Woowala

We was excellent. @clownbaby I know you said you don't like scifi, but give Kurt Vonnegut a shot. Extremely readable after something like Beowulf, funny, profound. If you like Mark Twain or Douglas Adams you'll like Vonnegut. Or read anything by any of them, assuming you haven't already. Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Hitchhiker's Guide, or the Dirk Gently series.

Lmk if you have questions or need any pointers getting started. Fly fishing and everything involved with it is a great way to waste a ton of time lol.

Last thing I read was The Sun Also Rises. Oh man, that last line. Devastating. Before that I think it was Candide. Hilarious.

tie flies, it's fun. learn some entomology, sell or give them away. or take up fishing.

2 nets, carefully, at night. or make/buy a fish trap and be patient.

It being a pretty niche market, basically everything made for aquariums is price gouged to hell and back, and doubly so for subsets of the aquarium market, like reefs and shrimp. If I can find a similar product but not made for fish tanks, it'll be 1/10th the price. The trouble is recognizing when you're being penny wise and pound foolish, but in general if something is convenient or irreplaceable I'll spend the money, if not I won't (looking at you hardscape, lids, lighting). Other things are just a racket imo, like bottled bacteria and almost all water additives. But every niche hobby is the same way. I'm just happy I'm not into golf.

Just wanted to give a final update on this trial run. Not quite final results- 7/8 eggs hatched from the 28th, 4/4 from the 29th, 4/5 from the 30th, and 7/8 from the 1st. Still giving the last 2 eggs from the last 2 days time, but overall a much improved hatch rate. I didn't notice any difference in the fry or anything else really- no deformities, and the hatching was still spread out over multiple days for each collection. Seemingly no difference either between the eggs that were submerged a day before they hatched and the ones submerged 5 days before. I'll have to wait for another try to see how the fry develop later as all these fry were put into a tank with other normally hatched fry. Overall I'd say this was pretty successful- a bit easier than dealing with cups of water and methylene blue, and a higher hatch rate. I think the conclusion is that I could do a better job keeping the hatchout water really clean, and if I did I might see a similar hatch rate with either method.

That's too bad about the low numbers, but great that they're increasing. F2 generation might be more prolific for you. Definitely keep us updated.

That looks great. Fry are quite visible too so win/win hopefully.

I think this is a good idea too, similar to a hang on back refugium on a reef tank. If you can get some moss or subwassertang going in the filter part, you'd have a nice safe zone for live food that would supply the fish with added food throughout the day.

Haha, I can't read that without hearing Bob Uecker's voice. 🤣 I'd also account for pressure loss due to friction (every physics teacher ever has not prepared me for real life) and get something a bit oversized.

Yeah everyone's needs are a bit different. I just remembered that he used a rain bird controller and manifold, so there was a chance it might be helpful. Looking at that pic I kinda think your initial instinct might be right, and that you might just need a much higher powered pump. If you decide to do that instead of using the pressure from your home water supply, I'd just get a much bigger impeller pump from a major online site and return it if it didn't work. #unethicallifeprotip, but it's rough out there lol.

So quick update- half the eggs from the 28th have hatched, and one from the 29th the next day. Took about 13 days, but it's been cooler here lately so I'd attribute the slight delay to that and not this method. Still waiting to see what the final hatch rate will be, but so far so good.

Yeah that's brutal. Can you bypass the manifold to see if it's the problem, and/or shut off 8 of 9 valves on the manifold to see if it's just that the pump can't handle that many valves? I think the pump just can't handle the pressure, and when it's too much the water just flows back through the intake of the pump, but it'd be nice to know that before buying a different pump. You could always just go to a big box store and get a diaphragm/transfer pump, try it out, and return it if that's not the problem. Which is what I'd probably do, but it's a hassle.

Oof, 10% that's a lot. Glad I didn't see that when I was looking for one haha. If the pump is powered then yes it'll detect the pressure drop when the valve opens and start pumping. Sorry I can't be more helpful, I learned just enough to set up my own thing. In the end it took me about a month of looking at various options and trying different stuff to get it to work. This might be helpful