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.

I guess I am foolish to think that I had some kind of "relationship" with this business. (And I have been going there for 2 years not 1) I understand that stores have to get their stock from somewhere and I would not expect them to buy them from a hobbyist for $1 when they can bring them in from a FLA fish farm for .60 cents. And the fish would already be in local waters and due to the short travelling distance, would be much healthier. I have also "donated" a lot of my fish to stores as I know they are not very popular. For ex, I happily donated some Jack Demspseys to a store (not my LFS) and I understand they are a hard sell and I was ok with them not giving me anything for them. I am very understanding of the financial part of this, I just am struggling with the moral part of it. Of course, a lot of stores just won't buy fish from hobbyists, like Petsmart, Walmart, etc so why would I give them my business when I can make deals with a store that will? My only snag is that I am from out of town. I hate bringing up the store credit over and over to my LFS as I don't want to sound like a nag when they have expressed in the past that they "don't take fish", even though we've traded in the past. So I already feel like a begger. Put it this way people: I enjoy my hobby. I enjoy watching little baby fish. I enjoy taking care of them. I enjoy bragging about them to anyone who will listen. I also enjoy having a happy, fun and friendly relationship with the stores I frequent. There is one store in Edmonton that I have spent oodles of money in (I bought all my fish room supplies from them) and I visit them every time I am in the city. They make me feel WELCOME! They know my name! When I have brought up selling my fry, they are actually open to the idea and don't make me feel like I am a nuisance. I can easily say that I spend 100 times more money on my fish than a parent who buys little Johnny a goldfish on his birthday. I believe it is in a store's best interest to have good relations for hobbyists. First, it keeps that person buying from them. And second, it keeps them in the hobby altogether. Like I said, if I stop enjoying my hobby, it will be gone. I think the most important thing for me is being able to walk into a store that appreciates my business and I would have the utmost respect for that store if they cared about the fish as much as I did. AKA, were hobbyists like me. What's wrong with two way streets? I would even ask them what kind of fish they wanted supplied and I would buy those fish, hopefully breed them, and supply them back with juvies. Would not all be happy? Buy a car from a dealership. If you felt that your purchase from them was not a positive experience and you felt like a wallet, would you go back? If you felt they wanted you back as a repeat customer and made you feel welcome, would you not return to them the next time you bought a vehicle? I am working on establishing a "relationship" with a shop in Edmonton. I realize they appreciate loyalty as well as they would not want to compete with other fish stores that might end up with my fry. So I say, whoever wants to humour me, will earn my business for life. As for someone mentioning selling to forums and such, I have and I do. I have had wonderful meeting with some of you here. However, don't forget I am from far away and one fellow in particular (who shall remain nameless) entered in a deal with me and I ended up sitting in a parking lot for over half an hour for nothing. And yes, it costs me $40 in gas to drive in to town. So it is pretty risky striking up deals with individuals and then getting stood up. (Gee, I hope the aforementioned person reads this and realizes what a jerk he was) Above all, I want to have fun and love my hobby and feeling like Oliver Twist approaching stores is not fun for me. I can promise excellenet, healthy stock and I have even asked people I have sold to if they were happy with the fish. (YES) And Chris brought up an excellent point to make sure dollar amounts were discussed upfront. Yes, I agree. And I thought it was in my case but I find it hard to talk about money more than once.

I don't live in a big city and have to make do with the little pet shop locally. I visit it a lot, about once a week or more, and usually after their new stock comes in. I have been going there about a year and am a regular visitor to the store. I have also spent a lot of money in there. I am considering not going to that store anymore. I had some fish I wanted to clear out. Instead of hauling them all the way to the city, I phoned the local and asked if they would be interested. This store does not like to "buy" fish from anyone as they like the one-way plan....we sell, you buy and not the other way around. But there were a few occasions we made fish trades in the past. They said I could bring the fish in. I don't want to mention what I took in or what as there is always a chance someone who works there may read this post and figure out who I am, as I am not very happy with this situation and it would be awkward if they knew I posted this. Anyway, the owner mentioned giving me a credit and I said sure. I know they sold one big fish and got some good coin for it. I was in the store on 3 more occasions after I brought the fish in. The first time I asked if there was a "credit" for me. Staff did not know anything about it. This felt weird for me as I did not want to ask the owner over and over. The other 2 times nobody said anything to me. I think this store will make at least $85 off the fish I brought in, and I see that I might not get anything for them. (BTW, one of the predator fish in their tanks killed one of the ones I brought in and I felt very sad about that. It was better left with me). I do not want to bring the topic up again to the owner. My feelings are that I do not want to support a store that is not willing to be fair to me in return. They could have just said no and I would have taken them somewhere else (albeit far away). Is it wrong for me to expect them to pony up some credit/cash? I did not take my fish to them so that they could make 100% profit and have me feeling like an idiot. What would you do? Do you agree that support should go both ways? I think I have already made a decision to give ALL my business solely to pet stores that are willing to buy my fish from me (wholesale is fine) just as I am willing to buy my fish from them. (And no, I do not sluff off culls or crap to anyone...these were fine fish I let go for nothing) I should also mention that I enjoy breeding fish and if there was no outlet for my fish to go, I would have to give up this hobby and that would not be good for business either right? Thoughts? Comments?

Jeesh! Why not just break the "rules"? I have 4 Discus, one wild, in a 55gal and I've had them all about a year. Healthy as heck, but they are fussy eaters. They really like blood worms, live foods like Blackworms, etc. Mine don't like Beefheart or the frozen Cichlid delight. Anyway, I keep mine in a pH of 8.5, GH 220ppm, and kH of 310ppm. Just keep the water clean and stable and once they are settled in and properly acclimated, they should be ok. (And you wouldn't believe the tankmates that they have, but that is another story)

Big Als and AquaGiant. I would visit both places before buying anything. AquaGiant seems to specialize in them and Big Als always has a few varieties in all the time. And BA always seem to have wild ones. If I missed another store with a selection just as big, sorry, and I'm sure a another member can add. (I'm not even from Edmonton so I have not visited all the stores) Oh yes, and I am sure Aquagiant sells small ones for about $40. I am not sure about BA prices. They may be higher but you will probably visit both stores anyway so you'll see for yourself.

More info! How many tanks, what size of tanks, what kind of plumbing (if any), what kind of fish are you focusing on, etc?

Hmm, isn't that second Rainbowfish pic an Affinis Pagwi?

WOW! No advice, sorry. But do you know how hard those are to spawn? They won't spawn in my water and I've havee Ottos for years. You must be doing something they like. And if you can raise the fry you will have no trouble finding homes for them no matter how many there are. (Sell to LFS) Maybe you can keep them breeding. You are the first I've heard of. You should post water chemistry, temp, etc. and what you did to cause this. If you are an aquarium club member you should write an article. And congrats!

I did a swoop of the net and counted what was in the net. Then I put them in an ice cream pail. I used stick marks (to five) on paper. When I had a good sized group in the pail, I poured them into their new home. I think I did this step about 5 times. When they get a little bigger in the 45gal I should take a pic. BTW, this tank is also getting water running into it 24/7.

Well, the plan is to take them all to the LFS. I think I am already flooding the market at this rate. I expect another batch of fry about the same numbers from the same two females this time around. They both spawn at the same time so they both just spit out another brood just a week ago. I am going to have to keep them separated from the males for awhile. And the official total of fry from their first batch is now 149...I missed one. I'll have a big problem on my hands if I let them continue breeding in these numbers. So ya, the females are going to stay with their new brood for as long as I can. They don't seem to eat their fry, but maybe they should. (I don't mean that)

I had my two wild Placidochromis Jalo Reef females spit out their babies in a 20gal tank on April 12. After a few days, I put the mommies back in with Dad and they are now with their new brood in a 37gal....but that's another story. Anyway, this first batch have been in a 20gal with a semi-automatic water changing system. At first, I had the water dripping in. The water then flows out a drain so fresh water is always entering and filiing up the tank. I turned up the flow as the fry got bigger....so that the water was pouring in like a small stream (from the 1/4 inch in-line) I don't know how many water changes this would be in 24 hours, but I think the fresh amount of water coming in would fill up that 20 gal tank at least 4 or 5 times a day. Well, I did have trouble with "sediment" control. I added a small power filter to try to clear the "mulm" from the water but I didn't like the fry having to fight with a current all day and night. So I moved them all to a 45gal to grow out before I find them new homes. (Likely Big Als) Now, I have not lost a single fish and none have ever been sick. They are in excellent shape and are all about the same size, which is about 1.5 inches. Can you believe I netted 142 fish out of a 20gal tank? The power of continual water changes! Now I know why some of those big fish farms that raise their stock in water from rivers running through their operations are so successful. Also, I sold 6 to a friend of mine awhile ago so the total fry I got from these 2 females are 148, which is 74 fry per female. And I expect they spit the same number in their new nursery tank. A little bit too productive I think.