Fish Folk

Nine months after trading for one trio of Emerald Killifish… the colony is coloring up! Breeding fish involves a long term plan for a good place that fry can grow out as much as it is just getting healthy adult fish to spawn in the first place. Here was the long nine month process…

Water temps from thermometers in ponds

I've got plans to build a lattice shade cover to help block some of the direct sunlight.

Ours did not do well with temps consistently in the mid 90s, no shade.

^sage advice^

I think that a standard 75 gal tank is the perfect dimension for discus. They don’t seem to be too picky with substrate. I have a 2-inch base of black diamond blasting sand (cheap - got at Tractor Supply) with a cap of Eco Complete. Many Aquarists prefer white sand or fine rock… or no substrate at all. In my setup, Malaysian Trumpet Snails are an epic cleanup crew, and multiply like rabbits in the substrate. To get loads of discus tank setup ideas, check out the YouTube channel titled “Aquarium Official” to see what others do. I like learning about Discus keeping from Gabe at Jack Wattley Discus. And here on the Forum, there are some wonderfully experienced Discus keepers with a wide range of experience. @Daniel sort of designed his home around a huge aquarium that used to house a bunch of discus. I think @Paul is keeping Discus presently. Lots more experience there than I’ve got to offer!

(Previous post must have not gone up the other day) Tonight, I decided to do this…

Things holding stable with fry. Changed water in 20-gal. Fed live white worms to adults / Grindal worms to fry. Haven’t been too obsessed with water changing the fry container. Added a Catappa leaf and a few Alder cones to 20 gal tank. Coconut fibers get on fry container bottom via Grindal worm feedings.

Your conscience is correct. Live plants are a miracle to such a tank.

Think “infinite Livebearers”…

In a heavily planted 125, with a willingness to do some basic maintenance, you can stock an endless number of livebearers IMHO. Swordtails should do fine with all that space in the tank.

Plagues . . . hmm . . . that's a new one! 😅 Platys are livebearers, yes. They are a bit less prolific than Guppies, but tenacious and hardy fish. There are beautiful strains that can be custom made very easily, and both male and female are brightly colored.

One more thought . . . I am not a "perfectionist" aquarist. I get those who are. I understand the people who want Z E R O snails and Z E R O duckweed and Z E R O algae. I really do. Some are just neat aquarists. Others are aquascapers. Fine. But earlier this year, I was on a Zoom Fish Club meeting when one super experienced aquarist who was really into breeding fish went on a tirade about Malaysian Trumpet Snails. I was trying to get my bearings when another even more experienced (i.e. ancient) aquarist began just shaking his head and kind of eye-rolling, dismissing the concern. Once you've got so many gallons of water, multiple tank syndrome, breeding addictions, etc. . . . I think you just learn to roll with stuff: duckweed? sweet. Snails? Cool. Algae? Yeah, well . . . I'm gonna get some eventually anyway. All that said . . . I try not to impose my "anything goes" attitude on others. I try to make plants as pristine as possible without using chemicals to "clean" life off of them.

Cool question! I tend to remove any easily visible snails, but I don't treat with any chems to remove them. I like to fill a few white buckets with clear tank water and float plants overnight. This lets me get as much duckweed as possible out, lets snails drop, clarifies where algae might ned to be addressed, etc. Then in the morning, they're much easier to bag up. For club auctions, people like to look as your plants. I use clear bags tied up with air and water. Sometimes I just spritz the plants with water . . . other times I've put a bunch of water in the bag. I'm not terribly consistent with club auctions. For shipping, I like to moisten a paper towel with tank water, and wrap bunches of plants and then put into a bag and lightly close. For taking to my LFS to sell, I just bag the plants in separate bundles and sell them as groups. I try to make them look decent. I explain my basic method for catching fish and bagging plants for sale to LFS in another thread here:

Welcome! Hmmm . . . 10 gal breeding project . . . have you tried breeding Platys yet? We started with 1x pair of Steel Blue Wag Platys a year ago, and they've spawned hundreds of fry in a 10 gal tank for us.