Washingtonians

[Justahannah]

Justahanna. Very nice tanks.
I'd like to go back to gravel, plants, for my next discus tank.
Prime is a product I use to use.
I agree fantastic product.
There were times I needed to use that.
Use to buy it on line in bulk size.
That product is very popular in the discus community.
I rarely bought products from local fish stores unless it was something I needed right away.
Saved major $$$ on line.
Use to make all my own food.

I believe it was you that mentioned bristle nose?
You should be in great shape once those babies start cleaning.
In about last year of discus I was into buying different kinds.
They do great job of cleaning.

Thank you! I love my albino bristlenoses...I've had my breeding pair for almost five years and they spawn like clockwork every couple of months, usually 50-100 babies in a batch. The male's fierce in his little cave, he guards it like it's Fort Knox and doesn't let anyone get away with eating his babies as long as they stay in the cave. The female's a better worker since she leaves the parenting and territorial stuff to Dad, but it's really interesting to watch them interact. Sometimes I raise the babies to sell or give away, but usually I let nature take it's course and let the other fish eat them as a live food source since raising fry is a lot of work (with the exception of livebearers ). I have one of their babies in with the goldies, he's almost 2" long now and starting to get his bristles in, he does great with the green algeas but doesn't seem to care for the black fuzzy stuff. A peroxide dip turns it pink and makes it die and fall off, but I know it will come back unless I take care of the underlying lighting and nutrient issues so until I have more time to experiment, I'm resigned to the driftwood looking like a wookie.

Here's a couple of older pics of my male bristlenose...he's currently guarding a hatch so I can't get a clear shot, but his bristles are almost twice as long now! I especially liked the second pic...when there are no eggs to guard, I frequently find him taking it easy, I guess it's hard to maintain suction while you're napping

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[itsren]

That is cute!! LOL!! dang it I missed Itsren's hatching experience!! I'm sorry!! When I got on I was like 553 posts behind, sorry, I'm not going to go through them all, but, I just went through the last couple pages, I'm sure I missed a lot!! I hope CR did well in Salem!!???

Trust me - you missed the rough stuff. First time hatching gets very stressful toward the end. All the worry about humidity, chicks trapping other zipping chicks by scooting their shell over the top of a partially zipped chick. I'm glad it is over, glad my husband was able to handle it like a champ while I was gone, and very thankful it turned out very well. Also, after reading what is going on in the incubating thread I was part of, I'm glad I have a tiny incubator that can get it's temp and humidity up quickly. Sounds like some of the bigger incubators can be pretty tricky.

I cracked egg #5 today. It look like it had a yolk, and partially cooked (whitish) egg whites. I totally expected it to stink to high heaven, but it didn't. I'm sure by the time the garbage man picks it up on Monday, it will.

 

[mikeyb]

store the unripe tomatoes in paper bags to speed their ripening.

 

[itsren]

I've got two calves to keep an eye on; a bull who got half-way through the headgate and hung there by his hips until they could take it apart, and a little heifer who's been sickly since she had her shoulder dislocated by rough play back in June or so and who got another round of antibiotics.

I hope your calves will be OK.

 

[itsren]

From ebay.................

I've seen that. I may have to buy one and hang it on my back fence now that two of mine were caught sneaking around in the cul-de-sac today. Thank goodness my kid's piano teacher saw them and called me.

 

[TerrorBird]

While I was wandering down the hill today following the girls, I was blindsided by Lyle. He attacked my leg for no apparent reason. Then he sat there all puffed up. I waited until I could sneak up on him and grabbed him. I carried him around like a football for about 20 or 25 minutes. He managed to bite me a few times before I could secure him, though.

I'm going to work with him until he understands that I'm top dog around here. I've heard that roosters will go through a phase like this, and I will do whatever it takes to teach him. He's smart, so I'm sure he'll learn.

 

[FirewifeJess]

While I was wandering down the hill today following the girls, I was blindsided by Lyle. He attacked my leg for no apparent reason. Then he sat there all puffed up. I waited until I could sneak up on him and grabbed him. I carried him around like a football for about 20 or 25 minutes. He managed to bite me a few times before I could secure him, though.

I'm going to work with him until he understands that I'm top dog around here. I've heard that roosters will go through a phase like this, and I will do whatever it takes to teach him. He's smart, so I'm sure he'll learn.

Have you tried holding him upside down a while? That helps my girls when they get aggressive! They just need a new perspective on life, LOL!

 

[lovinchickypoos]

Hi all, my husband I just moved to Kettle Falls, WA (Northeast) and we're looking for a homestead so that we can raise chickens (among other self sustainable ventures). If anyone is in the area, please get in touch. I don't know many people yet and I would love to find a community here!

I'm from the ugly Southeastern WA!
Good luck on your homesteading!

 

[itsren]

Finally, the goldies (a red ryukin, a black moor, and a calico telescope). They didn't want to pose at all and I thought I'd spare everyone the blurry closeups. Their tank is mildly embarrassing, between being surrounded by windows and having too high of wattage above (since this used to be my well planted tropical tank before I upgraded), it has a major blackbeard algae outbreak. Someday I'll pull everything out and give it all a peroxide dip to kill everything off, but tonight is not that night.

Love the tanks! They're beautiful. I've considered getting a divider for my 10 gallon tank to house 2 betas in. I also considered making it into a terrarium. I'm glad I didn't do anything with it yet, because right now it is a tiny baby chick brooder.

Question... what is the process for a peroxide dip? I've boiled rocks before, but fish tank decorations - not sure how to clean those besides just scrubbing them down. Sometimes the algae will grow back fast. I had the 250 w heat lamp hanging high above the chick brooder, and accidentally caused a bunch of algae to grow in my gold fish tank. I know - lesson learned - I should not have put a brooder next to a goldfish tank that needs to stay cooler. Now that I dropped down to a 100 w heat lamp, and lowered the lamp, it's good.

Our fish are feeder fish (almost embarrassed to admit that), so honestly, I wasn't overly worried about the fish. They are getting big and ugly. But they were won by the kids at VBS a few years back and the kids are very attached to them. Everyone told me to flush them and tell my kids they just died, but I couldn't do that, so I continue to spend money on them. We have ugly plastic plants in with them that need to be cleaned, too. I was told that feeder goldfish will strip real plants, so I never bothered trying to plant real plants in my tank.

 

[lovinchickypoos]

FINALLY got fall coop cleaning done! 5hr worth!! Hopefully I didn't kill my lungs with what seemed like mustard gas or die from Hanta virus with all the d*** mouse crap hiding in nooks and crannies (the coop doubles as storage for many boxes of Halloween and Christmas decos). We've NEVER had such a mouse problem as we did this year!!! Usually my 3 cats keep them under control. It feels very good to have it all cleaned out, although, I probably won't feel good tomorrow.