What did you do with your tank(s) today?

BPSabelhaus

Well-Known Member
Nothing kind of day today. Cleaned filters last night and topped off tanks. Scooped some duckweed to feed the goldfish. You can't tell I dumped two full nets in it a couple hours ago lol The small ones only got one net, but still.
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lloyd378

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Everytime someone mentions 'featherfins,' this is what comes to mind. Just one of eight species in four Tanganyikan genera.

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This is a beautiful species…. I’d like to edit the catfish image with this beauty when people say feather fin .

I’m guessing these are not readily available in the hobby though…. But I might be wrong.
 

lloyd378

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Nothing kind of day today. Cleaned filters last night and topped off tanks. Scooped some duckweed to feed the goldfish. You can't tell I dumped two full nets in it a couple hours ago lol The small ones only got one net, but still.
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I enjoy your outdoor ponds, do you also keep any planted tanks or fish tanks inside too?
 

BPSabelhaus

Well-Known Member
I do, I just find more enjoyment in the ponds. Love watching the Betta sorority in the 20 long and watching the cichlid dig holes/ rearrange his caves etc... But tanks frequently need glass scraping to be photogenic, especially when both sides are viewable like the sorority lol Plus I haven't really been breeding anything lately, just kind of feeding and cleaning bare tanks.
The ponds and Alex are good mental health places to decompress and relax. Whereas the Endlers and Bettas are academic pursuits for understanding genetics. But both do straddle the line of art and science. A tankful of colorful Bettas when you walk in the front door is a nice welcome home :)
 
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DMD123

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Spent time on all the tanks today and got a little bit more cleaning in so the tanks have a bit of a sparkle about them. Had noticed the 300 getting green algae build up really fast lately and then noticed the UV bulb had burnt out. It really does make a difference having that thing running on the big tank. Glad its going again!
 

sir_keith

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Contributing Member Level III
Well, I haven't done much, but my newly-dominant Ophthalmotilapia nasuta Kipili Gold male has been busy. In January there were two co-dominant males in this 125, with nests at each end of the tank. This was the tank I entered in the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society Home Show-

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Well, shortly thereafter one of the males decided to take over, and started to expand his nest using gravel from the center of the tank-

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Until today his nest looks like this; I’m sure it would be even larger if there were more substrate available!

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All this rearrangement of both the hardscape and social structure of the tank has taken place without any aggression whatsoever between the two previously co-dominant males. This one of the things I really like about many Tanganyikans: rarely do you ever see the carnage that can happen with other cichlids in captivity. Anyway, this is an illustration of the dynamic nature of a Tanganyikan aquarium: just so much biology going on, and never a dull moment!
 

lloyd378

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Yesterday on the way home from appointments in Seattle we got stuck in traffic near the airport, so my daughter and I decided to stop off at midway pets.

I was pleasantly surprised to see most 95% of their tanks clean and filled with healthy looking fish.

I didn’t find any rusty cichlids and or buffalo head cichlids ( both common hobby names) but was shocked to see a beautiful flowerhorn imported in from Thailand and even more shocked to see a tank stocked with baby red belly pacu. I haven’t seen red belly pacu as a baby in probably 10 years!

The place still had an old petstore ambiance ( at least my nose told me it did), but I gave them my name and number incase they are able to order I. Either of the two cichlid groups I’d like in for my two classroom tanks this coming year!
 

lloyd378

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Later, I ran to the Petco in Lakewood to pick up ( gasp) 10 new glofish for the 90 gallon tank we put in the office of my wife’s school…. I have a huge issue with glofish, but seeing the joy on the young’s kids faces makes me overlook my personal biases.

Her school is special in Puyallup as it is home to the district deaf/ hard of hearing program and also offers a developmental preschool for deaf / hard of hearing kids. I can’t unfortunately communicate with them through ASL, but with a few hand motions and with the help of the interpreters, I can share information about the fish with the kids…..

We ended up buying 6 glo blackskirts ( 2 of each color they had) and 6 Priscilla tetra glofish ( again 2 of each color).

We made it a rainbow of colors as kids that age love rainbow colors.

I’ll grab a pic later, but I need to buy them a new light as the light burnt out while I was having my transplant!
 

lloyd378

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Contributing Member Level III
Well, I haven't done much, but my newly-dominant Ophthalmotilapia nasuta Kipili Gold male has been busy. In January there were two co-dominant males in this 125, with nests at each end of the tank. This was the tank I entered in the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society Home Show-

View attachment 15339

Well, shortly thereafter one of the males decided to take over, and started to expand his nest using gravel from the center of the tank-

View attachment 15340

Until today his nest looks like this; I’m sure it would be even larger if there were more substrate available!

View attachment 15341

All this rearrangement of both the hardscape and social structure of the tank has taken place without any aggression whatsoever between the two previously co-dominant males. This one of the things I really like about many Tanganyikans: rarely do you ever see the carnage that can happen with other cichlids in captivity. Anyway, this is an illustration of the dynamic nature of a Tanganyikan aquarium: just so much biology going on, and never a dull moment!
It big Central American cichlids love to rearrange their tanks….i had a big chocolate cichlid that probably moved 1/2 of the gravel in a 125g to the front glass and had a bare bottom tank in the back. He always cracked me up, because there was no female in there, but he still did it. He would also pout when I cleaned the tank and moved the rocks back.
 

DMD123

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Yesterday on the way home from appointments in Seattle we got stuck in traffic near the airport, so my daughter and I decided to stop off at midway pets.

I was pleasantly surprised to see most 95% of their tanks clean and filled with healthy looking fish.
Last couple times Ive been there I have to agree that someone is taking better care of the tanks.

They still need to clean up the back area a lot and get rid of a bunch of hoarded treasures, lol.
 

DMD123

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I have a huge issue with glofish, but seeing the joy on the young’s kids faces makes me overlook my personal biases.
Glofish rule and cichlids drool!

Sometimes I'm surprised that they dont have more choices than they do. GloOscars anyone?

Likely they avoid too many easy to breed fishes like convicts. Can you imagine the home breeding projects that would happen with GloConvicts?
 

BPSabelhaus

Well-Known Member
Catfish or filter? I'm sure the filter won't be long lol Catfish I'll get when I move it into an observation tank to move it. Otherwise it tends to chill towards the back of the canister just out of focus.
Plus a random tub Endler that got sucked in during water mixing lol Been on a bare bottom tank so it's fine ghost mode for now.PXL_20250808_232540473.jpgPXL_20250808_232806762.jpgPXL_20250808_232932285.jpgPXL_20250808_233100351.jpg
 

BPSabelhaus

Well-Known Member
Later, I ran to the Petco in Lakewood to pick up ( gasp) 10 new glofish for the 90 gallon tank we put in the office of my wife’s school…. I have a huge issue with glofish, but seeing the joy on the young’s kids faces makes me overlook my personal biases.

Her school is special in Puyallup as it is home to the district deaf/ hard of hearing program and also offers a developmental preschool for deaf / hard of hearing kids. I can’t unfortunately communicate with them through ASL, but with a few hand motions and with the help of the interpreters, I can share information about the fish with the kids…..

We ended up buying 6 glo blackskirts ( 2 of each color they had) and 6 Priscilla tetra glofish ( again 2 of each color).

We made it a rainbow of colors as kids that age love rainbow colors.

I’ll grab a pic later, but I need to buy them a new light as the light burnt out while I was having my transplant!
A print out of how (and why) they were made might be fun for them to read during breaks.
 

DMD123

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I got tired of looking at the 40B sitting on the garage floor so after work I drained and cleaned the Fluval Flex out AND then put the 40B in place! Still a tank on the floor but at least one step closer to my final goal.
 

lloyd378

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Cleaned my two garage tanks today then waited till after feeding tonight to shoot a video ( my mistake as the Dovii X jag is a messy eater)
 

lloyd378

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Stopped by Dmd’s house to grab the fluval 32…. It’s great looking tank, thanks DMD.

Also saw his special red hooks. They are more spectacular in person than any pictures show of them.

We got to witness him feeding the hairy puffer and the (today only) shy red wolf fish.

As for his red severums, the dominate male is really showing some impressive reds while the other two spent all of their time bickering but not actually doing any physical damage.
 

DMD123

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@lloyd378, great to see you and your son. Hope the tank works out well for the kids in the classroom.

Later on the red wolf was still acting shy but ate a couple pellets. Not sure why he was so shy he usually is right up front ready to eat. The grandkids will stand right in front of the tank and he doesn’t get scared. Glad the puffer was hungry, he always puts on a show when he eats a silverside.
 
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