obsession and inheritance

[amelia]

I quit fisheeping for a while--at least two years. This June I stopped by a local bait shop to look and see what kind of goldfish they had. I had seen a little sign that said they had them..

I ended up bringing home three goldfishes. I was very, very happy with my decision. A bronze common, a kohaku common, and an orange comet with white tips to it's cadual fin. I talked around and decided I should get another goldfish for when they got too big for the 10 gallon so I could seperate them. I ended up coming home with four more fish.

Again, I went to the bait shop to see what they had in store for me. Came home with three more.. The numbers continued to rise steadily, every week or so.

I went to wal-mart, and I really don't think buying fish from wal-mart is smart.. But sometimes I become impulsive, see a pretty one, and just have to have it. I purchased two 28 cent feeder comets--orange and white. They died within a day.

I wanted a shubunkin very badly.. Went to local fish stores up to an hour away and didn't see any I liked. Went to wal-mart again.. Fell in love with a shubunkin there, and bought it. I had my eye also on a fish that looked white and green (but I now know it was only the flourescent lighting that made it look green.) I bought the shubunkin on the day before my birthday.

My collection grew even more..

I recieved a plecostomus from my dad. He was running out of room in his tanks. 55 adult guppies swimming around in his 10 gallon and 20 babies in a breeder box, along with 3 corydoras.

I bought a buttefly koi that I'd had my eye on for over a month..

My father died last week. He left me everything. I took the fish home a few days ago. I now have 75 guppies on my hands..

I bought a plecostomus (a "rubber nosed" pleco, that I have never heard of in my life but supposedly grows only 5 inches long.) before I picked up the fish. I knew I'd need an algae eater. Noticed some chocolate albino plecos, and remembered a 1 1/2 foot CAP I used to own.. Made a note to buy one on my next trip to that certain store.

I went to wal-mart again yesterday. I bought two koi--both matsuba japanese koi. One was orange, one was platinum. The orange one jumped out of the quarenteen tank I had it in and died. The warentee hasn't expired--I'll claim my new fish later on.. The platinum is skinny and has clamped fins, but I've stuffing it with food and am medicating it with salt and aquarisol. In addition to the koi fishes, I bought that "green" and white goldfish that I mentioned earlier. Over a month later it was still in the tank.. And I felt like it was there just for me. It's still alive and kicking. I guess it would be a shubunkin.. it's white with a burnt orange back and a bit of black mottled in.. Hm..

I set up my 35 gallon and put my butterfly koi in it. The remaining japanese koi is in a 10gallon quarenteen tank, and the rest of my goldfish are in a 55 gallon tank. I'm saving my pennies for a 150 gallon tank.

[euRasian32]

sorry to hear about your father.

edit: and i didn't mean to post in your journal, sorry

C

[amelia]

The surviving koi from wal-mart is progressing. It's activity level has risen considerabley, and it's started chasing the sinking food pellets that I feed it three-four times daily. It's beginning to respond to me, where before it had no intrest in me, food, or swimming, I know that I'm feeding it a lot. However, the fish is skinny and "malnourished," and the food I'm feeding it boosts the immune system and helps it fight off disease.. which it clearly has in the form of clamped fins.

I put my father's decor back in the guppy tank. They seem much happier now. I've also started feeding the fry 2-3 times a day (They're growing so fast!) with tropical fish flakes, crushed, and 1-2 pellets of that immune system booster I was telling you guys about earlier.

Kiminchi, the butterfly koi, seemed very upset to me. The fish kept staring across the room at the other aquarium with all of the goldfish.. I took her "playmate," Ooki (the biggest goldfish in the tank.. 8") and put him with her... She instantly cheered up and is now swimming around happily with her little friend..

[amelia]

The last of the two wal-mart koi died today. I'll be taking those two back for a refund..

[amelia]

I found a single baby guppy in the tank a few days ago. Had to take out all of the adults to catch it and not them.. It's in the breeder box now with the rest of the fry.

I was suddenly struck with the idea that I want to breed cory catfish and neon tetras today. I'll need to save up quite a bit more money before I take on this task, so that I can buy a larger tank and that jazz.. For the tetras at least. All I've got right now is a bunch of 10 gallons and I'm not sure if those would be big enough.

I'm getting back into portraits. Be sure to check out my ad!

[amelia]

I went to pet-co today, planning to look at their ryukin goldfish. I ended up coming home with two red/white ryukins, one red and white japanese koi, a plecostomus, and a bullfrog tadpole. All are adjusting very well! .. and I must say that I am very impressed with PetCo's employees. My only complaint is that there is not enough of them..

[amelia]

Well, I've officially started searching for a job--Not because I need to pay for gas, or need to pay for lunches, or have any bills.. But because I've come to realize that my addiction has left me in a crunch.

Today, my butterfly koi died of dropsy. If I had known that Aquari-sol was bad for dropsy, and so was heat, I would have probably been able to save the fish.. It's been a learning experience and has been dually noted in my handy-dandy notebook.

I went out for a new modem today, too. Internet is obviously back up and running. Ran by wal-mart for a sketch book and some pencils, and I found the most adorable little koi.. Nothing like my Kiminchi, but pretty nonetheless. (For those of you who are saying, "but your FAVORITE fish just died! You loved that fish! Why are you getting another one?".. New animals help me cope with old losses. When I lost my dog of 12 years, I got a rabbit, and it helped me cope. ) .. It's a neat little orange and white koi that's got those chunky metallic scales.. I also ended up running by the bait shop (Where my carp addiction began) and found two comets I liked. The comets I have now are green/brown/white, a shubunkin, and three orange with white tips on the fins. The two new ones are a white with orange spotting and an orange with a black stripe on it's back, black fins, and black lips. Lovely, really. .. What's even more funny is that mom said "We are not buying any fish today. We're not buying ANY." .. She happened to tell the owner of the shop, whom we are both friends with, and he was determined to make a liar out of her.. When I came over with those two in a bucket he said "You go ahead and take those with you!" .. When I got in the car I looked at mom and laughed. "Well, You were right! We didn't BUY anything!".. That makes 21 goldfish, 2 koi, 3 plecos, 3 cories, 1 tadpole, and a crapload of guppies.

And SPEAKING of guppies.. I found another newborn baby today.. For all of you who said "75 isn't a lot for three years," Now you know why there were only 75. Dad always left his females in the tank and gathered the babies that he spotted..

Speaking of which, I'll be posting in the disease section about an "epidemic" that's struck my guppy tank.

[amelia]

The new koi is alive and well. It's fins were clamping a bit last night, and it was staying near the bottom of the tank. I medicated the tank, and today the little guy is swimming around happily, fins flared WIDE, with the rest of the fish. It's already recognized me as the food source, and comes to greet me when I step by the tank..

I hope this fish lives.. cross your fingers!!!

[amelia]

A couple days ago I went to the bait shop and bought a koi (which I paid fifty cents for.. the price of a goldfish.) and fifteen shiners. This morning I had to flush two of the shiners who had a weird skin infection.

I also went out to the dam today to "fish" and get pictures. I ended up bringing home about 40 shiner juviniles and 6 mosquito fish..

Afterward, I went to a pond that I knew I could get good pictures at. What I didn't know is that bullfrogs are breeding like crazy there. I ended up catching two small (inch-1 1/2 inch) bullfrogs and a tadpole. They were EVERYWHERE, but boy can those suckers jump!!!

So, it seems that those of you who wanted to follow my keeping bullfrogs will get your wish a year early!! I'm setting up a 10 gallon tank, 1/4 full of water, with an air stone and a large rock for the frogs to sit on. I'll post pictures when I get them.

[amelia]

The wild caught shiner fry are still doing VERY well. I have had a minimal death rate, having lost only about two-five fry total since the last move to the 2.5 gallon aquarium. Let me tell you a bit more about the "set-up".

2.5 gallon hexagon acrylic aquarium with acrylic lid. A single air stone. NO filtration. No water changes as of yet. only about an eighth of the water in the aquarium is the original water from the dam. The rest is from my guppy aquarium.

I will very slowly be acclimating the fry to overnight tap water, mixing in a bit of water from the other shiner aquarium to keep the fish from going into shock. I've tried doing quick acclimations before from river water to tap water with small egg laying fry and it just doesn't go over well at all. Even the hardy mosquito fish have a hard time acclimating quickly.

The fish have been fed once--crushed fish flakes. I have not medicated the tank that they are in yet and will not do so until the fish are bigger or show signs of health problems. Some of the mosquito fish showed signs of fin clamp, but the problem has cleared up for the most part, probably due to the slightly medicated and salty water from the guppy tank.

The fish have about 10-12 hours of sunlight daily--From about 7AM to 6-7PM.

No heater has been added to the tank. None is needed. The water in the dam where the fish were caught is a few degrees colder than the aquarium water, which could also account for the diseases clearing up.



================================================== ======
TADPOLE AND FROGS

The tadpole and bullfrogs are in a ten gallon aquarium beside my window where they get about 12 hours of natural sunlight each day. The frogs enjoy floating in the water, their eyes above the surface, while the tadpole enjoys hiding behind the rock in the aquarium.

I have not fed the frogs yet, as I am still letting them adjust to their surroundings. I may toss a moth or mosquito in tonight, or some VERY small crickets this weekend. The two water beetles that were swimming around in the water have disappeared, not died, so I suppose the tadpole has been getting the nibbles.

All is well with the frogs and tadpole. They are active and strong, and their natural instincts to take flight when I come around are still kicking them in the butt. As much as I would like to be able to handle these frogs as pets, I feel that at this point if that happened so soon I would have major problems to worry about.

Keep on wishing me luck!
I may pay a visit to the bait shop a little later this week to see if they've got any more of those spiffy koi. I know quite a few people that would be interested in buying once they get big.

[amelia]

After no internet access for 1 1/2 months, I'm finally back.
...
Bought two koi last night. Wal-mart. They had puffer fish.. I wanted to save them all but realized I had no idea how to set up a brackish tank. A woman's children were begging for some puffer fish.. I considered telling the woman it was a waste of money unless she knew her way around brackish tanks, but decided against it. Who's going to listen to a teenager who just stole a couple of bags from under the fish sink? (For good reason of course.. my bag of koi sprung a leak.) ..

Hm.. I have a brim and a bluegill now. Are they related to cichlids? They look like cichlids but have cleaved tails.. hm...

I need a couple of 55 gallon tanks. Tanks only. No filters, no hoods, no stand. Tanks ONLY.

I also need 3 good internal filters.

...

and an unlimited supply of money to take care of these fish. T______T

School's really dragging on me. Go figure.
At least I have my pretty babies to swim and make me happy.

I bought three albino shiners, and have been through about 20 regular shiners. Those things really die easily... Treating for internal parasites. I now have 3 regular shiners and 1 albino. ..

[amelia]

I had to freeze "JoyKoi" today. He/she was VERY lethargic and was tilting every which-a-way.. It was bad this morning, but I thought I'd give it time. This afternoon it was worse, so I did what I felt best. I also removed the last two shiners (They have slowly been dying off. I'm afraid that this is what made JoyKoi sick.).

The puffer is still alive. I'm searching for my quick-cure.. Can't seem to find it. >< Garhgoiuwre! Treating with melafix for the fin damage, though.

[Fishboy93]

If its a dwarf puffer they are stricktly FW I believe sorry to interrupt...

[amelia]

It's a figure eight, fish boy.

[Fishboy93]

oo never mind then

[amelia]

Bought a used 55 gallon plus a filter (in need of a new propellor) for $65 today. Picking up next Saturday. Also, buying another 55 in a few (well, more than a few) weeks for $95. Things are looking up. ^____^

[amelia]

Two bluegill, two goldfish, and three mollies later...

I've bought two more bluegill. Call them a new obsession. Two more goldfish, too--pretty red and white commons. Three mollies--Marbled. The two females are solid white with black pin-spots while the male is white on the top and black on the bottom, no spots. I do plan to breed them. HECK YES!

[amelia]

Getting one or two new koi. One koi for sure is a dragon super fin from koi-art.com. She's eight inches, 12+ with all of her fins.




I also plan to buy a smaller, 3-4 inch ginrin ki utsuri to add to my little "collection."

koi=love

song of the uh.. "journal entry day"..

miyavi][coo quack cluck-ku ku ruu-