Peacock gudgeon group raised

[Kierra.]

Feeding time!

Adult peacock gudgeons paired off in my smaller community tank 10 gallons heavily planted.

Moved adult pair to empty 40 gallon breeder I was setting up for a large school of cardinal tetras (was waiting 6+ months for the tank to establish).

They spawned 3x…I assumed the parents would predate on their fry because they’re micro predators…

Turns out…I have parents that don’t prefer to predate on their fry (??) I wasn’t planning on breeding so left everyone as is in the 40 gallon breeder tank.

54+ from first batch are the largest at 1/4 inch or 1.5 cm

smallest fry look like brine shrimp

Male peacock gudgeon is fanning the 4th batch in their apisto cave.

Photo is of a group feeding of frozen baby brine shrimp (been too lazy to hatch live food). I’ll attach a video of the “frenzy”…they’re very chill fish. If I can figure it out.

Food: live baby brine shrimp, Aquarium Co-Op fry food, frozen spiraling adult brine shrimp, frozen baby brine shrimp

Tank: 40 gallon breeder

Substrate: lava rock, blasting black sand, peat moss, 1 “island” of <15 lbs eco-complete black

Decor: mopani driftwood 3-4 medium pieces, terra cotta mini plant pot, Aquarium Co-Op  apisto cave, (added the cave after seeing them trying to make the terra cotta pot their cave lol dad stuck out halfway), cattappa leaves 

Plants: salvinia, water lettuce, dwarf hair grass, Amazon swords, Java ferns, valisineria, water wisteria, scarlet red temple, apontogetons, Anubias, Monte Carlo, dwarf baby tears, hornwort, water sprite

unknown plants: some kind of tall grass from petsmart. purchased bc I’ve never seen it in my local fish store (it’s NOT doing well but I leave it in there…it’ll either survive or become fertilizer) & some moss (it’s not Christmas or Java)

Stocking: peacock gudgeons (80+ with fry), 3 Amano shrimp, 3 ghost shrimp (started with 10 and they slowly died off…predation & not brackish water)

Pests: I just leave them bc it’s a natural tank…hydra, rams horn snails, bladder snailS, Blackbeard algae

(if I scrape the hydra the peacock gudgeons will eat their free floating form)

light: fluval 3.0

(FINALLY bit the bullet after 6 years and don’t regret it. Actually my first light came defective but Aquarium Co-Op literally sent me one as soon as I emailed customer service. Thank you Candy!) I actually tried supporting my local fish store first but they didn’t have any plant lights large/strong enough available. (Support local…then I support Cory lol)

No water changes only top offs with rain water. (No R/O system available).

parameters: 

no ammonia

10 nitrates (supplement up to 40 ppm with easy green fertilizer)

0 nitrites

300ppm GH (initial setup was with tap water and I’m trying to lower GH by topping off with rain water)

40ppm KH (supplement with reef fusion step 2 when the KH bottoms out to prevent pH crash)

6.2 pH

 

Filters: Aquatium coop large sponge (wish I went down a size) & aquaclear hang on back for 10-30 gallon tank to polish the water

 

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Kierra.

[Guppysnail]

Congrats!  Sounds like an awesome tank. I would love to see pictures. I also don’t remove “pests”  like hydra. Fish eat its and it’s natural 😁

[Griznatch]

 I was thinking of getting some of those when I move my CPDs to the big tank. Had no idea they were so prolific. Yours are doing fantastic, would be awesome to see some pictures.