Fish Room 64 Build Thread

[rastamon34]

This was an awesome journal buddy. I'm planning a basement fish room here soon, and I think perhaps I will post some photos and such too. You've done a ton with a very small space, Great Job. What is the material you used for your lids called? and how did you cut it? Thanks dude.

[Jimmy]

On 1/30/2022 at 11:54 AM, rastamon34 said:

This was an awesome journal buddy. I'm planning a basement fish room here soon, and I think perhaps I will post some photos and such too. You've done a ton with a very small space, Great Job. What is the material you used for your lids called? and how did you cut it? Thanks dude.

Twin wall polycarbonate. You can get it at lowes or Home Depot. I used a jigsaw and then a utility blade to clean up the edges.

Consider keeping a journal. You can just take a lot of pictures and update it when you have time. 
 

im glad you enjoyed it make sure to check in from time to time. I’m about to have 3 months off so I will be staying active in the room. Let me know if you have any questions!

[BettaHomesAndGardens]

This was so much fun to read through. Everything looks awesome! Hope to have something similar someday. I may have skipped over it inadvertently but what are your plans for potential power outages. Do you have a backup generator or something of that nature? Living in the Midwest this is always a huge fear of mine and I need to get more proactive about it. 

[Jimmy]

On 1/31/2022 at 12:26 AM, BettaHomesAndGardens said:

This was so much fun to read through. Everything looks awesome! Hope to have something similar someday. I may have skipped over it inadvertently but what are your plans for potential power outages. Do you have a backup generator or something of that nature? Living in the Midwest this is always a huge fear of mine and I need to get more proactive about it. 

Well I’m glad you enjoyed it! I wanted to be more thorough with the journal but time was and my wife’s patience was everything. This room will tie me over for 5-10 years til we get our forever home. I learned a ton and have a better idea on what my long term fish room might be set up differently.

 

I live in the Pacific Northwest, it’s rather mild in the puget sound. Also my town is small and is quick to repair outages. I’m not overly concerned about outages. I have a generator or inverter for my car if need be.

 

fish can tolerate a wide range of temps short term so if you have an outage my focus would be just getting tanks aerated.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 1/13/2022 at 9:11 AM, Jimmy said:

Anyone else meh on shrimp?

Sacrilege as it likely is around here, but, kind of, me too.  I had cherry shrimp and they were okay.  But I never really got attached to them.  They did fine, I just didn't connect with them.  On the other hand the CPO crayfish I had I did like!  They were territorial, and interacted with each other.  They defended homes.  I found their behavior to be far more interesting than the shrimp.  Sadly, I thought it would be a great idea to add some crustacean eggs that came from a wild source in there to see what they would do, and it clearly introduced a disease.  They looked like dismantled cars one by one over the next week.  I haven't tried them since, but maybe I should.  Although now most of my fish would eat them in no time, so...  I'd have to have a dedicated tank. 

[Jimmy]

On 2/1/2022 at 4:46 AM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

Sacrilege as it likely is around here, but, kind of, me too.  I had cherry shrimp and they were okay.  But I never really got attached to them.  They did fine, I just didn't connect with them.  On the other hand the CPO crayfish I had I did like!  They were territorial, and interacted with each other.  They defended homes.  I found their behavior to be far more interesting than the shrimp.  Sadly, I thought it would be a great idea to add some crustacean eggs that came from a wild source in there to see what they would do, and it clearly introduced a disease.  They looked like dismantled cars one by one over the next week.  I haven't tried them since, but maybe I should.  Although now most of my fish would eat them in no time, so...  I'd have to have a dedicated tank. 

I lost a few but since had a ton of babies which has been exciting. Not sure why I had 3 adults die. Also I paid for LRB fire red shrimp but honestly I don’t know if they are any more noticeable quality than stuff marketed as cherry shrimp 

[Jimmy]

Played in the fish room today. Look at the top down on these two males I got from LRB awhile back. It was a trio. Today I finally found 1 fry! Hope to develop this strain out its beautiful and again I love the top down. 

 

I still have 16~ empty tanks. I put aragonite in this 20 long. It’s a little too white but I plan on growing a dense guppy grass jungle in it so it doesn’t matter.

I like to repurpose glass jars for planters. I used some aquasoil and intend on putting pogostemon clippings in them. The perk to this for me is if I have to do maintenance it’s rather easy to pull them out or prune. Also easier tank tear down and also I don’t want to sacrifice too much water volumn in 10gs with thick substrate to get things to root. Terracotta is my preferred planter but glass jars are exceptional since I have dozens.

[lefty o]

1 fry is a start. tanks look good.

[Hobbit]

Looks great! Those are some beautiful fish!

[Jimmy]

On 2/12/2022 at 6:52 AM, lefty o said:

1 fry is a start. tanks look good.

It’s sizable to no idea when she dropped it or how many she actually had. I’m hoping to get more. I would love to develop this line out for ponds. 

 

On 2/12/2022 at 8:21 AM, Hobbit said:

Looks great! Those are some beautiful fish!

I think so too. I thought I would go harder into guppies but I may not. My pictures suck but both males have substantial blue color behind  their gil plates that really pops. This strain is very dimunitive in size which I really like.

[Torrey]

@Jimmy they are quite gorgeous! Is it a light metallic blue that the camera is washing out, or is it an electric blue?

Reading through your journal has been a delight, thank you. 

[ORD😍😍😍]

[Jimmy]

On 2/12/2022 at 11:34 AM, Torrey said:

@Jimmy they are quite gorgeous! Is it a light metallic blue that the camera is washing out, or is it an electric blue?

Reading through your journal has been a delight, thank you. 

[ORD😍😍😍]

Electric! I will maybe get a specimen cup from the coop on my next order and try to get some decent photos

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdB6mTh9/

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Jimmyyou were an inspiration for my fish room build and it was great to catch up! I too am in the PNW (Central Oregon), when you get more fry from the guppies we can swap - some of my blue Hawaiians for those LRBs! Also would love a group of the paleautus, such a hardy cory. I will definitely attend Fishtoberfest again in Portland this fall you should plan to attend. Take it slow, I was quick to fill all my tanks and had some disasters. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 2/12/2022 at 3:19 AM, Jimmy said:

Played in the fish room today. Look at the top down on these two males I got from LRB awhile back. It was a trio. Today I finally found 1 fry! Hope to develop this strain out its beautiful and again I love the top down. 

 

I still have 16~ empty tanks. I put aragonite in this 20 long. It’s a little too white but I plan on growing a dense guppy grass jungle in it so it doesn’t matter.

I like to repurpose glass jars for planters. I used some aquasoil and intend on putting pogostemon clippings in them. The perk to this for me is if I have to do maintenance it’s rather easy to pull them out or prune. Also easier tank tear down and also I don’t want to sacrifice too much water volumn in 10gs with thick substrate to get things to root. Terracotta is my preferred planter but glass jars are exceptional since I have dozens.

Just started reading this thread; you've some a long way from putting walls up!

Looking great, and thanks for some ideas for my own future fish room 😈

[Jimmy]

On 4/5/2022 at 3:42 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

@Jimmyyou were an inspiration for my fish room build and it was great to catch up! I too am in the PNW (Central Oregon), when you get more fry from the guppies we can swap - some of my blue Hawaiians for those LRBs! Also would love a group of the paleautus, such a hardy cory. I will definitely attend Fishtoberfest again in Portland this fall you should plan to attend. Take it slow, I was quick to fill all my tanks and had some disasters. 

I became pretty inactive keeping it updated. I never saw this response so I’m replying 7 months later lol. I’m glad you found some inspiration! It’s a small space with limited power capacity and no running water. I thought it was crazy initially but people keep fish all around the world with even less resources and functionality so I thought why the heck not.

On 11/5/2022 at 8:28 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Just started reading this thread; you've some a long way from putting walls up!

Looking great, and thanks for some ideas for my own future fish room 😈

Awesome! I’ve learned a ton in the course of the little over a year I have had it up and running. Sadly I think how my next fish room will be different from time to time. 

 

My biggest suggestion is to put most your stock into planning and use other fish keepers rooms as a starting point for inspiration. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Jimmyany chance of an update?!

[Jimmy]

On 11/5/2022 at 1:41 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

@Jimmyany chance of an update?!

I think this thread was primarily for documenting the build. I haven’t done an update in a long time. Anything specific you would like to see?

[Minanora]

On 11/6/2022 at 5:14 AM, Jimmy said:

I think this thread was primarily for documenting the build. I haven’t done an update in a long time. Anything specific you would like to see?

Everything!!!! 😍

All the fishes and how you're using your space. 😊

Life in the fishroom

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

What @Minanorasaid!