MadMaxi

Well unfortunately today I kinda threw the towel in. Was cleaning the fry container because the water was getting cloudy and funky smelling. In the process of trying to catch them and transfer them over I ended up killing two of them. So lots of frustrations mounting I decided to go the 'let nature take its course'. So instead of getting rid of them I put them back in the tank with adults. Immediately saw two of them get gobbled up still two left trying to survive. Ah well. Any tips/pointers from those of you who have raised them?

Alright another update: I was able to catch 10 fry/eggs from my egg container. Transfer them to a fry grow out tank with an air stone and have been feeding them some 'green water' which I've made using Sera Micron Nature and vigorously shaking it in a dropper. Of those 10 I've lost a couple. We have 7 strong free swimmers as of 04Mar23, if they continue to do well I'll be able to start feeding them baby brine shrimp here soon. Once they get a little bigger I'll start snagging more pictures for you all. As it is now they are just swimming lines lol. Still having fun feeding and changing water by the 10ml eye dropper.... /s

So new update. I went out and picked up some plants from the LFS due to cold weather and not wanting to risk in mail orders (sorry Corey and the gang). Went home turned the fish tank lights on and planted my new Cryptocryne Spiralis in the back of the tank to give my little frens a bit of a curtain and to break things up plus add some tall plants. After mucking up the water getting them split and planted along the back. I sat back and watched a group of 3-5 males spend about 45 minutes chasing the ladies in and out of my moss bed. I saw 5 different pairings and spawns happen. Was super neat again not quite ready for all this I am culturing fry food (I hope) as we speak and should have it in about a week. Either way. Apparently they are happy with how things are. Now its time to start hatching brine shrimp and filling up those bellies with some good food. LOL I'll keep y'all updated. I did get a fry tub built and floating in my main tank, so if they do hatch and get out into the open I can carefully scoop them up with my brine shrimp net and transfer them over.

No congratulations yet. Not setup for them but I am trying to play catch up at this point lol. Going to start working on getting food for fry and trying to get more babies going.

Haven't been on here in a long time. TL:DR Version is I had some tank crashes due to some sort of contaminate, but I was able to finally get things to bounce bank. Having to start my RCS colony over, got some red endlers and CPDs in there now. New plants that are doing well and not dying off. So its been a bit of an UP and down. Started really focusing on maintaining water parameters and keeping an closer eye on them while we are doing DIY remodeling still. Its been a rough up and down stretch. But while I was turning lights on the other day and checking fish out making sure everyone was happy. I noticed my CPDs were rather fat. Then I started looking at everyone else and noticed something stuck onto the glass. I've seen 2-3 of these little guys so far. NGL. I was pretty shocked and giddy about the fact there was fry in this tank somehow. The sad part is I am not really setup (prepared) for fry and think they probably are not going to make it. So I am putting together a list of things to get like a specimen container and stuff to start hatching brine shrimp and other fry foods. Again. Excitement then then. Oh....wait. This sucks.... Now they do have a decent amount of hiding space. I have a rather large clump of moss that is about 8"L x 4"T x4-5" W, which the CPD use as shelter when they get spooked. Like 4 Cryptocoryne Wendtii (Greens I believe), two Temple plants that have started to take off again, and a metric butt ton of duckweed all in a 20g tank. My hopes are that while there may not be a ton of fry the ones that are in there are either great at hiding (because I hardly find them), or the CPDs are being cannibal little turds. Just wanted to share my child like excitement and the potential doom and gloom (which is also semi-humorous) with y'all. Next stop is to get fry supplies and see if I can get this little guys to start a population boom. Good lord. Fish keeping is frustrating at times but the sheer excitement I get out of it is stupid lol. Also. Apologize for the fuzziness of the pic, but that was AS CLOSE to a clear picture as I could get. I was rather shocked at how small these babies are.

Alright so 10 day update water parameters are chilling out as far as nitrates goes. Down to the 25ppm Nitrates. 0pp Nitrites. Hardness (GH) around 300PPM Buffer(KH) 80 pH dropped from the 7.0 down to about 6.6-6.8 Chlorine 0PPM Thinks seem to be doing okay I'm seeing some slow growth on plants, even the fast growing ones are making progress (side-eyeing you hornwort). Got my CPDs in for about 1.5 weeks and been feeding them 2 times a day they are coloring up really nicely. Got a second shipment coming. We'll hold there for a while and then hit them with a round of meds after feeding good for a week. Had some parasites on the shrimp horns so I dosed with No Planaria following the directions. Ultimately lost two due to what I believe was 'White Ring' of death. Still see some baby shrimp floating around between the moss and Hornwort though. I'll keep y'all updated. Thanks for helping me sort through this I appreciate y'all!

Gotcha I'll keep that in mind and let the Nitrates drop below 50ppm. As for the silver/white sheen its actually a reflection from the Finnex light that I have. Its the same one that is on the Co-op website. I'll do a small water change, throw in some fresh water and let the nitrates settle down some and watch how the plants react with that. Appreciate all the input you two have given its def something to think about. I also yanked a few free floating fast growing Hornwort sections out of the tank as well thinking it could be that they are leeching too much out of the water. So. Lot to take in. Appreciate it. Recovering from a tank crash so I am super leery of a lot of things right now.

So, pH is 7 - 7.2. I do not currently have tools to measure dKh and dGh at this time. Nitrates stay around 50-100ppm per test strips and I dose every other day. Could this be early signs of like calcium deficiency?

Things have been going well. Roots growing like crazy but I've noticed that the leaves on my Temple plant are starting to curl down and look droopy. I've done my parameters testing everything has been consistent at: 50ppm Nitrates with the occasional spike up to ~100 after dosing more than once every other day, Nitrite - 0ppm, Hardness is around 200+ (live in the midwest and we have pretty hard water), buffer around 100ppm, PH floats around 7 + or - .2, and Chlorine is 0PPM. Lighting is on for about 9hrs. I rarely do water changes as long as these stay consistent (They have so far). Just topping off water. My best guess is it some sort of nutrient deficiency just not sure what it is. Reading around says it could be Potassium or Magnesium? Any additional input would be greatly appreciated. Other than that things are going well and I have even spotted several baby Red Cherry shrimp floating around grazing!

Not going to lie. I am super excited to order mine from Aqua Huna here in a week. Going to grab some meds and etc from the LFS here before getting them JUST IN CASE. I really love these little guys and I am hoping that I can get them fat and happy in my tank and eventually get them to breed too. I have not wanted a fish more than these little guys lately. Thought about buying the emerald green rasbora but decided to hold out for CPDs instead...Don't let me down little guys!

Yeah that is my biggest concern at the moment. I am watching and doing what I can to prevent it from going that far. I am really hoping to salvage and get everything to recover. Had a crash due to dust particles getting into the tank from a basement renovation. Lost all my fish and shrimp with the contaminates. Finally got water parameters to stabilize and added new plants. So far the floating plants (Hornwort) are doing well and growing fast, the Temple plants however are the ones responding weirdly. Planted them in the substrate and part of the stem died off and started hollowing out. The next segment above it though is growing roots like crazy which are going down to the substrate looking for a home. Just waiting and seeing how it goes...

LMAO. I'll remember this when talking with my Army buddies. Biggest thing annoying me currently is watching my tank make small steps in recovery and then several backwards. Get the water parameters setup and more stable. Get plants and now I'm watching plants react strangely. Its disheartening. I miss being able to watch my fish and shrimps. Fear I'll have to scrap the whole thing and start allll over.

Welcome welcome!

Welcome aboard! That is a pretty cool decoration! Huge nerd myself and thought about throwing in one of them Stargate's in my planted tank.

Welcome to the cool kids club! Beautiful tanks btw!