Jimmy

It’s chunky and leans closer to gravel then I would have expected. Interesting texture. Looks to be a little sharp.

Had a gift card for a LFS and brought home some aquasoil and a bag of this seacheam onyx sand for the heck of it. It’s not black as the bag might make it seem, I would describe it as a charcoal gray. It’s unique. It was Thursday and the livestock was rather picked through and didn’t see anything on my list. Anyone use onyx sand before? It’s rather interesting texture and I’m afraid to put corys on it. Perhaps once I stock the tank or two I use it in I might try different bottom dwellers. The bag suggest to rinse and of course I didn’t. So lucky me I got to do a few water changes lol.

Right? Just a temporary solution. I may go up to the 400 watt version of what I currently use. Fun that so little total watts can manage a insulated 50sq ft room. I think it helped but I suspect paleatus breed if you put them in water. Hey I’m glad you enjoy it! Not much has changed the last 2-3 months but I had hoped to document more closely. I want to show what you can do with limited space and available electrical circuit

Update Been a crazy few months. Currently waiting for dans warehouse to get done and the expansion for the coop to happen before I really stock this room. Not terribly successful with the shrimp I got from Lucas but honestly I’m not as excited about shrimp as I would hope to be. Anyone else meh on shrimp? Also I was very enthusiastic about guppy’s but that has tapered off significantly. I have a strain that I particularly enjoy but I think the female isn’t fertile at this point. She looks gravid but has never dropped. The two males are absolutely stunning. I haven’t had anything for shelving at this point so generally all my food and supplies end up in a pile on top of a 20 long. Like this mess. I got some handy baskets from Amazon for a simple clean up. Rearing a ton of baby corydoras. Also we had a cold snap and snow storm a few weeks ago and watching the room temp drop was an experience. Bottom rack got down to 62~ degrees. Sure enough the paleatus didn’t get the memo and produced the most eggs yet lol. All I have heating the room is a 250 watt ceramic heater synced with a ink bird controller. I found out that for days like that a simple heat lamp keeps it stable enough to be successful.

Thanks! It’s been a real treat. There’s so much stuff I want to keep but I’ve already spent a ton of money to get to this point and it’s the season of giving so I’m taking it slowly. I had about two weeks to throw it together so I worked hard. I learned a ton along the way.

Update last couple months have been quite crazy for me, new job turned my home life upside down. Fortunately I’m able to get adequate family time in though the hours are weird. Secondly I’m able to play fish room in short burst and have been rather busy. With my weird inconsistent hours I decided to work on guppies with corydoras as a side interest. My paleatus are proven to be incredibly easy to duplicate and it’s my opinion you just need to put them in water. The biggest thing is to catch them before they eat eggs. Even with that I’m currently growing out about 35 babies and loving it. I got a LRB scarlet red endler trio that I’m working on. The male is ok at best, I’m not in love but they will be well cared for until one day I make room for other strains. Females appear to be gravid. To heck it I can get a picture. My LRB random pond pair are phenomenal but from what I can tell the female has been pregnant for far too long. Tons of guppy grass and even a mop. It’s possible she’s dropped and they ate them but I can’t prove it. I love the male. He’s a panda guppy. Blue in the gills that fades into the most pristine white colored body to a orange/red tail. Diminutive in side but packed with color. Hard as heck to get a good picture. Let me tell you, the top down on the male is everything. I’d love to duplicate for some ponds. neos doing great, also from LRB. I have one male that should be culled and a female or two that aren’t that great. I’m excited to have my first berried female but unfortunately she’s less than desirable but fun nonetheless. Several of the females I got from here are so intensely red so look forward to put the work in. I got about half the tanks totally empty, lots of great things to come!

Solid choice

Vallisneria will be your best friend

I’m working with only 50 sq feet and love it. 27 aquariums. I’m not sure how you can navigate the height though.

You think so? They came in at about 300 but obviously I don’t know what exactly those solids are. My water is about 50 tds so if I had GH booster or equilibrium (which I hate) I can have a better idea. His website says neos he keeps at between 300-600. I can slowly lower it

I assumed it was over time. Nilocg GH booster didn’t cloud or leave much residue. I assumed seachem would be identical in quality. Is it problematic that my tds is 450 for me neos? They are back out and seem adjusted.

I bought equilibrium but it doesn’t full dissolve and it’s frustrating. Also leaves dust on the bottom of the tank. I might go back to GH booster I will look into it. Can I store water with crushed coral in it? Crazy huh lol

Got a order for LRB of some neocaridina. They were pretty active for the first 2-3 days and now they are ALL in hiding. Lucas tds is about 300~ but I have soft PNW water with virtually no GH so I raise it to 400-500 with equilibrium. do shrimp go into hiding to molt after going into new water?

I got a order in from Lucas today that included some plants, red scarlet endler pair with fry and 10 fire red neos. Unfortunately I smushed 1 shrimp bahhh. In predation I moved a group of guppy’s from the tank I put that order in. The tank has aragonite sand. The tank I moved them too is bare bottom with the glass painted black. Immediately after moving my existing guppy’s they looked way better and had much darker coloration. is this typical? Anyone keep fish exclusively on darker substrate? If I want to cover the thin layer of aragonite with a darker substrate is that problematic? I don’t want to disturb my new shrimp. The red Scarlet endler pair included 1 male, 2 adult females and I believe one fry. Very generous. After they settled I Noticed 5+ new guppy fry and I’m quite certain they didn’t come from my LRB order. I don’t want to muck up my new endlers genetics so I will be fishing them out when I get time.

Big day! Found three corydoras paleatus hatchlings free swimming. Quickly set up temporary housing and crushed up some flake. Plan on daily water changes initially.

He still has 3 listed I’ve contemplated it

It’s looking like 6 males maybe 5 I can’t tell. Unfortunately that batch of rabauti I have looks to be all males at this point

Female is huge and is frantically trying to lay but the males chase her relentlessly and eat them immediately. I was able to get a few more eggs! Should I remove her to a tank so she can lay or would this likely cause more stress? I have many empty tanks that can house her temporarily.

I went there one time i was a gorgeous store very impressive. High level aquascaping isn’t my jam but I do respect the art.

Aquarium Zen I assume? Amazing store, always curious why he doesn’t have a big YouTube presence.

Are those your tetras Patrick? Sheeeeeeeesh

I came out this morning no new eggs. Female is still huge. I have 6 20 longs, 4 of which are empty. If I wanted to turn all 6 into Cory breeding tanks would some small diminutive tetras disrupt breeding to much? I have 17 empty aquariums at this point but fear the day once they are all stocked lol

It’s just the one, I have about 20 empty tanks it might just be some crap you see. I was able to grab one more egg. I’m gonna check the tank a few times tonight when lights go out and see if she finally lays a bunch. Pretty exciting

oh ya paleatus are breeding as we speak! Poor girl think it’s one plump female to 6 males. I pulled one egg not sure if she just started laying or if they ate some. I placed this single egg in another aquarium. Huge day for me!

I want to try my hand at black worms soon I’ve watched it, I will watch it again