Thursday, July 28, 2005

Betta

Took my two poor bettas out to "play" yesterday...and realised that they are acutally quite beautiful.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Image hosted by Photobucket.com

To be honest, I have been neglecting them, putting them in the common toilet with little light most of the time. And the only times I look at them were during the weekly water change. I dón't even watch them eat. Have been feeding them with my NLS small fish formula. I only feed once a day as I am too lazy to do more frequent water change. The MG seems to have popeye, but it has been like this since i got it home. Traeted with Interpet Anti-Internal Parsite for a week but stopped as the fish looked normal to me. The red fella is a red full moon.

I have also been reading up on breeding bettas and I have kept a lookout for suitable females whenever i drop by C328, but so far I am still a little hesitant to try breeding as I don't have any more space at home.

Calvus

Went down to CF last weekend to get ADA substrate, ended up spending more than $200. There was this yellow fin white calvus that I couldnt' get my eyes off, ended up buying that and a black counterpart, also with yellow pelvic fins. Both are really nice.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Anyway I just cleared one of my 2ft tank last week and have plunged in another chunk of my salary on planted tank equipment.

1 Nutrafin Co2 Set -> $24 (C328)
1 bag ADA Amazonia Soil -> $38 EcoCulture
1 set of 2x36W PL light -> $65 (C328)
1 Lushgro Package -> $30 (C328)
1 Seachem Flourish Excel -> $10 (C328)
1 mesh riccia -> $6 (c328)
1 tub Riccia -> $4 (Jurong East)
1 tub Mini Moss -> $4 (Jurong East)
8 metal mesh -> $8 (Nature Aquarium)
6 pots hairgrass -> $16 (Sam Pet & Aquarium)
1 set of planter and scissors ->$20 (C328)
1 tub riccia -> $6 (Dover Crescent)

Total: $231! gosh...

Next month must eat grass...

Friday, July 22, 2005

More Inspiration








Found this africian cichlid compatibility chart. Quite useful.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Planted Tank

Not much activity over the past one month. Have been doing quite of reading up of planted tanks and discus keeping. Very intrigue by planted discus tank. Am planning to offload the occupants of my 2ft Malawi tank that I took over from my dad in May and convert it to a planted tank.

Thinking of starting a 2ft planted with apistogramma or even discus. Putting discus in a tank seems to be quite a challenge. First and foremost, discus need relatively high temperature while most plants require lower temp. Discuses are also very particular about water conditions. There are many postings suggesting daily water change. As much as I take pride in that I enjoy my weekly 2 hour water change regime for all my tanks, daily change is a different discipline altogether. Have been doing some research and trying to find ways to keep discus without the frequent water change. e.g. removing nitrite/nitrate and anti-growth hormones from the water artificially.

Keeping healthy discus in a bare tank seems to be tough enough; putting them into a planted tank is an entirely different challenge. The challenge is something that I relish though.