RIP Buggie

Buggie has left us! Buggie, just to remind you, is one of the three musketeers. And just to remind you of who those are, my shrimp. Buggie died and fertilized due to a nitrate spark a while back, caused by a filter cartridge. You will be missed, little one.

The Dollar Weed

     Most of the people who live in a rainy or semi-tropical environment recognize a dollar weed when they see one, or at least not by the name. Well, when I saw this aquarium plant, I knew what is *really* was. So, I did a little research. I found it is seriously used as an aquatic plant, and goes anywhere from 100% submerged to 100% ammersed. Cool right? So i figured I'd try to grow some. It's odd how this is an insane weed, (see), but it's considered a high maintenance and very hard plant to grow. Lmfao. So I checked my yard for the little weed, and didn't find any. So I skated over to the park, which has a back grassy dip in between two mini hills. It's the back of the park, and no one goes there. The dip is full of weeds, So I call it Weed Valley. It's my secret little corner of the park. I went dollar weed hunting (its apparently called a whorled penny-wort in the aquarium community) and I had a hell of a time digging up a small bunch. I put it in my cute little Easter basket I use to hold hair bows in, and skated home. Then I used my extra supplies, my liquid water fertilizer, and my handy dandy jar to set up a nano of whorled pennyworth. I put it on my windowsill in full sun, so we'll see how it does! P.S~ Are you as obsessed with the aqua scape as I am? I seem to be developing a knack for this!

Viktor Loves to Sing!

     Not quite opera though. He sings an original song he wrote himself, "A super cute chainsaw rumble"  Yes my dears, Viktor, as of Monday, started mating calls! Monday night, he sang just a little bit, for about 5 seconds. Tuesday night he sung for a couple of minutes, and now it has increased so he'll sing at random intervals all the time, even during the day! Its weird for him to sing during the day because they are supposed to do it only at night. But my idiotic cutie pie sings in the middle of the day. It just always makes me smile. I cant record, since he doesn't do it for a long enough time in one go to get a good video. But this person did! His is lower pitched. My cute little manly man! Here is the video,

   

     Also, I invented a little cleaning device above. I cut out part of a sponge without any soap, that wasn't micro fiber or it'd fall apart, and didn't have any tough scrubbing strands that could scratch the glass. Then I folded it in half, stuck it on a thick wooden skewer, and hot glued it in place. I can now reach the hard to reach areas of my tank, AND clean the algea my shrimp refuse to touch, off the glass! Watch it in action.

I have completed step 1.

Remember how I said I had 2 more things to do to finish this tank? Well, I got the shrimp. But since they are 4 dollars each, only 3. I have 4 more to get, and I will get them another day. These buggers are nasty expensive since the store that sells em knows they are the only stocker in the whole city! Here they are acclimating.
I named them, of course. I did it by color order. This photo here it handy because it shows them in cvolor order. So does the next one. Quirky little shrimp :3
From left to right, Van, Buggie, and Moose City.
Brightest being moose city, dullest being van!

 

Then, I noticed stupid little Viktor here was determined to eat 'em.  So as soon as they were out of the bag, I would scare him with a chopstick. So, hopefully the shrimp wont let him eat them. Lol. They are not scdared of him, and don't swim away when he comes after them. It worries me.

 

They seem to really like the rocks, and my mushroom! HURRAH!

P.S- Not so good news, I noticed this right after I let the shrimp out. A worm! I think it's a larvae. It looks and moves like one. Sorry the video goes hay wire after a few seconds. My dumb tripod collapsed.

Like I said in the last post, I am extremely pleased with my new set up. Here is how it looks now that is has cleared,

I also added this cute stone mushroom from goodwill on an obscure side. It is perfect there, and only visible from certain angles. It actually isn't tacky, and I love it!

And, I got a not so good video (my first try) of him getting air.
vid.

Plus, some great images of him shedding. First time I've seen them shed! Took him over 10 minutes, and he didn't eat the skin.

I think the last one is too adorable. He's wearing a little shawl!

Do you know what's annoying?

My bowl. I hadn't changed the water since I first got Viktor, so I went about to do a water change. I realized the plants were mostly messed up from the nighttable being shifted around so often, so I re-arranged them. Worst mistake ever. I ended up with a disgusting auqascape, and a half full bowl of cloudy water. Now, I have to dig up the whole tank, and start all over again. Say goodbye to that cycle I worked so hard on!

EDIT: Nevermind! Once the new water I got turned to the right temperature, I put it in the tank. Then, I put the filter back in. It wasn't complete, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I went online for inspiration, and found a tank with gorgeous silver gray rocks in it. I thought, hey, that's what I need! I pulled out some nice rocks I have from my office, and put them in the tank. The water hasn't settled yet of course, but, I really do like it! Much more then it was before too. So, hurrah!

I got the frog! CAUTION- LOOOOOOOONG POST

This is going to be incredibly long. I mean, incredibly long. There will be 14 photos, and numerous sections. I could split it up into sections, but, nah.
Today is Saturday.
I got Vik on Wednesday, on  the way home from school. When I went to Petco, I bought him for $4.50, and spent over 13 dollars on plants. I bought 3 plants actually, but they made quite a difference to the tank. I first arranged the plants into the bowl. This is how it first looked when I put them in. (Photos taken after putting in Vik.)

So now that the plants were put in (I don't know what kind they were. They were loose and potted plants. Not labeled.), I started to acclimate Viktor.

Once acclimated, he immediately went into his new pot. :3

But then, I remembered the whole point of me acquiring more plants, was to fill in the empty space behind the pot. I realized the aqua scape was actually quite awful, so I fixed it, removing Vik from the tank again and back into his acclimating cup for 5 minutes. Now, that the aqua scape was successful, it looked like this.

That night, I watched him swim, and hide behind plants.

(The random tubing is the c02 tube. I removed it from the rock during the aqua scape, and pushed the tubing  against the side / back off the tank.)
Then I turned off the light,
and let him be for the night.
The next day after school, I rushed home to make sure he was ok. Thrilled that he had made it through his rough day, I fed him. I cut out a cube from his food package I have to keep in the fridge, and I thawed it by placing it on top of my ridiculously hot lamp.

It thawed, I took a pair of tweezers, picked up a small clump of about 5 worms, and placed it in the middle of the bowl.I waited for 6 minutes for him to go to the food by it's smell. Being unpatient then, I picked up individual worm by individual worm and fed it to him by holding it in front of his face until he ate it.

My cat used to love watching George swim. Now, being used to an empty bowl, she paid no attention to it. But while I was out of the room, I guess him swimming up to get air caught her eye, because when I came back,

She's so cute.
Anyways, back to topic. I'd like to end this with some good photos of Vik so,