Some of my other fish

This is Peppa, a Peppered Corydoras Catfish.


This is Bimbo, an Albino Cory.


This is Olly, a Bronze Cory.

I love my Corydoras. Not only are they fun to watch, they vacuum the tank floor for me.


The Goldfish in the front is Taiyou, named for the Japanese word for Sun.


This guy didn't have a name for a while. When I first bought him he was all orange. He looked like the above for a while...


... now he looks like this. He is named Jacko, after Michael Jackson, who also turned white.

(The spot algae is on the glass, not him!)

New Half-black boy

His name is Swish :D

AQWA!

Last Wednesday, the fam and I headed to AQWA (The Aquarium of Western Australia). I love this place. It makes me proud to be a West Aussie in a weird kind of way - when I experience the aquarium and think about the fact that these beautiful, weird and wonderful creatures are all native to our coast, I realise just how lucky I am to live where I do.


Here is where AQWA is located, right on the W.A. 'Sunset Coast' - I live 30-45 minutes from here.

Of course, I took lots of photos!


This guy is, I believe, a Grey Nurse shark. They aren't known for their dangerousness (despite appearance!), but unprovoked attacks have occurred.


This fish is known as an 'Old Wife' because it makes a grumbling sound when caught!


This is a Moon Wrasse. I would love one for our planned reef tank, but he is a bit destructive and aggressive, so it probably wont happen.


Lion Fish.


Clown Fish.


Just about the ugliest (and most venomous) fish in the world, a Stone Fish.


The Blue-Ringed octopus, the most deadly octopus in the world. He holds enough venom to kill 10 humans. There is no antidote.

I don't know the names of the rest of these creatures:









Afterwards, we went to the little shallow beach bit at the harbour. For the fun of it, here is a picture of my youngest and I, playing in the water:



Such a fun day! I can't wait to go back again, but next time we will be going to the Naturaliste Marine Discovery Centre, which is located right next door to the aquarium.

A problematic birth

I mentioned the unfortunate death of one of my mama gups due to internal bleeding, so here's the story.
She was rather large, and started dropping fry when she was only 26 days gestation (usual is around 30). I quickly moved her to her own space and sat back and prepared to watch. All was going fine until I noticed some premature babies, and some babies that were still in 'egg' stage.


Egg babies


Big bellied premmie fry

She continued on much in this fashion - some normal fry, some premmie fry that could barely swim, some eggs. All up, she had about... 60? I don't really know, too hard to count.

The next morning, the eggies and belly-sliders were all dead, and mama didn't look happy. I thought she may mave just been getting some 'bedrest', but then I noticed this:


Her vent all kinda sticking out. Over the course of the next few hours, she got quieter, found it harder to swim, and started to go a bit distended. She also developed some pink streaking on her belly:



I became reasonably sure that she was haemorrhaging, but I didn't want to jump the gun, so left her a bit longer.
When I came back to check, I knew she was a goner. I decided to euthanise her.

My preferred method is this: Get a small container of water and put it in the freezer until the top of the water freezes over. Break the ice 'skin' and drop the fish in. Place back in freezer for 5-10 minutes or until the fish has gone to Piscine Heaven.
This method shuts down all metabolic activity and puts the fish to sleep instantly.

In the interest of science, I took a photo of the little body afterwards (linked for viewer discretion)

You can see the bleed through the belly. Poor little mite.

My theory is that she was fit to burst with fry, carrying too many, so her body aborted the pregnancy early, but still too late.

RIP Yin.

How it all Began.

Livebearers are a hobby unto their own. You have to be specific. You can say "Oh, I have several tropical tanks". No.
Livebearers are... addictive. And time consuming. And space consuming. If you choose to breed guppies (ha! Choose!) then you are, after all, making your own fish. Not many other kinds of fish offer you a chance to create patterns, colours, tail and fin shapes. Therein lies the fun - and obsession.

I had a couple of tanks at my place - some goldfish and some tetras. I grew up in a house with lots of tanks, and my husband had been an avid fishkeeper for years before he met me. Somehow, husband got it into his head to start scouring eBay for used, cheap tanks. He picked up a cute little 25l corner tank for something ridiculous, like $8 or something. At around the same time, one of the school mums started chatting to him about a website for her brother-in-law's fish store, knowing that husband is a Web Geek. Well. One cycled-with-goldfish-mulm tank and one visit to that fish store (to 'talk business') later, and I am the proud owner of one male and 5 gravid female guppies. About one week after getting them home, one of the mamas gave birth to between 50 and 60 fry. The rest, history.

Here in my office, I have 2 x 25 litre tanks on my desk, a 100 litre tank behind me, and will soon be setting up a 15 litre tank next to that. All for my guppies. Sure, the big tank (I call it my Chaos tank) has some functional tank-mates (2 bristlenosed ancistrus, and 3 varied corydoras), but this is all about my pretties.

I have lost 2 of the girls to labour (one a very quick shock death, and the other post-birth haemorrhage - I'll be writing about that soon) and have learned that sometimes, this is part and parcel of the game.

Learning, ever.

Hi!

I decided to keep a log of my fishkeeping, so here we are. In keeping with the theme, this will be a very fluid blog; my intentions are vague and if those intentions could be defined at all, I'd say my goal is to post whatever I want, whenever I want to!

I love research, I love learning, and I love taking photos, so I plan on including all that I have learned about aquaria here, plus the occasional (or not so 'occasional') window into my fishy world.

This little place to jot my thoughts is primarily for me, but I would be honoured to be able to pass on any knowledge I acquire.

Welcome!