Fish Tails

 As the stay at home parent its also my job to take care of the four legged animals and the fishy ones. We currently have a full blooded Chihuahua, a mixed Chihuahua \ Miniature Pinscher, a full blooded Miniature Pinscher, and a Shiba Inu Mixed with something else. Those are the four legged hooligans we have running around. In the fish tank we have two fantail goldfish and a black moor goldfish, as well as 14 ghost shrimp and three snails.

 Recently one of our goldfish started showing signs of distress black coming in on his fins and a couple little patches on his side. Since he had just got over a case of Ich and Swim Bladder Disease. I know poor guy has had it rough lately. I had just assumed it was coloring showing he had gotten over a sickness like they do sometimes. last week I was watching Doctor Who (Which is what rebel decided to name her fish.) Though I do really enjoy the show as well. 

 I noticed his tail fin was showing signs of coming apart, for a week there was no change. I had been keeping a close eye on him and it wasn't getting worse it was staying the same. just two little bits missing out of his tail fin. I decided to put him in a hospital tank and start a treatment with him, this way I'm not medicating the fish who are still healthy and showing no sign of illness. 

There was a problem with this idea though... I didn't have another filter I could use for the hospital tank. After doing some research and some thinking I came up with a idea for a impromptu bacteria filter. I gathered material I had laying around the house. 

-An empty fish food container.

-Some extra fish tank rock.

-A bath Loofah

  And naturally any chance I get to use a power tool I will take it so I also broke out my 18 volt drill, and a 1\8" drill bit.

Bottom of the food container

Bottom again to allow
for airflow

Side with holes drilled

I started by drilling a hole in the middle of the bottom, since the drill bit I was using was too small for the air hose to go through I had to made it a little bigger with a knife. Then I made the holes in the side this way the water can come into the filter at the bottom. I added the holes at the top for letting water and air escape. the filter. As a after thought I pulled the filter back out and added some holes in the screw on cap to increase water flow into the filter.

Added rock into the top

And the loofah sits in the bottom

After all the drilling and cleaning off the spurs of plastic (sandpaper works great) and don't forget to rinse it. I added the rocks into the top for weight and put the loofah in the bottom around the air stone. Which is where the bacteria will be living in theory...

The whole concept

After watching the filter while writing this blog I discovered putting a little rock in the bottom as well helps to stabilize the filter, the filter had kept flipping on it's side but now it seems to be standing upright like I intended it to.  I hope you enjoyed this small blog about my homemade filter and you found it useful in some way. Please feel free to share with your friends. If you have any thought's or comments please let us know. As always thanks for reading, I hope you have a wonderful day.