Beardedbillygoat’s Fish & Shrimp Tank Journal

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Guppysnaili am trying to stay positive as I still need to care for the survivors and future broods. Hard but valuable lesson. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

It’s been an up and down week between work, life and fishkeeping I’m pooped. 

On a high note I’m up to F3 on my fireball teacup platys. They seem to cannibalize the fry so if I want to improve my yield I’ll need to figure out a different system. I keep eyeing those Ziss breeding boxes on ACOs page but I think it might be too big for this 15 g. 

My breeding group of bristlenose plecos in my 45 g seem to have played musical caves with the dominant male aka Big D taking up position outside the oldest females cave which is an Apistogramma hut. Happy to be seeing 2-3 generations of stragglers in the tank as well some just short of an inch. My son the original Big D saw a couple when walking by tonight.

In the pleco grow out there’s still a dozen or so survivors. I’ve done multiple water changes at times per day based on water tests trying to keep the nitrates down and things have seemed to have settled down for now. At this point I’m selective about how much food I put in including vegetables as I’m trying to not over feed it’s a fine line. I’m half tempted to just reset it rescuing the little ones I can and placing them in some of our mature tanks with plenty to eat and see if they make it but I’ll give this a few more days. 

I’m heavily feeding and water changing the Gardneri killi/panda tank in the hopes to find some eggs. I was concerned that two straggler guppy females were stealing from me so they got moved to the guppy tub. I was trying to keep a couple guppy females untouched for a theoretical breeding project but then all the other guppies died. If I’m not finding some eggs this week I’ll start pulling males and females to my 2 breeder tanks and throw some mops in and see what happens. I think the pandas are another month or two away but the sexual characteristics of the fish are showing with the females widening out and the males leaning out. Kids grow up so fast! 

At Fishtoberfest I picked up a pair of trout goodieds and lost the female en route home. The male is in the plant grow out presently hunting for food in the floating plants. He’s got the most interesting swimming motion. I think his spine might be bent but I spoil him rotten and the shrimp colony in with him enjoy the over feeding tremendously. He’ll remain a man of leisure. 
 

My Opae ula colony is growing. We have a couple berried mommas. They have a long gestation and 1-2 x a year cycle where they produce offspring. Triggers so far have been drastic water temp changes - spring to summer, summer to fall and feeding a little bit of high quality spirulina based food more frequently then my usual question to my wife, “Have we fed them lately?” I’ve been feeding them once a week the last 3 weeks. 
This female is pretty heavily saddled. May see some berries soon.

The second pick shows the berried female running away for the lava rock hills when the phone came out but she gives a good view of the berries/babies. It also shows the macro algae in there which I thought was dying but I keep seeing new runners and bits around the tank. 

Have fun this weekend. Folks in the Northwest stay safe with all this weather rolling in. I’m off to Portland to see a man about a major league soccer cup. Need to throw some extra weight over the axles as it’s snowing over the passes. 

[Guppysnail]

On 12/11/2021 at 2:51 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I’m half tempted to just reset it rescuing the little ones I can and placing them in some of our mature tanks with plenty to eat and see if they make it but I’ll give this a few more days. 

those platies are dynamite looking! I hope you figure out an easy solution to increase the yields. 
 

The nitrate issue was/is huge for me as well. The amount of food they consume is amazing. I took the smallest and moved to guppy grow outs. The first batch a few stayed in mom n dads tanks. They thrived and grew much larger and quicker than the ones in the grow out. I had 50 in the first group 60 second group and about 80 survivors from this third batch in a 20 long. 15 this time I dispersed to other tanks. They should do fine if you choose to move them. Pleco survive and overpopulate in the wild which is crazy rough so if you move them to tanks they should be fine. The third is the last batch I’m allowing to hatch. The stress and crazy maintenance needs are getting taxing. I just don’t have enough/large enough tanks. With as sensitive as they are Your thoughts to move them might just be the right solution. 
 

DRIVE SAFE on your adventures this weekend. Holiday shopping drivers are notoriously distracted. And Have fun. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

We had some visitors to the tower tank - my youngest got a Pokémon advent calendar so we’ve had his “Pokédex “ all over the house. It’s funny how the kids relate to the tanks. 

The tower tank became home to the remaining baby plecos. They’re doing well. I’ve been throwing in some catfish chips and some veggies along with the over feeding I do for the platys and panda corys they seem to be happy and growing. Most are calico.

I threw in some root tabs and I did notice the piece of stem of one of my cabomba that well isn't much left of it which is a sign the plecos are getting hungry and daddy needs to feed them! That sword plant better watch out. 

About 8 months ago I set this 36 g bowfront up for my friends and as she was out of town I fed her fish for the weekend. It’s a jungle! There’s so much life both plant, fish and inverts. It’s the gift that just keeps giving and she thanks me a lot except when she has to trim her plants!

Did some scaping and maintenance on DJ Turbos tank. He looks great and has really relaxed. He’s started to use the little log hotel I bought him and it seems like the more fresh and frozen foods I give him the happiest he is. 

The Sad Bowl got a needed trim and maintenance session. I’ve started to get emerged growth from some baby tears I’d thrown in from the tower tank. We’ve had some baby Blue Hawaiian guppies emerge and I’ve got a berried green shrimp. It’s alive and so so enjoyable. 
This weekend I’m hoping I’ll have time to video my new breeding setup for Gardneri Killifish and for pleco grow outs. I really need to get on top of the wabi kusa for my wife. I’ve got the plants, soil and everything but ironically the panty hose I bought to make the ball was misplaced. It was a funny conversation to have with my wife. Have fun everyone! 

[Guppysnail]

Wow. Everything is teaming with life including The Sad Bowl. That is awesome. I’m so glad your pleco babies are thriving for you. Your cabomba may not be the plecos fault. When I tried it any portion of the lower stem that was unable to get good light would disintegrate. But then again I had an anubias that two of the leaves were rasped until disintegration by the babies. 
i love the Pokémon audience. Children are imaginative. 

[Atitagain]

Everything looking great! That shot of the bowl is awesome. Looking forward to seeing the killi set up.

I’m working on a wabi kusa-ish set up. I say “ish” because I seen you and I think it was @Patrick_G talking about them. Only research I did was look at a few pics, I thought I wanna do my version then research the parameters that make it an “wabi kusa” and then maybe do another under guidelines. The container you have to do yours in should make for a very interesting design.

[Torrey]

On 12/16/2021 at 1:13 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I really need to get on top of the wabi kusa for my wife. I’ve got the plants, soil and everything but ironically the panty hose I bought to make the ball was misplaced. It was a funny conversation to have with my wife

Did you discover why the hose are missing?🤔

Seriously though, everything looks great! Your sad bowl is definitely good medicine to offset any sads that show up. 

Definitely appreciate the Pokémon, my kids and grandboos would approve. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@TorreyI think I am just going to use a filter media bag and no clue on where the hose went. I really have nothing to complain about.

My last foray with the pleco babies although not perfect I still have 15 or so and they are thriving in tanks around the house. I hope the new setup will work better for them. My Big Daddy pleco has been really working the ladies, I thought he was on eggs last night but he was outside the cave this AM. I did a big cooler water change overnight on all my downstairs tanks except DJ Turbo and other than a squeaky emperor 400 hob all is looking excellent. Fed a bunch of BBS the last 24 hours. I am hatching 3 x a week now.  

 

[Torrey]

Sounds like a lot of work that is yielding healthy, happy fish.

If your home is anything like my home, the hose will show up as soon as your wabi kusa for your wife is completed/established. Then you can build another one. 😅

[Hobbit]

That’s got to be an awesome advent calendar! How cute!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Hobbithere’s a pic of the calendar- mind you there used to be the actual toy calendar attached but he Absconded with it day 5 or 6 and pulled all the toys out. He’s 4 so it was an accept and move of situation! 

[Hobbit]

Wow I’m jealous! 😄 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Ok well it was a late night in the wabi kusa project. Got the inner ball - it’s really oblong to fit the “bowl” - complete and now letting that cure l today with a plan to cover it in sphagnum tonight, then dip it in a mud and laterite mix, then cover it with hose ( @Torrey I found it!) and then Java moss will be tied to the outside. 

I took a chance as us Nerms do and reached out to Greg Sage. He’s the guy Cory talks a lot about in terms of rare livebearers (and green dragon plecos and also the most gorgeous Odessa barbs I’ve ever seen!). After our discussions I’ve decided my next breeding project will be a goodied and some green dragon plecos. I’m in negotiations with the best boss in the world to switch out some of my plastic bins for a couple glass boxes. Thinking 2 - 40 breeders transitioning the pandas to one and the other with the goodied and plecos. 
 

In terms of which goodied he’s got Amoeca Splendens but also has ataeniobious toweri.

Im a sucker for a blue fish and these males are gorgeous. CARES fish so that’s an exciting development in my hobby. 

My F Gardneri breeding project is going well and I’ve got the dominant male in with 3 females who are full of eggs. I’ll use this as my pleco baby tank as well. 

I’m going to move the other 3 males with 1 in the sad bowl, 1 in the frog tank and 1 m 1 f in the 45 g display. So far when I’ve checked for eggs I’ve not found any. Reportedly each female will lay around 5 eggs per day when they get going so we will have to see. I’ve got a ton of water lettuce in there and they may lay on that. I’m hopeful that with all the caves and slate I’ve put in for the plecos if I do miss eggs I’ll have cover for the babies who hatch out au naturale! 

Moving the Gardneri will leave the pandas all on their own. My hope is to start seeing some eggs as time and care goes on. Looking forward to the panda 🐼 Cory palace! 

Going around the house with my coffee this morning was so fun. Caught my frogs 🐸 doing their froggy clumsy things but also caught them in repose enjoying the scape. 
Walked around and spent time with the boys and their tanks this morning. They’ve been en fuego with all the sugar of the season but managed to have some nice time between the sourdough waffles we made and some Minecraft we had a nice time. 

After another long night with the wabi kusa I’ll hopefully have more to update. As Ringo always says Peace and Love everyone! Have fun!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Wabi Kusa Update - finished making the ball - covered the laterite with sphagnum moss then put the hose over the top of that. Then covered it in Christmas Moss and Java Moss mix and used string. I’m now putting it in a 2.5 g tank with a grow light over it. 

[Atitagain]

Your plants and all your tanks are looking great. The projects you have going and coming up all are very exciting. Can’t wait to see your wabi kusa, really enjoying the detailed photos and updates. 

[Guppysnail]

Tons of excitement!  I love the sponge bob tank it really looks awesome. Just wanted to share my pandas eat a ton of variety frozen food and live bbs. The only time they have spawned is right after blood worms and they spawn every time I feed bloodworms 🤷‍♀️  I can’t wait to move them so I get eggs instead of polka dot glass where eggs were. 😝 Good luck with your negotiating the 40b’s will make things easier. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I recently made some additions to my sons 20 L tanks. My youngest has a group of now 6 Neolamprologus brevis she’ll dwellers who’ve been in there with a mixed group of calico lyretail and black mollies. The Shellie’s are out and about all the time so I think the mollies are a good dither. They handle the pH and minerality without any issues. After I’d gotten the Krobia xinguensis for my oldest son let’s just say the “What about my tank?” Situation came up. 
My LFS is great, it’s family owned (mother/son) and they’ve got 2 other dedicated hobbyists on staff. The service is great. They tell me how long they’ve had them, why they are priced the way they are etc. I really appreciate the situation I’m in here. Anyway they’d had a group of brevis not too long ago and let me know but life got in the way so I got there late and they only had 1 so I took the little fella home. They had some beautiful caudopunctatus and leileupi so I bent to the pressure from my son and grabbed them. 
We get home and my oldest has started to note that his Pseudomeugil luminatus have been disappearing. He chalks it up to “they’ve gone to another reality.” I blame Minecraft don’t get me started. Anyway he says he wants a new dither fish that can hang with “Little Spikey,” his name for the Krobia. We stopped in today to sell 6 pairs of Blue Hawaiian Moscows and 100 blue dream shrimp. I saw a beautiful tank with floating plants and marble hatchets and well I was hooked. But then the owner says oh hey I still have this other 2 Krobia and the locals don’t really understand or appreciate them etc and I’m like well ok throw them in. So now we’ve got 12 marble hatchets and 3 Krobia. I think it’s 2 males and 1 female but we’ll have to see. The color of the first one I purchased has gone from good to great. The purple kuhli loaches in the tank have started to play games with little Spikey popping out if the substrate and scaring the shit out of him. It makes me laugh every time to see this tough tank boss run from a little old loach. 

The other excitement around the house was the bronze Cory eggs we found Monday night. What a surprise!? There’s been 2 reverse trios j. There since I started the tank. They’ve been chunky and happy for awhile and we’ll I guess they’ve been really happy with all the extra water changes and feedings I’ve been doing to condition my plecos. Here’s the thread for the eggs and a pic of the corys. 

My longfin BN pleco Big Daddy is on a huge clutch of eggs which is super exciting. I’ve got 2 new setups for the fry - an easily cleaned 17 g that I’m letting grow out a ton of algae on the sides and a 30 g planted with slate, caves and a flower pot. Once I get them to 1” I’ll transition them to the bigger digs. The 17 g will make it easier for me to watch and makes sure they’re eating for those critical 4-8 weeks in the beginning- lessons learned on that. 
I appreciate all the encouragement and help I’ve received from our community. It has been a source of solace in these difficult times. Work especially my hospital weeks has been ummm a challenge to say the least. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a very Happy New Year. I’ll probably check out for a few days. As a family we are renting a house with my wife’s family to go see the Van Gogh Experience and just get out of the house - the weather is supposed to be horrid so I imagine it will be board games and ordering out but that’s fine.  I have a planned trip to the always dangerous The Wet Spot on 12/27/21 before we come back. I’ll report back then I am sure. 

[Guppysnail]

Every thing look great. I love that you appreciate the dynamics between fish not just looks, eggs and fry. The relationships and dramas between them is my favorite part of the hobby. I hope you and your family stay safe, enjoy one another and have a fabulous holiday. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Awwww @Guppysnailthat means a lot coming from you. I admire your husbandry and how you approach the hobby. Thanks. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you as well. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I just finished my wife’s wabi kusa and wanted to share some pics.

After finishing the ball I then laid down an initial coating of Java moss although it may have some Taiwan or Christmas mixed in. I then filled in the blank spaces with some fissidens I had forgotten about in my sons Krobia/Sponge Bob tank. I then used some sphagnum moss that has a little bit of a mix of laterite and mud on it to fill in gaps and act as a planting medium. 

Plant list: Hydrocotyle “Japan,” Monte Carlo, Star repens, Hygrophila polysperma, anubias nano petite, crypt wendtii green, AR regular aka Scarlet Temple. Used some Caribsea naturals sand on the bottom in a thin layer and a couple of twigs from a manzanita I used in another build. 

I am using the 2.5 g aquarium now as a top to hold moisture in. I’ll put plastic wrap over that to trap moisture in for now. It’s been a fun and rewarding project. 

[Odd Duck]

Your wabi kusa is looking good and going to be spectacular!  Love your choice of plants!

Sorry work has been rough, but hopefully you’ll still get a little more family time.

Happy Holidays, to you, too!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Odd Duckyou have to take the good with the bad. I’m off until the 3rd so it’s definitely not too bad! I’m excited to see the S. Repens I saw some that was emersed and was purple. 

[Atitagain]

Those hatchets look real good, the marble is nice contrast against your plants. Congrats on all the new additions to your tanks. Sounds like you’ve been busy and are gonna stay that way!

The container for your wabi kusa is excellent. Scarlet temple is such a cool choice, looks very interesting on there.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@AtitagainI’ve always thought about hatchets but never pulled the trigger before and man they’re great - excellent schooler, occupy that top 3rd, and the light shines through the floaters and their marbling really glows. Can’t recommend them enough. These Krobia have been super interesting. Can’t wait each day to feed them and see how they’re doing. 

Edited December 27, 2021 by Beardedbillygoat1975

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Firstly I feel the need to apologize to @Guppysnailfor not documenting my The Wet Spot trip. Brought my boys and wife and well the boys were wild and it got so crazy that my wife took them to the car so I could actually look at what they had. Bless her! 

I’d started a thread on here about potentially buying some angelfish:

It was pretty universal this was a bad idea. If I ever start the 45 g over again I think they’ll be the centerpiece but just not in the current configuration and stocking. I ended up finding an Electric Blue Acara about 1/2 adult size as I’m partial to cichlids so I grabbed him. He’s fitting in nicely. He’s also coloring up beautifully!

They also had some gorgeous plants and in talking with the guy waiting on me he indicated that he had Crypt aponogetifolia https://crypts.home.xs4all.nl/Cryptocoryne/Gallery/apo/apo.html Well needless to say any big crypt I’m going to be excited about. I’ve used this crypt website for years to research different varieties. I grabbed 2 of them. I’m hopeful they’ll completely take over the 45 g! I just love the texture of the leaves. They like things to be a little more basic then they are at present in the tank so I planted them with some  crushed coral around the base and a couple root tabs. 

It was a great trip despite the excitable nature of the kids. 

Edited December 28, 2021 by Beardedbillygoat1975