wandj

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yup, I'm working on a deal now.

I'm in Drayton Valley. I had some emails and am not sure yet what is going to happen. So I guess the issue is pending. (It takes a lot of patience, but mineral can be scraped off if the tanks are filled with RO plus some acid (vinegar) and sit awhile.) Anyway, I'm not sure yet what I'm gonna do.

Hello. Thanks for all the feedback. I am well aware of all the chemicals out there that are designed to tackle hard water deposits, aka Calcium and Magnesium. For all that do not have hard well water, imagine a severe case of "salt creep" that won't come off. CLR is the best chemical out there and that stuff that Python sells is very good, but all these chemicals are VERY expensive. I think CLR is about $10 a bottle and if you try to cheat by diluting it, it just doesn't work as well. If I were to try to clean everything I had, it would take over $1000 worth of chemicals....easy. AND, this is stubborn stuff. These minerals (elements actually) are basically limestone. So imagine rocks growing on all your stuff. I have had to throw away so many sponge filters because they turned into rocks! (Cannot just "rinse" the minerals away and the sponges actually became blocks of stone) Anyway, it was a constant battle trying to keep my sponge filters from turning into rocks and my air stones were constantly plugging up. I actually lost a tank of fish while I was gone working because I wasn't home to keep up the battle. A tank of fish suffocated because the airstone plugged up of mineral. I think it's best to wait till the whether is nice and I can take the tanks out slowly and try to clean them outside. I have not yet opened my email, so if someone has emailed me, I will get back to them soon. Thanks.

Hello everyone. I have not been around this site for a few months. I lost my job last summer, had to work far away last fall, and am working in a very low-paying job while I prepare to go to school (far away again) this fall. So I don't have the funds to support my hobby anymore and have had to quit. I won't have any time or energy for it anymore either. And once I'm out, I don't think I'm going to ever get back in. (Various reasons) So, what am I going to do with all my tanks? Most of my equip is pretty much worthless due to the fact I had such hard water and it really gums stuff up. I do not have the time to putty around trying to clean it so I think most of it will be tossed. I have drilled tanks in my fish room. They have holes near the top and have 3/4" bulkheads. Most of them do anyway because half way through the drilling, the guy doing them changed his bit and somehow some of my tanks are a different sized hole. Anyway, another factor is that I live 1.5 hours away from Edmonton and 3 hours from Calgary. I am not willing to drive in anymore to unload any stuff. I have just emptied the tanks of water and they are just sitting there....and that is how they'll stay until I either throw them in the garbage or someone is willing to drive out here and get them. Should I attach a price tag? What is the going rate? What would you do if you were me? PS Due to my studying, I don't have much time to tackle this issue all at once. Thanks all.

As some may have noticed, I'm whittling down all my stock because I am working away. My really great beau is sweet enough to feed the fish still here. All he has to do is follow the instuctions on all the sticky notes I left on the tanks so they are fed properly. Lucky for him, he doesn't have to do any maintenance because of the way my fish room is set up. (auto water changing) I was only gone a few days and had to come home due to being rained out. So I have been feeding and fussing over the fish for the last few days. While in my fishroom, he had a question for me. He says "I don't understand why this tank says to put in 8 large pellets". Now, this tank is holding 4 female Bicolors because they just recently spit their fry out (that are in a different tank) and I am letting them fatten up and recover before I end up taking them to Big Als. I didn't know what he was talking about, thinking he did not know where the large-pellet food was. So I showed him how it was done. I took the can and poured out about 8 pellets. Tossed them in. The girls came rushing out and ate them up like they usually do......at least when I'm around. He said, "they never came out like that when I put food in the tank. I didn't think there was anything in there". I understood now what he was talking about. My girls didn't know him so would hide when he came into the room, yet they rub the front of the glass when I'm in there. Isn't that a tidbit of proof that fishies (especially Cichlids) know their owners? Makes me feel kinda special that my girls are happy to see me and run from strangers.

No way it was bloat. The fish was not bloated at any time in life or death.

If I am sure they are hybrids, I will take a much closer look when I have the time, I will give them to you (Nandopsis) as feeders. But it will have to wait till I go to Edmonton some day. I'll PM you when I plan to go. How come you changed your name? The last one was pretty cool.

I guess I'll have to agree with you. I have never lost a domestic Lwanda (or any Peacock) this way. Have to watch those wild ones.

Well, I seem to have a mix. Some of the fry are showing the black, but some are not. I actually tried to get rid of the Zebras after this batch was spit but there is still one in the tank that I could not catch. I am going to compare the first batch with the second batch. I will let them grow more and see what develops. If they look to be hybrids, what do I do with them? I know some shops carry a tank called "mixed Africans", but should I destroy them?

I have a batch of what I thought was Yellow Lab fry at about 1.5 inches. I netted the female out of my big tank and let her spit in a 20gal. She shared the big tank with another female and male YL. There were also 6 male Red Zebras (Metriaclima estherae) in the tank as well. I notice that the most of the fry do not have any black on them yet. Is this normal? Is it possible that my female chose to mate with a Red Zebra instead of the male YL? Should I be concerned?

I seem to be having a tough time keeping wild females Lwandas alive, and one wild male for that matter. I have lost a total of one male and 3 females. I just lost the last female last night. She was healthy when I bought her, which has now been about two months now. She had a brood and spit out her babies. All babies fine and not lost any. I let her stay with her brood for about a week and a half and caught her and put her back in the home tank. She was the biggest female I had so figured she could take care of herself, but I noticed she had nipped fins after a few days. I separated her with a tank divider and she had a log and her own dither fish. She was by herself this way for a week and seemed to be doing fine. Last night she was swimming a bit like she was drunk and breathing slow and hard. And slow gasping at the surface the odd time. Now, she was the only one in this tank afflicted. All the other Lwandas and dithers are perfectly fine. I even just did a routine water change a few days ago and I am sure it is not a water quality issue as my fish are always treated to lots of water changes. This fish was dead this morning, I expected that, but I don't know why. Post mortem she did not look any different except her body turned a bit pale, but no signs other than that. I lost a wild female a few months ago the same way, but she died in her quarantine tank. Anyone see this happen? What gives? I rarely ever lose a fish due to unexplained death so this has me stumped. All my other Peacocks of different species have never been affected this way, just some of my wild Lwandas. Thoughts?

NO! Do NOT use paper towel! I got a culture and I split them up. Half into a little tank with just a little bit of gravel on the bottom, and half into a little tank with brown paper towel. Both tanks had an airstone added that was lowered just a little under the surface. It is very easy to collect the worms from the gravel tank. Sometimes just a water change will make them come out and they form a ball. Very easy to suck up with a turkey baster. HOWEVER, try getting them out of the paper towel! The paper towel disintegrates into a rotting mess and the worms are intwined in this junk. You can't even strain them out because the worms are small enough that they get tangled up in the strainer. If the paper towel can't pass through the strainer, the worms won't either. (The paper fibres/chunks are the same size as the worms.) Just use a little gravel. That's ALL!

Thank you for the thoughts everyone.

I said that I was offered a credit. And I'm not "worked up". I am a bit confused and just pondering.