More tank pics, updated
- Thread starter FINWIN
- Start date
A few tidbits.
The QT growouts are doing really well! They're growing like crazy and eat like there's no hope...I put food in and it doesn't even hit the floor. They bang into each other grabbing pellets. The gold severum Corn is growing like an oscar, its hard to believe. The acaras have nearly outstripped my HRP in size and HE'S grown, too! It's nuts. I'll be posting some pics soon.
In other news, I was taking a few random shots during work break. I have a new phone case that's bright orange. No biggy, right? Wrong! I tried to take a pic of Tango. He immediately freaked out, bounced off the glass and shot up into the corner. He refused to come down. I swear this doofy parrot is hopeless sometimes. He was fine minutes later and settled in his vine cave watching cartoons.
So I go to the other tanks to test a few exposures. The fish room is a challenge with reflections off the other tanks and light sources. Sometimes I'll turn on the floor lamp on one side, but its incadescent and gives everything a yellow tint. The fish seem to love staring into it for whatever reason. They go to that end of the tank and get mesmerized. Its trial and error with light sources. Sometimes I get an annoying reflection off the door. I made a few adjustments to the main tank, tinkering a bit to maximize floor space and add a couple of 'hide' spots for the HRP when he goes in. The acaras Rocky and Jazz may use one as well. Pip (HRP) seems to prefer going into structures. I tried that with the rainbow but Pepper shows little interest in small hides. He'll disappear at night into wherever he goes to sleep. I also strategically placed a hide stone under the branch cave...its big enough that the cats and rainbow still have space but the choc won't be able to sit there without squeezing in (he was sitting there taking shots at the parrot Boss when he swam by). Problem solved. As usual, even small changes to the tank set off a round of scuffling. Bobo went to the wrong end of town, forcing his way past a plant wall. He ran right into a large red head. Flew back across the tank so fast he bumped the glass.
I did some more adjustments with shots and lighting. Boss did his typical 'slow creep to the front and stare' bit. Kind of like, "so?" then he drifted back into his cove with Brick. Patch sat under her hammock while I took a shot and posed. Kong just stared back at the phone then swam off. So this same phone that sent Tango into spasms had no effect on the other parrots besides curiosity. Lol.
What's really hilarious is this thing with the rainbow and synos. Pepper, all 4 inches of him has intimidated one ~8 inch and one 6+ inch synodontis to the point where they go into the plants to rest, desperately stuffing themselves into corners. If they come to the bottom the rainbow swims past and hits them in the side. When they retaliate he goes for their eyes, making them spin and panic. He has special animosity for Cash, the largest syno. I have NO idea what the hell got all this started. Plus, the rainbow is unpredictable in his attacks so the catfish are constantly off balance around him. What makes this funny is that the BP Boss will run Pepper around in turn. Usually happens when the parrot is tired of all the darting around in his space. Pepper schools with Bobo the choc or goes off and does his own thing. He's beginning to bond with Bobo more lately, though.
Patch and Kong will be getting a makeover for their tanks. They love silk plants but are rough on them. Kongs' are getting tattered/stringy at the edges. Patch rips leaves off the wire stems (she destroyed one plant and is working over the largest one now). I end up trimming them so she won't scratch herself.
I'm also going to have to get replacement glass lids for Kong and Patch. The plastic evaporation pans are deforming and I have to place them carefully on the tank frames to avoid falling in the water. I have a glass strip (left over from previous glass lids) I place over the pans and set the lights over that for safety. But its becoming a pain all the adjustments. I was trying to save some money (glass lids are pricey these days!) but long term the pans won't work.
Have to admit Brick is actually a good landscaper. In fact some of his 'decorating' looks better than mine. But I have to be creative scaping the tank since he and Boss have claimed about 45% of the 225 as their private space. They don't care about the rainbow being in there (unless annoyed) but the chocolate and synos get chased out. If Brick is feeling lazy he'll leave the chasing to Boss. My Oscar has become a better ambush attacker now that his bulk has cost him some speed. Definitely not as fast in a straight line as last year, but he can burst when pissed. He generally loves tangles of plants that he can swim through/brush against or root around in. If I had a cave (and space) big enough he would definitely use it. He sticks his head into everything and loves to explore. He even slept in the PVC cave until he got too big.
The QT growouts are doing really well! They're growing like crazy and eat like there's no hope...I put food in and it doesn't even hit the floor. They bang into each other grabbing pellets. The gold severum Corn is growing like an oscar, its hard to believe. The acaras have nearly outstripped my HRP in size and HE'S grown, too! It's nuts. I'll be posting some pics soon.
In other news, I was taking a few random shots during work break. I have a new phone case that's bright orange. No biggy, right? Wrong! I tried to take a pic of Tango. He immediately freaked out, bounced off the glass and shot up into the corner. He refused to come down. I swear this doofy parrot is hopeless sometimes. He was fine minutes later and settled in his vine cave watching cartoons.
So I go to the other tanks to test a few exposures. The fish room is a challenge with reflections off the other tanks and light sources. Sometimes I'll turn on the floor lamp on one side, but its incadescent and gives everything a yellow tint. The fish seem to love staring into it for whatever reason. They go to that end of the tank and get mesmerized. Its trial and error with light sources. Sometimes I get an annoying reflection off the door. I made a few adjustments to the main tank, tinkering a bit to maximize floor space and add a couple of 'hide' spots for the HRP when he goes in. The acaras Rocky and Jazz may use one as well. Pip (HRP) seems to prefer going into structures. I tried that with the rainbow but Pepper shows little interest in small hides. He'll disappear at night into wherever he goes to sleep. I also strategically placed a hide stone under the branch cave...its big enough that the cats and rainbow still have space but the choc won't be able to sit there without squeezing in (he was sitting there taking shots at the parrot Boss when he swam by). Problem solved. As usual, even small changes to the tank set off a round of scuffling. Bobo went to the wrong end of town, forcing his way past a plant wall. He ran right into a large red head. Flew back across the tank so fast he bumped the glass.
I did some more adjustments with shots and lighting. Boss did his typical 'slow creep to the front and stare' bit. Kind of like, "so?" then he drifted back into his cove with Brick. Patch sat under her hammock while I took a shot and posed. Kong just stared back at the phone then swam off. So this same phone that sent Tango into spasms had no effect on the other parrots besides curiosity. Lol.
What's really hilarious is this thing with the rainbow and synos. Pepper, all 4 inches of him has intimidated one ~8 inch and one 6+ inch synodontis to the point where they go into the plants to rest, desperately stuffing themselves into corners. If they come to the bottom the rainbow swims past and hits them in the side. When they retaliate he goes for their eyes, making them spin and panic. He has special animosity for Cash, the largest syno. I have NO idea what the hell got all this started. Plus, the rainbow is unpredictable in his attacks so the catfish are constantly off balance around him. What makes this funny is that the BP Boss will run Pepper around in turn. Usually happens when the parrot is tired of all the darting around in his space. Pepper schools with Bobo the choc or goes off and does his own thing. He's beginning to bond with Bobo more lately, though.
Patch and Kong will be getting a makeover for their tanks. They love silk plants but are rough on them. Kongs' are getting tattered/stringy at the edges. Patch rips leaves off the wire stems (she destroyed one plant and is working over the largest one now). I end up trimming them so she won't scratch herself.
I'm also going to have to get replacement glass lids for Kong and Patch. The plastic evaporation pans are deforming and I have to place them carefully on the tank frames to avoid falling in the water. I have a glass strip (left over from previous glass lids) I place over the pans and set the lights over that for safety. But its becoming a pain all the adjustments. I was trying to save some money (glass lids are pricey these days!) but long term the pans won't work.
Have to admit Brick is actually a good landscaper. In fact some of his 'decorating' looks better than mine. But I have to be creative scaping the tank since he and Boss have claimed about 45% of the 225 as their private space. They don't care about the rainbow being in there (unless annoyed) but the chocolate and synos get chased out. If Brick is feeling lazy he'll leave the chasing to Boss. My Oscar has become a better ambush attacker now that his bulk has cost him some speed. Definitely not as fast in a straight line as last year, but he can burst when pissed. He generally loves tangles of plants that he can swim through/brush against or root around in. If I had a cave (and space) big enough he would definitely use it. He sticks his head into everything and loves to explore. He even slept in the PVC cave until he got too big.
Bobo, my chocolate cichlid is going to drive me to drink.
Did a large w/c today. Not 5 minutes after its done, Bobo is peeling slime coat like crazy. Yesterday before the change I noticed three small 'fuzzyish" cloudy areas that were probably slime coat (no bumps).They were on his right side, invisible except at a certain angle.
I do have a lot of microbubbles this time from the water change....the pipes have been really cold from severe weather here, and getting consistent temps during fill ups is a serious pain. I did Tango's tank earlier and the $^%$ water spiked to 98 degrees after I had it running at 79. I adjusted it again by letting it run three more minutes and it was ok after that. It's just lucky I'm paranoid about temp changes when the pipes have been cold.
There were no such temp problems with the large tank (equilibrium hit) but why only Bobo 'peeled' is baffling. He doesn't appear to be having any issues but I'm tempted to add some salt.
I will admit my busy schedule has impacted the water routine. Normally I do 2 large (80-90%) changes a week but there have been times where I've only done one (as they say, s+++ happens). I did test once during this stretch and didn't get anything out of whack. But I'm thinking the addition of the new sponge filters may have altered the total bio filtration capacity, although I did add more media from the previous filters.
Going to go check and see how things are going with Bobo. Seems like the bigger he gets, the more sensitive he gets. Great. That's all I need.
Did a large w/c today. Not 5 minutes after its done, Bobo is peeling slime coat like crazy. Yesterday before the change I noticed three small 'fuzzyish" cloudy areas that were probably slime coat (no bumps).They were on his right side, invisible except at a certain angle.
I do have a lot of microbubbles this time from the water change....the pipes have been really cold from severe weather here, and getting consistent temps during fill ups is a serious pain. I did Tango's tank earlier and the $^%$ water spiked to 98 degrees after I had it running at 79. I adjusted it again by letting it run three more minutes and it was ok after that. It's just lucky I'm paranoid about temp changes when the pipes have been cold.
There were no such temp problems with the large tank (equilibrium hit) but why only Bobo 'peeled' is baffling. He doesn't appear to be having any issues but I'm tempted to add some salt.
I will admit my busy schedule has impacted the water routine. Normally I do 2 large (80-90%) changes a week but there have been times where I've only done one (as they say, s+++ happens). I did test once during this stretch and didn't get anything out of whack. But I'm thinking the addition of the new sponge filters may have altered the total bio filtration capacity, although I did add more media from the previous filters.
Going to go check and see how things are going with Bobo. Seems like the bigger he gets, the more sensitive he gets. Great. That's all I need.