AllFishNoBrakes

Lol, the 2 Smokey guys/gals are staying with me for the long haul. Gonna grow them out some more where they’re at before transitioning to the 55 Angel community. The other 55 Angels (they’re in the divided 55 gallon and I have 55 of them) have spent their time with me and will go to the shop. My journal will most definitely have pics and an update to go along with it!

-12 where I’m at, should get down to -15 by the time the night is over. Super glad all my tanks are inside and staying at a stable temperature and we still have power.

I wish my dad was this cool! Lol. Super cool concept, project, and gift. Too rad. Can’t wait to see what it looks like primed and painted!

@itsfoxtail I appreciate the thought that you think I’m a master and actually understand these genetics; it’s more like “Hey! Fish are breeding; let’s see if I can hatch the eggs” and hope for the best. You may not be wrong on the genetics, but I’m not gonna act like I’m the expert and tell you yes. These are just the offspring from my random pair of Angels. -I have the next batch of Pandas raising up and that’s always exciting. -Tomorrow I take the 55 angels from the marbled/panda mix to the LFS. Keeping these Smokey guys:

Not sure if it’s a giant coincidence, or if this Arctic Blast coming in last night in conjunction with a water change really does trigger Cory’s to spawn, but I woke up to this today: Albino Cory’s went crazy! Pulled off a ton of eggs and into the tumbler they go. Also went through the Julii mop and found probably 6 eggs. Yesterday, I noticed the 2 biggest Julii fry have passed. Not sure what happened, so figured I might as well pull what I can and hatch again. The countdown to fry starts now!

@BettaFishCO I don’t use a whole lot of pumps. I keep my fish in community settings, and then when they breed I harvest and hatch the eggs, and then raise the fry. I haven’t done Bettas as I don’t have the space to grow them all out, jar them, etc. My water is soft where I’m at. Just 40 TDS out of the tap. Most of my tanks run right around 70, with the highest tank being at 100. I’m not doing giant scale breeding though, like I said I just harvest and hatch as it naturally happens, like with this Albino Cory spawn I woke up to this morning: Julii’s are dropping some eggs as we speak as well.

Excited to see what a fellow CO tap water breeder can do!

Another Wednesday means another day of maintenance and another journal entry. Put in some work today in anticipation of being out of town for a couple days next week and skipping maintenance. Photo dump in 3… 2… 1… I’m an Operations Manager for a restaurant group, and one of our GM’s got me this framed original art for Christmas! Totally unexpected and not necessary, but so cool and I’m very appreciative! It’s going up in the office for sure. The GM also got me this shirt! Too funny. I’m gonna frame it and hang it in the office as well. I don’t plan on having kids, but I raise plenty of fish. Too good, and again I’m very thankful. This tank got a big trim today. The Rotala Indica on the left was basically left to just go nuts for the past 2 years. The plant mass at the surface was so dense it was starting to kill off the plants below it due to blocking out all the light,so today was the day. The PSO on the right also got a big trim. Pea Puffer tank looking nice so I snapped a pic. I love that this tank is in my bedroom so I can look at it all the time. 55 looking good and no green tint for once. Added some root tabs to the sword in the middle. 20 gallon high. This tank was also looking fresh with a trim! This Angel, and one other just like it will be staying with me. They’re a super dope variant that looks “smokey” to me. They’ll continue to grow out in the 55 here until they’re big enough to join the squad in the main 55 Angel tank. The other 55 juvenile Angels will be going to the LFS on Friday! Aponegeton sending up a flower. Has anyone pollinated, seeded, and sprouted from a flower? I’ve had plenty of flowers, but I haven’t seriously attempted seeding and sprouting from one. Praecox Rainbow eggs in the mop. Maybe once the Julii’s and the Panda Angels are moved on from the 2.5 gallon tanks I’ll try to hatch some.

Substrate: You could totally add gravel or whatever you want on top of the sand. The part that makes me nervous is the sand being on the bottom. Plants don’t really do well in sand, but it’s not impossible. I capped sand with gravel and plants have done well but I consider myself lucky. A couple Amazon Swords and an Aponogeton. Here’s a picture showing the gravel on top of the sand: Filters: Either A) add the two sponges and run them in conjunction with the HOB and then after 3 or 4 weeks take off the HOB. Or B) Just get one sponge and use it in conjunction with the HOB. My 55 gallon Angel community has a sponge filter on the left, and a HOB in the top right. I like that combo. Fish: Angels and Cory’s are a great combo! I have 6 Angels, 13 Cory’s, and 20 Cardinal Tetras in my 55. I love it. Plants: The sky is the limit. You’ll have to try plants and see what does well in your water. Easy Green and Root Tabs are essential in my opinion. Some plants feed from the water column and some feed from the roots. You’ll have to research the plants you like and understand their needs. Changes: I personally would do the substrate first. I prefer just normal gravel, but that’s just me. I’ve grown insane amounts of plants without aqua soils and the like, but that’s where root tabs come in. Figure out what you wanna do with the substrate and make that change first. Capping the sand shouldn’t disturb your cycle. Completely changing the substrate you should be careful and go light in feeding while the bacteria stabilizes again. Once you’re satisfied with that, then change your filtration. For real, I think just adding 1 sponge and running it in conjunction with your HOB should give you no issues whatsoever. Then, start working on the fish and getting the tank that you actually want. On top of that, don’t be afraid to holler if you have questions! I’m always happy to help

Brutal way for them to go out, for sure. Do the loaches eat the shell? If not, the shells after they’ve been a meal could be a good source of calcium and minerals for the garden. Snail shells are my crushed coral at this point, lol. I’m sure it’s not apples to apples, but it can’t hurt in my soft water

Dwarf Gourami’s are a lot of fun. I’ve had 2 over my few years in the hobby and one of the little dudes would spit water at me sometimes when I opened the tank to feed. They’re rad.

I personally wouldn’t do any of these in a 10 gallon. Gonna be way too small long term for them. Unknown on the Opaline Gourami specifically as I don’t know how big they get, and the Danios depending on the type might be okay, but definitely not the Mollies and Angels. Not trying to be rude, but you either need to reconsider your fish, or reconsider the size of your tank.

@itsfoxtail Nah, these came from my Marbled male and a Panda female. I had the Panda pair, then they broke and the female paired with my Marbled male. I let them spawn, and then I moved the now paired again Pandas by themselves to pair again, hence the Panda Angel spawn I’m currently raising. That Panda female is scandalous… lol. There’s 57 Angels currently raising up in there. The Marbled/Panda combo gave some interesting results. ~20 are all black/mostly black with some lighter areas in vertical bars from the Marbled gene, another 20 are like Pandas with some yellow, and then about 15 are Marbled/mixed/assorted. There’s a couple of those assorted that looks like “false” Altums that are cool, and then I’m keeping 2 from this spawn to replace the Pandas from their home tank that are like transparent throughout the body and face with black edges on the dorsal and ventral fins. I want to see what those guys look like grown out! They almost seem “Smokey”.

@itsfoxtail it’s where I grow out the fish I hatch and raise to sell! I hatch in the 2.5 gallons that the fry above hatched in, then they’ll get moved to a 10 gallon for a while: Then they get moved here! The Platy’s are an awesome variant from some neon blue hi fins and a crazy black/yellow/iridescent female. They’re black with red/orange/yellow bellies/faces/finnage and have an awesome iridescence/sparkle across the black. I’ve never seen another Platy like them so they chill in here and do their thing. The Angels that get raised up prior to selling help keep the Platy population from exploding. The jungle of PSO was started from 2 individual cuttings and has just gone nuts.

@Hally M. Could be a sign of over feeding. Snails will usually only reproduce to the amount of food to feed the colony.

Use a piece of sponge or you can cut a bottle or plastic cup to make a baffle and redirect the water.

Yup, when my snails get out of control they become excellent meals for my Pea Puffers. Or they go in the 55 gallon where the Angels may or may not leave them alone.

Snails, or other fish. Sometimes I’ll move some of my Platy’s over, or when my newest batch of fry is ready for a bigger tank the quarantine tank becomes a grow out tank. It all keeps the cycle going and ready for whatever is coming next!

Livebearers will breed even if you do not intend to breed them. I had 8 adults in a 10 gallon quarantine tank (I was moving fish around and wanted to keep my QT tank cycled) and even had a few fry in there with bare bottom and no plants/hides/cover.

@R Budds I thought mine might annihilate the snails and the shrimp, but they’ve all been pretty good with each other. The shrimp aren’t getting to the numbers as quickly as when it was a shrimp only tank, but that’s alright. I was over the Cherries and wanted to try the CPO’s. None of the 3 populations explode and it’s a fun tank.

I’ve had CPO’s for a while. I started with 5, they bred and spawned the next generation, and have since passed on. The new generation has since bred again. The babies are super tiny, super tiny. Like shrimplets. To me, they look exactly like orange baby shrimp until you can actually see their tiny little claws. Mine get fed bloodworms daily, and then every other day I feed Xtreme shrimpee or Shrimp Cuisine in addition to the bloodworms as they live with shrimp and snails. I guess I’ve never looked it up, but my CPO’s haven’t lived a super long time. The original 5 bred the next generation, that generation is making the next, and I have had a couple losses from the first generation that was born in my water.

I have a couple pieces of advice and my only intent is to be helpful. 1) Pick a filter and stick with it. It will be the main source of your biological filtration. I agree with @Fish Folk that you may just need to pour water in the back or get the impeller going again to get that HOB functioning. I unplug my HOB’s when doing water changes and always have to prime them when the water fills back up. If the Aquaclear is going to be your long term filter, you may want to run that in conjunction with the one you have going already. If any bacteria is in your current filter it will only help seed your Aquaclear. 2) I personally wouldn’t continuously dose Prime just because. I totally understand using it to help with your fish in cycle, but right now you don’t have fish so dosing Prime isn’t really doing anything to help you. 3) Beneficial Bacteria lives on every surface in your tank. The glass, the substrate, the wood, etc. If it’s underwater it will grow and hold beneficial bacteria. 4) Do you plan on running an air stone? Air stones are extremely beneficial with basically no drawbacks. Especially when your filter stops working that air stone will keep oxygen in the water high (good for your inhabitants including your beneficial bacteria!) and continue to circulate your water around your aquarium. Best of luck with your fish in cycle! That’s exactly how I started in this hobby. You have lots of people around you here to help you through what can be a stressful process. Give us a shout if we can help and keep us updated!

Nothing crazy to announce. Just enjoying the tanks and took this shot the other night and wanted to share This tank always has a green tint in pictures from all the Dwarf Water Lettuce. All good though, I love me some water lettuce

@BettaFishCO Just a heads up, the buy/swap/trade portion of the forum opens up once you make 50 posts. May seem far away right now, but as you interact on the forum you’ll get there in no time

My 10 gallon tank grows Java Moss like crazy, and when I chop it down and throw it in other tanks it just dies off. Similarly, 2 of my tanks grow PSO like a weed, but it struggles hard in others. Java Ferns simply do not do well in my water, in any tank I’ve tried them in. Which is a shame because I think they look great. Gotta love this hobby!