Beardedbillygoat’s Fish & Shrimp Tank Journal

[Odd Duck]

On 11/30/2022 at 8:33 AM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

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. 

Can you expand on this a bit?  I’ve seen a couple different types of blow off valves, but which did you do?  And what pressure gauge?  How do you know what pressure is appropriate for your LPP?  Did I miss something in my paperwork?  I haven’t yet set mine up, but have one I intend to use.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I lost some momentum on the fish room air loop. We unfortunately had a weather event here that led to some damage. That along with a long day for my wife with work and 2 boys on a snow day I was just happy to get the 60 ready for tomorrow. 

I received scuds from Goliad Farms today. I’ve separated them out to 3 containers- one is my green water tank which has no fish in it now. 2 is the tub that all the Sad Bowl residents ended up in.  And the 3rd is my experimental pond tub with some pond plants and other assorted beasts. Tomorrow I'm getting my infusoria and black worms which I’m hoping the 3rd time is the charm. This is really necessary to get the puffers in breeding shape. My crew with Columnaris is looking better by the day. 3 rounds of jungle fizz and Kanaplex as well as salt 🧂 I’m hopeful that we’re on the other side of that. 🤞!!

Have fun everyone.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 11/30/2022 at 11:25 PM, Odd Duck said:

Can you expand on this a bit?  I’ve seen a couple different types of blow off valves, but which did you do?  And what pressure gauge?  How do you know what pressure is appropriate for your LPP?  Did I miss something in my paperwork?  I haven’t yet set mine up, but have one I intend to use.

I don't want to take away from this thread, so I'll attempt (key word) to be brief.  You can see my supplementary air release setup (my wife has decided "blow off valve" sounds rude) and the gauge I got here, on a defunct, old journal of mine.  I would use a gate valve if I did it again, rather than the ball valve for finer control.  And I'd search harder for an even lower pressure gauge, ≤ 5psi.  I keep mine right below 3psi.  If I close everything off, it gets to around 5. 

On 12/1/2022 at 1:52 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

had a weather event

I mean, judging by the photos, I might even be tempted to call that a storm you had there.  😉  Glad you came through.

[Minanora]

Caught up! The tree branches will make good firewood for next year! I love the 60 you just set up.

Do you have any white pleco varieties left? I'm sad to read about your losses.

I'm glad you're coming out of the jungle (fizz). Medication is rough.

Hopefully you can get your live foods up and running. I'd love to see  tiny puffers! They are so adorable!

 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Friday nights are usually pizza and movie night but it’s been an unusual week but we did get our oldest through A Christmas Story so he could relate somewhat to the 8 yo protagonist. 

Fish fish fish and food food food. I’ve taken possession of groups of Melanotaenia boesmani Aves Creek 

Mine are a year old and quite beautiful little adolescents with some color starting to shine through. Along with the Hillstream loaches and addition of my danios and barb the tank is humming. 

@anewbieheres some videos of the Krobia. They spook easily and their response is to lash out. They’ve killed most tank mates except mollies. I think swords would do fine. 

New foods, different foods!!

Live food - received an infusoria culture, scuds and also daphnia. I’m hoping they take off as it’ll be fun to feed them. Have fun everyone we are! 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Merry Christmas post!!

Japanese ricefish for spring and summer tubing!! 

Enjoy this time the way you see fit! Peace, love, and fish keeping!! Have fun!

 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Fish room

oh fish room

What shall we do next? 

I have determined that my new job that I love is just too much to have a 10 tank fish room and 5 displays. Something has to give. Time money or  marital strife and I don’t like conflict. 

Tonight I took a step forward and moved my goodieds to my 60 g. This tank since my last time treating it for Columnaris and sterilizing it with alcohol and h2o2 has really looked great. The Rhadinocentrus just look sensational and the barbatus have never been this active. This looks like a great community tank and I am hopeful that it’ll remain that way. Knock on ply wood and all the woods that are holy and we’ve not seen any Columnaris in a month. I like the wild algae look it has. 

The rest of the fish room is also in transition. My shell dwellers passed after a heater failure during the ice storm we had a week ago. I’m be cleaned out the tank and have contemplated maybe making it a Neocaridina tank but I think instead it will just be torn down. RIP to my Brevis, they’re great fish if you decide to go that way. Perhaps some other life. 

The 3 tanks dedicated to the red eye red tail puffer project I think it doesn’t make sense - I have 50 gallons of tanks one of which is only occupied by a SAE as a place holder for the group to transition to. Instead I’m going to tear down the 3 tanks and put in a 40 g breeder split into 2 - 20 g tanks for this project. Girls on one side boys on the other of some 2” foam. I’ll have a main mattenfilter run the whole thing along with a UGF. Here’s his highness Hank in all his glory! 

My other rack has the Electric blue acara pair and their offspring along with my L181 pleco group in the 29 g and my mixed juvenile tank below with CW028 and C134 corys, Limia, and my Wabenmusters Ancistrus plecos. 
 

Mrs Blue looks a bit worse for wear after her second go round breeding with Mr Blue. If she’s not out an about tomorrow after some mysis shrimp and a big water change I may put hernin with the SAE for a few weeks to fatten her up and get her better. 🤞!

The mixed tank is a hoot. I love the corys. I need to do more To fatten up the Wabenmusters so that’s my 2023 resolution along with tank tear downs - fat/phat plecos!

Sadly out of 60 eggs from Japan only have 1 fry. The seller is aware and is hopeful that in the next few days more will arrive. 🤞

Have fun and happy new year!!

[Patrick_G]

On 12/30/2022 at 2:47 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Sadly out of 60 eggs from Japan only have 1 fry. The seller is aware and is hopeful that in the next few days more will arrive. 🤞

Hey, 1/3 of that fry is mine! 🤣

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Patrick_Gabsolutely!

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Aww, my friend, so many losses this year, fish and tanks! I'm sorry! I feel the pain there- I myself feel like the universe is saying to me- transition to something else. Here's to better things in the new year!

[eatyourpeas]

Happy holidays, @Beardedbillygoat1975! Just catching up with your sine wave of events. So sorry you have lost so many fishies, and the weather woes. We have also seen our share of flooding, downed trees, and icy mishaps. Hang in there, Spring always comes!

Your 60 is looking quite nice! Inspiring, as usual. Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Thanks so much @eatyourpeas!!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@xXInkedPhoenixX I know that feeling intimately, perhaps too much. Losing half the fish room in the move, then the little losses here and there honestly I’m just too distracted a lot of the time. Fewer tanks hopeful equals fewer distractions. I’m excited to refocus in 2023. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Happy New Year’s my fellow NERMs!!

A couple years back I tried a Panaqulous pleco group wild L204s and well I couldn’t keep them alive. I’ve learned a lot since then and decided to go for it again. A group of 10+ L397s came up on Aquabid and they arrived yesterday. They’re eating celery, 4 types of wood and some Pleco Ceramics bottom dweller tabs. 

Theyre just starting to get their coloration back and are gorgeous. After a couple months of good food and water we hope to get some really nice growth and eventually a successful breeding group. 

While on the subject of plecos wanted to update on the Wabenmusters and the L181 peppermints. 
I highly recommend the food from Pleco Ceramics. Their pleco chips are awesome. I am so excited for these groups to reach maturity later 2023. 
 

More plecos!! Here are some Ancistrus in our 45 g community tank as well as some other fishy friends! 

the lights had just gone on which with the Angels and tetras did not do their colors justice. 

And in our main display 60 g we’ve got our centerpiece fish - a golden albino Dojo Loach. I’ll post the rest of my 60 g pics in the tank journal. 

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Beardedbillygoat1975

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Sad couple days in the fishroom. 

As posted in the Panda Cory Appreciation Society I lost all Of my L397 and Wabenmusters. This dominoes into losing all my C134s. My CW028 Super Schwartzi are still alive but tonight one of their fins was “fuzzy” white and so I’ve dosed some Ich-x, Maracyn and Maracyn Two. 
My main display tanks are looking well. 
 

1. The Australasian Tank has been fun as the Odessa barbs color-up and some of the newer residents settle In especially the Bamboo Shrimp. It’s growing in and with some CO2 rolling it’s going very well. 

https://youtu.be/ao5pv7ftPFo

Panda garras are as great as advertised. 
https://youtube.com/shorts/N-wq4oBjTko?feature=share

2. The Amazon 45 is gorgeous since a plant reset. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/8kJ5Qq_O5no?feature=share
 

African dwarf frogs continue to be a presence in our house, presently have 3. https://youtube.com/shorts/0UK-h55DiMI?feature=share
 

My dwarf pea puffers are continuing to murder any new additions but as long as I don’t try to add inhabitants they’re so happy. 
https://youtube.com/shorts/Oi9Jgallovk?feature=share

Loads of great stuff but I’ll  be crushed if I lose my Super Schwartzi. Have fun everyone .

 

[Patrick_G]

Those barbs are looking great! 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Greg Sage did a lot of work on this line and with patience there’s a great deal of reward. What I find interesting is how wide bodied they are. When I see them in a shop they are kind of more elongated and mine are kind of chunky. Who knows maybe I stunted their growth?!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

1/19 to present wow it’s been a minute. 
 

What’s going well? Rainbows 🌈 are outstanding. My 60 g is a joy. I had the loss of a panda garra due to a mystery fungi or bacterium that popped up after feeding a lot of brine shrimp. I cleaned it up and the body, used a lot of h2o2 and so far so good. 

My tank of Rhadinocentrus and Scleromystax barbatus are just looking so good. Such a great combination as they both eat a very similar diet and the smaller particles are favored by the barbatus as they make their way through the substrate. 

Puffers, both my red eyes and pea puffer groups are doing well. I grabbed some flag fish and they sure love the string algae in the pea puffer bowl. Caught my wife filming Tik Tok’s again so I think she likes the setup. Hank the Tank

Amazon 45 g the angels are robust as are the festivums and the hordes of tetras, Cory’s and plecos all seem happy. Sadly we found a GBR with early hole-in-the-head which is something you always hear about in cichlid circles. I’ll need to do a better job with water quality and not over feeding. I’ve got this and the Rainbows 🌈 tanks on C02 which amazes me that I had finally gotten the gumption up to set such a system up. 
This is the second ACO regulator as the first whether my fault or theirs the o-ring in the green dial was “squished” perhaps with overly torquing it. 

My electric blue Acaras continue to make the moves at breeding but I think there’s some gravel vacuuming and water changes needed to be more successful. The fry do well for weeks then Peter out. The plecos with them Snow Flakes and L181s are fantastic still growing out. 

The not so good. I had to euthanize the CW028 super Schwartzi. Im pretty devastated. I went from them thriving and making the moves of breeding to losing a fish a day this week. They were something my wife and I shared as she was the one that got them out of their bags which were leaking horribly and got them into a tank as quick as possible. Peace be with you my beautiful colony, you’ll be missed. 

Krobia xinguensis, they are under treatment for columnaris. I think it spread from the catfish tank that had my CW028 and it just looked different. They are hanging in and I’m hoping to not lose any eyes which is what they seem to have most affected by the bacterium. 

To end on a positive note I’m going back to my most recent roots in the hobby and setting up a shrimp tank- Caridina. @tolstoy21and I have been going back and forth on the setup and I am about to set it up this weekend. A welcome distraction after the recent unfortunate deaths. My wife has been very encouraging and thinks that once we have Fish Room 2.0 setup properly some of these events will hopefully be a thing of the past. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Here’s some pics to say thanks for reading below- A snowflake pleco

The main difference with the L181 is the grey instead of black background for the white spots. Subtler but still very attractive.

My plant farm tank AR mini and Crypt balansae from tissue culture. Think it was an ADA culture. 
The happy couple. They’re beautiful and so gentle with each other. So different from what you’d expect from cichlids. 

Retooling the FishRoom 2.0 Manifesto- 

Ive had some discussions of late with several of our esteemed colleagues about how to avoid the disastrous results of the past 6’months since 2.0 started. 

1. I am horrible about overstocking and collectoritis, this needs to stop to take my hobby next level

2. admit my time is limited and staying up until 2 am and getting up at 7’is not healthy it’s a hobby not the Bataan Death March, money or time and I think I need to spend the money and get auto water changes in the fishroom

3. species selection- when I focused on shrimp breeding with a single fish species in each tank I was quite successful I need to get back to what worked 

4. you can’t do it all - im attracted to catfish, cichlids, puffers and shrimp but then like livebearers and some tetras and oohhh those loaches and garras look good - I’m terrible about the shiny thing in the room. Due to #2 I need to assess what’s the time commitment for this project. And if im successful what happens then - 100s of EBA fry that was a terrible idea 💡. 
Positive steps forward-

A. despite my urge to get males for my Bristlnose colony in my 45 I’ve not bought more- if they breed and I’ve got babies in there how to feed them, how to capture them how to rear the fry. Not worth it. 

B. Just because I live 5 minutes from the ACO doesn’t mean every trip should end with the purchase of an animal. It’s ok to just get the frozen food and walk away

C. Some things have gone right - my 60 with my Rhadinocentrus and Scleromystax, my retooled 20 H with my Red Eye puffer group (see post soon in that thread), my EBA and pleco tank, my scud and shrimp pond, my goldfish tub, my plant farm, my boys betta tanks, the pea puffer bowl, the 45 and 60. That’s a lot of success to be proud of after rebuilding everything from scratch 

Anyway learn and have fun. That’s been my mantra in the hobby and I’ve been doing both. Sadly some of my animals have suffered which weighs on this and will stay with me. But I will learn from it and have more fun. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I’ll start with some sad news. My breeding trio of red eye red tail puffers along with 60 g riverine Australasian tank both crashed but for different reasons. 

Puffers - I had a problem with a bunny this winter. He moved into the garage and I think he was trying to get a drink of water or eat some aquatic plants and he fell into a tub in the garage (27 g black plastic tote) and in the process tripped a breaker and gfi outlet. That breaker and outlet haven’t worked right since. Unfortunately, due this I had installed a Jackery battery backup and had thought that would allow for time if it tripped. However, due to some events at work and home I didn’t catch it and well they got too cold and died. It was a real shame. The girls were showing signs of fertility with round belly’s and it was fun to interact with the 3 of them. 

Australasian tank it started with 2 Upper Tor rainbows with damage to their dorsal fins. Could have been sparing or just being dumb fast swimming bows. Initially I treated with a course of Maracyn and salt and things were ok for about a week. Next thing I knew it looked like they had poms poms where the dorsals had been. 

I thought it could be fungal but columnaris seemed likely as well. So. Followed @Colu recipe and things improved. For about a week all was pretty well here’s some pics of the tank and fish. 
Then suddenly I saw some stuck on appearing white spots and wondered if it was Epistylis and immediately started treatment but the fish fell fast. The whole tank was dead minus my dojo loach and 2 leopard danios in 24 hours. They are in a qt tank now.

I’m mourning this tank. It was well thought out. It was well stocked but I don’t think overstocked. I was careful about the sources of the fish. I’d been diligent with my maintenance. Things I could have done differently- could I have heated it higher 70-72 is where I kept it. I turned off the CO2 and added a Venturi for extra oxygen. I talked with @Patrick_Gavout it at our club meeting and I’m just kind of numb about it. My wife wants to restart it as a shrimp tank which I think is a fine idea. Maybe a big school of green neons and Pygmy Cory’s down the road after some months pass. 
 

Presently FishRoom 2.0 has a 60 gallon with Rhadinocentrus, an Opaline gourami female and my barbatus Cory’s. I have some shrimp in a 20 high cull neocaridina and some Malawa shrimp. I have neos green jades and culls along with scuds in a 27 g tote. Another tote with 2 fancy goldfish and mosquito fish. My last tote has a group of rainbow shiners. Thanks @Fish Folkthey are a real bright spot in my hobby right now!

My electric blue acaras had been looking sad and weren’t breeding. The L181 plecos we’re doing ok. I got some male swordtails from @Patrick_Gand everyone is out now and it’s like a new tank. 

My 45 g display tank with my angels and festivums and tetras is great. Adding a pump to the mattenfilter has been great and the metronidazole in the food along with some metro flake I bought has stopped the hole-in-the-head in its tracks. 

I have gotten some more macros from our club auction and added them to our Opae ula tank. 

And my sons little 10 g cube is a joy. We’ve kept frogs in there and @Patrick_Gand family spawned some more ADFs and gave us a group. Our white ones don’t know what to think of this rambunctious group. It’s adorable! 
Have fun everyone and sorry for more bummers but that’s part of the hobby. Hopefully with summer tubing and reviving the 60 I’ll have some outlets until we get the electrics and plumbing in place this fall for FishRoom 3.0. 

[Fish Folk]

On 3/18/2023 at 3:44 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Have fun everyone and sorry for more bummers but that’s part of the hobby.

I think this is essential perspective. Was visiting some professional scientists this past week in TN, learning how they propagate endangered species. The most encouraging thing to learn was that, like all if us, even the professionals face insuperable problems that they cannot easily resolve. The key is _learning_. I was messaging with another experienced aquarist recently about a recurring problem I’ve had. “How would you solve this?” I asked. His reply, “I use _____ chemical. But you need to figure out why this keeps happening. The problem is something before you get to this point.” Humbling answer, but it has set me on a journey, assessing everything from osmotic stress, KH and buffer breakdown from spray-bars, flexibacter infections, effective use of aquarium salt, effects of conductivity on fertilization, to hydra and bryzoan impact on aquatic systems.

Learning has slowly become a new level of “fun” in the hobby. 😎

[anewbie]

While it won't help in this specific case you can get monitors that will alert you if the temp (or ph) goes out of range. Both hydros and ghl have solutions for around $350-$400 that will include both temp and ph monitoring (hydros will also monitor leaks). Now $350-$400 isn't exactly cheap but if you have several tubs in the garage monitoring one might be sufficient (of course if a heater fails or what have you i guess it won't help so much there). To be honest i'm not over joyed with hydros which i've been testing - ghl i just purchased but haven't used it yet to comment. neptune is also a common solution - last time i priced it it didn't make sense but there is a new neptune jr which is more cost effective (though more than the other two last time i checked).

 

How are your krobia doing? Also my angles - well the female platinum is starting to 'piss off' the festum. She keeps trying to herd them away (territorial thing) but they are twice her mass and I think she finally got the message that if she wants a territory she has to pick a spot where they are not cause they are not going to move. the last time she laid eggs; they (I have 7) all came over and ate them - she was not happy.

Edited March 18, 2023 by anewbie

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@anewbiei lost the Krobia awhile ago. Stress from the heaters going out due to our electrical situation in the garage, infection and repeated treatments worked then had electrical problems again and that time they couldn’t recover. Thanks for the comments and concern. I had those Krobia for awhile and I never got them to breed although they’d paired off. 

I am buying what your selling. I think I’m going to look out for a pH monitor and also a doser for fertilizers. It makes sense to automate. I’m also going to switch to R/O as I’m sure Seattle tap water could also be part of the picture although everyone swears the waters fine. Then I could set up auto top off which would be good as well. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I’ve decided that the 4 fish tanks and 1 plant tank in the garage are it for right now in the garage fishroom. If I have another calamity in any of these tanks then I’m just not restarting them just decommissioning them. I’m going to back away from prior statements and thoughts of/on restarting the fishroom this fall. The reality is and my wife is helpful in this regard that money and time are just not on my side. I need to also honor commitments I made to her in terms of the yard, ponds and that work as well. 

For now my focus is on redoing the 60 g - it will be a shrimp focused setup which is my wife’s preference and happy wife happy hobby - I’ve been thinking of really exploring different crays and shrimp - neocaridina, cpo, vampire and bamboo shrimp. I am debating how to setup the substrate system to balance plant and shrimp health. I’ve gone back to the well looking back at Father Fish, Aquarium Science and forum posts to determine best way. I think it will be something like this sketch:

I am leaning toward a Father Fish deep substrate with some recent driftwood I’ve gotten from the puget sound and some of my bigger plant species in house - aponogetons, crinum, crypts spiralis and balansae, maybe Val although the inability to use Excel or Easy Carbon always gives me pause in a planted setup. Perhaps that should be the challenge- balance this tank or else BBA will be coming for me!! Hahahaha. Funny not funny?! 😂

In the corners I want to build up some volcanic rock mountains I can cover with moss and provide nursery’s for all the baby shrimp. Behind these will be my ugf outlets so a little bit of that classic Cory bubble volcanos from his older setups in the 800. Substrate deep cap over the Father Fish mix. I’m favoring using the substrate Cory mentioned as his favorite which is Pure Water Pebbles Natural Aquarium Gravel - my wife likes any substrate that’s not black. It’s down to Nutty River or Cumberland on this. I think in the bottom layer over the dirt mix I’ll put a bag of crushed coral as it would help balance the pH, help keep my kH and gH stable making for happy shrimps and inverts. I’ll add in a couple groups of fish - I’m favoring a couple nice size schools of otocinclus vs BN plecos vs Pygmy Cory’s and green neons. I’m favoring the Pygmys they’d school with the green neons and their mouths are so small they’d never pick off shrimplets or CPOs. I’ll eventually start a build thread. If I get the go ahead to start buying substrate I’ll be happy. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Ugh. Caught up and my god, you poor thing with all the losses! I think this latest plan is the right plan. I totally understand the love for so many things and it's hard not to make another tank to do something else. Going to the LFS for me is just a "someday I'll have those" trip for me when I pick up those frozen foods. I try not to get caught down the rabbit hole, "what if I just do this, or that?!" 6 is all I can maintain with my time, and as fish go I would like to downsize. Actually eventually I just want one LARGE display tank. Maybe one Betta tank and that's it. Anyway, I hurt for you!