UPDATES,UPDATES,UPDATES!!!!!

Okay so since I've been M.I.A. for the last month I was reading my last few posts and realized how much I've left out!

Okay let me start with the sad news first and get that out of the way To the fishies I lost Soleil being the first my cremecicle molly he never got over his fungus problem. It finally caught up to him he got very weak and became emaciated. Then there was Charlie who mysteriously out of know where got dropsy. That one was tough he looked so uncomfortable, that's gotta be the worst fish ilness poor little guy! And you already heard about the guppy diaster!! I also did end up getting 2 red cherry shrimp they did great hiding, but once they ventured out they stressed and died within a day of each other. I had them for a month and a half so water parameters were good. Just didn't like being chased by giant fish (to them at least). I learned that they are "colony" type creatures that do well in great numbers. I have a new 2.5 gallon which I'm turning into a shrimp garden type tank with lots of small plants. I'm going to wait till I have quite a few shrimp, and then I'll add 3 male guppies. If the guppies harass them too much I'll put them in the platy tank, but I think they'll do fine!

My fishy friends

Okay on to the good news all tanks are completely cycled hurrah hurrah!!! The original tank that I had stocking plans for is basically the only thing since my last plans that acually pulled through lol. I have my Betta Blueberry my 2 existing Cory's and my ADF Sebastian. I'm also going to get to sterbai cories once I set up a quarantine tank as I don't want anymore trouble.

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For the 20 gallon I got a dwarf gourami named Thylesia and it's a very pretty fish. Also I finally named my starburst platy females Sara & Tegan after the band I can't tell them apart. Tegan & Sara are twins so thought it fit perfectly. I also got a Marigold male platy named Solaris, I hope to have fry at some point

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Here are pictures of my betta cory ADF set up. The yellow background is temporary I have new ideas for it. I wanted a color that would compliment the pink and turquoise coloring of Blueberry.

First one is from the side so no yellow :P, notice the new white rocks. Easier to see the cory's and frog now ;) Also you can see my cory jade in the left furthest corner of the tank.

This picture, all though blurry shows the ADF front and center btwn the planter and the fern, isn't he cute!

2 new Betta's

This is Gideon and he was so bright red and beautiful I had to buy him and take him home! These aren't good pictures so I'll try harder next time. He is crimson red all over with a a bit of bright purpl on the base of his tail.

This is Schuyler my adopted CT betta he is turqouise and very stunning!

Apongonten Ulvaceus

This is my newest plant, it's beautiful and even has a really long stemmed flower. It's really cool it's in my 20 gallon tall with my goldies. I'm keeping an eye on it and hopefully they won't destroy it because it's too big for my 10 gallons!!

Long time since new post

So it's been a while since my last post. April was rough not only was it cold sleet and hail all month, but I lost all 3 of my guppies within hours of each other My water parameters were fine ammonia zero nitrite zero, and nitrate was only 10 so there should have been no problem at all!! I figured it out though, of course not 100% sure but everything points to me changing dechlorinators. I'm not saying this new product is bad and not to use it, I'm just saying in my case the timing was bad.

Okay so my little male guppy Renoir was chasing my platies non stop 24/7 since I got him. (Yes he was silly and never went after the female guppies who were silver and black, he was attracted to the bright yellow/orange of my starburst platies lol ). At anyrate I started to notice he had a little bit of fin rot and had calmed down a bit around week 3. Around this time I had already bought API's Stress coat +, I started to do daily 25% water changes to help with the minute case of fin rot. One day with no warning or symptoms and to my shock one of the femal guppies was dead! Then 3 days later Brennan asked me where all my fish went, he said he thought the tank was empty. I of course panicky ran into the room, I was stunned just 2 hours earlier all of the fish were swimming up and down left to right and very active and social. Now 2 platies were in the cave (that they never ever used before this day) and 2 were hiding behind it. The guppies were complete opposite on the top by the heater. Something scared the be-Jesus out of them obviously. I did an immediate water change again (as I was still doing them daily) a few hours later Renoir dead. Then I noticed the female guppy came out swimming but had 2 white dots on her, I was thinking maybe ich. Next morning she was dead, it was insane, I went to the forums at http://www.board.fishchannel.com where I get the best advice . No one could pinpoint what could be the problem, it was still a mystery. Until I found a recent post from someone else saying 4 fish suddenly die after water change. It was so similiar I read all the threads which was about 4 pages of them. I concluded that this person also changed to API's Stress coat and was doing daily water changes for a stressed fish too. Long story short a few poster's agreed that in stress coat they put a little extra sodium to irritate the fish's scales just enough to produce a thicker stress coat. I am sure that this works very well over time doing weekly or semi weekly water changes. My other fish that are in my other 2 tanks were fine as I was only doing weekly water changes. I think by suddenly switching to stress coat and then dosing daily at 25% a day, the sodium killed them. I went back to my old dechlorinator Seacham's prime and did daily water changes for a week and all my platies are back to normal. IMO from this experience if your using a product for your fish and it works, stick with it

New fishy friends!!

Okay so now that both tanks have been cycled and tests are showing no traces of ammonia or nitrite's at all (for days, so it is stable)!! I have re-homed all of my fish out of the original 10 gallon, and I am now cycling that with ammonia. I don't ever think it cycled properly because it would always show traces of ammonia but show zero nitrite's. Leading me to believe that the nitrite cycle never even began. I have no idea why since it's been running for 5 months. At anyrate that is another post all together.

Okay so here are the setups!

20 gallon is now houseing my 2 mollies Soleil (cremecicle) and Speckles (dalmation) and Bubbles (red cap oranda) and my new black moor!!! ***I think I've settled on naming her Pheobe I've always thought it was a cool name and my favorite Charmed sister. Yes I'm a big fan of the show and if naming my fish after a character makes me a dork, then I guess I'm a dork lol. Here are the pictures that came out the best. (I usually take about 15 shot's and only 2-3 are okay at best, but I try my best and you get the idea :P )

*** I know a lot of fishkeepers are against keeping goldfish with tropicals. I just wanted to add that fancy varieties like their water a little warmer, up to 78*F. Molly's like most tropical fish like warmer water too, up to about 82*F. I keep this tank between 75-77* F so they'll both be comfortable and this warmer level also helps keep my bacteria colony alive. Temperature control and stability and more swimming space is definitely keeping them happy!

Close up of Pheobe

Pheobe & Bubbles

Speckles joins the fun!!

10 gallon has 2 wagtail platies Rosie and Charlie and 2 Cory cats Jade and Neptune and 2 sunburst platies (yet to be named :P) Here are the pictures. Sorry no good pictures of my cories yet they are very skiddish.

2 sunburst platies at top Charlie the wag tail platy at the bottom

From left sunburst platy, Rosie, 2nd Sunburst platy, Charlie.

Also eventually once the original 10 gallon tank is cycled it will house my 2 cories and then I'll be getting a betta and an african dwarf frog. The platy tank will have the 4 platies and 3 male guppies and cherry shrimp. I can't wait till all of them are set to go :D

1st 10 gallon example below:

2nd 10 gallon example below:

My 2nd 10 gallon!

The 10 gallon was a little harder to photograph since the background is black. The first one is with the flash but to the left you can't see the pretty java moss. The 2nd one is with no flash but on a setting where the shutter stays open a little longer to soak in the light source, so the fish are all blurs. You can see that whispy thing above the java moss that's my cory Jade lol. Anyway I had a lot of fun decorating and rearanging things. This one houses my 2 cories Jade and Neptune and my two wagtail platies Rosie and Charlie.

My 20 gallon goldie tank!

Just some photos now that it's all setup!