Beardedbillygoat’s Fish & Shrimp Tank Journal

[Guppysnail]

No apologies needed. Family comes first always. It warms my heart how involved you are with them. That Acara is marvelous. I looked up this crypt. I’m enchanted. It may become my next must have plant. Thanks for sharing. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Am I picking up that you're not a quarantiner? I'm not judging, just think you are especially brave for it. Is there a reason you don't? Just curious. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@xXInkedPhoenixXif it was an unknown source ie online or from a big box store I’d qt him but like the coop, TWS has a rigorous qt. He’d received the trio and was dewormed. He’d also been in the store for 3 weeks. He was also tank bred by a local guy so I had lots of excuses for not qt’ing him. Hahahahaha!

@Guppysnailits beautiful. I was fascinated by this crypts need for harder water and minerality. Hopefully I’ve done what I can to make it’s transition easier. The EBA had been on my want list - Prime Time Aquatics’s videos on them made them sound like the ideal fish for a planted tank. It’ll be fun to see how he settles in and his color is already amazing can’t wait to see him after a month of good food and water changes.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Well my pleco breeding has been very interesting last couple days. I came home from our brief trip to find the main male aka Big Daddy in his cave but he was really deep I. There which my wife noticed. Then I saw him really restless and he abandoned the cave. When I looked in he’d left a group of very fungused eggs and what looked like a small bunch of wigglers. I came back with a small specimen container and by then the other male had made a meal of the fungused eggs leaving the wigglers. I fished out lucky number 13 wigglers. I put 2 drops of meth blue in, a piece of wood and a IAL I’d boiled. They seem really happy and rapidly using up their egg sack going from little lollipops to nearly baby plecos in less than 12 hours. 

I am going to start the final cleanup work on their next tank (17 g that the specimen container is resting in) tonight so I’m ready in a week or two when they need more space. 

[eatyourpeas]

I love going to PlecoPlanet thanks to you and @Guppysnail, as it is one of my versions of outer space! 😍

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@eatyourpeaswasn't sure I’d have much to report once Big Daddy abandoned his cave and the small group of wrigglers. Did a water change tonight and so far no casualties. Added some Bacter AE to see if I can give them some biofilm to eat along with the wood and leaf I threw in there. Was digging on a pleco breeding thread on another forum - who else loves archives?- and found a discussion with some hardcore hobbyists and thought this made a whole lot of sense. It was interesting tonight @Corycomment on the need to feed heavier our bottom feeders and I know both @Guppysnailand I certainly adhere to this. 

My other tanks keep chugging along. 2 that caught my eye tonight were my tower 15 g and my sons Krobia/Sponge Bob tank. 

The tower is home to the remainder of my first large spawn of BN plecos along with ricefish, coral/fireball teacup platys and a group of panda 🐼 corys. It’s a delight to have in our bedroom and is the tank my wife often indicates is her favorite. 

Here are a few other pics I pulled from the tank this evening. 

The Krobia now called Little Spiky 1,2,3 are settling in and defining their hierarchy. I am not sure about genders I’m hopeful that I have at least one female. They’re all eating well and appear to be gaining more and more coloration. I told @anewbieI’d keep him updated as the Krobia are on his radar for a future build. Still no real violence just sort of chasing and threat displays. It still feels like dominant behaviors. The marble hatchets are great schooling and filling in that top 1/3 of the tank. I love how the light comes down through the duckweed and water lettuce and refracts off them. 

Dwarf cichlids are a real passion of mine. Over the years I’ve had lots of different New World, Old World and a variety of all those in between. These Krobia have grown on me quickly. An interesting thing happened while at The Wet Spot the other day when I mentioned that I had Krobia and that I’d gotten them from my LFS and he indicated that there had been some disquiet between the shop and the wholesale people that they’d hoped to have had them in their sales floor for the holidays and how desirable they are. The downside of the Krobia has been less time with the loaches - 11 kuhlis in there and they’re the purple variety which honestly are unbelievably camouflaged. But every couple feedings especially with BBS they stick their snouts out and even seem to bug out the Krobia. Speaking of which before I go to bed I need to start a new batch of brine. 

My folks were supposed to be here this week but alas the flight cancellations affected them so I’ve had a lot more fish time then expected. Hopefully their rebooked flights won’t be cancelled!

Have fun everyone!

[Guppysnail]

On this months member presentation she spoke of the top two causes for mortality in pleco fry. She said starvation and water quality. I firmly believe this.  Until I raised these 3 batches neve in my life would I have thought fish could consume that much food. She said they could starve at that age in 2 days😲. Couple the need to feed so heavy with their hypersensitivity to poor water and these little bug are challenging to get a high survival rate. I’m glad you were able to rescue a few. I turned my cave and positioned it so the flow from a hob entered the cave to help dad fan. It may have helped because I never seen fungus with the endoscope. What mom layed appeared to be what hatched. They may not have fungused anyway but it made me feel like I did my part 😜

Edited December 29, 2021 by Guppysnail

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Guppysnailthats a great idea about the caves and flow!

[Hobbit]

This is a great reminder for me! I just collected my first pleco wrigglers three days ago  and I’ll give them some Repashy sticks tonight. ( @Beardedbillygoat1975 we’re parents at the same time! 😃)

Are they generally good at finding food when they’re that small? I wasn’t planning on raising pleco fry so I didn’t have a breeder box ready, and now they’re in the middle section of my 55g.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

They’re not good at finding food @Hobbitso I’ve tried to feed them in the same spot. @Guppysnailindicated that Repashy was an acquired taste for them and that’s my experience as well. 

[anewbie]

On 12/29/2021 at 12:27 PM, Hobbit said:

This is a great reminder for me! I just collected my first pleco wrigglers three days ago  and I’ll give them some Repashy sticks tonight. ( @Beardedbillygoat1975 we’re parents at the same time! 😃)

Are they generally good at finding food when they’re that small? I wasn’t planning on raising pleco fry so I didn’t have a breeder box ready, and now they’re in the middle section of my 55g.

I never collect my pleco wrigglers; sadly more than a few seem to make it. I'm not even sure why they don't all make it but thankfully they don't since my tank can't support that many pleco.

[Guppysnail]

@Hobbit i found almond leaves and biofilm are the first foods they go for veggies second but it takes a bit for them to figure those out for me and as @Beardedbillygoat1975 said it takes them awhile to figure repashy out. 

[Hobbit]

Thanks all. I did not see any on the Repashy stick last night, so that matches with your experience. I’ve been adding zucchini as well but I haven’t seen any on the zucchini either. I don’t have high expectations that they’ll make it—the environment really isn’t set up for them—but I’ll try adding some blanched oak leaves since I don’t have any Indian almond. Hubby will be thrilled to find me boiling leaves again. 😁

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Hobbitsome will surprise you. I’ve found a half a dozen in my 45 g display the other day eating squash. You’ll be ready for the next spawn. @Guppysnailindictated  It takes them a week or two to find the Repashy and that’s about what happened with mine.

[Hobbit]

The good news is there’s a piece of driftwood in with them—the bad news is there are tons of snails, so it’s pretty clean of biofilm.

This is a sort of gross idea but… what if I scraped algae off the bottom of my tank lids? Would they eat that??

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Hobbitthey might. Despite me having wood and a IAL in with them they still hang on the sides of the specimen container making me think the small bit of algae they’re getting off that is their preferred food. 

[Guppysnail]

@Hobbit try not boiling the leaves you are adding. Boiling sort of sterilizes them …not really but im  sure you know what i mean. They dont grow as much biofilm. I clip a plant weight around the stem through the leaf. Also try green beans. Mine found those first. I steam mine semi soft and open removecseeds and drop in with a plant weight. Mine still are not very fond of zucchini or cucumbers 🤷‍♀️ You can use no salt added canned but watch water quality with canned they give my ammonia spikes

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Lost all my pleco babies- missed a water change and the small container size led to a nitrate spike. Learning valuable but unfortunate lessons. Still a bummer but I’m sure the plecos will be at it again soon.
Wife went to Lowe’s and grabbed me some plants to put in my new aquarium submerging the roots in the tank. I grabbed the same planters off Etsy that @Hobbithas. They’re really well made.

I ended up taking the arrowhead plant out of the planters and putting in the back of the filter. I’m going to go look for lucky bamboo in the next few days as well. I have to say this is a lot of fun. 

[Hobbit]

Oh bummer! Sorry about the babies. Those specimen containers can foul so fast. 🙁

The plants look great! I think it’s @Guppysnail that has the planters though. Or was it @Atitagain? 🤔

[Guppysnail]

I use the glass suction cup planters and terra cotta ones now. The plastic ones i used for my pothos guppy fry would get stuck in. 
@Beardedbillygoat1975in so sorry you lost your pleco babies. Round 2 will be easier and hopefully without needing to use the small container it will go smoother. Im glad you are having so much fun with plants 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

[Atitagain]

@Hobbit @Beardedbillygoat1975 it wasn’t me with the planters but I really like them. Look like they work very well. 
sorry to hear about your BN 🙁

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Salt and maybe some kind of fungus prevention for those fins as they grow back. Do you know whose been chewing on his fins?

[anewbie]

On 1/1/2022 at 2:08 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Salt and maybe some kind of fungus prevention for those fins as they grow back. Do you know whose been chewing on his fins?

I'm sorry I meant to post that in the 'what are you doing today thread..." not your journal. Yea i'm going to treat him with a bit of salt in a few days - I just moved him to a new tank so want to give him a couple of days to adjust before moving him to qt pail.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Well it was quite a day. Loads of stuff with the boys today including doctors appointments, therapy, vaccines, and all the transportation. In the midsts of all that I grabbed some tanks at the box store that shall not be named. One 40 breeder, two 20 longs, and two 15s. Going to the box store that shall not be named is always a comedy of errors. The last time I dealt with the young man I worked with I taught him how to sex livebearers and it seems that he’s not learned a whole lot since then. Anyway at one point after I’d paid the cashier and he was to assist me to my truck he stated that I was trying to steal aquariums requiring me to show my receipt and for him to check the receipt against the computer. Needless to say if I wasn’t getting killer deals I’d have walked - $12 for 15 g?! Nuts! Anyway I have a plan for these tanks. 
 

After how crazy my day was I sat in front of our 20 long with my Krobia after I fed BBS and watched them for a bit. Here’s the video. You can hear the 4 year old in the background. It’s funny what you find peaceful in the midst of this level of chaos!

I sat down last night and was sketching plans for my current fish wall, the future fish room - more on that, and in the process my goals for 2022 as a hobbyist. 

In the short term I want to buy a new air pump - I don’t think I’m ready for the big linear one but I need something with 4 outlets as I need those 3 electrical outlets for other stuff. I need some fast growing stems and plants - Val, more ludwigia and rotala maybe an aponogeton!

I need to dive back in on a culture of black worms this time have them separated between several setups. I also need to pull the trigger on a Ziss BBS Hatcher. I think I need to go through my old beer brewing setup and convert and clean up that co2 regulator to aquarium application. I’d like to finally buy a real planted light for my 45 g display- Fluval, Chihiros, Twin Star etc. Needs to have enough PAR to get to the bottom. I also need to set up my 50 g Rubbermaid trough in the garden this spring - probably will get eggs from my ricefish guy this Spring and then have them spend the summer outside - this time I know the level of shade and better location - I need to decide which species I’m putting outside - rainbow shiners? Might be too hot in the summer not sure they can do mid-80s water temps peak of summer. 

I am going to start working on the new tanks this week and I’ll document how I switch out the tubs for tanks. I’m also preparing for my fish from Greg Sage - the 40 breeder has green dragon plecos written all over it. I think my Blue Hawaiian guppies will be their companions. I think the goodieds will have their own 20 long I am debating pulling my plecos or perhaps 3 - 1 male perhaps my lemon blue eye longfin and 2-3 females and putting them in there with them. My panda corys will get their own 20 l. Killis will go into a 15 g. The other 15 will be a breeding setup for the teacup coral/fireball platys. 

 

I think by doing these things in the short term I’ll set myself up for better success long term with these groups of fish. My LFS just called today when my fish and shrimps made it through quarantine and I got $140 in credit. Would be nice to further fund my hobby.

Long term I have been given the go ahead by my lovely wife to build a fishroom within our attached garage. I will need to put it close to my power and may need to do some work arounds for the water. My FIL (wife’s stepdad) has built a lot of structures within structures on his ranch. Sometime in the next week or two we’ll do a walk around and start planning it out. My wife has done drafting (birth dad’s an architect) so she’ll want to draw it up. 

Have fun everyone! 

 

[Guppysnail]

WOW dads whiskers are crazy long and beautiful. He is stunning. For air pumps. I switched to all coop nano pumps I hook them to cell phone batter Packs so they work when the power is out. I can hook 2 per plug. They use almost no electricity taking the pressure off the circuit (hubby is convinced I’m going to burn the house down I have mega overload on every plug 2 power strips on each). You can get battery backups that will run 4 usb but only need one plug. The coop nano pumps are silent and powerful. They were a game changer in my fish room. I wish I had the planning ability you and @Atitagain have and could sketch and design but when I can’t get it thought out right. I’m in in progress designer which leads to many bumps and trips to the store.