Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Guppysnail]

Doing boring adult housecleaning today I lost half an hour admiring my very industrious powder orange isopods in Froggins house. 
 

I started with 20 in her 40 g tank when I moved her in here about 1 1/2 -2 years ago I think. Now there are hundreds. So many they don’t even hide anymore when I’m changing out Froggins swimming pool. The only time they hide is when the tank gets sprayed down with water. They do not like water. I wonder at what point I need to worry about overpopulation?
 

I keep it humid enough for Froggin but I think I don’t keep it wet enough for my springtails. 4 times I’ve seeded springtails in here. They just don’t take or are just too little for me to see. But I have looked with a magnifying glass. I don’t have any mold or mildew issues other than where the dirt hits the glass there is a little but nothing alarming. So I think I’m ok??? 

@Biotope Biologist any thoughts or suggestions on all this?

 

[Guppysnail]

😎

T-shirt courtesy of @TeeJay 🤗

Bracelets courtesy of his daughter Hanna. 
 

It’s good to have friends in o-HI-o places🤣

Boo is inspecting of course 

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Guppysnail Did you politely ask Boo to take her "foot off the gaas"? lol

[Biotope Biologist]

On 8/18/2023 at 10:40 AM, Guppysnail said:

Doing boring adult housecleaning today I lost half an hour admiring my very industrious powder orange isopods in Froggins house. 
 

I started with 20 in her 40 g tank when I moved her in here about 1 1/2 -2 years ago I think. Now there are hundreds. So many they don’t even hide anymore when I’m changing out Froggins swimming pool. The only time they hide is when the tank gets sprayed down with water. They do not like water. I wonder at what point I need to worry about overpopulation?
 

I keep it humid enough for Froggin but I think I don’t keep it wet enough for my springtails. 4 times I’ve seeded springtails in here. They just don’t take or are just too little for me to see. But I have looked with a magnifying glass. I don’t have any mold or mildew issues other than where the dirt hits the glass there is a little but nothing alarming. So I think I’m ok??? 

@Biotope Biologist any thoughts or suggestions on all this?

 

I never see my springtails either unless I really really churn the soil. I’m in the process of relocating animals to the new terrarium. Also, yeah I’m drowning in powder oranges. I can’t keep up! Going to sell culture starts soon.
 

I think the tank looks great and I’m sure the soil health is doing great! I have heard the blue and orange springtails are a bit more finicky about humidity but the white ones should be fine

[Guppysnail]

@Biotope Biologist the first culture was orange springtails. The next 3 were white. Thanks for reassuring me. 

[Guppysnail]

My luminatus girls finally got themself 3 sexy hunks in the tank ❤️❤️❤️

 

[Guppysnail]

So much has been going on. Let’s start at the beginning. 

Here is what went to Jen for Keystone Clash 

Lots of snails went. I’m scaling back on snails. The nitrate production and feeding causes so much extra work.  I just need a bit of a break and I’m really into the Cichlid thing right now.  2 livebearing types are too much in high gear. I do still have each type but I kept only juveniles of both. 
 

My Pseudomugil gertrudae that I wanted for so long were a disappointment because I already had luminatus that I raised from very small so was invested in. I loved the gertrudae but being the same type of fish they just did not hold my fascination. The spots and patterns were stunning but I could not see them without camera zoom. Scott traded me males for female luminatus. 
 

In an attempt to find Dory (female Laetacara curviceps) a mate I ordered from a company in Florida. Talked with my Cichlid club folks after they arrived and looked so different. It is apparently common knowledge among the Cichlid inner circle (I’m not in the circle 🤣) the breeders in Florida sell Laetacara dorsigera (red breasted acara) as curviceps 🙄.  So what I thought was bruising from shipping was their normal red breast 🤣. Now I have 5 dorsigera and still no mate for Dory.

Dorsigera

I went back to my LFS again and they let me see their order sheet from the wholesaler. 3 Dory fish left from the wholesaler she came from so I ordered them. 
 

Only 2 arrived. As soon as I put them in qt it was obvious they are a mated pair already. Still no hubby for Dory. So I guess I have to wait for them to make babies and grow Dory a hubby. She is to beautiful to not have babies and it’s unfair for her to play nurse maid to Apisto babies while she keeps laying eggs with no mate to fertilize them. 

New Curviceps

Dory

Through all this the seam near the bottom on the Apisto tank started a constant pinhole leak at 9pm. Orb had babies about 2-3 weeks old and Olive was sitting eggs. I did an emergency patch with super glue to hold until I could get a tank in the morning. 
 

 

I decided to get an extra 20long and stand so I could rid my self if the small lower shelf little tanks and make life easier. This also gives me a 20long for the new true curviceps to raise babies in. 
 

I moved the Apisto to the new tank. Olive ate her eggs. Orb does not recognize the babies as hers but is not bothering them. Funny though Olive has adopted them. 
 

Still need the emergent garden. Nursery trip Monday. I added a giant anubias I bought.  It came with a bloom on it. Very impressive plant. I put it in front of the moss jungle divider to try and make it not look like such a train wreck. It was like tying a bow on a turd 😝 At Least it takes the main focus off the turd. 🤣

I used the Carib sea jungle river sand this time. Their behavior is much more interesting. My boy is now showing blue in his colors. 

When I picked up the curviceps they had a group of Pygmy Cory that looked great. I picked those up. They will grow up with the Sewellia and I’ll add those to my colony for booster genetics. 

My ADF Tadpoles are doing great. 🥰 Most can eat grindal worms now in case you don’t follow that thread. 

HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Guppysnail That's a lot of snails. Have you ever bred the Nerites (either in brackish or salt)? They weren't around much back when I used to keep fish, so I am looking forward to having them in my new tank.

[Guppysnail]

On 8/26/2023 at 10:12 AM, JChristophersAdventures said:

@Guppysnail That's a lot of snails. Have you ever bred the Nerites (either in brackish or salt)? They weren't around much back when I used to keep fish, so I am looking forward to having them in my new tank.

No I have not. The ones I sold off were out of the smaller tanks I took down. Nerites need to lay in brackish/ salt water then the babies need to live there then transfer slowly to fresh. I don’t know if anyone who has successfully bred them in captivity. That is not to say it can’t be done just I don’t know many people 🤣

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Guppysnail That's what I've heard, and I won't have the set-up to try and breed anything for awhile... some Nerites are very hard to come by for that reason. It might be possible to piggyback breeding them in a Molly breeding set-up as they also like very brackish water if given a choice. I know Mollies like shrimp, but I don't think they would go after snails.

[Guppysnail]

When I pulled the last batch of pleco eggs it looks like I missed at least 1 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

It was nice catching up on your journal! So many wonderful fish! 
Dwarf cichlids are an addiction. You’re managing it well!! 

[Guppysnail]

My new Laetacara curviceps couple started laying eggs tonight. Since I can’t find a boyfriend for Diry I guess I’ll grow one 🤣 Hopefully they are good parents first time around 🤞🏻

 

Remember Buddy? The tiny emaciated Badis badis I rescued from the shop.  This is my big beautiful boy now 🥰

 

[nabokovfan87]

Awesome work on the recovery for Buddy. 🙂

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/26/2023 at 8:44 AM, Guppysnail said:

I added a giant anubias I bought.  It came with a bloom on it. Very impressive plant.

Wow. Amazing!

On 8/26/2023 at 8:44 AM, Guppysnail said:

a

I love this one. Such a cool moment.

On 8/26/2023 at 3:21 PM, Guppysnail said:

When I pulled the last batch of pleco eggs it looks like I missed at least 1 

How cute. Their name is SneakyPip.

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

Proud curviceps parents watching their eggs. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

Can’t wait to see the fry! 

[Guppysnail]

On 9/2/2023 at 4:58 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Can’t wait to see the fry! 

This was their first spawn. They ate the eggs. I’ll give them another try and if they eat those I’ll pull the eggs and hatch them. 

[JChristophersAdventures]

What happened to the little one you discovered after it hatched out?

[Guppysnail]

On 9/2/2023 at 1:03 PM, JChristophersAdventures said:

What happened to the little one you discovered after it hatched out?

I only had 1 other L. Curviceps and I rescued her from the LFS.  This was the pairs first egg set. I have all kinds of other fry in my tanks. Are you talking about 1 of those?

The lone CPD is grown big enough she is in with the parents. 
The lone panda Cory fry went to the Cory grow out with the Pygmy and bandit babies. It turns out that was not a lone panda. There were 6 fry in there that I’ve caught so far 🤣

The Badis badis fry I found have all grown to subadults. They are still in the parent tank. 
 

Those are the only recent loners I have. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Do you still have Ziff?

[Guppysnail]

On 9/2/2023 at 1:43 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Do you still have Ziff?

Ziff and Cece went with the rest of the pandas to @Elodie Rose

[Guppysnail]

I randomly pulled melini and Pygmy Cory eggs and dropped them in this tank awhile ago. Then the 6 panda babies that came out of hiding in the old panda tank/ new L. dorsigera tank went in here. I managed to catch 2 rogue LBE pleco babies so in they went. It’s a crazy cute tank to watch. 

 

[Guppysnail]

 

[Guppysnail]

Laetacara curviceps spawning Hopefully the second spawn they won’t eat