Thursdays INVADERS!!!!

Hydrilla, Purple Loosestrife, Water Hyacinth and Water Lettuce are all problems in Texas because they are all invasive plants. All of these plants rapily reproduce and create problems for waterways. Hydrilla, Water Hyacinth and Water Lettuce all impede navigation which stops recreational activities such as fishing and boating. Hydrilla, Purple Lossestrife and Water Hyacinth all shade out natural vegetation which depeltes oxygen from the water because no sunlight can penetrate through the invasive plants. Hydrilla is the perfect weed and can grow an inch a day, which is why it is a big threat in Texas waters. Purple Loosestrife is the Marsh Monster which clogs irrigation canals. Water Hyacinth is the World's Worst Weed (other than Salvinia) and acidifies the water. Lastly, Water Lettuce affects the habitats for the living organisms in the ecosystem. All of these INVADERS need to be stopped so if you see one, PULL IT OUT OF THE WATER!!!!!!
From your great captain,
TURTLE ROOTER

Invasive's just go away!

So I am getting pretty annoyed with these different invasive plants like hydrilla, purple loosestrife, water hyacinth, and water lettuce. These are all problems in Texas waters because they all came from south America so the climate is pretty much ideal for them. They were brought for looks and for aquarium decor but that obviously went down the toilet when people dumped them in the lakes and rivers and people didn't wash the plants off their boats after using them and this caused most the plants to over populate and grow in different regions. They all pretty much impede navigation and remove oxygen from the water so native ecosystem will die! Sooo we should keep our eyes out for these Invasive's!!!!

-Shark biscuit:)

weeds:(

Some common invasive plant species in Texas currently are alligator weed, Eurasian water milfoil, and Giant Salvinia. These are all problems in Texas because of their excessive reproduction rate and that they were not discovered and stopped in time for them to be exterminated before causing a huge problem like now a days. Since we have mostly man made lakes and caddo lake is the only one that is not a constructed lake,  it has the greatest impact of these non-indigenous plants. Some problems that these weeds cause is that they are big problems for navigation routes in waterways and as well as driving out native plants and creating an uninhabitable environment for native species.

-Shark Biscuit  

Fish training is a pain in the neck

Okay so we TRIED to train the fish, yet I was successful with the hoop trick a few weeks ago with other students but for some reason the fish stopped responding to the feeding wand. With that said the fish hid in the corners of the tanks and did not cooperate. I was sadly disappointed but they cannot be forced...yet. But these stubborn fish failed to go through any hoop or tube so, sorry to disappoint the audience for not having a magical fish. I feel like they were just camera shy. But we will keep trying and get these fish to do more and more tricks.

Shakabra from Turtle Rooter

Quality Graph!

Our ammonia has improved greatly, yet the nitrite levels are starting to get there. We are not perfect yet so we just have to wait on the nitrogen cycle to finish its course. Now we have added double the amount of bacteria In order to eliminate the nitrite. Luckily it isn't ammonia because the amount of 5 would nearly kill our fish. We have a week and a half left of keeping our fish so I really hope that our nitrite levels go down and we have our baby guppies!!! I'm kind of excited... Anyway I'm going to do another blog that needs me!
-Turtle Rooter

Invasives v Natives...BOOM

Invasive plants are continually becoming a problem... Not cool! They need to stay where they belong and these hydrilla and other plants are ruining habitats for animals. The native plants do not grow as fast and they cooperate with the ecosystem, unlike the invasive a who ruin it by reproducing faster than rabbits by laying thousands of seeds or growing from broken stems. The native plants belong to the ecosystem and the invasive a don't, so they're panicking and don't know what to do other than reproduce and INVADE the area. This is a problem because there is too much to manage and it is killing everything. But right now I have to worry about my aquatic science class and I'll deal with the invaders SOON!
Peace Out,
Turtle Rooter

From day one to day twenty..

our aquarium has come a long way since the first day we set it up. We used to have really bad ammonia problems but not anymore now its nitrite! we also had 2 fish die in the first 2 weeks but we haven't had a fish die since the last one! also, we are getting alot more plants and snails in our aquarium as well as our aquarium is almost done cycling through to find its stability. I think Turtle Rooter and i would agree that the hardest part of keeping an aquarium is the water changes. its so dad-gum annoying to have to replant the plants after each day we do a stinking water change! it definitely gets on your nerves after a while. Turtle and I both actually will be keeping an aquarium after this project is over we just discussed this today! We're going to split up the fish and take them home. We really do like keeping fish and we take pride in it, although i cant really promise well keep the water changes up like we do in class... least i don't think... by far the most interesting thing that has happened since class started would have to be our mama guppy getting prego! we are so stoked for her to get her babies were getting WAY too anxious for our own good over this subject, everyday shes the first fish we check on and we really cant wait til we get to see the babies and be grandparents!!

-Shark Biscuit 

Want to assess a pond??

To assess a pond or lake you have to take some sciency steps, like obervation is the first then you'll do some cheap water tests using things like algae! then for very accurate readings you could invest in some pretty pricy chemical tests. You would want to do it this way obviously to save some cash, if you can obviously see that there is something wrong with that pond or lake you know to check it out. But you dont want to spend a fortune on water tests if the major factor can be deturmined by the algae that live in that water. if you test the algae and use the polluion index from them and you still are not too savvy on whats going on then you can spend the cash to use a pricy and accurate chemical test. It is very important for cities to know about thier bodies of waters quality because of how those waters are used; by drinking or recreational activities. You dont want people of your city or town to swim or drink highly polluted water because that my friends is how lawsuits are started! and lawsuits are not good for anyone on the defending end.

the always helpful!
-Shark Biscuit

Photosynthesis

A is the oxygen and B is the carbon dioxide.
As shown in the diagram, the oxygen is taken in by fish and given out by plants. The carbon dioxide is taken in by plants and released by fish. Photosynthesis allows the plants to supply oxygen to fish and take out the carbon dioxide to provide a stable ecosystem for the fish. If there is too much carbon dioxide, then the fish will die due to the lack of oxygen. Therefore, photosynthesis benefits an aquatic ecosystem by balancing the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in water. Go photosynthesis!
-turtle rooter

Pond Scud

Shark Biscuit and I added a few scuds to our aquarium. We have a picture of the scuds on our picture day blog if you want to see. They kind of look like shrimp to me! I have read that scuds reproduce quickly and they are an abundant food source for small fish. They sound perfect for our tank since the pond they were taken from has catfish and we also have catfish, just not the same species. Some groups found mosquito larva in their pond samples so they fed them to their fish so the Mosquitos won't hatch. I did not get to see one but I would like to see a fish eat one, I don't really know why but I would! Well I don't have anything else to say so peace!
- turtle rooter

Our prayers have been answered!

Our ammonia, like we said in our previous post, is finally at zero! here's a picture to show the levels of ammonia that can be in the tank. Ours is yellow, which means the ammonia level is perfect! We did use amoguard to help, but now we are not using any and our nitrite is up, which our teacher said that would be normal because our new tank syndrome is about to be over!!

This was NOT in our tank, it was however in a water sampling we got to observe under a microscope! This ugly little creature is called a "scud" and yeah its pretty much as ugly as its name sounds! We took algae samples and put them under the scope and had to list all the organisms or algae we found! super neat!!

FINALLY!!! one of the tetras went into the skull! we first saw Gill in the skull but i couldn't take a picture fast enough to catch it on tape! so this is the first photo taken of them in there! were stoked that our fish are warmed up to this skull and using it pleasurably! Oh! and in the second pic you can kinda see Gill and Dory there and we have 75% sureness that we do in fact have a Gill and Dory! They were in the T position yesterday when Turtle Rooter pointed out that one was wider than the other! we really hope to see some eggs soon!

Hope you enjoyed this little tid bit of pics of our rad tank! More to come!!

Epicly,

Shark Biscuit!  

What's up with algae?

This is Spirogyra algae, we don't have this in the tank but we got this pic from a lab we did!

Algae, believe it or not is a good thing as well as a bad thing. It really just depends on what type you have in your tank. Depending on the type of algae you find in your tank it can mean either good things or bad things. Some algae, like rivularia, are algae you'd want in your tank. You can find a few different types of algae on the rocks, glass, water, and decorations of the tank. You could probably find some volvox or pandorina in your tank because those give a fishy smell. Volvox can attach to baby fish gills so this is one to really look for if your expecting babies!! Ahhheemmm..(us!) On the rocks the slimy coating could be rivularia and also they could be on plants. This can also clog your filter so watch out! In the filter if your lucky you'll find stigeoclonium and that helps with removing nutrients to clean the water. Wow algae  is so rad!

-Shark Biscuit 

Freeday Monday 9/24

Well it's a freeday!!! I have been getting the harder prompts lately so this is nice. To start, shark biscuit and I had a scare of losing a corydora catfish but, come to find out, we found him INSIDE THE SKULL! Which is what we hoped our fish would do. Tomorrow we plan to put the pregnant guppy in a lone tank so it can have its babies and not eat them by mistake. We can see eyes of the babies in her stomach so I'm getting really excited! If by some chance that our corydoras are opposite sex and can breed, then I would be so happy because those at my favorite fish in our tank. I think they're my favorite because they're like miniature albino catfish and I like catfish. Well I don't know what else to say. I wish I had pictures but that's what shark biscuit is for. Blog ya later dudes!
Shakabrah,
Turtle Rooter

picture day # dos!

 In this Picture our tetras are chillin near Mt. Wannahawkalugi and so is our red fancy guppy! we cant remember if we named them or not so... were gonna have to go back and rename them lol! Like Turtle Rooter said, once the babies come we may not have enough names for all of them! we may have to start naming them other names than the nemo cast.. unless we use every. single. name. in. the. movie....

Here is another angle of Gill by his pirate head. We havent seen any fish go in there. thats really dissapointing cause we think itd be the coolest thing ever if one of our fish actually did go in. Im sure their just needing to warm up to the idea of the skull being in there so maybe soon Gill will break the ice! or maybe the baby guppies will! we'll just have to see!

Yupp yupp!

-Shark Biscuit 

Freeday 9/20/12

Today is a freedqy and I'm posting again because I do not upload pictures and Shark Biscuit likes those better anyway. So today I'm going to talk about our pregnant guppy. She is about 3 weeks we think? But anyway we can vaguely see the eyes of the babies in her belly! Hopefully we will have babies next week and Shark Biscuit can post pictures of them!!! I do not think we have even named all 7 of our fish but if we did then I'm going to run out of names for the baby guppies! And Shark Biscuit said that she researched baby guppies and the mother can get pregnant again and again if the male guppy has stored his sperm so we might have even MORE baby guppies! Ok, I think that's all I have to say about our excitement of baby guppies!
-Turtle Rooter

Oxygen/CO2 Cycle

 A is oxygen and B is carbon dioxide.

The plants in the aquatic environment take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. The animals however, are the opposite as they release carbon dioxide and take in oxygen. Therefore, both the plants and animals work as a team and "trade" the nutrients they need to survive.  This process changes the water levels due to the "pumping" of water in the cycle to recycle the nutrients. The temperature varies as well which also contributes to the change in water levels. 

So there is the oxygen and carbon dioxide cycle and Shark Biscuit and I agree that I keep getting the boring and serious topics so I hope SOMEONE that assigns these could do a challenging topic tomorrow please? Haha!

-Turtle Rooter

Not so much R2Fish school...

So today we have to blog about teaching our fish tricks from the R2 Fish school curriculum i guess you could call it? but see, we didn't get to train fish today... well turtle rooter watched another group train the "class school fish" so I'll just blog about us being excited to train our guppies... since they are the only fish we have that can be trained... well were kind of excited about getting to train our fish but it really seems like a lot of tedious work. I think the worst part would be getting the fish to associate the wand with food; but the coolest thing would be seeing one or all 3 of our guppies going through the hoop! i think training fish to do tricks is an awesome idea! even though that video was all sorts of lame. But kudos to the mad professor! and his fish, Albert Einstein , who holds the world record for fish with most tricks. I hope we get to do more fish training and less tests!!

-(a very worn out)Shark Biscuit

Nitrogen Cycle

The Aquatic Nitrogen Cycle starts with the fish and food releasing carbon dioxide and ammonia into the water. Plants in the fish tank and the atmosphere take some of the carbon dioxide out and Nitrosomonas Bacteria take the ammonia. The Nitrosomonas Bacteria is taken up by Nitrites and turned to Nitrobacter Bacteria. This turns to Nitrates and are finally removed by plants and water changes. If there are high levels of ammonia, then bacteria supplements should be added along with live plants in order to eliminate the ammonia. Water changes and plants are advised if nitrite and nitrate levels are too high. See you on the other side of the tank.

- Turtle Rooter

Picture Day!! photogenic fishies!

 Finding Nemo themed tank, yeah we know this tank is ridiculously awesome so feel free to leave comments!! The volcano(Mt. Wannahawkalugi) is the main attraction to the people and even our fish! 

 As you can see here, our guppies are enjoying the bubbles from Mt. Wannahawkalugi and also each other... since that yeller one there is preggers! (YAY! soon to have baby guppies!!! look for pictures of the new borns!!)

 here is Dory and one of the black and neon tetras chilling under the little bridge thing we have in the tank, there buds and so much fun to watch in their tank! I can't wait to see them get bigger!!

 This is Gill, he was named for obvious reasons, he's always by his skull so naturally we named him Gill. He's a hardcore Cory catfish and wants to be in the ocean. Poor baby doesn't realize he's a fresh water fishy! Even though Gill has some serious attitude we love him anyways and accept him the way he is<3

 Yeah... so the tetras are pretty much clueless the whole time and this picture captures that perfectly! We have yet to name them though we're thinking of Deb and Flo... it could fit!

Ahh lets play I Spy! who can spy our pregnant guppy?! (hint: fattest one there!!) Yes we are so proud to be expecting guppy babies! We don't know who the daddy is yet but once the babies come hopefully we'll know then! The fish are really happy in their tank and seem to be getting along perfectly! their awesome and so photogenic!

-Shark Biscuit (AKA pro. fish photographer for the day!) 

Freeday

So today is the freedqy blog and I can write about anything but I'll keep it aquatic science related. Shark biscuit and mine's fish are looking pretty happy in their tank. We have scyphened it twice which I don't know how to spell that and we have changed the water everyday! Our ammonia should begin to drop now but we think one of our guppies is pregnant because she is getting really fat! Hopefully she will survive unlike the other pregnant guppy that got trapped in one of our plants. But anyway my favorite fish are the corydora catfishes because they look so cool! Anyways I can't wait to see how our tank does tomorrow!
-Turtle Rooter Peace Out

Most Interesting thing...

So... I'm not too sure about interesting since I can't really concentrate on interesting things since I'm frustrated with the ammonia level in this "new tank syndrome". So as far as interesting goes I think it's very interesting that is so hard to control the ammonia levels in the dang tank. The water tests we do are interesting too, I always am anxious to see what the reading will be... and so far it hasn't really been in our favor.  I think it's really cool that we're like the parents of these fish and all but I can't wait until our tank settles and gives us good readings constantly so that we don't have to worry everyday if we'll loose a fish. Pretty much this whole project is really interesting I'm learning a bunch on aquarium maintenance that i didn't know before so i'm totally stoked!

-Shark Biscuit

pH levels and aquariums

Today Shark Biscuit and I tested the pH levels and other properties in our tank and everything went well! We did not have anything go wrong or have too bad of results as far as I know. There was absolutely no chlorine in the water so shark biscuit and I were relieved. I think the ph was perfect at 7.8 or around that. The water levels were important because fish can die from chlorine in the water and too high of a pH which would make it acidic. Luckily our group did not have that problem and everything worked smoothly! I'm glad our fish are swimming around and look like they're enjoying everything but I'm getting tired of having to change water everyday so I hope the bacteria supplement and dechlorinator help fix the ammonia levels. I'm looking forward to checking my tank tomorrow!
-Turtle Rooter

Albino Coreydora Catfish

Gill and Dory our Corys!!

The Albino Corydora Catfish Are originally found in the La Plata River in Southeast Brazil. They are a very chill fish and hardy and very suitable for aquariums and beginning aquarists. They are omnivores and they also will eat live bloodworms or shrimp. They are a school fish and like to be kept in groups of 3-6 but more is always welcomed! Breeding is pretty easy if you have a male and female in the tank( it's difficult to sex them) so its just luck of the draw. But the female bumps the males vent and carries his sperm in her mouth then lays the eggs and distributes the sperm and will repeat this process until the eggs are fertilized. These fish are very playful and have distinct personalities if you watch them to figure them out! Turtle Rooter and my Cory's are named Gill-because he's just chills by his skull pretty much the whole time. Then our second one is just all over the place so of course we named her..or him(we don't really know yet) dory. Also, They actually aren't recommended to be released in the wild because they're albino and can't hide from predators too well. We picked this fish because they are durable fish and are easy to breed, but most importantly they are so darn adorable!!! I love our Cory's and I'm sure Turtle Rooter does too!!

- Shark Buscuit

Aquarium Setup 9/7

9/7/12 Aquarium Setup
Shark Buscuit and I setup our tank fairly easy. She bought her own tank and accessories for our fish and we did not have a lot of dirt to clean off. We bought some corydora catfish, guppies, and black neon tetras and so far they're getting along. The only problem we had in the beginning was the ammonia in our water but we changed our water and put in some more bacteria supplement. I think we are doing great in taking care of our fish and I like the finding nemo theme. I hope none of our fish die on us during this class.

-Turtle Rooter