Well, hey...I am getting a little better! :)

Last time I went a full twelve weeks between tank maintenance. This time it
has been just under five weeks...but those filters were still very dirty.

Yesterday I conducted a 22-gallon water change, removed the algae from the glass panes, and cleaned out the two Penguin 330 Bio-Wheel filters, along
with the two Marineland 1140 powerheads that are connected to them.

With so many inhabitants in the tank now -- quite a number of them being
female -- by fish have turned into quite a violent lot. Most of the new
fry no longer stand a chance. I frequently see them getting chomped on by
the other fish.

With so many grown fish in the tank now, we are going to have a serious
problem if we have an extended power outage, which is always quite possible.

A few days ago,to my surprise, I discovered one of the younger males laying
on one of the rocks. He had some serious bite marks on his tail, gills,
and around his pectoral fins. It was so bad that even his scales had been removed, and his raw flesh was showing through. I imagine that he got into
a foolish fight with one of the larger males, and seriously lost.

When fish are injured that seriously, they normally don't survive, and I expected him to be dead by the next morning. But, to my surprise again, he
has somehow managed to survive. He is swimming around again, and slowly healing. The danger now is from possible fungal infection. He is quite
perky again, and I think that he may just survive, just as long as he gets enough to eat, and stays clear of the more aggressive, and larger, males.

There are a number of holding females in the tank right now, including
Mama Mbuna herself, the mother of them all, so I am sure that the cycle
will continue.

That's all for now, until next time.


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Well, hey...I am getting a little better! :)

My angel fish are showing off to each other. I don't know how to sex them,
but it's looking like they are either gay, or a male and a female ;-)

The 70gT tank is doing well as always and stable. Minimal water changes
needed and water crystal clear all the time. I keep a low fish balance
incase of power outages stopping the pumps but what I have is flashy enough for
us.
xxcarol
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On 11/21/10, Jeff Snyder quoted Carol Shenkenberger: Tank Maintenance
At Last.

My angel fish are showing off to each other. I don't know how to sex them, but it's looking like they are either gay, or a male and a female ;-)

The 70gT tank is doing well as always and stable. Minimal water changes needed and water crystal clear all the time. I keep a low fish balance incase of power outages stopping the pumps but what I have is flashy enough for us. xxcarol --- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32 * Origin: SHENKS

Hello Carol. It's nice to see you posting here again.

Angel fish, eh?

Well, obviously, the easiest way to discover their genders is simply to wait and see if anything serious develops -- i.e., spawning -- from their current flirtations, or whatever it is that they are doing. You will know soon
enough, as they will begin to clean off a flat surface in your tank --
either a smooth, slightly incline rock, or a broad blade on a plant, or even
a glass pane -- in preparation for the actual spawning. And, of course, the female will become quite plump before her ovipositor begins to protrude.

But, if you want to get on the more technical side of things, even though it has been many years since I bred Angelfish, as I recall -- and while it is difficult for the untrained eye -- the angle on the fish's ventral side,
right above the anal fin, while be different on males and females.

Angels make great parents. Unlike so many other fish, they normally do not devour their own fry.

You really should have a large -- at least four feet -- tank for the purpose
of breeding a pair of Angels. Also, if you really want to encourage
spawning, you should drop the PH to about 6-7, maybe even lower.

I am saying all of this off the top of my head from breeding Angels years
ago, but I believe that the info is for the most part accurate.

These conditions pretty much apply to South American discus as well.

Power outages -- Oh gosh! My dread, as they are quite frequent here, lasting anywhere from fifteen minutes to many hours, or even days, weeks and months when a powerful typhoon strikes us.

As I've been saying in my posts here, my four-foot tank is majorly full of these mbunas, so I do fear a major disaster if we experience a prolonged
power outage, in spite of having a few battery-operated pumps here.



Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Download Center 4 Mac BBS Software & Christian Files. We Use Hermes II


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My angel fish are showing off to each other. I don't know how to sex th but it's looking like they are either gay, or a male and a female ;-)

The 70gT tank is doing well as always and stable. Minimal water changes needed and water crystal clear all the time. I keep a low fish balance incase of power outages stopping the pumps but what I have is flashy eno for us. xxcarol --- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32 * Origin: SHENKS

Angel fish, eh?

Well, obviously, the easiest way to discover their genders is simply to wait and see if anything serious develops -- i.e., spawning -- from their current flirtations, or whatever it is that they are doing. You will know soon enough, as they will begin to clean off a flat surface in your tank -- either a smooth, slightly incline rock, or a broad blade on a plant, or even a glass pane -- in preparation for the actual spawning. And, of course, the female will become quite plump before her ovipositor begins to protrude.

So far, lots of spawning sorts of behaviors but no issue or the few other
fish are getting them.
xxcarol


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On 11/26/10, Jeff Snyder quoted Carol Shenkenberger: Re: Tank
Maintenance At Last.

So far, lots of spawning sorts of behaviors but no issue or the few other fish are getting them. xxcarol

Just curious...is the assumed female even heavy with eggs? If there is a
female in the tank, and they appear to be going through a mating ritual, her plumpness should be quite noticeable by now, not to mention an extended ovipositor. I didn't realize that this was a community tank, or perhaps I simply forgot. That being the case, unless your Angels are aggressive
towards potential intruders and egg eaters, any spawn may be a lost cause.



Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Download Center 4 Mac BBS Software & Christian Files. We Use Hermes II


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