Stronkey Kong

I ordered those julies from vivvy.com. Their shipping price was reasonable. I kinda snapped out of the whole wanting to breed fish for a living thing this week... I'm just gonna enjoy the tanks i've got and see where this hobby takes me for now.

Got up at 820, prayer done shortly after. Mid-prayer, my julies arrived: I ordered six and got seven live, healthy julies. (When you order them they usually send extra because of the risk of shipping) So I set their bag afloat, after prayer, and went for a brisk morning walk. I didn't feel like jogging so I just kept the pace up. When I came back I noticed one of the female mollies is preggers.

These types are spectacular.😂 Addit: typos... 🤣🤣🤣

Setting up multiple fish tanks is a lot of work. I spent a fair amount of time carrying bags of gravel up and down stairs. The tanks. Moving boxes off the shelves. Moving the shelf. Buckets of water. Buckets of gravel. Buckets of water and gravel. And I got a few other things done. NON FISH TANK STUFF: I didn't do anymore walking or running after Tuesday, but for whatever reason, I had a really rough week. I think staying up too late mid-week drinking beers and watching youtube videos about fish breeding and aquarium setups had something to do with it. 😕 I went to the church work day Saturday and spent about 4.5 hours helping re-organize the church basement... which also involved moving boxes off of shelves, and assembling shelves, and moving things up and down stairs. And I mopped the floor in the nave so I got wet doing that too. So it was like fish tank setup without the fish tank 🤣 After some more fish tank work, I went back to church for vespers and matins, then home. It's really hard to talk about NON FISH TANK STUFF without mentioning fish tanks. Then church again this morning, followed by an amazing meal... one guy hosted the coffee hour meal and he cooked some amazing food, like he probably should be a chef... seriously. I haven't cooked anything yet for the week, except I made a whole box of pasta and dumped a jar of sauce in so I at least have that for the week. Though, this does conflict with my potato goal 😕 I know I've done a few of my back exercises here and there, but not enough. However, I am noticing small improvements when standing and moving. My food goals have been totally neglected, but I am eating less overall, at least for this weekend, and I'm down a few pounds overall for this month. Still have some wide fluctuations but I'm currently 289, instead of the 293 or so I've been look at all summer. I've not gotten a lot of the house project to-do's done, but setting up fish tanks in the basement has prompted me to clear and re-arrange a lot of shelves, which means I have boxes to go through and things to organize. Some housework will come out of this.

Spent the afternoon getting the newbies set up and doing some water changes. The water's been very cloudy, totally normal while the tanks are cycling. Then took some more photos. Got these set up for the Julies when they arrive. They live and spawn in caves. If I were less lazy and had a bunch of rocks I'd build them caves, but for many of these types of fish, terra cotta pots work well. I've got six coming. If I'm lucky and get three mating pairs they have a total of four 'caves' to choose from. Peppered cory digging in the sand. Two more peppered cories, and marbles... remember that challenge? Galaxy rasboras, too small, not photogenic at all, but they look like miniature trout IRL. The one leopard danio was the only thing sitting still.

There are some clusters of Bacopa (moneywort) hiding behind the rocks that should grow up nice and tall also. The dwarf hairgrass is of course just for the foreground. I only bought the mollies to cycle the tank and honestly didn't care one way or the other. I do however want a big colorful mass of livebearers for some color in the dining room and moreso for churning out fry to feed to bigger fish I'll be keeping in the basement. Unless a cool colormorph shows up that I decide I want to breed out and try to make true lines or something. One goal of mine is to build up a plant/shrimp/nano community tank and just have good solid ecosystem that regularly churns out aquarium staples. I've already talked to the pet shop nearest me if they buy fish from local breeders... the small, common stuff like mollies, tetras, goldfish, guppies... he'd consider but never pay more than the wholesaler. Up from there are the oddballs, and rarer breeds, more unique things that bring in higher prices. And he said cichlids always sell, and he'd definitely be interested in the more unique breeds/species. From that same store, I bought some Bolivian rams and set them up in a 10 gal... They were mislabeled as German blue rams... ha ha! My first cichlid was one of these, and I love these fish. So I'm going to try to breed these, not as much for selling as I like them so much... but I hope others catch on to this underrated species... and they don't take up much space and do well in peaceful communities. I've also ordered some Masked Julies (Julidochromis transcriptus). I've always been interested in Lake Tanganyika cichlids. They're less aggressive than most Malawi and Victorian cichlids, smaller, and far less common in the pet shops... which means they might be a worthwhile breeding project. Then today I bought 5 peppered corydoras, 6 green cories, 6 leopard danios, and 6 galaxy rasboras... the cories I might try to breed, but are mostly for cleaning the bottoms of tanks. The danios and rasboras are for adding some dither to my breeding tanks. The Bol. rams often don't breed without them... smaller fish overhead means there aren't any predators present so they can go ahead and do their thing in safety.

So this happened...

I lost a fish The NO2 is peaking and NO3 is rising, which means we're coming over the peak. Could have been the chemistry, but it was more likely tank politics. I lost the smaller of the two males. Which if I had to choose one fish to lose if I had to, that would be it. Yeah. This thread is about aquariums now.

It's really just the hunching, but also some APT as well. I am noticing occasional pains in my upper back and neck, and want to get ahead of further issues before some real problems crop up. This reminds me I should do more lunge stretches as well. Big guys get too used to being weighed down in front... (don't say it. don't say it. don't say it...) Got to open up the chest and hips and strengthen that back circuit. ============================================ Yesterday, not so good. Woke up 1.5 hours late. Got morning prayer in, but skipped my walk. Forgot entirely to do thanksgiving prayers, do back exercsises or anything really. Today, doing good. Snoozed a bit, but still up around 8:15 am. Did prayer, and did a walk run. I did 4, roughly 1 min intervals on my 1.2 mile route. I just kinda ran until my legs got tired, pushed for like a 10 count, then walked. On the last one I went a little farther, but was slow walking at the end of it, whereas the previous three I could maintain a brisk stride after. I think that's just about the right way to do it. NGL... I'm obsessing about the aquarium and the possibility of breeding fish in the basement. At the very least, I will HAVE TO organize my shelves to make it happen. The tank I set up is in the middle of cycling still tho. The ammonia, NH4, is increasing, and nitrite, NO2, is going up... both of which are toxic.... but once the system starts turning over nitrite to nitrate, NO3, and the levels of NH4, and NO2 drop I'm good to go.

Added some plants... The bag in the lower right is a bag of filter charcoal. It should pick up those beneficial bacteria so I don't have to cycle the next tank. Yes. There's already going to be another tank. Purely by chance, I picked up 2 male and 2 female mollies. Mollies are in the Poecelidae family, along with the guppies, and the water from my tap is basically (pun intended) the correct pH. So, the babies are coming. I paid $6 apiece for these so... side hustle? ================ I made a modified version of kugelis for my weekly batch potato dish. Instead of bacon I just added red bell pepper, and subbed ingredients for what I had in the fridge. I need to do better about doing the Thanksgiving prayers after meals this week. Coincidentally, kugelis is one of my family's T day traditions, so maybe that will serve as a reminder. I will add a bit of running in this week I'm only planning to add a few jogging intervals into my morning walk on Tues and Thur. I was supposed to volunteer with the food pantry again Saturday, but my church is having a work day so I'm gonna go do that instead. I need to make more effort to do my posture fixing exercises. I'm also trying to make a point of standing up straight at church and during daily prayers. Finally, I'm pretty sure if I do everything I can to convert my entire house into a fish breeding factory, the house tak to-do list will take care of itself. 😛

Fish tank is set up! There's fish in there, I promise. Four dalmatian mollies... mainly just to get the tank cycled.

I had the day off today and it was stormy/rainy this morning so I skipped walking. I went to see Oppenheimer... good, but maybe not as good as they hype... I needed more science in it. 😕 Now I'm putting together a fish tank in my dining room... unexpected house project, but at least now it's just not sitting in the corner, full of junk, as an eyesore, collecting dust. Now it's an eyesore that's sitting in front of the window, half full of water while air hoses are bubbling away, with half-alive aquatic plants floating in it while all the junk that was in it is spread all over the living room floor.

Next week. Next week I'll start running a bit 😜

I checked my ring fit goal to running. I'll save RF for the winter months. Right now I want to work on running to boost my VO2 max and shed pounds while the weather's warm.

Two good mornings in a row so far. I was pretty good about blessings and gratitude for meals. At work it's hard because the are other people around. Thankfully, I have an office I can take meals in, but after using the microwave in the break room ands walking back etc., it's easy to slip. I did my mid meal breaks too. Tho my meals were small enough that it was easy to decide to keep going. Another fun complication is that the new calendar day begins at 6 pm (sunset, just like the Jewish calendar), so my wed fast kicked in then. This is optional, but I'm doing it because it helps space out the fasting more evenly. I also did the band exercises for my back, and the over the back of the chair stretch. I also sat on a stool for the first half of the day, instead of slouching in a desk chair.

Yeah. I thought you were highlighting the differences in services and was wondering what made the distinction. But given that the calendar is what's affecting my challenge, that makes sense. I was up to early when I posted and didn't make the connections.

Gonna start doing some of these throughout the day. (see goal 3.2)

Good luck. (I really should have done a no spend/saving goal myself 🤔)

I know what you're getting at, but I'm gonna have to ask you to unpack that.

I woke up with a sore throat and a headache so I took the day off work. When it turned out to be a false alarm... I was probably just a little dehydrated and maybe slept weird and did some snoring last night... I did some work around the house. I build and hung some shelves in my prayer corner. Then took down the power rack. I cleared some junk out of my office, and a few other things. So at least it was a productive and active day.

Congrats again! Following, as usual.

Congrats Tank!

Hi. I'm Stronkey Kong. Ugh... I just realized I've been on NF for 10 years, almost to the day... I have only 6.5 words to sum up the journey: I'm still fat, but still fighting. My main goal is to just improve and maintain my health, and hopefully lose some weight as I do that. I'm in the process of converting to Orthodox Christianity.... I only mention this because the feast and fast cycles (Like the upcoming Dormition fast) affect my eating and exercise activities, and it might inform some of my current motivations... and I scaled back some of my goals because this is coming up. Goal 1: Re-build My Morning Routine For almost a year I was on the afternoon-evening shift at work: 12pm -10 pm. A little over a month ago, I was moved back to the normal evening shift: 3:30pm - 2:00 am (BTW, I work 4 10's). Then last week they told me to go back to afternoons. Which is great because I wasn't enjoying the regular night shift, but one month was just enough to ruin my nice morning routine I had going before the change. Which was wake up, pray, then go for a walk. Then I 'd have free time to do whatever until work. It was nice. Now I need to get this back. So that's the goal, get back into my morning routine. Wake up: at 8 am. This includes bathroom, light the candles and incense, feed the cat, and start the coffee. I'm also going to add stepping outside to check on my plants and the weather. Pray: This includes all the morning prayers in my prayer book. Then any others that get added per my parish priest's instructions. Walk/Exercise: Then I grab my coffee thermos and go for a 1-2 mile walk. And in this challenge I'll also be adding exercise with walking. Goal 2: Fighting Gluttony. This is a multi-pronged strategy to combat my tendency to overeat. I got the first two from a podcast done by an Orthodox dietician. Bless and Give Thanks for Every meal: Pray for blessings on the food before meals. Pray to give thanks afterward. Kind of goes along with mindful eating. Mid-meal pauses: Stop halfway through each meal, assess my level of hunger, and consider (or even prefer) stopping. This too. Replace Bread with potatoes (or squash): Fewer carbs, more fiber, and more vitamins. Basically doing that as staple replacement. Bread (and pasta) is not banished, but it will no longer be the go to. And oats and rice other whole grains are fine too. Side quest: Try new potato recipes on the weekends. This last weekend I made fondant potatoes. They were fun, pretty easy, and they made the house smell amazing. Goal 3: Run Run on Tue, Thu, and Sat instead of or in addition to walking in the morning. I'm focusing on these three days because the weekly fasting days are Wed and Fri. I'll be eating less protein, and less over all on those days so less fuel/material for recovery. Do posture correcting exercises 3x per day-- I'm always slouching or hunching and this needs to stop. I'm gonna do some exercises (see video on another post below) 3 x per day. Just pick one and work on it for about 5 min. Sidequest 1: Go on 2 Fellowship walks-- These usually happen almost every Fri or Sat. Sidequest 2: Volunteer work-- I have one scheduled for Sat Aug 5 for an event with one of the food pantries. These can sub for exercise since there's quite a bit of physical activity. I will schedule another soon. Not sure if a spot will land during this challenge but we'll see. Sidequest 3: My cat is getting fat too. I need to chase her around the house more. Goal 4: Housework (to-do list) Outdoor stuff Buy a ladder Clean gutters-- pre-req no. 1 Clear gravel off concrete pads (can sub for exercise) Landscape with gravel? -- pre/co-req no. 3 (can sub for exercise) Dig a low spot for future rain garden (can sub for exercise) Plan, set-up space for outdoor gym? Connect outdoor water spigot Basement stuff Break down boxes Organize hardware and storage shelves. Setup a workshop area (smh) Clean and organize office De-junk-ify (whatever that means) Organize books-- sort by subject, set aside some for selling/donating Bathroom-- Tub repair (If I get this one done this goal is all win). Find a fix/replacement for the stupid claw foot I ruined -- might have to do bricks and boards... luckily the foot is in the back corner where it won't be seen Fit new fixtures. Re-connect plumbing Dining Room/Prayer corner/Studio corner-- I took down my power rack, and am re-claiming my dining room, which also houses my prayer corner, and I'm setting up a studio corner for painting. Basically figuring out a set layout and messing around trying to get it situated. Kitchen-- It's due for a deep clean and an organization overhaul now that the new fridge is situated. Attic crawlspace get up there and check things out lay down some boards over the rafters for gettin' around up there

As I mentioned, I'm eating leaner than ever now that the fast is over... But there's another shorter one coming in like three-four weeks. This challenge is done. I learned a few things about fasting, but really I just fell off the wagon, since I was not productive either exercise-wise or work-wise. Time to plan out the next one.