Rookie Mistake - Help?

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Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
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Sacramento, CA
It was definitely cat hair - I found more stuck to the outside of the glass, and the culprit sleeping under the tank. I'll try to encourage her to hang out elsewhere, but she's pretty low key so I doubt she's been doing anything especially antagonistic to them. Still probably best that she not drink out of the filters.

The new driftwood was leaching tannins but no sap, so I chucked it in. Fingers crossed. No pics yet but I'll get some soon. It looks good and the Crime Fish were exploring it pretty actively today. I'm excited about it. It had been in a woodpile for over a year so I'm optimistic.

I have added potatoes to the HOBs - turns out lots of people use sweet potatoes because they grow as well as pothos and the plant itself is pretty, but I only had plain brown potatoes on hand, so we'll see.

I'm positive that the API kit would work well on milk, but I realized I don't want to pull 5ml off the mares every time I want to test, so they're safe from that. For now.

Anyone who's been following my posts will laugh at this - I went back to my LFS today. The kid recognized me immediately and was like, "hey, look at all these cool catfish we have in today!" I told him about my mistake in buying Crime Fish when I'd been looking for Synodontis Nigriventris. He hadn't known about Crime Fish either, so we checked his "upside down catfish" tank - today, instead of Secret Murder Fish, their "upside down catfish" were in fact Synodontis Nigriventris... so I bought them 😂😂😂.

I also got 5 Hara Jerdoni, and put all 8 new kids in the Carrot Box. Guess I'm building my community of oddball cats after all. I wanted to get some shrimp for the Carrot Box, too, but their shrimp seemed awfully expensive for something I'll probably kill, so I refrained. They were out of pictus, so the pictus experiment will have to wait. They had a variety of other cool catfish which were all pretty tempting, but I didn't want to take home anything else I haven't already read about before taking it home - once was enough. I really wanted their featherfin squeakers (okay and all the other cool catfish), but it didn't seem like a great plan.

Also, while the Brothers in Crime were checking out their new wood piece tonight, I noticed that they've both grown a lot, but Blackie is now noticeably bigger, while before they were pretty identical. Maybe they're different sexes, maybe it's just that they're different individuals. Jamiroquai is growing a streamer on his tail fin, Blackie isn't.

Orchids will definitely rot if they're left in forever. I wait til they look like they want out, put them in the Dry Box until they're dry, and then put them back in the water. Not very scientific, but they haven't died yet *shrug.*
 

Heck

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
87
122
36
Sacramento, CA
Where are the Crime Fish? It's a mystery! I'm liking the blackwater look in there, and actually I think I'm not loving the tank plants - they take away from the blackwater look. I've always been a fan of tank plants simply because of the water quality assistance, but I may pull some out and rely on the HOB plants for that.

Carrot Box needs more furniture for the fish. Hmm - maybe they can have some of the Crime Plants, and then Crime Box can be dark and creepy, and Carrot Box can be cheerful and green!

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Heck

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
87
122
36
Sacramento, CA
One of the Hara Jerdoni has perished. On close inspection of his wee remains, I noticed that he looked pretty battered - there are no criminals in the Carrot Box, so for now I'm ruling his death an accident due to misadventure in transit, but I'm watching closely. I should have put him under the microscope to check more closely, but dead fish are gross so I tossed him out the window to feed the artichokes below.

Those things are FUN (the alive Hara Jerdoni, I mean). During the day they just sit still, but in the evenings they bounce around exploring, including climbing the hornwort like a tree and perching in it like tiny birds!

The Synodontis Nigriventris are also really entertaining in the evening, chasing each other around like cories. I had a trio of them before and *never* saw them, so I wonder if these will become more reclusive with age. I've read that they're more confident and therefore more active in larger groups, so I plan to pick up a few more. I'd intended to go back to the same LFS next weekend, but I just heard that my area's supposedly biggest and best LFS, which had a fire and has been closed for repairs for years, is having their grand reopening tonight. If I can make it, that will be... dangerous 😂

I saw the Crime Fish sparring last night. It didn't turn into a brawl, and lasted only seconds, but I'm watching them *really* closely. They're growing at an alarming rate - Blackie faster than Jamiroquai - and I'm working on getting a bigger tank. I'm going to be so mad if they need separate large tanks. I'm going to start with one and see how it goes, since so far the scuffles have been brief and there's no fin damage. If it gets brutal, Blackie will get the first big tank I can find in my budget (not only is he larger but he's also the clear favorite) and Jamiroquai will just have to wait.

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Heck

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
87
122
36
Sacramento, CA
Well, I got a 125 gallon (and stand!) off FB marketplace for $150.

This thing is scratched to hell and quite dirty - thick algae on the glass, and I just filled it on my back porch to start taking a crack at cleaning it, and so far I've fished out 3-4 dead baby cichlids.

But the dimensions are right - a lot of the big tanks for sale in my area are shorter and deeper, and I think the Crime Fish will prefer the 72" length - and the glass is sturdy as hell and this should clean up nicely. And the stand isn't too tall - I want to be able to reach in the tank without needing a ladder.

I'm really intimidated by this next chapter in my Big Fish Adventure, but I have known since I discovered my species mistake that if I wanted to keep the Crime Fish they'd need a bigger house, so I am going to make this work.

Oh, and I got pictus!
 

Heck

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
87
122
36
Sacramento, CA
I should have taken a before pic. This is during.

Scraped off most of the algae with a credit card. Made most of the rest of the scratches my b*tch with an impact driver with a plastic brush attachment and baking soda paste, followed by a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (and dollar store imitations, which my dog helpfully ripped in half for me to make into even more sponges!) It'll always have scratches on very close inspection, but it's not noticeable when full.

One thing I didn't take into account is what a pain it's going to be to get this thing really thoroughly rinsed out to get rid of the baking soda. Next time I get it empty I'll have Mr. Heck help me lift it off the stand and get the stand out of the way so I can spray the snot out of the tank without soaking the poor old stand.

The insides of both of my biceps are SUPER bruised from the tank rim - it looks like someone strong grabbed me by the arms and shook me. It's tank top weather here - at home/work it's no big deal since it's pretty normal for horse girls to be bruised up, and my clients/associates will just ask me if they're curious - but I may need to wear long sleeves to town for a week.

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thebiggerthebetter

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If you were cleaning the tank right on the stand, yes, for a normal height person this is awkward, unless you use a high enough step or a stepstool. I am 6-2 and long armed and it hurts the inside of my biceps too when I have to do a lot of work inside our 240 gal tanks, which are eurobraced al around.

Sorry, I didn't understand the part about taking out scratches on glass with a motorized plastic brush and backing soda? I never knew glass scratches can be polished out, nor that they can be polished out that way. Unless these scratches are of microscopic depth? Also, why impact drill?
 
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Heck

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
87
122
36
Sacramento, CA
I'm sure it really just cleaned the algae out of the scratches and made them less visible rather than really getting them off. Regardless, it's super satisfying.

And the reason to use an impact driver or drill is because it's faster. And more satisfying.

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thebiggerthebetter

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Coincidentally, a friend of mine was polishing old glass tanks and sent me some links too. He said he used Raybao Buffer Polisher 1200W and Optical Grade Cerium Oxide Glass Repair Powder available through Amazon. It's a lot of hard work though he said.
 
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Heck

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
87
122
36
Sacramento, CA
Coincidentally, a friend of mine was polishing old glass tanks and sent me some links too. He said he used Raybao Buffer Polisher 1200W and Optical Grade Cerium Oxide Glass Repair Powder available through Amazon. It's a lot of hard work though he said.
That would definitely be worth a try if I ever have the energy to take another crack at it. For now I did the best I could, which worked pretty well - when the tank was rinsed and dried it looked super scratched and rather dull, but full of water the glass is fine - the remaining cloudiness is from moving everything and is settling at a satisfactory rate (still ugly asf at the moment but I can see improvement every time I check).

Jamiroquai has a little fin damage on his arms. I need to add a LOT more hiding places and keep a really close eye on them. Really don't want 2 big tanks! The pictus are not damaged. Yet.

I bought a light that has white and blue options. It's too small and weak to light up even the whole 55 - let alone the new Crime Box - but it doesn't seem to bother the Crime Fish when the other lights are off, so I have a chance to watch everyone a bit after dark. Plans are in place for Mr. Heck to put together more blue lighting and I'm really excited. He did hang the big grow light overhead for me, so the plants will like that.

In unrelated news, the horse factory is going well and I get a break for a few weeks before I have to start checking milk and plug the foaling alarm back in - I really enjoyed sleeping through the night last night.

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Heck

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2024
87
122
36
Sacramento, CA
Well, the pictus have ich, which means the mystus probably do too. I'm embarrassed to post about it because I'm certain it's my fault from the World's Dumbest Mistake, but advice and animal welfare are more important than my pride.

When I moved everything over from the 55, I noted that most of my lights were no longer a fit. I assumed my filtration was fine since I had 2 filters rated for 55 gallons each. I did not consider my heater, nor did I get a new thermometer - so I first stressed the Crime Fish and then chilled them. 😬

Friends, I have 2 degrees in animal science (including 1 from UC Davis, one of the top animal science schools in the world), I was an ER vet tech for 12 years, and I've been an animal care professional for my entire adult life - but I'm starting to suspect that I'm too dumb to keep fish.

I just got home from my local pet store. My favorite LFS is kind of far away, but the pet store's Resident Fish Nerd was in and he did his best to help me (the biggest help was telling me that they price match Amazon, so I ended up saving as much as I spent!)

Resident Fish Nerd was aware of the concerns about meds with catfish, but didn't have any firsthand experience treating them. So I ended up with a 300w heater and API Super Ick Cure - the other med option was Seachem Paraguard, but the API product has instructions for half-dosing on the bottle so I went with that.

I am about to add the new heater first, and then I'll wait a little bit to add the Super Ick Cure to see if anyone here wants to weigh in - I'm scared! I know the Crime Fish need help, but I don't want to kill them with meds 😭

Help?
 
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