Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Guppysnail]

I have never kept a journal so I am not sure if I am going to enjoy doing this or not. I am that… I want to try things at least once type person. I spend a lot of time reading all the fantastic journals on here. Two weeks ago my bearded dragon BOOP’s suddenly passed from a stomach tumor he was diagnosed with last year. Boop’s spent nearly every minute of the day with me including the fish room. He had a shelf in front of each tank he liked to watch his fish and chase shrimp.  He was probably a better plant guru than me 🤣 (you have no idea how hard it was finding info on which aquarium plants are dragon toxic) He always tried to eat them when we worked on them. For the two weeks it took me to process the worst of my grief reading everyone’s journals and posts kept me sane and filled the time I normally spent with my dragon.  Thank you everyone for sharing your journey.

I have had fish since around 7.  All whatever I could catch with mom’s kitchen strainer in the creek when I was younger (her rule was no snakes all else I can have) and keep alive using creek water and bugs.  This is how I learned anything in nature that fits in something else’s mouth is food. I also developed a weird fascination with all the nifty critters and hitchhikers that end up in aquariums. I’m the weird old lady that even finds value and cool snooping entertainment in hydra. I have been hooked ever since. went through job demands of travel so way more up and down with tanks than I want to think about  

I watched every video and livestream (although never in live time) the coop had.  I wanted more. So I joined the forum. It’s really great as I have no one to talk fish to.  Hubby only likes my giant mystery snail but loves that fish make me happy since I rarely leave the house (it’s my garden of eden why would I venture into societies current chaos) I’m new to the internet in the past few years since I retired. I used email but mostly fax before I retired but that’s it outside of works dedicated computer programs. I have never done any other social media so I feel awkward and was and I guess still am a bit intimidated most of the time trying to convey things to others in a way that seems friendly and helpful as typing seems so blunt and impersonal. I try and use a lot of the cute face cartoons.  I hate offending others so I hope the cartoon faces convey niceness. Most of my fish keeping knowledge (if you want to call it that and not just ok this worked for me and this distinctly did not) comes strictly from Observations of my tanks over my life, trial error heartbreak National Geographic magazines learning about fish not aquariums and other assorted magazines in the mail. Finding the internet fish keeping prescribed guidelines baffled me and I still wonder if some of the people doing the articles ever actually kept the fish they were writing the article on. Seems fish are supposedly super delicate??? 🤣 I never knew that I always loved fish because they were so amazingly resilient. Silly me.  That’s why I got hooked on  Cory’s videos he seems to go with what he has seen with his own eyes and learned instead of what the internet spews and is willing to try things just to see what happens. (He also finds benefit in hitchhiking micro fauna and snails 😁)

So enough about who I am…just an eccentric old lady who loves fish ….here we go….

My multi tank syndrome has taken a drastic turn since my health declined 6 years ago. Getting old stinks but is also the greatest. I cannot physically take care of large tanks anymore so now it is how many fish and different things can I keep in each tank and healthy.

My current tanks that I have up and not in storage are

standard 29 gal, 20long, 2 x 10g 8.75 gallon shrimp tank I got on sale and hate but guppies and snails have too many babies and it’s handy for a dozen or more things, 5G QT 2.5G QT

i do not ever actually plant plants  i float them tie them to something or suction cup them on the wall.  Even root feeders do great that way for me. I don’t use fertilizers or chemicals I am afraid of them. I tried easy green half dose in 2 tanks and panicked after 6 hours and did late evening water changes so I could sleep. I admire the fabulous aquascapers I’m not one of them  I love plants they keep my fish happy and healthy and grow well for me  i stuff every tank to the gills because our water is miserable even in tanks years old with so many plants I can barely see my fish brown diatoms live on.  I tried recently using jugged spring water from the store for wc and it all went away … came right back when I used hose water  🤷‍♀️ over the years I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of it though 🤪 the fish and assorted critters like it  YUMMY 😋 

29 g stock

11 panda corydora, 6f/1m guppy(the wolf pack and Little Boy, Nemo the nerite snail, 3 female magenta mystery snails (the wonder twins and microdot) bladder snails and some stray shrimp that migrated on a coop large sponge filter.  I stopped there because my 2 longfin lemon blue eye bristlenose plecos are trying a second time he has not left the cave in 3 days other than to get a quick nibble of the green bean I put outside his door. I’m hoping it’s a fruitful spawn and may need to rehome the pandas and set up another 20 long for them? This is a newer tank set up with established filters gravel plants from other tanks and such so we are waiting for the micro fauna to establish.  I think the Pandas and guppies are eating most of it so I may not get much. 

20 long is my pleco pair (sweet pea and baby girl) 4 huge male mystery snails 2 magenta (the baby boys) 2 chestnut (chestnut and bandit) 10 celestial pearl danio(only one has a name she is huge and eats everything Meg as in megalodon) more neocaridina shrimp of every color than I can count.  Some bladder snails (someone keeps eating them I do believe 😕) many random assorted micro fauna and a gorgeous little colony of tiny green hydra in one corner that never seems to travel or grow bigger even though I feed cpd bbs.  
 

I may actually like this journal thing.  I’ll detail the rest another day and add more pictures. my pointer/typing finger is cramping at this point 🤣

 

 

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I'm so sorry you lost BOOP, what a treasure he was. Many hugs. I always enjoy your responses to people they are always kind and full of good information. 💛

[Hobbit]

^ I agree with @xXInkedPhoenixX! Thanks for sharing your story! And I’m so sorry about BOOP. ❤️ I got to take care of a teacher’s bearded dragon one summer in high school and it was a treat. They are great pets!

[Guppysnail]

The love and the misery of hornwort. I keep it in all but one tank (for whatever reason one tank it just gives up the ghost and drops needles then actually dies). I love the job it does but detest its natural method of relocation.  I have terrible water and for the 20 years I’ve owned this house brown diatoms are my faithful but unsightly companion. I’ve grown to accept it. Hornwort grows fast and the stem get thin and spindly until pieces float away. Every single day my mornings routine includes collecting all the floating pieces and sticking a plant weight on them and dropping them back it’s a pain and looks so haphazard that it annoys even a very poor scraper like me. I bought 10 large bunches of anacharis elodea to replace it and add to my current anacharis(it does the same floaty thing just not as often). It always goes through melt then takes off. I’m in the melt phase but and fighting the urge to yank the hornwort out too soon. Kinda worried the added nutrients from the melt need the hornwort to control until the elodea settles in. I did see new growth already during water change today😁 (loved the nosey guppy baby in the way so kept that pic)

another good note I found a little bladder snail family in the pleco tank behind the coop sponge. Also two egg clutches on the base. For whatever reason in all my tanks that’s the preferred laying spot. Another A+ to the coop sponge. 🥳

[Hobbit]

I have elodea and hornwort in my fry grow out tank. I’m worried the hornwort won’t survive the salt that gets added when I feed baby brine shrimp, but we’ll see!

[Guppysnail]

On 8/8/2021 at 2:33 PM, Hobbit said:

I have elodea and hornwort in my fry grow out tank. I’m worried the hornwort won’t survive the salt that gets added when I feed baby brine shrimp, but we’ll see!

I feed bbs 2-3x a day. I use a hobby sieve or hand held cheap from Amazon to strain and rinse with bottle water( not fancy just easy to keep on the work table) to avoid salt killing my plants. I tried not rinsing before and poof every stinking needle dropped 🙁

[Hobbit]

Ooof. Yeah, I should probably start rinsing given the amount I feed… just have to find a system that’s easy enough I’ll actually do it. Maybe this is why Cory can never get hornwort to grow!

[Daniel]

On 8/8/2021 at 2:41 PM, Hobbit said:

Ooof. Yeah, I should probably start rinsing given the amount I feed… just have to find a system that’s easy enough I’ll actually do it. Maybe this is why Cory can never get hornwort to grow!

There is a lot hornwort growing in the brackish intercostal waters here in North Carolina. Also Vallisneria, Bacopa, Myriophyllum, Anacharis, etc. I was a little surprised when I first saw it, but there it was.

[Hobbit]

Interesting! Maybe there are different cultivars of hornwort “floating around” the hobby. 😜

[Daniel]

 And just for @Hobbit since you are in Maryland, apparently its grows luxuriantly in Chesapeake Bay and even in the Potomac as far up as Alexandria. 🙂

Almost all the hornwort I have seen in the hobby is Ceratophyllum demersum.

 

[Guppysnail]

On 8/8/2021 at 2:58 PM, Daniel said:

 And just for @Hobbit since you are in Maryland, apparently its grows luxuriantly in Chesapeake Bay and even in the Potomac as far up as Alexandria. 🙂

Almost all the hornwort I have seen in the hobby is Ceratophyllum demersum.

 

I’m in south central PA I may have to take a day trip!

[PineSong]

Guppysnail, earlier today I was wondering how I can keep my floating plants (guppy grass, elodea) in one corner of the tank and wishing there was some kind of clip that hung on the rim... reading above it seems you use suction cups somehow--brilliant! How/what do you loop around the plants and attach to the suction cup to hold the plants?

[Guppysnail]

On 8/8/2021 at 5:22 PM, PineSong said:

Guppysnail, earlier today I was wondering how I can keep my floating plants (guppy grass, elodea) in one corner of the tank and wishing there was some kind of clip that hung on the rim... reading above it seems you use suction cups somehow--brilliant! How/what do you loop around the plants and attach to the suction cup to hold the plants?

Embarrassingly enough I use my husbands fishing line 😳 🤣 and airline suction cups

[PineSong]

Thanks! I have airline suction cups and thought they'd be perfect. I don't have fishing line on hand but I can easily get some! I bought some platy girls so I assume they are pregnant and want to have a good clump of fry-hiding plants in case they deliver in the QT tank unannounced.

[Patrick_G]

On 8/8/2021 at 11:49 AM, Daniel said:

There is a lot hornwort growing in the brackish intercostal waters here in North Carolina. Also Vallisneria, Bacopa, Myriophyllum, Anacharis, etc. I was a little surprised when I first saw it, but there it was.

Hmmm.. maybe a planted tank would be possible with a Figure 8 Puffer 🤔

[Guppysnail]

On 8/8/2021 at 6:03 PM, PineSong said:

Thanks! I have airline suction cups and thought they'd be perfect. I don't have fishing line on hand but I can easily get some! I bought some platy girls so I assume they are pregnant and want to have a good clump of fry-hiding plants in case they deliver in the QT tank unannounced.

I also use a suction cup betta feeding ring for frogbit guppy fry love it. 

[Odd Duck]

Amazon has this.  I’m using these with an extra zip tie to anchor my floating rings because I got fed up with trying to glue plastic bits with hinges to silicone tubing.

 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Odd Duck

[Guppysnail]

On 8/8/2021 at 6:11 PM, Odd Duck said:

Amazon has this.  I’m using these with an extra zip tie to anchor my floating rings because I got fed up with trying to glue plastic bits with hinges to silicone tubing.

 

 

Can the original zip tie be cut and replaced? I make a lot of mistakes 🤣 these look awesome 

[Odd Duck]

On 8/8/2021 at 5:19 PM, Guppysnail said:

Can the original zip tie be cut and replaced? I make a lot of mistakes 🤣 these look awesome 

Yes.  They are pretty standard 6” zip ties, not heavy duty or anything.  My hubby has some the same size in black.

[Guppysnail]

So I got these yesterday and used them today. They are just like the coop erasers( chemical free melamine)  I love coop ones so much but they are too thick for behind things. These are thin sheets I can use with my tongs to get behind intakes heaters etc.  I busted out laughing when I was doing behind the one intake because I was so into it and thought wow @Patrick_Gwould love these to get into his tight space he posted about. Thought I would share so other interested folks could see. I thought I could use them as one time throw away uses because things that grow in wet sponges freak me out! You would think all the weirdness and crawly things I adore growing in my tank it wouldn’t bother me it does. Amazingly though because these are so thin they dry really quick so I can reuse them 🥳

good house keeping thing my mother taught me to help with the wet dog smell of kitchen bath sponges is to rinse in very cold water when your done to impede the mildew growth stench Probably common sense but mom had to teach me that in my 30’s 🤣

[Patrick_G]

@Guppysnail, that’s a great tip! 

[GameCzar]

I gotta get some of these for our 3 gallon.   Too many plants to move the block around in there effectively.

[Guppysnail]

On 8/9/2021 at 11:49 AM, GameCzar said:

I gotta get some of these for our 3 gallon.   Too many plants to move the block around in there effectively.

Amazon has a few types in bulk because as I found out they are reusable it makes them incredibly cheap. Still not bad priced priced if you do single use just be real sure they say chemical free or 100% melamine as some have cleaners smell additives etc. I feel like a traitor to the coop but these are such an awesome addition to theirs because of sizing and quick drying. 

[Stacy Z]

I’m sorry you lost your Dragon Boop and that you need to downsize the fish. I’m grateful to know you were able to share to all of us. Please don’t be discouraged. You should like a water sign, like you were meant for the hobby. I do hope you can keep going with some nano tanks with it being less work on your body! 

[GameCzar]

On 8/9/2021 at 11:03 AM, Guppysnail said:

Amazon has a few types in bulk because as I found out they are reusable it makes them incredibly cheap. Still not bad priced priced if you do single use just be real sure they say chemical free or 100% melamine as some have cleaners smell additives etc. I feel like a traitor to the coop but these are such an awesome addition to theirs because of sizing and quick drying. 

I'd be glad to buy them from co-op if they get them!  I try to patronize when possible.