Art and Oddballs

[H.K.Luterman]

On 9/23/2021 at 10:01 AM, Patrick_G said:

The translucent parts of her fins are interesting. You do a good job with the camera!

The camera does all the work, lol! It's one of the things I do like the best about my phone (it's a Google Pixel).

[Patrick_G]

On 9/23/2021 at 8:04 AM, H.K.Luterman said:

The camera does all the work, lol! It's one of the things I do like the best about my phone (it's a Google Pixel).

My bad photography is a family joke. All the great pics on the forum are motivating me to up my game. 

[H.K.Luterman]

Soilent Green for the Pooks. 
 

 

[Hobbit]

How is she so cuuuute???

[H.K.Luterman]

Water change day for Pooka and the 75. I was hoping I'd get some footage of Igor's booty dance she was doing, but alas.

 

 

 

[Various Vivaria]

On 9/26/2021 at 12:28 PM, H.K.Luterman said:

 Igor's booty dance

 

?

[H.K.Luterman]

On 9/26/2021 at 12:41 PM, Various Vivaria said:

?

Hi! Igor is a female and every few months or so gets hormonal, right before laying eggs. During this time she does her "booty dance," which is just her doing a shimmy movement showing she's ready to mate. Here's some old footage of her doing it. It's that quick, shaking movement. 
 

 

[Various Vivaria]

I've never heard of that that before, thanks for informing me.

[H.K.Luterman]

I'm so pleased to report that the betta has achieved buoyancy! Whatever was wrong with its swim bladder seems 100% fixed. 

I'm still unsure if its a male or female. Now that its more relaxed, its ventral fins do seem more boyish, but its beard is non existent. It also has no interest in flaring, so far. I've decided to just call it a boy, and I think I'm going to name him Puzzle; not only because of how his markings remind me of puzzle pieces, but also because he's been a Puzzle for me to figure out.

Here's video of him today:
 

 

He's always full of zoomies.

As opposed to when I got him 2 weeks ago.
 

 

[Patrick_G]

Congrats on his recovery! 

[Vanish]

On 10/3/2021 at 8:32 AM, H.K.Luterman said:

I think I'm going to name him Puzzle; not only because of how his markings remind me of puzzle pieces, but also because he's been a Puzzle for me to figure out.

I love this name! 🙂

[H.K.Luterman]

Some pics of Puzzle. I'm assuming he'll marble, it'll be neat to watch him change. I love his one little blue scale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and here's a cute pic of Tesla, of course being followed by Igor.

[H.K.Luterman]

We went to Missouri for a week to visit my husband's mom, and while there we checked out the St. Louis aquarium, as well as the zoo. The aquarium was small, but a few of the exhibits were very well done. Here's some highlights:

The entrance had this neat clock with cichlids inside, as well as a projected display on the wall.

 

I was in love with their tank full of red garra (they called them Doctor Fish, since they're used to treat psoriasis). Do panda garra do this? I want a tank full of them now.

 

They had this great set up for archer fish, where someone was holding a target covered in fish food for the fish to spit at. 

 

 

Of course I had to linger and stare at any catfish they had. 

 

 

 

Leafy sea dragons are always a fav.

 

As are sea turtles

 

Never seen this before - reminded me of those brushes you put in cow pastures for enrichment.

 

And at the zoo, they had this great enclosure for the hippos that featured fish they coexist with, including a display on how the hippos feed the fish with their poop. X3

 

 

 

I think next time we're going to drive up through Springfield and see the wildlife museum/aquarium they have there.

[H.K.Luterman]

Igor is laying eggs today, and unfortunately I decided to do a little maintenance on the 75. Blood parrots may have weird mouths, but they can still bite! She was so angry with me, she actually left little red marks all over my arm and hand! XD

[Hobbit]

😮 Igor! Yikes!

That hippo display looks like it was amazing!! I love that idea.

[H.K.Luterman]

Got a rare photo of Scruffy the Janitor, the bristlenose who lives with Pooka. Happy to see his bristles are growing in. 

[H.K.Luterman]

Been a long time! My friends in Final Fantasy XIV take up most of my evenings, so I got out of the habit of lurking around here. But things are mostly the same in all the tanks. Scruffy's bristles have gotten bigger, but he's impossible to take pics of. And Murderbean the pea puffer hates the camera.  But here's some pics of everyone else. 

Firstly is the Pooks! She's doing good, I hand feed her and she's as friendly as ever. Still some algae in her tank but what can you do. The plants seem to be doing well.

 

 

 

Tesla was moved out after the lip locking drama to the 29, where he gets to be with all the crazy limia. The tank is kind of ugly atm though, since I had to pull out all of the limia to treat them for some kind of bacterial infection, and so all the plants got uprooted.  Anyways, now there's algae all over the glass, but they're all doing good regardless.

 

 

Igor is the queen of the 75. She's dug out around her vase, uprooting a lotus in the process. She attacks my hand whenever I do anything in the tank and always needs to be the center of attention. Dragon and dinky are their usual dorky selves and Gertrude puts up with everyone.

 

 

 

 

And lastly, Puzzle's as excitable as ever. He's always on the move, and LOVES his Bug Bites betta pellets. I'm thinking of putting a mystery snail in with him. (I need to trim those dying anubias leaves). 

 

That's it for now!

[Guppysnail]

Im glad all is well in your tanks. Missed Pooka. 

[FrozenFins]

Its been far too long without a pooka update.

I'm glad to see your fish are all doing well, and the plants are growing nicely. 

[eatyourpeas]

I was missing the kids' report, so thank you for updating us. I showed Pooka to my husband and now he wants one! 😍 She is such a goofball!

Edited January 10, 2022 by eatyourpeas

[Dancing Matt]

I keep checking back to see if this thread has been updated. I have been thinking about how I would like to get a bicher but decided the other day that was low on the list... after seeing the updated, pa pet/friend bicher is back at the top!

Edited January 10, 2022 by Dancing Matt

[CalmedByFish]

🙂 What species is the greenish one that looks like an alligator-stegosauras hybrid?

[H.K.Luterman]

On 1/10/2022 at 5:36 PM, CalmedByFish said:

🙂 What species is the greenish one that looks like an alligator-stegosauras hybrid?

He's a senegal bichir. 🙂 

[BeetleLann]

@H.K.Luterman Wow, your fish are beautiful!!

[H.K.Luterman]

Oh, I should post in this thread about the lip locking drama, since I had made a new thread asking for advice and people who follow this one might not have seen it (this happened months ago). BUT, since Igor is now the Queen of the 75, she was starting fights with Tesla. And him being a cichlid, he and she lip locked. I decided to just move Tesla out, since I know how naughty Igor is and I doubt it would have resolved itself (and I just didn't want to risk injury to either of them). So he gets to be the biggest fish in the 29. 

Here's some pics I took of the lip locking behavior. My hubby exclaimed from the kitchen, "Your fish are fighting!"

 

 

 

Also, I recently rearranged Murderbean's tank (a few months ago) and while doing so I had put him in a specimen container. I was able to get some really close pics of him. I will have had him for 4 years this July!