Thank you PC.

[AlaskanCorydoras]

I'd like to extend a thanks out to everyone who has given me advice and encouragement over the last six months.

I've been back in the hobby for a little over 8 months now, and finding it far more rewarding than when I was a kneebiter. I have 5 tanks now.
A 90 with rainbows and a wide range of cories and its tank cleaner common pleco "The Thing that Lurks and Yearns for Brains".
Two 55s: one I'm cycling up, which currently has a dozen platys and the pleco "Inappropriately Frightened."
The other is my original, with tetras, white clouds, threadfin rainbows, pandas and Elgans, not to mention its pleco The Beast (who masses more than all the other fish in the tank combined.
A 20 long, with zebra danios, palatus cories and a bristlenose. Half the Zebra danios are GM "Glofish" I have thus far been unable to get them to spawn. This was the tank that spawned my Pandas.
And finally my hospital tank, a 15 which has a Guppy infestation (which I give away as quickly as I can. Unfortunately this just causes them to breed in self defense!) and a tiny bristlenose.

The most exciting moment for me was finding 4 good sized Panda fry in my 20 breeder not long after my Ph crash.

One of the more interesting expiriments I engaged in was attempting to sterilize my hospital tank while keeping its plant substrate and the plants alive. To do this I initiated a STRONG PH crash, which did indeed kill all the snails in the tank. The major problem was the shells, which dissolved fairly quickly due to the acidic water. A full water change after and most of the plants lived. And suddenly the tank was covered in Duckweed.

Since I got started, I've gotten three of my friends into the hobby. One is a bit of an idiot and I regret getting him half-assed into the hobby. (He loves my tanks, but doesn't understand why his tank doesn't resemble mine) another is doing all his homework, and is working on setting up a Rainbow+cory tank similar to mine. . .but with less particulate problems. (He went with a 40 breeder, built a stand for it, built a hood for it, and put together his own lighting for it. It is pretty impressive, IMO.)

Edit: Tank sizes are in gallons. Silly imperial measurements.

[L number Banana]

the pl*co "Inappropriately Frightened."

Best name yet

Cool to read about your journey, thanks. Your enthusiasm is catching and I understand it completely!

[AlaskanCorydoras]

Inappropriately frightened received his name by being a big wuss.

I tend to raise my plecos in smaller tanks, and transfer them when they get close to half the width of the tank they're in. I'm fairly sure Frightened is a common, though he is significantly oranger than my other two.

Now my 20 breeder tank is the only tank that doesn't have plant substrate at the bottom, and is my least planted tank with only java moss, java fern, and duckweed. His tank mates at the time were Palatus cories, and zebra danios. The substrate for the tank were polished river-rocks. (Protip: Buy your river rocks from the arts and crafts section of Walmart. Less than half the price of buying them in a pet store. And they're rocks.)

Because I use a non-bioactive substrate, this is my one tank I actually have to vacuum. I had taken the fake ceramic stump and tree out of the tank to vacuum up all the fishgunk and suddenly Frightened BOLTED out from under the filter where he hides, and hit the side of the tank hard enough to make the tank ring. I backed off and watched as he did this 5 more times. Now I know the tank is small for a plec, but I've never had any of my other plecos have that problem. (They tend to know the bounds of the tank really well. . . after all they spend a ton of time hanging on the glass going OmNom.)

He hadn't had issues with me vacuuming before, so I suspect the issue was that the current season in alaska is "Day" and him being nocturnal. . .

I moved him over to the 55 he's in now as soon as it had cleared after its initial setup. I set the tank up intentionally with several hollow logs (real) just for him. He picked the hollow half-log in the center of the tank, and hangs upside down in it. He's much happier in the 55 so far, but he's earned his name.

[andywoolloo]

what size is inappropriately frightened? My common pardalis is about 14 inches if I had to guess from nose to end of tail and he doesn't really get startled, maybe it is a smaller pl*co thing? He doesn't mind if you come over and look at him, he just looks back at you and moves his mouth. But I do not remember mine being startled when he was smaller. I wonder why yours is scared?

And I loved reading this thread and all about your tanks and fish and I agree on PC being a wonderful site.

[L number Banana]

andywoolloo:

I wonder why yours is scared?

In the thread AlaskanCorydoas mentions that it was "Day Season" in Alaska, so no night time at all. Constant daylight must have made him jumpy.
I hadn't thought about that for nocturnal catfish before. We're all so used to light and dark every day. It must be heavenly for catfish during Night Season

Just thought of something else about being so far north: I was wondering about the northern lights, I know that they affect some people but does it ever affect the fish? It's said that some people can feel them and hear them especially around pines but I don't really know if that's a southerner's tale We get them here about twice a year but sadly I get no effect other than the lovely sight.

[andywoolloo]

oh yes, that does make sense, thanks, I missed that.

[AlaskanCorydoras]

You need to remember that the Lights are actually out during the day, but they get drowned out by sunlight. Thus, it would be impossible to tell if there is much of a behavior difference. Further, Anchorage is far enough south that we don't get the Lights all that often, unlike when I lived in Fairbanks. (Which was about 1 in 3 clear nights.)

Frightened is about 4" which is why I was ok with having him in the 20Long. He seems happier in my 55gal though, especially since he has the nice real wood caves to hide in.

[L number Banana]

You need to remember that the Lights are actually out during the day, but they get drowned out by sunlight.

Oh, duh. I totally forgot that I guess sunspots etc don't just disappear for a day do they?

[AlaskanCorydoras]

You pretty much have to live up here to understand it. I know whenever I head south it takes a little bit of readjusting to remember how different things are.

An excellent example: My sister lives in Atlanta Ga. In Atlanta (and most of the lower 48 states) twilight is "short" lasting a duration best measured in minutes.

This time of year up here, twilight lasts. . . 4-5 hours of varying intensity. In the depths of winter, Twilight is all we get. Even in the midst of spring and fall, twilight lasts an hour on both dawn and dusk.

That doesn't even get into sun-dogs and other parhelia effects, the facts of life about humidity, surviving wind-chill with 40kph winds at -30c. . . Heck, the first day it hit -50c after I moved to alaska I walked down to the local quickie-mart and bought a slushy. The real brain bendy bit about that is that the slushy keeps your hands warm. It is a good 50c warmer than the air.

[MatsP]

The real brain bendy bit about that is that the slushy keeps your hands warm. It is a good 50c warmer than the air.

But if it's cooler than your hands, then it's not keeping your hands warm, actually. It just doesn't cool them down quite as much as other things might do.

--
Mats

[L number Banana]

surviving wind-chill with 40kph winds at -30c

Brr, I'm way south of you but where if from, we get the weirdo swings from being at the end of the lake +39 and -38. Hit the +/-40's once in a while but by them you just find all the effects kind of neat. Everyone has to be rude and spit just to see, or leave an egg to explode somewhere 'funny'.

MatsP makes sense with the slushy but I know what you mean, I was once asked about why we make 'beer-faces' at outdoor hockey games and it finally dawned on me that it's from holding the bottles against your cheeks to block the wind and stop your eyes from watering up. The beer bottles do feel warm compared to not using them. They get rather cold when empty though but by that time you don't care anymore.
Where you are, you probably get icy eyelashes. Never experienced that.

This time of year up here, twilight lasts. . . 4-5 hours of varying intensity. In the depths of winter, Twilight is all we get. Even in the midst of spring and fall, twilight lasts an hour on both dawn and dusk.

Twilight zone. No wonder why photographers flock up north.
What type of lighting is there when the big meteor showers hit? November and April(?).
Sorry to go on about weather, it's in my genes...

Fish transport in winter must be a bit rushed getting to the vehicle?

[Barbie]

There are thriving fish stores in Anchorage. Indoor hobbies and all that! It's commonplace to see people leaving their car run, then rush out with fish in their coat or in coolers they brought in to be warmed up with bags of warm water. Dang, I'm reminding myself why I don't miss anything but the people in Anchorage, hehe. We have mosquitos here, but nothing like the ones there! They were so used to punching through animal hide it's like they sting you about 1/2" deep or something!

Barbie

[L number Banana]

Barbie:

We have mosquitos here, but nothing like the ones there!

I thought the mosquito was Canada's national animal! Someone made little harnesses for them as tourist toys.

[AlaskanCorydoras]

Ehhh, kinda? I generally won't buy fish unless I'm parked right next to the doors. Never really had a problem with it.

OTOH, I did once do a large buy (5 sterbei at $15 each, 10 threadfin rainbows at $10 each, a couple others) and had several of them die within the hour. (appearantly the shipment had arrived that day and there was simply too much stress.)

Between when I got home and when the fish stabilized we had a MAJOR ice storm. Everything in town was skating rink smooth.

I called up the store, talked to my usual person, he recognised me as a good customer, and didn't demand a return of the fish, simply credited me for the $90 worth of fish that died. Enough of the rest of the shipment croaked that he had no doubt. Only time I've ever had to use their survival policy as well.

[MatsP]

It is almost always a good idea to let the stock sit in the shop tank for a few days at least. But sometimes that's hard to do, both because the shop doesn't always tell you how long it's been in stock, and if it's unusual fish that you have been looking for a long time, then buying it can be the better choice, in case someone else wants them.

--
Mats

[AlaskanCorydoras]

Very True, Mats. However I've generally had good luck buying "under the weather" fish and plopping them in my planted tanks and having them come around much quicker than the stressful environment of the LFS can. And as I said, I've only had that problem once with this fish seller.

Now petco. . . *shudder*