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Last Updated: 1/28/14
Photos
Final Fish
Former Fish
Former Other Animals
Former Plants
Former Equipment
I redid the 40 gallon tank and replaced it with a 65 gallon tank. This is my old 40 gallon tank page with the photos and information as the tank used to be. The turtle moved in to the 40 gallon tank.
65 gallon tank page
Story of how I redid the tanks including going from the 40 gallon to 65
gallon
40 gallon glass tank setup since 11/25/98. Torn down 3/18/07 and replaced with a 65 gallon tank. The four fish were moved there. The 65 gallon tank cracked. They went back to the 40 gallon on 3/20/07 until the a new 65 gallon tank was bought and setup on 3/31/07.
Photos are listed from newest to oldest.
40 gallon tank - the 40 gallon tank set up again on the new stand on 3/24/07. The fish wait for the tank replacement.
40 gallon tank - the 40 gallon tank set up again on the new stand on 3/21/07.
40 gallon tank on 3/18/07 before I tore it down.
40 gallon tank on 3/17/07 before I tore it down.
40 gallon tank on 2/4/06 with Plecy and the three goldfish.
40 gallon tank on 1/14/06 after I set it up in preparation for the fantails the following week.
40 gallon tank pretty much bare on 1/14/06 as I had been trying to sterilize most of it. Plecy can be seen next to his new black plastic plumbing fixture. Here is a close-up of Plecy from right then.
Close-up of Plecy and the apple snail taken right after the previous photo, 6/19/05.
The 40 gallon tank on 9/22/03. You can see the snail. Plecy is hiding out of sight.
The 40 gallon tank on 10/14/01. You can see danios swimming around and the pleco's cucumber on the right. The pleco is hiding in the back left corner.
Photo of my 40 gallon tank on 6/3/01. Italian val has taken over the front right area of the tank. My huge plecostomus is hiding out of view but the danios are swimming around.
Picture of my 40 gallon tank on 12/7/98. The danios can be seen on the far bottom left and the java moss is in the upper right of the tank.
For photos of the individual fish in the tank, see the pages about that specific species.
Common plecostomus named Plecy - one, sex unknown (male?), age unknown, bought on 1/28/95, 12.75 inches long as of 7/00, moved from 50 gallon to 10 gallon for one year and then to this tank, killed pair of gorgeous longfin rosy barbs (6/98) with him after a year of co-habitation in 10 gallon tank!! I measured Plecy on 1/13/07. He was 15 inches long!
3 Fantail Goldfish named Aragorn, Legolas, and Frodo, added on 1/22/06. See below for the details. They were all males.
My last animal in the 40 gallon tank (a zebra danio) except for Plecy died on 1/4/06. I treated the tank for 9 days with Maracyn I (erythromycin) and Maracyn II (minocycline) by Mardel to try to kill any leftover fish tuberculosis. Plecy seems immune but may carry it. The antibiotics at least should have killed bacteria in the water. After that, I did my weekly 50% water change and then treated the tank with MelaFix and PimaFix by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals for 6 days. During this time, Plecy developed something strange that I have never seen on any fish. He got a few small spots on his back and on one pectoral fin where it appeared his color was simply gone. I have seen bacterial and fungal infections and color changes before many times. This was something new. I do not have a clue. It was not washing out either. He was fully dark but for those spots where you could see a few dots of the color with the rest vanished. I tested the ammonia in case the antibiotics had killed the good bacteria (those kinds had not before) on 1/18/06, and the test showed no ammonia.
I bought three fantails back in the fall of 2004 with the intention of putting them into my 1800 gallon pond in the fall of 2005 to replace some of the many (~20?) goldfish I had lost to the herons and a mystery illness with no symptoms that killed 14 goldfish. When the time came, the fantails were still about an inch long, and I knew they did not have a chance, so I kept them. My plan was to put them with Plecy when the danios were all deceased and hope they did not catch the fish tuberculosis. I plan to try putting the goldfish in, who are now a few inches long, on 1/22/06. Here are the pros and cons.
Cons of putting three small fantails with Plecy in the 40 gallon tank:
Pros of putting three small fantails with Plecy in the 40 gallon tank:
So, I am going to take the risk. The goldfish are very healthy so it is just a risk for them and not Plecy.
On 1/22/06 around 9:30 am, I put the fantails in with Plecy. As of 1/28/06, every thing has gone better than I could have imagined. Plecy has been behaving himself. The fantails are very active, and the two larger ones (less than 3" long mind you) sprouted tubercles so they are male. The goldfish are eating like pigs, and everyone seems happy! See my my indoor goldfish section for more information and lots of photos of the cutey pies! Update 1/22/07: So far, so good! Still okay, 2/10/09.
These are all fish that used to be in this tank and includes convoluted records of their numbers, sexes, etc.
On 1/04/06, my last zebra danio died. The information below is now irrelevant but I am leaving it anyway. The tank only has Plecy in there now. I am dosing it up with antibiotics and changing out all the fake plants. I hope to put in my three fantails in a few weeks. I know it will not be 100% safe (as far as Plecy harming them or worse, the tuberculosis).
As of 3/31/05, I definitely only have one danio left whose gills are outside of their covers. The
last few danios either had huge with tuberculosis tumors or were skinny with kinked spines from
it. My descriptions below are all confusing to me since I have had so many danios and so many
have died.
On 1/3/04, I counted just 11 zebra danios left. I do not know what happened to the rest but here
are the ones that I thought I had. Many bodies must have been eaten or decayed before I found
them although I thought I was very observant!
21 danios (~4 females, ~6 males, 5 full-grown babies, 1 big baby, 6
new babies (now grown up!)) described in more detail below:
*1 Longfin zebra danio - one female born 1997
*6 Longfin zebra danios - ~4 males and ~2 females, born in 20 gallon tank and raised in 50
gallon pond in spring and summer 1998 and later 5 gallon tank for a few months, father is
deceased leopard danio and mother(s) is above zebra danio and a deceased danio (see my danio page for more information on the deceased danios). I originally
had 20 of these young danios but 13 have died including a female died that of untreatable fish
tuberculosis on 12/11/99, another female died on 1/7/01 for unknown reasons, and an unknown
fish died on 5/21/01 and was partially eaten so no information could be gleaned as to its sex or
cause of death. Finally, another fish who had had a severely bent spine for months died on
6/22/01. I think it was male. Yet another was found dead on 1/02/02. I think it was female and
had a tuberculosis tumor in its abdomen. A male with a bent spine died on 1/04/02. A female
died on 3/30/02 when her tumors burst through her abdomen. Another fish (male?) that had a
bent spine and was anorexic died on 5/13/02. A female died on 6/19/02 from a burst body wall
from tumors. A male died from wasting away on 9/1/02. Another huge (assumed to be) female
burst from tumors on 1/13/03. A female burst on 7/26/03, and tumor balls were floating around
the tank so I added two kinds of antibiotics (they never worked before but felt I had to do
something to lessen the remaining fishes' problems if possible). I found a decomposed danio,
perhaps male, on 9/27/03. Another (maybe female) who was huge from tumors was removed
11/28/03. A small danio died skinny and kinked on 7/17/04. A danio with huge tuberculosis
tumors burst and died on 7/18/04. Another died on 8/7/04 that looked okay but lethargic, maybe
male. A female with huge tuberculosis tumors burst and died on 8/16/04. Another danio,
perhaps female, was found burst or gutted on the tank floor on 12/27/04 leaving just four
left. I found the spine of one of those on 2/19/05, leaving three left. On 3/16/05, I found the
dead body of one of those, another fat burst one. Only two remain. On 3/28/05, one of those
vanished a day after it had trouble swimming (assumed dead and then eaten by the ghost
shrimp). My last danio died on 01/04/06, 9 months after the one before the last.
*5 Longfin zebra danios - these fry are offspring of the above fish. They were born on
1/13/01 and released from a net breeder on 3/17/01 at about 1/4 an inch in length. These fry are
sort of like my great-grandkids since their grandmother and parents were born in my tanks! I
started with 11 danio fry and 2 white cloud fry in the net breeder, and 5 danios and 1 white cloud
survived to be large enough for release into their parents' tanks.
*2 Longfin blue danios - a male and a female were added on 2/16/02 after a two-week
quarantine. They are much smaller than the other 20 danios but have fit in. Both are gone
now.
*1 Baby longfin zebra danio - born March 2002 and raised in the five gallon fry tank. The baby
was moved into the 40 gallon tank on 5/18/02.
*6 Baby longfin zebra danios - 7 born May 2002 and raised in 5 gallon. All deformed, probably
from tuberculosis in the egg. Moved in with parents on 8/10/02. One baby as of 1/18/03 is now
8 months old but is the size of a normal 1 month old. This is from the tuberculosis. It really
stunts their growth! On 3/22/03, I removed one of these 10-month-old stunted fish that had
died.
I put 19 babies in the net breeder on 1/18/03. I wonder how many will live to be released. Only time will tell. Normally, it would be just two or three at most when raised in a tank but in a net, it could be fewer. Well, the next morning, one of the 8-month-old babies was in the net and had eaten most of the babies as a snack! On 1/21/03, he was in there again. The next day, the babies were free-swimming, and only three remain. If their jumpy sibling stays out, they may have a chance! I lowered the water level a little. This was the first time that a fish ever jumped into a net! By 2/15/03, only one of those babies was still alive, and I added five babies found during cleaning that day. By the next week, only one of those was left, and I found 11 more to add. Hopefully, at least the one older one will make it. By 3/1/03 (the next week), only the oldest baby and one of the others was still alive. I think they are not doing well as I am not using live food right now (it is too cold to hatch brine shrimp (okay, so I could heat a saltwater tank for them I guess)). On 3/1/03, I added 10 more babies and 3 eggs soon-to-hatch. I also put in two itty bitty ghost shrimp babies I found. On 3/8/03, I could only find the larger baby and one other still alive. Shrimp gone. Added two more babies. On 3/15/03, only that big baby was left, and I found no new babies. I added two more babies on 3/22/03. As of 3/28/03, this one baby is large enough to eat any newborns. Perhaps I will have to put in a second net! On 4/5/03, I did set up another net for 21 babies I found that day! They were gone on 4/12/03 so I think there is some microorganism feeding on them. Nonetheless, I found and put in 11 more newborns. The big baby is still alive and eating big food but is stunted. By 4/19/03, the babies were again gone so I put up that extra net breeder. I put an egg and newborn in with the big baby since I knew they would not make it anyway. On 5/3/03, I let the baby out of the net. It was a longfin blue danio so the offspring of my pair of blue danios! I could not tell through the net. Later, the next batch of fry, I put in my 20 gallon tank to see if some might make it (no sign yet), and on 6/7/03, I put 12 fry into my 20 gallon tropical tub pond outside to see if some might grow out on their own. I never saw any. The baby blue danio born 1/18/03 died on 11/1/03.
For more information on how these danios are related to my current and past danios and for a list of my deceased danios, go to my danio page.
Big picture of my danios taken 9/27/98 in the 20 gallon tank. On the left, there are four fish down the tank. The top fish is a male longfin leopard danio. The second fish is a female longfinned albino (or orange) zebra danio.
I moved longfin zebra danio and white cloud mountain minnow fry in from my 50 gallon pond (9/28/98). They were added as eggs and newborns vacuumed out of my 20 gallon tank all spring and summer 1998. I moved two males and two females to the 20 gallon tank with their parents on 10/10/98. I had planned to sell the rest but the store reneged on our deal so I had to find a tank for my lizard. Then, the danios (and plecostomus) could have the lizard's 40 gallon tank.
All the animals below have also died.
I added four ghost shrimp on 4/1/00. One was removed dead on 4/13/00, and none have been seen since then. Perhaps Plecy ate them? Surprise! I found a baby (half an inch versus the 1+ inch adults I added) ghost shrimp in the tank on 6/24/00! Before the adults were eaten or died and were eaten, they must have bred. Normally, it is almost impossible to get baby ghost shrimp to survive. My tank is pretty bare with los of danios and the huge pleco and yet this baby made it!
Two more ghost shrimp were added on 3/16/01 to join my now big baby Shrimpy. See my shrimp page for more information on my ghost shrimp.
They had a baby! On 6/2/01, I found a half-inch long ghost shrimp in the tank that made it! It must be Shrimpy junior! On 6/30/01, I removed a dead ghost shrimp that was all white, indicating it died during molting. Another died on 12/10/01. I added five more ghost shrimp on 2/1/02 (three large, two small). One died on 3/11/02.
So, the total shrimp count is now (3/12/02) at 4 adults and 2 smaller ones. On 3/30/02, I could see that four of the shrimp were carrying eggs so they are female. On 4/20/02, I saw a new baby that is large enough to not be eaten! How in the world a baby survived in this tank with the fish, snail, and basically no cover is beyond me! The pleco, snail, beard algae (which the snail was nice enough to eat, along with the plants it was on), and blue-green algae killed off basically all the plants. There are only a few fake ornaments and two fake plants to hide in. I think I have seen a second baby too.
This is amazing! On 5/18/02, I saw at least four baby ghost shrimp at once! Then, when sifting the changed water in the bathtub for danio fry, I found the smallest ghost shrimp that I have ever seen! It was about the size of the newborn danio fry. I put it in with the fry in the five gallon tank. I have no idea why they are breeding well now. It may have to do with my adding iodine weekly now. This baby was put in with some 10 other shrimp now in the tank on 8/10/02. A large dead ghost shrimp was removed on 1/4/03 but there are at least a dozen left of all sizes (mostly grown up now). I removed a large, dead ghost shrimp on 5/23/03. There are at least 20-30 shrimp in there now of all sizes! I removed a partial dead shrimp on 7/19/03 and a whole one on 7/21/03. Both had turned white to molt and then died despite the addition of iodine. A non-white, dead shrimp was removed on 10/4/03 from the tank. Another was removed on 11/22/03. I mention the deaths but there are many adult shrimp thriving and breeding in the tank despite the lack of cover.
By 1/10/04, it seems I only have about half a dozen ghost shrimp left. I removed one I accidently killed on 1/3/04 when I removed the fake plants for bleaching and did not know she was along for the death ride. Another dead ghost shrimp was found on 1/31/04 and removed. Yet two more dead shrimpies were found and removed on 3/6/04 and 3/13/04. I found a dried up shrimp next to the tank on 6/4/04 that jumped out a tiny opening in the cover. A ghost shrimp turned white and died on 7/23/04. Another was removed that was white as well on 8/27/04. A large ghost shrimp was found dead on 7/19/05. There are still at least half a dozen. The power went out on 8/14/05 and a large female ghost shrimp died. The water turned white despite battery- operated aeration. Another died on 8/19/05, probably a delayed response to the power outage. On 8/27/05, I found parts of at least one ghost shrimp, turned pink. I think there are none left.
On 2/1/02, I also added an albino mystery snail. Looking at applesnail.net, I determined this snail to be a spike-topped apple snail or Pomacea bridgesi. There was a good chance it might eat some of my plants. That was okay because the plecostomus keeps tearing them up and dislodging them and generally making a mess. I added the snail because the pleco leaves hard attached algae all over the glass. He prefers to eat cucumber and sinking algae wafers than algae! So far, the snail seemed to mostly eat plant debris and cucumber. Within a few months, he had totally denuded the tank of all plant life. All that was left is blue-green algae which is not really an algae (and thus not a plant).
On 10/27/05, my Snaily died. I had him for 3 years and almost 9 months. The month before his death, he stopped moving and stayed in one place, sometimes sticking his feelers out. I picked him up daily to either see him moving or his trapdoor firmly shut. As the days past, his trapdoor receded further and further back into the shell when at first, he could not even shut himself in at all for all his flesh. He lost weight and died. Why he starved himself I do not know. His shell incurred some degradation from the softer water but no actual holes ever resulted. I buried Snaily. Before doing so, I took these photos for informational purposes which you can see on my snail page.
Thanks to the above snail, there are no plants in the tank as of 7/10/02. I do not see the point of adding more as long as I have the snail! Below are the plants that used to be in there.
Java moss and frogbit (which has taken over the tank)
Java moss attached to 2 plastic food clips, plecy uprooted and/or ate everything except the onion
plant when he was in the 50 gallon tank.
The following plants were purchased and added on 12/6/98.
One anubias nana, 3 Italian valisneria, 1 dwarf crinum, 1 onion plant, 1 radican sword, 1
anacharis, 1 moneywort, 1 narrowleaf chain sword, 2 red foxtail, 1 cabomba, 1 'Bigleaf' Baby
Tears, 1 narrowleaf ludwegia, 1 crypt willisii, and 1 mayaca.
By 12/15/98, plecy had eaten all the anacharis and continually uprooted the cabomba. He has also uprooted the onion plant, radican sword, and chain sword multiple times. As of 6/9/99, the following of the above plants were still alive: anubias nana, valisneria (barely), dwarf crinum (barely), onion plant, radican sword (barely), and crypt willisii (barely). So, plecostomus love to eat or disturb to death anacharis, moneywort, chain sword, foxtail, cabomba, baby tears, ludwegia, and mayaca. Some of these plants took a while to wither and die and may have had insufficient light, nutrients, and/or carbon dioxide as well as Plecy's harassment.
On 6/6/99, a bunch of Lloydeilla (or is it Lloyoiella?) and needle leaf ludwegia were added to the tank. By July, 1999, Plecy pretty much finished those off.
On 7/10/99, a tropical sunset hygrophilia and two small valisneria were added. By 7/15/99, Plecy had already shredded the valisneria.
On 10/23/99, I added a crypt undulata and an Italian valisneria. The original Italian valisneria that Plecy attacked has come back so that, after java moss, it is the predominant plant. Plecy has let the anubias nana (which he prefers floating around the surface to stuck in the gravel), crypt willisii, and onion plant survive his wrath as well. Oops, by 2000, Plecy mutilated the onion plant.
On 3/16/01, a piece of anacharis and a piece of hornwort (which promptly fell apart) was added to the tank. On 3/17/01, an onion plant (which Plecy uproots every night) and a Crypt spiralis (a tall, nice crypt) were added to the tank. That crypt died in a few weeks. The Italian val has taken over the tank! Yeh!
On 2/2/02, I took most everything out of the 40 gallon tank. I gravel vacuumed extra well and scrubbed the sides. I put all the plants together into new veggie clips that actually open and stick to the sides (others I bought will not open or stick). The remaining plants are covered in inch long black hair-like algae. It is not long green hair algae like in my 50 gallon tank. I guess some might call it brush algae but it is long, thick gray/black algae. I added one anacharis, one potted watersprite, and 1 Rotala indica. Within a few days, Plecy had annihilated the anacharis.
Filter - Emperor 400 with 2 Biowheels (400 gph)
Heater - 200 W Visitherm Stealth heater set around 72 degrees F. I added this new heater which
is supposed to be less apt to break than traditional glass heaters (good with a 14" fish
slamming things around) on 1/21/06.
Lid and Lighting - Glass lid with double strip light holding two 3' 30W fluorescent Triton
bulbs
Gravel - 30 pounds of natural colored gravel on top of a one inch layer of Flourite (about 20
pounds)
Aeration - Bubble wall run by a Rena Air 200 by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals (the Whisper 400
died on 1/23/06)
A large piece of driftwood for Plecy held down by 2 large pieces of slate and his cucumber
holder
A large, ribbed, plastic, black, t-shaped, septic fixture for Plecy to hide in that I added early
1/06.
One thermometer, some petrified wood, a plastic fake wood thing, 4 large fake plants, and 2
small fake plants
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