My Devil Child...

Who in the world would ever believe that this face would cause extreme havoc, peril, and destruction (as he currently chews on my computer cord)?





"Impossible!", you say! But I assure you, last night it all went to pieces. This precious cuddly beast, aka Pippin, is also a born "attempted-killer". I have an animal room in my apartment that houses all the geckos, my tortoise, and many of my fish. They have their own room so I can control the temperature, etc, but also because of the BEAST who lives in this house (and I'm not talking about myself when I have just woken up)!

I've been having to leave the door open for the past few months as the room heats up to dangerous levels without my careful monitoring - it has the sun on the main wall and window and the insulsation in this apartment is AWFUL. So in any case, my mom and I had to put our heads together to figure out a way to block the doorway from Pippin but yet still allow me to leave the door open for airflow. We ended up with a garmet rack covered in plastic. It's ugly, but it wedges in the doorway and he can't get around it or jump over it and it's been working wonderfully. HOWEVER....

Fuzzy, squishy, adorable Pippin finally (I'm convinced he's been mentally working this out for months) discovered a way to enter the gecko room. Naturally it was last night around 4:30 am when I was taking a friend to the airport for an early flight. Pip *always* meets me at the door when I get home so that was my first hint when he wasn't there... I dropped everything and went looking immediately. He was innocently sitting on the OTHER side of the barrier, "mew?" Nooooo sir. You get OUT! So I got him out, obviously, made sure everything looked ok... and then re-rigged the door and went into the kitchen for a few minutes. Come back, and where is he? BACK IN THERE! EVIL DEVIL CHILD!

And this time he was up on the gecko shelves, trying to get at them through the mesh - he jumped down and absolutely terrified two girls who live in a 20 long sitting on its end on the floor. Thankfully both were tailless or I'm sure I'd have had at least one drop. And naturally Pippin did not want to leave despite my yelling at him (usually works) and he had the advantage - I could not see - the gecko room was dark and I was not even taking the time to try and feel for the switch/fan pull. Finally got him out, but by then I was wondering how the heck was he magically teleporting through my amazing barrier!

Sooooo I went and mixed up some fresh wet food for him, and then went into the gecko room, set up the barrier, and called him to come to get his breakfast. He was hungry, and come he did. He's a freak of nature acrobat, I can hardly explain without showing a photo of the barrier, which I do not have. But I'll try - basically he was pushing up the plastic from the floor and going underneath, over the two bars at the bottom, and then under the plastic on the other side. *growl* I think I have re-rigged it so he can't do the same thing, but I've been putting a towel at the base while I'm gone just in case. Oh - edited to add - I JUST watched him trying to get back in the same way and he was unsucessful. Huzzah! I threw some foreign change (it's all I had handy at the time, ok?) at him after awhile since he wasn't giving up but he's given up for now at least and I feel more comfortable that the barrier has been reinforced succesfully.



*shakes head* You just never know with cats. Think they're sweet and then bam. Natural born killer... if he'd had the chance.

Oh and just fyi, to prove how impressive his acrobatic feats actually were, considering he had EXTREMELY scant inches to work with:



That's a 29 gallon tank, for reference. (LxWxH = about 30"x12"x18") Yes, he's huge. I own a lion, disguised in pretty boy clothes.

Eggsellent!

I have tried a few times recently to breed a pair of gargoyles - Frank and Pâté. Frank was the father to last year's gargoyle hatchings and he's a really nice (not to mention very handsome) gecko. He is gentle with the ladies and was great with Sausage last year. But this year everytime I've introduced him to Pâté she has repeatedly done the gargoyle version of "Heck no! I have a headache!" They do a pretty loud squawk and shake their tail - very obvious "back off" signs. She'd do it whenever he touched her, even if it was just his tongue as he smelled her. I gave it up for a bit because... as I expected...

Pâté was gravid! :) Found a pair of beautiful, perfectly calcified eggs tonight. They're most likely infertile "duds", but I know her previous owner had her with a male at ont point, so I will incubate the eggs until they either go bad or hatch! Female cresteds and gargoyles can store sperm for a very long time, I've even heard of situations where it was over a year! I don't throw eggs away unless I'm positive they're bad. I didn't see a "cheerio" in either one of these eggs, but they did have some veining visible. I do think they're infertile, however. But in any case, I'm pleased she laid (first time she has with me) and she should be more accepting to Frank when I try again in a few days. Sausage did the exact same behaviors last year when I tried breeding her to Frank, so I was definitely curious if the same situation was ocurring - and it was! Patience is definitely a virtue with my gang this year. Especially since Frank is not exactly quick about his business, he'll probably need a whole night - he likes to romance the ladies. ;)

I took a photo of the newly laid gargoyle eggs next to the fertile crestie eggs I have that are a week old, just to show some scale for folks who may not have both (or either!) species. Gargoyle eggs always seem so huge to me! And they *are* certainly much bigger than crested eggs, both in length and circumference. I mark the eggs with the spot I think is "up", the date laid, and a letter identifying the female who laid it. The brown spots on the crestie egg (on the right) are due to staining from the substrate in the laybox, in the less-calcified areas of the egg (though it is still in good condition).



I also finally got a picture of the magic "cheerio", for those who may not have seen one and had no idea what I was talking about all this time. ;) This egg is one of Liebchen's, and so is a week old. Can't really miss the red circle on the left, but that's what you're looking for in fertile eggs. That's the beginning of a crestie baby! The other spots on the eggs you see are the brown ones you saw in the previous photo, they're not internal. This picture was taken with a miniature flashlight behind the egg (which is how I candle all my eggs).



So there you go! I'm pleased with the progress on the crestie eggs (the cheerios have definitely gotten larger and thicker), and I think I will have additional clutches to add to the incubator from Perdi and Panic anytime now. :) Hopefully I can also get a successful breeding out of Frank and Pâté soon, I think they will make some lovely red babies.

And as a final note - Hida, the gargoyle gecko who went through the ordeal in the mail the other day, is doing great! She cleaned her food dish the first night she was here, so she's not too stressed. I really like her already, she's pretty and has an interesting personality.

Gecko Chasing

Wow, today turned out to be one heck of a day as far as the arriving gecko went. She was sent USPS Express, guaranteed to arrive by noon. I had her sent to my parent's house as the mailman here at my apartment is less than efficient, etc... and because theirs is not, plus they would be home all morning (I would be sleeping, ideally, I've been very sick with a cold). I had a doctor's appointment at 2:20, and my mom called me about 1:30 to tell me that no gecko had arrived, and the mail had.

I immediately looked up the tracking number on the USPS website to see what the deal was, and it said it had been deemed "undeliverable" (turns out my friend accidently wrote the wrong address on the box) and would be returned to the sender. MAJOR PROBLEM! My friend who sent the gecko was in the hospital having surgery today... if the gecko was returned, there was nobody to receive her, and she would most certainly have died. So I started calling... all the while trying to get ready to run out the door for my appointment. I finally tracked down which post office she was at, and my mom (who had come to pick me up) said she knew where it was so we planned to head down there after the doctor.

Sooooo we did. Aaaaand wrong post office, my lovely "cold voice" is hard to understand at times and my mom misunderstood me when I said which PO, so I spent probably a good 45 minutes or more there while they looked all over their facility, called 2 other POs, etc. Part of the problem was that I'd forgotten to bring the tracking number along in my rush out the door. In any case, they finally told me that the box had been at the post office I was originally told, but now was being trucked over to their facility. So I waited... and waited... and waited some more, and then find out - IT ISN'T ON THE STUPID TRUCK. More phone calls... and they still have it at the freaking original facility, which is naturally on the complete opposite side of town.

Then we had to hurry through traffic and construction to make it to that post office in time, where they FINALLY found the box. Holy friggin' crap I was stressed, tired, and upset after spending my entire afternoon chasing her down (not to mention I hadn't taken any cold medicine because I expected to be home much sooner - about passed out a few times I was feeling so bad). After we got the box and were back in the car, I made my mom whip out the tiny scissors that she keeps in her purse and ripped into the box to see if Hida was alive (and she was, thank God). It was just a good thing this happened today and not another day, because we were in the low 70's today and yesterday it was almost 90.

So that is the saga of Hida. She is finally here, and doesn't seem any worse for wear. She was very fired up when I first peeked at her - deep red base like her parents! She's got some orange blotching too, such a pretty girl. Seemed very sweet too, just calmly walked out of her cup onto my hand and then into her temporary cage (for quarantine). I'll get some pictures of her once she's had some time to settle in.



Lesson from this for my readers? Always, ALWAYS make sure to get the tracking number from your shipper. Personally, when I ship geckos I sign up for email updates that include the tracking number and related information (such as a link to follow tracking updates), and I also ask the buyer to provide an email that they'd like the same info sent to. That way everyone is informed and can be on top of any problems that may occur. I also exchange phone numbers with customers when shipping for the same reason, but that wasn't possible in this situation obviously. I'm just happy that I've got my gecko, and that she's healthy.

Finally! More Success!!!

Finally got Inigo and Panic to do their thing! I took the log out two days ago and tried them last night with no luck. He's such a stinkin' sensitive gecko he gets freaked out if I put my hand in there, but then again, I have to put the female directly in front of him to get him interested. So it's kind of a catch 22 and I have to be careful. Tonight the stars aligned or something, because they finally did the deed. Pretty excited, I was getting concerned that I wasn't going to get babies from this pair for the year. And now I don't have to mess with Inigo in the middle of the night anymore, even better! He is so violent afterwards too, he grabbed her back leg when I was taking her out of his cage and he would not let go for anything. She was biting me out of desperation, so I started flicking him on the head and he finally let go. Big bully!

I peeked at Perdi since I just stuck a laybox in her cage two nights ago... and she was half in it! So she's getting close to laying, and hopefully those will be fertile.

I also candled Liebchen's eggs again and saw something I'd never seen before. I always mark the eggs where the "cheerio" is and put that line up in the incubator. Tonight when I candled them the cheerios had moved! Both of em, probably 1/4 inch to one side. I'm still going to leave them line up and I bet they realign at some point, because I've heard of breeders who have tried putting their eggs in the incubator with the cheerio at the bottom (on purpose, as an experiment) and it always moved to the top. I just thought it was interesting, as I've never seen the cheerio move after being marked. Who knows though, they're still very very early in the development process and like I said in an earlier post, they are from a virgin female and may be a little "funky". I will see if I can get some pics or video of the magical golden "cheerio" in the next few days to show some folks who may not know what it looks like. :)


And in final news, there is a new gecko coming tomorrow, yay! A friend of mine bred her and has kept her for me for a long time, so I'm excited to finally meet her. She's a female gargoyle gecko who I named Hida (I was having a "HIDA scan", a gallbladder scan, the day I decided to get her). I haven't seen recent pictures of her in awhile, so I look forward to seeing what she looks like nowadays. She also is a survivor of a bizarre, unexplained "burn" incident - I'll post more about it with photos after she's here. Praying for a safe trip for my new girl!!

Woo!! First Fertile Eggs For This Year!

Found my first fertile eggs of the season while taking care of everybody tonight. :D Super excited, they're from Inigo x Liebchen. It's only been a week and a half since I bred them! When I candled them the "cheerios" were pretty small, so they may have been *just* laid, or they might be a bit funky since this is her first breeding ever. Last year with a first year female I didn't get as many babies as I typically do with an experienced gal, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are some funky eggs this year - I'm going to have several first timers!

But in any case, they're nicely calcified and I'll candle them again in a few days to see if the "cheerio" has grown and looks a little more normal. I'm just happy they're fertile, this means I should be getting at least some good eggs out of her this season now. Next to try is Panic! Well, actually we've tried twice with no luck. There's this fake hollow log in Inigo's cage that I need to remove the day before (I always forget and then if I remove it at night he freaks out - such a sensitive soul)... and they always seem to get stuck up inside at the solid end of it, where breeding is impossible. So, note to self, better planning!

Totally ending on the happy note though. Fertile eggs! YAY!!! Now the waiting begins. I have to put the incubator somewhere I don't look very often or I get obsessed, even though they're a good two and a half months away from hatching, give or take. Can't wait for my first (hopefully) creamy lavender babies. :D

I also got two more geckos to their new owner, and I am happy about that. I know they'll be well-cared for and loved at their new home, and that is always a great thing! I've sold quite a few now, I'll need to play tank tetris soon to make sure everybody is in the best digs possible!

Meet Breeze!

I realize that not everyone who is reading this blog knows much about my horses. So if you're interested, read on! I have two - a '95 Arabian mare D'Artaneya (aka "D"), and her son, an '09 Quarab gelding D'lightful Breeze. I thought carefully for a lot of years about breeding my mare, and finally decided to when I found a local Quarter Horse stallion who I thought was a nice match for my mare. I decided aganist breeding to an Arabian because I was aiming to add some substance and additional atheltic ability (of a different kind than my mare has). Breeze was born May 21st and so will be 2 this coming Saturday. He is everything I had hoped he would be. You'd wouldn't know he was half Quarter Horse most of the time with his floating trot and flagged tail, until he does a sliding stop, perfect 180 degree rollback, and gallops off in the opposite direction! :D

Prepare yourself for LOTS of pictures! I'd like to describe and show him and his "story" so far, both to introduce him to you all and for my own memories.

My mare was on a webcam and a good month overdue by the time she decided to foal. She'd been acting funny all day, but mares can actually put off labor if disturbed in the early stages so we just left her to her own devices, and she started to really get to serious around 7 pm. I was about 35 minutes away and watching her on cam, but did not leave soon enough. Once she got serious she pushed him out fast! So though I drove like a (mostly safe) maniac, I missed the birth. Thankfully it was recorded by the owner of the barn and I got to view it later.

The craziest part? My mare had him *standing up*! This is extremely unusual for horses, and dangerous because they're certainly not giraffes and are not designed to land on their heads! Thankfully he was fine. If you'd like to see the video of the birth you can bring it up in Windows Media Player. Click File in the menu (you have to have "Show Classic Menus" checked to see the File, View, Play, etc options showing - let me know if you don't know how to do that), and "Open URL" and then paste in the following: http://www.horsesnsuch.com/LadyD-birth-5-21-09.WMV

It's a long recording of about a half hour - mostly labor, and the actual foaling occurs at about 23:00. The woman rushing in is the owner of the barn, and she of course went in to make sure he was ok after his unusual delivery, pull the afterbirth off his head, clean out his nose, etc.

I showed up probably 10 minutes later, and found this:




D was being a great mom and was very interested in him - licking and sniffing him all over. You can see some of that in the end of the video, it's just precious. However, the little guy did have a hard time standing (not for lack of trying!) and so after about an hour he was all tuckered out from trying. It was clear he was not going to be able to get up on his own so we helped him stand. Once he got his "sea legs" he did great.


However, here is where some problems began. D, being a maiden (first time) mom, was very nervous about letting Breeze nurse. Her udder was so full that it hurt, and she didn't understand that if she let him nurse she'd actually feel better. She just associated any touching in that area with pain. We ended up having to tie up one of her front legs (she was beginning to kick at Breeze and we didn't want him hurt) and put a lip chain on her (neither hurt her - they just restrained and distracted her enough to let him nurse). Even then, Breeze was very slow at figuring nursing out, as many colts are. D relaxed quickly after she realized him nursing was actually a relief, and restraints (other than a hand on her halter) were not even needed by the second or third time he got up to nurse.


Problems didn't end there, unfortunately! D had yet to pass her placenta after several hours. At one point earlier in the night she'd kicked at it and tore off a large chunk, so it was no longer heavy (gravity is a major contributing factor in passing the placenta). We called the vet after quite a few hours and she recommended tying something to it to add weight but I knew that wasn't an option, as D would have freaked out. So we ended up having to pick up a shot of oxytocin to cause her to have contractions again. We were also advised to provide gentle traction if necessary. I felt so bad for D - the shot made her very crampy and uncomfortable and she didn't make much progress on her own - I ended up doing most of the pulling on the placenta in the end to get it out. Thankfully it all came out (pieces left behind can cause infection).

From then on, pretty much everything was a "breeze" (hehe excuse the terrible pun). Breeze was a scrawny little foal even though he cooked for a long time, but he filled out quickly. Here he is just a few days later:






Meeting my (at the time) 98 year-old grandmother. I imprinted him from birth and he was very easy to handle:


He did, and still does, love to sniff all over my face:




First trim... he's a big boy now!


He must be growing up, shedding that baby fuzz:


Learning to be ponied and led alongside mom:


And first time tied by himself:


Wait, what the heck is this??


That's Breeze's first winter coat! He thought dark bay was the way to go, the weirdo. He didn't even look like the same horse!


Then he was weaned, and alllll alone (though it really went very well for both mom and baby):


Aaaaand back to his summer coat, of his 1 year old year (same color as mom again!):




Finally, here he was a few months ago, in his second winter:


He looks more like his mom every day (and has obviously inherited her hair)!



Now that you've been thoroughly pic-spammed I will just fill you in on his current status. :) He was gelded the first of March and is an absolute gem. I recently moved both horses to a new farm and he was very easy to load into the trailer. He leads, loads, ties, he stands for trims, grooming, and baths, lunges, and generally everything else I think a horse his age should know how to do! He's extremely intelligent and he loves to run and play. I'm not planning to start riding him for *at least* another year, and I will do a separate post on my reasoning sometime in the future.

Finally, I will leave you with his two most popular videos:



This video will give you the best feel for his personality. He is an absolute riot!!



And that, is Breeze in a (somewhat large) nutshell. I'm very proud of my boy and feel very blessed to have him.

I Take It Back! Success!

Apparently, complaining works on non-breeding geckos! I decided to try something new - introducing the female to the male's cage (usually I do it the other way around) and doing it in the dark, after they've been awake several hours (the lights had been off about 2 1/2 hours).

First, I grabbed Perdi and stuck her in Pongo's cage. He got literally one sniff and he went nuts - biting his vine, my hand (twice - ouch!) and finally Perdi, when I got her situated in front of him (thankfully he was in an easily accessible place). Probably took all of five minutes and it was over. He's already got his hemipenes back where they belong and nobody is worse for the wear. Poor Perdi had to be bred with her leg in his mouth instead of her neck, but hey he's new at this and it worked! She has yet to lay any eggs for me since I've owned her, so we'll see what happens now.

Then I got Liebchen and put her in front of Inigo in his cage. He grabbed her neck immediately and they started wandering around like that. Of course I'm trying to carefully remove the log the caused the problem yesterday while this is going on, without disturbing them. But I was successful and so were they! Inigo is a very long, big gecko, and Liebchen is petite and tailless, so it was a challenge for him to get situated right. After they were done and I removed her from the cage, Inigo got very aggressive and was lunging and gaping at me as I misted him... weirdo! Maybe he was mad he didn't get to cuddle afterwards. ;) He still hasn't retracted his hemipenes, so I'm keeping an eye on that at the moment. He's not even licking it yet, he seems to be in a weird trance. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, he's got a strange disposition to begin with! But he better take care of things, there aren't good herp vets around here.

I'll breed Panic to Inigo in a week or so, hopefully I can keep track of who is laying what that way (they live together and both have been laying duds). I also weighed them so if I find eggs and don't know who laid, I can weigh them and hopefully give it my best guess based on weight loss!

Anyway, I'm a little worried about Inigo, but otherwise super excited! Hopefully dalmation babies are now in my future, and creamy lavenders! :D

And now that I've finished writing this, I just went and checked and Inigo's got everything neatly tucked back where it belongs. Huzzah! Two easy, successful breedings in 10 minutes! There's got to be some benefits to being a night owl... this is one of them I guess!

Ahh... My Virgin Boys....

Last night I gave two of my virgin crested gecko boys a crack at breeding (Pongo and Inigo). Neither one got the deed even close to done!! Pongo pretty much slept and wasn't remotely even interested in his date (Perdi), and though Inigo was slightly more successful, still nothin'. He got the girl (Liebchen) by the neck as necessary, but then got a little too excited and caused them to fall to the bottom of the cage... whereupon she ran and hid up in the top of a hollow plastic log where he couldn't get to her. *sigh* After that he just wasn't interested.

I'm afraid this year will be like last year - I gave them both an opportunity last year and neither was successful then either. Inigo even had a nice experienced, tolerant girl to practice on, but he just never lined up and did the actual deed. I don't know what I'm going to do with these boys!! I'll keep trying but they're certainly frustrating me. I've got these two males who can't be bothered to make babies, and then the other two who regularly try to make them with my hand!! Pongo and Inigo don't have to go that far, but for goodness sakes gentlemen, make an effort.

I'll give them more opportunities soon because I was really hoping for babies from both this year (I'm breeding later than most breeders on purpose, but I do hope they "do things" sooner rather than later, especially as several babies from Liebchen and Panic are already spoken for in a deal with their previous owner). So please everybody, send the baby-gecko-making vibes to my house, they are sorely needed. Maybe I'll start piping some Barry White into the gecko room...

More Wildlife Encounters!

Well, last night I went and watched some red fox pups play. They are so comical, not to mention cute! Unfortunately mom chose a den in the bank of a drainage ditch - but it's right next to a busy road. The pups tend to stay off the road, but I wouldn't be surprised if some are hit by cars in the following months. :( They're just not really afraid of the cars, they aren't even fazed as they fly by, unless it's an especially noisy motorcycle or big truck (and then they'll run to the den).

Another problem is that these foxes are becoming very used to humans. Some idiot (and yes I do consider them an idiot for not considering the ramifications before publishing) put an article in our local paper about them. As a result, people are flocking to the area - while I was there probably about 10-20 people rotated through. I actually asked a few to move back, they were so close. The more used to people these foxes become, the more dangerous it is for them AND us. I'm estimating their age to be almost two months old since this species is usually born around March, they're just starting to grow the shiny guard hairs in that you see on adults (happens at 8 weeks), and because typically at 10 weeks (and I'm really crossing my fingers for this) they become more wary of humans.

So I took some pics and video and made one of my usual compliations. Enjoy - I know I did!



And here are a couple photos - they're the same ones from the video but they're some of my favorites and I thought some of you might like a longer look. ;)

All six:


His lil tongue is sticking out! lol!:




And my personal favorite:



Now for the obligatory "fox facts" (try saying that 10 times fast)! The Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, is the largest species of the true foxes, and is the most geographically spread of any terrestrial member of the entire order Carnivora (which includes over 260 species). They have a HUGE range and can survive and thrive in a variety of habitats. You can find them in the majority of the northern hemisphere - all the way from the Artic Circle to Central America! They're also found in central Asia, northern Africa, the northern regions of India and Vietnam, and have been introduced to Australia.

One of the things I find most interesting about this species is the large list of subspecies (which can differ significantly in color, pattern, and shape). In 2005 there were an astounding 45 subspecies listed, and yet another was discovered last year (article about that here). I would not normally use Wikipedia as a source, but there is a pretty good list there including photos, descriptions, and ranges, if you'd like to see some of the differences in subspecies - Red Fox Subspecies. Also, impressively, none of these subpsecies are listed as endangered (unlike many other foxes). This testifies to the fact that this is truly an adaptable animal, though as such it has also just (#99) made the list of the "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species" (and this list even includes plants and insects)!

The foxes I saw will be with their mother at the den site until fall unless she moves them (though I would have thought she'd have done that already if she was going to, with all the human disturbances). Then they will either stay with her to help raise next year's litter, or venture out on their own. I certainly hope they end up venturing somewhere far from busy roads and angry farmers with missing chickens!

An Update - With Videos!

I have been very stressed about the situation over at Brandon's with Oz and the other larger fish in the tank. For a few days there both he and I were worried about it working out in the long run, as Oz had taken over the entire tank and was bullying the oscar and pacu. I had no idea what I was going to do if I had to take him back as I'd exhausted all avenues for finding him an appropriate home and I simply could not let him continue to live a miserable existance, self-harming, in my 55 gallon.

However, it's looking at this point that I don't have to worry about it anymore. *huge cheer* Today's texts with Brandon went like this:

Him: "Do you have any idea what your pH level is? I just checked mine and it was lower than normal. It's usually around 7.0-7.2 but it was 6.0 when I checked it."
Me: "It's the added ammonia from Oz. Bump up your water changes a LOT while the bacteria increase enough to handle the new load. It will stabilize back then. How are thing going for them? I've been really worried."
Him: "Not too bad. It's clear Oz doesn't want any friends. :) At least any big friends."
Me: "But he's not beating up on them too much is he? I'm just trying to figure out if I need to start looking for other options for him."
Him: "The kids love playing with him. He adds so much character to the tank. I can't imagine not having him as a part of the fish community." then "He's not beating them up aymore. It's clear that he is established as the alpha."
Me: "Omg you don't know what a relief that is to hear. I am so glad. So does he leave them alone now?"
Him: "Yes. He stays on his half of the tank. He has moved over to the white rocks now. He is working on a hole to china under the flat rock! He's been working on it for 3 days now."

Note that all important word in the last text - the very first one - "Yes". He is LEAVING THEM ALONE!!! I don't know if I thought it was possible. But I'm beyond thrilled.

Then he took two videos for me and sent them to me in an email called "The Land of Oz and His Hole to China! lol!!

So here I present Oz in his awesome new tank, where he is displaying his talents as a interior designer. He's removed all the gravel from behind the white rock and is piling it in the middle. Brandon filmed these, I just uploaded them.

And another - what cracks me up in this one (and Brandon too obviously - you can hear him chuckle) is that at the end you can see the pacu and oscar at the opposite end of the tank. I think the appropriate word for their apparent attitude is "cowed". Oz = The Big Boss




Also, I'd like to take this as an opportunity to give a little more information about what first started the texting, the pH issue. pH drops when ammonia increases. The addition of Oz and the ammonia he adds to the tank (fish excrete it through their gills and also the additional food being used for him and er... its result). Essentially, the tank is going through a "mini-cycle" with the addition of another fish. The amount of beneficial (and necessary) bacteria is not yet enough to handle the bioload that is now in the tank, so until it is, Brandon will need to perform frequent water changes to help keep his water parameters stable and as little ammonia as possible in the water (it's toxic to fish at certain pH levels).

If you are unfamiliar with the nitrogen cycle that occurs in all aquariums, read through these few pages to learn the basic idea. It's an absolutely VITAL part of maintaining aquariums and anyone who is interested in starting one (or even if you have one and have aren't informed on this topic) should understand the ins and outs of cycling before even filling up a tank. For a more interactive environment where you can ask your own questions and get answers from very knowledgeable fishkeepers, visit Ultimate Bettas, which is a fantastic forum (and talks about all animals - not just bettas!) :) I am a moderator there, and my username is JulieTheGr8t. Feel free to visit us anytime! Or post questions in your comments, I would be happy to answer them. I personally am the current owner of multiple aquariums. One less now though... *tiny sad sigh*

Now maybe I'll get together the funds for a blue tongue skink! o_0