Minanoras adventures in fishkeeping

[Torrey]

On 7/16/2022 at 8:08 PM, dan12boy said:

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. 

They will all look like females until about 4 weeks old. Then the gonopodium will begin to develop. Adding some sort of strong water flow offers them an opportunity to exercise, when I have fry in a mesh breeder box I will put the breeder box in front of an internal HOB style filter for about 20 minutes twice a day. Stronger muscles in the caudal area prevent fry developing a hunched back. The stronger flow also keeps water quality higher in the breeder box. Fry that die shortly before adulthood typically are either underfed, or nitrates/water quality wasn't quite right for their developing gills.

Fry are more sensitive to higher nitrates than adults, and slow growth is a prime indicator nitrates are too high for the fry.

[dan12boy]

On 7/17/2022 at 2:30 PM, Torrey said:

They will all look like females until about 4 weeks old. Then the gonopodium will begin to develop. Adding some sort of strong water flow offers them an opportunity to exercise, when I have fry in a mesh breeder box I will put the breeder box in front of an internal HOB style filter for about 20 minutes twice a day. Stronger muscles in the caudal area prevent fry developing a hunched back. The stronger flow also keeps water quality higher in the breeder box. Fry that die shortly before adulthood typically are either underfed, or nitrates/water quality wasn't quite right for their developing gills.

Fry are more sensitive to higher nitrates than adults, and slow growth is a prime indicator nitrates are too high for the fry.

Came back from work and there’s 8 more fry…any ways I really need to start recording dates of when things happen or when I should be doing things because I’m bad at remembering stuff. That’s why right now I have no idea how old my fry are. Maybe I’ll buy a hob for that tank and take out one sponge filter for that increased flow. I rarely check my nitrates but I definitely should. All the glass tubes from the API that I had have broken so I need to buy replacements. They’re very fragile and break super easy

[Minanora]

I have a post in draft from my work laptop.... @dan12boy. I'll get my reply to you posted tomorrow when I go back into the office.

I make events on my Google calendar to keep track of babies for all of my breeders. It's very helpful.

Don't replace your sponge, just add a hob or powerhead with an intake filter. I use a powerhead for exercising my fish.

On 7/17/2022 at 11:30 AM, Torrey said:

They will all look like females until about 4 weeks old. Then the gonopodium will begin to develop. Adding some sort of strong water flow offers them an opportunity to exercise, when I have fry in a mesh breeder box I will put the breeder box in front of an internal HOB style filter for about 20 minutes twice a day. Stronger muscles in the caudal area prevent fry developing a hunched back. The stronger flow also keeps water quality higher in the breeder box. Fry that die shortly before adulthood typically are either underfed, or nitrates/water quality wasn't quite right for their developing gills.

Fry are more sensitive to higher nitrates than adults, and slow growth is a prime indicator nitrates are too high for the fry.

This. @dan12boy. This is great info. Ty @Torrey. 💚

I'm sorry for my few and far between replies. It's crazy here. I'm trying to get my tomatoes to set fruit in our weird weather or else we won't have canned tomatoes for the whole off-season. Same with my squash.

I feed our household year round with my garden so summer/fall is super busy for me.

[Minanora]

On that note, I added my newest corydoras to my 75 today! They're so cute!!!!!

The adults took to them right away. There are now 12 in the 75. 💚

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Minanoraare they trilineatus?

[Minanora]

On 7/17/2022 at 9:32 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

@Minanoraare they trilineatus?

I'm 99% sure they are. Those and the older cories I have in there were sold as Julii. I can't tell if the 6 new ones I added are yet. They don't have their adult markings yet. I would laugh if they're actually Julii this time. At least I have 6 of each!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@MinanoraThat would be humorous, a lot of stores just can't seem to get the difference down between the 2. I prefer the trilineatus myself, love those almost precise markings. 

[dan12boy]

On 7/18/2022 at 12:08 AM, Minanora said:

I have a post in draft from my work laptop.... @dan12boy. I'll get my reply to you posted tomorrow when I go back into the office.

I make events on my Google calendar to keep track of babies for all of my breeders. It's very helpful.

Don't replace your sponge, just add a hob or powerhead with an intake filter. I use a powerhead for exercising my fish.

This. @dan12boy. This is great info. Ty @Torrey. 💚

I'm sorry for my few and far between replies. It's crazy here. I'm trying to get my tomatoes to set fruit in our weird weather or else we won't have canned tomatoes for the whole off-season. Same with my squash.

I feed our household year round with my garden so summer/fall is super busy for me.

You don't have to be sorry, I've been busy with life too so don't have as much time to be on here and the fall semester is about to start too. 

 

On 7/18/2022 at 12:15 AM, Minanora said:

On that note, I added my newest corydoras to my 75 today! They're so cute!!!!!

The adults took to them right away. There are now 12 in the 75. 💚

That's awesome! I might get away with 20 pygmies then since they're teeny tiny...

[Minanora]

On 7/16/2022 at 7:08 PM, dan12boy said:

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. 

I use a powerhead that I have on a kasa wifi timer. I exercise them three times a week for two 3 hour periods each of those days right now because I'm not home full time and I can't supplement their feedings to accommodate their extra energy expenditure beyond that.

I bet you'll have these live into adulthood.

 

(Finally using the same computer as this draft was saved on)

[Minanora]

Micro update: The "culled" shrimp are reproducing in the 75G. I've seen several sizes of juvenile in there now. 😄 They aren't invading! I'm thinking that they are making just the right amount of population for my preference. Turns out that my culls are my favorites.

[dan12boy]

On 7/19/2022 at 10:09 AM, Minanora said:

Micro update: The "culled" shrimp are reproducing in the 75G. I've seen several sizes of juvenile in there now. 😄 They aren't invading! I'm thinking that they are making just the right amount of population for my preference. Turns out that my culls are my favorites.

Are they getting eaten by anyone? 

[Minanora]

On 7/21/2022 at 11:08 AM, dan12boy said:

Are they getting eaten by anyone? 

I'm sure they are. I've put over 60 in there and have only seen 5-10 juveniles. I put that quantity in a good while ago. I'm sure it was before Hawai'i. Which was in May. I've seen lots of berried females, but no boom like in the sanctuary and chili ruins.

 

In my son's tank I dumped tiny shrimp and I'm seeing lots of them grow up. Compared to in my 75 I put some tiny shrimp and watched them all get eaten. 🤣😭

 

My son's 20 today.

[gjcarew]

My wife always wants a tank with a castle, I love the look you've got there!

[Minanora]

On 7/23/2022 at 12:01 AM, gjcarew said:

My wife always wants a tank with a castle, I love the look you've got there!

Thank you. I almost put the castle and got it's other half (it's a two piece set) into the 75. But then I found Takashi Amano and decided to focus on the wood and plants.

[Guppysnail]

I still love the castles!  I’m a kid at heart 💜 

[Minanora]

On 7/25/2022 at 6:35 AM, Guppysnail said:

I still love the castles!  I’m a kid at heart 💜 

Me too! I hope the castle will be my son's gateway into Mom's nerdom... Dragons, fantasy novels, metal music, board games, faire, and MTG. 🤣 Goals.

[Guppysnail]

@Minanora I was trying to catch up on folks journals. Only the shrimp sanctuary and this one are links in your signature. I could have sworn the chili ruins were a link before?  The others I’ve not read yet. Is my old-timers kicking in and these were never journals or is something amiss?

[Minanora]

On 7/25/2022 at 7:47 AM, Guppysnail said:

@Minanora I was trying to catch up on folks journals. Only the shrimp sanctuary and this one are links in your signature. I could have sworn the chili ruins were a link before?  The others I’ve not read yet. Is my old-timers kicking in and these were never journals or is something amiss?

Only this one and the shrimp sanctuary. Chili Ruins used to be "Shrimp cube". But only the adventure and sanctuary have ever been links.

I've thought about starting more journals for each tank but I just don't have time right now.

[Minanora]

Micro update! I did a water change on the 75 and both 20g's today. The 75 was long, long, overdue.... I don't remember the last water change.... I know it was over a week before the 4th of July weekend.... Nitrates were at 40 which is the highest I've seen them since before the replant. However no notable algae! Just a small tuft of hair algae I'd been monitoring that never got bigger than my thumbnail and one tuft of staghorn algae that was about the same. I removed both today for the most part. I also cleaned canister filter for the first time in a long long long time... I was noticing my water wasn't as polished as it usually is so I decided to clean. There were a bunch of shrimp living in the canister 😂. I fed a few to my garden... But I used a strainer and rinsed them with RO water and put them into the grow out to see if they survive that abuse.

My baby cories are indeed three stripe cories!

I did a 70% water change on the 75 and hopefully the adult cories will spawn.

I need to take "after" photos but the tanks are looking happy. I gave plants a good trimming and planted the floating mess of cuttings I had.

Here is my son's tank before the trimming.

Upside down apparently... No idea why.

I didn't get photos of the 75. But I do have shrimp photos!

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/31/2022 at 10:00 PM, Minanora said:

I did a water change on the 75 and both 20g's today. The 75 was long, long, overdue.... I don't remember the last water change.... I know it was over a week before the 4th of July weekend.... Nitrates were at 40 which is the highest I've seen them since before the replant. However no notable algae!

That's awesome, always feels good to get stuff like this done.

On 7/31/2022 at 10:00 PM, Minanora said:

Upside down apparently... No idea why.

It's a bug on the forum software.  😞

Have to re-save it somehow and it'll fix itself.

[Odd Duck]

On 8/1/2022 at 12:00 AM, Minanora said:

Upside down apparently... No idea why.

If you edit the photos even slightly,it beats the software glitch.  I usually just crop my pics slightly and they never flip upside down anymore.

[Minanora]

The 75 this morning.

My buce is really starting to make a comeback! 💚

 

My son's tank this morning. I gave the rotala a serious haircut but it'll come back nicely in a few weeks. Eventually I'll fill the void behind the castle. Still deciding how much trimming I want to do on whatever I put there.

[Minanora]

I just realized how far my 75 has come since the beginning of April. All thanks to the many friends and mentors I've met here on the forum. You're all amazing!

[Taco Playz]

Love all the tanks, what lighting are you using for your sons tank? 

[Minanora]

On 8/2/2022 at 8:37 AM, Taco Playz said:

Love all the tanks, what lighting are you using for your sons tank? 

That one has a finnex planted+ 24/7 CRV. It's sitting directly on the glass of the hood. It's a great light honestly. I got it "open box return" from Amazon warehouse.