"Chef" what you have done is absolutely amazing. They a lucky to have someone like you. Please keep up the updates.
a fish tank for a museum
- Thread starter chefjamesscott
- Start date
im gonna try something here, it is late so I just copied a update I did on another forum on this topic so have to see if it works SWEEEET IT WORKED
Well there has been one thing that has just been at the back of my mind since I started this rebuild. Actually 2 things.
1-Agression from jennifer towards tankmates that are smaller than her. I had hoped that the aro would do ok but no such dice maybe when it gets bigger. I got a surprise tonight though. Apparently it is a gar eat gar world
!
I am not sure if it was intentional or if it was simply that the smaller needlenose got in the way when jennifer was aiming at a feeder. From all the time that I have watched the tank I have seen no sign of agression to the other gar, it really seemed like the two were getting along fine. Even the museum staff of which there are many, told me how the two gars would swim side by side and the smaller one would follow jennifer like a puppy. So I figured I had successfully been able to get them to cohabitate, well tonight I find out differently.
This is what I saw when I went to the tank, I always count fish first to see if they are all there
a clear strike mark on the needlenose
just to much of a size difference in my opinon, I really think it is that the smaller gar simply got in the way of a strike on a feeder but just to be sure I removed it an placed it in the fish room grow out tank.
Add to this that one of the museum employees came up to me and told me how funny it was to move her lazer pointer around to get the smaller gar to follow it and how the smaller gar must be stupid because unlike jennifer it does not stop when the glass comes in front of it :flamed:. I had to hold my words because I kind of enjoy this tank and the way it is shaping up.
so I now have the gar in the fish room but look at this nose
i was really worried because it was not going after any feeders in the main tank and it did not seem to be interest at all in this tank till wham it hit one
So I will most probably bring my baby home after it heals up in the fish room, the 2 spotted gars in the tank with it are about a month away from being big enough to go in the main tank I think. But there is an issue dealing with the sudden growth that jennifer is showing, I forgot my tape measure but I am sure she has put on at least another 1/4 inch and the ripped fin seems to be healed a bit more.
2-ever since I took over the rebuild there was something about one of the existing pieces of driftwood that just screamed at me, but I did not pick it off till tonight. It was the piece farthest to the right if you are facing the tank from the front. The blue silicone always kind of bothered me, but I just wrote it off as having had stuff siliconed to it to keep it in place in the tank.
Well tonight I decided to rearrange the drift wood to give more turn ratio to bulk in the tank so as to make it easier for the gars to do laps in the bottom when they are stalking prey. Well bingo I hit the blackout jackpot when I actually moved the wood out of the tank, that piece of wood was exceptionally heavy. When I was done tonight I took it with me to the lorass disposal bin and proceeded to smack the living daylights out of it to break it apart and I had the answer I knew as soon as I picked it up.
Someone had hollowed out the wood and poured molten lead into it and then siliconed the wood in an attempt to seal it. Personally, since lead poisoning happens from paint on toys am I totally against lead being put in a tank, let alone filling a piece of wood with it. I read a study one time on how lead buckshot from duck hunting that falls in the water was poisoning the fish and birds so I am glad I found this and got it out.
you know the white stuff that gets on the battery posts of a car battery, the cavity in the wood was full of stuff that looked just like that, the first pic is of the one piece that fell out it weighs about 5-6 lbs.
the rearrangement of the wood left the tank looking like this
now when I was done for the night with the main tank I did the wc in the fish room. I am building a group of feeders that I am not going to allow get eaten. I have a crazy idea to do a tank full only of fish that were suppose to be feeders just for a lark and call it feeders trough. Here are a couple of pics of the 3 goldies thus far who have made the grade to survive
and the one white cloud minnow that just about did not make it lololololol, out of the corner of my eye I caught this flash of something going out the tube with the old water
well next update when I do the next update
Well there has been one thing that has just been at the back of my mind since I started this rebuild. Actually 2 things.
1-Agression from jennifer towards tankmates that are smaller than her. I had hoped that the aro would do ok but no such dice maybe when it gets bigger. I got a surprise tonight though. Apparently it is a gar eat gar world
!I am not sure if it was intentional or if it was simply that the smaller needlenose got in the way when jennifer was aiming at a feeder. From all the time that I have watched the tank I have seen no sign of agression to the other gar, it really seemed like the two were getting along fine. Even the museum staff of which there are many, told me how the two gars would swim side by side and the smaller one would follow jennifer like a puppy. So I figured I had successfully been able to get them to cohabitate, well tonight I find out differently.
This is what I saw when I went to the tank, I always count fish first to see if they are all there
a clear strike mark on the needlenose
just to much of a size difference in my opinon, I really think it is that the smaller gar simply got in the way of a strike on a feeder but just to be sure I removed it an placed it in the fish room grow out tank.
Add to this that one of the museum employees came up to me and told me how funny it was to move her lazer pointer around to get the smaller gar to follow it and how the smaller gar must be stupid because unlike jennifer it does not stop when the glass comes in front of it :flamed:. I had to hold my words because I kind of enjoy this tank and the way it is shaping up.
so I now have the gar in the fish room but look at this nose
i was really worried because it was not going after any feeders in the main tank and it did not seem to be interest at all in this tank till wham it hit one
So I will most probably bring my baby home after it heals up in the fish room, the 2 spotted gars in the tank with it are about a month away from being big enough to go in the main tank I think. But there is an issue dealing with the sudden growth that jennifer is showing, I forgot my tape measure but I am sure she has put on at least another 1/4 inch and the ripped fin seems to be healed a bit more.
2-ever since I took over the rebuild there was something about one of the existing pieces of driftwood that just screamed at me, but I did not pick it off till tonight. It was the piece farthest to the right if you are facing the tank from the front. The blue silicone always kind of bothered me, but I just wrote it off as having had stuff siliconed to it to keep it in place in the tank.
Well tonight I decided to rearrange the drift wood to give more turn ratio to bulk in the tank so as to make it easier for the gars to do laps in the bottom when they are stalking prey. Well bingo I hit the blackout jackpot when I actually moved the wood out of the tank, that piece of wood was exceptionally heavy. When I was done tonight I took it with me to the lorass disposal bin and proceeded to smack the living daylights out of it to break it apart and I had the answer I knew as soon as I picked it up.
Someone had hollowed out the wood and poured molten lead into it and then siliconed the wood in an attempt to seal it. Personally, since lead poisoning happens from paint on toys am I totally against lead being put in a tank, let alone filling a piece of wood with it. I read a study one time on how lead buckshot from duck hunting that falls in the water was poisoning the fish and birds so I am glad I found this and got it out.
you know the white stuff that gets on the battery posts of a car battery, the cavity in the wood was full of stuff that looked just like that, the first pic is of the one piece that fell out it weighs about 5-6 lbs.
the rearrangement of the wood left the tank looking like this
now when I was done for the night with the main tank I did the wc in the fish room. I am building a group of feeders that I am not going to allow get eaten. I have a crazy idea to do a tank full only of fish that were suppose to be feeders just for a lark and call it feeders trough. Here are a couple of pics of the 3 goldies thus far who have made the grade to survive
and the one white cloud minnow that just about did not make it lololololol, out of the corner of my eye I caught this flash of something going out the tube with the old water
well next update when I do the next update
that last pic is priceless lol. I'm pretty sure most of us here have had an oh **** moment when it comes to accidentally sucking something up lol
Everything is going great just been busy with catering and a few other things.
Also was not much to update, I will though have an update to this this weekend.
I took out the 2 niger cats as they pretty much would not come out into action, and replaced them with 4 of my various upsidedown cats. The 2 gars growing in the fish room are now 7 and 9 inches in length and just about ready to go in. The 2 ornate bichirs are about 6 inches and the senegal is about 3-4 they have to grow a bit before I put them in there, so they have been moved into the fish room to feast on minnows and bulk up.
The sailfin mollies have begun to pop out little fishies so they should be a good supply of feeders. For the other 60g tank I have managed to get together a goodly supply of ablino and normal convicts which I am pretty sure will very quickly produce a nice brood of food.
My mission this weekend is to set up the fish room tanks with decor an substrate so as to encourage the fish to produce rapidly and at least have some form of enjoyment out of their cattlelot lot in life lololololol.
I have not been able to source out any good plants to speak of here and the museum wanted some more green to the tank, so I wrapped a fake plant around the floating log so that at least they have that. I also redid the driftwood layout so as to centralize it and make it easier for the gar to get a full track around the tank.
My camera was short on battery power so I was not able to load up the pics will do those this weekend.
Also was not much to update, I will though have an update to this this weekend.
I took out the 2 niger cats as they pretty much would not come out into action, and replaced them with 4 of my various upsidedown cats. The 2 gars growing in the fish room are now 7 and 9 inches in length and just about ready to go in. The 2 ornate bichirs are about 6 inches and the senegal is about 3-4 they have to grow a bit before I put them in there, so they have been moved into the fish room to feast on minnows and bulk up.
The sailfin mollies have begun to pop out little fishies so they should be a good supply of feeders. For the other 60g tank I have managed to get together a goodly supply of ablino and normal convicts which I am pretty sure will very quickly produce a nice brood of food.
My mission this weekend is to set up the fish room tanks with decor an substrate so as to encourage the fish to produce rapidly and at least have some form of enjoyment out of their cattlelot lot in life lololololol.
I have not been able to source out any good plants to speak of here and the museum wanted some more green to the tank, so I wrapped a fake plant around the floating log so that at least they have that. I also redid the driftwood layout so as to centralize it and make it easier for the gar to get a full track around the tank.
My camera was short on battery power so I was not able to load up the pics will do those this weekend.
