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Mad_Genes

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  1. Mad_Genes
    Allow me to introduce: Yukiko, Mothball, Sugar, and Boo. My new platinum parrot cichlids. The plan is to grow them up full sized and sell them full grown. Right now they're the size of mothballs, hence the name, but I'm gonna get them to baseball size and sell them. Maybe breed them if I get a reliable pair. If I don't fall in love with them along the way. Love me some derpy cichlids.
  2. Mad_Genes
    How did the past year with these go? I just bought four, nickel sized, PPs and I'm curious to know of your struggles. My plan is to grow them up bigger and sell them back to the store or elsewhere... but I might fall in love with them, and if I get a breeding pair from the four who knows.
  3. Mad_Genes
    That was my attempt at the DIY CO2 system that the owner of the Ocean aquarium in San Francisco used. I saw it in the AqCOOP video. Mine did not work so well. In fastening it to the tank, I made a hole in the ledge of the plastic tank frame, and used a paddle skewer. Then I made two holes in the bottle and put in eye-hole screws so that it can slide up and down. I think my CO2 was leaking through those side holes rather than being absorbed in the water. The bottle emptied out and sank within a day, and I saw no change in my CO2 drop indicator. Right now I'm trying with the yeast/sugar fermenter hooked up to a diffuser. That system appears to work, I'm making CO2 at least, but I'm only detecting a slight uptick in CO2 levels by drop indicator and I might just be fooling myself that it's real... but I haven't really dosed heavy with the sugar yet. I recharge with a 100g / 500 mL solution, and last time I only used 5 mL of that. Today, I'm gonna double it and see if goes better.
  4. Mad_Genes
    Set up my 40 breeder and organized my equipment.
  5. Mad_Genes
    Today I bought a 40 gallon breeder. I set it up on a utility shelf in the office... which I guess is now a tank room. After hemming and hawing over bare bottom, gravel, sand, soil etc., I put in about an inch of organic topsoil, covered with about 4 inches of all-purpose gravel, and started filling it with water... dripping it through a Brita filter so I can at least start with softer, lower pH water. That's not even the cool part. I was sitting in the living room keeping an eye on it from the couch, when I glance over at my 10 gal next to me. "Is that a baby brine shrimp?" I thought. I'd fed my other tanks with BBS that afternoon. But not this tank. There were no fish in it, only snails. Or so I thought... [video of fry] I had a few leopard danios in there, but took them out when moving tanks around last week. So that's gotta be them. They must have scattered eggs that incubated all week. Luckily, I have some fry powder handy so I mixed some with water and put a few drops in the water. I'll do my best to keep up with that the next couple of days. Then maybe try some microworms, and follow up with baby brine shrimp later in the week. But other than that, these were unexpected so I'm gonna just try my best and nature will takes its course with minor help.
  6. Mad_Genes
    Here's some fresh photos of the soil CPD tank. The lights are the aquarium coop 2x12"
  7. Mad_Genes
    Follow along for the madness. I need a forum to rant about my planted tanks and breeding projects. Above is my 38 gallon high with gold, black, and dalmatian mollies, koi angelfish, and corydoras with a bunch of houseplants sticking out the top. And here's my Bolivian Ram tank: Proof of rams... featuring corydoras... Then my planted, soil bottom tank... which has Celestial Peal Danios... and (used to have) a female red koi betta. More to come. Stay tuned.
  8. Mad_Genes
    Ugh! I just figured out why that one Bolivian ram is weird... it's a male. The one I had before was likely female/undifferentiated. Duh.
  9. Mad_Genes
    Went back to the pet store looking for some cories, meds, and heaters, and walked out with 4 Bolivian Rams They're on the small side yet. I put them in one of the 10 gal. and treated it with a broad spectrum parasite medication just in case. They seem happy, healthy and active on the whole. I had a single one of these years ago (my first cichlid) and today I learned why they're called rams... they butt head with each other. I've also had German blues, but never saw them do that exactly. I put the terracotta drip trays in there on the off chance I get a mating pair and they start nesting. So long as they seem happy I'll leave them in there. At the store, they were marked as German Blues, but to my eye they are not and look like Bolivians, except for this one... The one in back has more yellow, the red banded eye, but it's body coloration looks mostly like a typical Bolivian, even with the pink on the tips of the fins. But then there's more blue on the body, and it's face is more round with it's mouth positioned higher. So it's almost like a hybrid... maybe? Or is it something else? I look at it and at first glance I'm like "That's a ram." Then I look closer, and I'm like, but it's not a Bolivian, it's kinda like a blue, but that face... is it even a ram at all?" Then I ordered six Julidochromis transcriptus that ought to arrive this week. So for the first round of breeding attempts I'm going to have Bolivian Rams, Masked Julies, and A Colony of Mollies.
  10. Mad_Genes
    I have an acute and severe onset of multi-tank syndrome. Top shelf: Hardware(air pump, battery backup power strip, etc) and an empty 5.5 gal tank (hospital tank) Second shelf: 3x 10 gal Third: 1x 20 gal with a goldfish (free gift when I signed up for a pet store rewards membership card thingy) Fourth: 1 x 20 gal Sorry for the blur. He's a little skittish. Also talked with the guy who manages the aquarium department at the store. He's open to buying from local breeders... if they've got something cool. Said he might buy 1-2 dozen of the usuals, but won't pay more than he would from the wholesaler, but he'd pay more for interesting/exotic/oddball fish, and that he'd be interested in most cichlids. So there's an in. I also went to my local aquarium club's meeting last night. We had presenter who told us all about freshwater stingrays which was cool, and I got to know some of the local aquarists.
  11. Mad_Genes
    I miss my Bolivian Ram that I had a few years ago. Thanks for sharing your photos!
  12. Mad_Genes
    Hi all. I started keeping aquariums a few years back, but with lots of moving and instability I got away from it. I started with a 5.5 gal and 2 guppies while I was college. Added a betta that eventually got its own mini-tank. Then I added a Bolilvian ram cichlid, and some Corydoras. Then I upgraded to a 38 gal. high tank and started keeping tetras alongside a Severum cichlid along with a mix of cories, loaches, blue rams, and a mix of other fish over several years. After my post college and grad school years (MS in Genetics) and moving around I gave up the hobby as I was moving quite a bit and not making much money. Now I am settled and work in a new field and decided to get the old 38 gal set up, and less than a week later I'm measuring the shelves in my basement and seeing how many 10's, 20's, and 40's I can fit on them. I figure a fish breeding hobby/sidehustle is a decent use of my (currently unused) genetics/biology knowledge. The 38 is set up in my dining room. It's currently cycling with three dalmation mollies. I had four, 2 males, 2 females, but the smaller male didn't make it. I suspect more due to tank politics than water quality. The nitrate levels are rising and I should be coming back into safe NH4 and NO2 levels soon. (fingers crossed) And hopefully when that's done, I'll start seeing Molly fry in the tank in the next couple of months. I look forward to learning from all of you and seeing your aquarium projects! -John
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