Minanoras adventures in fishkeeping

[Minanora]

On 7/4/2022 at 7:42 PM, dan12boy said:

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

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.

It's not so bad to leave for a few days. Unless you get new fish. Then it's stressful a bit. But not too bad.

I left for two weeks to go to Hawai'i with my family back in May. I learned a lot with that trip. If you have plants and a healthy tank you can leave for a few days without even feeding.

[Torrey]

On 7/4/2022 at 6:00 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!

Whoot!!!!

Is Merlin a blue swordtail???🧐 Isn't blue sword the fish Cory has been looking for?

Glad you enjoyed your birthday, and no drama on the return!

[Patrick_G]

On 7/4/2022 at 11:24 PM, Torrey said:

Is Merlin a blue swordtail???🧐 Isn't blue sword the fish Cory has been looking for?

I’m interested too. I've  seen pics of blue swordtails, but not with yellow fins. What a cool fish. 

[Minanora]

On 7/4/2022 at 11:24 PM, Torrey said:

Whoot!!!!

Is Merlin a blue swordtail???🧐 Isn't blue sword the fish Cory has been looking for?

Glad you enjoyed your birthday, and no drama on the return!

 

On 7/5/2022 at 12:18 AM, Patrick_G said:

I’m interested too. I've  seen pics of blue swordtails, but not with yellow fins. What a cool fish. 

Merlin is technically a black swordtail. The pair I bred, Merlin and Mim, expressed the most blue and metallic green I've seen in black swordtails. However due to the melanoma that Mim had, I will not be breeding this strain anymore. I am giving away all of the offspring as well.

No fry have ever expressed orange coloration on the body. The only variation has been some that have very light pigmentation on parts of the body. Like milk cows or black and white cats. They're very cute. Those also go through color changes constantly. White areas going back and forth between black and white. It's very interesting. Nitrate levels seem to impact the color changing.

I think the color Cory was more looking for is a much lighter blue. I don't think it was the Sky Blue swordtails but it may have been.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Minanora
Formatting

[Odd Duck]

On 7/4/2022 at 10:16 AM, Minanora said:

Though I'm pretty sure they're three stripe cories

They look like trilineatus to me also.  Adorable!

[Minanora]

On 7/6/2022 at 8:19 AM, Odd Duck said:

They look like trilineatus to me also.  Adorable!

All of the "Julii" cories I have purchased from my LFS have been Trilineatus then. I'm hoping the group I just got follows the same trend. They are small so it's hard to tell much about how their adult pattern will be right now. They're almost 1". They are all alive and well. So dang cute!

[Minanora]

So... I forgot how fast nitrates go up when you use an auto feeder.... Plus adding extra feedings for babies. My fry grow out hit 150ppm nitrates in 7 days! Totally crashed the pH and ate all of the KH. I only lost two guppies to the event so far... I'm currently doing a drip water change. I drained 75% of the tank and I'm running the hose into the tank on a very slow trickle. In the next 6 hours the tank should be full again.

Hopefully I don't lose any other fish.

The other tanks are fine thankfully. I'm just bummed because I have those new cories in the grow out.

[Torrey]

On 7/8/2022 at 11:06 AM, Minanora said:

So... I forgot how fast nitrates go up when you use an auto feeder.... Plus adding extra feedings for babies. My fry grow out hit 150ppm nitrates in 7 days! Totally crashed the pH and ate all of the KH. I only lost two guppies to the event so far... I'm currently doing a drip water change. I drained 75% of the tank and I'm running the hose into the tank on a very slow trickle. In the next 6 hours the tank should be full again.

Hopefully I don't lose any other fish.

The other tanks are fine thankfully. I'm just bummed because I have those new cories in the grow out.

I have been there, try not to beat yourself up. It's a learning experience.

Do you have any floating plants available?

This is my favorite use of duckweed. I cover the surface of the turtle pond with duckweed, and it can drop nitrates almost overnight. Then throw the duckweed in my compost.

May all your fry and your cories pull through with no long term issues!

[dan12boy]

On 7/8/2022 at 1:06 PM, Minanora said:

So... I forgot how fast nitrates go up when you use an auto feeder.... Plus adding extra feedings for babies. My fry grow out hit 150ppm nitrates in 7 days! Totally crashed the pH and ate all of the KH. I only lost two guppies to the event so far... I'm currently doing a drip water change. I drained 75% of the tank and I'm running the hose into the tank on a very slow trickle. In the next 6 hours the tank should be full again.

Hopefully I don't lose any other fish.

The other tanks are fine thankfully. I'm just bummed because I have those new cories in the grow out.

You're gonna bounce back so don't be too worried. Plus this is a sign that your guppies are the hardiest anyone could come by!!

[Minanora]

On 7/8/2022 at 10:31 AM, Torrey said:

I have been there, try not to beat yourself up. It's a learning experience.

Do you have any floating plants available?

This is my favorite use of duckweed. I cover the surface of the turtle pond with duckweed, and it can drop nitrates almost overnight. Then throw the duckweed in my compost.

May all your fry and your cories pull through with no long term issues!

I had duckweed across most of the tank and water lettuce that I pulled excess from the chili ruins.

I'm sure I just sentenced all of the fish in the tank to long term nitrate sensitivity but maybe not. They often sat at 40-80 full time but I feel like this spike was high enough to make them break a bit. Time will tell.

[Odd Duck]

On 7/9/2022 at 1:08 AM, Minanora said:

I had duckweed across most of the tank and water lettuce that I pulled excess from the chili ruins.

I'm sure I just sentenced all of the fish in the tank to long term nitrate sensitivity but maybe not. They often sat at 40-80 full time but I feel like this spike was high enough to make them break a bit. Time will tell.

When I had my explosion of Jack Dempsey fry that really got me back into the hobby, I had way too many little fishies and far too little water, doing twice weekly 50-70% water changes on 4 tanks that totaled 130 gallons plus the weekly water change for the parents and about 60 fry in the 75 G and I didn’t yet have my python.  I truly hate to think how high the nitrates were.  No plants because Jack Dempsey fry will eat ANYTHING and they ate the frogbit that I tried to grow.  I had to put the frogbit inside a floating breeder box to keep it away from them and alive.  Needless to say, it wasn’t nearly enough to make any difference on THAT nitrate load.  I just put my head down and did my massive water changes and didn’t test but once or twice because I just didn’t even want to know what my nitrates were.  I did have massive overfiltration, but still.

I had somewhere between 1500-1600 fry plus the parents in the 75 G with some of the fry just to keep the parents happy.  The parents got very depressed and wouldn’t eat when I took all the fry away.  They were fine once I gave them back about 60 fry.  I had ridiculously low losses in my tanks maybe 1%(?) (not counting very early losses when the fry were too small to even be visible or noticeable if they died in amongst the mass of tiny fry).  I had very little cannibalism that I noted - only saw 1 eat a sibling and he was the biggest of the second clutch eating the smallest so he immediately went in with the big boys.  Then I started working even harder at separately the biggest and getting them sold/given away.

It was a fascinating and yet horrible experience to have that many fast growing fry at once from big cichlids.  I should have destroyed the second clutch and it would probably have been tolerable.  But it sure got me back up to speed in a hurry on how to keep fish.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 

The lesson here, after I got all side tracked telling the tale, is that fish are often tougher than we think and have remarkable adaptability.  Would I ever recommend trying to raise that many fry in such small spaces - NO. Would I recommend letting nitrates get that high - no.  Will they survive and heal - YES.  They will likely be just fine.  They might be a little sensitive for a while but will also likely get past it.  I have confidence that you will get them through this.

[Minanora]

@Odd Duck good story. I can imagine that being super exhausting. Especially without a Python.

I have a lot less fry than I had back in December/January. But there are still maybe 30 guppies in the grow out, plus the cories and 8 swordtail juvies.

There's possibly 40ish swordtails in the 75 that I need to move though. Figured I'd move a bunch of them when I move the cories into the 75. 

I was doing water changes every other day on the grow out back in the boom. But after Hawaii I slowed feeding to once daily. Which was not enough food... But I could get away with bi-weekly water changes. I needed that break. Looks like I'm back on a Fri, Sun, Wed water change schedule until I rehome more of these kids.

I wish I could set up two or three more of the tanks I have but I've been cut off. 🤣 I'm going to design a fish-she shed near my garden so I can recapture my water and have it stored for summer gardening. But that's a ways out on the to-do list.

I rarely check parameters on any of my tanks these days. Things are pretty predictable with my routine. Except the grow out.... Which I don't check enough, but I know it's always a high nitrate situation due to the population. I'm ready to stop breeding things for a while. Though, I do want more guppies... 😅 And baby cories!

[Torrey]

@Minanora did I ever tell you why I became such a big duckweed fan?

(and I think your fish are going to be fine!)

[dan12boy]

On 7/9/2022 at 9:16 PM, Torrey said:

@Minanora did I ever tell you why I became such a big duckweed fan?

(and I think your fish are going to be fine!)

Hornwort is another plant I'm a fan of when it comes to sucking up nitrates.

[Minanora]

On 7/9/2022 at 8:46 PM, dan12boy said:

Hornwort is another plant I'm a fan of when it comes to sucking up nitrates.

I don't like the texture of hornwort, but totes.

@Torrey You crack me up. I sometimes put ONE little leaf of duckweed in a tank to see if it will explode or not. It's actually been hit or miss. But my 20g.. er, my sons 20 has duckweed right now due to this very experiment. The HOB keeps sending it into his rotala, it's frustrating but fun to watch. His tank also all of a sudden has green hydra. I have no idea where they came from. I'm trying to decide if I want to wipe them out or not. I just put soooo many tiny shrimp in that tank.... but I don't want to lose the snails.

[Minanora]

Micro update.... I have more baby guppies... There are some sneaky boys and girls in the grow out tank. Going to have baby swordtails again soon as well. It's crazy! But, the swordtails are chasing and eating the fry which is good! It's so hard not to help them survive. It's my instinct, but I'm resisting!

Also, my shrimp make me happy!

 

[nabokovfan87]

Those 3 shrimp in the back of the tank just staring at you take their picture, too adorable.

[dan12boy]

On 7/10/2022 at 1:56 AM, Minanora said:

I don't like the texture of hornwort, but totes.

@Torrey You crack me up. I sometimes put ONE little leaf of duckweed in a tank to see if it will explode or not. It's actually been hit or miss. But my 20g.. er, my sons 20 has duckweed right now due to this very experiment. The HOB keeps sending it into his rotala, it's frustrating but fun to watch. His tank also all of a sudden has green hydra. I have no idea where they came from. I'm trying to decide if I want to wipe them out or not. I just put soooo many tiny shrimp in that tank.... but I don't want to lose the snails.

My snail population has died down dramatically ever since the shrimp population was increasing. This is why I don’t like hornwort. Take out three quarters of that and in two weeks it’s back to that. Glad I ended up just getting rid of it…minus the one little piece in my 75. 

[dan12boy]

On 7/12/2022 at 12:25 AM, Minanora said:

But, the swordtails are chasing and eating the fry

Kinda wish my guppy mamas ate their fry. Haven't had a male in with my 4 adult females in over a month and after about 20 fry they'd dropped there's now 5 more out of nowhere...and my honey gourami is also too nice to even consider chasing. How quickly do your fry grow to sexing size?

[Minanora]

On 7/12/2022 at 6:16 PM, dan12boy said:

Kinda wish my guppy mamas ate their fry. Haven't had a male in with my 4 adult females in over a month and after about 20 fry they'd dropped there's now 5 more out of nowhere...and my honey gourami is also too nice to even consider chasing. How quickly do your fry grow to sexing size?

You'll probably keep having fry for the next 5 months. They store stock.

I can usually sex fry successfully at 4 weeks. Pretty much as soon as I see a difference in sheen. I can see the black area of the gravid spot at this point and a stripe of metallic on the males bodies that the females lack. I used to be able to do it earlier, but my eyesight just isn't as good anymore. Been breeding guppies for fun on and off for the last 20 years.

HOWEVER, I then wad up a bunch of my floating trimmings and move them from one side of the grow out to the other... and move fish with them in the process.... >.> Yup. Allllll my hard work, down the drain. Haha. 😛 

 

[dan12boy]

On 7/12/2022 at 11:20 PM, Minanora said:

You'll probably keep having fry for the next 5 months. They store stock.

I can usually sex fry successfully at 4 weeks. Pretty much as soon as I see a difference in sheen. I can see the black area of the gravid spot at this point and a stripe of metallic on the males bodies that the females lack. I used to be able to do it earlier, but my eyesight just isn't as good anymore. Been breeding guppies for fun on and off for the last 20 years.

HOWEVER, I then wad up a bunch of my floating trimmings and move them from one side of the grow out to the other... and move fish with them in the process.... >.> Yup. Allllll my hard work, down the drain. Haha. 😛 

 

MONTHS?? If only I enjoyed bigger fish but all I love are the nano kind that are playmates for the fry🤧

[Torrey]

On 7/16/2022 at 3:50 PM, dan12boy said:

MONTHS?? If only I enjoyed bigger fish but all I love are the nano kind that are playmates for the fry🤧

When breeding livebearers, the rule of thumb to know for sure who the dad is, separate the females from the males, and wait for 3 months after the last fry are born *and* the females stay pink at the gravid spot. Even then, I have had a few females throw fry that I was 99% sure came from the old male.

I have had female endlers give birth to fry a full 6 months after I removed all the males.😅

There's a reason guppies are called "million fish"

[dan12boy]

On 7/16/2022 at 5:59 PM, Torrey said:

When breeding livebearers, the rule of thumb to know for sure who the dad is, separate the females from the males, and wait for 3 months after the last fry are born *and* the females stay pink at the gravid spot. Even then, I have had a few females throw fry that I was 99% sure came from the old male.

I have had female endlers give birth to fry a full 6 months after I removed all the males.😅

There's a reason guppies are called "million fish"

Crazy thing is I was just super impatient, went in the fish store but didn’t want to leave empty handed so bought 6 guppies, 2 male, 4 female. The females were already preggers and apparently have kept it since then. It’s been like 2 months now. The two males died even though I tried to medicate and save them but all the females were fine since I moved them before I started medicating. Now I’m just raising the fry hoping my lfs takes them even if it’s for no credit. 

[Minanora]

On 7/16/2022 at 3:02 PM, dan12boy said:

Crazy thing is I was just super impatient, went in the fish store but didn’t want to leave empty handed so bought 6 guppies, 2 male, 4 female. The females were already preggers and apparently have kept it since then. It’s been like 2 months now. The two males died even though I tried to medicate and save them but all the females were fine since I moved them before I started medicating. Now I’m just raising the fry hoping my lfs takes them even if it’s for no credit. 

So, if you're raising them anyway. Feed them well, give them exercise. You can get credit for them, at the least. If you plan to buy stuff from your lfs all the time, credit is the way to go because you generally get more value per fish. If you need the cash, talk to the store owner and "sell" them. You can usually get about $1.50 for males, or more depending on your location and the quality of fish. Generally they will give you 50% of what they sell them for. Since they don't have to pay for shipping and your water parameters are usually similar to the shop. So less deaths than a wholesaler.

At my expensive LFS I get store credit, at my LPS I get cash. I support my LPS more often now since he's not charging $7.00 for a female mutt guppy. But I do sell my strain specific guppies to the LFS because I get good credit for them and I order my plants and order my specialty fish there.

You're going to have baby guppies for the next few months. Plain and simple. Lol. Don't sell yourself short though. Worst case you give away some females for free, but the males sell. So will some females.

[dan12boy]

On 7/16/2022 at 10:04 PM, Minanora said:

So, if you're raising them anyway. Feed them well, give them exercise. You can get credit for them, at the least. If you plan to buy stuff from your lfs all the time, credit is the way to go because you generally get more value per fish. If you need the cash, talk to the store owner and "sell" them. You can usually get about $1.50 for males, or more depending on your location and the quality of fish. Generally they will give you 50% of what they sell them for. Since they don't have to pay for shipping and your water parameters are usually similar to the shop. So less deaths than a wholesaler.

At my expensive LFS I get store credit, at my LPS I get cash. I support my LPS more often now since he's not charging $7.00 for a female mutt guppy. But I do sell my strain specific guppies to the LFS because I get good credit for them and I order my plants and order my specialty fish there.

You're going to have baby guppies for the next few months. Plain and simple. Lol. Don't sell yourself short though. Worst case you give away some females for free, but the males sell. So will some females.

How do I give them exercise? Right now whenever I’m off from work I feed them 4-5 times a day and I try to do water changes every 2-3 days because I have hair algae that regrows around that time period. I have two sponge filters in their tanks. I’ve never grown guppy fry to adulthood. They somehow used to just die before then. One fry that I had survive grew very slowly for months and then randomly passed away. Right now though everyone seems healthy and thriving in the grow out so I have hope I’ll get to see them become young adults. So far it looks like it’s only females from the fry.