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I have been ill. Posts will resume shortly.

I killed them

Its all my fault. I forgot to water the garden.




and I noticed the cloudy water and the snails heading toward the top, but I didn't do anything, figured I just needed to do a water change.

Well, I had moved the filter and apparently I wasn't getting enough surface agitation. Both blue rams are dead as well as the cory and all 5 of the harlequin rasporias.

So I Lied

I said I was going to start my Viv yesterday, but everything went wrong, I overslept because the dogs were whining and the batteries in the camera died, just nothing fell into place. My next day off is Thursday. We'll see what I can get accomplished then.

Score

Scored another 20H today, someone dropped of a Red Tailed Boa in it, and I found a good guy to re-home it with. But he didnt need the 20gal since it didn't have a reptile lid.

So now I have 2 aquariums to practice my terrarium skills on....woot

But now I need to find a home for a full grown female leopard gecko if anybody wants one....

Perfect Pork Chops

You need a hot grill (you shouldn't be able to hold your hand over it for more then 2 seconds)
Or preheat an oven to about 375

put pork chops in a Ziploc with enough soda to cover them, I'm using Dr Pepper but Coke or Pepsi will work as long as it is a dark cola
a teaspoon of salt and pepper
two cloves of garlic (Italian dressing works well too)
or any combination of herbs that you like , I'm using basil, rosemary and garlic chives
marinade in the fridge for at least an hour
pour off the marinade
you can put them directly on the grill if you like or make a pouch

put pork chops onions/bell peppers/ corn on the cob or any other vegetable that steam well
into enough foil to fold over and close
one teaspoon of butter or olive oil
seal pouch and put in oven for 30 minutes or on grill for 15 to 25

i usually put one directly on the grill to eat for dinner and then the rest of them in individual pouches to reheat later

this method also works for steak or chicken, the soda gives it a nice flavor and tenderizes the meat

pouches are almost full proof, the pork chops come out tender every time

FYI

Don't transport tanks with weight in the bottom...it doesn't work.

Poor Fire Belly Toad

Someone dropped off a single little fire belly toad at work today. It was in a little plastic habitat that was molded to have little grasses and a blue pool in the middle, pretty fancy compared to some of the "fire belly landing"s I've seen, but still completely inadequate. It was completely dry and covered in cricket poo. I had a heart wrenching gasp and got him cleaned up and into a 10 gal with fresh water.

I of course had the urge to bring him home but I just couldn't. I'm out of unbroken tanks and he can't be housed with any of my other frogs....so he stayed at work. Hopefully someone else will have room for him.

Sqeeeeal!

Yeah! One of my fellow Frog lovers and friends has started her blog, and LINKED to me. Makes me feel special.

Frogger Freak

Anibus

I'm doing a water change on the 18H with the Blue Rams in it. And I found a bunch of anibus leaves floating at the surface, I planted them to deep in the substrate and the roots rotted, I've lost two more Anubis Nana plants, they are so expensive and hard to find, its frustrating, that makes four total I've lost I have two left that I still haven't even planted, and I've only seen 8 for sale in the past 10 months. So unless I have better luck with them...*sigh* this is going to be an unending battle.

PS, Crawdads love to eat Anubis

On the bright side, My java fern is going crazy, i have little babys under almost every leaf and the stands i tied to the grapevine have rooted well, my ludwiga that I planted all of two stems of is actually growing and rooted, I've never been able to keep stem plants alive before, the penny wart has sent a shoot all the way to the surface, it looks like it made a direct beeline. And the dwarf sag has filled in nicely.

I'll have a lot of excess plants from this tank, I'll ship some to some friends and use the rest for some of my terrariums. I'll post a pic of it in a couple of days when the water clears, I kicked up a lot of mulm.

Click Me

I know its silly....but then maybe it just proves I'm a girl