Tag: algaeeaters

Fishy Friday: Photography Challenge Day 19

So one of the 30 day challenges that I think were in both of the books that I read last month was a photography challenge. Though I’m going to try to take it out to a full year (if not longer). One of the big tips from one of them, was to have taken more than one picture per day–just in case you come across a day that you either run out of time, or can’t find the inspiration for a photo.

So now I am trying to find inspiration for several photographs a day–this will probably work best on the weekends when it warms up and I’m doing my morning walks & outside more than what I am during the winter months.

One of the algae eaters and the shubunkin

So today’s photograph is of two of the fish in our large aquarium–the shubunkin and one of the algae eaters (I think it’s Cletus as it looks a little small to be Jaws). That is the only way that I can tell the two algae eaters apart (well also when I feed them–Cletus heads into it’s log to munch on the algae pellet), is their size. Jaws is just a little bit longer than Cletus. I think the fifty-five gallon aquarium is just the right size for two good size algae eaters and one decent size shubunkin.

One of the things that I will be investing in when I move is going to be an aquarium so that the cat can have her fish tv again–the algae eater in the smaller aquarium doesn’t swim around as much as these guys.

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Day four of photography challenge

One fish, two fish…..

So the winner for the photography challenge today are the algae eaters–Jaws and Cletus (I’ll let people guess which one is which). We actually have three algae eaters–Jr is in the aquarium in the family room.

Jaws and Cletus became “housemates” when the aquarium pump in one aquarium quit working (and they no longer made that type of pump). So I had to move Jaws in with Cletus and the shubunkin (not pictured). Ever try to catch a basically foot long algae eater that didn’t want to be caught? I had to use a juice pitcher (after removing basically 98% of the water), and he still almost won the battle.

It will be interesting to see how big they get and how long they will live–they’re both about 5-8 years old (and way to big to flush down the toilet if they go belly up). Once they pass–there will be a fish planting in the backyard or on the side of the house.

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Friday FunDay

Friday Funday posts….

Decided to do a double Friday funday post with two different takes on Friday.

Up first (and above) is Fish Friday. I was finally able to get a decent picture of all three algae eaters that we have (there is one in each aquarium). The top is “Jaws” who is the algae eater in the aquarium in my room; the middle one is “Cletus” who is the algae eater in the really big aquarium in my brother’s room. And the bottom algae eater is “Junior” who is in the aquarium in the family room. Out of the three, Junior is the smallest, and I think it’s a tie between the other two for who’s the biggest. The bottom two also have to share their “home” with a koi fish, while Jaws has the aquarium to itself.

Second take is Fungi Friday. We’ve gotten enough rain over the past two weeks that different types of fungi are starting to pop up around the area. I noticed these little deathcaps in the backyard this afternoon. There were about half a dozen of them, but I could only get these three in the picture. I’ve been hoping to see some oyster mushrooms pop up, so that I can harvest and freeze them–but alas, there hasn’t been any oyster mushrooms in the immediate area since our neighbor started spraying herbicide around the creek bed on their property. Herbicides don’t just get rid of the “bad” plants, they can get rid of the “good” plants as well. Cutting down the “bad” plants works just as well (though you have to do it more often), but it spares the “good” plants that are food for quite a lot of animals (and that’s not saying that animals don’t eat the “bad” plants as well).

I would go looking for the other mushroom types (if nothing else for pictures), but I don’t think that I have enough bug repellent to spray on my clothes to ensure that I don’t have ticks crawling on me (and I have developed a lovely little allergy to the those little monsters).

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