Beardedbillygoat’s Fish & Shrimp Tank Journal

[Atitagain]

Caught up a bit here , those 60G breeders look like a great tank. How is it working for you? I have 2 60G highs and they are way to deep hard to grow plants in for sure. But I seen a 60G breeder couple weeks ago  at LFS I was there to get 2-20G longs almost pulled the trigger but maybe later. Your 45G looks great I love those branches in there.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I’m buying another 60 breeder - the way my house works is I have to get rid of equal gallonage in smaller tanks so I’m giving up 2 twenty longs and 1 fifteen to get the second 60.   Way I see it you can divide it and have 2 thirties or 3 twenties, it’s not too deep and yeah I like it.

The plan for this 60 is for my Krobia, a group of plecos (green dragons hopefully) and @Patrick_Ghas some beautiful swordtails he wants to get rid of. I’m hoping to set that up this weekend. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I’m finally gaining some traction on my projects and getting my setups here in the new house. 

I’ve posted elsewhere but I’ve cleaned up my 45 g tank which I reset up this last month. 
Before

After

Its a work in process but I’m so happy with how this tank is setting in. Easy when you have great stock like these Angels from @Ken Burke! 
 

I’ve started to focus more on cats - corys and plecos. 

The Wabenmusters tank has been green water paradise which is slowly resolving for good or for bad depending on your view. But wow these L181s are gorgeous. They get more and more vibrant as I get more and varied foods and good water to them. My Orange Venezuelans are gorgeous that mix of grey and dark orange is amazing. Here’s so video of my cats! 

The Krobia xinguensis have gotten their own 40 breeder. 
My last electric blue acara is in with the Krobia. Hard to tell whose the tank boss some days. 

Last but certainly not least are my ricefish- yozakura from a California breeder I’ve met through the Ricefish group on FB. 

Here’s what their parents look like - 

What a wonderful hobby loads of ups and downs sure but plenty to celebrate. Have fun everyone! 

[Patrick_G]

Everything is looking really great. Those Ricefish are especially nice, they’ll look great in a outside tub. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Patrick_GI see them going in the 50 gallon Rubbermaid I have. 

[Odd Duck]

Loving your progress and really appreciate your song selection to go with your videos, but I just knew I was going to hear this with the starlights.  Doesn’t match the name perfectly but somehow seems more fitting.  😆 😃 

 

Edited October 19, 2022 by Odd Duck

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Odd Ducki was not at my best although the Odessa song was a real find!!! 

[Odd Duck]

On 10/18/2022 at 10:01 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

the Odessa song

???  I’d say you did pretty good, but I don’t know which song you mean by the Odessa song?

Edited October 19, 2022 by Odd Duck
Clarify

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I totally forgot to post it! Hahaha! 

 

[Odd Duck]

On 10/18/2022 at 10:14 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I totally forgot to post it! Hahaha! 

 

That’s perfect!  😂 🤣 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Ahh the joys of fish keeping. First lots of good. 

1. Ancistrus sp. snowflake, got a group of 7 from Eric Bodrock with my groups of corys. This is the best I’ve been able to do so far. 
What I notice is their “dots” are slightly larger and there’s another patterning within the grayish black of the fish. Here’s mom and dad

2. Also have some Wabenmusters and got a momentary glimpse tonight. 

Im slowly seeing more of them. The green water tanks has pluses and minuses. The visuals are not great but they are growing and healthy. 
3. Scleromystax barbatus, I can see why everyone speaks so highly of them. Hardy, great patterns that vary with mood, and their body profile is really striking. 
In the same tank are my Rhadinocentrus “Seary’s creek” which got columnaris and are now doing really well. 

Starting to see colors and looks like I have 5 males and 2 females. 
4. Odessa barbs for my future 60 g build. I’m enjoying seeing them chunk up and put on size. Green water again, seems to be a theme of this version of the fishroom. 

5. Goodieds got a group of Ameca splendens and Allodontichthys polylepis in a 20 g long. Started as really small fry and they’re growing fast. 
The patterning is beautiful - trout like on the splendens and stripes on the polylepis. They are growing nicely. Just making out the yellow on the tails of the splendens. 

The sad news of late was I lost all my ricefish fry I was growing out from eggs. I missed a water change and with the power feeding yeah they had a nitrate spike and poof a month of work down the drain. But that’s life. Strikes and gutters. 

Have fun everyone! 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

We upgraded the boys to 10 or 11 g cubes to house their bettas. To say they were excited would be an understatement. But, and with kids there’s always a but - they requested some tank mates for the bettas. Now DJ Turbo had attacked some tank mates previously but his move included some time with African Dwarf Frogs 🐸. So he now has 2 African dwarf frog companions along with a goby (ornatus) and a super red BN. My thought was that they can fit in spots DJT can’t get to and with the lighting on here being a Planted 3.0 nano want a good algae crew.

Mrs Turbo has a couple of gold and blue spotted platys along with an ornatus and a group of 7 pygmy corys. They get along well, she puts the platys in their place. Everyone else stays out of her way and I feed in such a way that everyone has a chance at the food. 

I’m very fond of the gobies. I now see my everyone is getting them. The hovering, the slithering, the attaching to the glass and a whole host of other behaviors they’re adorable. The Pygmy corys are all I remembered and more. They rest on the Brazilian pennywort in the back one on each leaf, I’ve tried to get a pic of it but unsuccessfully but I will get that shot. 

Finally here’s my planted community tank- thank you to @Ken Burkeand @Fish Folkfor the wonderful Angels and GBRs and the festivum are from @Dean’s Fishroom via the Coop. 

 

have fun everyone!!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Attended the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society @Patrick_Gand I won some and lost some of the auctions. 

Thanks @Patrick_Gfor the picture and the company mate! 

I got the following: Limia juveniles, Cory Venezuelanus, ancistrus L144 brown, 1 breeding pair ancistrus L180, 5 ancistrus Snow White, 1 SAE, 1 male EBA,  Rhadinocentrus Searys creek x 8, and Chilatherina Upper Tor Orange. 

Now I didn’t post right away because I know that sometimes things happen and well the s$&t hit the fan.
 

Lost all the Upper Tor rainbows in 3 hours along with the Snow Whites - they were in the same tank as the Rhads and my barbatus corys. Of course the Rhads were initially fine as were the barbatus but I now have a Columnaris outbreak that I’m treating.

Now I’ve been trying to introduce a pair or more of plecos to my 40 gallon with my Krobia and Knaacki corys. I tried the ancistrus snowflakes I got from All Oddball Aquatics and they were dead in less than a day. Well 24 hours after intro of the L180s they’re dead. I blame the Krobia. They are super skiddish and when threatened well they lash out and I think they do it as a group. So I think no Plecos for them. The Knaacki are fewer then the 8 I started with 5 now so I’m leaving that tank be. 

EBA he was gorgeous and i was pretty convinced I had a female as she had cozied up to the male Krobia before I separated them - no hybrids thank you very much. They immediately paired off and demonstrated breeding behaviors. 

 

I’ll get more videos tonight as I do water changes on another rack that includes the red eye red tail puffers. 

[Patrick_G]

On 11/15/2022 at 1:49 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Attended the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society @Patrick_Gand I won some and lost some of the auctions. 

That was a humbling auction! So many plants that I’ve never heard of. I left at 4:00pm and there was still over 100 lots left. 
 

How are those blueberry tetras doing? 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Really good I’ll get a pic/video tonight tonight! Adding more corys changed their behavior, more the merrier!

[anewbie]

Well i don't know - i mean it is possible the krobia killed them esp if they were small I'm wondering if they had problem acclimating? Did they have obvious wounds ?

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

The males whiskers were gone so I guess that’s the evidence @anewbie.  Size wise they were subadults - they were over 2” and were showing sexual characteristics like male with color change behind the head, bristles and female was full in the midsection.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Don’t have a ton to report other than I was at the OdySea Aquarium in Scottsdale this last weekend which was a lot of fun. Continuing Medical Education is or can be fun! 

I came home to find no catastrophes other than plants that my MIL decided not to bring in from the porch “oh that’s why you wanted me to bring them in!” Yep that’s why! 🤬

My Krobia group has been a bit spooked lately. For a good while I could see them begging at the glass but lately less so. Hoping more water changes and better food will turn the tide. 

One of these days I’ll get some swords as dithers for them from @Patrick_G. I really need to get working on the air loop for the fishroom hoping this holiday weekend may be the time! 

[anewbie]

On 11/21/2022 at 2:17 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Don’t have a ton to report other than I was at the OdySea Aquarium in Scottsdale this last weekend which was a lot of fun. Continuing Medical Education is or can be fun! 

I came home to find no catastrophes other than plants that my MIL decided not to bring in from the porch “oh that’s why you wanted me to bring them in!” Yep that’s why! 🤬

My Krobia group has been a bit spooked lately. For a good while I could see them begging at the glass but lately less so. Hoping more water changes and better food will turn the tide. 

One of these days I’ll get some swords as dithers for them from @Patrick_G. I really need to get working on the air loop for the fishroom hoping this holiday weekend may be the time! 

How many krobia do you still have? I wonder as they reach maturity if they are spooking themselves ?

[nabokovfan87]

Very sorry for your struggles.  One step at a time, one day at a time.  It sounds like maybe salt or something on the brine shrimp, or some other form of contamination maybe?

To your question though, the only other method for tank sanitation (can't say it's effective) is flip aquatics using vinegar on their shrimp tanks to prep it.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Krobia group is 6 - 2 males and 4 females. I’ve turned off the power head in that tank maybe it’s the flow. They’re wild fish so who knows. If the power head stop doesn’t work I’m getting some swords. 

For sterilization I’ve done the dump a bottle of H2O2 in the tank method in the past and I’d say that was effective. This is a new tank so the Columnaris came in on the fish. 2 good sources for the fish so it’s just one of those things.  The fish have now done 3 rounds of jungle fizz and Kanaplex and no signs on the fish. One of my Scleromystax had a mowhawk of white now had a haircut and beautiful healing almost normal tissue. 

In a Fishroom 2.0 update I’ve started the process with my air loop. My ceiling is super irregular and if this doesn’t work in terms of the plumbing I can redo it but I’m hoping with the small number of lines I’ll be using I’ll have enough pressure .

I’ll finish up my valves tonight and turn it on. Worse comes to worse I’ll replumb the joint between the lines if the pressure sucks. It would just be a T instead of a double L I just didn’t want to have to go back to homies honestly. If it fails I’ll be there tonight. Haha. 
 

 

[anewbie]

I've never had krobia; but with angels having multiple females can lead to trouble. The female angels are very jealous and they like to fight to the death - the males will bicker for alpha status and i can have 1 female with x males but it is a crap shoot when i have more than 1 female - in one case 2 females with sep males did sort of get along but in another case 1 female went around killing all the other females. No clue how krobia will behave once they reach sexual maturity.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

There’s very little infighting from my  observations @anewbie. One of them peers out from behind some plants or wood, then another and another and then they’re all out. I’ve not really seen the males or females display to each other. They do separate into 2 packs, they keep a respectful distance, interacting without issue. They are taking on their adult sexual characteristics- males fin age is getting longer and pointy while the females are more rounded from their bellies to their fins. Good food and water as well as time at this point. 
 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

I've fallen behind on your updates, but this is looking amazing!!!  I'm super stoked for you, sir!

Putting in a air loop was one of the best things I did.  It has meant there is now zero planning involved in that space in terms of getting air where I need it.  I can be far more flexible.  I've been able to make more responsive decisions (and beware this can also mean more impulse buys if you are that sort of person) because if I need more space suddenly, I can drop a line in a sponge into a tote if needs be. 

In terms of your CFM air supply needs, one of the benefits of the linear piston pump is that if you need more volume you can simply add an additional pump to the system.  I'd personally rather have the redundancy of say 2 or 3 smaller LPPs than get one large one.  So, if you find yourself short on air volume, just splice in another pump into the loop somewhere and you are all set! 

I also put in a muffled blow off valve for any extra air, and a pressure gauge to ensure I was operating in a range that was good for the pump's longevity.  Those two things have allowed me to dial in my air loop.  Just FYI. 

[anewbie]

I wanted to make one other comment which might or might not be related to your problem. I had a female nijjensi in a 29 and she was more or less the 'boss' and never hid. After a few years i moved her to a 40B because she was bullying new fishes i added to the 29. In the 40B she more or less hid for 6 months and even now she only shows herself briefly when eating. In the 40B there isn't anything aggressive. The largest fish is a single male nannacara amolae but he is pretty passive and never bothers the borelli (the only other cichild in the aquarium). I think she is just sulking but she is eating well as she has put on weight.