I just realized that I haven’t let you know how the move of my two new Black Ghost Knives, Blake and Devin, into my big tank went!

So here’s what I did to prepare:
I did a big water change in the 55gal, like 25% or more.  I also removed about half the water in the 10gal (where the two new BGK’s were) and replaced it with water from the 55gal.  I didn’t do this all at once, but I slowly added that water into the tank to allow acclimation time.  Similar to the method that you acclimate newly bought fish by adding a little of the new tank’s water to their bag.  This way is just doing it for the whole tank instead of just one bag.
Between adding new water to the 10gal I went about reorganizing the 55gal to make new caves for everybody.  Before I started there was a big cave on the left side of the tank as well as a large floating log for my current BGK Cole.  When I was done there was two caves on each side (4 total).  Now I had taken the caves from the 10gal to put them into the 55, so the little BGKs were left without caves.  But they did have the smaller floating log and the clear “ghost tube” where they hid until it was time to move them.
By then I had added all the water into the 10gal, so I was able to refill the 55gal with new water (I only have one bucket, so I couldn’t refill the 55 until I had emptied the 55’s water into the 10gal).

I let all that sit for several hours.  I wanted both the tanks and the fish to have time to settle.

After 3 or 4 hours I went about transferring the new BGKs into the 55gal tank.  My big worry was how I was going to net them with as little trauma as possible.  It was actually easier then I thought it would be.  Because both of the hiding places they had left (the floating log and the ghost tube) were both round cylinder shaped I was simply able to place the net over one side and slowly lifted it up out of the water until the fish were in the net instead of the tubes.  The didn’t even notice much until I actually lifted them out of the water.
I decided to move Blake, the calm but curious one, first.  So I got him in the net and took him to the 55gal (which is only 3 feet away)  I put him on the same side of the tank as Cole (the left side), which turned out to be a little bit of a mistake.  He ended up going right into Cole’s cave.  They were both quite shocked to find another fish there!  Cole is only used to small zebras (which I think he is starting to eat now) and Blake was quite surprised at finding a fish of Cole’s size.  There was a little tussle (Blake wanted to both hide and also investigate the cave and Cole refused to give it up) but eventually they sorted it out and even ended up sharing the cave for a while!  Eventually Blake, the curious fish that he is, decided he had to investigate the rest of the tank and left Cole alone.  He eventually found the cave right around the corner from Cole’s and stayed there for a while.
After Blake was settled (it only took maybe 20-30 minutes) I got ready to move Devin, who was always the more aggressive of the two.  I got him in the net the same way as Blake, and put him in the opposite side of the tank as the other two.  After a little bit of frantic searching he found one of the caves on the right side of the tank and settled right in.

After a little bit Blake started investigating the rest of the tank in detail, and the was a little fight when he stumbled across Devin’s cave, but everything was fine once he moved on to do more searching.  Once it got dark out Devin came out and he would pick a fight with Blake if they ended up in the same area.  But one time he stumbled across Cole and went running (well quickly swimming anyway) in the opposite direction.  After that he has been much more subdued.  I have never seen Cole be aggressive in anyway, but apparently his large size is enough to put Devin in his place.  Whenever he sees Cole coming he will quickly get out of his way.  It kind of reminds me of when a soldier will move aside when someone higher in rank is coming down a hallway.  It is a subtle way of saying “you have the right of way”.

 

In the week since there have been only a few really minor arguments.  I hate to even call them that.  It’s mostly Cole telling Blake that he is being to pushy and to BACK OFF!  It’s really subtle (almost like a cat swatting another with it’s paw) and for the most part everyone gets along.  It turns out that Cole likes one of the smaller caves, the one that Blake picked originally.  It barely  fits him, but he seems to like it that way.  Blake has taken the large cave (Cole’s old one).  It’s weird to see the small fish in the large cave, and the big fish in the smaller one, but if they like it who am I to say different?  Cole sometimes views both his new cave and his old one as “his”, but Blake has been great about just calmly going to the other cave when Cole decides to change locations.  Devin has kept his original cave choice and pretty much doesn’t leave his cave.  If he does he avoids the other guys like the plague.

One thing I will say is that I’m really going through the fish food with these guys!  They eat bloodworms which I feed in cube form.  Cole gets 1 or 2 cubes a night, and each of the new guys are getting one every night (which is slightly over feeding them, but they were really skinny when I got them), and I normally give all of them one night off a week.  That adds up to about 20 cubes a week.  Each pack has 30 cubes, and costs about $5.00.  So it’s not going to be cheap to keep these guys well fed.  But I knew that before I got them.
I plan on getting several different kinds of food to try to give them a more varied diet.  From past experience Cole only really likes the bloodworms (and only the San Francisco Bay brand), but I’d like these new guys to have more variety then that, and maybe after a while Cole will like something different as well.

So that’s what’s up.  All in all it was pretty easy.  I was afraid that Cole would become aggressive when faced with his own kind, but he has handled these changes with his usual grace.  And the cherry-on-top is that Devin has become more subdued and doesn’t pick fights anymore.

My two new Black Ghost Knife fish, Blake and Devin, are still fighting.  Some of the fights are getting pretty nasty.  I haven’t seen any serious damage, but there are ripped fins, which I would prefer not to see.  Last night they spent most of the night fighting.  They will chase each other (actually Devin will chase Blake) and then they will just entwine themselves around each other and nip and bite.  Then they would take a rest for a few minutes and then they go back at it.  It reminded me of a boxing match.  The way that the two fighters will dance around each other for a while and then they actually come together and fight, and then they each go back to their respective corners before they start all over again.
In some ways it is very beautiful the way they dance around each other and entwine themselves, but it is also very violent.

I’m thinking that I need to move them over to the big tank sooner rather then later.  I’m not sure if I should move them over one at a time or move both together.  Part of me says that I should move Blake (the non-aggressive one) first so that he can establish “ownership” and maybe get a leg up on Devin.  But on the other hand I would rather move Devin first so that if something goes wrong (like a big fight between Cole and the new fish) I would rather that Devin gets hurt then Blake.  On the other hand (if I had three hands that is ) I think it would be better to move both of them at once so that they are both on equal footing.

I’m hoping that when I move them Cole will end up in charge.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that that will take Devin down a notch or two.  I know that some times “alpha” animals will become submissive when their pack is changed.  That was the case with my cat Sammy.  When it was just her and Shadow, she was the dominant, but when we got Smokey the order went Shadow, Smokey and then Sammy.  That was a hard transition for her, going from top dog (or cat in this case) to being the bottom of the totem pole.  And it was weird that the addition of Smokey left Shadow in charge, but that’s the way it worked out.

But anyway, back to the fish:
I’m nervous about how the introductions will go.  Cole hasn’t ever had takemates other then the zebras he shares this tank with.  He has never shown any aggression towards the zebras, and I’m hoping that it will be the same with these new BGKs.  But he’s never been around his own kind before (well since I’ve had him anyway) and I don’t know what his reaction will be.  And I don’t know if Devin will take it upon himself to fight with Cole, who just happens to be almost twice his size.  It could be that everything will go fine, and all this worry will be for nothing.  But it also could be that I could end up with fish that are hurt or even dead.

So here’s what I’m thinking (as of this moment anyway): I’m thinking that I’ll move both of them over on Saturday morning.  That way I have the whole day to watch how they interact with each other.  I think I’ll also rearrange the stuff in the big tank.  I need to create room for the two new slate caves anyway.  If the two of them got along I would have just put the two caves right next to each other, but with the way things are now I want them to be as far from each other as possible.

Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well!

I got two more Black Ghost Knife fish this weekend, which is the start of my hopeful breeding program.  I called around and found a store that had 10 or 15 of them.  Most places only have one or two, so that was a really big deal.  I had to drive an hour and a half, but it was worth it!

I took about 10 minutes to watch the behavior of all of the fish before I chose the ones I wanted.  You can tell I’m used to a smaller town.  I was so shocked when the guy who caught them got exactly the ones I asked for, which being that BGK’s are almost identical isn’t easy.  I’m so used to people that really have no idea what they’re doing.  My local pet store has some people that are completely clueless about fish.  So much so that I have offered to net the fish myself because the are having such a hard time (not to say that all of them are that way, the manager and the assistant manager are both great fish people).

Both of my new BGK’s are about 4 1/2 to 5″ long (it’s so hard to get a accurate measurement when they keep moving!).  And I measured my current one, Cole, at 8″!  I can’t believe he’s gotten so big!  Anyway- I set the two new ones up in my 10 gallon quarantine tank.  I’ll keep them there for a couple weeks to make sure they aren’t carrying some disease.  The last thing I want is for Cole to die from something they might have.
I made up lots of hiding places for them.  They each have their own slate cave (one on each side of the tank), which is a piece of slate leaned up against the corner of the tank (making a little lean-to or pup tent type of space).  They also have a “ghost tube” which is like a PVC pipe, but clear, and made for a fish tank.  And I gave them the small floating log, which used to be Cole’s before he outgrew it and I had to get a bigger one for him.  I also put in a fake plant for a little decoration, and as another hideout.  So that means 5 hideouts for two fish.

I’ve named them Blake and Devin.  I chose those names because they are kind of unisex.  Blake is more masculine, but could also be female, and Devin could be both male or female.  Because I don’t know the genders for sure, picking ones that could be both just kind of make sense.  Just like Cole could be Cole (male) or Cola (female).

Here’s what I’ve noticed about their personality in the past couple days:

Blake – this is the most active BGK I’ve ever seen.  He (I’ll use he for lack of a better pronoun, it just sounds weird) spends most of his time swimming around and checking stuff out.  He is always darting around for some reason or another, even in the middle of the day (when most BGK’s are hiding and/or sleeping).  He doesn’t seem to have one “favorite” hideout, he’s rarely still long enough to have one, but the slate cave on the left of the tank is kind of his home base.

Devin – this fish is really complicated.  On one hand he is quiet and prefers to stay in his cave rather then investigate.  But on the other hand he is very territorial and will attack Blake if he ventures into “his area”.  And some times “his area” is anywhere in his vicinity, even when he is out and about, so he’s not just protecting his cave.  He’ll attack Blake if he thinks he is getting to close (which Blake does quite often because he wants to investigate everything!).  Devin’s favorite hideout is the slate on the right side of the tank, but he sometimes likes the floating log.

I don’t think the fights they have are major, as I haven’t seen any damage from it, but it’s still something I’ll need to keep an eye on.  It could be that they just need to figure out who’s in charge, and once that’s done everything will be fine.  And it could be that Devin is acting out because he doesn’t like change.  I know I can sometimes get cranky if a change is forced on me, so maybe that’s all this is.  But it could be that this is his personality.  Either way I’ll need to watch them to make sure that no one (mostly Blake) is getting hurt.

I’m not sure what I’ll do when I move them to the big 55 gallon with Cole.  Part of me wants to divide off part of the tank so that they can all get used to each other without having direct contact.  And part of me says that they will either get along or they won’t, and that it doesn’t matter how I introduce them.
I have a couple weeks before that happens, so I don’t need to make that decision right away.

Once I get them moved over I’ll think more about breeding.  But for right now I’ll just injoy having two new fish!

Cole (my black ghost knife) and I finally have a routine down for his feeding time.  I feed him cubed bloodworms via tongs to his cave.  It used to be that he would freak out when I would put the cube into his cave, and he would be so scared that he would refuse to eat.

But no more.  Now I tap the (metal) tongs gently on the glass before I open the lid.  Then he comes out of the cave and goes into the floating log that is his other hideout.  Then I can move the floating log (with him inside it) and get at his cave, put the bloodworms in, and get out without really disturbing him.  He then waits a few seconds and dashes back down to his cave to chow down.

I am very happy with this new routine, and I am glad we finally got something worked out.

—————————–

On a slightly different note:  I still haven’t gotten another BGK.  I’ve ordered one, but it still hasn’t come in.  My store said something about them being higher priced.  I don’t know why that matters, but whatever.  The manager also said that she wasn’t sure that one was even ordered.  I’m a little frustrated with that.  They have gotten several things I’ve ordered wrong lately.  I’ve never had this problem before.  They have always been great about ordering whatever I needed.  Sometimes it takes a while to get in, but it was always right.  I’ve been thinking about trying to go to another store.  That one is the only one in my town, so I’ll have to travel, but I’m starting to get fed up with them.

I’m going to my mom’s this weekend, so maybe I’ll try calling some stores around her to see if they have a BGK.  Last time I went to a Petsmart (in a different town then were my mom lives) they had two really tiny BGKs.  Like under two inches.  I’d never seen ones so small!  But the smaller they are, the more fragile they are.  So it’s a risk trying a smaller one.

I might have to try an online store.  Drs. Foster and Smith (on their fish store Live Aquaria) have BGKs, and are only a few hours away from me, so shipping wouldn’t be that stressful on the fish.  I won’t be able to tell if it’s male or female though.  Although some places I’ve read lately have said that the face shape isn’t a male/female difference, but just a different strain.  So even if I got a different face shaped one, it might not be female.  Not much is know about it, so it’s a gamble either way.

I’ve been thinking about upgrading my tank size, from my 55gal to either a 75 or 90gal.  Then I might be able to get several BGKs, I was thinking maybe 4 (total, so 3 more), and then chances are I would have a male and female somewhere in the bunch.  I could then keep the 55 as a grow out tank for the babies, or a breeding tank for the pair, one or the other.  I just don’t know where I’d put a second tank.

Wow, what started off as simple post has gotten quite long.  But it’s what’s been on my mind alot lately.

Cole and I have finally gotten a good feeding routine down.

I’ve taken out the smaller cave.  That seems to have helped.  Now most of the time he stays in the floating log, but I have to move the floating log to get to the cave, so he knows he’s getting fed, so I don’t mind.  It takes a few minutes for him to come out after I take my hand out of the tank, but this gives the bloodworms time to losen up and warm up (they’re frozen).  It’s so funny to see him come out because once he does he goes whipping down to the cave and chows down like he hasn’t seen food in years.

The only problem with this is that the floating log is right in front of one of the filters.  So the water is flowing right towards it.  Cole then has to lay in these weird positions just to get out of the flow.  But he has another option, so it’s his fault if he doesn’t take it.

Just some things that are one my mind, but don’t deserve there own post:

I bred my Dragon Cave adults this weekend.  I got two eggs!  Well really three, but the third was a purple that I abandoned.  I kept a Grey and a White.  I got a white last week as well, but it was male (which I already have), so I abandoned it.  I’m hoping for both the new eggs to be female.  I really want a silver egg from my silver female, but so far no luck.  Oh, and guess what?  Paper dragons don’t breed.  So I’ll have to wait till I can find another and hope it’s female.

I got my meditation cushions on friday!  I tried them out for a few minutes and found I could get comfortable pretty easily.  I plan to start meditating today after work.  I’ll have to think about what I want to do on days that I need to take a shower.  I could meditate and then shower, or the other way around.  I think my yoga dvd is coming wednesday or thursday.  I’ll be excited to try that as well.

I found this really cool site for hair sticks.  I don’t think I’ve talked about this one before: Ketylo Sticks.  Now comes the daunting task of deciding which ones I want.  I think for my first order I’ll do two singles and one pair, so four sticks total.  I really like the Dymondwood colors.  They are waterproof as well.  But I’m stuck on what size to get.  They come in 5″, 6″ and 7″.  I quite often put my hair up with pens and pencils, and they are (about) 5″.  But as my hair gets longer I might need the longer sticks.  I’m thinking that I might go with 6″.
Here’s my favorites:        (** = first choice,  * – second choice,  no star = last choice)
Agatewood**
Charcoal Silvertone
Cocobolo Macassar*
Colonial Chestnut*
Hazelnut**
Indigo Royalwood**
Tropical Purplewood*
Turquoise Gemwood
-These aren’t Dymondwood, but I like them as well.
White Spalted*
Blue Black
Gold
Bocote
Cocobolo*
I’m thinking I’ll go with a pair of the Hazelnut, and one each of Agatewood and Indigo Royalwood.  But that’s what I’m thinking today.  I seem to change my mind everyday.

I’ve been having a problem with Nitrates in my fish tanks.  I’ve always known that you need to be concerned about nitrites, but that nitrates were harmless.  Well recently I’ve read that now they found that being exposed to a high level of nitrates for a long period of time can be harmful to your fish.   Most of the time you want them between 0-15, with 40 being MAX.  Mine are at 200!  No mater what I seem to try I can get them down for a little bit, but then they pop back up.
High nitrates come from several sources: a new tank that’s not balanced yet (not my problem), over feeding, and lack of water changes.  So it seems that it’s all my falt!  Isn’t that nice!  I know that I don’t change the water as often as I should.  But with a 55gal tank, that involves alot of water.  I need to set up a schedule of weekly or bi-weekly water changes.  I also need to pay attention to how much I feed.  I lost alot of fish in the past year (possibly to high nitrates?) so maybe I’m feeding my current fish to much.  I’ll watch how much I feed from now on.
So those are the preventitives, but I need to get those nitrates in line before they will help any.  I found this great water change rutine to get rid of nitrates.  I just did that big water change when I move the tank a few weeks go, and the nitrates were better, but not great.  But now they’re through the roof again.  Now I think I need to do this method and then really watch my feeding and do like 20% water changes at least twice a week for a while.  If I can’t get them in line with that, then I’m in big trouble.
I’m sure my back is going to LOVE this…..

Well there are some of the thoughts that have been floating around in my much to busy brain.

So I didn’t get my female Black Ghost Knife.  In fact the fish store didn’t even have a BGK.  It seems they ordered a BGK, but they got sent a African (black) Knife.  Which is somewhat similar, but not the same fish.  I can’t believe that they could order one thing and get sent another!  They seemed kind of disappointed that I didn’t want to take it.  Well, 1: it’s not what I ordered; and 2: I’m trying to breed, so another type of fish won’t help will it?

So now it’s back to waiting.  I’m not sure how soon they’ll get it in.  They might want to wait until this one sells to order a new one.  Being that I’m not “for sure” taking it, I kind of understand that.  I mean I’ll only take it if it’s female, and if it isn’t then they’ll be stuck with a African Knife and a BGK.

——————————-

Cole and I are having problems.  I want to feed him in this one cave, but he doesn’t like that cave, and as soon as I put my hand in the tank he hides in the second cave on the other side of the tank.  And then he won’t come out for a long time.  So the zebra’s end up eating it.  Which they don’t mind, but it means Cole doesn’t get food.  So I started putting it in the second cave, the one he prefers, but it’s so small it barely fits him, so when I push the cube of bloodworms in he freaks out about something “coming at him”, and ends up swimming away anyway.

I think what I’ll try is taking out the second cave.  It’s really to small for him anyway, he ends up all squished.  Then he’ll have no choice but to use the bigger cave.  And that has plenty of room for me to stick the food in at the top and not bother him.  I know he doesn’t like that big cave (he thinks it’s to big and not “cozy”), but it will be much better for him in the end.

I want him to get used to using the bigger cave because I want the smaller cave to be for the female once I get her.  Being that he’s bigger he should have the bigger cave.

Hopefully we’ll get something worked out soon.  He hasn’t had a decent meal in a week, even though I’ve been feeding every day.

I just got a call from my fish store that they got a Black Ghost knife in!  They don’t know how to sex them, so I’ll have to go there to check, but if it’s female I’ll be taking her home!  Knowing this has made the last hour of work seem really long.  It will be worth it if I get a female!

Now I have so many thoughts running through my head (assuming it’s female, and I take her home):  Will she be healthy?  Will she survive all the tank changes?  Will she and Cole get along once I move her in with him?  What will her temperment be like?  What food will she like to eat?  Will she be friendly or reclusive?  Will I actually be able to breed these fish?  How many babies would they have?   ……..

For the 2-4 weeks I’ll keep her in a quarentene tank.  This is for several reasons:  1- If she is sick, or carring some disease I don’t want her to get the rest of my fish sick.  2- It’s a whole lot easier to see if she’s eatting if it’s a small tank.  In the 55gal the rest of the fish would eat the leftover food.

Well now it’s quitting time, so I’m off to the pet store!

I just realized that I didn’t update you on how my fish supplies are working!

I told you that one of my filters was making a weird noise and that I called Foster & Smith to get a replacement.  That was on a Saturday.  I got the replacement on the next TUESDAY!  I was so surprised!  The return label, sent by mail, didn’t arrive until Wednesday or Thursday.

I have the replacement installed, as well as the Chemi-pure filter media.  My tank has never been clearer!  I should have done it a long time ago!  The new filters are like wisper quiet too.  I was worried that going from one filter to two would double the sound volume, but I don’t think it has.  I think these two combined are quieter then my last one.  I haven’t done water tests lately to see what my levels are like.  I should do that tonight.  I should really keep a record of what my results are.  I’ll add a little notebook to my shopping list.  I still need to cut down the extension pipes.  I’m just afraid I’ll cut them down to much, and you can’t just slap that length back on. 

I think I said that I have ordered another Black Ghost Knife from my local fish store.  I placed the order about a week and a half ago, and it still hasn’t come in, so that’s a little disappointing.  I know I shouldn’t get my hopes up, it could very well turn out to be male, and then I’d have to wait some more.  But now that I’ve decided to breed Cole I want to get started on it NOW!  I know it will be quite a while, probably like a year, before the female would be breeding size, so once I get her I would still need to wait.  And in addition some BGK don’t handle moves well, so sometimes they die within a week or so.  I quarantine all my new fish, so that helps reduce some of the stress.

So here I sit trying to patiently wait till I get my new BGK……..
I’m normally a very patient person, but sometimes when I really excited about something I just want it now!  I don’t want to wait, once I make the decision I want it to be done quick, quick, quick!

My day has been busy!  Well by my standards anyway…

Last post I said that someone (my mother actually) was going to help me move the fish tank.  So mom stays here when she is in town on buisness, so this morning started off slow, we watched a move, ate breakfast…

But then about 10am we decided we had to get a move on, so I started emptying water from the tank.  That was HARD WORK!  I took about 6 buckets out, I think each bucket is 4 gallons, that’s what 24 gallons?  Just about half of my 55gal.  I tested it and I was able to move the tank, so then I asked for help.  She didn’t do much, just helped me guide it, but it was nice having another person there.  You know, just in case the worst happened.  It actually went really easily.  It’s on carpet, so I just grabbed the back and front of the stand and pulled.  I only needed an inch or two, so that made it easier.  I pulled one side out to far, so I had to push it back in, but that wasn’t a big deal.  I think it only took maybe 10 minutes.  And that was with me getting the tape measure out and making sure that both sides were at an equal distance from the wall.

Then I had to replace all the water I had taken out, so then that meant another 6 or 7 buckets of water.  Have I mentioned how heavy water is?  Well if you don’t know, it is REALLY heavy.

I then had to run an errand with my mom before she left town, so that took about an hour.

When I got home I installed my new filters.  Right away I found out that one of the filters made a weird noise when I hooked it up, so I had to call Drs. Foster and Smith and they are sending me a replacement.  But the other one is working great.  One thing that I didn’t like is that the intake extention for deep tanks was to long.  Just so you know, my 55gal (and the next size up the 75gal) is 21 inches deep so they should have taken that into account as the standard depth of tanks that would have to use the extender.  I think what I’ll do is once the replacement gets here I’ll just use a little saw (like one for pvc pipe) and just cut a little off both pipes.  They fit inside of the intake basket and the connector, so I wouldn’t even have to get it even or smooth.  Right now I have the one that works in there with the shorter tube, so it will filter, but it won’t pull from the bottom, just the middle of the tank.

So that was my day!  Now I’m just sitting on the couch with my laptop chilling out from all that hard work.

My cat Sebastian, who doesn’t like company, is glad to have me all to himself again.  He is sitting on the back of the couch with his tail draped over my sholder.  He prefers to have some part of himself touching me if at all possible.  Some people might find that smothering, but not me.  I love that he wants to be close to me.

I didn’t move my tank last night.  I have someone coming over to help me tonight or tomorrow.  I think it will be much easier with two people.  Even if the other person just makes sure I’m not tipping the tank as I move it.  I won’t have to empty it completely.  I just need to get it light enough to slide forward that inch or two.

I placed another order for fish stuff.  I know! I can’t stop!  I ordered two more of the MoonGlow lights (like I planned to do), I really like how the one I have looks!  A pack of Chemi-Pure, which is a filter media (that’s placed into the filter) that looks really great.  And then some 6-in-1 Dip Sticks to test water quality (which I’ve been doing alot lately).
I didn’t order a filter for my 10gal because I realized that I could get one at a local store for cheaper, and I wouldn’t have to pay shipping. 

I’ll have a really awesome tank once I’m done!  I’m really upgrading alot of stuff from “beginner” quality, to a more ”intermediate” quality.  I’m definatly not a beginner when it comes to fish, but I kind of kept a beginner tank setup.  I don’t know why.  But between the new filters and the chemi-pure I should have much better water quality.  Some claim than by using the chemi-pure you don’t have to do any water changes at all!  That would be AWESOME!  And you only have to replace them every 4-6 months!

I also got a new background for both my tanks.  I only installed the 10gal one so far, but I really like it!  I’ll wait till after I move the 55gal, but before I refill, to do that one.  Then I’ll have those couple more inches to maneuver with.  The other person will also be helpful here, so that I don’t have to run back and forth trying to get it level!  OOPS!  I think I just showed how much of a perfectionist I am.  Oh, well.

I’ll let you know when it’s all set up!

An update to yesterday’s post about the stuff I ordered for my 55gal fish tank:

I was so excited to get everything set up.  But… it didn’t happen like that.  The new filters that I got don’t fit in the space I have behind the tank.  They are like 1″-2″ too big.  That means in order to get them to work I’ll have to empty out most of the tank water, try to slide it forward that inch or two, and then refill it.  That will be A LOT of work.  I might try to tackle that tonight.  I so want to get those filters on so I can see how they work!

The other item I bought was a MoonLight bulb.  After I figured out that the filters wouldn’t work I decided to try the light.  IT IS SO AWESOME!!  I not only have Cole that tank, but also some “glow fish” zebras.  They looked like they were lit up with neon light!  I was also able to see Cole swimming around.  I think I need 2 lights to make it really work though.  I tried putting it above the tank, but then it only really illuminated where it was pointing.  So then I tried putting it hanging down the front of the tank, but then it was like a spotlight on the center of the tank, but nowhere else.  Then I put it on the side of the tank, this is by far the best option.  It shines down the length of the tank and illuminates almost everything.  But because my tank is 4 feet long it was really light on one side, but really dim on the other.  I think I’ll get another for the other side of the tank.  Then the whole thing will be lit up!  I think I’ll also get one for the 10 gallon.  Even if I don’t like it on the 10gal I could keep it as a back up in case one of the other ones die.  And they are on sale after all!

I also want to get a filter for the 10gal.  I should have thought of that when I ordered everything else, but I didn’t.  But now I’ll be able to get my 2 MoonLights as well!

So that’s the update.  Not as great as I thought it was going to be, but if I’m able to move the tank tonight I’ll give an update tomorrow.