KittenFishMom

My last post was about the trouble I was having catching cory fry. @Guppysnail, @nabokovfan87, @Lennie, @lefty o, and everyone who has snarled at a wet empty net. I put on my fish thinking cap (makes me think like a fish) I used two empty 2 liter seltzer bottles left from some RR, I built a feeder/trainer for the cory fry. I cut the bottom out of one bottle and the top out of the other and tucked the neck into the bottom with just a friction fit so it is easy to open and clean. I left the caps off both bottles and put some yummy food as bait and boi-rings as weight. I put it in my 55 tank where I normally feed the fish, and the current enters the "outlet" neck and pushes yummy smelling water out the "inlet" neck. The fry swim up the inlet and once you get a few in the trap, more follow quickly. When they are full, they swim around until they find the outlet and swim out again. No muss, no fuss, not wasted food to speak of. I will use it for a few days for every feeding. When I am ready to trap the fry, I will put the bottle cap on the "outlet" neck. and the fish should calmly keep looking for the outlet until I empty the trap. I think if you wanted to use this to feed small fish, you could drill holes in the bottle caps to to limit the size of the fish using it as a feeder. Just make sure there are no sharp edges on the holes.

@nabokovfan87 I am planning to make a 2 liter bottle trap for the 55 tank. It is full of cory fry. Thanks for the tip about shade and shadows and shade. I will add an IAL to give them shade and keep them from seeing my approach. I will put some freeze dried tubifex worms in the bottle toward the back with the opening ajar so they can escape and get use to the trap for a day or 2. I have specimen containers, but my hand is no where large enough to cover the opening. @Lennie When I drained most of the water out of a tank and was trying to net cories in shallow cloudy water, 2 of the 3 died do to they toxins building up in a dip in the substrate. My I work very hard to keep their stress level very low. Yes, this betta is very clever. He has me completely figured out.

I have been trying to catch cory fry in a planted tank on and off for weeks now. I am not good at it. They skip out of the net as I try to lift it out of the water. They dodge the net and swim into the back of it while I am trying to catch a different fish. They make a fool out of me and my net. Next I tried a water bottle trap. You know, you the top cut off and turn push it into the bottle. This is great for a lot of fish. The betta in the tank is usually the first one in after the treat. (I will put him in a different tank while I am catching fry in the future). Because frightened cories put out deadly toxin, you can not take you eyes off the bottle trap once you set it. You can catch several at a time, but once one freaks out and stirs the fish food, you must grab the trap and empty it and rinse it and start over. This takes a long time. So I decided to train the fish instead of me. They are smarter than me, so it should work better. I leave the bottle trap open and in the tank. Everytime I feed the tank, I put the food in the bottle part and place the opening top of the bottle just inside the opening of the bottom of the bottle and weight both pieces with small stones. The fish can enter through the funnel, or next to the funnel and leave as many times as they want. The trap stay in the tank, so they are very calm when near it. When using the trap to catch the fish, you just push the top in farther to set the trap. You still must watch the trap, but you empty it less often because the fish stay calm much longer. They come back to the bottle after you empty it much faster too because it means food, not something new and scary. Now the only problem is the betta has taken to sleeping in the trap, just in case food might appear while he is not looking.

I may add an internal filter I have. the HOBs get filthy pretty fast. I'm going the one on the end of the tank tonight.

@Pepere yes, I am trying to watch for those things. It is hard: 1) The tank started as a Walstad, so I can not vacuum the bottom, just pick up what comes up when I swirl above the substrate. There was a lot of random bits of stuff under the java moss that was all over the bottom of the tank. 2) The tank has a few adult tetras, a few adult kuhli loaches, 3 young hillstream loaches and way more than I can count of little cory fry of different ages, growing out. They dart around and look for food on the bottom, keeping everything stirred up for an inch above the bottom. They also dart to the top for air and drive to the bottom. I added 3 HOB filters one at a time as the corys kept kicking up the stuff on the bottom that was supposed to sink down to the roots of the plants. The java moss grew like crazy and out competed a lot of rooted plants. 3) The tank has a ton of ramshorn snails of different ages and some breeding mystery snails. I am watching closely, but It is hard to see everything that is going on.

@Comradovich I have a crazy idea, what do you think of it? I remove all the fish from the tank with the green water, then turn off or way down the HOB, remove the airstone from the sponge filter and empty a packet of eggs in the tank. There is a lot of water lettuce and java moss and snails in the tank, that I would leave in place. Do you think it might work?

@Pepere That is one reason I took all the java moss out. It be able to clearly watch the fish and tank. What kinds of sign do you think I could watch for?

@Lennie Yes, and it was here over a year.

After lights out last night, I spotted a kuhli loach in java moss using a flashlight. If didn't flinch, which seemed odd, so I reach in and took it out. it was dead, but looked fine. Not a scratch on it, no discoloration or swelling. (This did not look like it was the one with the spots from a few weeks ago.) I put loach outside and took all the java moss out of the tank to see if there were any other signs of death. I gathered roughly 6 or more cups of java moss and put it in a bucket with tank water and an air stone for overnight (air stone because it was full of tiny rams horns). As the water cleared and settled. I inspectice every inch of the tank. I didn't find any other fish acting strange at all. I have seen several other loaches moving around. When I went out later to more closely examine the loach, it was gone. Probably a mouse of some other creature had it for a snack. Today the fish are acting normal. a few kuhli loaches are zooming around. Everything looks very healthy and busy. Water parms are normal and good. I will do a big water change and return some of the java moss to increase hiding areas etc. Any other recommendations? @Colu

I added IALs from a new source 2 days agao. the leas are very big and my shrimp tank have turned very dark. the parms are good, so I am in no rush to do a water change unless the shrimp don't like dark water. They are Dream Blue and I can hardly see them. Any thoughts?

I am so sorry for your loss. I can not begin to imagine what it would be like. To loss the fish and the plant in 4 days sounds so hard to face. I hope you are doing alright. I'm glad you are not jumping to blame anyone. It would be hard for anyone to feel they were responsible for such a total disaster. I hope you recover from your hospital stay and your sudden loss of a well cared for tank.

@Comradovich I wouldn't ask you or anyone to gather from the wild for me. I am on the shore of a freshwater lake, next to a swamp. I enjoy puttering around in the creeks and gorges. I currently have a dish full of leeches to photograph. I catch my own scuds when I want them. I tried to get daphnia last fall, but my eyesight caused me to get water mites. I think If I go after them again I will bring a magnifying glass. Since I have the eggs here, I might try hatching them. I'm guessing the green water will begone about the time I really need it for the daphnia, so it is not an urgent project really. It might be better to wait until the tubs and totes outside a full of green water. I'm rooting forsythia and such outside. Thanks for the detail about the jars. If I don't start the eggs now, I will save the info for later.

@Comradovich I'm a little confused. It is my specialty, My superpower, really at this time of night. I have to be vigilant about water parms, but not as vigilant as I would be with fish? I set up something small and stable to hatch the eggs and them move them to the seasoned jar with the air hose? Or I start them in the jar with the air and move them to something else? @nabokovfan87 What is a good source to buy Amano shrimp?

@Monkeypoint May you find more bladder snails than your shrimp can eat.

@nabokovfan87 I need to do some research on how to get the amanos to produce zoeys in the right kind of salt water, and take it from there. When my kuhli loach had spots on it, many people asked if there was anything sharp in the tank. The dragon stones look like it would have lots of sharp edges. You say the kuhli loaches will go into the dragon stone but not have issues with it. But others said kuhli loaches have issues with sharp things. I'm kind of confused. Is dragon stone safe for kuhli loaches? Another question, are kuhli loaches safe for neo shrimp zoeys?

@nabokovfan87 I am retired and have a full plate right now. I am not taking on selling fish or shrimp or snails or anything else. I am centrally isolated from all cities. It's not worth the drive. I don't want to ship things and worry about stuff dying in mailboxes from heat or cold.

@nabokovfan87 It does sounds like a fun project. What is it I'm buying? Adult Amano shrimp or young amano shrimp or amano shrimp eggs? And how much/many would I buy and from who/what would I buy? What would I use to hatch them out? a tank with salty freshwater or brackish or something else? I have aquarium salt and Instant Ocean salt and kosher salt. I was going to use the kosher salt to soak the mud out of the dragon stone. Now I am worried the dragon stone might hurt the kuhli loach, I'm not sure where to use it. Maybe in the neocardia shrimp tank? Should I put the amano shrimp in with the fish or the neo shrimp? (fish = neon tetras, hillstream loaches, Kuhli loaches and male corys. oh and lots of snails)

I studied international soil science at Cornell. I get your drift and about salts and water and wind and water drawing stuff from underground and irrigation histories etc. Yup it is a mess. I can do an ACO sponge filter with no air stone, just an open air hose. I have a nano. I just put through RR. I have used media sponges that I dropped into a tank when I replaced the sponge with a new one. No carbon or chemicals, just sponge or floss or batting. Whenever I squeeze a used media filter sponge, it comes out pretty black for the driftwood and the snail muck. I tend to squeeze and rinse them often to keep the water flowing well. Do you think I should put the black liquid from squeezing, or put the sponge in after I have squeezed and rinsed it? I also have fritz "7" and "700" and SeaChem Pristine and Stability to help get a cycle going. I am not in a huge rush. The green tank is not a display tank, just a short term grow out tank until the breeder/seller has room for the fish. If the green water was bad for the fish, then I needed to do something to prevent it from hurting the fish. The weather has been cloudy and rainy for a few days, and the green is not as thick as it was, so once the tree leafs out, the window will be shaded until just at sun set. and the fish may be gone by then. Not sure if the fish or the green will go first. Then I will give the empty tank to the breeder to thank her for taking the fry. I will still have other fish, so it might be fun to get a daphnia jar or 2 or 3 going while I have green water for them. Thanks so much for your help.

@Comradovich Where do you get your eggs/cyst/adults? I'm guessing SLC is Salt Lake City. I don't know if that is where you buy them form, or if that is where you have them shipped to. If you are in SLC, maybe you could just scoop some up? I have never been there. I know brine shrimp is big business there.

@Comradovich I found the green water farm eggs/cysts box. I'm looking into that because I have it. I could put some green water from the tank in a clean white bucket, or a clear drink dispenser. I'm not sure of a good place to put it with warmth and light. The cats like to drink out of and top over all containers smaller than a 10 gallon tank. How would I "season the jar"? Add a used filter media? used substrate? snails? Maybe hard scape with algae on it? (not sure I have any) add some fish food?

@Comradovich I think I have daphnia eggs in a box someplace in my fish stuff. Do you think dumping the eggs in might work, or do I need to hatch them in a separate container? There is one male adult betta and a bunch or cory fry in the tank with water lettuce and java moss.

@Comradovich Last fall, I tried catching my one and ended up with water mites. My eyesight isn't great. I am at the marshy end of Lake Owasco in the finger lakes in NY. It hasn't snowed on the daffodils. Mom says it always snows on the daffodils. They are blooming.

@Comradovich I like this idea. Any idea where I can get some live daphnia?

I always use water from water changes or filter media cleaning for plants inside and out. I don't know if it is the Easy Green, or the stuff the fish put into the water, but the plants love it!

@Katherine This is suppose to be a temporary tank. I didn't want to pay for a UV filter it it wasn't hurting anything. @JettsPapa As long as it isn't going to hurt anything, I'm not going to bother getting a timer for this tank. It is on the 12 hour timer with the other lights. None of them are very strong lights. Just clip ons and floor lamps from around the house. I move them a round a lot so the plants don't shade each other much. @xXInkedPhoenixX It is a temporary tank, so It will be taken down before I care as long as the green doesn't hurt the fish