mountaintoppufferkeeper

Disclaimer I am a huge fan of groups of eaxh species I keep to get the most personality I can. I have also never had dojo loach. A group of dwarf chain loaches is about as much personality as ive seen. My panda loaches are also active as a group but not nearly to that dwarf chain loach level of play. A herd of Khuli loach in a planted tank might come out regularly as well.

I would run it open pipe no strainer until i could set up the pvc coarse sponge just because a dead leaf or any gunk at all would clog that strainer and any sponge pushed inside a pipe similarly quickly

@Mikeo I do like the idea of the fry growout in the same water they are bred in. In my experience that strainer is likely a little too restricting and will clog fast on you which would very unfun for you when it overflows. I suggest slip fit a length of pvc equal to the inner diameter and length of a sponge prefilter in that overflow. You want your overflow pvc to have as many large holes holes drilled into it as you can with a coarse intake sponge over it. Your overflow should be as free flowing as you can get it and at least double that of the intake tube for a margin of safety. Most fry would not swim through a sponge back into the main tank.

I do temperature aclimation and plop and drop all online orders. Nearly all of my stuff comes from online due to my location up here. I have ordered from aquahuna, a retailer in oregon, a retailer in boulder colorado, and pretty much every water parameter through aquabid purchases. I've also had in person trades from utah water as well. All of those were plop and drop. Temperature aclimation and plop and drop has had no issues for me so far regardless of the location the fish came from. I have done drip before for shrimp etc but i think that is mostly a peace of mind shrimp method for me because thats the direction i get on shrimp from the sellers. I have not tested the bag water vs my tanks since the nitrate in the bags is assumed excessive on arrival I just get them in clean fresh water fastest with the plop and drop method.

Live foods, plants, or locally sourced rocks and wood, all could have a few bonuses occasionally. It is pretty amazing you have a second surprise fry.

I use fish to keep them down but also do not view them as a fry or fish health issue even when they blow up from live brine shrimp feedings for fry. If you reduce feeding microfoods they starve off and i would guess most fish eat them at that point.

An interesting behavior noted for adults is the dominant male and one female have been in his flower pot cave since the 17th of July (9 days). The last 3 days have been even more noteworthy because the male and female take turns leaving the cave for food or to chase other puffers and fish away. Now the question is when to check the cave and pull the almost certain fry from a puffer species that I am confident is saying is a fairly prolific cave spawner with parental care, to some degree, in my colony setup.

Day 16 hunting live baby brine

I believe there are many species that are sold as khuli at the wholesale level and then down to the retail level. I veiw it as similar to calling every carbonated beverage a coke in parts of the United States. More of a trade name for the look of the loach than the species it seems. In my personal tanks they are all kept the same with no issues observed and I likely have 2 or 3 species of "khuli"

Plop and drop here on the mountain. I have occasionally done drip for shrimp before.

@OakenGobyThats a bummer pretty impressive he has recovered as well as he has so far and that your cat relinquished the prize. Id probably stick with salt treatment and stress guard and observe. That salt is a super medication and works well vs most things including most bacterias. More meds is more stress on his sysyem and possibly unnecessary if the sslt is working for you. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish If it were me I would run that salt at level 1 and move up as needed following the blog guidance in the link. I would document all of it for myself to reference what level worked best and what treatments were used when if I needed to deal with a similar future event.

@YanniI would use vinegar eels and live baby brine if you have it. Ive raised corydoras using live baby brine, finely crushed flake, and fry specific fry powder food. My eventual first group of "corydoras adjacent" Scleromystax Baianinho II (C112) fry will probably get some vinegar eels because I have them in a culture.

Ive used aquahuna a few times when its safe temps up here by me. I have always had a good experience with healthy well packed fish. Cant beat that shipping charge either. I have also used aquabid after i research sellers feedback some hard to find species are only there. There are others ive used as well.

@Patrick_G those fish bags always get me smiling. nice haul.

Id vote for the Bolivian rams or the african butterfly cichlid both have been great fun for me and might be easily available

Vinegar eels, coop fry food, crushed flake, first bites, live baby brine, and every food i feed adults crushed down. I use my (fish room only) mortar and pestle to work any dry pellet, flake, or freeze dried foods including black soldierfly larvae that I feed adults down to fry sized food particle. I feel like that gets them used to the smells / tastes involved for later on, keeps me from having picky eaters if i trade them out, and keeps the variation going for the different nutrition each contains.

day 13 3 of 4 together.

I was also thinking a rabbit/ Faunus snail species. I am not an expert but the shell seems similar to the Faunus ater Cappuchino spike snail but yours seems way lighter in color. I believe some can get a decent size like that. Do you have any more photos.

Nice to meet you. Great photos.

@Patrick_G awesome pictures sorry i missed this one until now. Glad you got a chance to get to that store it is certainly on my list to visit in person. I am a frequent flier with the online sales department so much so I almost feel like im part of their fish family. My brother and sister in law live in the general area and now send me a gift card from there for christmas each year. Always a fun experience and very helpful with anything i might be looking for at this point in out retail relationship. Im pretty sure they are just awesome with everyone.

I have my bonded pair of hairy puffer in a 50 gallon currently. I raised my adult 3 in a 40 breeder for 2 years and then in the 50 gallon for 1 year prior to the pair forming. I think a 20 gallon is possible for a single hairy puffer. They are fairly messy eaters so bigger is definstely better. I am temporarily running the single male in a 20 gallon with 8 tiger barbs for his clean up crew. He has been with the tiger barbs for 6 months now and prefers the easy frozen krill meals vs bothering with the hunting of live fish. Those barbs are now experienced enough to keep clear of the pointy end and operate as a school effectively.

@Zach KThat looks to be good to me. I just checked on mine took it off twisting clockwise, pushed it in then turned counter clockwise to seat and seal. Maybe something is stuck in the cap threads?

I have had no success keeping daphnia going long term, I have vinegar eels cultured for extended use, I hatch live baby brine regularly the COOP setup Ziss hatch and COOP eggs, and had recently added peanut beetle larvae. Vinegar eels and BBS : fry rearing and adult conditioning Peanut beatle larvae : conditioning adults, occasional superfood What live foods do you use? What live foods do you want to use in the future? When and why do you use them?

Assassin snails are a bit of a check on ramshorns for me but they also enjoy fish foods. I have assassins and MTS I have them more because I enjoy them than for any ability to remove all other snails. I would grab an organic cucumber or zucchini rinse it, freeze it, and drop it in the tank where you could net it back out easily. Most of my overpopulation of snails flocks to it and I just net them out with the veggie in one shot. I consider loaches as the true snail assassins but even then its not total removal. My dwarf chain loach group is in a 50 gallon and keeps the MTS population down in the substrate during daylight hours. It appears that I have almost no trumpet snails however there are still plenty in there churning the substrate and removing the decaying plant and animal matter. If I check at night there is a decent population on the hunt but they are out of sight out of mind at this point. f they appear in daylight the loaches slurp them up immediately. The yoyo loach in the wild can get pretty significant size wise. I went with the group of dwarf chain loach because they stay fairly small and would fit most my tanks in a group

I have to have supplemental heaters in the tank rack systems by using a constant overflow sump system and a heater in each sump. My acrylic tanks and food grade polycarbonate tanks have minimal openings and retain heat much better than the glass tanks but still need help in fall through spring up here on the mountain. If I had a closed room I would use the house central heating or possibly a multi safety feature type room heater on a thermostat. Id guess those are a bit more regulated for safety and keeps electronics out of your tanks themselves if they have an issue.