Chris's Fishes Fish Room Journal

[Chris]

On 3/17/2023 at 3:05 PM, Theplatymaster said:

i really think thats a fish.

It looks like he is just eating some plant.

The tank is under 2 gallons. Pretty sure if I had a 2" fish in there all this time I'd know about it! Eggs are essentially impossible to raise unintentionally in SW because most fish have a larval stage. 

[Theplatymaster]

On 3/17/2023 at 3:22 PM, Chris said:

Eggs are essentially impossible to raise unintentionally in SW because most fish have a larval stage. 

it was a joke due to what happens in FW a lot.

[Chris]

First attempt at feeding the goby went poorly. He's been hiding behind the power head and heater, and even agyer essentially placing some mysis shrimp in his mouth he refused to eat. We'll try again tomorrow. 

Here's the pink zoas I picked up. 

And in the background, the Pom Pom crab

The cleaner shrimp and the blue ricordea

I removed the goldfish from the 20 long the krib is in. She had been beating up on the goldfish pretty bad. Guess he didn't know to stay out of the way and couldn't hide. He did his job - aside from diatoms, the tank is algae free! 

Swordtail fry are big enough to swim around with the adults without fear of being eaten

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 3/18/2023 at 1:54 AM, Chris said:

Swordtail fry are big enough to swim around with the adults without fear of being eaten

They’re so cute! 

[Chris]

On 3/18/2023 at 7:20 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

They’re so cute! 

They really are! I'm surprised they aren't eating more of them... I ended up with two from batch #1 and 8-10 from batch #2. Pic is from batch #1. #2 are still mostly colorless. 

Once we move I'm considering switching the Swords into a 55, and moving the Green Spotted Puffer into this tank. Kinda depends on whether or not the racks I want to build work out. I like the dimensions of the 33 a lot, but I think the height and volume of a 55 will be better utilized for a colony of these than the puffer. Puffer just wants some interesting rockwork to swim through, really. 

Anyone know of somebody experienced in building diy racks that might help a noob builder? 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Chris

[Theplatymaster]

On 3/18/2023 at 7:20 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

They’re so cute! 

yep!

just like my platy fry in the 2gallon, these fish have a VERY cute stage as fry.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 3/18/2023 at 6:27 PM, Chris said:

They really are! I'm surprised they aren't eating more of them

Might have ate their fill of offspring! 😂

On 3/18/2023 at 6:27 PM, Chris said:

Anyone know of somebody experienced in building diy racks that might help a noob builder?

@Pepere

[Theplatymaster]

On 3/18/2023 at 1:27 PM, Chris said:

Anyone know of somebody experienced in building diy racks that might help a noob builder? 

check youtube.

I know many good channels that have made videos on this

ACO,KGtropicals, im sure there are more.

[Chris]

On 3/19/2023 at 5:26 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Might have ate their fill of offspring! 😂

@Pepere

Maybe! I also feed that tank heavily twice a day with flake and fry food. Maybe they're just too full? 😂

On 3/19/2023 at 6:31 AM, Pepere said:

Here is a post documenting the build of a stand I did.   Very adaptable to different sized aquariums.

 

 

Very nice stand! Honestly a bit more "fancy" than I'm looking for, but if I ever need to build something for non fish room application I'll keep it in mind! 

[Chris]

Long time, no update!

We're pretty well moved into the house now, and I've settled on store-bought workbenches for stands instead of doing anything too crazy.

The past couple weeks I've been revamping tanks - I moved the 1.5 gallon pico reef into a 4.8 gallon AIO with actual reef lighting, and I set up a 5.5 gallon to play with the Tetra Whisper 4i internal filter.

Here are FTS's of both tanks:

 

 

[Chris]

Finally broke down and added some substrate and wood to the flowerhorn tank. I've really been wanting to see him in something other than a bare tank, so I took the opportunity. I still want to upgrade him into a 75 at some point but I think this scape will still allow him enough room in the 40 for now. Thoughts?

[Chris]

Added a torch coral and a hammer coral to the 4.8 gallon yesterday. Hammer is open and happy but the torch is pretty shriveled up and sad. Maybe just acclimation issues.

FTS:

Hammer:

Torch:

[Chris]

The Torch coral didn't make it. It withered away over the course of a few days - no issues from the other corals in the tank, and parameters were fine. I'm thinking it was just acclimation issues, but I'm not positive.

I took the opportunity to move corals around the tank, and added a Red Acan as well as a small Royal Gramma. This tank will be a tight fit long-term, but he isn't even 2" yet - this'll make a fine grow-out tank.

I also got in an order from Aquahuna this week. I got some Cherry shrimp, orange shrimp, amanos, and 6 Blue Sparkle Medakas. Order came in okay (had a death with the amanos, and they shorted me a few orange shrimp 😞 ), but time will tell how they fare.

[Eric R]

@Chris, how's the saltwater tank doing?

[Chris]

On 10/1/2023 at 5:55 AM, Eric R said:

@Chris, how's the saltwater tank doing?

Still going!

Lost quite a few corals due to an algae bloom, so it's not much of a reef. Fish is doing well, though.

Ordered a couple things off of aquabid! Got some nice blue platies and a variety of mystery snails to play with.

[Chris]

Found mystery egg clutches the past couple days. I gotta find some time to put together a tupperware incubator.

I drilled 4 tanks yesterday. No breaks, woo!

[Chris]

Found my ricefish carrying eggs. Built some spawning mops to try and raise some. Couldn't find pool noodles, so I took some Styrofoam bowls, cut out the bottoms, and stuffed the scrubby pads through a hole in the center. 

[Chris]

Looks like I missed the ricefish eggs. I think something ate them - I saw one on a plant last night, and went to collect this morning, but they're gone.

Also, I got in some more plumbing parts for the new rack... And it looks like I miscalculated how much wiggle room I had with the drain pipe height. With the way I had the rack set, the bottom rack wouldn't be able to drain into the pipe by the time I added in plumbing connectors. So I raised the bottom row by about a foot, which solves that problem, but only leaves about 6" between the top of the 10 gallon tanks and the top rack. Hm.

[Chris]

Finally found the plumbing parts I needed! Here's the current plan:

1" Bulkhead --> 1" 90 degree elbow --> 1" Valve --> 1" slip X NPT --> 1" NPT X 3/4" Barb --> 1/2" nylon tube stretched over barb --> Drain

Kind of convoluted, but I couldn't find a more straightforward way to connect it all. Whatever works, I guess.

[TheSwissAquarist]

I find that the Ricefish mops only work if there’s no other plants in the tank which are suited to spawning. 

[Chris]

On 12/14/2023 at 5:57 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I find that the Ricefish mops only work if there’s no other plants in the tank which are suited to spawning. 

Kinda what I figured, too. I plan to move them into more of a breeding setup once the rack is together.

[Chris]

I've received my Blue Platies and Magenta mystery snails from aquabid over the past few days. Super happy with the platies, not so much with the mystery snails. I'd barely consider them purple... I had a strain a couple years ago that looked almost painted. Oh well. 

 

 

Oh, and the Bristle nose and cherry shrimp in this tank are doing well. 

[Chris]

So, first 20 gallon is set up and the bulkhead has been leak tested... no leaks! Woo! Still gotta cement the drain, but y'know. Progress.

Why the rush in setting up the tank, you ask? Well, I had me a good ole case of the just can't help its. I picked up a trio of Banggai Cardinals yesterday, straight from the wholesaler (purchased from the LFS at a discount since I picked them up before he unbagged them). I plan to try and breed these guys - they're a mouthbrooder, similar to some of the Bettas. I got three out of hopes of either have a pair or 1M/2F. If I end up with 2M (or God forbid, 3M) I'll have to rehome the extra male to keep him from being murdered.

Most marine fish are shipped in a low salinity to help save on salt cost. It also weakens most diseases (especially parasites), and anecdotally a lot of people believe it's beneficial to the internal organs since they're not working as hard to filter salt. Whatever the case, the water in the bag tested at 1.017 (natural saltwater is roughly 1.026), so I set the tank up with water at 1.015. Always better to drop fish into water that's less salty than what they were already in. I floated them for 20 minutes and then netted them into the tank. I'll be increasing the salinity by a few points a day to avoid shock, until we get to about 1.020 or so. That's a fine salinity for a FOWLR (fish only) tank.

Tank is only half-full so I can simply add a few liters of salty water at a time to raise the salinity, without having to worry about siphoning/temp matching water change water. Saves on salt this way, too. Tank is also currently uncycled, since the media I have is cycled at 1.025. If I were to just drop that into this water, it's likely the bacteria would be killed. So I'm keeping a close eye on parameters until I hit the target of 1.020, at which point I'll add the cycled media into an internal filter until the sponge filter is seeded. I had planned on simply dropping the cycled media in, but hadn't realized how low the salinity would be in their shipping water.

I'll add crushed coral as a substrate and some more natural looking decor once we're out of the QT stage.

[msudawgs56]

Your flowerhorn is looking great.  I just got another one after having to sell mine a few years ago in a move. I think the black sand is a great addition. I have a 75 gallon for mine once he is out of quarantine. I think yours would love the 75 too once you can get one. I've enjoyed reading through your posts. Keep them coming!

[Chris]

On 12/16/2023 at 9:50 PM, msudawgs56 said:

Your flowerhorn is looking great.  I just got another one after having to sell mine a few years ago in a move. I think the black sand is a great addition. I have a 75 gallon for mine once he is out of quarantine. I think yours would love the 75 too once you can get one. I've enjoyed reading through your posts. Keep them coming!

Thanks! I love them, they're a really fun fish. Very interactive. 

I actually did upgrade mine to a 75 a couple months ago, just never posted. Did away with the decor because he was starting to hurt himself on it a bit.