Diving back in
So I got a fish.
She's a little orange balloon Molly with some black markings on her fins and body.
The girl I got her from thought that she had to give her and the tank up as she is out of town for work a lot, and had already seen a betta, another Molly, and a couple of snails already fall to survive :(
Florence the balloon Molly is quite an odd little fish. Despite the tank breakdown and relocation as soon as I let her out of the bag she immediately started looking for food. It took her a while to work out that the duckweed was generally inedible, although she's persisted with some of the smaller pieces.
I've owned both regular and sailfin mollies in the past, and I always found them a bit boring, and preferred swordtails out of the livebearers.
This little but -very- round balloon Molly has a lot more personality than I had expected. She booped both snails I added off the plant leaves as soon as she noticed them, and is constantly digging around and picking at the plants. I started giving her some mosquito larvae to see how she'd react, and without missing a beat she smashed them in seconds.
I wasn't really ready for a fish, although I've been planning things for a while, and have been lining things up for when I was ready.
I picked up a collection of free plants from someone on fb, and have tried to plant them and start growing them out - mostly for G who is going to at some point set up one of our old 3 foot tanks mostly for plants he says, but with the weather still inconsistent they haven't really done very well because of the cool temperature.
I've bought up lights, filters, and pumps, and reconnected with our old fish pusher and ordered a couple of interesting fish - some dwarf cichlids (Apistogramma cacatuoides or or agassizii) and of course the super useful and amusing bristlenose plecos - fish pusher offered to get me some peppermint bristlenose!
A couple of cricketers have shrimp tanks, so I'll get some cull quality shrimp and guppies from them.
What I'm a bit short on is space for tanks, so I'm making use of some plastic tubs for basic growing out of plants and fish.
Most of this comes on the back of watching YouTube videos of the absolutely wild catches in the canals and drains in Florida. The water temperature around here isn't going to support anywhere near the variety of fish, and I think we're generally more aware of the consequences of introduced and invasive species. There's a bit of a problem with them in Queensland, which has a climate much more similar to Florida, but down here the reports of invasive species a few and far between, partially I think because there's not a lot of people looking. So that's what I'm going to do through these warmer months.
I've pored over Google maps and worked out likely sites and waterways to investigate, and bought and made various traps to deploy, so we'll see if I turn anything interesting up.
Back to Florence the balloon Molly. I decided that I should get her a couple of friends, because a solo fish is a lonely fish, so I nipped out to the nearest shop to see if I could find her a mate. They didn't have very many balloon mollies, they're expecting more in a couple of weeks, but I saw a little Dalmatian male quietly skulking under the sponge filter, and he looked the healthiest of what they had (despite his hiding) and I had wanted a Dalmatian anyway so brought him home.
He was -super- excited when he saw her while I floated him in the bag for a while, and as soon as I took him out he immediately started chasing her around. I knew this was likely, and that you should keep one male and a couple of females so the male splits his attention, but after having observed her for a couple of days I didn't think she'd put up with it for long.
He continued chasing her around for about ten minutes, at which point I thought that I might have to separate them, but he got a bit distracted when I put in some food (also surprised that he was keen to eat straight away).
About an hour later, as I suspected, she was sick of his shit, and she was chasing him, and actually nipping at him. Florence is bigger than he is and is probably twice his weight, I'm not even sure if he's an adult to be honest. She's been relentless, especially when she thinks he's found some food. Every now and then I find them fairly peacefully swimming near each other, but then she'll zip after him. I've moved some of the scape, and changed some plants around to give him a bit of cover, and make it a bit harder for her to maintain pursuit between the leaves and rocks.
She smashed the wrigglers I put in for them, he either didn't know what they were, or wasn't game enough to come too close while she was charged up.
I'm starting to wonder if I should get another female, I don't think i need one to keep him occupied. I might also have some clues as to what happened to her former tank mates, because it looks like she will let nothing get between her and food.
Also I really need to sleep consistently...
She's a little orange balloon Molly with some black markings on her fins and body.
The girl I got her from thought that she had to give her and the tank up as she is out of town for work a lot, and had already seen a betta, another Molly, and a couple of snails already fall to survive :(
Florence the balloon Molly is quite an odd little fish. Despite the tank breakdown and relocation as soon as I let her out of the bag she immediately started looking for food. It took her a while to work out that the duckweed was generally inedible, although she's persisted with some of the smaller pieces.
I've owned both regular and sailfin mollies in the past, and I always found them a bit boring, and preferred swordtails out of the livebearers.
This little but -very- round balloon Molly has a lot more personality than I had expected. She booped both snails I added off the plant leaves as soon as she noticed them, and is constantly digging around and picking at the plants. I started giving her some mosquito larvae to see how she'd react, and without missing a beat she smashed them in seconds.
I wasn't really ready for a fish, although I've been planning things for a while, and have been lining things up for when I was ready.
I picked up a collection of free plants from someone on fb, and have tried to plant them and start growing them out - mostly for G who is going to at some point set up one of our old 3 foot tanks mostly for plants he says, but with the weather still inconsistent they haven't really done very well because of the cool temperature.
I've bought up lights, filters, and pumps, and reconnected with our old fish pusher and ordered a couple of interesting fish - some dwarf cichlids (Apistogramma cacatuoides or or agassizii) and of course the super useful and amusing bristlenose plecos - fish pusher offered to get me some peppermint bristlenose!
A couple of cricketers have shrimp tanks, so I'll get some cull quality shrimp and guppies from them.
What I'm a bit short on is space for tanks, so I'm making use of some plastic tubs for basic growing out of plants and fish.
Most of this comes on the back of watching YouTube videos of the absolutely wild catches in the canals and drains in Florida. The water temperature around here isn't going to support anywhere near the variety of fish, and I think we're generally more aware of the consequences of introduced and invasive species. There's a bit of a problem with them in Queensland, which has a climate much more similar to Florida, but down here the reports of invasive species a few and far between, partially I think because there's not a lot of people looking. So that's what I'm going to do through these warmer months.
I've pored over Google maps and worked out likely sites and waterways to investigate, and bought and made various traps to deploy, so we'll see if I turn anything interesting up.
Back to Florence the balloon Molly. I decided that I should get her a couple of friends, because a solo fish is a lonely fish, so I nipped out to the nearest shop to see if I could find her a mate. They didn't have very many balloon mollies, they're expecting more in a couple of weeks, but I saw a little Dalmatian male quietly skulking under the sponge filter, and he looked the healthiest of what they had (despite his hiding) and I had wanted a Dalmatian anyway so brought him home.
He was -super- excited when he saw her while I floated him in the bag for a while, and as soon as I took him out he immediately started chasing her around. I knew this was likely, and that you should keep one male and a couple of females so the male splits his attention, but after having observed her for a couple of days I didn't think she'd put up with it for long.
He continued chasing her around for about ten minutes, at which point I thought that I might have to separate them, but he got a bit distracted when I put in some food (also surprised that he was keen to eat straight away).
About an hour later, as I suspected, she was sick of his shit, and she was chasing him, and actually nipping at him. Florence is bigger than he is and is probably twice his weight, I'm not even sure if he's an adult to be honest. She's been relentless, especially when she thinks he's found some food. Every now and then I find them fairly peacefully swimming near each other, but then she'll zip after him. I've moved some of the scape, and changed some plants around to give him a bit of cover, and make it a bit harder for her to maintain pursuit between the leaves and rocks.
She smashed the wrigglers I put in for them, he either didn't know what they were, or wasn't game enough to come too close while she was charged up.
I'm starting to wonder if I should get another female, I don't think i need one to keep him occupied. I might also have some clues as to what happened to her former tank mates, because it looks like she will let nothing get between her and food.
Also I really need to sleep consistently...