Nauticus

True, I have put the request into years ago to have the fawcett in the room replaced which would make a huge difference for water changes. Until that happens 5 gallon pails are my friends.

Wont the BN eat the Hastatus? Now the challenge of finding the fish.

Will they live and breed given the lack of maintenance? Also I should have mentioned that the swords in the tank are pygmy. I will need to get some bigger ones. Probably have to replace the lights to methinks.

Very cool Jay, we should chat. I think this would be a super thing to set up in my class for our science curriculum.

Hey fish gurus, I find myself in need of some option acted hobbiest advice. I have a 75G tank in my grade three classroom with two 4 foot T12 bulbs, a Rena xp4 and a fluval 404 the substrate is gravel sized pebbles with the moon shell and pot to hide in. There are some valeseneria growing along with two swords and a 5G pails worth of duckweed and hornwort. Usually I have kept electric yellows or jewels in there as they help me teach both about fish anatomy and adaptations, plus they are all stars at breeding so that the kids can see the life cycle and the parenting process. I want to make the tank more relevant to more areas of curriculum, namely social. In order to do that I want to house species native to one of the four nations we study and portray the natural look of their rivers or lakes depending on stocking. We study: Ukraine, India, Tunisia, and Peru. I need your help picking one that will allow me to set up this tank to show off one of these nations biomes and pick fish that will breed like mad to show the kids the life cycle and parenting. One last problem, the kids look after the tank and due to its location, it rarely gets WC's more than once every three months. Top ups are regular, feeding is often hearty due to the kids. Ukraine is out as the fish are the same as here so getting them is an issue. Tunisia is a Saharan nation with mainly salt or brackish fish that need a MFK room to themselves. India has a bunch of fish, here are the ones I could recognize as purchasable: Danios A ton of different kinds of barbs and rasboras Scats Monos archers Killifish galore Halfbeaks Spiney eels Gouramis a plenty Snakeheads Glass fish Horsefaced loach Pipefish Peru has 1000's of species so again I will give some that I recognized: Oscars Green terrors Silver dollars Piranhas Corys Leaf fish Neons Rummy nose tetras Hatchets Knife fish Needle nose gar Leopard Pleco Geophagus Discus, blue Penguin tetra Motoro rays Angels Pictus cats Raphael cats Apistos a plenty You will of course notice that most are not specific names. That is due to the 30-40 different types of that species I found and thought generic was fine for this list. Please help me out to think of a setup. One last thing to think of: Very limited budget. It is a school after all. Thanks Andrew

They look for bolt holes in live rock. Unlike their relatives who hug the sandbed, the fire fish or dart gobies like to operate in mid to high areas near to a coral or rocky shelf for protection. You may lose the gobies if they are startled too much by other fish as they naturally will jump. Keeping a lid on the tank or if you run halides and need the air circulation a net lid made out of bath scrubbies that have been pulled apart and stretched over a frame will prevent them from jumping to their deaths.

Normally I would agree that the many thousands, this is no exaggeration, of "minnows" could be native, except for the density per gallon which is not normal unless you are a salmon in the spawn of a west coast river. These were also not the typical shape of most native minnows. Having taught natural history in Edmonton this is something I am confident of. These were defiantly the fry of larger fish who had spawned in the pond without predators to cull the numbers down.

Sterile fish do not spawn though

Probably would, I will let you know when I do. Just thought it was weird and interesting and that I should post.

Quick, somebody sneak out there like a ninja with a dip net and snag a few specimens for raising and testing. Then we will get to the bottom of this!!! Just joking. Yes there were tons and tons of little fish. Most of which were about the size of my ring finger.

The adults were closer to 24" and definately did not look like any kind of gold fish I have seen. The mouth was a lot more forward facing. The course was Raven Crest.

Yes, a picture would help immensely. Sadly I usually do not golf with a camera on hand. My question was more to do with whether or not this was even reasonable that someone could actually have them and then if it was legal or not. As we do not have a picture, I could say that being able to tell one fish from another it looked very much like the carp. It had the same dull gun metal gray colouration, the low eyes and large mouth. The fin configuration did seem to match. Scales were visible too. I thought of asking at the club house, but was somewhat intimated to be honest. It was a tournament day and one of the people is asking about the fish. I know, I know, too self conscious but still it is my reason. So has anyone noticed this as well?

So, as the title suggests I was out golfing on the weekend, with gorgeous weather by the way, and when my ball landed at the edge of one of the many water traps noticed thousands of fry in the water. Curious I kept an eye out at the other water traps as the day progressed. Normally this would be Koi, but in this case definitely not. I caught a really good glimpse of the adults in a couple locations and they were defiantly not Koi. They were considerably bigger even than the monsters I saw in Castle moats when I lived in Japan. These did however, look a lot like Asian Carp. Can it be? I thought that this fish would not be allowed due to the devastation it has caused in NA. Granted these water systems are closed, but still, what if some got out into the very nearby river or tributaries? Has any one else seen this or am I just crazy?

Yeah, I definitely do not want to pay as I was not intending on getting these fish so I should say I will take them for free.

I have space for them and I am in Edmonton. I should be able to meet at Mayfield. Does anyone know if there is a price? I didn't see one in the add.

I left it for 72 hours as was recommended by the pond owner. However I just read an article that says to empty and refill then do another 72 to get out the lime. I will try that and let you all know. Thanks.

Temp is just normal outdoors temperature. The rock is from a landscaping place and was hauled in to a site for an acreage developer my Dad works for and was allowed to take enough rock for my pond. The liner was from a laguna kit I bought from a green house. Because of the trees in the area as well as the amount of work done by contractors on our complex for the fences and yards, I used cement to secure the rock and seal in the liner. The cement is the same cement that was used to build a 7000 gallon pond out on an acreage that was in operation for close to 7 years without any mystery fish death. There could be some residue on the gravel which came from a gravel blasting place and had some clay or something still on it after I washed it. I didn't feel like washing each pebble by hand so I just tossed it in. As far as run off, it may be possible but I built the rim up by two inches to avoid dirt and stuff falling in from my garden which surrounds the pond.

Built about a 120 gallon pond in my micro back yard just before the week and a half of rain started. I treated the water with prime and have a pump/filter running on it that will cycle at roughly 450 gallons/ hour. Lots of water movement too from the fountain. I have added copious bacteria cultures to the water to seed my sponge in the filter as well as the 5 inches of gravel in the bottom as well as all the gravel on the ledges. I let it sit through the rain and added two feeder goldfish three days ago. They died within hours. They were jumping, swimming really funny, and were near the surface not gasping as much as putting on bursts of speed. I disposed of them and tested my water. Ammonia, and Nitrates were 0. So I added some more prime to be on the safe side and then waited another day and put two more in. Same thing happened. I tested the water with the same results and this time I checked the salinity, and ppm of dissolved solids getting great results for freshwater systems for both. Ph came in at 7.9ish. Can anyone tell me what I need to do? I am thinking of pumping the water out and refilling the pond. I looked for debris but really other than an earthworm and three or four leaves from the nearby tree the water seemed normal. Thanks for all the help.

That's the ticket, the principle is very similar. Even some mammals can do this. The frogs are an extreme because they can handle it for much longer periods and more extreme conditions, however this does not exclude the other species from similar behaviour.

There are many animals that do freeze all winter and reanimate in the spring. However the conditions need to be natural and somewhat perfect. Remember that in nature freezing almost never occurs underwater to the extent in temperature as it does in your freezer at home. Most frozen lakes rarely reach temperatures lower than -10 C and that is much colder than any oceanic freezing temperatures. Furthermore, most animals have a slow and gradual process to prepare for freezing as the Earth is rarely lifted out of orbit and thrust into a sun shielded container with some hefty icepacks, a bucket of ice cream and peas. Some organisms even have separate types of blood cells specially designed to coat organs in their body and protecting them from "freezer burn" by preserving glucose and moisture levels to more like a slush rather than allowing harmful ice crystals to tear and lacerate the soft tissues. Here are some links and an article on the biology of the process to better explain this wonderful and somewhat magical process. "The animal most often quoted as surviving freezing is the wood frog. I have combined information from a number of websites about this very unusual animal. http://www.arcticblast.polarhusky.com/frozenfrogs http://www.pbs.org/safarchive/3_ask/archive/qna/3274_j-n-kstorey.html, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002118796_frogs14.html and http://www.bwca.cc/wildlife/copingwithwinter.htm state that the wood frog has expanded its range to Alaska, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. It survives the ferocious winters by freezing alive. It can survive at temperatures down to -6°C, as this is the lowest temperature it encounters in its habitat, when it is under a thick layer of leaves or under rotting logs or in crevices around tree roots, under a blanket of snow. A frog will not survive if frozen in a home freezer at -15°C. It takes a long time for a frog to freeze. This enables it to initiate adaptations that protect it in the frozen state. Before winter comes, the frogs eat ravenously, storing a starch in their livers. During the winter, the frog saves a huge stockpile of carbohydrate in its liver as glycogen. It used this when it had to quickly raise its blood sugar levels for cryoprotection (staying alive while frozen). A freeze triggers their bodies to convert the starch into other compounds, most often glucose, or blood sugar or glycerol. The frogs become, in essence, diabetic. Ice crystals begin forming just beneath the frog's skin, when the temperature drops below 0°C and the normally pliant and slimy frog becomes slushy. Stimulated by the freezing temperature, starch, which is stored in the liver, is converted into glucose (blood sugar) or glycerol. If, after 3 hours, the temperature falls lower, ice races inward through the frog's arteries and veins. The glucose is distributed to the major organs and muscles, lowering the freezing temperature of the water inside the frog's cells. After 24 hours, the glucose or glycerol prevents the water inside the frog's cells from freezing, but allows ice to form in spaces around the cells and in the cavities around the organs. Some of the glucose may be used as a fuel to generate energy in cells, while they are surrounded by cells and cut off from fuels that would otherwise be delivered by blood. The glucose lowers the freezing temperature of water inside the frogs' cells, so the cells stay liquid, even as ice fills the space around them. If the water inside the cells froze, the jagged ice crystals would destroy everything inside, killing the frog. The organs can also use their own supply of glycogen (the polysaccharide carbohydrate reserve) for this purpose. The organs are surrounded by a mass of ice keeping them cool, without damaging them. This enables the frog to hibernate without any body functions, which require energy. When glucose or glycogen are fermented without oxygen, lactic acid accumulates as the end product in tissues and lactate builds up slowly in the organs while the frog is frozen. Carbohydrate fermentation fuels the low metabolic rate in frozen animals. Glucose tends to stay stable during the freeze. The heart, lungs and brain stop working, while the eyes freeze to a ghostly white. The frog has no heartbeat, does not breathe and will not bleed if cut. Up to 65% of the body water may freeze, as the cells are protected by a natural antifreeze. The frog is very compact and solid to the touch and makes a small thud when dropped, but it is not dead and is unharmed by the process. The legs may be tucked in under the body, so there are no body parts sticking out and vulnerable to breaking off. One frog turned almost purple with its limbs and head stuck in contorted positions. The frog may survive being frozen from 2 weeks to perhaps 2-3 months, although the temperature under the snow may rise above freezing point at times. When a thaw comes in the late spring, the frog can melt back into its normal state over several hours, restart its heart and hop away, unscathed. The frog loses its tolerance of freezing quite rapidly over just a few weeks after emerging from hibernation in the spring. This is because it can no longer make the huge amounts of glycerol it needs to protect its cells during freezing. It uses up the glycogen and glucose for breeding, just after the snow melts. There are 2-3 nights of very noisy and energetic activity, that uses up a lot of its body fuel reserves and these cannot be replaced for a time as the weather in the early spring for the many of the insects eaten by the frogs. Some other protective strategies that aid freeze tolerance are turned off in the summer, such as making special nucleating proteins in the blood. These proteins aid freezing survival by helping to stimulate and direct ice formation within the blood vessels, probably moulding crystals to grow in the least harmful way."

That is awesome John. I love furcatas and some of the other rainbows like parkonsonis already so with new species for the planted tank it can only get better.

Jayvision probably has at least 300 dollars of Malaysian trumpet snails if you were to weigh their mass and charge on the weight of escargot as an index. That is too funny though.

Just a couple of other things to think about are the actual materials that your house's floor is made out of. Newer homes sometimes have floor beams spaced farther apart in favour of OSB I beams which are strong but can be easily destroyed by water damage as with all OSB products. It can also be an issue if they run lengthwise along the house and thus where you put your tank as the regular beams may not be enough due to deflection This can cause sheering on the glass, unleveling which adds strain over time etc. Also, your floor may be able to handle the force in an ultimate sort of way but going over the yield design level of your beams will permanently deform and weaken your structure. Finally older homes may have plywood flooring while newer homes usually have OSB flooring which again if you ever have a mishap with water will be severely dibiliating the the strength of the floor and may cause a collapse or slow sag. That all said, I agree that reinforcement is a good idea, or at least have a look at the structure and use some afore mentioned tricks like weight distribution etc. Finally if you have any structural engineer friends they could have a 2 second peek and tell you exactly what you might need. When I was looking at putting in a 90gallon corner with a 75gallon sump my engineer buddy ran me through what I just told you and did also recommend a minor joist improvement. Hope that helps.

I think that the correct word is extirpated which means regionally extinct or from a particular habitat. Regardless the true endler is no longer in its happy lagoon as already mentioned, so don't worry about your comment at the auction. You were more or less correct.

I currently have a breeding pair in with rams, apistos, and plecos as well as some rummynose tetras and tiny Hastateus cories in a 46G very planted tank. They all get along just fine.