Semi-budget 40g Breeder Aquascape Journal

[Fish Folk]

On 11/14/2022 at 9:17 PM, Schuyler said:

Quick update since I've already posted today.

1) There's been some breeding going on between Fin and Beauty (the new female)

2) Just spotted hydras in the tank. I guess that's what I get for over feeding and not quarantining anything properly. Going to do a big cleaning and pull back on feedings.

3) Moving Cindy (the old female) in with the Cory fry to try and feed her directly. I've noticed her stomach receding which looks like that may be what happens as they start to dye of old age.

Luckily the guy who gave me an extra female (the nice round one in the picture) also gave me a two pouches of eggs. So if all else fails I should have a second attempt lined up.

A very kind gift! Where were they dried? Do you know when they can be rewet? 

[Schuyler]

On 11/14/2022 at 6:20 PM, Fish Folk said:

A very kind gift! Where were they dried? Do you know when they can be rewet? 

They were dried on the substrate (coconut coir) and put into bags with the species and date they were harvested.

The guentheri eggs should be ready to hatch soon but I don't see any eyes so I'm going to wait a week or two and check again.

The Eggersi eggs were just harvested Nov 3rd so they still have a long time to go.

I'm guessing he's trying to get more people in the area doing killis so that thru can help each other and share eggs/fish if people need them.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/15/2022 at 4:05 AM, Schuyler said:

They were dried on the substrate (coconut coir) and put into bags with the species and date they were harvested.

The guentheri eggs should be ready to hatch soon but I don't see any eyes so I'm going to wait a week or two and check again.

The Eggersi eggs were just harvested Nov 3rd so they still have a long time to go.

I'm guessing he's trying to get more people in the area doing killis so that thru can help each other and share eggs/fish if people need them.

How about you sell some eggs on the forum? I expect a couple of people (including me!) would be interested after seeing this journal…

[Schuyler]

On 11/14/2022 at 9:31 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

How about you sell some eggs on the forum? I expect a couple of people (including me!) would be interested after seeing this journal…

Maybe once I get a batch from my pair I'll see about selling them. It feels weird selling them since @Zach T gave them to me for free. But maybe he has more.

[Zach T]

Hey I’m very glad to see you are having a good experience. If anyone would like to purchase some eggs or needs some info feel free to PM me. I also have 1 pair of Notho. Eggersi Red with a collection location available. 

[Schuyler]

Woke up this morning to the breeder box tilted (cheap suction cups couldn't hold up the feeding dish I put in). Three brave fry managed to push their way through the floating plants and escape into the tank. There is no way I'll be able to catch them.

Here's one escapee surveying his new home:

Luckily they are she it the larger fry and the male killi can fit it in his mouth or he at least hasn't shown any interest in trying.

I used a pipette to hand feed the female killi summer live daphnia in the breeder box. She liked that and her belly seemed a little fuller or at least less sunken in. Planning on another batch of BBS to try and directly feed her to see if I can't get her fat and happy.

Also, lots of new growth on the Anubias nana

[TheSwissAquarist]

I really had to look for that Pygmy Cory fry!

[Schuyler]

Planted the hornwort today after letting it float in the breeder box.

Luckily I was able to catch two of the escaped Cory fry and return them to the box to make sure they don't have competition for food. Fur now they seem to have nice fat bellies.

I noticed that some of the Anubias leaves had a slight brown ting. I thought it was brown diatom algae but it didn't come off. I suspect that the old leaves don't like being directly under the lights.

Cindy is showed interest in the hikari shrimp cuisine pellets I was giving the Cory fry. I may look at picking up some other hikari foods to see if she goes for them.

The guppies look like they are about to pop out fry any day now, though I suspect not many will make it unless we see it happening and manage to isolate the fry.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/17/2022 at 7:00 AM, Schuyler said:

Luckily I was able to catch two of the escaped Cory fry and return them to the box

Bravo! I’m scarred for life after catching cherry barb fry out of a 65 gal!!

[Schuyler]

On 11/16/2022 at 10:11 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Bravo! I’m scarred for life after catching cherry barb fry out of a 65 gal!!

Oh it was mostly dumb luck and patience. I put the net out and ready then every time I got up I would look in the tank and see if any fry were out of hiding then I'd try to get them to the glass.

Trying to catch an individual fry in a large planted aquarium is not fun...

I still have no idea where the last one is. There are tons of hiding places so I'm hoping it's just hanging out eating leftover food. But I'm nervous that the killi fish ate it.

 

[Schuyler]

BS were significantly smaller this time than they were last time. I'm not sure if that's because they were in the refrigerator first or something to do with the water.

I checked the LFS to see if they had replaced the killi pair I bought. Sure enough the female they had was super skinny too with the sunken belly. I suspect they come from the supplier skinny. Tomorrow I may ask if they can ask the supplier what they feed.

I've ordered some Fluval Bug Bites to try feeding her. I had told my wife that I was done buying fish stuff for a while... But just one more thing I swear.

I have a 20g ready to give to a friend who said he was interested in doing a fish tank to buy hasn't responded in a long time. I'm going to try setting it up as a daphnia and other tiny critter breeding tank to use as live food. I'll probably create a separate thread for that in the experiment section.

I also hope to use that to feed the baby killi fry once the eggs are ready.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/18/2022 at 2:45 AM, Schuyler said:

BS were significantly smaller this time than they were last time. I'm not sure if that's because they were in the refrigerator first or something to do with the water.

I checked the LFS to see if they had replaced the killi pair I bought. Sure enough the female they had was super skinny too with the sunken belly. I suspect they come from the supplier skinny. Tomorrow I may ask if they can ask the supplier what they feed.

I've ordered some Fluval Bug Bites to try feeding her. I had told my wife that I was done buying fish stuff for a while... But just one more thing I swear.

I have a 20g ready to give to a friend who said he was interested in doing a fish tank to buy hasn't responded in a long time. I'm going to try setting it up as a daphnia and other tiny critter breeding tank to use as live food. I'll probably create a separate thread for that in the experiment section.

I also hope to use that to feed the baby killi fry once the eggs are ready.

Interesting…daphnia culture for fry…how big are daphnia??

[Schuyler]

On 11/17/2022 at 10:02 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Interesting…daphnia culture for fry…how big are daphnia??

I guess that was more in reference to the other critters...

[TheSwissAquarist]

Are you having any luck feeding the killi female @Schuyler??

[Schuyler]

On 11/18/2022 at 8:02 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Are you having any luck feeding the killi female @Schuyler??

Yep but she's only really gone for live food. I hand feed her with the pipette to make sure she gets it. The side effect is that I've conditioned her to see the pipette as food.

Her belly isn't shrunken in any more but she doesn't look like she has eggs. Saturday I'll be getting another pellet food she will hopefully accept. With any luck the new pellets and the her training to eat food as it comes out the pipette will get her to accept this food.

At least now she shouldn't starve any time soon. She's stuffed with daphnia and BBS.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/18/2022 at 5:17 PM, Schuyler said:

Yep but she's only really gone for live food. I hand feed her with the pipette to make sure she gets it. The side effect is that I've conditioned her to see the pipette as food.

Her belly isn't shrunken in any more but she doesn't look like she has eggs. Saturday I'll be getting another pellet food she will hopefully accept. With any luck the new pellets and the her training to eat food as it comes out the pipette will get her to accept this food.

At least now she shouldn't starve any time soon. She's stuffed with daphnia and BBS.

If she associates the pipette with her food, then it might be doable to wean her onto commercial food. Good luck! 😁

[Schuyler]

Moment of truth, will she accept Fluval Bug Bites? I loaded some in the pipette and put it in the the box. She swam over and immediately grabbed the pellet as it came out, chewed out for a second, spit it out, and then swam back to wait for something else to come out.

Little snob...

I let her out of the box so that she could at least hunt for stuff in the plants.

The pygmy cory fry are about 4 weeks old now and I'm wondering how long they really need to stay in the breeder box. Mainly I was doing it to ensure they didn't have competition for food but none of the other fish seem to eat the rapashi once it reaches the bottom. Does anyone have any suggestions for it they should stay in there or just go into the tank? The LFS has some pygmy Cory fry in with their Eggersi Killifish today and they weren't much bigger than the ones I have (they also had two dead though...)

I randomly decided to test the temp with a kitchen thermometer today. Turns out the external digital thermometer I got for free with my Hygger light read about 4° lower than the actual temp. The tank was 78-79 rather than 75-76 which was my target temp. I've turned down the heater slightly and moved a good ol fashion glass thermometer in the tank. Looks like it's holding steady around 76 now.

Here is my initial daphnia tank setup. Mostly it's leftovers from the tank I tore down and from setting up the 40g. Right now it's only about 2 gallons of water but I plan on putting water in there from water changes to hopefully seed more micro fauna.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/19/2022 at 4:05 AM, Schuyler said:

 

Moment of truth, will she accept Fluval Bug Bites? I loaded some in the pipette and put it in the the box. She swam over and immediately grabbed the pellet as it came out, chewed out for a second, spit it out, and then swam back to wait for something else to come out.

Little snob...

 

Have you tried the Xtreme Krill Flakes?? This may sound weird, but when ACO brought some fish back from Peru, it was the only prepared food that many of them took.

Seeing as the Pygmy fry have no competition for food, I see no harm in letting them in.

[Schuyler]

We released the babies!

Initially when we released the pygmy cory fry it was nerve wracking. The Killifish cheesed them around a bit and they all scattered and hid. By the afternoon they had regrouped and were swimming around in little schools. Then by dinner time they were acting like they owned the place. In a funny bit of irony there was one fry that was feeling extra bold. It decided to chase the big fish around. A tiny pygmy fry chasing a big Killifish 4x it's size.

Before that I did some bigger maintenance like trimming, planting, cleaning green diatom algae off the glass, ~10% water change, and wringing out the sponges.

Here's a shot of the tank now. It's finally starting to fill in. Let's play "find the cory fry"

And a super fat guppy...

Probably should isolate her so she can either have babies or fast for a few days

[itsfoxtail]

On 11/19/2022 at 8:33 PM, Schuyler said:

Here's a shot of the tank now. It's finally starting to fill in. Let's play "find the cory fry"

First of all the tank is coming together amazingly! Second of all... I thought I was pretty good at iSpy... I'm beginning to wonder now...

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/15/2022 at 6:22 PM, Schuyler said:

What a great photo.

[Schuyler]

On 11/19/2022 at 7:12 PM, itsfoxtail said:

First of all the tank is coming together amazingly! Second of all... I thought I was pretty good at iSpy... I'm beginning to wonder now...

The first one it looks like they don't show up but here's where they are in the other two

[itsfoxtail]

On 11/19/2022 at 9:37 PM, Schuyler said:

The first one it looks like they don't show up but here's where they are in the other two

The most helpful red circles I've ever seen. Thank you. They're so cute! Literally thought the one scuffling in the sand was a little piece of wood 😭

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/20/2022 at 4:37 AM, Schuyler said:

The first one it looks like they don't show up but here's where they are in the other two

I know they’re fry, but they’re tiny!!

[Minanora]

Looking good! Those pygmies are so cute!!!