Aquarium Update

I figured I would update you all on the status of my aquarium.  Eric and I took the remaining fish to Plano Pets a couple of weeks ago, and I began the process of converting the tank.

Aquarium Repurposing Plans

There's something I've been pondering over for a bit of time now.  I guess it all started when I had so much trouble with the whole breeding debacle a couple of months ago, but really it's been a long time coming.  Ever since I've had my aquarium set up, it has always been used as a freshwater aquatic environment.  I've never done anything besides that with it.  Many of you know how fond I am of nature documentaries and stuff like that, and I'd started thinking about possibly repurposing my tank to house a variety of salamander.  Particularly tiger salamanders.  These are terrestrial but need some water for cooling off and laying eggs.  So, needless to say I would need to completely rework the current environment of my tank, as it is right now.

Oops...They Did It Again...

Big Jack The Ripper and his little dame Jackelyn have done it yet again. After the last event, the signs were rather apparent ahead of time. Knowing that a little brood was on the way, I took the opportunity to snap a couple of photos of them. Normally they are too timid to get the chance. One thing to notice is how considerably darker little Jackelyn is compared to Big Jack. This seems to happen only when she's on the verge of birth. She spends most of her time under cover during this time, and as a result grows extremely dark. Normally she is about the same hue as he is. Alright, that's all for now. I expect some more baby evac. in the near future.

Cheers,

Jack Attack

There was quite a lot of interesting aquarium-related activity last weekend. In retrospect, though, I guess I noticed some general behavioral changes a week or two prior. There seemed to be an unusual amount of gravel rearranging, plants being uprooted, and a general reforming of the floor of the aquarium. What used to be a nicely sloping gravel floor was become rather mountainous and hilly. There were large heaps of gravel in some places and deep valleys in between. At the time I wrote this off as something my little loach was doing in search of food, since they are notorious diggers. Since then I have since seen the light.

In Pursuit Of A Convict

In my previous post I discussed one of the two major headaches that I've been trying to fight for a few months with regard to my aquarium: my high rate of plecostomus turnover. The other headache involved the attempted capture of my last remaining convict cichlid. Well, along with my renewed efforts to keep a longer living pleco in tact I also found some resolution on the second front: I finally captured my convict!!!

My Problems with Plecos

When I first set up my 46 Gallon tank years ago, I started off with the easiest to maintain population of fresh water fish: community fish. These are non-aggressive easy-to-care-for fish that are most suitable for beginners. And as this was my first tank, it was the obvious choice. However, the selection for these types of fish can become a bit on the mundane side, and the majority of breeds in this category tend to be less eye-catching.