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My garage "fish lab"


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Some pictures of those eggs that were pulled from the spawning mop. There is a small piece of yarn that one of them came with and they have all caught on to that. There are also some kind of worm that has somehow survived but absorbed the methylene blue. I tried to pull out as many of those as I could.

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The eyes and spine are clearly starting to develop. There's that same clear liquid circulating but it hasn't turned red yet.

I'll try and upload a video 

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  • 2 weeks later...

One of the eggs that we picked from the mop hatched so I've set up the Lowell's fish lab tray and put them in there to grow out

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I plan on pulling the plants from the tank where the parents are and try moving fry to the tray so that they can be watched more carefully

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Ups and downs today

The little fry that hatched yesterday wasn't moving much. I got a picture but when I came back about an hour the yolk sac was gone and it was dead. I'm not sure if it's normal for them to spend a few days absorbing there yolk.

 

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Another egg seems to have had a failed hatch. The fry was fully out but bent the wrong way and dead. The is still one more egg that seems intact.

I also pulled plants from the tank with the parents to look for fry in there. I found four fry but I suspect there may be more. These four are much more developed, there probably about a month old at this point.

They are on the fry tray so that I can target feed them and try and insure that they survive.

Edited by Schuyler
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Update on all the tanks:

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The fry seem fine in their new spot. Behind them is the brine shrimp hatchery. Below them is a Nothobranchius Guentheri fry that was hatched on 1/1.

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The Fundulopanchax Gresensi seem like they are fully colored up. Still no soaking behavior but for all I know they could just be eating the eggs. Once the Ocellatum fry grow out I'll move them in with their parents and I'll try moving the female to there five gallon and condition her.

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The female Nothobranchius Eggersi and the small male finally succumbed to whatever disease or organ failure they were suffering from. I think I left the spawning site in the tank for too long, didn't do enough water changes, and they either had an infection or they weren't getting the minerals they needed and had kidney failure. They had popeye and lopsided bulging on their sides.

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The Aphyosemion Ocellatum are doing well. Her lip isn't fully healed but they're much better than it used to be. They seem to be very happy in this tank. One surprise, while hunting for fry I found a cherry shrimp that I moved over at some point. I guess these guys are at least somewhat shrimp safe.

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The shrimp in aquascaped tank are really taking off. There are quite a few culls that should probably be removed. There are some planaria cropping up. The guppies seem to have some internal parasite. They just weren't thriving like they should add looking skinny. I've been testing with metronidazole and they seem to be getting better. The bolbitus in the middle has started to grow over the wood.

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The old Nothobranchius Guentheri are still kicking and don't show any sign of slowing down. She always looks like she's about to go belly up but she isn't acting like she's old. She'll still attack her food and he'll jump up and bite your finger if you point at him.

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Went to a new aquarium store on the area on Saturday. They had lots of fancy L number plecos

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And some truly tiny sparkling gourami (finger for scale):

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I got a black worm starter culture there so we'll see if that actually takes hold.

I also ran into Alexander Williamson from the Fishtory YouTube channel

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On 2/13/2024 at 9:23 AM, Schuyler said:

Went to a new aquarium store on the area on Saturday. They had lots of fancy L number plecos

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And some truly tiny sparkling gourami (finger for scale):

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I got a black worm starter culture there so we'll see if that actually takes hold.

I also ran into Alexander Williamson from the Fishtory YouTube channel

Wow those plecos look awesome. It never ceases to amaze me how many cool looking plecos there are out there.

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I may have found the next inhabitants of the 20 long that's been sitting there collecting dust for a few months. My LFS has a small group of Betta Simplex:

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They are a mouth brooding species of Betta where the males carry the eggs in his mouth until they hatch out. Sounds like something interesting and totally different from anything else I've tried.

The black worms have started climbing up the moss and plants in the tank they were put into. It's really weird looking:

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Finally setting up the 20 long

First an initial layer of fluval stratum:

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Then thoroughly rinsed caribsea super naturals fine gravel:

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Then the wood, coconut stem, coconut huts, and ACO sponge filter:

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Then the moment of truth: Filling it up with water

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Yeah... It's going to be ugly for a bit. I used mulm filled water from cleaning out the sponges in my main tank along with some old filter floss to jump start the cycle.

The fluval will likely leech some ammonia. I'll test for that tomorrow and hopefully get a heater and temporary light in place.

On 2/22/2024 at 4:47 PM, Sharon M said:

That is an excellent use of coconut coir matting!

Thanks! Initially, it was going to be a false bottom for a paludarium but the waxy coating made me nervous. It's been sitting next to my aquarium stuff since then and I noticed that it's basically the exact right height

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No ammonia leeching from the soil. Or if it is then it's being converted/absorbed because tests are showing 0 ammonia.

I added another rock to weigh down the coconut stem so that hopefully it sinks faster.

In other news, the Aphyosemion Ocellatum fry are doing well and all are still alive and growing:

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On 3/4/2024 at 9:18 AM, GsFins said:

How's the blackworm culture coming along?

It's... Surviving.

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I don't think the setup is ideal for them. Now I'm just using them as a supplement to other live foods. Although I may try building a blackworm tower like @modified lung did.

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On 3/5/2024 at 9:15 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Fun to catch-up on your journal and always nice to see a fellow GSAS member! Have fun!

Nice! I feel like there are at least six of us on here.

If you make it out to the meeting this Saturday these tanks will be in the home show.

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I forgot to mention that on Saturday my wife and I spent at least two hours off and on attempting to catch the female flagfish. I ended up getting my shirt drenched twice. She was a little escape artist.

The male was a piece of cake. Five minutes, tops.

Now that they're in the tank they're always hiding out and wherever she goes, he follows.

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Yesterday was "the home show" for the GSAS. I got to meet @Beardedbillygoat1975 in person and my tanks were a part of the show. I didn't win any awards or anything but it was still fun and it was cool to see some fish friends win some awards.

My wife came with me this time. The first item in the auction was a set of 6 multis. They started bidding out at $4 and no one bid on them (in stores around here they sell for $15 each). My wife could tell that I was really tempted so she told me to go for it.

It wasn't until the drive home that she learned it meant we would need a separate tank. Looking in the bag there was only one fish actually visible.

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When we got them home I put him and the shell in a bucket as a temporary holding place, still only the one fish. I pulled the shell out to make sure none were still hiding in it.

There must have been a mistake and only one fish was bagged. As I was dialing the LFS to see if they would take him I told my wife "I'll check the bucket one more time, just in case they magically appear"

They magically appeared...

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The tank is a work in progress. The next big thing will be to get them more shells. Currently it's just one one they came with, one from the ocean, and a few coconut huts to hold them over.

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Got she holey rock and a background for the shellies

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Still no light so a lot of glare...

Old man sparky got moved in with the flag fish. He's about 15 months old now and still going strong:

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He seems happy with the extra space.

Everything guy a water change and during the water change I noticed counted 6 fry in the Fundulopanchax Gresensi tank:

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I finally set up my ziss hatchery after my old diy 2 liter bottle hatchery got sat on accidentally.

It seems to be good at hatching them but getting the shrimp out is tricky. I may try finding a way to attach an air line to the out spout.

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I'm pretty sure the Aphyosemion Ocellatum are spawning again. Her lip is beat up again... I may move her to the tank below the fry to let her recover and then move the male over with a mop to see if I can collect some eggs and hatch out another batch.

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The fry are all still chugging along and growing nicely.

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Finally got a lid for the shellies. They are doing really well and surprisingly the nitrates and still really low despite not really having any plants.

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On 3/22/2024 at 9:52 PM, JE47 said:

I feel like this needs a story time

Lol

I cleaned it out, walked back to the fish rack, set it down on my chair so I could adjust things, and then sat down

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