Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Odd Duck]

You’ve got lots of yellow showing!  It just isn’t standing out against all your lovely green plants like the other colors do.

[Guppysnail]

Edit  somehow the first part of this post disappeared??? So these are my new honey gourami out of qt in their new home  

I have one singleton honey still in qt. That had a tail injury. He is better now.  I only had one betta years ago. He lived a great long life and no issues. I see these days betta are becoming weaker and have some consistent health issues. My single gourami in qt has all the crazy personality of a betta and is already interactive with me. Comes to the glass every time and touches it with his feelers. Comes to the surface to investigate my fingers. Not shy at all. Maybe for folks who really want the betta personality and color flare but keep getting heartbroken over them no longer being sturdy these would be a good alternative.  Their natural habitat regularly dries and floods. They go from high to low ph without issue and are labyrinth fish so tolerate almost any condition. 
 

Next up is the drama. 
 

The GBR are so peaceful until girls tubes drop. Alpha and big boy locked lips and did not let go. Alpha tried to get away but was struggling. Next thing he turned ghost white and shot to the surface in the corner. I could see a touch of white on his nose. I netted him to check him over. I was horrified. With my magnifying glass I could see he was MISSING his top lip and where his nose should be. 
I moved him to a qt with salt. He tried to eat for several days but was unsuccessful without a top lip. After a few days he stopped trying. I lost him. 
During this time there were now 3 females with dropped tubes and one male. This did not go well either. The two big girls teamed up and bullied the littlest one into hiding in the back corner for days. Luckily she eats from my fingers so I could remove the lid and feed her back there.
I talked to my fish club friend who keeps bigger cichlids and she said the key to harmony with cichlids is overstocking. 
I was loath to lose the intimate interaction with the dynamic of my group but every time they breed I did not want this level of conflict. I ordered 7 more from Imperial tropcals. 
UPS is not doing guaranteed AM delivery through the holiday. My GBR did not arrive until after 9 PM. I left a small. Night light on to float and drop the fish.
The bag water was 69 degrees. These were much smaller than the group @dasaltemelosguy sent. They were pale and…SILVER EYES!

OH NO… they sent Bolivian rams. The qt I had set was 82*. Floating them from 69-82 which is to warm for Bolivians I felt would have shocked them. That is a drastic and quick temp change. I was not going to startle my whole fish room to change water in a floor tote. (Side note I was not the sharpest tool in the shed at this point. I had fallen asleep on the sofa waiting and the doorbell woke me up. I wake up SLOW!🤣) 

So I floated them in the qt with my single gourami at 77.  While waiting I emailed the vendor with what happened. Once they hit temp I put them in the QT. 

I have never seen this before. These “Bolivian” rams with silver eyes colored up completely including the RED color poured into their eyes wishing 30 seconds.  I was flabbergasted.  @Odd Duck said the red in the eyes must be capillary in nature vs pigmentation. 
I emailed the company again with a very embarrassed apology. 😳

So I got up every few hours that night to raise the temp to 80 slowly. Here they are in qt that morning. 

A few days later when I was not worried about ich hitting from the low temp in the bag I moved my little girl who was still in the corner into the qt with the group so I did not lose her from stress. 
She was happy as could be and showed the new kids if they come to my fingers there are yummies 😋

So in the funny tank qt I had 8 GBR and a honey gourami. The gourami liked it. The GBR happily squabbled away. They eventually decided the honey who was much larger was the head honcho to challenge. That started going south so I dropped all the GBR kids in the big tank. Chaos ensued. 

 

My big kids have sorted it out and let the little ones know where they are allowed to play. A few of the little ones are feisty upstarts. There are to many now for them to target any individual so it’s calming down to a peaceful level. I’m certain this will change.as soon as girls drop tubes to breed. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 it is not a blood bath.The littlest new kid that I can’t sex yet turned pale and surfed not quite ready for that level of squabbling chaos.  So I put them back in with the honey.

What an odd couple. Those two are best buddies. In the evening when lights are dimming for the last time they huddle together just floating. It’s very cute. 

I put the dwarf cats in with the Badis badis for more space and redid the tank. I moved those bandit cory in with the other group of bandits. First morning all 14 bandits were together here is what I found waiting on breakfast 🤣

HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW(it keeps you on your toes 🤣)

Edited December 6, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 12/6/2022 at 7:40 AM, Guppysnail said:

Maybe for folks who really want the betta personality and color flare but keep getting heartbroken over them no longer being sturdy these would be a good alternative.

And Bolivian rams!

On 12/6/2022 at 7:40 AM, Guppysnail said:

I see these days betta are becoming weaker and have some consistent health issues

I noticed that too. Glad I got my guy from a friend, so I already knew he was healthy and well taken care of.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 12/6/2022 at 7:40 AM, Guppysnail said:

eyes colored up completely including the RED color poured into their eyes wishing 30 seconds

Something similar happened when I bought “pristella tetras” and after a few weeks in qt they colored up and were actually head-and-taillight tetras. 
 

They are pretty cool actually, and get along well with the rest of the community fish.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/6/2022 at 1:40 PM, Guppysnail said:

Edit  somehow the first part of this post disappeared??? So these are my new honey gourami out of qt in their new home  

I have one singleton honey still in qt. That had a tail injury. He is better now.  I only had one betta years ago. He lived a great long life and no issues. I see these days betta are becoming weaker and have some consistent health issues. My single gourami in qt has all the crazy personality of a betta and is already interactive with me. Comes to the glass every time and touches it with his feelers. Comes to the surface to investigate my fingers. Not shy at all. Maybe for folks who really want the betta personality and color flare but keep getting heartbroken over them no longer being sturdy these would be a good alternative.  Their natural habitat regularly dries and floods. They go from high to low ph without issue and are labyrinth fish so tolerate almost any condition. 
 

Next up is the drama. 
 

The GBR are so peaceful until girls tubes drop. Alpha and big boy locked lips and did not let go. Alpha tried to get away but was struggling. Next thing he turned ghost white and shot to the surface in the corner. I could see a touch of white on his nose. I netted him to check him over. I was horrified. With my magnifying glass I could see he was MISSING his top lip and where his nose should be. 
I moved him to a qt with salt. He tried to eat for several days but was unsuccessful without a top lip. After a few days he stopped trying. I lost him. 
During this time there were now 3 females with dropped tubes and one male. This did not go well either. The two big girls teamed up and bullied the littlest one into hiding in the back corner for days. Luckily she eats from my fingers so I could remove the lid and feed her back there.
I talked to my fish club friend who keeps bigger cichlids and she said the key to harmony with cichlids is overstocking. 
I was loath to lose the intimate interaction with the dynamic of my group but every time they breed I did not want this level of conflict. I ordered 7 more from Imperial tropcals. 
UPS is not doing guaranteed AM delivery through the holiday. My GBR did not arrive until after 9 PM. I left a small. Night light on to float and drop the fish.
The bag water was 69 degrees. These were much smaller than the group @dasaltemelosguy sent. They were pale and…SILVER EYES!

OH NO… they sent Bolivian rams. The qt I had set was 82*. Floating them from 69-82 which is to warm for Bolivians I felt would have shocked them. That is a drastic and quick temp change. I was not going to startle my whole fish room to change water in a floor tote. (Side note I was not the sharpest tool in the shed at this point. I had fallen asleep on the sofa waiting and the doorbell woke me up. I wake up SLOW!🤣) 

So I floated them in the qt with my single gourami at 77.  While waiting I emailed the vendor with what happened. Once they hit temp I put them in the QT. 

I have never seen this before. These “Bolivian” rams with silver eyes colored up completely including the RED color poured into their eyes wishing 30 seconds.  I was flabbergasted.  @Odd Duck said the red in the eyes must be capillary in nature vs pigmentation. 
I emailed the company again with a very embarrassed apology. 😳

So I got up every few hours that night to raise the temp to 80 slowly. Here they are in qt that morning. 

A few days later when I was not worried about ich hitting from the low temp in the bag I moved my little girl who was still in the corner into the qt with the group so I did not lose her from stress. 
She was happy as could be and showed the new kids if they come to my fingers there are yummies 😋

So in the funny tank qt I had 8 GBR and a honey gourami. The gourami liked it. The GBR happily squabbled away. They eventually decided the honey who was much larger was the head honcho to challenge. That started going south so I dropped all the GBR kids in the big tank. Chaos ensued. 

 

My big kids have sorted it out and let the little ones know where they are allowed to play. A few of the little ones are feisty upstarts. There are to many now for them to target any individual so it’s calming down to a peaceful level. I’m certain this will change.as soon as girls drop tubes to breed. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 it is not a blood bath.The littlest new kid that I can’t sex yet turned pale and surfed not quite ready for that level of squabbling chaos.  So I put them back in with the honey.

What an odd couple. Those two are best buddies. In the evening when lights are dimming for the last time they huddle together just floating. It’s very cute. 

I put the dwarf cats in with the Badis badis for more space and redid the tank. I moved those bandit cory in with the other group of bandits. First morning all 14 bandits were together here is what I found waiting on breakfast 🤣

HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW(it keeps you on your toes 🤣)

So sorry to hear that you had such a bad run with the Rams 😢. At least it’s all worked out for the best 😁. As soon as I redo my tanks, ONE pair of GBRs are in the list 😉!

[Biotope Biologist]

Boy that was a rollercoaster. Always drama with cichlids even the peaceful ones!

 

glad it all worked out!

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/6/2022 at 5:38 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

Boy that was a rollercoaster. Always drama with cichlids even the peaceful ones!

 

glad it all worked out!

I’m starting to dread the next “spawning season” 🤯

[Guppysnail]

Hey lady, are we doing this or what?

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/6/2022 at 6:42 PM, Guppysnail said:

Hey lady, are we doing this or what?

She’s huge 😳! I predict a massive clutch of eggs…in anywhere between now and in 72 hours time 😁!

[Odd Duck]

My super red boy is in the cave on another clutch.  The second clutch isn’t even out of the breeder net, yet.  I was hoping to sell the first clutch before letting the second clutch loose because I didn’t want to be chasing the first clutch around for catching with the tiny guys from the second clutch loose in the tank.  I may have to rethink that.  Or put the little guys from the second clutch in a different tank.  Hmmm, bristlenose plecos breeding faster than there is room for them.  Sounds a bit familiar, right @Guppysnail?

[Guppysnail]

On 12/6/2022 at 2:56 PM, Odd Duck said:

Hmmm, bristlenose plecos breeding faster than there is room for them.  Sounds a bit familiar, right @Guppysnail?

Oh my that’s the story of my life 🤣

[Guppysnail]

I was puttering about in the fish room cleaning filters. I noticed either all the activity near the funny tank inches off the floor or the water change I did seriously agitated the odd couple. 
I doubt it was the water because also did one on the big tank from the same premix bin. 
Needless to say Grouch(GBR) was mega glass surfing. This obviously agitated Felix(gourami). Glass surfing makes me an agitated wreck. How rude of him to disrupt my serenity. So I put Grouch in with the rest of the GBR to give that another go. He settled in wonderfully. 
Now Felix began glass surfing without his companion so he went in with his group. 
Both have settled in very lovely. 
Im really enjoying having more GBR. It actually brings their activity level up. 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Guppysnail]

The cat kids are loving having elbow room. Last night they were insane all over the tank. I thought for sure I would wake to eggs. They either hid the really well, ate them or the Badis and snails ate them. 

yesterday morning I knew immediately something was wrong in the tank by the hiding behavior of everyone. 
My dude who lived in the pot up front and peaked out to say hi every morning was not there. 
The lower portion of the hob uptake tube had fallen off and there was no flow from the hob. 
I knew instantly what happened. I’m so heartbroken because my pot living dude was the most social with me and his peaking out every morning was something I looked forward to so much that tank always got lights on first. 
😢 I will miss him. 

[Guppysnail]

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

Very nice to see that you have found your GBR serenity!😜

[TheSwissAquarist]

Sorry to hear about your loss 😢.

[Guppysnail]

Meet Tchaikovsky. Chai T for short 🤣

Another panda stowaway into the the piano snail tank. 

And this is Beethoven. Betty for short. A CPD stowaway in the piano tank. 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Mechanical failures and the likes are brutal when they happen. Take it easy and don’t take it too heavy to heart. You’ve got a beautiful home for them. 

[Guppysnail]

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/9/2022 at 3:26 PM, Guppysnail said:

“Any tweets going spare? Just a weetle wun?”🥰

[Guppysnail]

On 12/9/2022 at 10:08 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

“Any tweets going spare? Just a weetle wun?”🥰

He is odd. Refuses all treats. That is his “Mom you have not played with me in over 5 whole minutes. Don’t you love me?” Face

[Bev C]

@Guppysnail  first congratulations on your great niece   she is beautiful they are wonderful  i have 2 and 3 great nephews  you can spoil them and send them  home  

your rams are beautiful i use to have 4  GR they did not last long unfortunately one died and the rest followed right afterwards my fish store  said they do not handle death well among themselves if there it is only a few he said the more you have the better  they have some beautiful colors 

 

it was good to catch up on your journal many hugs ,,, 

[Guppysnail]

Anyone want to give a guess at who is male and female and if this is courting or fighting?  They are so stinking polite I can’t tell if it is establishing dominance. These kids are very fun. I think the biggest all yellow one is a girl but I’m not sure. The others look sort of the same but only a few are getting the dark beards. 
@laritheloud? I love these kids so fun. No GBR videos today but I’m happy with the larger group. The smaller ones really show off that they are kids. All kinds of play antics. The big ones patrol the tank breaking up squabbles amongst the youngsters.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Guppysnail

[laritheloud]

On 12/11/2022 at 5:50 PM, Guppysnail said:

Anyone want to give a guess at who is male and female and if this is courting or fighting?  They are so stinking polite I can’t tell if it is establishing dominance. These kids are very fun. I think the biggest all yellow one is a girl but I’m not sure. The others look sort of the same but only a few are getting the dark beards. 
@laritheloud? I love these kids so fun. No GBR videos today but I’m happy with the larger group. The smaller ones really show off that they are kids. All kinds of play antics. The big ones patrol the tank breaking up squabbles amongst the youngsters.

 

 

 

 

You have 1 female 3 males! And yes, this is about as rough as they get. The female (faint stripe down the side, still yellow but paler overall, orange fin rims) is flirting with the men and trying to figure which she likes best. The male with the black beard is the current dominant fella. The other two kinda do the same motions as flirting (wiggling side by side) to determine their pecking order. Super sweet fish, right??? I still have my own sunset honey gourami male! He's by himself now as the center of my 29 gallon tank but still wonderful.

[BeeD]

Is that a female guppy in the 3rd video? Are the gourami just not as big as I'm thinking, or is that guppy huge?