Updates

It's obvious to see (blog stats don't lie!) that a lot of you have been missing my posts recently (and I've missed you all as well), as mentioned I have had a pretty busy summer full of lots of adventure, and basically living life.

Blogger Stats (click to enlarge)

So what's new...

I don't really plan on doing anymore goldfish weigh-in's until I have had my fish for a year (which is just around the corner!) just because I feel their growth rates have possibly been bouncing around a bit due to some feeder issues, food and water changes, etc. After that weigh-in is done I may take a break from the weigh-in's in general, and another reason for that is Pocky and Ramen both have swim-bladder issues and I don't know how much longer I can see Pocky go through this because some days seem worse for him than others. Aside from swim-bladder issues with these 3 goldfish I really haven't had any issues with any type of disease, illness, etc. so I feel what I have been doing for them has been working out for the most part.

I'd like to start caring for some other types of fish in the near future. Honestly all that the goldfish community has taught me and everything else I've learned (be it on my own or from general research) has in my opinion helped me become a better fish-keeper in general. I don't find there is a lot of valuable online information for tropical type fish (such as guppies, tetras, etc) as there is for fish like goldfish which is partially why I'd like to venture outside goldfish as I did back when I had guppies as well.

I also ordered some Guppy-Guide logo stickers off of my CafePress shop and they're pretty cute (I plan on getting a new 5 gal. bucket or something to put the sticker on). The "clear" sticker is transparent all over and not just the background color, while the solid "white" sticker is solid all over, and I wish only the background was transparent (*hint hint* CafePress, haha). Eventually I will get around to making some more products for the shop but feel free to follow my shop for updates on that.

I just started a new Instagram account just for this blog (you can find the link on here as well) and the old one will probably be for my personal use (which may get deleted). I opted to make a new one so that it could be made more public and be strictly more aquarium/blog/fish based and such.

Guppy & Betta Updates

About a month ago Freckles gave birth to her first line of fry with Peppermint, and she's expecting again, very soon from the looks of it! This will be Freckles last drop though *fingers crossed* and then I'm retiring her from breeding (it's only good to let a guppy give birth twice really, it's a lot of work for a guppy and they're usually 'pre-hit' for a 3rd pregnancy anyway). Rudder gave birth for the first time a few days ago so, I'm on fry overload in my tanks currently, and Peppermint is on a breeding frenzy with these two gals (this being the case I am actually just going to retire all 3 from breeding). I also plan to update the decor a bit in there aquarium setup soon so, maybe I'll post up some before and after photos of that. I don't know why I have my tanks looking the way they do currently because they aren't overly appealing so, hopefully I get that worked on before I start college again this month.

Now that Mr. Moto has passed on I will be cleaning out his 2.5gal Minibow setup for my other betta Ebo to live in since Ebo has been living in a small plastic container, poor fella'. I still don't think I have yet to put any photo's of Ebo up on here but now that I have a new camera I'll definitely try to get some new fish photos up soon.

Aquarium Updates

Lately I find myself being more focused on the outer setup of my aquarium... wanting to change up some of my wiring setup and so forth. I've been debating 'timers' and I think I will actually do a quick post on them to help anyone else looking to use timers for their aquarium setup. I'm still wanting to purchase a canister filter at some point and I'm also looking for another light fixture. I'm also becoming disappointed with one of my Zilla Digital Thermometers so I'll either exchange it or perhaps find something better (any suggestions?). I'm also working on creating my own DIY aquarium lid (if I can figure out what parts I'm in need of) which I think will be very cool so, for those of you out their that may not be fans of bulky aquarium hoods that want something a bit more invisible then you may also be interested in that as well.

As for new things I recently purchased one of Petco's "zebra stones" which I believe is just a chunk of granite, and I'm hoping to find some additional pieces of the stone in the future but each piece is different so it's only a matter of finding ones that appeal to my wants. Also big news, I finally caved and bought another Betta fish yesterday and he's a halfmoon double tail whom I have named Ebo. So, if you want to see pics of Ebo and know more about him then you'll have to come check him out in future posts to come as well... although I may actually be returning him because I noticed he has fin rot and I haven't yet found a decent fin rot remedy thus far.

I've also recently donated an old 10gal aquarium and Top Fin heater to a co-worker of mine who has got on the 'fish boat' with me, YEAH! haha. So now I have my new Aqueon heater in my female guppy tank and they are super happy with that, I even added an undergravel bubbler from Walmart to their tank. Also I think I may have posted before about my homes water system being changed out and my water went from 'Very Hard' to 'Soft', and has now turned 'Very Soft"... I'm not sure how this will affect my fish but I really wish the pH would go down on our tap water, eep. For now I believe that's it for my recent aquarium updates and if you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask :)