[Killietalk] A newbie thanks you :)

["Holly Leach" <hollyszoo at knology_net>]

I appreciate all the advice and support. Y'all are some great people and I
look forward to getting to know you (and your killies) :)

I am also thankful to find people that are willing to tolerate my
chattiness. I don't have any "live" fish friends to talk to. My friends and
family find me pretty eccentric and they tolerate my obsessions. They smile
and nod and hope I start talking about something other than water hardness
or the oncoming spring and sexual maturity of my eclectus parrot. They love
me but I'm pretty out there sometimes. Oh well, there are others out there
like me, they just don't know them. LOL

The GW are in a 10 gallon right now, but I'm inheriting a 20L from a friend
and they will go in that. I'll keep the water level low-ish and I plan to
have it heavily planted as well, thank you for the plant and lighting
suggestions. I have a sponge filter (for the GW) getting bio-seeded in my
longest established and most chemically stable tank. Until then they have a
HOB filter, but the really don't like the current. They have a number of
fake plants in the tank and they like to hang out in the floating ones. My
mother has several bog gardens (one is very shaded) as well as a koi pond
and she has tons of water plants. I think the bog garden floating plants,
etc. will go great in the GW tank. They don't like a lot of surface
agitation and the sponge filter probably won't bother them too much.

I have the frozen bloodworms and frozen BBS, cichlid pellets, betta pellets,
and livebearer flakes. Would any of these do or do they need something
different? Is the frozen fine, or would live be better? In a few weeks
having live critters won't be a problem. 

I have 2 outdoor "pop up" ponds that I am going to set up in a few weeks
(they will stand empty until the last frost). I've had the suggestion of
putting annuals out there in them. One is 28 gal (I think) and the other is
40. Both will be heavily planted. I'm hoping to get infusoria, mosquito
larvae, other little live and living critters to feed to babies (that is, if
the inhabitants of the ponds don't gobble them all up! I live in north
Alabama and we have a long lovely warm summer so the fish should be happy
with that.

As far as tanks... I've been collecting them for several weeks now. I get
them for free (people tired of them sitting in the garage after all their
fish "mysteriously" kept dying and they just got tired of it all) or really
cheap from other hobbyists that are changing over to larger or more complex
systems. 
My tank count-
1-10 gal-1 male betta, 1 kuhli loach, 1 african dwarf frog, one mystery
snail, 2 ghost shrimp
1-10 gal- maybe 2 dozen guppy fry, slowly being culled and I'm praying soon
I can figure out which are boys and which are girls before I have a
population explosion
1-10 gal-killies
2-10 gal-empty
1-20H-pseudotropheus crabro (bumblebee cichlid) no tankmates, he eats them
1-20L-on its way, will be for the killies)
1-29-empty
1-5-ghost shrimp and female betta
1-2.5-empty

So, I have 10 tanks. And very few fish LOL. This was my plan, though. I
wanted to have the tanks ready, up, and cycling before I bought something to
put in them. I have been told that 5s are more appropriate for Killies, so I
might sell/trade a few of the 10 setups and get 5s. I have a rack right now
that will fit 6-5 gal tanks.

The guppies were the beginning of all of this. I received 2 pregnant females
that gifted me with their babies before they promptly keeled. Both were from
a tank that a lady had and let the breeding get out of control. Most were
half black but there were other colors. I have no idea what they will color
out to look like. I waiver back and forth on buying some IFGA guppies. The
colors are fun and they're such easy keepers and breeders. Hopefully I can
find killies to fill my tanks with before the guppies get too much of a hold
on me.

Well, better quit rambling and break out the buckets and gravel vacuums.
Saturday and Sunday are tank maintenance days. I received a new "freebie" 10
gal with a stand (needs to be painted) with a ton of accessories and one of
the 10s and the 29 are both outside and need to be scrubbed. The dogs got
their baths (cardigan welsh corgis) and my Solomon island eclectus parrot
will too. Maybe the kids will get their weekly bath as well :)

Do you guys keep inventories of what you have and what you need? Is there
even possibly a software program out there? I've got to find a better way to
manage all of this. I want to keep good records of my equipment and
supplies, and then of my fish when they start breeding. 

If nothing else its an excuse to make a new excel workbook. I love making
those! I'm also getting a website up for my hobbies and critters. I took a
web design class this summer and I need to use it or lose it. I'll share the
link when I get it up and working. There will be a section devoted to all my
aquariums, but a special area for the killies!

Holly
Redstone Arsenal, AL

Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/aka/modules/content/index.php?id=9.
Archives are at http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/
Modify your subscription at http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/killietalk