My new DS-Lite

I bought a DS-lite last week as my birthday present. Here are some photos of my new gadget. I love it quite a lot because it looks really cool and I had a lot of fun with it. Also it's useful in helping me to learn and self developments. Last but not least this gadget is certainly a good way to start a topic :)

Too warm?

Seems like the Endler's livebearers didn't like the warmer water. All 5 of them couldn't survived after I added the heater, in a matter of days. So I guess some websites giving out incorrect info about them preferring 22c +. Luckily my 3 other rosy barbs seem fine with the new heater.

Endler's Livebearers

So much for getting a heater on Sunday. The orange tiny fish posted earlier were Endler's Livebearers. I bought 3 of them and then they all died one after another. I suspect it has something to do with the temperature. I thought those fish prefer warmer water so I got a heater. Well heater is now off, will see if the other two will survived. If not, then something must be wrong in the tank.

Also got a water plant of Banana Lily, always my favourite and this one I bought is especially green. Hopefully the picture can justify it. Why do I like this plant? The shape of each leaf resembles a heart.

Bedroom tank fish count

8 fish altogether.

Rosy barbs x 3 - 1 male, 2 female. From what I've read, most male fish should have at least 2 or 3 female to accompany with, so it doesn't stress the female fish too much. I did that because I've noticed the male barb has been chasing around the female too much lately.
White mountain minnow x 3 - long live fish! don't think they can grown any bigger.
Copper/Orange "split-tail" x 2 - just purchased them today. Looks very tiny comparing to the others, even smaller than the minnows.

I think that's enough fish for this tank. Time to get another...... tank! ;)

Note: Added water, cleaned filter.

2 new Orange split-tail like Fish (Could they be Copper Harlequin?)

Bought two new freshwater fish today after an aquarium shop walk. I forgot to take notice of their fish name so I can't be so sure what they are called. If anyone can help me to identfy them it will be appreciated. I think the way they have their tails look like split-tails are pretty interesting. They are quite small and I have no idea how big they will grow or last.

Hope they'll enjoy their new home.

Yabbie, the King in its tank

This photo was taken in April this year. The last good photo of the yabbie I have shot. These days the yabbie doesn't like to come out from its "house" and I'm suspecting it has been hibernating or being inactive due to the cold water in winter. I loathe it but also loving it. Hate it for eating those fish that aren't supposed to eat, and not eating those that I gave. A rosy barb, "Red bean", a few sucking catfish and a snail perhaps (look at the evidence!). But I had this yabbie for a very long period of time. The first picture I have taken on my record was back in december last year.

I had about 2~3 yabbies initiately, because I had a mini freshwater crab earlier, and I thought it'll be fun having more crayfish in the tank. The crab is another fascinating side story. Although it didn't survived days after a suspected pincer injury from falling off the kitchen bench one day, and hid in my brother's wardrobe...

This yabbie then slowly got rid of the other yabbies, and months later when I bought a few smaller ones to be its new tankmates, but they too eventually died due to hunger or attacked? I'm not going to get anymore yabbies since, because I will not be able to find one that is as big as this one at the shops. To prove that it has grown over the year, here are two photos of its exoskeleton shells taken approaximately half years apart. One was taken in January and the other one in early July.


Did not have the measurements for the first picture but I have for the second one. It's 12cm long. Luckily I had them both taken in a same size regular take-away boxes so you can judge how much it had grown over a period of 6 months. The last photo was its third or fourth times had its old shell removed.

Siemese Fighter fish photos

The red one is called "Red bean" while the blue one is "Paran", which means blue in Korean. Paran is strangely friendly in the community tank full of gold fish, mollies, guppy and rosy barbs. Probably it's because when it comes to meal time Paran doesn't compete food fast enough with the other fish. From my observations, Siemese fighter fish tend to stare at their food before eating them. Sometimes I feel bad for it because while it was staring at the food, the quick rosy barbs or the greedy goldfish just got to it before Paran even start to action. Interesting and not hard to keep, as they are pretty relax, lazy fish. Likes to sit around and doesn't move much (hence the high quality photos), I will plan to have another one later, after I can keep the number of fish down.

There were a few times when Paran got aggressive when I put Red Bean in the adjacent tank. Maybe you'll be wondering why not much mentioning about Red Bean? Well, as you see the fish is so beautiful, my yabbie ate it a few days later, as they were inhabited in the same tank. Sigh, that's nature, but I still had a good photo of it.

Fishtanks without a cover is not so good

Although fishtanks without a top are good for viewing fish from the top, it gets just as easily to collect a lot of dust falling into the tank to make the water dirtier as well as tank water evaporates a lot quicker, especially if there is a heater installed. For my big fish tank, I lose close to about a litre a day. The water in this tank is the worse out of all of my other tanks. I am planning to upgrade this tank in the near future.