Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Guppysnail]

On 1/31/2024 at 9:20 AM, beastie said:

Granted I have them in a large tank, but unless spawning, which is either every two weeks or every other month, depending on their mood, they all hang together as a group, no issues. When spawning there will be chasing away, sure, but otherwise they are ok together. Interesting behavior, I also expected them to be more vicious

I’m noticing differences from my GBR.  These do shoal.  My GBR even when not spawning all want to be tank boss.  I seen a bit of that when these were new just to establish themselves but now they do not overtly have s pecking order.  I have to watch close for a time to distinguish who the ring leader is even then it seems to change depending on where they are in the tank.  Almost like each kid in the neighborhood has picked a house and as they go in a group to each others house to hang out the dominance structure shifts.  

[Guppysnail]

My curviceps eggs are fertile and not yet eaten. Day 2 🎉

 

@anewbie decent (not great) photo of L. curviceps This pair has the magenta on the sides of the body near the head that to my understanding comes from one collection location.  My others have no magenta and are really blue  

[anewbie]

On 2/2/2024 at 10:38 AM, Guppysnail said:

My curviceps eggs are fertile and not yet eaten. Day 2 🎉

 

@anewbie decent (not great) photo of L. curviceps This pair has the magenta on the sides of the body near the head that to my understanding comes from one collection location.  My others have no magenta and are really blue  

I don't know about yours but mine are mostly dirty white 'cept when they display to each other than they get the very rich colouring i posted. Were yours wc or tank raised?

 

[Guppysnail]

On 2/2/2024 at 7:29 PM, anewbie said:

I don't know about yours but mine are mostly dirty white 'cept when they display to each other than they get the very rich colouring i posted. Were yours wc or tank raised?

 

All of my curviceps were ordered by my lfs from a wholesaler. I have no clue. They are dirty white when being held at the lfs in the big tanks way to warm (83-84)and stressed.  They color up shortly after I bring them home and they settle in. 

[anewbie]

On 2/2/2024 at 7:53 PM, Guppysnail said:

All of my curviceps were ordered by my lfs from a wholesaler. I have no clue. They are dirty white when being held at the lfs in the big tanks way to warm (83-84)and stressed.  They color up shortly after I bring them home and they settle in. 

Mine is a little warm; sadly i had to raise the aquarium temp to 81 because some of the pleco (L172a) i got the information i had on them were incorrect and they really want a warm tank. Of course 81 also plays nice with the blue rams and eventually the winemilleri when i get them. Sadly the cuviceps and the sterbai suffer a bit at 81/82 - not sure what to do with this - if it was a smaller aquarium i'd fish the pleco out and lower the temp to 77 but that is the pia of a 4 foot wide aquarium - what goes in is pretty much there for life and i made some really bad decisions.

 

Edited February 3 by anewbie

[anewbie]

On 2/2/2024 at 8:12 PM, anewbie said:

Mine is a little warm; sadly i had to raise the aquarium temp to 81 because some of the pleco (L172a) i got the information i had on them were incorrect and they really want a warm tank. Of course 81 also plays nice with the blue rams and eventually the winemilleri when i get them. Sadly the cuviceps and the sterbai suffer a bit at 81/82 - not sure what to do with this - if it was a smaller aquarium i'd fish the pleco out and lower the temp to 77 but that is the pia of a 4 foot wide aquarium - what goes in is pretty much there for life and i made some really bad decisions.

 

To be more precise on the 172a; the information i had on them suggested 74-82 temp range was good for them but when two died at 77 i started looking for a solution and it seems the recommended temp is 82-86; i'm still confused about this data point. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information on them but i'm now suspecting they are one of the species that require very very fast flowing water and mid 80s; there is also a lot of conflicting information on their diet - and yea i used what i considered moderately reliable (planetcatfish, seriouslyfish (which has a lot of errors); fishbase; ... I'm not convince they require 80+ temp but the ones i have are still alive after a couple of months; so i'm reluctant to lower it. I'm also confused about their diet with some sources insisting they need a fair amount of greens and others insisting they will eat exclusively mullesk and snails (though these haven't eaten my snails yet).

Edited February 3 by anewbie

[Guppysnail]

@anewbie I find species that are newer in the hobby have information that doesn’t hold true.  I believe this is because the information is limited to where the fish was collected and what was in the stomach of the ones collected vs What conditions the fish are actually capable of thriving in and they full variety scope of their diet.  
Then you have a few folks add in little tidbits at a time of what they see.  
 

I’ve made stocking errors plenty of times. I have no experience with the 172a.  If you want I can give you the contact of a guy who sells a lot rare plecos and fish.  I think I saw him drop a video of these for sale awhile ago.  He may have first hand info  

The L. dorsigera and curviceps had tons of conflicting info on just temp alone.

I took both groups from 75-81 slowly over several months to find their happy place. Their happy place where breeding happens but no aggression between breeding times was not what the net said.

c-76-77 d-78-79

[Guppysnail]

Day # 3. Curviceps eggs still going strong.  They have dug a pit in the sand for the wigglers.  Could this be the time I get babies 😲

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Have you officially phased out all of the UGFs at this point?

[Guppysnail]

On 2/3/2024 at 2:00 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Have you officially phased out all of the UGFs at this point?

All but 1 in my GBR tank. I do like them but babies stuck under all of them made it untenable.  GBR consistently eat the eggs so no worries.  I do have the sand to do their tank.  I would like to see if the sand encourages better parenting. It’s one of those projects on the list that just never makes it to the top of the list 😆

[anewbie]

On 2/3/2024 at 8:19 AM, Guppysnail said:

@anewbie I find species that are newer in the hobby have information that doesn’t hold true.  I believe this is because the information is limited to where the fish was collected and what was in the stomach of the ones collected vs What conditions the fish are actually capable of thriving in and they full variety scope of their diet.  
Then you have a few folks add in little tidbits at a time of what they see.  
 

I’ve made stocking errors plenty of times. I have no experience with the 172a.  If you want I can give you the contact of a guy who sells a lot rare plecos and fish.  I think I saw him drop a video of these for sale awhile ago.  He may have first hand info  

The L. dorsigera and curviceps had tons of conflicting info on just temp alone.

I took both groups from 75-81 slowly over several months to find their happy place. Their happy place where breeding happens but no aggression between breeding times was not what the net said.

c-76-77 d-78-79

Sure - i'd email him - i mostly want to confirm diet and acceptable temp. So my D's are only a little warm - with the blue rams there i'm pretty committed to the 81-83 range. The D's have been the best behaved of the Ls i have. They are not super aggressive at eating; they are very polite (the a and t are super aggressive running over anyone and everyone in their way; much like the krobia). They don't hurt anyone they just shove them out of the way 😉

 

[Guppysnail]

They ate the eggs. I watch them collect the first hatches and transport them to the hole they dug. They waited and watched the eggs.  They started collecting the eggs that were about to hatch and move them. I thought this was very interesting.

Then as they kept looking through the bits of fungus on the laying spot for more eggs they returned to the hole and began eating the wigglers 😖.

until next time…..

 

[Creedmoor Aquatics]

Bummer!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/4/2024 at 9:12 AM, Guppysnail said:

They ate the eggs

Aw rats!  Sorry @Guppysnail

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

    *waiting for Froggin photo* 

[Guppysnail]

Doing all the BAP stuff and writing all the articles has kept me busy. I’ll work on updates this week hopefully.

My Nannostomus beckfordi reds are here in qt.  ONG 😍 they look plain and boring on the internet but WOW!!!  They look metallic rose gold in person.  I got them as dithers for my Apisto trifasciata in a bottom breeding tank. Seeing them I desperately want a display tank for them. they do not show the beautiful rose gold on camera  
added a few to the Xenotoca doadrioi group 

[Guppysnail]

Just ordered a dozen Danio erythromicron hobbyist raised from a friend of @TeeJay  these have been a someday fish for a loooong time 😍

[TeeJay]

On 2/24/2024 at 1:20 PM, Guppysnail said:

Just ordered a dozen Danio erythromicron hobbyist raised from a friend of @TeeJay  these have been a someday fish for a loooong time 😍

Yeah she made me do it .....🤪

[Guppysnail]

On 2/24/2024 at 4:28 PM, TeeJay said:

Yeah she made me do it .....🤪

Well if you would have bred yours already we wouldn’t have this now would we….no get rack then breed… I am so not that patient 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[TeeJay]

On 2/24/2024 at 5:30 PM, Guppysnail said:

Well if you would have bred yours already we wouldn’t have this now would we….no get rack then breed… I am so not that patient 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

You know I'm still trying to get the whole conditioning for breeding down. You know food food and more food lol. I like my odds in the bigger tank keeping the parameters good without getting spikes 🤪 and there not racks there stands that hold more than one tank......😁

Edited February 24 by TeeJay

[Guppysnail]

On 2/24/2024 at 6:18 PM, TeeJay said:

and there not racks there stands that hold more than one tank......😁

Oh is THAT what we are calling them 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[TeeJay]

On 2/24/2024 at 6:24 PM, Guppysnail said:

Oh is THAT what we are calling them 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Your dang Skippy......that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Guppysnail]

On 2/24/2024 at 6:25 PM, TeeJay said:

Your dang Skippy......that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I got your back PIC!!!  Awesome new STANDS!!!!

[Guppysnail]

Jen from Smallworld Aquatics wanted more CPD so I’m hatching another tank full. 

 

[Guppysnail]

Honey gourami bubble nest 

New batch of limia nigrofasciata fry. I got excited and added food before I took the photo 🤣