Vinny Has Left The Building

[minxfishy]

I was worried I wouldnt be able to tell them apart, but Vinny is *shush dont tell Harry* much prettier and has longer fins, whereas Harry is far more butch looking, doesnt help he still has a dent in his head from where he tried to jump out the tank a few weeks ago

I think they are settling down a bit now, Harry has been following Vinny around, nothing aggressive, just checking him out constantly, kinda, this is my home, know your roll, kinda thing

 

[markandhisfish]

glad they arrived ok mags. glad youre happy with them i did wonder if the hot water bag would be too much but ive never packaged fish to send before and was paranoid they would get cold, i will know in future not so much heat is needed. yes if i say so myself vinny is a particularly handsome sev are all his fins still intact? he was flawless i hope he arrived in the same condition and didnt get damaged . glad he is getting on ok with harry so far . when vinny settles in propperly and his true character comes out youre gonna totally fall in love with him, i miss him already, but im glad hes in a good home. the catfish pellets i sent with him i would only give as a treat cos he loves em so much that if he gets em all the time he will turn his nose up at anything else and look at you as if to say come on now you know what i want!!!
my tank just aint gonna seem the sme now until i do the new setup .

the nugget will probably hide up for ages , he took a long time to get confident in my tank but once he does its worth the wait as hes stunning when hes out and about.

the kribs will colour up even more when they start flirting with each other , the male looks really handsome with his pink cheeks. he must be a goodun lol hes the only 1 she hasnt nuked once they have spawned

 

[minxfishy]

I think its a good job I have a new tank arriving today, because Im concerned the boys are not getting along.

I thought Vinny was dead this morning, couldnt find him and when we did, he was face down in a plant, however, as soon as I turned the dimmed lights on, he immediately came out to the front to say hello, unfortunately so did Harry, who refuses to leave him alone, his fins are a little nipped, particularly the long anal fin and although he looks ok in himself, Im concerned that if they dont settle I will have to move either him or harry to their own tank, mind you, saying that, Harry is also going at seymour (small gold sev) as well this morning, I think he's trying to prove dominance and will probably calm down, will give it another 24 hours and see how what happens.

Dont worry Mark, its only a little nipping, I cant see any other damage to him and he doesnt look overly concerned, in fact, he keeps going back into Harry's den which is a no no, its not keeping him out of the den thats bothering Harry, its keeping him in it!! He doesnt want Vinny out and about for some reason, we are sure Vinny is male right

As for the kribs, they have cleared an area of sand and are side by side everywhere, she is very fat with eggs I guess, so Im assuming babies sometime soon, which stand no chance in this tank unfortunately, but again, they will be moving to the new tank as soon as its set up, as it will be a bit more peaceful for them.

The Pleco, who my little man has renamed Rhino (after the Hamster in Bolt!!!) is out and about too, found himself a nice shady spot under the wood.

Hope your head isnt pounding too much this morning Mark, will keep you updated, I wont let anything bad happen to any of them, I promise

 

[markandhisfish]

yeah my head was a bit sore today for some reason ?? dunno why must of had too many cups of tea last night i expected harry to want to show his dominance being the established large male in the tank , im sure vinny will let him have his way as he is a big girls blouse im not too concerned about the nipping i know you keep good water so they will soon heal up . im surprised the plec is out and about allready ,so thats a good sign it will settle in ok .

yep the kribs are about due another spawning they have been going through the courting ritual a lot lately , they have a very set routine, they flirt like mad then they spawn and keep the fry hidden up for a few days then once free swimming the female brings out the fry and wont let the male anywhere near them , and dishes out a swift slap if he tries , then he runs away until he has had enough and they have a fight ( which she always wins). then the fry get eaten she gets the broody instinct back and suddenly the male is useful again so she takes him back , she really does have no morals that girl lol she sees the male as a mere source of sperm

 

[minxfishy]

So it took 10 minutes to make a decision, I put some food in, Vinny tried to eat some, Harry went nuts!!!

Vinny is now enjoying the pleasure of a 5ft full of Viejas, who couldnt give a monkeys about him and he is swimming around loving it! Will move him to the 4ft once its set up, but for now, he is happy as can be.

Harry is sulking

 

[markandhisfish]

shame they had to be seperated but the plus side to that is that vinnys charachter will probably show more now. even when i had him in with my much smaller green sev he was happy to sit back and let the green steal the show .

hopefully he will start to do his loop the loop trick thats is so funny to watch. he swims up then divebombs at the sand kamikaze style gos along the bottom upside down and back up again before sitting at the front wagging as if to say hey look at what i can do

 

[markandhisfish]

oncde the 300 is all set up and stocked can you put up a piccy of vinny in his new home ?

 

[minxfishy]

He seems to be happy now, wafting around in all the space he has, there was always a chance it wouldnt work with the two of them and maybe given time Harry would have calmed down, but after the stress of travelling, I wasnt prepared to see Vinny suffer, some time in the future, I will try again, once the Vieja have paired up and moved to another tank, put Harry back in with Vinny in the 5ft. The Vieja are very peaceful (for now), the Ellioti are more the boss's of that tank, so I may just leave him in there to establish himself, giving him the upper hand when the time comes to put Harry in there.

Will get a pic in a while for you

 

[markandhisfish]

excellent cheers. see this is exactly why i was so keen for you to have vinny as opposed to some random person. i knew youd look after him the way i did . plus you have several tanks big enough for him so he could easily be moved if need be .

 

[minxfishy]

Vinny, like Harry, will be treated like royalty, I love him already and he seems to know me already and comes to say hello as soon as I go near the tank,

ok, here you go, I think this is where he will stay, as the Vieja wont bother him at all, got a good year before they start to pair up (hopefully) and even then, their aggression is only between themselves.

Excuse the pics, they are very quickly taken, just so you can be reassured he's ok

You can see the nipped fins, but they will be healed within a week I bet.

 

[markandhisfish]

oh my GOOOOOOOOD!!!! what the effin jeff have you done to my beautiful fish!!!!!!!!? he was flawless when i sent him out , you have had him less than 24 hours and he looks a mess, im very dissapointed in you mags i expected better of you than that.

nah only messing , its all good. the tank looks lovely im sure hel be very happy in there .

ps karen says what gravel is that youve got in there as she loves it and apparently thats what the discus tank will need

 

[minxfishy]

Dont make me feel worse than I already do

Tell Karen, its Limpopo black aquarium sand, I got it from Aqua Essentials, but I believe MA do it too. Its good stuff, a #28### to clean before adding it to the tank, but its good because you can still use a syphon cleaner on it as its not as light as normal sand so you can still get all the poop up, whilst the sand sinks down the tube

 

[markandhisfish]

how much work does it take you to keep it looking so pristene ? i only ask cos im switching from the normal light coloured playsand cos im fed up with it . i found that with a few large cichlids in there that unless i was in there cleaning it almost daily it soon starts to look messy . add that to the extra work already involved with the discus i want something easy to maintain

 

[minxfishy]

Well both tanks had a 50% w/c yesterday along with full sand clean, which I do twice a week, depending on what they are eating, depends on the poop to be seen, so when they are eating cichid gold (which they currently are) you get red poop (as can be seen in picture), but compared to how it looks on light coloured sand, its hardly noticable. I HATE light coloured sand, drives me insane as soon as its cleaned, it looks dirty again, with this, its a few days before I start to notice it and by then Im cleaning again anyway, Im an anal tank cleaner as you know, any poo and its time to clean it up again, if I had my way, they would invent fish nappies

 

[minxfishy]

Here, just for Karen, her Kribs, looking lovely I have to say, never had Kribs before, but these two are stunning