Monday, December 9, 2013

Video of Hasmani Whiptail Cat Tending His Eggs

As I said previously in a post, my Hasmani Whiptails recently spawned and this is a video of just what it takes to keep the eggs healthy.  Poor guy! He works day and night.  They look pretty close to hatching soon, so hope the next video is some fat wrigglers :)


Wednesday, December 4, 2013

December Update - Visit To Finatics Tropical Fish








I've fallen a bit behind with my postings over the fall months.  As some of you may already know, we stepped in and removed Mike's grandchildren from their drug addicted mother in May 2013.  Having two extra children + 2 current court cases has certainly taken its toll on the amount of free time I've had lately.  Thankfully the kids have a dad/step dad and he would like to raise them :) Lucky kids! So it looks like by January I'll be devoting more time to my fish breeding hobby, which makes me very happy!








This fall an old friend of mine, Don Petty, opened an exclusive Aquarium store in the  Tri-Cities area in Washington State, Finatics Tropical Fish.  Don is known for his specialized breeding or Corydoras catfish for almost 20 years in the Aquarium Hobby.  Mike and I just spent last weekend in Kennewick, WA taking photos, video and delivering about 200 green Cory's, around 50 BN Plecos, and some Northern Red Oak leaves to Don.  I'll be making another trip down this month to deliver some plants I've harvested:  Rotala Vietnam, Water Primrose, Sunset Hygro, Water Wisteria, and some tall Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia, I may be able to spare some Java Moss.  I'll also deliver some HMF filters from Swiss Tropicals.  If you've never seen one of these foam filters in action stay tuned as Don will be outfitting one of his 55G tanks as an example of what you can do.












The list of what I brought home from Finatics:  8
Red Spot Rasboras (Mike's pick), 5 Celestial Pearl Danios, 3 Siamese Algae Eaters, 2 pair of German Blue Rams and a school of African Glass Cats (Mike's pick)





My Hasmani Whiptails spawned a few days ago with the male in a cave guarding a bunch of green eggs.  I've moved him, his cave and his woman to a 20L with a HMF filter. The tank currently houses a small Corydoras Similis spawn (their first, happened about 2 weeks ago).




 I lost one of my large fat healthy Corydoras Seussi last week.  When I pulled it out of the tank it had evidence of parasites.............. I treated them and the Eques multiple times after receiving them, as I do with all new Cory's.  The tank has been healthy with no issues for months and this fish showed no signs of being sick.  I've since netted all the Cory's from the 36 bowfront and quarantined most in a 20L for parasite treatment leaving the 36 for a colony of L204 plecos.  I placed the adorable Corydoras Caudimaculatus in my 20L planted shrimp tank in the hopes of them spawning soon.  I also placed the Celestial Pearl Danios, 3 Siamese Algae Eaters and all the of my Ototcinclus in the shrimp tank.  The shrimp tank had previously been home to about 100 or more of the C. Aeneus  juveniles and when I removed all plants and decor there had to be 1000 cherry shrimp!  It was crazy.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Update On Rescued Cichlid

Well it seems the mystery cichlid is some type of Flowerhorn and definitely male instead of female!  Can't wait to see the next shot Zach!