Monday, February 23, 2015

They're here, they're a little creepy.

The pacu are in their baby tank!
The only time I've actually used the "drip acclimation technique".  TOO MUCH WORK.
Pacu being drip acclimated before transfer to tank


Okay, so that's not their actual final tank.  It's just a bucket, but still. 
On the, thankfully, waterproofesque scale
 We had to weigh each one individually, at which point I found out that my scale is not as exact as I would have liked.
The important thing, though, was that the scale was zero-able, so once the container was in place, I just had to dump a fish in there, and get the measurement.  

The tank as it is now, beautiful, before the learn that they are vegetarian

Of 17 that survived travel to Canada, Ich, and then travel to my home, 3 have noticeable injuries.  One of those appears to be significant, and may end up killing the fish.  It's an odd wound over it,s left eye that may have fungus now.  I'll keep an eye on the filter intake for the next while.

Everyone is eating voraciously, though, so that's good.

An auto-feeder has been placed to provide them with food every 6 hours from 8am to 8pm.  I'll up the amount of food that they are fed in a couple of weeks.
Notice the interesting spotting on the sides, and the lack
of a pronounced underbite, as opposed to piranha

They are rather creepy in their feeding.  They immediately began gnawing on snails shells.  I'm not sure if they were successful in their efforts but, if there are snails left in the tank, I don't see any anymore.

No deaths to report, 4 days in, which is a great thing, indeed.

Weights : four at 3 grams, five at 1 gram, and eight at 2 grams.











Saturday, February 7, 2015

So, time to count the chickens.
Pacu have come in, they look healthy so far, and I'm getting excited about this again.

I'll be able to pick them up once I get back from a trip to the Sustainable Cities conference (London [Ontario.  Don't feel too happy for me]).

So, as soon as I land, I've got to get the tank nice again, which means cleaning a filter that is probably more than 50% blocked by now.  The flow rate was crap when I left, which means it'll be worse when I get back.

But, and somewhat more importantly, I'll take a picture of the tank.

See, the tank is beautiful.  The flow rate is lowish, which means the plants have flourished, snails are climbing the glass, the sand and rocks look great...

There is life everywhere.

Then I will introduce the "Omnivorous Piranha".  The plants will last MAYBE a week, I suspect.  Luckily, that also means the algae will likely be devoured.  The snails?  Can they stand up against a fish whose teeth are made for crushing the shells of nuts?

I am become death, etc etc.

The tricky part is going to be that I'll want to put them in  the tank toute suite, but I've got to remember to weigh them first.

Anyhow, nice to have a positive update.  I hope it is the first of many.

Edit: I can pick them up at the end of the week, and they're still healthy so far (on Monday).
Squee.