[Rosy Barb Fry Breeding]

That first picture of the sons; he's a specimen indeed. I like how he doesn't appear to have that classic "angry eye" as I call it. 

Sorry for your loss. It's hard to lose parents.

[Greetings!]

Welcome to the forum! Looking forward to seeing your platy adventure!

I would start a treatment of ich x asap and wait on paracleanse dose 2.

[Black Endlers]

I have no advice. I just have to comment on how lovely he is! I know who I'll be calling if I'm ever allowed to keep endlers! 😛

[true facts about my community aquarium]

Thank you for sharing. This is a solid reminder of how wonderful our community is. How simple boxes of water can shape our lives. Also, that fish have personalities! Which I've recently found that some people don't think this and I just don't understand it!

Thank you again. I love seeing photos of your adventure! 🙂

[The Don’ts & Do Nots of Fishkeeping - Chad’s Journal]

I love this. And I love your flair for the comical. 😛

I look forward to following your journal!

[Fish room within the attached garage]

This is awesome! Looking forward to reading all about the progress! Congratulations!

[my fish]

Awesome! Don't forget about the snail! 😛 Welcome aboard!

[Corydoras and Meds]

On 1/4/2022 at 10:16 PM, Rita said:

Unfortunately I’ve had lots of issues with panda corydoras… A year ago I bought 12 of them for my 20 gal, just dumped them in, no meds no acclimating… 4 died within 48 hrs, the rest ended up getting what I suspect was colimnaris and dying, I had 3 survivors… and this was with moving them to a treatment tank and treating them with the med trio. The 3 are now in a different tank and doing well.

2 days ago I bought 4 more panda Corydoras, set them up a quarantine tank and drip acclimated (I have hard, high pH water)… and 2 have already died with big red blotches on their flanks. I only dosed the tank with Paracleans  because I was expecting them to be sensitive.

Moral of the story is even when I think I am doing everything right they still die in my water. I absolutely adore corydoras but they don’t adore my water I guess 😔 

The water out of my tap is 8.2pH, 348ppm (16°GH) hardness. I mix my tap water with R.O. to get my parameters close to: 7.6pH and 9°hardness. My tank with the three stripe corydoras has a pH of 7.4, 8dGH, 6gKH. Those corydoras are active all day, are happy to be watched and beg for food around feeding time.

[Corydoras and Meds]

For parasites I dosed them separately, and I followed the manufacturers instructions.

I treat with paracleanse first unless I suspect wastings is a possibility.

[Getting back into the hobby after 15 years]

I feed my corydoras after I feed everyone else. I only feed them every other day, and I feed them one sera bottom feeder tablet per two adult corydoras, however I have swordtails and guppies that like to eat their food as well. I have 7 corydoras in my 75, I feed them three tablets at the evening feeding. They scavenge the fallen pellet food that the swordtails/rasboras/guppies leave due to size at each feeding.

Corydoras can be shy, especially with lower numbers. I've found that numbers under 4 tend to hide out more. Nitrates also effect their activity levels.

My peppered corydoras, I have a pair in a 20g high. I started with 3 in there. The two that are still with me, they hid out a lot for a few months, now they're all over the place, dancing around and feed openly.

I have seen higher death rates in new corydoras compared to any other fish I have kept. About a 30% loss rate for me. I've had issues with parasites with them more than anything else. Keep an eye on them and make sure they're keeping weight on and growing.

 

Your tank is beautiful!

[Is the Hydra really gone?]

So, I had a hydra "bloom" in my 75g. I treated the issue with "no planaria" for three days. All of the demons turned to brown and tentacles are gone; they were still on the glass.

I mag-floated the glass. They are back on the glass... do they readhear? Are they alive? There's no tentacles...they're still brown. Any thoughts? Treat with "No Planaria" again? I feel bad because that stuff definitely killed close to, or maybe even, 100% of my snails.

[Corydoras and Meds]

Corydoras are fickle critters from what I have experienced. I've even read that they have about a 50% mortality rate, so "...you should expect to lose about half of them when you buy them..." I don't like to believe this, but I've had about 30% losses with them myself.

I've dosed the heck out of my peppered high-fin corydoras. They've been through at least 2 rounds of ich-x, 2 rounds of the trio, 2 rounds of kanaplex, 1 round of jungle fungus fizz, 2 rounds of expel P, and 2 additional rounds of paracleanse. Yes. I had some SERIOUS issues in that tank.... thus, meds, on different occasions, for different reasons over the course of 10 months.

Back in October/early November ish, we got 6 three stripe corydoras, they may be juli... I don't know. But the first set had wastings disease, I lost 2 of the 6 after a week. I then lost another to swim bladder issues. I bought 5 more to repopulate them. I lost 2 of those from what I would bet was wastings again. I did my best to dose them with paracleanse and expel p. So far I haven't had anymore losses and it's been about a month and a half ish. These are in a different tank than the peppered corydoras.

All things aside, I try to keep them in water that isn't super hard, a pH of about 7.6, and very low nitrAtes, below 20 for the peppered, and below 10 for the threestripe/juli.

 

[Help…New fish brought ich into my aquarium]

You can use something as simple as a plastic tote as a quarantine tank. @Irene has a great video about setting up a quarantine tote.

Irene's youtube video

 

[played with my aquarium today]

The barbs look really happy, too. Not gluing those together is impressive. I had to sit a big rock on my wood to keep it from floating while it sunk.

[played with my aquarium today]

Looking great! I love how things are growing in. Those rocks up front are really cool!

[I crashed my tank 😫]

On 1/4/2022 at 1:46 PM, Theresa_M said:

@Minanora I use an Eheim heater in this tank. The heater isn't broken and neither is my thermometer. When I added cooler water, the temp went down. The water feeling hot was not actually the reality of the situation. The temp was hovering around 79/80 and when I did the first water change with cooler water I dropped it to 76/77. Now talk about stress on the fish. Oy. That was not a good decision. I could have validated the temp, but was in a total panic and just wanted to act quickly. 

Maybe that's another lesson - LEVEL YOUR HEAD AND VALIDATE before taking action, lol. 

I see, I see. I did this same panic mode a few months ago when I had a crazy nitrate spike from root tabs... I panicked and changed almost 100% of the water and lost half of my fish over the course of 2 weeks.

[What to Put on This?]

On 1/4/2022 at 1:23 PM, Cinnebuns said:

@Minanora that's what overwhelms me lol. I know very little about plants. I assume by its name weeping moss would hang off of it?  That would be cool. Is it easy to care for?  My green thumb is a little yellow. 

 For ease; but, it may not "weep" so much but Taxiphyllum alternans 'Taiwan' is a pretty moss that is easy to care for. Christmas Moss is nice but it doesn't take on such a green underside. I also like Taxiphyllum barbieri. I have Christmas Moss in my 75G, but do wish I had gone for the Taxiphyllum family. They're easier to grow and I like their texture more.

Certain mosses will weep depending on the water parameters. Softer waters/less nitrates... it depends on the variety.

I'm by no means an expert on moss, but there are some very knowledgeable people here that I'm sure will chime in to offer recommendations as well!

It also depends on where you're wanting to get your plants from. Some things are easier to find than others.

[I crashed my tank 😫]

Thank you for the information. I'm so sorry this happened to you...

75G water changes are daunting if you do them the old school way... I use a 2.5G bucket to add water, and I pull water out down to 5G buckets.

Medicating a 75.... not fun either.

Then having to remove water while you're supposed to be medicating.... Double whammy.

What brand of heater, and wattage did you have fail?

[What to Put on This?]

I think that would look cool with weeping moss. There are sooooo many different kinds of moss and they're all lovely.

[A personal question for the breeders]

On 1/4/2022 at 11:39 AM, WhitecloudDynasty said:

My setup is nothing special, very cheap lol

Pff. "...Nothing Special..." Yeah right! Your setup is extremely special. It brings you joy! That's what makes it special. Just the sheer number of enclosures you have is impressive. That and your years of dedication to your projects.

Cheap is always good anyway. 🙂

[Minanoras adventures in fishkeeping]

Well, here we are in the new year. I lost the haggard looking girl on new years eve. She suddenly returned to her previous state and stopped eating.

Today Paco passed. He had a tumor or something develop in his chest. His behavior had been that of an old man as of late. I'm not sure what exactly happened with him. I am sad that he's gone.

I finally got around to pruning the jungle in the 75. I also moved the spray bar up, finally... And discovered that I had assembled it incorrectly... It's now producing flow from both sections! I'm still annoyed with it's design.

After

 

The first set of mutt guppies are leaving next week! I'm super excited. The bio load of these gluttons... It's unbelievable!

I have lots more babies in the female tank... One batch of 90+/- mutts and about 50+/- single strain fry. I'm going to break down the 20g tall fry tank in May and set up 3, 28g totes outside.

And fyi the tank divider in the 20g is useless... The gap along the edge, where the suction cups are, juvies go right through it. I'm going to plug it up with some batting but dang.

[The Accidental Oto Keeper]

Loving all the updates. Sorry to read of your loss. I'm still in awe of your accidental otos that continue to make more! So great!

[Guppy Problem]

I would probably run a round of Expel P. But @Colu has a great guide for treating parasites. Colu's thread for disease treatment.

[Aquatic Species with the Best Personality?]

I can't choose!!! I love koi/goldfish. I had a koi that was like my best friend while I was in highschool. But I love my guppies, my otos, my swordtails, and my three stripe corydoras. They all have great personalities. I don't care if people say fish only have the mental capacity to eat, poop and breed... I disagree! My best friend even feels that way. But I've seen my swordtails mourn and show relief/caring for their mates when they are put back in the tanks.

[Budget Fish room build]

The only other thing to consider imo is the cost in time.

When I was in highschool I had three tanks and was breeding guppies for about 2 years. I also had a part-time job, did track and was in choir. I spent my free time with my animals but it did get to be too much and I had to stop breeding and just have two tanks. Then I moved away and had nowhere to keep fish which meant my fish became my dad's responsibility.