New tank.

I got me, or more accurately my fish, a new tank. See, my old one was this tiny little 10gallon or roughly 35L, and that's not really enough for the fish I have to live full and comfortable lives, that and the temperature in the tank these past few days skyrocketed with the heat wave that hit.
So in an attempt to provide a more livable environ for these critters, I went out and got me a 3ft 150L tank.
A nice big thing,  but I'd class it as a medium sized home aquarium. I am extremely unlikely to upgrade to anything larger unless I upgrade my own living space first, as there simply wont be room, and transporting anything larger would become a large issue. Largely.

New tank.

Still rather murky, dust and such from the gravel. That should filter out over the next few days. I'm planing to leave it running for a week or so to accumulate the bacteria needed to break down ammonia and nitrite. I hope to have it up with fish and possibly live plants in a few weeks. Then I might think about more fish.

It's a girl! Maybe...

So yeah... I do this thing where I look up stuff on the internet about things. In this case, fish. In particular, bristle-nosed pleco, and how to tell the difference between a male and female.
My findings:
      Male: Has bushy beard (feely tentacles on it's head for sensing food).
      Female: Does not has bushy beard.

So there is this other thing I do where I get confused about the gender of fish. I'm not too embarrassed, I'm sure it happens to the best of us at times.

Now this young pleco of mine I have so assiduously dubbed Alan "does not has bushy beard". This fact makes me think it's actually a female, and addressing a 'lady' as Alan is quite the faux pas.
That being said however, this is as yet a juvenile, and I don't know how long it will take for a male's 'beard' to grow. So for now I'll watch it, but I may have to change from calling the young pleco 'Alan' to a more appropriate 'Alina' or 'Alice' or simply 'Ali'.

Though perhaps I can just now switch to the gender neutral 'Alex'... Hmm thoughts...

It Sinks!

Big news! The chunk of wood I bought now sinks in water. Amazing!
Though it still stains the water so not putting it in the tank for another 3 weeks.
Got a leafy aquarium backdrop so it didn't look quite so bare, and acquired some more fake plants from a friend.

Tank backdrop.

 On another note, I need some way to reduce the glare from behind me when taking photos...

15th February

Surprisingly, all my fish are still alive. 15 days of having fish. As I conveniently got them on the 1st of February.
This is really just an update on how they're doing. All are fairly active now, for a while Gus had been sitting on the bottom not moving much. That's how he was when I took the first photo a few posts back.
Bob and Will are busy trying to be better than the other, though I've noticed that Bob has taken a liking to Bruce's tail. I'm concerned about that as his tail has been slightly damaged.
Photo time!

Bob, Gus, Will and Bruce all trying to hide from the camera.

Will 'n' Bob - The Dynamic Duo...

Alan

Wicked-like tank setup...

 Oh, I also finally got me a nitrite testing kit. Just so I can monitor the deadly chemical that is the result when ammonia is converted by certain bacteria. Ammonia itself is just as deadly to fish and comes about from the decay of their waste. Having incorrectly started my tank (not waiting long enough for the nitrogen cycle to properly establish), it's important for me to monitor this.
Here's a picture I found on a site called Wet Web Media about it.

Nitrogen cycle, showing peaks of ammonia, nitrite and 2 scenarios of nitrate accumulation.

The chemicals peak and drop as bacteria grows that 'eats' it converting it into the next thing. Ammonia --> Nitrite --> Nitrate. Nitrate is not toxic in small amounts to your fish. In a tank cycled before adding fish, ammonia and nitrite should be 0ppm and nitrate a bit above 0. Nitrate is kept low with water changes.
In my tank I added fish probably before the ammonia would have peaked. Which is why I'm doing water changes every 2 days at the moment. I'm not certain, but I think I've nearly got enough good bacteria that I can cut down to 1 or 2 water changes a week, but I'll keep going as is for another week.

I also purchased a chunk of Opuwa wood. This should look nice, and be a place for accumulation of algae. Or nom nom's for Alan. Maybe. Not really sure what will happen when I put it in the tank. However, I shan't be doing that for about a month. Everywhere I read recommends soaking for 1 month in water with periodic water changes before adding to the tank. This is for several reasons. Firstly, it doesn't sink... so soaking it, sometimes in boiling water, can make it waterlogged enough to sink and actually stay on the bottom of your tank. Secondly, the wood will 'stain' the water. So you basically want to get all the staining out of the way before putting it in the tank or it will take even longer to get the water to it's normal colour.

My chunk of wood.

Thw water looks terrible partly because it's stained slightly from the wood, but mostly cause that's water from the tnk during a water change, which picked up all the gunk and stuff. Not sure if that was a good idea...
Oh well. Till next time.

Don't wake the Fighter

So... I got home from work the other day and had to change the water of the tank. Now, I was working till 10 so I got home at about 10:15 ish and most of my fish had fallen asleep due to the low light. But if I didn't change the water now then I wouldn't ge around to it till halfway through the next day, throwing of my schedule and possibly harming the fish.
So I dutifully started pulling things out and changing the water.
After I had finished I fed the fish and observed. Now Bruce had been peacfully sleeping under a fake plant when I started this process and frankly, he didn't take to well to being disturbed... So he spent the next few minutes being very short tempered. If any fish came near him, he'd start toward them and then chase them and try and nip them, and otherwise just stalked around with a doom cloud over his head.
Normally he's actually quite peaceful and ignores he rest of the fish, so I just have to be careful.
Fun stuff.

Introductions.

Ok.
I started this current craze just before Australia day 2012. Or at least that's when I started doing things.
I went to a local aquarium, lovely place, told them "I have a tank, some money, and I want fish. What do I need?"
I then left the local aquarium with a filter, a 100W heater, 2 plants, a small Chinese lantern decoration, a water conditioning kit, and some gravel.
However, when I said "I have a tank", I really meant "I own a tank". But it wasn't anywhere I could make use of it at the time.
So I had to wait till Australia day when I met up with my parents cousins and grandparents for a lovely BBQ. There I picked up the tank and upon returning home prepared it for it's future inhabitants.
After a good hour or so I had a pretty little 36L tank floored with gravel, with 2 plastic plants sitting either side of the Chinese lantern. Filter was attached and running.
Now I waited. Oh how I wanted some fish straight away, but the guy at the aquarium, who I would be willing to bet knew more about fish than I, suggested waiting 5 days or so before adding any fish, to let the tank settle.
Me being my wonderful patient self went back to the aquarium exactly 5 days later to pick up some fish, and promptly forgot that I should perhaps pay attention to what genders the fish were.
I left shortly afterward with a pH testing and correcting kit, some fish flakes, algae tablets and 5 new little fishy friends.
Red wagtail platy, red betta, golden swordtail, black balloon molly, and a tiny little 2.5cm bristlenose pleco. Cutest little guy ever.
So I got home, put them into my tank. I'd read up how to do this, 'cause I'm wonderfully prepared when it comes to these things. Put the bag floating in the water for 20 mins, trying to slowly acclimatise them to the water by tipping bits of the tank water in... and then upended the bags into the aquarium, gently of course.
It was only later that day that I remembered seeing "don't let the water from the bags get into your aquarium"... Whoops.
Too late now.
Well here's some pics of the little guys, as best as I could take in the first few days. They're still quite shy, though getting better.

My tank setup.

Red Betta (Siamese Fighter) - Bruce

Balloon Molly - Gus

Bristlenose Pleco (Sucker Catfish) - Alan

Left: Red Wagtail Platy - Will, Right: Golden Swordtail - Bob

So, now we're all acquainted, on with the happenings.
The first fish to become settled and curious about it's new surrounding was Bruce (Fighter), but even he took a day before that. By then end of the second day most were happy and exploring. I then noticed some odd behaviour between Will and Bob. Bob would curve himself toward Will in a strange manner and then Will would dart off. Now Bob is obviously a male swordtail as the females don't grow the sword. So I took this to mean that he was trying to mate with Will... So Will isn't a guy and shouldn't be called Will. Hmm...
Later though I see Will(ette?) doing the same thing to Bob, so maybe I'm wrong, or maybe Will(hemina?) is getting into this whole "let's have babies" thing. I looked up on forums and found out that indeed Platies and Swordtails can produce viable offspring.

This morning I discovered poor little Alan was looking a little pale and colourless. So I went off to better equip the tank. Picked up a gravel-vac, a small net so I would transfer fish in a better manner in future, and a new plant that would provide better hiding places. I also left with some advice. Clean out the tank a little more often for about 3 weeks, and if problem persists, check nitrite/nitrate levels. Though I'm confident Alan will be back to normal in a few days if I keep cleaning out the tank regularly. I was also shown the difference between male and female platies, so a new assessment tells me that Will is a male, and they are just trying to assert dominance over each other. (Maybe Bob, mistook Will for a female swordtail at the beginning, but he won't make that mistake again I'm sure.)
I got home and probably nearly scared the fish half to death in the attempt to do a partial water replacement... But I think I did alright, I saw in the bucket that the water had gotten a bit dirty so this was probably a good idea.
None of the fish have yet ventured into the new plant, but I reckon they will by tomorrow night at the latest.

New tank setup

So I'm learning slowly. If money were not an object then I might be doing more to look after them, but I think that this ought to be acceptable for a while.

Ze blogfish.

Aye, I got me some fish.
This here shall be a place to put my thoughts about the fish I have as time goes on. I dunno yet how much I'll use this. I can imagine it going for long stretches at a time without posting anything, and then a flurry of activity when I get a new fish or a resident is ill. I can also imagine it never makign it past 2 posts regardless of how much goes on the tank (or in future "tanks").
This is more as a collection of my own thoughts than advice, or something funny, or anything else, but if I end up with a large knowledge base, or have some amusing anecdotes, it could be worth looking at this for that.
This my journey, from fish murderer to fish enthusiast to fish maniac and beyond... Maybe.