Beardedbillygoat’s Fish & Shrimp Tank Journal

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

i had some trouble with my cory qt - lost a longfin panda and all but one of my X. Birchmani which sucks. Think it could have been nitrate spike it was slightly elevated at 60-80 but I decided to go ahead and do a water change, added extra ACCR, treat with the qt trio then redosed ACCR this am, last night I put more air, filtration and a better heater. They were super happy this AM.  
You can see my lone X. Birchmani. Maybe I can use him/her for a breeding project. I’m bummed. May need to contact Mobetta for more of them.

These Sterbai are nice and robust. The longfins are just so delicate appearing. 

Found a cluster of eggs in the 40 g BN pleco tank while cleaning and put them in a breeder box. The biggest male has been hanging in the cave. I’m not sure if these are his or the other male who was in a cave yesterday but he’s never raised eggs before so I’m thinking they’re his and he kicked them out because he’s a novice. 

I’m awaiting arrival of a group of Greg Sage’s longfin albino green dragon bn plecos. They’re coming today. I’ll get some video of them tonight. I’m hoping to have 3 colonies of ancistrus: mixed, all longfin, and tbd?! See below!

I lost the flash pleco colony. Everyone online was divided in their care - are they hard, medium or intermediate. Well I’d say they were hard. I had 3 types of wood. Well seasoned filters. Loads of flow. I did a thorough clean last night because everything I’d read indicated they create tremendous waste and they need lots of water changes, clean filters and warm well oxygenated and flowing water. I did that and still lost them. They all went in one go so I think all the deep cleaning broke the cycle for some reason- this was a seasoned tank. There was barely detectable ammonia on both strips and api but not sure if that’s just the bodies in an 80 degree tank. No sunken bellies yesterday, they were vigorous and doing their thing. I did not see any of them on the veggies yesterday maybe that’s something. All the Gardneri killis were alive when I found the flash’s. The food I fed them was the same as the food I gave my BNs and shrimps and they’re all happy. I bought these with a buddy and he’s been generous of spirit as he’s a reefer and gets it. Still this blows! However, @Coryseems to say fairly regularly that this kind of thing happens as a fishkeeper but I’m hoping this will be a good learning experience. I know @Dean’s Fishroomutilizes some cannisters in some of his tanks and I just watched again one of Freshwater Ichthyology’s YT on L204s and she uses 2 cannisters on her L204 setup. If I was to do it again I’d do that I think. That way cleaning the tank wouldn’t mess with the cycle too too much. 

I’ve been obsessed with getting Wabenmuster plecos. @Bentley Pascoehas a group and I’ve consumed all the content on them. I finally found a group of 5 on AB but the price on the auction ran into the 300s and when you add shipping well into $300 maybe 400 - can’t do it. I like being married and she’s told me keep it under $300. The same guy had a group of Ancistrus sp. Rio Tocantin for way less - nearly the same pattern and care. So I pulled the trigger. I got 8 vs 5 for less than the price max my wife had set. I’m a glutton for punishment after what happened with the flash’s but these are tank raised and us bred by a really legit breeder (Marcel aka Roseline17 on AB) so fingers crossed 🤞! A face only a Nerm could love!

Over the weekend my priority was redoing the 15 g tower tank. A tank sitting empty smelling of vinegar it was driving me nuts. So here’s the process: Did a round of vinegar on the glass to get the crusty stuff from all the salt 🧂when it went caput plague yadda yadda yadda. Then H2O2 and a good wipe down. Substrate system - used a combo of Rio Oscuro from Brightwell, black sand and aquarium gravel, was mixed up. I used a UGF. Put lava rock under the plate. Put some landscaping “paper” over the plate. Used some laterite and more lava rock then all my substrate mix. Went with a tree of life kind of look with a big central obsidian stone with these great crags and striations. Planting - Val gigantea, crypt balansae, hornwort, crypt’s wendtii green, bronze and red, microsword and a red dwarf aquarium lilly. I’ll be buying some Buce red kedagang for the tree. Not planning to do more filtration then the ugf. I’ll be using some green kubotai rasbora and CPDs eventually adding a colony of shrimp once we’ve got some algae. Thank you Aquahuna! They’re bought and I’ll qt them before putting in when they arrive later this week. 

Im happy with it. Wife is happy that ugf is so quiet. The minion’s are hapoy. The whale sharks happy too according to my 4 year old anyway. I’m not rushing it. I’ll probably squeeze a sponge in to help the cycle and ghost feed for a week or two. Maybe after spring break I’ll stick it.  

Im still enjoying my African Dwarf Frogs. I’ve been thinking about getting some more maybe the leucistics. 

Despite the adversity I’m still loving my fish room, all the tanks and most of the time my boys are pretty engaged. My youngest has expressed an interest in moving on from his shellies. I think that would be ok but of course he wants an Axolotl as they’re in Minecraft. I’m going to slow play this as that’s a big undertaking. However, if he can convince my wife and she’s a super hard sell I would get a 50 g lowboy for my lowest rack, transitioning the Shellie’s into there, then transitioning his 20 L to an Axolotl setup. If we’re still in Bend I’d have to get a chiller as it’s routinely 80-100 here in summer. Anyway I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. My oldest loves raising earthworms so there’s a bonus. 

My wife has fallen in love with the wabi kusa. I’m excited to start another for scapes and scraps as she’ll be thrilled. I’m also working on an Opae ulae bowl for our friends bday. I need to stop and get some distilled water for it tonight. 

Have fun everyone! I’ll leave you with The Formerly Sad Bowl. Really liking the green jade colony! 

 

[Patrick_G]

Everything’s looking great. I think you might be outgrowing your new fishroom! 😆

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I like how you are thinking @Patrick_G! I might be moving north to your neck of the woods so stay tuned! Interviews starting this week. 

[Patrick_G]

On 3/15/2022 at 1:24 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I like how you are thinking @Patrick_G! I might be moving north to your neck of the woods so stay tuned! Interviews starting this week. 

Cool, let me know if you want any tips on the area. Other than traffic and a sometimes dreary climate it’s a great area. 

[eatyourpeas]

On 3/15/2022 at 1:24 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I like how you are thinking @Patrick_G! I might be moving north to your neck of the woods so stay tuned! Interviews starting this week. 

It'll be fun to have you as a neighbor! 😊

[anewbie]

On 3/15/2022 at 7:41 PM, Brandon p said:

@Beardedbillygoat1975the flash plecos need very high protein diets much like the Leopard frog and the king tiger. If you were feeding vegetables and algae wafers that is most likely the issue. They only eat wood or vegetables/algae if they are very hungry or just interested. I have to feed hikari sinking shrimp wafers. I also feed just a little extra dep brine shrimp or other food. The Wabenmuster pleco is a vegetarian and should do well on a diet similar to BN’s. Sorry about the loss. 

Huh? L204 are algae eaters. This is what planetcatfish has:

"A wood eating species; vegetables are avidly eaten. Animal protein can be given once in a while but should not be the main diet except when conditioning the fish for breeding as it helps the female to mature the eggs."

 

I have 7 of the little fellows (owning 7 doesn't make me an expert but i've read up on them and observe their behavior):

[Brandon p]

What I should have said is that the 204’s do better with a higher protein diet. There are several post along with bloggers that said once they started feed more protein. I can site some sources I will. When I was dicidinv if I was going to buy them or L333 he told me they do better with higher protein diets that people a many sites say I trust him and never had an issue with advice. I kee soft wood for plecos in all tanks with plecos along with drift wood.  In didn’t say the 204 were algae eaters

Wabenmuster pleco  are along with  veggies. 

[anewbie]

L333 are mostly meat eaters. I've gotten confused with your post. What didn't say L204 is an algae eater? And are you referring to L333 or L204 as being mostly a meat eater ?

All cats need at least some meat - my SAE and BN pleco readily eat any meat they see.

[Brandon p]

On 3/16/2022 at 2:50 AM, anewbie said:

L333 are mostly meat eaters. I've gotten confused with your post. What didn't say L204 is an algae eater? And are you referring to L333 or L204 as being mostly a meat eater ?

All cats need at least some meat - my SAE and BN pleco readily eat any meat they see.

I took the post down. It was confusing. Should have worded it “204 need wood, veggie msttervss the main part of there diet. Some sources say tha the addition of some protein  into there diet can help there over state of heathy. It will still not be A majority of there diet. 

[Atitagain]

Love the scape on the tower tank and of coarse the bowl still looks amazing!

 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

In the end there were several issues with the setup. It needed more filtration.

1 If I did it again it would have its own Eheim 2215 or 2217 which would provide the flow and mechanical filtration. Or just buy a cheap SunSun maybe? I’d do a large sponge and a power head then another power head going the other way with an aerator. They created an amazing amount of waste. 
2 I’d have used less decor. Sure the wood was necessary but they weren’t breeding age or size I could have done without the caves which ended up having tons of detritus. I needed to be able to vacuum all the leftovers which I found a ton of tonight. 
3 I think I’d feed less. I wasn’t aiming to get them in breeding condition I was just trying to keep them alive but I overshot. This was shown when I cleaned it out tonight. 
4 Not sure when I’ll go back at it again with another non-Ancistrus L# pleco. Ironically on Freshwater Ichthyology YT she said she’d recommend a Hypancistrus over a L204 so oops. 
5 The killis made it and have gone into the 40 breeder 

6 LF albino green dragons are so small and graceful I can’t wait to see what they look 👀 like in 1 year!

7 tower tank inhabitants ordered - CPDs, kubotais, and orange shrimp. Eventually may get some Pygmy corys or Kuhlis. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Bad luck lately, lost all the X. birchmani and the longfin pandas in the QT. The sterbai look great but even they were a bit stressed after water change. I’ll get picks tomorrow. Good news is I’ve got things to occupy my mind. 

I bought an exchangeable bottle for RODI water at Lowe’s. I’m getting my brackish water ready for a new Opae ulae setup for our neighbors birthday. The coral fan for that project came in the mail as well. 

It certainly did not take the plecos in the 49 breeder to get comfy. We’ve got fry!

I dusted the tank with some spirulina and threw in some leaves and veggies. Very exciting development. 
 

Good old DJ Turbo has been doing some serious bubblenesting. It’s so sad when those females died. Would have been fun to breed him. 

I’m  going to add a squeeze from one of my filters to the tower tank this weekend and get it cycled as the kubotai rasboras and CPDs arrived today. I’ve got more plants coming tomorrow and Monday. Gotta run the trio through the fish. 
 

Here’s some orange Sakura neos just because 😏. 
 

And finally the amazing survivors of the great filter crash of 2021 Gardneri killis. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

My weekend was interesting in terms of my tanks. 

I brought in some kubotai rasboras and CPDs. They are for my tower tank build. I found a dead CPD yesterday and the others are still with us but I could not find the green rasboras this AM. If I don't see them tonight I will go hunting in the QT tank. Another reminder why we QT fish. I am on a bad run with bringing in fish. Maybe I need to rethink the way I am doing things. I did not touch the tower this weekend. It is growing some sweet green algae and I think the cycle is coming along nicely. I am thinking I am seeing some new growth with the plants. When I see that I will start testing parameters and see if I can start moving things along. 

My sterbai are doing well but I lost all the LF pandas I brought in (10 sterbai, 10 LF pandas). Once again this was a QT tank so they are isolated. Here's the post over in the Panda Cory thread 

I brought in some of Greg Sage's LF albino green dragons - they are tiny, 1-1.5", and doing well. They were put in some well established tanks with livebearers who are super messy and theres loads of algae. They have nice full bellys. I will get some video tonight. 

I delayed the arrival of the Ancistrus sp. Rio Tocantin plecos. I just feel with everything going on it was best to hold off a couple weeks. They should be a good addition but of course I am nervous after everything that happened with the L204s. I spent some time over on Planet Catfish reviewing what happened with the Flash Plecos (L204) and they agreed with me that underfiltration and too much waste was the issue. I am going to do things different if I go with another Panaqolus species. They've recommended starting with the clown pleco but I would prefer domestically bred L397s. I think I went way into the deep end with trying wild caught.  Baby steps into the L# plecos for me. Even at 36 years in the hobby you can still get nervous and spooked but I will not let these speed bumps stop me. 

I am working on my Scapes from Scraps. I posted over there. @Patrick_Gmentioned awhile back doing something with my wife's neglected ferns so I took that to heart. I am excited to see where this will go. Considering Caridina shrimp as it is aquasoil and RO water (buying 5 g containers from Lowe's for $6.99). Eventually will get an RODI but I am holding off as we may move. 

Have fun everyone. Here is a video of Big Daddy and Little Enos my LF BN pleco dads. 

I think I may have posted this before but who cares they look so good!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Went to the Oregon Coast for spring break, wife’s aunt lives there. It was delightful. 4 of 5 days were without rain which for the Oregon coast is close to miraculous. I brought our stuff to go tidepooling but the lads were tired, a bit scared and well we’ll try again next year. 

Unfortunately, came home to all the Sterbai dead, all my ricefish dead, and the CPDs that survived last week passed. It’s funny I’ve had a terrible run of luck. I think I need to rethink my qt tanks and really go back to basics. I have the group of Ancistrus sp. Rio Tocantin’s scheduled to arrive Wednesday and sometime next week 20 new ricefish eggs as well. Time to do some maintenance and break down some setups. 
 

One shining light has been my 40 breeder with my longfin BN males and super red calico females. I’m seeing babies all over they are being very shy but I’ve seen albinos, black and I guess calicos. They’re tiny and certainly not out of the woods. But there’s loads of biofilm, cucumber, and Repashy to eat. 

I’ve continued to work on my Scapes from Scraps build. 

Water changes went well overnight. Going to tackle my 45 g tonight and the boys tanks Wednesday. 

[Odd Duck]

Glad you had a good break but very sorry you came home to losses.  Clearly you have some thoughts on why you’re having losses, but I would very much appreciate hearing what you think went wrong and why.  I know you’re a skilled aquarist and would like to hear your thought process to maybe prevent the same things happening in my own tanks if I’m gone for a few days.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Gosh buddy, I'm so sorry. 😞 I just did the same thing I was only gone 2 nights and a whole day and I lost 1 Tiger (then subsquently 2 more). I think I would have lost them anyway as the water tested great and they have some sort of mystery problem- but it's no way to end what was supposed to be a relaxing time away- so I kind of know how you feel- I'm just sorry to see the volume you lost. 

What was nice for me was I was concerned about my solo CPD fry as I've been putting fry food in the tank multiple times a day when I'm around and at least 2x when I work. I wasn't sure if the little one was going to make it through my time away, but they did. Kind of made up for it, but boy does it dampen things as it's right back into the fray when you get home. 

Edited March 28, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Odd Duckit was interesting but I had a massive die off of some of my floating plants - a certain small green plant which we will not speak its name and dwarf water lettuce. Perhaps they were depending on the feeding for their health - I am very generous with feeding - and the die off spurred on an ammonia or nitrogen spike these fish could not handle. In the case of the sterbai and the CPDs they were touch and go before I left and it is very likely those setups were dependent on water changes every other day and just didn't have the biome capable of handling these changes along with fish with compromised immune systems. Honestly I am not sure why I was surprised that they didn't make it but I was surprised by the death of those floaters which felt strange to me. 

The real question in my mind is what the hell happened in the ricefish pond. It was cycled, it has never showed any trouble. But - there's always a but - once again it had the same floaters, same characteristic die off of the floaters, and a lot of dead fish. I wonder if there was something in my tap water. I did water changes before I left but also did them in other tanks in the fishroom and they are all fine as are the plants. 

 

@xXInkedPhoenixXif it wasn't for the ricefish I would not be crushed but those were my babies, some raised from eggs and that is hardest thing. Good news was my guy in Hawaii had contacted me last week on eggs and so I will have eggs coming in soon. 

Another brightside I've just thought about is those 7 Gardneri killifish - they are thriving in the tank with the plecos. I think they may be making a dent in my orange shrimp population though so you have to take the good with the bad. 

Now I just need to figure out what to do with these open tanks! I may just take them down and hold off as I am interviewing for a new job and may be moving. Change, only constant. I may give the teacup platys their own space as I am not seeing the production I had expected in their present tank with the guppies and green shrimp. 

I need to get a good pic of the tricolor koi swordtails, turns out they are lyretail as well and boy is the male coming into his glory - kohaku up until the tail with black on  some of their tales. Very cool. 

The other thing I keep working on is the tower tank. I have about 6 pieces of buce to attach to the tree. I am thinking clown killis up top and shrimp. Maybe a herd of pygmy corys as I love corys. 

I think the next post will be about the Ancistrus sp. Rio Tocantin. They are going in with the pandas in the 29g. 

Have fun everyone. Looking forward to the Scapes from Scraps. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Such a bummer friend but I guess there are always bright spots somewhere. I think you are right on holding off stocking the empty tanks until you know your future. Nothing worse than having to move/give up stock tanks. I've also taken my losses for an opportunity to downsize. 

I agree it's going to be fun to see everyone's Scapes (the 1st we're posting right??)

[Odd Duck]

I had a die off of floaters, but not the glitter one, and despite water changes since that, when I popped a few gold mysteries into that tank, they were clearly not happy despite parameters testing normal.  Put them in a different tank and they are happy.  I was going to reset the other tank anyway.  I guess I’ll move up the timing so it will be a full water change and light filter rinse.  I’m going to try 1” thick matten over an UG if I can manage to put a couple plates together from a mess of used plates and tubes I got cheap.

It is especially sad when we lose fish we’ve raised ourselves, but hopefully you get some good fry from the eggs that are coming.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Odd DuckI have plenty going on to distract me. I think that we all think we’ve setup good (insert type here) aquatic environments for our animals and for some reason don’t expect variables beyond our control to affect them. After so many years you’d think I’d be less surprised but in the end I’m not making the same mistakes just different ones that come up because of my accumulated knowledge and occasionally hubris. 

Because I’m a total addict I ordered fish from Aquahuna for the tower tank and a big group of otocinclus for my 45 g display which has a beautiful coating of green dust algae that has their names all over it. My ability to rationalize these things is amazing!

Also was putting things away for the night and I saw probably 30-40 baby BN plecos in the 40 breeder out on the tiles eating up the juicy biofilm. So pleased that this setup is prospering. I’ll try to get videos tomorrow night after I do my water changes. 

[Odd Duck]

@Beardedbillygoat1975It sounds like overall you’re still very much on track, so that’s great.  Focus on the positives and what you can control and things will sort out.  Sometimes it’s a best laid plans derailment, but being able to respond to changes is a vital skill in fish keeping.

[Hobbit]

So sad to hear about all your losses. It’s been a rough run for a few people here. I’m glad you have some eggs on the way and some new fishies coming in the mail. And how exciting to have a variety of pleco babies! Is the plan to trade them in somewhere?

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Hobbityep, they end up being mostly calico longfins, they'll go to my lfs. I may keep 4-6 to bring up and see if I can get another male and 2-3 females to start another colony.

in terms of the loses, I am learning some things. In terms of breeding/QT setups - think I will go no plants for the first 2-3 weeks to allow me to treat with meds then restore the bacterial colony with regular doses of beneficial bacteria from my filter media. Then around week 3-4 I will add back in the plants. I think that I am getting some delayed effects on the plants that then lead to a die off a couple weeks after treating with the meds and this in turn leads to a nitrate spike as the plants die off. This is the best theory I have been able to deduce so far. 

Any thoughts?

[Hobbit]

I mean, sounds reasonable to me. Others might have more to add though. 

My general impression is that you tend to stock your tanks pretty heavily, and that means a small thing going wrong can have big consequences. I’m not really one to talk though with my platy breeders always absolutely stuffed 😝 I only use sponge filters and rely heavily on anacharis and hornwort to keep my nitrates down. It seems to work, but platys are pretty hardy. I can get away with a 50% water change every 3-4 weeks.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@HobbitI think you are right. I do stock heavily and then when things fall apart they really fall apart! As you said we rely on our skills as fish keepers to get ourselves out of trouble but mother nature will often have other ideas. Thanks for the honest feedback. Really appreciated!