modified lung

To quote the very old psychiatrist that diagnosed me with ADHD, "I've never seen results like this outside of a textbook." When I say lazy what it really means is stuck in the planning phase, distracted by other things, or the thought of doing it fills me with rage inducing levels of boredom.

Thanks. Sometimes I like to lace my writing in sarcasm. Idk if it's more entertaining to read but it's more entertaining to write. 😁

Until recently I bred refuge populations of threatened and endangered fish professionally and in my opinion we should absolutely be distributing these fish to hobbyists, no question. In a hatchery setting at least some species of fish become domesticated enough only after the 3rd generation that their survival rate when released into the wild becomes extremely low. Not only that but the survival rate of offspring of the hatchery fish that do survive and breed with the wild population are cut in half. There are a few examples of release programs crashing fishery populations because these programs rarely, if ever, take evolutionary factors into consideration. So what's the difference if hobbyists or a university or government agency domesticates these fish? The difference is if hobbyists were allowed these fish, then they could actually be enjoyed and appreciated by people instead of kept behind a locked gate, never seen by anyone but a select few.

That's interesting about temp swings and less spawning. I brought my tanks out into the dining room about 10 days ago so they arent seeing as much temp swing now. So far I have a lot less spawning but 10 days of data isnt anything to go on.

I kept my CPDs in an unheated corner room closet for years. The tank would have a daily high/low temperature swing of 3-5°F. The CPDs would stop breeding after about 3-4 weeks of exposure to night time lows of 60-62°F. They would start again about 2 weeks after bringing their daily low temperature to 70-72°F. Although the first batch or two of eggs afterward would have a very low hatch rate. I grew out the fry at the same temp as the adults. The lower the temp the noticably slower they grew. When the juveniles started to show some color I brought them to the front room where tanks were usually 72°F. I kept some fry outside in northern CA over winter. They survived to the high 40s°F at which point it's unclear whether they disappeared due to temperature or the dragonfly larvae I found that day.

Hello all, I've only been keeping home aquariums for 3 or 4 years but I've been working with fish professionally for close to a decade now. I spent eight of those years assisting in aquaculture research and breeding various endangered fish at a university. More than a year ago however I transfered into the private sector to raise sturgeon. At home for the past few years I've been breeding mostly CPDs, Rosey Loaches, Black Tiger Dario, Medaka Ricefish, Sparkling Gouramis, and Panda Guppies in my unheated closet in northern California. In an recent stroke of luck, I was able to move my tanks out of the closet after coming across a large pile of scrap wood behind a dumpster. You see, I'm cheap as @#$&. After piling that heap of other man's trash into my poor Prius and the obligatory six months of procrastination (I'm also lazy), the rack is built and the tanks moved into the dining room. Still needs work though. In the backyard I have a solar recirculating system I built from mostly scrap parts and some repaired 50, 75, and 300 gallon aquaculture tanks. Right now it's stripped down and in the planning stage of being reconfigured. I also really like figuring out live feed. Currently I'm experimenting with ways to push my blackworm cultures into overdrive. So, why am I here? Well, I've been looking for a good place to journal my constantly changing fish keeping practices. Why are they constantly changing? Because I have a short attention span and too much free time. And I recently realized that, if I kept records ...or actually looked at the records and data I do keep, then maybe I'd learn something. So after the obligatory six months of procrastination, I made an account and here I am.