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At the tender age of 6 weeks and 2 days

So, I was cleaning my fish tank last night and wanted to clean the artificial plants as well since they were quite dirty, and guess what I found when I lifted the plants!

You can tell they are super tiny if you compare it to the size of the gravel (the gravel bits are bigger than the fish in some cases). I incubated two in a separate container (more on that later) but these two babies were so hard to catch! They move super fast (since they are so small, may explain why they were able to hide from the bigger fishies too… survival of the fittest I guess) AND they are actually small enough to fit in between the gravel… took me a good half hour to catch just two. In fact, I was a little confused as to whether there was a third one or not – best of luck to it surviving with the big fishes if there is.

Now the two babies I have – they are now in a separate jar that has two small holes near the top, and the entire jar is back in the main tank. That way they are protected from the big fish, but the water hopefully will still mix with the main tank, that way the water temperature and parameters would be the same (otherwise I’d have to get another smaller tank and get heating and what not for it too). I’m feeding the babies baby brine shrimp and crushed flakes, but I can’t really tell if they are eating it since they are so tiny :|. And worst of all, I still don’t know who the mom is :@ I guess there’s a primary suspect since her belly is rather plump, but I swear her graviol spot did not turn dark in this past week… and this matters because the female swordfish can store sperm in them and will likely deliver another batch of babies in another 60 days 😐

If these babies survive and grow up to rejoin the main tank, I may give them names 🙂

UPDATE: babies died after 3 days ‘cuz the incubation part of the tank wasn’t getting enough waterflow, so the water quality was very horrible there (whereas the rest of the tank was fine). Sad Face 🙁

Since sadd3j will soon be posting more about his puppy, I figured I should accompany him by posting stuff about my fish.
This is pretty much the 3rd generation of my tank now. My first generation of gold white clouds and neon tetras did quite well and died off after 2.5 years (fair amount of time). The second generation of rainbows and dwarf gouramis were more unfortunate – they pretty much all died during my extended stay in Toronto last year for the weddings (I had someone feeding the tank, but they still died). Hence now my third generation of swordtails, which I intend to breed – they are livebearers (the eggs mature inside the mom’s body, so the babies are born “live”) so they should be easier to breed.

Those are the swordtails – named cuz of the “sword” in their tail, which only happens in males, which is the easiest way to tell the sexes apart. The male in front is one of the very first swordtails I got, but unfortunately doesn’t seem to grow at all – its buddies have grown like double their sizes since I bought them, except for this one for some strange reason.

This is one of the original female swordtails I bought. Of the “females” I originally bought, one died, and 2 of them ended up being males when they grew up :S. And so I went and bought a few more females to balance the male:female ratio (or the males may become aggressive)

I think this one may be one of the second batch of females I bought. They tend to be quite shy! You can see it has a plumper belly, and when the eggs are fertilized and the fish is close to labour, apparently the belly will turn dark and you can barely make out the eyes of the baby fishies inside.

This is one of the few ghost shrimps I bought along with the swordtails. They are aptly named since they are quite transparent, and are super hard to find… I thought my amano shrimps (see below) were hard to find at first! Ghost shrimps are easier to breed as their babies can possibly survive in fresh water (normally shrimps breed in rivers, their eyes get washed out to the sea (saltwater) where they grow up and then swim back to rivers (freshwater)), but so far I’m not making an effort to breed them – and yet one of the females is pregnant already :S.

Compare against this amano shrimp, which is from my first generation – i.e. this little guy has been with me since I bought the tank! Actually, I’m not sure if I have 1 or 2 amano shrimps still, they are hard to find – but I’m sure the female amanos have died already (after delivering many batches of shrimp eggs which end up being food for everyone). Amano shrimps are slightly darker than the ghost shrimps and are supposingly better algae eaters, but they are more expensive than the ghost shrimps.

This is the one ghost shrimp that I’m worried about – I found out it turned white one day during feeding, and it has been white for 2 weeks or so now. At first I thought it was molting, but it turns out not to be the case (they don’t molt that long), so I’m not sure what’s wrong with it. Forums online say that’s usually a bad sign and signals end of life for the shrimp. Some even say the white is due to parasites inside the shrimp, such as worms :|.

Another ghost shrimp. The OOF white object in the front is the white shrimp above – you can compare the colours. I like how the swordtail is peeking out from the background.

Last but not least, I figured since my shrimps algae cleaning abilities are not as powerful as I wish them to be, I’d get an algae eater. At first I was planning on getting a Chinese Algae Eater, but they actually grow to be quite big and aggressive as they get older. I need something small for a community tank, so I picked up an otocinclus, which I’ve named Otto. Otto is the only named fish in the tank (I try not to name my fish so I don’t grow too attached). I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of catfish, particular algae cleaners, since they normally suction themselves to the side of the tank, which looks somewhat scary to me. But, after having Otto for a while, I think he grows on you, and I find him quite cute – the tiny size definitely helps.

That’s all for now! Hopefully I’ll be able to successfully breed the swordtails. I suspect most of them are not sexually mature for breeding yet, so when they grow up more hopefully I’ll have more luck!

It’s been seven months since the first post about dogs, and while it doesn’t seem like long counting it out, it feels like it’s been an eternity. For friends as well, since I won’t shut up about it :). I think in June was when we got really serious about adopting a puppy, and while the delays have been sad, it’s been a good chance for us to think it over and consider the impact it will have, as well as plan, research and prepare for such an undertaking.

Anyhow.. here I get to present.. Burton (amongst his siblings anyway), born January 19th, 2010. The top two photos are taken at 11 days of age, the bottom was taken at 15 days. 44 days until pickup!

So in the spirit of occasional posting, here we are four months later almost exactly when we should have adopted our puppy and the next litter has been announced. The parents this time around are a little more diverse and the lineage of each can be traced back on both sides to the great-great-great-grandparents or something like that, what comes out to be like 50 dogs whose genetics are contributing to this litter.

The site says expecting puppies in March of 2010, so that looks like mid-late May before we’re able to adopt. Fairly ideal in terms of timing for socializing etc. but still 5 months away 🙁

The mother, Usarka (Moya) z Gangu Dlugich has a traditional Polish name for a dog. Usarka is the name that the original breeder gave her. Moya is her “common” name or what she would respond to. Gangu Dlugich would be the name of the original kennel she was from. I’m 90% sure that z means of.. or delineates ownership/belonging.

The father is from the UK and is named in a typical fashion of all english-speaking countries: Mybeards Challenge. So basically his name is Challenge and he’s from Mybeards.