jwcarlson

Got something like 25 sterbai eggs. I don't know if they're fertile. I think I only have maybe one male.

I have 100 gallon/day RO Buddie (from Chewy or Amazon), they're about $80. I haven't had any issues with it, but I'm making something like 30 gallons or so a week. Nothing too crazy.

Got a picture? Because that sounds like duckweed.

I'd assumed that you were looking into this for this exact purpose... reading the... oak leaves from your other posts. There's suggestion of keeping spawns down at these temperatures or artificially pulling eggs and chilling them?

I have never shipped fish, but have shipped live queen bees quite a bit. I think the hesitation comes from a good place typically. Usually it takes some hand holding and it helps to find then right person that knows how to do it. There's one lady at our PO that knew what to do without a lot of fanfare. Stinks they took it and just left it on your porch. There was some discussion on another forum talking about higher rates of fish theft in boxes labeled as fish.

Can't help with the CO2 question, but I'm jealous of your moss!

@Odd Duck I hadn't seen your video, but I love how the corys come crashing in like "oh, did she put food over here?" 😄

I got the first decent pencilfish picture so far.

Hopefully they spawn for you soon! 🙂

I'd take a pheasant over seeing a mountain lion where I'm hunting. I totally understand that they're always there and always have been. But the rational part of my brain departs the rails if I see a mountain lion behind me in the dark... or even in broad daylight. Even if the odds are very slim, and yes... they are. That said, I'm a nice, tasty snack for a mountain lion.

Technically this was last night, but it's been less than 24 hours. Four water changes!

I *think* that's what mine look like and it's off scale high.

Ahh, I misunderstood, I thought you meant that you wanted to use the 3.5 gallon for the breeding project. I'd make the argument that breeding shrimp in the 3.5 would net you significantly more money than just selling the tank, but maybe there's a really hot used market for small tanks like that in your area? What are you hoping to breed?

There was a mountain lion roaming the area not too far from our house. The last city we lived in someone had one in their tree in their backyard and shot it. There's been rumors of them around here for 30 years, and we're part of their historic range here in Iowa. But they're getting more prevalent, or at least that's the perception, though it could be bias because of all the cameras everyone had on them at all times basically. Either way, this deer season I have been very jumpy walking to/from in the dark. In fact, the last time I walked in in the dark a hedge apple fell randomly from the tree I had just walked under and I spun around and my heart went crazy. Some of the most frightening things to encounter in the dark is walking through thick grass and stepping close enough to a pheasant that they flush because in the dark you basically need to come in contact with them and they usually fly just about straight into your face.

I can't think of a breeding project that would work well in that small of a tank except for shrimp. 🙂 Now, I'm not sure what your local market would work for selling them. But that's very local and probably even seasonal.

Shrimp!

They are not chill, unfortunately. Well, they're chill most of the time. But sometimes one of the other ones eats a flake in a really scary way off the surface and send the rest of them into an epic fit banging into stuff. 😄 Discus were a fish I wanted to keep 20 years ago, but I decided not to based on my water and the care requirements. I'm glad I waited. I can't say that I really have a fish wish list beyond that. I'd love a pair of apistos that spawns, so I guess that's on the list. 😄 I'm a little prone to impulse buying fish. I just bought six Scleromystax barbatus this weekend, I'd never seen them, but watched some videos fairly recently of them and thought they looked cool. We were walking out of a fish swap on Sunday and I noticed bags of them on a table... I hemmed and haw'd and my wife is was like "just freaking get them". haha $40 of six I thought seemed reasonable considering the pricing I'd seen online. They've got a lot of growing to do and they have been pretty nervous, but tonight after water change they were swimming around a bit more and showing some character. I have plenty of empty tanks, but I was planning on getting a couple of pair of rams to give a shot at spawning them. So now the tank I was going to do that in has these barbatus and some Beckford pencil fish in it. Whoops. I will, eventually, make a swing to native fish at some point.

It was clear and clean tonight. This happens fairly frequently, usually to a lessor extent and not yellow. I didn't feel comfortable pumping it into tanks is all. The tanks seem to be OK using unaged and cooler water. These 4 got changes. 10 gallon CPD jungle 10 qt (currently apisto jail cell) 55 semi qt with new pencil fish and batatta cories 40 breeder community jungle (where plants go to die). What's crazy is I saw my only kuhli loach for the first time in like 8 months. I had 7 of them, but actually had 8. I was just not "vibing" with them so I gave them away. Finished tearing down the tank and found one. Plopped him in the 40 and never saw him again until tonight. He's grown a bit and is plump. You can see him front left. These sterbai seem primed to spawn, been seeing a few eggs this cold water change might jar them into dropping.

I am neck deep into four water changes and pop the top of my aging/preheat barrel and it looks like this. It's frustrating, now I don't have water to pump back and will have to do some rapid heating. Anyone else struggle with this? Pic doesn't do justice for how cloudy and yellow it was. This was 24 hours from filling. What's concerning is I didn't notice any excessive cloudiness last night.

Why would it stop if it gets food when she splashes? 😄 Many years ago I had a big oscar that at some point "learned" to jump out of the water and eat pellets out of my hand. I don't remember how it started, but I typically would not encourage it, just a trick every once in a while. I learned that when I went to college, my dad have him do it a lot and would show guests. haha I've got to stop thinking about oscars or I'm going to end up with them again. Such great fish, but what a shame that they're so freaking big.

That is HITH. Lots of clean water and metro! I wouldn't worry about him eating at this particular moment. He will let you know when he is ready. Keep us posted,I have a soft spot for oscars and lost one when my care slipped when I left for college. He quit eating for a VERY long time and when he died he still weighed 2.5 pounds. Fish can go a long time without food. Clean water is far more important right now.

Our dog Shade was fairly young here. He is 3 now. Anyway, our pups have pretty good recall and I was taking them for a ride to pick up the kids. We have a small yard and he wouldn't come and I couldn't see him. I was worried he somehow got out of the fence. Then I heard a muffled whimper from behind the shed. He had found the empty chicken feeder and wouldn't move like this.

Male is out of the attached breeder box and into a ten gallon jail cell. Female was out and ate some food. Wound on rear of the dorsal fin looks fuzzy, but maybe just ragged. I will probably drop some salt in tomorrow afternoon if it doesn't look any better. She seemed happy to see me, so hopefully nothing is permanently damaged. @anewbie I really think I blew it by removing her only escape from him he had been totally fine being rejected as long as she hid, but when I took that away I set off a spiral, I think. And that fits perfectly in with the what you're describing of driving her away. I will give her a break and will try again in some time with my other male. I think only getting one female and five males really hamstrung my ability to learn. I do well with being able to compare, which is why I got three pairs to begin with... oh well! I do still have the abacaxis and the female has been very cave oriented recently. I am nervous with soft water as my only experience is extremely hard water and I am taking my time lowering pH. And they haven't spawned yet to the best of my knowledge. I have time. 😉

I wouldn't necessarily want them in there with eggs, but I think once they're fry it's probably fine. I wouldn't rely on snails keeping the fry raising container clean, though. I was doing daily water changes and bottom cleaning, but I still lost the battle (due to overfeeding, I think). I would be tempted to see how well nerites did, though. Those things seem to clean like crazy. But not sure if just that residual would be enough for them. I will say, though, that your water probably gives you more leeway compared to my high pH. Do you have pictures of your ram fry? I'm thinking of getting some Rams hoping they're easier than Apistos that I'm failing at.

Interesting, I'll have to go look at their previous spawns because this seems to look really similar, but honestly there's so many subtle differences that it's tough to know since I don't speak the language! The part the doesn't make sense (and I cut it from the video) is she is hidden in the cave until he rounds the corner and then she comes out and does this. And then she's back in the cave until he is back for the next lap. Again, I don't know all the queues. I've certainly seen belly rolling in relation to her trying to curb aggression and it's usually not happening anywhere near a cave and doesn't look so... inviting? Usually, she's dark and she presents more vertically and will rotate to show her belly that way. I thought (or read or watched) that the rolling and going into a cave is a sign of spawning desire or openess. Fully agree that I'm a lummox and should never have removed her cave either way though! She's got other places to escape him, but maybe she forgot about them! 🤪 Here's an actual spawn from eight months ago, for what it's worth: Certainly, some differences here, particularly her fin/fin twitching vs just rolling into the cave. Learning (hopefully)! Thanks for you input, @Guppysnail! I do wonder how different each individual species might be.