Monday, September 26, 2005

 

Catventure

Spent the Saturday at Pasir Ris Farmway again. :)

Went to the Cattery to take pictures of my sponsored cats, Speedy and Siti (translation, cos never ask how to spell their names)... I love the cats... They are so cute, so manja... Meowing all the time when I was there... :) Wish I am able to be there daily! But the Cattery is situated at Pasir Ris... the other end of the island for me!... Dun even think I can be there once a month! :( Anyway, anyone reading this and into cats, please go to Metta Cattery's website www.mettacats.org to learn more on how to help these cats. :)

Speedy

Siti

Ok, ok... back to aquatic stuff... :)

After snapping the pics of the cats, I decided to go shopping at the farms again... :) Picked up some newts for my vivarium... But think a couple was bullied into hiding among the thick vegetation by the older newts... Wanna 'rescue' them but cannot find them among the vegetation... :(


You can see one of the older newts in this pic... :)

Anyway, took some pics of the plant farm that I went in hope of finding some hairgrass for my new scape for the 4ft tank. No stock that day... :( Wasted trip... But anyway, took some pics for those interested to know how the farm looked like:





Tuesday, September 20, 2005

 

The great give-away season

I finally started my re-scaping of my 4ft tank!... Gave away the HUGE sword plant to this guy who has a 6ft tank. Talk about wow and envy! :) But the new owner's wife doesn't like the plant and he informed me the plant is residing at another 4ft tank now...

I am also starting to give away a lot of the plants that are not in the new scape to several guys who needed them... There are also several loaches to let go... I also bought a new PL light to increase the wattage per gallon of water. Then I can really begin to re-scape the tank! Yes!...

I am also shifting office by the end of month... So, I gave up my 2 betta tanks... Gave them to fellow colleagues... :) They loved the 2 fish... So, I am comforted that they are well loved. :) Really the great give-away season eh?... :)

This is how the tank looks like before the re-scaping... The tank in its 4th look. :)





Sunday, September 18, 2005

 

Hot! Hot! Hot! Of cats and fish...

Went to Pasir Ris Farmway 2 today!... Man, it sure is hot today!!!

It had been years since I went to that part of Pasir Ris... That super ulu part of Singapore... Actually not that ulu lah!... :) ALOT of people there leh... So many farms there, fish farms, dog farms... So many animals to see...

I actually was there to look at cats... Wanted to sponsor a cat or 2 from the Metta Cattery... They are in need of volunteers, donations, adoptions and sponsorships... I thought since I was there, I might as well see as many farms as I can! :) For those who are interested in cats, please refer to their website at: http://www.mettacats.org/

After looking at the CUTE cats, I decided to sponsor 2 of them. If I didn't remember wrongly, they are the one-eyed Siti and a fat Speedy... :) VERY manja... Speedy was just staring at me and practically begging for me to bring her down from a sink! Haha... She then followed me all the way after I let her down... Siti was lying around but will look at me when I walk pass her... She was even nibbling my hand! *Ouch!*... :) Now waiting for the nice lady-in-charge to confirm and maybe formalize the sponsorship. Too bad I couldn't can't have them at home! Keke...

After that I went to the fish farms. There are SO many to look at and explore... Had not been walking for so long under the HOT sun!! Already walked from the bus stop to the farmway 2 and then was walking from that to Farmway 3! But ended up buying almost anything but fish! Haha... Should have bought those lampeyes! :)

Anyway, I was SO hot and dehrdrated after that! Started going to the Cattery around 3pm and finally caught a cab to go back at almost 7pm! More than 3 hours in that scorching sun... I am so tanned now... But *sigh*... only those skin exposed! Haha... Now the body still feels very hot!

Don't think I will go back unless I am driving! Haha...

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

 

Tiny white worms

Eww... Recently, I begin to see little lines appearing on the front glass of the hermit tank when they mist up after I mist the tank and switched on the aircon... At first I tot they might be water condensing and thus forming the lines...

Then, a couple of nights ago, I took a closer look as I was preparing to do some work on the tank. Only then did I realised that the lines were made by tiny white worms crawling on the wet front glass!... They are very small worms... thin like tubifex but very short... I picked up some and fed them to my fish... No pictures yet... Dun think my autofocus cheap digital cam can pick them up anyway...

Yes, free fish food but troublesome to collect and they are crawling all over the front glass, especially at night... Not a pretty sight... I am wondering what they are and how to get rid of them...

Wondering if garlic water would be useful or if I should find a toad or some kind of lizard to stay with the hermits... (Even if I want, also dunno where to find one!!) Wonder if they will disturb the hermits!...

Oh...!

Sunday, September 11, 2005

 

3rd scape of my 4ft tank

This time, I am showing the third scape of my 4ft tank.

The tank is its 4th scape now. I am looking forward to doing a 5th scape, which will be quite different... :)

The sword plant in the middle, either Echinodorus amazonicus or E.parviflorus, is really big now, taking up 50% of the tank volume! I had shifted the plant to the left corner and it has been growing non-stop ever since! Someone with a 6ft tank will be taking it home soon... That'll mean a better home for the plant and I can start to re-scape... 2 birds with 1 stone eh... Keke...

Ok, pictures...






Wednesday, September 07, 2005

 

Hermit crabs!


Sheesh... I had been lazy! It had been a week since my last posting! But well, I was relatively more busy the last week anyway... :)

Ok... Let's take a look at my hermit tank today... I have 5 hermits in this 2ft tank. 3 big ones, 1 medium sized one and 1 small one. But recently, I could not find the small one and then I saw its empty shell! I am hoping it had changed to another shell...

I will be stripping this tank down soon cos I wanna re-lay the substrate to cater to the humidity and drain off any excess water. The hermits can be rather rowdy and can overturn the small water dish and the water will be logged into the gravel... A lesson learnt from the previous batch: Hermits DON'T like their feet wet!

The 5 hermits this time are coloured! Hee... One of them is red in colour, two are purple and two are grayish-white. And they LOVE to climb... As you can see, they love to climb up the branches and sometimes sleep up there. And the big gray even like to climb along the rim of the tank top! *Yikes!* Without the temporary cover, it sure will climb out!

Nightly, I will hear them crash fall onto the substrate... Sometimes even onto this glass container I am currently using to house an earth-star like plant. I tell you, besides being irritated by the noise, I am so scared that their shell will crack!

The red one often like to dig into the soil in this container and sleep inside. If not in the container, it will try to dig into the corners of the tank. The screeching noise made by its legs against the glass can be very irritating! :)

The digging behaviour had also caused the moss to die out! So sad, cos a friend had spent some time cultivating the moss to grow emersed! Hopefully the re-laying of the tank (and the subsequent re-scaping will be able to save them!)

I'd also added some airplants (will be adding more) and a creeping fern like plant but the hermits are bent on destroying them! Will be placing out of their reach in the new scape!

I will post the 'new' tank after I find the time to do so. Should be removing the glass container to prevent their shell from really cracking! Also needs to thicken the substrate to let them dig and try to designate no-digging areas for the plants! The wood also needs to be re-arranged so they won't be able to climb to the tank top!

The purple one. They all love to climb:


The tank with the plants and the moss still intact. The glass container is on the left:

The humidity starts to kick in, esp after the air-con is switched on:


The best climber of all! Walking along the tank top edge under the plastic temporary cover!


Thursday, September 01, 2005

 

Ornamental shrimps


After discovering there are other ornamental shrimps other than Yamato shrimps (actually not very ornamental), I start to develop an interest in the cherry shrimps, primarily because of their potential to become cherry red.

I started to keep a small colony if them in my Java moss tank. They thrived and even had babies! The shrimplets were very small and were all over the tank. There were fish in the tank but it was so heavily planted with Java moss that the shrimplets have a very good chance of surviving predation.

The old moss tank

After I tear down the moss tank to make way for a bigger vivarium, I flooded the original smaller and very simple vivarium and tried to convert it to a shrimp tank. I also decided to try more ornamental shrimps.


So, in the tank, I placed red-nose shrimps, blue shrimps, bee shrimps and zebra shrimps. They all look very ornamental, indeed! All very pretty and cute. But mind you, they are rather sensitive... I'd lost a good percentage of them over the weeks of introducing them. You can check the links mentioned on the left column for pictures and information on the shrimps mentioned above. The cherries are very red... especially the females, the red-nose had long red noses, the blue shrimps are very dark ion colour, the zebras had beautiful little black stripes on its white body and the bee shrimps look like diamond shrimps with broad dark and light segments.

Cherry shrimps

Red-nose shrimps
Bee shrimps

The black and white segmented diamond shrimps are many times more expensive than the bees! But the most expensive would be the Crystal Red Shrimps (CRS)! Good graded shrimps can be bought at $50 a piece!! But they are VERY beautiful...
My tank is currently kept at a temperature of 26.5C-30C depending on whether the airconditioning is switched on. This kind of fluctuation would have killed the expensive and sensitive CRS!... Can only consider keeping them in office... where the airconditioning would keep the tank temperature down and stable...
Will be trying to see if I can add Malayan shrimps (which can turn rather brown), green shrimps or green red-nose shrimps (they are actually green!) and the fan shrimps... Keke... The tank is going to be overcrowded!
The flora now include MM, pelia, Java moss, APP (floating now), hairgrass, pennywort and Hygrophila Polysperma. Rather messy... No time to scape.
The fauna used to be just shrimps and the mosquito rasbora, either the Boraras urophthalmoides or Boraras brigittae. Eventually, however, I start to add fish to the shrimp tank! Well, I guess its a natural thing for most aquarist... this buying of new fish behaviour! :) I am now looking forward to re-scaping my 4ft tank so the fish in this shrimp tank can be transferred over... Cos my cherry babies are gone! :( Afterall, fish eat small animals that fit into their mouths and the shrimplets are small!
Some of the other fish now include the pygmy cory, sparkling gourami, Dario dario and this, Stiphodon elegans:

Ending pic: The shrimp tank about 2 weeks ago.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?