Faded Gold (Part II)

After battling for 2 days, the other goldfish decided to call it quits as well. It is really weird that he looked fine for the past weeks but showed some weirdness the day before yesterday. I thought that he would have bid farewell last night but he did not. In fact, he showed signs of recovery this morning and even fed for a while. I guess that was his last meal. Bryan had the "pleasure" of scooping it out of our tank for disposal. I was not around when this happened but Cheryl said that the sucker fish was literally "suckling" on him when she noticed the in activeness of the goldfish. I hope it is not a new disease going around in the tank again ... if it is, I will be really puzzled since we did not even introduce any new fishes for the past 2 weeks now ...

Missed Weekly LFS Again

In case you have not guessed, we missed our weekly LFS again this week. I am really beginning to think that Bryan is really losing interest in fishes. We actually wanted to stop by Prangin Mall yesterday to visit "The Fish Shop" (there is actually an LFS by that name in Prangin Mall) among other more popular destinations (the toy shop ... or ... the "racing car shop" if you asked Bryan) but decided against it since Bryan was feeling a little sleepy and it was also about to rain.

Anyway, the blood red molly is ballooning up now but still not big enough to indicate that she needs to deliver. :( I guess we still have to wait a little longer then ... maybe another week ... sigh ...

Tetra Breeding II

I decided to move the female tetras back into the main tank yesterday after seeing my female tetras "slimming" down. They do not seem to want to feed in the new tank (possibly stressed in the new environment) and so I made the hard decision to move them back. Perhaps I'll try again sometime later when we manage to get a proper second tank ... yes, a SECOND fish tank. :) It is mainly to house the smaller fishes like the black neon tetras ... away from the bigger fishes like the red eye tetra (you can see the red eye chasing the black neons in the picture).

FYI, we actually broke our weekend "ritual" last week when we failed to stop in any LFS!!! Bryan seems to be losing interest in fishes nowadays but he still likes feeding them. The blood red molly is still not showing signs of releasing the new brood of frys but it should be in the next few weeks. This is at least something to look forward to.

Tetra Breeding

After the few botched attempts for livebearer breeding, I decided to give tetra breeding another try ... yes, this is not the first time I'm trying. The last few attempts did not yield fruit as the female (long-finned serpae tetra) refuses breed with the male (he died in the last big lost). What makes me think I can be successful this time? Well ... NOTHING!!! But I am not going to give up.

This time around, I have already separated the female tetras (1 black phantom, 1 serpae, 1 long-finned serpae and 1 rosy) in a separate tank. According to some websites, this is suppose to "condition" them for breeding and make them more interested to breed when the males are introduced. In reality, I can only breed the black phantom and serpae since I do not have any long-finned serpae (not anymore) or rosy male. They are just there to make up the numbers so that the females do not feel stressed.

Hopefully, in the next 2 weeks, they (black phantom and serpae) will fatten up and become gravid with eggs ... stay tuned for more updates on this. Here's a picture of my proud sucker fish with his fins all stretched out. :) Enjoy ...

More Endlers

Yep, we got more endler livebearers today ... 2 more to be exact. They look like the peacock snake strain ... and yes, they are both MALES!! No females yet but we're really considering getting the costly endler pair.

BTW, Bryan suffered a slight relapse of his fever last night but luckily, it was just for a short while. We gave him another 2 doses of paracetamol and that did the trick. He is up and running today and that is why we managed to stop by our favorite endler LFS to get these little guys.

Blood Red Mollies

In case you are wondering, I did not update this blog for the past week. Bryan was down with fever lately and we were worried that he contracted the dengue virus and we were frantically trying to keep his temperature down. With God's blessings, his fever finally went down late this morning ... just before our doctor's appointment to draw his blood to test for dengue. Cheryl was really worried that Bryan had dengue last night ... I think she did not sleep much as she kept waking up to check on him. At least now, we can hopefully have a good night's rest.

Anyway, we actually went over to the LFS last weekend (I did not have time to update) and got a pair of blood red mollies (or maybe platies ... I think they are mollies but the LFS says they are platies). We've been keeping them fed well and finally, the female is showing signs of pregnancy (noticeable with the big belly in the picture). In case you are still guessing, the dark red is the male while the bright orange-red is the pregnant female. Hopefully, the frys will survive this time around ... since we've never had luck with guppy/platy frys in the past ...

Last Guppy Standing

So my last giant guppy decided to follow her comrades to bid farewell to my tank. She did not look too well for the past week and I've tried all possible ways to "heal" her but with no avail. She finally decided to call it quits this morning and she is still floating in the tank now ... why? Well, I'm waiting for Bryan to wake up so that he gets to "scoop" her out and take her to her resting place. Funny thing is that the other fishes in the tank does not seem to mind her floating in their home.

Now, we're left with only the small female guppy which I've been trying to hard to cross breed my male black bar endler but that does not seem to be going anywhere. I've finally found 2 individuals that sells the endlers as pairs but one of them require me to buy a few pairs and I am not sure I am willing to part with that much money for this hobby yet. I'm still waiting for a response from the other person ...

Faded Gold

Yes, you've guessed it right ... the goldfish is a goner. Thankfully, only one of them died this morning. The goldfishes seem to be suffering from "fin rot" (I never even knew what this disease was until now) and one of the was not feeding well. We actually rushed over to the LFS yesterday evening to get the "miracle" cure that was supposed to nuture them back to health but I guess it was not good enough. :( FYI, the picture of the goldfish in my previous blog on March 2nd was the one that did not survive. The survivor's picture is on the left ...

Anyway, I guess life moves on ...

I actually did use the "miracle" cure as well on the tank as some of the other fishes looks to be suffering from "fin rot" as well and even "ich". Hopefully, they will all recover and we will get the tank to be normal again (instead of the current green tank ... yes, GREEN ... due to the medicine and salt that we have to put into the tank).

Sad Ending ...

Came home after dinner today and found that 2 of the giant guppy frys were dead ... again ... due to unknown reasons. :( Was really hoping that the final giant guppy fry will survive to adulthood but unfortunately, it did not even last the night. When I checked back at 12 midnight, it was a goner ...

Goldfish Frenzy

We just went to a new LFS (at least new to us ...) over the weekend i.e. KW Aquatic over at Ayer Itam and I must say, it was very impressive. They have a massive collection of freshwater fishes there and yes, we got a pair of new fishes. You've probably guessed it right ... we got goldfish this time around. Pretty little pair ... at least I think it is pair although I cannot tell the difference between male and female goldfish yet.

Bryan was really happy as he really wanted goldfishes every since we saw one over at CTY Aquarium a few months back. What made us finally deciding to "give" him the goldfish was that we now have more confidence to "maintain" the adult fishes ... now that not that many is dying. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the giant guppy frys ... 2 more died over the weekend leaving only 3 frys behind now. I am trying really hard to keep them alive, feeding them daily with daily water changes. At least the last yellow tail giant guppy is still swimming ...

Anyway, we finally decided to really "decorate" our aquarium after being motivated by so many beautiful aquariums we see on the net and in the LFS in Penang. Hopefully, I'll get some inspiration on how to decorate.

As for the hunt for the endlers, I manage to find quite a few local forums where other hobbyist are selling "guaranteed" pure strain endlers. Currently hunting for a good strain and a good bargain for the endlers ... we may finally purchase one from the them eventually ... we'll see ...