Beardedbillygoat’s Fish & Shrimp Tank Journal

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Guppysnailhow old do you think the little pleco is based on your prior experience?

[Guppysnail]

On 11/4/2021 at 3:04 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

@Guppysnailhow old do you think the little pleco is based on your prior experience?

It depends how quickly he found the good food. My first batch ranges in size a bit. My absolutely amateur guess is at least 3-4 weeks. That’s the point the fry shape disappears and they look more streamlined through the meaty tail portion. But I would need to see a top down picture to see if yours looks like that. My first batch I still have two who are not great at eating prepped food and are smaller than some of the second batch ones.
 

[Torrey]

Are those planters (aquaponics planters) from the Back2theRoots system?

My pump finally died, and I am debating what I want to do next.

Awesome tanks, and the Sad Bowl is so mesmerizing. While the getting to this point has definitely had some sad parts, now that bowl is where I would want to go when I am sad, to feel better. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

This is basically how I’ve been filtering the system on the sad bowl. 

 

[Atitagain]

Very cool, ty I’ve been curious how it actually worked.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Torreythats exactly where those pieces came from. They work great. I had 2 of them so have extra bits and bobs. Interesting on those pumps I’ve used them to make all sorts of odd filters.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Sunday funday maintenance on my 45 g display and the fish wall in my garage. Unfortunately, my black worm culture crashed they all died and man what a stink thought my wife was going to meet with a lawyer this afternoon. I cleaned it out and went to the LFS and grabbed some blood and tubifex worms. If I was to do the black worms again I’d separate my 1 lb shipment into 2 tanks. Think that was the issue - too much mass in too small a tank (2.5 g). 

I bought a dwarf cichlid for my sons community tank that had an explosion of Black Molly babies in the last week. Krobia xinguensis

Got this off the web but the little guy is super cute and already showing the red orange in the sides. LFS medicated and he’s been there a month. The locals here are not much for dwarf cichlids and this is a really cool one only defined the species I guess in 2012. They max out at 4-5” and I just really am excited about an SA non apistogramma dwarf. 
Since my frogs main food source is no more we had some fun with some frozen tubifex tonight. 

I won my bid on Aquabid for some Killifish that I’m hoping to have them as my other winter breeding project. 🤞.F. Gardneri 3 pairs. Planning to put them in with my panda corys with a couple of breeding mops.

I did a big maintenance session on my main display which has my colony of BN Plecos. I’m going to drop in some cucumbers and some repashy this week to see if we can get another spawn or 2. I’d love to see my blue eye long fin albino raise up a group of fry. Right now it’s been my male regular color longfin whose been guarding the caves. 

Our festivum is one of our wet pets. He’s a little chihuahua following me around doing maintenance and his bark is usually worse then his bite. Well he has a soft spot for snails. I fed my 15 g tower an algae wafer and man the snails came out to play. Well my wife said “jeez that’s a lot of snails. Spikey Feathers….” She’s hooked but won’t admit it. Spikey was super stoked!  

I can hear him breaking the shells as I type this. Cichlids are amazing. 

And last but not least The Sad Bowl continues its run of bringing beauty and joy. I’ll hold on to this it’s really been a highlight of the last year. Cookie Monster was posed by my son whose been my fish buddy since the beginning. Luckily he didn’t catch on that his brother got a new fish. 

[Guppysnail]

Beautiful new additions. I know the population explosion, ive been looking for a guppy control fish but just have not found one I think I’ll enjoy enough…yet. Those frogs, you make me want them so much. How active and cute. Cookie is a fantastic addition as well 😉

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

My Mum's ADF LOVE the tubifex. I had her target feed them with tweezers from the beginning so that's how she feeds her frogs. They now interact with her a lot when she comes near the tank because, well FOOD right? They are so stinkin cute. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Guppysnailim hopeful that this little essentially mini acara can be part of the solution not the problem. We’ll see in a week or two after he’s gotten over the shock of the new home. As for the frogs as @xXInkedPhoenixXindicated they’ve really started to hang out more up front. I’m using a shrimp feeding bowl to target feed. There’s a piece of subwassertang in there - I keep moving it back and they keep moving it forward obviously they want some cover while eating so I’m now tolerating it. 

[Atitagain]

Everything looks great , the  Krobiaxinguensis really cool looking fish. Good luck with the killis.

[Torrey]

I figure I have been using pumps for 3 decades, eventually I would have some fail (and especially more likely as they do not seem to be making anything as well as 3 decades ago... programmed obsolescence is a pain).

I had the B2R and a Harbor Freight pond pump both go out this year. They've been running solid since we replaced things from the fire in August 2017, so 4 years constant use only 2 of 13 have failed.

I'm pretty satisfied. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@TorreyThey can be super useful until they aren’t. 4+ years on a pump from Harbor Freight and that’s a great outcome I feel like.  

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Can’t help myself with this new dwarf cichlid. So bloody cute. 

His color is starting to show on day 2! He’s getting his fill of the mollies and eating great. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I’ve been really happy as an aquarist lately which is a great feeling after the bad run I had.

My wife really loved the Opae ula shrimp jar I made for her so I’ve decided to build her a wabi kusa for Christmas. I’ve looked over an article on principles and construction as well as a diy on making your own soil/moss ball. I got the container on Etsy- just couldn’t help myself. Only plant I’ve bought for it is the hydro Japan from ACO as I’ve seen some killer setups with it. 

My tetra breeding did not go great. I softened the water as best I could but not sure it was soft enough. I may try again with exclusively rain water and see if I can “make it rain” tetras.The last green neon required me to use a water bottle trap to get him out.

The next breeding project will be the Gardneri killis that’ll be shipped out Monday. Im just going to use the same setups I was using for the tetra project. Think I might play musical tanks with them and see what kind of fry situation we come up with.  

I got a call Thursday after my last patient of the day - wife reports the 4 year old decided that throwing a half a container of fish food, throwing a snow globe and detaching his pirates treasure chest was a good idea perhaps to impress his little girlfriend down the street. So I got home got the python out and did what I could getting 75% or so of the food out. This is the same kiddo that nearly electrocuted himself and the other neighbor girl that was “babysitting” him. But hey a 50% water change won’t hurt the tank. My son seemed contrite and we agreed that he can feed with daddy or mommy only. 

DJ Turbo has looked really good and his stem plant tank is coming along. The log house is pretty silly and may or may not stay but it’s not a bad setup as it grows in. 

Its a call weekend for me so I’m home or at hospital all weekend so my plan is to do some maintenance on the fish wall in the garage, got to get some serious tops sorted for the killis breeding setups - bloody jumpers, and my 45 g display needs its weekly constitutional. I think I may also try to figure out how to jam one more pleco cave in there. Male is looking like he’s on eggs so 🤞. Have fun everyone.  

[Atitagain]

Love that container can’t wait to see what you do with it.

not sure if your set on using rainwater for your tetra but have you tried or thought of using bottled water. The brand I used has minerals already put back into it. I tested it at 6.4 which was perfect for what I was doing and it held strong for the 3ish weeks I had it running.

4YOs are great 😁🤦🏻🤷🏻‍♂️

[Odd Duck]

@Beardedbillygoat1975 I LOVE the look of the container!  How big is it?  It looks like it might be deceptively large compared to those bricks.  Are they 9 or 10”?

Sorry about the fearsome fours!

Edited November 13, 2021 by Odd Duck

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Odd DuckIt’s a large planter 14x5x5 so I like the idea of a bigger footprint for my first build as I’m so used to larger canvases. I’ll document the making of the balls and planting. I need to do some trimming today and tomorrow in anticipation of its arrival.

[Patrick_G]

I think you’ll like making Wabi Kusa. It’s so fun to just turn the light on full power from early morning till late at night and not worry about algae. One tip I learned from the guy who owns the ADA store in Seattle is that you can just tie plants to the ball instead of poking them in with tweezers, a process I found difficult. He also recommended mended using plastic mesh to contain the ball instead of moss or coir fiber. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Patrick_Gwhat kind of mesh ? I’m wondering does he mean like wildlife mesh I put over my ponds or something else like crafting stuff.

I agree I think I’m going to like the process.

[Odd Duck]

On 11/13/2021 at 12:04 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

It’s a large planter 14x5x5

What a great size!  Can’t wait to see what you do with it!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I have thought about distilled water @Atitagaini was thinking about it more when I was going to do caridina but then the sad bowl failed and yadda yadda yadda. We’ve had a bit of rain so I have about 5 gallons of rainwater. Plus with winter coming I have snow melt as well.

@Odd Ducki agree it’s an interesting size. It will have some visual impact. 

[Patrick_G]

On 11/13/2021 at 3:04 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

@Patrick_Gwhat kind of mesh ? I’m wondering does he mean like wildlife mesh I put over my ponds or something else like crafting stuff.

I agree I think I’m going to like the process.

They sell pre made Wabi Kusa balls so I was to polite to ask what kind of mesh they use even though I really wanted to. I’m  thinking it’s something like onion bag mesh. 

[Atitagain]

@Beardedbillygoat1975 @Patrick_G really you all are sending me down another rabbit hole? Wabi Kusa looks so beautiful such a abstract rendition of nature. I’ve already been looking into bowls and now this. This is such an amazing hobby and such an inspirational forum!

[Patrick_G]

On 11/14/2021 at 3:50 AM, Atitagain said:

@Beardedbillygoat1975 @Patrick_G really you all are sending me down another rabbit hole? Wabi Kusa looks so beautiful such a abstract rendition of nature. I’ve already been looking into bowls and now this. This is such an amazing hobby and such an inspirational forum!

And the form is versatile too. On one hand it’s  small display of emergent plants in a container with water. On the other hand  it can be just a ball of substrate with plants that’s added to an existing or new aquarium.