Keeping track of the fish in your tank

[Bettafishlover]

How do you keep track of your nano fish in a 90 or large tank.  I always feel like I am missing somebody.  Planted tank!

[Duke Silver]

I don't think you do lol when my ember tetras were in my planted 75 one went missing for about a 3-4 days. I just assumed something happened to him and the cleanup crew took care of him since I couldn't find any remains. Then one day during feeding time, all the ember tetras were there again! guess he was just play a really good game of hide and seek! 

[Bru]

Just spending more time watching my tanks, maybe keep a fish journal, I'm always breeding something and taking note of things. Otherwise, in a planted tank that big it will be hard to keep track of those nano fish. I have lost track of a whole shoal of pygmy cories in a 10 gallon and I never know what's going on with my 14 kuhli loaches in my 20 gallon long. 😅

[Daniel]

I keep cats and tropical fish for pets and honey bees for my day job. With the bees because there is money on the line, I need to keep records who is where and what I need to know about what needs to be done to whom when.

These are bees records, but my fish records would look the same.

I keep records on each breeding individual, including photographs:

Every time I look at a hive, I take notes:

I abstract my notes into a single sheet of paper to use as a visual daily to do list:

And because I do a lot of breeding, I have to know who is related to whom so as to avoid consanguinity issues:

If I start breeding discus more intensely again, I will use this same system to keep track of the discus.

[Solidus1833]

1 minute ago, Daniel said:

I keep cats and tropical fish for pets and honey bees for my day job. With the bees because there is money on the line, I need to keep records who is where and what I need to know about what needs to be done to whom when.

These are bees records, but my fish records would look the same.

I keep records on each breeding individual, including photographs:

Every time I look at a hive, I take notes:

I abstract my notes into a single sheet of paper to use as a visual daily to do list:

And because I do a lot of breeding, I have to know who is related to whom so as to avoid consanguinity issues:

If I start breeding discus more intensely again, I will use this same system to keep track of the discus.

wow this is neat. Do you have any footage of yourself putting stickies on your bees? is it a pretty much straightforward process? 

[H.K.Luterman]

2 minutes ago, Daniel said:

I keep cats and tropical fish for pets and honey bees for my day job. With the bees because there is money on the line, I need to keep records who is where and what I need to know about what needs to be done to whom when.

These are bees records, but my fish records would look the same.

I keep records on each breeding individual, including photographs:

Every time I look at a hive, I take notes:

I abstract my notes into a single sheet of paper to use as a visual daily to do list:

And because I do a lot of breeding, I have to know who is related to whom so as to avoid consanguinity issues:

If I start breeding discus more intensely again, I will use this same system to keep track of the discus.

That is so neat!

[Daniel]

6 minutes ago, Solidus1833 said:

wow this is neat. Do you have any footage of yourself putting stickies on your bees? is it a pretty much straightforward process? 

I put a little glue on a numbered plastic disk, pick up the bee and then slide the disk on to the top of the thorax using a toothpick.

When I help out at the NC State bee lab, sometimes we have to number thousands of bees for the experiments the grad students are running.

I take photographs of my fish (mainly discus and angelfish) in order to keep track of individuals. Many fish look nearly identical. I glad I don't have to glue tags to fish. 🙂

 

[CalmedByFish]

C'mon, @Daniel. There's gotta be *something* about you that's boring. 

[Daniel]

4 minutes ago, CalmedByFish said:

C'mon, @Daniel. There's gotta be *something* about you that's boring. 

I am way more interesting on social media than real life. Showing my bee nerm stuff to my fish nerm friends looks cool, but the most of the world gives a big yawn. That's why is fun to hang out on the forum. 🙂

And I guarantee you my wife thinks I am boring this week. I have been reading a book called Einstein's Fridge about entropy. And I think if I talk to her about entropy one more time...I think she will hit me pretty hard.

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@Daniel That is soooo cool! Bee Nerm and Fish Nerm! 

[lefty o]

lojack the fish, gps trackers!  in a large tank, and smaller fish, especially large numbers, and add in plants......... good luck keeping track of them. or glue numbered disks on them.😎

[CalmedByFish]

32 minutes ago, Daniel said:

And I guarantee you my wife thinks I am boring this week. I have been reading a book called Einstein's Fridge about entropy. And I think if I talk to her about entropy one more time...I think she will hit me pretty hard.

Now that I've googled "entropy," I am definitely siding with your wife. 

[ccurtis]

@Danielthats kind of cool. How many times have you been stung adding the plastic label? 

[Daniel]

I get stung every day because I’m in dozens of beehives over the course of several hours. It happens, but it’s not really that bothersome.

I have never been stung marking a bee. I am holding the bee and there’s no way the bee can get at me. But when I’m facedown in a beehive and one flies up and pops to me in the ear there’s nothing I can do about that. 🙂

[Jungle Fan]

Funny, tracking all my fish in my heavily planted jungle tank all the time - impossible. Tracking the majority, and being able to identify anything that might be wrong with anything, or a particular fish - very manageable and part of daily maintenance and feeding sessions.

Been kicking around the idea of identifying and tracking all my camera equipment for field trips with RFID tags for a while now, but I'm not sure I like the idea of electronic tracking in general whether for gear, or else; also not sure I like the size and how unsightly these stickers are still currently. Certainly not an option for anything living - yet. Thank goodness.

 

[Daniel]

9 minutes ago, Jungle Fan said:

Funny, tracking all my fish in my heavily planted jungle tank all the time - impossible. Tracking the majority, and being able to identify anything that might be wrong with anything, or a particular fish - very manageable and part of daily maintenance and feeding sessions.

Been kicking around the idea of identifying and tracking all my camera equipment for field trips with RFID tags for a while now, but I'm not sure I like the idea of electronic tracking in general whether for gear, or else; also not sure I like the size and how unsightly these stickers are still currently. Certainly not an option for anything living - yet. Thank goodness.

 

Cool video, and I promise this is last time I will bring up honey bees on the forum today, but the professor and students in a neighboring bee lab use RFID to track the movements of individual bees. This study tracks queen mating flights.  Imagine building up a map of everywhere your fish go and when and the interesting patterns involved.

[Jungle Fan]

When they start making the camera gear RFID tags the size they use for honey bees maybe I'll consider using them, the most expensive piece of kit I ever lost, or left behind was a Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ballhead. That was a big financial ouch replacing it with the pan base, and pan clamp for landscape panoramas, $640 of ouch. For anyone that's interested there's one of those just laying around somewhere in the middle of the Mojave desert.