You can just about see all the fish in the tank - its feeding time.  Can you identify the Congo Tetras, Scat, Monos, Groumais, Pleco, and an assortment of Rainbows.  The only fish missing are the German Rams, which I am sad to report that one of them has died.  I am not sure what happened.  The afflicted Ram could had no bouyancy and eventually it was lying on the bottom on its side.  I put it in the fridge.  Another one of the Rams is also exhibiting the same symptoms (inability to float above ground).  The breathing is heavy.  For now, I am keeping an eye on it.  I may have injured them while I was cleaning the tank as they like to hide and they don't move.  The other two German Rams are fine.  If anyone knows what is going on let me know. 

Here is the fishy story.  See the goldfish in the picture?  It is like this a lot of the times - upside down.  I thought it was dead or dying.  Instead of putting it in the fridge, which I did to one of the first two goldfish when I found it in this condition, I decided to let it die on its own.  The next morning, it was swimming along just fine as though nothing happened.  Is this normal?

This is the Scat.  He is a PIG.  He gets very angry when feeding as he chases the Rainbow away and try to keep them in the corner of the tank.  For such a big guy, he is afraid of the German Rams who chases him away.  The Rams are about one fifth the size of the Scat.

The brakish water did not seem to bother the fresh water fishes.  The colourful rainbow, however, have lost their colour.  I am not adding any more salt and as I clean the tank each week the water is getting less brakish.

We did like the Scat a lot and thought about getting the other one at the store (they were a pair).  After some nasty behaviour, which I picked up on, from the Scat, one Scat for a 75 gallon tank was plenty.

From what I have read, it seems that Scat are community fish.  Well, mine is a community fish as long as you are not an Australian Rainbow.  The Scat chases these rainbows and not the others (Conga Tetras, Monos, German Rams or Pleco).  These poor fish have been relagated to the corners of the tanks and they have to stay there.  The fear cause by the Scat on the Rainbow have caused the rainbows to smash their pointy nose on the glass when they are being chased.  Often, these rainbows can turn at full speed but I guess the few times they did not their poor noses bash against the glass.  I am going to remove them and give them to the school.

The intersting thing is the realtionship between the German Rams and the Scat.  The Scat is scared of the Rams.  The Rams are one quarter the size of the Scat.  I have seen the little Rams chase the Scat out of their little homes.  It was quiet a sight given the Scat terrorizes the biggest fish, Australian Rainbows. 

I am going to get the tank back to fresh water as I have read that the Scat and Monos can handle fresh water in their early age.  I want to see if the colour comes back on the rainbows.  Fun and games with fish  

In an never ending quest to populate the tank with interesting fish, I have two new types of fish - Mono and Scat. 

OK.  It is a bit out of focus - tough when the Scat is always in motion.  This is Scatophagidae, "the dung eater".   It is a brakish water fish when they are young and a salt water fish when the mature. 

While initially they appear to be timid (one of the German Ram would corner and pin the Scat to the top of one of the smaller decorations which was home to the Ram), we have now seen that the Scat can also be dominating.  We have seen the Scat chase everyfish to the corners of the tank keeping the entire tank clear for himself.  The much bigger Autralian Rainbow would run for their lives.  But of course, the Plexco is KING.  No fish screws around with this bad boy.

This is a Mono (Monodactylidae).  Only two species compose this family, one of which is found in Australian waters.   Again, this is a brakish fish and they will need a marine environment when they grow up.  It is a cross between Discus and Silver Dollar. 

So, we have taken a step into the unknown where we have both fresh and salt water fish in the same tank.  The Rainbows have lost their colooours.  I am not sure if it was the brakish water or if this was just a phase in their maturity. 

I find fish the size of 3" and up are more sutiable for a 75 gallon tank.  The smaller neon and tetras were so small they were hard to see. 

I now have a better handle on my bigger tank.  The lessons learned have been heart breaking (seeing my 4 clown loaches sucumbed to Ick) and all the dragon tails perish in this little diaster a few months ago.  The water is now crystal clear. 

See the difference?  I got some new decorations and plants.  I now have a couple types of Rainbow and Congo Tetras!  We got rid of the surviving Neons, Tetras and Danio.  We gave them to the school as they have a 90 gallon tank with very little fish.  Hey, it's that or food for the new fish.

Here are the Congo Tetras.  They have a unique shape to the body and the colours are a very nice blue and yellow.  I just got these babys today! 

Along with the Congo Tetras, I also picked up the yellow tail Rainbows.  The great characteristics of these fish are the fact they hang around in plain sight, unlike the German Rams and Clown Loaches. 

Here is what I do differently now.  I vacuum and change about 20% of the water at least once a week.  If I do it twice, the second cleaning is mid-week.  I also clean the filter once every two months.  I have increased the charcoal in the filter, which helps keep the water crystal clear. 

Four weeks from beginning to end, that was how long it took to get rid of the fungi and ick.  And, we lost half the fish    The pleco (big fish at the bottom) is growing.  

It was a one two punch and half my fish are dead.  The first wave was fungi, which took out all the guppies.  After almost a week of fungi treatment with PimaFix, I noted a differnet type of stuff on the loaches and rams.  With the help of friends, we determine it to be Ick. 

The second punch was the Ick.  We got Ick Guard II because we have loaches and the other Ick treatment would kill it. 

The first to go was a small loach.  And than another, and if history repeats itself (when one spiece dies the entire group goes), until they were all gone.  Now, the German Rams were the first to get rid of the little white spots on their bodies.  Two neon tetras died.  In total, we lost 6 guppies to fungi, 2 large clown loaches, 3 small clown loaches, and 2 neon tetras to Ick. 

The tank is now just half full with medication for Ick.  I think the medicine is givin the Pleco some form of fish diarrhea.  I am going to get about 5 gallons out and replentish with fresh water.  I am still keeping a close eye on the remenants of Ick, which is still visible on a few neons. 

Well, 75 gallons is a big tank and it is a lot of work when you have trouble.  The water here in Toronto is too hard and has to be treated.  The water fitler takes out the calcuim and helps soften the water.  It also helps prevent out of control scaling.  But, it takes forever to go through the water filter jug by jug.  For a 75 gallong tank, I am beginning to think that a water filtration system is appropriate.  Or, have at least a couple of 5 gallons tank ready.  Any way you look at it, you are dealing with a lot of water.  So, be prepared to do a lot of work.

This is the prettiest fish in the tank.  With hues of yellow, purple and green, the German Ram was a great new addition.  All our small angels are now dead.  I think they died from fear.  Embedded in between the plants, a place where they sleep, they were found dead.   We got four German Rams at $20 each.  I am hoping they don't die.

We learned an expensive lesson about Clown Loaches.  They are dumb and they go everywhere.  This weekend, one of the larger clown loach went through one of the holes exiting our castle decoration.  The sharp edges cut the clown loach and it was dead by the morning. 

I spent the most of Sunday morning removing the castle and rearranging the tank.   In place of the castle was a Pagoda with tiny holes for windows.  Again, one of the loaches got inside and could not come out.  I took the Pagoda out but the loach had already badly cut and bruised its nose.  Now, there are no building decorations. 

We also got some of this Golden Gouramis.  They told us that it was a community fish.  It is interesting to see the change of behaviours in the tank as four of these big golden gouramis wnter the tank.  The minows, which were the most aggressive, now swim in a school rather than all over the place.

The tank is in the last stage of completion.  The only things left to do is put a backdrop and populate the tank, which is the really fun part.  I bought 8 minows as the new addition.  Check out the lights that stick up above the tank like bug eyes.  They are moon lights and they are cool. 

These are the Minows I bought.  They shimmer at night under the right lighting condition.  These Minows are totally relaxed and started eating right away despite just being transported from the store to our tank.

This is the Dragon Tail Guppy.  We have two of them and these are the males.  The night I moved them from the small tank to the big tank, one of them disappeared after about two hours.  I was up till 2 AM moving all the rocks trying to find him.  I moved every single piece.  Of course, he suddenly appeared the next morning just before I went to work, which was a big relieve.

You either love it or hate it.  The Pleco cleans the tank but it does contribute its fair share of waste.  When we originally got it, four of our fish died with in a few weeks.  They died of amonia poisioning.  We learned to vaccum the tank after that incident. 

One weekend later and we have the tank up and running.  A major decision was made to move our existing fish to the new tank.  It would be fun to see how they react.  Of the original ( the original orginal red platties are dead from amonia poisoning, which also claimed two tetras), the remaining largest two tertas have been through a lot.  They deserve to move to a better home.  I have learn about a very important tool - the vacuum. 

Being in Toronto with very hard water, we filtered water for the entire tank.  The water was also conditioned and we started the cycle.  The water filtration system has been running for about a day and the water is noticeably clearer. 

Our original plan was to have African Chiclids as they are very colourful.  But, that is really all we can have in the tank as these fish were very aggressive. 

With our new plan, we can have fifty or more smaller fish and a larger variety.  I am told that building the community can be tricky.  Angel fish goes in last or my  guppies and tetras are going to have a problem.  Hmm... I wonder if I can have some Tiger Barbs.  We are half way there.  All the heavy lifiting is done.

The layout of the tank is still work-in-progress.  My orginal layout was voted down and we are now with this for now.  We will also have additional pieces from the old tank.  This is all part of the fun. 

We are one day behind schedule as I did not manage to get to the store on time yesterday.  But today, I got home in time and took Stephanie with me to pick out the rocks.  Here is the picture of the rocks in the tank after it was washed and mixed.  I will need more black to tone down the colours.  I am aming for a starry night picture.  This is fun, eh?  All those years in art school is actually paying off  

Here is the view of the rocks from a distant, which actually looks a bit better.  Yellow was not a colour that was available.  The major work is done.  The installation of the filter is the last part of all the major pieces of the aquarium.  Getting the fish is the eaiest part   I think a big part of the fun is setting up the landscape.  We have bought over $200 worth of decorations (see original picture from September 7, 2004), which will barely fill the tank.  We will need more stuff  

Here is the final look for now, which is not too far off from what I envisioned in my mind's eye.  Another 7 to 10 lbs of black would be perfect.  Filling it up has killed my Brita filter.  Off to Canadian Tire to get a faucet filter tomorrow.  It looks like I may have about 10 gallons in so far and only another 60 gallons to go. 

My ultimate goal is to bring the Great Barrier Reef to my living room   I don't have to go there any more to enjoy what I love so much.  Why did I  not think of this sooner?  The Great Barrier Reef, however, is not so great any more   The Crown of Thorns, a parasitic coral, is killing it. 

The next time you see live soft corals displayed, be AWED.  It's not trival and its not a cheap excercise.  The lights alone can go up to $3,000 (halide ).  Balancing the water chemistry of salt water for corals can be intimadating. 

No, this is not my aquarium    This was taken about a 40 minute boat ride from Koh Phi Phi, Thailand, in a strong current channel between two little islands - one of my best snorkelling experience.  

Our tank finally arrives a week and change after we bought it from Big Al.  You can see our starter tank, which is a 10 gallon tank.  Our new tank is 75 gallons or 7.5X bigger.  It took a little under two hours to put the stand together and that is at a take-your-time-pace.   The tank itself was heavy.  I got a German water filter that hides inside one of the cabinets below. 

I am a bit worried about the stand as it is made out of particle board.  The four walls holding and supporting the weight were each held together by two screws on the top and two on the bottom.  A 75 gallon tank will weight at least 800 lbs with the rocks at the bottom. 

Tomorrow, we go get the rocks.  I am looking for a 60% black, 20% dark blue, 10% light blue, 5% red, 4% yellow and 1% white.  If my mind's eye is right, we should get the starry night effect with the bottom of the fish tank when we mix all the rocks together.  The old tank also had a mixture of coloured rocks.

It will be the weekend by the time the tank is ready for fish.  Filling it up is going to take a while as the water is filtered and treated.  I usually let it sit there for a couple of days wih some startup bacteria treatment to get the cycle going.  Than, hopefully, it will be ready for fish.

Stay tune for the next stage