jwcarlson

This is hardly scientific, but I moved a course sponge filter over to my 75 to try to kick off the cycling about a month ago. Little did I know that there were about eight shrimplets in the filter. I was dinking around with putting ammonia in and didn't realize that nitrites would stall a cycle. I had it at ~85 degrees like 4 ppm ammonia and deep, offscale nitrites and nitrates when I found the shrimp. I think one died, but the rest of them I netted out and they seem no worse for the wear now. They were in that toxic bath for about a week and I felt pretty bad about it. Is that bladder snail in the first pic supposed to be in there? 🙂

I do not intend to update this often... then interesting stuff happens. For awhile I was pretty bummed thinking that maybe discus were just going to be standoff-ish and too skittish for my liking... and realizing it's still very very early. But they seem to have settled in and are much MUCH more tolerant, feeding while the kids jut in-out of view and the dogs milling around trying to get pets while I'm watching the fish. They tolerate my nightly water changes which usually mean I'm knocking over driftwood and banging stuff around. Last night I slurped up the rest of the sand/pebbles, there's probably still some left, but it should slowly work its way out in water changes. I do not like the reflection, so I'm going to empty it this weekend and paint the bottom (outside) with some sand textured spray paint stuff. And probably change the background to blue to see if that effects the peppering. I don't really care about the peppering... but I'm a tinker-er and I might as well tinker, I guess. Also hoping to put the driftwood on small tile bases so it's not so easy to knock them over. Anyway, this morning I was working putting in their worm cubes and two of them came zipping straight over to my hand and started eating the cube out of my hand and pretty soon they'd all joined in and my hand was getting mauled by a bunch of little fish fins. I do want them to eventually get used to eating out of my hand because I *think* that will better allow me to feed them flake, so I was hoping to start working that direction this weekend actually, and then they cut right to the chase this morning. The flake patties I made are just too friable. They work great for the smaller community tank/fish, though. A few bites from the discus and it's just a cloud of mess that doesn't really settle so it's tough to clean. I also have competition as the discus' biggest fan. (pic from last night before tank cleaning, they're messy little things!) Pounce really likes watching the fish. Thankfully he is too old to get up on the tank, or at least he's too old (14 now, I think?) to just hop up there. And he hasn't tried using the bookshelf as a ladder yet, though I'm sure at some point he might. I have water changing plumbing coming up just to the right of the tank and during every water change he stands at where the clear tube goes into the wall and watching/bats at the water and bubbles as they go zipping through the tube. And then comes back when I'm pumping the aged water back up and into the tank.

@Minanora did she drop a few extra eggs this batch? 🙂 She looks massive! As long as they have somewhere to hide they will probably be fine. They really seem to like the little rock pile and folded indian almond leaves in our 37. Shrimplets everywhere once they hit about 1/2 adult size they seem to get more brave.

Audio books count for sure 🙂 I want to read Disc World someday, I actually own two of the books... Where do you suggest starting? The vast majority of my reading is physical copy, but I do try to listen to some audio books while walking the dogs. I can't find my bluetooth ear buds now, but if I could I would be listening every night doing my discus water change. I greatly enjoyed "re-reading" The Dark Tower Series last year in audio format. Was a good way of revisiting the series for me, which I've re-read quite a bit over the years.

There's an idea, if you've got an old power head you might be able to use the guard thing that pops off to fence the Otos out. Any restriction of the tube is likely to cause some air backing up and then *glugging* out. So the best bet might be what you already did. They can't get down into the filter itself, though? Through those openings?

Did they need Endlers?

You redose the whole amount after each water change. And, like they say, better with bigger changes (think higher quality water + meds).

I bought six "fire red" cherry shrimp (some of which look a lot like "bloody mary") right before Christmas. They ended up in about a six week quarantine as a bit of a bacterial infection got hold and it took a bit to get it under control. Was doing 50% water changes twice a day for two weeks of that period. No issue (aged water)... just dumping it into the tank as fast as I could reasonably pour it. I thought I'd lost 2-3 of the cherries as I was barely seeing them. When I went to move everyone from 10 gallon QT into the 37 gallon community tank, all six original cherries were still alive. And I ended up finding about 40 babies (left the QT tank sitting and checked it periodically for about a week). All of these surviving QT (med trio, lots of Ich-X, and medicated Kanaplex food) and a 10 gallon tank FULL of fish (6 corys, 1 dwarf gourami, 16 tetras, brushynose pleco, hillstream loach)... The majority of them where holed up in the Co-Op course sponge filter (like you've got). At one point I spun it underwater a couple of times and about 15 of them came zipping out. I don't know if there's better cover for shrimplets than a course sponge filter. Food galore, safe. Now the 37 gallon has lots of growing shrimplets and they're more common to see. I gave them a nice smooth rock pile in the new tank and they're absolutely loving it. Wouldn't surprise me to learn that there's 50 shrimp in there right now. They're very good at hiding! In any event, I say all that to say that I think you might be over thinking it a bit, but glad it's working out well. 🙂 They're very fun to watch and their reproductive cycle is pretty cool.

The tube helps the lift (at least some). I'm guessing you'll be just fine without the tube. But if you wanted to put the tube back on you might be able to cut a little course foam to plug off the top of the tube so the Otos can't get down there. Also consider that they're going in there because they might be hungry and cannot find food elsewhere. Just a thought, not sure if there's any merit to it. 🙂

Trying to take a picture of them is about impossible at the moment. But here's some sunrise breakfast. Sunrise... who am I kidding? I wish I got to sleep until sunrise. 😄 Sunrise for the discus* Prophylactic Praziquantel in the water at the moment. Adding the driftwood has been an interesting thing. Before they all seemed to just cluster up. And even for the first day or so after adding it they were just clustering behind the wood instead of the filters like they were before. But last night the tank was non-stop action. Constant swimming, setting up territories, losing them. Pushing others off feed... even saw some "tail whipping" which I thought was absolutely hilarious. Fish were "squaring up" and kind of slowly rotating sizing up the other fish. And then occasionally one of them would adjust itself in and start whacking the other one in the head with its tail. One fish was doing it a lot more than the others, but quite entertaining. Aggression seems really "even", I suppose they're sorting out their hierarchy. No teaming up noticed yet. Going to start trialing setting up the auto feeder to give them a couple pinches of Vibra Bites during the day since I can really only get three good feedings in per day and I'd like to give them five (without purposely dumping extra food in in the morning). Glad they're coming out of their shells a little bit.

I don't say this disparagingly or anything. I use the test strips daily most of the time. But I don't look at anything below the nitrate and nitrite test. I'm off scale both GH and KH. And I cannot tell what color my pH is on the strips, it looks like it could be anything from 6.5 to 8, honestly. But the nitrate and nitrite tests seem very sensitive. I haven't bothered comparing to API kit except for hardness. Mine are 18/16 or 20/18, can't remember. Either way, it's way off scale for the strips so it returns some weird color. I use them strictly as a "what's going on?" test. Dip them in and look immediately. If there's A LOT of nitrite or nitrate they'll start turning pink immediately. If they're both white when I wait and check again after 30 seconds or a minute. Basically I'm just looking for qualitative from the strips (there's nitrite in my tank) vs quantitative (there's 2 ppm nitrite in my tank). Because the action doesn't really much change what my action is going to be, I'm not too worried about specifics. If I test and have unexpected nitrites, I'm doing a big water change either way. If it's 0.5 ppm or 2 ppm, my action is going to be the same. I also do the same with the ammonia test strips. I'm just looking for a simple is it there or not answer. What I'd really like is a strip that just does ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

I do not have much of standard music taste, I don't think. Haven't really my entire life. The more mainstream music I like would include mainly System of a Down and Nightwish (and more broadly, just about anything Floor Jansen). These depend on my mood. If I'm looking for more background music or mood music of some sort it's Heilung, Aurora, Capercaillie, Shireen... other stuff I'm probably forgetting.

Nice work! Do you make templates for your Styrofoam or are you measuring and doing it as you go?

I'm thinking I'll have to wait a bit before they're able to be shipped to me (on account of the cold). But thinking I can get some pothos locally. Or maybe tear some of mine out of the pots. I do already have some cuttings rooting. Wondering if a philodendron could also be used...

@Odd Duck Thanks for the reminder 🙂 I've started reading this thread before, actually. I didn't get to any of the pictures, or at least don't remember it. I actually kind of like the look of the bamboo going all the way down to the bottom like that. Wondering where to get such tall bamboo! I think a mix with bamboo and some pothos sprinkled in for that rootiness. I "can't keep" nitrates at any appreciable level in my 37 gallon. Working on finding that balance of light/ferts/algae. I do wonder if there would be enough nutrients in the discus tank to foster plants thriving as daily water changes keep everything way far down.

I decided to put in a couple of pieces of driftwood that I had planned on adding at some point. Now they have better places to hide behind. 😄 I say that partly joking as it has seemed to help them be a bit less sheepish. The coolest thing is watching them hold tightly to the cover. They stack into the "cups" in the driftwood pretty interestingly. And, in general, they're eating and tolerating more traffic while being "out". I guess I just expected them to be a little quicker in adjustment, but I know they're notoriously more skittish than other fish. I do think I'm going to find some oak limbs and attach three/four roughly vertical pieces of branch to slates and go that route. I think that would be a cool look.

Up until a week ago, it was discus. But now I have a tank full of those. Other than that, I think it would be cool to have a colony of Neolamprologus Ocellatus. Over the course of time I've had a few situations in which I would have liked to have these, but have never been able to source them locally. It's been about 10 years since I last looked and it seems like a LFS might have them (at least occasionally). Maybe someday. 🙂 Thieved photo:

I'm not saying this is what's going on with you, but I'll simply say that sometimes a hobby or hobbies are what I consider a space where I can better control what is going on compared to life or work where business conditions and plant performance had me worried the company wasn't going to make it long-term... so I bailed there and went somewhere rock solid. And am realizing that I do better with a little chaos and firefighting at work (I'm an electrical engineer). So it sounds dumb, but I "miss" the chaos of a plant that only runs 50-60% of the time compared to a plant running at like 90-93%. It's also an environment in which, in most cases, my level of care directly correlates to the health of the individuals. Where as our family seems to be fighting various ailments every couple of days (three kids in school and my wife is a teacher who has contact with the entire school district every few days). We don't have infants anymore, so as tiring as infants are... maybe there's some part of my brain wanting that responsibility and care load to some level? It's OK to take a step back if it's affecting family or work or more "real life" stuff. Over obsessing can be exhausting, but it can also be a driver for much learning and enjoyment. Maybe it's not just a scuffed scale next time and you head off some plague. Eventually you settle in. With bees I used to bother them non-stop. Always convinced I could be of some service. I learned a lot that way and now I can tell a whole heck of a lot from my bees just by watching, listening, and just feeling the temperature of the brood nest by putting my hand over the top of it and feeling the heat. There is some point on a curve that is the intersection of a bunch of other curves: experience, time, knowledge, equipment, etc etc. I always say this with bees and work... just find me someone who legitimately cares and we will be OK. The rest of it follows because a caring person is driven to make it better, to seek and share knowledge, and to put forth the effort to enrich whatever they have in their sights.

One tablespoon Hikari Discus Bio Gold One tablespoon Xtreme Krill Flake One cap garlic guard They're eating it, but it doesn't hold a tenth as long as the FDBW. Might try with half a cap of garlic guard and/or just one food instead of a mix.

@Torrey I'm (currently) unconcerned with the tank appearance, though I have started a couple pothos cuttings off my plants. But I might end up buying a bigger one. Also considering some floating plants, but not sure if that would be a good idea or not. Still noodling on that. Seems like the roots might trap a lot of garbage. Not sure if I like the look of bamboo. Will admit to not having read your link, though, which I will do tomorrow. I'm a little nervous about screwing them up at the moment too. Regardless of reassurances. So I'm trying to keep it pretty bare so I can keep up with the maintenance more easily. In the process of removing the sand and feeling like I'm going to end up draining and painting the bottom something light. I don't dislike the bare bottom look as much as I thought I would. As far as future plans, that's an interesting question. I have RO ability, but not installed. Eight years ago I started keeping bees with a few colonies I bought. I have a knack for it. I've not bought any additional bees and have "organically" grown it into a small business and about 40 honey bee colonies. I sell honey, hand reared queen bees, and nucleus (starter) colonies. The hang up with bees is that it mostly needs to be light outside for me to be able to work bees. Time away from home weighs on me greatly, I am very efficient at keeping bees these days... but they still require roughly weekly visits (sometimes more often) and those visits can take 2-4 hours. Not to get too far in the weeds here. I could run a pretty good sized fish room and spend more time at home. I could spend ~4-5 hours a night working fish if I wanted to. Right now I'm not interested in breeding them (and I know they've got lots of time and work to grow yet). I might be totally worn out on them in six months. 😄 To shorten the story, I need to move my entire apiary because the land owner sold their house. Moving bees is not fun and it's been weighing on me all winter. I feel a pretty massive scale back coming on the bees and all of that could look really different in a year or two. I have already jokingly told my wife that I could sell all my bees and just have a fish room in the basement. She doesn't hate the idea and thought I was serious at first. My heart also just isn't feeling the bees quite as much as it normally does as I'm approaching spring. However, I am not sure how much of that is because I'm dreading the moving of them. Back to this tank... I would like some vertical driftwood at some point, I think. But I want to make sure I keep it easy to clean the food/waste out for water changes. More than anything at this point it's a 37 year old that wanted to keep these fish when he was 18-20 and was too scared because he had hard water. 😄 Tank is overstocked (or will be with growth) and I'm kind of hedging my bets thinking I'll lose some. Knowing that if they all make it I'll either have to deal with the overcrowding or give some away as they grow. I'm OK with an ugly tank if it means healthy, well grown fish in 18 months. Then maybe I do something more elaborate. But sometime in between there maybe I toss a couple sticks in with anubias and java ferns glued to them. What a ramble here. 🙃

I've not purposefully dried it, but extra goes in the fridge. The key is to not make it too "mush" to begin with. It was something I was doing when feeding medicated feed to make sure that some of the smaller fish got it. Basically make a little ball and target feed them. I'm sure it's not a unique idea. It was also done by the Xtreme foods guy during a Co-Op tour. Go to 32:10 if the link doesn't take you to the correct time. And also about 17:15.

How I'm planning on doing it: taking some flake and mixing in either tank water or (more likely) some garlic guard. Make a bit of a dry mush out of it and press it together into a ball, then stick it to the glass. I think it will work. I've done it with the Co-Op fry food, I think the flake should work as well.

They've eaten everything I have put in so far, just not as voraciously as the FDBlackW. I'm going to make a 'patty' of flake in the AM and stick it to the wall. I'm guessing they'll go for that as well. I think it's time more than anything. They come right up to the gravel vac during water changes so they're not THAT shy.

I've never had discus before, but I think once they associate food with the shadow moving around they will be OK. Other cichlids I have had will beg every time you get near. These have only been here for a few days and they're definitely making progress. Letting me sit right here watching them now. And it's a chaotic house, honestly. Two adults, three kids (9, almost 7, almost 4) and two Australian Shepherds. They'll eventually get used to the activity and noise. This eating has actually loosened them up significantly, they seem more confident. Here's 93 pounds (38 and 55) of the floor vibrating crew: The red merle (Finn almost 2) is a mini, but he is a big mini, boarderline standard. The black bi (Shade a bit over a year and not quite done growing) is a standard. That said... I was getting close to putting driftwood in earlier with same reasoning as you. Thought I could expedite it a bit. Permanent tank at the moment, not sure what the future holds. My wife actually just said "I want one of those green ones" (flachen). We have one of those in the mix, but maybe I can trick her. 🤣

We've had a breakthrough! 😆