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williemcd
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    Hello from VA - Nphocus

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    nphocus


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    Post by nphocus Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:11 pm

    I'm Bobby and I'm located in Richmond, Virginia. I'm a koi guy. I have about a dozen of them, all juveniles at the moment. I also have a few kuhli loaches and gold loaches.

    I am getting into cichlids, trying to find a few females for my yellow cichlid. I'm also looking to add some Blue Mbunas to the harem. If you're a purity queen, don't talk to me about it, I don't care.

    I also have a family of angel fishes, thanks to Bill and Fern. A momma Platinum, A daddy Marble, and 3 koi chillun.

    My wife also has a massive pleco - 8-10" - that I allow to board with my fish... I have a lowly albino bristle nose about the size of your thumb... wee guy... hope he doesn't get lost in the crowd.

    I have a beautiful 90 gallon corner tank with a loan cichlid and other tropicals, thanks Bill, and a 75G that's currently only housing big"ger" koi fish.

    I'm in the process of bringing Fluidized Sand Filtration back. Bioballs can't touch what 5lbs of sand in a 4 foot tall length of 4 inch pvc pipe will do.
    zeketaz
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    Post by zeketaz Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:19 pm

    Welcome to the crew jocolor Hello from VA - Nphocus 2113965524 Have fun here
    Fern
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    Post by Fern Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:11 pm

    cheers Glad to see you here! Pics would be awesome! Especially of those mbunas you are working with!
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    Post by FishVixen Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:47 pm

    Welcome Bobby! Ah you got some of my babies. (angels) Internet has been down sorry for the late response.
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    nphocus


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    Post by nphocus Wed Jun 22, 2011 11:36 am

    Fern wrote: cheers Glad to see you here! Pics would be awesome! Especially of those mbunas you are working with!

    Ask, and thou shall receive!!!!

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-22%25252008.38.26

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-22%25252008.38.15

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-22%25252008.38.05

    They are moving on up! They were sharing a 75G with my koi. Now they have their own 90G with some of the small koi, the world's fattest shubunkin fantail goldfish in our house, some gold weather loaches, a few guppies, and an albino and regular pleco. Oh, there is a yellow cichlid in there and there should be two blue juvenile Mbunas... but I, nor the kids, have seen hide nor tail of the Mbunas since they went in the tank. I'm going to pick up two more today and watch them after I put them in this time. There's a Holey rock in there, so they could have found a hole that they like and taken up residence. Hopefully two more new guys will draw out the other two old guys.

    Oh, the platinum is in there, she's just camera shy.
    williemcd
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    Post by williemcd Wed Jun 22, 2011 12:34 pm

    Bobby.. I was going to correct ya on the origins of the Angels.. They indeed are from Vix's collection she entrusted to me.. SO TAKE care of her babies!..LOL.. Bill
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    nphocus


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    Post by nphocus Wed Jun 22, 2011 12:43 pm

    williemcd wrote:Bobby.. I was going to correct ya on the origins of the Angels.. They indeed are from Vix's collection she entrusted to me.. SO TAKE care of her babies!..LOL.. Bill
    I most definitely will... and even the baby's babies, and the baby's baby's babies... et al.

    There is nothing like good fish from good people. I feel honored.
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    nphocus


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    Post by nphocus Wed Jun 22, 2011 1:07 pm

    My dirty dirt koi in their dirty dirty tank. I mean, carp like dirt, right?

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-22%25252008.37.28

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-22%25252008.37.20

    I'm open to suggestions on what to do about this tank. I want plants in it, but koi destroy plants with their incessant rooting! I did just change to pool filter sand, so they could root easier. They seemed really happy when I had playground sand, but I had a THICK sand bed combined with a mix of lava rocks and no aeration in the sand bed. I also didn't know about hydrogen sulfide and what it means when your sand starts to turn black... This time I have twice as much tank and 1/4 as much sand.

    I'm also looking for some MTS to root around in the sand bed and keep it gas free. I was hoping that either my kuhli loaches or gold weather loaches would take on that responsibility, but the kuhlis are too busy spooning my african dwarf frog in a dark corner doing who-knows-what and the gold loaches don't dig... like, they feed off of flakes at the top of the tank and they spend their time swimming around like any other fish in a tank. They don't dig and rarely stay under anything for long. It's like, they're extroverts.

    I really don't like having pots in my tank, but it is the only method I've found to keep the plants from being uprooted. Suggestions?
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    Post by FishVixen Wed Jun 22, 2011 2:05 pm

    With koi pots are the only way. The plants will eventually get eaten by the koi anyway you plant them. Holey rock and angels really don't mix well. The PH stays too high. You have fish from cold water -68 to 72 (koi) low PH, warn water -78-84 (angels) high PH warm water 76-80(mbunas) all in one tank so really watch for disease as someone is really in stressed water conditions and there immunity is low.
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    nphocus


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    Post by nphocus Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:04 pm

    FishVixen wrote:With koi pots are the only way. The plants will eventually get eaten by the koi anyway you plant them. Holey rock and angels really don't mix well. The PH stays too high. You have fish from cold water -68 to 72 (koi) low PH, warn water -78-84 (angels) high PH warm water 76-80(mbunas) all in one tank so really watch for disease as someone is really in stressed water conditions and there immunity is low.

    My PH stays at a constant 7.2-7.4, even with coral chunks, argonite, and the holey rock. I have been testing it for months. I have a side issue with snail shells dissolving over time every time I put one in the tank. I don't use a water heater, but with the Four 48" lights about 2" over the surface of the water of the koi tank it stays at a constant 80-82 degrees. That's one reason why I mounted the Metal Halide light 12" over the water in the corner tank. I'm still waiting to see where it decides to stabilize at and whether there is a temperature zone difference between the top and the bottom of the tank, as it's 30" deep/tall. I'm expecting it to sit at about 80-84 with the lighting on and mid 70s with the lighting off.

    Koi may be coldwater fish, but seriously, fish are fish and they are either hardy or delicate. I would define my koi as hardy. Prior to adding the lighting, the water temp still stayed at a steady 76 degrees. My cichlid has grown up with the koi since he was about an inch and that was 3 months ago. I would say he's hardy too as he was fine with 76 degree water and 7.4 ph, nevermind hanging with much bigger fish. In fact, when I had my 46G tank, I had an issue with the cichlid bullying the smaller koi, hence us naming him Bullyfish. When I got everyone in the bigger tank, we didn't have any further aggression issues. The worst of the "bullying" was him chasing two of the smaller koi around the tank in what I interpreted as an aggressive manner. None of the fish were nipped or elsewise harmed.

    The smallest koi angel came to me as a bit bigger than a nickle. I call her baby girl. She's now quarter sized, and her two older koi brothers have put on a bit of size too in that time. They all school together with the marbled daddy. The platinum momma is normally off doing her own thing.

    *knock on wood* I haven't had any issues with any fish disease and I don't run any aquarium salt or treatments in my tanks. I use Seachem Prime to condition my water and I just put a bag of carbon in the bottom of each tank because I've been getting some odors. I think the odors were dead snails... Even the empty shells stink to high heaven.

    Once the temp normalizes on the corner tank I'll decide if I'm going to run an inline water heater to keep it nice and tropical. I'm also considering making a canopy for the koi tank so that their water will run cooler. I would need to incorporate the waterfall from their fluidized sand filter into it though... which is a minor challenge.

    Hello from VA - Nphocus IMAG0637

    Hello from VA - Nphocus IMAG0638

    Hello from VA - Nphocus IMAG0655

    Hello from VA - Nphocus IMAG0643

    Those are pics from the old setup, but that's the general idea. Btw, since changing the gravel to sand, I am no longer a fan of UGF... that is all.
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    Post by williemcd Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:40 pm

    Bobby bobby.. please share with us what ya found when you pulled up that substrate! LOL.... Bill in Va.
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    Post by FishVixen Wed Jun 22, 2011 8:50 pm

    Don't get me wrong if it works I'm for it. You seem to know what you're doing.
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    nphocus


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    Post by nphocus Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:28 pm

    FishVixen wrote:Don't get me wrong if it works I'm for it. You seem to know what you're doing.
    I apologize if I came off harsh. I'm a bit of a cynical asshole, or so I've been told... regularly... and often...

    I really do understand your point about differing environments, but I think we fail to allow for the basic instinct for survival. I would never do anything to intentionally harm my pet fish. I don't think a few degrees of temperature difference constitute harm or mistreatment. In nature, regardless of what part of the planet you are on, there are temperature variances from night to day and from season to season and I'm sure that those variances are alot more than 10 degrees. Think about it.

    Now on the PH part, I actually agree with you, as I've seen what the wrong PH or a PH spike will do to fish. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that PH differences are the number one reason why new fish die when introduced to a new tank.
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    Post by nphocus Thu Jun 23, 2011 1:04 pm

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-23%25252009.29.55
    Don't mind us, we're too cool to hang out with "those" other fish.
    The orange and white butterfly koi is one of the many pseudo "wild caught" koi from williemcd's pond. I say wild caught because that sumbitch was wild and I caught him by hand. The yellow with the black/blue coming in on the top is a butterfly koi from carolinafishhatchery. They have a website and they bring a tanker of fish to Hopewell, VA once a month and sell all kinds of pond stock fish including koi for unbelieveable prices. I think the 3-5" koi are about 5$. The orange, white, and black speckled body belongs to our oldest "original gangster" fish. His names "me-mo", pronounced like Nemo, but by a 3 year old. He's our fancy split tail shubunkin goldfish. He came to us from walmart in a tiny 1 gallon fish bowl. The big black and white monster in the back is a standard koi from petco. He's called "EatMorChickenFish" because he looks like a cow pretending to be a fish. He's from petco and he's a tough ornery sumbitch. The kids were picking out fish at petco when this guy jumped out of the tank and started flopping around. He has spunk, he was a keeper. We bought him when he was about 2.5". He's a good 8" now and even though he started out as just black and white, his gills are now taking on a yellow-gold color. I'm seeing that with some "plain" black and white koi that they develop different colors as they age. I have another koi that is a bit bigger than EatMor that has orange coming in along his spine in multiple places.

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-23%25252009.30.32
    Hey! We resemble that remark!

    Top left is one of the angel koi. Middle right you can see the backsides of the Mbuna cichlids that I picked up last night. Neat guys. They school together in groups of 2-6.

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-23%25252009.30.28
    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-23%25252009.30.25

    A slightly better view of their new 3 rock home and a group of them schooling together.

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-23%25252009.30.09
    Hey Buddy! I've got my eye on YOU!!! Don't try anything funny.

    A marbled Angel and 3 more little mbunas.

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-23%25252009.29.41

    Two more angel koi and a platinum angel. Pictures really don't do platinum angel's justice. With the right lighting, the iridescence is awesome.

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-23%25252009.29.06
    It's only gay if we make eye contact.

    My electric yellow cichlid and shubunkin goldfish hanging together under the holey rock. Yes, one big happy fish family. It amazes me to see fish interacting peaceably together. Thats one of the things I enjoy about fish keeping. I don't cotton to aggressive fish.

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-23%25252009.28.58

    A gold weather loach - kinda looks like an eel. These loaches refuse to eat from the bottom. They are some of the first fish to spot flakes on the surface and rush up to eat them. I have 3 in this tank and I believe two of them are females and one is male. I'm pretty sure two of them are paired, just based on them swimming fin to fin and doing this weird twirling thing when they swim to the top of the tank together. These loaches stay out in the open for the most part and are extremely active.

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-23%25252009.28.49

    The marble angel taking the 3 koi angels out for a walk... lurking in the shadows is the electric yellow cichlid and there's another gold loach in the pic.

    Hello from VA - Nphocus 2011-06-22%25252008.38.26

    One big happy family!
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    Post by greydragon Thu Jun 23, 2011 1:49 pm

    just remember to feed them correctly koi have a very hard time digesting animal protein so they need plant protein and your other fish they need the animal protein but not a lot of plant protein
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    Post by nphocus Thu Jun 23, 2011 1:52 pm

    greydragon wrote:just remember to feed them correctly koi have a very hard time digesting animal protein so they need plant protein and your other fish they need the animal protein but not a lot of plant protein

    It's funny that you should mention that. I didn't know about the digestion issue, but I have had ongoing battles with them eating my plants. It's gotten better though since I started giving them a couple leafs of Romaine Lettuce every day. They really seem to enjoy it and it stops them from tearing up the stuff in the tank. The only unusual side effect is their poop is now green... bright green.
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    Post by FishVixen Thu Jun 23, 2011 3:50 pm

    really watch the africans for bloat if they get to much animal protein they will bloat.
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    Post by nphocus Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:36 pm

    FishVixen wrote:really watch the africans for bloat if they get to much animal protein they will bloat.
    Will do. What kind of veggies do your africans enjoy?
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    Post by FishVixen Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:29 pm

    spinach and zuccini. Spirulina flakes work well for all of them. At least that is what I use for all fish. Brine flake for angels (not africans as they will bloat with them)
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    Post by nphocus Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:30 pm

    Do you float the spinach and zuccini or do you weight it down at the bottom of the tank? You're the second person to mention Zuccini for fish. I'm not a fan, but it sounds well worth trying for them.

    Thanks
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    Post by Fern Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:59 pm

    I just slice it up and freeze the unused slices, I use a stainless steel fork stab it and lay it on the bottom, they eat right off of it. Same deal with yellow squash.

    Spirulina 20 by zoo med is a safe and good food for all of your fish.
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    Post by greydragon Thu Jun 23, 2011 7:32 pm

    its funny half of my post didnt even show up
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    nphocus


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    Post by nphocus Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:24 pm

    greydragon wrote:its funny half of my post didnt even show up
    Was it the good half or the crap half?

    If my crap didn't show up, I wouldn't have anything on the internet.
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    Post by williemcd Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:37 pm

    nphocus.. like your last post!... <grin>
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    Post by FishVixen Fri Jun 24, 2011 1:44 pm

    Something screwy with the internet on all sites it seems lately. We are having problems with cable so it's hit or miss even getting online at the moment. (So low post from Fern and I)

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