Minanoras adventures in fishkeeping

[Guppysnail]

On 10/25/2022 at 12:24 AM, Minanora said:

I added a small nicrew internal filter to the shrimp sanctuary to see if it would help get the fine particles under control. Haven't used any clarifier. It's helping a little! I will post before and after photos. The filter is cute. It has a tiny spray bar.

Here's some photos of the shrimp feasting.

My shrimp tank stayed cloudy and it was clear for like a day and then cloud back up and this went on for months. I finally added a tiny little miniature hang on the back and that cleared it up I just think it wasn’t getting enough  aeration to let the bacteria colony really establish itself. But that’s just a guess it’s now nice and clear

Edited October 25, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Minanora]

On 10/25/2022 at 4:20 AM, Guppysnail said:

My shrimp tank stayed cloudy and it was clear for like a day and then cloud back up and this went on for months. I finally added a tiny little miniature hang on the back and that cleared it up I just think it wasn’t getting enough  aeration to let the bacteria colony really establish itself. But that’s just a guess it’s now nice and clear

Interesting.  I may crank up the air again then. Tank did fine when I didn't have 100s of shrimp. 😂 A single sponge filter struggles. Thank you for the idea.

[Minanora]

On 10/24/2022 at 10:09 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Apart from the new one, the tank is running sponges?  If you ever get one or see one, grab an aqueon or marineland penguin pro type of HoB that meant for a small filter.  If you ever have a tank that's cloudy, I would use those jammed with floss and just run it for 2-5 days until it was cleaned up. 

I think you have a hate-hate use for the tidal 35's.  Same thing.  I would basically use it for that only at this point or a plants only tank, never anything with fish, especially fry.  Annoyingly I am using it now on one tank, but I have the 55 to replace it after I patch up the Tidal testing for the hivemind / experiments thread.

I recently took my tidal 35 to the garage. It's not a bad filter but it's not great either.

The little internal, I filled it full of floss but the sheer number of shrimp are a challenge. There's a lot of shrimpletts..... A lot.

@TheSwissAquaristthere's likely 250+ mostly shrimpletts and juveniles right now. As they age up a lot will get sold. It's a heavy burden for the tank for sure.

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/25/2022 at 2:53 PM, Minanora said:

TheSwissAquaristthere's likely 250+ mostly shrimpletts and juveniles right now. As they age up a lot will get sold. It's a heavy burden for the tank for sure.

Wow! How long has the tank been running for?

[Minanora]

On 10/25/2022 at 6:21 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Wow! How long has the tank been running for?

A year in November.

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/25/2022 at 5:53 AM, Minanora said:

I recently took my tidal 35 to the garage. It's not a bad filter but it's not great either.

The little internal, I filled it full of floss but the sheer number of shrimp are a challenge. There's a lot of shrimpletts..... A lot.

It is definitely a fickle one. I am not a fan of it. Honestly. It's a pump you can mount on the side in my view.  The sad thing is it works better than the other filters because it has press-fit tolerances instead of whatever seachem decided was sloppy enough on the bigger ones.

That's a lot of shrimp!  It's a good thing though, they are doing well for you 🙂 .

[Minanora]

The great reveal!!! So, my surprise evolved.... Scope creep to the max. But here's what's been going on!

I got 9 panda cories from @nabokovfan87! He now has a bunch of my black swordtails. So these little cories were slated to go into my son's tank. I have them in quarantine in my son's room in a 10g... My husband fell in love with the cories (the 12 in my 75 are his babies)... He wanted the new ones to have more space! So I got the green light to upgrade my son's tank to a bigger tank.

Apparently he would have been happy with a 75g!!! Ooooooooooo. I didn't though. I got my son a 40G breeder. Just fits better in the space, and easier for me to work on.

Anyway, I learned a lot from the 75, so I have a 4.5" substrate bed, another fluval canister, more wood, kinda mini of my 75. But I'm going to try to get my son's castle into this tank. 90% sure it won't fit though.

here are the progress photos so far.

It's level, aquasoil on the bottom, eco planted over that, then a deep layer of sand over the top. 105# of substrate. 🤣

I got a fluval 207, but I'll be moving two sponge filters into this. Then adding co2. All of my son's plants are moving into this.

[Torrey]

Congrats!! Looks like it's going to be awesome... what plants are coming?😅

[Minanora]

On 10/30/2022 at 4:54 PM, Torrey said:

Congrats!! Looks like it's going to be awesome... what plants are coming?😅

Ty friend. A bunch of crypts, a huge Amazon sword, some red rotala, dwarf chainsword, and honestly, I don't want it but the duckweed will wind up in there🤣

[Minanora]

The new tank is my favorite size.... I love the 40G breeder. Such a versatile size. I was able to put the black background on before I set it up, it made it painless. the tank is centered on the stand, I need to secure the tubing to the back so it doesn't hit the blinds. I pre-fit everything before I set it up. Setting up that stand.... I hate them, but for the price it's hard to beat. The tank I got on sale, I had to exchange it once because the one I originally bought had a panel that was really far out of whack.... What a pain to carry that thing to my 4Runner by myself.

 

So in addition to the panda cories, my sons 2 peppered cories will be going in, 4 female guppies (2 are tiny runts, one is a durp), 1 red wag swordtail, 2 neon tetras, 3 glolight tetras, 1 clown pleco. Then I rescued a little bumblebee goby that had been hiding in my LFS pea puffer tank that I'd been watching for several months. He will be going in the 40B as well. He's with the cories in quarantine and is doing very well with the water parameters. I will be putting 1 tbsp per 5G of salt in the 40 when it stabilizes. This is what my sons current tank sits at. So hopefully the goby likes that.

I'm catching all of the shrimp out of my sons tank and starting a yellow golden-back colony in his new setup. 😄 I'll start breeding them in quarantine, then move them in after the first gen shrimplettes get big enough to move safely.

This tank will be getting the new co-op easy light! And the Co-op regulator.

[Torrey]

On 10/30/2022 at 5:57 PM, Minanora said:

Ty friend. A bunch of crypts, a huge Amazon sword, some red rotala, dwarf chainsword, and honestly, I don't want it but the duckweed will wind up in there🤣

I found the best duckweed remover!

Cut a flexible piece of plastic canvas, and make a "comb" (mine is 10" long by 4" wide) to curve around and scoop up the duckweed. Then use an infant nasal bulb to suck up the remaining bits of duckweed. I have removed all the duckweed from my dining room 4' tank!

[Minanora]

I got my 1 year badge for the forum today. Hard to believe a year has passed since I joined.

The new 40 is cycling and I'm going to plant it this weekend.

I feel like 4 inches of substrate is insane looking in this tank but I can't go back now! 😂Looks like a lot less in my 75.

The Shrimp Sanctuary is thriving. Water is cloudy but it's better than it was for sure. I'll post an updated photo comparison soon.

The panda cories are settling in. My son loves them. He's demanding more otos though lol.

Mr Swimmy is doing well. He will get moved to the 40 when it's seasoned though.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

 Happy 1 year! MORE OTOS! MORE OTOS! 😄

[Guppysnail]

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY 🎉. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/1/2022 at 7:10 AM, Minanora said:

The panda cories are settling in. My son loves them. He's demanding more otos though lol.

😂 That's awesome. 

Happy 1 year of fun!

[Minanora]

Well I laid in bed last night thinking about the substrate in the 40. I'm going to scoop the sand out and pull out some of the eco complete layer. I'm going to try my darndest to get my son's castle in there for him. And make some swimming room. Only going to pull out an inch of depth, but there's areas that are almost 5", lowest area is 4" I'm thinking 3.35-4" will be fine and I can sink the castle in a little bit.

The pandas are starting to glass surf and know when it's feeding time. The little guy goby is happy and actually eating the rapashy I put in.

[Minanora]

🤔 I just realized that with the 40 set up... I'm up one total fish tank right now. 😂

Fish tank math:

I'm supposed to only have 3. I had 5, broke down 1, then set up another 1. Then set up 1 more. 🙈

Though eventually I'll break down 2, I'll still be net positive for gallons of water. 🤣

Technically I'll only have 3 fish tanks since one of the 4 is a shrimp only tank. 😁

For now I'm loving having 6

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/3/2022 at 4:38 AM, Minanora said:

🤔 I just realized that with the 40 set up... I'm up one total fish tank right now. 😂

Fish tank math:

I'm supposed to only have 3. I had 5, broke down 1, then set up another 1. Then set up 1 more. 🙈

Though eventually I'll break down 2, I'll still be net positive for gallons of water. 🤣

Technically I'll only have 3 fish tanks since one of the 4 is a shrimp only tank. 😁

For now I'm loving having 6

You've forgotten the fish shed 😉

[Minanora]

On 11/2/2022 at 11:37 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

You've forgotten the fish shed 😉

Well there's not even a foundation there yet so I'm not counting the fish tanks I'm dreaming about. 🤣

[Minanora]

Had my 75 do a weird nitrite spike thing. I have no idea why.... But holy heck it sent my yellow tiger king Cobra guppies into a bad spell. Random fin loss and I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose my favorite cull from the group. I thought the fin loss was maybe from Mr Swimmy, thus why I was going to move him to the 40B. But yesterday morning I noticed that the cories were hiding more and one of the Guppies looked to be knocking on deaths door. 😔 I used my easy test strips, nitrite turned a tiny bit pink so I busted out the master test kit for a deep dive. Nitrite at just over .25... I noticed a bunch of empty bladder snail shells too... I don't know what happened but I'm thinking I'm probably going to lose a guppy.

This is him, his fin loss and pinecone scales happened in less than 24 hours.

I'm going to do a big water change today. I had to fill up 5 gallon buckets and put them in the bath tub yesterday to get warm. Ground water is way too cold to do my usual garden hose water change. 48° out of the hose. We are in a cold snap.

[Minanora]

On the brighter side. Before and after with the tiny filter on the shrimp sanctuary.

Before

After

I need to clean up my plants now that I can see them. 😊

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/4/2022 at 2:38 PM, Minanora said:

Had my 75 do a weird nitrite spike thing. I have no idea why.... But holy heck it sent my yellow tiger king Cobra guppies into a bad spell. Random fin loss and I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose my favorite cull from the group. I thought the fin loss was maybe from Mr Swimmy, thus why I was going to move him to the 40B. But yesterday morning I noticed that the cories were hiding more and one of the Guppies looked to be knocking on deaths door. 😔 I used my easy test strips, nitrite turned a tiny bit pink so I busted out the master test kit for a deep dive. Nitrite at just over .25... I noticed a bunch of empty bladder snail shells too... I don't know what happened but I'm thinking I'm probably going to lose a guppy.

This is him, his fin loss and pinecone scales happened in less than 24 hours.

I'm going to do a big water change today. I had to fill up 5 gallon buckets and put them in the bath tub yesterday to get warm. Ground water is way too cold to do my usual garden hose water change. 48° out of the hose. We are in a cold snap.

Sorry to hear that; Good Luck!

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/4/2022 at 6:38 AM, Minanora said:

I'm going to do a big water change today. I had to fill up 5 gallon buckets and put them in the bath tub yesterday to get warm. Ground water is way too cold to do my usual garden hose water change. 48° out of the hose. We are in a cold snap.

Yeah it's pretty cold.  Maybe you have a tub you can just run a heater in for an hour or two and then do the big change?

I do about.... 40-60% changes in a tank with heaters without issues (colder water), but once you get water that cold it's something where I just try to limit it to 30-40% changes.

Hopefully everyone recovers.  It sounds like water changes and maybe some salt (?) might be the best method to help them out.  As always, drop in extra air just to help everyone too, especially with corydoras that usually, really helps. 

Are you thinking at all that you need to run any bacterial meds or just WCs and monitor?  I wonder what on earth happened.

It got really cold, really fast here.

[Minanora]

On 11/4/2022 at 12:04 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Yeah it's pretty cold.  Maybe you have a tub you can just run a heater in for an hour or two and then do the big change?

I do about.... 40-60% changes in a tank with heaters without issues (colder water), but once you get water that cold it's something where I just try to limit it to 30-40% changes.

Hopefully everyone recovers.  It sounds like water changes and maybe some salt (?) might be the best method to help them out.  As always, drop in extra air just to help everyone too, especially with corydoras that usually, really helps. 

Are you thinking at all that you need to run any bacterial meds or just WCs and monitor?  I wonder what on earth happened.

It got really cold, really fast here.

I am going to do my water change, add IAL tea, run some extra air, and monitor. The little guy that's wrecked is getting special treatment. Still working on a plan for him.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/4/2022 at 9:28 PM, Minanora said:

I am going to do my water change, add IAL tea, run some extra air, and monitor. The little guy that's wrecked is getting special treatment. Still working on a plan for him.

When I bought 6 long fin guppies from my LFS (who were being kept with tiger barbs) I dosed some Methylene Blue into the QT tank to stop any fungus issues if that helps...?