take-u-away

No internet connection at home is terrible….. omg! Nothing better to do, i finally decided to clean up my fish tank a bit. My tank is in a very devastated state plague with lots and lots of trumpet snails….. My plants are not doing very well either…. got moss ….. Then my sis complain the pleco is too big and ugly for my cramped tank. Lots of work to do ah…..

1. Get new windelovs..

Fresh, light green coloured windelovs!

2. Got rid of my pleco, i gave it to the aquarium shop owner, who put it in a tank full of its kind. Good for you, little pleco, hope u’ll be happier now.

It grew too big…. sorry….. bye bye…. take carez…

3. To get rid of the snail infestation, i got 2 clown loach!

Guess wad’s their favourite food? Snails, of course! Haha! I saw them disturbing the small trumpet snails already…

My new tank!

I got rid of the pillar at the side, to provide more space for the angel to move about. The driftwoood and plants are moved further infront too, so that they can get more of the light. My angel can also move to the back also. Nevertheless, to provide shelter for the smaller fishes against the tyrannous angel, i provided more hiding space in between the wood and plants too. :”)

My blush white angel. He’s a tough guy man, he is one-eye blind and survived a period of white spots. He’s territorial and always seen chasing the smaller fishes around.

The platys also strong fellows, they are actually feeder fish, their fellow platys brought the white spots which caused the death of many of my fishes. They survived the plague and are still remaining strong until now.

Then when everything is done….. i discovered there’s always water coming out from under the right side of my tank! OMG!!!!! This is damn damn disastrous! I removed everything, yes EVERYTHING! Even the sediments! Super big job man!

I turned the fish tank around to look for any breakages…. heng heng…. i can’t see any. But to play safe, i still went to buy silicon to fix the underside of my tank, hoping the leaking wont happen again.

Luckily it didnt. Else i really must change a whole new tank le. Then i spent another tiresome hour putting back everything in place….. damn shagged after that…

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I’d always wanted to go inside there, as i was passing by the place everytime i went to pet villa. So today, i finally stepped into Mainland Tropical Fishfarm. It’s located at Pasir Ris Farmway 1, which is very near the main road and some hdb flats, so it’s quite convenient actually, not like other farms, situated in ulu ulu places, haha.

It’s divided into 2 sections, to the right are many ponds under the shade of a light veil, where many people are standing around with their lovely children exploring the fishes. The right side is a sheltered area, holding many many tanks, mostly of goldfish. And also the office, and a shop selling aquarium equipments.

So i started exploring the ponds at the right side, most of which are koi ponds.

Watching the kois swimming happily in the water really clears my mind of all the unhappy thoughts. Then there are 2 ponds holding some super gigantic freshwater fishes.

As according to the signboard, this breed is known as “Arapaima”, they are the biggest freshwater fish in the world, reaching lengths of 6 feets or more. One of which i saw is even bigger than the st bernard! Wah, better be careful, i think it can eat me up if i accidentally dropped into the pond. :p

There are quite a lot of people there, sitting on the stone chairs provided, enjoying the scenery, while the children are playing around, looking at the fishes. There are fences around the fish ponds, so don’t worry, the kids are safe, haha.

There’s also a small lane with a long stretch of pond, filled with guppies, for people, especially children, to catch. Small pails and nets are provided. Saw many children squatting by the side, trying to catch the poor guppies. Yes, to fall in the hands of the innocent, but ignorant childrens, is really pathetic. There are a few dead guppies drifting by also, see!

There are 2 tanks by the side of the pond, i don’t know why they are placed there. One is over-populated with bala-sharks, the other is with oscars.

This one is not too bad, cos the oscars are not fully growned yet. The bala sharks are all quite big, so it seems a little bit too cramp for them.

I went to the other side, noticed a nice planted tank residing in a more enclosed compartment.

Argh! I didnt check the quality of my photo, the overview of the tank is too blur! Btw, the tank is filled with ferns, windelov, nana, and some other plants i’m not too familiar with. The plants are quite closely packed, with thin twigs jutting out sparingly. I like it!

Well, that’s all i have to say for this. The place doesn’t really have much variety of fish, and it seems to be more catered for people to visit and feed the kois. Haha, they are selling fish food $4 a pack to feed the kois, red-tailed catfish and the arapaima! Wah, so expensive! haha.

I went to the aquarium shop at the nearby market place today, with the only intention to “see see look look”. Then i saw the shop owner in the process of feeding his fishes. To be specific, he’s feeding the arrowana in his tank, which it also shares with a siamese tiger fish and 2 birchirs.

He handpicked the worms, and dropped them one by one until the arrowana stops eating. So that left with one live worm struggling inside the fishtank. Poor thing…. nobody wants to eat it, not the arrowana, nor the tiger fish.

Then it’s the siamese tiger fish turn to have his meal. The shop owner again, handpicked some feeder fish, platy fish, to be specific. And he dropped it into the tank, the tiger fish, lived up to its name, with a “swoop”, dashes over to the pathetic, struggling platy trying to keep up with the current in the tank. The tiger fish ate it all, complete with the bones, nothing left to spill out.

I was feeling quite a bit sorry for the platy, the only purpose for it’s living is to feed the big fishes. Usually, these feeder fish are not given proper attention to their health or well-being. They are normally overpacked in styrofoam boxes with the water minimally filled to prevent them from jumping out. They are usually disease-bonded, and will not survive long. Some are worse, they are again, overly-packed, in small plastic bags, with really not much space to move around. Of course, they are not the worse, at least their plastic bags are bigger than the fighting fish.

The fighting fish, those not very good grade ones, are packed, individually in small, square plastic bags of around 10cm by 6cm! They can move a bit, but i don’t think they can turn around.

So out of pity, i bought 7 platy fishes, with 1 dollar. Actually i can get 15, but i don’t think my current tank can fill in that load.

Some even got white spots! But i trust myself that my current fishes are all very healthy, won’t be infected so easily, and i got antidote for it too. So these 7 little lucky feeder fish are now residing in my beautiful tank! HAHA

Haha, this is my new tank setup!

Plants - 3 stocks of Windelov on woodpiece, anubias

fishes - 1 marble angelfish, 1 flush angelfish, 2 black ghost knife fish, 2 golden barb, 2 siamese algae eater, 2 leopard corydoras, 2 sterba corydoras, 1 common pleco, 1 platy, 2 snails, and uncountable number of trumpet snails

filter - dolphin top filter with qianhu wool + ceramic rings + qianhu filter piece, 1 sponge filter

lighting - Boyu 36watt PL light

Not too much difference from my prev one though, except for the water sprite. The last one died off in 1 week, so i dare not get somemore of that until i got my carbon dioxide ready.

A close up picture of my new windelov.

You might think it’s quite pack with the plants, leaving the fishes with lesser space, nah, they provide shelter. And there’s also a secret passage!

It’s at where the pointing piece of dirftwood is, resembles a highway from their little hidden room behing to the outside garden. haha.

And i think my platy is like a moving flower among the greeneries.

And also got 2 new sterba corys, cos i love cory so much! They are so cute when they are swimming, wagging their little bodies and tails like a dog, and their whiskers are adorable.

See my leopard cory resting on my anubias, so cute. If only i can get all my corys each on a piece of anubias leaf at the same time.

And sometimes, they are hiding under the umbrellas to avoid blazing afternoon lights.

So is my pleco, got a nice spot to chill up.

I noticed my gravels are moving! A closer examination reveals it’s the work of the trumpet snails. Hmm….. where did they came from? I didnt buy any of those, and i don’t remember seeing any of those before.

And there seems to be quite a few of them. Oh no, think i might be facing snail problem soon.

Haha, i got a new lighting for my fish tank. Dumped away my lousy FL lights, and got a new PL light from aqua-star at yishun. Wah! the difference is remarkable, so is the price compared to my old light. Hopefully, my plants can last longer this time

Lazying around at home, so take a few pics of my fishes.

I rescaped my tank 2 weeks ago. Below are the pictures.

I’d removed my old, dying ‘windelov’ and add in two new stocks. Btw, windelov is a fern with split “fingers” at the tip of the leaves. It is quite hardy and suits well in my low-light, zero-C02 system. In addition, i also have a new plant - water sprite. Well, i’m still in the observing stage, i dun know if it can withhold like the windelov or die away fast like my previous elodea. But i did see few small parts of it floating on the water, but i suspect it’s the work of my herbivores fish, …maybe, i guessed. See how when i get back on friday.

Other than that, i relocated the long piece of wood from the side to the back-center, strategically positioned diagonally across the tank. I think it enhances the triangle shape of my formation, and it really looks better that way. Lastly, i created a small cave at the back for my black ghost, knowing that my new plants are too dense for them, and took away quite some space off their favourite spot near my power filter.