beastie

So, luminatus fry has been in the box since 11th of March. It is growing slowly, I feed it once or twice a day, microworms, bbs, hikari first bites. It is like 3-4 mm I would say However, next week I am going to be away for 4 days. Does the fry have higher chances of finding food in the box, or in the tank with adults, who should be not able to eat it, as it may be large enough? Thanks

Yeah they are not that tiny a fry, you can still see them. I have the pseudomugil luminatus and the epiplatys annulatus, those fry are TINY :)) the minnows are easy, hikari first bite, they find the infusoria in the mops/moss/plants and are quick to accept hatched bbs, two weeks tops. But after half a year they are still noticeably smaller than my adults, so I feed my fish the same, live bbs, live microworms, frozen anything, mosquito larvae, daphnia, cyclops, rotifers and sometimes will do an algae wafer or dried food. Mine are fat all the time 🙂 Overeaters

Btw i had no trouble breeding them when I did the following: I moved two plump females and three males or just one female two males to a different tank with no other fish. I left them for 24 hours and removed them. Five days later, i had fry. They are not hard to feed. Infusoria microworms, powdered fry food and in a week or two, hatched bbs. In a month and half i moved them in with the adults. No loses. But feeding is harder with adults and they grow much slower. Btw they take at least six months to sexually mature since buying. So beware of that

I may have to move this summer ,so I am not going to be buying any new fish, because i will most likely even have to downsize. I moved the spawning mop from the clown killifish tank to the 25 liter with the indostomus. I am unusre if there are eggs, but I dont care at this moment. Will see We had a nice weather and then sudden temp drop, not fun. But I collected some nettles, fed today to the shrimps in asian tank, otocinclus and the tylomelania tank. The pseudomugil fry in the box survived my long weekend away, the fry I saw last time in the main tank, I cant find anymore. Weird. Anyways, I was at this place, called a public aquarium, the owner does a lot of ecosystem talks, young kids and fish talks, but what he focuses most on is father fish method and weirdly specific ways of having a tank, and for him it works. He has like 100 tanks, most single species, loads of them large. His focus is a branch of cichlids, for us they share a common czech name, in english/latin it is a variety, I know I saw a midas cichlid, elliots cichlid, blue eye cichla, heros. He had one last 14 year old pirhanna and I never seen such colors. He had many old fish, an emperor tetra, visibly blind and not well, 10 years old. Several tetras, worse for wear but ignored by the rest of their shoals, around 9 years. He also had an amazing pair of oscars and plant eating piranhas there, a sucker of like 60 cm length and a mouth that would eat a baby 🙂 His methods are not what I would do, he doesnt do water changes, he has filters only in some of the tanks, he has so much plants it is hard to see the other side of the tank, he has colonies of some sponge things that start of on the surface, then fall down to the substrate where they create a mulm and so much algae, like a small african dwarf frog tank, filled half with hair algae 😉 or even cyanobacteria, he says it comes, cleans glass, is gone in few months. He had so many babies in these tanks, including red neons, including emperor tetras, colombian tetras ( those should be called pirhanas), he had many variants of the Phenacogrammus not just the congo tetra. Was an experience for sure. I loved the most a special tank he had with Cutter's Cichlid, it was wide and long but shallow and he had two males, lots of females including a grandma of the line and so many youngsters under one year. No plants, LOADS of mulm on the sand and the tank was hit with a sunlight beam and oh my, the fish behavior was amazing and there was zero aggression and the fish looked amazing. Oh and he even had Yunnanilus cruciatus which I havent seen in europe and I love them. And he had the choprae danios too, love the colors on those guys. I will use some pictures from his fb page, since there was no photography allowed, but I spent over 2 hours there. Really massive oscars the last pirhana Pygocentrus nattereri ( they have the other 13 in a freezer for a taxidermist, as they are not shown in these colors anywhere else except the amazonia) the cutters cichlids, too bad he doesnt have the full tank picture this was one of the old old old fish and few of the tanks It was a wicked experience, I chatted with him about corydoras, he said a perfect tank for them would be a long wide shallow sand filled dunes with a flow 🙂 I am so tempted to do a long shallow wide one, maybe if/when we move He also knows personally Heiko Bleher and some other fish famous people that I know only because the fish are named after them. My tanks now look too clean and too empty 😄

I think it is a time for a change The indostomus are with me for over a year now. I know when I moved them last June, there were 8, as I managed to count all of them when moving their bamboo tubes, easiest fish to catch ever. I know I lost one a month ago, and I know I have two for sure, cause I keep seeing two fish. However not more. I keep feeding like there are fish int here, which creates an algae, and with the removal of shrimp, noone cleans up. The tank looks empty all the time and having the fish did not result in them breeding, removing the shrimp didnt result in breeding, so I am done trying to breed them. I want to add something to the tank to liven it up. I have two options: move a pair of clown killifish (and get a lid) from my other tank, or get least killifish (Heterandria formosa), have a trio perhaps, two pairs, something like that. People here keep them in small volume without issues, should have their own breeding cap. Or I could move my last remaining endler male in here Not sure yet, advice much appreciated! spot the fish The darios work so far, trio is not having issues, I saw only two for a long time but during feeding the third popped up. Also issue with algae, because darios are slow eaters and force me to overfeed, also crypt melt. I am not as in love with the dario as lets say the clown killifish. Maybe I was too excited, or maybe I have a spring gloom, not sure. I mean it is nice, all works, the colors, but... The spawning mop is there for some day, to collect clown killifish eggs, once the luminatus fry grows up and moves from the cube behold the "crypts" Speaking of the fry in the box, it is doing ok, growing steadily. Will wait some more before moving it to parents tank. No picture because... tiny 🙂 So what do you think?

They are a lazy fish, same behavior was when I had 60 of them. Microrasboras, once settled, are no shy or skittish fish at all, that was a nice surprise for me too ( i have least)

Nice, so you are saying more is better. I will have to test it. I have a sort of skirt too but not too big, I was stingy I guess 🙂 Thanks for the tip!

I read your and was like = well I better check my constantly empty mop and I found a fry in the tank again 🙂 I am also raising the other fry in the box. I still would love more eggs to plop in the infusoria bucket, as that obviously worked, so am waiting for the mop to dry to see :))) Arent they the best fish ever 🙂

Basil is doing fine btw. I still have not eat it, but it is doing ok. I also planted a bit of a cilantro, but I doubt it will do half as good

All the crypts melted, the tank is very strange now. I put fertilizing tabs under the roots and will wait. The three darios work ok, the two new in the cube still do a lot of chasing, the male will chase pygmy cories or rasboras away, especially from his food, but no damages. I lost a sewellia. No reason, was active, was feeding and suddenly dead. It was the female purchased in June last year. Ah well. I hope the remaining one will do ok, and I am never trying them again. I even have no idea what to replace them with, if anything. The garras are ok and fun, the minnows are doing ok and there is so many shrimp I cant even put anything in, they go on my hands, to all the plants, during the water change it is so hard !!!

Because I suffered an unexplained loss of most cryptocoryne leaves in the clown killifish tank on two out of three plants there and basically overnight, I had to make a quick/rash decision. The crypts were most of the tank visual barriers and without those I feared the darios would not be doing ok, so I caught the pale striped one and one of the colored males and moved them to the cube with my remaining (four?) pygmy corydoras and least rasboras. The footprint is 40x40cm, so two should be ok there, tunnel, coconut, large plants... I had to reduce the temp a bit and did a cold water bucket change to not have such a huge temp difference, since dario tank is 22, this was 25, after the change 23 I saw a pygmy swim up to the dario to say hello 🙂 Wil monitor closely, ofcourse, and I know I lost any chance of the rasboras breeding naturally, but it was always a small chance. I hope the remaining three in the clown killifish tank will have much easier time

Indostomus paradoxus/crocodilus they have a minute differences and I am not sure which one I have

No, it is in a seahorse/pipefish family 🙂 also they are super small, look at the picture next to a regular red cherry shrimp. I have had them for a year now, and they are interesting but sort of very specific. Live food required, and not even all of them ( mosquitoes are a no go)

I have since cut it into several other pieces. All anubias in all my tanks come from one that I had 12 years ago and I just plant them, bathe them in bleach sometimes, cut them and they do that. It was sold as a nana variant, though I do not really believe that, some leaves are large as a hand..

Fry is still alive, so yay Now who is volunteering at helping me decide what to do with the darios, if to catch few and move away. I assumed I will be able to tell by behavior and I was wrong. It has been a month that they have been in the tank, and the behavior is consistently the same. Two hang out under the floating plants, these fish are lightly colored, one has bands, one doesnt. Three are hanging out in the right corner, right middle, left corner. Those three will chase each other but stop and posture, chase the pale banded one, not chase the pale one. I assume the pale banded one is a submissive male the other pale one may be a female. How long should I wait to be sure and when to remove the fish that is getting bullied the most? I would hate for any of them to sustain injuries or suffer due to my neglect. Any tips appreciated.

I read that there is a moina egg capsule, from Thailand (Green Water farm, thanks @Guppysnail). I wonder before ordering it if I can achieve similar result with frozen or if the experiment I want to do is even possible. I had a small luck with having moina hatch and live short while in my shrimp/indostomus tank simply because I fed a pinch of frozen moina which the fish didnt eat and then some time later, moina lived in the tank. I read it is because you can freeze a moina female with eggs and upon thawing they will wake up. I would like to achieve having having eggs or frozen moina put into a tank and have the moina hatch and breed for a while. Not a stable culture, just a bit to feed the fish. And rinse and repeat. I have no place for a 20l moina culture nor the time to maintain them. Did anyone actually accomplish that, is it a feasible approach?

When I had issue with aggression in my neolamprologus multifasciatus, and reintroducing the beat up male resulted in the same aggression, I caught all the fish, rearranged the territories and put the beat up fish in first, and the other fish in later It may be hard to catch all the tetras (use a bottle trap) and maybe you need more plants or visual breaks in the tank. Or maybe you need to up their numbers/get rid of one school. Fish are not so vicious when in larger numbers.

I have seen articles on Danionellas before as suitable nano fish, noone mentioned the noise, but tbh noone has seen them in like 20 years in the hobby here. I was looking for them not so long ago, but now I sure am glad I didnt get them 🙂

Poor fry btw I keep lifting the lid and looking at it now. Wasnt it better off in the bucket 😄

So, I added a sponge to the "breeding box", added some salvinia, added the clown killifish female. I go to check my moss bucket for infusoria method, I used a moss that I had sitting in a box that I took outside of some tank, filled it with squeezed sponge, topped off with water. Last week I opened it, added fresh water as it seemed to be low level water for this experiment. I am going through my notes, I started the bucket on the 20th of february, I do not remember which tank I took the moss out of , I think it was the pseudomugil tank, maybe I cut it from the asian tank, unsure. It is important to the rest of my story though I go check my bucket, and lo behold, a fry is there, swimming. In that closed bucket full of nothing but moss and squeezed sponge water, no air stone, no water changes, no oxygen exchange (maybe through the surface as the bucket is only half filled?). The surface has a slight oily film on it, there are snails hitchhiked from the moss. So here I am trying to breed fish, and having an unknown fry (though based on the blue color of the eye a pseudomugil, I dont remember if white clouds have blue eye at this stage). It is super small, maybe one mm, maybe two. I sprinkled a tiny bit of first bite and decided on a course of action The clown killifish went back to their home, the fry was caught moved carefully to the box, I also added few scoops of the "infusoria culture" and now will see. Meanwhile I have an acrylic mop in the luminatus tank and every day, no eggs... Wish me luck, I will have to figure out how to change water in this tank, if it is too much water, to buy a plastic tube to put the airline in the sponge through, as now I just have an airline jammed in a sponge, and an broken airpump that gives just a tiny tiny bit of flow. I dont know if the bacteria can take that. I also added a dried piece of catapa leaf, though it will take few days to soak I guess.

Hi, any idea on the life span of bamboo shrimp and what to do to make their lives better? I mean I have had mine since October 2021, so I cant complain and they are alive and survived three tank moves but tips are always appreciated

Nerite snails like to rest above the water surface so best give them a space to do so. But yeah they like to explore 🙂

Maintenance day. I also decided to make a cube box into a breeding box for the clown killifish. I put an airstone, a java moss clump and just a male for now ,for two days lets say, and then I will add a female. And will see. will do some water changes I also tried to de-algae the clownkillifish/dario tank, checked for fry, none, fed cut frozen blooworms and live microworms. The darios look good, but I only see four. Three on the left side, surface, hornwort, botom. One for sure on the right side, male, above the sponge filter. Fifth is a random hidden, under filter or somewhere on the right side, they will sometimes chase each other with the other male. Overall the darios are cute, but slow, and so far not overly interresting. I believe it will come I keep seeing my kuhli loaches, three on the bottom, two on top in the leaves. they are not hidden, they are fun. I need more!!!

Took a picture of the cube tank. Willow wood (baked), leaves, crypts are settling in

I am not happy. Another pygmy lost in a same manner like the last one. Wedged between the filter sponge, in one of the creases, and the glass. Are the fish stupid? I have four now, I will not do any changes. The cube tank will go through a change. Once I figure out some stuff in life, I will either dismantle completely and move the rasboras to the indostomus tank, or I will check the cabinets it stands on and buy a shallow 80cm long for other experiments. I may use some time in between to breed another batch of white clouds. I had other two minnow losses. I talked with someone on another forum, and the fish seem to be presenting with genetic deformity of the swim bladder, they all have the same issue, same timeframe, die few days later. Only the gold whiteclouds are affected, not the normal colored ones, not any other fish. I do a cold water change, but sewellia or panda garra shouldbe more affected if the water temperature were too different and they are awesome, well colored, but the gold minnows keep dying. I lost 7 or so since I got them. I bread like 8 babies, but the adults are dropping. I was told if I cross the gold with normal colored, they will be stronger I also had an argument with my dog to spit out the minnow (normal colored) that jumped out of the tank ( i fed live bbs, mosquitoe larva, they were breeding and it got intense 🙂 ) and I returned it to the tank and I cant even tell which one was it!!! they are all looking ok no bruises no torn fins. So apparently jumping out of the tank and being poked with the dog is normal I am glad for the cube tank ,it showed me important experience. Pygmies are harder than I expected, more static, not as cute as the videos make them to be. On the other hand least rasbora, awesome colors, not shy, feeds well, pleasant surprise!