Greyhounds, pods, guppies, and HITH

Several updates today. Let's begin with the most miscellaneous
one.

My wife and I are "adopting" a greyhound from a state greyhound
racing "rescue" group. We went to Greensboro, NC on Sat. under
the impression, as we were pre-approved, that we could select a
dog and go home with it. Not so. The group has been less than
professional with us on several instances, and that was the last
straw for me. I was ready to say to hell with this cause who
wants to drive 2 and a half hours out AGAIN to get the dog, esp.
with gas prices this high?

Anyway, Leah really wanted a dog and we looked at one last
little female and decided on her. We'll be picking her up this
upcoming Saturday. She's all black with a white heart on her
chest and was the calmest dog we looked at. The decision was
pretty much instant.

Ok, now to fish. ;)

I can now finally, safely say ICH is no more. The meds were
total crap. Didn't do anything but strengthen the strain and
make it super-immune. The salt and heat destroyed it, though.
Absolutely no sign of ich for a week now. I lost the banana and
sword plant, but banana plants are cheap and grow very fast in
my tank. A small price to pay.

I moved about 6 small male guppies into the planted tank.
They're doing great in there. The progenitor male is getting his
tail torn apart, and it is still continuing after removing the
males. Oh well, nothing much I can do.

My pod population for the mandarin appears to be diminishing.
This is not good because the quart jars are not working at all.
I can only see one or two pods at a time, and the population
should be exploding and the glass covered in them.

In the main tank I can still see a pod on nearly every spot of
glass, rock, or sand, but I have to look much harder now, and
there are less. They are still abundant in their breeding
scrubber pads, and they crawl over the scoll algae at night.
I'm going to get some caulerpa pearl algae from a local fish
store and stuff a wad or two into the pod pile. I may add
another scrubber or two...

The quart jars were a total waste. At least the bottle I added
first was worth it; I just wish now I had left them in the
bottle in the first place.

The discus's hole in the head may or may not be getting better.
Two of the four holes seem to be covering up, but the other 2
merged into one big hole. The fish looks horrible. I'm still
treating with garlic, but I haven't been as good with water
changes as I should be. It's just a pain in the ass doing it
every other day; I'm doing well if I do one every four days.
Well, that's about it, I guess. Still haven't developed the
underwater camera. Will try to do that this week.

- Josh

Take a look at my site

Back from the cruise

Got back yesterday from a 5 day cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. We stopped at Costa Maya and Cozumel. More about the trip down at the bottom.

The fish made it through exceptionally well, considering there were no casualties, other than a ghost shrimp or two. The high salt content in the ich tank killed off all the leaves of my banana plant, so I think it's on its last legs. The amazon sword was also dying so I yanked that out today. No sign of ich, and I lowered the temp and began water changing with fresh water.

Marine tank is beautiful. The scroll algae has quadrupled in size and looks like soft corals. And the pod population is booming... more than ever. Mandarin is still skinny, and this I don't understand... you can count ten pods on ANY area of sand, rock, or glass throughout the tank, and the mandarin gobbles one up every few minutes. If I lose him, it will not be through starvation.

The scrubber pads may indeed be the secret for a successful pod population. Each pad, protected by live rock and shells, is crawling with critters.

The large discus looks horrible. HITH has struck big time, and there are four holes in his head. I've begun garlic juicing all the food and I need to start doing some regular heavy duty water changes, like 10 percent every few days. This is what cured it last time, but this case is much worse.

Ok, now about the trip. Check out these pics of the Costa Maya ruins port shopping area and the Mayan ruins below.

The underwater camera needs to be developed. Hopefully, some pics of the anemones and starfish will come out. We snorkeled in Cozumel and got some great shots.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

Mandarin news

Pods continue to multiply... you can see them clearly in daylight now, you just have to look very closely.




The mandarin seems to be filling out, but he's not plump yet. However, he boldly goes about the tank, playing king of the mountain on the live rock, grazing up and down the glass, etc. Very active fish... I just hope his stomach wasn't too far gone that he's a lost cause. I know for a fact he's in pod heaven, and he eats constantly... and so far, the population is sustaining itself.

In other news, the salt may be affecting the live plants in the ich tank. But there's nothing I can do. The ich must be eliminated, in one way or another.

Meds are junk. A look through the archives reveals months of effort trying to cure with medications. They did nothing in the long run.

Now we'll see if the meds didn't make the ich strain so potent that it can stand up to salt and heat.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

Salt and plants

I've had to resort to salting the ich tank. So far, the plants look fine, but the salinity isn't as high as I'd like yet. I'll eventually move up to 2 Tbs per 5 gallons, leave it for a week or two, and that should finish the ich... along with 86 degree temp.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

3 Days of total darkness

I turned on the light today on the ich tank. Absolutely no sign. I fed the tank--first time in two days. Then I dosed and turned the light off but didn't put the blanket back over the tank. I'm going to give it 3 more days in partial darkness and dose twice a day. That should do the trick... but we've heard that before, haven't we?

Update on the mandarin. Last night I saw more pods than ever, crawling over shells, rock, glass, and sand. There was one congregation of 20 or more climbing over a small halfshell.

I removed the scrubber from the filter and put it in the main tank, concealing it in the pod pile. This took a while to manipulate. Had to wrap a rubberband around the largest rock then cover the pad with the smaller chunks. Looks ok, and this should really boost the pod population.

I'm thinking one reason I have a lot of pods is my playsand. It's a lot finer than the stuff you get in fish stores. I also have a lot of larger shells scattered around. They seem to attract the pods at night. I'll probably add some more.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

Mandarin Candidate project made public

I just posted an in-depth article about my mandarin project on my favorite fish forum. Ordinarly, these forums are rampant with gurus and assholes, and I could never dream of posting the project without making the whole issue a joke or a sniping contest.

We'll see how things go...

In other news, I'm reaching my 36th hour of total blackout for that good ole ich tank. From what I've read on the forum, my healthy plants should be ok for 3 days in the dark. Plan right now is to go another 24 hours, feed the fish a small amount and dose, then black out again. If there is no Ich Sign, I'll remove the blanket but keep the light off for another five days, continuing to heavy dose.

I'd love to see ich kicked to the curb permanently.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

New fish profiles

I have several new profiles on fish species on the site. Check em out.

The mandarin is looking much better today. The pinched look is almost entirely gone, and he's still constantly on the watch for pods. I'm seeing more and more pods in the main tank, due to my first and second injection. I believe the pod pile and the scrubber in the filter box is helping significantly.

I wish my bottle culture would pick up so I could split it and begin injecting with the home-grown pods. I'd definitely feel a lot better!

- Josh
http://joshday.com