Life gets in the Way Again!!

I have been out of writing my blog for some time. Sorry about that for any that is reading this! I have been busy with other things which more or less seemed more important that this point in time. As a consequence I have seemed to have lost some fish in the process. Don't know know why really as to what the root cause but more likely than not is probably due to my ineptness.

Specifically speaking it was my female German Ram. Was doing great with good colors and had great neon like markings showing. However one day out of the blue it just seemed to just have died. I am at a lost as to why. Also gone are my two remaining dither fish of danios. All three were such beautiful creatures and may they rest in peace.

So what am I to do now. My 38 litre tank has only a school of neon tetras and the 20litre has only glowlight tetras. In the mean time I decided to place some excess bronze corydoras fry in the 38 litre. I transferred three small juveniles and I do hope they survive. They were doing extremely well in the sump. My concern is that they don't have the soft small substrate that exists in the 4ft sump. Their barbels will probably shorten. Only time will tell.

In terms of the other fish they all seem to be doing well except for one goldfish comet. I am worried about it. Its a dark red/orange comet at 20cm in length. There seems to be an outgrowth of some sort growing from its back. White cotton like to me it seems to be like a cancer though I can't be sure. It was already like that when i did buy it but now it just seems to be more prominent. the water quality in that same tank is fine and the other tankmates does not have it so it is somewhat specific to it. Not too sure was to what to do or treat it with at the moment.

Darwin Trip - Crocodile Cove

As promised here is one video of my encounter at Crocodile Cove. There was obviously crocodiles but as a fish lover what really interested me was the huge tank.

It was large and U shaped. On one side of the U where the main area was, therein lies most of the fish. My obvious favourite was the jardini and it was large. However it really dwarfed the mega Barramundis. Along with these included archerfish, scats, catfish, mangrove jacks and the ever popular stingrays. On the other U shaped arm of the tank was two very large sawfish. Sawfish are reputed to be the biggest freshwater fish in the world however I really don't think they are. I don't think they are true freshwater however I might be wrong. Those Araipama(a relative of the Jardini) from South America may have something to say about that. The tank is divided by large bars separating the sawfish from the rest of the occupants. The attendants have said that they had to separate them due to safety concerns for both the other occupants and the diver which hand feeds them.

Its an awesome tank and my only problem is that I wish I had one in my House!.

Darwin Trip - Territory Wildlife Park Crocodile Cove

I went to Darwin not too long ago and have just arrived back. On my last post I mentioned Doctor's Gully and with the kids were fish feeding. Well that wasn't the only place we went though. Being a fish lover we also went to other various places of interests. Two of those other places was Crocodile Cove and the Territory Wildlife Park.

Crocodile Cove was a small area right in the heart of Darwin on Mitchell St. Kinda weird when you think of it. A crocodile sanctuary in the midst of where there is bustling nightlife of restaurants, cafes and the Darwin business district. Who would of thought. It is a relatively new area and is also one of probably three places in the Northern Territory I know of that houses captive crocodiles for public show. Also in their exhibit were live reptiles like snakes and lizards. They somehow were not as popular as the crocs.

Even though the crocs were a wonder what I came to see was their large massive tank. This tank was arguably the heart of the whole exhibit and is probably the first thing you will see when walking in. There was not even one crocodile in there. It had a number of fishes namely Barramundi, Mangrove Jacks, Archerfish, stingrays and two large Jardinis. All the tank inhabitants were large and made the Jardini seemed diminutive and small. They were however were about 60-65cm and much bigger than Sam my Jardini. Divided from the other inhabitants in the same tanks was two very large sawfish. The attendant said that the sawfish were separated because they was creating problems for the keepers and other fish due to their large protruding teeth. Barring that it was a great setup and I will put up a YouTube video of it soon.

The other place I went to see fishes was the Territory Wildlife Park. A couple of funny things about this place on seeing the fishes. Firstly you had to travel a fair distance from Darwin from which upon arrival you needed to bushwalk close to an half an hour to see the Aquarium exhibit. Alternatively you can catch their buses that regularly run every half an hour but walking seemed more fun at the time. I kinda expected the aquarium display to be a letdown being in the middle of literally bushland and scrub. Oh how wrong was I!!

Upon entering the exhibit it was indoors and air conditioned. This was a welcome relief from the hot and humid conditions that was outside. I was initially presented with displays of native rainbowfish tanks riddled with other fauna like turtles and ducks. It was quite impressive. Most of the rainbowfish setups were good planted setups. Then as you progressed along the way was a setup which I wouldn't have attempted even if given any opportunity. It had archerfish, one Jardini, rainbowfish and turtles and one crocodile or alligator. I couldn't tell cause i wasn't concentrating on it having seen one too many at crocodile cove. the crocodile I hope is fed well or else the other tankmates will be food for thought.

Then as you walk through there was an amazing underwater exhibit whereby you need to walk through a glass tube. The enclosure was large and enough to has comfortably giant barramundi, sawfish, turtles and of dither fish. When i mean dither fish they are still large like 30cm or more. Quite amazing in the middle of nowhere. Once past the underwater tube you would then come across on large crocodile (again) and then the saltwater setups. Funny that you had to travel inland to see a credible saltwater setups. All in all the aquarium was quite amazing given that it is so far inland for many people to enjoy. It is however a jewel if you ever get to the Territory Wildlife Park.

Fish Feeding at Doctors Gully

I went to the Northern Territory by airplane with my family. I asked a family member to look after my tanks while we were away.

Being such a fish lover I had to go and see some of the fishes the Northern territory had to offer. I had couple of places in mind however it didn't turn out like what I had in mind in terms of plans. One of the places that I really had to go was fish feeding at Doctor's Gully at this place called Aquascene. That at least turned out as planned.

When we arrived there was only a couple of people there which was a bonus. We were able to have almost the whole area to ourselves to feed the fishes. It was a wonderful experience. The fish literally came up to us as we were feeding them bread. My kids were able to touch and feel the mullet as they hobbled at their feet. The fish - mostly mullet was swimming over themselves as they try to get a bite of the bread that we fed them. The kids was quite excited and got quite immersed in feeding the fish. My youngest one even got told off for getting too deep in the water as there were box jellyfish at the time.

The most interesting fish that I fed was the batfish. They would occupy the deeper parts of the gully and when feeding they would be really noisy as they try to gobble the bread and fight off the other hungry mouths of the mullet. Other fish of interest was what looked like green shark like shapes in the deeper ends of the water. They were about a metre in length and looked quite menacing. They were however were only milkfish. These also liked to eat bread.

Another fish that caught my eye was a large rock cod. The commentator named it Henry. It would only stay at one spot close to the commentator feeding on meaty food unlike the bread we were giving the other fish. I suspect it is a ritual for the rock cod. The commentator claims that they are wild fish which I do agree to a point. However these fish have through the years adapted to being fed by humans and probably rely on some extent on humans for their livelihood. As such I would consider these fish semi wild if there is such a term.

Everything is Cool

There are those moments when what you are doing is right. Fish is breeding, eating,showing the right colors and the tanks are clean. These are the days when you actually work for in fish keeping. Its those moments that when you can just sit back and relax for the moment and bath in the glory of seeing your fishes swim around peacefully.

Remember that I have five tanks so to have all tanks in harmony is rare. If one succeeds something in the other tanks will usually have problems. The 4ft has 2 koi and three goldfish. They seem to becoming out of their shell (so to speak). The four large koi in the 7ft even though frightened (still) of my presence are constantly eating and the scars on some of the large ones are healing. The Red Devil X as always eats and loves the Java fern I placed in there on the white grid partition. It sometimes nestles itself between the leaves as if resting on them. My largest fish Sam the Jardini seems to be showing extremely bright gold colors. The now single German ram also is showing its special colors too. Its neon blue like facial markings are bright as ever. The neon tetras themselves are really bright red and blue. Even the fish shop does not have these as brightly coloured as mine are (need I boast). Having moved the remaining danios from the 20 litre to 30 litre tank proved wonders for the glowlight tetras even though one did die. The remaining four are plump and fat with great red colours.

No not everything is perfect. The neon are sometimes on a corner of the tank due to the presence of the bossy danios and one glowlight tetra did die but that is as good as it gets so far for my life in fishkeeping. I just hopes i gets better.