Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Torrey]

On 2/5/2022 at 5:56 PM, Guppysnail said:

My reactions seem to come and go today. Hip bursitis slowed me down so I guess I’ve been on intermittently too much yesterday and today 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Uggh, that does not feel good.

I'm wondering what I am doing... I'll have 2 or 3 reactions and then I am ORD again 🤷‍♂️

I hope you have somewhere you can go soak in a hot tub. That makes a huge difference in pain levels for me.

[Guppysnail]

On 2/6/2022 at 12:29 AM, Torrey said:

Uggh, that does not feel good.

I'm wondering what I am doing... I'll have 2 or 3 reactions and then I am ORD again 🤷‍♂️

I hope you have somewhere you can go soak in a hot tub. That makes a huge difference in pain levels for me.

Diclofenac cream and I have an extra large heating pad, Tylenol once a day. It only gets annoying during storms…yup I’m that old lady that predicts the weather with bursitis 🤣

[Guppysnail]

Scrap for scape. Dug through storage and dragons old stuff to find this. There is one more thing in the back I need but have to wait until hubby can help me get to it next weekend. It was a gift a few years ago I never used. 
 

adding to the suspense…🤣

[Torrey]

On 2/6/2022 at 8:51 AM, Guppysnail said:

Scrap for scape. Dug through storage and dragons old stuff to find this. There is one more thing in the back I need but have to wait until hubby can help me get to it next weekend. It was a gift a few years ago I never used. 
 

adding to the suspense…🤣

I have one of those on the side of Tuli's 4' tank! Of course, it doesn't work anymore.... but it definitely helped when my kids still lived at home and wanted bioactive substrates for their snakes!

[Odd Duck]

@GuppysnailI can’t wait to see how things turn out.  Angel is so handsome and clearly talented with his precision fanning abilities!  😆 

[Guppysnail]

Thought this might be helpful to some folks. Micro mini nano coop sponge. I used the bottom of a nano. In the center of the bottom is a little plastic nub I cut out with a box cutter to make room for a ziss air stone. If you cut the airline so the stone tip sits snug against the top it fits. Then I used the leftover piece of a mini coop prefilter leftover from the outflows of the coop power heads. In the scrap for scapes this could be useful for others.  

HAPPY ADVENTURES...TRY SOMETHING NEW

[Jennifer V]

Yay! Hooray for cool snails! 🐌💕

[Guppysnail]

So a few not so pleasant things this weekend. My big barrel shaped girl who split in the chest a few months back but healed had issues. It appeared she was carrying her fry more forward than most guppies each time. This time I noticed bruising on her chest area so I knew she was having trouble. Half way through her fry delivery the spot sort of ruptured ☹️  She was a sweetheart and the mother of the oldest two boys I’ve been watching. She will be missed but her beauty will live forward. 
Today my last magenta bot mystery snail was acting off. I looked and his penis was swollen to an incredible size. I put him in a hospital container with clean dechlorinated water and a chip of wondershell to slowly come to room temp hoping the cooler temp would help the swelling. He is still there. All my other snails and shrimp in the tank are fine and I ran every api liquid I have. Tests are normal. I wonder if he was trying to mate with one of the big boys and got pinched or I have never seen him attempt to mate only be mated do they get backed up? 🤷‍♀️  He is responsive but shows no improvement (warning unpleasant  pics)

On a different note. Hubby helped me look in storage and what I wanted for scrap for scape is not there 😭 he said I donated it a 2 years ago but I don’t remember doing it as that’s not a typical donation item.   It was a little 1-2 gallon tank with a high back wall that had fake rock that had spots to plant plants and a little led plant light. I never used it because I’m not good with tiny tanks. They make me too nervous so I do too much and can’t keep them stable. Tank 2 was…WAS…the funny tank but at any given time I see 8-10 of the pleco babies. I really hope it was not a huge clump that hatched but seeing that many out front alone…I need the funny tank unscaped.  But I have two other containers I’m going to use just not as elaborate. The good that came of it was I was going to set the little one up inside frogs huge terrarium to help with humidity. I used the pump I was going to make the water fall with and now she has a fountain. 

I could not think of names for my pleco in the two cory tanks. Nothing would come to me. Thanks to @Torrey they now have names. 
TULIP

Honeysuckle

Loving these hikari tubifex cubes. Pygmy and CPD love them as well. Pygmy still hate my phone and hide. I need one of those stalker people telephoto lens camera so I can video from across the street 🤣 I put the cube on the back wall at the bottom hoping to show the Pygmy nomming at it as well…no go…by the time I got done waiting the CPD we’re almost full 🤣🤣🤣

 

 

HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW

Edited February 9, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Guppysnail]

Oh I almost forgot. I got a pic of the little Pygmy. In back is one of my boys. The girls are larger than him hthe baby is up front. 

Edited February 9, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Torrey]

There was a collective "awe!" In our household!

I have no idea how similar snail gonopodium? penii? are to other animals, but I have seen this happen with domesticated ducks (albeit they look more like a swollen corkscrew wine opener), bulls and stallions if they get interrupted. 

The appendage will still swell up to create the lock, and it could take several hours for the blood flow to revert to normal. We had one male pekin who never did go back to normal, much to his chagrin as baby ducklings, poults and chicks thought it was a delightful worm to chase until I figured out what was happening 🤦‍♂️

If his behavior is normal, and he is eating, and it doesn't go back to normal in 24 hours in clean, cooler waters, I don't know if they can get prolapse like the duck?

I would just monitor, and if it doesn't bother the snail, I would let him live out life in a clean tank.

Since all of your tanks you keep the nitrates down, he'll probably be okay wherever no one pecks at his pecker🤷‍♂️

[Not to make light of it, but raising kids on a farm while working as a birthworker led to a lot of **really interesting** dinner conversations 😅]

[Guppysnail]

@Torrey I bet it did make “interesting “ conversations 🤣. Unfortunately he was not acting okay. He sat still for hours. He was responsive only to touching his foot but he did not retract. I checked on him an hour ago and he had passed He was approaching a year and half and his siblings had already passed. .(a few months ago)My tanks run 77-78 so that is about their lifespan with my 2 huge boys and their smaller clutch mate being the exception. 

Edited February 10, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Torrey]

On 2/9/2022 at 7:57 PM, Guppysnail said:

@Torrey I bet it did make “interesting “ conversations 🤣. Unfortunately he was not acting okay. He sat still for hours. He was responsive only to touching his foot but he did not retract. I checked on him an hour ago and he had passed He was approaching a year and half and his siblings had already passed. .(a few months ago)My tanks run 77-78 so that is about their lifespan with my 2 huge boys and their smaller clutch mate being the exception. 

I'm so sorry. I know how attached you are to your snail kids.

Pebbles may live a very long life then, as we are not using heaters and the tank fluctuates between 65° to 72° F?

I think she was offering you a long distance snail hug:

Her little batwings came out as I was checking your response.

 

[Guppysnail]

It is important to me to be able to full hard core belly laugh myself to tears..at my own nutty chaotic self 🤪

so at @Greg Stewart suggestion 😁 I took a hard look at my cable management “skills” 🤣🤣🤣and what all I needed to “improve” them(can you improve something that does not exist?😋. I laughed so hard I cried. It was not bad when I first moved everything into the fish room. Then I added 4 powerhead and 2 strip lights. Went from inline UV to in tank added dimmable lights and others things and well…… 😳🤯☠️ 🐙 

so @Greg Stewart this I’m posting only some of my monsters so you to can enjoy the belly laugh (possibly causes anxiety and nervous tics ). 
 

laugh with me or laugh at me as long as everyone is enjoying the health benefits of laughter it’s all good 😁🥰

[Greg Stewart]

I love it! I am in the middle of writing up the beginning of a General topic on cable/hose management tips and accessories so people can add their own suggestions. I've just been horribly distracted this week.

I do believe there is hope for you, though. As long as you don't trip and get dragged by those wires into a void where no one can find you 😉

[Guppysnail]

On 2/10/2022 at 12:00 PM, Greg Stewart said:

I love it! I am in the middle of writing up the beginning of a General topic on cable/hose management tips and accessories so people can add their own suggestions. I've just been horribly distracted this week.

I do believe there is hope for you, though. As long as you don't trip and get dragged by those wires into a void where no one can find you 😉

As of right now now all are up off the floor and finally got my drip loops in. When I moved all but 2 of 7 tanks in 1 day the goal was get it done I will “organize” and make them not look like the 15 tentacled octopus monster “tomorrow”. However being that it is always today and never tomorrow……. Thanks for the nudge to get it done before I get plugs wet and fry myself, my home, and my fish 🤗. It’s still ugly so I’m waiting on the edge of my seat for your topic 🤩

[Guppysnail]

Fun stuff

the first dark blue boy in the video is my champ. Blue pectoral fins gonopdium more body blue and a deeper blue second blue boy is great but the pectoral fins are not dark blue. I’m keeping both. The guppy I lost in birthing this weekend was mom to the larger boy  her sister birthed the smaller  those were the only two girls in that batch I kept  so maybe the sister will give me some more with all blue fins 🥰

 

Got pics of the 2 that are a new blue. The tails and dorsal are like an electric blue. 
mom n dad

handsome dad whiskers

 

Angel

Lefty swimming

honeysuckle

piggy pandas hogging the food from shy Tulip

adorable guppy baby hunting about 

 

 

 

HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW 

almost forgot baby pic

Edited February 10, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Hobbit]

Those guppies look great! And I’ll never get over Mom and Dad pleco waiting in their food dishes. 😄 

Ahh I also can’t wait for this cord management post… I try but I certainly have room for improvement.

[Vanish]

That's pretty scary!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Firstly, my condolences. He was long lived because of all your care.

On a more comedic note, I hate to say it but this is one more reason to get out of the Mystery snail business for me. I like my nerites, ramshorns and MTS. 

[Guppysnail]

On 2/11/2022 at 4:23 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Firstly, my condolences. He was long lived because of all your care.

On a more comedic note, I hate to say it but this is one more reason to get out of the Mystery snail business for me. I like my nerites, ramshorns and MTS. 

@BuzzDaddy21 has Japanese trap door snails that I’ve found beautiful. There is a brown and white variety I like. So far from what I have learned they are longer lived. Ever since I started with guppies I kept all my tanks at 77-78 so I could play musical tanks with guppies and put them in any tank if needed. Now that I’m gearing down on guppy selection breeding and they look the way I hoped I can adjust. I turned everything but the guppy tanks (3 mystery snails in those) down to 75-76. Which is a better temp for all the inhabitants in the other tanks. 

 

On 2/11/2022 at 3:56 PM, Vanish said:

That's pretty scary

I assume you mean the plug monsters 🤣. (Things aquarists think live under the bed but actually lives in my fish room)  They are fixed up on the walls with drip loops now just still looks messy so no more pics yet.  I’m not ordering anything until @Greg Stewartmakes the post on cord organizing tips. 

[Greg Stewart]

I will try to get it done this weekend... with photos, and links, and all manner of chaos to enjoy.

[Guppysnail]

I got some video of my alpha interacting with his 2nd in command. It shows the distinct difference in the depth of red in the fins. This is just normal interaction. (And. Bladder snail photobomber 🤣) 

I took the sad swords in mom n dads tank off the wood and split the large fern and glued it on. The minute I put it in the tank the runner popped loose. I left it being tired of wet armpits for the day 🤣

not he best photo but the eyes are starting to show on this girls little ones

managed to get a pic of a Pygmy before he ran from my phone. 
Hungry little 🐷 CPD

 

 

 

HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I love the tail to nose dances the CPD boys do, it's so pretty. I can't tell who in my pack is in charge a couple of them are very nicely coloured up. No clue who my solo baby belongs to!

[Torrey]

I am also awaiting the cord post, right now my cords are mostly hidden behind a curtain like the Wiz, lol.

Of course the runner waited, why would it conveniently reveal itself to you when it was out of the tank?

 

Loving your tanks!😍

[Guppysnail]

On 2/11/2022 at 10:48 PM, Torrey said:

mostly hidden behind a curtain like the Wiz, lol.

That is too funny 🤣. I was actually thinking to make something or sit a statue or vase of flowers in front of it so you just could not see the monster 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣