AllFishNoBrakes

I know I’ve had my fair share of challenges and had to face some hard truths when it comes to breeding fish. I’m curious; what’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned when it comes to breeding fish? Mine would definitely be, to not overdo it! When it comes to the numbers of fish I breed, anyways. I learned this lesson early on with my Kribs. I kept the first whole spawn, and found it so fun and interesting that I kept the whole second spawn, and I’m still paying for it today. I have ~30 Kribs that I’m still trying to get rid of… This helped me make sure I produce/cull numbers to a point that is manageable and easy to get rid of. It’s much easier to tell my LFS “I have 20 Angels at X size, do you want them?” Vs me growing out a full spawn and hoping I can move a couple hundred. Case in point, I have a spawn of Angels I’m currently working on. The fry are eating bbs and going well, probably 2 weeks old at this point. Tonight I came home, and the Angels spawned again. I pulled the spawn and washed the eggs down the drain. As hard as it may be, I know I have 20 that are about to sell, a whole different spawn coming behind them, and I simply don’t have the room or the market for a second entire spawn. What’s the lesson that you had to learn the hard way? Chime in!

I have a group of 6 Angels, and the only way I know the sex is when they pair and spawn. Obviously, from that point on I know the sex of each individual fish, too. I know the sex of 4/6 of the Angels. The other 2 have never paired or bred with anything else. I think one might be a male (from fighting with another confirmed male, but that’s still a guess at this point). I’ll only know the sex of the 2 if they pair and spawn at some point. I’ve had pairs that are paired for a while, and then a new pair forms. For example, my all black female was paired with a marbled male, but now she’s paired with a Panda male. Scandalous, she is… BUT, it makes for interesting new variants and keeps breeding “the same fish” fresh and fun. Best of luck to them pairing up and raising some fry!

I took a chance with this one on Amazon and have no regrets. I agree that rinsing it first makes it drain better! Give it a quick rinse, set it in place, open the hatchery, harvest the brine, and then I give it a hot water rinse and air dry when done. I’ve had this one for probably a year and a half and it’s basically brand new still.

I think it’s a great sign that you have nitrates. Your ammonia has peaked and is almost worked through, and your nitrites are doing the same thing. Having nitrates shows that you have some nitrites being converted, so you’re definitely on the right track! Give it a little more time and all the patience will pay off! Once your tank is established and thriving and a good chunk of time has passed, you’ll forget about the cycling time and it will become a small dot on the timeline of your tank.

Would you enjoy that stocking and would it be something you want to look at and play with? If yes, do it up!!

I’m lucky in that my angels spawn on either Amazon Swords, or the tiles I have set up for them, so I just remove whatever they spawn on to hatch and raise. The tank becomes calm again once the eggs are removed

PSO! I have plenty of plants from the Co-Op, but PSO has by far outgrown everything else

@MattyM Nice! I was feeding frozen baby brine daily and it got out of control pretty quick. Has taken some time and several moves to rebalance everything again. You live and you learn!

@MattyM My Platy’s went crazy in my 29 and it was a struggle to move them all. Definitely learned my lesson there! Now I keep them with Angels or other fish that will help me control the populate naturally

@drewzero1 A duckweed comb sounds awesome! Even cooler that it’s 3d printed. Post some pics of your tools! Might inspire some others to make the same, or even upgrade it

I don’t think that would be overstocked, but remember it all comes down to how much you feed, how much/often you’re willing to change water, plants, etc. My suggestion would be to start where you want, test often, and then make informed decisions from there!

@mountaintoppufferkeeper I’m part of the CAS as well! That being said, I signed up in the height of the pandemic and have yet to make it out to an in-person event. Doesn’t help that I always work the weekends… Maybe I’ll catch you at a meeting/auction one of these days!

I guess I could show off this bad boy, too. This is how I filled water back into tanks before I had a Python. The pump would sit in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, and has an adjuster for how fast the water runs through it. Water went in the pump, up the tubing, and then the pvc was built to hang over the rim of a tank. The caps on the end of the apparatus has a ton of small holes drilled in it, acting like a spray bar instead of just pushing water straight down or out the sides. Diffused the water to not disturb the substrate. Fill up the 5 gallon bucket with water and the pump, start filling a second bucket in the sink, turn on the pump, and then keep dumping water into the bucket with the pump until the tank is full. I actually just sold this apparatus to a co-worker who also got into fish keeping. Charged them a fraction of the overall price to make without labor, but felt cool passing on something that helped me early on to help out a friend.

@A3M0N I just suck on the end of the tubing. The tubing is like 7 feet long so I have plenty of time to start the siphon and just clip it to the bucket. I have a rolled up piece of sponge in the end of the pvc that’s in the tanks so I don’t suck up any fish or plants. @TeeJay I think the hatchery is worth it if you can afford it. I hatch 1 Tablespoon of eggs at a time, but the majority of that gets frozen and used throughout the following week. I have a silicone mold that I got off Amazon that makes tiny cubes, so I fill that up and then feed the rest when I harvest. -I used half inch pvc pipe, (8) 90° side outlet elbows, and (8) 90° normal elbows. I made the stand pretty tall, and then realized I could use the (8) 90° elbows to bow out the front sides of the frame to hold the sieve. As far as lengths of the square to hold the hatchery, I just measured the top ring of the hatchery and made em that big. The pvc connections have plenty of wiggle room as there’s like 1 inch or so between the outside edge of the elbow piece, and where it can go in all the way. (Hope that makes sense. If you’ve ever used pvc you know what I’m talking about). Allows you enough play to make it just right. Plus, the hatchery has the handle on the back, so you can use that to your advantage as well. -So ya, ~8’ of half inch pvc, (8) 90° side outlet elbows, (8) 90° elbows, a tape measure, a sharpie, and a pvc cutter and you’re good to go. I attached a couple close up detail pictures of the elbows and connections as well. Holler if you have any more questions! Happy to help

For sure. Mine is definitely a chip out of the glass. Not a crack. Haven’t had a single issue with mine though!

I have a 55 gallon that I bought used, and use it as a grow out tank that has something similar. I was worried at first, but it’s held strong for like 2 years at this point. I would say monitor it, but don’t panic. The silicone seal looks good from what I can tell in the pictures.

Looks like it to me. Best of luck hatching the eggs and raising the fry!

Hey @smm333! It’s actually not too terrible. I’ve DIY’d some tools to help with maintenance. I actually posted about it in the general discussion. Check it out! 😉

@Jess The clip on light in the photo is just to pull the brine to the bottom of the hatchery as they’re attracted to light. I found it on Amazon forever ago. As far as heating the hatchery goes, I use a different clip on lamp that has a normal light bulb. Works like a dream for me. I found a picture that kind of shows the light @A3M0N Ya, the pvc is just essentially a hands free siphon. The tubing just gets clipped to a 5 gallon bucket to drain water

Welcome! The tank looks dope. Excited to watch it mature!

Across my 2.5 year fish keeping hobby I’ve built tools to make my life just a liiiitle more efficient. I have 13 tanks, none of which are on auto water change, so I’ve built things to help that go faster. Simple pvc pipe with some elbows, a ball valve, a bit of sponge, and some tubing have made all the difference when it comes to taking water out of tanks. A small pump and some tubing saves time when putting water back into my smaller tanks. Python to refill anything 29 gallon and above. I also modified my brine shrimp hatchery stand to hold a sieve for me! All of these tools make it so I can do more than one thing at once, making my maintenance days super efficient. Still takes time, but I can be draining tanks while filling buckets in the sink, drain tanks as I fill with the python behind me, and get my tools ready to freeze my baby brine shrimp while harvesting. What tools have you built to make your maintenance easier for you? Show em off!

Was given to me as “dwarf” aquarium lettuce. Turns out it wasn’t so dwarf 😂. I let it go crazy in one of my 10 gallons. I dig your username by the way!

I’ll go first: Species I’ve bred: -Guppies, Platies, Shrimp (neocaridina), Snails (Bladder, Ramshorn), Kribensis, Angelfish (Marbled, Panda, Mix), Crayfish (CPO), Corydora (Albino) Species I’m tired of: -Guppies (major fail as I have soft water), Platies (I have a variant I’d like to work with, but don’t have the many tanks necessary) Species I WANT to breed: -More Panda Angles, More mixed Angels (pairs form and unpair as I keep them in a community), Peacock Gudgeons, Pygmy Cory’s, Julii Cory’s, Furcata Rainbows, Praecox Rainbows, CPD’s, Pea Puffers. I thought this would be a fun thread of what you’ve done, what you’re tired of doing, and what you WANT to do! See pics attached for things I’m working on, and don’t be afraid to ask for more! I’m always taking pics, but never know what is worthy of a post.

Heck ya! Gotta keep it interesting for everyone involved. I hope you find what you and your daughter will enjoy! At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about Salvinia has done nothing but thrive for me, to the point that it’s like duckweed and I can’t get rid of it. The picture attached is from my shrimp tank that has no heater, full lid, and barely any filtration.

My vote is for a school of Chili Rasboras! You should be able to keep a decent number to keep the 10 gallon interesting and fun. Also, I run Salvinia in several of my tanks, all with full lids/tops, and I’ve never had a problem with humidity. Best of luck moving forward!