Angel Fish

The Full Set

Magic Snow

We had loads of snow from 8.30am to 11am this morning, it settled on the grass and trees but by 11.30 it was gone! I’ve never known so much snow to melt as fast! Must have been that special Houdini Snow!

So, with no snowy scenes to post, here’s a couple of pictures Debbie took on Sunday…..

Lucy watching telly from the comfort of the duvet on the sofa.

Lucy adopting the old ‘stop mucking about and stroke my belly’ pose.

Two of our four angel fish, I’ve tried and tried to get a shot of these before but I always end up with a blurred photo. I should get some lessons from the expert!

Paul

Crash, Bang, Wallop!

We've never heard or seen so many fireworks exploding in to the night sky as we did over the last two days. Bonfire Night itself was the worst, stepping outside to let the dogs out was like entering a war zone with bangs and flashes coming from all directions. We were thankful that Lucy, Lollypop, Misty, Toddy and even little Eric just carried on regardless, ignoring all the commotion outside.

While the rest of the country were out buying up all the explosives they could lay their hands on, we decided to do something about the fish tank. The plants were going fury and turning black, the sand was turning a dark shade of disgusting as it was a nightmare to clean and we were loosing fish. First went the plants, straight into the bin, quickly followed by all that murky sand and replaced by lovely new black gravel.

We can't believe the difference, we've managed a 25% water change without losing any fish and they're all much more active in the crystal clear water. Even the plec has been out cleaning the rocks who previously appeared to be on strike, probably due to poor working conditions. We'll see how things go this week and if all is still well, we'll see about replacing some of the fish we've lost.

With the aquarium looking the part, Debbie finished off the new fireplace with a wonderful arrangement full of autumn colour.

All we need now, is for it to actually feel like autumn instead of late summer, however, it looks like we're stuck with the mild, wet and windy weather for at least another week. Hey ho, at least the snow has returned to Lapland after having some mild weather of their own.

Paul

Underwater Hockey

I've been for a walk today to get yet more plants for the aquarium, I think it's about the sixth time I've been in three weeks and next time I'm going to ask about share options in the place!

The reason for the extra plants is that it looks like we'll be hearing the splash of tiny fins any day now and the little tykes will need somewhere to hide out.

We got a sunken ship last weekend, together with an albino pleco and since putting them in the aquarium the pleco has gone inside the ship and hasn't been seen since. The upside down catfish we also got, who resides in the top left window of the ship, did pop out yesterday but was swimming upside down, or is that the right way up mmmmm.

Anyway, our existing pleco and the catfish got stuck into pleco veggie tablets as did every other fish apart from the neons and it was quite funny watching these two green tablets being chased about in the sand.

So tonight I've got some aquatic planting to do followed by a partial water change then we can sit down and watch a game of twenty-five aside veggie tablet hockey.

Paul

The Mist Is Clearing

The new aquarium has been up and running for just over a day now and the mist is almost gone, by Friday it should be crystal clear ready for the new inhabitants.

There are so many different tropical fish we want to get and with the size of the tank, we should be able to accommodate between sixty and seventy in total. We've been reading up on starting out with a new aquarium and we can't put in too many in to start with, it has to complete cycles, which in terms that I understand is that the aquarium has to be able to deal with the ammonia produced by the fish and seventy fish using a brand new aquarium as a lavatory won't do them any good lol.

We've got a good idea of what we want but we're going to have choose which fish to get in the first week. With us adding the chemicals to get the bacteria going we should be able to start with a decent number of fish, maybe twenty or so and then add more each week. Of the ones we're wanting, Zebra Danios, Platy, White Clouds and Cherry Barbs appear to be the best tropical fish to start out with.

Paul

Aquariums and Trees

As with most busy weekends, not everything goes to plan and it turned out to be a lot more busy that we thought! Up bright an early on Saturday we got the shopping in for the barbecue before Debbie's appointment at the hairdressers. Debbie trudged home while I put the shopping away and she wasn't impressed at all with her new hair style, exactly the same as it was before! Needless to say, neither of will be going back there, I sorted out Debbie's fringe and she looks gorgeous :-)

Then, for the high point of the weekend, we set of to Sheffield to look round this huge aquarium centre. We were very disappointed when we did eventually find it, it wasn't that big, looked a bit of a dive and didn't have all that much to offer. Plan B came in to action as we set of to a place called Viscum in Barnburgh near Doncaster, we've been before and it's not the cheapest place but it's clean, tidy with a huge selection of equipment and fish and the friendly staff really know their stuff. We got a beautiful aquarium and everything to go with it from fish and plant friendly chemicals to plants and rocks.

Back at the ranch, we had just enough time to put the cabinet together, get the tank on top and put in all the sand. Debbie went to pick up friends for the barbecue while I finished off and got the barbecue started. We had a great evening, so much more chilled than the week before, I even had time to fill up the aquarium and it was looking great until someone pointed out that it was leaking! So there I was, bailing out as fast as I could in the wee small hours lol.

I took the aquarium back on Sunday morning, which they said they would exchange without question but wanted to see the leak in action as they don't get many of them. In the daylight we could see a gap in the seal near the top which was causing the problem. Anyway, they got me sorted out with a new one and I got that home safely, we just managed to get that on top of the cabinet and filled with sand again before Dad arrived for an afternoons tree felling.

Dad took charge and was up the ladder in no time, branches were being flung to the ground faster than I could trim them lol. My Auntie and Uncle brought Grandma over for a couple of hours, they all loved the our house and garden and Grandma had Lucy on her knee all afternoon lol. We called it a day at tea time, there are just a couple of branches at the top left to come down before we can start with the trunk. Debbie took loads of pictures through the afternoon but we've not had chance to load them yet, we'll get some posted tonight or tomorrow.

While we were hard at work in the garden Debbie was hard at work in the kitchen preparing tea and also managed to fill the aquarium and get the filter going. After a gorgeous cottage pie dinner, we got chance to look at the aquarium and it was looking pretty darn good already.

Later in the evening we got all the plants in and switched on the lights, the water is still a little milky at the moment from all the sand but that is starting to clear now. We just sat there for an hour, watching the plants swaying in the current :-)

Only four days at work now, we're off on Friday, Lolly is going to have his bits seen to and we're off to pick out our new tropical fish, poor Lolly!

Paul

Fun Packed Weekend On The Way

We've got loads to do this weekend, I'm not sure how we're going to fit it all in and we'll probably be ready for another weekend by Sunday evening lol.

We've got another BBQ to organise tomorrow, at least this time the weather looks favourable and we won't have as many people to run about after. Debbie's getting her hair cut tomorrow, all this hot weather is taking it's toll, even mine needs cutting, half an inch is just too long lol. Dad's coming round for Sunday dinner and to help us chop down the tree. We'll have a new bird table to put up which will hopefully get some custom over the autumn and winter months.

The best thing of all will be going to get our new aquarium, Debbie love's tropical fish and can spend hours looking round any aquarium centre. We've had to wait until now to get a fish tank of our own because we didn't have enough space before. We need one with a sturdy base and surround to keep the three amigos at bay and we don't won't an over exited Lolly knocking anything over.

It's years since either of us has kept tropical fish, I wonder if things have changed, any technological advances in filterization and the like? I used to use and old credit card to scrape the inside of the glass lol. We've already got an idea of the fish we would like, a large shoal of neons, a few guppies, glowlites, a couple of small angel fish and some sucky things that clean the glass instead of me! Just a short list to start with, although I'm sure the list will grow longer by the minute when we get there lol.

Paul