Monday, April 30, 2012

Pirhana Munch Munch

28-04-2012

Hey all! Hope your fishy friends are well?

Algae started growing on the sides of the jar again so I had to clean it off. Problem is Pirhana refused to be removed from the tank! I don't like dropping the water level so far down while he is in the tank. I managed though (challenge overcome!) i put in warm water this time round (21 degrees Celsius). I have never seen Pirhana that active, ever! His quite a character. I was quite interested to see his reaction to the mirror experiment so I tried it after I cleaned the tank. Get this, Pirhana doesn't attack, he swims away!! The little coward. It took a while for him to notice his reflection and when he did he flared his fins then turned on his tail and swam for his life.

Also one of the bigger leaves started to turn brown and as I removed it I noticed that there was a new leaf growing! (super excited). I can finally relax because it seems like all is well in Pirhana's world :) Kaylyn gets him on Wednesday and she will add the little bag containing Zeolite to the tank and report on Pirhana's behaviour with regard to the new addition to his world.

Regards, Q & Pirhana

something's wrong

Ratanga is not doing very well and it's quite scary, he is swimming on one side, so he is tilted right now as he swims and according to research it could be that he is gloated, constipated, over fed, or ammonia levels could be really high or temperature could also be high, but the water temperature  is fine, he also has a bump right below his head this is quite scary but that's the latest for now, on the more brighter side Ratanga stares at himself when he is placed in front of a mirror, that's all for now :-(
Hey Guys, i made a new bar diagram for the question " Do you think your fish has grown?", but I used percentage instead of using the actual vote numbers. In both years more people said "Yes" than "No", but the gab between the answers were bigger last year. If we look at percentage last year there was a higher figure saying "Yes" than in 2012, but if you look at the actual numbers more people said "Yes" this year. That results from a higher sample size this year.
I talked to Richard last Thursday about that, he said you usually use percentage for example in a magazine. I just wanted to share that with you, maybe to get an other perception!


keLviN

Eya peeps. My fish is doing this days, but i thing that tester  gave it a shock a bit, the whole day it didn't want to swim close to that little sack. but its swimming around it now. i'm just a little worried about the water temperature,  because its been very cold now' days, don't if the drop in temperature is going to affect it.  but gotta wait and see. later 

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Free Willy's Type

Free Willy is still doing great, seems to be healthy and fit since his eating regularly and swimming around and seems to be all round happy. Since I first got him, he definitely has grown a bit and colour is still dark blue with hints of purple by his tail and body. Free Willy has not shown much gill activity so i was quite surprised when I put a mirror in front of my tank and found him flaring up his gills at the sight of himself. That was pretty cool because his never done that before. He swims pretty much all over the tank, he comes up to the top when we walk pass the tank and then he would swim in cirles, so theres not really a distinct way in which he prefers to swim. I did some reserch and noticed that he has a double tail and double tailed bettas usually has thicker body and wider backside, which is the same as Free Willy so this made me come to the conclusion of the double tail. I clean his tank about twice a week now because if not then the water becomes quite mucky easily and I also remove uneaten food as it helps keep the water cleaner for longer.

Getting Bison back

Two weeks ago I recieved Bison from my partner. I never wanted to bother him for the day since he had a long trip so I wanted him to get used to his environment.

The next day I noticed that the water level was a bit low for the plant and I didnt look like the plant would grow nicely. So I added a little more water into the jar. Bison seemed to really enjoy the new water level since he was swimming frantically at the top.

What I also noticed was that Bison would swim alot more then when I first got him. And he now swims up when I want to feed him, before he would swim down and later eat up the food. I have heard that some peoples fishes spit their food out and that it is common but there is no signs of that with Bison, even when I think I gave him too much too eat he still eats it. Hope he does not turn into a shark, haha

Saturday, April 28, 2012

this is Ratanga after his water change, he actually eats from fingers and blows bubbles hectically everytime after eating, so far no leaves have been lost except one's that tend to grow out of the water and undergo dehydration, so only tips of these leaves actually die

Feeding habits

At the beginning of our project my fish didn´t know when feeding time was, so I always had to wait for them to come up to the water´s surface, otherwise they wouldn´t really recognize that there is food. That would be a problem because I have to remove the pellets after 2 – 3 minutes or it can cause eutrophication, what would result in the fish´s death.
I started feeding them twice a day, morning and evening circa 5 – 7 pellets. My red betta Jonah was always a little bit picky – first I had to make sure that he noticed the food and I started giving him only 3 pellets. If he ate all I gave him a little more – sometimes he ate sometimes he didn’t.
Minki and Gypsy were always eating good, especially Gypsy! He is always eating fast and the most. I never have to worry about him! I usually feed him first, then the others which takes me a few seconds – Gypsy is finished with eating most of the times!
Interesting at the first day of the project was that Jonah was chasing Minki and Gypsy away from the food. It was his territory so it was his food. With the knowledge I have now, I fully understand why Jonah chased Gypsy much more than Minki – normal behavior between two male bettas – protecting their territory! I think that gypsy was hiding instead of fighting because he is smaller than Jonah – so he might knew that he wouldn’t have had a fair chance! 
But on the other side I had Gypsy in a jar with Sam, which has been bigger than him too. But in that case, Gypsy wasn´t the chased one! That could be a proof for my theory that Sam was sick.
To come back to the feeding – I don´t have problems with feeding them anymore. All of them eat well and know when it´s feeding time! In the evening I close the curtains, so when I open them in the morning they are coming to the surface – knowing that their food is coming soon!
Now I usually feed them only once in the morning because at the earlier stage there have been leftovers I had to take out most of the time.  But nowadays they eat their food in the morning and I only have to remove food barely.
I also recognized that Gypsy eats pellets even if they lie on the ground of his jar. I saw him doing that a few times now! He always  seems to be hungry, but as we know their stomach is as big as their eyes and I’m actually wondering already that 7 pellets fit in their!
Something they all do is the spitting out of their food! Minki often takes two pellets at the time, realizes that it is too much and spits them out one at a time. After that she eats one by one. Jonah just eats one, spits it out and eats it again. What I noticed is that when they spit the pellets out there is a substance around them, what might be saliva. As everybody might know already, is Gypsy the one who does that least!
I will observe their eating behavior further, maybe I will notice sometime that also the others eat from the bottom or something else interesting!!!  

Betta Type & Colour

I've been reading up on all the different tail types and I can't before sure which tail my betta splenden has. I think it's most likely a 'Hearttail'. This is actually a type of double tail that hasn't formed properly, but is very much sought after! It basically doesn't have the full split in the double tail, only a little split which gives it a heart shape. Hence the name… I did at first think it was a 'tripple tail', but they are said to be very rare, so hearttail is a better bet. It's also the border line of a fuse tail, but they all look so similar it is difficult to tell.
In any case, its colour is turquoise - like the more blue turquoise - and it has little red dorsal fins. It's head is black/grey, and when he flares his head changes to pitch black.
After looking though hundreds of pictures of different betta splendens, I havn't seen one that looks just like mine??
I do think my betta is a strange little fish, and even after seeing lots of different bettas at pet shops too, none of them have been close to looking like Blue. This to me is unique :) I do have suspicions that Blue's fines are a result of improper breeding. This is very likely amongst pet shops and betta breading.
 Blue is probably just a little inbred. This only makes him more special and pretty unique.

This web page was nice to read up on once you already know your fishes fin type. Otherwise if you google there is so much information on betta fish! Good luck figuring out what type of fins yours has got :)
http://members.fortunecity.com/markang/bettatypes.htm
This is an old picture but it shows Blue's fins really nicely.

Here you can see how I thought he might have a tripple tail fin. You can see three looking sections in his tail.

This picture I took of Blue today while I was making him flare in a mirror. Flaring makes them 'puff out' their fins. I thought this would give me a good picture of how his fins look. You can see the distinct semi-split in his tail. This classifies him as a hearttail. But you can also see his fins have an unusual shape. I couldn't find any pictures or descriptions of a tail like this one. Maybe someone can find one in their search?

My Amazon Sword Plant continues...

Just over a week ago I posted about my dying Amazon Sword Plant. I added pebbles into my tank to secure the roots of my plant, and this (I said) would be my last attempt in saving the plant.


I gave it a week.


The last four leaves died completely and yesterday I wanted to do my water change and completely remove the whole plant from the tank, roots and all.
Janine and I spent Thursday afternoon, going to different pet shops to try and find new aquatic plants but the pet shops only had fake plants. I wanted to get a new plant on Thursday so that I could replace my plant that Friday, but now i still have to find a plant.
So back to the water change I was doing yesterday...
as I was about to start the water changing process, I realized that my plant had a tiny new leaf beginning to grow!
 This seems ridiculous as all the other leaves were dead by now.


As you can see the last four leaves that have died. Only one leaf still has a little pigment left on half its leaf and entire stalk. Right at the base is the tiny new leaf.

At first I was so determined to get this plant to survive, but now I think the plant is the one who is determined!
I really don't think that this leaf will help the plant much, but I'll give it a chance. I cut off the last 3 dead leaves. I've left the half dead one because it still has a little chlorophyll that might help the baby leaf. I've neatened the left over cut stalks and trimmed them as much as I could.
Now my plant looks ridiculous:

I Really don't have much hope for this plant, but letting it try wont hurt :)
























So now I am watching this little leaf very carefully. If I see it begin to slightly go brown, or not grow any bigger, I will remove it straight away. 
For now, yet again, all I can do is observe and wait.
Maybe this is a new beginning for the plant!

Friday, April 27, 2012

Total jar cleaning & plakat bettas

Hey there, my fishies are doing well, they are a little bit stressed at the moment because I cleaned their jars this morning. I took everything out, fish in a little plastic jar, plants out, water out and also the clay substrate, so that I could rinse the whole jar from the inside just in case there are little algae which I cannot see. I noticed that the surface of Minki´s water got like oily, I don’t know why. The guy in the pet shop told me it could be because of going into the water with the fingers, but II don’t touch the water after I cleaned it, not when I feed them and not at any other time. 
Anyways, after I cleaned and rinsed the jar, I put black and white coloured marble chips (coloured marble chips or pepples are coloured stones with a size of approxomately 4-6 mm),which I rinsed with fresh tap water into the jar instead of the clay substrate, because in future it will be much easier to clean their jars through the fact that I bought a cleaning pump. This pump sucks up water and light stuff such as the fish´s waste and the clay substrate, but the stones are too heavy, so in future it’s much easier to remove their waste without cleaning the whole jar again. This time I used the plant food that we got from UWC because the plants don’t get any food through the stones, before that they got at least some from the clay substrate. So i positioned the food right under the plant and put the coloured pepples around until the roots of the plant were covered. I really hope that it wasn´t a mistake, because until now they were doing really well! 
Then i filled up the jar with slightly warm fresh tap water (between 24 and 26 degrees Celsius), because cold water could stress the fish (even more than he is through the cleaning process anyways) or the temperature shock could maybe cause death. I used 2 drops of water conditioner to neutralize the chlorine, which tined the water slightly blue. Usually the water is back to normal after latest one day. 
After all of that I released Minki, Gypsy and Jonah into their fresh cleaned and new decorated jars.


After the cleaning I observed them a little while, to see if they change in colour through the coloured marble chips, or if there is any new behavior etc. I couldn’t notice a change in Minki´s and Jonah´s colour, but Gypsy changed again a little bit to a greyish body, but her fins stayed in that beautiful redish-pink with bright blue highlights! I´m sure that the change in colour is a result of stress through the cleaning of the tank. I noticed that Gypsy also wasn´t that active, it looked like that she was trying to hide, but unfortunately I dont have a plant for her yet (petshops are out of real plants and i think that the plastic ones are too hard for them). Minki and Jonah have been a little bit more active but also here i could notice that they were hiding under the leafs a couple of times. To get Gypsy a little it exerciesed I put Jonah´s jar right next to her´s and as soon as they saw each other they started flaring at each other. I saw that behavior a couple of days ago already and noticed that her fins are quite big for a female, but definately not as big as Jonah´s or Sam´s fins.
Together with her whole behavior in the last weeks I was thinking if it could be maybe a young male. After I talked to Richard in our prac yesterday, we think it’s a "plakat betta". The plakat betta is a shortfinned male betta and with their fins they are the closest related to the wild ones. They are gaining more popularity in the betta world, because of their vital appearance, for example they are less prone to fin rot. We find basically three types of plakats, the traditional with an asymmetrical form, the asymmetrical show plakat and the symmetrical plakat.
A cross of a plakat and longfinned betta is the halfmoon plakat, which is a cross of a traditional plakat and a longfinned halfmoon betta and has also the asymmetrical form as the traditional one.
I think Gypsy could be a traditional asymmetrical plakat, but i can´t say it with 100% security.

I saw that Sir Mustard has symptoms of fin rot, what can be caused by a bacterial or fungal infection. As Aviwe and Nadine described the process, it seems to me like a bacterial infection. The disease usually starts at the fin´s edge (one syntom: becomes black/brown and then falls off), destroyes more and more of the fins until it gets to the base of the fin. If the disease got that far the fins usually cannot recover and the disease might attack the fish´s body. To treat this disease the water should be changed and the pH should be corrected if necessary. You can also use a salt bath or herbal remedies like "Melafix", but I dont have lots of informations on that so if Sir Mustard needs it, you should get some more infos.


So far so good, that´s it for today!!!
Cheers and a nice weekend to everybody!!


Thursday, April 26, 2012

 Well then, so far my fish, Mustard, is doing pretty good. He is healthy, has grown a bit and quite the eater. Mustard seems to enjoy the dried out worms, that were given, so much that he picks them up from the bottom of the tank. I'm not sure if fish shed but i had noted a couple of weeks back that he's skin at the tip of he's fins appeared dark and shortly after that it began to tear off.

My relationship with Mustard has improved amazingly because as soon as i lift the lid of the jar he swims to the surface and he can feed off my hand now. I know that he is happy because not a day goes by without me seeing him blow a fair share of bubbles.

I have noted that in the evenings he seems to swim near the bottom of the tank and when he wants to sleep or when he is sleeping he will be among the leaves of our amazon.

I have finally observed Sir Mustard either urinate or poop I'm not quite sure but the substance appeared purple. I now know that after Betta's do their business the sort of flick it away by swimming vigorously until it has diffused nicely in the water.

Our amazon also appears to be doing well but something unusual that i have noticed is that one of the growing leaves has holes and a whole lot of them.

Overall I'd say our plant and fish are living the good life...

SIR MUSTARD

My Betta Journal: Do you think your fish has grown?

My Betta Journal: Do you think your fish has grown?: hi, Siyanda here I think my fish is definately growing. It is doing quit well and it is not lazy, it enjoys swimming a lot and I  think it enjoys being lonely in that jar. 

My Betta Journal: Do you think your fish has grown?

My Betta Journal: Do you think your fish has grown?: hi, Siyanda here I think my fish is definately growing. It is doing quit well and it is not lazy, it enjoys swimming a lot and I  think it enjoys being lonely in that jar. 

My Betta Journal: Do you think your fish has grown?

My Betta Journal: Do you think your fish has grown?: hi, Siyanda here I think my fish is definately growing. It is doing quit well and it is not lazy, it enjoys swimming a lot and I  think it enjoys being lonely in that jar. 
helios evreybody......  am a bit scared coz i hvnt changed my water  and am scared that my  lil angel will die..the water is still clean though  and the plant is healthy.....

Stallion has changed his sleeping place

Hello guys, after  yesterday's lecture I took some time to monitor Stallion's behavior, it was late and i was studying when I've noticed he was not moving  at all in the tank! he usually does that when he is sleeping but what amazed  me is that was not his sleeping place, his bed is at the bottom of the tank, but he  was  floating up there  for  three  hours fast asleep!

 I  don't  know whether its  due to the  changing of water that we did on Saturday. We moved him to  a little basket then changed all the   water in  the tank and put in fresh water, there was a bit of algae as  well, its only now that I've noticed the change in his sleeping patterns, maybe the bottom is not so  comfortable anymore.  i will look at him again  tonight to see if he keeps this up.

have a good long weekend friends.
Our fish Leonidas  is light blue with a little of green on the fins.  Also our fish seems to be doing very well, as we haven't had any problems with being sick or not eating the food that we gave it. The fish also seems to be recognizing me and my partner as it swims to the surface whenever I'm moving close to it. I'm also intrigued at some few of the reactions the fish does. we also think that we have kind of violent as it seems to be aggressive towards the plant. I'm Mothusi mokhalimetso working with Thulani Gushman.      

KelVin

my fish suprised me this morning as a was about to feed it, it was at the bottom of the tank..it flipped fins an tail , and swimmed back wards a bit. think it thought i was intruding...a think it hasn't recognise me yet. but anyway its still grands. tomorrow im thinking of cleaning my tank around friday...keep the brada in fresh water. my plant is loosing leaves ...damn,,,nothing growing yet. only 4 leaves still green... later with the update....
ooooh our darling fish, Fluffy, looks incredible. I have noticed that in the morning he tends to swim up to the surface and gradually moves down to the bottom as the day proceeds. In the afternoon I noticed that he stays in the middle of 'tank' and swims actively around the plant. Fluffy has displayed unusual behavior, well according to Mr Knight, he swims to the bottom of the tank to find some of the food that has fallen to the bottom. when it has picked up what he thinks is food, he spits it out and carries on with the search.

Recently I added a plastic tortoise to the tank. He did not notice it for a few days, but when he finally did he showed some territorial behavior. It was amusing because he circled the docile animal and made his fins expand in order to look bigger.

I am going to try the mirror again to see how the behavior will change if he sees 'one of his own'.


FLUFF POWER!

ave produce another baby plant! they aare doing great, no brown leaaves, no algae.
the jar is so cleaned that Randall is having big activities; swimming up and down like crazy. it is enjoying its life.
Strange thing, while i was cleaning the jar i put Randall into an acquarium with other fishes. As soon as it was in, it tried to attak a gupy; yet all other fishes went in together at one corner of the jar and Randall at the other. I put food into the jar to see their actions; they all jumped umto it but still away from Randall.
A quite big gold fish wanted a bid piece of food which was close to Randall; it then approach it and Randall ran away frm him.
I am wondering why it ran away while it was suppose to fight the gold fish.

Do you think your fish has grown?

2011 Y(22) N(8), 2012 Y(34) N(29)

Is your plant dead?

2011 No Data, 2012 Y(5) N(58)

Did you remove dead leaves?

2011 No Data, 2012 Y(30) N(33)

Is your plant growing?

2011 No Data, 2012 Y(30) N(33)

Did you add additional aquatic plants?

2011 No Data, 2012 Y(2) N(61)

Did you get other food for your fish?

2011 Y(5) N(25), 2012 Y(23) N(40)

Did your fish like the freeze dried tubiflex worms?

2011 Y(24) N(6), 2012 Y(34) N(29)

Did your fish not eat for more than a week?

2011 Y(0) N(30), 2012 Y(0) N(63)

Did your fish not eat for more than three days?

2011 Y(2) N(28), 2012 Y(2) N(61)

Did you feed your fish on alternate days?

2011 Y(3) N(27), 2012 Y(3) N(60)

Did you feed your fish once a day?

2011 Y(25) N(5), 2012 Y(36) N(27)

Did you remove uneaten food?

2011 No Data, 2012 Y(13) N(50)

Did you locate your tank in a dark area?

2011 Y(13) N(17), 2012 Y(15) N(48)

Did your tank get plenty of natural light?

2011 No Data, 2012 Y(20) N(43)

Did your tank get any green algae growing?

2011 Y(2) N(28), 2012 Y(12) N(51)

Did your fish stress during water changes?

2011 Y(12) N(18), 2012 Y(32) N(31)

If your fish was unwell did you get medicines?

2011 Y(1) N(29), 2012 Y(0) N(63)

Do you think your fish ever got unwell?

2011 Y(7) N(23), 2012 Y(4) N(59)

If your fish appeared unwell did you change the water?

2011 Y(7) N(23), 2012 Y(6) N(57)

Have you changed your water more than 3 times?

2011 Y(13) N(17), 2012 Y(43) N(20)

Have you changed your water more than 6 times?

2011 No Data, 2012 Y(11) N(52)

Did your water get very mucky?

2011 Y(16) N(14), 2012 Y(6) N(57)

Is your water still clear?

2011 Y(25) N(5), 2012 Y(46) N(17)

Does your fish show lots of gill activity?

2011 Y(14) N(16), 2012 Y(40) N(23)

Does your fish constantly swim up and down?

2011 Y(18) N(12), 2012 Y(37) N(26)

Does your fish constantly swim in circles?

2011 Y(10) N(20), 2012 Y(23) N(40)

Does your fish not move around?

2011 No Data, 2012 Y(6) N(57)

Did you relocate your fish tank?

2011 Y(24) N(6), 2012 Y(33) N(30)

Has your fish changed colour?

2011 Y(18) N(12), 2012 Y(31) N(32)

Have you kept fish previously?

2011 Y(9) N(21), 2012 Y(10) N(53)

Do you wish to keep fish in the future?

2011 Y(20) N(10), 2012 Y(32) N(31)

Do you want to keep your fish?

2011 Y(19) N(11), 2012 Y(38) N(25)

Did you name your fish?

2011 Y(25) N(5), 2012 Y(58) N(5)

Does your fish blow bubbles?

2011 Y(19) N(11), 2012 Y(42) N(21)

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Our plant has stoped growing for some reason but we do regularly wash the fish tank as we are required to do,what are we suppose to do?were thinking to get a new plant for our fish tank becouse this will affect the amount of oxygen produced by the plant since its now dead and will lead to affecting the amount of Oxygen recieved by little Oscar,another thing is that our plant now has small little holes in it,is it Oscar eating the plant lol? but we feed him regularly so why would he actually do that? lol or maybe its his tale and fins which are tearing the plant and puting little plant whole in it,eish the bottom line is that our plant is now really damaged,we need to get a new one bfore poor little Oscar recieves little oxygen
When my partner changes the water ,Oscar starts becoming very fustrated over this action,he starts swiming around very fast on the fish tank and also tryes to hide himself between the tree leaves,His gills start moving as a signe of fear or fustration i assume,he really does not appreciate the idea of a water change,we havent tryed any of the conditioners yet for Oscar ,will defenately try one soon and see how are they going to treat him,and we will defenately try new fish foods just for Oscar to explore a bit and expirience a change,if he is happy with the idea than me and my partner will carry on with this idea
Some of the food that we feed oscar is placed at the bottom of the tank,he does not eat all of it,so when we move the tank,some of the food coming from the bottom of the tank moves up and floats at the top of the tank,then our little Oscar eats that food and enjoys every bit of his meal,we feed Oscar in maximum of 2 or 3 times a day,we havent tryed out new foods yet,but we hoping if we give him other types of fish foods,he will be able to eat them and enjoy them aswell
Hey guys last week me and my partner almost lost Oscar over a very traumatic incident,he was almost eaten by a cat of the house where my partner is staying,the fish tank was placed in a not high area ,so the cat wanted to jump and put its hand inside the fish tank so that it can eat the fish for its meal lol,luckily my partner Ilahm came just intime and saw this happening,she then chased the cat away from the fish tank and than put a lead ontop of the fish tank,so that the cat will not be able to put its hand inside the fish tank and take the fish,well i can say that that method that she used only helped for a day,the cat then thought of another clever way to get the fish,it was jumping near where by the fish tank was located and trying to push the fish tank down so that it can break open ,so luckily again my partner came just intime to rescue the fish and she saw this happening,eish she then placed the fish tank at the top area where by the cat wont be able to reach the fish,then she did that and thats how little Oscar was rescued ,Hew i freaked out when she told me what had almost happened,really adore that fish ,i was shorely gonna hate that cat for eating our fish,but it was a lesson for both us and my partner to be very careful next time ,i guess it was faith that saved Oscar,im glad that happened.
Hey guys my name is Andile Langa and im from Kzn, the name of my fish is called Oscar ,he is Navy blue lovely colore indeed,my partner for this project is Ilahm.

Does your fish sleep at the bottom of the tank?

2011 Y(14) N(16), 2012 Y(34) N(29)

Does your fish sleep at the top of the tank?

2011 Y(17) N(13), 2012 Y(10) N(53)

Does your fish sleep on top of leaves?

2011 No Data, 2012 Y(28) N(35)

Have you observed your fish breathing air?

2011 Y(25) N(5), 2012 Y(47) N(16)