Randy's Fish Room

[DavidR]

That sounds like a lot of fun Randy!

 

[DavidR]

Can you share a tutorial on how you automated your water changes? I see parts of the system.

[Dean’s Fishroom]

Isn’t that one if the worst feelings. Especially when you are looking forward to some other project or family time. So lucky that you had a spare tank available. Somewhere around my place I have one of every sized tank I’m using in the fishroom. Sounds like you were able to save everything. Cut that old tank up for tops.

[Randy]

9 minutes ago, Dean’s Fishroom said:

Isn’t that one if the worst feelings. Especially when you are looking forward to some other project or family time. So lucky that you had a spare tank available. Somewhere around my place I have one of every sized tank I’m using in the fishroom. Sounds like you were able to save everything. Cut that old tank up for tops.

@Dean’s Fishroom it’s going in the dumpster?  Want it?  Let’s make a top making video from an old tank 😊 

 

[Randy]

Now let's see if I can get some betta breeding action.  Took pointers from @Dean’s Fishroom in the video below.

 

 

[Randy]

Last night's extracurricular: organize the bits and pieces.  I am really surprised it has taken me so long to do this. 🙂

 

[pedrofisk]

On 10/30/2020 at 12:21 AM, Dean’s Fishroom said:

Isn’t that one if the worst feelings. Especially when you are looking forward to some other project or family time. So lucky that you had a spare tank available. Somewhere around my place I have one of every sized tank I’m using in the fishroom. Sounds like you were able to save everything. Cut that old tank up for tops.

How big is your house?! Don't you have 20 different tank sizes?

[Bill Smith]

On 11/3/2020 at 10:05 AM, Randy said:

Last night's extracurricular: organize the bits and pieces.  I am really surprised it has taken me so long to do this. 🙂

Okay, you're a little understocked. Here's mine. 🙂 I buy multi-packs from Amazon, and there are countless times I've been really glad I had this or that doodad.

 

Edited November 5, 2020 by Bill Smith

[Randy]

15 hours ago, Bill Smith said:

Okay, you're a little understocked. Here's mine. 🙂 I buy multi-packs from Amazon, and there are countless times I've been really glad I had this or that doodad.

 

Are we going for an arms race @Bill Smith?? HAHA

I will have to go through ALL my bins and fill my little bits organizer up!

[Bill Smith]

7 hours ago, Randy said:

Are we going for an arms race @Bill Smith?? HAHA

I will have to go through ALL my bins and fill my little bits organizer up!

No no no, not at all! With your connections and setup you should wipe the floor with me. 😉

[Randy]

Updates from last night.

1. Got a cluster of eggs from the new Super Red Long Fin tank.  Woot!  These guys really do not enjoy keeping their eggs in the cave.  Into the Ziss Egg Tumbler they go (pic 1)
2. Found a cluster of eggs from the Super Red (normal fin) tank.  Another Woot!  These guys rarely kick out their eggs.  Hmm, only one Ziss Egg Tumbler, gotta use my mini-bucket with an airstone trick.  This does fine but I do change the water every night.  I feel like I have to have another Ziss Egg Tumbler somewhere in the fish room.  If only I was more organized. 🤣
3. Decided to go with spawning mop egg harvesting for my Blue Gularis instead of one large pull from the gravel.  I totally believe Rosario LaCorte crushed it with this method, but I am not having the same luck.  My test pair using the spawning mop on the tank bottom is giving me at least 5-6 eggs per night/every other night it seems.  With 3 pairs in 3 tanks this should prove to be quite the Blue Gularis egg factory.  Now to figure out peat moss incubation.  Thankfully @Dean’s Fishroom has already dropped so knowledge...might make for a good podcast episode.🤔
4. Took a massive ball of java moss out of the Corydoras venezuelanus  tank.  I think this giant plant might have actually been hindering them from spawning...maybe, what do I know! lol

Enjoy the pics!

[Randy]

Betta breeding attempt Round 2 looks promising!

Differences this time:

- no floating water lettuce

- curved piece of styro from cup

 

i don’t the lack of water lettuce has anything to do with potential success, but that curved piece of styro could.

[Daniel]

Back when I bred bettas the curved piece of styro from cup worked everytime.

[Randy]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

Back when I bred bettas the curved piece of styro from cup worked everytime.

I should actually start telling people that the Aquarium Co-Op Medium Coarse Sponge Filter as a line-of-sight blocker is the real secret! BAHAHA

[Randy]

4 hours ago, Randy said:

Betta breeding attempt Round 2 looks promising!

Differences this time:

- no floating water lettuce

- curved piece of styro from cup

 

i don’t the lack of water lettuce has anything to do with potential success, but that curved piece of styro could.

Wait a second, I did put a piece of water lettuce in there!🤪

[Randy]

Crushed coral - ✅

Easy Planters - ✅ (well, i guess i need 1 more)

Anubias Nana - ✅

Java Fern - ✅

New breeding project - landing this Thursday!  🕺

[Randy]

Hi all,  here is a picture of the 10 gallon tank in my son's room.

I am going to talk @Cory into carrying the Sponge Bob line of decorations. 🙂

 

[Ryan S.]

@Randy any chance you can take pics of your fish room racks so we can see how you set them up and can you let us know what size they are?  

I'm trying to decide what racks to use between gladiator and the edsal 3 shelf rack. 

[Randy]

On 12/5/2020 at 2:34 PM, Ryan S. said:

@Randy any chance you can take pics of your fish room racks so we can see how you set them up and can you let us know what size they are?  

I'm trying to decide what racks to use between gladiator and the edsal 3 shelf rack. 

@Ryan S. did you check out this video yet?

Dimensions aside, my vote will always be for Gladiator racks.

 

[Ryan S.]

42 minutes ago, Randy said:

@Ryan S. did you check out this video yet?

Dimensions aside, my vote will always be for Gladiator racks.

 

That's perfect!  I had forgotten you did that build video.  That is such a clean set up!  Hope we get to keep seeing your projects unfold. Thanks Randy. 

[Randy]

I thought that the green water explosion in this 30 breeder was stifling breeding, as I had not seen another group of fry from the lyretails.  Well, last night I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice school of fry at the surface crunching on some Aquarium Co-Op baby brine shrimp!

I count 25 in this pic alone.  The group extended to the other side of the center support with at least another ~10 fry?

[Lemon]

On 12/3/2020 at 3:36 PM, Randy said:

Hi all,  here is a picture of the 10 gallon tank in my son's room.

I am going to talk @Cory into carrying the Sponge Bob line of decorations. 🙂

 

not gonna lie the sponge bob decor actually looks good in this tank

[Randy]

I thought the angels were taking a break for the winter now that I let my fish room get a little cooler these days.

Nope, angel babies inbound!

[OceanTruth]

Break?! Heck no! Those angels know they're in a baby making factory. They're just doing their jobs. Lol.

[Randy]

A few months ago I decided that I should try and move my two separate groups of Scleromystax barbatus into a single 40 breeder that was recently freed up.  (Thanks for taking the last of my angels, @Robert😄). The original intent of having the barbatus in two separate 20 highs was to see if there would be any difference in behavior or breeding with two different types of substrate; fine sand vs small gravel.  I have had these fish for going on 10 months and I never really noticed any breeding activity in either setup.  Given how long I have had them, feeding routine, stable temps, and clean water, I assumed the lack of spawning could be 1 of 2 things: 1) the group size is too small for this particular species (I have had success with panda corys with just a group of 5 or 6), 2) these fish are not a fan of the front to back layout with the only "clear" side being the front, which is actually the end of the tank, or perhaps a sprinkling of both column 1 and column 2.  I realize #2 might be a stretch, but hey there could be something to the footprint dimension relative to the "clear" side.

So, with a vacant 40 breeder I moved both barbatus groups about 3 or 4 days ago.  Today during feeding and a little maintenance I noticed a lot of movement from their new tank.  I didn't spot it immediately, but my floor almost dropped when I noticed the clutch of eggs up on the back of the glass!  Success!  I can say that I really needed a new fish room "win" and am super glad it was with these fish.

Now, which change is more likely responsible for the spawning?  I really think it is both, definitely the bigger group I think has to play a role, but moving to a larger tank has to count for something.  I am not so sure the dimensions relative to the "Clear" side matter so much, but hey who knows.

In truth, it could be one last thing that triggered this spawn.  I did spend a few hours with Master Breeder @Dean’s Fishroom yesterday.  I would not be surprised if the fish detected some of the residual Dean clinging to me and decided to get their act together and spawn.  I don't know what we will call it, or how to market it, but bottling some of Dean's fish breeding magic will certainly be a new Co-Op product that I will be working on. 🤣