GSP in new 37 gallon tank.

[J-P]

she looks so happy and excited!!

Congrats!

[purplecandle]

Awesome symmetrical spots...a future golf ball with a tail!

[jmiller]

I was quite pleased with the appearance. Her tail has one little nip out of it but nothing major. When I picked her up they told me the distributor fed frozen brine shrimp only (I always ask). I went ahead and bought some just in case I couldn't get her to eat. I didn't need to worry. The first few bloodworm never made it to the bottom. She has had about 10 and has already "gone potty", as my grand daughter would say, and thankfully everything looks normal. I already have some shell on, raw shrimp on the grocery list for tomorrow. So between the bloodworm, shrimp & snails she should fatten up nicely.

[Pufferpunk]

Congrats! What SG is she at?

[jmiller]

Currently fresh. Everything is ordered and should arrive next week to start raising it.

[jmiller]

She is beginning to settle in and explore more but still hides when I walk up to the tank. I finally got her to eat a snail today. I put one in that was a little larger than I wanted, but the one I have the most in that size, and she hit the shell one time and left it alone. I didn't have any the right size, just smaller and larger. So I put a few of the smaller ones in and she ate them whole with no problem. After three of those I tried the larger ones again. She circled for a few minutes and one finally stuck it's head out. That's all it took. She bit the heads off the other three immediately but now I had four rotting snails in the tank. So after I had fished out the other three I decided to crush the last one and drop it back in. It had barely hit the bottom when she was on it. So it looks like until my small snails grow some more I'll be able to feed the larger ones by crushing them first. Here a few pics.

Full on bloodworm.


Pretending she's a moray.


And finally my mixing set up.


I also bought some raw,shell on shrimp, at the grocery. There is probably 60 in that package but it's the smallest size I could find. I'm going to freeze them and just take out one the day before I plan on feeding it. How often should I be feeding shrimp per week?

[Pufferpunk]

That should make for easy water changes!

[jmiller]

That should make for easy water changes!

That's the idea. I'm not getting any younger.
I have finally started using a python and can't believe I've waited so long. I've tried to make this a easy as possible. It will even be pumped from the can to the tank.

[JRC3]

I bought one of these at Harbor Freight last week. Should make mixing and WCs easy. It has a 20' power cord and 6' of lift so it will pump right in to the tank.

http://www.harborfreight.com/258-gph-su ... 47117.html

[jmiller]

I looked at that exact same one but didn't need anything else from Harbor Freight. I ended up buying a ViaAqua 1800 Water Pump from Dr's Foster & Smith since I was placing an order anyway. Now I just have to find somewhere to put that can.

[hazima]

i really like the rock design! your puffer looks really good as well!

[jmiller]

Thanks.

[jmiller]

Tonight was the first big water change, 50%. Emma was not amused.

I found a major flaw in the rock placement. I have some dead areas that I'm not able to reach with the Python syphon tube. It looks like I'll have to use my old syphon to get those unreachable spots and a net to get some of the larger shell pieces.

After I refilled the the tank she went nuts. She is still a little shy so this was quite unusual, swimming towards the top and right in front of the glass acting real jerky. During the refill I had dosed the tank with Prime for the whole tank not just the part I removed. Something wasn't right so I got out the test kit. Ammonia .25, son of a , well you know the rest. Dumped another full tank dose in and she calmed down immediately. Reran test and it was 0. I had been using buckets so long that I had forgotten that I dosed them at >2x the normal dose to compensate for the ammonia readings straight out of the faucet. Lesson learned.

My package from Dr's Foster/Smith arrived today so I had big plan for this evening but my elderly neighbor called and needed some help so I went to her house for a while so it looks like tomorrow will be the big night. I got lots of neat stuff but the main thing is the background. I can't wait to put it on. It is perfect for this tank. Pics tomorrow.

According to my new electronic thermometer that tank is right around 78.5* but I noticed that she is constantly around the heater so I'm thinking of bumping it up a little.

[JRC3]

Did you get some "Sea View" to apply the background? It makes all the difference.

[jmiller]

Two of them. I wanted to make sure I had enough.