Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Guppysnail]

On 12/11/2022 at 6:01 PM, laritheloud said:

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.

Thanks. I’m assuming the other 2 are boys but not old enough to get in on the pecking order?  There are 6 total in there. They all are very friendly with me and not shy. I’m so glad I got these. 

On 12/11/2022 at 6:32 PM, BrettD said:

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?

My guppy girls get HUGE 2.75-3 inches big. Those are full size honey gouramis.  That’s not even the largest she was always smaller than the other girls. Even my boys get larger than normal. I gave some to a friend who has 2 other strains and she could not believe they are almost double the size of her others. 
I intentionally outbred and never allowed inbreeding. They just kept getting bigger and bigger. 
 

[BeeD]

On 12/11/2022 at 5:35 PM, Guppysnail said:

My guppy girls get HUGE 2.75-3 inches big. Those are full size honey gouramis.  That’s not even the largest she was always smaller than the other girls. Even my boys get larger than normal. I gave some to a friend who has 2 other strains and she could not believe they are almost double the size of her others. 
I intentionally outbred and never allowed inbreeding. They just kept getting bigger and bigger. 
 

Yup you're right, that's huge. My biggest gup wasn't even 2.5. I think I would put her over 2 by a little, but 3 is completely beyond my comprehension.

If I go to a livebearer convention, are they going to blow my last brain cell? Not sure I can afford it. 

[Guppysnail]

On 12/11/2022 at 10:05 PM, BrettD said:

Yup you're right, that's huge. My biggest gup wasn't even 2.5. I think I would put her over 2 by a little, but 3 is completely beyond my comprehension.

If I go to a livebearer convention, are they going to blow my last brain cell? Not sure I can afford it. 

I’ve never been to an LB convention. I have heard of quite a few others with very large guppies. Mostly accomplished with feeding from fry. I think Cory talked about it on a livestream. The key for mine is feeding fry every 2 hours coupled with enough water changes to accommodate the feeding. 
The thing I have seen though is line breeding for color etc seems to create smaller strains. I have never tried a line bred strain so I am not certain of the correlation if there is one or just that creating one requires so many tanks the attention to feeding and work involved in daily water changes on so many tanks just isn’t something that is done. 🤷‍♀️

Edited December 12, 2022 by Guppysnail

[TheSwissAquarist]

Any intentions of breeding the Honey Gouramis? They look superb!

[Guppysnail]

On 12/12/2022 at 1:23 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Any intentions of breeding the Honey Gouramis? They look superb!

Of course. However I’m not a breed for profit so I always like to let things unfold naturally. From there I try to save a few fry from each type of fish to raise. 
If that does not work I do have a 10g project tank that when it’s available I will probably move a pair to. 
I am currently hoping to get another collectible batch of eggs from the GBR. I’m crazy smitten with those. They seem to keep laying on the gravel though. Every time they do I put another rock where they laid hoping. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Guppysnail

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/12/2022 at 1:05 PM, Guppysnail said:

Every time they do I put another rock where they laid hoping. 

Try adding some slate. I have a friend whos GBRs only spawn on a flat piece of slate. Anubias leaves have been used before, but slate is more practical for removing the spawn.

[Guppysnail]

I did not get the original feeding frenzy in video but here is the remnants. I like to find places in tanks to feed worms that the worms do not escape under substrate and don’t get gobbled down so quick. I think it provides the fish with entertainment and forces them to “hunt” a bit rather than just be gluttons. 
This is the GBR tank. The algae is on mom n dad plecos hide(and nerite egg central 🤣) Most of the worms were consumed immediately of course. The remains live in the algae and throughout the day the kids hunt through the algae. Some fall and mom n dad snag them as they do. 
The best benefit?  It totally entertains ME 😁🤣

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

You must spend a decent amount of time watching the fish! 😁

[Guppysnail]

On 12/12/2022 at 10:13 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

You must spend a decent amount of time watching the fish! 😁

Hubby works days so it’s me the frog, the cats and fish. Football Sundays increase my fish time also. 

[Guppysnail]

[Minanora]

Lots of excitement. I love it! 

I love your little paradise. It'll be awesome when you finally get gbr fry!! 😍

[Guppysnail]

Verdict is in. These kids definitely like to lay where there is flow 🤣

They are big enough and watching the spawning behavior I can sex them. I have 5 big fat belly girls and only 1 boy who is leaner and slightly smaller. Hopefully some of these are fertile and I get some of these to hatch though retrieval from inside the outflow will be interesting. 🤨

Looking close at the photos these do not look fertile. But I’m going to give it a go if I see any look like they are developing. I will leave them here until I do. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Guppysnail]

Well good grief. Upon closer inspection the tank is covered in eggs. More on the hob outflow, more on the UGF outflows. All over plants about the tank. I pulled an anubias with eggs on the roots. I threw that in my piano snail tank. Seems any eggs that hitch rides there hatch so hopefully if these are fertile they will hatch. 
No chance of any survivors in the parent tank with the Badis badis present. I also don’t have low to the ground plants  in that tank. 
Here was last night’s activity. If you wait until the end the terra cotta pot to the right of the wood the big Badis makes a guest appearance 🥰

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by Guppysnail

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/13/2022 at 4:31 PM, Guppysnail said:

Verdict is in. These kids definitely like to lay where there is flow 🤣

They are big enough and watching the spawning behavior I can sex them. I have 5 big fat belly girls and only 1 boy who is leaner and slightly smaller. Hopefully some of these are fertile and I get some of these to hatch though retrieval from inside the outflow will be interesting. 🤨

Looking close at the photos these do not look fertile. But I’m going to give it a go if I see any look like they are developing. I will leave them here until I do. 

Of all places 🤣!

Congratulations on your spawn anyway! Hopefully you’ll be able to get some cute fry from the eggs!

[nabokovfan87]

Awesome news, congratulations!  I saw the first picture and was like.... yeah nope, they don't want you to pull those eggs. 😂

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I would put a breeding box in there and just put them directly in to it as you collect. That’s brilliant!! Way to go @Guppysnail some very happy corys!!

[Guppysnail]

Assasin baby 2. Look how tiny. Standard petco gravel. 

[Odd Duck]

Nice!  You might be able to coax those eggs out with the handle of a spoon or fork that has a little curve so you can get behind them?

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/13/2022 at 10:42 PM, Guppysnail said:

Assasin baby 2. Look how tiny. Standard petco gravel. 

Awww! I can match that…

[Guppysnail]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea @TeeJay

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 12/14/2022 at 11:59 AM, Guppysnail said:

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea @TeeJay

Enjoys midnight snack. Falls asleep (in food dish). Wakes up to a nice breakfast in bed!

Edited December 14, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

[TeeJay]

On 12/14/2022 at 11:59 AM, Guppysnail said:

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea @TeeJay

Wait?! What?! How did I miss this. What snail type is this?

On 12/14/2022 at 1:53 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Awww! I can match that…

Baby magic magic ninja what!

 

[Guppysnail]

On 12/14/2022 at 7:39 PM, TeeJay said:

Wait?! What?! How did I miss this. What snail type is this?

That just one of my old mystery snails. All his siblings have passed on. He just keeps going. I got 5 of them august or September of 2020. He is an Elder snail. 🥰

He used to be dark brown. Had a GSA hairdo one of his nerite buddies cut off now he looks much lighter. Like the gsa bleached him. 

[TeeJay]

On 12/14/2022 at 8:26 PM, Guppysnail said:

That just one of my old mystery snails. All his siblings have passed on. He just keeps going. I got 5 of them august or September of 2020. He is an Elder snail. 🥰

He used to be dark brown. Had a GSA hairdo one of his nerite buddies cut off now he looks much lighter. Like the gsa bleached him. 

Ah he is the lord of the snails!