Fish Folk

I'd by two of these 200 watts might seem shy for a 180, but I think it could work fine if you aren't constantly trying to lift temperatures up 20+ degrees above room temperature.

Seems to show more light / white in fins than powder blue. Is this just your lighting? Or are you seeing that too?

Scientific Name: Ludwigia palustris Common name: "Marsh Seedbox" Two plant apps agree. Hard to second guess...

As sacred as true pizza. Street food is fantastic. I really miss this where we live at out in hillbilly land…

Just doodling here... I'd also add a black backing. All depends on your LFS. Fry look better at 3 months.

Endlers will explode in population. Parents don't eat as many as you'd think. If you get good Brooders to start with, you'll end up with MILLIONS in no time. I would build the tank to look beautiful, and not worry too much about fry hiding. But that's just my opinion.

I’d choose easy, bulletproof plants. Try Amazon Swords in back, with some Moneywort. In front, several Anubias Nana petite. Throw in some Marimo Moss Balls. Rotalla Indica all around the edges of the stones and wood. Hygrophilia is hardy if you can find it to accent everywhere. Java moss here snd there. I prefer the “ferny” types.

When adults, in spawning dress, they’re awesome. I just snapped this photo…

My favorite tropical at present is Mikrogeophagus ramirezi (German Blue Rams). My son got me into these, and I’m still obsessed! I’m sitting by them now. Here’s an impromptu photo… Because we breed and raise in our water, control and vary quality foods, they color up wonderfully. My favorite temperate fish are Notropis chrosomus (Rainbow Shiners). Big thanks to @Cory for mentioning them a long while ago in a stream, and to @WhitecloudDynasty for leading the way selectively breeding them in captivity. Here’s mine yesterday all “fired up” like pink salmonids spawning… I’ve started hatching snd raising these up over the past year. Yesterday’s haul of eggs looks good…

Newest GBR fry free-swimming, being fed on vinegar eels and New Life Spectrum GROW fry powder…

SRBD adults in spawning dress again. They react well to more + brighter light, corresponding to spring seasonal changes… Meanwhile, SRBD fry in grow-out tank…

Looking good! Lots of folks like it. That’s a great price. I’d have to use it myself before making any serious critique. One concern is temperature. For Rams, a lower temp might be a problem. But for other species, that’s not a concern.

I recommend diving deep into tetra breeding techniques via older videos from Mark's Aquatics (UK) and LRB Aquatics. "Do I acclimate the fish when putting them in the breeder tank?" - How different is the water? Is it R.O. vs. tap water? What's the pH / KH / GH / temp. difference? If you want to, you can take a tray or dish and siphon out ca. 1 inch water from their current tank, move them in, and then siphon-drip in water from the breeding tank slowly over the course of 30 to 60 mins. Finally, add tetras to breeding tank. But if the parameters aren't really all that different, I am not sure it will shock them any to just move them over. Now, if by "acclimate" you are referring to _feeding_ them a specialized diet in order to help them develop roe and milt, that can be done while they are in their current tank. "Do I acclimate them when putting them back to the main tank?" - Again, this depends on how different your parameters are. "Do I need an air stone or sponge filter on the breeding tank?" - The answer to this depends on exactly how you set your breeding tank up. Mark's Aquatics video series is done with no filtration. Just peat, a small heater, and and cycled water. LRB Aquatics takes tips from Ted Judy (I think) and sets up a pass-through / fall through rested in a larger tank. That tank might do well with small sponge filtration. "will the fry eat vinegar eels?" Once they rise, they may. But at first, they'll stay very low near the substrate. They will need infusoria. But if you use some well-established java moss, molm, and maybe some sponge-filter squeezings, enough can make it to a size where they can eat vinegar eels. I'll pause here. If you're very serious about this, I'll reply with loads of links, videos, and lots of other thoughts. We have never bred these tetras, but have bred a few similar species.

May 2, 2022. Here we go again…

Beautiful! Lovely composition. That’s a gorgeous Betta too.

Hmm… so: (1) take your tap water, collect in a clean glass measuring pitcher, allow to rest for 24 hrs. (2) test KH and GH on rested water. I’d suggest trying strips and titration drops. Maybe your LFS could help if you only use one method. (3) Now do a 90% water change on your tank, adding dechlorinator as you normally would. Allow it to settle for 24 hrs. (4) test KH and GH on the tank using two methods as well. If you have removed _all_ of the crushed coral from filters and substrate, I find it hard to believe that this tank would buck your tap water parameters. Water gets softened as acids slowly build up. Decaying plants, food, etc. cut into water buffer and eventually lower KH. Plants also absorb minerals. Water regains hardness from contact with Rocky substrates, limestone bottoms to river beds, etc. Rainwater is perfectly soft. Often, well water is hard, having filtered through many layers of dirt and stone to the the underground reservoir.

I’m not a canister filter hater, but I just don’t use them. I’ve just gotten a single air pump to run everything. I went with this… I’d have gone in for the Linear Piston Air-pump from ACO, but my LFS let me sell them fish I breed for store credit. They run all of their tanks on this.

Did you notice gas bubbles escaping as you moved the substrate around? Could be sulphur-based gasses. But on the other hand, was there blue-green Cyanobacteria growing in the tank? That also has a certain stink. Sometimes lots of plant decay and snail death adds up to bad stink in a healthy aquarium. I did a 50% WC on a cool water tank last week, and my goodness it stunk! I also don’t gravel vac in there.

Not yet! I think they’d love that, but they’d eat a LOT.

2-1. Will take the win! Nervy last 20 mins. 😬⚽️

Ok. Barça doing well headed into 75 min. Ansu Fati enters… 2-0… fun!

GBR update. New fry starting to free-swim; month-old fry growing out; adult pairs born last summer…

Awesome sauce! Looks like maybe some baby brine in the belly?

Well, Sunday La Liga matchday. Barça plays home match against Mallorca at 3 PM ET. A win or a tie lifts us in to 2nd place in the League. Mallorca is sitting low in bottom half of the table just above the relegation zone. If we don't sort this team properly at home, there's going to be some very unhappy Cules in our house! Pedri is injured. Hopefully we'll see Ansu Fati for some minutes this match. Our slippery little #10 has been injury-AWOL for so much this season. Old boys keeping up the backline. All this said . . . we have no good excuses. We are a top-tier team playing like a mid-table shambles last few matches. Game on!

I use mac / Keynote / preview to edit images. Very low-brow. It helps me to visualize what I want.