Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Torrey]

On 5/3/2022 at 7:55 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

☺️ They're not hard @Atitagain but I have found they do like to have fertilizer when growing in water- so that's probably why being in an HOB works well (and using Easy Green or ?). I have a baby spider in my Accidental Oto tank and it's alive and growing (roots dangling in the tank) but not like my Scapes From Scraps Spider baby which is frankly an "adult" at this point - but it has organic soil (with bat guano) and a few drops of easy green to help it along.

I wait to cut babies off my parent plant until they have their own good looking "root" system- multiple and longer the root usually the easier and faster the baby will grow, for example the two below are ready:

Some spider babies only have stumps like this one: 

Not to say that one wouldn't root (because it absolutely can) but the other ones have a better chance and trust me- your spider gets mature enough like mine you'll have hundreds of babies to pick from. Just cut it off the plant and I then just stick the roots in water for a week or 2 so the roots get a bit longer- then plop it in wherever I want it to go, soil usually. If you're going to just put it in an HOB or similar you can just do it that way. It was only recently I started trying them in my tank water. The research I did said they aren't huge fans of being grown in the water but when they are they DO require ferts. My plants are proving that to be correct. 

I have similar experience to @xXInkedPhoenixX with spider plants growing in tanks. They were a favorite of mine in the HOB for my cichlid tanks, and really didn't need ferts😅 due to the messy tank mates. They did keep nitrates below 30ppm in the cichlid tanks with minimal (read "almost never") water changes.

@Guppysnail your tanks, babies, and stories are a wonderful medicine for the soul!

On 5/2/2023 at 1:11 PM, Guppysnail said:

Impressive super snoot

They've been bedazzled😆

[Guppysnail]

Jaws has decided bladder snails are not allowed in his baby nursery. He has stacked the now empty shells at the front door 🤣

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 5/5/2023 at 12:02 AM, Guppysnail said:

Papa is back in the cave. He does not appear to be eating the eggs. I was able to photo some eggs. These cover all the walls and floor. 

I am offishally envious. Garden. Anchor Cats. And now badis. Where does this stop??😂

[Guppysnail]

We have Badis badis wigglers 🥰

Assassin checking dads bladder snail pile for leftovers 

[Guppysnail]

Remember Buddy my tiny little juvenile Badis badis I rescued?

Look at him now. He is sporting blue breeding fins today and there is a very plump little girl that is flirting with him near his chosen cave. I couldn’t get a decent photo of her. 

[Guppysnail]

Very hard to photo. The dark specs are Badis badis fry. They are littered over the cave interior 

[Guppysnail]

Ok @nabokovfan87 since you helped spend my money at ACO I thought you should see what you got and what you are using it for 🤣

I got a Ziss tumbler for my Aspidora eggs. Having only one boy and 5 girls so many are infertile and fungus is a serious issue in my coffee strainer Hatcher 🤣

A few folks want a group so I would like to hatch a whole group instead of a few here and there. 
 

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/8/2023 at 4:30 PM, Guppysnail said:

*insert Krenic Gif*
"It's Beautiful!"

That's awesome..... the eggs look great!

be sure to let us know how you enjoy the tumbler.  I always freak out whenever I take the lid off.  It snaps really hard on me and everything tends to fly out everywhere. (fair warning)

[nabokovfan87]

One of my newer black corydoras with their first spawn perhaps.

[Guppysnail]

@nabokovfan87 congratulations. Question, the tumbler doesn’t tumble. It did push the eggs a bit to the edges like Bentley said in the video but not really to the edges maybe halfway. It seems like some water is moving over them but not much. This is different than the old school tumblers I’ve used that run bubbles through the eggs are actual tumble the eggs like a brine shrimp hatchery. Is that normal or am I not doing something right?

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/8/2023 at 6:28 PM, Guppysnail said:

Question, the tumbler doesn’t tumble. It did push the eggs a bit to the edges like Bentley said in the video but not really to the edges maybe halfway. It seems like some water is moving over them but not much.

They will definitely tumble but it's a ridiculously fine adjustment. They sort of "waft". Shake back and forth and wiggle is the goal. Maybe just a bit stronger than that too. They will likely end up on the outside of the circle and the. Sort of shake at that point but stay in place. Corydoras eggs especially are crazy sticky.

On 5/8/2023 at 6:28 PM, Guppysnail said:

Is that normal or am I not doing something right?

There's a video of showing what it should look like. 🙂

Edited May 9, 2023 by nabokovfan87
fixed link preview not loading.

[nabokovfan87]

Update:

More eggs layed. I sincerely think this might be the last spawn from my big female. It's difficult to tell if she's doing well or not.

More fry means if I can successfully get them into the tank then I can finally try to sell some.

I did notice an issue trying to setup the egg tumbler @Guppysnail, when you put the lid on, I had to sort of roll it around to purge as much air as I could. A slight big enough bubble, massive amount of air and they won't even twitch. Once I got the air out they moved a lot more easily in the traditional tumbler fashion.

They are all set and I'll check on them tomorrow.

Did I mention I need a fry box!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

 

[Guppysnail]

@nabokovfan87 I have a bit less movement. I did swap out for a Ziss air stone so I think I need to use the original plastic one. 
Fry box. The ACO spec container with an airstone does great in a pinch as long as you have a tank or box to transfer them to once they start eating. 
The holes on the bottom of the Ziss Hatcher are awkward with corydora. Powder food fall through. I like the fluval hang on flow through but it does not work for me because my house is 68-69 degrees all year long. The flow is minimal and gentle which is fabulous but in my house they get to cold. I tried a few hatches that way and could not figure out why seemingly healthy fry kept perishing and hatch rate was dismal. Temperature was my issue. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/9/2023 at 2:46 AM, Guppysnail said:

I did swap out for a Ziss air stone so I think I need to use the original plastic one. 

Yes.

Just make sure the container itself is mostly free of air. Lid on, then adjust..... Very slowly add air because it's easy to blow the eggs around very harshly.

[Guppysnail]

@nabokovfan87 I had a lot more movement going on in there than I realized. Aspidora eggs are stickier than other cory eggs I’ve dealt with. They started hatching this morning and the new hatched were indeed being boiled about like a brine shrimp blender. I actually had to install a second flow control to dial down the flow. The smallest air pump I have on hand was 10 gallons. 

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 5/9/2023 at 7:12 AM, Guppysnail said:

The smallest air pump I have on hand was 10 gallons

Aco nano pump?

[Guppysnail]

On 5/9/2023 at 7:51 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Aco nano pump?

No I don’t have an extra laying around. I do have about 20 tetra leftover from when I upgraded to the ACO battery air pumps though. I also have my crazy noisy battery operated backups laying around from when I upgraded those to the nano pumps though 🤣

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 5/9/2023 at 7:58 AM, Guppysnail said:

No I don’t have an extra laying around. I do have about 20 tetra leftover from when I upgraded to the ACO battery air pumps though. I also have my crazy noisy battery operated backups laying around from when I upgraded those to the nano pumps though 🤣

You could put the terra on another tank and give these guys a nano temporarily 

[Guppysnail]

On 5/9/2023 at 8:00 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

You could put the terra on another tank and give these guys a nano temporarily 

I wish I was smart enough to think of that! 🤣 yes that makes sense. I think I will do that today. Thank you for getting me out of my own way 🤗

[TeeJay]

On 5/9/2023 at 7:12 AM, Guppysnail said:

@nabokovfan87 I had a lot more movement going on in there than I realized. Aspidora eggs are stickier than other cory eggs I’ve dealt with. They started hatching this morning and the new hatched were indeed being boiled about like a brine shrimp blender. I actually had to install a second flow control to dial down the flow. The smallest air pump I have on hand was 10 gallons. 

 

Is that the fry already flying around like that?

[Guppysnail]

On 5/9/2023 at 11:22 AM, TeeJay said:

Is that the fry already flying around like that?

Yes. I’ll grab another video if they are still active as a lot more have hatched out. They are hyperactive at first then go through a much calmer phase. I mean you burst from a cozy cocoon into they world it must be startling and adrenaline dumping as a survival instinct to get away from the egg casing. 

[Guppysnail]

Badis badis fry looking more like fry than specs today. Still wall clinging but I think some may be starting free swim in the cave. I used a coral feeder to add an ever so slight amount of sera micron to drift into the cave. 

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea always the shrimp photobombed 🤣 I never noticed them until you pointed out every photo I post contains one. Sure enough they do. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/9/2023 at 4:12 AM, Guppysnail said:

I actually had to install a second flow control to dial down the flow. The smallest air pump I have on hand was 10 gallons. 

Beautiful! Nice catch. Yes.... This is why I have a fondness for metal gang valves now and dropping an air stone as a sort of pressure relief. I end up adding 2-3 taps to a tank and the last line is either a slightly open pressure relief valve ( they make them for linear piston pumps as well as airline) or an air stone that is very easy for water to flow through.

 

[Guppysnail]

@TeeJay more have hatched. A few still viable but no hatched yet. A few seconds in you will see them all go from rest to a pot of boiling rice. I’m glad I got the tumbler the hatch rate was much higher as not as many were lost to fungus.