DCallele

Blennies are just soooo cool!

OK, I have resisted the blennies every time I have seen them only because I haven't known their care requirements, etc... I am such a sucker for odd-looking bottom dwellers... oh, sucker <-> bottom-dweller. har, har, har. I am so funny when I am this tired. -roll- Could you share some or any info about them? Thanks! David

Yeah, that cross-eyed stare into the heavens, constantly watching for threats, is something. Their mouth can curl into a quarter-circle shape so that they can dig under branches while resting on top. Watching the sand fly out of their gills when they are eating can be quite a sight. These guys go through sand like it is water... they will hit the sand at full speed (which is fast!) and just keep going. They can leave a trail that looks like it came out of a cheezy sci-fi flick ("Tremors" anyone?) About the only way that I have found to catch them, short of a trap with food, is to strip the tank. David p.s. Strictly speaking, it is my daughter's fish

Here he/she/it is. Very skittish, and the translucent nature of the body really screws up the camera metering... and another and a last one David

He is soooo cool. I used to have one and now I want one again! So many aquatic creatures, so few gallons of water.... David

You can alwyas consider baking stone and sand in your oven as an alternative for sterilization. Put it in cold, heat the oven to 200C, 400F for an hour, thurn the heat off and let it cool (at least 3 hours). No risk of chemicals left behind and you can usually do much larger pieces than when boiling. BTW, boiling should be for at least 30 minutes to be reasonably reliable. David

Very cool colors! David

Depending on how deep your existing bed is, how much crud is down there, etc. I would advise being quite careful (from bad personal experience) when removing an existing bed with fish in the tank. The best technique that I have seen is to have a large diameter hose and suck the gravel and the accumulated waste out at the same time. This greatly reduces the chance of the mini-cycle mentioned earlier being caused by the removal process. It may still happen with the new bed though. I also recommend only a partial change at a time if the bed is contributing in any appreciable way to the bio-filtering. That said, if you have numerous large filters going at the same time, they can probably take up any surge in the load. When putting the new sand in place, you might want to build it up over a few days to allow some crud to get a little deeper into the sand. Or, stir gently over the first week or two. Now, if you have aquatic bulldozers like me, well the last suggestion is just something you should ignore. David

Finally, he paid me back for the photo of him "in action". This is a small part of his fish room in the background. Thanks for the drinks big guy! :drunk: :thumbs: :beer: David

Then, I managed to get a close look at his female's eye.

I was over at Sean's late on my birthday and snapped a few pics while "relaxing". The first one is a closeup of the stinger from one of his rays. David

Love the rockwork! Oh darn, now my fish are jealous, sheesh! David

I am sooo jealous. David

:bow: David (jealousy is a terrible thing) Callele

OK, highjack the thread What's up with customs? David

Had to turn the lights on to get my laundry, this guy started to wake up and come out of the sand. I got lucky with the focus since there were no lights on in the room. I just nailed him with the flash which left him rather startled... David p.s. Must stop obssessing with these pics :chair:

That *may* have been Bill Bishop, here in Saskatoon: Mr. Killie :-) I know he has gone on killie collecting expeditionas all over the place (lucky guy). David

Well, there was this rather telling post... http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=5633 :beer: :beer: :beer:

taking some pics in my fish room. He's young, he's flexible, he can sort of squat like his namesake! David

Wow, those are great fish! All I have is my closeup "oral inspection" shot to offer... David

I feed them every second day, and that takes about 10 minutes: chopping up the worms and feeding the individual fish appropriately sized portions. Other that that, 30 to 50% water change every 2 weeks. That's it The fish density in the tank is so low that nothing else is necessary. Just make sure that the entire lid is covered, or that you have at least 4 to 6 inches of air between the water and the lid (possibly even more). Otherwise, you are likely to find someone who has tried to evolve a little too rapidly! OK, that was a little obtuse: they will jump out of the tank and try to walk to the next pond... The only difficulty that I have had was in getting them to eat after shipping. They were on frozen brine shrimp when they were much smaller then I tried to transition them to straight frozen foods but did not have a lot of success. Once I gave in and started feeding worm chunks, I have never had another problem. I might have been able to train them to frozen foods but the Leopard Eels (sp. elipsifer) are wild caught, generally considered difficult to ship, and not exactly cheap so I just didn't have the heart to risk them... Just came up from feeding them tonight. They poke at my fingers, looking for food. Sometimes, they even "bite" my fingers to see if they are food but it doesn't hurt: more like a pinch since they have no real teeth to speak of, just a bony plate on the top and bottom. Then, they will swim through my fingers and curl around just like tree snakes do on branches. Lots of fun! David David

I get the earthworms from one of the local fishing shops during the winter. During the summer, every time it rains hard I am out picking earthworms :-) The beef is beef heart or minced stewing beef. The shrimp are just pieces of blanched cocktail shrimp. The tank is 6' by 2' by 2'. Surprisingly, only the black spotted eel spends a lot of time in the plants. The others tend to like to lurk in the rocks by the edge of the plants. You might have noticed that most of the time, that is the background in my pics. That said, I do feed them on that side of the tank so that may be affecting their behaviour. Highly recommended fish if you feel like handling their food needs David

Occupants are: Tire track Eel - 14" Tang Leopard Eel - 12" Tang Leopard Eel - 9" Fire Eel - 10" Black Spotted Eel - 8" All of them are actually "spiny eels": fish that are shaped like eels, not true eels. These species will all grow to somewhere between 20" and 40" max. I am *really* looking forward to seeing them at full size; only a few more years! Their main diet is earthworms, sometimes some shrimp or beef. Plecos: 2 - Albino - 2" 2 - Bristlenose - 3" Loaches 3 - Weather Loach - 7" - 9" 1 - Horse Face Loach - 6" (There used to be 2, but the tire track ate the small one!) I finally got a picture of this fish last night. They have to be the most difficult fish to photograph that I have ever experienced. They are very skittish and their bodies are somewhat translucent so focussing can be difficult if you want to get their "feelers" in macro for example. Must say that I sure do have fun feeding and playing with these guys. David

And, the right hand side.

Here are a couple of pics - very difficult to get the whole tank so the whole tank pic is kind of crappy. The second one is a bit of a closer view of the right hand side. Most of the eels prefer the rocky side to the planted side during the day. At night, they tend to like to burrow in the planted side. There is an above tank trickle filter on the right and a second, 33 gallon tank on a rolling platform underneath. The val in the front needs trimming so people can see all the other plants behind it. Oh yeah, it is a 6 foot long, about 180 gallon, plywood tank. David