RickHunter

Haven't been updating this much lately but will try to get back to it here. @SaveTheRainbowfish I replied with some suggestions and answers on your thread 🙂 Got a few updates to share. In the near year since I've updated I've been able to successfully spawn my congo tetras and have a good size school of them growing up in a 75gallon. @Odd Duck speaking of anubias roots these ones I tied to a ship in that 75 gallon have shot roots almost from the top of the tank right down to the bottom hahaha Recently this past week my petricola finally spawned after being moved to a new tank and I was able to get a large batch of eggs. I currently have probably a few hundred fry huddled together growing up now. (Trying to find a good way to put the videos I have of the fry and parents here too, not sure if these will work) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SrCuhnIHvXsRT_IBD6eXSoWMXu-3x6uf/view?usp=drivesdk https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SsmkdCeVyp02XG1XlKH7_CtupNkAKk0d/view?usp=drivesdk

@Biotope Biologist thanks for the tag, it reminded me that i need to go back and update that, lots going on in the last year. @SaveTheRainbowfish a good general way to go about it is don't keep anything that can fit in their mouths (decor or animal wise). Ropefiah tend to suck a bunch of water in when they find food so you run the risk of them pulling it in with the food. Snails aren't really a big deal when it comes to that but I would worry about something like lava rock of its small enough for them to accidentally suck up. Mine were pretty picky eaters at first but after a few months they went for pretty much anything. Tubifex worm cubes are a good start that I've seen them generally go for every time. Now days I feed a mix of tubifex and things like carnivore tabs or broken up algae wafers. Pretty much anything I give to my other fish they will take. The only thing I haven't seen them take an interest in is krill. Tried that a couple of times but nobody seemed really crazy about it. Are there any other fish in the tank you'd be putting the rope in?

Some newish things to add here. Got some new fish here recently due to the local auction and a bingo event. First, from the auction some Ginga Sulphureus Guppies. Second, from the bingo event. An L173B. Really looking forward to seeing how this one grows. The Blue Phantom's have mostly been moved over into their 40 breeder and are becoming less skittish and doing well. There is one smaller Phantom that is part of the group that I'm still growing in another tank to make sure he doesn't get out competed for food. It would also seem that I've accidentally set the Blue Phantom tank up with a colony of detritus worms and water fleas so at least there's some emergency food in there haha. More of my Purple Moscow Guppy breeding is coming out well. Ive moved a few of the male guppies over into the Blue Phantom tank and will probably separate more of them out soon. Im thinking I may start to setup two sets of these for breeding as a few of my purples have actually come out as something close to emerald green (hard to see in this picture since they are movers).

So some updates here. Some things I wanted to do with these projects have taken quite some time. I was originally planning to use the Estes stoney river beige sand for all my projects but I've haven't been able to find anyone that has it since October and it looks like the wholesalers that provide for the stores I visit locally have taken it off their order lists. So I've finally thrown in the towel on finding that and am going to run these new tanks as an experiment with using CaribSeas super fine moonlight sand. Using a shark 800 internal filter in these 40s. I squeezed out the dirtiest sponge from my holding tanks in the new 40 to seed it so hopefully that works out well. I'm going to add some fritz live bacteria here later today to kickstart things jow that all that gunk is in the tank. Doing a few experiments with this tank. I found some local red mangroves so I grabbed 1 good looking one with leaves and 2 where leaves had fallen off. I have the good one poking out of the water but want to see how the other two fare submerged since I've seen conflicting information on if they will do well fully submerged. 40 gallon before squeezing "The Dirtiest Sponge" 40 gallon after squeezing "The Dirtiest Sponge" The Blue Phantoms that are going into this 40 gallon are doing well. The smallest one is going through a growth spurt and the other 3 are becoming less skittish when I walk by the 20 gallon. In other projects the purple guppies are starting to color up nicely. My synodontis have been showing spawning behaviour. Sadly it looks like I missed the most recent batch and didnt have an egg trap ready. I've got an egg trap in their ceramic hut now but haven't been able to find any good information on what others have seen as far as intervals between spawning.

Sorry for the delayed reply here, holidays and all that. I personally keeps these with my ropefish. They are all full grown and bigger than the ropefishes mouth (think width) for now and will be moved out of the tank if the ropefish end up growing large enough to mistake them for food. Note: All species Im listing here are full grown before being introduced to the ropefish tank. 10 Adult peppered corydoras (very chonky) 4 Panda Garra (They get quite chunky themselves but they're also very active and always darting around the tank) School of Congo Tetras (Lost the previous school in the tank move but am currently growing out a new school to add to the ropefish tank, when full grown they stay mid to high and there are no real issues. Make a great dither fish as long as you have enough of them in the school to break the shyness) 6 full grown amano shrimp (these were added as cleaners and a bit of an experiment. thusfar the ropefish have not bothered them and and primarily only readily take tubifex and bloodworms. Theres no guarantee the ropefish wont go after the amano's since every fish is different and freshwater prawn is known to be part of the ropefish diet. In the future I am considering pulling out the Panda Corys and replacing them with synodontis petricola Hope this helps, in the end the general rule for the ropefish is nothing that will bully them because they are big and passive and nothing that will fit within the width of their mouth since they're blind as a bat half the time and will mistake small fish for food. PS: if you do add corydoras know that the ropefish do tend make a quit desert of any eggs should the corys decide to spawn. But thats not necessarily a bad thing since it allows them to have at least something to eat sometimes since they can be picky eaters.

Update time. So first. It looks like a bunch of my images from previous posts are broken. Has anyone else encountered that or is it just me? I'll upload as usual with this one hoping that they stay more than a week or two before breaking. So for updates in the fish room. We'll start with the ropefish tank. Things are going well enough. The ropes all seemed to have a sort of cut on their heads we does the tank with some api general cure and they seem to be healing up now and taking food more readily. The anubis nana petite that melted down to the rhizome after being attached to the rock formation is slowing coming back to life Still fighting string algae through most of the tanks in the fishroom. Currently have it mostly under control except for one tank. It's taken a few casualties in that there were some hidden clumps that were big enough that a a few congo tetras and a long fin bristle got caught in them and were unable to recover after being found and freed. Of the two 40 breeders that are setup one is doing exceptionally well. The Congo's in it are growing well and not shy and the 20 amano shrimp with them have also been growing very well and many are berried with eggs (fiance wants to do a brackish tank and may try breeding the amanos) The lower 40 breeder on the rack has been a real head scratcher though. Setup with the exact same equipment at the same time. The lower 40 breeder only had 10 amano shrimp in it that didnt seem to grow very much at all and had some casualties. Then we added some guppy fry to the tank. After about a month I noticed one of the guppy fry had camallanus worms. That guppy has since passed and I've disinfected anything that's touched the tank since and am trying to just let the guppies in there live out the rest of their live before letting the tank sit without a host for the worms for a few months before risking putting anything else in. The guppies we've had for awhile so I'm inclined the think the worms came on the shrimp that weren't growing very well and ended up in the guppy when the nibbled one of the dead shrimp. The lower 40 has also been having a green water problem. Again same equipment + live plants. Just different livestock. Over in the 20 longs we have some new additions. The two danios I had to make sure the water was safe for the more expensive fish have paired off and started breeding so there are small danio fry swimming around their tank. Recent additions are a 3 synodontis petricola that will be moved into a 40 breeder with a larger school of the same fish we are looking to help someone rehome. We also have a single blue phantom pleco that was recently purchased at our local fish club auction. I'm looking to get in touch with the gentleman that sold this one to start a blue phantom breeding project growing them in a separate 40 breeder. I also managed to snag some free 40 breeders fromsomone getting out of the hobby. I need to clean these up so that I can use them on the other side of the rack for the synodontis and the blue phantom. They've clearly seen some use but I noticed they dont have the center brace on the bottom glass I've seen with some recent 40 breeders. Would love to hear opinions on if anyone thinks these are unsafe to use.

@ChemBob Thanks for the suggestions. I just ended up using the same sand that is the substrate for the rest of the tank to simplify things. Ill add a root tab or two to grow anything that needs more than water column nutrients. @Odd Duck Sand waterfall wasnt what I had planned for that platform sadly. Modifying it now would take some significant work. That and Im almost 100% certain the ropefish would try to wiggle their way into the sand return tube. I do want to do a sand waterfall in a 40 gallon here in the future once Im settled with the current tanks. @Hobbit The platform is so the ropefish can come up out of the water since they tend to do that sometimes. I did have a turtle dock in the tank before I moved it but I liked the idea of doing this rock platform that had cave hiding spots underneath. Ive moved the Ropefish, Corys, and Panda Garras back into the redone 75 gallon now. (There is a school of congo tetras that will be going in here eventually but they are growing out a bit in a 40) Its been a day or two but everyone seems to be settling back in okay. The Ropefish are much more active and in the open than before. They noodle in and out of the small openings in the rock formation quite alot as they come right up the front of the tank. They still dont seem to have settled down enough to eat yet though since they havent really touched the tubifex worms I had been putting it. Going to pickup some bloodworms and see if I can get them settled enough to go for the cubes again. Not sure why but the anubias that I attached to the rock formation has all melted. Still trying to figure out whats going on with that because there are more of the same plant on driftwood in the tank that was completely un-phased by the move. The Crinum is a hardy plant but I know it doesnt like being moved. Hoping it does fine after being replanted, especially because I noticed it just started to make a daughter bulb that I can propagate from.

Whew....I never want to move an established tank over 20 gallons ever again... Got the 75 moved and rescaped. Getting that rock formation in was....an activity...but it's in....and i hope to never have to remove it...was also pretty late and forgot to add water conditioner until mid afternoon today after it was setup last night so hopefully the bacteria colonies on the moved scaping materials and filter weren't wiped out. I also setup a 40 with some of the spare plants and hardscape. One of the danios in the holding tanks had some kind of fungus. A section of the spine on its tail got a white cotton like fungus. So that tank is undergoing a treatment. The albino longfin bristlenose impulse buys are also doing well. The rack with the 10 gallons is doing well. Setup the 3 gallon snail jail over there for a bit too. It's mainly to grow feeder/tank seasoning snails. Lastly I need to figure out what I'm doing for a substrate on the top platform. Welcome to suggestions on that(actually, I'm 100% looking for input on that). Hoping to do something that's dark and mud like but wont affect the water since the platform is not water tight.

Sooooooooooooon. I've finished hiding the seams where the rocks meet with the visible cotton by crushing slate into small chunks with a mortar and pestle. I attached the ramp to the top slate piece and just need to glue slate onto it to create a border to hold a small amount if soil. I was initially going to glue the top slate to the bottom pillar but now I'm leaning towards just having it sit ontop since there will be 4 points of contact and the top slate will be decently heavy once it had the border and soil in it and leaving it unglued with make maintenance easier since the whole formation is easily at or over 50lbs. Haven't weighed it since assembly. Also decided to use this side for the front of the formation since there is a little cave to the center that the rope fish will likely poke their heads out of. We also went to the meeting for our local fish club and somehow walked out with more money than we came with and a bag of longing albino bristlenose. Wasn't planning on it but cant beat a few bucks for some long fins 🙂 plan is to move more of the 75 gallon today and get one of the 40s setup on the rack so like I said. Sooooooooon.

Thank you for the support everyone. We moved most of the fish from the 75 into the 20 long holding tanks and will move the 75 hopefully sometime this weekend. Took out a bunch of the vallisneria that took over the 75 when fishing everyone out and its sitting in two of the other 20 gallon tanks for now. Everyone seems to be doing okay so far. Fingers crossed that nothing bad happens.

Thanks, I took some time to step away from the project as much as I was able. Had a few family deaths here the last few weeks so I've been dealing with a fair bit. Spent some time getting the 4 20 long holding tanks dialed in. I've got some zebra danios in each of them as a sort of canary in the coal mine after the incident with the Congo's. I think I've also narrowed that down to another cause beyond the nitrate levels. It would seem the pet supplies plus brand heaters I got developed a thick white fluffy film after being in the tank for a short while (this is even after rinsing). After consulting with some friends who do alot of molding work I'm sure that I've got the culprit. The rubber ends on the heaters have silicone mold release agent still on them that doesnt come off after a simple washing. It will come off after it soaks for a awhile but that's what this while slimy film is caused by from what I've deduced. I'm fairly certain at this point because I cleaned and put a 2nd heater into one of the tanks with a danio a week after the congo incident. The water parameters were all in line but after a few days the dani suddenly became lethargic and suddenly passed away with nothing else I could point to. I've also got some hair algae blooms that are making the rounds on a few tanks. I'm letting it go for now, but once the 75 is back up and running I'll be shifting some amano shrimp around those tanks so they can have a buffet clearing it up. On the rock front, I've got most of the base of the rock structure glued together using a cotton, sand, and superglue mixture. I did want a more natural look but I've just come to the point where I just want it to work as getting it that way would take more money and more time. If this was a fresh tank and not a moving reacape I probably would have had the patience but now I just want to make progress. I staged the slate onto to get a bit of an idea how I want it. Still not sure which side i want to face the front of the tank but I'm leaning toward the side with a large opening. I still need to add a few small rocks to lever out where the slate will sit. I then need to glue small stone chips as a retaining wall for the soil that will sit ontop of the slate and then glue another small piece of slate that will act as a ramp out of the water onto the soil area. Once it's all together I was going to attach some anubias nana petite and riccia to the rocks in moderation. Definitely looking for thoughts or ideas on this before I go back to working on it in a day or two here since I'm hoping I can finish the formation by the weekend and set a day to teardown and move the 75 gallon to get it rescaped and done in a day.

@Hobbit yeah it's weird. I never expected nitrates to be so high..but its given me pause on moving anything else. Trying to keep myself in good spirits so I can complete the move but it's difficult and I'm now going to be overly paranoid trying to get these holding tanks dialed in to hold the inhabitants of the 75 gallon until its tore down and set back up. I setup a 5 shelf rack front Sam's club to hold the few 10 gallon tanks we have (there Is a shrimp 10 gallon that has yet to be moved) I found the perfect slate for the top of the rock platform I was going to make. And the proceeded to accidentally break it when reaching for a paper towel above it...debating trying to glue it back together to use but I'm not sure if that's a safe option even if it will only be holding a small bit of dirt ontop and have other rocks glued around its edge holding things together to create a pit for the dirt to sit in. LFS also got the mountain stone I asked for the pillars of the platform in. However someone else got there before me and liked how it looked and cherry picked 35 pounds of the best of it before I got there. I just took what was left with the intention to make it work but if it doesnt work out well I'll take back what's not working and grab more from their shipment next Friday to hopefully have the platform done. If I use everything I picked up it ends up being around 70 pounds of rock. My brain is also thinking that's alot of weight to be putting in the tank on one side...but not sure...my brain is a wreck lately.

Disaster..... So...where to begin...I know some people do not like pictures of dead fish so I will not be including them in this post out of respect for them. We decided we were going to start moving some of the fish from our 75 gallon over to some holding tanks at the new house so we could start to prepare tearing down the 75 to move later this week. We decided to start with our mid swimmers the 8 Congo Tetra school we had. About a week and a half ago I setup 4 20 longs as holding tanks (later to become breeding tanks) to hold the fish from the 75 gallon so we could move it easier. The tanks were seeded with Brazilian Pennywort and Baby Tears from the 75 that were overgrown and blocking out the light. They had snail hitchhikers who came to the new tanks and got the cycle going and kept it going properly with what was living on the plants. Now then. On Sunday we went to move the Congos, everything went pretty standard. Netted them out of the 75 into a bucket, transported the bucket to the new house, slowly added tank water to acclimate to the new tank. It was late by the time we got to the house and got the Congos acclimated and I had to work in the morning so we left after it looked like the Congos were in the tank and settled a little. Fast forward 16 hours, I have been at work all day and haven't had the chance to go check on the fish. When I got there and went to check on them I found them all dead...I arrived just as the last remaining female was taking her last breaths 😞 Upon this I started to try to find out what happened. I planned this out, I did everything correctly, its a fresh tank. Where did I go wrong. I had used vinegar to clear the tanks before filling but I rinsed and wiped the small amount used out of the tank a week and a half ago before I set them up. I put plant cover from an established tank to provide hiding spots and bring over bacteria colonies. The snails on the plants prevented the colonies from crashing from lack of ammonia....So where did I go wrong? Thus I began going through every test in the kit I had. Then I got the results from the long Nitrate test....This is what I am thinking was the cause...Nitrate shock. I was so tired when I moved the fish my brain never considered changing the water that had been in the tank for the past week with the snails. Not only that but I never imagined that a tank only a week old could end up with Nitrates so sky high....I did a change of the water and tested the nitrates again to make sure it wasn't just a one off or I ended up adding an extra drop or two but sure enough it looked like the high Nitrates were the cause. Left Tube: Nitrate in the 20 long after 50% water change. Right Tube: Nitrate in the 20 long before 50% water change I pretty unhappy about the whole ordeal since these were the first fish we got for our 75 and they were all fully grown... I will eventually have to go out in search of a new school of them but I know they have gotten very expensive at some of the stores when I was browsing the past few months. That and I will need to grow them out to go back into the 75 with the other fish since the stores that have them they are always so small.

Update: I finished building the rack for the two 55s and two 40s. Its level, had to use some shims and it does wobble a bit when you actually try to wobble it (which nobody should be trying to wobble it so I think it should be fine). Tops of the shelves are covered with mildew resistant vinyl I got from Joann Fabrics. There were also a few spots on the stand where a small gap formed after it sat for a but and I've filled those by wedging in shims and breaking them off so there isn't any flex. Almost ready to get those tanks up and running in this room. Just need to find some LED shop lights that I can use for plant growth to go over the line of 20 longs and the 40s. Going to get the ones that connect together and put them all on the same timer to make things easy. Lastly please enjoy this photo of the ropefish taken in the 75 that has still yet to be moved. Photo title: "Let me sing you the song of my people"

Wife insisted that the Male guppy (now named Lucky) needed a harem so there are now 3 new female guppies with him. The tank stand is coming together. Should hopefully be one more session to get it finished. Its currently upside down as I add the weight bearing 2x4s to the guides As for the 75. Here is a very rough drawing (it's a pretty bad overlay sketch using my phone...) along with a turtle platform for reference of what I'm thinking. I'm thinking the PVC frame and making a tray on top that will hold some dirt for some plants and pill bugs. Then I will hide the PVC by attaching rocks. I want to try to use a piece of slate to make a natural looking overhang rock. Just need to figure out how I'm going to attach rocks to the PVC and make it look more natural and allow me to see into the cave area beneath.