wanted big 1'-5' cats

[Viktor Jarikov]

If anyone is looking for a good new home for their big 1'-5' catfish, for whatever reason except for the fish's poor health and/or old age (say, he used to be little and cute but now outgrew your tank or your ability and/or desire to care properly for him, or he ate and keeps eating everybody else in your tank, etc.), I can be your answer. I have a 2500 gal indoor tropical pond in my basement (25' x 6' x 3'; right now split in 2 sections to keep some fish from hurting/eating each other), in addition to 5 tanks in the house, 150, 120, 55, 30 and 30 gal.

If you want to get rid of a large gar, eel, arowana, or e.g., arapaima, etc. that could desired too!

I guess I am targeting primarily Rochester NY, USA area and would be willing to drive say to places like Buffalo, Siracuse, Utica, Corning, Toronto, Erie, maybe even Cleveland to get a very nice fish, but if you think you can safely ship your fish to me and be willing to accept the payment after their arrival, then we could help each other out.

Pet shops would normally give you 1/3 of the retail value in store credit, only if the fish is in excellent health and form, and less, far less if there are imperfections. I think I could give you more AND in cash, AND I am less picky than your average fish store owner!

Thanks for considering!

Viktor

[MatsP]

You may want to chat with Jon at "MonsterFishRescue.com"...

--
Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

I was asked to post some pics of the pond. Here they are. From the bottom, every 1.5 feet, there are 2x4's covered with several layers of plywood panels and drywall panels that keep the pond off the floor, i.e., concrete slab. Wooden all-around, solid carcas with 2x4's and 2x6's screwed together laying flat that make very thick walls, good at keeping the heat in; small holes tucked with glass wool; an all-around-and-below layer of utility blankets underneath the 45 mil (1/8") rubber liner. ~1500 pounds of maryland river rock for gravel bed with some sand; amounts to about 1.5" layer. The heating is done by five 800 W Jally titanium heaters with Jally controllers, but they rarely turn on; water is at 27 C, 80 F steady. The cover is 8 mil clear plastic and moving/utility blankets on top at night. The pond gets some sunlight through 3 small basement window plus fluorescent light, equivalent to about 300 W of incandescent light, everyday for 8 hours. The temp in the basement averages around 65 F (heated by a gas furnace) and relative humidity is steady around 50% (two dehumidifiers). Aquaforce 2000 gph magnetic submersible pump (11' head height, 95 W) feeds the sump (that dark-green barrel on the wheels), which is made out of a 96 gal garbage toter full of nylon mesh pot scrubbers (around 900 of them) and 6 woven pads on the top, 3 low density and 3 med density. The white 3" pipe discharges the water from the sump into the pond. The plastic-mesh-PVC-pipe divider separates the tank into two sections. The small one (about 6'-7' out of 25' total length) right now has only one inhabitant - 1.6' alligator gar (separated since they have a bad rep, although this guy has been ok with others in the same space for a while). In the big section reside 1.5' TSN, 1' RTC, 1' channel cat, and two spotted gars, under 1' and over 1'. The 150 gal rubbermaid stock pond equipped with a marineland c-360 canister filter is being set up right now; there the feeder fish will be held and medicated before being released into the pond. The basement has two croaks in the floor with two sump pumps in the opposite ends. Hope this helps.
Viktor

[Viktor Jarikov]

3 more

[Viktor Jarikov]

3 more more

[Viktor Jarikov]

an update: some modifications and additions have been made

[Viktor Jarikov]

3 more

[Viktor Jarikov]

3 more... the channel cats are the same as here: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 13&t=29628

there is also a 1.5' (sold as nigerian) cat in there, I assume for now that it is pterodoras granulosa and a 1' hemibagrus wykii; three gars - spotted, florida and long-nose, and smth called a peruvian cat; two 1' sailfin marbled plecos

[Viktor Jarikov]

"Spotty" - spotted gar

[Viktor Jarikov]

120, 27, and 27 gal tanks upstairs

[Viktor Jarikov]

2 more

[Viktor Jarikov]

in the basement by the indoor pond: 55 and 150 gal

[Viktor Jarikov]

150 gal stockpond - right now feeder tank but will soon be converted to the quarantine tank for the big fish (the qt tank upstairs is only a 27 gal hex); no more feeders

[Viktor Jarikov]

12,000 gal koi pond outside:

[Viktor Jarikov]

3 more...

[Viktor Jarikov]

koi...

[AndiH]

Mind if I say I'm jealous? Ingenious setup downstairs and that koi pond is gorgeous.

[andywoolloo]

it's very different to see a posting wanting big cats.

and i agree, your koi pond is beautiful.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I appreciate the high praises, guys (and gals?) !! Thank you for the support and encouragements (I need it; not nearly so sure about my better half though ). You can find 7 more photos of the pond from 1 and 2 years ago here, see 2nd page (not the right place for these pics - I should have added them here but do not want to post repeat pics) http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 3&start=20

[Viktor Jarikov]

2nd update.

Wow. What a day yesterday. I went out to explore Siracuse and Albany area and pick up a donated 1.5' Marbled Pim from a real nice girl from Waterford (Albany). Omitting other stores, let me focus for a minute on "Eddie's Aquarium Center" in Cohoes, NY (north suburb of Albany). The store is a pleasure in itself inside and outside (they do ponds too) but it is these guys and gals that blew me away - I do not think I have ever observed such a genuine, enthusiastic, friendly, easy-going, and caring (for fish and customers) team before. It felt really good to be there. Now, to be fair, they sold me some wonderful, splendid fish (big rescues, donations and trade-ins - three ID sharks, two albino and one grey, large and extremely beautiful TSN, true giant gurami, and one of the cats of my dreams - pseudodoras niger, about a 2-footer, a true gentle giant). I almost could not wish for a better price tag; well, I could, of course, but there was NOTHING for me to complain about. Hence, one may brush aside my praises as those of a biased subject with eyes glazed-over with excitement but I maintain: they are great! Ed Jr. (the owner), Gina (the manager), Lora (the "pool wader"), Stephanie and others are just nice all around. Period.

If you live in these areas, put it high on your list to pay them a visit - chances are you'll be glad you did.

[Viktor Jarikov]

All right, another real nice store (I found out on my recent fish trip to the Hartford/Waterbury, Connecticut; ~6 h from me) is Westside Puppy Center and Aquarium (Hartford). Despite the name not-so-promising for a fish person, they have a superb selection, a great # of tanks, quality, and the personnel is nothing short of wonderful - be sure to speak to Gary and Chuck, but I am sure others are real professional and nice too.

[Viktor Jarikov]

A question for the very (most?) experienced and/or numbers-driven community.

If you look carefully at the photo of my garbage-toter-made-sump (~100 gal, 4.5'-high, and chuck full of ~1500 nylon mesh pot scrubbers with three woven pads on the top), you will notice that the 3" discharge pipe goes all the way to the water level. Actually it is about 3-4" below the water surface. Now that means I created a siphon.

Here is what happens:

-- every time the sump gets full to the brim, the water, of course, too rises up in the upward-going part of the discharge pipe and then starts rushing down into the pond, creating a closed (no air entry/leaks) siphon system.
-- The inlet is 1.5" fed by a 2000 gph submersible pump. The outlet, as I said, is 3".
-- The sump empties 90% of its water into the pond in under a minute, most of it in under 20 sec - the water really RUSHES out of it.
-- The water level in the pond is pretty close to the level at which the discharge pipe is attached to the sump (and close, within 6-8" of the bottom of the sump). When the siphon is running out of the gravity juice at the end of the dumping, some air is sucked into the discharge pipe (despite the pump constantly trying to fill the sump).
-- This breaks the siphon.
-- The pump fills up the sump again, the high water pushes out the trapped air out of the discharge pipe and the cycle repeats itself.

So this occurs every 90 gal/2000 gph = 0.045 h or ~2.7 min give or take. The complete cycle takes ~3.0-3.5 min or ~17 times an hour, maybe 20.

Ok. The QUALITATIVE arguments that I see go as follows:

------ I achieved almost an ultimate water flow throughout the sump and the pads and scrubbies it contains - there is no bypass, no dead, quarter-dead, half-dead, 3/4-dead, or poorly-supplied areas inside - every nook and cranny sees fresh waste-enriched water every time the sump fulls up!!!
------ But I reduced the contact time of each bacteria colony (except for the bottom 6-8" layer that's always filled with water) with the waste-enriched water and the higher they reside in the sump, the shorter the contact time is. Say, consider the top layer of pads and scrubbies, they only start seeing water when the sump is getting really full but then the violent dumping begins and they are again in the air in 0.5-1 min and idle for ~2.0-2.5 min until they see new water - that means they idle for ~40 min out of an hour. This is of course at its worst, the lower you go down the sump, the shorter the idle time is until it is zero at the 6-8" level of the discharge pipe.

****Does anybody know/able to calculate QUANTITATIVELY, which argument wins?
****Does anybody see smth else of significance that needs to be taken into account?
****Should I go on like that or should I raise the end of the discharge pipe slightly above water level in the pond, which will break the siphoning cycling???

Thank you!!
Viktor

[Viktor Jarikov]

two pics
- two 1.5-2' alligator gars "Croca French" and "Croca Baggett" and the larger 2' TSN (really appears to be Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum, not tigrinum) named "Terroristo" (agressive, tries to eat smallish cats, so placed behind the divider); the TSN "Gendos" in the main section is far more docile and tankmate-friendly - if anything, he gets to be chased around a little by others, like the Perruno cat named "Mr. Marbles Sr.", who clearly thinks he owns the place...

- 1.5'-2' TSN x RTC named "Evans"...

[Viktor Jarikov]

go here to see what's happening with trying to add Cephalosilurus apurensis aka Apure Jelly Catfish, Orange Catfish to the pond: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 854#p19485

[Viktor Jarikov]

3rd update (all about the 2500 gal tropical pond)

I've got new pics and need some IDs. Please see the pic captions below.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Cactus and Yozhyk; Cranky Sr.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Alligator gars, ~1.5-2' TL, behind the divider

[Viktor Jarikov]

Donation from Ivy (Albany, NY) - one-eyed rescue (rescued by Ivy, not me), named "Cyclops", ~1.5-2' TL, most likely Leiarius marmoratus

[Viktor Jarikov]

.....

[Viktor Jarikov]

"Genik" - 7" TSN, the pattern appears to be right for a true TSN, that is Pseudoplatystoma tigrinum