Bronze corys spawning!!

My Bronze corydoras have started spawning!! In the morning I found eggs on the back of the aquarium!!! :)
Too bad it is quite inevitable that the eggs will get eaten by other fish or even the parents themselves...

Bolivian rams

I am anxious for my Bolivian rams to pair up and start making babies. However, I believe that the chances for the offspring to survive with all the other fish are slim...

Fish news (good and bad)

I have good and bad fish news. I'll tell the bad news first: I have lost my first fish in this tank. One of the ten Flame tetras had been in a bad shape for a while already, and today in the morning I found the corps. No new fish or plant has been introduced to the tank since when the Otos arrived in the beginning of February, so the reason for his death should not be a decease that is infectious but something that just happened to this specific fish.
Then the good news: It seams that my Bolivian rams have reached their adulthood. This means that there's a chance for babies! :)

Check out also the new video on my bristlenose pleco Rousku.

Fish news!

I made some changes in the fish tank. The photos show also how well the plants have grown!

Chicken-potato casserole

We cooked one of my current favourites: chicken-potato casserole. Riksu's mom makes something like this, but we developed the recipe by adding blue cheese, and now it is delicious.
The recipe (in Finnish, sorry):
400 g kanan filesuikaleita
1–2 pussia peruna-sipuli-suikaleita
ruokakermaa
sinihomejuustoa
valkosipulia
mausteita (mustapippuri, timjami, basilika, rosmariini jne.)
Paista kanan filesuikaleet pannulla. Kaada paistovuokaan peruna-sipuli-suikaleet ja kanasuikaleet. Murenna joukkoon sinihomejuustoa ja pieneksi silputtua valkosipulia sekä heitä mukaan mausteita maun mukaan. Lorauta kaiken päälle ruokakerma ja laita vuoka uuniin (225 °C) noin tunniksi. Kannattaa välillä vilkuilla, ettei pinta pala. Jos pinta alkaa ruskistua liikaa, laita päälle folio.

PS. I have decided to use coloured thumbnail photos from now on.

Fish parade

I spent almost one hour hunting my fishes with a camera. There's now a photo of each species. A much bigger job would be trying to take a photo of each fish, since there are 28 of them all together:
1 Bristlenose Pleco called Rousku
4 Otos
5 Skunk cory
5 Bronze cory
3 Bolivian Rams
10 Flame tetras

Progress on my fish tank

The plants in my aquarium have grown a bit already. There used to be nothing on the back of the tank, so you could see the wall through the tank. A while ago I put some dark green cardboard in the back, but I'm not sure, if it's working... What do you think?

Bloodworms

It's Friday, so it's time for a treat for my dear fishes: frozen bloodworms. I hope they will never get mixed with anything else in the freezer...

All about fish

It's all about fish again.

Fish news

Fish news: I bought 4 adult Otocinclus catfishes from a person who had to get rid of one of her fish tanks. They are algae-eaters, so them together with Rousku (she's a Bristlenose Pleco) will take care of all excess algae in my tank. "Otos" are 100 % vegetarians, so if the algae runs out, I will need to feed them cucumber etc. If someone is interested, there are also new videos shot earlier today...

weather, fish, carpet

1) As any other true Finn, I pay a lot of attention to weather, and also like to talk about it. (This is probably because the weather here so often sucks, and we feel grateful and overly happy when it doesn't.) So I must declare today the most beautiful winter day so far (this winter). :)
2) They had an open house today at Tampereen Akvaarioseura (Tampere aquarium association or something like that), and since their premises is just around the corner from where I live, I had to pay a visit. (I have been a member for about 3 weeks now.)
3) We went to pick up the white carpet we had ordered for our living room. It's quite nice.

The beginning of my weekend at home alone

Tonight is the beginning of my weekend at home alone. I've been waiting for this for a while, as I don't get the apartment all for myself often. As much as I love to share my home and life with Riksu, I sometimes need to be alone. I might invite a friend over, but let's see. Anyway, I will not be completely alone, since I have my dear fishes keeping me company. One of them is posing on today's photos. And there's a video of my Flame tetras, too... :)

Excited about my fish tank

I continue to be (very) excited about my fish tank. I watch it like television at least 30 minutes every day. (Actually I watch it way more than television.) I believe I have now reached the number of fish I will get (at least for a while): 5 Skunk Corys, 5 Bronze Corys, and one Bristlenose Pleco in the bottom, 3 Bolivian Rams in low water, and a group of 10 Flame tetras in middle/high water. And yes, there's a video to watch, too... :D

New Job

Today is officially my first day at my new job. I am now a researcher at TKK, more precisely at Decode Research Group at BIT Research Centre. The plan is to spend two days a week in Otaniemi and three in my own little office at home, so pretty much the same thing I've been doing for the whole autumn.
Today I also paid a visit to Viherkala fish store and got myself 3 Skunk Corys and one Bristlenose Pleco!!!
And also, today my Dad would have turned 65.