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The Saga of Angels

3K views 47 replies 5 participants last post by  hrutan 
#1 ·
Wanted to move this thread over to here, so here is the link to the start of it

http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=386586

Last night my ferret zee decided to "help" and I use that term in the loose possible since. I was cleaning up Melt from both crypts and swords (UCK!) when she decided the best idea in the world would be to steal my turkey baster i use to pick up left over food. after the second time of taking it away from her while trying to vacuum the bottom of the 30 she bolted with it I managed to get the vacuum out in time to lunge for her which knocked the desk lamp i have been using while waiting for the real lights into tank. ferret in one hand i dive for the lamp with the other. every bodies is fine, but I was NOT happy.

I informed Zee if i didn't think she would think it was a reward and it would hurt the fish I would have dumped HER into the aquarium. she wardanced at me and scampered off with a happy come play with me chitter.

Ferrets are HELPFUL!
 
#2 ·
Checked Porthos fins. which are healing! YEAH! so it is coming down to which will happen first, he heals or he out grows the ten. I am actually leaning toward the heal.

Today the ferrets got on to the coffee table the 30 is on while my sweet builds the tank stand. the ferrets wanted to check it out and the angelfish FREAKED. apparently the (from the fishes point of view) this ginormous tiny tentacled monster from beyond was way beyond their pay grade. they huddled in their cave as I convinced Zee that quite honestly anything else in the apartment was more interesting than the 30.

When I tested water today got a Nitrite of not on scale. so 50% water change right now, 50% in the morning and a TON of prime. fish seem okay though. I think my Sterbai is pregnant. she has gone from little round to full out teetering as she rests. was going to do some more reserch on it.

Myr is an amazing! that's really all I have to say about that. he has built a harem size bubble nest and if chilling under it. I informed him he was WAY to bad tempered for me to even try to mate him, but to enjoy guarding his non existent young.
 
#5 ·
BOOM! and the 30 is cycled!!!! all fish made it through and are alive and well and frisky!!! (happy dance, happy dance!!!)

Tommorrow gonna re introduce porthos and make sure that goes well... and if it does... Friday new Betta! I am so on the happy train right now. Three cycled tanks! okay I know it is over doing it but SQUEE!!!!
 
#6 ·
actually introducing porthos as i type. so far no aggression, but I also gave everyone half a square of tubiflex worms to keep them occupied. The Cories are healthy and happy. I am mostly waiting to see if their will be fin nipping. I am going to sit here and watch for another 15 mins, cause that rounds into an hour. then I wil just keep and eye on everyone for the rest of the day.
 
#8 ·
I have been running around so hard keeping everyone going, I feel kinda deflated now. ya know? I have been getting up early, spending 3 hours a day making sure all the tanks are as healthy and as good as I can make them and now.... they are all cycled and good. I have free time again and I have no idea what to do with it!
 
#9 ·
Got 2 new Betta's yesterday for my cycled 10! a crown tail named Fritz and a halfmoon double tail named Saki. dividing the tank went well, I did have to split a plant but it seems to be going well.

On too the Angels! the Amazon swords started growing! YEAH! as are the crypts. not really fast enough for my tastes, but hey, growing is happening! and Aramas the Big yellow on is starting to claim territory and running off any of the other angels that get near his space. Not entirely sure what to do about it at this stage. I am keeping on eye on the situtation.
 
#10 ·
son of a bleep bleep bleep in the bleep! I have blue-green algae in all the of tanks. the least in Myrs, just a little bit, but there. I lost my 2 albino cories. I knew i had algae but didn't fret because I like the brown diadem type, makes a tank look lived in. spent last night cleaning all the tanks and wiping off individual leafs of all the plants.

Spent the morning calling around trying to find Maracyn and also in the 25 tablets i need for full round for everyone. LFS seems to have it so I am on the way over there to try to get it. I THINK it started in the angel fish tank and spread to the divided tank via vacuum.

Will keep you posted.
 
#11 ·
Just ordered EM online from marine depot. looking forward to getting that guck nice and killed!

The problem is either I am overfeeding the angels (likely) and that I am using the wrong light source (that I know) We haven't been able to get proper aquarium lights so it is desk lamps 21 inches from top the substrate. been working well for the 2nd 10, plants are all nice and health, but in the 30 the plants are just now starting to look like plants rather than drowned desert scrub.

With a drop in income it might be a bit before proper lighting is aquired. but soildering on.

losing both albino cories is sad to me, but they never grew like Leopold (sterbai) and kate (julii) did. the angelfish are getting big and around august gonna start talking about getting them seprated into different tanks. they will be happier that way. We have been discussing making Prothos a desk fish.
 
#14 ·
Ahh... that is where I left off. Be prepared for a wall o' text.

I did managed to get rid of the Blue green Algae, unfortunately it also killed off all the BB. Yeah Cycling again?

My husband and I went to Petsmart to do... something. I think it was get more Prime (I am forever getting more Prime), and he fell madly totally in love with an African Featherfin Catfish. IN LOVE. So we got that and 6 platys. 2 sunburst, 2 red and 2 blue wags. I double checked all the figures and the tank is not over stocked due to the size of the current fish. I did inform him come hell or high water we are getting the 55 in august so it can be ready by October for everyone.

I did a sex check on the platys 5 males and 1 female who is pregnant. darn. I looked into it and realized I couldn't stand the idea of the platy fry not have any chance in the tank. even if it is an infinitesimal chance, I wanted them to have it. SOOO back to the pet store (more prime was in order) I got some wisteria because it was the only thing I could float in stock, and since they were having a sale 6 mollies, 2 black, 2 silver, 2 dalmatian, none of them lyre tails. I got them all set and into the 30. Did another check on numbers (All Hail Aqaadvisor!) and it is still telling me I am under stocked and have good filtration. I can not for the life of me see putting any more fish in that tank.

Then one of the Platys (red wag) died. It was one of the males. I did a quick check on PH and it was 6 so one hasty water change (Prime for everyone!) latter everyone is fine again. the Mollies turned out to be 5 female and 1 male. One of the Dalmatians was pregnant but aborted, either do to the tank change of the PH issue I am not sure.

The Female platy that is showing we have had for two and half weeks and I am eyeing her heavily, waiting. I am almost as tired of her being pregnant as I am sure the poor thing is of being pregnant.

The Angels themselves besides having a heavy air of "Why do you hate us?" from having tank mates, are fine. the biggest Aramas is 2 inches and the others are at 1.5. I am currently doing daily 6 gallon water changes on the 30 since it is back to cycling, and vacuuming every day because Man that is allot of poop and I have bottom dwellers!

Oh, the African cat fish is named Herbert because he hoovered the tank clean of all brown algae in about a day. He is fine and the undisputed king of the tank. there was a small bit of debating over that matter, which he solved by chasing the angelfish to the other side of the tank and waggling his feelers at them until they let him alone. so as it stands, it is Aramas tank because Herbert says so. Herbert hangs out upside down under the ruins most of the day, and the corries tend to hang out under him. at least until he noticed. he has claimed the Ruins as HIS and Woe be it to any fish who forgets.

The Angels have started dividing the 30 into territories. poor Aramas has Herbert in his territory but as long as they ignore each other it is fine, and they do tend to ignore each other.

Their Fins are growing out odd, I am not sure If I am going to have to cut them back or not. I really hope not because the idea turns my stomach, but if I have too, then I have too.

Once the Angels and Herbert are safely ensconced into the 55, I am going to use the 30 for MY community tank. Mollies, Corries and a Gourami. The Platys will probably be divided up between the 30 and new 55. My Husband like the platys but we still haven't named them. We did however name the Mollies. Yin and Yang (dalmatians), Cloak and Dagger (black), Pillow and Puff (white). Yang is the only Male which I didn't know when we named him. One of my friends insists that Yang is actually named Cow because he is mostly white with black dots. She keeps telling me I spell Cow wrong. Lol!

Ah... On to the Betta Drama;

So... We almost lost Saki when we brought him home and in the past few weeks he has been hiding in the back, not very active and full of Meh. I was starting to get worried about him. so I talked to my sweet, and we deiced the best idea was to get him away from sharing a tank with Fritz. I figure that would help significantly on the destressing. We have an extra 10 from a petco sale tank sale (LOVES!!!!). I checked online and saw that there was a 5.5 start up kit on sale. I crunched numbers and to my surpise it turned out getting the 5.5 and setting it up was cheaper than setting up the 10. It mostly came down to Gravel and plants needed. (Oh! remind me to give an update on Plants in the tank)

So I got the 5.5 and set up on my desk right by my computer. Now I always knew I would end up with a computer fish, I just assumed it would be a 10, the 5.5 fit wonderfully. Since Saki was the most delicate he went into the more established tank, Myr's old 10. He is doing fine and dandy. He has a pagoda now!

Fritz got his 10 all to himself which I rescaped and I am not happy with the results but in a few months will probably be amazing. Waiting for plants to grow is the hardest part! Fritz has a blue coffee cup that is his.

Myr got the 5.5. I am feeling a bit guilty about this, but i always wanted Myr as my computer fish. I adore the little barbarian and he is my favorite. Myr's 5.5 is planted, and other than "where is my room?" he seems to be doing well. He has his floating Log.

I also when I was undertaking this venture to go ahead and get some ghost shrimp to see if they could clean up some algae before becoming a snack. I got 4. 1 in the Saki's tank (which died), 2 into Fritz tank (1 died, 1 surprised me by stilling being around about 2 days after I swore Fritz ate him) and 1 in Myr's new 5.5. about a day after I got everyone set up I noticed that the shrimp in Myr's tank had eggs. tons of them. Remember way back at the beginning the whole feeling bad about Platy fry? Apparently I feel the same way about ANY fry. I had an old 1 gallon from when I first got Maxx and just set it up, put a algae covered jar in there and dropped the shrimp in. It has a light an a tiny filter without any cartridge so pretty much just some water movement.

Yeah, that's about where I am. Tanks back to Cycling, everyone in the 30 is fine, Myr is grumpy, a pregnant Shrimp and a pregnant Platy.

Oh! Plants! Sorry Sorry, I will wrap it up after this I promise!

So in the 30 there are Swords, Crypts, Wisteria and a moss ball. In Fritz's tank there is a sword cutting to see if it will grow, a spring of wisteria and 4 of my beloved Crypts. one is a propagation off of a parent plant so I find that pretty neat. Myr's tank has 5 crypts ( I added one that was already mostly grown so Myr could have some cover) and 1 sprig of Wisteria to see what happens. In Saki's tank is 3 Massive Crypts and again that 1 sprig of Wisteria. I bought one package and it had all that and enough for 3 bits to go into the 30. I think in about 6 months all the tanks will be looking fabulous. i just have to wait for the plants to grow.

That's it. That is my update. Man I am gonna try to keep up with this a bit more. Yesterday I sat down and updated my fishy log and that took a good half hour. I will try to get pics today and upload them into the albums.

as usual any advice or comments welcome!
 
#17 ·
Wow! Sounds busy in that tank! I am surprised the Angels actually tolerate it, I've always heard they were rather ill tempered. Might I also recommend getting a 75 if you have room for a 55? It's just deeper, and bottom dwellers, which you seem to certainly love, would also love more space to roam.
 
#18 ·
I gave that some serious thought when planing this out, the problem is we are on the second story of an apt complex and feel uncomfortable with the extra weight of the 75. Also, straight Cost. We can afford a 55 starter and then upgrade slowly while it cycles ( I am not cycling with Fish in tank again! my poor blood pressure can't take it).

Thank you for the suggestion! when it comes time if we come across a 75 starter it is definitely preferable!

The Angels are still pretty young. they are pouty (in the same way a betta gets pouty when you move something in their tank they liked there) but not overly stressed that I can tell. they ignore everyone but Herbert. the hope is to get them into the bigger tank just as they are starting to start adulthood (so when Aramas is about 3 inches) where they will need separate areas to patrol. I wish I could have a bit more wiggle room on timing, but that is the downside of doing this on a tight budget.

On a happy note, the PH is dropping in the 30 so all is well! the oldest 10 is at the nitrite spike before settling down. I am back to the All Hail Prime. :)
 
#19 ·
My Hip went out. so now I am trying to keep the betta tanks going when I can physically do water changes every day. I also can't test (sitting for any amount of time hurts). I am hoping stuff works out. will keep everyone posted. the 30 is looking good, my pregnant shrimp died, and that poor platy is still pregnant.
 
#26 ·
Just did the research and the math. Her late due date (assuming she got pregnant the day we got her) is 7-23. the early date (again with the same assumption) is 7-8.

Apparently platys will stay pregnant anywhere from 16 to 31 days. so we are in the home stretch. I will definitely keep everyone posted on when it happens. i also need to keep an eye on when she starts trying to hide.
 
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