Fish Folk

Not sure. But, if you’ve never reached out to Greg by e-mail, you definitely need that merit badge! His e-mail replies are legendarily helpful!!!

Just took a quick snap of our little school. They’re young yet... and SUPER ACTIVE!

Yes! He’s got a few videos. Here’s a recent one:

Cool! We got a school of BFTs recently. They're a lot of fun! If it's an established tank, we'd do this: [Prep] Be sure you're just running sponge filters. If all you've got is a hang-on-back, get a coarse pre-filter sponge. (1) Make sure you've got a thick amount of java moss across the bottom of the tank. (2) Let the adults spawn for a few days. (Live food triggers them) (3) Remove the adults / parents to another tank. They will predate on eggs and fry both. (4) The fry will be very small once they hatch. You may want to dim the lighting on the tank some. We use black cupboard liner material over the glass lids to diffuse light. (5) Once you see fry - they'll look like tiny shards of glass - you can feed on infusoria drawn from sponge filter squeezings (I can explain if you want), or grown in separate container using decomposing vegetables in tank water. You can also feed vinegar eels early on. We also use sera-micron dissolved in tank water. It may take a week or two before they'll be large enough to eat baby brine shrimp. If you want to see a similar set up, you can watch some of the videos on this forum under: Fish Breeding > Breeding Brilliant Rasboras Best of luck to you!!

Good recommendation!

{I'd gladly yield to anyone else's better insights. This reply is going to ramble a bit.} What we've observed is that various cichlids are bi-parental in the care for fry, others trade off care, and still others become mono-parental. It doesn't always depend on the species . . . sometimes different pairs of the same species will act differently. One cichlid (be it the male or female) chasing off the other parent _can_ be a sign of strong parental bond / protective behavior. However, if that same protective parent becomes overly stressed about the safety of the fry, we have seen them gobble the fry up (not just hide in the mouth, but literally eat the fry). It has sometimes been described as a way to "reconstitute protein" . . . just wait until the next cycle to start again . . . who knows. Some cichlids go on a pretty fast spawning cycle. Our Koi Angels would spawn every 7-14 days. Sometimes, when the female drops that tube again, the parents will leave off caring for young, and begin spawning behavior again. Now, you may observe that the cichlids will calm down, and begin bi-parental care again. Kribensis are famous for alternating protective parental roles. With Apistogrammas, we've seen females tail-whip big males in the face to protect fry (crazy thing to see!). If you're a week into the fry being free-swimming, I'd say that the parents (or at least _one_ parent) wants to raise the fry properly. There are dangers with all choices: (1) If you leave the parents in and just wait to see how things go... you might lose the fry. On the other hand, protective behavior can _solidify_ the parental bond to the fry, and might actually help the fry survive. Whatever you do, don't stress the fish out too much with lots of motions and lights. Be slow, still, calm, and do nothing out of the ordinary with the tank. (2) If you pull the parents... you will want to become very, very vigilant with the fry. Parents tend to guide the fry around the tank, leading them over to where infusoria can be munched on. You'll want to being gently applying small amounts of live baby brine shrimp to the tank, and will need to watch and see how they take to it. We have found that German Blue Rams can actually eat baby brine shrimp much sooner than "the internet" says. You just need to pull a very early hatch -- pull your bbs form your hatchery at 24 hrs. There will be a lot of unhatched cysts; however, the newly hatched bbs will be small, and easier to feed. If you have some vinegar eels, they can be fed to young fry. But with vinegar eels, you need to be mindful of how you prepare them. We draw out about 10 ml. of vinegar eels from the surface of our culture, then squirt that into a container of about 10 oz of tank water. Then add a small pinch of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to counteract the acidity. Stir and let settle. Then harvest off of the surface. There will be tiny, tiny eels in the pipette. The main risk in pulling out the parents is making sure that your fry are properly cared for _by you_. (3) If you pull _one_ parent... you risk upsetting the whole environment and balance, and may watch the other "protective" parent suddenly decide that the safest thing is for the fry to become "reconstituted protein." It really all depends on what your goals are. If you're just trying to learn, and enjoy your fish, maybe just let them go. But if you're trying to really raise fry, there's a case to be made for pulling the parents. {And now . . . I yield to everyone else with better answers! 😂}

You know, we've never seen these in stores before. [I think] we only get the Hemichromis guttatus (judging by photos on fishbone.se). Seems like the stores just ask for jewel cichlids, and take whatever farms provide. Your species is really bright red! Can you share some photos?

Me on YouTube: “All the fish in this community tank get along GREAT!” Threadfin Acara: “🐟💭” Me the next day: “Now where are those tetras?” Experienced Aquarist: 😂 —————————— 🧙‍♂️“... if it can fit in the mouth, it will eventually go there!”

Yepper! Western Maryland. Hillbilly country. I'm counting at about 188 species this year for our state.

Irene, you make the best videos! I always learn so much. That chopstick trick is really awesome. If you’ve got an established, planted tank, with floating plants, maybe 1x partially decomposing catappa leaf, you can probably make it over the initial half-week or so. You can take sera micron, tap it over a cup filled with tank water, and then vigorously mix together. The resulting “green water” can be dripped into fry tank for early food. Vinegar eels will work eventually. Be sure to counteract the vinegar acidity with a pinch of baking soda.

🤭 🤩 Daniel is officially a man of aquarium legend! Check out his interview with Randy Reed over on the Aquarist Podcast, Ep. 93.

Birding! And bird photography. Probably even more a passion right now than being an amateur aquarist. I used to compete at a lot of regional chess competitions. Love playing the beautiful game. ¡¡¡Visca el Barça!!!

Thanks for sharing! We're interested in breeding some dwarf gouramis in the new year. I assume you've got a confirmed pair in the tank? No really experienced feedback, but I'll enjoy following this thread. If they're like other anabantids, the eggs are collected by the male, and spat up into the bubble nest until fry hatch. I know with bettas, the eggs can be tricky to make out in among the bubbles. In a couple days, if there are fry, they'll be tiny little slivers along the water surface. Check around and see if other gourami breeders remove the parents to ensure fry survive. Good luck!! Honey gouramis are wonderful. We bought 2x of them the other week. Not sure if they are a pair or not.

Boesmanis are awesome! No advice for you on that... but someday, you should definitely enjoy a tank full of discus. Daniel (elite poster here) shared a photo of a huge tank he had with discus. It’s over on the forum under plants... title was something like (Valisneria + Discus + Easy Green = ??). Anyway, his photo will make you want to tear down your tank, and start all over 😂

Beautiful aquariums! Thanks for sharing. We like breeding smaller freshwater species. But a goal of “aquascape light”... that sounds very nice! Hope you’ll share your tips. Cheers from western MD.

Sorry to hear... it happens. Keep some quality food in their diet, keep water changes up... they’ll go for it again. A slate piece might sponsor a better try.

Here’s how we set up ours... pothos in hob...

Here’s what we do for easy DIY bbs hatchery: (1) buy 2x clear 1-liter polar springs water bottles. They have a narrow neck that works (2) after emptying the water... using a sharp utility knife, cut one of them straight around the outside about 1/3 of the way down (this will be the base / holding bottom) (3) after emptying the second one, cut off the bottom about 3/4 of the way down in the same way just by the ridge that bows the plastic back out. This will be the cap that is then fitted back over the top of that same cut unit — it will be squeezed o we exactly where you just cut it (4) leaving the cap on, take the 2nd bottle and invert it into the 1st section (5) take the bottom you cut off (which will be the “cap” and with a large enough drill bit (we just twist by hand) work 2x holes in — one for airline in, another to allow air pressure out Buy the aquarium co-op bbs eggs by the can. Store those in refrigerator until used. We mix 3x tablespoons of aquarium salt in the inverted 1-liter container with room-temp water. Then add a rounded 1x tablespoon of artemia cysts. insert an airline with fairly rapid bubbles into one of the holes, and fit the cap on. Set by a light for 36 hrs. Then remove the airline, allow to settle for 2-5 mins, and draw out bbs from bottom with fishroom dedicated turkey baster. Brinecshrimp should be orangeish colored. Squirt this through a fine mesh brine shrimp net. Then dunk this into a separate small container of clean water to lower salinity you will be adding. you should be able to see all the bbs swarming. If it’s just brown eggs, then something went wrong. if you want to see more, move to the 6:35 min on this video:

Thanks! We just cut to size and fold large pieces of filter sponge in half around pothos roots, jam it into the open tops of two aqueon 75 hob, and then . . . . fuggedaboudit . . . 😂

We've done this for a few tanks. As gardenman says, be sure to trim the light diffuser paneling a bit smaller than the exact footprint of the tank bottom so that it doesn't dig into the silicone. I will say though . . . if you're going to have African mbuna cichlids in there . . . they'll probably dig down and expose the light diffuser paneling. If you look in the attached photo, zoom in under the large piece of Texas holey rock (ca. 80-100 lbs), you'll see that they've dug down to expose it.

Very kind words! Thanks so much. Glad you're enjoying your favorite fish too. They're all wonderful.

Beautiful Plecos! No experienced advice here... we’d probably just be sure to stock with lots of aged wood. Leaf litter may help some too. Competitorslink may be able to set you up with native pods, etc.

If you’re an aquarist with some decent experience, you should not be afraid of keeping discus. These are some of the most beautiful fish in the freshwater tropical hobby. We have slowly been adding young discus to our aquaria, learning how they like to be kept. In the final analysis, they really are not difficult. Hope this video encourages you to give them a try!

Some BNPs will gnaw on Amazon Swords. Not sure about Banana plants. In general though, if there's an easier source of food for them, they'll go for that before hitting plants. Per your stocking question, you may find that those Kribensis will get extremely aggressive when they're ready to spawn. I doubt you'll have any guppy fry survive in the aquarium with Kribs around. They'll eat baby guppies. You'll also need to keep a watch on where the Kribs spawn. they like caves . . . but so do Bristlenose plecos. If there's a competition, someone might get injured.

Congratulations! We've raised up a few hundred rams . . . but never enjoyed the pleasure of seeing them successfully raise up a brood of their own. Best wishes. Looks like the fry have source context for lots of good infusoria in there. They can probably be fed live baby brine shrimp soon. That can help their development. We found that getting them on to bbs early rather than nursing them along on infusoria, vinegar eels, etc. really helped move them over the 2-week development hump. Take care not to over feed though. They may only be able to eat 2x bbs per day each. Little bit goes a long way! Also: don't be too discouraged if the parents decide to reconstitute protein and eat them all . . . that happens. If you have another aquarium set up, you could move the parents if they start to predate on the fry. Hopefully you'll have an amazing cloud of happy Rams though! Best wishes! So beautiful . . .