String of Pearls - 40 Breeder

[Minanora]

As for the insulation, I figured that may have been the case of an older home. So much character in old homes, but dang they nearly froze themselves in the winters and cooked themselves in the summers!

Sealing up that window good will help a bit, you can make a "dual pane" insert to put up there too. I am very jealous... I would do a lot of things to have a basement! If I could convince my husband to spend ALLL of the money, I'd have one dug under our house! Great place for storing roots, jars of food, fish room, game room.... Nice and cool in the summer... I truly envy you, Sir. 😛

[drewzero1]

A dying hobby-- Not at all! I got started at a young age with the Athearn Santa Fe "warbonnet" in the background, and the Bachmann one in the foreground was my grandfather's. I'm sharing it with my toddler son, who loves making the trains go but doesn't yet grasp that they also need to stop at the end of the line. 😬

There's a window and a storm window, so dual panes already, but the frame definitely leaks some air. I'm going to see if some of those window well bubbles will help seal a little better, and I should also check/renew the caulking when it gets warmer out.

We replaced our furnace this winter and in the process I learned a lot about pre-forced-air heating systems. Hot air would rise continuously by convection through registers in the center of the house, and the cooled air along the wall would sink to the basement through return vents. So the walls are cold by (obsolete) design. I imagine the original cast iron "octopus" coal furnace would've kept the basement nice and toasty, though also quite dirty. Our laundry area is where I figure the coal bunker used to be, based on markings on the walls.

[drewzero1]

Snail time! Pagodas were finally in at the LFS so I picked up a pair. Seem to be exploring well so far.

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by drewzero1
Fixed sideways pictures

[drewzero1]

Cleanup/trim this weekend. Before:

After:

 

Unfortunately, Barnacle Boy didn't make it. He and the big pond snail both were belly up when I cleaned. I moved them to a separate container and they haven't moved since.

Today's census:

3 pearl danios

1 young female black molly

1 male endler's livebearer

2, maybe 3 paleatus corys

2 bronze cories

2 banjo catfish (Earl and String bean)

1 nerite snail

2 pagoda snails

1 Amano shrimp

 

I'd like to bring the Cory numbers up a bit for schooling but other than that I'm going to try to avoid adding anything for a bit. Eventually I'd like either some more mollies or a centerpiece fish. I'm going to wait and see how things go before throwing in more stock.

 

[drewzero1]

I was worried this pagoda snail was dead/dying because s/he'd barely moved since I added them about a week ago. Tonight I came into the room and it was climbing pretty far up the side! I'm excited to see some signs of life out of them.

Edited April 6, 2022 by drewzero1

[drewzero1]

I've been seeing a lot of the banjo cats which has been nice. The banjos are the quiet downstairs neighbors who just want to be left alone, and the cories are well-meaning but clumsy upstairs neighbors who keep accidentally awakening them at odd hours.

"Hey! Keep it down up there!"

Lost one of the pagoda snails shortly after the last post. I had been worried that might happen, since a lot of the ones at the store seemed dead/dying. I was just so excited to have found any at all. 🙄 At least the other one is doing well.

[drewzero1]

Today I was at the LFS and spotted a nerite snail clinging to the outside of one of their tanks, near the bottom. I gently released its suction intending to report it as a runaway, but by the time I got to the counter I decided I needed another nerite in my life. So I bought it, and also brought home two female mollies to try to even out the gender ratio (previously 1:1).

Since I added them the male molly has just been a heat-seeking missile! He's been chasing and nipping the new mollies and driving them into hiding. I've turned off the light so they can get some rest. This was what I was trying to *avoid* by adding more females.😠 Hopefully after the novelty wears off he'll settle down, but they're already looking pretty stressed.

Not a whole lot else to report. I lost one of the pagoda snails a month or two ago, and definitely still have three paleatus cories. The male molly has been in here a few months and hasn't been overly aggressive with the female who was added first.

Picked up some assorted floating plants last week when out of town. They were sold as salvinia, but I not at all certain that any of them are actually salvinia. I've been scooping out duckweed to try and give the new plants a chance. Duckweed for scale:

The larger plants on the far left and right have fuzzy leaves and longer branching roots. The one in the middle has shiny, thicker leaves. I'll probably go deeper on those in a "name this plant" thread once I've observed them longer.

[drewzero1]

I've done some more observation and comparison and the slightly fuzzy plants on the left and right appear to be dwarf water lettuce, and the one in the center might be giant duckweed. Any corrections/suggestions welcome.

Mollies have calmed down a little, still some hiding and chasing going on but less than yesterday. The newbies still look stressed but are eating well.

[drewzero1]

The new nerite snail has been on vacation! I was looking for shrimp in the WCMM tank and found snail tracks, but I haven't had a snail in there since last summer. Found the newbie hanging out in the top corner of the 40 looking guilty as sin. There's a pretty big gap for the filter hoses and an air manifold with a line running over to the other tank, so I've got a pretty good idea how he got there and back. I'm not even mad!

[BradfordAquatics]

Sneaky snail!! 😂

[drewzero1]

Newcomers in the community this week! Spotted at least six molly fry out and about. I'd been worried about the banjo cats picking them off, but they don't seem interested. (So far at least.)

I've really missed having babies in the tank.

The male molly has calmed down and doesn't seem to be harassing anyone more than anyone else at this point. I'm sure with three females the place will be crawling with fry soon enough.

My hide-and-seek nerite took a ride on the pagoda snail for a few days, and has stayed where he fell off for a week, either dormant or dead. 😆😢

The last male endler has also disappeared. The circle of life is complete in the glass box in my basement.

I've been holding back on adding things to the tank, but when the molly fry get a bit bigger I really want a gourami again. We'll see how that goes.

[drewzero1]

More new mollies a few days ago. I've lost count! 😍

Noticed today that the canister filter was doing absolutely nothing. I opened it up and cleaned out the impeller, but still had a tough time getting it to prime. Ended up clouding up the water trying to get the filter primed so I did a quick water change as well.

The disturbance moved a clump of moss which gave me a rare glimpse of one of the banjo cats. I think I still have two, but it's really hard to tell.

It's starting to cool down in the basement so I'm attempting to cconstruct a foam-core jacket to try to keep more heat in the tank. (I've since painted the foam board black and plan to clean up the seams, but will not be making the box fully airtight.) A few people have reached out to me with suggestions for reducing heat loss in the winter and I'm going to test out some of them this year.

Next project is rehabbing the minnow tank, seen in the background here in brilliant Algae Green. I've been working on getting their outdoor home ready for next summer but the weather is telling me I'd better hurry up.

[drewzero1]

It's been a few months coming, but I finally have a centerpiece fish again. I've been waiting until the mollies had a chance to get established and start producing fry. (It turns out they're the real stars of this tank.) Today I've added a male pearl gourami who was picking on other fish in my dad's hex; so far so good here but I'll be keeping an eye on this one. (No name yet in case I end up having to rehome him as well.)

Edit: upon further reflection it's pretty likely this is a female. I forgot they also could have orange on their throats.

Edited November 2, 2022 by drewzero1
correction