things were going well, not smoothly, but everybody was healthy and eating well. i was a little behind on doing water changes because of getting the new baby angelfish, i've honestly been concentrating on them and only doing the minimum that i have to do on the other tanks.
i went out to the freezer and grabbed a bag of smelts. let it thaw a couple hours, till the smelts were not frozen together but still cool to the touch. and i put a handfull in each of the tanks with the peacock bass. And a smaller handfull in the tank with the catfish and Buster (the big male mono that i got a couple months ago).
everybody seemed to eat just fine, but there were still a couple of the smelts floating when i left for work, but there was eating still going on so i didn't worry about it.
i stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work, a big chain of 24 hour grocery stores just started opening stores in my area. While i was in the produce section and starting to go into the bulk foods section my phone rang. my son said, "come home now your fish are dying". so i stopped what i was doing, paid for what i had in my cart and drove home faster than i've EVER driven home.
we lost Buster before i made it home.
And Kabota is still touch and go, but he is swimming upright now, which he wasn't a couple hours ago.
apparently the smelts weren't good.. that and a combination of tanks overdue for water changes and a weak air pump that i bought new ones to replace, but hadn't actually done the deed.
when i got home Kabota was dying quickly but fighting hard, so we moved Kabota to a tank that, apparently wasn't as badly affected by the smelts as the catfish tank. and me and Jason have been holding him upright and moving him back and forth to keep the water flowing over his gills. He's still a little unsteady but he's able to swim upright on his own now.
we changed 50 gallons in the catfish tank, put my last 2 tubes of Bio-Spira in. made some changes to the foam filters. my (now ex) hubby had stacked 2 foam filters and lied to me that it was twice the filtration in one filter. But stacking filters without increasing the air that moves the water through the filters doesn't increase the filtration. Now, i have 2 foam filters, one at either end of the tank, as it should be, with a brand new air pump and moving water like crazy. Lucy, the RTC, seems to be holding her own, she won't let anyone touch her, and she seems less stressed than she was when i walked into the house.
and all the fruit i bought is still in the trunk of my car..
tomorrow.. or later today when i get my hiney out of bed i'm going through the freezer with the fish food in it and throwing away all of the smelts.
i probably won't sleep much.. in fact, i'm not even going to head down the hallway for at least another hour.. probably longer, depending on how fast this glass of milk works it's magic.
i'm debating whether i should add some pimafix to the tanks, or leave them as is and do more water changes tomorrow. And, of course, get more Bio-Spira.
oh.. one big question. i was at the LFS i normally buy Bio-Spria from and they said that Marineland has merged with another company and they will no longer be selling Bio-Spira but will be selling a beneficial bacteria product that doesn't need to be refrigerated and is on the shelves in the store with the other chemicals and such.
has anyone else heard anything like this? this scares me.. i feel like i need to run out and buy a case of the 90 gallon size Bio-Spira tubes before they all disappear.
i went out to the freezer and grabbed a bag of smelts. let it thaw a couple hours, till the smelts were not frozen together but still cool to the touch. and i put a handfull in each of the tanks with the peacock bass. And a smaller handfull in the tank with the catfish and Buster (the big male mono that i got a couple months ago).
everybody seemed to eat just fine, but there were still a couple of the smelts floating when i left for work, but there was eating still going on so i didn't worry about it.
i stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work, a big chain of 24 hour grocery stores just started opening stores in my area. While i was in the produce section and starting to go into the bulk foods section my phone rang. my son said, "come home now your fish are dying". so i stopped what i was doing, paid for what i had in my cart and drove home faster than i've EVER driven home.
we lost Buster before i made it home.
And Kabota is still touch and go, but he is swimming upright now, which he wasn't a couple hours ago. apparently the smelts weren't good.. that and a combination of tanks overdue for water changes and a weak air pump that i bought new ones to replace, but hadn't actually done the deed.
when i got home Kabota was dying quickly but fighting hard, so we moved Kabota to a tank that, apparently wasn't as badly affected by the smelts as the catfish tank. and me and Jason have been holding him upright and moving him back and forth to keep the water flowing over his gills. He's still a little unsteady but he's able to swim upright on his own now.
we changed 50 gallons in the catfish tank, put my last 2 tubes of Bio-Spira in. made some changes to the foam filters. my (now ex) hubby had stacked 2 foam filters and lied to me that it was twice the filtration in one filter. But stacking filters without increasing the air that moves the water through the filters doesn't increase the filtration. Now, i have 2 foam filters, one at either end of the tank, as it should be, with a brand new air pump and moving water like crazy. Lucy, the RTC, seems to be holding her own, she won't let anyone touch her, and she seems less stressed than she was when i walked into the house.
and all the fruit i bought is still in the trunk of my car..
tomorrow.. or later today when i get my hiney out of bed i'm going through the freezer with the fish food in it and throwing away all of the smelts.
i probably won't sleep much.. in fact, i'm not even going to head down the hallway for at least another hour.. probably longer, depending on how fast this glass of milk works it's magic.
i'm debating whether i should add some pimafix to the tanks, or leave them as is and do more water changes tomorrow. And, of course, get more Bio-Spira.
oh.. one big question. i was at the LFS i normally buy Bio-Spria from and they said that Marineland has merged with another company and they will no longer be selling Bio-Spira but will be selling a beneficial bacteria product that doesn't need to be refrigerated and is on the shelves in the store with the other chemicals and such.
has anyone else heard anything like this? this scares me.. i feel like i need to run out and buy a case of the 90 gallon size Bio-Spira tubes before they all disappear.
