RogueAquarium

OH... update to the update. Been thinking about names... If it's hopefully going to be a trio, I was thinking maybe naming them after a famous love triangle from history or literary fiction. Lysander, Hermia, and Helena from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is the first that springs to mind, but I'd love to hear other ideas.

Update: I've been calling a LOT of puffer owners, and made a bunch of new connections in my local fish keeping community (I was somewhat of an island in that respect until now) and upon the advice of one SUPER puffer enthusiast (she has 4 dedicated pea puffer tanks... it was crazy awesome) she says SOME of her puffers just don't do well alone... so I grabbed one that is confirmed female and put her in with him temporarily. If they do well I will move them to a 10 and grab another female. If not, then at least I have this female I guess..... PLEASE EAT LITTLE GUY!!!!! One of her hopes was that having another puffer around that was eating live food would get my puffer interested and competitive. That may have worked, as I've seem him hunting micro fauna at least a bit! No other luck getting him to eat. I've been keeping track of baby snails in there, and apart from the 1 the female knocked out as soon as I unbagged her, they are all still kicking. No blood worms, no brine shrimp.. Additionally, scoured EVERYWHERE for some stagnant water, but my desert community is ALSO experiencing a drought, so there is nothing. I went so far as to ask my friends in the experimental aircraft club if they have spotted anything while up flying, lol. So it looks like Mosquito larvae is out. On the brighter side my new puffer friend gave me several hatches worth of known good brine shrimp, and ANOTHER awesome new Beta breeder friend gave me a starter colony of Vinegar eels, which should be ready to draw off the top of the bottle and feed by morning (fingers crossed) When the female was introduced he was at first scared of her, but quickly calmed down and they now seem to hang out together. he's not "bothering' her yet as i've heard may happen long term. I should move them to a 10 and get another female by then if he starts eating and I can stop worrying about it. I'm going to try blood worms and vinegar eels in the AM and hope SHE eats and it makes him interested. Will update.

@Patrick_G Sure thing! Here is and example of my g3 males. Waiting on G4, and reintroduced some standard koi guppy females from another genetic line to prevent inbreeding.

Unfortunately not that I have seen, but I will be hunting if I get the chance to go out today.

Just an update. Puffer still alive this morning, but not looking like it ate anything over night. 2nd batch of Baby Brine shrimp failed to hatch after 72 hours. Will post my rig, just in case I have messed that up somehow, but I think the issue is the eggs. They must have gone bad, which is weird because I just hatched out a batch last month. not sure what to do. Going to go out and search some mountain ponds and such a bit away from town and see if I can find any larvae or something.

So, I do the same thing, only I also add in this mix of tannins I made last year when boiling Mopani wood to put in the tank. I kept that tank dark most of the time Jet was in it, and both the nerites and Neo Carodinia shrimp did just fine in it. I did it because he was SUPER sick when I got him, but I kept doing it because....why not? He seemed to like the dark water more anyway. SUPER glad to hear it's doing better and the cysts/tumors are shrinking!

It is technically something I could probably MAKE if I wasn't so lazy. I want something like a box I can stick on the side of the tank that would track all my parameters and log that info to a file on my computer for each tank. How much light, and for how long. Temp, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, KH and PH readings, Water level, maybe even "flow rate" as in how fast the flow inside the tank is on average. I WANT ALL THE DATA!!!! My second would be a fish tank version of a "Game Camera" that is triggered for a series of photos or short video upon seeing movement.

@xXInkedPhoenixXis correct, when I said guppies I was thinking 4-5 male guppies. Unless you WANT millions of babies, there is no reason to keep a mixed colony

I finally signed up for the forum! Also went hunting for Mosquito Larvae to feed to my ailing pea puffer... Poor thing won't eat. (Info in the disease forum if your are interested) Also started Fenbendazol after General Cure failed to knock out whatever the poor little guy has.

IMO.... Guppies..... I love them, and they are personable and dance around all day. Or you can do what I did for my 5.5 finally and plant it up a bit then get a pea puffer!

I'll setup a 2 gal food grade tomorrow and see if we get anything... wish I had known to do this before I grabbed him.

Hey all, and thanks for reading my intro. I'm a 100% disabled vet in my early 30's with kids, dogs and since 2 years ago an ever growing collection of aquatic friends. It was literally watching Cory's videos that made me decide to finally get into the hobby, and boy am I glad I did! My wife and kids all love it, and it's kept me sane through some of the recent tough times. Thank you so much for everything you do Cory! I figured it's a good time to do intro's for our underwater friends/their tanks. First, we have my daughters beta "Princess" Lemonhope (Yes... I know...she knows....she doesn't care) and his castle domain. She picked EVERYTHING in here, and drew the background herself. Lemonhope lives alone, for lemon hope is a spiteful beasty who even kills helpful nerite snails for intruding on his kingdom. Next is Jet, my Beta. I didn't plan to get Jet, but when we picked up Lemon and Jet looked like he was about to die...so I saved him. Almost lost him daily for nearly 3 weeks and helped him recover from swim bladder disease, but he has been healthy and happy for about a year and a half now. Jet recently got moved into my main Blue Diamond Neocarodinia main 10g tank to get more space after living with a smaller neo colony in a 5.5 for a year and a half and not eating a single one. They bread out of control in with him, so he has proved himself worthy to live in ShrimpTopia Next are my main guppy breading programs. One is a tank of Santa Clause that I am trying to breed into being green instead of blue (a trait I noticed in G1 as a mistake, but am now obsessed with) They are happy little guys. Cory specifically got me into guppies, and I absolutely love them. Next is my Koi Guppy breeding program, which takes up 2 tanks for now. I know that "Koi Guppy" are already a thing, but I don't like how they look. I WANT SPOTS! So I am breeding spots into them! I'm on G2 of having spotted white and orange ones, and am now trying to work in a calico color (which is what the 4 tuxedo boys are for, after the next generation is old enough to breed) Next is my (odd Neocarodinia castoff breeding) tank. It's just a 2 gal clear plastic bucket with a sponge filter and some cover for shrimp. won't picture it here, but I like how it looks on my desk. I use this to see if any of the odd mutants that I like the look of will reproduce. I have a small group of turquoise metallic looking ones I hope will pass their colors off! Last is our most recent addition, and the one I am most concerned about. I've been wanting a pea puffer for more than a year and a half, last week I finally got one! This little boy doesn't have a name yet, because I only saw the line on his belly and realized he was a boy today. He is in poor health, and I am REALLY trying hard to keep him around. (more on that in the disease section if you want to help) here is his 5.5G desktop tank, and the cuteness himself (even thought he is WAY too skinny..... PLEASE EAT LITTLE GUY!!!!!!) Anyhow, thanks again for reading, Excited to be here. Wish I had come here back when I first started, but I guess it's time to make up for lost time. Hope you all have a great day!

Thanks Big Green, Do either of you have any good ideas where I should be looking for Mosquito Larvae? I went to 2 local streams and the local reservoir shore and couldn't see any wrigglers on either. we are a desert community, so apart from that and the irrigation ditches there isn't a whole lot of other standing water.

Thanks a ton for the speedy reply. Ill see if I can find any of mosquito larvae in our area. I worry he won't eat things that wriggle, as he didn't eat the snails crawling around actively or the blood worms when wriggled. I have also turned the lights WAY down and have made the rest of the room dark and will try doing that for a few days to see if that helps him acclimatize himself.

I need some help with a bit of a fish saga. I finally decided to get a pea puffer because my desktop 5.5 opened up and I've been dreaming about one for about a year now. I went down to the only fish store in 200 miles and picked what I thought was a good one. plump belly, yellow fins, but as soon as I got it home it started acting weird. swimming laps, bumping into the wall at every corner over and over again, only that. No hunting, and no interest in food. I put some in it's path, it swam into it and kept trying to swim like it didn't realize it had bumped into the tweezers holding blood worms. It kept doing this until I woke up on day 3 and it had passed away. the tank has been established for over a year and a half, and the perimeters where completely normal. (PH a bit high at 7.6 but same as the store) Store replaced it, but all the others looked like they had sunken stomachs... I picked the one with a bit of yellow on it's fins that was the most active. It got home, and had been active and hunting around my tank for micro-fauna, but stopped doing that on about day 3. Upon recommendation I treated with general cure (finished 4 day course yesterday), as I am told Pea Puffers generally have internal parasites (which might be why the stomach looks pinched and the fish looks thin) but it could also be that the store is just COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT. I called and asked what they had been feeding and the guy who MANAGES the fish room said, and I quote "oh, you know, just the general store flake, and occasionally some blood worms) so who knows how long it's been since this one has eaten anything. They also had their pea puffers in with a school of Juli Cori cats... poor things. I have baby brine hatching, but they are being stubborn because I was a fool who didn't buy Aquarium Co-op brand eggs. First batch failed to hatch after 72, and I'm now on 36 hours with the second batch. There are about 15 perfect sized baby snails in the tank, which it has completely ignored. It pecked at one of the 2 large bladder snails on day 1, but nothing since then. It runs away when I try blood worms with a tweezer or pipette, but it doesn't run from a syringe with an air hose attached so it doesn't see that my hands are on the other end, but it still wont eat offered frozen blood worms or frozen brine shrimp from the end of it, it just doesn't run away. I am starting to get very concerned. Today it's acting different. less active, more shy. It used to hunt around for micro fauna, but it has stopped doing that and is just lounging around near the sponge filter. Any help is greatly appreciated. I just procured enough Fenbendazole for a 5 day course from my vet, and it's pre-dissolved in zylatol (I believe that's the carrier liquid) so it should be easy to administer. I am worried about starting that with baby snails in the tank though.....