Coelacanth

Some Jap researchers had found the prehistoric fish, Coelacanth, (pronounce see-la-kanth) off the Indonesia Sulawesi coast. They had shot a short footage and now is available on youtube, it's pretty cool. The fish is a very old species dated back 400 million years ago, and scientists say they haven't change a bit on their shapes and sizes. Check out the video footage, it's pretty cool how they flip their fins like a reverse cycle tumble dry washing machine.

Ice ice fishie

Today's weather was ferociously hot! I knew it's gonna be a hot day so I decided not to go outside and stayed inside the office whole day. The weather temperature was way over 30 degrees today, and everyone came back into the office from outside they all sweating like pigs. As much as I want to stay inside under the cool air conditioner, eventually I had to step outside around 6pm to go home. The weather was just like the old days in Malaysia, it was hot and humid up to 85%, I just hate this kind of weather so much. All sticky and sweaty.

When I got home, it wasn't much better than outside either. Because we normally have all windows and door shut so Pepe can't go out, so all the hot air just trapped inside the house. And when I looked at the fish tank, the thermometer on the tank is reading 30 degree!! I quickly put my hand into the tank to test the water and thank god the water wasn't as hot as the thermometer says. I think the thermometer is reading the room air instead of the tank, but still the water seems bit warm and goldfish prefers cold water. So I quickly poured in 2 bucket of tap water and let them cool down a bit. And since is such a hot day, so I thought everyone should have a cool refreshing treat. So I filled up the ice trays to make some ice blocks. Hours later after dinner, the ice was set. So I cracked em opened, and dumped them into the fish tank and the goldfish seems to enjoying it!!! Shall I put some vodka and a slice of lemon in I wonder....

More Babies

It looks like a good sign in my fish tank. The water must have been stabilised if the gold fish decided to have another go and laid more eggs! I didn't notice anything unusual when I fed the fish this morning until I sat down in front of the fish tank and putting my socks on ready to go to work. Only noticed the ranchu goldfish, Siew Mai, and few others swimming around the Java moss and thought they are trying to eat the plant again. But then I had a closer look, and the eggs are stick to the moss everywhere. All the cheeky buggers already chomping all the eggs down. The blackmoors and Lippy the fantail kept chasing after Siew Mai's tail and trying to suck more eggs out of her, you know where.

As I swore not to keep them this time, so I will let themselves decide their own fate. Besides, I am going on vacation this Thursday, so I won't have time to keep an eye on them anyway. Unless anyone out there want some goldies, feel free to contact me, you can come and take some for free. I have to say the whole process of growing them is kinda fun though.

Up up to the Skye

Sad news, very sad news. Both of my celestials finally gone to heaven. No matter how many times I've changed the water in the tank, the fish still seems unhappy with the water condition. Not long after the deaths of Nemo the newly hatched goldie and Skye one of the celestial goldie, another celestial goldie, Sunshine, passed away last Monday. The celestials definitely one of the most unqiue goldfish in my tank, but unfortunately they both gave up due to my negligence. X-X...

I've cleaned my fluval filter many times, and also changed the water numerous occassions, but the fish still seems having trouble breathing, and lost their appetites. The only thing I havent cleaned for a while was the big filter. I thought I can avoid for not cleaning it, as it's a big task. But it was looking serious losing 2 fish in one week, so finally I decided to do another half water changed, clean both filters!!! I hope the big clean up will get rid as much bad bacteria as possible and the fish will get well soon. Poor Sebastien almost lost his tail again, but he still swimming upside down happily. What a fighter. I hope the tank will become stable again, if not I can't imagine what will happen to them when I come back from New Zealand in a week time.

Gone to heaven

Mwaaaa.a.a.a.a.aaaaa.a.a.a.aaa.!!! I AM SOOOOO SORRY!!! Please forgive meeeeeE~~!!!! As I've been neglecting almost everything around the house due the busy schedule of making the shortfilm, last weekend one of my beautiful celestial died. I've already noticed the tank wasn't that healthy, and the celestial normally is a bottom swimmer, but one of them had been swimming right on top of the tank for couple of days. I thought maybe he is sick or bloated, so I added some medication into the tank and see what happen. I've also been planning to do a water change as well but the fact is I am just lazy. One night last week I did manage to do a quick change of the water but maybe just 20% of it, just so the fish had bit of freshwater to drink instead of swimming in their own urine the whole time. Unfortunately, when I woke up Saturday morning, one of the Celestial seems like just watched "The Ring" video tape, he eyes bulged, and mouth wide opened, and he is dead. Oh well, I kinda upset but is too late now. So I got him out of the tank before the other fish start getting sick by getting infection from him. I was tossing whether I should just flush him or bury him in the courtyard. Pete suggested to flush it, just incase Pepe my cat sniffs him out and eat it. So there he went down the flush with a swing of the handle.



I had a closer of the tank and something seems not quite right. All the fish is very very lazy and not eating any food I put in. Hours later all the food still there at the bottom of the tank, but all the fish just gasping for air on top of the tank. Even the white clouds are lacking of oxygen. Before I have more casualties, I quickly did a 50% water change, get rid of all the crap sunk at the bottom. And give them some antibiotics. I took the newly hatched baby, Nemo out of the tank while doing the cleaning. When I almost finished cleaning it and had a look of Nemo, and he is DEAD TOO!!!! Mwaaawaaaa.a.a.a.a.a.aaaa.a.a~!!!! All my effort!!!! All my brine shrimp hatching effort!!!! I think while I did the transferring him into a bowl, he must have freaked out and panicked, heart-attacked and died. Oh well, no more hatching for me from now on I think. It's much cheaper to buy them from a shop! But it was fun to go through the whole process but definitely not doing it ever again.

Now all my fish swimming happily, and eating food again. And have to give respect to the little oranda, Sebatien for being a fighter. He lost most of his tail, and swimming upside down, and went through the water crisis, and he is still a survivor happily swimming in the tank. God bless Sebastien.

Nemo is growing

My fishies seems being neglected lately due to trying to fit so many things into my schedule at once. The fish tank looks bit unhealthy, and fishies seems swimming kinda slowly. And one of the celestial goldfish seems to float in midair all the time while they meant to be the bottom swimmers. In the mean time, Nemo is growing slowly and he looks more like a fish now than before. And thank god I don't have to brew those brine shrimp again, it was quite an effort.

Tonight decided to just give the tank a quick water change, nothing too major. As I still have Nemo inside the net on top of the tank, so I can only made a 25% water change. Pulled out some of the dead plant, and the Java Moss is a mess in the tank. Hopefully it will give the fishies bit of clean water to drink, at least they don't have to swim in their urine the whole time. I am such a good care taker... not!

Last fry standing

Finally, the frys are now down to the one and only. The only fry that is still alive... well I hope so. Tthe others were all gone to heaven. I am not sure why, they are well fed and good home, but they still all dying on me. The last one is pretty strong, growing bigger each day, can start to see its fins, flapping and swimming around. He is my last and only fry that is still alive... and I shall call him... "NEMO".

5 to go

Man, I almost hit rock bottom with those baby frys. I am pretty sure I retrieved over 20 eggs, there were about 18 frys hatched. Days go by, it was down to around 15, then 12, then 10, cuz some just weak and some just stucked between the fry breeding net. So I decided to start get them out and feeding them with brine shrimp. They are happy with the food, but some just choked on the cyst. And more casualties day by day. then 8, then 7, and yesterday it was down to 6 frys. I thought they are bit bigger, so I've decided to move them back to the breeding net inside the fish tank. At least they can get better water and oxygen living inside the fish tank. And today when I checked again, there are only 5 left!!! One must have got stucked inside the fishnet again. Grrrrr..... I am getting frustrated, and is not easy to keep them alive. It takes time to hatch brine shrimps and now they just giving up on me! Damn it...... I wondering whether I should keep the eggs next time if the gold fish spawn again, whether it's really worth the effort, when they only sell $3 each at the fish shop.

Hatching Brine Shrimp eggs

Just in case you haven't noticed, I hatched them inside a coffee plunger! LOL ^_^

For the fish enthusiasts probably want to know some updates on my goldfish babies that were born few weeks back. Well I think I gathered about 20 eggs, and put inside a net, but I only spotted around 15 babies were hatched. Since then, there are some casualties, some frys get stucked between the stitches inside the net and couldn't get out and died. So you can imagine how tiny and weak they are.

I've been doing lots of homework on how to feed the baby frys, so far I've tried almost everything. I've tried to boil potato and let it rot for the plankton inside, and I've crushed the fishfood into powder form to feed them. They did eat some but not much. And another technique is hard boiled egg and use the egg yolk to feed them. But finally, I took up the challenge and bought some brine shrimp eggs and decide to hatch them as they are the best food for newly born fry as they are full of nutritious cuz it still carrying its egg sack after hatched.

My first attempt was a failure, as most of the techniques I found on google saying must keep the temperature at 28 degrees. So I put a spotlight right next to the water to keep it warm, but next morning when I check my little experiment, steam was coming out of the water. Oops, I think I just cooked them. So I gave it another try yesterday in the morning. I bought proper rock salt, and some baking soda. I let it brew and went out for the day. Many websites saying it will take 24 hours to hatch them, but when I checked them again at night, I was surprise to see some tiny creatures swimming around in the water! I've taken a video of the baby brine shrimp swimming, but they are ultra tiny, so even the macro feature on the digital camera won't help. But you can figure out something is swimming zig zag everywhere in the water. I scraped some out to feed the goldfish fry and spotted a few chasing after the brine shrimp, kinda fun to watch.




Update: Here's a picture I took earlier today while feeding the brine shrimps to the fry. All those orange-ish particles are brine shrimps, the darker color ones are unhatched eggs, I think I am overfeeding them.. oops!

小生命

This morning as usual, woke up and fed the fish and checked out the eggs. OMG!!!!! There are babies swimming about!!! I was soo excited and happy, finally some eggs are hatched into fry. Nasi Lemak with Ikan Bilis or Caesar Salad with Anchovies anyone?! heehehehe...

I'm gonna be father!!!

Woke up this morning, fed my fish as usual, I thought I saw lots of white water mark on the back of my tank. I had a closer look then I noticed is everywhere inside the tank!!! They are eggs!!! I can't confirmed what kinda eggs they are but from my research, I am 99% sure they are goldfish eggs... very excited!! But the goldfish already start eating the eggs, so I have to act fast and get a seperate tank or a spawning net, if I wanna seee some babies. HAPPY!!!

Fish n Chips, anyone?

Holy mother fucking god!!!! This is an enormous fish!!! The fishermen had caught this catfish in the Mekong River, Thailand. It weighs 293KG, equivalent to a giant grizzly bear!!! I don't like to eat catfish much, cuz they always taste bit muddy. Man.... I do believe this fish perhaps is the River God, how unfortunate....

UPDATE: You can check out more of the enormous monsters from the deep sea.... the giant squids massacre on shore is almost like a scene from a sci fi movie... I bet it stinks...

Dancing with the fish

Just had a big clean up for the tank last night, trying to get rid of as much snails as possible. In the mean time, I kinda moved the decor around a bit so the little Fatty Fatty Boom Boom won't always just hide behind the rock. I removed the Easter Island statue away, and now the tank looks more natural. And I was trying the long exposure photoshoot and the result is kinda interesting. The fishies are like dancing...

Another interesting activity I've noticed is the white clouds. As you probably already one of the white cloud is having a big fat white tummy which I suspect is pregnant. But it has been almost 6 weeks now and still see no sign of babies. Tonight I've been observing them, and seems like there was some mating ritual going on. The pregnant tummy tends to swim along with another white cloud the most time, then they will slow down, with all the fins wide open, and both glided side by side for few seconds and seperated. This has been going for quite some time until I fed them. Very interesting, hopefully will see some babies.

Invasion in my tank!!!!

Man... this is not cool!!! I came home today and found there are white dots everywhere in my tank, and I had a closer look and I was shock, they are BABIES!!! I am suspecting they are snail babies, which can be PEST!!



I didn't notice any egg lavae, or any lump at all for the last few days and now suddenly this shell hanging on the side of the tank and babies crawling everywhere. I've checked the internet and wondering whether they are the baby snails of my 2 Apple snails, but they are not. The picture shown normally apple snails has pink color eggs. By comparing the size of the empty shell stuck to my tank, they are definitely not apple snail eggs. Then it must be the one and only pond snail i have in the tank, and guess what I found on internet....

Pond snails are hermaphroditic, meaning a single individual produces both egg cells and sperm cells.

Looks like I am in deep shit!!!



I alreayd noticed most of the snails already crawling to the top of the tank, and soaking up the heat from the lighting. I think I will just give them a big swipe and get rid of them..... what a disaster... :(

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom

Hand itchy, I went to the fish shop today meant to get a thermometer for the tank and ended up with another goldfish! This will be my last and the 9th goldfish in the tank, is a Feng Shui thing, means long live. I couldn't resist when I saw this little cute Pearl Scale in the shop. He is sooo tiny, and ballooned tummy, swimming around in the tank so I named him Fatty Fatty Boom Boom. LOL... He is so tiny compare to the other goldfish I have, and sometimes he got freaked out when the big goldies come swimming near him and quickly hide behind the plant. Cute little bugger.




On the other hand, my poor Sebastien, the oranda still swimming head down, butt in the air. His tail is healing and growing slowly, hopefully it will get bigger sooner so he can have his balance back again. Another news is a GOOD NEWS! One of my White Cloud has been pregnant for about 2 weeks now, her tummy turned white and bloated compare to others. But still not laying the eggs yet, so I might have to do a water change soon, so when she lay eggs I won't disturb or accidentally suck out all the frys. I've heard they can lay hundreds at one go, so I am not really taking it seriously about the whole pregnancy cuz I don't want end up with lots of fish in the tank. So I will just let them do their jobs, I don't mind a few babies, but some might get eaten, some might die... that's what the nature is all about.

White Cloud Mountain, Hidden Minnow

The white clouds swimming at the top.


the Big Fat Oranda, Tango.


The tank suddenly look more colorful with the black vinyl background.


I was bored, did some freelance over weekend, so decided to go out to Manly and check the fishy out. Last time I got laughed at when I told the guy at the fish shop in Neutral Bay that I want to mix Goldfish with Neon Tetras because goldfish is coldwater fish and tetras is tropical fish and needs warm water. I know the idea is stupid, and the tank probably look tacky with goldfish and some small fish too, but I just want something tiny to contrast with the goldies. So I didn't care what he said, and went to Manly fish shop today and decided to introduce some tropical fish into my tank.

I was looking at all the tropicals, and the neon tetras is still the nicest one around. And then I spotted some cold water tropical fish at the back of the shop and they are not bad looking either, just nice to go with the goldfish, so I decided to have some of them. They are called White Cloud Mountain Minnow, but normally people just called them White Clouds. The name is quite ZEN if you asked me. They've got white reddish body, a red tail with black dot, a silver line on the body with blue neon eyecap, almost like a neon tetra. When I got home I put them into the tank, and so far they mainly swimming on the top of the tank, so is bit hard to spot them with the water level with my fish tank hood cover it up. And I bought the black vinyl background for the tank to hide the wires as well. I prefer black then blue cuz the black really makes all the colour in the tank stands out and more vibrant. Happy! And my Tango, the Oranda is fatter and cutest as always. :P

Big clean up day.

The new makeover


Sebastien starts healing back with black tail


One of my goldfish, Sebastien had fin rot a week ago, I panicked, and been treating it with Melafix since. And I decided to replace all the filter media at one go to give them a healthier tank. Since there is nothing else better to do on Anzac Day, so I've decided to give the fish tank a good scrub. I pulled all the plant out and threw out a huge amount of them!!, scrubbed all the algae of the back of the tank, did a 50% water change, and replaced all the filter media with new good quality carbon and sponge pad. The whole process almost took me 2 hours. I hope Sebastien will get well soon.


Snowflake is a male!


In the mean time, I have noticed some of the goldfish start to show sign of the gender. I can confirmed at least 4 of them (both blackmoors Snowflake and Snowball, Tango the Oranda and Lippy the little Fantail) are males now with dots on their fins. I've read they only show sign during spring time when is time for mating, but in Australia now just about to turn into winter, so I am not quite sure what is going on. But will be interesting if they do have babies one day. Apart from that, since I bought the Hikari food for the Orandas and Ranchu, they definitely have grown significantly, and the shape of their heads definitely grown bigger. Read further and check out some of the pics for comparison when they were young and the full grown body now.

Sebastien


Tango


Siew Mai, I don't think Siew Mai's head will ever grown bigger even he is a Ranchu, I think there is some deformation in his gene, cuz he already have one eye growing inside the head not like the others.

Flowing Fluval

Bought the fish a new filtration system the other day and finally arrived today. It is a Fluval 3, can power around 700lph. It definitely will help on the filtration in the tank and so the fishie will have a cleaner tank and a happier life.

water plant named

Today I went back to a pet shop and managed to get those waterplant that I bought the other day identified. The names are quite exotic, I couldn't find the scientific name for "aluminium", thats what they have named them in the shop.

Plant the tank

My fish tank was bit dull with Elodea everywhere and a small anubias on driftwood, so decided to introduce more plants to give the fish tank a new makeover. At the pet shop, I can pick up to 3 different kind of plants for only $15.00, bargain! So I've picked some mid tank plant for the contrast, but I have no idea what they called!! If anyone knows what they are, please let me know! Maybe I should plant some 'kangkung' then I can cook them with Sambal! mwahahha!



A nice red purplish foliage plant, and the one to the right I think is Temple- narrow leaf.



This plant is rather unique, with white pattern on the leaf.

Lippy, a little clown.

It's been a while since the tank has a new member. Well I did introduced some algae eating catfish which turned nasty and sucking the fish. They died after I took them out of the tank. Then I introduced 2 gold snails last week which are doing fairly well chewing up the green. Today I went to Manly for breakfast with mates, and stopby at the Aquarium World again. I just couldn't help myself and decided to bring homea new member. Her name is Lippy!! Well, she just a funny little clown fish who likes wearing lipstick. Well not a clown fish really, but Lippy actually is a fantail. I hope she uses Loreal with a better waterproof lipstick on. She looks so cute and silly in the tank cuz her size is much smaller than the others. She keeps chasing after the others to play with her. Funny little bugger. And the tank isn't looking that appealing just with a rock, my Hagalugi mountain and loads of Elodea, so decided to get some hardy, slow growing plant for bit of contrast in the tank as well. I bought this Anubias plant which attached to a piece of driftwood, it is definitely not cheap at $30! But it looks stunning in the tank even though my interior design for the tank is hopeless.

2 new pals in the neighbourhood

Since the sucking catfish died after I took them out of the tank for being naughty sucking the goldfish, the algae started to grow back and my water changing routine start increasing. So I've decided to introduce some new pals to do the job. I went to Mosman to check out this new aquarium that just opened Dave been mentioning about. The shop itself is quite nice, in dim light and fluoresecent light to keep the fish tank, and the fish look so vivid and colorful under dim light in the shop. And I am glad to see the tank are much bigger than the other shop with hundred of fish fighting for space in a small 1ft tank. This shop has lots of freshwater fish and some nice gold fish too with a very reasonable price. I don't mind to pay more as the fish look quite healthy swimming in the big tank. I've decided to grab 2 snails and testing it out whether they will eat the clean up the algae. I am not very fond of snails, the slimey little bugger... looks like an alient out of the Star Wars film. I put them in the tank and they slowly popping out from their shell. They are so weird looking with eyes and tentacles, and their flesh has some fluorescent orange dots all over....very... er... interesting.

Oh, and I bought some Hikari Food
for the goldies as well. So far I've beeen only using cheap brand fish food for them to grow, and now they are about 2 to 3 inches long so I've decided is time for them to develop to their inner beauty. The food I bought is specially for head growth for the Ranchu and Oranda. Can't wait to see the results in 1 month time.

SUCK SUCK SUCK!

2 little sucking catfish come to the rescue!


The bunch eating their meal happily in a nice clean tank.

The tank getting filthy with algae due to the warm humid weather for the last couple of days. So decided to have a big clean of the tank and hopefully it will last till I am away at Tasmania during Xmas. In the mean time, today decided to introduce 2 algae eaters - Sucking Catfish. They shouldn't post any harm to the goldfish so long there is algae for them to suck on cuz the lady at the pet shop said they might start to suck other fish for their slime if there is no algae for them to eat. But I am sure they can have a big feast with the algae I have in the tank within days. And the Elodea plant is growing like mad!!! The CO2 unit I bought obviously is working! I had 3 bunches of the Elodea and they grow almost 10cm in a week! Now I have about 6 bunches in the tank and eventually I will be able to sell it back to the shop!

Sunshine, Skye and Siew Mai

My tank had been in critical condition for the last couple of weeks from the high level of nitrite and nitrate threat but finally it stabilises itself and so I decided to introduce more fish to the tank. I went to Manly last Saturday and hopefully I can get a few more goldfish for the tank but there wasn't anything that tickle my fancy. So today I decided to go for the long drive all the way to Canley Vale again to check out whether they have better stock. I went to the shop where I got my fish tank and 2 goldfish (Tango & Sebastien) from again, I reckond they are the most professional goldfish breeder so far.

They always have so nice and goldfish swimming around in the tank but they are like $100 each! But I prefer to get small one and let them grow that way I got more satisfaction out of this hobby. This time I've bought 3: 2 Celestial Goldfish and 1 Ranchu. The Celestials are just too weird, they have bulky eyes and looking upward and with 2 big pom pom on the tip of their head! Too cute to resist so I got 2 and named them Sunshine and Skye. I know is gonna be a challenge to have them since they cant see properly and I already noticed they keep bumping to the glass and other goldfish in the tank...LOOK OUT!!! But they are too cute. :P And I always wanted a Ranchu, so I picked a white body with Red fro Ranchu and I named it Siew Mai. Just like the Siew Mai dim sim. white dumpling with a red dot on top. He gets along well with others straight away and fighting for food already. I am still worry about that 2 celestial as they can't swim up high to fight for food, so I just crushed some green peas and they sunk to the bottom so Sunshine and Skye can have their share.



2 Celestials and 1 Ranchu can't wait to get out of the bag


The crowd got all excited realise they get more pals to play with


This is Sunshine....maybe is Skye... confused?


Siew Mai the Ranchu

UV KILLS!

Algae starting to grow everywhere in the tank, and the fish poo everywhere! The nitrite and nitrate level never go down! Even the Nitra-Zorb that I bought doesn't help! So I've decided to go for industrial size rescue! I bought myself this UV Steriliser through my loyal seller on Ebay!

This little gem looks a bit like a UFO with blue light rings around the tubes. It will kill all the bacteria that pass through the UV light in the tube. So it will stop the tank from growing more algae, and the fish will never ever get sick again. Well, that's the guarantee from the Seller, I took his words for it.

Fishtank update

The fish tank looked a bit bare so I bought a rock last week at the local pet shop. I soaked it in a bucket of water to get rid of the dirt so is ready to put into the tank next morning. As I was about to pick the rock up from the bucket and it just snapped and smashed on the floor into pieces! I was gobsmacked that the pet shop sold me a bloody sandstone! I was fuming so decided to take it back and ask for another one! Yes I know is a bloody rock! But it fucking cost me $18 for it! Never thought I will buy a piece of rock for $18 in my life!

Anyhoo, took it back and was ready to be slapped on the face with a "NO, your rock, your business" attitude. But she was more than happy to swap a new one for me. Unfortunately, all the rock in the shop were sandstones, so I just chose a solid one and make sure it doesn't slip anymore. Got it home, washed it, rinsed it, put inside the tank, and there you have it, Hagalugi Mountain!

New pals in Tank

Today when I woke up and found out one of my fish, Sebastien
is not in good condition. It's showing red blood vein on its tail because of high nitrite, which is toxic to fish. I did a quick water test and the result was horrified!
. The tank has passed through the Ammonia stage (0.25ppm now) but now the Nitrite level has gone sky rocket (2ppm!)! Not just that, there are getting more brown patches everywhere in the tank too. So I went out lunch time and bought a magnetic glass scruber, and 5 shrimps! Hopefully the shrimps will help out eating the excess food that sunk to the bottom of the tank.

Got home, scrubbed the tank, got all the big pebbles out because the food sunk into the bottom and the fish can't get them. So I took them out and did a 50% water change. I was please Sebastien seems a lot happier after I did the water change. I got a small sachet for free from an Ebay buyer who I bought items from. He recommends it which meant to turn the water tank into crystal clear within 10 mins! I was bit skeptical what was inside the sachet and didn't use it. But tonight the water was still murky after the half tank changed, so I have decided to give it a go. I mixed it well with water and poured into the tank, after 10 mins it didn't show much of a effect so I just ignored it. But I came back hours later after watching a movie and I was amazed how crystal clear the water is! I just hope now the fish won't die from the chemical or whatever it is. will see tomorrow how sebastien is.

Fishtank Makeover

Finally got Dave from work to go and get me this little not so cheesy ornament out of the other cheesy ornament for my fish tank! I shall call it the Hagalugi Easter Island Statue!!! My fishy don't seem to mind it and swim over it the whole time.

Apart from the Hagalugi, my tank is in crisis!!! I did a water test yesterday and the test came out Colorful
!!! Ammonia and Nitrite are both way over 1.0ppm! And When I checked the tank tonight there are brown patches on the pebbles
!! Algae is grown... :( Don't know what to do, I think I will get a Algae Eating catfish.

Tango & Sebastien

Hi! My name is Sebastien!



Quite excited today as I am ready to introduce 2 more fish to Snowflake and Snowball. We drove all the way to Canley Vale to check out the fish. Canley Vale is a like mini Vietnam, 9 out of 10 of the restaurant is selling Pho Bo (Beef noodle soup). And there are 3 aquarium shops in this little suburb, must be a Vietnamese thing. As they all close to each other, so the prices can be bit competitive which is good for us!

I went to the first shop, all the fish in the grotty old tank looks bit sick and swimming upside down. I wasn't impressed so I went back to the shop where I got my fish tank from. It was fun to buy fish from here cuz you can just grab a bucket and a fishnet, choose the fish that you like and catch it yourself. There are lots of different kind of Goldfish, but the bulky head, chubby face Oranda is my choice for today. So I've chosen 2 healthy looking ones and brought them home. And I am regret I took Hume Hwy back home to Wollstonecraft... it was longer than I expected. NEVER AGAIN!

The 2 Orandas seems happy after I put them into the tank and now they are called Tango and Sebastien. As they are orange like Tangerine, one of them has black tip on its wide tail like a sequin dress, so I named it Tango. The other chubby face with a big head like an afro so we called it Sebastien ( Guy Sebastien - Aus Idol winner). When I checked them in the afternoon, Tango was a bit lethargic and just stopped at the bottom of the tank. I was bit worried with the ammonia level, so I quickly did a half tank water changed and now they seem alright. Hopefully the others will give him support and live happily together. Check out more pics by clicking the link below

Sebastien : "LET ME OUT!"



L to R : Snowball, Tango, Sebastien, Snowflake



Tango - Orange Oranda with Black tip tail



Sebastien - Go with the Fro!



Pepe says Hi to Sebastien

Snowflake & Snowball

Today went to Manly Vale and got 2 blackmoor to cycle the tank. Very excited... I hope they don't die tomorrow when I woke up. I called them Snowflake and Snowball, just being contrary as they are black. The one called Snowball because he got a hole on his top fin. The water is bit cloudy today I am not sure why, I hope it will clear abit tomorrow. If not, will have to find some agent to clear it up.

Ambulia sessiliflora

Fish tank updates! Just got some plant for the fish tank. It's called Ambulia, it is bit flimpsy or maybe I got a giant mutha fucka filter, cuz it is waving in the water a bit. I hope it doesn't get blown off. And I bought a bottle of Stress Zyme which containts 300 million of live bacteria per teaspoonful! The word bacteria does give a negative impression to most people. But these are good bacterial helping to clean the filter and the tank! so Go BIO go!!!

My fish tank

Ta da!!!!! Finally got the tank set up! I was feeling crook today with the hayfever, runny rose, sneezing and a massive headache. So i called a half day off and went home and slept. Then I decided to set the fish tank up so I can introduce my first fish on the weekend! It took me whole day just to wash the gravel. By night time, I filled the tank with water and have the cannister filter running, I would have to say I am so damn impressed with the filter, is Ultra silent!!! The best investment so far. It was quite a satisfaction seeing the fish tank running after all the hardwork... is worth it.

Below I got more pics how the tank set up from scratch

Filled with pebbles



3 sizes of gravel and pebbles.


A good trick put a plate in the tank while filling water so the water flow won't blow the gravel everywhere and makes it murky


Pro Aqua 1200L/h canister filter, cost me $100. I'm so impressed with it, is so quiet. You don't need to get a $600 Eheim one. Is just the brand.


People say is half empty, I'll say is half full.


Pete, the fish tank little helper.


Alot of air bubbles in the tank and on the pebbles after I filled the tank up, I hope it will be gone by tomorrow.


Voila! Water ager added, and hopefully will have a fish by the weekend, can't wait!

My first fish tank

Last night I managed to do a bit more work on the fish tank. The cannister filter finally arrived from Brisbane so I know where to drill a hole on the cabinet for the lightings and the filter. I got it all sorted out and took some pics. Now i just need some water and fish! I will try to put some water and gravel tonight and let it run and on the weekend maybe is time to get some fish!!