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UncleWillie's 46 Gal


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#1 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 19 September 2008 - 10:24 AM

Hey everyone. I finally got some time to take a few pics of my fish today. I wanted to show off some of my beauties.
To begin, they are in a 46 Gal bowfront. It is heavily planted with Lugwigia sp, coonstail (hortwort) and some moss attached to some cork floating around. Substrate is playsand mixed with pebbles. Has a lot of driftwood and mussel shells.
Current stock: 6 spotfin shiners (Cyprinella spiloptera), 2 blacknose dace (Rhinichthys atratulus), 8-12 eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), 1 Florida flagfish (Jordanella floridae), 1 redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus), 2 unIDed crayfish.
Okay, here we go.

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Crayfish

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Blacknose dace

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My very nice Spotfin shiners

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Redbreast sunfish

#2 Guest_Clayton_*

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Posted 22 September 2008 - 02:30 PM

Nice pictures. The fish all look very nice. You should add a full tank shot.

#3 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 22 September 2008 - 02:41 PM

Thanks you. So far, the redbreast has been in there for 3 months with no problems trying to kill the other fish (I guess the shiners are too big and he grew up with the mosquitofish. This might be a problem later. The Gambusia are the nippy ones.
Oh yes, sorry. Hear are some full tank shots. I am over-loaded with hornwort, but I just hate throwing it away. You can also see that I have 4 pieces of driftwood, but one is not water-logged yet. So I have the other pieces and a large stone holding it down. Afterwards, I will move around the wood a bit to give more room in the back.
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#4 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 22 September 2008 - 02:43 PM

Oh, and here are a few pics I figured I'd show that I took this summer back home in GA.

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Southern studfish (w/ a creek chub in the background). Caught in Raccoon Creek (Etowah basin)

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Yellowfin shiner in the creek behind my house (Middle Oconee tributary.

Enjoy :mrgreen:

#5 Guest_Clayton_*

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Posted 22 September 2008 - 04:50 PM

Those guys sure are fired up. That is some very nice coloration. I wish I could get photos to come out like that. I always end up with a blurry mess.

The tank looks very nice. The hornwort looks even happier than the fish.

#6 Guest_blakemarkwell_*

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Posted 22 September 2008 - 04:58 PM

Nice looking setup there Willie, I am sure the fish do not mind that extra Ceratophylum demersum at all. Looks good, keep up the good work.

Blake

#7 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 22 September 2008 - 08:00 PM

Thanks for the comments!

Clayton, the best way to get decent pictures is take a lot of them. After dozens of blurry pictures, one is bound to be alright. Plus with a crappy digital camera with autofocus and fast fish - it is a bit time consuming.

Blake, thanks for the scientific name on the hortwort. I have know that many people call many different plants 'hornwort.' It's nice to finally nail it down. Thanks!

#8 Guest_blakemarkwell_*

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Posted 22 September 2008 - 08:07 PM

No problem, I just use scientific names when people refer to something (bird, fish, insect, plant, etc...) that has two or more common names. Scientific names are sometimes a pain to keep to memory, but I try to remember as many as I can to avoid those awkward conversations when two people from two different geographic location are referring to the same species by multiple common names (yet they have no idea they are talking about the same species, haha).

Blake

#9 Guest_jimv8673_*

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Posted 09 October 2008 - 07:52 PM

A beautiful tank Willie, Its a joy to see a well thought out tank with happy plants and fish, anyone can tell its your pride and joy....but ... now im thinkin... wow id like some of those fish, and a bow front tank :) . the photography is great also. Is there such a thing as too many tanks or beautiful fish?? Oh if those rowdy southern stud fish get to crowding your tank too much i happen to know where you could dump them :lol:

Edited by jimv8673, 09 October 2008 - 07:55 PM.


#10 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 27 October 2008 - 02:09 PM

Jim, thanks for the comments. I have a pretty dumpy camera, but It just takes a lot of patience to get good pictures. The studfish is actually not in my tank. This summer we caught one when setting up a booth at a bluegrass festival to educate people on aquatic diversity, sedimentation, polution, water conservation, etc. I am going to post a few updates as well..

#11 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 27 October 2008 - 02:13 PM

Three weeks, my fish began scratching and iching on the sand, driftwood and plants. After 3 days, I noticed 2 spotfin shiners and a blacknose dace had white specks. So the 3 lathargic fish were removed, I put a heater in the tank and dumped in some salt. Within one day, no itching. After three days with the heater on, the redbreast was building a nest and the fish stopped itching. It seems I am in the clear (no signs of ich for a week).
More updates:
Okie dokie. I went out to collect some plants, and these are what I came home with:
Elodea canadensis
Lemna minor
Myriophyllum (spicatum)?
Vallisneria (americana)?
Potamogeton (crispus)?


The duckweed (L. minor) and moquitofern was loaded with daphnia and cyclops, so it went into a container outside to see if I can get any reproduction.
The rest all went into the 46 Gal. Here are the pics:

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Two Val plants with two Altamaha pocketbook shells

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Elodea with some G. holbrooki sneaking around

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Curly-leafed pondweed

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The watermilfoil - I couldn't get a clear pic except when trying to focus on something else.
Speaking of which, what would an update be like without new pics of my favorite fishy:
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Here is my redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus) begging for food. The last pic is my favorite - after some photoshopping this pic is now my avatar. He is showing off in these pics by getting rid of his reds, brightening his blues and standing up his spines - he was quite ready for some food and didn't want anyone near him!
As you can tell, he has grown quite a bit since those first pics. In those earlier pics, he looked to be all head and eyeballs. He finally started eating pellets (which helped him fill out).

#12 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 27 October 2008 - 02:17 PM

Okay.. another update.
Not much going on. Most of my Vals have been torn to shreds from my female flagfish, but they are starting to put out again. The pondweed is completely gone, and I don't have enough light reaching the bottom of my tank for the Elodea to thrive,. and my ludwigia is dropping leaves :( . So, I threw out over half of my floating hornwort, but has done very little. I may end up scrapping all of it.
Anyways, here is what it looks like.
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What is an update without my favs: Redbreast is doing great, but colors fading because of the temperature dropping here and in my apartment. His nest stays quite clean.
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Badonkadonk
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Badinkadink

Exoskeleton
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Here is crayfish studying his own exoskeleton. A few hours later he ate some of it.
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Two Bluefin Killifish and a Seminole Killifish were in a batch of ghost shrimps - being sold as feeder - so I took them both home for 30 cents each.

Edited by UncleWillie, 27 October 2008 - 02:22 PM.


#13 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 27 October 2008 - 02:20 PM

I came back from class and noticed my redbreast was much more colorful than usual. I also noticed his mouth was open. Hmm... it was an Oto (so now there are no tropicals left - for the best)
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Sorry there were so many updates at once, I just figured I would post some pics for everyone's enjoyment.

#14 Guest_fishlvr_*

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Posted 27 October 2008 - 04:06 PM

Very nice! Especially love the redbreast. :D I used to keep them but then I ran out of tank space, and they were the largest-growing fish in my collection, so I got rid of them first.

#15 Guest_nativeplanter_*

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Posted 27 October 2008 - 04:22 PM

Are you sure it is the flagfish that is picking the vals apart? Crayfish are reeeeaaaly good at destroying plants. My guess would be that the flagfish are only pecking at algae growing on the nice broad val leaves. My first step would be to remove the crayfish and see how the plants do.

#16 Guest_wolfie8000_*

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Posted 27 October 2008 - 04:57 PM

Sorry there were so many updates at once, I just figured I would post some pics for everyone's enjoyment.


Tank looks great. =D>

You can never have to many updates on a photo thread.

#17 Guest_jimv8673_*

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Posted 27 October 2008 - 05:39 PM

Tank looks great. =D>

You can never have to many updates on a photo thread.


Willie, anyone that could scan through those pictures and not want to keep natives must be nuts, The potography is great, and the story that goes with the is both entertaining and informative, It was a joy to look thru and hear your story. Thank you for your time

#18 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 27 October 2008 - 08:39 PM

Thanks for the replies everyone!
Steve, thanks! I love that redbreast. I will be moving soon, and I intend to get at least a 90 G so I can get a few more redbreasts (If they don't get too aggressive). So far, he has grown so fast and only chases the mosquitofish (which is fine by me). He is my first sunfish and I am hooked.
Nativeplanter, I should have clarified. The crayfish was moved into my 13 gallon a few months back because of his tendancy to pull up and snip plants. The bluefin and seminole killies are also in the 13. I may end up moving the flagfish in there as well.
So the total stock in the 46 gallon is 1-redbreast sunfish, 1-1.5'' bluegill, 3-spotfin shiners, 3-eastern mosquitofish(and dropping)
wolfie and jimv, thanks a lot. I won't be so tardy on any more updates, haha.

#19 Guest_joshuapope2001_*

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Posted 28 October 2008 - 09:11 PM

looks great thanks for the update

#20 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 28 October 2008 - 09:32 PM

Thanks. I just looked at the dates that I took the photos and I can't get over how much the redbreast has grown in a little over a month. In those first pics he was so tiny, and now he is the bossman in the tank. If I don't think I will freeze, I will try to go out tomarrow and try to get some more spotfins or BND to replace the 5 that that I lost during my ich incident.




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