Minanoras adventures in fishkeeping

[Guppysnail]

On 5/12/2022 at 1:11 PM, Minanora said:

But based on my bosses interruptions and complaints over the last two week

This happened to me once. I was on a 10 day cruise in the Virgin Islands. I had a civil and polite conversation with mine as to why this would not be happening again.  My next vacation I confirmed before leaving that he understood even though I was management vacation time was strictly my time. He understood my boundaries from that point forward. I hope you had tons of fun and share some of those pictures.  I remember how beautiful the Hawaiian Islands were. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I know there are old videos of @JimmyGimbaland others in Hawaii finding neocaridina and tropical fish in some of the streams and ponds in the islands. Of all the scourges to put in the islands the herpes of the aquarium world is cruel. 

[Tihshho]

If any of you get a chance to go to the stream of Oahu with a net and bucket I highly advise you do. Many a summer have I spent collecting invasive species and even shipping some back to the mainland US. I wish I had pictures of them, but some of those things consisted of various freshwater shrimp (some neo's others not), corydoras, small cichlids, ancistrus and much much more. There are a ton of larger aggressive cichlids out there as well as tons of Tilapia, but unless you have the space they are not exactly anything you'd want to keep. Sadly the pet industry as well as humans in general have ruined the waterways and nature of the islands. Some species were released as former pets, others introduced as a means of pest control (speaking of Jackson's Chameleons as well as Auruatus Dart Frogs) and the environment has been drastically impacted by it. It's neat to see an ecosystem, but sadly the ecosystem is 100% introduced. 

[Minanora]

On 5/12/2022 at 8:33 AM, Tihshho said:

If any of you get a chance to go to the stream of Oahu with a net and bucket I highly advise you do. Many a summer have I spent collecting invasive species and even shipping some back to the mainland US. I wish I had pictures of them, but some of those things consisted of various freshwater shrimp (some neo's others not), corydoras, small cichlids, ancistrus and much much more. There are a ton of larger aggressive cichlids out there as well as tons of Tilapia, but unless you have the space they are not exactly anything you'd want to keep. Sadly the pet industry as well as humans in general have ruined the waterways and nature of the islands. Some species were released as former pets, others introduced as a means of pest control (speaking of Jackson's Chameleons as well as Auruatus Dart Frogs) and the environment has been drastically impacted by it. It's neat to see an ecosystem, but sadly the ecosystem is 100% introduced. 

I haven't been to Oahu yet. One of these years we'll go. I'm bummed that I didn't bring a net. My husband has been very patient with my water watching. I've seen guppies in several streams here on Kauai.

[Tihshho]

Stop by walmart and grab a cheap net. Other than that a fishing store should have cheap dipnets if you want to get one and bring it home as a keepsake. 

[JimmyGimbal]

There's also a stream/river that houses like 200 royal plecos and corydoras.. You'll find endlers, mollies, swordtails, convict cichlids.. on the big island theres like a few gobies endemic to the island as well. 

[Tihshho]

On 5/12/2022 at 6:46 PM, JimmyGimbal said:

There's also a stream/river that houses like 200 royal plecos and corydoras.. 

Royals you say? I might need to chat with you to find out more details!

[Minanora]

I am home.... One empty auto feeder, one pump running dry, some casualties of every variety, dead house plants... I'll be doing damage recovery for most of tomorrow.

[Minanora]

However none of the tanks are toast. So that's good.

[Minanora]

So, I was totally right! There are more baby swordtails. lol. The 75 gallon doesn't appear to have lost any fish. Just plants. Almost all of my pearlweed is gone. Almost all of my giant babytears is gone. I lost all of my Ammania Gracilis. Almost all of my S. Repens... I'm bummed. I'm going to wait a few weeks before I order replacements of the pearlweed and babytears. to see how the few strands I have recover.

In my sons tank I lost my two favorite guppy females. The red girl, and my last blue dragon female. Shiva is not looking tops, but she's hanging in there. There was A HUGE wad of string hair algae that grew while I was gone. I mean huge. I pulled most of it out. The pogo went nutso, too. The rest of the plants look pretty good. They'll be even better after a water change. Nitrates are at 40.

Shrimp tank is okay.... Nitrite registered at .5 ppm. Which I'm not surprised. The house sitters were under-feeding them. so some were starving off. Which, I can't blame them for that. Even I'm still trying to keep up with their food needs. Especially with the constant, insane, numbers of babies they keep making. It's a bit crazy. They eat 3 mineral junkie pellets, 3 shrimp dinner pads, two "extreme beta scoops" of shrimp baby, and one snowflake tab in about 24 hours. o.o'

Fry tank, There's fish missing for sure. They didn't top any of the tanks off, and I had to remove the lid for the auto feeder... Which ran out of food while I was gone.... So, the tidal 35 was running dry (I hate this filter so much).... 10/10 would never recommend a tidal 35. Worthless POS for the most part. Loud, clogs, sucks up fish, hard to modify, tiny filter area for the size, just... ugh.... Not a fan. Anyway, some fish died in there. but the snails and other fish took care of the corpses.... there's a bunch of new fry in there.... >.> So.... yeah, there's that. The tank that keeps on giving.... I'll be taking fish to the LFS/LPS soon. Plus plant trimmings.

The Chili Ruins was pretty much un-phased. I lost all of my red root floaters, but my water lettuce is happy. The water level dropped but because of how the filter is, it was fine. Shrimp are happy, chilis are happy. Plants are surviving and are actually doing quite well for how little I touch the tank.

 

So far I've changed water in the 75, and shrimp sanctuary. I've trimmed plants in the 75, SS, and my sons tank. I've topped off the chili ruins, fry tank, and my sons tank.

I have Heteranthera Zosterifolia (stargrass) cuttings that I'm going to take to my local shop to sell. Same with pogo. 😄here are some before and after photos.... I for some reason didn't photograph the shrimp tank before and after... Um, I blame sleep deprivation. I got up at 4am hawaii time, went to bed at midnight hawaii time.... Today has been rough. Husband and kiddo slept in.... I have some envy. 😛 

 

[DaveO]

I wonder if all those missing plants are now in some housesitters' new tank.😅

[Tihshho]

Sorry to hear about the woes from returning to tanks post vacation. Thing should bounce back nicely for you, plant wise, once the tank is back to it's normal routine. Sorry to hear about the losses 😞

[dan12boy]

I just read the entire adventure and I’m glad it be a part of it now! Sorry to hear about the sad happenings that occurred over vacation but hey you’ll definitely come back strong and it’ll be back to normal in no time. I think it’s be smart for someone to create a service to house sit specifically for people with aquariums. It’d be hard considering every aquarium is different but I think its possible! So many people are scared of leaving their homes for over 1 day(me included) so something like that would help because house sitters don’t always do the best jobs mainly with the aquariums since most don’t have knowledge on them at all.

[Guppysnail]

On 5/16/2022 at 10:09 AM, dan12boy said:

smart for someone to create a service to house sit specifically for people with aquariums.

They do have them. Not house sit but aquarium service companies that will care for your aquariums during vacation.  I’m not certain if the ones Cory and Zenzo used to have did vacation feeds but many do.

[dan12boy]

On 5/16/2022 at 10:34 AM, Guppysnail said:

They do have them. Not house sit but aquarium service companies that will care for your aquariums during vacation.  I’m not certain if the ones Cory and Zenzo used to have did vacation feeds but many do.

Wait really? What’s their names if you don’t mind me asking? 

[Guppysnail]

On 5/16/2022 at 10:46 AM, dan12boy said:

Wait really? What’s their names if you don’t mind me asking? 

Look up aquarium maintenance/service companies on google. I do not use them (I hate leaving my garden of Eden home 🤣) I know @Odd Duck recently found a few. Cory and Zenzo both spoke of theirs  they previously had in videos. 

[Minanora]

My local fish shop offers maintenance and service but I don't like paying someone a hefty dime when I can just say "feed one scoop Tues, Thurs, Sat". Did that with bottom feeder pellets as well. Should have been foolproof but I didn't expect them to ignore the sound of a dry pump...

 

[Odd Duck]

On 5/16/2022 at 9:57 AM, Guppysnail said:

Look up aquarium maintenance/service companies on google. I do not use them (I hate leaving my garden of Eden home 🤣) I know @Odd Duck recently found a few. Cory and Zenzo both spoke of theirs  they previously had in videos. 

I started with a google search for aquarium maintenance services with the name and zip code of the town for the friend I was trying to help.  It turned out I didn’t end up hiring, but I was able to find a service that seemed decent via Thumbtack, for what it’s worth.

[Torrey]

On 5/16/2022 at 12:24 PM, Minanora said:

My local fish shop offers maintenance and service but I don't like paying someone a hefty dime when I can just say "feed one scoop Tues, Thurs, Sat". Did that with bottom feeder pellets as well. Should have been foolproof but I didn't expect them to ignore the sound of a dry pump...

 

A lot of people don't recognize the sound. I've lost 2 pond pumps because something clogged and I slept through it. (Not excusing what happened, and not invalidating your response or frustration)

I have a very hard time going on vacation during breeding times, of course I also struggled to leave my kids with babysitters for more than  2 hours. Generally hired teens to work as au pairs, so I had an extra set of hands and brought the sitter & the kids with me, lol.😅

I'm sorry your boss didn't respect boundaries around vacation, and you came home to sad tanks. I have joked that we parents need an extra week off, so we can clean/repair/fix and then recuperate from our vacation time.🤔

I'm sure your tanks will be ship-shape soon, and everything will get back on track.

I really am sorry about your losses, vacations are supposed to relieve, not increase, stress.

[Minanora]

OKAY. SO, I've gotten two tanks waters changed in the last day. I am also dosing my sons tank with expel-p. I feel like the girls are too thin.... Guppies can be hard to gauge with their symptoms. So I'm starting with expel-p. I change water tomorrow afternoon. Then I'll do paracleanse. They're just too thin... and I can't pin it. I feed them well.

So, all the plants in my sons tank are doing well. I trimmed plants today, but I don't think I took photos of "after". I put Sera root tabs in two weeks ago... things are blowing up! all of my crypts are thriving. I've been dosing potassium and iron as well.

The cories begging for treats.

Shiva female baby, all grown up.

 

The 75 is looking incredible. I'm going to order replacement giant baby tears and pearl weed next week. Same with my red plants. It'll be okay. I just happened to go away for two weeks.... and all the things happened.

 

The fry tank is doing well. I am just growing excess plants in it.... and fish of course. I'm going to try to sell off everything by July. I need a break from raising fry. I just do.

 

The chili ruins look great.... I mean, I've done nothing but feed, and add water to this tank since December. Sounds aweful, but, its just what it is. 7 chili rasboras, and now like, 20 shrimp. It's doing what it does. And it's happy.

My Shrimp sanctuary is blossoming over and over. I love this tank so much... Since I got home, no more deaths.

 

 

Everything is thriving again. I'm going to clean up mulm and do a water change tomorrow.

[drewzero1]

That is a lot more work in two days than I've done on my tanks in two WEEKS! I don't think it sounds awful at all not to change water for 6 months... my record is about 18 months in my heavily planted white cloud tank. (I kept testing and it kept coming back okay.)

[Guppysnail]

Everything is looking like it is coming back in line nicely. I just love tanks that sort of “just do their thing and are happy”

On 5/20/2022 at 1:07 AM, Minanora said:

I need a break from raising fry. I just do

I know this feeling. I have been here many times. But the desire to see the adorable babies always comes back for me. 

[Minanora]

So we were at the lake all weekend. Today we pulled the boat out of the water. I was wiping off the scumline after I pulled it up the ramp so my husband could do the transom straps and I found eggs all over the side of the boat and on the surfgate hardware.

So, me being me, I grab a water bottle out of the truck and harvest as many eggs as I can before my husband losses his patience. I have about 15 eggs in a plastic water bottle with some methylene blue. So far it looks like most are viable. They were on the boat in the narrows, which is warm and almost stagnant.

I'm going to watch them. I was so sad... There were so many more that I didn't have time to collect. My husband threatened to dump the ones I collected out onto the launch ramp but he didn't.

So here I am with eggs. I'm pretty sure they're minnow eggs of some kind. They were scattered everywhere. I'll post photos of them tomorrow. I got a big plastic container of cheese balls for my son's birthday party. I knew I wanted the container for fish........ Well, if these hatch, that's where they're going. Plan is to see what they are, then either use them in my pond or release them at the lake.

I'm excited to grow a local fish. Hopefully some hatch.

[Guppysnail]

Throw in an airstone on low to hopefully keep the fungus at bay. I’ve had them fungus with just MB. GOOD LUCK I would love to see them hatch. 

[Minanora]

My son's tank is filling in nicely. I sat and enjoyed it for a while today.

I'm falling in love with crypts and swords.

I added the sera branded root tabs before we went to Hawai'i. They're doing wonders for the root feeders.

I'm also dosing potassium, iron and micros into the water column.

I need to get better about being more regular with my fertilizing schedule. I tend to skip doses with the thought that I'll be doing a water change... Then I never do the water change! 🤣

Aside from that, things are doing well!