mountaintoppufferkeeper

USA for me. I am originally from Revere north of Boston, Massachusetts. After a few stops along the way I am living on a essentially a mountain top in Colorado a little over 9,100 feet up in a small town 45 minutes from most things and most fish shops a bit further than that. My fish scene is pretty much this forum and youtube. Photo of the last paved portion of our road before the dirt and the view of the trout lakes that run along the back of our house.

For me they were pretty easy to sex out once the males started to show the rocket tail. Not sure when that occured but a young fish who shows an outline of that marking on the tailfin is a developing male in my opinion. If I were picking from an unsexed group where I couldnt see any tail differences I would pick 2 of the smallest in the batch and 2 of the largest and expect that I would probably end up with a trio out of the 4.

A trio will work excellent and is probably the perfect amount of adults. Depending on the ordering situation, tank dimensions, and cover plants I also think 6 is feasible if you had to do it. That is primarily because I normally have to buy online which is 6 minimum for clown killies when they are available. 6 delivered next day to the door is usually my first choice vs driving a round trip of 260 miles and 6 hours to the LFS that would probably have them and back. I am currently working with a pair from a group of 6 I had shipped to me in 2019 to try and bring the numbers back up to a few colonys. Their current set up is in a 18"x12"×8" ( +/- 7.68 gallon tank). I did quarentine and raise up the original group of 6 clown killies in the same size tank before moving the group into a 25gallon with a corydoras colony. I used pogostemon octopus planted down low and floating plants to break sight lines, hide fry, and provide spawning areas. Photos are this morning of adult female against airline and adult male a little more active above a blurry adult cherry shrimp and in front of coop nano sponge filter.

Looks good floating like that.

Congrats. I tried a group of 6 fry of those in the past. For whatever reason did not breed successfully up here. Possibly a seasonal issue, altitude, something tried it all. Z.Tequilla and c.lateralis arre the only goodieds ive had success with so far. Nicely done.

If I had to order online and not select them in person I'd be the shoehorn guy 🙂. Id try a group of 6 to assure a few males and females and hopefully wind up with around 2 males and 4 females. Adults are fairly small.

Sort answer is that would generate CO2 but without a bubble counter and some form of ability to regulate CO2 its very variable and also may stink with yeast and sugar version. I've tried the DIY two soda bottle version with a citric acid solution in one and baking soda solution in the other just because it didn't smell like I believe that yeast version would. It was a fairly fun project that used two commercially available caps and airline connections due to pressures used. I wouldnt do DIY co2 system without a proper regulator again personally Id go entry level system if I did it again. Plants in all my tanks at the moment and all is done without CO2 or too high end on light. DIY CO2 is a bit of work. I had to make both solutions fairly frequently, prime the bottles which involved squeeing a small amount of one into the other to start the reaction in the other which then pressurized the system. After that it required calibration of the bubble count to the tank each time the pressure stabilized. It was always a little inconsistant and eventually my bubble regulation piece failed and dumped way too much co2 gass overnight. Not a fun learning experience but one I'll remember forever.

Thanks much for the resource i will enjoy digging into that one.

My F1 crenicichla regani dwarf pike (01JAN21) are a huge variation of range and some of my F1 moliwe kribs are also growing quickly. I know we have plenty here with exponentially more breeding knowledge than me. Does anyone have a general timeline for non-annual F1 fry to reach maturity and produce F2 generation fish? Planning on continuing a few projects into additional generations.

Congrats on the eggs and 1 hatched fry. The good news is once they start laying they are unlikely to ever stop and you have plenty of trial and error on how to best hatch and raise fry in your set ups. I've done panda cory in a heavily planted tank with plecos loaches and tetras. Plants were heavy enough that my 6 cory group blew up to 300 ish of all sizes when I broke down the 55 a year later. it was excessive. I would probably try the 10 gallon with the killies if that was what I had available; my clown killies never leave the top and I would say are somewhat safe to try with the cory eggs and gravel. I haven't yet tried the methylene blue with anything but did just purchase the powder form and mixed my own up to have handy should I need it. I have had good success with that outside fry box set up, I use that 80 gph pump as well but use it in the main tank on the end of the uplift tube and in place of the airline connector piece. I have also done an egg tumbler when hatching separately within the main tank and then just removed the fry to another tank when ready.

Nice. surprise fry get me so pumped everytime. Id bet with enough other fish or snails in the tank its more like a 1 or 2 eggs survive per spawn than an huge populstion of hillstreams. If plants are thick and fry get excessive id try to thin the thicker plants a bit and as a result limit the ability for as many eggs or fry to avoid predation within them.

I have not tried that personally but there was a research paper published in the 2006 "Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins Including Tropical Diseases " on the positive effects of garlic in aquarium fish (link below). Essentially it found that 3% concentration of garlic to the body weight of the fish was beneficial. I have used drops of vitachem in the repashy prep and if I were to try garlic cloves I would experiment with your method; essentially get the garlic to innoculate some water and add drops of that garlic water into the standard repashy mix with regular hot water until I got the fish interest and garlic benefit to where I was comfortable using it without overdoing the concentration. I imagine that is also similar to garlic guard application. https://academic.microsoft.com/paper/1964543478/citedby/search?q=Effects of Garlic (Alliumsativum) and chloramphenicol on growth performance%2C physiological parameters and survival of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)&qe=RId%3D1964543478&f=&orderBy=0

Mostly convinced based on behavior and faint panda pattern this is my first panda loach fry. Which for qualifies in the "that is nuts" category for me if it proves out. Only other fish in that rack system of tanks are a limia p group, a variatus platy group, khuli loaches, and an cousin to barbatus group growing out. There were flagfish about 3 weeks ago in the sump along with hundreds of snails but i recall flagfish fry having a little different mouth structure and orientation was more of an overbite. Anyone think this definately is or is not a panda loach?

Those molly are pretty sweet. Orange body and black dorsal fin get me everytime. This is definately the best hobby. It even teaches me animal psychology and genetics a bit. Briefly spotted a single mystery fry of something in the panda loach and limia perugiae tank today... grey about 1/8 inch and very much bottom dweller look to it. And of course it was the one time i didnt have the phone with me. I sense July will be a good hobby month up here.

Added photo showing the tube location on my currently non-conditioned female. Basically when they are in condition its super obvious but otherwise tougher to tell. The one with the arrow pointing to the tube is my female of the pair who bred for me. I really just get a general idea of average conditions for a fish and go for it and did that with the B rams. My current strategy for pretty much everything i keep is get a good size starter group, let them mature and pair off and work regularly to figure out the fish needs in my system as I go. There are so many variables to work with individual fish behaviors within the group, seasonal condition fluctuations in natural light through windows, air pressure, aquarium decor layout and type, plants, foods, etc. Cracking the code to get them pairing of courting and hopefully spawning within my aquariums is most of the enjoyment for me. My personal process is to just feed the Bolivians normally throughout. The parents appear to switch off in my set up where one would fan and guard while the other would patrol and occasionally feed. Mine would swap roles constantly. For the first week there were 3 other rams in the tank. I moved the other rams out and made another pair from those 3. I typically try to use the smallest dithers I can get in every tank im attempting breeding so that they know its safe enough for fry. Usually that is a trio group of blackchin livebearers or sometimes adolescent X.variatus platys. My guess is the Bolivians would beat up any bottom dweller pretty good when defending a spawn. Mine essentially bulldozer snails to the other side of the tank if they get too close to the spawn. I typically see more attentive parental care and a stronger pair bond in my cichlids if there is something they can defend eggs and fry against. A percieved common enemy with minimal actual risk to the parents or spawn. Id assume whatever tank you have and whatever method you prefer to grow out fry would work once you figure out your best process for your setup. My fry tank options are between 1 and 9 gallons for fry holding and growing out. They vary from 2 inches deep to 10 inches deep. The are quick connect fittings on the overflow side so can be swapped out for deeper tanks easily as the fry grow. Since I normally run the fry tank as a piece of my rack system they grow in 85 to 95 gallons water volume with tbe benefit of that water stability and biological filtration capacity. If i did stand alone glass tanks i would probably try for a 20 long for fry grow out. I usually direct most fish and fry into basically a specimen container with a net then release into the fry tank vs netting them out and messing with slime coats or causing damage and stress. The Bolivians seem very hardy after they settled out in my system. Im not an expert in the bolivians by any measure but that was my process which resulted in fry for me.

I started with 5 tank raised adult bolivian rams. I placed all in a 26x18x13 tank to form a pair. 74 degrees, some plants, little bit of sand substrate, lightly planted with floating and moss, clay saucers, and coconut huts. I feed a variety of pellet, vibra , live baby brine, frozen bloodworms, frozen tubifex worms, krill flake, spriulina flake. The live bbs is generally very helpful, in my conditions, to trigger spawning in adults. Pair formed from the group, my female was smaller with a square breeding tube while the male had a basically pointy tube and was larger than his mate. Minus the conditioned pair breeding tubes and behavior together I have no idea how to determine male and female they all look excellent but also pretty much the same to me. My pair spawned on the outside of a coconut hut and guarded the eggs and fry well for 2 weeks. I had to remove the other rams to a new tank to get a 2nd pair to form. Next batch I will try pulling fry at 7 days for better monitoring of food intake and growth. Fun project good luck with them i think just a big enough group, stable parameters, good food, patience and time and you'll have great success

I prefer just dosing the easy green and not worrying about it personally. I believe it covers quite alot of plant needs and treats a ton of gallons per bottle. I have never had an issue with the easy green and always have better plant look and growth using it than not using it.

I believe they are the same foam as the matten filter they sell just without the hole for the tube. I would say drained not dry would work for install they are a very tight fit to the glass and would be less frustrating to install either without gravel or without gravel underneath the foam to get a best seal/ fry blocker benefit. Then just put the gravel back so there is gravel on each side of the foam and on top of the UG filter. Id guess undergravel would be fine. I wouldnt expect fry to be able to get through that foam to the other side it is pretty fine foam that stops shrimp. I would probably run the water level lower and below the top of the foam to limit the risk of jumping over the foam into the other side thst would be the risk I would be concerned for.

Id say my most sociable and probably male hairy puffer is my favorite. Of the three he is the one that will greet me first and get rather excited to see what the menu is on feeding days.

Ive used the 4mm double wall polycarbonate greenhouse panels for lids. Pretty easy to cut, can be made to fit perfectly, not too expensive, and insulates nicely on my tanks. Usually let through 80% light or so.

I've kept many species and seen aggression from almost everything, many non-pike cichlids, two types of dwarf pike cichlids, variatus platys, plecos, wild bettas, etc s ome of which have ended in major injury. Plecos in particular are pretty vicious fighting over caves in my experience. That leads me to think freshwater puffers might be getting get a bad reputation. I work with the hairy puffer pao baileyi (now paired up) who never had a fight since arrival in 2018, and seperately have the mekong river puffer pao palustris in a colony that has now been in the fishroom for a month or two. Are Pao puffers really total murder machines who need solitary confinement in all instances or are they the victims of a reputation that might be amplified by how the exist in the hobby? A few of my 6 pao palustris colony definately chase each other from time to time and give some quick though intense "mouth hugs". I would bet those are probably territorial arguments. They end fairly quickly once line of sight is lost and everyone moves back to the cave or plant roots they call home. My current belief is they arent trying to fight to the death since they are all doing well eating, exploring, general puffering, and there has been only superficial scrapes thusfar. Those arguments have become less frequent as they have settled into defined territories. The attached short video clip is from earlier and is the palustris colony's typical feeding response to frozen krill. They even feed with a bit of a pecking order and exhibit some personal preference for certain foods. I have also observed both of those behaviors in my hairy puffers. Is the reputation of the ambush puffers based on research, a built in margin of safety due to their cost and how they are sold to hobbyists, aquarium legend, something else ? Am I just lucky with the 9 individuals over 2 Pao species I've kept so far? What say you nerms?

My somewhat rare project is a group of panda loaches down low with clown killies up top. More of a 20 gallon cooler water set up. I would argue, based off limited availablity most times ive looked, the clown killies are effectively rare. Both look great to me. .

Congrats. Your note on water pressure on the eggs is something I had not really considered before this post. I am growing out Scleromystax Baianinho II to try and breed in the next 12 to 24 months in my high altitude fishroom (9100+ feet). I hope to follow your steps and join you in scleromystax success eventually. It will be interesting to learn how my lower atmospheric air pressure up here impacts Scleromystax egg or fry development vs lower altitudes.

You seem to have great detail on the figure 8 puffers conditions and treatments. I have not attempted any brackish puffers and have not used melafix, pimafix, or paraguard in any tanks. I normally change more water and use the fritz line and or salt for my freshwater tanks to treat any issues I occasionally see. I am not able to share direct personal experience in that kind of set up or those issues but I generally assume that type of eye issue is possibly more of a fungal issue. I hope it all works out with 2 healthy puffers figure 8s are neat.

Got to stretch those puffer muscles. Interesting to see that occur outside of my colony set ups for other puffers. I usually only see the pao species I currently keep use it for communication / courtship displays.