Chris
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Posts posted by Chris
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Did a vlog showing how tank maintenance goes in the fish room.
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Please let us know how you like those foods! I'm kinda wanting to try out some different brands. The stuff I've been feeding for the last few years seems to be dipping in quality.
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We brought this little guy home in November, not long after we lost our collie to a brain tumor. I was looking around for information on tumors and epilepsy in dogs, and that led to researching about breeds, and then that led to shelters, and we found him on a shelter's website. He looked so sad! We picked him up a couple days later.
He wouldn't let us touch him for the first several weeks - but only when he was indoors. You could take him outside and he'd play and act like a normal puppy. Eventually he got over that, though, and other than destroying some toys and a few dog beds, he's been a fantastic pup ever since.
Here he is today:
Meet Odie!
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On 5/11/2024 at 11:08 PM, Odd Duck said:
I think some of the acceptance rate is due to where the fry are swimming. Vinegar eels tend toward the top of the water column so fry that stay low might ignore them completely. Fry that tend to stay higher in the water column tend to accept them better.
Vinegar eels raised in high density cultures don’t seem to carry as much vinegar with them when harvested and I think that helps acceptance, too. They also don’t take up any more space than banana or microworm cultures. Adult fish as big as ember tetras or Kubotai rasboras also accept them well. Maybe not as well as BBS but they still will dart around after them and their bellies will fill up. My eyes are no longer sharp enough to see them actually eat the tiny eels when they disperse in a larger tank (vs. being concentrated in a fry tray) but I can still appreciate their feeding responses and full bellies.
I guess that would be where my inexperience comes in - both species I've used them for have been primarily surface-dwelling.
Good to know!
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On 5/11/2024 at 1:38 PM, T. Payne said:
I've used vinegar eels for years for starting out rainbowfish. I believe the only downside is that bbs is more nutritional and once your fish get to a size where they can eat bbs, then the transition should be made.
I agree. I find that fry much larger than a newborn platy don't take the eels as well - its the tiny fry that they're so useful for.
I had several batches of Cyanodorsalis fail until I tried these eels. It did the trick!
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On 5/11/2024 at 11:31 AM, Lennie said:
The downside is, fry barely show interest towards it in my experience. I just see it as an extra food source for my fry between fry food feedings until they are ready to eat live bbs. Since they last long in the freshwater and dont spoil the water and easy to culture, it is a good choice between fry food feedings. Hardly well accepted tho
Interesting... my experience is the opposite. They tend to react really well to them for me - they wiggle around enough that it draws their attention. Not as much as BBS, but certainly more than a dry food.
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Gotta be either black neons or giant danios.
Black neons aren't the most colorful fish, but they're striking from afar in a decent size group.
Giant Danios have some amazing color. They get huge and are super active but look amazing.
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Hey yall,
So I've been on the baby brine shrimp hype train for several years now. I haven't hatched it out every day or anything, but I've had a hatchery around for a long time. I find that it keeps my fish kind of next level happy.
I've used vinegar eels twice - once, when I was raising some Pseudomugil Cyanodorsalis fry, and I set up a culture recently to use with ricefish. I'm finding them to be an essentially 0 maintenance food culture that teeny tiny fry LOVE, and while their size makes the use cases limited... I'm wondering why I don't see more breeders raving about them. As long as you have more than one culture, theyre constantly available (as opposed to BBS, where you really need more than one hatchery or container to keep them around 24/7) and you can keep them in a closet for months with no maintenance. Is there a downside? Do fish that eat them end up with 3 heads or something? Lol!
Here's a picture of my largest culture - an old vodka bottle with apple cider vinegar and bits of an apple I put in back in January. Definitely time to reboot it with new feed, but still!
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I have three ricefish babies! Wooooo!
The size difference between the first hatchling and this last one is pretty huge. The first is nearly twice the size as the newest one. In ricefish, does this cause any issues?
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I was trying to get pictures of the platies, but the lighting isn't great and most of their color comes from the shine on their scales. Much easier to show in video form.
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RO buddy is good as long as you don't need lots of volume.
Most portable units are going to sacrifice size and flow rate, so for nano tanks you'll be fine. For larger aquariums, you may find you spend lots of time waiting for water to be filtered.
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Happy to report that all 6 platies look better this morning. I'm only really concerned about 1 of them - he looks pretty ragged, but it's still a huge improvement over yesterday. All 6 ate some Baby Brine this morning. I'll get some pics soon.
For what it's worth, the seller got back with me and let me know that if I lost any of the 6 to let him know and he'd take care of it. I've ordered from him a few times before and this is the first time fish have come in less than spectacular - his Aquabid username is mobetta. He seems to have lots of cool live bearers, if anyone is interested.
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Following as well. I bred some Pseudomugil Cyanodordalis a couple years ago and had a blast - I've been itching to set up some more!
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Looking good!
You're more patient than I - I used some really fine sand like that in a few tanks (play sand) and about ripped my hair out dealing with it, lol. Fish liked it, just a constant battle with cloudy water anytime something moved in the tank.
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Alrighty, busy day!
I received the neon blue platies. I purchased 6, the seller packed 7 - 1 DOA, 3 not looking so good. I messaged him to let him know, haven't heard back - not going to give him trouble, but I'm a bit disappointed in how they came in. Stuff happens, though. Pics to come.
I've got some ricefish fry! Two so far. I counted about 10 eggs on the mops I pulled, so hopefully more to come. I'm feeding Sera micron and vinegar eels. Seem too small for brine shrimp.
I haven't shown my living room tank yet - its a 55 gallon community tank. I needed a place to put the koi swordtails I got from @PineSong, and things spiraled from there. I've got 6 neon rosy barbs, the swords, a rainbow shark, a blue gourami, and a bristlenose. Keeping some almost-semi-aggressive fish in here - I find that they tend to mix well with swordtails and mollies when compared with the more peaceful community fish. Tank has been set up for about a month, so plants are just now starting to spread.
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I've never felt the need.
Its a small hassle compared to cleaning up a tank off the floor. So if you're using lots of heavy rocks, might be worth it for piece of mind.
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On 5/7/2024 at 9:31 PM, PineSong said:
Thank you for the kind words. Hope your swordtails have thrived. I have one left--he's a survivor!
They have! Most of the fry have gone to friends and a store, I have most of the parents I got from you in a 55 in my living room. Let me know if you ever want any - I think I'll get a few more batches of fry out of these guys.
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Set up the last 20 tall in the rack today. Have some neon blue plates on the way... take two! Lost my first batch, unfortunately.
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On 5/6/2024 at 9:41 PM, PineSong said:
This is the end to my 20g journal: I broke the tank down this weekend, it was a somber occasion.
I loved this tank sitting in my window and growing plants like crazy, but despite my month (or more) long QT of all fish, my tanks got infected with serious incurable disease(neon tetra disease and TB), which has resulted in my stopping breeding and letting the existing populations of fish age out.
All my tanks are basically hospice tanks now, and as the populations have decreased I have broken down all my smaller tanks and moved the fish to a larger tank in another room. No more sunny tank 😞 I hope to have one again some day when I can start over with new systems. Until then... farewell, 20g!
Sorry to hear! Your tanks looked fantastic back when I visited for those swordtails a couple years ago.
I find that sometimes it's for the best to let off the gas when you find yourself off course - much easier to correct things when you're willing to slow down. I think you're on the right track!
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I second the green killing machine.
It's not the best on the market, but it's simple, cheap(ish), and is common enough there's lots of parts and documentation out there if you have problems.
You may also consider covering the side of the tank that gets so much light. In the past I've used tin foil or cloth to block sunlight from the sides or back of the tank.
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I have bamboo growing out of a HOB on my 75 gallon flowerhorn tank. I haven't had any issues with the roots during maintenance, but I'd imagine some plants get larger root structures than others.
I've considered trying to use a crinum, planted in a pot, with the pot surrounded by smooth stones. Make it harder to dig up. Not pulled the trigger on that yet, though.
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I think it'll be just fine.
I've never seen a small fish like a hillstream hurt itself on decor or substrate.
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Just my $0.02...
Most aquariums can go for far longer than you'd think without being maintained. No, it's not ideal, but I've seen tanks with horrible water parameters (nitrates in the hundreds) thriving. In planted tanks, I'm usually far more concerned about making sure plants don't starve and that water hardness doesn't bottom out leading to a PH crash as the plants absorb everything from the water.
A simple auto feeder will keep your fish alive. You can mix floating and sinking foods to make sure everybody gets some, and have it fire as often as you like. I'd either use lots of root tabs in your substrate, or potentially switch to an enriched substrate to make sure your plants stay fed. You may be able to get away with just manually dosing fertilizer whenever you're around, or potentially invest in an auto doser.
I don't think fish will be your issues - making sure your plants don't crash will be far more difficult.
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You could keep a trio of dwarf puffers in a 10 gallon.
Alternatively, a group of freshwater bumblebee gobies or maybe some of the smaller rhinogobius species would be good.
Chris's Fishes Fish Room Journal
in Photos, Videos & Journals
Posted
Added a small group of teeny tiny green corys to the 55 this week. LFS only had 4, so I will be adding more down the road.
Bristlenose has been super active. He's kept the tank spotless and is always on top of his veggies really quickly.
Side shot of the tank- really digging the gourami and rainbow shark, with all of the red fish swarming around them. I think it'll look great whenever everybody is full size.