Coffee with Teejay

[Alexa]

Regarding the drink dispenser: it did hatch an okay amount of brine shrimp. I couldn’t get the airflow quite right and eggs would settle. It ended up being an awesome adult brine shrimp dispenser though! 😅

On 2/27/2023 at 8:42 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

[TeeJay]

Just made a small video of the killis and friends. The numbers are definitely growing. 

 

[nabokovfan87]

Those really are beautiful, unique corydoras.  Tank looks really good.  Nice work!

[TeeJay]

So this picture just popped up on my timeline. This is how this tank looked a year ago when I first started it. How things have changed. 

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by TeeJay

[TeeJay]

Started the brine shrimp in the new hatchery setup this evening wit co op brine shrimp eggs. Should have a good batch in a couple of days.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@TeeJay Got mine fired up this evening as well! Eggs go in tomorrow morning to harvest on Wednesday evening. Let’s go! Did your sieve show up today?

[TeeJay]

Sure did I got the 2 screen type. First one collects any eggs that get thru. The brine shrimp then collect in the second one. The the shrimp fall thru it into the second one for collection. It's a cone style at the bottom so should make collection easy. And it fits well into the holder.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@TeeJay a second screen to catch eggs, you say? Got a link? I normally don’t have too many eggs, and I agree with the likes of @Dean’s Fishroom that eggs/shells are just roughage like us eating Kale, but I’d by lying if I said that I wouldn’t prefer an egg/shell free harvest. I’ve never personally seen any eggs/shells cause any harm whatsoever to fry or bigger fish, but if I could strain them out I totally would. 

[TeeJay]

On 2/27/2023 at 9:44 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@TeeJay a second screen to catch eggs, you say? Got a link? I normally don’t have too many eggs, and I agree with the likes of @Dean’s Fishroom that eggs/shells are just roughage like us eating Kale, but I’d by lying if I said that I wouldn’t prefer an egg/shell free harvest. I’ve never personally seen any eggs/shells cause any harm whatsoever to fry or bigger fish, but if I could strain them out I totally would. 

This is the one I got. We will see how well it actually works come harvest time.

Clscea Aquarium Baby Brine Shrimp Sieve Eggshell Separator Artemia Collecting Net Kit 80 Mesh 200 Mesh for Brine Shrimp Hatchery https://a.co/d/7LDMzNY

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@TeeJay definitely interested to see how it goes. Let me know! $12 seems like a small investment if it works as advertised. 

[TeeJay]

So last night I put on my first batch of co op eggs in the ziss hatchery with the new stand. I have only tried another brand eggs with not much luck at all. Now I m sure that running no heat when I tried it before made some difference but I can definitely see a major difference in the co op eggs. So I have a small 5 watt bullet style heater suspended with a small clip through the hole in the top of the lid and set it to 78. With it being such a small volume of water, setting it to 78 kept the water at 80. So I let it run for 24 hours and checked. And 💥. We have live bbs. So I tried out the new 2 layer sieve to see how well it works. 

The first net is to catch the bbs and eggs that may come thru. I used the sprayer on my sink to gently shower them so the bbs would fall thru to the finer micron catch net to separate what eggs are in the first. After all were separated I dipped them into a measuring cup of tank water to rinse them off. I fed just a bit of live to the killis and put the rest into a silicone cube tray to freeze. Now in my excitement I didn't realize I had only hatched about 1/3 of the eggs I had put in. But that's ok I have learned for the next round. And to answer @AllFishNoBrakes the 2 stage sieve net worked very well. The bottom sieve is in a cone shape so it is easy to get the bbs rinsed and sucked out with a pipette for freezing. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@TeeJay Nice! I prefer a 36 hour hatch. For me, it works really well. I set up the hatchery the night before with salt and the lamp for heat. I let the salt dissolve and the temp settle overnight. The following morning, I dump in 1 tablespoon of eggs. The following evening, I harvest. Works great for me and my schedule. 

[TeeJay]

On 2/28/2023 at 8:40 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@TeeJay Nice! I prefer a 36 hour hatch. For me, it works really well. I set up the hatchery the night before with salt and the lamp for heat. I let the salt dissolve and the temp settle overnight. The following morning, I dump in 1 tablespoon of eggs. The following evening, I harvest. Works great for me and my schedule. 

Yes I just got to excited and jumped the gun. I'm sure if I would have let them simmer until I got off of work tomorrow it would have yielded 2-3 times what I got.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@TeeJay for sure. I rocked a 24 hour hatch for a long time until I got curious enough to try 36 hours. Once I tried it, there’s no going back for me. 
 

I’m sure there’s an argument for “36 hour BBS are too big for my extremely tiny fry” but I haven’t encountered it yet with all the fry I raise. Works for me, and that’s what it’s all about. 

[TeeJay]

On 2/28/2023 at 8:51 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@TeeJay for sure. I rocked a 24 hour hatch for a long time until I got curious enough to try 36 hours. Once I tried it, there’s no going back for me. 
 

I’m sure there’s an argument for “36 hour BBS are too big for my extremely tiny fry” but I haven’t encountered it yet with all the fry I raise. Works for me, and that’s what it’s all about. 

If it works for you that's all that matters we are doing working with an exact science here. We take what has worked for other folks and adapt it to how it works and functions in a way that's best for us.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/19/2023 at 7:59 PM, TeeJay said:

I mean you can still use it as a food source.but I know your like me and feed a very good varied diet. I still use it but only about once a week. As your population grows they can make pretty quick work of osa the the fun stuff growing so it never hurts to add a pinch on occasion. 

I added the tiniest bit and they all come out and get excited. Seriously, they get super active when it goes in. For that amount I can’t even see it or where it goes. I put tank water in a shotglass and mix the bacter ae there. Then dump it in.

So I did it again after a water change. They are just getting a tip of a toothpick worth (10g tank). I read you can OD the stuff and have loads of detritus worms and poor water quality, so it’s only going to go in after wc.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Dang I just slap an airstone into a mason jar and call that a hatchery. Y’all have buji hatchery LOL

I saw a YouTuber remove the shells with the neo-something magnet. Apparently the shells stick to that. Ever try it?

[Guppysnail]

On 2/19/2023 at 11:46 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

So I have a ton of diatoms, hair algae, and microfauna in the tank right now. Do you think I should still add bacter ae @Minanora @TeeJay @Guppysnail?

No. Unless a tank is crystal clear with no diatom no algae and no microfauna there really is no reason to add bacter because life is thriving. Bacter gives food to all those things. If they are thriving there is plenty of that food. 

Edited March 4, 2023 by Guppysnail

[TeeJay]

Well it's been awhile fellow nerms. How about a little afternoon tea with Teejay. 

So I have been doing a lot of thinking over the past couple of weeks. And as you can see by the title change of this journal I have changed up my plants 

I still really want to have some pleco babies but I think that just trying to solely raise entire spawns of them could be very taxing with the way I work.so I will still let this happen naturally for lemony and luna in there home tank. And raise up what I can from there first spawn.

So I have switched gears for the new 20 long tank. This is becoming my new peacock gudgeon and aspidoras tank. The peacocks especially I have been wanting to have ever since I got back into fish keeping a year ago 

So quite a bit has happened in this process of getting ready for them in a couple of months. The equipment is still the same as I was going to use in the original setup. But since I have some slate rocks for caves and used midnight pearl as the substrate with some cc mixed in. I like the look of this gravel. Not to light or dark. I think it will bring out the color of the gudgeons very well.

Just today I got my plants in for the tank and got them put in. It's a mix of different crypts and anubias. The tank is about mid "cycle" right now. 

In 3 weeks I will be taking my girls on a trip for spring break. And on that trip we will be bringing back the aspidoras for the new tank. I think adding them first then the gudgeons is the best way to go. After them are settled in for at least 2 weeks (most likely 4) them I will get the gudgeons. And it wouldn't be a Teejay tank without a couple of snail friends. One of they mystery snail runts will go in here as well as maybe another snail choice or two. The tank should be cycled well enough within a month to put the runt in to help keep the seeding going well until the fishy friends go in. 

I'm going to do my best keeping up better with the new fun going on with teejays fishy and friends adventures.

I'll leave you with a pic of how the tank looks as of today.

[Guppysnail]

These are @TeeJay new babies he is picking up. There are a bunch in there but I had just dropped a bunch of grindal worms in so they are scavenging through the plants. 
CAUTION…turn your sound down. My very demanding cat is right behind me. He is LOUD

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/7/2023 at 1:55 PM, Guppysnail said:

CAUTION…turn your sound down. My very demanding cat is right behind me. He is LOUD

We are trying to hide from all that racket

Nice aquascape @TeeJay! And for once @Guppysnail doesn’t have to lose sleep shipping fish!

[Lennie]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:55 PM, Guppysnail said:

CAUTION…turn your sound down. My very demanding cat is right behind me. He is LOUD

that made me laugh ! 😄

[TeeJay]

On 3/7/2023 at 1:55 PM, Guppysnail said:

These are @TeeJay new babies he is picking up. There are a bunch in there but I had just dropped a bunch of grindal worms in so they are scavenging through the plants. 
CAUTION…turn your sound down. My very demanding cat is right behind me. He is LOUD

 

 

Mine there all mine! 

[TeeJay]

So I just hatched my second round of bbs today. This time I let them run for right around 42 hours. I know weird timing. But this time my hate success was amazingly different. This time I hatched almost 3 times the amount I did the first time. So I definitely jumped the gun way to early the first time around. I used the same amount I did the first time. One half scoop that comes with the co op eggs. I fed a little to the two tanks and froze the rest. This time I got 6 cubes. And for me I can feed at least 5-6 time from each cube. So that should set me up for a solid couple of weeks. 

I do use a small 5watt bullet style heater but no extra light. Other than ambient light throughout the day or when the dinning room light is on. Next time I think I may turn and leave on the small led desk lamp I have mounted to the wall next to it to see if the extra light helps the hatch even more. But so far I have increased my hatch rate so, so far so good. 

[TeeJay]

On 3/4/2023 at 7:14 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Dang I just slap an airstone into a mason jar and call that a hatchery. Y’all have buji hatchery LOL

I saw a YouTuber remove the shells with the neo-something magnet. Apparently the shells stick to that. Ever try it?

Hmmm never heard of that before. Yeah I figured go big or go home 🤣