proposed stocklist

[flashyleopard]

My poor doggy probably need $1.5k worth of surgery for a torn ligament in her leg, so it may be even longer than expected.Poor girl is in a lot of pain, I find out the extent of it tomorrow.My other half is used to my exhuberant spendiong on my hobbies....it's what I live for anyway...otherwise, why bother to work, if you can't play to?;^)

I do hope people find the good information in this thread about feeding, stocking, and community combinations.

FWIW, I plan to culture phyto to feed the pods,amphipods,mysis shrimp,brine shrimp (enrich them first by feeding spirulina),the red shrimp from ocean rider seahorses,the little glass shrimp sold by live aquaria, and I will certainly look into the tigerpods.

I also plan to make my own frozen food using formulas one 1+2, frozen mysis,blood worms,misquito larvae,glassworms,brine shrimp,mussle,clam,oyster, fish roe,oyster eggs,scallop,nori,agar(seaweed based binding agent),spirulina,cyclopeeze,whole, fresh small fish, selcon,and marigold petals.

 

[Zaita]

Culturing phyto can be a real PITA lol. I have been doing 4 strains for over a year now (I work for marine research company so can get strains replacement easy). But the weekly splitting of it becomes annoying lol. Pods reproduce fairly slowly too, I sourced a local strain of Tigriopus and they take about 20days to mature sexually.

 

[Macimage]

Horses are so endearing and intelligent

Hi Flashy,

Yes, they are!! That is me on my trusty mounted shooting horse named Applejack. He'd had a few owners before us and actually threw one big heavy fella (broke his ribs) as he was spurring him and jabbing his mouth. He also threw a few other cowboys, but he's never given us a bit of trouble. He has a huge heart and is always so willing to give us his best. When we got him, he wouldn't let anyone catch him in pasture and just watched you with big distrustful eyes. Now he comes up to us when we arrive and his eyes are soft.

I hope your doggie has a good surgery. We had specialized leg surgery on one of our pound puppy dogs years ago ($8K) and it all worked out great. She is getting arthritis now in that leg, but they told us when she got older that would probably happen.

Joyce

 

[flashyleopard]

Very nice Joyce and thank you for the well wishes. Lola is my adopted American bulldog. She was so abused, that crate training was futile, b/c she had been confined her whole life and forced to urinate/deficate on herself and so continued to do so in her crate.She had been through three homes and was VERY skittish, running from men exspecially. Thev vets were advising her owners to euthanize her, do to her fearful nature, though she never showed an aggressive response to fear.
I wouldn't hear anything of it! Afterall, they should eutanize the people who treated her so poorly instead. She felt very safe around other dogs and my roomate already a Jack Russle, that I could still give away tommorrow, but that's another thread alone . Anyway, I felt with us working out of the home so much and the JRT being alone, another dog, even if it was afraid of us, would keep the JRT company and if I were very lucky, eat the JRT for me . There was no consuming of JRTs though . It took Lola time to get adjusted, she would never bark and if she uttered a sound, she would retreat in fear from her own voice. She was a very insecure dog, but other than fear, very stoic. I worked with her and gave her lots of gentle affection and not, at 4 years old this December , she is a love bug. She gas her belly petted, she barks and greets people, she seeks me out for attention and thinks she is a lap dog at 76 pounds...lol. She is dumb as rocks, but loveable and very easy to direct by the tone of your voice alone, whereas the JRT is likely to look at you witht he look of disobeidience in its face, while it continues to behave as if it were entitled to whatever behavior he was being directed away from.
She has already 2 lumpectomys and they have biopsied clean, but her breed is very prone to skin growths and cancers later, so I am diligent and fearful of losing her at around 9 yrs of age. She is like my child and her medical bills come with her and the responsibility of bringing her into my home.Oh, you should see her!!! All white body with mostly prown ears and black around the eyes, like egyptian eyeliner...she is gorgouse...everyone says so, when theys see her.

As for you horse, I took care of one in particular that's name was Grenidier. He was said to be stubborn and defiant and very difficult, but him and I took and instant liking to eachother as 2 misunderstood souls. He never gave me any problem and was always easily picked and saddled, very obedient and loving. It was all in your approach. This guy came to supervise us as a sub for the regular guy, who had to leave on a several day trip and he decided, rather than us caring for ''our horse'', we should just care for the one that was next in line to move things along. Well he got my Grenidier. Lots of cursing and yelling later, he balled up his horse and punched my horse!!! I was a fiery and opionionated teenager, with little reserve for saying whatever I wanted, when it it needed said and even now, I am not easily intimidated by my ''superiors''. I let loose on the guy and was never back. I went over and comforted my horse, and picked and saddled him as usual.....he was just one that wasn't up fpr being roughed up, he just wanted a pat and a calm demanor. When people went with a do this and do it now, with no greeting or domineering stance, he would lock up and do nothing.Now with horses, it is important to establish dominance, b/c of thier size and ability to do real harm, if not properly handled, but this wasn't like that...it was just a quark for that horse.He was easy to manipulate with a gentle hand. I miss that horse and I still have his wooden name tag as a keepsake. Horses are terrific!

My chameleons were like horses too. Very intelligent and very interactive with me. The melleri chameleon is like a scaley grren dog, in terms of smarts and emotional complexity. they used to eat from my hands and reconized if it was someone new in the room. They suffered over loss, they fomred bonds, the had to learn trust.....it was amazing to me and I have been keeping ''unconventional'' pets for years and I know of only a handful of reptiles that actually have the intelligence to identify with a human and interact and bond with them, aside from mere tolerance. A boa might tolerate and not mind handling, but overall probably doesn't care who the handler is and will eat from anybody. I will also be very unlikely for it to seek you out for an sort of reassurance. These chameleons were not like that....they were mor elike birds in a cage that require either company from another bird or human interaction to feel secure and to prevent depression. Wonderful experiences I had with those creatures .
Andrew

 

[flashyleopard]

Culturing phyto can be a real PITA lol. I have been doing 4 strains for over a year now (I work for marine research company so can get strains replacement easy). But the weekly splitting of it becomes annoying lol. Pods reproduce fairly slowly too, I sourced a local strain of Tigriopus and they take about 20days to mature sexually.



I actually breed tropical roaches as feeders for many of my reptile amd other pets. They take a while to get going to too, but the time it will take my tank to cycle ( the actual cycle shouldn't be very long, but I include having a thriving benthic community a step in cycling), should allow time to get thriving and productive cultures of everything going. I plan to add them to the display and allow them to establish there also.

I have never cultures marine phyto and I imagine it can be a pIA and I may try for other methods of feeding the cultureing pods and crustaceans. i am sure spirulina powder and pulverized dry foods can be used to good affect as well. I like feeding my feeders things that enhance the nutritional value to the predator. Things like paprika and certain veggies or flowers have proven to maintain or improve color in reptiles. I imagine teh same is true for fish. Of course insect feeders are a lot easier to gultoad with nutritous feed, b/c they can handle larger stuff and it does not have to be a concern that the water quality stay good, for thier continued breeding. I spend a few hours every few months using natural and wholesome, human grade ingredients to make food for my feeder insects. At times, they have even been on 100% fresh fruits and greens diets to benifit certain reptile predators.I really like to look into nutrition....it's like a seperate hobby of mine and I dive right into learning about the nutritional properties of common foods and supplements that I feed to my captives. Variety anywhere is key and with marine life practicality also.....you wouldn't be able to utilize a lot of terrestrial fare, as I do for insects, b/c of its lack of stability in water.
I am considering getting a jump on my cultures and setting up a smaller tank for serahorses, since it will be so long before I can afford to finish getting all of the stuff for the 125 gallon. I have always loved seahorses, but they aren't really appliacble to a reef community and I have never aspired to try them with the need for constant live food with the slim variety that is available. Now, we have captive bred and born seahorses accepting frozen fare, that would be much more practical and do well. They still need a seperate and cooler aquarium. My other half really wants the seahorse also, but we have the dog and landscaping, the other pets...we have to decide which area to divert funds to and when, since that money tree we planted has never leafed out
We'll see.

 

[flashyleopard]

Done lots of reading in the archives on CBB and everyone that has had a loss, seems to have had a reason aside from just the fish died, such as being bullied or a system crash.There are lots of good feeding tips there, like stuffing snail shells full of food and sinking them, placing food on a scrub brush and freezing it, the submerge it for the CBB to pick at the food as it would in nature, and a few others.Seems like duplicating the fish's natural fare and feeding methods, on top of finding a healthy specimen,a nd maintaining a healthy tank is all that is required.Ther was a poster that said the constant feedings led to tank pollution later, but since all of my fish will be eating the same foods, I think very little will be left to spoil in the tank and I already have nutrient removal and paced stocking regimes to implement.

 

[Macimage]

Andrew,

I never knew that about chameleons.

Our dog was also abused and used to pee when you went to pet her as she thought you were going to hit her. After several years of loving care, she was nothing like that and loves everyone. She was terrified of men also. After we had her a few years, we had all our friends saying they would love a dog like her if we ever wanted to give her up. She had already been returned to the pound by one adoptive family/person and was one day from being put to sleep, as her cage said "agg dog", meaning aggressive dog as she had already bit/nipped at the handlers.

Now with horses, it is important to establish dominance, b/c of thier size and ability to do real harm, if not properly handled,..

You are so correct there. Our horses are well cared for and loved, but they do behave. We can't stand watching people whose horses walk all over them, butt them, won't behave on trail, won't get in the trailer, paw continuously, rear, etc.

We enjoy all our animals, but they need to be well behaved and have manners, especially a large animal such as a horse.

Joyce

 

[Zaita]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12817100#post12817100 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flashyleopard
I like feeding my feeders things that enhance the nutritional value to the predator.

You'd be very hard-pressed to find anything more nutritious for zooplankton than live phytoplankton. This is why it has such universal following and use in the professional aquaculture industry.

You can sustain copepods and the likes quite happily on yeast, but this offers little to no nutritional value once the pod is fed onto a bigger predator. Alot of people use Yeast to grow their population then enrich with Selcon (synthetic product) or live phytoplankton.

The PITA from doing live phytoplankton is having to split your culture by 50-75% every week. This involves making new sterile ASW once a week just for your plankton (which for me involves about 10L/week). Can't use same containers as my reef tank because it will contaminate the cultures. The joys.

 

[flashyleopard]

What does ASW stand for? Aerated saltwater? I really got plunged into reptile nutrition, b/c a lot of the popular notions are based on very little common sense and are at the best
speculative and at the worse harmful. I like to go organic and homemade, when I can, but obviously growing sponges for angels would be out of the realm of possibility.

You sound like a very well balanced horse owner and a very compassionate person...horses need and deserve that more than many people could know, who have not actually worked with them closely. Best of luck to you with your herd (all of your pets) Joyce.

 

[Zaita]

Artificial Saltwater. Sorry, that's prob the norm for you guys

In NZL we often use NSW (Natural Salt Water) because it's unpolluted and has very good params.

 

[flashyleopard]

ASW= Artificial Salt Water.......duh...I knew that
It is great that you have unpolluted ocean water around you. I am far from the ocean here in PA and you are right about the waters here being fairly polluted.I am going tot he Atlantis Ocean over holiday and hope to collect some marine pods for culture to be ahead, when I get my aquarium going.There are lots of neat fish and inverts there, starfish, urchins, seaweeds, skeleton shrimp...I have kept a coldwater native tank of blennies, baby spot, tog-togs, hermit crabs, pipefish, red beard sponges, and other goodies, but most of thos fish outgrow the tank and have to be rotated out. There were places that were cleaner here, when I was growing up. I remember ropes being pulled from piers that were covered in plating bryzoans and tunicates. I loved the native green, feather, and striped blennies...they would even breed in empty oyster shells, right in the tank. I have considered doing a tank of coldwater sculpin and nonphotsynthetic anenomes, urchins, and starfish, but availability fron dealer is scarce and pricey, one would need a chiller for sure, and suitable, small fish are hard to come by, but it would be a unique and rewarding display for someone who could afford a very large tank.Maybe some day .

 

[flashyleopard]

While I named the bellus as my angel of choice, I was really not sure of the exact species within the the Genus Genicanthus, that I wanted. I really like the Masked Swallowtail or G.semifasciatus, but these like cooler water, from what I understand.Anyone have any experience with them kept at ''reef temperatures'' between 78F and 82F?
Also on the list are the bellus and Blackspot or G.melanospilus.I like the yellow angels better, b/c they look more hsallow water to me and I like my display to be closer to a daylight look than typical 10,000Ks.I know all of the swallowtail angels are generally deeper water than many commonly kept fish, but I am referring to the ''look'' the fish imparts on the display, not its actual habits.

 

[Chibils]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12828358#post12828358 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flashyleopard
While I named the bellus as my angel of choice, I was really not sure of the exact species within the the Genus Genicanthus, that I wanted. I really like the Masked Swallowtail or G.semifasciatus, but these like cooler water, from what I understand.Anyone have any experience with them kept at ''reef temperatures'' between 78F and 82F?
Also on the list are the bellus and Blackspot or G.melanospilus.I like the yellow angels better, b/c they look more hsallow water to me and I like my display to be closer to a daylight look than typical 10,000Ks.I know all of the swallowtail angels are generally deeper water than many commonly kept fish, but I am referring to the ''look'' the fish imparts on the display, not its actual habits.

I have a G. melanospilos in my reef between 79-81. Only had her for two months, but she eats like a pig and acts fine to me.

 

[flashyleopard]

Thanks Scott! Best of future luck with her.

 

[Chibils]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12829461#post12829461 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flashyleopard
Thanks Scott! Best of future luck with her.

Thank you. She's a great fish.