Camera on the south coast

Nick and I went down to the south coast to test out my new camera underwater - it wasn't easy without getting wet myself, but I got some good pics in rock-pools, and some interesting video too :)



Cool wee Tripplefin

Half in half out

Anemone


We also saw some crazy hippies dancing to Drum & Bass music coming from their hippy-van. (dirty hippies!) I didn't get the worst of it sorry, but I was trying to be subtle!



FYI - I'm allowed to say that because my mum is a hippy and I have an affinity with them... I just wouldn't dance like that in public, but good on them!

The camera also does well out of the water, this snail would have been about 1.5mm across

I've had babies!!!

I'm a dad!
My Julies have bred for the first time, wohoo :D

I've counted about 10, and they'll be easier to photograph in a few days once they start swimming about. At the moment they're still clinging tight to the rock and aren't very social.

At least something good has happened this week!

tank update

My new fish are growing fast!
The pulchers are starting to develop the nice blue tipped long fins which is nice...

They're getting much braver too and spend most of the time cruising around the pile of rocks

And the Julies aren't hiding as much either which is good. Hopefully they'll lay eggs soon, WOOP!

The big male is still out a lot more than the female

Next step - hopefully yongans!

The overall tank is also looking a lot more mature. The algae on the rocks constantly pumps out bubbles of oxygen and the plants are looking more established.

I'm very pleased :)

new tank... again!

As someone very wise just reminded me, change is the only constant in the universe. It reminded me of a recent change I made - yet again I decided it was time to change my tank, basically because I missed my cichlids too much!

Here is the new tank:
back to the good old Lake Tanganyikan setup with my lovely bits of limestone!!


My plan is to get heaps of Anubias growing all over the rocks, it'll take a wee while but I'll get there!

And the fish: Back to two of my old favourites: Julidochromis marlieri

(I found a pair which were obviously paired in a fish shop, so very hopeful that I'll get them to breed this time, and soon too!)

And Neolamprologus pulcher. I've got 6 youngans, but they grow fast and will be reproducing faster than rabbits within 3 or 4 months I'm sure :D

Here are some pics of the ones I had a few years ago

This time I'm going to get round to breeding the Julies, and taking some better photos :P

Tank update

Well I've added a few more fish, and the plants are growing well, so I thought a video was the bast way to show you how my tank is looking now...

The fish I've added are 9 Black Phantom Tetras and 8 Cardinal Tetras

New tank!

As I said a while ago I've sold off my frontosa and I'm starting a new planted tank, with a few South American fish...
here are a few of the first stages:




empty tank








added aquatic mix, with gravel on top and the bog wood

in with the plants!

This is a few days of growth now, the Indian Stargrass at back of the tank should reach the surface in less than a month which will make the whole thing look more complete...

I've also added the first of the fish; 4 Otocinclus. These little dudes don't look that amazing, or move about much during the day, but have an important job of keeping the algae in check without damaging the plants. They also stay nice and small (<4cm)>I also added a Royal Whiptail Catfish, who is quite pretty!
Keep an eye out for updates!

First steps to a new tank...

I've decided that I want to set up a filterless planted tank, with only a few wee fish and enough plants to support them naturally - meaning I don't need a filter...
When I'm finished it'll look something like this:

Unfortunately I can't get another tank, so it means I need to sell of my frontosa and use that one. I've got the fish up on Trade Me, and I've started getting things sorted out for the new tank.

These include deciding how I'm going to maintain water circulation (even without a filter, it's important that the water can move around the tank) and getting what will the the centre piece of the tank - a nice bit of bog wood!

To collect some wood I drove up to a peat bog I know about on the coast, and took the dogs with me for a trip. Unfortunately I forgot that Jake (my flatties dog) is unable to resist the call of water, and as soon as he saw water today he jumped into it... The water he jumped into was a farm ditch, and as soon as he broke the surface, the smell erupted and I knew it was going to be bad! To make things worse he couldn't get out himself as it has steep sides, so I had to pull him out :S Needless to say he's had a bath now!

So here is the wood!

I've just washed it out and it's now soaking in lime for a bit to leach out the worst of the tannins (otherwise it'll make the water in my tank look like tea). I think you'll agree its a pretty flash piece!

I got a few extra bits too which I can sell on Trade Me to pay for the petrol (and a bit extra) woop woop!

The future of fish farms??!

Wow, I've just read a very cool article!
For those who don't want to read it, the gist it that;

a: fish have a memory that spans months NOT 3 seconds! (Yes I have been telling you all that for years, but it has once again been proven)

b: fish can be trained to come when called, therefore meaning that they could be trained, then released into the wild and called back for periodic feeding and harvesting.

This means that fish farms could operate without cages, and the problems associated with them (concentrated pollution from one point, transfer of disease in confined spaces etc)
Pretty cool ehh??!
This means fish farming could go from looking like this:

To this:

This is pretty exciting! Although I'm sure issues of the 'ownership' of the fish, especially if they are out in the sea, could be a problem... Its a pretty cool idea though, especially if the farm is in a semi-contained place like the lochs in Scotland...

Bring on the future!!