These three pictures (two behind the fold) feature, apart from gudgeons, a small turbot. See if you can spot the turbot in the first picture.
Spot the turbot! © Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Clara Dillingham Pierson. Among the Pond People. Illustrated by F.C. Gordon. New York, E.P. Dutton and Co., 1901.
Jack loves to hang out among the pond people, but I’m not sure they feel the same way about him.
via: The Internet Archive
John Harington Keene. Fishing Tackle. London, New York; Ward, Lock, 1886. First Edition.
Cover photo via: Abe Books
Available to read at The Internet Archive
William Earl Hodgson. How to Fish. London, A. & C. Black, 1907.
via: Biblio
Available to read at The Internet Archive
*This post has been updated due to the original photo file sitting inappropriately. It has been fixed.
Spring is the season for babies and Avalus has lots of new little cuties in his tank. Let’s go see.
Hey There! ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Not much going on in the new tank. I cut some of the faster growing plants, next week the platies will go back to the main tank and there will come new fishes (neon tetras (Paracheirodon innesi) and mosquito rasboras (Boraras brigittae)). Both are tiny colourful fishes, the neons are blue with a bit of red and the rasboras purple with a copper or golden tint.
But on to the titular babies. [Read more…]
James A Henshall. Book of the Black Bass. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Sons, 1889
I like the typography used for the title on this book, especially the way the ‘B’s’ and the ‘k’s’ change from above the fish to below the fish.
Via: archive.org
It’s time to check in with Avalus to see what’s up in the new aquarium.
You could see it in the last part of Full Fish ahead: I modified the filter inlet tubing. Today I want to talk about what I did and why.
A word of warning: When playing around with water, make sure you have no non-water safe electrical McGuffins running in the splash zone and test, extensively, if your seals are really waterproof (for example overnight in a box).
As you can see, I have a darker background. It is an old towel and will be replaced later on by paper. ©Avalus, all rights reserved
A darker background helps to calm shyer fish and lets their colours stand out. I also cut some of the plants in the middle (Didiplis diandra) to give the other plants between space and light (Hygrophilia Araguaia and cryptocoryne wenditii).
The filter comes with 16 mm hose and an inlet piece that fits the hose. The Problem with this is threefold. One, the Inlet has few large openings, small fish and especially shrimp will get sucked in the filter. It also congests really quickly. Then, just behind the inlet, the water flow is choked and because of the small diameter there is much resistance from the walls, resulting in higher strain in the pump. Also the hose really quickly plugs up from particles sticking to the walls and bacterial mats that will grow. [Read more…]
The new aquarium is full of life and it’s all adorable. Let’s check in with Avalus.
The tank on Tuesday 28th of March. Bought a filter, forgot blue paper. ©Avalus, all rights reserved
The new filter arrived and now the Daphnia’s reign over the tank is due. They can swim but they cannot fight any stronger currents. So I fished as many as I could out, thanked them for their service … and fed them to the inhabitants of my main tank. Ah, the circle of life. I will try to get access to a microscope and try my hand at video editing and then do a post about them. You need to see them move and you need to see them up closer than I can do with my Magnificator (notr). So today there will be some random photos with blurbs. [Read more…]
Things are happening in Avalus’ new aquarium. Let’s join him to see what’s up today. (Note: The last photo in this post was omitted in error when first published. It has now been reinserted with my apologies to Avalus.)
The water in the new tank slowly clears up, the next plants and the filter are underway to my vendor and so it’s time to find a nice leaf lay down and relax.
Corydoras Panda enjoying the safety of a walnut leaf in my other tank. Yes, I have quite some green filament algae. ©Avalus, all rights reserved
In the new tank, we can see algae growing on the wood and producing oxygen. But their reign is short, they will soon be overgrown by sessile filament algae.
Welcome to a brand new series here at Affinity penned by Avalus who’s going to take us through the process of setting up a new aquarium and talk fishkeeping in general.
Let’s begin with the start. I found this big piece of gnarly wood in a shop in early December 2018 when I helped a friend shopping for (and carry) cat-equipment. It just had beautiful depth to it so I just bought it, as I had an idea for a new fishtank and remembered having an old tank in my parents’ attic. In January I picked up the tank from my parents, where it sat for 3 years or so. [Read more…]