Slimmed Down Fish Room Journal

[Boundava]

So life is pretty crazy right now. It's vaccination season and along with filling a growing number of scripts we are vaccinating for flu/covid bivalent, pneumonia and an assortment of shingles. Company wants us to give out 1500 flu shots this season from September to the end of December. As of 10/25 we were 400 shots away from goal. That's how crazy it is, and I have been certified to do the stabbie-jabbies...lol. Means 90% of my shift is processing and giving out vaccines.

Fish room is doing well. The Pavo eels are enjoying the 75 with my royal pleco and the Danios. I had a diatom explosion and was hopping the plecos would deal with it. Nope, so I got some Otto's that did what many Otto's do- disappear. So I added 2 mystery snails and they are doing a fantastic job. Had to remove the Iguwazu 2009 as a pleco almost ate it. It's now in a 10 gallon with 3 tiger badis. It has some new growth and will hopefully fully recover from the ordeal. Well lunch break is over and I will try to get an update with some photos of the tanks

 

[Slaphppy7]

Good to hear from you again, Nat

 

[Boundava]

Got some photos of the fishies. Cut up two minature butternut squash, think they are called honey nut and dispersed amongst the tanks.
The 75 acrylic with spiny eels, plecos, 2 gouramis and some brilliant rasboras.

The 75 gallon Pavo eel tank with leopard and orange finned danios, a royal pleco and a baby sailfin pleco.

The 120 gallon SA tank with an assortment of tetras, Cory, plecos, cichlid and other catfish.

The 125 gallon housing barbs, rasboras, gouramis, loaches, SAEs, plecos and a Borneo eel.

The 120 with the broken center brace that houses the Peruvian wolf fish and wild blue accara.

 

[Boundava]

The 120 acrylic Dojo loach tank

The 10 gallon Iguwazu 2009 and tiger badis tank

 

[Boundava]

The four 5 gallon wild Betta tanks

I didn't get a chance to take photos of the 40 breeder river tank (in progress), the 20L Pangio loach and swordtail tank or the 33 brackish tank.

Will leave you with this parting gift

 

[WhistlingBadger]

That turtle is a cutie!

What are the barbs with the black eye spot and tail spot? Really striking!

 

[Boundava]

Those are my mascara barbs. They weren't cheap but they were well worth the cost. Not sure if The Wet Spot still has them.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

How big do they get? Where are they from? If I ever do another large SE Asia tank, I wants it!

 

[Boundava]

Lol, nice and large; 3.5-4.7". Mine are all wild caught. I really can't wait for their adult colors to come in, they're still juveniles.

Dawkinsia assimilis – Mascara Barb (Systomus assimilis, Puntius assimilis) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Wow, so they probably aren't even fully colored up yet? What a pretty fish. They need a better common name, though. Mascara barb just sounds silly. Let's call them "Bank robber barbs" or something.

 

[Boundava]

Agree, they are very pretty and the common name doesn't suit them. I can't wait for their adult colors.

 

[Boundava]

So, my tanks have been having some issues as of late.

First (for no known reason) I lost a wild weather loach and one of my original (first 5 I got from LFS where 3 wound up dying the day after I brought them home) Mascara barb in the 120. Water quality was fine but I did a 60% WC. Then the next day I lost the final older barb from the LFS. I still have the 11 I got from TWS and have had no other deaths for 2 weeks now.

Then this past Sunday there was a dying adult YoYo loach in the 125, and upon testing the water we found the nitrates through the roof (200+). We moved the YoYo to another tank to try to save it, but it was too late. In the meantime I had gravity and my Python draining the tank to 85% full. Then we filled and retested and repeated to 85%. When we filled it again nitrates were between 20-40.

While the tank was filling/emptying we checked the other tanks and decided to do WC on them.
Friday 11/25 we added a zebra blenny to the 33gallon brackish tank because they are peacefully and non territorial (BS). Well I noticed all of my goblin leaf fish were gone and as I searched I saw one of the four I had left was dead. Then I saw another in the ball of chaeto algae and looking closer he was missing an eye. As these guys are peaceful and usually socially swimming together I figured the blenny was to blame and took apart my tank to catch and bring the bigger back to the store where they were surprised as to his antics. The goblin leaf fish are so hard to find that I was sad to have lost the one and to the suffering the other went through. Sis was able to find one vendor that actually had them in stock and I added 4 more to my tank today.

So back to the issue with the 125. After the huge WC we turned all the filters back on and got on with our day (4 hours later). Not thinking anything about it, other than issue solved, we went on with our day. Monday morning I here this sound like a plane is revving and it's between the 125 and 120 tank. I spend an hour and half trying to figure out what is making the sound; the FX 4, FX6, Tidal 110 or heaters? I plug and unplug but can't figure it out and had to work 12-8. Today I am 9-5 so I will break down the FX6 and see if I can find the problem. The sound isn't at the canister but by the outtake tube. Maybe something is stuck? Anyway I won't actually be home till after 6pm so this will be a fun evening.

Crud, break is over...back to work

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Wow, that's an eventful week! Any idea what caused that huge nitrate spike? Are you feeling better at least?

 

[Boundava]

Hey Tom!

Sis and I are negative and for the most part feeling better. We are both having some weird sleep issues since Covid, but smell/taste are mostly back.

Not sure about the cause for the nitrate spike, other than the loach dying nothing was dead in the tank to foul the water so badly .

Hour and some left for work today and then time to see what the heck is making that sound by the 125. Not looking forward to breaking down an FX6 but what can you do?

 

[Boundava]

So since I start work at noon today I decided to go ahead and deal with taking the fx6 and seeing if that was the issue. So I unhook the tubing, unplug the unit, and carry the heavy filter full of water over to the sink. As I put in the drain tube and set the unit to drain I hear that wonderful sound again. So it's not the fx6, however I left that to drain entirely cuz the water was a little cruddy although when I opened the unit it wasn't dirty at all. So as it was draining I went ahead and unplugged the one surge protector with the built-in timer. However while that was unplugged I heard the sound again. So I unplugged the black search protector that has the filter and heaters plugged in all-in-one and the sound stopped. Has anyone ever heard of a heater making that sound? I'm going to try to upload a video, I have to get ready to go to work now it's after 10:30.

So now I get to play Sherlock Holmes or Nancy Drew or Enola Homes to see what is on that surge that could be causing the sound. I'm pretty sure the other day when I was playing WTF is making the sound, I figured out that nothing on that surge protector was making that sound. I guess I was wrong. Like I said The only things plugged into that black surge protector are the FX6, FX4, the Tidal (which I have taken off of the tank), and the two Finnex heaters. So it's either the FX4 or the heaters, but I've never heard of a heater making that sound. I've never heard of a surge protector making that sound either. I'm clueless and dumbfounded. At least I can rest easy now knowing that I'm not going to fry the motor on my FX6.