Leaderboard

My friend Jen at Smallworld Aquatics who is the vendor that buys most of my fish wants us to participate in our clubs Breeders Award Program. I have no computer or computer skills 🤣 I tried to find a format on my phone to write and organize all my Breeder forms, spawning reports and proof of spawn to be able to submit them. The first submission for January is a bunch that bred Sept -November. I doubt the folks on the committee want to read my 120+ page journal and side journals to find the info 🤣 I’ll keep everything here because @Elodie Rose is going to proofread and put them into an accepted format to submit for me. I figure it will be easy to simply mail 1 link to the Bap committee that displays all the videos and photos for proof of spawn. Im also going to participate in the photo and writers award program for my club. Those articles have to be unpublished elsewhere (not sure if this counts as publishing) so I’ll do those in email. Hopefully they choose some to put in the club newsletter Tank Tales. If they do I will ask permission to photograph the article and share here. Follow along and those who participate in BAP for their club if you see anything I missed chime in so I can include it because I have no clue about the BAP program 🤗 If you follow along with my adventure please check back on any species you are interested in. Each species will have only one entry that I will edit to update as I collect info. Feel free to comment or ask questions. HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW!

1. WalMart liquid medicine syringe + 6-in piece of airline. Every day. 2. Aquascaping skimming net. Use to harvest Daphnia and remove Duckweed. Every day. 3. Large granite Pestle & Mortar for powderizing fish flakes… or anything. At least every few days. 4. Knee-high panty hose to keep fish fry from getting siphoned out during water changes.

I have always really enjoyed her YouTube videos. I'm really missing her. The last video that she posted was a month ago and she mentioned having some personal issues. I hope everything is OK with her. Maybe I have missed some thing but again, I hope everything is OK with her.

Good to hear! I hope she knows we wish her well, miss her, and hope to see her back to full speed as soon as possible. @Irene, please do not feel obligated to reply. Just know we’re thinking of you and we wish you well!

After getting back into the hobby almost a year and a half ago, I have realized there are some tools I never thought I would ever use for a tank or really need in the house at all but low & behold, here they are...what are some of the tools you were surprised were suggested to you that you never thought you'd need and now cannot do without? I'll start....a turkey baster. 😂

Old retired meat Thermometer for quick water checks. Measuring spoons (good luck finding a tbsp or tsp in my kitchen!) Kasa outlet plugs are my favorite and most used, shutting off filters, for feeding/maintenance, plus the perks like light control!

Rainbow fish are often cited as being at risk for TB. Bettas or fishes with labyrinth organs, Koi and fancy goldfish as well. As a healthcare professional my main take aways have been 1. Don’t put your hand in the tank with an open cut 2. Wash before and after getting into the tank 3. If you’re on immunosuppressant therapy- cancer treatment, autoimmune disease tx, or have a transplanted organ you need to really question your involvement in the hobby and potentially take precautions like gloves etc or just not keep tanks.

Apistogramma cacatuoides Cockatoo dwarf cichlid “triple red” color morph Photo Program submissions of parents. Purchased April 2023 Proof of spawn

Ancistrus sp. L144a Longfin Lemon Blue Eyed Pleco Photo Program submissions of parents. Purchased as very young juveniles end of 2020-beginning 2021 (need better photos ) Proof of spawn -spawn date end September.

I agree with everyone here. I adore her content and hope her new year goes very well and takes a turn to the positive. ❤️

@Odd Duck thanks for your continued support. I never thought the female neons getting bloated were negatively effecting the tank (except when they pass of course) because nobody else seems effected- they just get bloated, really bloated. I figure it's an egg issue since it seems only girls are getting it. I tried high concentration salt soaks and QT but that doesn't help their bloating in any way. Plus the usual med suspects, antibiotics etc. Just not IchX until now. The Harlequins have had zero issues. I have all 10 from when I got them in 2020. I'm hoping for a good result of some kind!

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi German Blue Ram total this survivors this spawn 196 Photo Program submissions of parents also hatched in my tank 1/15/23. Proof of Spawn Spawn date 10/29/23

I hope she’s doing well. I love her educational videos.

It's definitely not out of the norm and it's not something where it was a bad recommendation from my perspective. A brief explanation can hopefully shed some light on the reason behind it. Let's say you've had the tank for years, 10 fish in the tank. You're adding 5-10 more fish. Increasing the bioload. If you're adding similar fish, maybe the bioload doesn't increase a ton, but if you're adding larger fish then you might run into a situation where it takes a little bit for the filtration and biological to catch up and handle the new load. The tank in all reality should have enough bacteria for the sake of argument, but having some to help boost things isn't a bad thing. The bacteria might not be strong/active because of a very low demand on the tank. Adding in basically double the bioload will shock the system a bit and having strong bacteria to help that transition is the key. If you're confident in the tank having that strong bacteria, then you're fine, but if you have minimal filtration capacity or just a maintenance routine where things have been sitting for a long time, that's where the stability can be helpful for some.

Agreed. Hope all is going ok and the medical situation is improving.

I feed live baby brine shrimp, live banana worms drawn up from water in small glass jar, live daphnia, and thawed frozen foods (thawed in specimen container with warm water). It is just a liquid syringe with an extended tubing.

Male and female

Moving a big tank and need a pond/pool to hold some fish while you work on the tank? --->Tote Working on trying to keep all the junk that you use neat and tidy on your table, but drips and things happen a lot? --->Tote Need to store all the stuff you use every few months or just have some "dust free" long term storage for the supplies you don't really use daily? (or need to store things in the garage to free up space...) --->Tote Need a qt tank and all you have is stuff around the house....? ---->Tote Need to move a tank and don't want to toss out 40 gallons of water? ---->Tote It's sort of been the go-to for me with buckets, anything and everything that can hold water has a use, at least once!

Pipettes, yeast, salsa jars, but meat thermometer is probably my biggest one. I can instantly check the temp on my tanks without having to have a thermometer in each one or try and read those little glass thermometers. Bonus, you can check the temp if the water for a water change. Definitely turkey basters so many uses! What are you doing with that?

That is actually some rotala rotundifolia. I get it confused with pearl weed very often when I see it. But there is about 3/4 inch of substrate. Not perfect but I have grown plants in about that depth before. This is my first attempt at making a planted tank look good instead of just randomly placing plants in a tank. And that is a marimo moss ball that has kind of been ripped open on the sponge filter. Looks a little bit like hair algae in this picture. I have two Lumbantobing gobies in there

I've still been super busy, haven't had much time to be on the forum and keep my journal updated. I feel bad for not really looking at everyone else's and commenting too! The first obvious thing, I treated for algae this morning before I changed the water and cleaned the tank up. As much as I respect all the work that went into RR, I just didn't have the time or energy to pull all the plants out and soak them. So I took out the filter and ran 12ml of hydrogen peroxide for 15 minutes before changing the water, it looks like it dinged the algae good! I'll retreat again in the next few weeks if needed. 2nd big change, I finally cut and drilled the full length spray bar and the flow is great! Future plans to revisit DIY yeast/sugar CO2. I know it's best to go with a pressurized system but I just don't have the income for that right now and I need to fight the algae. I've also gotten back on top of fertilizer dosing, I had really fallen off on that. And still planning to refill with harlequin and purple rasboras and a few otocinclus. EDIT: My mystery snail died a few weeks ago, her antics are missed! I've been considering Malaysian trumpet snails to help keep the sand clean, but am afraid of them taking over.

It does not look like vorticella or other common shrimp diseases. It seems like some sort of microfauna, similar to hydra, that needs to attach its foot to something for survival.

Shrimp are an amazing cleanup crew. They will cover the job of finding all leftover food pieces and help you in this regard. My advice would be, embrace the pest snails if you happen to get them, but otherwise don't add any intentionally if it is not a specific scenario. You add yourself an extra task to be able to control a population all the time. And in a shrimp tank, when you want to support their diet, it gets hard to control the population of pest snails. Ramshorns aint any different than MTS when it comes to population control. Endlers reproduce very quickly and mine almost never eat their own babies. That is something to keep in mind. In 1-2 months your tank would be easily overstocked if you keep a trio ( I assume 1m:2f). You may need another grow out tank for this purpose soon enough if you choose this path. You bred them in the past too so you should be fairly familiar to what I mean

week-and-a-half old Betta splendens fry…

I use small USB desk fans on my axolotl tank. It has a mesh lid, so I just let the small fans sit on top and angle at the waters surface. In the summer, I use up to 3 small fans at one time. At other times, only one is needed. I keep the water temp between 60-64 degrees F. Another reasonable good way to regulate the fan is with an Inkbird. There is an Inkbird model that does heating and cooling. You just need a small old style switch fan that will turn on automatically when plugged in if the switch is on a speed. (The USB fans require plug-in AND the press of a power button.) Simply plug the fan into the cooling plug, leave the switch on, and set the Inkbird to activate that plug at a desired time, and turn it off at a desired temp.

Thank you, all for your suggestions, I appreciate you all for the help. I did change a few things around. Thanks to the suggestions that I received and I’m going instead of Malaysian trumpets snails, gonna go with some Ramhorn snails. And I did not know that kuhli loaches can grow to such length, very unable for 5 gallon so I might go with a smaller feeder and might pick out a small group of them.

With that info, treating the whole tank is appropriate. Obviously skip the high salt dose since it would likely wipe out all your plants. If you do isolate him, do the salt at that point or do a salt dip at up to 1 tablespoon per liter for up to 30 minutes. Watch very closely every second and move to normal salt concentration if any distress is seen. I usually start at 1 teaspoon per liter to see how they respond before going higher on the concentration. You can make a saturated salt solution by dissolving a set amount of salt into the smallest volume of water possible, tracking the volume of salt and water so you can calculate the amount needed to achieve your goal concentration. For instance, put your 1 tablespoon salt into 6 tablespoons water. Yes, this works, just keep stirring, it takes a while to dissolve it all. The salt will increase your volume of solution but so minimally that it doesn’t matter enough to worry about. Then use 2 tablespoons of the stock solution into 1 liter of tank water to equal 1 teaspoon salt per liter. You could slowly drizzle in more until you have full concentration for the salt dip. Stopping and moving to “normal” salt concentration of 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. I wouldn’t go straight to no salt since that could be more shock / stress than going to a light salt concentration.

I agree completely with @macdaddy36 on Kuhli loaches being shoaling fish so 5+ is better and 5 G being too small. I’m not sure how many I have in my 100 G but I randomly see 1 to 2 at most, once saw 3 a couple weeks ago. They mostly stay out of sight but do an excellent job of controlling ramshorn snails so I have a good balance of snails for algae control but never an over population problem. I also second getting a small shoal of one of the dwarf cory species which will have a fairly similar bioload compared to a single Kuhli loach. Look into Corydoras pymaeus like macdaddy36 suggested or Corydoras hastatus. Both are similarly size but different in their pattern so pick ONE species that appeals to you the most by pattern / color and get at least 6 or more. Mixing species from the same lineage is strongly discouraged since you should always try to prevent hybrids so do NOT get both hastatus and pygmaeus chose just one of these species. There are other species of dwarf cories but these 2 are the smallest and the best fit for a 5 G. I would definitely NOT put any Malaysian trumpet snails in a 5 gallon. They will highly likely overrun the tank under a beginner fishkeeper and you will have to completely change the substrate in order to clear them. You would be much better off getting a single, young mystery snail (up to large pea sized or smaller) so there would be no reproduction in your tank. Most definitely be prepared for what to do with more endlers. If you get both males and females, you will end up with dozens more. Maybe consider chili rasboras instead since you could have a nice shoal of them since they are such low bioload fish. You could gradually build up your shoal of chili rasboras to around 10 if you wanted, but take several weeks to build up to that many. As always, do NOT get all the fish at once. Pick one species and add a few at a time. Take several days between adding each group. Because the dwarf cory species mentioned are such a light bioload, you could add 6 at once but be careful not to overfeed. Same with chili rasboras, you could add 5 at a time, then a week later, add 5 more. A mystery snail has a fairly significant bioload for a 5 G, but buying small will help build up your biofiltration gradually and it would help with algae control that is nearly always an issue with new tanks. I would put the mystery snail in first, wait a week then add the group of 6 dwarf cories. Wait another week and add 5-6 chili rasboras. Wait another week and if everything is still going well, add another 4-5 chili rasboras. You certainly don’t have to take our exact recommendations, I’m using these species just as example. If you are set on chili endlers, then decide on if you want to do mixed sexes and what your plan would be when they reproduce, since they will. Or you can get all males so you don’t have to worry about extras appearing. If you get mixed sexes, make sure to get more females than males so the males don’t excessively hassle the females (2 males, 3 females would be an appropriate ratio). You’ll likely have triple that many in a month and about 6 times as many in 2 months. It can overwhelm a 5 G in very short order, so you’ll need a grow out tank to handle the offspring before you realize it. Keep us posted on what you decide. We like watching a new tank developing.

I’m so excited about this! What a great new adventure, your breeders and their babies are gorgeous and healthy. The ones I’ve gotten from you are doing great! I’ll be trying some BAP too this year with the sister Club (livebearers). Very exciting! 🤩🎉

Hexamita doesn’t usually cause a lump, more typically ulcerated or eroded areas, but if there’s no catching and no possibility of closer inspection I would use the Metroplex added to Repashy if you can get the fish to eat it.

Thank you both - appreciate ya'll. Really good perspectives and advice.

Love her videos! 🙂

your fish are fine, dont over think it.

I been looking for some fancy livebearers that would work with my setup for a few years now. • Cooler temperatures • Softwater • 6.5-6.8 ph • Heavy waterchange • Smaller aquarium size Started with guppies and mollies but they just fell apart in my water over a few weeks. The few time I picked up platies didn't work out or never bred. I was able to start with this line swortails and this line seems to adjust well with my setup. They are on their 3rd generation, going from 55-70f and 80-90% cooler water changes. Now since they are surviving the fun began lol It's time to start setting up breeding goals. • Color - haven't really decide what would be more fun and more of an challenge • Size - most breeder would breed for the largest fish, but I'm breeding for a smaller fish. It doesn't make sense since I mainly have 10-20gallon aquarium. I can keep them in bigger group. • Less aggression - I want to be able to put a decent group in smaller aquarium • Conformation - looking for a longer stream fish over a thick body fish. A very long sword. This project will be a male line project. Male line project is a project where all decisions is made to improve the males of species regardless how the female looks. Female line project is the opposite where all decisions is made for the female conformation regardless how those males turn out. For example it's very hard to get a slim long casting male from female line you bred to be big and thick Hopefully all goes well

Yes, also called false Julii. I think they’re a bit prettier because they have slightly more crisp and distinct lines and I prefer the squiggles on the face. They are also very sweet and gentle during mating compared to my bronzes. Really a very nice species.

They are between orange and brick, this line also throw green. I'm trying to get their body and sword length right first before I start working on color

Looks like it worked really well! That's awesome. My gut tells me to urge you to repeat the treatment in 2-3 days just to really give it the beans. BBA is really annoying and one tip/technique I've heard is that the first treatment only wounds it and makes it fight you, the second treatment actually kills it! Please keep us posted on how that goes in the next few weeks for you.

To me, they look a bit like these fungal vesicles. This is from a Texas A&M handbook of shrimp diseases PDF I found through NOAA https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/36212/noaa_36212_DS1.pdf

Thanks for the help. The almond leave are a great idea. I will start the new medication tomorrow

Just had to get this beautiful girl on video.

You know I think you were right and the stuff on the substrate is bba.

There is an issue with betta community tanks. In order to have the increased success rate to keep a betta community, you should add betta the last. Otherwise it claims the space as its territory and will be unlikely to welcome any other future additions to his territory. However, there is also no guarantee for a betta community tank to work even if you stock it this way. Therefore there will be always a chance for you to fail to keep a betta in a community tank and you may have to make a choice between to either rehome all other fish, or the betta(which is your son’s fav.) or this may be another reason to setup a new tank 🤪🤣 10g is too small for plecos in my opinion. Big bioload, big size, so much poop. Hillstreams usually like cooler temps more flow and lots of areas around to graze on. Bettas prefer high temp, doesnt like flow and if looking for a long fin version, they struggle much more with any flow and objects around so a simpler design is usually better. In a 10g, I would lean towards fish that are both small in size and that are not super active. Danios are active fish in general and emperor tetras are fairly big. I would lean towards smaller sized calm fish like embers, dwarf rasboras, etc. 10g is more suitable for pygmy/habrosus/hastatus cories imo due to their small size. However I had issues keeping pygmy cories with bettas in the past. In my very own experience, I would not suggest anyone to keep small cories with bettas anymore. In a 10g I would to something like: -1 female betta or 1 plakat male betta(please search further for some color and genetic problems linked to certain looks, like dragonscales being prone to blindness, coloring up kois being more prone to tumor/cancer etc) -10 dwarf rasbora OR ember tetras OR 10 pseudomugil maybe - Neocaridina shrimp you like - Nerite snail If you would aerate the water well, you may consider one borneo sucker even tho they like it cooler, higher flow, more oxygen type of tank

Sounds like some solid plans. I hate to break the news to you, but I’m pretty sure you have trilineatus cories, not julii. Julii are quite rare in the hobby from what I’ve read, and they usually have a more dotted pattern on their heads vs. the squiggly lines of trilineatus. They are often more spotty looking as juveniles, so they are very easy to confuse them at every level of middleman and beyond. Trilineatus are expected to get very slightly larger on average, and have slightly more distinct lines along the body. Are supposed to have a slightly longer nose than julii but both still have a somewhat short, rounded nose compare to some other species. Trilineatus have a much wider distribution range and are far more often seen in the hobby. Does it matter which it is? Not really. They look so similar, have similar habits and behavior, and trilineatus may even live a bit longer. I love my trilineatus! They are far gentler with each other than the bronzes that are in the same tank. It only matters if you want to get more to go with them for breeding. Both species are lineage 9, so ideally shouldn’t be kept together to prevent hybrids.

Haven't updated in a bit, holidays and other things getting in the way of the hobby lately. Plus been monitoring Punk's health with his bad eye, currently treating with Ich X per recommendations from our fish friend @Odd Duck. I don't know what it is about Platinum Guppies but in the Medieval tank I've lost all but one (this is the 2nd batch too!!!). They're white so very hard to tell some outward signs (like Ich) HOWEVER, there are 8 perfectly healthy Ember Tetras and now probably at least approaching 100 Rili shrimp so it can't be all bad in there! I pulled the last Platinum with zero plans of ever getting those again and put him in my male Endler tank because, well, he looked so pathetic in the Medieval by himself and seemed, for lack of better terms, bummed to be alone. He put up quite the fight though and had to chase him. He gave up the ghost and let me catch and release into the Endler/Accidental tank. Took him all of 15 minutes to acclimate to his new surroundings and play chase with his new friends. The Parent Tank has issues. It's the oldest of my tanks (2020) and it smells. Most of that is that the residents are almost entirely bottom feeders. All of my unknown number of Otos, my 1 female long finned albino pleco, several Nerites and now NINE Julli Cory. Now, before you say anything, yes, I am quite aware this 20 gallon tall is SO overstocked. The only reason it is at this point is because the Cory and the Pleco were both purchased to help stock the 196 gallon tank that is up and coming. Another plan too is while it is being established, and the fish are being moved to their new house, I may set up a 40 breeder to house EVERYONE I currently have that is going into the big tank- and that size will be more manageable until they are released. I entirely acknowledge I have a problem. BUT the fish don't seem to. Everyone happily eats (and clearly poops, I baste and/or vacuum every day) and pals around. There is detrius EVERYWHERE. I have the HOB, 2 sponges AND a UV sterilizer in there. It's ridiculous! To prove a point though- my Julli are reproducing. I have 2 juveniles in my tank so from 7 we go to 9. Here is a somewhat crappy picture of one of them to the right of a couple adults: They are adorable little things. Super gregarious. Their only roommate who is NOT a bottom feeder, Industry, is still getting along ok in here. I don't think she LOVES it but I will catch her following the Cory in the mornings and monitoring the food bowls from time to time. Don't worry little girl, we'll get you somewhere else. The Medieval tank, along with the inhabitants, will be going to my Mum eventually, she will put her small menagerie into that tank (she has two 5.5 gallon tanks). The Accidental tank and its inhabitants will get a new home as well, where I'm not sure yet maybe to another local fish keeper if nobody in the family wants them. Endlers I've decided are just too small to put into the 196 gallon tank and I worry for their safety. Plus there's 2 hillstreams in there. The only small tank that will stay with me is Invictus the rescue Betta in the Dragon tank. Until he is no longer with me. I might keep the Dragon tank after that but no more Betta. Probably some small species- even maybe a few Endlers, or shrimp. Who knows. Changes are coming to my tanks that's for sure. It's still going to be some months but we're steadily headed that direction...

I no longer need 2 quarantines, so I scaped one of those tanks. Before & after I played a little with void space this time, on the right. This is 5.5 gallons. Also, Flint says hi.

I have been working with a pair of Nanochromis parilus. They are really elegant… but the male is so, so intensely aggressive…

58 is a great result with some cheap insulation, a lot of aeration and a small fan, great job @Fish Folk. @Odd Duckas I was going through the thread started to reflect on my experience with beer fridges, brewing setups and the like and so when I came to your report I wasn’t surprised that some home brewer reefer came to this as a diy! Definitely something to consider as I keep getting my son pushing me to setup an axolotl tank!