mountaintoppufferkeeper

Giving serious consideration to looking under the palustris cave and warming up the egg tumbler based off the bottom center of this photo.

Right and the platy watching whats happening from above

Fry update later this evening but for now the Male and one female shared his cave today for a while. Feels like a great sign. The pattern change is one which makes me think more eggs and fry could be on the horizon. The puffer that heads in the cave is one of the females that normall looks light green with black spots. The male is in the cave and has the reciprocal blotching pattern. Neither was interested in defending against eachother so that cant be a bad thing.

So cool. Ive had unintentional khuli success with floating plants, feeding good flake, good pellet, frozen bloodworms, and live baby brine. My general rule is a group of 6 of a fish in their own tank fed will and you will normally get more. If you only had khulis in a tank of pretty much any size the population would almost certainly grow quickly. Ive never fed fry seperately but id guess a vinegar eel culture and live baby brine would get you plenty of healthy khuli to move back to the LFS My Khulis will intertwine and roll around in the roots of floating plant for me. That is normally done as a pair and occurs primarily in the roots of frogbit or similar.

Day 8 am feeding of vinegar eels

Funny thing .....this morning one of the females paid him a visit the acrylic needs a little magfloating but didnt want to miss it . The darker coloration with black belly and white pattern is the male, the lighter coloration are female. Its pretty crazy hoe different the colors can be.

Thats awesome. Looking forward to the update. Time flies that will be here before you know it.

@xXInkedPhoenixX The remaning 5 of the 7 fry found on monday (at 3 days old) have an excellent shot to make it; but the puffer fry info is light so im just learning as I go using the past experiences. My adult group is 1 dominant male, 4 females, and 1 either subdominant male or a 5th female based off of their dimorphic belly pattern differences. Hopefully this is more of a long term multiple fry batches project but if not this has been a pretty great week of puffer fry so far.

@Patrick_G I believe they may be the first captive born P. palustris in the United States and possibly anywhere but im not completely sure. I haven't found anything about a captive breeding prior to this one in my research. If the members of the forum have not heard of it being done before they almost certainly are the first captive born mekong puffer in the United States.

Day 7 pm brine shrimp feeding maco style

For me up here Ive come to the realization airport to airport using southwest aircargo or similar is probably the best bet but thats a 4 hour driving day to get to denver and back. Limits the box to a few hours up to maybe 14 hours in transit and im pretty sure both ends are conditioned air as well. My preference currently is 1.Personal delivery 2. Airport airport 3. Ups 4. usps Shipping wise Ive done the 12x12x10 double wall boxes with 1" coolers through ups overnight with no issues. Ive sent 2 of those preperations at the exact same time through usps express where im certain the denver hub decided they needed to teaxh me a lesson by delivering one a day late and letting the 2nd cook for 7 days. I dont know if it helps but i use the traditional bags to limit temperature swings 2 or 4 mm bags that i square the corners on then double bag in an attempt to try and insulate from external then an outer bag and finally foam liner. We are at least 20 degrees cooler up here all the time so i figure insulation is my key no matter what box or shipper i use.

Indeed. Thank you. The colony of 6adults with the plants and caves set up were in hopes of fry but I figured they would be a while before I hit it right on the triggers. I didn't really expect it would work within their first month on the mountain based off the hairy puffer pair slow walking their courtship over the past few months. So fun to have baby puffers. I'm enjoying the success of knowing that I got them happy enough to produce fry.

For salt maybe test the parameters with a test strip before you put the wood in the water and see if the general hardness goes crazy during the waterlogging procedure

I agree with @lefty o, @Guppysnail I would water log it with a dechlorinator and maybe do a test strip on that waterlog water and repeat if it seems like it needs it but id guess that bleach water is non existent by now and I wouldn't be shocked if you could just waterlog it with dechlorinator and put it in a tank.

Nice tank. I have done the tape on the back ones both commercial and diy..... the static cling window tint stuff which is probably my favorite currently, the graphic ones like you have there, and the field expedient black trashbag with tape, and the acrylic tank with the colored back panel. I do the background just to give the fish security. Having to worry about looking for predators on four sides is probably more stressful than 3 sides when a background is used. A good spot to back up to for the fish is the way I look at it normally but I do not have them on all tanks. I personally think that a slightly thicker glass back panel with a matte finish on the interior side (basically media blasted to appear frosted on the inside before it is sealed) would be the best background since it would theoretically prevent the glare for photos, obscure the back cords and such, and allow for algae to grow on it and evolve into an even more interesting background as it matures. Pretty sure those don't exist yet but I could be mistaken.

Yes you can. I keep mine in the freezer I would think frozen is longer term and fridge medium term they like to be stored dark, dry, and cold in my experience. I just take out enough for 2 weeks of hatches and the rest stay frozen until I need them. I would think you could probably go from frozen to the hatcher directly but I haven't tried it that way. I use the Ziss personally. 2 tablespoons salt standard tap water up to that line on the Ziss just below where the lid sits is my ratio. I prefer those coop eggs for the separation and have hatched up to 1 tablespoon in it. They are amazing in the Ziss and how I run it.

I think ill keep posting. They just keep growing and turning into mini puffers for me which is so cool for me frist time through with freshwater pao puffers. Day 7 am update 5 happy puffers hunting vinegar eels and microfauna during day and baby brine in the evenings.

Nature is a better friend than foe. All my tanks eventually have the same microfauna no matter how I isolate them from each other. I'd say its a combination of airborne particles/spores and dormancy depending on the microfauna. Air, substrate, plants, fish, fish foods, equipment all are probably vectors for microfauna. Fish waste contains plenty of it based on how they pick at the substrate, sides, and decorations they likely have it in them from the wild or another system they were in before they got to yours. Also my fingers are too giant for my phone so had to fix the typos. Sorry about that 🙂

If I had the flex currently, prefered its dimensions, and it fit in my setup Id probably roll with it and the mods I wanted. It operated great for me I just went a different direction with tanks in the fishroom.. I wouldn't worry about cracking or chipping any more than a standard glass tank. So long as you make sure nothing is under it like a rock, pebble, a cabinet latch of an empty built in china cabinet your 12 year old self is using for a fish shelf ( wish i got that advice back then before that adventure) or anything else which could break it when filling. I would assume the flex could crack like any glass tank and so lond as no one is smashing into it you should be just as safe from cracking as any other glass tank. I recall my flex having a thin foam pad that went underneath the base. That or something equal to it is vital in my opinion. Id guess much of that complaining is people who didnt use the pad and discover why they should have. You dont want anything that would cause a stress point on the bottom because, speaking from experience, a tank bottom waits to break from a stress point until its pretty much full of water. If you like its styling the flex is tough to beat as an all in one set up in my opinion.

Pao palustris fry with live baby brine pointed out for comparison

But the good news is we are looking like baby puffer fish now. Pretty much eyes and stomachs with patterning starting to show

Part of the journey occasionally

Dwarf Pike Cichlid: My Experience Keeping and Breeding Crenicichla Regani Rio Tapajos [Care Guide] Crenicichla Regani Rio Tapajos: top wild caught male and bottom wild caught female and F1 fry 10 days after cave emergence. Credit: M.Proctor. Crenicichla regani Rio Tapajos is an amazing species that I have enjoyed keeping and breeding. They belong to genus Crenicichla that contains over 100 species. The C.regani I obtained are of the Rio Tapajos locality. The Rio Tapajos runs 1200 miles and it has a river basin nearly three times the size of Florida and is home to at least 323 identified fish species in addition to the C.regani (The Tapajos River 2021). Females have the well-defined eye spot on the dorsal fin. The genus is further divided into various groups of similar pike species. The wallacii group contains pike up to 13.9 cm (5.5 in). The regani is a member of the wallacii group (Bednarczuk 2010). I keep my C.regani Rio Tapajos is at a temperature range of = 24°-27°C (75°-81°F)and pH = 6.8.0-7.0and Grow Out Tank Minimum Size = 76 l (20 gal)and Pair Bonding and Breeding Tank Size = 189 l (50 gal) and Adult Sizes = Up to 14 cm (5.5 in ♂) and up to 11.5 cm (4.5 in ♀). Obtaining Initial Stock and Developing Them Into A Well-Bonded Pair I received my initial stock of two pairs of wild caught regani in May of 2019 from an online vendor. The adult fish were placed in a 50-gallon tank with adult platy for dither fish and plants and caves and malaysian trumpet snails and assassin snails. Feedings throughout were once a day rotating between frozen bloodworms and frozen whole krill with vitachem and extreme pellets and krill flake. Live baby brine shrimp once per week was provided to encourage spawning. I believe in the introduction of fry food on a regular basis to encourage fry production from parents. In mid-2020and The dominant pair became well-bonded by staying together and fighting the subdominant pair to the point that they drove they were removed from the tank. I utilized a 2 degree temperature drop, leave litter for tannin increase and On 1 January 2021 I discovered the parents with a cloud of fry. Finding My First Batch of Regani Fry: Worth the Wait The fry of the C.regani were guarded by the adults. Both would manage the fry but the female was primarily the parent who would chase down the adventurous fry and grab them and spit them back into the center of the fry school. Fry were sent back into the spawning cave to sleep every night and were guarded by both adults while sleeping. Both adults would change color intensity and pattern and head shake and posture at times of fry rearing. This behavior was clearly a communication between the adults and the fry to cause an appropriate response either from the fry or the other member of the pair. Fry infrequently picked at the slime coat of the adults who were tolerant of the behavior. This may have been useful in establishing healthy digestive systems of the fry. C.Regani Rio Tapajos: wild caught female and F1 fry day of cave emergence. Credit: M.Proctor C.Regani Rio Tapajos: wild caught male and F1 fry day 10 after cave emergence. Credit: M.Proctor Removing the Fry I removed the fry in two stages. Those who remained with the parents the longest grew the fastest and were more outgoing. Those who were moved at day 15 grew slower and were more likely to hide. Those fry who remained with the parents until day 66 were large and more outgoing and less likely to hide. Frozen bloodworms were accepted beginning on day 15. The fry benefitted from learned behavior by remaining with with the parents. The fry with the parents would eat any food the adults were eating while the fry separated from the parents earlier would ignore the food until hungry enough to try on their own. C.Regani Rio Tapajos: F1 fry day 15 in Ziss Breeder Box within 189 l (50 gal) breeding tank. Credit: M.Proctor C.Regani Rio Tapajos: F1 fry day 19 moved to their own 76 l (20 gal) grow out tank. Credit: M.Proctor C.Regani Rio Tapajos: F1 fry day 58 with parents 189 l (50 gal) breeding tank. Credit: M.Proctor C.Regani Rio Tapajos: F1 fry day 66 all moved to 76 l (20 gal) grow out tank. Credit: M.Proctor These dwarf pike have been rewarding to keep. They produced a large amount of fry and exhibited some of the best parental care I have ever had the pleasure to witness in a fish species. Regani appear to be very tolerant of other fish as my pike only have fight in them when paired up for breeding purposes. That fight is directed almost exclusively at other regani pike and rarely at other fish in the aquarium unless they get too close to the fry ball. I plan to work further and get into the F2 generation either later in 2021 or sometime in 2022. Glossary F1 Generation: The first generation of offspring from the parent fish. Rio Tapajos: 1200 mile long river in Brazil with hundreds of freshwater species living in it. Wild Caught: Fish caught from their wild natural habitat References Bednarczuk, Radek. 2010. "It's Dwarf Crenicichla Time!" Tropical Fish Hobbist Magazine. March. https://www.tfhmagazine.com/articles/freshwater/its-dwarf-crenicichla-time. Proctor, Matthew R. 2021. "Crenicichla Regani Rio Tapajos." Divide: Proctor, Matthew R, January 10. 2021. "The Tapajos River." The Nature Conservency. July. https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/latin-america/brazil/stories-in-brazil/the-tapajos-river/.

Welcome to the forum nice to meet you

Pao palustris Mekong River Puffer Fry Day 3 ish