Schuyler Posted December 18, 2022 Author Share Posted December 18, 2022 Pulled the last two that have hatched and his the leftovers are drying out to try again in a few weeks. I set up a 5 gallon bucket of water to use for changing out water for the fry. That way the parakeets of the water being added should be more consistent. I did a ~40% water change in the main tank and trimmed some plants. Parameters after the water change: It's looking like things are stable. Vinegar eels arrived today but it was much smaller than I expected. At least there is a culture started and should be good to do by the time the next batch is ready to go. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 19, 2022 Author Share Posted December 19, 2022 Updated tank shot I found another dead killi fry today. I also realized that there may have been more but the snails could have just eaten them. An experienced killi breeder gave me some words of encouragement. He said "Don't worry, you'll probably botch this batch somehow. Then the next one too but eventually you'll get the hang of it" The batch of BBS failed. 0% hatch rate. Everyone says you don't need to dechlorinate but every time I don't the batch fails. At least the guppy fry seem to be good and happily hanging out with dad 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minanora Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Have you checked to see what sterilizer they use in your water? And other metals? 0% hatch rate is unusual. I've only had a low hatch rate after my eggs got too warm in the summer household heat. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 20, 2022 Author Share Posted December 20, 2022 No dead fry today. This batch of BBS worked and the fry are clearly eating them. There are some clear size discrepancies starting to show up. At some point the larger ones should be separated to protect the smaller ones and to reduce food competition. If you look below that clump of salvinia to the left of the middle you'll see one of the smaller fry for comparison I've noticed that the male killi only picks on the guppies and the female. My theory is that his aggression is food related and he doesn't see the Corys as competition. I'm going to let the guppies out of the breeder box and put him in there instead. Give him a time out and make sure he gets some dedicated feeding. My son is also begging to have his own tank. It doesn't count towards MTS if you get a tank for your kid, right? On 12/19/2022 at 6:51 AM, Minanora said: Have you checked to see what sterilizer they use in your water? And other metals? 0% hatch rate is unusual. I've only had a low hatch rate after my eggs got too warm in the summer household heat. Looking online I see a report from the city that says they use chlorine but it's not specific so I don't know if that's just chlorine or if it's chloramine. The water is normally 80-82 F. One difference is that this brand (San Francisco) says to add eggs to water and let them bubble for an hour before adding 2T salt. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 On 12/19/2022 at 6:41 PM, Schuyler said: My son is also begging to have his own tank. It doesn't count towards MTS if you get a tank for your kid, right? No, and you get to reward your good parenting by getting a new tank for yourself 😆 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 20, 2022 Author Share Posted December 20, 2022 On 12/19/2022 at 7:02 PM, Patrick_G said: No, and you get to reward your good parenting by getting a new tank for yourself 😆 Plus we're asking him to earn it by doing things we've wanted him to do for a while. So it's a win/win/win scenario. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 21, 2022 Author Share Posted December 21, 2022 The male killi Finn is in the time out box now and the baby guppies have been released. The other fish are out in the open much more now which makes me think that he was a bigger bully than I realized. But after a few hours the box had fallen down and all the adult guppies couldn't resist checking it out. The suction cups have been cleaned and reset and seen to be holding now. In the fry tank, things seem to be going well. It's crazy how fast they're far little bellies go away. Also, the larger ones seem to be gathering close to the heater while the small ones are scattered randomly. I'm not sure if there's some meaning behind that or if it's just the furthest corner from movement so it feels safe. They also seen totally uninterested in hiding in the moss or under the duckweed. Also a picture of water parameters for future reference... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 The Corys are way more active now that the make killi is in the box but his mouth is getting beat up from constantly banging it into the mesh. I'll need to move him soon. Now that I've been feeding BBS to the guppy fry, the hydra population has exploded. Something probably needs to be done there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share Posted December 23, 2022 The shrimp and the killis have officially swapped places. Now the killis have a little tank all to themselves, the shrimp have lots more algae to eat, and I finally get to take the breeder box back out of the tank. Now that they have been reunited after being apart for a few days the killis are... Making up for lost time... The killi fry are starting to seem more active which seems like a positive thing. Hopefully they'll start accepting daphnia soon. I want to put away the BBS hatchery... I also got a little 10 gallon tank from an online marketplace. It's going to be where the killi fry will go once they grow out a bit. Turns out the person selling it had a store that went out of business during covid and she was cleaning out her fish room. She shared a lot of good advice including a channel on YouTube called "Aquarium Co-op" I guess they have good content. She threw in some algae wafers as a bonus. I figured the corys would like it as I threw one in. That led to an all out battle with the guppies attacking each other in order to get as much as they could. The poor corys just watched and picked up the scraps that flew out of the fight. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 25, 2022 Author Share Posted December 25, 2022 Today we cleaned, trimmed, did a 30% water change, and rearranged some plants so that the tank looks nice for Santa Also added 3ml of Seachem Florish Today we cleaned, trimmed, did a 30% water change, and rearranged some plants so that the tank looks nice for Santa Also added 3ml of Seachem Florish 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted December 25, 2022 Share Posted December 25, 2022 My killis will pretty much ignore live daphnia, I think it was the size. They’re still pretty picky about everything except bbs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 25, 2022 Author Share Posted December 25, 2022 On 12/24/2022 at 7:18 PM, Patrick_G said: My killis will pretty much ignore live daphnia, I think it was the size. Really? Aren't yours fully grown by now? Maybe you can train them to eat BBS from a pipette and then mix some daphnia in? It feels like they should be more interested in them if they are bigger. When I was switching the shrimp for the killis the was like 30 seconds when the female was in the main tank at the same time as the shrimp. She went full on hunting mode trying to get them. Maybe you can find some small ghost shrimp lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted December 25, 2022 Share Posted December 25, 2022 On 12/24/2022 at 8:06 PM, Schuyler said: Really? Aren't yours fully grown by now? Yeah, they’re full grown but the Daphnia I had (the culture crashed pretty quickly) were as big as the Killis heads. They might have eventually eaten them but it was a frenzy like when I put Daphnia in my community tanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 26, 2022 Author Share Posted December 26, 2022 (edited) Merry Christmas! Normally I'm hard to shop for on Christmas but not this year. This year they pretty much just got fish stuff: "Did you have an aquarium before? I feel like I've never even heard you say that word before..." - My nephew Edited December 27, 2022 by Schuyler "Word" not "weird" 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 27, 2022 Author Share Posted December 27, 2022 Planted the two tiger lotus plant and the Aponogeton bulb. I'm not totally sold on where to put the lotus plants but this seemed like the best place for now. I may try and raise up the right side a little because the spots that don't have plants are empty because they're substrate is very shallow. A close up shot to make it easier to see where they are I also was able to test out the API test kit. It looks like my pH is higher than my test strips made it seem. The strip looks like it's ~6.8 but the liquid test shows 7.5-7.8 from what I'm reading. The liquid test also shows no ammonia in the baby tank which is nice to know. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 On 12/26/2022 at 4:29 AM, Schuyler said: Merry Christmas! Normally I'm hard to shop for on Christmas but not this year. This year they pretty much just got fish stuff: "Did you have an aquarium before? I feel like I've never even heard you say that word before..." - My nephew Nice haul! I got a skull decoration…be fun if my Apistos bred in it 😂! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 28, 2022 Author Share Posted December 28, 2022 This wind storm tried knocking power out but wasn't successful. It also gave us the gift of a giant tree limb in our yard. Hopefully the worst of the wind is past and there won't be any power outages. The kids went to bed early today so I got to do some stuff to get ready to set up a 10g for the killi fry. The sponge filter for that tank is now in the 40g to get it seeded and ready to go. I also sifted some sand out of some Fluval stratum from my old tank. It's not perfect but it's much better now. I split the vinegar eel culture to another bottle so that there are three cultures going. They will need lots of time before they can really be used but hopefully now there is at least redundancy. The raised section on the right feels like it needs another inch or two of substrate. I may end up just tearing all the plants out and adding more substrate to make it easier to plant in there. Once that's done I'm thinking it could be nice to have Hydrocotyle tripartita or some other creeping plant here at the front so that it can still over the rock wall a little. I'm open to other plant suggestions is anyone knows something that will spill over nicely 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted December 28, 2022 Share Posted December 28, 2022 Monte Carlo can technically be grown as an epiphyte. That might be a fun creeper, I’ve seen it growing so that it looks like it’s spilled over the hardscape. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 29, 2022 Author Share Posted December 29, 2022 Today I pulled the spawning spot out of the killi tank, spread the coco coir on some paper towel to dry, noticed an egg on the tip of my, and then proceeded to have this conversation with my wife Me "look at this, there's just a random egg stuck to my finger? Her "oh I think I see it right there" *points at hand* My "That's not the one I meant but you're right, there is one in my thumb" Her "I was talking about the one on your pointer finger" Turns out we need to work on our communication skills... But there ended up being like five eggs stuck to my hand just from setting things out too dry. There is also a super dark, almost black, ramshorn in the 40b I'm contemplating dividing them up into tanks based on color/pattern to see how long it takes them to breed true. Then again I tend to lose interest because that takes so long or someone notices another cool color variant and they all get mixed up again. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 30, 2022 Author Share Posted December 30, 2022 I've now started a separate journal for the Killifish fry In the main tank another guppy fry was spotted This is likely the mom with her boxy belly and little pointy thing (which didn't really come through in the picture) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 31, 2022 Author Share Posted December 31, 2022 Planaria... Or at least they look like images of Dugesia tigrina online (this picture makes it look much darker). The No Planaria is on its way and if that fails I'm considering using some cat dewormer we have (praziquantel). We ordered a box but Amazon sent us a crate of it and told us just to keep it. We donated most of it to a shelter but we still have four boxes. Now the Hydra should clear up too which will be nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 Did a small water change to clean up poop and stuff. Also opened up the filter to clean the sponges. I then used that mulmy water to try and seed the other filter more. This seen to be going well. The hate algae is nowhere to be seen. Yet there is still enough algae for the shrimp to be looking quite happy and colorful. We have stopped at least one molt and they don't seem shy. The Corys are also schooling in full force And my wife spotted the latest batch of guppies hanging out together. There are at least six of them. Probably need to come up with a plan for what to do with these guppies... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 Around lunch I heard my wife counting from the other room "nine... Ten... Oh wow there's two more, that's twelve!" Turns out there were more baby guppies that had been hiding somewhere in the plants Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 On 1/2/2023 at 3:21 AM, Schuyler said: Around lunch I heard my wife counting from the other room "nine... Ten... Oh wow there's two more, that's twelve!" Turns out there were more baby guppies that had been hiding somewhere in the plants What are you going to do with them?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 On 1/1/2023 at 11:48 PM, TheSwissAquarist said: What are you going to do with them?? Once they are grown out more I'm going to see if my LFS will do a trade of like 4 for 1 or something. That way I can get more genetic diversity. Long term, I'm thinking of getting a sparkling gourami or honey gourami to have some predators Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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