Touch the sky - Julie Fowlis

When cold winds are calling,
And the sky is clear and bright,
Misty mountains sing and beckon, 
Lead me out into the light.

I will ride, I will fly,
Chase the wind and touch the sky,
I will fly, 
Chase the wind and touch the sky. 

Where dark woods hide secrets,
And mountains are fierce and bold, 
Deep waters hold reflections, 
Of times lost long ago. 

I will hear their every story, 
Take hold of my own dream,
Be as strong as the seas are stormy,
And proud as an eagle's scream. 

I will ride, I will fly, 
Chase the wind and touch the sky,
I will fly, 
Chase the wind and touch the sky. 

And touch the sky. 

Chase the wind, chase the wind.

Touch the sky.

Pann Den Haag 26.01.2013

Goldfish fry day 6 15.02.2013

Almost one week old! I can't believe it. This week went by so fast. 

Fed them again around 09:00 and will again 12:00 15:00 21:00 and 24:00. 5 times. Because we're eating out today :) Feeding egg yolk and peas.
No water chance today because... no time. Tomorrow. Tank looks clean after the good waterchance and cleaning yesterday.
One dead fry again. The ones that die all have weird backs. Not straight. I guess that's okay. 1 fish a day means probably 70 left after one month. Pooehh much. 

If you look very closely, So closely it really hurts your eyes, you can see which fry are going to develop a single tail and which fry are going to develop a double tail. That's cool. :)


And guess what. The parents starting spawning again for the 3 times this month. It's like they're going after it every week. Omgsh. The main tank is one big mess again.
I thought my fish were sick because they seem to all be having some itch or something. But it doesn't seem to be very logical that they are sick when they are spawning this much. Animals do not breed when they are sick, do they? I guess my tank is in good health, looking at the regular spawning.
They do not seem sick either, except for the itch a couple of times a day. :S they are still eating, swimming and doing their thing like normal. I guess it's okay. Still keeping a good eye on them. 


It's funny we have Soya the red cap female, chased after by Sake the male. Whom is chased after by Shiro the little tiny white ranchu male >.< he can't do much yet. hahah. Whom is again chased after by Sambal the orange female ranchu. She eats all the eggs. Smart ranchu, knowning were the food is. And Sushi the black moor male. This doesn't seem to care at all. XD Just keeps on swimming like always.

00:19 Lisette did a water change. She added some fresh water to the tank. Heigh is 20cm  Or something. 
She made some new fresh eggyolk and peas. 
There was another dead fry. So two today. Too bad :(

Goldfish fry day 5 14.02.2013

The fry are still 5-7mm but they seem to have become a bit fatter. It's hard to say tough. We started to feed them liquid smashed sieved peas next to the liquid egg yolk. XD They like it! We put two drops of peas in the water and two drops of egg yolk. :) They eat good.
We fed them again around 09:00 12:00 18:00 21:00 24:00 5 times. Because we both had college. >.<

I did a 80% waterchange around 16:30. Cleaned the bottom of the tank a bit with a sponge. So much work because you have to wait till all those little fellows are somewhere else. -___- but look a lots bettter.

Water tempereature is still 22C/70.5F. Water height 15cm/5.9inch. Java fern also still in the tank. We put on the light around 09:00 till 20:00 everyday. Like a normal sunnyday :P
We also still have the Internal Superfish Aquaflow 50 filter 150L/H surrounded with cleaning sponges. We still have the sponges around the cardridge. Also around the spray bar to decrease the water stream. 

One dead fry today. The rest seem to be doing well.

(Photo by Fishpanda day 5)

I just keep on illustrating with the photos of  FishPanda because her photos
are so awesome! And I do not have this enough mm lens for my Canon unfortunatly.
They just have to grow big fast. :P

Goldfish fry day 4 13.03.2013

They are all swimming today! Searching for food. They are 5-7mm. Some growing faster than the others. We fed them when we woke up at 09:00. Three drops.
We fed them after that around 12:00 15:00 16:00 21:00 and 24:00. That makes 6 times a day! lootsss.

Water temperature is still 22C/70.5F. Water height 15cm/5.9inch.
We tried to clean a bit of the ground with a drinking straw yesterday. I also cleaned the fern  to make sure there wasn't any fungus on it anymore. Did a 70% water change in the morning and evening again. Everything is going good. 
We found one dead fry. We are still not sure how many alive fry there are. 

Photo by Fish Panda 4 days old

cats

Swim Bladder Problems

I've got to remember this when the swim bladder of my Black moor gets worse in the future.
At least he can swim again that way. 

Magic Suit

Text by: Freshwater

"For the past two weeks I have been struggling to achieve a seemingly impossible task: create a swimsuit for a goldfish.Without intervention, Ricky is completed disabled by his swim bladder issues. He floats on his side at the top of the tank, unable to swim or submerge. I have been obssessed by this problem, searching for a magic weighted swimsuit to help Ricky regain control. Thinking and measuring and weighing and sewing in every available moment, I came close to success. Yet always the suit would fail just short of our goal. Some designs didn't fit. Some squeezed or pinched or rubbed. Sometimes I just couldn't balance the attached weights. After eight designs, with Ricky getting weaker and more depressed, I was about ready to give up. On Monday night, I had one last idea. I told myself that, if this one didn't work, I would have to make the hard choice and euthanize Ricky.Eureka! It turned out that the answer was right under my nose... or under my feet. The harness that my little 8-lb dog wears was the perfect design for Ricky! A bit of down-scaling, a few changed angles to accomodate Ricky's gill covers, and voila! -- a custom fishy fit. The harness is made entirely of doubled-over soft velcro. It sits on his body almost like a little cage, and the soft velcro provides padding, so no chafing or squeezing. I have infinite control over where to place gemstone bead weights, each of which is weighed and precisely placed to provide counterbalance. He's upright, he swims, he sinks and floats at will. He's no longer a bobber; he's a fish!So Ricky and I have pulled out this little victory at the eleventh hour. May it usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for one American fishie."

Goldfish fry day 3 12.02.2013

It's amazing to see how active some of the fry are. :O It's completely different to the last batch of fry. I wonder if they are more active because of the change in temperature. It is the only thing we've changed. Last time we had it 20.5C/70.5F. Now the water temperature is 22C/71.6F. Difference 1.5.  They are so more active. It's very nice to see.  I would recommend the higher temperature.

We've fed the fry some liguid egg yolk last night and this morning. They are not very interested in it yet, but maybe they do not really know what they are suppossed to do with it. They seemed a bit more swimming around the egg yolk this morning. Last night one of them was having a look.
They do not know it's food yet. We keep on trying. 

We've made they liguid egg yolk by boiling a chicken egg for 10minutes. Removed half of the egg yolk and put it in a cup with some water. Mix it very well.
Then sieve the mixture to separed the solid materials from the liquid. The fry can only eat microscopic food contained in the liquid sieved mixture. >.< what a pain.

Going to do a 50% water change around 12:00 to removed all the egg yolk they didn't eat. Sight. PPfffff. Happy when they finally are a little bit bigger. First some homework. :) :P 


Ohhh! One thing! Some of the fry have ittybitty little tiny fins :D It's so cuute. Like this: 

(2.5 days. Photo by FishPanda)

Four of them looked a little more like this already. Swimming for much longer.

(4 days. Photo by FishPanda)

FishPanda made some awesome photos of her fry! :D <3

Net breeder

This sure would have been handy

Goldfish fry day 2 11.02.2013

I think all of the fry hatched from it's egg today. They were swimming very lifely around this morning. Hopping from this spot to the other.
The tank is still 22celsius/71.6fahrenheit. Water height is 15cm/5.9inch. Now doing a water change first time since they all hatched. Making sure the water is the same temperature. Heating the new water first with the heater >.< taking so long hahaha. 

Some pictures:

The fry should look like this (2 days old and 1 day old): 

Photos by FishPanda

Goldfish fry day 1 10.02.2013

Another part of the goldfish eggs hatched, but still not all of them. The fry are doing well. Some of them are trying to swim to the surface. They are laying still most of the times. Still eating from their own egg yolk. 

Goldfish fry after 1 hour. 

Kitten attacks potato - this is the best

Goldfish eggs day 3 09.02.2013

Some of the goldfish eggs hatched already around 21:00! Took 2,5 days. The spawning was around 12:00 thursday 07.02.2013. This was a lot faster then last week.  Temperature is still 22celsius/71.6Fahrenheit.
We removed the unfertilized eggs this morning. Waiting for the last eggs to hatch aswell.


I tried to took a good picture of this fry and still one in the egg. When I was trying to put up two good spotlights on them the one in his egg hatched >.<. hahahaha. So this was the best I took without good light unfortunately. 

Goldfish eggs day 2 08.02.2013

our new breeding set up. I looked at the eggs and there are a lot of unfertilized eggs. we've got to remove them when we come back from school. I still hope there are a lot of fertilized eggs as well. I'm still afraid these will all die aswell. But i think it will go okay this time. The thermomether was something unpredictable and sad. Cannot wait untill the eggs hatch again. 

Goldfish eggs day 1

The most weirdest thing happened this morning. The fancys were spawning again! It's like they knew about their babies and about us being sad or something hahah.
We have a new tank with new fancy goldfish eggs.
This really cheered up my mood. I was so extremely sad about the babies last night.
No thermometers in the tank anymore. No idea how we have to measure the heat right now. Got to come up with something.

So new tank with heather 22Celsius/71.6fahrenheit.
Aeration with Internal Superfish Aquaflow 50 filter. We added simple cleaing sponges around the cartridge so we can use it when the fry comes out later. Now they cannot be sucked up into the filter.
There's a fern in the tank and some light. 
That's about it. :) We wait again. 


Some pictures of the spawning. Note the little Nankin Ranchu trying very hard aswell XD He can hardly keep up with them when swimming in the tank. hahahah. He's around 6months old. :P

Goldfish Fry day 4

Morning: More of the fry died. The fungus really affected a lot of them and a lot of the water. Fungus has spread again. Less than yesterday but still much. 35 died.
We bought a huge plastic box to move the small tank with fry in to increase the water quality.
Goldfish fry: 134

the ones that are still alive can really swim freely now.  Little fins. (Photo by FishPanda)


Night: The most unexpectable, ridiculous and stupid  thing just happened. Of all things that could happen. The thermometer broke, releasing heavy chemicals even for our hands. And that was supposed to be an aquariumthermometer?! What is it broke in my fancygoldfish tank?!  They all died. :( Fuck this chemical stuff.
I really really feel extremely sad right now. It's okay to see one day because it's nature. It's not okay to see all 150 die in an hour. That's not okay.
Luckely, jewel tanks come with this glass stick on thermometers. :S

Nothing to fear

The doors closes.
Scared from the noise.
Realization, no way out.
Locked up.

No fresh air.
Warmth in the tube.
Steel riding creature.

Stomach turns and twitches.
Getting hard to breathe.
No more smiling.
No relaxing muscles.

Breathe. Breathe.
No stress.
Nothing to fear.
Just breathe.

Only 13 minutes.
Only 13 minutes.
How unlucky.

Goldfish Fry Day 3

Morning: Some of the fry were swimming (or more hopping) around freely. The rest was still sticking like glue to the wall. They do dart away when you come near the tank or move the water a bit. 

 Fed the fry some liquid egg yolk and I think a couple were checking out what is was and maybe eating it. But... not really sure. It's hard to see. The rest was just still sticking to the wall >.<. But aeration on again, because it goes off at night. Otherwise we cannot sleep.

One of the fry died. He had a wrong tail. Probably couldn't swim at all. I think three more will die today. They didn't look very moving either. The rest of them looks all good, sometimes swimming a bit.
Goldfish fry: 176

Night: Disaster happened. We fed them before we went to eat. After two hours a fugus had spread widely trought the tank. Thick fungus. A lot of them got stuck in it. About 7 died because of it. It was so much fungus we decided to move all of the fry to a new exactly the same tank. Not good at all. I think maybe a lot of them got fungus on them. Probably more will die. They had a lot of stress also because of it.
We've put an air sponge filter in the new tank.
Goldfish fry: 169

Photos are a pain to take. I do not have a proper lens for these small things. 

They should look like this XD

(Photo by FishPanda)

Feeding time schedule: 
1st:  8:00
2nd: 13:00
3rd:18:00
4th: 23:00

Just life 04.02.2013

First day of university again for Lisette. Starting her bachelor project.

I was feeling like crap allday and looking tired. 

Better photo of today. Describes all. <3 

PIzza hangover day, yesterday 03.02.2013

We look disgustingly tired

Pann party last night @ Paard van Troje, The Hague 02.02.2013

Slaap kindje slaap. 

Daar buiten zwemt een sluierstaart. 

Een sluierstaart met bolle ogen. 

Een rugvin, een hele hoge. 

Slaap kindje slaap. 

Daar buiten zwemt een sluierstaart. 

Goldfish Fry day 2

Morning: Couple of the goldfish fry are swimming, but most of them are still resting this morning. 

Water has been slowly raised to 20,5 Celsius/70,7Fahrenheit.
We've put up little bit of aeration yesterday night. Set up now looks like this. It looks ridiculous >.<

Afternoon: We did a 50% water change. 80% new fresh water. 20% water from the parents tank. Temperature has raised to 21.5 celsius/72.5 fahrenheit. Guess the room is a bit to warm.
The fry starts swimming when you are busy in the bowl. i guess that a good sign. They still do no t swim around freely. They do not feed on the eggyolk yet. 

Night: Lisette measured them yesterday. The fry were 4-5mm. Today they measure 7mm... sort of.  Nothing swimming yet. :P (48 hours after hatching. Saturday/sundaynight 0:00 )
Last new counting again: 177


Sidenote: when we had the goldfisheggs I was sure some of them would hatch. Lisette thought that none of them would hatch >.< She was a bit skeptical about it. Now she thinks we going to be stuck with 80 at the end of the ride. hahaha. I think 5 of them will grow to become fancy goldfish. 

Goldfish growing

Goldfish fry day 1 set up

Our weird looking set up... for now. :P ... new counting: 176