Chris Posted December 17, 2023 Author Share Posted December 17, 2023 Alrighty, two pieces of news. For one, I found ricefish eggs! Woo! They used my spawning mop. I counted about 8. I've had eggs, but I've never tried to raise the fry. Super excited! Second, I moved the ricefish onto the rack in a 10 gallon. I moved all the plants and rock as well. New substrate, since I wanted Gravel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 18, 2023 Author Share Posted December 18, 2023 They're starting to come around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 19, 2023 Author Share Posted December 19, 2023 Yall ever preach something and not follow it 100%, only to have it come back and bite you? Yep, I didn't QT. I thought it'd be fine to mix in some Aquabid platies from a reputable seller with my guppies. I'd noticed some odd behavior the past couple days, but didn't see any symptoms i associated with ich. Tonight, I look in the tank and the fish are covered in it, and I've got three dead fish. Kinda wild how quickly this has progressed. Dosed 1tbsp of salt per 2 gallons of water after I removed my mystery snails and plants, and we'll see what survives. Ugh. In other, better news - the cardinals have started eating decently well. Two are definitely doing better than the other guy, just not sure if he's ill, stressed, or possibly a third wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 On 12/18/2023 at 7:20 PM, Chris said: Yall ever preach something and not follow it 100%, only to have it come back and bite you? I've heard that explained as "Do like I say, not like I do." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 20, 2023 Author Share Posted December 20, 2023 On 12/19/2023 at 8:26 AM, JettsPapa said: I've heard that explained as "Do like I say, not like I do." Yep. I should know better! I'm thinking this looks more like epistylis. I dosed Ich-X and salt, hoping for the best. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msudawgs56 Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 Sorry to hear about the ick. Hope you can get it cleared up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 @Chris first off, thanks for the journal! I started several myself on here. I just added a Saltwater Journal as my friend gave me two Waterbox Nano Reef Aquariums. I am setting up the first soon and plan to go pretty much all coral, anemone, maybe a couple Black Storm Clowns and some other things. Is your Goby a Watchman Goby? I was thinking of one of those and a Peppermint Pistol with it since they have a symbiotic relationship. Secondly, with ich, I have tried this before and worked like a charm, Father Fish's technique of raising the water temp. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 25, 2023 Author Share Posted December 25, 2023 On 12/24/2023 at 9:19 PM, Shadow said: @Chris first off, thanks for the journal! I started several myself on here. I just added a Saltwater Journal as my friend gave me two Waterbox Nano Reef Aquariums. I am setting up the first soon and plan to go pretty much all coral, anemone, maybe a couple Black Storm Clowns and some other things. Is your Goby a Watchman Goby? I was thinking of one of those and a Peppermint Pistol with it since they have a symbiotic relationship. Secondly, with ich, I have tried this before and worked like a charm, Father Fish's technique of raising the water temp. Thanks man! Could you be a little more specific on which goby you're talking about? I've had a couple different Yellow Watchmans over the past several years but don't have any currently. I think the one in this journal was likely either a neon goby or a clown goby - I have both currently - but this journal has been around for a little while at this point, so I may be misremembering. The symbiotic relationship is really cool, but they'll be a fish and shrimp you don't see all the time. Sometimes they even put their cave in a place where you never see them - which sucks. Plus, gotta keep a deep sand bed. Not deal-killers, but things to keep in mind. I ended up deciding this disease is definitely epistylis after observing for a few days. The bumps are raised off the body too far for ich, it came on way too suddenly, and was far too deadly for any ich I've seen. I've lost all the blue platies, and all my guppies and Bristle nose except for a few fry and a couple struggling adults. Kinda just monitoring, feeding good food, and dosing meds to see if any make it through. The tank went from around 30-40 fish to about 8 in a week 😞 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 On 12/24/2023 at 8:26 PM, Chris said: Thanks man! Could you be a little more specific on which goby you're talking about? I've had a couple different Yellow Watchmans over the past several years but don't have any currently. I think the one in this journal was likely either a neon goby or a clown goby - I have both currently - but this journal has been around for a little while at this point, so I may be misremembering. The symbiotic relationship is really cool, but they'll be a fish and shrimp you don't see all the time. Sometimes they even put their cave in a place where you never see them - which sucks. Plus, gotta keep a deep sand bed. Not deal-killers, but things to keep in mind. I ended up deciding this disease is definitely epistylis after observing for a few days. The bumps are raised off the body too far for ich, it came on way too suddenly, and was far too deadly for any ich I've seen. I've lost all the blue platies, and all my guppies and Bristle nose except for a few fry and a couple struggling adults. Kinda just monitoring, feeding good food, and dosing meds to see if any make it through. The tank went from around 30-40 fish to about 8 in a week 😞 F man, I am sorry. That absolutely is a ball breaker I know. I have been dealing with my largest tank and a KH/pH crash thanks to the fn local water municipality waiting until the one day I get lazy with the tap water test, flush with some acidic mess killing all the KH/pH in my water. Just got an RO system, but haven't had the time or the weather to get out to my water prep station to install. Really hope some manage to make it, even a couple will at least bring a glimmer into the overall negative result. One thing I have learned with this hobby, nature has a way of throwing you curveballs and learning experiences. They will either ruin the hobby for you or if you are a inquisitive enough, stick with it, it will teach you so many and be so rewarding. Hope your holiday gifts you some luck with all this! As far as the Goby, this is the one I am speaking of... AND this Shrimp... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 26, 2023 Author Share Posted December 26, 2023 On 12/25/2023 at 11:54 AM, Shadow said: One thing I have learned with this hobby, nature has a way of throwing you curveballs and learning experiences. Sure does! This hobby is almost never boring! On 12/25/2023 at 11:54 AM, Shadow said: As far as the Goby, this is the one I am speaking of... Yeah, I've had these guys in the past. Super cool relationship with the shrimp, but maybe not the most fun fish you'll have in your tank IMO - really depends where they set up their cave. I've found blennies tend to be a bit more exciting to watch, on average. In good news - I had a male and 3 females make it through the epistylis apocalypse, and probably about 10 fry. So in the end, it's taken salt, erythromycin, lots of aeration, and Ich-X to get them through it. Seems like maybe the platies brought in an infection, or possibly I had an ammonia spike that led to the epistylis taking hold. The fry look clear of spots, and the adults only have a couple spots per fish left. Hoping for the best. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted December 26, 2023 Share Posted December 26, 2023 On 12/26/2023 at 11:35 AM, Chris said: Sure does! This hobby is almost never boring! Yeah, I've had these guys in the past. Super cool relationship with the shrimp, but maybe not the most fun fish you'll have in your tank IMO - really depends where they set up their cave. I've found blennies tend to be a bit more exciting to watch, on average. In good news - I had a male and 3 females make it through the epistylis apocalypse, and probably about 10 fry. So in the end, it's taken salt, erythromycin, lots of aeration, and Ich-X to get them through it. Seems like maybe the platies brought in an infection, or possibly I had an ammonia spike that led to the epistylis taking hold. The fry look clear of spots, and the adults only have a couple spots per fish left. Hoping for the best. That's great to hear! Let's hope they all rebound and you are able to spare a few from it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 28, 2023 Author Share Posted December 28, 2023 Aquabid stuff incoming! Nothing too crazy. I ordered 20 blue neos to add into my ricefish tank (hoping to breed a trifecta - mystery snails, shrimp, and ricefish all in one aquarium), and they should be here late next week. I also won an auction by accident, lol. I came across a brand new auction for 10 rainbow shiners about a week ago, and put down the minimum bid of $40. Seemed like a really good price, considering what the other listings were asking. Never thought another thing about it until I got an email yesterday saying I won. Whoops! They'll be going into one of the 20's up top. Also coming late next week. All I need to finish up my rack of tanks is some more soft tubing and barb X NPT fittings. I bought out the store this week, so waiting on some to come in. At that point, all 7 tanks will be ready to be set up and good to go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 30, 2023 Author Share Posted December 30, 2023 Woke up to a dead Banggai Cardinal, with another one on its way out. They're simply starving - I can't get them to eat even live foods. Depressing way to start the weekend. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 Alright... So, guess who managed to crack a tank today? This guy! Yeah, I'm an idjit. I was trying to add some tubing to the valve for draining the tank, and the small amount of pressure I was putting on the plumbing cracked the tank. It's a 10 gallon, so thin glass, but still... It was so little pressure that had I not heard the crack, I never would have thought to check for it. So, I drained that tank (it was the 10 gallon the ricefish were in) and moved them into a bucket with their sponge filter for the night. Lowe's opens at 9 in the morning, so I'm going to have to wait till then to get a replacement tank set up. I'm going to go ahead and remove all of the valves from the tanks and start from scratch - no more valves. I'm going to go for a much simpler, but less efficient system instead. An elbow inside the tank to set the water height, and soft tubing to a PVC tee in the drain line. I'll just fill the tank using a python and let it overflow into the elbow and drain. Originally I was concerned that an overflow-based system would be too expensive for my saltwater tanks, but I'm finding that the actual calculations wouldn't be much over what I'm already paying in monthly salt costs since I wouldn't be doing frequent large water changes - plus, these are fish-only tanks, so no sensitive coral or inverts to worry about. So... yeah, that's gonna be a pain in the rear tomorrow. But, very happy to have learned this now before I have the last 3 tanks set up. Now, in fish news... I lost the other Banggai Cardinal. So I'm down to just the large male. However, now that he's alone in the tank, he's eating like a pig. Maybe the stress of having another male in the tank was causing him not to eat? Not so sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 Alright, got quite a bit done today. Here's the tank with the new drain system. The PVC coming out of the elbow sets the water height. On the outside of the bulkhead, I've got a 1" slip to 1/2" MPT elbow that goes to an MPT to barb connector, which runs into a vinyl tube into a 1" tee into the drain line. Much simpler than version 1. I have all 4 10 gallons set up, and plan to work on the 20s through the week. I picked up my pair of clown fish and a pygmy angel I ordered through the LFS this morning, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 (edited) Sorry to hear about the cracked tank and the Banggai Cardinals. Bummer. I recently had a fish that wouldn’t eat as well, including live foods. I did lose the fish, unfortunately. Your fish room is coming along nicely though. Props to you for plumbing tanks. I’m too scared to do it. I’d buy the predrilled because I worry I’d goof it up. On 12/24/2023 at 9:19 PM, Shadow said: Secondly, with ich, I have tried this before and worked like a charm, Father Fish's technique of raising the water temp. Agreed. It worked for me too, along with his recommendation of a garlic infusion. I see your issue was epistylis though @Chris. On 12/31/2023 at 8:16 PM, Chris said: It was so little pressure that had I not heard the crack, I never would have thought to check for it Unfortunately I know that sound.. got the tank quickly drained and down to the curb, but halfway there the bottom fell out of the tank… Edited January 2 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 On 1/1/2024 at 9:36 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: Sorry to hear about the cracked tank and the Banggai Cardinals. Bummer. I recently had a fish that wouldn’t eat as well, including live foods. I did lose the fish, unfortunately. Man, that's rough. Sorry to hear. Sometimes it seems like there's simply nothing that can be done, at least with our current set of knowledge. On 1/1/2024 at 9:36 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: Your fish room is coming along nicely though. Props to you for plumbing tanks. I’m too scared to do it. I’d buy the predrilled because I worry I’d goof it up. Thanks! Believe it or not, drilling the tanks hasn't been so bad. I ruined one while drilling (just had too much breakout around the hole), but the other's I've drilled have been fine, at least until I cracked that 10 gallon this weekend lol. I was nervous, too, but so far so good! It helps that these tanks were all bought on the 50% off sale, so relatively cheap if you make a mistake. I'd be much more upset if I had cracked an expensive tank. On 1/1/2024 at 9:36 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: Unfortunately I know that sound.. got the tank quickly drained and down to the curb, but halfway there the bottom fell out of the tank… Yikes! It's a really awful sound, isn't it? You just know the rest of your day got worse. Luckily this was more of a hairline crack, so just dripping. I've come home to a shattered bottom, though - last time I use a pressed board stand! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 Also, fed the new fish some BBS this morning. Doing well so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 I’m slowly getting into saltwater….how has it worked for you @Chris? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 On 1/2/2024 at 10:11 AM, TheSwissAquarist said: I’m slowly getting into saltwater….how has it worked for you @Chris? I've done saltwater for about 6-7 years now. I think Cory put it best in a recent live stream - "I could keep like, two reefs, or my entire fishroom." I love saltwater fish and all the variety you can have, but I've found most of my reef tanks to be too needy. I get a bit burnt out, spending so much time on one tank. So, for me, I decided to tackle it a bit more like my freshwater tanks. Add water, fish, plants (Macroalgae coming soon) and skip the coral and advanced filtration. I think it'll work well, but we'll see. The plan is to keep a breeding pair of Banggais and a breeding pair of clowns in simple Fowlr setups. I'll add sand and a bit of live rock after QT, and the angel will move to a display tank in the living room. I'll probably keep a powerhead in each tank and remove the sponge filters once they're properly cycled with rock, and add in some green macros to help with nutrient export. I'm going to get a brute trash can for water storage, and just pump the water from the can to the tanks (already heated and at the correct salinity) so that, operationally, they'll be the same as the freshwater tanks. That's the plan, anyway. Not sure if it'll work out or not! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 On 1/2/2024 at 4:54 PM, Chris said: The plan is to keep a breeding pair of Banggais and a breeding pair of clowns Can’t wait to see them and thanks for the advice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 On 1/2/2024 at 9:54 AM, Chris said: I've done saltwater for about 6-7 years now. I think Cory put it best in a recent live stream - "I could keep like, two reefs, or my entire fishroom." I love saltwater fish and all the variety you can have, but I've found most of my reef tanks to be too needy. I get a bit burnt out, spending so much time on one tank. So, for me, I decided to tackle it a bit more like my freshwater tanks. Add water, fish, plants (Macroalgae coming soon) and skip the coral and advanced filtration. I think it'll work well, but we'll see. The plan is to keep a breeding pair of Banggais and a breeding pair of clowns in simple Fowlr setups. I'll add sand and a bit of live rock after QT, and the angel will move to a display tank in the living room. I'll probably keep a powerhead in each tank and remove the sponge filters once they're properly cycled with rock, and add in some green macros to help with nutrient export. I'm going to get a brute trash can for water storage, and just pump the water from the can to the tanks (already heated and at the correct salinity) so that, operationally, they'll be the same as the freshwater tanks. That's the plan, anyway. Not sure if it'll work out or not! All this is why, even though I got 2 tanks for free, I am only going to set up the one 14 gal. It will be primarily corals and that's it...like I said before, might get a couple fish, but I just want it for the coral honestly. Macroalgae tanks fascinate me though. Been watching a lot on them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 3 Author Share Posted January 3 (edited) On 1/2/2024 at 8:39 PM, Shadow said: All this is why, even though I got 2 tanks for free, I am only going to set up the one 14 gal. It will be primarily corals and that's it...like I said before, might get a couple fish, but I just want it for the coral honestly. Macroalgae tanks fascinate me though. Been watching a lot on them. Yeah, Macro tanks are amazing, and can be more beautiful than even a good reef. My favorites are usually Tigahboy's - he's a well-known Macro buff. Here's just a couple of his well-known tanks: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/reef-of-the-month-may-2021-tigahboys-macroalgae-paradise.804/ To be clear, I'm not really trying to do a macro tank... More trying to include a couple varieties of non-calcified Caulerpa for nitrate reduction, kinda like how you might add a fast-growing stem plant in a fresh water tank. I got the ricefish back into their tank tonight. I thinned out their scape a bit, mainly to encourage them to lay their eggs on the spawning mops. I've got medaka fry! Just two, and I seriously doubt they'll make it. Microworm culture isn't here yet 😞 too small for BBS and my fry food, too. Everybody is doing well tonight. Edited January 3 by Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 On 1/2/2024 at 7:58 PM, Chris said: Yeah, Macro tanks are amazing, and can be more beautiful than even a good reef. My favorites are usually Tigahboy's - he's a well-known Macro buff. Here's just a couple of his well-known tanks: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/reef-of-the-month-may-2021-tigahboys-macroalgae-paradise.804/ To be clear, I'm not really trying to do a macro tank... More trying to include a couple varieties of non-calcified Caulerpa for nitrate reduction, kinda like how you might add a fast-growing stem plant in a fresh water tank. I got the ricefish back into their tank tonight. I thinned out their scape a bit, mainly to encourage them to lay their eggs on the spawning mops. I've got medaka fry! Just two, and I seriously doubt they'll make it. Microworm culture isn't here yet 😞 too small for BBS and my fry food, too. Everybody is doing well tonight. Wish I could overnight you some Microworms...if you end up ever needing more, I usually have 2 cultures going at all times. Don't mind dropping a culture in the mail for you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 Macro gives a real rockpool vibe to it…it’s a bit like a saltwater planted tank in a way… Tigahboy did an amazing thing with that tank. 😍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now