I took a look around, and sure enough I saw a baby guppy.

I was able to catch one, and put it, in a breeder tank, but the other ones were too fast for me!

I'm pretty sure there are at least three, but I hope there are more.

These are Blue Girl's babies - she's my beautiful female with a blue tail, and I can't wait to see what the fry look like when they grow up.

Since we haven't even had her for a week, we aren't sure what the dad looks like either.

I did catch Blue Girl this morning, and I put her into the top of the breeder tank, in case she wasn't done giving birth, but she hasn't had anymore yet.

A couple of hours after I put the baby in there, I went to check on it for the 50th time and the baby was gone.

I really hope he swam through the side, and escaped into the aquarium, instead of swimming up into the compartment with Blue Girl and letting her eat him.

I'm crushing up flake food, and I also boiled an egg, and mixed a little of the yolk with water to feed the fry.

One of the fry was hiding in the breeder grass at the top of the tank, but when I went to put the yolk and food there for him he disappeared. Hopefully he is still in the grass, and safe.

The fry do blend in with the gravel, so it's really hard for me to find them, hopefully the other fish in the tank will have a hard time finding them as wsell.

New Years Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:22:00 +0000

Hi! How are you?

I'm doing great!

I hope you had a fabulous new years, and that you have a fabulous new year, in which all of your dreams come true.

We have a few new additions to the household - we got an aquarium over the holidays.

We currently have 3 female guppies, one male guppy, and a beautiful blue male betta.

I'm going to try to take pictures today, so hopefully they will be up soon.

I finally got reregistered at danijohnson.com

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:20:00 +0000

Yay!

Now I need to make time to listen to some of the free training calls....it's just been so busy lately.

AIM phoneline

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:18:00 +0000

If you're like me, and you're a little worried about giving your cell phone or home number out to strangers, try AIM phoneline.

I haven't had a ton of calls on the line, but those that I have had have been clear, although it can take a while to answer the call.

Callers are able to leave voice messages, and you do get missed call notices, and a list of the callers numbers, which is helpful if they don't leave a message.

You can read more here.

New Direct Sales Group

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:05:00 +0000

I have a new direct sales group on Squidoo.

If you've got a lens, or would like to make a lens to promote your direct sales company, please feel free to add it to the group.

New Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:04:00 +0000

I have a new blog - the Beneficial Swiss Skincare blog, for my direct sales business.

I hope you stop by soon!

Learn about the business before you start

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:30:00 +0000

Before you start a business you need to learn about it! Learn about what you are selling! Learn about the target market for your products!

If you are starting a direct sales business, learn what you are expected to do - are you expected to do everything by yourself?

Does your company provide you with sales tools? knowledge about the products? information to help you sell the products?

Are you expected to mainly sell products, or recruit other consultants?

Do you have to purchase a certain amount of products each month to remain a consultant, or to be eligible to receive your commission?

You might even have to learn about yourself!

What are your goals for your business?

Will the company provide you a clear and efficient way to reach those goals?

How much will you have to sell each month to make your desired income, or advance within the company?

How many people will you have to recruit to maintain your desired income or advance within the company?

Learn about your sponsors - will you be comfortable working with them as you build your business? Do you trust them to assist you when you need assistance, and to support you even when you don't do things the same way they did.

If you don't then you should seriously consider finding a sponsor you feel more comfortable with.

Although it may cause confusion on the short term, you will be working with your sponsor for the lifetime of your business, and a little drama now may be worth avoiding a lifetime of drama with the wrong sponsor.

Good luck with your business!

I'd love to hear any other tips that you'd like to share about starting a new business...just leave a comment and tell me about it.

Ebates

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 15:37:00 +0000

Have you ever used ebates?

I have seen several people on message boards that I visit that use them and say they get great discounts and coupons from them. Ebates says you can actually get from 5 to 25% off of purchases at over 800 stores - including Target, Circuit City, Office Depot, and Barnes and Nobles.

That doesn't sound too bad to me. They even say they have a new charitable giving program that they've recently released.

If you've tried them I'd love to hear about it! Let me know what you think, and, if you don't mind tell me on average how much you save with them.

Thanks a bunch!

Happy Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:10:00 +0000

It's a little late, but I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Or a great weekend, if you aren't a US reader.

I had a great time with my husband and the puppies.

We even managed to get the Christmas tree up and decorated while we were off, so that was a lot of fun.

It's going to be amazing to spend Christmas together (for the first time!) in our new house.

Dani Johnson update

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:05:00 +0000

Well, after I recomended Dani Johnson's training calls, she went and upgraded her site, and I can't create a new account, or log into the old account.

Isn't that a huge disappointment.

I've tried a couple of times in the past week or so, and I'm still having trouble, but hopefully everything will be resolved soon.

What to buy the babies?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 20:03:00 +0000

Now that gift giving season is almost here I'm having trouble deciding what to buy the babies...after all their parents say that they don't need any more toys, and it's so hard to decide which size clothes they'll wear...so what do you get?

The Nest Baby Shop looks like a good place to buy baby gifts if you've got some discretionary income.

In addition to offering baby shower gifts and thank you cards, they offer gifts for babies, siblings, and moms, they also offer free personalization on some items.

Doesn't that sound great?

Dani Johnson Training Calls

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:58:00 +0000

Dani Johnson has some great free training calls that will help you build your business.

She has live calls that you can call in for, and she also has the training call vault, which allows you to listen to calls that have taken place in the past.

I've heard from a lot of people that these calls, and the resources that Dani provides have been instrumental in making their business a success.

I hope they help you.

Veteran's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:50:00 +0000

Happy Veteran's Day!

Thanks to all the Veterans, and their families!

I hope you have a great day.

There are about 3 craft shows in town that I want to go to, and I have to cook my Amish Friendship Bread, so I'll be pretty busy.

DH is going deer hunting, which I'm not all that excited about, so we'll see what happens with that.

So do you have any plans?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Looking for Christmas Gifts?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 18:13:00 +0000

If you're having trouble finding a nice Christmas - or holiday gift for that hard to buy for person why not try a gift basket?

Gift baskets from gourmetgiftbaskets.com offer one thing everybody has to have...food! So they make perfect Christmas Gifts.

If you're looking for a unique, high-quality present that makes a great gift for friends, family, colleagues, or business partners, then you're in luck.

If you want that extra special touch, you can even call them and have them create a basket to your specifications.

Now that's what I call great service.