Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Atitagain]

Do you have another LFS you can take your babies too? Since the one won’t buy local breeders anymore? I’ve been trying to talk to my LFS more and get a relationship so maybe they will buy/ trade for credit with me. I miss breeding but I try and breed just for my tanks now. I love the babies even all the extra work that comes with most of them, but unless I set up for mostly just breeding I don’t have time to care for them. Maybe after I get my room all reset. Uhh Little bit, little bit…

[Guppysnail]

On 1/13/2022 at 10:59 PM, Atitagain said:

Do you have another LFS you can take your babies too? Since the one won’t buy local breeders anymore? I’ve been trying to talk to my LFS more and get a relationship so maybe they will buy/ trade for credit with me. I miss breeding but I try and breed just for my tanks now. I love the babies even all the extra work that comes with most of them, but unless I set up for mostly just breeding I don’t have time to care for them. Maybe after I get my room all reset. Uhh Little bit, little bit…

Yes I do have another.  It’s 45 minutes from me though. It’s the one that is huge that I posted pictures of. They happily accept young fish or just surrendered fish but they don’t pay for any local fish. I got in good with the first LFS by just giving them assorted ish and getting to know the manager. 

[Chad]

Those look great! It's a good problem to have, but still a problem, when you're doing such a good job that you have too many babies to deal with. You got the right plan though. My lfs will only take full grown guppies and I got tired of growing them out so I had to cut back. Now I'm thinking of keeping a couple nice looking males in the community tank. My hope's that it'll be busy enough in there to curb aggression. Which I had in an earlier, smaller tank.

[Guppysnail]

On 1/14/2022 at 11:22 AM, Chad said:

Those look great! It's a good problem to have, but still a problem, when you're doing such a good job that you have too many babies to deal with. You got the right plan though. My lfs will only take full grown guppies and I got tired of growing them out so I had to cut back. Now I'm thinking of keeping a couple nice looking males in the community tank. My hope's that it'll be busy enough in there to curb aggression. Which I had in an earlier, smaller tank.

The LFS close to me I had to grow them out. Growing the girls until they color was an issue. The one I’m dealing with now as long as they are down to once or twice a day feeding they will take them. They quarantine in a separate  area so by the time qt is done they are colored. That made it MUCH easier. 

[Minanora]

Waiting for females to color up takes a long time. Then waiting for anything with blue, white, green.... Takes so long! Then the more they color up.... You want to keep them! 😂

 

[Guppysnail]

On 1/14/2022 at 12:32 PM, Minanora said:

Waiting for females to color up takes a long time. Then waiting for anything with blue, white, green.... Takes so long! Then the more they color up.... You want to keep them! 😂

 

This is so true. Once the girls have color they also have their individual personality quirks and by then I’m so attached it kills me to rehome them….why my community tank is way heavy on girl 🤣

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Guppysnailand @Torreywe should start a true guppy train and start exchanging blue guppy strains and see what we can collectively come up with. I am going to start researching breather bags as I have also had some requests for shrimp lately. 

Yeah it is funny when you talk to other fish nerds who aren't nerms they definitely have these ideas that what they are doing is the best from some youtuber they follow but then you start telling them about what you are doing and it kind of blows their mind and in a weird way stops the conversation because they realize you're talking about the hobby in a different and more deep way. This happens with some folks at my LFS who come up to me and ask me about the shrimp and guppy breeding. The employees are totally onboard with what I do and ask a ton of great questions which is fun. 

[Guppysnail]

On 1/14/2022 at 2:31 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

best from some youtuber

Really watching some of the lesser well known names videos tank set ups etc etc you can tell a lot of them are very new to the hobby but had some limited success and are just wanting to you tube. They regurgitate a lot of stuff from the web that in my experience is either not correct, a less good way or just from someone else just like them. That’s why so many folks think snails hydra and planaria etc are the end of the world nuke the tank with a gazillion  chemicals. I never knew any of that stuff was “bad” because I thought is was just part of nature so I learned about the benefits of each organism. I did not have YouTube and google telling me it was bad back when I was learning. Plus I’m fascinated with creepy crawlies 🤣🤣🤣

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I still remember having some planaria and hydra, and instead of looking for what chemical to use I looked for what eats them and it just makes sense if you have some whiteclouds throw them in and bam no more pests no chemicals needed and happy whiteclouds! Like when cory kept moving goldfish around to ponds with duckweed problems and bam no duckweed!

[Guppysnail]

Busy day. I moved all the pleco babies to the grow out so they are easy to GATHER..easier anyway those bugs are FAST 💨 I FOUND LEFTY🥳. Once I got a good look at them as I was removing them from the guppy girl tank one the cartilage on he right fin was a few millimeters shorter than the actual fin. I am so happy. He stays where he is. @Odd Duck explained it to me perfectly when it happened. What tore off from the sponge diving incident did not grow back, however, because he was so small when it happened the rest grew in now unless I examine really close I cannot tell. I could not get a picture after I put the tank back all the commotion shook him up so he hid. 
Some of the babies had what I am going to call exaggerated long fins. I got a good picture of one. He is upside down on the heater. I did not keep any of those. Those fins are begging for issues. 

when I took the babies out of the plant grow out….the real plant grow out that has become a guppy boy grow out I tried to make it look nice and now not a plant grow out. I still need to be able to just remove everything easily to catch the boys. I did a mirror image of the boys tank opposite theirs with a theme in mind like the pictures where you have to identify the differences. The cup on the left had a red tiger lotus bulb that just sprouted tiny leaves so when they grow in on both tanks it will look better. I also use (didn’t notice until looking at the pictures) the saddest sprig of AR ever. I’m going to take some from mom n dads bushes to fill that in. I sat that free banana plant in the middle  Does anyone have a picture of a grown up banana plant they could share?  I really don’t know where this will end up but I have a food dish in the right tank so banana plant in the left it was  

I now have a bucket of plants and no where to go with them.  

I did keep one of the pleco babies for the panda tank. Once they have produced some offspring I will add him in hopes he keeps the number of eggs down so I’m not overrun. They spawn constantly. 

Mom n Dads tank is filling in nicely. I’m crazy in love with the APU. 

APPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW 

[Guppysnail]

AAAAHHHHHH 🤬🤬🤬. I have to vent and hubs is working. 8 o’clock at night and the buyer says he is afraid to drive because it will be cold in the morning!  Might be black ice….the roads are DRY. It has not snowed or rained all week! I have 40-60 2-3 inch plecos in a 20 long now since I moved them today expecting it would be only overnight 😡. How rude and inconsiderate the forecast has been the same for 3 days. He was told I was moving them to one tank so it had to be definite no changes.   Overnight is fine but another week not a chance. I told him at this point I’m taking them to that pet place he said fine. I knew something was up. Problem is that pet place doesn’t take them over the weekend so I have to wait until Monday morning. Looks like water changes 3 times a day until Monday and a whole heap of prayer and worry. I can’t even put the appropriate amount of food for all of them in without poisoning the tank. Thanks for letting me vent fish friends. Say a prayer for the babies please. 

[Patrick_G]

How frustrating! What a flakey excuse for not showing up! 

[Guppysnail]

On 1/14/2022 at 8:25 PM, Patrick_G said:

How frustrating! What a flakey excuse for not showing up! 

Like I said in an earlier post. He was shocked at how many there were in the first two batches. I just don’t think he could handle them and did not want to admit it. Now the poor fish suffer over misplaced ego. There would have been no shame in just admitting it that many plecos is crazy hard to care for. Thanks for understanding. 

[Odd Duck]

On 1/14/2022 at 7:15 PM, Guppysnail said:

AAAAHHHHHH 🤬🤬🤬. I have to vent and hubs is working. 8 o’clock at night and the buyer says he is afraid to drive because it will be cold in the morning!  Might be black ice….the roads are DRY. It has not snowed or rained all week! I have 40-60 2-3 inch plecos in a 20 long now since I moved them today expecting it would be only overnight 😡. How rude and inconsiderate the forecast has been the same for 3 days. He was told I was moving them to one tank so it had to be definite no changes.   Overnight is fine but another week not a chance. I told him at this point I’m taking them to that pet place he said fine. I knew something was up. Problem is that pet place doesn’t take them over the weekend so I have to wait until Monday morning. Looks like water changes 3 times a day until Monday and a whole heap of prayer and worry. I can’t even put the appropriate amount of food for all of them in without poisoning the tank. Thanks for letting me vent fish friends. Say a prayer for the babies please. 

Well, you now know where to put your extra plants.  Plop them in that grow out tank and you might be able to only need daily (or twice daily) water changes instead of three times daily.  Feed light, they’ll be OK.  You’ve got this!

[Torrey]

On 1/14/2022 at 5:13 PM, Guppysnail said:

now have a bucket of plants and no where to go with them.  

Ask your lfs (if they still have a fish room). If you put the plant weights on the stems, and have 3 to 6 stems in each weight, the lfs will be grateful for local plants that don't melt in the municipal water. 

Plants can be more reliable income than fish.😁

Or, find out if your local fish club is meeting yet, and take plants to the monthly club meetings. I trim the day before meetings, and just take the bucket with me. We have an auction at the end of the meetings, and I donate the proceeds to the club (covers my dues this way, too). The rest of the plants go to the lfs, for trade in inventory. My hobby *almost* pays for itself. 

[Torrey]

On 1/14/2022 at 6:15 PM, Guppysnail said:

AAAAHHHHHH 🤬🤬🤬. I have to vent and hubs is working. 8 o’clock at night and the buyer says he is afraid to drive because it will be cold in the morning!  Might be black ice….the roads are DRY. It has not snowed or rained all week! I have 40-60 2-3 inch plecos in a 20 long now since I moved them today expecting it would be only overnight 😡. How rude and inconsiderate the forecast has been the same for 3 days. He was told I was moving them to one tank so it had to be definite no changes.   Overnight is fine but another week not a chance. I told him at this point I’m taking them to that pet place he said fine. I knew something was up. Problem is that pet place doesn’t take them over the weekend so I have to wait until Monday morning. Looks like water changes 3 times a day until Monday and a whole heap of prayer and worry. I can’t even put the appropriate amount of food for all of them in without poisoning the tank. Thanks for letting me vent fish friends. Say a prayer for the babies please. 

I am so sorry you are dealing with this,  incredibly inconsiderate. 

It sounds like he is either overwhelmed by the numbers, and didn't know how to be honest, or something has happened... and he still doesn't know how to be honest. 

Dose the tank with Prime each morning, and that should protect the fish from the toxicity. Feed a little less, and if their tummys get smaller, feed more often for tomorrow. 

If you only feed 2x on Sunday, they won't foul the bags when you catch them and take them in on Monday.

I think you have every reason to vent, and are handling it better than I would. 

[Guppysnail]

@Odd Duck and @Torrey Thank you. The suggestion of putting the extra plants in with the babies was great. Feeding 2x a day vs 1 will be perfect because I can do water change in between if the need arises. I’m looking on the bright side now that I’ve slept on it. If he took them but knew he couldn’t handle them they would not have been safe. That pet place has done a fabulous job with both sets of guppies they took. I’m very pleased and they were happy to get such healthy colorful guppies. The plecos will be in good hands. They are also very good about educating customers so whoever buys them will have the information to give the babies their best life. 
I do not think the LFS near me sells plants any longer and possibly not fish. Before Christmas I drove past on my way into town and they had a stack of 15-20 used tanks in the parking lot with a giant for sale sign on them. I may sit the funny tank in front of the window with a small heater for now and slowly attempt converting the plants to terrestrial growth if I can. 

[Torrey]

On 1/15/2022 at 4:29 AM, Guppysnail said:

@Odd Duck and @Torrey Thank you. The suggestion of putting the extra plants in with the babies was great. Feeding 2x a day vs 1 will be perfect because I can do water change in between if the need arises. I’m looking on the bright side now that I’ve slept on it. If he took them but knew he couldn’t handle them they would not have been safe. That pet place has done a fabulous job with both sets of guppies they took. I’m very pleased and they were happy to get such healthy colorful guppies. The plecos will be in good hands. They are also very good about educating customers so whoever buys them will have the information to give the babies their best life. 
I do not think the LFS near me sells plants any longer and possibly not fish. Before Christmas I drove past on my way into town and they had a stack of 15-20 used tanks in the parking lot with a giant for sale sign on them. I may sit the funny tank in front of the window with a small heater for now and slowly attempt converting the plants to terrestrial growth if I can. 

There may be truth in the universe functioning as needed. That doesn't make disruptions like this any more pleasant, in my opinion. 

Sleep, on the other hand, definitely helps with perspective and patience. 

That's sad to hear about the LFS... I probably would have bought all their tanks, lol.

Garage fish shops are making a comeback. 

[Guppysnail]

Severe ice storms and long power outages (multiple) all day. Coop nano pumps and sponges to the rescue 🤩. Even the pleco baby nightmare tank held zero ammonia zero nitrite and fish never seemed to notice. I ❤️ COOP!

Edited January 17, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Atitagain]

Hope everything goes well with the BN babies today. I’m sure you gave them excellent care. 
your tanks are looking great Really love this pic a very beautiful setting. 😀

 

[Guppysnail]

On 1/17/2022 at 5:54 AM, Atitagain said:

Hope everything goes well with the BN babies today. I’m sure you gave them excellent care. 
your tanks are looking great Really love this pic a very beautiful setting. 😀

 

Snow and freezing rain all night pleco babies are with me another day at least. The tank is holding surprisingly well. Im feeding the tank the same amount i did not increase at all. I have only done water change once yesterday.  Its crowded but controlled enough to wait a day. I love the APU. It had the exact effect of the picture i had in my mind at your suggestion to tell the story of sitting beside the boat launch when hubby goes fishing. I get the same feeling looking at it. 

[Guppysnail]

Took the pleco babies today. Update on that tomorrow. I just wanted to share some fun photos of some tanks That Pet Place had set up. And the enormous frozen fish food section 🤩

[eatyourpeas]

Bowl alert!!! 😍

[Patrick_G]

Wow, the Hygro Pinnatifida in the first pic is blazing red! 

[Guppysnail]

On 1/18/2022 at 8:34 PM, Patrick_G said:

Wow, the Hygro Pinnatifida in the first pic is blazing red! 

The moss in pictures  4-7-9 are what i found most amazing. Every strandcwas perfect