Minanoras adventures in fishkeeping

[Minanora]

The mystery eggs from our boat hull are starting to hatch! So far there are four. I think five or six more may hatch. They emerged sometime between 9pm and 7am. One still has a yolk sac so I'd say they started hatching very early this morning. So exciting!

I cut the water bottle down, added a bit of fresh water, added some duckweed, and the dust from touching hikari first bites that stuck to my finger. We'll see how many survive!

[Minanora]

Only the 4 hatched. All four are alive and growing! They are very tiny.

[dan12boy]

On 6/5/2022 at 11:15 AM, Minanora said:

Only the 4 hatched. All four are alive and growing! They are very tiny.

Any pictures yet?! Would love to see the eggs, what are you gonna feed them for the time being? 

[Minanora]

On 6/5/2022 at 12:00 PM, dan12boy said:

Any pictures yet?! Would love to see the eggs, what are you gonna feed them for the time being? 

They're hard to photograph. They're almost clear and tiny. Getting bigger every day. I am feeding them hikari first bites. I'm keeping them in a specimen container for now. On top of my 75.

[Minanora]

Pretty sure they're fathead minnows. Time will tell. Two are swimming well already. All four are eating.

[dan12boy]

On 6/5/2022 at 5:18 PM, Minanora said:

They're hard to photograph. They're almost clear and tiny. Getting bigger every day. I am feeding them hikari first bites. I'm keeping them in a specimen container for now. On top of my 75.

They’re getting close to guppy fry size. How often do you feed them? Also how often do you do water changes on your 75? Now that mine’s cycled I’m not sure if I should do them weekly like my 20 gallon or what amount either. 

[Minanora]

On 6/6/2022 at 10:23 AM, dan12boy said:

They’re getting close to guppy fry size. How often do you feed them? Also how often do you do water changes on your 75? Now that mine’s cycled I’m not sure if I should do them weekly like my 20 gallon or what amount either. 

They are so cute. I only feed them in the morning. I'm not rushing to grow them out so it's just a daily feed. They are closing in on guppy size, but they're way different. They had a larval stage and are still lacking fins. Their mouths are way smaller than guppy fry. They take hikari first bites like champs, but the easy fry food is still too large. They'll be able to eat that soon though 

I should be doing 50% water changes on my 75 every week. Should. I'm at the end of week 3... I just haven't had time to do all of my tanks on schedule since we got home from Hawai'i. I got all of my garden planted as of yesterday. So I'll have more time now. I haven't even looked at the parameters on any of my tanks. I just did 75% changes on my two 20G talls on Saturday. I've been keeping up with those and their weekly 50-75% changes.

Shrimp sanctuary is tomorrow. 50% change and magfloat. I've fallen far behind on that tank. It's been 6 weeks.

 

I left this in draft on accident! That was on Saturday. Glad it got saved. Ehem, I didn't do the water change on the shrimp tank. I still need to water change the 75... Yup. Just relaxing and living the "do nothing" advice Cory gave. 🤣

Edited June 8, 2022 by Minanora
Typo

[dan12boy]

On 6/8/2022 at 9:37 AM, Minanora said:

They are so cute. I only feed them in the morning. I'm not rushing to grow them out so it's just a daily feed. They are closing in on guppy size, but they're way different. They had a larval stage and are still lacking fins. Their mouths are way smaller than guppy fry. They take hikari first bites like champs, but the easy fry food is still too large. They'll be able to eat that soon though 

I should be doing 50% water changes on my 75 every week. Should. I'm at the end of week 3... I just haven't had time to do all of my tanks on schedule since we got home from Hawai'i. I got all of my garden planted as of yesterday. So I'll have more time now. I haven't even looked at the parameters on any of my tanks. I just did 75% changes on my two 20G talls on Saturday. I've been keeping up with those and their weekly 50-75% changes.

Shrimp sanctuary is tomorrow. 50% change and magfloat. I've fallen far behind on that tank. It's been 6 weeks.

 

I left this in draft on accident! That was on Saturday. Glad it got saved. Ehem, I didn't do the water change on the shrimp tank. I still need to water change the 75... Yup. Just relaxing and living the "do nothing" advice Cory gave. 🤣

I’m guessing you have lids on your tanks?? Because I don’t and my tank water evaporates so if I ever skipped one week for my 20 gallon I have to at least fill it up with new water. I might get hikari first bites but for my regular sized fish because my furcata rainbows have pretty small mouths. They do eat the brine shrimp I provide them sometimes though and other food crushed up. With my 75 I might do 50% water changes one every two weeks because I roast it doing it more often might make the water bill higher for my parents. 

[Torrey]

On 6/9/2022 at 8:36 PM, dan12boy said:

I’m guessing you have lids on your tanks?? Because I don’t and my tank water evaporates so if I ever skipped one week for my 20 gallon I have to at least fill it up with new water. I might get hikari first bites but for my regular sized fish because my furcata rainbows have pretty small mouths. They do eat the brine shrimp I provide them sometimes though and other food crushed up. With my 75 I might do 50% water changes one every two weeks because I roast it doing it more often might make the water bill higher for my parents. 

I don't have lids that prevent evaporation on most of my tanks. I keep a few gallons of ZeroWater (like RO, but without the effluent) to top everyone off with until I do a water change. Otherwise, the tank turns into a box of of liquid calcium, lol. My shrimp tank has a solid lid, I think that's it...

[dan12boy]

On 6/10/2022 at 2:50 AM, Torrey said:

I don't have lids that prevent evaporation on most of my tanks. I keep a few gallons of ZeroWater (like RO, but without the effluent) to top everyone off with until I do a water change. Otherwise, the tank turns into a box of of liquid calcium, lol. My shrimp tank has a solid lid, I think that's it...

Wait how does it become filled with calcium? Does calcium not evaporate? 

[gjcarew]

On 6/10/2022 at 6:50 AM, dan12boy said:

Wait how does it become filled with calcium? Does calcium not evaporate? 

Correct. Only H2O evaporates, anything else stays in the tank. So if your water source has calcium in it and you top off evaporated water, you will accumulate more and more calcium.

[Torrey]

On 6/19/2022 at 11:47 PM, gjcarew said:

Correct. Only H2O evaporates, anything else stays in the tank. So if your water source has calcium in it and you top off evaporated water, you will accumulate more and more calcium.

Thank you, and @dan12boy I apologize that I missed the notification for this.

[Minanora]

I'm behind. 😂 It's been crazy around here.

I sold/gave a bunch of swordtails and guppies on Tuesday. Most of my swordtail kids are females. So the owner was not super thrilled with them. Which is sad because even the girls are beautiful.

Madam Mim passing away was both a relief and extremely depressing for me. I'm going to keep one of her daughters I think. Just not breed her.

I will eventually plant all of my new plants in the 75.... 🤣

[Minanora]

On 6/9/2022 at 7:36 PM, dan12boy said:

I’m guessing you have lids on your tanks?? Because I don’t and my tank water evaporates so if I ever skipped one week for my 20 gallon I have to at least fill it up with new water. I might get hikari first bites but for my regular sized fish because my furcata rainbows have pretty small mouths. They do eat the brine shrimp I provide them sometimes though and other food crushed up. With my 75 I might do 50% water changes one every two weeks because I roast it doing it more often might make the water bill higher for my parents. 

I have lids on all of my tanks except one. It gets very hot here and we have very low humidity. So everything has lids or else I have to fill tanks weekly with RO water.

 

My one tank that doesn't have a lid is my fry grow out. I have a tidal 35 on it. I hate this setup so much.... I have a penguin 150 that I should switch to but I am honestly hoping that the tidal dies. Worst. Filter. Ever. It moves water. it has an internal pump. That's all it has going for it. Every other aspect is garbage for my situation. Anyway, I have to top that tank off every 4 days.

I've settled into my 75G doing monthly water changes right now. I've stopped checking parameters and just continued adding ferts aside from nitrate. I check the nitrate when I'm ready to change the water. last time I checked it, it was at around 60ppm nitrate. I changed 70% of the water. It's been almost two weeks since then. I plan to change water again on Sunday in the 75, and all of the rest of the tanks.

 

I currently have a bucket of dirty shrimp sanctuary water on my living room floor with who knows how many shrimp in it.... I changed the water on Monday in the sanctuary and just decided that if I sucked up shrimp I'd deal with it later. Much later I guess. ehehm. Yeah. I even dropped food into the bucket.... >.> I'll scoop out shrimp later this weekend.

It's summer. Our area is Extreme fire risk and we got very little rain. So my focus has been on cutting fire lines on our "preserve" property at the lake. My fish tanks have taken a back seat. Which makes me sad but fire mitigation is top priority.

[Odd Duck]

On 6/25/2022 at 12:05 AM, Minanora said:

Our area is Extreme fire risk and we got very little rain. So my focus has been on cutting fire lines on our "preserve" property

Focus on staying safe.  The fish tanks can safely wait a bit.

[Torrey]

On 6/24/2022 at 11:05 PM, Minanora said:

It's summer. Our area is Extreme fire risk and we got very little rain. So my focus has been on cutting fire lines on our "preserve" property at the lake. My fish tanks have taken a back seat. Which makes me sad but fire mitigation is top priority.

What Odd Duck said. This is why i got the ZeroWater: Get everything as stable as possible, top off with the desert responsible version of RO, and minimize what my hobby is taking from the desert. Monsoons are actually happening this year (finally) and after a week of rain, the fire closest to us is still out. The biggest fire we have ever had is finally 70% contained.

This year is going to be rough.... Take care.

[Minanora]

Micro update. I almost killed some of my fish with CO2. I had noticed the otos coming out more over the last two days, my corydoras hiding and my Guppies resting more than usual. Then when we got home from the property yesterday I saw two of my harlequins swimming very strangely and resting upside down. Then I saw the co2 bubble stream looked to be much stronger than usual. Somehow the pressure went up. It was taking my tank to 6.2 pH. I turned off the co2, cranked up the air, added a pitcher of water, turned up the filter flow and tested all of the water parameters. Everything was good except that low pH.

After about an hour everyone was back to their normal selves. Scared me so much though.

 

On a side note, I had only been feeding my fry grow out once a day. Most of the fish were pretty thin not growing very quickly and I was thinking it was just wasting disease. I treated the tank several times with various meds and they remained thin. Previously I had been feeding maybe 6 times a day.... So I decided to start feeding them more. Surprise, surprise, all of the fish look great now. *Facepalm* I was starving them! I feel awful. At least everyone is alive. Time to set up the auto feeders again. Since I'm apparently so busy that I'm starving my fish.

[Minanora]

Today I got 6 more corydoras for the 75g! They're in quarantine. My LFS had them for at least two weeks before I got them. So I'm hoping they all survive quarantine. They're so CUTE!!!!

 

In other news, I changed the water in every tank except the Chili Ruins. But that's not a surprise. Still haven't changed water in there since December. Everyone is happy in there! My water lettuce in that tank is starting to take over though.

CO2 ran out in the 75 a few days ago. I refilled it today. I now see the benefit of a dual stage regulator.

I finally planted most of the plants I had staged for the 75! I also released a bunch of shrimp into my sons tank per his request.

Good way to start my birthday/holiday weekend! 😄

Plus look at my sons tank since google photos hasn't synced the rest of my photos for today. 😛

Happy plants! I added root tabs today to keep things cruising.

[Minanora]

Today we leave for the weekend to go to the lake. Having a birthday near a holiday is a blessing and a curse. Everyone gets together, but it's just because of the holiday, not the birthday. 😂

Anyway I set up and tested all of my auto feeders last night. So I have 0 stress about leaving for a few days.

Pictures from yesterday and today.

[Minanora]

Also, I totally accidently pulled out all of the PSA that was growing behind my son's castle ..... So I'm going to replace it with some awesome Java Ferns or maybe crypt crispatula tonkinensis. Maybe. I have tissue cultures for that crypt but I kinda want that instant gratification of a big Java Fern.

Forgot the chili ruins. The pump is not working so when I topped it off everything suspended and is just making it cloudy. I'll fix it on Monday or Tuesday. Love/hate relationship with this tank. The actual tank hardware not the scape/water or livestock. I don't like the internal pump behind the wall or how any of it's hardware works. It's cumbersome to work on and messy.

[Torrey]

Your dwarf water lettuce is gorgeous!!!

Happy Birthday!

[dan12boy]

On 6/30/2022 at 11:06 PM, Minanora said:

Today I got 6 more corydoras for the 75g! They're in quarantine. My LFS had them for at least two weeks before I got them. So I'm hoping they all survive quarantine. They're so CUTE!!!!

 

In other news, I changed the water in every tank except the Chili Ruins. But that's not a surprise. Still haven't changed water in there since December. Everyone is happy in there! My water lettuce in that tank is starting to take over though.

CO2 ran out in the 75 a few days ago. I refilled it today. I now see the benefit of a dual stage regulator.

I finally planted most of the plants I had staged for the 75! I also released a bunch of shrimp into my sons tank per his request.

Good way to start my birthday/holiday weekend! 😄

Plus look at my sons tank since google photos hasn't synced the rest of my photos for today. 😛

Happy plants! I added root tabs today to keep things cruising.

What cories did you get?? I’ve been trying to get much more pygmy cories because I want up to 15 for the 75 and so far only have 2. I need to get root tabs but I don’t get much hours during summer so don’t get paid as much, hopefully my next paycheck and I can get some more fish stuff. And happy early/late birthday!! Hope you enjoyed it.

[Minanora]

On 7/3/2022 at 5:04 PM, dan12boy said:

What cories did you get?? I’ve been trying to get much more pygmy cories because I want up to 15 for the 75 and so far only have 2. I need to get root tabs but I don’t get much hours during summer so don’t get paid as much, hopefully my next paycheck and I can get some more fish stuff. And happy early/late birthday!! Hope you enjoyed it.

I got more Julii cories. Though I'm pretty sure they're three stripe cories. I can't really tell. They're adorable so that's good enough for me. 😄

This addition will hopefully bring my total up to 12 cories in my 75.

15 is a solid number. They'll be so fun to watch! Cories have become my favorite.

 Merlin loves to photo-bomb... Even after being fed.

[Minanora]

Just got home from the lake. Everyone is alive and happy! All six of the tiny cories are doing well. I'm so happy! All is good in the nermborhood. 

I'm just stoked. None of my terrestrial plants died either! Woooo!

[dan12boy]

On 7/4/2022 at 11:16 AM, Minanora said:

I got more Julii cories. Though I'm pretty sure they're three stripe cories. I can't really tell. They're adorable so that's good enough for me. 😄

This addition will hopefully bring my total up to 12 cories in my 75.

15 is a solid number. They'll be so fun to watch! Cories have become my favorite.

 Merlin loves to photo-bomb... Even after being fed.

I would do more since pygymies are so tiny but I wanna wait and see how much fish I finish with in the tank.

On 7/4/2022 at 8:00 PM, Minanora said:

Just got home from the lake. Everyone is alive and happy! All six of the tiny cories are doing well. I'm so happy! All is good in the nermborhood. 

I'm just stoked. None of my terrestrial plants died either! Woooo!

Glad to see that everyone's A-okay in the nermborhood! Haven't left to stay overnight anywhere since I got my tank...dreading that day because I'll be so worried.