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Brandy

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Everything posted by Brandy

  1. Brandy
    I had to google love heart parrots. I wish that did not exist. A fish needs its tail. Removing it has crippled it for life. Surgery like that should be outlawed, IMO. Glow fish, while unattractive to me, are fine. The pigment genetically expressed doesn't hurt them. Selective breeding mostly doesn't bother me either. Fish that are heavily negatively impacted, unable to swim, breed, or feed without assistance, is where I draw the line, I think.
  2. Brandy
    I am just beginning breeding fish. But my other job involves breeding things (don't ask, it isn't as fun as fish). We are not a huge operation so very analogous to a hobbyist, except we maintain 10-15 discreet strains at a time. My general strategy is to "braid" two lineages in the strain. I try to choose strong breeders, get 2 lines running, then cross the lines every 3 generations or so, and repeat. In cases where we have a deleterious recessive arise, we often do not have access to fresh foundation stock. In that case my strategy is to expand the strain as much as space allows, and resample away from the problem genetics. Typically we have access to more raw genetic information than a hobbyist, but the suddenly arising negative mutation is rarely included in that information. The principles of husbandry hold true, in spite of that. Breeding a trait out can be even easier than breeding one in.
  3. Brandy
    I think with mutts colony breeding is great in the beginning, the "who knows what is in there" effect, but as someone who has selectively bred other non-fishy things, you would still have to have a grow out and select your future breeders. At least that is my plan, so maybe what I am doing is something in the middle. I have 2 males and 5 females in this foundational generation of mutts. If anything fun pops up in the babies (who I don't let rampantly back cross to the parents-they are separated to grow out tanks) I will select for that, and cross those as my next generation, and so on, retiring adults as they age or I achieve something more desirable. I wouldn't consider this line breeding exactly, but selective. I suppose, if I am successful, I will have developed a line in the end. A line of mutts! (also @H.C. Aqua I have really enjoyed your youtube channel! Nice to see you here too!)
  4. Brandy
    How well would this work with standard cheap on-or-off lights? I have a timer I can schedule. My human waking day runs from 7am to 10pm at least. I don't have time during the workday to enjoy the tanks, so I was thinking a simple split would work, half the light in the morning, half in the evening, a "dim" period in the middle--my apartment gets a fair bit of natural light, most of the tanks benefit from some of that, the fish aren't in a windowless garage or anything, but not enough to grow aquarium plants.
  5. Brandy
    I totally agree with your size cut offs. I have 7 small tanks and one medium one. 93g total. I understand about the stocking restrictions, and if you want big fish then it is totally true that you need big tanks. But with 8 tanks I could have 8 totally different biotopes, with one or 2 species in each small tank and maybe 4-5 in the medium. I DON'T, but I could, and I may at some point. A 93 gallon stocked with 18-19 species that all get along would be challenging for me to stock. Arguably, splitting my 93g across 8 locations is neither cost effective nor labor saving. Only space saving in my 500sf apartment that houses a cat, 2 large reptiles, and 3 humans. ONE small tank is still reasonable. But what fun is reasonable?
  6. Brandy
    Why Dave? I like the fact I can distribute them thru my house, like @Streetwise.
  7. Brandy
    I just went thru a full 5 day round of maracyn in combination with Paraclense. Did not seem to impact BB or water parameters at all, but the foam on the surface created by the airstone was surprising.
  8. Brandy
    They are active and pretty and the males do a funny little display dance with startlingly fancy fins that are otherwise folded flat, plus their pectoral fins look like ridiculous little antennae to me. Mostly it is the exotic finnage that makes them look like a "complicated" fish to me. They move like they are stop action somehow, dart, freeze, dart, freeze. 🙂 I think their other name is dwarf rainbow?
  9. Brandy
    Conversely, I have been shocked at how easy the Pseudomugil gertrudae are....They look fussy.
  10. Brandy
    I am a pollyanna beginner myself. One thing that I really appreciate in fish store staff is not saying "No, you aren't a good enough aquarist to keep that yet." or "Heck yeah, put that bala shark in a 10g!" but instead "Here is the reality of what it takes to keep that alive." Like, yes, puffers are cool, please be aware that you may have to trim this species teeth. I think, in my (limited) experience, neon/cardinal/rummynose tetras are harder to keep than I would have expected. To me it is all about realistic expectations though. Don't say "don't keep them", Say, "here are the meds you will need, expect some potential losses." If you send someone home with a fancy goldfish, 4 African cichlids, 6 cardinal tetras, a geophagus, an iridescent shark, a bala shark, 3 clown loaches, a single corydora, and an uncycled 55g tank, you are a jerk. That was the actual list of fish my family was sold when I wanted guppies for my 10th birthday. It did not end well. Ah, the 80s...
  11. Brandy
    @Daniel That. Was. Hilarious. I can't even pick my favorite line. Good thing I work from home now, if I were at work right now they definitely would know I was goofing off!
  12. Brandy
    For real, my dream house would be a 300sqft garden shed attached to a 4000sqft glass greenhouse.
  13. Brandy
    Awesome tank! Yeah, there is the slime that is rotting plant material, and then there is the snotty "hair" algae that is part of the new tank thing for me. It blooms and then dies eventually. I usually spend a fair bit of time combing it off plant babies with an old toothbrush, while I wait for the tank to settle in. I am not actually sure I need to, it just seems like maybe a good idea to be sure they are getting enough light to recover? To be fair my green water algae bloom was not as thick as the original post or your situation. It was just unsightly, and bugged me. It was not harming the fish or the plants at all.
  14. Brandy
    So I see this popping up in a lot of threads and I don't want to hijack those threads. There seem to be 2 schools of thought about tank sizes--some people are in the Bigger Is Better camp, some people are in the Small Is Beautiful camp. I see pros and cons to both, and thought we could bat ideas and tips for each around here. I like little because I live in a small space, I don't have a lot of money, and I mostly like small fish. In defense of the Small Is Beautiful camp: Tiny tanks can easily be disrupted by small things--like ONE dead snail--but they can also be corrected rapidly. A 30-50% water change takes minutes, you aren't too tired to tackle it after work. Fish, plants, and equipment are (or can be) cheaper. FINDING that dead snail is not a herculean task. Big, static tanks can become a chore, and people leave the hobby for that reason also. To be fair, if I had the space I would LOVE a giant tank. I would also like a Victorian conservatory attached to the side of my house. A maid, and perhaps a view of something other than the highway. But until I strike it rich, I am really good at making tiny work. The learning curve may be steep, I may have a lot of frustrations at times, but if the only option is between a 55 gallon or nothing I would be forced to choose nothing. Some fish>no fish. So the question for me is not what size tank to offer newbies, but how to lower the bar for anyone who is interested.
  15. Brandy
    Lol, @Daniel did you still have plants after 69 days that were that murky? That is what always freaks me out--algae on hard surfaces I can handle, but algae that consumes plants always worries me that it will end up out-competing them. I buy my precious $15.99 pot of bucephelandra, distribute little starts around the new tank, and watch it be covered in slime within a week. Of course it is simultaneously melting, so maybe the apparent misery of the plant is just the inevitable adjustment to its new conditions...But it is very hard to do nothing. 😬
  16. Brandy
    I think for me there is currently an element of controlling something in an out of control world. So, I love the cute things they do, I like watching my new kuhli loaches squiggle around, I like watching my red Betta (named Satan) "hunting" his pellets, and begging the rest of the time like the pellet junkie he is. I like learning new things about water parameters and gear. But I really like putting together shapes and colors, in fish, hardscape, and plants, that make a balanced, soothing composition. I am creating a scene. The fact that there are a lot of technical things that also have to balance for the fish to be happy and the scene to work just keeps my overactive brain distracted from obsessing over things outside of my ability to influence. I did the same thing on my shelves and in my living room and kitchen. Once all the closets were tastefully organized, I got fish. Now it is chaos, and I have so many things to fix that I am happy again. I am miserable without a challenging but achievable goal. I don't want this to sound like I don't care about the lives in the tanks--they are pets and I name them, love them, worry if they are sick, and try to do right by them. But the reason for getting them is a little different than for other people, I think. I feel like this makes me both normal (pandemics are stressful) and something of a weirdo. Like who adds stress when there seems to be too much going on?
  17. Brandy
    I went with a small not very expensive uv sterilizer. In my case it was sunlight suddenly hitting the tank in the morning. I keep the shades lowered and have since been able to remove the UV sterilizer.
  18. Brandy
    They are schooling with the rummy-noses on and off. They blend right in! 🙂
  19. Brandy
    You should probably count from the 98% water change. That could reset you. I think adding a little at a time is a great plan. Add some, wait a week, test before the next water change, repeat.
  20. Brandy
    Gotta admit, the mutts are little rocks. I am starting with petco mutts, using a colony breeding style. I chose a bunch of half black with blue on the tails/fins and green dragonscale looking heads. One female might have some mosaic coloring in her tail and one male with a cobra tail. I have fry under 1 month showing half black coloring, that looks like a solidly conserved trait. I strongly wish to duplicate the blue/green iridescence with or without patterning, but I can't see it yet. Admittedly this is a half-baked breeding program because I know I am losing some fry to parental predation. I never seem to catch them in the act, and so I save what fry I can when I see it. Hopefully additional plants filling in will help, or I will get better at catching moms just before they drop.
  21. Brandy
    Couldn't you just vacuum the offending Amazonia off the sand? Like a gradual thing?
  22. Brandy
    so if you ran a sump on a rack system, couldn't you do an overflow type water change thru the sump? without drilling a bunch of tanks...
  23. Brandy
    I think I would try to get the nitrates down with larger water changes, and maybe tuck some terrestrial plants in the corner with just roots in the water. Like pothos, and tradescantia and spider plant. Alternatively floating plants like duck weed, but you will be decreasing the light to anything planted below. What kind of lights? At least if your ammonia and nitrites are 0, then your bacteria is doing great. Have you tested Nitrates at the tap or wherever you get your water? I think I remember you might be in Washington, so if you are on Seattle city water that wouldn't be likely...Still worth checking for peace of mind. I have had a rough time with tetras (both neons and rummynose) lately too. I tend to suspect parasites like gill flukes, but I think that is just because I see fish breathing hard low in the tank before I lose them--I am not sure that actually makes sense or I am grasping at straws. I opted to treat with paraclense and the maracyn.
  24. Brandy
    My largely useless comment is that I wish I had the space. Admittedly I am small potatoes and don't have a need. As if we "need" any of this I guess. I know there would be a huge concern with cross contamination, but would one large sump ever be used to run multiple tanks? Say in a hypothetical situation where you were not introducing anything new from outside, like a breeding and grow out situation? How would that work in a power outage? I think (aside from space) my primary concern has always been flooding.
  25. Brandy
    Meet Dyson, Hoover, and Eureka! Also, I got some adorable Khuli loaches that I can't photograph to save my soul. I didn't think I wanted them, but I was overruled, and I adore them.
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