A New Beginning Epi 6

Day 04 - Final Aquascaping (more new flora)

(181008)

*from the left<< >> of the left*

*a rummy nose deep in sleep<< >>from the right*

*from the right<< >>of the right*

*a white cloud moutain minnow in shallow open waters<< >>SAE at rest, balancing on a 3-pt contact>>

*from top left<< >>wood shrimp feeding where the current is strong*

*frontal*

Blooped,
Mantis.

A New Beginning Epi 5

Thank You, Donors

correct as at 23rd Oct 08...

Blooped,
Mantis.

A New Beginning Epi 4

Adoption and Donation

Blooped,
Mantis.

A New Beginning Epi 3

Day 03 - Aquascaping (more new flora)

(091008)







introduced more new plants... previous batch of plants doing fine... :)
laid a new layer of nutrient substrate in front right of tank (notice black layer)
also a small layer of small grey pebbles in front left

Blooped,
Mantis.

A New Beginning Epi 2

Day 02 - Aqua-scaping
(061008)

introduction of some new aquatic plants... more descriptions of plants will be posted when all planting is completed...

(sorry for bad quality... :/)

Blooped,
Mantis.

A New Beginning Ep 1

Back in July 2006... This was what it was like...


... and it went through a series of changes...

Today... a time of new refreshing...
To undergo some major re-scaping, re-shaping, re-planting, re-communing

Day 01 - Re-scaping
(011008)

no new edition of flora and fauna; just some re-adjusting
murky water... substrate yet to settle down

Blooped,
Mantis.

bye bye fishies...

(Un)fortunately I'm unable to look after the fishtank anymore since i've graduated..

Sadly during the 3 months break I was too busy working at the hall office and job hunting...the tank deteriorated due to some problems with the water quality. Did a last cleanup though just before orientation started to welcome the new freshmen, and I think I managed to fix the the water problem before I left..

Gone will be the days where we ex-final years watch the fishes live their carefree lives. I THINK (:p) i'll miss carrying pails of water to clean the tank, scrubbing the algae, smelling the stench of sludge in the filter..haha..

But I'm really glad I had the opportunity to look after the tank..discovered a new hobby and had lots of fun researching and visiting fish shops! Nothing beats watching the fishes swimming around after a tough day..I didn't blog about the tank as much as I would have wanted to, but I'm not really a blogger by nature..

Before I end this last post:

Thanks Dank for trusting me enough to continue your 'legacy' :D.
Thanks to everyone who have ever paused to enjoy the tank! Seeing you guys watch in interest makes the pail lugging worthwile..
And thanks to Jacob, Kelvin and Liren for helping me out with the tank sometimes. Sorry Mr. Chua & Mr. Guo, but I'll have to leave the tank in your hands now...
Most of all, thanks to my parents who gave me enough $$$ so that I was able to fund the tank..haha..

I *heart* Raffles Hall!!!

Post exam updates

Have been trying to research the names of all the plants in the hall tank but it's been tough, especially since most aquatic plants look the same in drawings. Hope to post up on that soon, but in the meantime, here's some additions to the tank:

2 x Wood Shrimps @ Atyopsis moluccensis

Wood shrimps can grow up to 8-12cm in length. It's also know as the 'Asia Filter Shrimp' or 'Bamboo Shrimp'. If fed enough food, they will turn a nice dark red and develop a white line down their back. It is also a filter feeding shrimp, "and has two pair of specialized webbed, fan-like, appendages instead of claws. They use these to filter algae and microorganisms from the water, effectively acting as a biochemical filtration system". Damn cool right!

1 x Red Whiptail Pleco @ Rineloricaria fallax Hemiloricaria sp. L010a

Usually grow up to about 12cm, but apparently the one we have will not grow as big. It's a reddish colour compared to the normal black coloured one. The whiptail pleco is from the catfish family.

Besides these 3 additions, we also bought 2 Thai Gourami to replace the Honey Gourami, but they died shortly after, possible due to attacks from other fishes as they were too small to be a threat(when I saw one of it part of the tail was nibbled off)

The Polka Dot Loach body pattern has been gradually changing since we bought it. Spots are already starting to form on it's body. Below is one of the pictures that I managed to take, but they're too active to get a clear shot. It'll be exciting when more changes take place :D

Filter down

Our Eheim Pro II 2026 suddenly decided to die last Friday. Managed to get a second hand filter Jebao 918 for $25. It's more than a year old, but it's bigger than the Eheim one that we have.

Although we already got a replacement filter, we tried to open up the old filter in an attempt to fix it. I happily unscrewed all the screws and found out that I could remove the impeller without unscrewing anything. *dot dot dot*. But the magnet to the impeller was cracked (there's another crack on the other side). Decided to get a replacement part for it to use as a spare. And found out that the replacement part costs more than the second hand filter. Gah...