Well I haven't had time to tell you guys about my tragedy last week, with all the overtime and crap I'm pullin.
Basically, I came home from work a few days ago, and looked at my 80 gallon, and it looked like someone poured a couple glasses of milk in it. I had just tried feeding some silversides the night before to "largish" cichlids I keep in it - a 12" oscar, 10" JD, 6" JD, 6" frontosa, 6" GT, 5" nicaraguensis, 14" sailfin gibbiceps pleco, and two 6" synodontis eupterus (btw kids don't try this set up at home =P). I thought the food must have not been eaten and was rotting really fast.
So I look back behind the biggest rock in the tank, to see if some of it was stuck back there, and I see all the sand dug out from under and behind it (its a really big flat rock standing on end like a bicycle tire) Lo and behold, there's the big male jack sticking out from under it, looking like something out of an aquatic horror movie.
This jack was seriously THE coolest jack I have ever seen, in person or otherwise, and he was mine. Now he was dead. So I pulled his stanky carcass out of there, did about 150% worth of water changing, and left the rock laying flat until I had time to rearrange crap.
The next day I come home, and the smaller of my 2 synos was floating. WHAT NOW?? The water looks cloudy again, and I can't see my favorite fish of all time - "blue" the frontosa (you're my boy blue!) Sure enough, I look under the driftwood stump thats held down by 2 boulders, and there's his rotten head sticking out from underneath it. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! No incident in 8 months of having the tank setup that way, then 2 in 2 days?
Well so I had an urge to go see what the LFS had received this week, and there in the "tank buster returns tank" was a 6" male frontosa. He's gorgeous! I got all giddy thinking how strange it was to see a replacement for my old friend, when I hadn't seen a frontosa that big in Central Oregon in 4 years of fishkeeping.
I ended up paying $29.99 for him, and hes in my lap staying warm here at work as I type this =)
I'll try and get some pics soon to share.
Basically, I came home from work a few days ago, and looked at my 80 gallon, and it looked like someone poured a couple glasses of milk in it. I had just tried feeding some silversides the night before to "largish" cichlids I keep in it - a 12" oscar, 10" JD, 6" JD, 6" frontosa, 6" GT, 5" nicaraguensis, 14" sailfin gibbiceps pleco, and two 6" synodontis eupterus (btw kids don't try this set up at home =P). I thought the food must have not been eaten and was rotting really fast.
So I look back behind the biggest rock in the tank, to see if some of it was stuck back there, and I see all the sand dug out from under and behind it (its a really big flat rock standing on end like a bicycle tire) Lo and behold, there's the big male jack sticking out from under it, looking like something out of an aquatic horror movie.
This jack was seriously THE coolest jack I have ever seen, in person or otherwise, and he was mine. Now he was dead. So I pulled his stanky carcass out of there, did about 150% worth of water changing, and left the rock laying flat until I had time to rearrange crap.
The next day I come home, and the smaller of my 2 synos was floating. WHAT NOW?? The water looks cloudy again, and I can't see my favorite fish of all time - "blue" the frontosa (you're my boy blue!) Sure enough, I look under the driftwood stump thats held down by 2 boulders, and there's his rotten head sticking out from underneath it. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! No incident in 8 months of having the tank setup that way, then 2 in 2 days?
Well so I had an urge to go see what the LFS had received this week, and there in the "tank buster returns tank" was a 6" male frontosa. He's gorgeous! I got all giddy thinking how strange it was to see a replacement for my old friend, when I hadn't seen a frontosa that big in Central Oregon in 4 years of fishkeeping.
I ended up paying $29.99 for him, and hes in my lap staying warm here at work as I type this =)
I'll try and get some pics soon to share.
