Rookie Mistake - Help?

Heck

Jack Dempsey
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Mar 25, 2024
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Sacramento, CA
I got yelled at in a Facebook group for referring to Mystus Leucophasis by their full scientific name rather than using one of their common names.

I sassed him right back, but, my guy - common names are what got me into this mess in the first place!
 

Heck

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
92
131
36
Sacramento, CA
News flash:

Strawberry pots are the best thing EVER.

This concludes the current update; further bulletins as events warrant.

20240711_132330.jpg

20240711_132757.jpg
 

jjohnwm

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Added some sand to Crime Box 2.0 yesterday and it wasn't rinsed as well as I thought.

View attachment 1544610
I love that ^ photo!

Okay, to be honest, I'm not in love with the way the tank looks...I don't like tannin-stained water even if it's clear, and I really hate it when it's cloudy to boot...but that is one terrific pic capturing a perfect, graceful positioning of those three fish.

Best of all...tomorrow the water will be clear...and you'll still have the pic! :)
 

Heck

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
92
131
36
Sacramento, CA
I love that ^ photo!

Okay, to be honest, I'm not in love with the way the tank looks...I don't like tannin-stained water even if it's clear, and I really hate it when it's cloudy to boot...but that is one terrific pic capturing a perfect, graceful positioning of those three fish.

Best of all...tomorrow the water will be clear...and you'll still have the pic! :)
Uh, thanks, I think.
 
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thebiggerthebetter

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Yeah but I didn't expect them to live!
***We-e-ellll, maybe it's just me but that's not the intent with which to buy fish :)

It's been almost a month so I'm starting to think about consolidating the fish. One problem with that is I'm really liking the 55 gallon (3 MLs, no other fish) as it is right now. Plus I have no idea how to CATCH the buggers - they're shifty and fast!
***I'd recommend to get all/most furniture out and use 2 nets.

Megalodon the rtbs had a swollen eye the other day. I went to the Googles and decided it might be popeye, so I ordered a couple of meds which have not arrived yet. In the meantime the eye has healed and I'd never known there had been a problem, so I probably won't medicate. Best guess at the moment is that he FAFO'ed - the Sun Cats are growing at an alarming rate and now seem totally disinterested in putting up with his bullying attempts, and additionally, I've noticed Jose (the single ML in the 125) has taken up residence in a pipe that Meg had previously liked. I saw Meg try several times in a row to reclaim his pipe but the ML just told him to F off repeatedly until he eventually F'ed off. Poor Megalodon - he had gotten accustomed to being able to push the others around, but although he's probably 6" and change, the sun cats are approaching 6" themselves - and as I've seen, the 4" ML handles him no problem.
***It surely sounds like the ML doing. Probably just a mild abrasion or a bumping into something, which usually goes away on its own just fine. In general, medicating should be the last resort and the farthest on your mind, unless a diagnosis is obvious.

So that's the Crime Fish update. Nothing that exciting.
***I beg to differ :) BTW I love your tanks looks. We know you little but the tanks would seem a perfect reflection of your personality, like a mirror - a pretend-rough, sassy, out-of-the-box experimenter with a tender heart, and quick learner with no fear of manmade and natural eclectic decoration, let it be your tanks or rooms :)

I got yelled at in a Facebook group for referring to Mystus Leucophasis by their full scientific name rather than using one of their common names. I sassed him right back, but, my guy - common names are what got me into this mess in the first place!
***Well, I pity that poor individual, they set themselves up big time with you haha...

News flash: Strawberry pots are the best thing EVER.
*** :) Lovely indeed

This concludes the current update; further bulletins as events warrant.
***Strong laconic writing evokes respect in me :)
 
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thebiggerthebetter

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I love that ^ photo!

Okay, to be honest, I'm not in love with the way the tank looks...I don't like tannin-stained water even if it's clear, and I really hate it when it's cloudy to boot...but that is one terrific pic capturing a perfect, graceful positioning of those three fish.

Best of all...tomorrow the water will be clear...and you'll still have the pic! :)
@ Mrs Heck: it's a compliment, rest assured :) As you know I believe JJ is your resident competition at writing. He can't help but be ... let's say eloquent haha...
 
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jjohnwm

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@ Mrs Heck: it's a compliment, rest assured :)
It absolutely was meant as a compliment. I wasn't kidding, I think that's a terrific photo; the lovely curve of those three fish moving through the backlit murk is very artistic. Maybe not something a scientist would choose to use as an identification tool, but nice to look at!

Crop out the water's surface at the top and it will be more mysterious and even better! :)
 
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Heck

Jack Dempsey
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Mar 25, 2024
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Sacramento, CA
Is this better?

I like my tanks - they're not perfect biotopes, I've got all kinds of species mixing going on, I'm using garden pots for hides so there is a lot of man-made stuff in there - but they're coming along. As I get more driftwood and plants I hope to cut back on the man-made stuff - but I'll probably never get to zero; the priority is giving the fish a fun and safe habitat, not winning an aquascaping award.

Plants have been a tough one. I'm using only sand, no soil, which is a no-go for a lot of plants, and I'm told my pH is also a potential problem. A girl at the LFS tried to get me to buy stuff to lower my pH and vet some plants she likes, but... no. Right now I have a total of 209 gallons to manage (between the 3 tanks) and I am saving a HUGE amount of time and headache by working with the water I've got (just gonna gloat again that I can refill my tanks with the garden hose, no treatments - might have to limit that to smaller water changes in the winter, but in the summer my well water comes out of the hose tank safe and 78°).

Plus even when a plant seems like it's doing okay, the fish are pretty hard on them. I'm having some luck with my dwarf tiger lotus (which is now 3 dwarf tiger lotuses) and corkscrew val - if that's all I can grow with the water and fish I have, that's fine. Plus I have the plants above the water with just the roots in for nitrate assistance - right now it's garlic, sweet potato, and basil.

I moved the 3 eBay MLs to the 125 immediately after saying I didn't want to/couldn't catch them. I simply placed a black plastic garden pot in the tank, waited for a fish to use it as a cave, scooped it up, and poured the fish into a bowl. Easy. And as each fish left, the next claimed the pot within moments.

It's been almost a week, so far so good. Actually I think the fish are doing a little better with this arrangement (at least for now) - the sun cats in particular seem less henpecked. The rts's eye is still fine but he's got a bit of nibbling on his fins - but that dude's a jerk, I'd nibble his fins too. Don't know how to tell him if he quits FA, he'll quit FO.

I attribute the relative peace to several factors:

* Ample hides/interrupted line of sight: this is a little hard to achieve while leaving enough open water for the big eupterus to swim the laps he likes to do at night, but I think I've found a pretty good balance.

* Having several bossy jerks seems to spread out the aggression and prevent any one fish from being bullied mercilessly. I have spent a lot of time watching them at night with the blue lights on and it's really interesting - the rts will start in on a sun cat, and a ML will come over and start on the rts, and then another ML comes and starts on the first one - by which time the sun cat and the rts have simply left.

* This one's the biggest one I need to keep in mind - most of these are young fish and may get meaner with age. I have to keep watching carefully and be ready to remove fish who are too mean or too bullied.

I left the 55 gallon open for a few minutes intending to use it for propagating plants so they could grow without being uprooted, but then we went to the LFS for plants and they had a single young Eupterus (~3.5") and Mr. Heck wanted him, so now he's growing out in the "empty emergency tank/plant growing station."

This is altogether Too Many Fish, even though it's peaceful enough at the moment - I'm thinking I'll give the sun cats back soon. I've seen varying reports about their potential adult size, and if they were to reach 18" my tank would be a sad little jail for them. Even if they don't get that big, they're kind of boring.

Predatory Fins has baby eupterus with marbled coloring - like, regular eupterus with albino spots, or maybe albino eupterus with regular colored spots. I want one DESPERATELY but can't see spending that much on a fish - especially at the moment. Sigh.

20240625_155531.jpg
 

jjohnwm

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Still a great pic...even better now. :)

Biotopes are over-rated. People love to go on and on about biotopes; they set up a tank with a few species of fish from scattered areas around Asia, some plants from South America, "driftwood" that has never drifted anywhere and comes from a desert in Africa, fancy rocks dug up in Mexico and pool filter sand from Home Depot...and then smugly call it a biotope.

Unless you have naturally-occurring flora, fauna, substrate and decor that all originate from the same body of water...it ain't a biotope. And that doesn't make it bad, merely pragmatic. As long as all the fish kept together are adapted to the same general water conditions, they will do fine. The oft-heard argument that fish from here shouldn't live with fish from there because of some imagined differences in resistance to various types of pathogens may sound like it has some validity...but let's be honest. The majority of the fish you buy have been moved all around the country or the world, spending time in multiple tanks and vats and buckets and bins and nets and bags, exposed to a world of diseases along the way. If they are still alive when you open the bag at home, the worst is behind them.

It's a lot like the idea that two species of fish that live together in the same river are somehow magically suited to be tankmates, as opposed to species from widely separated origins. Lions and zebras live side by side in nature; Bullsnakes live with prairie dogs, sometimes right in the burrows; Shrikes and Chickadees both sit right outside my window all winter long. I wonder how those pairings would do if kept together...well, actually, no, I don't. :)

My tanks are all biotopes; they are limited to species found somewhere on Earth. Seems to work okay. You seem to be choosing fish based upon what you like; that's another perfectly valid criterion, as long as their required parameters are roughly similar.

Oh, and, by the way..."A girl at the LFS tried to get me to buy stuff to..."?

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! :)
 
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Heck

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
92
131
36
Sacramento, CA
Still a great pic...even better now. :)

Biotopes are over-rated. People love to go on and on about biotopes; they set up a tank with a few species of fish from scattered areas around Asia, some plants from South America, "driftwood" that has never drifted anywhere and comes from a desert in Africa, fancy rocks dug up in Mexico and pool filter sand from Home Depot...and then smugly call it a biotope.

Unless you have naturally-occurring flora, fauna, substrate and decor that all originate from the same body of water...it ain't a biotope. And that doesn't make it bad, merely pragmatic. As long as all the fish kept together are adapted to the same general water conditions, they will do fine. The oft-heard argument that fish from here shouldn't live with fish from there because of some imagined differences in resistance to various types of pathogens may sound like it has some validity...but let's be honest. The majority of the fish you buy have been moved all around the country or the world, spending time in multiple tanks and vats and buckets and bins and nets and bags, exposed to a world of diseases along the way. If they are still alive when you open the bag at home, the worst is behind them.

It's a lot like the idea that two species of fish that live together in the same river are somehow magically suited to be tankmates, as opposed to species from widely separated origins. Lions and zebras live side by side in nature; Bullsnakes live with prairie dogs, sometimes right in the burrows; Shrikes and Chickadees both sit right outside my window all winter long. I wonder how those pairings would do if kept together...well, actually, no, I don't. :)

My tanks are all biotopes; they are limited to species found somewhere on Earth. Seems to work okay. You seem to be choosing fish based upon what you like; that's another perfectly valid criterion, as long as their required parameters are roughly similar.

Oh, and, by the way..."A girl at the LFS tried to get me to buy stuff to..."?

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! :)
Earth biotope - I love it! Yes, I choose fish that I like who can tolerate my high pH; I don't think they know or care what continents they're from - they are far more concerned with thing like staying alive, eating, hiding.

My dog is from Canada, my horses are from Germany (except one from Argentina), I'm from France and Israel, and my cat is from the pound - our whole home is an Earth biotope.

This board was super helpful when I realized my well water is pretty basic - I was advised not to chase pH and took that to heart. I don't want to add any more complications for myself, and having water I can use straight from the hose is really handy. Better to simply choose fish and plants who can roll with the conditions I've got than struggle to change it. Might be different if I already had to buy or treat my water, but I don't and don't want to.

All of my decor, apart from plants, is scavenged, mostly from my own property. I have a big horse ranch, so my sand is from the arenas (I do have to wash it very carefully since it's been exposed to Lord knows what chemicals, etc, from the horses - who are dewormed, sprayed with bug repellant, etc - but washing is free). My driftwood is from the burn pile or fallen limbs - I take my dog out to run around in a far corner of the property where he won't spook horses and get someone bucked off, and if I find a cool piece of wood I make the dog pack it home (he's big and energetic, he can carry a limb in his backpack if it's not huge).

One struggle I have with my land is how rocky the soil is - it's annoying for the horses but results in giant piles of rocks that have been pulled from arenas and pastures and set aside where they can't bother anyone. One of my clients wanted to landscape her entire yard with rocks and I let her take as many as she wanted on the condition that she pick them from the areas where they were causing a problem rather than just harvesting from the piles my employees and I have created. She has been working on it for over a year now, doing all the work herself, and is nearly done. She informs me that she has taken hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars worth of rocks, and she appreciates the savings - I appreciate her labor in removing a few tons of rocks that were in the way. So I have more rocks than I could ever put in my tanks, and when I come across an interesting one I make my dog carry it home if he's around or take it home myself.

I've even considered offering free rocks to other fishkeepers in my area, on the condition that they come out and harvest them themselves, but I don't know if anyone would consider it worth the effort since the amount of rocks they would need is probably cheap enough to buy and maybe not worth the time to pick out of my arenas and paths.

I'll be gone for two weekends in a row, this weekend and next. I'm apprehensive about leaving the Crime Box unsupervised. I don't watch them all night every night anyway, but I do check them when they're active every night and monitor for fin damage daily in the hope of intervening when a major conflict arises, so I hope no new problems pop up in my absence.
 
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