GoofyGarra's Journal

[Guppysnail]

On 9/4/2023 at 7:39 AM, GoofyGarra said:

i was checking out  @Chick-In-Of-TheSea's journal.

At the moment in my 2.5gallon tank for shrimp there is a coarse ACO sponge filter, should i be changing this if it would be a risk to shrimplets?

I have aco sponges in all my tanks.  They are no danger to shrimplettes. Just when you clean them swish really well before you squeeze. They love to hide in them. 

[GoofyGarra]

On 9/4/2023 at 9:53 AM, Guppysnail said:

Just when you clean them swish really well before you squeeze.

i dont clean my ACO sponge filters, and its one of the reasons i love them.

I have some sad new about my cories...

Unfortunately in my current batch of fry i have one with a crooked body. He appears perfectly healthy and happy, but i dont want him spreading the defect to any offspring. Im not culling him or anything, he's rather small and wont be an issue to further broods for another month or two. I have reached out to a good friend who has gotten cories from me in the past. He does not breed fish so i think the little guy could have a good home there once he is big enough. (the friend has not responded yet).

Also, a few weeks ago i needed a new water bottle, so i got the Cactaki one that Cory recommends. I like it.

Edited September 4, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/4/2023 at 7:39 AM, GoofyGarra said:

i was checking out  @Chick-In-Of-TheSea's journal.

At the moment in my 2.5gallon tank for shrimp there is a coarse ACO sponge filter, should i be changing this if it would be a risk to shrimplets?

It’s a matter of preference, really. The coarse requires extra precaution when maintaining because it is a shrimplet house, that’s all.

[GoofyGarra]

On 9/4/2023 at 12:14 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

It’s a matter of preference, really. The coarse requires extra precaution when maintaining because it is a shrimplet house, that’s all.

ok, thank you for clarifying. I dont clean my ACO sponge filters anymore, so it shouldnt be a problem.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/4/2023 at 12:16 PM, GoofyGarra said:

ok, thank you for clarifying. I dont clean my ACO sponge filters anymore, so it shouldnt be a problem.

Yep, should be fine. Just take care if you swap filters between tanks and stuff. 

[GoofyGarra]

Im getting good sunlight on both green water experiments.

I added in a bit of fish food in the indoor jar for a raw ammonia source.

@Elodie Rosehow long did your jars take to go green?

[Elodie Rose]

The first one was an accident, so I’m not sure, but after that one, they took about 2-3 days outside in full summer sun, or 3-4 days with a 24 hour light. The new ones were ‘seeded’ with some of the green water from the first jar. I do use Easy Green in pretty much everything, these included. 

I’m still trying things to figure out what works, and I don’t really know why any of it works at all, to be honest, so I don’t know if this is good advice or not. Two of the jars have lost their green, probably because I put them in windows without direct sunlight. One I brought back, the other I’m still trying to bring back to green.

Good luck!  

[GoofyGarra]

here is a picture of the cory with the defect. There are 2cories left in the breeder box, the rest were big enough to move into the main tank.

On 9/4/2023 at 2:47 PM, Elodie Rose said:

I’m still trying things to figure out what works, and I don’t really know why any of it works at all, to be honest, so I don’t know if this is good advice or not.

thats perfectly fine. Ive been in that situation many times myself.

This is my setup, tomato sauce jar propped up by the window with easy green and a xtreme wafer. (the wafer is for an ammonia source). Its getting decent sunlight with all of my terrariums.

Edited September 4, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

Good news! My friend agreed to take the defect cory once he/she is big enough. Im glad to know the little guy will have a good home once  he/she's a bit bigger.

Also can you float breather bags, or is it a oxygen risk for the fish? Would it have the same effect if you put the breeder bag into something that is floating in the tank?

Edited September 4, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

Im becoming desperate for tank room. I really want to nail down platy breeding and be able to setup multiple females at once, my only issue is that my 5gallon is inhabited by the mosquitofish fry. I dont trust the mosquitofish with my other fish because i dont know how they will treat them. I think rehoming the mosquitofish could be hard as they are not normally available fish in the hobby, furthermore ive been doing some research and it appears the mosquitofish fry i found are from a local creek. The simple approach would be release the fry back into the creek im pretty sure they came from, but they are used to pellets and flakes now and it seems cruel to throw them back in the wild after providing so much food. I dont think i realized what i got into when i took in these fry... I might try something where i start hatching out BBS, and then occasionally feed rather small amounts to the fry to acclimate them back to the wild, but i dont think its the best idea. I think im stuck with these fish now and im not too happy with them. Maybe ill try some sort of tub pond for them in the backyard, they are used to the climate here anyway.

Any ideas?

 

I pulled back a LOT of water lettuce today, its cool but every month or so it needs controlling. The tank is looking lighter now 🤔, and im hoping that in the gap of water lettuce the duckweed wont takeover. I removed the plastic baffle from my aquaclear that i normally use because floating plants dont really like it without the baffle and im trying to control them. Also hoping i wont have a nutrient spike with all the water lettuce gone as it probably had been eating a lot of nitrates.

I also setup some BBS. I really should hatch more of it, but i can never remember.

Im also really missing having multiple mystery snails, i might be getting another. (female hopefully).

Edited September 5, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

@Elodie Rose

i have green, smelly, and bubbly? As i was checking this out i had the thought "Wait why am i doing this again". Its a small container. How do you implement green water in your setups?

a rare shot of my shy/nocturnal nerite snail.

Also i want to get some plants weights so i can plant in some guppy grass in the tank. I want to use the guppy grass as cover for platy and cory fry, but i dont want to float it for design reasons. The issue is the cories are good at uprooting plants so hence the need for plant weights. (i have plenty of guppy grass to plant).

Also in standard lead Plant Weights like ACO sells, ive noticed some of the pictures make the weights look bigger then ill need. Is it safe to cut them in half?

Im going to try planting some guppy grass now, but im sure it will get uprooted. Cant hurt to try, i have some with nice roots so that will probably help keep it in.

 

Edited September 5, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

fed out BBS, i may have hatched too much. Maybe ill ask the fish if i hatched too much, they wont be biased in their opinions at all 😁. (most of those spots are BBS not bad photography effects).

I also think my little mosquitfish buddies are pretty cool. The issue is there is not a lot of information that i can find about. They appear to be from the  mexico/belize area like many other livebearers, (so not local at all the the creek) and they probably wont get much bigger then 1in for male and 1.5in for females, but beyond that i cant find any info which is frusterating. Gamusia Sexradiata, Teardrop Mosquitofish, anyone know anything about them?

Otherwise i guess its up to me to find out some information. Ill do some testing on how im keeping them and report it back here. I also am not sure yet if i have 2 females and one is older then the other or is a food hog, or a pair. I REALLY want to know more about them before they start breeding. 2fish is more managable then 20.

 

New theory on the female platy, i think she is lonely 😦. Ive noticed that the platies really act differently when they are in groups VS when they are alone. Im not quite sure how to remedy this problem as the tank is so small, but it might be a factor.

[Elodie Rose]

On 9/5/2023 at 6:58 PM, GoofyGarra said:

How do you implement green water in your setups?

I am still trying to figure green water out, to be honest. It does seem to take 2-3 days to see any differences, but maybe it depends on how much fertilizer you use, and how much light there is? Some people use air stones, but I haven’t tried that yet. I don’t really know if the green water has benefitted any tank I’ve tried to use it in.

Mosquito fish? I just received a few pairs of Gambusia holbrooki, that’s very cool. Hope to hear more about them. 

[Guppysnail]

On 9/5/2023 at 8:21 PM, GoofyGarra said:

New theory on the female platy, i think she is lonely 😦. Ive noticed that the platies really act differently when they are in groups VS when they are alone. Im not quite sure how to remedy this problem as the tank is so small, but it might be a factor.

When I first started with guppies each time I moved a girl who was ready to drop to a 2.5g tank she would reabsorb her fry. It was definitely stressful for her and she was very unhappy. Once I stopped and added more floating plants and hiding spots I easily got fry in the community tank. 

[GoofyGarra]

On 9/5/2023 at 8:35 PM, Elodie Rose said:

I am still trying to figure green water out, to be honest. It does seem to take 2-3 days to see any differences, but maybe it depends on how much fertilizer you use, and how much light there is? Some people use air stones, but I haven’t tried that yet. I don’t really know if the green water has benefitted any tank I’ve tried to use it in.

Mosquito fish? I just received a few pairs of Gambusia holbrooki, that’s very cool. Hope to hear more about them. 

well, ill keep y'all updated on my successes and failures here, mosquitofish and greenwater. I think that adding the fish food wafer as an ammonia source as well as easy green is doing something for the green water. It also looks like the outside bottle is not doing as well, i think the heat is affecting it. Really at the moment i dont have the setup to do some extravagant testings that i would want to do.

Small edit: While the sources online i found claimed that Sexradiata got 1-1.5in, my Axelrod fish encyclopedia claims 2.5in. I'm not quite sure which to trust more, ill have to wait and see on my personal exerperiences.

On 9/5/2023 at 8:55 PM, Guppysnail said:

When I first started with guppies each time I moved a girl who was ready to drop to a 2.5g tank she would reabsorb her fry. It was definitely stressful for her and she was very unhappy. Once I stopped and added more floating plants and hiding spots I easily got fry in the community tank. 

there is plenty of cover in the tank, but that might be an issue as it restricts the swimming space more then preferable. Maybe ill add in some water lettuce for more cover.

[GoofyGarra]

On 9/5/2023 at 8:55 PM, Guppysnail said:

When I first started with guppies each time I moved a girl who was ready to drop to a 2.5g tank she would reabsorb her fry. It was definitely stressful for her and she was very unhappy. Once I stopped and added more floating plants and hiding spots I easily got fry in the community tank. 

this is why im trying to get the guppy grass growing in the main tank, i dont think i have sufficient cover there right now, especially since ive trimmed back the water lettuce.

[GoofyGarra]

everyone meet Little Sunshine . I dont usually name my platies, but its hard to talk about specific fish without names. Little Sunshine is currently floating in a breeder box in the tank with the mosquitofish. I want to see how she reacts to them, but more importantly how they react to her, but i dont want her actually coming to harm, hence the breeder box. However, despite the fact that i chose one of my smallest females, she is still nearly twice the size of the smallest mosquitofish.

[GoofyGarra]

I talked to the biology teacher ill be working with today, turns out the budget for the school tank is a whole zero dollars, zero cents (zero euros). But i said id get them a tank so im commited to it. The tank will probably be full of Val, Guppy Grass, and Platies from home, with most of the equipment being used stuff i have in storage.

[Guppysnail]

On 9/6/2023 at 1:08 PM, GoofyGarra said:

I talked to the biology teacher ill be working with today, turns out the budget for the school tank is a whole zero dollars, zero cents (zero euros). But i said id get them a tank so im commited to it. The tank will probably be full of Val, Guppy Grass, and Platies from home, with most of the equipment being used stuff i have in storage.

That is super kind of you. I’m certain everyone will enjoy this project. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 9/6/2023 at 7:08 PM, GoofyGarra said:

I talked to the biology teacher ill be working with today, turns out the budget for the school tank is a whole zero dollars, zero cents (zero euros). But i said id get them a tank so im commited to it. The tank will probably be full of Val, Guppy Grass, and Platies from home, with most of the equipment being used stuff i have in storage.

Be prepared for some of the usual jokes and stuff…teachers also sometimes retract their permission. 😏

[GoofyGarra]

I made some repashy this morning but when i had to go it wasnt quite set. Its been sitting at room temp (76) all day now, Is this safe for the fish? I dont want to waste the food.

[Guppysnail]

On 9/7/2023 at 5:29 PM, GoofyGarra said:

I made some repashy this morning but when i had to go it wasnt quite set. Its been sitting at room temp (76) all day now, Is this safe for the fish? I dont want to waste the food.

I’m not certain. I would post this as a stand alone question under general topics. 

[GoofyGarra]

first of all the platy female in isolation needs a name. I talk about her a lot and its a pain to say "the platy female in isolation" every time. Im thinking about it now. But speaking of the tank, i think it has a bit too much cover. There is so much guppy grass and hair algae that the fish does not seem to have sufficient swimming room. If i had to do an american ninja warrior course every time i tried to cross my room, id be pretty stressed too. I dont think all the cover is needed as well as ive noticed that at least in the first day the mother does not seem to be too interested in eating the fry. I think ill leave in some plant mass, and add some more water lettuce, but other then that take out some of the cover.

[Guppysnail]

On 9/7/2023 at 5:47 PM, GoofyGarra said:

first of all the platy female in isolation needs a name.

How about Rosey or Melon or Peaches 

[GoofyGarra]

first of all, i have a new batch of repashy out.

though its in the fridge this time.

On 9/7/2023 at 6:00 PM, Guppysnail said:

How about Rosey or Melon or Peaches 

i like these ideas, but just didnt really choose to focus on the red for this fish.

 In the end i am a total lord of the rings fan. So meet Rohan.

You have been hearing about her for a while, she's the female i have in isolation until she gives birth. The blue stripe on her (flash makes it look cooler then it is), reminds me of a saddle, and Rohan is just a cool and graceful name.

 

Edit: I ran into one problem with the repashy, the mold i use is a cottage cheese container. So i dont want a family member eating my fish food. But i put up a bunch of "Fish food do not eat" signs on the container, and taped it shut, so anyone will have to think twice before opening the container and will hopefully see the "do not eat" sign.

 

Also i think i have a problem/not a problem. As previously mentioned Little Sunshine is a larger then the mosquitofish. My concern was them hurting her, but in a small tank like that, now im worried the other way. At the same time if they arent a threat to the rest of the fish i could just add them in, but it could be they are just too aggressive.

Edited September 7, 2023 by GoofyGarra