Ren's WILDlife

[RandomWiktor]

Myia, the oscar story literally had me "loling" - too funny!

Also, Daenerys... I know it was a typo, but your post made me "lol" as well! I lost one betta to jumping (there was a TINY open space near the filter) and am now borderline obsessive about making sure there is no possible escape route. And I only keep splendens! I know folks who keep wilds, which find ways out of tanks that should really just be impossible. Fortunately, keeping my guys in bins with a few air/feeding holes drilled eliminates any chance of them "jumping ship." Though when I move, I plan to move everyone into divided 10g's. Planted and cycled though - doing full water changes on about twenty 3g bins is enough, thank you very much!


Speaking of bettas, I'm so excited! I have four bettas with tuberculosis, as mentioned earlier in the blog, and one of them arrived in bad shape since she'd jumped her divider and gotten in a fight with the 'girl next door.' She was shredded to heck and seemed to have a swim bladder injury because she was very "floaty." I've been feeding her mostly frozen and live food to relieve dietary sources of inflammation, keeping a low (not even quite up to therapeutic) dose of epsom salt in the tank, and hoping for the best. Very happy to say that she's no long bobbing like a cork! It seems the injury was just bad enough that it took a while for all of the swelling to go down sufficiently for the organ to normalize in function. She's also grown back most of her finnage, a big plus. Unfortunately, she's very camera shy (grr) but hopefully I can get a pic at some point.

I'm currently down to 17 "resident" bettas and two fosters, very possibly a LOW for the last few years. I'm not 100% sure how many bettas have come through here since I started rescuing in 2004, but at my most active point a few years ago I had something crazy like 40 residents and 20 fosters (I used to provide "sanctuary," now I generally provide foster care because it's just more reasonable). It's going to be weird when I'm down to just a few, which I know is coming soon. Of the current residents, all but a handful are geriatric (4+ years). The eldest, I believe is either Quasi or Pitaya, both of which were 2005 aquisitions - though Quasi was an adult when obtained and Pitaya was a fry, so I guess Quasi wins. All of my 2004s have sadly passed, Innoby being the last hold out passing away very recently a hair over age six.

I think my favorite things about fish rescue is prolonging the lifespans of fish who would otherwise be euthanized. Pitaya, the fish I mentioned above still going strong after five years, would have been culled as a fry had her breeder not opted to place her. Innoby, who died at six, was going to be flushed at his pet store since he had columnaris. But I have a soft spot for fish with medical conditions that the fishkeeping community is all "doom and gloom" about.

For example, I have a betta named Tara with lyphocystis, a viral condition that causes abnormal cell growth. Since it is contageous, the reccomendation is to immediately euthanize fish who have it - however, it isn't VERY contageous and only tends to infect directly exposed fish IF it gets into break in the skin. With careful isolation it's pretty much a non-issue. The matter is realistically that most fishkeepers don't want to be inconvenienced with dealing with it, very sad for the fish unlucky enough to get it.

Well, I recently looked up when I got Tara and I've had her almost a year - and she's still going strong! Take that, euthanasia reccomendations: a full year of a happy, enriched life.

(no, she doesn't live in there - that's my photo cube)

ETA: Another pic of her, since most people look at her and see a tumor, not a fish:

 

[Dragonrain]

Tara is pretty

My sister had a betta who jumped out of his tank like 3 times. She kept trying to make it more secure, but he kept finding ways out around the filter, until she finally just got him a new set up. She named him "Suicide Bob" after all the times he almost dried up and died outside the cage. Luckily someone found him pretty quickly each time.

 

[Daenerys]

She is a very pretty betta This is my betta, Caspian II:

 

[RandomWiktor]

He's very handsome! He's not living with a female though, right?

 

[Daenerys]

Nope he is all alone The female was just there for pictures. They didn't fight or anything, they kind of ignored each other. She is my boyfriend's and she died recently cause she was one of his jumpers. Knocked the thing off the top of her tank that was there to keep her in, and we were at school when it happened so nobody was there to save her.

 

[RandomWiktor]

That's a relief! You seem very knowledgeable so I figured it was something like that, I just wanted to make sure because there are some mighty crazy betta myths out there! Sorry to hear that she passed, though.


An update:
I seem to finally be on the recovery end of being sick. This meant I got to see my fiance for the first time in close to a week, which we were both happy about. However, MY main interest, unfortunately for the hub-to-be, was seeing my freshly shed Black Rat Snake and getting to feed him his first meal in my care! He was a little on the skinny side upon adoption, and since he was pre-shed and new to his environment we didn't want to try feeding. Post shed he was even skinnier, so I was enthused to get some food in him.

The previous owner made it a point to tell us several times that the snake "only eats live, white mice" and nothing else. First of all, it's a BIG snake - certainly big enough for rats. If it was only getting one mouse every couple of weeks I can see why it's thin. But secondly, it didn't seem like they'd attempted to make an effort to feed it anything else, and the poor thing does have scars up by its face and neck very consistent with chomps from rodents.

Still, I've heard of how hard snakes can be to convert to F/T as well as to new prey items. I was planning on getting a mouse, gassing it, and gradually converting the snake to frozen, then graduate to frozen rats. Steve suggested we at least TRY to see if it'll take a warmed up f/t rat before going through so much trouble, and since he has infinitely more snake experience than I, we tried it.

Well, I wiggled the warmed rat around for all of a few seconds before the black rat snake came right up, gave the LAZIEST strike I've seen in my life, and without even constricting it at all just began glomming it down. I guess he won't be hard to switch over after all!

Steve is working on getting me more used to handling snakes as, if we make the move, I'll need to routinely care for his as well. I'm fine holding a snake, getting them in and out of bags, etc. but aside from little Grassman I've never been the one to move them in and out of enclosures, feed them, etc. Steve knows their body language well and frankly I don't! So Steve had me take the black rat snake in and out of the cage, hold it, bin it for feeding, feed it, etc.

I'm not afraid of snakes, to be clear, nor does the thought of being bitten frighten me. I guess my issues is that I'm not yet confident with snakes because I'm not experienced with snakes. Give me a terrified raccoon, feral cat, panicked horse, attacking parrot, etc. and I'm fine. I can treat just about any illness in a frog. I've performed minor surgeries on fish! But snakes, oye. My experience is far too limited. So I'm really excited about the opportunity to learn more and work with them more once we move in together

 

[Daenerys]

Snakes are quite easy to care for, and your story reminds me of how we got a rescue 14 year old red tail boa who had only been eating live rats for all those 14 years, but in the 4 months we've had him he's already taking f/t rats like he's been doing it all his life! Even the wild caught copperheads my boyfriend is working with for his research are eating f/t.

But you're right, some snakes are just stubborn and wont eat anything but live.

And as for lazy strikes, we have a couple snakes that pretty much just open their mouths as if asking us to shove the food down their throat for them. Sunny, my friends snake, is one of those that likes to use gravity to his advantage. He will pick up the rat or whatever it is he is eating at the time, and then lean his head back and let the food sloooooowly slide down his throat. Sunny is such a clown XD

 

[Myia09]

I posted in my blog after feeding a live pinkie to my leopard gecko I have dealt with many snakes that won't eat frozen or freshly killed. There was only a couple incidents, but I really tried my hardest to the point of starvation.

I am not afraid of snakes, but I am afraid of getting bit. I just have never got over it.

Tara is really beautiful, I am glad she is living a happy life! I don't know which species is sadder; goldfish or bettas.

I have a good scar on my hand from where I was bit by a Emerald Tree Boa (Beautiful snakes..horrible temperments) and I thought I was going to die.
I also have numerous (30+) bites from nippy babies and nippy sub adult kingsnakes, but the tree boa was my only bite from a full grown snake.

So I know how you feel..when I wanted to get a Brazilian Boa, I went to a local snake store and held thier breeder once a week when I would go in to get food. She was massive..they feed really well. They also have a 23ft Burmese that is as thick as a tire. Anyways, it was hard to hold the boa. I was always nervous.

 

[RandomWiktor]

Grassman bites me constantly, but since he's a garter, it's generally like "Stop that snake! That's... mildly obnoxious! And a little itchy! And your getting tiny pin-prick bloodspots on my clothing!" I imagine getting a real bite would be quite unpleasant, though; Steve's JCP broke off some fangs in his hand, and it got horrifically infected to the point that he needed his thumb opened up surgically to remove the lost teeth. I'm not overly concerned with bites despite this, but I dislike working with animals if I'm not familiar with their body language and behavior (for a number of reasons, most importantly being able to adequately monitor their health!). So this is going to be a great learning experience I think.

 

[Myia09]

That is how I am with James's horses. I don't know too terribly much about them, and I get nervous..especially since on is a Belgium Draft and is massive!

 

[Happi Bun]

Your Black Rat Snake is gorgeous! I'm glad he was easy to switch from live. :yuck

I got a quick question for you (sorry, but you know so much!). I'm worried I'm feeding our goldfish too much. They always act like they are starving, it's hard to say no. I know most say as much food as the fish will consume in a minute or two. I'm still worried I'm feeding too much. Our ammonia was dangerously high and tons of decaying food was on the bottom. I just cleaned and vacuumed the gravel last week so I know it's too much. Generally speaking, how many pellets do you give your goldfish when feeding? Thanks!

 

[Myia09]

Well, I am going to add my two cents erika..
Goldfish shouldn't be fed pellets, as they generally float on the top, and fish can gulp in water and get swim blatter.

I soak my flakes in water, and then use a turkey baster to put it underwater in the tank (I hope that makes sense)



AT least in IMO..some say pellets are better beause they are richer, but I disagree. I feed Omega and I love it.

 

[RandomWiktor]

Heh, I'm going to give opposite advice I'm afraid. Enthusiasts/breeders/etc generallyagree that a high quality pellet is considered the most appropriate commercially available food choice for goldfish; it is more nutrient dense and more easily digestible. You should simply select a sinking pellet, which almost every high quality pellet is. I suggest New Life Spectrum brand pellets.

Swim bladder is actually more common in fish fed flakes - especially fancy goldfish - because the freeze dried flake food sucks up moisture like crazy once it hits the GI, causing irritation, constipation, and swelling - which in turn pressures the swim bladder and causes some cases of SBD.

Obviously pre-soaking reduces this problem, but the problem with pre-soaking is that it causes valuable water soluble nutrients to leech out, and due to the wide surface area of flakes, they lose these nutrients during soaking much faster than pellets do.

A home-made gel diet is one of the best for avoiding swim bladder, of course, but it can be hard to get nutrient balances correct - especially if you live in an area where the variety of foods available is limited. I believe there might be a commerically available gel diet on the market but I'm not sure what it is.

If you feed a high quality pellet, the fish tend to produce less waste and require less feeding; poor quality pellets are full of filler and result in high easte output. What's more, a goldfish's diet should be supplemented with invertebrates and leafy greens, which tends to reduce waste output compared to a purely pellet based diet as well. Unfortunately telling you an exact quantity would be hard as that depends on the temperature, body condition, reproductive status, number, age, etc. of the fish. But if you're having waste build-up like that even with weekly water changes, "too much" is a fair assessment!

What is your filtration and bioload like, however? Too much ammonia in a goldfish tank is generally more due to overstocking and insufficient filtration than overfeeding (not saying overfeeding isn't the problem, I just feel we should cover our bases).

 

[RandomWiktor]

Oop, forgot to add: having a food bowl REALLY helps reduce water quality decline from uneaten food if you have substrate on the bottom of your tank. A lot of food slips between the cracks where the goldies can't get it, resulting in a nasty build-up of old food that can really do a number on water quality. By simply placing a shallow ceramic bowl (the bottoms of large terra cotta planters work great) in one corner of the tank, you can reduce food waste by dropping the pellets over the bowl. Since they sink if you're getting a good brand, they should mostly fall into the bowl, where they can be eaten readily with minimal waste.

 

[Myia09]

I figured you would
I just can't stand pellets...I tried Omega and they still floated. I don't think I have tried life specturm.

But I don't have goldfish so I don't have to worry anymore

 

[RandomWiktor]

Yeah Omega is floaty and not-so-great. I'm sold on NLS; they're the only pellet I use any more. My fish have just been awesomely healthy, and the ingredients are the best I've seen outside of home-made diets. Progold is a good sinking brand as well but more for commons.

 

[Happi Bun]

No worries, it's the Omega One sinking kind of pellet. Is that not a good brand?
It's gotta be better than what I was feeding before which had animal by-products. Our set-up is a 20 gallon tall with a Hagen Aqua Clear 50 Filter, 200 gph output. We had two small fancy goldfish in it, but as you know Gumpy passed. So currently it's just Bing who is still quite small. We are hoping to get an adult fancy once we are sure Bing is completely healthy. I know there is a lot of debate about how big the tank should be for two, but it looked like my set-up was generally acceptable as long as I have 200 gph filtration.

 

[RandomWiktor]

It's generally preferable to have 20g for the first and 10g for each subsequent goldfish, but considering that these two were juvies and you have good filtration, I'm thinking it's definitely overfeeding as you initially thought. Omega One is a pretty good brand, though I prefer Spectrum - but it can be hard to find so if that's what you have available it'll definitely do! I would try to add some frozen invert foods and boiled dark leafy greens; it really does them a world of good

I would consider a food bowl and from there, experiment with quantity of food, body condition, and water parameters. For a single goldfish, you shouldn't really need more than a pinch of pellets, but depending on temperature and growth he may need more, so keep an eye on his body condition. It really is pretty much a game of trial and error IME. Just don't fall prey to their "But I'm huuuungry!" act. Were it up to them, they'd probably never stop eating!

 

[Happi Bun]

Thanks Ren! I will definitely give that a try.

 

[RandomWiktor]

Yesterday was Save the Frogs day, an international day of action to spread awareness about the many threats to frog survival and how individuals could help. I meant to post about it on here, but I was hosting a STFD event at our local college campus and wound up pretty busy. The presentation went quite swimmingly, despite a somewhat smaller than hoped for audience. There were some very good, thoughtful questions that indicated that folks were paying attention if nothing else. And of course, everyone really loved seeing the frogs at the end of the presentation. I brought a species from each continent to show just a little of what we stand to lose if amphibian extinction continues at the rate at which it is currently occuring.

If anyone is interested in learning more about how they can help protect amphibians, I've made the powerpoint presentation I gave available online. The little details were all verbalized (I HATE presentations where people put their speech verbatim on the screen - it's power POINT, not power paragraph, kthanks), but it should still give you a good idea of the content. You might learn something! Click here to download it! It also includes links to amphibian conservation orgs you may wish to check out.

Today was supposed to be Buckley's transport, but Denise had to go to CT to be with her father. It sounds like things are really bad, so everyone please keep Denise and her family in your thoughts - and prayers, if you are a person of faith. I am hoping to still get Buckley to his new "mom" once her family concerns have been taken care of.

I'll post later with some critter-related updates and pictures.