Epic fail! And I'm *still* not sure how/why

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#21
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#21
Okay! So, got the filter issue taken care of (didn't fix the canister filter, but bought a Penguin 200 at Petsmart today 'cuz they were on sale), so I can start working on the 55gal again after tomorrow (tomorrow I'm doing the 29gal...hopefully).

I did get a new Alistair today (that was my featherfin cat...I thought he was a USD cat, but I'm pretty sure now that he was a featherfin)! :D He was in the wrong tank at Petsmart, so I got him for $6.99 (the USD cat price) instead of $16.99 like he was supposed to be.
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#23
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#23
That's okay! With nine tanks (at the moment...soon to be knocked down to seven when I get the 20gL set up as a betta fraternity), it's easy to get confused. Heck, I get confused sometimes! ROFL!

Alistair is ultimately going in the 55gal because that's the only tank he'll actually fit in (that has a heater). He would fit in the 46gal bowfront, but seeing as that's a coldwater tank, I don't think he'd like it much. :p I'll try to get pics of the little guy tomorrow if he'll come out. Right now he's hiding under this kind of log thing in the 18gal. I put him in the 18gal rather than the 29gal 'cuz I already have four bottom feeders plus a pleco in the 29gal and I didn't want to give them competition (especially Grover, my SA bumblebee cat). Plus I just got rid of almost all my platies out of the 18gal, so I have room to spare in the 18gal (it has an Aqua-Tech 20-40 filter on it, so it's extremely well-filtered).

Not sure if I put up a stocking list for the 55gal redo, but here it is:

2x angelfish
4x female bettas (plus Tristan, the tranvestite)
3x platies (all female)
1x male swordtail
2x albino bristlenose plecos
1x featherfin cat (I like calling Alistair a USD cat better :( )
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#24
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#24
Here's some pics of the little guy! He is behaving almost exactly the same way the original Alistair did when he was the same size. The original Alistair claimed a rock cave in my 46gal bowfront and wouldn't let anyone else near it. The new Alistair has claimed the driftwood cave in the 18gal (which is getting moved to the 29gal when it gets redone) and won't let anyone else near it. He is so flippin' adorable!!!




One of the girls (Esme) saying "HI!" to Alistair:

Esme and Tristan:

The evil dwarf gourami that was attacking my GBRs in the 29gal:

One of the other girls, Bella:

A few of the platies and the sword pair (the two platies on the top are going to the LFS as soon as they get big enough...the one on the bottom is staying because she's tiger striped...the swords are a female neon and a male pineapple sunburst, at least I think that's what he's called):
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#26
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#26
A few more pics, just because I'm bored and can't seem to sleep (even though I only had three hours of sleep last night...blech!).

The 55gal as it sits after it went Chernobyl. I removed all the DW so I can scrub it down. This is with the new T5 light on it (2x48W, I think is what it's putting out...yeah, it still has the actinics...I just need to go get regular plant bulbs to replace them and haven't yet...too much else going on!):



The stand the 55gal will be going on (instead of the glorified coffee table it rests on now):

The fabric I'm going to use to make a skirt for the stand so that the canister filter and cords don't show (my living room, where the tank is, is done in a ship theme with ship models and pictures of ships):

Need an opinion...I have a white background on this tank right now. You could never really see the background because of the tannins in the water from the driftwood. I'm hoping that'll all (or mostly) be gone now that the driftwood has soaked for almost six months. Should I put a black background on this tank or leave it the white?
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#28
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#28
And again with the fail! This time it was my 29gal. I had a bag of chewed open bottom feeder pellets sitting on top of my new Penguin 200 filter on the 29gal and apparently a mouse must have somehow knocked it off 'cuz it was floating, open side down, in the 29gal with most of its contents at the bottom of the tank. My new GBRs were literally buried under a soggy pile of pellets and were both dead.
 

Goldiegupp

Goldiegupp

Medium Fish
#29
Jun 11, 2010
88
0
0
#29
I am SOOO sorry for your losses! Just read your whole story from beginning to end. Fish keeping is tough stuff. You are really dedicated to your fishies *claps*. Oh by the way your female betta Esme looks EXACTLY like my female betta Cupid haha. Stupid mouse! Ugh! Wow that really really stinks.

I had a similar experience when I was younger, not half as bad though. I had my gorgeous male betta in a large bowl for a while, then for some reason the idea struck me (don't ask why) to put dollhouse furnature in with him. Long story short the painted furnature contained toxins which killed him quickly...cried for days because I loved him to death and he had lived about 7 years and I was hoping to set a record lol.

I hope from this point on things turn around for you *hug*.

Best of luck,

Goldie
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#30
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#30
Thanks, Goldie! I think a mouse may have contributed to my 55gal going Chernobyl, actually. I found their droppings behind the tank and I have seen them climb cords, so it wouldn't be too far of a stretch for one to get on top of the tank and poop. That would definitely cause problems with the parameters.

Right now I'm setting up the 20gL I got to use as a divided betta fraternity so I can put the tiger barbs, SA bumblebee cat, cories and BN pleco (if I can find him) into it while I redo the 29gal. I have to take out all the substrate and MTS from the 29gal, rinse it thoroughly, and then put the new (rinsed) substrate in and 'scape it. All before I go to bed tonight...wheeeeee!
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#31
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#31
Alright...even more setbacks getting this tank off the ground (again), but I have gotten a little bit done. Yesterday (Monday) I had a friend come over and she helped me clean my house because my son is here visiting (picked him up today). She brought two of her cats with her since I have a bit of a mouse problem. We had to leave one of the cats here while we were gone today (only have one crate) and he apparently tried to use the top of my 18gal tank to jump onto the top of my china hutch. He succeeded in shattering the BRAND NEW glass canopy on the tank and it fell INTO the tank. Luckily, no fish were hurt. However, because I pretty much need to strip down the 18gal to get all the glass fragments out, I have to redo this tank, which I was hoping to put off until I had the 55gal done, since most of the fish (all but three, actually) from the 18gal are moving to the 55gal when it is done. Blah!
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#34
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#34
Thanks, Laura. I got the 18gal fish transferred to the 20gL and about 5 gallons drained out of the 18gal, but I'm just way too tired from driving eight hours on about an hour of sleep to get anything meaningful accomplished on this tank right now, so it's going to have to wait.

Oh, and because of the nastiness that was the 55gal, I'm going to have to fill it back up partly and then drain it again to get the gunk out. I am sorely tempted to just take all the substrate out and start over again with just straight play sand, but now that the tank is up on the stand, I can't bring myself to do it. Blah!
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#35
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#35
Ix-nay on the cleaning the substrate. It's not worth the effort, so I'm just going to switch out all the substrate completely. I found an AWESOME deal on pool filter sand ( 50lb Sand Filter by Arch Chemicals - 61308 - More Swimming pool chemicals at doitbest.com ) and there's a store they'll ship to about 2 miles from my house for free. I was going through my shed today, looking for something I could use as a better stand for my 18gal (the book shelf thing it was on was starting to sag because it was a piece of crap), and I found a piece of driftwood I had collected back when I was originally setting up the 55gal that will be perfect for what I'm imagining for this tank. I want very minimalistic decorations (but still all natural with driftwood and rocks and such), pretty much a wall of amazon swords across the back of the tank, and a bubble wall in the middle of the back.
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#37
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#37
It's gonna be about another week until I get the tank started because that's how long it'll take for them to ship the PFS to the store. Meh.

I did purchase two angelfish today. I bought them thinking that I'd be able to get play sand at Walmart tonight and be able to start the tank this weekend. Yeah, BOTH of the Walmarts in my town were out of play sand! So, that's why I decided to try finding the PFS again. Anyway, one of the angelfish (the altum-type that I LOVED...not the silver zebra type like this: http://thecoralabyss.com/images/silver angelfish.bmp , but with actual altum coloration like this: Imageshack - altum2.jpg - Uploaded by ultimbow ) died on the way home. The other one is just freakin' adorable, though. He's pure white except for a black nose/face and a little bit of black on his tail. He's about the size of a nickel.
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#40
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#40
I got them from Petsmart (only place that carries anything except marble veils) and they have notoriously weak stock in their angelfish/rubberlip pleco tank (have had more fish that I got out of that tank die on me than any other store or tank). The girl said something about our water being a pH shock for the angels and I'm wondering if it might not be true since I have a friend who moved here and within a couple of weeks her angel died.

Anyway, the little white/black guy (who needs a name...I'll try to get a pic of him to help) is currently living in the 20gL with all the other homeless fishes (everyone from the 18gal is in there as well).

Here's a pic of him:
 

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