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Journal Mission Bathtub 2018

sciencefiction said:
How are the fish today Marcel? Did they dare come out finally?
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Nope still in hiding, if i sit next to the tub i see some causously foraging the substrate around the caves and or quickly race in panic close to the bottom towards the next cave. They are not comming to the surface nor touching the food that floats. Yesterday later in the day i gave them a large 80% water change and syphon the victims scales out i saw laying around.. Maybe in case just to get rid of the smell off death in the tub. The big girl that survided paniced like crazy when the water became to low and almost got pulled out of hiding. Normaly they didn't mind the water change and come out to play in the fresh water stream.

I covered it last night with the chairs and a net.. Long ago i made a pergola above that erea it has growing a rather big grape growing over it by now. This moring i saw a few broken off young grape branches laying on top of the net.. There was no wind enough to brake them off, i think the devil came looking again last night landing on the pergola braking the young grape branches off. In about a month from now the grape will be big enough again the cover the complete terrace with a canopy. Just bad luck this year having a Heron flying over the garden that early in the spring while the tub still was in full view from above.

Have that tub for over 6 years in the garden.. This was my first Heron attack.. Well there must be a first for everything.. AFter all that time i actualy forgot about it that it was even possible to happen..
 
The Devil came a few weeks to early..

This is the grape from kitchen window view.. About 2 weeks from now the tree is no longer in view and there will be a dense canopy of grape cover that erea like a roof.
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Strange experience now, constantly looking at a seemingly fishless tub.. Normaly always full of action and a group of little hungry beggers at the surface if i walked out.

Compaired with the same view from 2 weeks ago..
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dw1305 said:
Hi all, That might possibly be your culprit. Having said that Herons are very effective at finding ponds, and you'd be amazed where you see them very early in the morning.

cheers Darrel
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Yes, it actualy could be anything, i would need to install a camera to find out what roams my garden at night.. We have the whole package of possible culprits hanging around the erea. I'm surrounded by several protected wildlife parks. Herons i see every day.. Regularly see Martens running around at night, foxes are getting more brutal every day, spotted a weasel lately.. And the racoon dog crossed my path and that realy surprised me. Never seen it before and didn't know what it was. After reading some threads about exotics at the wildlife observationist forums i found out that by the size and colors of it, it must have been a racoon dog i've seen. They are spotted more often lately all over the country.. Andvin my case that was less than 500 metres from my house, maybe 250 in bird flight.. I have about 6 or 7 smaller ponds and a somewhat few acre big lake and a creek within less than a mile radius from my house. So i actualy always thought why would anything find my 160 litre tub interesting enough to come and have a look. Well finding frogs in my tub should have said enough, this i also never understood, why the heck hop all the way up hill to hop into my tub with all the water around me? Spoiled brads aren't easily satisfied it seems hop up the hill in the hope to find something beter..

Well lesson learned, eventualy something did even if it took over 6 years but it;s finaly found and plundered.. And my experience tells me, once they know they defintively will be back. Extra task not to forget, cover it up before i go to bed..
 
:) Life is slowly comming back, peeking out of the kitchen window i seen them slowly and a bit nerviously come out of hiding. Bit les nervious than the previous days but still causious. I guess mother nature and instincs are taking over agaiin, probably hungry and i see some spawning behaivor, after all they need to get rid if the eggs.

Yet didn't approach the tub.. I just let them be for the beter part of the day and let them do their thing in peace.. I don't want the scare them again the first minute they dare to come out again. But it's tempting to go over and say hello.. :rolleyes: But they probably not going to fall for that one.. :) Would like to make a count to see who's gone. The big orange mama definitively is past away. The big white mama seems to be ok, not absolutely sure but seems that the father also survived. There is less loss than previously thought.. They are darn good in hidding and staying hid.. :)
 
Oh did a count on the fish today, they are finaly showing a bit more now. Not still 100% sure but it seems there are only 2 gone. I used to count 17, now i'm down to 15. At least i think still difficult they are still flashing nerviously around when i near the tub.. 1 of them is Big Mama, she was the tammest of all, probably got snatched when she came up to look who it was and got hit first. The others probably got harrased for a few hours, that why they are so skitish now. Good thing i made a lot of caves to play and obviously hide to protect themselfs from danger. :) It served them well the tub looked completely empty for 2 days.

The other Big Mama in White has some galls and bruisings on het skin and a ripped dorsal fin.. Likely from panicing and bumbing into hardscape and pushing herself as deep as possible into a cave.. But she's going to be alright. They are eating again.

I hope all is forgotten soon.. As long as i remember and do something about it.. :thumbup:
 
Do you have a normal video camera/camera with a mains lead? We've done this before, didn't catch anyone fishing but did catch the neighbours dog sneaking into our garden for a drink! We just used a time lapse option to keep it shorter to playback and recorded from indoors through a window. This was before there was such a range in digital options.
 
tam said:
Do you have a normal video camera/camera with a mains lead? We've done this before, didn't catch anyone fishing but did catch the neighbours dog sneaking into our garden for a drink! We just used a time lapse option to keep it shorter to playback and recorded from indoors through a window. This was before there was such a range in digital options.
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No i have nothing like that i could use.. Already planning some wifi cameras for a while.. But for now, seeing the cost, i have other priorities around the house that need attention first.. I live in a pretty quite neighbourhood all my neighbours have cams hnging around. So there is actualy no one able to approach mine without getting on cam somewhere. And i'm not the type that attracts a burglar, i guess if anybode ever attemps and succeeds he will shed some tears about all the effort he's done to get in and find no booty. He might just think poor chap and leave me a few penny on the table before going.. :lol: I don't even have a TV..
 
Great news, hopefully its just the 2 gone. Smart fish going into hiding. We have pigeons landing on the window. I suppose because we feed them every so often. Its been a harsh winter for all birds.

I wonder when is one going to fly inside to check out the pond as I normally have that window opened most of the time when I am at home.

zozo said:
I don't even have a TV..
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Not to worry. I don't have one either :lol: , at least not for the last 12 years bit its by choice. I watch whatever I want to watch online. TV is outdated and very much a way of brainwashing people through repetition and limitation of information by giving one version of the story only....
 
I bought my last tv in the year 2000, it was a rather expensive Loewe wide screen.. And it hung on the wall for at least 10 years without turning it on ones. I knew from experience if i did i would fall a sleep in 3 minutes anyway. By then it was worthless too since the flatscreen hype kicked in years before. And i was paying actualy over € 30 a month for something i didn't use. So i trashed it and canceled the monthly subscription.. Me also i indeed use the laptop to view things i like to see when i want to see.. :)
Have a beamer, so if i get the cinema feeling i hook the beamer and the stereo to the laptop and blast everything to the wall and out the stereo, can't get it bigger nor flatter screen than this. Ok i loose some definition :rolleyes: but looking at the flatscreens all my friends bought, they are just sureal, the definition is beter than i would see in nature with my own eyes, even the colors don't add up with reality. Never seen greener gras than on a flat screen tv, in reality this grass doesn't excist. . Tho it's kinda impressive, it's like watching a living and moving painting in super focus. I'm stunned and in aw everytime again i see it, while the owner is complaining it's outdated and aint good enough anymore.. :lol: But i'm still not stunned enough to buy one..
 
Funny creatures those goldfish.. Now still almost a week after the event, they are for the majority of the day in hidding.. All 15 cramped up under the same basket, causiously peeking out watching the surface. If anything outside the tub moves they huddle up even tighter.. Remarkable that close together it's hard to spot any.. Than one takes the chance causiously comes out and the rest follow, the schoaling behaivor definitively changed into tight schooling behaivor. They all stay very close together in a thight school rather staying low than come to the surface. Occasionaly they do but not to long and only if it is absolutely quiet outside the tub.. When i sit next to it, even if i don't move they spot me, if i throw in food even the food landing on the surface initialy is making them flee.. It takes minutes than come out go after the food but one move and all are under the basket again. If i'm near they also rather swim nerviously over the bottom, to check me out, quickly from hidding place to hidding place in a slaom. If i go away, and watch from the kitchen window, 1 minute later it's party time than they are all over the place again frenzy on the pellets..

Heartbraking, i'm considered the snatching monster now.. :(:arghh::rolleyes::lol:

One could wonder, how do they communicate this? All changing and showing the excact same skitish behaivor, packing up closely in a school.. Could it be some kind of stress hormone they release.. I noticed the older ones are most paranoia, could it be because they more experienced and older releasing that hormone affecting all others to be super causious school up and be skitish? Is it behaivor copying? Very intresting observations all, that such a 1 time event drasticaly changes behaivor for a longer period.. Makes me wonder with questions i can't answer.
 
The little outdoor aquarium is doing OK.. :) It is growing a nice carpet of lilaeopsis brasiliensis and is bubbling like mad in the sun..
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What is funny, since it is in the same water system as the tub, but it grows i completely different form of algae. And they do not infect eachother with it, it seems.. The tub grows a slimy filamentous one in different tones of bright green.. And this aqaurium grows a gritty looking clumping dark green algae that changes it's form depending on the light it recieves. In the morning it is about gone and lays on the substrate and floats around in the water column in fluffy patches. During the day when it gets warmer it seems to form filamentous strains loosly hanging together, if it's touched it fals apart. It grows in an extremely rapid, but if light decreases and temp lowers it lets loos and floats in thick patches at the surface, probbaly because of the gathered trapped oxygen in it and i can scoop it off. I'll see if i get a picture at a extreme bright and sunny day when it forms these long dark green strains. This pic is a cool morning, nothing developed yet, all is on the substrate, it actualy needs a clean, but i got a dozen of goldfish fry roaming this tank, i don't want to suck them out.. I leave it as is for now, i guess it's also food. Fry i growing steadily and i'm not feeding..Plants are still a bit at the dormant side at the moment. It'll setle in time.. :)

But the Nymphiodes is slowly comming to live and growing some body.. It's a left over from last year and actualy growing much more robust stems and thicker leaves than last year, probaly has a larger rootsystem by now. And see the algae bubble in the background.. Also a Nymphoides leaf has a large bublle. That's what the sun does, bubbles like crazy even with little co2 only available in natural equilibrium. It doesn't stop the vegitation from bubbling.. :)
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I only know it's a tropical one, yet still don't know which.. I hope it flowers this year to find out.. :)
 
It surprises me that they are still showing a fear response. We get the same sort of skittish behaviour after doing major work on the pond - draining/catching/disturbing all the baskets etc. but it only take a day or so for them to get back into the habit of coming up to meet people on the off chance you have food. Even when we've lost fish occasionally to a cat or heron, the behaviour isn't long term. Maybe it is a stress hormone or similar that is released as it's a smaller water volume lasts longer.

Do you find your tank gets green water during the summer? I think I have a spare tank in the loft I could stick outside - I kind of like the interesting algae growth you have going on.
 
tam said:
It surprises me that they are still showing a fear response. We get the same sort of skittish behaviour after doing major work on the pond - draining/catching/disturbing all the baskets etc. but it only take a day or so for them to get back into the habit of coming up to meet people on the off chance you have food. Even when we've lost fish occasionally to a cat or heron, the behaviour isn't long term. Maybe it is a stress hormone or similar that is released as it's a smaller water volume lasts longer..
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It might indeed just be a stress hormone, in the total 350 litre it could indeed be a little overdose for them.. Never seen this before in all th eyears i handled them. As said i move them each winter indoors, the majority i caught by hand only for a few i needed a net. Even after that, they didn't show a minute stress. immediately after that went on with daily bussiness as always. When i drained the tub, they didn't mind and durig the fill up play in the fresh water stream. During feeding time i could drop the pellets virtualy in their mouth. This is the very first time for them and for me that they got for some mortaly attacked. And as i described above, now the pellets landing on the surface makes them shoot away and hide. And it takes minutes bofore they finaly give in to their stomag instinct and quickly grab it.

Could be the tub is on my terrace, i can't stay off the terrace for days, now every night i cover the tub and in the morning take all away again.. The tub is relatively small and shallow.. All this comotion may constantly retrigger it, that they maybe need a loger rest they don't get like this.. Dunno.. It just gets my mind spinning.. Why and what can i do. I guess only wait and see..

tam said:
Do you find your tank gets green water during the summer? I think I have a spare tank in the loft I could stick outside - I kind of like the interesting algae growth you have going on.
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No i never have green water, of course i have algae growth on the glass and hardscape, especialy the first months, it always goes away while all matures.. But green water? Not even once, it always is crystal clear. It might be, i choose my plants carefully, next to enough i always make sure i have a plant combination with sp. that start to grow and preferably flower very early in the year. I started out with that theory as an obvious on my mind and it worked, so i do not know the other side of it, never tried anything else.. :) So i assume, that's the trick..
 
Another experiment.. :) Mission bathtub has a multi purpose.. nice to experiment for future aqauscapes.. i found an old large over blown beech tree in the forest, with its roots ripped out of the ground.. Broke a few off, i kinda thought, the roots have a distinct different shape than the above ground branches. It is realy nice texture to use as root in an aquascape. Now i brainstormed a bit about extending brooken off pieces to create own shapes that compliments the scape.

Did it like this.. with shrink tube.. :) The smaller black one is actualy the water proof shrink tube, it contains a glue inside that softens when heated. This is the tube i prefer, it glues itself to the surface. The blue one was the only one fitting i still had for the thicker part. As said just an experiment, for now never mind the color.. The good thing is, if you leave a little piece of tube empty, it stays flexible in between the pieces..

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A bit of crushed peat litter (pellets) does the trick anyway.. Used some TEC 7 kit to smear around the shrink tube and brushed in the peat litter to mask the shrink tube.
And TEC7 is realy wonderfull stuff, used it in several occasions to glue wood pieces together, it cures much tougher than silicone and it kinda stays tacky.. It's completely inert non toxic and cures submersed. Some wood pieces i glued are submered now for months and structuraly still darn solid..

ou la la, all gone.. looks almost like it aint there. Especialy if it's black tube.. Could brush in some pulped mosses with the peat and it'll cover any of it soon enough..
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Made the roots hang over a rocky cave.. Hard to see in the tub.. But just imagine it in an aqauscape.. :thumbup: Also the fish seem to like it..
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:crazy:
 
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Great idea Marcel, I have some manzi that is starting to loose it's thiner branches, I might try your method...like you say, a bit of moss as well and no one would be any the wiser.
 
Tim Harrison said:
Great idea Marcel, I have some manzi that is starting to loose it's thiner branches, I might try your method...like you say, a bit of moss as well and no one would be any the wiser.
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Can't wait to see how that turns out.. :thumbup: I think it's a very solid way to make rather good looking root structures, to extend existing pieces or make non fitting pieces a bit shorter. And you don't realy need the water proof tube with the glue in it.. Also could put some kit at each wood end put the tube over and shrink it.

And the tube also comes in Brown.. Even beter..
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Various-...eeving-Car-Wire-Wrap-Heatshrink-/252943501481
 
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