My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[bekateen]

Hi Viktor,

Sorry for your recent losses. Did you dissect either of the pictus cats to see what is swollen? I associate swelling and bulging eyes with kidney failure due to bacterial infection.

Regards, Eric

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thank you much Eric. We lost a dozen or two of pictus cats just like this. I'd not be surprised if the cause was bacterial. We have been introducing pathogens regularly with our rescues and acquisitions from the outdoors.

When I cut open a fish, I am only able to look for macro-parasites. I am not trained in fish dissection anatomy and diagnosis. I'd like to take a hands-on seminar and lab, maybe a course, on this sometime, to grow in the knowledge. University of Florida offers such opportunities.

*****

Ever since losing her eye, Hsieha has been swimming with a visible list to the side with the remaining eye. IDK if this list just gotten worse or something else has developed but now she spins around seemingly trying to maintain her balance and not float up on her side:

[bekateen]

Thanks for the answer Viktor. I appreciate the challenge and I'm no better at it. But always curiously

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[aquaholic]

Hello Viktor,
Fantastic news that your open by appointment! What a milestone to celebrate.

If someone wanted to visit, what is the process? How much notice is required? What amount of donation is encouraged? What to bring, how much time to allow? Would it be okay to bring a comfy chair, packed lunch and just chill out for a couple of hours in front of my favoured tank for example? Or take my kids for an exploratory walk through your gardens and dip net your ponds?

I suspect the formality of appointment may put potential visitors off so it would be great to describe what has been happening. I'd really like to see some reactions of visitors (if they are willing) besides the fish video updates. I'm sure visitors would get much better access and more of your precious time in the earlier stages of your enterprise. I can see you becoming very time poor when the place becomes popular.

Congratulations once more. A visit is on my wish list.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thank you greatly!

The details of visiting are on the home page of our website fish-story.com.
Usually a day to a couple hours notice has worked well so far, even some people that show up without an appointment we are usually able to accommodate.
We don't specify the donation amount but ask people to pay what the experience is worth to them. Average turns out about $10 per adult per hour.
There is nothing to bring and the usual fully guided tour with visitors engaging in feeding is 1 to 2 hours long. It can be improvised as needed.
Comfy chair is fine, or a lounge chair can be provided on premises. No food or drink are allowed in general but this can be overruled on a case by case basis.
Dip netting our ponds is too much liability with sharp and unstable rocky banks, abundant cottonmouth vipers, alligators, snapping turtles, etc.
Yes, the appointment puts off probably 9 of 10 potential visitors, but for now this suits us.
It's a great idea to film visitor reactions.
I imagine when/if we fully open, 9 of 10 visitors would take a self-guided tour.

******

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

Third crayfish found in the 25K gal. Lucky2 meets Lucky3 and immediately they mate.

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

The 4 of 5 reached 1.5ft, which amounts to ~13" of growth in 18 weeks / 4.5 months. The little pima looks to be around 8"-10". However, all of a sudden a problem arose yesterday, described in the video. Appetite reduction in 2 and the other 2 are even worse - one is swollen and pineconing a little bit, and the other doesn't feed.

[Viktor Jarikov]

[naturalart]

Victor, just fyi, the male crayfish can be id'ed by a pair of modified swimmerets that act as a kind of 'gonopodium' right at the juncture of the thorax and the abdomen. Similar with the female: at the juncture of the thorax and the abdomen she has an indentation indicating the reproductive canal.
If you wanted, you could isolate the female let her hatch the eggs, grow them to your desired size and have a nice alternative live food for some of your crustacean-eating fish.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thank you greatly for this, much appreciate your sharing the knowledge!
[1] Isolate the female from fish tank mates or from the male crayfish too?
[2] As I think crustaceans contain high thiaminase levels and I am scarred bad by thiaminase in fish food, I have to ask whether the crayfish would need to be cooked to break down thiaminase?

[Viktor Jarikov]

[naturalart]

1) I would isolate her from the male just as a precaution. Nothing is off the menu with crayfish in my experience
2) I would only feed on occasion. Not make it a 'main-stay' in the diet. Then I think, your main thiaminase-rich diet will make up for this.
Depending on the size you grow them out too, only certain fish will be able to eat them. I'm sure your Distichodus and Metynnis spp. would love them. And I wonder if your Hemibagrus spp. would go for them?
Zoo keepers and many public aquariums know that giving their animals things to do/problems to solve and live food to pursue, improves the phycological and physiological state.
You'll be adding good calcium and molecules only live food can provide.
My 2¢