Rxhart

Update: have had a couple of spawns since I last talked to you. Last one jan6 th -so they are baking in methylene blue. Spawn before that was Dec 27 th and they made it up to 13 days. So success moved from 4 days to 10 days to 13 days survival. I tried the tray system , but they just didn’t seem to have enough strength to make it to free swimming. I am puzzled as to what I am doing wrong. Also , most people say 7 days to free swimming and mine weren’t even at least they continue to spawn every 2 weeks and if my male can take all the aggression of them female, they will probably continue. even tried 2x a day water changes for the last one which got them to 13 days. Maybe I shouldn’t have moved them to the Dean tray system. I read it is a lot of trial and error, so I am patient, but it breaks my heart each time they succumb. Any help would be appreciated as I would love to be successful. Have thought about moving parents to their own tank but I only have 10 gallon tanks available and spawning is not this issue. rebecca

Thank you so much for the advice in detail!!!

Your two cents is worth a lot! They are dining on blackworms today and left some on the ground wiggling, so I think they are full. Thanks for the advice! Wow I had read that before and do have a breeder box , so it’s worth a try. The scuds are in the gravel and come out at night . Yes- I don’t have any aquarium buddies in the area😢

Hi! In December we will be gone for 12 days. On day 1 and 12, I can feed my fish. From day 2-11- auto fish feeders for most of my tanks. Don’t have any close friends I trust to handle feeding the puffer tank. question is this: I have a 20 long with 7 young pea puffers who dine richly most days on snails or scuds or frozen bloodworms. I also give them live blackworms occasionally and other frozen shrimp,etc. but none of these will work for vacation…. Except…. I wonder if I just load up a ton of snails and put in a large load of scuds the day I leave, if that should be ok for 10 days. What do you guys think? I can’t think of another way to feed these ferocious little beasts. Anybody have any ideas? Presently they are fat and happy- but I’m a fish mom and I worry.☺️🐠🐟

I think I may have a solution. The only plant I have in there is hornwort, which floats. The scuds go for it at night. Before I turn in the lights I grab the hornwort and quickly put it in a bowl of water, releasing all the scuds that are in the plants. Then I return the hornwort to the aquarium for the next night. This morning I released hundreds of little scuds in this way. Hoping to do it every morning and eventually dwindle the population down.

Thanks- sounds like a reasonable plan.

General rule I have read is 1st puffer needs 5 gallons, and 3 gallons per puffer after that. So a 10 gallon could hold 2-3 by that rule. Best 1 male and 2 females. Good luck catching them! (I have a group of 8 babies in my 20 long trying to sex as they grow, too. I am going to separate them once they are sexed into 2 aquariums.)

Unfortunately, scuds invaded my shrimp tank, and I know the adult scuds will eat my baby shrimp. So does anyone know a shrimp friendly fish that eats scuds? Otherwise I guess I’ll have to move all the shrimp ( quite a task) to get rid of the scuds. ( I raise the scuds separately in a small tank for food for my puffers and my community tank.

I was gone on vacation when my guppy had her babes. Came home To 8 newbies that were doing great in their omen in the hornworm guppy grass I keep floating for her. I had an auto feeder in for the tank. Babies take tiny food off the leaves of the hornwort and did just fine. I was gone for a week. Other fish in tank didn’t even find them! I left them there an watched daily. Because they had a lot of hiding spots, they grew well. When I got home I gave them love baby brine and the re a ll thriving. So cute. Livebearers are so much fun.

Would like to have micro worms for fry. How and where is this resourced?

Here is the 75

Gorgeous results!!!! Your black angel looks like my male. I hope to get such gorgeous results. one question. I suppose I was misinformed on 1 thing- that the new fry have to be in shallow water to go to the surface and gulp air at free swim stage. Fascinating that you use 1/2 fresh and 1/2 tank water- makes perfect sense. I think what happened with my wrigglers is the water change was too early in development for them to handle. Not sure. But it seems like hands off approach is best. Have you ever had any luck with them being parents themselves? Mine seem so interested in the eggs and I wonder if in a tank by themselves they could give it a go. The male is so full of bravado! Maybe I will experiment by doing next spawn myself and the next one after that let them try to raise them in a breeder tank. Thanks for the great advice!!!!!!!! Love this forum. Doesn’t make me feel like such a fish nerd when there are kindred spirits out there in the world. just set up 4 more tanks to cure for future projects- or just more angels. Such fun. See below- my garage with new tank setup. -Rh l

These two are quite the pair. They spawn every 10 days. Eggs gone on day 2 every time since I got them. This time I caught them at it and was able to move the eggs to a container. Got to wiggler stage, but something must have happened on day 4 as I tried to move them to a fry holding system- not sure what. I will try a new technique next spawn moving eggs to a small tank. Determined to get it right and get these 2 some offspring. They live in a 75 gallon community tank with a manager ie of mostly catfish, rummy nose and danios. I also have a tremendous happy guppy party tank with tons of beautiful incandescent blue offspring growing happily, a puffer only tank with 8 pea puffers ( hours of fun) and my favorite the red betta “Ruby” with his very own hunting tank. All personality plus. rh ps- I read that the fry upon becoming free swimmers must make it to the surface to get air for swim bladders immediately or they will die, hence the shallow fry system. If I use a 2-3 gallon tank, will this not occur? I was worried and moved them I think prematurely to the fry container from the egg container on day 4. The methods I have seen and read about are quite different, and so getting the wiggler to free swimming stage right will be my next endeavor. If anyone has had success, I would love to hear your techniques!

Black Lace male and mostly white Koi female, I think.