KittenFishMom

@Hobbit I will get some squirt guns. I have used squirt guns in the past to train cats. I found that after squirting them with water a few time for correction, they figured it out the sound real fast. After that, I could squirt the water away from the cat and it still worked. I could sit on the sofa on one side of the room and if they messed with the plants on the other side. I would squirt the floor by the sofa and they would leave the plants alone. I did not need to be within range at all. I also need to get some wind chimes to hang from the bird feeders. It alerts the cats that some interesting is going on at the bird feeder and they gallop through the house to see what is at the feeder. (indoor cats only) The birds don't seem to be bothered in the least. Cats will levitate up from a deep sleep, if the chimes sound like a squirrel is on the feeder. Rather fun to watch.

I hope you feel better very soon. Is there any one who can help you take care of you? Be careful not to get dehydrated, or you could end up in the hospital. I've been there and done that, no fun at all.

Pale Blue Eyes, Velvet Underground

All the sunfish I have ever known, love scuds. When I was a kid, every sunfish I cleaned have a stomach full of them. My little ones in my native tanks hover over the stones I have over the substrate at the end of my tank waiting for a scud to appear. I seed the tank often with scud I raise. The scuds race to the bottom with the fish chasing them. I was still catching them in part of the stream that where not iced over in January. These are a big variety of scuds, but they start out small, so you get all sizes. I also get all size brine shrimp from my brine shrimp colony. Every time I hatch the brine shrimp. I use about 80% of the water that is left after harvesting and add it to my colony. (I toss out the 20% with the shells) The water is full of hatched and unhatched eggs. I put in a a slow weighted air hose in the container, no air stone, and a heater this time of year. I feed them "Brine Shrimp Direct Spirulina Powder", dashes of fish food now and then. and a Welco Wonder shell. They mature in about 3 weeks and start making more shrimp. I also added "Chaeto macro algae Live Coral Reef Sps Softies Marine Tank" to help clean the water. It is fun watching the "sea monkeys" swimming around. Fish love them.

Yes, and put the air stone in his water dish !

Dear Feline Loving Nerms: My kitten has started hunting air hoses. He loves the bit of humming vibration. He has pulled my small air pump off a shelf 3 or 4 times. Sometimes he even pulls the hose out of a sponge filter. As far as I know he has not punctured a hose, yet. It took us a long time to pick the right name for the little guy. We finally settled on "Poof!!". You are eating dinner, and suddenly, "Poof!!" your hamburger has disappeared from your plate like magic. You are sleeping soundly when suddenly "Poof!!" a little paw has turned off the CPAP machine. You hear a klunking sound and "Poof !!" the steak bone cooling on the counter is bouncing on the wood floor with a kitten chewing on it. You get the idea. He is a wonderfully resourceful magical kitten. My mom always said "Creative children create messes, can't have one without the other". I would have to says Proof!! is one of the most creative creature I have ever meet. Has anyone else ever had a kitten fascinated with live air hose? Aside from keeping him busy with other things, What can I do?

@Odd Duck If you rotate it counter clockwise 90 degrees, and have the slate vertical again the end of a 20 long, would that work? I think the opening that is on the left and would shift to the bottom would be a wonderful opening to a dimly lit fish cave. Behind the wood, you could have loosely stacked stones on the sides and back of the cave ( with openings for small fish), and plants growing across the top. If the tips are above the water, they could have plants attached to make islands. with roots drifting in the water @PineSong I love this piece ! The longer I look at it the more my mind wanders through it. What does that back look like?

@MoshJosh I tell my husband "It could be worse, I could want to buy a horse." It is all about keeping things in prospective. @PineSongWhen nature calls to you, you need to listen.

I just got a new toy for my aquarium viewing. It is called "Educational Insights GeoSafari Underwater Explorer Boat, Magnifier Bottom". Not only does it iron out any movement in the surface of your water from HOBs and sponge filters, the steering wheel and propellers really really turn. And it has a magnifying portion so you can see those little fry up close. Now I can see exactly how fast the corys clean up the food that gets past the other fish and sinks to the bottom, so I can tell if the corys are getting enough to eat in addition to the sinking algae pellets. It is so cool to see the little neon tetras eyes light up as they look up though the boat's bottom. But remember that like everything else for your fish, don't let anyone try to sneak off with it and use it in the bathtub and get soap on it. Fish and soap do not mix.

Yes, it is fun to watch.

I am normally in a state of confusion when it comes to my tropical fish. We are all in the state of New York. Centrally isolated in Central New York

Recently, my peppered/paleatus corys have been dashing to the surface of my tank, and then dashing back to the bottom. It looks a bit like they are catching bugs on the surface, but the tank has a tight fitting lid, and there aren't any bugs under the lid. Is this some sort of mating display? Are they showing off for each other? They do not stay at the top as if they need oxygen. They seems to be acting normal in every other way. I would say they have been doing this for several days to a week. Any ideas?

Wow, I got the light and really like it. Although, now my water looks cloudy. Not sure if it just needs to settle longer after moving the tank on Tuesday or if I need to vacuum or do something to make the water clearer. How do you do water changes and vacuum if there are fry in the tank?

I sent you a second message. I can put them in a drop box for you, if you think that will help. My husband will be back shortly, he is the photo person in our family.

@Fish Folk Would you like me to send them to you one at a time in messages? They are big files. I sent the first one. let me know if yo want the others.

We think this is a young Copper hawk resting after a meal in the boxwood bushes we dragged home from the neighborhood compost heap to shelter the birds that come tp out bird feeders. About 3 or 4 foot from my recliner, through a panel in the patio door. My husband grabbed his camera and got a few angles, while the hawk warmed up out of the cold north wind.

@Guppysnail My tanks have lots of snails to work on the algae. Then my big 55 gallon tank had fewer and fewer little snails. I have finally figured out the the bullhead catfish are eating them like peanuts. Now the algae is gaining on me in that tank. I think the catfish are eating a lot of food and snails and scuds. The catfish are growing very fast, and the scuds and snails are disappearing. I am passing the word around that I want to rehome the bullheads to someone else's bigger tank, or a pond, but no takers yet.

@Guppysnail There are 2 versions of the clip on light, one for planted and one for non-planted. Which are you using? (Petco's web site has both.) Does this light work well to bring out the color of fish in black water? My green plants and blue betta just look black, so I am looking for a light that will make it easier to see there color.

@Guppysnail This tank has live plants. Will the plants mind having the blue lights covered? l am still confused about how people encourage plant growth, and discourage algae growth at the same time. I have a glass cover on this tank, so I don't know if a clip on would work well.

I added a lot of IAL to my betta tank when he was acting strange. The betta is doing better, but I never had any lighting other than a plant light over the next tank over. Now the water is very dark and the blue betta is just a black silhouette unless he is very close to the front glass. The plants all look black too, which makes it hard to find the betta when I am doing a head count on that tank. What sort of light would you recommend for my 10 gallon, blackwater betta's tank?

I know what my next project is ! These photos are very helpful !

I started a brine shrimp colony with my extra. I saw a video on YouTube where they did it with a small plastic bin, an air hose, and a light. After harvesting the shrimp you water to feed and freeze, Drain most of the remaining water into the bin. Strop before the shells get in the drain tube. I save the water from every batch and have adults to feed my bigger fish, and a lot of in between sizes too. I feed them Spirulina Powder, and a dash of this or that fish food now and then. I bought some amazing salt water macroalgae on eBay to consume any nitrogen. It works well. Some folks stop hatching once their colony is going well. This summer, I ended up going to a 10 gallon tank for the brine shrimp because I was feeding a 120 tank. It is fun to watch the shrimp swim around and grow. Right now, I have a full pretzel jar and am starting a second jar, but toying with moving them to a tank, so I can use the jars for daphnia. I will be starting some vinegar eels this week. I plan to start daphnia next week. I might combine some scud containers to free up some for the daphnia. Live food is as interesting as what you are feeding the food too.

@Odd Duck Well, I decided to take a stab at making some scud refugiums. I used 2 small cups that wax worms came in from PetSmart. I cut a hole big enough for scuds to swim through, but not big enough for fish to stick there heads in. I filled them half full with pebbles, put in a bunch of hornwort and a pinch of Xtreme floating pellets that my fish are not interested in and put the caps back on. I have them in 2 of my scud tanks. How long do you think it will take for the scuds to settle into these homes? I would like to put one in my native tanks, because I think the fish are eating the scuds faster than the scuds can reproduce. I just don't want to rush them. I don't want to bother the scuds by moving and opening the cups and causing the scuds to move out. What do you recommend? P.S. I am trying to catch all the scuds living in one of my slop buckets from vacuuming a tank. They keep hiding under the dead scuds and crud. Every time I think I have them all, another 3 start swimming around.

@lefty o If you can do it with a straight face, suggest her put a few mothballs under a mat where the cats wait for the birds. The cats won't hang out there. You can put them in punctured bags or punctured plastic jars with some stones to keep them in place. Keep them shaded, or they sublime too fast, and people can smell them. A friend who was afraid of cats had a cat napping on her doormat all the time. I sprayed a "cat deterrent" all over the bottom on the mat, so it would last a while. The cat was not hurt or seen again. @Streetwise May parents cat loved to bring in snakes(I think he like hearing my dad scream).For Dad's birthday, I gave them a broom and dustpan with a long hinged handle. Mom could sweep the snake(or other "gifts") into the dust pan. and lift the handle and the animal was in the dark and calmed down, and could not get out until she set it down outside.

@Expectorating_Aubergine I saw a bluegill pick up a piece and shake it. I think it was looking for hiding scuds. My crayfish and bullheads emptied every pot I planted this summer in my tank. I would plant seaweed in pebbles, and they would dig them out. I think the plants slowed the water enough for bits of food to settle into the pots. After a bit, I let them win and all plants floated. I started sticking stem plants through ceramic bio filter rings, that has worked much better.