Chris's Fishes Fish Room Journal

[Chris]

On 1/3/2024 at 11:14 AM, Shadow said:

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. 

Thanks! I found a seller on Aquabid, who's sending me Microworms, Vinegar Eels, Banana Worms, and Grindal Worms. Should be here before the second round of eggs hatch.

On 1/3/2024 at 11:43 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

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. 😍

I agree. I love macro tanks, but they can be even harder to keep in good shape than reefs.

I'd love to try some actual seagrasses, which is an actual saltwater plant (where macros are algae).

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2691511

[Chris]

Rainbow Shiners and blue shrimp didn't show today. Hoping they're doing okay in the mail.

Here's a quick video tour of the tank as they sit tonight. Nothing special, just things settling in. 

 

Edited January 5 by Chris

[Chris]

I spent the morning putting together some worm cultures. I've got vinegar Eels, banana worms, microworms, and grindal worms. 

[Chris]

Finally getting a little color on a few of these rainbow shiners. We're about 3 months in and they've doubled in size. The hints of blue on these guys has just developed recently. 

 

 

[Chris]

Added some substrate from another tank yesterday on a whim. Tired of looking at a barebottom tank. All of a sudden I've got several more fish coloring up the next morning. Interesting stuff! 

Fishroom has also been a couple degrees warmer this weekend, so possibly a coincidence or combination of them. 

 

Edited April 28 by Chris

[Chris]

Kenya Tree coral is looking pretty good in the 4 gallon. 

Put out some white clouds into a tub outside, and got a school of golden white clouds to play with indoors. 

[Chris]

Here's a quick status update on all of the tanks in the fishroom.

The flowerhorn is still doing well in his 75. I'm considering trying to plant a crinum in the center of the tank - not a huge fan of not having any decor, but this guy injurs himself on anything hard I put in the tank. 

Ricefish are doing fine. Still tons of eggs, plenty of fry, but haven't been raising any up. I need to get on that. Tank is completely overrun with duckweed, so plants are just doing so-so. 

This is the tank the golden white clouds got added to. It's doing fine - the fish are eating, and water parameters are good. I removed the mopani from the tank to get rid of all the tannins, not a look I'm enjoying. 

Here's the Long Fin Mocha Clownfish. Tank looks terrible, I know, but water is pristine. Fish look good. Maybe a little skinny? Hard to say. I'm going to feed a bit more and watch for parasites. 

Rainbow Shiners are doing awesome. Loving the color I'm starting to get, just doesn't show in pictures very well yet. 

This is just a mutt guppy tank I started. Haven't really played with guppies much in a while, and thought it might be fun. 

[Chris]

Set up the last 20 tall in the rack today. Have some neon blue plates on the way... take two! Lost my first batch, unfortunately.

[Chris]

Alrighty, busy day! 

I received the neon blue platies. I purchased 6, the seller packed 7 - 1 DOA, 3 not looking so good. I messaged him to let him know, haven't heard back - not going to give him trouble, but I'm a bit disappointed in how they came in. Stuff happens, though. Pics to come. 

I've got some ricefish fry! Two so far. I counted about 10 eggs on the mops I pulled, so hopefully more to come. I'm feeding Sera micron and vinegar eels. Seem too small for brine shrimp. 

I haven't shown my living room tank yet - its a 55 gallon community tank. I needed a place to put the koi swordtails I got from @PineSong, and things spiraled from there. I've got 6 neon rosy barbs, the swords, a rainbow shark, a blue gourami, and a bristlenose. Keeping some almost-semi-aggressive fish in here - I find that they tend to mix well with swordtails and mollies when compared with the more peaceful community fish. Tank has been set up for about a month, so plants are just now starting to spread. 

Edited May 10 by Chris

[PineSong]

It is so nice to see them in such a large tank! Looking good and interesting tankmates. I hope your new platies make it!

[Chris]

Happy to report that all 6 platies look better this morning. I'm only really concerned about 1 of them - he looks pretty ragged, but it's still a huge improvement over yesterday. All 6 ate some Baby Brine this morning. I'll get some pics soon. 

For what it's worth, the seller got back with me and let me know that if I lost any of the 6 to let him know and he'd take care of it. I've ordered from him a few times before and this is the first time fish have come in less than spectacular - his Aquabid username is mobetta. He seems to have lots of cool live bearers, if anyone is interested. 

[Chris]

I was trying to get pictures of the platies, but the lighting isn't great and most of their color comes from the shine on their scales. Much easier to show in video form. 

 

 

[Chris]

I have three ricefish babies! Wooooo!

The size difference between the first hatchling and this last one is pretty huge. The first is nearly twice the size as the newest one. In ricefish, does this cause any issues?

[Chris]

Did a vlog showing how tank maintenance goes in the fish room. 

 

[Chris]

Added a small group of teeny tiny green corys to the 55 this week. LFS only had 4, so I will be adding more down the road. 

Bristlenose has been super active. He's kept the tank spotless and is always on top of his veggies really quickly. 

Side shot of the tank- really digging the gourami and rainbow shark, with all of the red fish swarming around them. I think it'll look great whenever everybody is full size. 

[JMC]

On 5/11/2024 at 7:57 AM, Chris said:

I have three ricefish babies! Wooooo!

The size difference between the first hatchling and this last one is pretty huge. The first is nearly twice the size as the newest one. In ricefish, does this cause any issues?

The ricefish I have seem to only be aggressive to each other when they’re fry or juvenile. The adults will eat the fry but don’t attack the juveniles. Bottom line I think your small fry will be okay as long as the big fry can’t eat them… but the small fry will get picked on especially when competing for food. 
 

Unrelated to fry size, my ricefish far prefer to lay eggs on a yarn mop on the bottom, compared to a floating scrubber mop.

[Chris]

On 5/12/2024 at 10:21 PM, JMC said:

Unrelated to fry size, my ricefish far prefer to lay eggs on a yarn mop on the bottom, compared to a floating scrubber mop.

Interesting - I've never tried a yarn mop with them. I always heard the opposite. I'll have to give it a try when I'm ready to collect more eggs. 

[Chris]

Expansion is underway!

Picked up a 6' steel rack today. Similar to the 4' rack I use, slightly cheaper brand. 

No rush in setting up new tanks - not even sure what's going where. I think I want to utilize my existing tanks first - I've got an empty 40 breeder, a 33 long, a 37 tall, and a 20 long. 

I've considered doing some shell-dwelling cichlids in the 33 - I think that's a perfect dimension for them. I've been researching seahorses, so I'm thinking the 37 tall would be great for a pair. I want some smaller tanks for more nano fish and for breeding purposes. 

I'm sure I'll change my mind 18 more times before all is said and done, but yknow. I'm excited!

This rack pretty much fills up most of the empty wall space in the fishroom. I want a desk, so the wall behind me in the picture will have one. That limits me on tanks, but honestly, between what I'll have in the fishroom, the 4 tanks in the rest of the house, and the ponds outside, I'll have plenty to keep busy with. 

[Chris]

This morning, I started prepping for the aforementioned seahorse tank. 

The species I want to keep is one of the most commonly traded - the Lined Seahorse. They get to 6-7" tall, and a pair can be comfortable housed in about 40 gallons of water, as long as the tank is tall enough. 

Captive-bred specimens are available, but are hard to come by and can be very expensive - if I have the option, I'd love to go captive-bred, but I don't know that'll be the case. It's likely I'll end up with a wild-caught pair. 

Why do I want captive-bred? There are the normal reasons - seahorses are harvested at a pretty alarming rate from the wild, due to their popularity in the aquarium trade and also to be preserved for decor and the like. But the main thing I'm concerned about is feeding. Captive-bred are more likely to accept frozen foods, where wild caught are likely going to only eat live foods. Considering their dietary requirements are already somewhat cumbersome, being restricted to live food only could be quite the pain. 

But, again, I don't really have $400 plus shipping to shell out for a captive bred pair, so wild caught may have to do. 

Regardless, the horses will want SOME live food in their diet, and one of the easiest to culture will be brine shrimp. I'll have to grow them to adult size, so I think long-term I'll either have a tub or maybe a tank for them. For now, i just took the leftover babies from my last hatch, poured them into a bucket with an airstone, and added in another 2 liters of saltwater. Ill continue to add new saltwater till the bucket is full to avoid ammonia issues, and ill add a sponge filter once ive got some larger adults in there. I'll be adding in a bit of expired fry food to keep them fed, and hopefully I'll be able to get a colony started. 

The leftovers

[Chris]

New rack is built!

Rack dimensions are 72"X24"X72". What I'm finding is that I'm going to need some space for tall tanks on the bottom - meaning the top two shelves are a bit squished. Only about 18" of clearance per shelf. Anything taller than about 12" tall is going to be too tall to yet anything in and out of the tank. So it seems that my ideal tank sizes may end up being something like a standard 15 gallon, or maybe some 30 breeders. Not easy to find. 

Edited May 15 by Chris

[Chris]

I love it when corys lay on top of sponge filters. Don't know why - its like they're sunning themselves or something. They don't root around for food in the filter much, they just like to sit on it. This filter is overdue for a cleaning!

So, I slept on my decision about what to do with the rack. I'm still not sure, but I'm leaning towards lowering the middle shelf so that I can fit 20 highs onto it. That gives me a little less room on the bottom, but it should still be plenty for the tanks I have. I'm undecided if I want to use the top shelf for tanks or for storage - maybe i can just keep a handful of 10 gallons up there for fry, QT and hospital tanks. As cool as it would be to source a bunch of 15's, it looks like I'm going to pay about 3X as much for those as I am a 10, and about 1.5X as much as I am a 20 high. Just doesn't make much sense. 

If anyone has any suggestions on what fish might be fun to see on the rack, please let me know! I've already got some plans, but as is I'll be left wondering what to put in quite a few tanks. I'm planning on some shrimp only tanks to maximize breeding, the seahorses, some shelling, and probably another attempt of Banggai cardinals, but that still leaves open tanks. 

[Chris]

Hard to believe this royal gramma has been with me for almost a full year. 

Excuse my algae!

[Chris]

These platies are starting to look really nice! I gotta get some plants in there. 

 

[Chris]

Test filling my 40 breeder on the tack. Still gotta clean it up and drill it, but so far so good!

I also finally landed on shelf height decisions. 

The bottom shelf will hold this 40 and my 37, and will have enough room to get into both tanks comfortably. The middle shelf was lowered so that it can hold 20 highs - its a tight squeeze getting in there, but much easier than tracking down 15's. The top shelf will be for storage and maybe some small fry bins or something.

 

Edited May 17 by Chris

[Chris]

Tank didn't leak overnight. If it does well through the day, I'll probably drill it tonight. 

I set up another brine shrimp hatch this morning, and reset one of my vinegar eel cultures. Also grabbed another empty bottle to make another one - just gonna take a portion out of my cultures and that should do it. 

The brine shrimp I'm trying to raise to adulthood got a small feeding. I pulled some out into a cup, and it seems like I've got a decent number in there. They're definitely larger at this point than what they've been raising up to in the hatchery - they're big enough I can see their legs now. I also added in another 2 liters of saltwater, to offset any water quality issues. 

I'm up to like 7 or 8 ricefish fry, with the largest being about the size of a newborn platy fry now. All seem to be doing well - so far (knock on wood) these guys have been easier to raise than the rainbow fry, for sure. Less random deaths and such. 

Oh, and I've got guppy fry! Just a few in the 20. They'll likely get eaten because of the lack of cover, but I'm hoping for the best.