My son gave me some candy called a Swedish Fish. Yummy! In America the Swedish Fish are made in Canada

Treat your fish once in awhile. Here’s a bowl of peas, brine shrimp and cocktail shrimp.

Here’s an extra piece of pond liner that I gave to a friend who might make a pond this year…or next.

My wife and I lined this planter with strips of pond liner. The planter always dries out too fast. Now, water can drain between the strips but hopefully not too fast.

All done, waiting for Spring!

A few weeks ago, the last bit of snow in the yard.

Spring comes, then it snows again.

…so feed the birds!!

Finally the rains came, and the ponds filled with worms!! I have netted hundreds of worms from the pond. Great fish food, especially for Catfish and Cichlids. If you poison your yard, don’t feed the worms to your fish.

Our Golden Retriever hears someone outside.

A few warm days and we think Spring is finally here. We have been fooled 4 or 5 times.

The Chinese Curly Willow has made it through Winter!!

Too much Caulerpa in the Saltwater tank.

I took some to a fish auction.

I bought a fish tank at the auction, and some plants, but my favorite purchase was a stack of this magazine from 1969 to 1971. Practical Fishkeeping!!

Winter is returning tonight, for the fifth time this Spring. My brother sent me this pic of the turtles in Missouri. But it’s getting  cold down there, too. A strange year so far.

A view of Red Swordtails and young Angelfish from above.

A Spring salad today and the snow is coming again.

This old girl, who I’ve had for 23 years , enjoyed the day as well.

Let’s start with a red fish:

Freshwater fish, the Red Velvet Swordtail.

I’ll give the Red Sword 5 points.

The saltwater red fish, the Coris Wrasse:

I will give the Coris Wrasse 4 points so the score is Freshwater 5, Saltwater 4.
Wait a minute, the Wrasse grows up and loses his red color!

A beautiful fish but not red! I give it 2 points. The score is Freshwater 5, Salt 2.

Let’s look at a White fish:
The freshwater entry is the albino Corydoras Catfish.

This catfish does not look like this in the natural state. Albinos do not survive long in nature. I’ll give it 3 points.
I can’t think of a white Saltwater fish. Zero points for the Salties!
The score now. Freshwater 8. Saltwater 2.
How about a yellow fish?
Here’s the freshwater Gold Barb.

Not bad. I would say 2 points for them.
Here’s the saltwater yellow fish, the Yellow Tang.

Wow, that’s a FIVE for sure. That makes the score 10 to 7 for the Freshies.

Oh, wait a second, there is a last-second entry for the freshwater team!
The Electric Yellow Labidochromis. An African Cichlid.

That’s worth four points at least. The score is getting wider.
It’s Freshwater 12. Saltwater 7.
On to Blue.
Freshwater has Blue Platies and Blue Gouramis but the bluest is the Electric Blue African Cichlid.

I’ll give it two points because the female is not very Blue. (sorry, ladies)

Here’s a saltwater Blue Damsel.

That’s an easy 5 points for the Salt team.
The score is now Fresh 14, Salt 12.
Green fish are the next category. I thought there would be more green fish. They could hide among plants. From an evolutionary standpoint I think green would be a good color to be.
Here’s a freshwater green fish.

That looks like 4 points.
And, in the ocean, here is the Green Chromis.

I’ll give the Chromis 2 points.
The score is now Freshwater 18. Salt 14.
Hang on! Time-out! A penalty has been assessed against the freshwater team. The Green Tetra is  a genetically modified fish. Cheater!!!!4 points are taken from the Freshies.
The score is now tied 14-14.
Let’s look at Orange fish.
The Sunset Platy.

I like these Platies and give them 3 points for orangeness.
Here’s a saltwater Flame Angelfish.

Almost all orange except the stripes. That’s a beautiful fish worth 4 points to the Saltwater team.
The Salties pull ahead 18-17!!!
Black fish are next.
Here’s the Black Molly in a tank with a black background.

Here’s another Black Molly.

That’s the blackest fish in the world. 5 points for the freshwaters.
The saltwater entry is the Domino Damsel.

That’s four points for the salt. The score is tied 22-22.. oh wait here’s an adult Domino Damsel.

The damsel only gets 2 points.
Freshies are back on top 22-20.
The last category is multi-colored fish.
Here is a group of Discus.

Since these are all modified by captive breeding I’ll give them 3 points.
Freshwater 25-20.
The final entry for saltwater is the Mandarin fish.

Fantastic, that’s five points!!! I wish I could give it a ten.
The score is TIED 25-25!!!
How can I break this tie??
How about the ugliest fish??
Freshwater?

4 points?
Saltwater.

That is just as ugly. 4 points for the Salt team.
Still 29-29.
OK, one last chance to solve this issue.
I decided to do a Google Image search.
Freshwater fish.

…and the Google Image search for Saltwater fish.

And the winner is …… Saltwater … by one point.
I’ll admit the saltwater fish are more colorful, but just barely. If you have a freshwater tank don’t be jealous.
97.5% of the Earth’s water is saltwater. 0.3% of the water is in freshwater lakes and rivers. The rest is groundwater, snow, and glaciers.

Photos for this post are from the Internet and are not mine at all. I usually use my own in this blog. I appreciate the use of these photos and hope that I have not offended anyone by using their pictures.

They live with two Marigold Variatus Platies.

See the male Swordtail in the background with his sword tail.

I’ve been wanting to raise a few more but had to wait for an open 10 gallon tank.
Two days ago I finally had the opportunity to put a female into a tank that I filled with Java Moss and Hornwort. The tank also has two Julii Cory Catfish and two small brown Bristlenose Plecostomus.

The very next day POP goes the fishy! I noticed a baby or two but didn’t pull the female out immediately. It’s impossible to tell if she was done having babies or not. So I waited about 2 more hours, then went downstairs to catch her. Wow, she was chasing her own babies so hard I wondered if any would be left by the time I caught her. Fortunately, I think there are about a dozen survivors. Swordtails can have 25 or 50 or even more babies but this was a young mother and I don’t have room for too many more fish of any kind.

These babies will hunt for small food particles they find among the plants. I also have a Microworm culture going, plus I will make up a batch of baby brine shrimp when they are a week or two old. I’ll crush up fish food flakes and also dried shrimp. I think they like a lot of protein when they are growing, plus it gives them great color. When they are older they do fine on plain fish food flakes.

While we’re at it, let me show you one of my male Green Swordtails. Most people wouldn’t give a Green Swordtail a second glance but what do you think of this guy?

In the tank right next to the baby Swordtails, the Albino Bristlenoses are probably enjoying life in a tank to themselves. I find the male in the “cave” or at it’s entrance and the female can be found anywhere. Now that they are settled into the new tank I’ll try some major water changes in the next few days and see if that gets them in the spawning mood.

The male is at the cave entrance to the right and the female is hanging onto the sponge filter in back.

Also, right now, my Silver Angelfish have spawned, again, on the filter intake in the 55 gallon aquarium. So I am puzzling over this. Should I try to save this batch? I LOVE Silver Angelfish.


And in a 10 gallon tank my female Red Swordtail is filling up with babies. I think I missed her last birthing.

I need to toss in a handful of hornwort (floating plant) for the babies to hide in.

The five babies from her first pregnancy are doing great, getting fat and turning nicely red, although they look orange in my photos.

Note how perfectly I focused on the rock.

Note how perfectly I focused on the wood.

And what have we all been waiting for? Yes, it’s turtle time again. Turtle baby Number Two has hatched. He is still sitting in the eggshell.

#2 turtle baby breaking out.

The first baby still has the yolk sac attached to his belly, but he is crawling around a bit.

#1 baby, born Friday night, with egg yolk sac attached.

"Are we gonna turn into frogs, too?"

]]> http://fishtanx.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/try-again-with-the-red-velvet-swordtails/ Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:03:19 +0000 fishtanx2011 http://fishtanx.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/try-again-with-the-red-velvet-swordtails/ After having my last “female” Red Velvet Swordtail  turn out to be a male I had to wait for them to be in stock again at our Local Fish Shop.

There were only a few in the tank and they cost $3.17 each. Their health was a little dicey, they were carrying their fins awfully close to their bodies but I couldn’t see any fungus or Ich.

I looked around for awhile and picked out two active, healthy females. Then I went back to selecting my fish. (a little joke there)

Here are the two new Swordtails with the male I had bought before. Hopefully by Spring they will be making babies and I can raise them in my 30 gallon pond outside. They grow tremendously fast and have great color when reared outdoors.

Also, in older Swordtails, some females will turn into males, usually if there are no other males around.

Weeks ago I bought two Red Velvet Swords and hoped to be telling you about the babies they were making. Well, guess what, the “female” I bought started showing male traits. “She” has faintest hint of a Sword, plus the anal fin now looks like a gonopodium. Darn it, there won’t be any babies from these two. I’ll have to keep an eye out for a real female Red Velvet Swordtail.

Note the gonopodium is becoming pointed, and the sword is just barely there.

I found a tank of Red Velvet  Swords at our local Tropical Fish Shop a few weeks ago. I bought a pair for $4.19 each. The fish had just arrived, had a little white fungus, and were marked “quarantine”, which also meant NOT FOR SALE.  I explained that I was going to put the fish into a quarantine tank also, and if I had any problems I would not complain or bring back their dead bodies. So they sold me a pair and so far, so good. I hope to have some baby Red Velvet Swordtails in a month or so. I’ll keep you posted!

See the little spot of fungus on the tail?