What are you doing today?

[MattW]

I thought I just found a leak on my 60L tank. Turns out my airstone was the cause! Water had been splashing up against the lid clips and somehow had gone over the glass rim, which they rest on and had leaked along the back of the tank, making the mat it sits on wet and almost leaking onto my extension plugs. For a split second, I was thinking of every tank-related scenario in my head! I would have been very disappointed in Dennerle if there had been a leak, as I only got this tank 3 years ago. Thank God it hadn't

 

[GaryE]

I thought I just found a leak on my 60L tank. Turns out my airstone was the cause! Water had been splashing up against the lid clips and somehow had gone over the glass rim, which they rest on and had leaked along the back of the tank, making the mat it sits on wet and almost leaking onto my extension plugs. For a split second, I was thinking of every tank-related scenario in my head! I would have been very disappointed in Dennerle if there had been a leak, as I only got this tank 3 years ago. Thank God it hadn't

I've had that scare a few times. I once had a tank I bought as a leaker ("with a leak up high") with the intention of fixing it. It never leaked here, The poor guy had sold it when the leak must have been an HOB overflow or an airstone. I've even once had a strand of java moss cause a small wicking effect. It was good for 15 years in my old fishroom.

Water doesn't like being in fishtanks.

Today I freed some water and sent it out into nature, then imprisoned the same amount inside the glass prison walls. I seem to have a nice hatchout of black neon tetras happening. Who knows how many I'll raise, but the numbers look good. And my wild caught Carnagiella myersi pygmy hatchets have begun to eat live brine shrimp, as well as wingless fruit flies. They had me worried there. The marbled hatchets transitioned quickly, but the myersi were slower and shyer.

I put some marbled ones (C. strigata) in a breeding tank, and the eggs I saw through their flanks are largely gone. They were wolfing fruit flies. But whether those eggs will hatch is a mystery.

 

[Lanpenn]

Constantino has died. It seems that his symptoms were similar to those he felt last year. In the last months, I knew that he was terrible to eat because he had lost the attention he had years ago... now, the attention will not exist anymore, only from me, indeed, who decided to bury him in a simple plastic container, as if it were a mausoleum.

His death would happen in the early afternoon of this Friday, October 24, 2025. He had been with me since May 14, 2023. In the previous days, he hadn't eaten, his body was beginning to swell (as it had last year), and he would occasionally swim in a somewhat confused manner, with also misaligned body... and so I rushed to do a partial water change today, with half the volume of the tank, to remove the excess debris. And then, after that, he appeared lying on the substrate, showing some reflexes, and then stopped completely. I ate lunch and prepared his funeral, creating a sort of mausoleum for him inside a plastic container, with a not-so-tightly-fitted lid. I buried him, placed some dried leaves on top, partially covering the container, with the following epitaphs, as shown in the photos:

"Constantino:
Born: circa 1st quarter of 2023
Death: 24th October, 2025
With love,
Felipe Lange"

Maybe I will post something on my Instagram, but I still do not know. I think about buying Macrobrachium shrimp, I will try to find out about. Since my tank is a small one with only 7.92 gallons, there are not so many options.

I am almost finishing the "Nação mercantilista" book. It is a good book, although it is complex to try to find out Brazil's economic history from the 16th to the 19th century.

 

[GaryE]

I spam hammered a delightful AI spammer today, in my role as a mod. The AI had latched onto an old thread about thinning hair algae and was trying to sell hair cutting supplies. Your hair algae, if thin, needs a proper tapered cut. Who would have thought?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Not to question the activities of a moderator, but you really should have left that one up for a few days, for our entertainment. It's one of about two things I miss about being a mod. Some of those spam messages were funny. Does the "What is the meaning of life" guy still show up once in a while?

 

[Essjay]

He hasn't been around for a while now, though now I've said that he'll probably be back tomorrow



Are sales of hoodies falling off? That could explain why so many new members seem to want us to buy them

 

[WhistlingBadger]

One can never have too many hoodies.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

I'm taking a walk in the woods today looking for some spindly branches to dry out and some oak leaves for botanicals.

 

[gwand]

My childhood friend is here visiting with his wife. I have known him for 70 years. He was the person who encouraged me to become an aquarist. He has maintained a 250 gallon Lake Malawi tank for 50 years. I’m going to take him to my local fish store; the one with over 700 tanks. This will blow his mind. It will be a blast.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

We just got back from our annual visit to the pumpkin patch. We bought several pumpkins. Looks like we'll be living on pumpkin pie instead of elk for the next several months.

Yesterday, I got to meet, via video call, the girl I sponsor in Nepal. It was fun but kind of sad. Mom is dead, dad is an alcoholic who isn't quite all there in the head, and she has three sisters who still live in their village because they don't have a sponsor (and the orphanage director can't afford to take them in on his own dime). So Pratiksha doesn't live at the orphanage most of the time, and isn't able to go to school; she lives in the village trying to keep her little sisters alive. She's fifteen. The orphanage director told me that she's a nice kid but she never, ever laughs. No wonder. My family can't afford to do more than we're doing, but I'm hoping I can find sponsors for those girls. Anybody want to help? PM me.

 

[jaylach]

Yesterday, I got to meet, via video call, the girl I sponsor in Nepal. It was fun but kind of sad. Mom is dead, dad is an alcoholic who isn't quite all there in the head, and she has three sisters who still live in their village because they don't have a sponsor (and the orphanage director can't afford to take them in on his own dime). So Pratiksha doesn't live at the orphanage most of the time, and isn't able to go to school; she lives in the village trying to keep her little sisters alive. She's fifteen. The orphanage director told me that she's a nice kid but she never, ever laughs. No wonder. My family can't afford to do more than we're doing, but I'm hoping I can find sponsors for those girls. Anybody want to help? PM me.

If you are able to do so please help Badger help this kid. May just be one kid but each and every child is deserving of a better life than this girl has.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

In happier news, I started this weirdo bow over a year ago. It’s a very crooked piece of Rocky Mountain maple that I couldn’t get straight enough to string. Finally got sick of it and put it away for a year. Got it back out the other day, steamed the daylights out of the main kink, got it pretty straight and stuck some pronghorn rawhide on it so it won’t explode when I start bending it. Going to make a very cool bow if it doesn’t break. (And yes, I say that about every bow I make haha)

Also working in a buddy’s deer hide out by the fire. What with work and other projects it got a little ripe before I got around to fleshing it. Mrs Badger and the Badgerling won’t go near it, or near me when I’ve been working on it. The lengths we men will go to to get some alone time.

 

[GaryE]

Also working in a buddy’s deer hide out by the fire. What with work and other projects it got a little ripe before I got around to fleshing it. Mrs Badger and the Badgerling won’t go near it, or near me when I’ve been working on it. The lengths we men will go to to get some alone time.

This reminds of a few years ago when construction in my onetime city uncovered an 18th century tannery. Apparently, even before the archaeologists went in, they knew what they had from the smell.

It's an odd today for me. I have a 4 hour drive to the medium city to see a Bach recital - stealing @gwand 's lifestyle without the singing. It's only the second time I've ever gone to a classical music show, but I'm old enough I shouldn't stick out. The last one was full of white hair and casual clothes. It's Bach and Telemann, two favourites from the baroque era, so to steal an old pun, I'm going for baroque.

On the way home from the afternoon concert, we're stopping at IKEA. I've made four tanks based on a video @MattW shared, and I really enjoy putting together these IKEA shelf glass specials. They are good looking, solid tanks. I was very tempted to buy more glass and do two more, but I'd have nowhere to put them after. It's an expensive enough crafting project and I have no rack space without taking out perfectly good tanks in place.

It's fun though. And very easy.

I've been reducing the numbers of aquariums in the fishroom, and selling tanks. I put in some larger tanks I made to replace 10 gallon ones, and have taken out 20 tanks. My dwindling killie collection is now going to cohabit with Corydoras. I have set up a breeding tank area to put them in when I want more eggs.

I see to really be enjoying the Corydoras group, which haven't been breeding for me, and the tetra group, which have.

 

[gwand]

This is my Bach program for next Sunday.

PROGRAM​

• BACH Orchestral Suite no. 2 in B minor
• BACH Cantata 182 (“Himmelskönig, sei willkommen”)

 

[jaylach]

Of course, like normal, I'm fighting with my cockatiel from Hades. Today I think that I MAY have a minor victory. If remembered, quite a while back, I posted about His Highness refusing to have anything to do with a small 'playground' I got for him. I had the playground on top of his pent house (cage) and he would have nothing to do with it as he is a rescue bird that is VERY protective of the cage and territorial where the cage is concerned.

I was going to just throw the thing out but decided to try one more ploy. I put the playground on the floor in an area that I normally don't go unless working on my main computer. When the playground was on top of the cage I think he may have seen it as an intrusion on his territory Putting the thing on the floor and away from his cage seems like he no longer sees it as a threat. Got him out of his cage and 5 minutes later here is the result. Will it last? I have no idea but it looks possible. Oh, the purple accent is due to my accent lights. What can I say? I happen to like blues and purples. And, YES, I like teddy bears. LOL! Wanna make something of it?