Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Great store, excellent aquascapes for a store I. The US. Feels like the stores in the UK 🇬🇧 do more than ours do. Obviously they’ve watched some FishTube!

[Guppysnail]

On 1/19/2022 at 2:02 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Great store, excellent aquascapes for a store I. The US. Feels like the stores in the UK 🇬🇧 do more than ours do. Obviously they’ve watched some FishTube!

I have not seen any videos on the ones in uk. Im in Pennsylvania now but have lived or visited a lot of states. This is the best i have been to. 

[Levi_Aquatics]

Wow that store looks amazing! I might need to find a way to swing by it sometime. 

[Guppysnail]

On 1/19/2022 at 3:38 PM, Levi_Aquatics said:

Wow that store looks amazing! I might need to find a way to swing by it sometime. 

I have pics of the freshwater tank section and saltwater and skate petting pond a few pages back in my journal they hsve an aviary as well as a reptile room. It awesome and so worth it. I drive 45 minutes to get there

[Levi_Aquatics]

@Guppysnail I'll definitely have to check that out! 

[Guppysnail]

The Unintentional Pleco Farmer

Conclusion. 
 

1st hatch 57/64 89% survival

2nd hatch 44/53 83% survival

3rd hatch 84/87 96% survival

90 % total

so I really thought I had lost quite a few to the filters and some that were consumed in this last batch. I knew how many I had in the two guppy tanks. Every time I counted the grow out tank I only saw 30-40. Sneaky bugs I almost had a heart attack when I stripped the tank and actually saw this…

so hubby helped me count. When I removed them from mom n dads tank I wrote down numbers of each siphon but did not total. Shocked at the fact the tank did not implode is an understatement 🤣

here is why I think lost each fry out of each batch

Hatch one

2 did not make it after yolk was absorbed so failure to thrive. 3 within hours of relocation to grow out tank so failure to acclimate.   3 were defined starvation so either outcompeted or not bright enough to find the food. 
Hatch 2 

lower hatch because mom laid a glob on dads tail when he backed in. I still have not read anywhere of other pleco doing that. Silly boy. They eventually swished off so I disposed. 2 did not make the two weeks in mom n dads tank. 1 sponge diver that I did not see in time. The other 6 were all at once. It was a combination of thing. I should not have mixed batches I should have pulled eggs until first batch was gone. The one I lost were really skinny so I added bacteria ae I had from 2 years ago…bad idea. That same day I made repashy and did not have the water at a full boil. When I got up in the morning it had powdered all over the tank. I missed the ammonia and nitrite spike but the nitrate skyrocketed. 3 thinner ones were dead in the morning. Three other thinner ones within two days developed bacterial septicemia so we’re removed from the tank. Stress 

Hatch 3.

I had pulled eggs between 2nd hatch and this hatch so the first two groups were gone before moving over the babies. this was not enough. Biofilm I feel is extremely important food source for these fry and the first two groups had that tank squeaky clean. From august to now I have not once even cleaned the glass and every inch sparkles. All made it from parent tank none found perished. All made transition. 2 starved. They just got skinnier and skinnier. 1 was euthanized looked like she swallowed a marble weirdest thing to see. No pine coming but full belly no poo.  I actually wonder if I missed a small green bean seed that she ate and it lodged in her digestive track blocking things. 
 

with each batch there was a point where some stooped growing and started becoming thin while the rest grew. These I assumed were being outcompeted for food so I moved them to other guppy and CPD fry/grow outs. They began to thrive again in days. 

Ones I kept and just gave each a cave. Angel in the guppy 29 who you know. I think Angel might be a boy. 😲. When I put the cave in Angel started grooming and defending witching 15 minutes. And when I took the pictures I seen a whisker mustache!

I kept this one of two in the stunted growth guppy boy tank. This one has zero fear of my hand and will jump on the veggie while I’m putting it in. This one goes in the panda tank after they settle so I won’t get overrun with eggs. 

Lefty of course

land this little one who was the last to be netted from Lefty’s tank. Twice while I was netting it attached to my hand of all things. It was the smallest but also no fear of me. So Pygmy tank is this cutie pies home

and so concludes the Unintentional pleco farmer. Tomorrow I will describe the CPD mafia drama that went down in mom n dads tank.  The plot twists are there 🤣 

Here is why my tanks need to remain easy tear down. Here is how I net large groups of fish. Then dump everything back in until I get home 🤣. 
HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW (I did panda tank is done I will do pictures tomorrow 😁)

[Levi_Aquatics]

Wow @Guppysnail that is a crazy amount of plecos! Those survival rates seem really good! I am now tempted to give bristlenose breeding another shot.

[Guppysnail]

On 1/19/2022 at 7:10 PM, Levi_Aquatics said:

Wow @Guppysnail that is a crazy amount of plecos! Those survival rates seem really good! I am now tempted to give bristlenose breeding another shot.

It is A LOT OF WORK to get survival that high for me anyway. . #1 cause of mortality starvation  #2 water quality and high nitrates. They eat ALOT. Example the grow out ended at 6 long green beans daily and 4 repashy sticks daily. The other three tanks housing them 2-3 green beans and 1-3 repashy sticks daily. They are so sensitive when super young 2-50% water changes daily. This was 4 tanks housing these. They were combined the night before I was supposed to take them for ease of collection in the morning.  As they lost the fry shape 50%daily without exception and occasionally twice a day for high nitrates. They really are not hard per se but a ton of work. 

Edited January 20, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Remarkable statistics. Your husbandry is extraordinary and it shows with those beautiful offspring. I think Angel is a boy, that pink spot along with his behavior and the small whiskers point that direction! 
Looking forward to starting my pleco breeder tanks. Planning next week to work with the kids on building Sculpy caves. 

[Levi_Aquatics]

That does sound like a ton of work! Great job keeping the water perameters in check. That is where I fell short my first time breeding bristlenose.

[Guppysnail]

On 1/19/2022 at 7:50 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Remarkable statistics. Your husbandry is extraordinary and it shows with those beautiful offspring. I think Angel is a boy, that pink spot along with his behavior and the small whiskers point that direction! 
Looking forward to starting my pleco breeder tanks. Planning next week to work with the kids on building Sculpy caves. 

I’m hoping all are boys. There was a post last week about the girl who became egg bound. I don’t want to have to put 2 in a 20l or the 29 to avoid that. Lefty is the only one that has not explored the cave I gave so fingers crossed. 

[Guppysnail]

The next adventure

PANDA-monium 

so started with this mess left from netting plecos

ended up with this  the terra cotta caves are panda favorites so they stayed and of course pleco food dish and cave  the elodea will grow tall and be my surface floaters  I just added the almond leaves because I wanted everyone in tank before it darkened and changed anything about the water  Pandas pleco and shrimp all seem to like it 😁 I have my light turned facing the pothos so it only shines bright on the back wall for the fast growers  nothing in the tank including all that anubias likes strong light .  I tried to stick with the less is best look from @Chad’s tank that I liked  

After removing what I needed from the guppy tank I was left with this mess

stripped it bare to get the panda out and put the non negotiables back in  uploading the pic I realized I missed Angels food dish  I added that behind the water fern in the right  that terra cotta cave is my nerite and mystery snails favorite hide out so it stayed  

I went to put the elodea in and OH MY GOODNESS 

I found no tank that my pennywort looked not messy. My ludwigia has taken its place in my heart so it was binned 

Here is what I came up with. Only 3 plant types in here. 

And here is what I still have to find homes for

CPD drama I’ll post this evening. Right now I have to clean up the disaster I made through the entire house before hubby gets up for work 🤣

LET THE PANDA ADVENTURES BEGIN…TRY SOMETHING NEW

[Chad]

Holy smokes with that elodea!! "Rapunzel, let down your hair!", is all that comes to mind 🙂 I love the the tanks, always have tho. They look great, can't wait to hear about CPD's. 

[Odd Duck]

@Guppysnail Love what you’ve done with the place!  😃 

If I have one suggestion, and it’s only one.  That “tree” you’ve got in the guppy tank is fantastic but you need to highlight it more.  It needs some negative space around it so we can better appreciate its lovely branches.  Personally, I would clump all the elodea together on one end, and all of your other stem plant clumped on the other end.  I would do fairly tight clumps, too.  Not so tight they didn’t have room to flow in any current, but in definite bunches (Dutch-ish style).

You know how the tall swords on each end highlight the lucky bamboo stems in my 75 gallon tank?  That’s what doing the clumps on either end would do for your lovely tree.  We would see more visual impact from denser blocks of color and texture so we appreciate the plants beauty even more, plus space around the tree would make it stand out even more as a focal point.

I think your tanks are looking better and better, and I’m so jealous of all your beautiful lemon babies!

[Guppysnail]

On 1/20/2022 at 2:04 PM, Odd Duck said:

@Guppysnail Love what you’ve done with the place!  😃 

If I have one suggestion, and it’s only one.  That “tree” you’ve got in the guppy tank is fantastic but you need to highlight it more.  It needs some negative space around it so we can better appreciate its lovely branches.  Personally, I would clump all the elodea together on one end, and all of your other stem plant clumped on the other end.  I would do fairly tight clumps, too.  Not so tight they didn’t have room to flow in any current, but in definite bunches (Dutch-ish style).

You know how the tall swords on each end highlight the lucky bamboo stems in my 75 gallon tank?  That’s what doing the clumps on either end would do for your lovely tree.  We would see more visual impact from denser blocks of color and texture so we appreciate the plants beauty even more, plus space around the tree would make it stand out even more as a focal point.

I think your tanks are looking better and better, and I’m so jealous of all your beautiful lemon babies!

Those are great suggestions. When it’s ready for a trim I will replant. My critters have had enough excitement for a bit poor things. It started with negative space I promise. There was just so stinking much of everything 🤣. I cut all the stems and elodea in half and after binning my pennywort (one small step for aquarists one giant leap for me🤣) I couldn’t part with more so it kept getting fuller and I didn’t know how to arrange it. I like the clumping idea. 😁

[Odd Duck]

On 1/20/2022 at 1:16 PM, Guppysnail said:

Those are great suggestions. When it’s ready for a trim I will replant. My critters have had enough excitement for a bit poor things. It started with negative space I promise. There was just so stinking much of everything 🤣. I cut all the stems and elodea in half and after binning my pennywort (one small step for aquarists one giant leap for me🤣) I couldn’t part with more so it kept getting fuller and I didn’t know how to arrange it. I like the clumping idea. 😁

I understand the excitement limiting for the day and didn’t expect you to do it right away.  Clumping is part of why Dutch style tanks look so good.  You get the oomph of a block of plants all working together to tickle your brain!

[Guppysnail]

Oh the drama.

The young upstart challenged my alpha again. This time it was not a grown up putting a teenager in check. This was sadly one of the most vicious fights I have witnessed. It occurred over about 10 minutes. Everyone else in the tank scattered and hid. Mid fight Alpha took a big hit. Upstart bit a chunk out of his left side. Alpha fought on bravely. Back and forth across the tank. They dove into one of the planters so I could not see what happened. Alpha shot to the no man’s land on the left side of the tank. Upstart came out of the planter swimming a touch slow and just not the usual CPD swim. He took his spot as the new Alpha cajoling with everyone. It took almost an hour for him to color the entire way red and start displaying his gold back stripe. He still was just not swimming 100%. A few hours later he started swelling obviously internally injured. When I woke them in the morning he was swimming the same but the poor newly crowned king looked like a tiny overripe pineapple 😢. I knew he would not make it so I removed him from the colony. My alpha started to succumb to his injuries two days later and I had to remove him as well 😭. 
My clan acted weird. I have never not had an alpha save for when I first got them. Then it was everyone jockeying for position. This time everyone just meandered aimlessly for two days while old alpha stayed away. It seemed like everyone was waiting for someone to tell them what to do. One of the three boys left is starting to darken his color to a darker orange but not red and no stripe.  As a whole the group is still not as active almost tentative. 
I took a video of the chaos but I can’t get it to load to YouTube. So I took one of the pandas in their new playground. They spent the entire afternoon weaving as a group instead of 2-3 through the back wall of almond leaves. They seem even happier than before I didn’t think that possible. This is dinner time. For whatever reason their eyes glowed white on camera. I think it’s neat looking. The pleco (don’t have a name yet) settled in great and is having fun exploring all the new yummies. The tiny terrorists are fine of course. 

 

 

[Torrey]

I had no idea that CPD could be that aggressive!

As for uploading the video to YouTube, it may be the video length? Or a need to render the video. 

I would love to be able to see, as CPD are on my bucket list of fish I have not had yet. I am sorry about your boys, just because it's the ways of nature doesn't mean it's not hard to watch. 

[Guppysnail]

On 1/20/2022 at 8:57 PM, Torrey said:

I had no idea that CPD could be that aggressive!

As for uploading the video to YouTube, it may be the video length? Or a need to render the video. 

I would love to be able to see, as CPD are on my bucket list of fish I have not had yet. I am sorry about your boys, just because it's the ways of nature doesn't mean it's not hard to watch. 

They are not aggressive normally. The only real aggression outside of the Im boss posturing and sparing is the alpha challenge for my group. I’ve lost some before like this it’s always been an injury or bite that I’m guessing is when they get hit just so and it does internal organ damage. The young upstart is one I got when adding to the genetics this summer. I’m wondering if that made the competition worse him being an outsider?

They may have also gotten caught so to speak 🤔 in the planter making it worse so close quarters 

[Torrey]

Have you found an 'ideal' as far as group size goes? I'm wondering if more fish and a larger space would diffuse the alpha challenges. 

[Guppysnail]

@TorreyIn that tank 40B I had about 15 give or take I didn’t count the babies when I moved them from the grow out. They started as 3 in a 10g 1m/2f obviously no aggression. Then I added 5 more when I put them in the 20l.  Then I added more this summer plus the babies I hatched. In the Pygmy tank I have about 16. I only have 1 male large enough to breed right now. It has been consistent behaviors. Whenever the scales ar missing or there is visible damage it is always in the same spot on the side just past mid way towards the tail end. They swim with a lilt?? And do not recover. I’m assuming that it a targeted tender spot where organs are. I still do not consider them aggressive. It’s just natural mating rights competition. 

All the cpd I have lost have been male with injuries. I have always been heavy on males. Until recently my hatches were predominantly male. This last one was predominantly.female So my numbers being lopsided might account for some of this. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Guppysnail

[eatyourpeas]

Sorry about the CPD drama. It seems we all have drama boxes... I do love the Pandas white eyes! 😍

[Guppysnail]

I’m putting this here to draw attention to it because science is important to our hobby and to me.(I’m not sciencey so I depend on others to do the work involved in gaining knowledge.  I want to read the results and the more folks brand new or old timers alike that respond the more valuable the information becomes. I figure some folks that read my journal may not have read this thread. You don’t need to read the entire thread. I’m asking nicely, begging please take 5 minutes (less time than it takes to read my journal) to fill out the survey.  TRY SOMETHING NEW…FILL OUT THE SURVEY PLEASE 

 

[Guppysnail]

I noticed my cardinal plants in the guppy girl grow out are really taking off. 
Spent most of the rest of my day giggling like a school girl watching pandas. I took this for someone elss thread on here so I figured I would put it here as well so I have it all in one place. Pandas after a bloodworm feast. Full bellies move slower and easier to video 🤣(sorry for the window glare)

HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW

 

Edited January 22, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Guppysnail]

The CPD soap opera continues..

I went to turn the lights on this morning and everyone was everywhere. I looked closer and my smallest boy I hatched was dark orange (dark for lights being out but morning sun in tank). His stripe was highlighted. I looked closer and 3 other boys were colored more only I other was flashing his stripe bright but all showed the stripe. The girls were displaying at one another as well. So everyone in the tank is reorganizing for position. One poor girl was ready to lay her eggs and stressed because the boys were all showing off instead of dancing with her so she could be rid of the eggs. She is the one in one of the videos glass surfing. There are several shots where you really see the stripe flaring. one of them you can see my derpy hatchling girl. She has swam derpily since hatching and learning to swim. She eats well and seems otherwise fine so I let her be. I took a few videos trying to make it show better. Every time I close the blinds they stop though. Direct sunlight is a huge trigger for them. I tried a few different angles. I can’t just shoot the whole tank because they are small and you can’t really see them if I do that. And that tiger lotus blocks everything! Man they are fast. I will tack the videos on the end they are still uploading. Still no clear alpha as of sundown so I will see what happens tomorrow. 
Mom is going to lay eggs again. Like clockwork this girl is. Every 3 1/2 weeks give or take a day. She nosed dad ito the cave..”get busy cleaning your gonna be a dad again” 🤣

so she will lay today or tomorrow. Angel is definitely a boy @Beardedbillygoat1975 Whiskers are coming in fast. He was flaring his side ones I only got a pic of a half flare though…I’m slow. 

I redid the Pygmy tank. They just did not have enough tunnels to feel safe and active during the day. I thought them going nocturnal was the lights but was not sure. It does not look as good but it is better for them. They like the low tunnels because large predators (even though there are none in this tank) can’t get in I suppose. So now hides are  always close for them to dart into. They were happier today. 

the pothos I dropped in there fully submerged is growing a new leaf

and the little pleco in there adores the almond leaf flowers

cpd drama ….

 

 

 

 

And of course pandas

 

HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW