Beardedbillygoat’s Fish & Shrimp Tank Journal

[Hobbit]

It sounds like things are going well overall! The hard part is behind you. Very excited to see how everything looks in the new place!

[anewbie]

On 8/12/2022 at 9:58 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

RIP Spikey Feathers and about a half dozen tetras. Only casualties from the move which is fairly remarkable. I diluted their water with our new water didn’t want them to go into shock with how soft Seattle tap water is. I’m going to do a water change tomorrow and make some baby brine shrimp the food for stresses out fish. Might make a trip to the Coop to drown my sorrows. 

Why do you think the festum died? Bit concern because I will be moving my 7 next may and they will definitely be going into softer water (current water is kh 3 gh 7 tds 120; new water will be kh 1 gh 3 tds 40).

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@anewbiei think a combination of some issues with oxygenation and filtration were to blame - due to the Eheims pulling too many watts from the power supply I had to turn them off half way through the trip. I think a sudden change in parameters did it as there were no signs of trauma or ammonia burn. Unfortunately, my wife’s family in their haste to pack us up put the larger power supply in a box leaving me with this smaller one. @Hobbit I’ve enjoyed the challenge of moving the fishroom and the daunting task of starting 2.0. Now I just need to get all the tanks up to Seattle and the racks so I can begin in earnest. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Well as write this I am devastated but grateful. After a great deal of effort and hard work to transport fish room 1.0 to Shoreline from Bend, OR I’ve had a mass die off. Appears a particular floating plant died in mass (dwarf water lettuce), I think a nitrate spike occurred then a subsequent ammonia spike from the many many casualties. When I arrived home my new bottle Of test strips said no nitrates/nitrites which I think is due to the lucky bamboo and the pothos. I was away and had someone come in twice to feed but they must not have caught something was wrong - they aren’t a fish person. It was catastrophic but not as bad as I’d initially thought- my betta, electric blue acara, female GBR, my shell dwellers, all my Venezuelanus corys, some young bristlenose, ADFs, a couple otos, an SAE, 3 red eye red tail puffer males, 3 red eye tetras, 3 female cherry barbs, and shrimp survived. Lost my Blue Hawaiian Moscows from @Bentley Pascoe(still have some unsexable fry),my tricolor koi lyretail swords, my fireball teacup platys, all my Pandas 🐼 and both of my Ancistrus colonies- my calico longfins and my Rio Tocantins. 

Tonight was about the hard work of setting up temporary accommodations, getting the fish out of the tubs and into some glass. The irony is I bought my Nitto pump from the coop today but I’m a ways out from installing that. 
 

My next step with the shrimp is organizing them by color and getting them in their own setups. 

My wife is wanting me to put together 3 tanks for the basement which is exciting - a 6 foot tank and a couple of 4 foot tanks. 

I have orders with Greg Sage and Marcel (Roseline17) coming in September, @WhitecloudDynasty and @Fish Folk we’ve talked about getting some longfin rosies and whiteclouds and some more males and females for the GBR.  @Ken Burkehas a trio of angel fry for me. In my mind this unfortunate event will lead to more and different but equally interesting avenues for me to follow. 

I hope you’re having fun and enjoying the hobby. I’ll get there soon I know it.  

 

[Guppysnail]

I’m so sorry this happened. Once everything settles back in after the move things will get easier again. Sending you lots of good friendship vibes to keep your spirits up in this time of change  🤗

I still have 4-6 longfin lemon blue eyed BN and 1-2 short fin that hid in the tanks this last go they always turn up for a few weeks so I may end with a few more. I know we spoke about others before but you are welcome to have these to get you re-situated after they grow out a bit. 
 

 

[Fish Folk]

So sorry to hear. Unexpected tragedies are par for the hobby the as the years rack up.

I guess the upside to this situation will  be resetting and restocking.

I definitely  have a bunch of Rams growing out — moved them over to a larger community tank yesterday, in fact. Gotcha covered 😎

[Minanora]

Excited for 2.0! I'm sorry for your losses. You did a great job moving! You have one heck of a garage! Looking forward to more updates as things settle in for you guys.

[Bentley Pascoe]

My heart goes out to you.  Any loss at scale in a fishroom/house/heck even a single tank feels gut wreching.  I'm glad some things made it through and hopefully you can build your colonies back up.

[Hobbit]

Oh wow, what an emotional rollercoaster. I’m really glad so many fish made it. You’ve done so well with this move despite the setbacks. I’m excited to see what’s ahead as you restock!

[eatyourpeas]

So sorry, @Beardedbillygoat1975. Transitions are always challenging, but as a friend of mine says, they lead to discovery instead of recovery. New beginnings are always both exhausting and energizing. We are all cheering for you! 🙂

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Sorry to hear that @Beardedbillygoat1975. I have had a few of those events over the years. The CO2 accident that cost me the bucktooth tetra colony ended up moving me to puffer lane currently on. Looking forward to the new updates

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Thank you everyone for the kind words, it means a lot. I agree with everyone onward and upward!! Fishroom 2.0! New big tanks! Lots to be excited for!

[Odd Duck]

Sorry for your losses, but you’ve got the right attitude and the skills to move forward.  Glad the sad bowl made it.

[Ken Burke]

I realize loss is just a part of life, but isn’t that a kick in a certain sensitive place. Glad I get to play a small part or the recovery.  

[WhitecloudDynasty]

Sorry for the losses, I'm sure you'll bounce back even stronger

[Atitagain]

Sorry for all the losses, it sounds like you have a great plan going forward.
So looking forward to see the new room, hope you are settling in nicely.

[Ken Burke]

Here’s a taste of the angels. 

 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

They are gorgeous. That good shines! 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Today is a water change day for the tanks and indulging them with some blood worms. I am sitting peacefully by my medaka mini pond and enjoying the occasional breezes up from the sound cool fresh and salty mixed with the cedars around our place. Home is good. Tomorrow and Friday are orientation. Then next week the circus really begins 🤡! 

[Patrick_G]

So sorry about the lost fish. It’s so sad considering  all the hard work you’ve put into making it a safe transition. 
If you want to keep trying Swords I have plenty of marigold juveniles. The strain that I have is particularly nice looking. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Shoreline/Seattle Manifesto

Starting to make some short and long term plans. 

1. fishroom is going down to one 7x6’ metal rack and one wooden rack that came with the house for permanent breeding setups with an additional 7x6’ rack to store all my crap in my Sterilite bins and keep hospital and QT tanks. I have a bench to work with/on. There’s also a set of cabinets. This would reduce the number of tanks in the garage by half vs Fishroom 1.0.  For clarity what I’d like to do is shelve all the small tanks and go with 2 - 60s, 2 - 40s, 2 - 20 L. Use the 10-15s as QT/hospital .  I want to divide up the 60s and 40s with sponge to maximize them. When I get females for my puffers they’ll be in the garage with the males, Shellies, neos, pleco and Cory fry. No plans to restart livebearers at this time. Still have visions of my guppies, platys, and swords. Too painful. 

2. 2-3 mini ponds (<50 g), one already setup you may have seen yesterday. Next will be another resin pond for the deck upstairs. Then another in the backyard with my 50 g Rubbermaid won’t start that one until spring 2023. 

3. House aquascapes -

a) 45 g upstairs tentatively Krobia xinguensis, orange Venezuelanus corys, red eye tetras and Wabenmuster’s

b)60 g breeder with Axolotls - planning on rescuing a group already together

c)60 g breeder with green neons, cardinals, GBRs and duplicareus corys and my calico pleco survivors;

d)150 g with 50 g sump with a group of festivum, EBAs, diamond tetras, rummynose tetras, L181s plecos, and barbatus corys;

e) soonest will be The Sad Bowl will be setup in our bedroom shrimp and blue guppy survivors

f)going to turn the Tower Tank into an Opae ulae tank;

g) The Flex 15 will be a frog and Betta tank.

This feels like the rest of 2022 and 1st 2 quarters of 2023 easy. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Well last nights water changes brought some sad news. I lost my female GBR and a red eye red tail puffer. No signs of illness, trauma, just dead. Not sure if the electric blue Acara just felt that there wasn’t enough territory and was hunting chasing them and they had heart attacks I mean anything is possible and I’ll never know. 
Hank the puffer is terrorizing his tank mates and being the bully we all knew he could be!

Ive been wondering why the shelly tanks been so cloudy well I realized I have a whitish gauzy background on it. Boy I’m dense these days. They are super happy as long as I stay a foot or 2 away. Hopefully I can get them back to begging for food at the glass again. They may need some dithers.

The tank where my GBR and puffer passed actually looks the most active and healthy of the 4 I have going. Loads of plants, happy fish, just so sad that I lost more fish. Anyway here’s some pics and videos. Corys are the best aren’t they?! 
https://youtube.com/shorts/-Zmk39UNkVo?feature=share

The Sad Bowl! It will be a bit of a project to get it back in our new bedroom but it’ll be worth it. 

Sorry top down view of the bowl, although I think it’s super interesting. 

Plants!! They are starting to come back and I bought my wife a few to celebrate our new home, monstera and a fancy philodendron. Oh and she got super excited about our Indian Almond leaf tree!! My wife is awesome!

Hoping to get my 40 g breeder and 29 g up and running this weekend! As my kids say “squad goals!” And then I dab I think?! 🤣 

enjoy your day, fish and every minute!

[eatyourpeas]

Looking good! Sad to hear you had more losses, but your cheerful disposition is great to see! Keep it up! 😍

[Patrick_G]

Zucchini parm for dinner? 😁

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Zucchini bread, parm, noodles and plecos.