Category: Pets

I’ve been keeping a 20-gallon tank for farming snails and shrimp the last few years.  The big tank denizens in the main room get live food from it – whenever there’s enough to actually do that, which has not been very often until sometime recently.  Not sure why it took 3 years for it to take off.  My best guess is maybe I was not feeding the shrimp and snails enough.  In any case, yesterday was the 1st time I was able pull out a full meal’s worth of shrimp.  Fresh food is always the best, whether you are a fish or any other creature.  They also seem to have a great time exercising their predatory instincts chasing them around.

Yes, “zookeeper” could reasonably be considered one of my hats around here.

 

Caught this shot of the boys with Anna, waiting for their next handout. The mutts are still wet from playing in the creek:

They moved out to the pond 3 days ago.Seems like early May is going to be the time-frame for that. I had it ready mid-April, but it took about 3 weeks to get warmed up enough for the fish to be moved. It’s really satisfying to see how happy they are to be back outside. That 120-long tank is 5 feet across. The biggest of these guys is now 6 years old and about a foot long tip-to-tail, with only 4 of the original 10 remaining.

It was cold and rainy last week, but the pups kept busy, with Jax watching for squirrels and Anna working on her shoes.

They keep a close eye on Michelle whenever she’s around. Probably because she’s the only one who takes them on long walks these days. I’m getting better, but still limited to an hour on my feet before orthopedic issues force me to rest.

Marshall has shunned the crew for some reason. Only reason he comes downstairs is to use the litter box!

Taken about a week ago, Anna is growing like a weed:

It was a long, hard 2-year struggle. Apparently we have some pretty aggressive algae species around here. I learned this the hard way after the Pond had a similar problem, and trying to run too much light on this tank. A CO2 injection system and an adjustable-intensity light finally got things under control. It was so bad by last spring that I needed to shift the guppies to the goldfish tank, break this one down completely, clean and re-start it.

The solution was a combination of CO2 injection and GREATLY reduced lighting. Most decorative aquatic plants can’t get enough CO2 for efficient photosynthesis from household aquarium water. A few bits and pieces with a tank of CO2 solves that problem nicely.

I wanted this tank to be brightly lit because it is planted and forms the centerpiece in a dark basement. But no amount of time reduction was enough to slow algae growth with the 60″ LED I initially purchased for it years ago. This 165-watt dimm-able full-spectrum model leaves the ends of the tank almost dark and at about 40% intensity for 10 hours/day seems to do the trick. These guys have the best habitat in the whole zoo. Plants filter, buffer and oxygenate the water chemistry while Purigen organic waste control absorbs any toxic residue. It’s a nice Guppy life, but then they go upstairs to be eaten by the Firemouths after growing big enough. I’m pretty sure this water would be safe to drink.

These guys were moved to their basement domicile over 2 months ago, but things have been pretty busy around here lately, so I only just now got around to getting a good pic. It’s just as well, because that 120-gallon in the basement corner there always gets some sort of white algae or bacterial bloom on the inside of the glass after starting it back up every year. It is the only one of 4 tanks that does this, but always clears up after a couple cleanings. I suspect it is due to the small amount of sunlight it gets every morning in the late fall before the sun’s inclination makes it disappear entirely from the basement. Either that or the lower temperature or possibly the fish themselves somehow explains this phenomenon, but I really don’t know. Those are the only three things I can think of that are different about this tank.

They have 2 Marineland canisters keeping things clean now. The Pond Plants also got an upgrade for the winter season this year. It was only a procedural change and I’ve been kicking myself for not thinking of it before. These plants flourished well in the pond for 3 years, but barely survived in their winter basement home. This year I started replenishing their water with the aquarium water change that just went down the drain before. It’s nutrient rich water the plants seem to love and after 2 months they are actually showing new growth!

The water clover did so well in 2017 it completely covered the surface at one point. I suspect that is probably what prevented predation last year.

It didn’t take long before these two were going at it:

She’s still too small to give Jax much trouble, but Annie didn’t take long to get started in on him. She was being lazy in the 2nd video after probably being overfed. I’ll try for some more puppy play in the days/weeks ahead. Pics of the new family member start on this Photo Page.

Annie for short – a lab mix from Rezdog Rescue. She’s a bit shy with that pouty puppy look only cute puppies can have. My family might recognize the strong resemblance to a little pup named Annie from back in the 70’s at my boyhood home in Murdocksville, PA. This one is going to get a little bigger than the 1st Annie Shaffer.

There was the expected tense few moments Saturday, including when Jax snapped at her for getting too close his biscuit. He teases the other pets with his morning biscuit to exert dominance by just carrying it around for hours, daring anyone to approach. Looks like he’ll be forced to actually eat them right away going forward. And of course Kiki had to get a swipe in at one point. Marshall, the big tomcat, couldn’t seem to care less. He’ll probably find more to worry about as she grows bigger, but it looks like Annie’s been well-accepted into the herd.

Look at the shyt-eatin’ grin on that dog boy: