Logbooks

Just wondering how members keep track of all their fish tanks regarding dates of water changes, filter maintenance, when fry were born, medication treatments etc etc.

I'm up to 4 tanks now and tend to get a little confused at times. Do members devise their own systems or are there useful templates that can be used?

Dave

I have stopped using logbooks many years ago.....but only because of time constraints.

I think that they are an excellent way forward in good practice and are a source of knowledge to pass onto to other keepers.

When my sons were young and wanted to keep Tarantulas, I told them that they could have pet spiders so long as they kept a regular log of feeding, activity etc etc...they did and I had to keep to my word of allowing them a large collection.

For my keeping nowadays, I use what is left of my partially decomposed and aluminum cross-linked brain cells to remember what I can. But I have a strict routine that I have followed for years.

If, however, I come across anything new then that is recorded.

I would certainly be one who is in favour of fish-keepers keeping a logbook.

ian

I used to but I dont keep them anymore. I also test the water far less than I used to,in fact its not often at all that I test my water unless I suspect something is up. I know its not the ideal senario,but Im pretty sure alot of people on here dont test regularly if they are being 100% honest!I know we should but in truth once we grow used to the tank and possible warning signs we tend to ease off on the water testings. Im not saying thats the right thing to do,but Ive found myself doing it.

When I did keep the logs,I used to keep them on computer and the water changes were kept on a notepad under the tank!

Gavin

Sure; i kept a log book for my first tank for a whole 10 days

Used to be quite good at writing everything down, but now I only keep track of fry numbers.

again i started off keeping logbooks but after my tanks started to increase and so did the logging of parameters i got less inclined to do it, now i stick to my regular tests and fix what i need as i need it only recording where a sloution to a particular problem is going to take longer than a few days, thank god the memory isnt totally gone yet.. but for a beginner it is a good idea i believe as it get them used to tracking and monitoring fish behaviour and the conditions that brought them on.. heck if i had the time to log them all now i would but work is the curse of the fishkeeper

How often do ye all test yer water ? (be honest now!!!)

Gavin

Thanks for the feedback,

I used to use a calender to record the less frequent events which served me well but have become a bit lazy since. Now I'm using those sticky yellow things instead which I don't recommend.

Dave

Fishowner wrote:

How often do ye all test yer water ? (be honest now!!!)

Gavin

There would be need for a real incentive for that type of honesty.
I stick my fingers in, rub the forefinger against the thumb and if I'm left with little skin then I know the water is too hard and too acid.

But, onto the log-books. In the early days of keeping fish, the logs helped me no end in developing my skills. The notes all came in handy when I moved further into more than just keeping fish.

I still partially maintain my orchid log database....but that is in an Access database and is easier to maintain.

My early fish notes were in an old multi-year diary that I bought second hand (and from the 1950s). I still have it somewhere. I'd not only noted the daily (note: DAILY) activities, but changed all the days from the 1950s to the relevant 1970 days of the week (nerdy or what). Most of my first fish were named after me (I was younger then )....so it was Guisseppi #1 died; Guisseppi #3 ate dried food. Anyone reading it now would think I was a loon.

But, without someone somewhere keeping a log.....how would we have our present written knowledge on fish keeping. eg how would we know that white-spot can take so many days to clear at 30 C?

ian

Cos Kev or JohnH told us!!!!!!

second nature at this stage. i kept a log for three days when setting up but jacked it in as i lost my lucky pen, so mental notes all the way. lets the hope hereditary mental illness doesn't steal it all from me

mental note: write it all down darren

Water testing done with every water change......yeah right!

I use an A4 diary - 1 page per day. I try to keep it up to date - I regard it like backing up your PC - the day you need it you'll be glad you kept it !

I name the tanks after the main fish in it eg Rams tank, livebearer tank.

I defo don't test that often and don't test for everything each time - only if somethings not right or if I'm being very careful about something e.g. Adjusting a pH

there is some really cool software that you can get from us,it's called fish tracker and does everything including making a cup of tea.

havent heard of fishtracker is it good and how much for it,( can it do coffee instead of tea ),when i remember i use the aqualog program which isnt a bad piece of kit but needs a database included in it rather than through the web...
as for water testing, i honestly only do it if my fish start courting, breeding, or acting out of sorts.

Would someone here not offer to build a useable fish-tacker database and distribute it?

A nice project for someone into database design (a few free hours).

ian

Good suggestion Ian. If you could put it down on paper as to what you think would be practical, I'll then ask my sister to build one over the Easter. She's a database specialist/architect or whatever they call themselves.

Dave

That would be cool.

If she is a database designer/architect then I’d imagine that good logical would be built into the basic system such as having it a full relational database.

That way, the database could be in modular design and new tables could be added quite easily as opposed to having a simple non-relational spreadsheet.
And not all data need be entered at one go.

Eg you could have a field for genus name, and then at a later stage you could have a table of genus names attached to families (as just one example even though it may not be useful to all).

Pull down menus of commonly used shops or products would help data entry…..now they would be simply added as a ‘user defined’ table that when the user enters the name of shop for the first time it is saved for future ‘pull-down’ to save re-typing etc etc etc.

So….. in a snap…….

Main (parent) table would be species specific….eg scientific names, common names, ‘pet name’, FBAS show size, location, spawning categories (substrate, scatter, paternal or maternal mouthbrooder). Etc etc and data entered as is wished.

The supplementary tables containing details, just as some expamples, table-by-table for:
Shop details;
Food details;
Product details etc etc
(and these being linked up to the main input tables).

A second Main (child in database speak) table would be for your own specific fish….it would be linked to the main species table to save typing data in twice.
In that you use the pull down system to enter the species, the shop would be selected from the ‘shops’ table etc etc, and date bought or whatever.

Then through that form, daily, weekly, updates could be added but the database, being relational, would save that in a different table linked through a key to the specimen.

You could do a similar thing with each aquarium and have relevant data entered, and even have an alert system entered by the user…eg to say ‘clean the eheim….it’s been 9 months since last’.

There could even be facilities for having a table of water parameter values and safety levels built in.

The skies the limit….and if a proper database architect designed it then it would keep working and be updateable with new functions without the need to start all over again in the future.

Ian

Sorry Ian for not getting back quickly. My sister is more than willing to design a database for the members' needs.

If you could contact her @ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. name is Maria Kinsella

She's not a fishkeeper herself so she'll need pointers.

Dave

That would be a cool project.
I had started on doing one recently, but time is not on my side and I have only populated part of it with some stuff.

So...maybe some fishkeepers could make suggestions of what could be in the database.

ian