Absolutely Nothing Comes To Mind

Indie/Lucy pups after a busy day.

Although I normally have an idea for a topic when I sit down to do my blog entry, absolutely nothing comes to mind this morning.  Perhaps my mind is in Vacation Mode, thinking of the 3-day weekend ahead, and wondering if I should take 4 hours of vacation today and get a head start on my weekend.

Decided yesterday that I needed to free up tank space for the new Knight Gobies.  They arrived a few days ago and were not the young fish I was expecting, but magnificent mature adults.  Their quarantine tank was only 5 gallons, not nearly large enough for four 3-inch fish.  They required a lot more room and were not happy in the small tank with few hiding places.

So where to put them?  I had an empty 40-gallon tank that I need to clean up for some cichlids who are outgrowing their smaller tanks, but that's the only uninhabited large tank.  Ah, move out the S. petricola.  Four 4-year old fish I had already spawned and raised youngsters from, sitting in a 20 gallon tank in the front side of the basement.  I set a price and posted them to Minnesota Fishkeeper List.  Within 5 minutes I had an inquiry from Milwaukee - "would I ship?".  Not for that price.  Way too much hassle to ship fish I was selling so affordably.  10 minutes later I had a local inquiry, called him back, and he promised to pick them up in half an hour.  Perfect!  I packed them up, he picked them up, paid what I was asking, and I had an empty tank.  In less than an hour!

I drained the tank, put the filter in a bucket of water so the "good bacteria" would not die off, scrubbed the tank, painted the back & sides so the new fish would feel more secure, washed and added gravel and some caves, scrubbed the top & light fixture, and filled the tank from one of my aged water barrels.  The water I used contains tap water, Epsom salt, marine salt mix, and baking soda, a mixture I use for many of my cichlids and livebearers (my tap water is soft).  Then I added additional marine salt mix since these fish are brackish water fishes.  I left it to run for the night, and today I will acclimate the fish, and add them to their new tank.  Because the sponge filter came from an established tank, this new tank should not suffer from "new tank syndrome".  Good job, Sue.