AllFishNoBrakes’ Journal

[Patrick_G]

On 1/26/2023 at 7:00 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@Patrick_G They’re super fun if you ask me! Any idea what kind of Angel you’re thinking about getting?

Ideally I’d find some regular P. scalare that look like mini Altums, but there are some other varieties like the gold pearl  scale that I like too. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@Patrick_G Nice. We went by the only LFS in our area that I can find the small Hikari bloodworms at today, and they had some wild Altums that were rad. One day I’ll have a tank big enough for those guys.

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/26/2023 at 5:14 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

These Pandas just don’t stop, lol. I had the lights off for 24 hours as the tank was treated with Expel-P, specifically because the female Panda is the fish with Camallanus Red Worm. Turned the lights back on to see this:

I mean... to be fair, the fish should feel better and have some more energy to use. 😂

[AllFishNoBrakes]

It’s Wednesday again, Nerms! Back with another journal post. 
 

Water changed every tank with the exception of the 2.5 gallon housing the 10 Cory fry. We’ll get that one tomorrow. Didn’t squeeze the sponge filters, but pulled the Ziss never clog air stones apart, squished the felt from the air stones in drained tank water and now all sponge filters are running efficiently again. The 55 grow out tank got the second and final treatment of Expel-P, and I’m happy to report that the female Angel that had Camallanus Red Worms looks clean. Fingers crossed this second treatment gets any and all stragglers and we can move on from this whole situation. The Pleco fry are killing it in the Ziss breeder box, but man was that a pain to deal with while water changing. Had to push the box down the side of the tank while draining water which wasn’t a big deal at all. However, trying to pull the box back up the tank while water was filling was a nightmare. The Pleco fry will most likely move to a 10 gallon grow out next week simply because I don’t want to do that again, lol. Overall, the box is awesome, but water changing with any box is a nightmare. 
 

Also harvested some baby brine shrimp, so figured I’d show off my process a bit. Let’s get it. 
 

I use the Ziss hatchery with 2 liters of straight tap water, 2 tablespoons of Fritz Aquarium Salt, a tiny pinch of baking soda as my water is super soft, a usb nano air pump, and a clip on desk lamp with a 72w bulb in the place of a heater. Works great for me!

After 36 hours, 1 tablespoon of eggs have hatched and are harvested. Shrimp could be harvested at 24 hours, but I personally like 36 hours. When I’m ready to harvest I disconnect the air pump, move the stand with the Hatchery to the sink, run some water through the sieve and throw that in there, clip on the little LED light, and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Eggs/shells float to the top and the shrimp are attracted to the light so they swim to the bottom. Open up the valve and harvest the liquid gold!

Picture showing the eggs at the top and the rest of the shrimp still in the water column.

Once harvested from the hatchery the shrimp go into a Tupperware with ~120ml of tank water.

Shrimp are then put into this tiny ice cube tray with a 20ml syringe. Once all the rows are full this tray goes into the freezer. Then, I thaw and feed 2 rows per day. Each hatch/tray lasts 8 days meaning I hatch baby brine shrimp once per week, or once per 8 days. My system currently allows for the last frozen rows to be fed, and then the next evening I harvest, fill the tray, feed the live leftovers, and the cycle continues. My tanks get baby brine shrimp on a daily basis.

After filling the tray I’m left with this which gets fed out to the tanks! Love me some baby brine shrimp, and so do the fish. 
 

Cheers, Nerms. Hope you’re having an excellent day enjoying your tanks! I’m over here daydreaming about converting my 20 gallon long into a blackwater/botanical style aquarium! Stoked to try something new. Wish me luck!

Edited February 2, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:11 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

The Pleco fry are killing it in the Ziss breeder box, but man was that a pain to deal with while water changing. Had to push the box down the side of the tank while draining water which wasn’t a big deal at all. However, trying to pull the box back up the tank while water was filling was a nightmare.

Maybe a small tupperware to hold water and then just move the box into that during WCs.

[Schuyler]

Did you make that sieve or did you buy it? Your whole setup is so nice 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@nabokovfan87 For sure. With most fry I’d say that’s a great idea. These Pleco’s though, man… just getting them out of the Ziss tumbler was a nightmare as they just latch onto everything! Most fry you can just pour out of whatever container. Not these pleco’s who spend their lives scooting around everything/everywhere one suctioned mouth at a time!

 

Compared to other fry these guys are huge! I feel supremely confident that they would do just fine in a 1/2 full 10 gallon. Mostly I just wanted to play with the new to me Ziss breeder box when it got here. And, I didn’t realize how big these guys would be once hatching and how fast they’ve grown in a week. 

[nabokovfan87]

I was talking about the entire breeder box itself. Should be able to remove it from the clip and then move it to a tub for an hour or so?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@Schuyler Thank you much! I wish I could take credit for the whole thing. The stand itself was someone else’s idea. I just modified it to hold the sieve. 
 

The sieve was bought from Amazon. I bet if you just search “brine shrimp sieve” you’ll find it. 

@nabokovfan87 For sure. My thought right now is if I’m gonna move it I might as well move it to the next step/tank in their life and let them roam free. Totally understand where you’re coming from though. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:37 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@nabokovfan87 For sure. My thought right now is if I’m gonna move it I might as well move it to the next step/tank in their life and let them roam free. Totally understand where you’re coming from though. 

water changes with fry.... the undiscussed youtube creator content topic.

Props for those photos.  IDK what camera you were using, but lighting, contrast, THOSE COLORS.  makes me want to hatch out some brine.

If you can, please head over here and help us out.
 

 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@nabokovfan87 Thanks for the kind words. Every picture I’ve posted on here has been taken with my trusty iPhone. No extra lenses or anything like that. 
 

I wish I had the answer for @jwcarlson with their brine shrimp dilemma. I was trying to help out early on in that thread, and have popped in every once in a while since and I’m stumped. I know what works for me works very well, but I’m puzzled by their situation. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 2/2/2023 at 6:11 AM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

It’s Wednesday again, Nerms! Back with another journal post. 
 

Water changed every tank with the exception of the 2.5 gallon housing the 10 Cory fry. We’ll get that one tomorrow. Didn’t squeeze the sponge filters, but pulled the Ziss never clog air stones apart, squished the felt from the air stones in drained tank water and now all sponge filters are running efficiently again. The 55 grow out tank got the second and final treatment of Expel-P, and I’m happy to report that the female Angel that had Camallanus Red Worms looks clean. Fingers crossed this second treatment gets any and all stragglers and we can move on from this whole situation. The Pleco fry are killing it in the Ziss breeder box, but man was that a pain to deal with while water changing. Had to push the box down the side of the tank while draining water which wasn’t a big deal at all. However, trying to pull the box back up the tank while water was filling was a nightmare. The Pleco fry will most likely move to a 10 gallon grow out next week simply because I don’t want to do that again, lol. Overall, the box is awesome, but water changing with any box is a nightmare. 
 

Also harvested some baby brine shrimp, so figured I’d show off my process a bit. Let’s get it. 
 

I use the Ziss hatchery with 2 liters of straight tap water, 2 tablespoons of Fritz Aquarium Salt, a tiny pinch of baking soda as my water is super soft, a usb nano air pump, and a clip on desk lamp with a 72w bulb in the place of a heater. Works great for me!

After 36 hours, 1 tablespoon of eggs have hatched and are harvested. Shrimp could be harvested at 24 hours, but I personally like 36 hours. When I’m ready to harvest I disconnect the air pump, move the stand with the Hatchery to the sink, run some water through the sieve and throw that in there, clip on the little LED light, and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Eggs/shells float to the top and the shrimp are attracted to the light so they swim to the bottom. Open up the valve and harvest the liquid gold!

Picture showing the eggs at the top and the rest of the shrimp still in the water column.

Once harvested from the hatchery the shrimp go into a Tupperware with ~120ml of tank water.

Shrimp are then put into this tiny ice cube tray with a 20ml syringe. Once all the rows are full this tray goes into the freezer. Then, I thaw and feed 2 rows per day. Each hatch/tray lasts 8 days meaning I hatch baby brine shrimp once per week, or once per 8 days. My system currently allows for the last frozen rows to be fed, and then the next evening I harvest, fill the tray, feed the live leftovers, and the cycle continues. My tanks get baby brine shrimp on a daily basis.

After filling the tray I’m left with this which gets fed out to the tanks! Love me some baby brine shrimp, and so do the fish. 
 

Cheers, Nerms. Hope you’re having an excellent day enjoying your tanks! I’m over here daydreaming about converting my 20 gallon long into a blackwater/botanical style aquarium! Stoked to try something new. Wish me luck!

That’s a neat BBS setup! One question: Do you put the nauplii through a sieve before adding the tank water and freezing them??

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@TheSwissAquarist Yup.  BBS get put through the sieve. Quick rinse in normal tap water through the sieve, let that tap water drain out, and then into the Tupperware with tank water they go. From there, they get taken from the Tupperware to the ice cube tray with a syringe. 
 

Let me know if you have any other questions. Happy to elaborate!

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Finished up the maintenance today and snapped some pics along the way. 

I absolutely despise water changing small tanks. Especially these little 2.5 gallon hatch/grow out tanks. To remove water I use 2 pieces of airline tubing with sponge jammed in the end so I don’t suck up any fry. To refill water, gravity is my friend. 1 gallon pitcher with dechlorinated water at the correct temp, and then a single piece of airline tubing (no sponge) inside a piece of 1/2” pvc. Pvc tubing gets clamped to the pitcher and the foam “lid” for the tank holds the airline tubing in place inside the tank. Get a syphon going, “clamp” in the tank with the foam lid, and walk away for 5 minutes.

Marbled male and all black Female Angelfish spawn. Did not keep these eggs as I’m still working on the Panda juveniles and don’t want to get myself in trouble. A spawn is worthless until it’s sold! If only I had more tanks… You can see the few eggs that started to fungus. Mom was doing a great job of fanning all of these eggs until I so ruthlessly pulled the slate and washed the eggs down the drain.

Female Panda that had Camallanus Red Worms is looking clear. 25% water change with a hard gravel vac per the instructions on the box and now this problem should be behind us. I’m looking forward to seeing how she does moving forward, and what their spawns look like moving forward as she had to have those pesky nematodes the whole time I’ve had her. Every fish that comes into my home gets the med trio and quarantined, but nothing new would’ve introduced the red worms. Shout out to Expel-P for doing its job!

Cheers, Nerms. Hope you’ve had a great day enjoying nature.

Edited February 3, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Wrapped up with maintenance, the sun has gone down, and it’s time to unwind. 
 

Water changer everything except the shrimp tank today as I did they one last week. Squeezed a sponge filter here and there. Moved the Pleco’s from the Ziss breeder box to 1/2 full 10 gallon. Breeder box has some new Julii Cory fry, I threw some more eggs in there, and there’s more eggs in the Tumbler, too. Crazy that these guys spawn daily, so I’m just picking up like 10-15 eggs per day. Probably won’t pull any additional eggs and will focus on the ones I have. I think the breeder box is going to be an easy way to hatch eggs and start raising fry. Excited to check it out. 
 

Progress on the Panda Angels  

Ziss Tumbler and Breeder Box side-by-side

Pea Puffers came out to say what’s up 

Chocolate Bristlenose moved to their next stage of grow out. 

Aquaponics tank had some green water but it’s cleared up pretty nicely. Way too many Endler Guppies in here but it’s balanced and works well.

Strawberries on top of the aquaponics tank killing it. Need to get some other veggies and herbs going…

Bunch of Crayfish and Shrimp chowing down on dinner. Can’t wait to turn this tank into a blackwater aquarium. 

Edited February 9, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Pygmy Cory eggs!

 

We’ll get past the Super Bowl and I’ll have something fun to try on the near future. If anyone has advice on first foods for what I assume will be microscopic fry I’m all ears. Sera micron and Hikari First Bites good until they’re big enough to eat BBS? Any advice is welcome. 

Edited February 11, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/10/2023 at 6:57 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Sera micron and Hikari First Bites good until they’re big enough to eat BBS? Any advice is welcome. 

Repashy powder, powdered up xtreme flakes. Soilent green works very, very well.  The bottom scratcher is slightly chunky.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Appreciate the input! I always forget that Repashy can be fed as a powder. Gotta lock that into my brain. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

What up Nerms? It’s Wednesday again. 
 

Water changed everything in the house, squeezed a couple sponges, and reset a few Ziss never clog air stones. Also threw a little bit of poly fill into a couple filters to polish some water. Pretty chill maintenance session this week and I need to enjoy it. Next week I need to trim the cube, move some fish, and clean the other filters. 
 

I have 19 or 20 Julii Cory fry in the breeder box! Excited this round is going well and I chucked another 12 or so eggs in the box. I’m excited to raise these guys up and have another species to offer my LFS that buys all my fish. 
 

Tomorrow, we’re going to look at a restaurant location that has opened up and the owner of our restaurant group is pretty serious about acquiring. As fate would have it, it’s literally 2 doors down from the LFS that buys from me! What are the chances, right?! Gonna hit up the LFS after we check out the restaurant space and I’ll probably pick up some wood in anticipation of switching over the 20 long. 
 

The 20 long has had almost a 3 year run. Started out as a cherry shrimp species only tank that was super fun. After a year and a half or two years of just shrimp and snails I added a group of 5 Mexican Dwarf Crayfish. The Crayfish have been fun and the population is exploding. I’ve proven that shrimp, crayfish, and snails can cohabitate, but I’m ready for something new. 
 

The 20 long is going to be converted to a blackwater/botanical style aquarium! I picture 2 pieces of Spiderwood flowing from the ends towards the middle of the tank. A little bit of stone in the center, tons of botanicals (Indian Almond Leaves, and then a mixed pack of other botanicals), a gooseneck light for dramatic effect, and then rhizome plants underneath the gooseneck. For inhabitants I’m thinking 15-18 Chili Rasboras, and 1 trio or 2 pairs of Sparkling Gourami’s. Those inhabitants are for sure. Where I’m caught up is A) my water is already super soft, and has slight tannins from the cholla wood already so I’m curious if my cherry shrimp can make the transition. If they can that’s great! If they can’t I’ll try some Caridina shrimp. B) Maybe some Green Neon Tetras or Black Neon Tetras in addition to the Chili Rasboras? And C) I’ll probably try some nerites as I’m on team snail. Chili Rasboras, Sparkling Gourami’s, some shrimp, and some snails sounds like so much fun. Really just hung up on a bigger group of Chili’s, or a smaller group of Chili’s and a different group of Tetras. If you have experience with a blackwater set up I’m all ears!
 

I daydream about this blackwater tank constantly and I can’t wait to start setting it up. My question to you is, should I start a new journal for that tank, or just keep everything condensed to this already existing journal? Everything you add is one more thing to manage, but I feel like maybe that tank specifically should have its own space. Let me know what you think!

Cheers, Nerms. Thanks for being such a rad group of fish nerds and sharing this hobby and my experience with me. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/15/2023 at 5:35 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

I have 19 or 20 Julii Cory fry in the breeder box! Excited this round is going well and I chucked another 12 or so eggs in the box. I’m excited to raise these guys up and have another species to offer my LFS that buys all my fish. 

Be careful with that if they have fins.  I had a batch of fry eat 20+ fry that were laid about 3-4 days later.  Not fun.

I'm excited for the 20L conversion.  I don't think (or can't imagine) that the shrimp will do well under 6.5 PH, so just be careful with that on the Neo side of things.  The cool thing is you might be able to get some really nice species you've never kept before that have a very differen't way of being, supposedly much more sensitive.

I am intrigued to see how you approach blackwater given what I'm doing on my side of things with the "budget blackwater" setup for the bloody mary shrimp.

It'll be interesting to see how far down the PH shifts for you and just what you decide to put in there when all said and done!

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 2/16/2023 at 7:15 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I'm excited for the 20L conversion. 

Me too! 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

You guys like fish? I like fish. Specifically, I really enjoy making more fish. Breeding going crazy over here! Just wanted to give y’all a little update. 

Julii Cory eggs all over this sword

And a few more on the glass. Fry doing really well in the box, too.

Panda Angels spawned again. Time to start raising the next batch.

Couple pieces of wood picked out for the inevitable 20 long blackwater swap. Paid for these pieces in store credit so that’s always fun.

Literally so much breeding going down, but I feel like I have a good plan for it. 
-Current Panda Angel batch is going to be moved to the 55 grow out in the next week or 2.

-7 Albino Cory’s and 3 Julii will probably just be moved to the home tanks. It’s going to be an experiment to see if they’re big enough to survive, but obviously I believe they are or else I wouldn’t do it.

-Panda eggs will be hatched and will begin growing up in the 2.5 they’re currently in 

-Moving the 10 Cory’s to their home tanks will free up the other 2.5 and will allow me to try to hatch some Pygmy Cory’s! I’m through the Super Bowl so I really wanna try something new. 
 

-Pleco’s will continue to grow out in their 10 gallon they’re currently in. 
 

Really looking forward to moving some things around so I can try my hand at Pygmy Cory’s, and really looking forward to selling some things off to boost that store credit. I’m hopeful that I can set up my girlfriends shrimp tank and my 20 long blackwater (livestock, at least) for basically free using my existing and future store credit. Time will tell! Cheers, Nerms. Hope you’ve had a wonderful day. 

Edited February 18, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[nabokovfan87]

ORD

Do you just have the two types of corydoras? Very cool.  I miss my False Julii's.  I really learned to appreciate them.  Very underrated.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@nabokovfan87 I have 3 types of Cory’s. I have the Albino’s, the Julii’s, and the Pygmy’s!

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Simply wanted to document where all my baby fish are at. Oldest to youngest we have:

Panda Angels. Crushing. Gonna get moved to the 55 grow out in the next week or two and they’ll really take off.

Chocolate Bristlenose. First batch with these guys has been fun. Gonna be an absolute nightmare to move from this tank, though. 

Julii Cory’s. This breeder box has worked super well. I counted 23 in here this evening. 1 shy of potentially the perfect amount for the LFS but that’s nature for you.

Newest batch of Panda Angels. I need to force myself to feed some of these out as fry as the bigger Panda batch is pretty large and I don’t want to flood the market. I made that mistake with the Kribs and need to learn to do better!

Edited February 22, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes