tankventurous
Tankventurous
I'm a girl on a mission. A mission for fish. And plants. And Baby Fish. Yeeah.
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Found some old tank photos from 2007-ish.
The top is Kael'thas Sunstrider! My second Betta. He was a pretty cool dude. Unfortunately he passed away under my fish-sitter's care while I was in Europe in 2009 for 6 months. :(
The bottom photo has one of my Yoyo loaches (Botia almorhae) saying peek-a-boo when it was still a tiny juvie. These were the first tropicals I ever brought myself, and I still have them all. They're great fish! <3
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More Ragnar
flickr
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Ragnar! I am super happy with tonight's photos.
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I finally named my goddamn fish. Internet, meet Ragnar.
(So named because he has blue eyes, and I think that's kind of special. Ragnar in Vikings is considered to have special eyes)
ALSO I LOVE THIS PICTURE SO MUCH UGH I don't even care that it's grainy at all. Not a bit. Well maybe a tiny bit but I still like it a lot.
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How To Do A Thing: Keep a Discus
When people come around to my house, generally they love my Discus. Which is great! Because I love them, and they are also literally the most expensive fish I own or will ever own. (I swear to god).
Since I've kept them for a few years now, and have had my share of ups and downs, I thought I would do a quick list to help anyone reading this see whether or not Discus are for you.
People can be pretty opinionated with Discus keeping, and there is no one way to do it. This is the way I keep mine.
First thing's first, Discus are expensive. This should prevent impulse buying but hey, you never know. They're expensive because they're hard to keep and breed, so it's always good to keep in mind that they're tricky.
Like many, many fish, Discus are social. One Discus may do well, but two will be better, and five or more is ideal. So referencing the previous paragraph, Discus are a big decision - you could buy a pedigree puppy or kitten for the price of a good sized community of discus.
Also as with many fish, not all fish shops are created equal and some stores have sickly fish. Never ever buy a Discus that looks less than perfect unless you know what you're doing, have a dedicated hospital tank and a lot of time. As with many large, pretty fish, Discus are delicate, shy and slow moving. An unhealthy discus will get out-competed for food by other discus (and any other fish) if you don't watch it, and they will stop eating when too stressed and starve to death.
A healthy Discus should have a good, fat head, and 'plump' sides. Viewed from the front, the eyes should not visibly protrude from the sides of the fish. This is difficult to describe, but since most stores have more than one discus per tank, you should be able to tell by looking at them.
I normally buy 'jerk' fish. In the store, there is generally a fish who is the boss of all the others, the most aggressive. I like to buy these fish because I know that they are the most likely to be getting a lot of food. It means you have to be more careful when introducing new fish, but I've found that this is in the end much easier than buying a stressed out discus.
Discus can survive in the usual tropical range of ~26C, but they do much better in warmer tanks of 28-30C. I keep mine at around 30C, which is far too warm for a great number of common community tank tropical species. For example - mollies, platties, dwarf gourami, kilifish are all out and will die in water this warm sooner rather than later. It has the added bonus of being an intolerable temperature for diseases like white spot, yay!
Great tank mates for Discus include their fellow South American species like tetra. Small peaceful South American cichlids can coexist in a large tank with enough cover (I keep Apistogramma cacatuoides with mine). I wouldn't put anything close to the same size as a discus in my discus tank.
There are quite a few popular South American cichlids which are totally inappropriate as Discus tank mates, the most common of which are Angel Fish. Angels are quite slow moving and delicate, similar to discus, but they are far hardier and more aggressive. They will kick the stuffing out of your discus. Actually, if you're a fish newbie thinking about a South American tank that's not going to break your heart or your wallet, angels are a great species to look into! Just not with discus ever.
Others include Green Terrors, Red Terrors, Jewel Cichlids, Jaguar cichlids... basically anything bigger than an Apistogramma or a Ram is a no-go, in my opinion.
Water quality is critical. I know that fish keepers always say this, but I'm really not joking around. Captive-bred discus will generally tolerate a neutral PH (although a maintained acidic PH is obviously better), but they do not tolerate dirt. I keep a heavily planted tank with good substrate, have a massive filter and clean my tank every week religiously. Before I kept discus, I could maintain great water parameters with a 20% siphon every 3 weeks, but discus need perfect water or they start getting sad.
I hand feed my discus to make sure I can see who is eating and who isn't. It takes a bit more time, but I've found it is essential to keeping on top of any weirdness and acting on it fast. I feed frozen blood worm, brine shrimp and specially formulated discus food I buy from a reputable brand at my LFS. My discus have never really taken to pellets, but I also haven't tried very hard to convert them, since I enjoy feeding by hand and this is probably not possible with dry food. I supplement their diets with live blood or black worms every few months because they love it, but don't do it all the time because I am shit at keeping them alive.
All this said, they are extremely delicate fish and they do get sick sometimes even with your best efforts, and a sick discus is very hard to nurse back to health (I do recommend live food and even more frequent water changes as one method).
I love my discus, but I have lost some and it's devastating, as it is with all fish, especially ones with personality and beauty. If you're considering discus, you're probably already a pretty experienced fish keeper, to which I say : you know what you're getting yourself into, but Discus don't forgive anything that other species sometimes do (holiday away? Think you can leave your tank without a water change for 3 weeks just this one time? Not really, hey.) If you're new to fish keeping and find yourself enchanted by this stunning fish, that's great! But I would recommend building up a heavily planted tank with a South American focus (small fish! There are other big and amazing South Americans out there), and consider it after a few years of fishkeeping.
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I see that this is an 8 month old post but I'm happy to answer people's questions! I keep Malawi Cichlids, Tanganyika Cichlids, South Americans (Discus, Apistogrammas and Rams mostly), Ancistrus sp, Peppermint bristlenose, Bettas, Loaches (Botia almorhae & Chromobotia macracanthus) and keep low-tech planted tanks. :)
I've bred everything except for Bettas, Apistogrammas and Discus.
If you are still looking for blogs I would be honoured anyway! :)
Reblog if you're a general fish blog
I’m putting together a list of URL’s that can benefit others.
Please only reblog if you are comfortable answering questions about general fish care and you feel you have enough knowledge to help new keepers.
I’m looking for blogs that post about different types of fish care and has a well rounded knowledge of different types of fish.
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They are all stunning! :( I wish we had Bettas this quality in more LFS where I live, I especially love that first crowntail
Pretty bettas at work.
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Okay so I made a mistake.
I went into a fish shop.
This stunning little Apistogramma cacatuoides male came home with me, he's going to live in my 4' Amazon tank... which is in desperate need of plants, which is why I haven't tumbled any photos recently!
His name is Gyarados based on awesomeness and a rejection of my too complex Tolkien elves nomenclature.
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My new crowntail Betta, tentatively named R'hllor at this point. Or maybe Vael, Arutha, Rhaegar, Dodger, Feanor...
I'm leaning towards R'hllor JUST for that photo I took of him where he looks like a flame. But then it's a bitch to actually pronounce, so there's that. I also like Vhaegar, but that's the name of a female dragon (relatively unimportant) who was not necessarily red (important!).
Fish naming, yo, it's a big deal.
(Fishy) lives in a 30L planted tank all by himself. It's a BioOrb Life. Low tech - just a filter and heater and occasional doses of Seachem Excel. All the plants are low-light, there is a great growth of Anubias nana on the other side of the tank... probably going to move around the Java moss to see if I can encourage my friend to chill out on those leaves, since they look pretty comfy to me.
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Adventures in photographing Bettas
I've been photographing my fish for a while now, and I have to say, Bettas are the slipperiest suckers of all. My new guy is no exception what so ever.
Here are some tips:
Be patient, an don't over-stress your fish with flash or mirrors. You may not get a good shot out of 20 photos, and that's okay! You'll get it eventually.
Take photos at night, turn off all lights except the tank light and one behind where you're shooting from. Don't use your flash if possible.
The faster the shutter speed, the better.
Try, try again!
Even betta (har har har) photos coming in the next post yay!
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You sure can, however in my experience it's always best to wait until the runners have foliage of at least 3-4 cm long per baby plant.
Quick question, my Vals have sent out plenty of runners & I was wondering if I can remove some & plant them elsewhere as separate plants?
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Betta splendens, the "Siamese Fighting Fish."
My newest fishy friend, who is now living in my former CRS tank (there are none left, don't worry... no shrimp murder will happen on my watch).
I normally am not that partial to red Bettas, since it's one of the more common colours and I've very rarely seen it without patches of blue, and I haven't seen a red with full mask and no blue impurities in an LFS before.
Since he's a red and the purple iridescence isn't throughout all of his fins, I guess he's technically a Red with fault iridescence, but I don't care, it's not like I'm going to show him. It's nice to have a full mask fish though, I have never had that trait before in the Bettas I've kept.
("Full mask" means the entire head is the same colour as the body of the fish, which is a reasonably new genetic trait introduced through interbreeding with other wild type Bettas)
I was planning on buying a Betta from an amazing store that imports from Thailand, but this little guy was only $13... Compared to the $60 I was looking at paying, I'd say he's not too shabby at all.
Crappy iphone photo for today, I'll crack the DSLR tomorrow and see if I can get him to flare for the camera.
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Yeah, I heard that too. Pretty frustrating since even if all of the CRS, and Cherry Red/non-native etc stock must come from illegally imported individuals (which is almost certain as I understand it), they were likely to have been traded and obtained legally... Very upsetting! I know that the good people at the Perth Cichlid Society are trying to get an official word on what's happened/ is happening, but I'm not sure...
Natives are back in my LFS, however, so something must have been said. (Natives just aren't as pretty to my eye though ;'()
Two of my Crystal Red Shrimp A-grades in my shrimp tank.
Tragically, I lost all of these guys in a heat wave during a planned power outage (grr! It went 7 hours past schedule!!) which is pretty heart breaking as these guys are no longer legally obtainable in my state (Western Australia), as far as I can tell from LFS staff.
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Anasterian, my Halfmoon rose tail Beta. RIP good buddy!
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My 4' Discus tank, which believe it or not, had more than one Discus in it when these photos were taken. Thanks to my mate VixenIxy for the sweet twiggy driftwood!!
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The 2' tank I posted a short while ago came with me to my new house, where it became a rectangular prism of green. Low tech, too - no CO2, barely any fertiliser, just Eco Complete substrate, laterite, a hanging filter, heater, and a bunch of fish. Happy times!
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Some of my Blue Rams (not German, though).
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