Fish Folk

This forum is going to be such a joyride for you! Advice? Do not get defeated by mistakes, failures, or discouraging curmudgeons who scold you for them. If an aquarist enneagram could be fashioned around root values like “Wet-pet-keeper,” “Farming / Cultivation,” “Science,” “Artistry,” “DIY / Craftsmanship” and “Entrepreneur,” you’ll find yourself naturally drawn to certain points much more than others. The old classical rule KNOW THYSELF is important. And over time, your interests can evolve. You’ll find on this forum absolute masters in all of these (and more) areas. Once you begin to figure out your natural inclinations, you’ll form clear ideas of what you want to develop in, try, learn, and share.

Yes! The BAP at our club (PVAS - Potomac Valley Aquarium Society) actually is heavily oriented towards CARES. They do give a lot of points for these! We’ve got some really awesome aquarists in our club. These come from one guy, John Mangan, who got the original stock at the 2014 American Livebearer Association Convention. They were stock collected and imported by the North American Goodeid Working Group for the convention. Source info is “Etzatlan, Ameca / Magdelana basin.”

Gotcha. Well, if you’re interested, here’s a 7-part video series showing exactly how we raise Rams. If you want to skip to the end to see the final product before going down a rabbit hole, they really all came out nicely. Rams got us into this hobby, and continue to be our consistent obsession.

So, if I’m understanding correctly, you separate adult Ram pair to a planted 10-gal. They spawn. Eggs hatch. Then you remove the parents (I assume to prevent predation) and then you lose the fry? Is that what’s happened? Ram fry are pretty fragile for the first few weeks. Lots of mortality. We like to move eggs before they hatch to a separate fry container for hatching and attentive care. Check the very top surface edge. We had a crazy situation where rams spawned in a big community tank on substrate. So I pulled out the substrate with a soup ladle. Most eggs fungused over, but 4x Ram fry managed to hatch and (so far) survive. They can be hard to find. Of the 5x photos below, they’re only really clear in a couple shots.

Make that 6x fry!

Impressive! Here’s a bother list, but would teach me a good bit about your set up. If you’ve got time... Can you please describe your water parameters? (pH, KH / GH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate) The frequency and amount of your water changes? Temperature of your tank, and temp (est) of water you’re adding? Types of food you’re feeding? Frequency? Amount? Tank size? Amount of flow? Filtration? Plants? Decor? Our Corydoras Aeneus definitely spawn every 14-28 days. Eggs are not always fertile though. Our tank is a 20-gal long, pH is low... 6.5-7.0. Sponge filtration and small powerhead. Water change every 1x week, 50%. Few small crypts, otherwise just wood, rocks, sand, leaf litter. Some pothos roots. We feed relatively broad spectrum of goods... crushed krill flakes, bug bites, kelp flakes, live baby brine shrimp, etc.

Do you use adult shrimp? Or younger ones? We've got a small but thriving batch of Cherry Shrimp that we'd like to try this with. Killifish eggs take forever to hatch (14-21 days) and fungus over easily. And our last batch of Cory eggs also succumbed to fungus . . . (mostly because we got lazy)

Amazing! “Trophotaenia” so that’s what it’s called 😂

Our first CARES species fry! Xenotoca doadrioi. Started with breeding group of 8x. Fry has interesting umbilical-like appendage. Pretty big, but kind of clumsy at first.

We use black foam board from the school supplies / craft section in WalMart. We cut it to fit between rims. In this case, with a rimless, you'll want to figure out how to affix it. We usually use small pieces of black gorilla tape on the black rims. We've used this now on virtually all of our tanks. Fish feel secure "backing up" to it. With a heavily planted tank, it will disappear into the background. It makes plants "pop" too. Here's a couple videos on various planted tanks featuring the black foam board background: 5.5 gal. Betta Tank 10 gal platy Colony tank: 20 gal tall Ram Growout Tank 40 gal. breeder Acara Tank / 20 gal long fry grout tank

We use H2O2 on some eggs - rams, angelfish, Acara, corydoras. Our “rule of thumb” is 1 ml. / per 1 gal. Since we use 1/2 gal. specimen containers, we use 1/2 ml. We dose ever 12 hrs for 3x doses. We do not spray directly on eggs, but just into the water allowing the airstone to spread. We have overdosed once or twice. We use over-the-counter 3% H2O2. Also, we are starting to add one thumbnail sized piece of Catappa leaf and one or two alder cones to cost tan is and fight off fungus. We know a few breeders who actually stick a neocaridina shrimp into their egg container because they eat unfertilized eggs.

Ken Burke is onto something with the summer tub idea. So, we set up a tank in a 5th grade class each year and in a 12th grade bio class. It’s a small private school that has been able to continue in-person classes even this year. We stocked the 33-gal long tank in the 5th grade class with guppies, red cherry shrimp, and several bristlenose Plecos. The 55-gal up in the high school we set up with Buenos Aires tetras, electric blue Acara, firemouth cichlids, a couple bristlenose Plecos, and a single female convict. The guppies have all dropped lots of fry. And the Firemouths have also had fry. We treat it like a “living laboratory.” Our focus is more broadly about the entire ecosystem. Students learn about everything concerning the nitrogen cycle, water testing, behavioral observation, plant life and factors affecting plant health, ecosystem relationships, etc. The idea of focusing in on genetic traits is interesting! But you can probably accomplish a lot along the way. If you push guppy temperature up just a tad once fry are dropped, and feed well / clean water well, their metabolism may push their development forward a bit, and you’ll get them to mature a bit quicker. You could set up several tanks with this in mind. We put fry in a small tank down under the 33-gal to get them to grow without being predated on. Here’s a couple videos of the 5th grade set up: Here’s a video of the 12th grade set up:

Yeah, if it’s therapeutic and you don’t have too many tanks, that’s brilliant! we bought long heater hose extension to make our python stretch ca. 35 - 40 ft. We just let algae grow a bit in the hose 😂

That's a very cool illustration Maggie! Yeah, I've had this question recently, and posted a thread about it. It's buried on the forum now someplace. Like Maggie says, especially when water is coming in from the cold, it can hold a lot more gasses. If you've read through many older books on the aquarium hobby, the expressions "let your water age" or "let your water rest" comes up. Serious aquarists used to do this all of the time: they'd draw water from their tap (be it well or city source) and let it sit open in a container for 24-72 hrs. Some will also add an airstone. The idea is that this gives the water time to "gas-off" the extra atmospheric gasses in bubble form before adding to your aquarium. Additionally, it allows chlorine / chloramine to vent off as well. In all honesty, we've never really done this. And many advanced aquarists don't either. The use of dechlorinator chemicals (Prime, et al) has made most of us a tad _lazy_ in this regard. What you'll find though is that if you do a BIG water change, sometimes fish get "the bends" -- where those tiny bubbles that hover around in the tank like a dust cloud in an old basement -- give fish something like the bends that divers get. Honestly though, from all that you're describing, I'm still puzzled. You didn't do a particularly huge water change. All I can think of is that something related to the small volume of water held in a 5 gal. may be at root. Gassing off may not be at all a solution to what happened. But it's at least something to bear in mind.

So sorry to hear... it’s sad when we lose fish in the hobby. No ideas for sure, but here’s a couple possibilities: (1) Was the temperature of the water you added close to that of the tank? If not, it can shock fish. (2) Did you remember to add dechlorinator? Sometimes it’s easy to get distracted and forget. Chlorine or chloramine really can bother fish. (3) Have you done a water test on your _tap_ water? Sometimes ours has a spike in ammonia, which can kill off sensitive fish. We use Fritz Complete water treatment, which (claims to) chemically bind ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate along with treating tap water for chlorine & chloramine. (4) Sometimes a water change with tap water that hasn’t “gassed off” (rested) will give fish something like the bends — what divers get — loads of tiny bubbles unsettle them. There are downsides to working with small tanks. Parameters can just go out of control much faster than when there’s a larger volume of water.

We breed fish for our fish club BAP (breeders award program). They sell fairly well at our club when it meets. But both of our LFS (local fish stores) will buy certain fish from us once they’re large enough to sell. I’d start with guppies. They sell really well — though you won’t get rich off them. But platys breed easily too. In the end though... you’ve got to eventually just breed what you love! We love Rams. They’re not easy, but so worth it!

Hikari frozen blood worms all the way! Some people try to keep a small snail tank too to feed them. Ours took well to small rams horn snails. In the summer, you can set a container with water someplace outside to collect mosquito larvae in. They'll hit them hard! But be mindful that uneaten mosquito larvae . . . become indoor skeeterz!

Cory came to our fish club, and told us that his best customers and best fish keepers were nurses! Kudos to your profession! You spend your career seeking to help others through challenges and keep people well. Yes, some won’t make it... but it’s the credo “do no harm” ... that will guide you into becoming an awesome hobbyist!

It did go in the dishwasher...

Out of curiosity, what are you feeding them? It may be that they need certain live foods to really boost egg production and trigger spawning. We feed out Fundulopanchax scheeli live baby brine shrimp, and small frozen foods along with Krill flakes. Quality protein, and chasing around live foods is important!

Sandra the fish rookie, Welcome to fish keeping! You're going to be an amazing fish keeper. Your tank looks lovely. I'm probably going to shoot off a bunch of things here that might be questionable. I'd say follow what Cory says! He's really a great teacher. These are just thoughts from things we've tried and found success with . . . so take it all with a few grains of salt! (1) As KatieG suggested, one way to boost the bio colony in your tank is to buy wet driftwood from inside tanks at your LFS (local fish store). We've done that a lot. However, you will invariably be bringing along anything that's in their water. Algae . . . micro life . . . there's pros and cons to this idea. However, we do buy wet wood a lot! (2) I see you're using a HOB (hang on back) filter. If you can figure out a way to get something with a ton of bio jammed into there, that's another way to engage the cycle. An active sponge from a sponge filter, etc. You could ask an LFS if you could buy an active sponge filter from them, and pay them for a new sponge filter to stick in their tank. (3) Also . . . some folks do not really trust this approach . . . (maybe even Cory is skeptical in some videos) . . . you can buy a quality bottle of nitrifying bacteria to kick off a fishless cycle. Dr. Tim's Aquatics "One and Only" or Fritz Aquatics "FritzZyme 7 Nitrifying Bacteria for Freshwater Aquariums" have been two products we have used and found to be successful. The key is that your bacteria need to _colonize_ in the tank . . . and this is more than merely being present. If it were me, I'd try all three! If your tank is really cycling, you'll see the Nitrite turn a bit purple as the bacteria colony moves ammonia along through the cycle. H.K.Luterman is spot on -- that second bottle of Nitrate test in the API kit really needs a long, severe shake before using. And you'll need to shake your Nitrate Test tube to get the color to settle correctly. Be sure you test your water from the tap too. Lots of water has Ammonia in up front. You can also let it rest in a mason jar for a day or two to see if it gasses off, and changes pH. One thing you'll see is that many aquarists adjust the placement of their aquarium heater to be low in the tank, parallel with the ground. The reason we do this is that it lowers the risk of a heater overheating and breaking by exposure to air when you do a large water change. For water changes, down the road, you should definitely look into using a "python" -- it clips to your faucet, runs a hose to your tank, and can quickly drain water out and put fresh water in. No more buckets!!!!

Our 55 gal Amazon tank runs on 2x large sponge filters, one in either side back corner, and an additional airline down the center-back for flow. Has been going strong for 1x year. No problems. This video below (made to explain how we keep discus simple and happy) shows the set up.

Such a beautiful, fine plant. So worth the investment and patience. Thanks for sharing!

Others have already mentioned it, but Eheim Jager heaters work well for us. We sometimes struggle with thermostats sticking on lots of other cheaper brand heaters.

Well . . . not sure if this is anywhere close to helpful . . . but here's what's actually going on in 6 of our 10 gal tanks: (1) 4x Tangerine Painted Lyretail Mollies (2) 2x Apistogramma Urteagai, 12x Glowlight tetras (3) Colony of Firecracker Guppies, Colony of Cherry Shrimp, 1x young Bristlenose Pleco (4) Colony of Blue neocaridinia (5) 10 gal tall, with large piece of driftwood stood sideways, Anubis attached, and Bristlenose Pleco growout tank (6) 3x Fundulopanchax Scheeli (Emerald Killifish) We've found that a 20 gallon (long or tall) is a lot more fun to stock than a 10 gal. Honey gourami could make a nice centerpiece fish in a small tank. Threadfin Rainbows are attractive. Celestia Pearl Danios are really sharp . . . but we never get them out where we live.