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| Colonel fish |
| 12.31.03 (1:20 pm) [edit] |
Dad and I gave my stepmom an aquarium for Christmas with one of the bettas I've raised from the spawn in August.
Of my tanks, she liked the naturalistic ones the best, so I leaned that way when I chose the decor-- walnut-brown gravel, some plastic driftwood (real driftwood causes the pH to be difficult at first), lots of plants from my tanks, a terra cotta hidey-hole, a heater and a lovely blue and red young betta boy with a pale grey head. I also picked up a lot of the things she would need to take care of a cycled tank (5 gallon). I bought a bucket to be a dedicated fishie bucket (no soap or detergents), a siphon hose, extra filter media, water conditioners (Amquel and Novaqua), some Hikari Betta Bites food for the betta, some testing kits for water parameters, and-- very important-- BioSpira to cycle the tank.
I drove 4.5 hours to my Dads with the fishie in about 24 ounces of water in a 32oz cup in a cooler with another container of water from his tank so I could change his water with water that felt familiar to him. Those cups when into one of those soft-sided cooler things so that he wouldn't get a lot of confusing images that would scare him.
I made record time to Dad's house. Still the trip stressed out the fish. In my room, I pulled him out and he had no color. Poor fishie! His head and eyelids and body were a transluscent white and his fins were grey with a pale brown where the red used to be. I was so worried-- what if my gift-fish died?
He didn't die, or even loose any fin tissue. Despite his pitiful appearance, he ate like a good piggy betta. I was glad I brought the extra water because the tap water in Dad's house turned out to be a big problem.
Dad and I wrapped up the aquarium for her to open. She was really happy when she saw it and thrilled with the fish-- even though, 18 hours later, he still looked pretty pitiful. But he was perky and wriggled for her and there was some sweet-looking bonding happening.
The next day, I started setting up the tank. First, I tested the water, rather half-heartedly, not expecting anything unusual. These were the water params:
pH <5.2 (my testkit didn't test any lower; ideal is 7)>total hardness (GH) = 75ppm (soft)
carbonate hardness (KH) = 0 Zero Nada
nitrites = 0 (as expected)
nitrates = 0 (ditto)
ammonia = 0
The thing about water chemistry for aquariums is that things have to be stable. I was worried about this set of params because the KH (which you'd like to be 100-120) keeps the pH steady at whatever value it is. This pH is too low for almost all fishies, but with nothing to keep it stable, who know how it would fluxuate. Four hours later, the pH had risen to 6.4 and the nitrates were showing at 40ppm. Where did the nitrates come from? I couldn't figure it out.
When the pH descended again two hours later and the nitrates went up to 60ppm, I threw away my water samples and went out and bought some spring water. It tested perfect, so five gallons of spring water went into the tank with a couple of gallons standing by for water changes. Stepmom has no problem with buying a gallon of spring water each week to keep up the water changes.
Stepmom and I added the gravel and the "driftwood" and added the plants and the water and the heater. After the water heated up to 79dF, we set fishie's cup in to start acclimatizing. A few minutes later we checked on him and he'd jumped out of his cup and into the tank and was busily checking the place out and looking for food. And his color had bloomed -- royal blue and bright red and his head was no longer grey, but had darkened into a velvet black.
In went the Bio-spira to cycle the biofilter and about 24 hours later I took these photos:
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| Home! |
| 12.30.03 (2:20 pm) [edit] |
I had a good Christmas with Dad and my stepmother, but boy am I glad to be home. My cats, my fishies, my house. My Macintosh. My cable modem! This cable connection has spoiled me rotten. I tried to keep up with everyone at Dad's house, but between the buggy computer (Windows...faugh!) and the dial-up connection (limping along at 28K) I just gave up.
My stepmom loved her betta gift. I took some pictures of the fish and the tank that I'll post tomorrow. She named him Colonel.
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| last tank |
| 12.22.03 (4:42 pm) [edit] |
I did the last of my shopping today. Actually I did the last of my Dad's shopping. See, we're giving my stepmother a fish tank to house one of the bettas I raised for Christmas. I picked out a nice guy with a pale head, blue body and a blue and red butterfly pattern on his fins, and earlier this month I went around and got all the fixin's for the inside of the tank. That was my job. Dad's job was to get the tank itself.
There was a specific tank of mine she liked and I have to agree it is an awesome tank. It's a hexagonal (it actually has six sides, but that's what they call it) five gallon from the Marineland Eclipse series. If you're going to get a really solid small tank this is a very good choice. The light and filter are contained in the hood and the filter is very quiet. It also has a Bio-wheel-- a wheel that rotates through the water as it's coming out of the filter where good bacteria can live. Once you cycle this tank it's very stable.
Anyway, Dad called me yesterday, "The store here is out of these tanks-- do they still have them in your part of the state?" *sigh* So today I had to go to the store with millions of other people and buy the last tank in the world. It took me five minutes to walk from my car in the back of the parking lot, five minutes to pick up the tank, and 45 minutes to check out.
I got it home, and the filter works. I'll take it down with me on the 24th the set it all up pretty-like. If you want to check out the tank you can go here. (But don't put that many fish in yours! It's just a photoshopped image anyway.)
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| Emma |
| 12.21.03 (6:33 am) [edit] |
This is darlin' Emma the cat. She's a sweetie-pie who likes to play in the damp empty tub after I've showered. This morning the drain was slow (gotta be cat hair in there) but Emma failed to exercise her habitual caution. She sashayed past me and hopped into the tub before I could speak-- and vanished. I was flummoxed. I looked around the bathroom. No cat. Behind the commode. No cat. I checked in the hallway. There's Emma, looking Very Annoyed, twitching her tail and frantically licking her paws dry. When I laughed at her (I did, I'm sorry) she gave her tail a particularly vehement twitch and stomped away down the hall.
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| RIP Chime |
| 12.20.03 (3:59 pm) [edit] |
I'm sorry to say that little Chime died today. She was mostly unchanged this morning (not responding to meds), but when I went to feed her this evening, she had died.
:cry:
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| new food for the fishies |
| 12.18.03 (4:04 pm) [edit] |
I heard of gel food on a goldfish site and I thought maybe it would be good for my bettas. I had to search a little before finding a recipe that wasn't vague (I'm not good in the kitchen: I need specifics) but I finally found one that was specific, simple and that didn't make more food than a betta could eat in its whole life.
Here it is:
1 cup water
1 pkg unflavored gelatin
1 2.5 oz jar baby food
In a small saucepan heat 1/4 cup cold water until nearly boiling. Add gelatin and stir until dissolved. Add remaining water and heat, stirring constantly. Add baby food and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour mixture into shallow pan. Refrigerate until solid.
The goldfish site suggested squash or pea baby food and when I went to the store I had the thought of getting peas for the bettas. Did you know that they have beef baby food? They also have veal and turkey. I bought the beef. Did you know it tastes nothing like meat? When I got home I tasted it and was absolutely appalled. People give this to their children.
Anyway, I had serious misgivings by this point, but I couldn't loose much by trying it. I followed the directions and got everything dissolved and blended and discovered: this stinks! Cooking beef baby food smells BAD. I poured it into a big round serving platter and put it in the fridge. Opened the windows.
Between the water and the baby food, this is a lot of food. You could halve everything in the recipe and still have a huge amount of food. After it solidified, it looked really unappetizing (didn't stink anymore, though)-- it was the pale-beigy color of old computers.
By this point, I really didn't think this was anything but a failed experiment. I didn't think any self-respecting betta would eat this stuff. I thought I was going to get dozens of "what the heck is this?" looks. I was wrong! I used a plastic spoon to carve off little pieces of this stuff and dropped it in the various tanks. They loved it! They tore it apart, carried it around in their mouths. The juvie grrls fought over it. Who'd've thought?
Since there was so much, I decided to freeze most of it and cut it into little squares to freeze in pieces. The next day, I defrosted some and they loved it again. (It wasn't a fluke!) It freezes well and defrosts quickly. If left alone in the tank, though, it will dissolve fairly quickly. I've decided to add it to my food rotation on the morning of water change day. I've watched the fishies since then for signs of constipation or other problems; I haven't seen a thing.
I'm pretty pleased by this stuff. It was easy to prepare, very inexpensive and high-protein. And even better: you only have to do it once every six months.
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| Poem, post inspired by Apples |
| 12.18.03 (5:28 am) [edit] |
Possible Self-Portrait as Galatea
Martha Elizabeth
They have made and remade me
as their most secret woman--
big-bellied and buttocked;
languidly tubercular;
plump, with dimpled wrists;
a sharp-breasted virgin--
and I have conspired in this.
I have given myself to them as raw material
over and over, from clay
to paper maché, as wood, marble, steel;
I have allowed myself to be entered
with chisels and thumbs,
to be melted and formed again,
to be chipped down or built up--
often wasted or botched
but sometimes quite beautiful.
And the ones who study me,
to whom I remain a concept,
those are the worst,
because I do it for the hands--
I love their hands
when I come alive for them,
the little sigh they make
when they are done,
they are so happy, thinking
She is all mine, and she is perfect.
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| Killer |
| 12.17.03 (2:20 pm) [edit] |
This is Killer. She's one of the first female bettas I've had. She got her name after a short residence in the tetra tank where, in a period of maybe 15 minutes, she killed two neons and one serpae and traumatized an entire population. She lived up to her name when I added a yellow mystery snail (a critter the diameter of a quarter) to her next home, and when I checked an hour later she had removed the snail from it's shell and eaten nearly a fourth of it. That's a really big meal for a two ounce fish.
So now she's in a new home. This is the 5-gallon that was vacated when Pinkgirl died. I've since sterilized it and re-cycled it and decided to let Killer have it since she's getting old. She was a bit overwhelmed by it at first. Actually, she hid in the back of the tank for two days, but now she's acclimated I think she likes it. I know she enjoys chasing the otocinclus around. (If her fins look a little clamped, it's because she really doesn't like the Camera Thing when it's close to the tank.)
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| Chime update |
| 12.16.03 (3:11 pm) [edit] |
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Chime is still hanging on. She has a lot of problems swimming; she's resting on a cheesecloth sling. I'm still medicating her with an anti-parasitic. She's not responding to it very quickly; I really don't what to do. :( On the good side she ate plenty of bloodworms tonight like a good little piggy-fish.
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| males, females and undecideds |
| 12.16.03 (1:59 pm) [edit] |
Twenty-four fish are now living in new homes in the pet store. It's a relief. It's agonizing. Next year I will know: no spawns after July 1st. I don't want to have to sell them this young again.
The remaining fish are female, except for a few males I kept back for promises to people and a few fish in the growout tanks that are short-finned, but not showing an oviduct yet. They'll probably turn out to be female, but I've had a few surprises in that area so far so I won't rule out anything.
In the theoretical spawn you get you get an even 50:50 ratio of males to females. I've had something around 35:65 males to females. I've been trying to research how to increase the male side of that ratio, but if there's any scholarly work being done, I haven't been able to find it. The best I've been able to find are what could be called anecdotal speculations about the role of temperaure and pH in the spawning tank. It's said higher temps and lower pH give more males. The question I have is: is the sex of a fry determine on laying? On hatching? Sometime later? I know so little about this.
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| Mom Memory |
| 12.14.03 (4:00 pm) [edit] |
Whenever my Mom would ride as a passenger in my car she would brace her hand against the glovebox. Then she'd put her foot on an imaginary brake pedal on the floor, pushing down the pedal whenever she thought I should press mine. One day, when I was 28 years old, I pulled the car over, "Would you STOP?! Would you just STOP?!"
She looked at me, puzzled, arm outstretched, foot pressing the floormat, "Stop what?"
She didn't even know she was doing it! :lol:
She never did it again, either.
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| snow |
| 12.14.03 (9:19 am) [edit] |
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The fibro has been giving me lots of trouble lately (aftershocks from the fall a few days ago), so naturally the whether gods decided it would be a good time for me to have to shovel my walkway. :( So that's done. I'm going to take a hot bath and think about being in the Carribean.
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| sick chime |
| 12.13.03 (4:08 pm) [edit] |
Poor little grrl. I think that expressing the eggs manually did help her feel better, but it wasn't the problem. :(
She's still hanging on, though. Her mobility is very limited, her color is off, but she'll eat as many bloodworms as I'll feed her. I just have to put them right near her mouth.
Today I noticed two things that were odd. Her dorsal fin is stuck together. When I've seen this in the past I've been able to treat it successfully with meds for external parasites. The other thing is this odd marking on her anal fin.
I annoyed her mightily and took some photos:
You know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of when leaf borers go after my columbine. :shock: I can't find anything like this pictured in the sick fish databases online. It could be just an injury, though the only thing with her is a hygrophila plant.
So, I don't know too much about external parasites. I've seen lots of picture of external worms and most of them are not microscopic (I know: gag). I've seen ick in person and she doesn't seem to have that. I've seen pix and read about velvet (oodinum) and was under the impression that it looked like gold or rust colored talc sprinkled on a fish and that it looks like irridescence under a flashlight. If it's rust-colored, I could easily miss it with her. I also read today that it can be grey. That I'd miss also. Based on this and the adhered fin, I started treatment today with Maricide, a medication specified for external parasites, including ick and velvet. I hope maybe this'll help her. She ate a bunch of bloodworms tonight.
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| genemod fish banned for sale in CA |
| 12.09.03 (12:44 pm) [edit] |
California is setting a good example for the rest of the nation by banning the commercial sale of genetically modified zebra danios. Can you sense my bias here?
From USAToday:
California blocks sales of gen-mod zebra fish
By Don Thompson, Associated Press
SACRAMENTO ? Citing ethical concerns, state regulators Wednesday refused to allow sales of the first bio-engineered household pet, a zebra fish that glows fluorescent. GloFish are expected to go on sale everywhere else next month. California is the only state with a ban on genetically engineered species, and the Fish and Game Commission said it would not exempt the zebra fish from the law even if escaped fish would not pose a threat to the state's waterways. Genetically modified zebra fish expected to go on sale in January in every state except California.
Read more....
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| eggbound? |
| 12.09.03 (12:21 pm) [edit] |
OK, I just took another good look at Chime. I decided to take her out of the water so I could take a very close look. It's a sign of how bad she feels that she let me scoop her up in my (gloved, novaqua-coated) hand. First of all, it looks like whatever pine-coning I thought I saw before, isn't there now. The color in her fins is improved, but her body is still pale and browned-out. I tried to peek under her gill covers, but I was so afraid of hurting her that I didn't really get a good look. There are no wounds, lacerations or infections on her outside. I thought I saw a little swelling around her oviduct-- I couldn't tell if it's red. She's a dark red fish at her best and now she's pretty dark brown. Anyway, I poked at her oviduct gently with my finger and eggs came out! I've heard of females being eggbound, unable to express matured eggs. Maybe this is her problem? I gently massaged her belly until eggs stopped coming out. Lots and lots of eggs. A whole lot of eggs.
Now she's set up in a larger tank with a net of cheesecloth as a sling across the surface so she can benefit from the larger volume of water without having to swim to the surface. She's still resting on her side (very bad) and now she's panting with stress from having her tummy pushed at by the huge Finless Biped. A few days ago I made some very strong tea from dried Catappa leaves and I added a teaspoon of that to the water.
Now we'll see what happens.
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| empty tanks syndome and frustration |
| 12.09.03 (11:07 am) [edit] |
I've just been doing fishie chores and it seems so strange not to have hundreds of little eyes peering at me (sending psychic "foodfoodfood" messages). Of course there are still dozens of little eyes staring, but it still feels very empty in there.
I've still got most of the grrls spread out over 40 gallons of growout tanks. I think there are a few late-blooming males in there as well. Hopefully, with less of a bio-load, the remaining tanked fish will bulk up and show a definite gender. I have maybe 25 jarred fish in three containers. Fifteen of these are certainly male, three are maybes and the rest are grrls that don't play well with others.
Poor little Chime is still hanging on but not getting any better. She's in about an inch of water with a big circle of hygophila to rest on. She looked a little pineconey last night, but I was very tired and put off taking a really good look at her until today. She'll eat if you touch the food to her mouth, but not if she has to move to it. She can't swim at all. I'm afraid I'll have to euthanize her.
It's so sad. She's the dame of all these little fish I've been raising these last months. I understand that little fishies get sick and sometimes we can't do much for them. And since I have so many fish, it seems like I'm having them die all the time. I just wish there was something I could learn from this. I've had no idea what to do for her-- the usual treatment for SBD is squeaky clean water and I've done that. This is obviously much more than a swim bladder problem with SBD just being the first thing I saw. I don't know if this is bacterial, parasitical or what and I don't know how to find out.
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| Danish Butter Cookies |
| 12.09.03 (8:31 am) [edit] |
I've been pretty bah humbug about the holidays this year, but there is something wonderful that I always look forward to and help makes even the most nerve-wracking season bright: Danish Butter Cookies.
These are the ones that come in the tins with the Cheesy Holiday Painting on it; they have different shapes, some with sugar on top. The oval ones are my favorite.
The advent of Danish Butter Cookie Season is in my mind next only to the Mint Chocolate Girl Scout Cookies Season.
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| complaining a little |
| 12.08.03 (6:23 am) [edit] |
We got some snow. Not much, but this is officially The South, and things get pitiful when the roads get bad. We just don't know how to behave in snow. Plus school gets canceled which throws everything off.
Anyway, none of this really affects me (unless we get really dumped on like last year's blizzard) especially since I have this black asphalt driveway which gets hot when the sun comes out and melts whatever's on it. Which it does all day, sending dribbles of water down the hill until evening when the sun goes down and the dribbles freeze into sheets of ice.
So, it all started with the trash, which I needed to take to the bottom of the driveway for pickup this morning (when they take your garbage but then play Toss the Can and Lid Frisbee with the container). I should have done it at 2pm when I first thought of it, but I was doing something else, so I forgot about it until well after dark.
So, I go out there with the last bag, start traversing the driveway and SLAM! The ice. I slipped, fell on my knee and behind and skidded. Some may know that I have fibromayalgia and all that entails, so my initial shock and mortification (fell like an old lady in front of God and everybody) soon turned to pain(!) and fear when I realized I was going to have trouble getting up (in front of God and there's no one around to help me).
When my fibromyalgic muscles get a shock, their first instinct is to contract to protect themselves. That leaves me in a lot of pain with limited mobility. It took me a good five minutes to get myself upright again and another five to get back inside.
I'm so sick of this. I'm 35 years old, but my body thinks it's 80. This morning I have a bruise the size of a saucer on my knee, another on my rear (pain meds cause easy bruising) and I feel like someone beat me with a stick. What's worse is that I've been confronted yet again with evidence that my independence is really mostly a pipe dream and I'm too pathetic to be able to live by myself.
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| 55 fishies flown the coop |
| 12.07.03 (1:52 pm) [edit] |
Oh, I have such mixed feelings. This afternoon I took 55 of my betta juvies to the pet store. 23 males and 32 females. They gave me store credit, which is more than I expected.
So, one minute I feel great-- 55 fewer fishies! Hallelujah! :D
And then I think: my fishies! Oh no! What have I done! :(
This is way too many exclamation points for my life. And what's amazing is: I still have a lot of fish.
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| stinky candles |
| 12.06.03 (2:30 pm) [edit] |
Note to self: Do not ever ever again go to a major retail discount store on a Saturday during the run up to Christmas.
It was a nightmare. Fake cinnamon smell everywhere-- except for the stinky candle isle smelling overwhelmingly fake baked apple. Children screaming. Deafeningly loud cellphones. Children crying. Jangly Christmas carols interrupted by indecipherable announcements. Filled sinuses and watering eyes from the scent. Did I mention the children?
Do I sound like the Grinch yet?
It's just that I'd forgotten. For the past few years, I've done all my shopping online. That's so great. For just the price of shipping, I can sit here in my comfortable home, listen to the radio, and buy things. Life is good. Now if only my sinuses would drain.
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| just crummy |
| 12.04.03 (12:23 pm) [edit] |
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A crummy week, and it's only Thursday. Pinkgirl died, but I expected that to happen pretty soon anyway. Last night I fed the other girls and they all munched their food happily. Today I found Splotch dead and Chime badly affected by swimbladder disorder. I don't think this was caused by the food, since all the boys and the juvies were fed the same thing. Just a really sad coincidence. How do I manage to get so attached to these little things? :cry:
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| sad day :( |
| 12.01.03 (3:27 pm) [edit] |
Pinkgirl died today. She was a very brave little grrl and fought hard, but whatever made her sick was too much for her. She was the first little betta grrl I ever had-- the first I'd ever seen--and it was love at first sight. She was a delight and she'll always have a special place in my heart.
:cry:
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I'm reading:
Aquamaniacs
Picture of the Moment
Betta Links
Betty Splendens
BC Betta
Bettas R Us
Biloxi Bettas
Classic Bettas
Jeff Hiller
Phil Lafferty
Majestic Bettas
Sailor Johnny
Jim Sonnier
Aquarticles
Dr. Tim's Library
Hypertextbook: Mendelian Genetics Chapter Directory
DIY CO2 Systems for Freshwater-Planted Aquaria
Member of
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