Dr. Felicia's Predator Paradise - Retired

[fishfreak0114]

Glad to hear the tanks ok . I'm sure you'll get it spic and span in no time! Nice betta

[FlowerMama]

I remember right after Don passed I bought like 5 bettas, trying to save the dying bettas from the sad Walmart cups. I was still wanting to watch over someone. Stupid decision but explainable. I never brought them all to health. That was before I started here on NR.

[Felicia]

Glad to hear the tanks ok . I'm sure you'll get it spic and span in no time! Nice betta

Planning to have it back up to par by the end of tonight. Expect some photos tomorrow evening hopefully

 

 

 

Freshwater Planted Aquarium

In the meantime, the freshwater tank is sparkling clean after its deep cleaning last night, so how about a photo of that tank? I know its not a reef but I haven't shared any photos of it in a long time. Its nothing fancy, just a 4 gallon tank with easy plants (mostly assorted anubias and java fern), 3 corydoras (panda, albino, and green dragon), a male butterfly betta, and a tiny albino bristlenose pleco. In terms of equipment there's an AquaClear 20 (carbon, sponge, and biomedia), a 25 watt heater, and a 9 watt 6700 K power compact light. I have 2 Seachem Fluorish tabs down in the substrate, but other than that I don't dose any carbon or fertilizer. This tank gets a water change like once every 6 months. Other than that I just throw in some food once a day

 

Excuse the reflections! Its still daylight here.

IMG_5296 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

Also, here's my tiny albino bristlenose pleco. He was sooooo tiny when I got him, so he's already grown a bunch. Plecos are one of my all time favorite fish and are really the fish that got me addicted to aquariums.

IMG_5291 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

And here's a quick video I took of the tank! Please excuse all the reflections and the water is still a bit cloudy because I stirred up the substrate last night. Not my usual video quality, but just thought it would be fun to show the little freshwater tank real quick

 

 

I remember right after Don passed I bought like 5 bettas, trying to save the dying bettas from the sad Walmart cups. I was still wanting to watch over someone. Stupid decision but explainable. I never brought them all to health. That was before I started here on NR.

Yeah its tempting to want to rescue them all! Its hard though since bettas each need their own tank. Since I only have one spot for a betta and he was going in with other fish, I picked out one of the healthy looking ones instead of trying to rescue a sickly betta. I feel so bad for those bettas in those cups though!

[fishfreak0114]

I hate it when people keep them in something barely bigger than the cups they come in! My French teacher had one in .5g, but she moved and gave it to me (knowing I love fish) so now it happily living in 3g it's so tempting to rescue Walmart ones! They all look so sad

 

Your freshwater tank looks great! Nice plants!

[Felicia]

I hate it when people keep them in something barely bigger than the cups they come in! My French teacher had one in .5g, but she moved and gave it to me (knowing I love fish) so now it happily living in 3g it's so tempting to rescue Walmart ones! They all look so sad

 

Your freshwater tank looks great! Nice plants!

Yeah I really think a gallon is the absolute minimum. I had a betta in a 1.5 gallon cube with some lucky bamboo for 3 years while I was in undergraduate at the University of Florida. I used to do 100% water changes every week and when I was gone during the summers, I'd drive him in his cube to my parents' house so they could do his water changes and feed him. When I moved to California, my mom took the betta with his tank and took care of him for a few more years. He lived to be about 5 years old. He did really well in his 1.5 gallon, but I wanted to do a bit bigger betta tank to give it some more space. I bet yours is happy now in that 3 gallon. I really think a 3-5 gallon is the best for a betta

 

I haven't seen the bettas in Walmart in a long time since I avoid Walmart at all costs, but I'm sure they're pretty bad. I saw this article last month about Walmart and their bettas:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/walmart-pet-fish-cruelty_us_576c2922e4b0d575ae42201a

 

My new one came from Petco, and the water in most of the little betta containers looked pretty clean surprisingly, and most of the bettas seemed healthy. There were a few rough ones, but considering they had a ton in stock, I was pleasantly surprised. I really think it comes down to the people running the fish department at each individual store and how good of a job they're doing.

 

And thank you! Its just a really easy tank with easy plants. Its pretty zen and I enjoy how little effort it requires to care for.

[teenyreef]

That's a beautiful tank! My daughter is keeping her betta in my old Evolve 4 tank, but when she tried to add a few cory cats the betta went after them. Did you have better luck by adding the betta after they were already in? Or do you think it's because of all the planted material allowing them to hide better?

[William]

Quick question, how hard was it to train your fu Manchu to eat frozen? Where did you get him/her from?

[Felicia]

That's a beautiful tank! My daughter is keeping her betta in my old Evolve 4 tank, but when she tried to add a few cory cats the betta went after them. Did you have better luck by adding the betta after they were already in? Or do you think it's because of all the planted material allowing them to hide better?

Thank you! I bet that's a great tank for a betta! I think it kind of depends on the personality of the betta. I've had some that are super cool with other fish and some that are jerks. I also think adding the cory cats first and the betta later helps too. But I think the biggest factor is having plenty of plants and other hiding places low in the tank. The bettas are so bulky with their fins and not very good swimmers, so they don't do well trying to move among the decor and plants. Its means that the betta stays up in the top half of the tank and the corys stay at the bottom. I really think that would help you a lot in her tank. You could add some of the pretty natural wood and stones and things like I have for decor and then it would be pretty simple just to add some super easy plants. I've tried a bunch of different plants and I've really had the best success with anubias, java ferns, and moss balls. Those plants need basically no extra care and you can usually even get them at Petco and Petsmart. Just throw a little powercompact light on the tank and get some substrate for them to root in and you're good to go. That would probably allow for the addition of a couple cory cats.

 

Quick question, how hard was it to train your fu Manchu to eat frozen? Where did you get him/her from?

I had read that fu manchu's were supposed to be tricky to get weaned onto frozen, but amazingly enough, my fu manchu was already eating frozen silversides at the local store when I got him. I think its more up to the specific fish and not necessarily species as to which ones will be more difficult to get trained onto frozen. My fu manchu was the easiest, since he started eating frozen without much effort at the store. Then my antennata took a couple weeks of effort before she started taking PE mysis instead of live ghost shrimp. My dwarf zebra was the most stubborn and took months to get onto frozen. Now that they're all eating frozen, they're pretty much take anything I offer. Its really kind of luck of the draw with how willing the fish will be to take frozen, so my biggest advice is patience and to make sure you have a reliable live food source until you can get the fish converted to frozen.

 

My fu manchu came from Aquatic Collection in Hayward, CA. That's where I also got the antennata, the snowflake eel, the tomini tang, and the melanurus wrasse.

[gena]

Ha! Yeah I just do most of my reading online and forget to really look at magazines. I do look at the Coral articles online when there's one I find interesting.

 

Don't make any long drives to find it if you don't need to go to those stores! I can always mail you a copy if you'd like. I just figured I'd give people a heads up in case they had LFS trips planned. Reef Hobbyist is quarterly, so my issue should be around for like 3 months.

If it's 3 months then maybe I'll be able to grab one at MACNA! Or you can bring one with you and I could get one from you there .

 

I think you're definitely the most decorated/awarded reefer! Glad that I belong to a reefing group that has so many women with incredible tanks.

She is . Proud to be her friend .

[ninjamyst]

Are you close to Hayward? My sister lives in Hayward. She's right by a lfs too but not sure if its the same one you go to.

[Felicia]

If it's 3 months then maybe I'll be able to grab one at MACNA! Or you can bring one with you and I could get one from you there .

 

She is . Proud to be her friend .

Well Reef Hobbyist has a booth and the next issue won't come out until October, so the issue they'll be handing out at MACNA is the one with my tank I believe they even put a copy in everyone's goody bag that they get when they check in. Should definitely be the place to get copies. I did finally figure out an LFS that should be getting their copies in in the next few weeks and they requested an extra pack of 10 just for me. So I should have some to mail and give to people too

 

You guys are too sweet! I wouldn't be able to do it without my NR friends You guys are the ones who give me all the advice and such!

 

Are you close to Hayward? My sister lives in Hayward. She's right by a lfs too but not sure if its the same one you go to.

The store I go to most often is the one is Hayward, called Aquatic Collection. Its a pretty awesome store and the guys that own it are great. I'm in Berkeley, which isn't too far. With light traffic its about a 35 minutes drive for me to get to that store in Hayward. Does your sister reef?

[Felicia]

Non-Reef Related Story

I'm feeling very engineer-y today! So I drive a 13 year old car, which I've had since I was 15 and its a great, super reliable car. However, being as its 13 years old, it gets hard at times to find parts when things break. So I had kind of a car repair saga today and thought I'd share.

 

A while back, I got my oil changed and was told that my license plate light bulb had burned out. No biggie! So I go to the autoparts store and buy a new bulb. Well when I go the replace the bulb, I realize that its not actually that the bulb itself burned out, but that the socket the bulb goes in had burned and melted. Guess after 13 years it was done. Ok, again, not a big deal right? Until I realize that no one sells that replacement socket anymore and I searched online for hours for a used one or something and couldn't find the right one. So this is now where today's saga starts.

 

I decided to go to an auto salvage yard today. Man was that an experience! Definitely hadn't done that before. It was in a really not so nice area of Oakland and it was just rows upon rows of smashed up old cars. You just pay a couple bucks admission and then you can go in and remove whatever parts you want from any of the cars. You have to remove the parts yourself and bring your own tools. As soon as I had paid my admission to the yard and walked in, a group of men hollered at me asking if I needed help. I was like thank you, but I've got this and headed to the Dodge section (my car is a Dodge Stratus) with my toolkit. I then proceeded to pull out the license plate light socket on all the cars with the same body style as mine and of course the first like 6 I checked were burned and melted just like mine. I finally found two that looked good, so I cut them off the cars and paid for them.

 

Then I ran by the Berkeley Tool Lending library and picked up a soldering iron. I also made a quick Ace Hardware run to get electrical wrap for sealing spliced wires. And then I set to work replacing my socket.

 

Step 1:

Strip the ends of the wires on the two sockets I got from the salvage yard. I only needed one socket, but I bought two just in case one of them didn't work. They were inexpensive, so that was good

IMG_5329 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

IMG_5332 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

Step 2: Cut off the old socket and strip the ends of the wires. Then attach the new socket to test if it works. The first socket I tried was a dud, but the second one worked! So glad I went ahead and grabbed two of them.

IMG_5334 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

Step 3: Solder the wires together. Not the prettiest soldering job since I was working at an odd angle, with short pieces of wire that were attached to the car, but it works. Now here's where aquariums tie in. I learned how to solder in order to build my original DIY LED light fixture that was over my 30 gallon tank. Aquarium keeping teaches you life skills!

IMG_5336 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

Step 4: Wrap the wires to seal the spliced wires.

IMG_5338 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

Step 5: Insert socket back up into its slot above the license plate, and voila! All done!

IMG_5339 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

I'm definitely no car mechanic, but I feel very "I am woman hear my roar" when I fix car stuff all by myself. I didn't used to be brave enough to fix these sorts of things myself, but the reef hobby set off the DIY-lover in me and made me realize most of this stuff isn't hard if you just find instructions on the internet and get the right tools. In total, I spent under $30 fixing the light socket, so much better than trying to have a shop do this for me!

[FlowerMama]

That's awesome! Inspiring minds want to know.

[Felicia]

That's awesome! Inspiring minds want to know.

Thanks, Annette. Us woman reefers have some serious DIY skills

[Felicia]

Post-Vacation FTS 7/8/16

Ok, so its still light outside, so there are horrible reflections, but here's a quick FTS to show that the tank survived vacation and after several hours of deep cleaning is back to its Reef Hobbyist Magazine cover-worthy self I'm planning to do a full photo and video shoot this evening once its dark, so stay tuned for a huge photo dump and new tank video late tonight or tomorrow.

 

FTS 7-8-16 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

[Felicia]

Oh, also, you'll notice I have some gracillaria clipped to the front glass. I got some a while back and am growing it in my refugium with the intention of using it for nutrient export as well and the occasional treat for the tang. This is the first time I've tried to give some to the tang and apparently she's not so bright. She eats algae sheets off the clip no problem, but that gracillaria has been up there since yesterday evening and she won't touch it. Silly fish!

[Felicia]

Ok, so I've been busy trying to run errands and get things done around here after being gone for 3 weeks vacation and before I start my new job tomorrow. Time got away from me and I didn't get a chance to get up the aquarium photos I promised. Anyways, finally got around to going through the photos I took the other night. I ended up focusing more on video clips, but I got a few good photos to share. The video is definitely the grand finale though, and I'll post it as soon as its done exporting and then loading to Youtube.

 

Ok, so here are the new photos!

 

First off, full tank shots 7/8/16.

IMG_5497 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

IMG_5527 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

Here are some fun lionfish photos

IMG_5343 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

IMG_5365 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

IMG_5374 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

IMG_5437 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

IMG_5459 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

And here's Falkor being a ham as usual!

IMG_5385 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

IMG_5450 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

The fuzzy mushrooms really took off while I was away on vacation. These started as one mushroom back in my original 10 gallon reef. I've usually traded or given a bunch of them away and just kept a couple. I think I moved one or two over into the 40 gallon and now they're taking off into a nice little colony.

IMG_5394 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

 

The red mithrax crab was sure out and about the other evening when I was photographing. Also, a baby BTA split off while I was gone on vacation and apparently floated over to the shell of the big squamosa clam. Its not bothering anything right now, but I'll need to get it off of there soon.

IMG_5418 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr

[Felicia]

Ok, here's the video!

 

[Felicia]

I got to be a guest on Reef Threads! Check out Reef Threads Podcast #282 to listen to me talk about my experience in the hobby, my aquarium, and diving the kelp forests of California!

 

[Slowtwitch]

?

[gena]

I got to be a guest on Reef Threads! Check out Reef Threads Podcast #282 to listen to me talk about my experience in the hobby, my aquarium, and diving the kelp forests of California!

 

I'm listening now . I remember your 10g tank . Seems so long ago...I guess it's 5 years now...geez time flies!!!!!

[vlangel]

Very cool! Loved the pics and video. I miss my eel everytime I watch your videos.

[Felicia]

 

 

I'm listening now . I remember your 10g tank . Seems so long ago...I guess it's 5 years now...geez time flies!!!!!

Thank you for listening, Gena! Yeah it took me a bit to dredge up the timeline for everything. It was September of 2011 that I set up the 10 gallon. Time definitely seems to fly in this hobby

 

Very cool! Loved the pics and video. I miss my eel everytime I watch your videos.

Thank you, Dawn! Falkor is really just too much fun. I think I'd have a hard time having a tank without an eel now that I've had one. All my friends that aren't that into aquariums just love him. He's definitely the show stealer of this tank. What type of eel did you have? I didn't realize you had one. Now I want details!

[HOTWATER]

Just listened to the podcast very cool, awesome video, everything looks incredible. Keep it up!

[Mikeymikemike]

Hi Felicia, good show you did with reef threads!

 

Your planted tank looks healthy keep it up