Profile: Altolamprologus calvus 'Black Calvus'

horrible pic caz they're are insanely hard to get a pic of. This is the latest (jan/2010)

name: Black Calvus

scientific name: Altolamprologus calvus

origin: Lake Tanganyika

max size: 4"

water: Hard 7+PH temp: 75-80F

habitat: Rock dweller

diet: anything. Veggie/meat. Live fish , worms , pellets. Mine are on pellets.

aggressive: passive , can be territorial with each other but not to the death.

difficulty: easy. Very hardy fish.

comments: Beautiful fish when you see them but thats the problem , you will never see them. They are the shiest fish I have ever owned , they never come out , not even for feeding. Ctenopomas are shy too but they come out for feedings. These guys can be very boring to own , I really would recommend researching them so you know what you're investing into. You have been warned.

Profile: Julidochromis Gombi

Probably my most underrated fish. Beautiful looking , lots of charisma and very easy to care for.

name: Gombi Cichlids

scientific names: Julidochromis Transcriptus

origin: Lake Tanganyika

max size: 3" sexing: ? dont know.

difficulty: easy. Though they are territorial with their own kind. Mine killed his "buddy". Still a little mad about it.

temp: 75F-80F. Like most Africans.

habitat: rocks.

plant friendly: apparently. I dont keep them with plants but word on the street is they are plant friendly.

comments: probably my most underrated fish , him and my buffalohead. Beautiful fish , lots of charisma , and easy to care for. Very affordable too (10-20bucks) dependant on stock and your location. I highly recommend these guys for anybody with a smaller (20G) set up and wanting something a little more sophisticated and natural like a african set up. Just need rocks and sand for decor , looks very sharp and clean.

Journal: Mealworm breeding project

Day 1 Jan23
I purchased 20G of mealworms for 6 bucks.. a little pricey but all I need is a few beetles to lay some eggs and it'll be like harvesting duckweed.

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day 14-16 Feb 7 Monday

MOld disaster. My colony was mold infested I just let mold up. I thought they could survive with moldy food , apparently its not good. So I moved ALL my mealworms into two seperate bins. No direct contact with bran oats with any thing moist including food and water towel.

Im gonna start using tin foil as a food mat to protect the bran oats. I also moved the colonies from fishroom into kitchen cupboards for dryer enviroment. So far its ok , I have beetles pupilating so hopefully they will start breeding and Ill have a Gen2 of thousands of worms.
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day 21 feb 14 sunday

I put everybody back into one bin and they seem to be doing very good now. Lots of movement and they are swarming the food now.

I place the food on top of tinfoil to seperate moisture and keep the bin in a cupboard for dry air. I lots of beetle pupi but not a lot of beetles so Im still waiting for some beetles so I know i have eggs coming and can start expanding my herps for feeding.

Journal: Cricket Breeding

day 1: Jan 22 Friday 2010
30 crickets purchased from Petsmart for 11c each. Placed them into their holder with soil , food , wet towel , egg crate.
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day 6: jan 28 thursday

I moved the first batch of potential eggs into "incubator" and now its wait and see. 2 Weeks est. time.

On a side note the crickets are all getting big and maturing , so if not this batch , the next one will be egged up for sure.


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day : Feb 8 tuesday

I have 4 cannisters of soil with potential eggs? I dont know. I cleaned out the cage and salvaged the survivors , I have 10 Crickets left that are still living but barely so I think this group is almost done. Wait and see how the incubation goes now....

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day : feb 14 sunday

still no pinheads. I may give this another try in the spring when its naturally a little warmer. Its very cold right now.

Rena XP2 finally down and out

well , it still runs.. just there's a leak in the plug I just discovered. I stepped into a bloody swamp!!!! fuck. I bought it used and its caused me nothing but grief. Luckly i only paid 40 bucks overall for it.. got 1 1/2 years out of it. Again it still works..just leaks and I dont trust it anymore. I've been switching to sponge air filers and bare bottom tanks anyways... so now I have extra live sponge and bio balls. What to do?
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*EDIT

I took it apart to see what it looks like , maybe I can fix it , I do this with any broken down tech equipment. Anyhoo.. I know where the leak happened so I just fastened the "plugs" .. makes no sense what Im typing , you have to see what Im talking about. Anyhoos.. after anohter big splash down mess.. I think I got back up and running. I had to take out the top media holder for some FUCKING BIZARO reasn , it doesnt now!?!?!?!?? its fucking crazy. It pissed me off.. how!? how the fuck is that even possible?

I dunno. anyhows I set it up inside a container JUST IN CASE , it does leak again. Its been running for an hour.. the sides are dry. Doesnt seem like there's a leak and its running like it use to. Ironically when it was leaking it was running too smooth.. its strange. Anyhoos.. Im a little damp , my floor is a marsh land , I soaked up much as possible and salted the floor. Ill vacuum tomorrow , Im a little fed up right now.

Thats twice this piece of shit filter fucking made a mess. Pisses me off.

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*EDIT

its been 24 hrs now , and so far so good. No more leaking.

Updated pics

Here's some pics...

Havent updated a pic of my Map lately. Still relatively small and growing slowly. Looks fantastic and full of spunk. He fell at a young age so I think he's a still gun shy to be handled.

Another of my new prized baby. Chandler is so friggen awesome.

Python update

I added green vinyl background and I moved the tank into a "cove" section of the room. Fits perfect.

Looks better than without a background.

75G makeover

Im turning my 75 malawi into my softshell turtle home. Im gonna put a feather fin and some tilipas with him. If he eats them.. so be it.. if not I got a nice community.


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I got rid of all the gravel/sand , rocks and fish! ... just letting the water settle and Ill move everybody in tomorrow. I love barebottom tanks , I dont mind the look at all and absolutely love the maintenance aspect. So easy to clean.

Added more rock , a plant and stocked it.
12xTilapia Cichlids
1xfeather fin
1x Chinese Softshell


Can you see him? My softshell chilling in his favourite plant.


I havent taken a pic of those baby Featherfins since I bought them in sept 2008. One died but this is the survivor. 4" now. Looking good.

Bye bye Malawis

After another wave of deaths Im calling it quits for Malawis. I gave the remaining survivors to my cousin Stan whom is a African keeper. I gave my Eureka Peacock , Acei , 2x Labs , and a demasoni... thats all I had left from that big colony. Lost so so many fish in this tank. Except I kept a Buffalo head , a cylinder and my featherfin cat.

Im converting the 75G into a turtle tank for my softshell.

So..Ill blog more later...

*edit UPDATE


I tore down the entire tank , took out all rock and sand ( 100 lbs of sand alone). Emptied it completely of water , redid the ghetto stand (almost had a nasty accident if I didnt fiddle with one of the legs..sort of flukey) , re=set it up the same night.

I also took out this old throw rug , back to the original green wreck room cement carpeting that came with the house in the 70s. I also re-arranged some set ups and cleared out more clutter.. end result is more room to navigate in my pet room.

Im gonna start investing into rack storage to stacking these tanks... save crap load of space.

Anyways.. 2days of doing this , got the hardest stuff done , just tyding up now. I have to re-set my python set up again and my water storage area.

short shopping list
air tubing
split valve

My new Baller

January 12 2010 purchase date. Birthdate: approx June-July 2009.

length: 17" weight:???

So anyways I already encountered so many ignorant stereotypes on Ball PYthons. Thats like me just saying "dogs" are all dangerous. There's different species as they are in snakes. Ball Pythons are as dangerous as a chihuahua and chihuahua bite more.

Here are some Ignorant FAQs:

Ball Pythons avg size: is 4 ft. Depending on sex. F(4-5ft) m(3-4ft).

Ball diet: frozen mice/rats.. once a week and when adults 1 rat every 2 weeks.

Ball Python life span : ? 15-30 years

Ball Python disease: There is no salmonella scare with snakes like with aquatic turtles.

Ball Python parasites: Farm bred snakes are pretty clean , wild caught have mites and such... no different than other animals.


Ball Python varients: There are some very colourful and patterned Ball Pythons. Ranging in price from $40-4000.. maybe more dependent on how rare the varient is.

Ball Pythons aggressiveness: As mentioned before , cats and dogs bite more than ballers. They are night hunters and only hunt mice. They dont bring down wild boar or a baby buffalo. They curl into a ball when startled which is most of the time hence the name.

Ball Pythons will attack childern and pets: Read above. No more than dogs and cats , heck my hamster bit me more than you think.

Ball Python will escape: along with all care , not if you have the proper equipment and knowledge in caring for one.