Mr. Ed's Aquatics
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Posts posted by Mr. Ed's Aquatics
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I had a pair of Koi Angels that ended up being 2 females. Saw a beautiful Koi being rehomed online and figured I'd try again for a boy. The same afternoon it cleared quarantine and went in with the ladies he spawned with the dominant female.
Before the lights went off that night I noticed he was on the other side of the tank spawning with the 2nd female.
Sometimes you get lucky, I've also had pairs that were definitely male and female that never paired up even after a year.
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1 hour ago, Candi said:
My first hatch! Reminds me of the platelets Caleb would get during chemo treatment, the nurses always said the more orange in color the better quality the platelets. I’m thinking the same goes with these eggs too! Look at that color!
I thought I put too much in or messed something up the 1st time. So bright orange and soooooo many. The next batch was just as good, so now I use just one teaspoon and get what I used to get from 2. Well worth it and the fry love it, even the adults in the tanks with fry baskets go crazy for it.
It's funny watching a giant Venustus or Peacock hunting the tiny shrimps.
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6 minutes ago, RyanR said:
That explains a lot. I've never heard they grow slow, but I understand. We will.be putting them in a 20 long, so I only want to start out with probably 3. For only 3 of them, I don't mind paying $12 or $15 each.
We might have an LFS about an hour from me in Baton Rouge that can order them. I'm going to look into that route also.
Do you normally sell and ship fish?
I do sell local, but I have never shipped. If a store can order you some, that's probably better than having them shipped cross country.
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6 hours ago, RyanR said:
If multies are so easy to breed, why are they so hard to find? I'm going to be setting up a new aquarium in about a month and my son wants a pair of multies. I can't find them anywhere. I have about 4 LFS's that I checked and Aquahuna. Does anyone have any websites they can recommend that won't change $40 for shipping?
So as far as I understand it, the extremely slow growth rate makes farming them less cost effective as wild collecting them. At the moment, no one's shipping out of Africa so wholesalers are having to get stock from local breeders like me, if at all.
Wet spot may have them back in stock, but I have had 2 people last week asking me to ship them some because they couldn't get them from there and 15 a pop is kinda high. Great little fish though, even if they grow super slow.
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25 minutes ago, tolstoy21 said:
Ed, Thanks for the reply.
I was under the impression (and hoping) that Texas holey rock would be enough to buffer the Ph to 8.
I do want to get a colony going from an initial six multis i have coming soon, so I think I'll just mix some aragonite sand into the existing inert sand.
I have not seen the holey rock cause a big enough jump in ph and switched to lava rock and Aragonite. Lava rock has tons of surface area for beneficial bacteria and weighs less than holey rock and Aragonite seems to be the best for increasing the ph.
Congrats on your new shellies, definitely one of my favorite tanks.
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Had a few new batches and thought I'd get a couple pics...
Snow white cichlids getting a grow out tank.
Super Red Empress fry moved from the Ziss egg tumbler to the Zise breeder basket (shout out to the Coop, loving the Ziss breeding merch).
Even some of my baby Appistogramm got moved in to the display tank.
What's everyone else working on?
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On 9/29/2020 at 2:18 PM, Streetwise said:
What is going on with the foam in the sixth image? Did you hot-rod an HOB filter?
Yeah, I wanted floating plants in this one so the top sponges are diffusers and the intake is to keep out fry and shrimp.
Swapped sides on the HOB and got the bigger Co-op sponge. But coming along nicely so far.
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I could be wrong, but I think the trays he uses are from an old microwave meal. I seem to remember hearing that on a video and kinda chuckling at his ingenuity.
Some people see trash, Dean sees a way to breed fish.
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6 minutes ago, Candi said:
i really like the look of the tank that has the rock "shelves" on the background.
Thanks, that's the one I'm currently working on and I think it's coming out nicely.
There's a hobbyist that makes those decorations out of resin and molds with magnets embedded inside so you can put them however you like. He has several different molds and has a few different colors/looks. Pretty sure he's on Ebay (seller boe617) if you want to check out what else he makes.
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While Multies are pretty hearty compared to other Tanganyikans, they do like a high ph (7.8 - 9.0). You can probably keep them alive in 7.4, but they probably won't breed in those conditions.
If you're looking at just keeping a few with other Tanganyikans and not trying to breed them, you can probably roll with what you have. If you're trying to setup a Multi tank and get fry, I'd keep trying to raise the ph closer to 8 at least.
My substrate is 100% Aragonite sand. I tried regular sand with buffers like coral, but it was never enough to get the ph near 8. Swapped out with Aragonite and it is 8.2 consistently now.
Once I had them in the higher ph, they started breeding and the fry would survive. Before that, I almost never saw fry. And when I did, it would be only 1 or 2 and they would die soon after.
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5 hours ago, ADMWNDSR83 said:
My clown pleco pretty much refuses to come out from the space in between the sponge and the base of the ACO sponge filter!
I picked up a blue eyed lemon pleco and it is under the sponge whenever I look for it. Every morning, all the small driftwood is moved and there's pleco poo all over the white sand. I kinda think I got one that's messing with me.
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I have dreams about not having to do water changes myself.... but for now I'm happy enough to have a Python to refill the tanks and a nice pond pump attached to the old Aqueon siphon hose to drain them.
I'm trying really hard to only improve the fish room with money made from the fish room, but I have been looking at everyone else's water and air systems and think I might bend that rule for something similar to yours. Nice work, looking good... and only 2 years? I installed a wall mount a little while ago and the receipt was 07/16 lol
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4 hours ago, StephenP2003 said:
I'm going to grow plants to trade in here, and cabomba seems to fetch more and be more in demand at my LFS, so I might make even more room for it. Also, the platys in here are getting ready to go to my LFS. Definitely need to scrape the glass, eventually.
I was surprised when I brought in some cabomba and purple cabomba that I initially got from a friend to my LFS. They looked at me like I asked if they wanted to buy heroin or something. Then the nicer employee explained it's illegal to grow, transport or sell in Washington and they were supposed to report me to fish and game. Yikes
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47 minutes ago, Cory said:
Thank you all for the support. Congrats to @Its Hutch on the 1 year milestone. I actually had no idea you've never ordered with us 😉 Hopefully this will show the people that think I only care if people spend money, that they are wrong lol. We treat everyone as equal as possible.
As for the planters... Pretty much Randy and I just pace back and forth waiting for customs to call with it being cleared lol.
I've never felt like you come across that way, just always positive and helpful. My wife has to remind me to show my support by just giving the Coop business. I think 2-3 times, in a video, you'd be needing help or something (like that last members video) and I'd say to my better half "He's only about an hour away, I should offer to help" ... only to realize from "the look" that I'd maybe just look like a crazy fan instead of a helpful guy who appreciates all the help and advice.
I have to resist the same thing with Bob since I live by him too lol
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28 minutes ago, Cory said:
Next level, spawning fish rooms...
Honestly, the fish room had already spawned fish room 1 - African cichlids, fish room 2 - American cichlids.... and then respawned fish room 3 - fry. LOL
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12 minutes ago, Kriskm said:
@Mr. Ed's AquaticsA room full of African cichlids would be a dream come true for me! And I like the sprinkle of plants in the tanks. Do you have lots of interest in the fry? That's a problem around here in the Seattle area--not many fans anymore.
I am a huge cichlid fan and have started the breeding process because @Cory inspired me to start a business that I'm passionate about. While it's true, there is difficulty getting quality African cichlids in the Seattle area. I have been looking into demand and I believe there is a market here that is severely underserved.
So, along with designing, servicing and possibly renting beautiful African cichlid display tanks, I've been importing and breeding many species that used to be staples in Washington but have become increasingly difficult to source here and with no shipping out of Africa now, it's a sellers market atm.
So far I've only provided fish to my clients, but I have been looking for a LFS to partner with or maybe even a website like Bob's, just minus the rainbows and plus the cichlids.
If you're a fan of shellies like multies, brevis, similis, gold ocellatus, etc. Or Tanganyikans like julies, tropheus, cips, brichardi, etc. And of course Malawi's like mbuna, aulonocara, and bigger haps... good things are coming back to Seattle.
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If you're running air, consider turning it off. Had one pump with the filter clog with paint (from the fumes I would think) and another that I pulled the little filter from cloud the tank water. Took forever to figure out since I had very carefully covered the tanks.
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I'm trying to wait for my next Coop box to get some of those new plant holding rock decorations... emphasis on trying.
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4 minutes ago, Mike said:
I was at a LFS last night and had them bag up as many embers they could net. When I got home I noticed this one looked different. I don’t know what fish this is. Some other kind of tetra? A rasbora?
Looks like a cherry barb to me, juvenile or female by the coloring.
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3 minutes ago, Brandy said:
Does your wife ever tell you to watch out or you will be sleeping with the fishes?😆
As you guessed, this joke has been made a few dozen times in my house. LoL
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54 minutes ago, pedrofisk said:
Take it a step further and why have a bed? Just hang a hammock between racks! 😁
Nice to see a fellow poker fan too.
Technically it's the "guest room" and I kinda like napping with the fish or stretching out to watch stuff my wife doesn't like (like Poker or fish videos). But I'm trying to get rid of the queen size and replace with a twin xl. Extra 20" of room would make working on the bottom tanks easier and give a better view of them.
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I keep my Endlers in a 55 hex and they seem to do the same thing.
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Bowfront likely to leak / choosing tanks?
in General Discussion
Posted
I don't think that this is a myth or uncommon as both my 46 and 72 bowfronts had the brace break and both ended up leaking. I fixed both by using a stainless steel brace replacement and an extra thick bead of black aquarium silicone.
Now that I do aquarium service, I offer tank repairs and the only tank I had to repair was also a bowfront that cracked the top frame and separated the front panel.
I know you didn't list this as an option, but for what you want, maybe look at a 75 instead of a 55 or 60. Both 55's and 60's only have 4 square feet of ground space for plants and hardscape. A 75 ends up with 6 square feet and allows much bigger hardscape and more room to layer plants and create depth.
If you do go with a bowfront, I'd preemptively reinforce the cross brace with something stronger than 1/4" plastic they come with.