Well the reason I haven't posted for a few days is simply I've been busy doing a little research on lighting. I already know the basics for my tanks, but I didn't want to post an article that was way off base in areas that I'm not 100% on. So check it out and see what you think. Feel free to send me an email if you have comments.
Lighting Your Tank

After reading a few horrific papers on fish care and tank setup from Petco that basically ended with "Wait until the tank has remained stable for at least 24-48 hours before adding any fish" I thought I'd put together a quick New Tank Setup guide that INCLUDES cycling info. It may not be 100% perfect, but I'm sure more fish would live following my instructions than Petco's! Check it out in the Articles and Fish Profiles section.

Well the new fish finally arrived and in good health. 2 beautiful Chocolate Zebra Plecs (L270), although it was hard to tell exactly what they were at first due to the stress colorization of these fish. They almost looked like common albino plecs at first, but after a few hours in the QT tank, their true colors were coming through.

A close relation to the more famous (and more expensive) Zebra Pleco, the Choc. Zebras are a bargain IF you can find them, I've actually found it easier to find a Zebra Pleco than a Choc. Zebra Pleco (2-3 times the cost though).

I'll post more info on these wonderful additions as soon as I have it. Check the Fish Profiles for a pic and basic info.

The dwarf puffers get pissed at me every week when I do their water change. They just give me dirty looks or run from me for a few days after the water change and then they seem to be ok. And it is just me, they don't seem to run from Lotus near as much. I've tried to explain to them that it is for their own good and that they would die if I didn't do it, but they don't seem to care. I guess I'll just have to live with being the bad guy a few days a week :(

Well I saw a pair of plecos online that I couldn't resist, so I'm now the proud owner of 2 Chocolate Zebra Plecos (L270). Now comes the hard part...waiting!

Apparently the person I bought from didn't get to ship them on Thursday, so I'll have to wait till Tuesday to get them. That's just too long a time. It's one of the drawbacks of buying fish online, but then again, when was the last time you saw a Choc. Zebra at your LFS? I can tell you I have never seen one around here, that's for sure. So now I wait for my new little treasures to arrive, I have a nice big rock in the QT tank just waiting for them. Now if they will just hurry up and get here!

Well we are getting ready to make major changes, one of them being turning the 55g into a saltwater tank. So the first step? READ and then READ MORE!

Lotus already purchased "The New Marine Aquarium" and "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" so we have that taken care of, next is to read them and learn everything we can BEFORE we start planning this tank. Planning is also a huge step, the time spent planning can save fish later on, as well as eliminate numerous headaches. She also picked up "The Complete Guide to Dwarf Seahorses", so I see a nano seahorse tank in our future as well :)

Yea right! For a begginner the answer is no you need alot more than just a tank. There is heating, filtration, lighting, substrate and so much more to consider. For the experienced fishkeeper the answer is no way in hell. Aside from the normal setup stuff, some of which you may already have, there are other dilemas, especially if like us you have MTS (multiple tank syndrome).

So now the new 100g tank needs to go where the 55g is now, but the 50g is on the stand I already built for the 100g tank. So I need to build a stand for the 50g, but it's going where the 2 10g's are, so they need to be moved too. Oh yea, since we want hardwood floors in the living room, better to take down all 4 tanks and do the floor before setting the 5 tanks up. Of course then there are the multiple CO2 lines to be run and serious lighting setup for the 100g tank. Sure...just need a tank!

What do these two things have in common? Well it's pretty simple, there is one rule of thumb for both...TEST, TEST, TEST!

Just as you don't spend $15 million on an ad campaign you haven't tested, nor should you throw that $15 fish in that tank without having first tested your water. By knowing what your water conditions are you can easily triple your chance of a healthy fish. Maybe a simple water change will be enough to correct water problems, maybe it's more serious than that, but don't you want to know before hand?

Well I finally managed to get a few good photos of the puffers. It was simply a matter of letting them get used to me and the camera infront of the tank, then they were posing away. Such cute little fish, I'm surprised more people don't own them, but of course it does require a species tank because these cute little fish will rip other fish to pieces. Now that's my kind of David vs Goliath story.

As I sit here dreaming about a tank full of Zebra Plecs, I wonder how others feel about such expensive fish? Often there is no guarentee on the pricey lil buggers and it would be real easy to blow $150.00 - $200.00 and have nothing to show for it a week later should your new joy kick the bucket not long after reciept.

I know the rewarding part is there, especially if you manage to land a fish that everyone wants, or even better get enough to breed them and supply fellow enthusiasts with this price fish. But how quickly it could all go bad...just scarry is all.

Well I decided to follow up my rant with some useful info on fish so I added some fish profiles to this site. I'll keep adding more till I have every fish that we own listed (do we own fish or do they own us? I guess that's for another day)

Well guess what fish are my favorites? Hmmmmm Loaches maybe? Aside from the fact that most of the info was readily available, I just love the loaches, so they got on first. I'll try to do some of the harder to find info on fish that we have, I also need to post stuff on our Orange Finned Loach, but I can never manage to get a picture of him, so it will have to wait.