Hobbit

Aww congrats!! It’s a long wait for sure. This spring you will be absolutely flooded!! Last week was a sad week for me and the flock. I had a sick chicken that I couldn’t help no matter what I tried, and eventually I had to make that hard decision that all fishkeepers are familiar with. 😔 The good news is that our vet euthanizes chickens, even though they don’t treat them. I wanted to pass that info along because it was a lot more humane than any method I would have tried at home. They did an injection the same way they would for a dog or cat. Apparently many vets will do this regardless of whether they treat chickens, which I never would have thought unless someone told me. ❤️

Just thought I’d throw a quick update in here, since it’s been a while. It’s been a busy summer for me. My husband and I have been struggling with health issues for a while, and this summer we finally figured out a big part of the reason why. Our house had a huge mold problem in the ductwork and HVAC. It stemmed from a moldy crawl space that we had encapsulated several years ago, but we never did any work on the air system to clean it out. We’ve already done one round of remediation and gotten rid of a ton of belongings, and now we’re about to do a second round to address the remaining mold we found. So I have been very preoccupied, but also feeling a ton better! In fish news, I traded my female pleco to @Goosedub for some beautiful ricefish, and I had my sister pick up a yoyo loach from @Streetwise. “Loachy” as my sister named him has been doing great! And with the mom pleco gone, a ton of her last clutch of fry are surviving in the community tank, I suppose because she’s not there to eat all their food. The new ricefish are happily mingling with their new friends in my outdoor tub. 😊 Today I brought more platies to the LFS and traded for… wait for it… two new honey gouramis! 😍 I’m pretty sure they’re both female, so Boy Fish has two new girlfriends to impress. 💖 Maybe if my life ever calms down I’ll get back to regular updates. I haven’t even had time to read other people’s journals, let alone update mine. But I still like poking my head around the forum now and again! Got to spend some time with my fishy friends, even if I’m just hanging out on the edge of the room. 😄

@Goosedub helped me ship a pleco recently. I’d never shipped anything before and I was super nervous but it went fine!

Aww congratulations!! 😍 Honey fry are the cutest!! In my experience, my fry wouldn’t eat anything that didn’t move. I had to wean them off live foods when they were 8 weeks old or so. Maybe I just spoiled them 😅 but it’s what worked for me! I had to start with infusoria, move to vinegar eels, and then to baby brine shrimp.

@BAT absolutely! I didn’t have any fish to auction and that was no problem at all.

Today I designated a 10g the “male jail.” Somehow this generation of platys is male-heavy, and for the last 24 hours they have NOT been leaving the ladies alone! I tried a water change to get the hormone levels down, but no luck. So all the males went in Male Jail. The prisoners: There’s a random ricefish in the 20g who’s now the only male, and he’s chasing after the females nonstop! I even saw him try to mate one! 😮 They don’t seem to pay much attention to the little dude though. I should probably put him back with the other ricefish so he learns what type of fish he is. 😄

Ohh I definitely have symptoms of that. 😬😂

@PineSong it sounds like a ton of fun! I’ve used boiling water from my tea kettle to melt ice on my outdoor tub when I had to. I’m sure it gets colder where you are but your pond is also bigger. Ahh @Patrick_G that’s so cool! Do you have a way for the birds to get out of the pond if they jump in to take a bath? Apparently owls can’t judge the depth of water and can get stuck in troughs.

Eeeee @Meowtroid here you are! It’s me, Marita, the girl with the ricefish! It was so great to meet you on Saturday. 😃 For those who weren’t at the club: @Meowtroid won a very special auction item: a fry tray signed by @Dean’s Fishroom himself. Very special. 🤩

Aww thanks @Fish Folk! One of these days we will meet. Let’s see, something cool that happened recently. Of course, it was going to PVAS! I’d never been to a fish club meeting before, and it was full of nice, fishy people who were excited to talk fish, learn about Dean’s fry system, and buy fish at the auction. I can tell a ton of time and thought goes into those meetings. If I didn’t live 2 hours away I’d probably go every month! Another cool thing is that I got an adult yoyo loach from @Streetwise. My sister (who is not a fish person but loves me very much) picked the loach up in Vermont and brought it with her on the train when she came to visit me. I only had two yoyos, and of course they’re happier in a larger group, but I knew it was going to be tough to find adult fish to add to their clan. So I’m super thrilled to have this happy little guy/gal in the community tank. “Loachy” as my sister named him/her, is an adorable goof who fit right in immediately. As for if I’m planning anything… Well, I’m starting to think about rearranging my platy breeding groups! I thought I was giving up on the tuxedo variety because breeding them with non-tuxedos made the offspring prone to tumors. However, it turns out that in my last generation of tuxedo fry, I got two fry in the color I’d originally been going for: yellow sunburst tuxedo platys! So now, assuming they don’t grow tumors, I’m thinking of trying to set up one side of my platy breeder for them. These are both males so I’ll need to find them some female companions. I’ve also gotten some other really neat colors of fry from my current breeders, including a blue spotted micky mouse x sunburst to get this little rainbow dude: And a blue wag + some orange gene to get this attitude-filled punk: Right now, my breeding setup isn’t working super efficiently, which is okay, but I’d like it to work at least a little. 😄 The original breeding ladies seem to have slowed way down, and my fry slurpers aren’t catching as many fish as before. I’ve also got to bring another bunch of platys to my LFS so I can move out the juveniles currently living in the fry tank. Plenty to do, as always! It’s so easy to get behind! I’m going to tag two people if that’s okay. It’s very hard to pick! @Streetwise and @Colu. What cool things have happened to you, and/or what are you currently working on? @Colu, I realize I don’t know anything about your fish! I’d love to hear what fish and tanks you have, or have had in the past.

I had a male platy that was haranguing his little blue buddy nonstop and probably would have exhausted him to death if I hadn’t intervened. I tried to make a jail for the orange offender. Within a few hours, the hooligan had escaped and chased the blue guy into jail instead! And that’s how they lived for several weeks until I could rearrange the other fish. 😅

I’ve recently done a deep dive into the mold world because it turns out it’s been making me sick for the last six years. 😒 I have no idea how much land-dwelling molds affect fish, but just to be safe, I’d recommend removing the bulk of it with a paper towel before submerging. Most black-colored mold isn’t *the* black mold that everyone’s scared of, but lots of molds produce harmful compounds, and it’s easy enough to wipe the plant down.

I went to the meeting and had a great time! The auction was hopping. I met lots of lovely people, including @Dean’s Fishroom! Thanks for coming all the way out to DC, Dean!

Aww! The loach I got from @Streetwise likes to sleep vertically, nose up. 😄

I agree that I wouldn’t worry about the pH in terms of your beneficial bacteria. I’ve been running a tank at a high-ish pH for over a year and it’s never had an issue with BB. As long as they have plenty of surfaces to grow on, you should be fine. It’s more about the fish and plants you want to keep and what they need.

Oh wow!! It sounds amazing! I’ll plan on being there unless something comes up. And look at all your fish 😍 I had just given up on getting a group of X. doadrioi. (No no no I already made a different plan for that tank space. Nope. I have a new plan. A good plan. But but but… ahhhh) Well I know it’s an even bigger drive for you so no pressure at all, but one of these times it would be great to meet you!

I noticed on the Potomac Valley Aquarium Society webpage that at this Saturday’s meeting, they’re having a workshop with @Dean’s Fishroom about his fry system. I thought maybe I’d make the drive out there and check it out (it’s two hours for me). Is anyone else going? And are you actually flying out to the East Coast @Dean’s Fishroom or will it be virtual? I’d love to meet you of course but I know you’ve done your fair share of traveling lately! @Fish Folk I know this is your aquarium club. Do you think you’ll be there?

Lots of great advice here! I did have gravel that raised my pH: it was from one of the big box stores and turned out to be some sort of white stone coated in a black paint. One easy way to tell if it’s your gravel is to get two cups and fill one with water, and the other with half gravel and half water. Let them both sit for a week and then test the pH.

Most of mine find their way out but not all. 😬

Perhaps the next step is emergent Venus fly traps…? 😀

What a beautiful and heart wrenching story. It sounds like there’s going to be a happy ending for the guppies at least. I’m so sorry you lost your mom, but how awesome that you found a way to cook her fresh fish. 💖 Bwahaha I love this. You’re a great writer!

If it’s useful, here’s what I use to hold a small fraction of my stuff 😅

Nice review! Just a note—I use a 100w heater in my 55 gallon tank 😄 so keep an eye on that temp because if that heater breaks and defaults to the “always on” mode, that 5g will get hot really fast.

I’ll share some tips! Most of them are repeats of what’s already been shared (or come straight from Jimmy’s videos), but I just want to second them because they’re so helpful. 😄 More light = less blurry. If you have enough light, you can still photograph moving fish with clarity. Try putting an extra light on top of the tank when you’re photographing. Focus on the eye. If the eye is in focus, that looks “right” to the viewer. If the eye isn’t in focus, then it looks “wrong.” Crop crop crop! Cropping is your friend! Crop the image a little in order to eliminate clutter around the edges and help guide the viewer’s eyes to where you want them to look. Don’t use the zoom. For my phone at least, zooming in doesn’t actually zoom in—it just crops the image and makes it more pixelated. If you want to be able to take pictures of smaller things, get a clip-on macro lens. Take a million pictures so you get three good ones. That’s just the way it goes with fish. Make sure the room is dark to prevent reflections in the glass. It looks like you already figured this one out, since it improved a lot between your first and second pictures. Figure out what gets your fish to the glass. In the fish store where I take pictures, most fish will come when I wiggle my fingers. Sometimes that gets them excited and they start swimming faster, which is counterproductive. Some fish are scared of the camera. I think this is because the lens looks like a big “eye” to them, which then tracks them as they move. Very threatening! So I try not to move the phone too much to reduce the impression that a predator is tracking them. I also put my fingers fairly close to the lens so the lens stands out less to them. My phone has a pretty good camera (iPhone 12) and I don’t know how that compares to what you have, but here are some examples of what I’m able to get using the above techniques: This is one of my honey gourami fry. I used the macro lens to take it:

I wish I knew. He doesn’t look to good, poor guy.