GoofyGarra's Journal

[GoofyGarra]

Ok, after running the filter floss for 24hours, the water seems a bit clearer but it looks like most of the haze is low light and tannins. I think i might change the water lettuce to allow light to get to other plants, but id need some plant weights first to allow the stems i want to do to get sufficent light. Im going to move the filter floss out and put the bio rings back in to make sure the floss does not clog.

Also im thinking about the logistics of platy strain breeding, im thinking that as i find males move them into the main tank, keeping the females in the 5gallon, then once the males are big and colorful i choose the best ones, as well as the best females for my next broodstock. Id keep the rest, i have room for more platies. How important would genetic diversity be in a system like this? Would it be an issue or could i just interbreed as much as i want?

Edited September 26, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

Ok, so im not quite happy with how my 5gallon is placed at the moment as it makes maintenance hard, and i also dont completely trust it. Fortunately i have a good friend who is very skilled at woodworking, he has made some of his own stands and i trust his work. In the next few weeks im going to go over to his house and he will teach me woodworking and we will also build the tank stand at the same time. Im excited for the new stand because it will be a good storage location and i want to be able to do easier maintenance and catching fish in my 5gallon.

[GoofyGarra]

my current light on my tank is a ACO easy plant LED gen 1. I had always seen that people put the light in the middle of the tank by the hinge and that made the most sense to me. However, lately ive noticed that the tank seems to look best with the light all the way in the back. None of the plants in the front are high light, and the fish seem less shy now too.

Light in midddle:

 

Light in back:

The light in the back really reminds me of the overgrown forest, with the gap between trees and the sparse sunlight getting through. Kinda whats happening with the water lettuce...

I also made a feeding ring out of airline tubing so i have somewhere to feed, that water lettuce is spreading like crazy. (the feeding ring is a work in progress...)

No tannins here whatsoever. (boiling some wood for a isopod project):

[GoofyGarra]

I met with the bio teacher today on her tank.

I have a few projects with this project though. The first is lighting as i need a good light to grow plants,and the second is power. There are 2outlets nearby but they are usually in use for experiments and a power strip isnt a good option. So the project is changing. Instead of a fish tank in a 20long, it will be a very little organism tank in a 15. Why the 15? Its right in front of a window so we should get good green water and algae growth. The tank will be stocked with little inhabitants like detritus worms and copepods, and maybe mini ramshorns. I think a micro-ecosystem like this will be pretty cool, and the bio teacher agrees. Especially when you think about the coolness factor of pulling out a cup of water, sticking it under a microscope and seeing so much life.

[GoofyGarra]

 

@Colu I have a sick platy. I have moved her out into the 2gallon for treatment. I have dosed salt at a 1tsp per gallon (essentially 1tbsp per 3gallons) as seen on the ACO website. Picture is attatched, it is a white lumpy discoloration on head, however appears to be different from what the betta has. The betta has one large lump, the platy's is more spread out.

I also made a plant holder with a powerhead basket, suction cups, and way too much hot glue. Im not sure what plant to use it for. I think pothos probably, as i can get some for pretty cheap.

I also found a cool peice of wood on my walk. Im thinking maybe for the isopod project, but its big so my usual boiling methods wont work. Either way it was cool so i collected it.  (for size reference, the stick is in a 5gallon bucket).

 

[Colu]

It's difficult to tell of your picture is it a white patch or a white raised lump 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Colu

[GoofyGarra]

Lights Turn on, Garra Guy comes running to the front for attention. I got a ridiculous picture.

I hand fed the fish today as i had time. The cories were the only ones that came though. I always hope Garra Guy will come, but he never seems to have the confidence. I think i should start some sort of thing where i only feed them by hand so they are not afraid of my hand, kinda hard to fit into my schedule though.

After i hand fed for a few minutes i dropped in the wafers to let everyone enjoy. As soon as i did this, John went straight for the new feeding ring and sat there waiting patiently for his serving of krill flake. Ive been worried about him getting enough food in the past, but if he is doing this on his own, and i can work with it/train him to get food, itll be fine. the summer before last i went away and had someone else feed the fish, who was kinda attached to the betta. She pretty much trained him to come to a certain area at feeding time for some flake. I never kept this up, but training John is probably the best way to be sure he is getting food.

Speaking of John, im starting to get slightly concerned. He is not a young betta anymore, ive had him for nearly 2years, and getting around the tank is harder then it used to be for him. The best solution is a setup of his own, but thats just not feasible for me right now. I'll have to see what i can do for him in the future.

On 9/27/2023 at 9:13 PM, Colu said:

It's difficult to tell of your picture is it a white patch or a white raised lump 

the platy appears to have a white patch, not a bump.

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by GoofyGarra
Added part about sick platy

[Colu]

On 9/28/2023 at 11:26 AM, GoofyGarra said:

Lights Turn on, Garra Guy comes running to the front for attention. I got a ridiculous picture.

I hand fed the fish today as i had time. The cories were the only ones that came though. I always hope Garra Guy will come, but he never seems to have the confidence. I think i should start some sort of thing where i only feed them by hand so they are not afraid of my hand, kinda hard to fit into my schedule though.

After i hand fed for a few minutes i dropped in the wafers to let everyone enjoy. As soon as i did this, John went straight for the new feeding ring and sat there waiting patiently for his serving of krill flake. Ive been worried about him getting enough food in the past, but if he is doing this on his own, and i can work with it/train him to get food, itll be fine. the summer before last i went away and had someone else feed the fish, who was kinda attached to the betta. She pretty much trained him to come to a certain area at feeding time for some flake. I never kept this up, but training John is probably the best way to be sure he is getting food.

Speaking of John, im starting to get slightly concerned. He is not a young betta anymore, ive had him for nearly 2years, and getting around the tank is harder then it used to be for him. The best solution is a setup of his own, but thats just not feasible for me right now. I'll have to see what i can do for him in the future.

the platy appears to have a white patch, not a bump.

 

Could be an injury you can get white patches with columnaris that a gram negative bacterial infections that spreads more quickly at temperatures over 75 what I would as you have it in quarantine is treat with aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 1 gallon and I would starting treatment with kanaplex he's a dosing guide for small tank volumes 

[GoofyGarra]

On 9/28/2023 at 6:58 AM, Colu said:

Could be an injury you can get white patches with columnaris that a gram negative bacterial infections that spreads more quickly at temperatures over 75 what I would as you have it in quarantine is treat with aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 1 gallon and I would starting treatment with kanaplex he's a dosing guide for small tank volumes 

the tank is unheated as house temps are 75 so it should stay below that. Ill do a water change, then dose salt while i order kanaplex.

[Colu]

On 9/28/2023 at 12:10 PM, GoofyGarra said:

the tank is unheated as house temps are 75 so it should stay below that. Ill do a water change, then dose salt while i order kanaplex.

If you see improvement with just salt before the kanaplex arrives than I wouldn't treat with the kanaplex 

[GoofyGarra]

I made a batch of repashy. I normally dont use much non-repashy foods, but today i used FD bloodworms, easy fry food, and tubifex cubes. The picture is some repashy i attached to a rock, that the fish promptly removed from the rock. The rest of it still needs to be cut up and stored.

found some surprise cory eggs: (brown smudge on filter baffle).

Also thinking about Glowlight Tetras, they were the first fish (aside from a betta that lasted 3months) that i had, and i didnt very well with them being new to the hobby. But they hold a special place to me emotionally for that reason (look pretty cool too), and i think they'd thrive in a planted tank like i have now. I also would want to  try breeding them once to twice before deciding its impossible and giving up. Really not so sure i want to go full speed ahead on the platy breeding at this stage. I have some cool colors, but i like my numbers and ratios of platies and dont want to mess it up with a bunch of fry. No point moving the stunning female right now, if she gives birth that would be great, but besides for that project breeding platies is becoming less of a priority to me.

Edited September 28, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 9/29/2023 at 12:39 AM, GoofyGarra said:

Glowlight Tetras, they were the first fish (aside from a betta that lasted 3months) that i had, and i didnt very

They’re supposed to be one of the easier tetras to breed, and I’ve got a group of them I’m fattening up. 
I would try breeding them, but I’ve got danio eggs in that tank 😅. 

[GoofyGarra]

did a water change today. I also did away with ALL the water lettuce. It was fun while it lasted but it was blocking light from other plants,restricting flow from the HOB and sponge filter, and i noticed many times when the cories had trouble finding spots for air due to the water lettuce.

Here is a picture of the tank now its much brighter: (photo is flipped horizontally)

as soon as i removed all the water lettuce Garra Guy started going crazy all over the tank. i think thats due to the fact that the water lettuce was restricting flow from the sponge filter and the HOB, and without the water lettuce there is much more flow that Garra Guy is loving.

Also had a bit of a scare when i noticed my 1 genetically unfortunate cory was stuck in the hair algae and wasnt moving. I thought he was dead but on further inspection he was super stuck. I managed to carefully pull him out of the sticky hair algae, and im hoping i didnt hurt him too much in the process. I then moved out all the hair algae to make sure it doesnt happen again. i feel like such a parent:

"now little cory, didnt i tell you to stay out of the hair algae, cories can get stuck and suffocated in that stuff"

Also found an old picture of my tank from a few months in. I had the 6gen1 platies. a few gen2 platies, and a glowlight tetra. That glowlight survived whatever killed the rest of them and lasted for a while before sadly passing away as well, but i have good memories of that one surviving glowlight. This is why glowlights are special to me, they really got me into this hobby as a beginner, and i really want to succeed with them because they bring back good memories. Its not that i just like their look or behaviour either, like cardinal tetras are super cool, but really with the glowlights its an emotional thing.

 

[GoofyGarra]

with higher light now im trying to plant some guppy grass and pennywort. Im hoping they will do well for me now that they can get medium to high light conditions. Im planting both in the midground and ill probably trim them to keep them there. The background is dominated by my amazon sword at this point.

[GoofyGarra]

I went to the 2nd of my two LFSs today. i dont usually go to this one as it's farther away and more expensive, but someone in my family was going to a store 5minutes away so i tagged along with the trip and went to the Fish Store.

Some highlights:

 

Rainbow Gobies (nearly an impulse buy) super cool:

and a titanium flowerhorn ($200)

somebody please tell me about the Rainbow Gobies (Stiphodon ornatus) because they are super cool and i want some now.

 

also isopod project is on pause, i have cooler aquatic things i want to be doing and at the moment its sapping too much of my hobby budget.

Edited September 29, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

something is up with the filter, ill clean it out to unclog it later (im trying something where i replaced my bio rings with another layer of sponge, im hoping for better mechanical filtration without disrupting my biological filtration, so far its working):

pennywort is still planted! Unsure if its growing yet, or just not dying or floating:

the genetically unfortunate cory is getting big, ill contact my friend i think the cory is big enough to join one of the friend's community tanks. Genetically Unfortunate is just a term i made up for fish with genetic defects, it felt rude to call it the "defect" cory.

 

Edited October 2, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

getting ready to catch out some cories. Ive had the net in overnight and the fish are totally comfortable with it. Im going to put some food in the tank, then chase all the cories into the net, then remove the adults and bag the juveniles. (bonus points if you can spot the panda garra in this picture).

i got all ready to catch out the cories and even got the adults out (im keeping the adults) then i called the LFS and they informed me they had lots of albino cories and didnt want any more. Its a good thing i checked with them when i did, because it could have been worse. When bringing fish in, always check with your LFS first.

Edited October 2, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

ok, feeling a bit confused.

water parameters:

Ph: 7+

KH and GH: pretty high

Temp: 78-80

chlorine: 0

cover: high

and no signs of fry or looking any more pregnant from the stunning female. Im feeling desperate so im trying something. A while ago i was in a conversation with livebearer breeder Greg Sage, and he suggested using Box filters with filter floss like he uses for my breeding projects. I kinda shrugged it off and was like "whatever, ive got sponge filters" and didnt really use the advice. But im desperate so im trying it. My box filter has a section in the bottom for biomedia and a large section up top for other stuff. Ive filled the biomedia section with crushed coral (to raise pH it will have water flowing over it so should work well) and the rest of the filter with Floss like Greg recommended. Ill see how this works, and will change out the floss with my weekly water changes, who knows, maybe it will work?

Also looking back those Greg Sage emails really have a wealth of information, i need to go reread them, i think i could learn a lot.

I also moved all the glofish plants out of this tank to make room, i used them when i didnt have plant cover for the tank, but i do now so i no longer need them.

I will also clean the sponge filters in that tank while i am giving it so much attention.

Edited October 2, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[TheSwissAquarist]

I think Fish Folk had some Stiphodon gobies. 
They’re pretty impossible to breed, as they spawn in freshwater but the fry can only be raised in brackish/saltwater. 

[GoofyGarra]

On 10/2/2023 at 12:55 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

They’re pretty impossible to breed, as they spawn in freshwater but the fry can only be raised in brackish/saltwater. 

dont get me started. Ive already thought of all sorts of crazy things for breeding them. But really they look and act cool so even if i didnt get any fry its a super cool fish to have.

[GoofyGarra]

I was looking at my breeder box and i saw something cool, a cory fry. I know what must have happened. When i saw eggs on the filter baffle a few days ago i put a few in the breeder box for the fun of it. It looks like at least one has hatched and is being left alone by the other cory. Pretty fun surprise fry story. Surprise fry are great.

I also cleaned out my sponge filter, i thought it was dirty as its been months, i was wrong it was not dirty at all, i guess the HOB does all the heavy lifting in the tank, but i mostly use the sponge filter as an oxygen source, and for biological media anyway.

Also looking at my mosquitofish they both appear to be female, they do also chase each other around like @Rootsaid they would. @Roothow big are your biggest teardrop mosquitofish? Ive seen conflicting information and want to know for mine.

 

Edited October 2, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

if longer tube on a sponge filter is better, i guess im getting more flow now. Doesnt quite look the best but can be ignored for better filtration. I got the idea from the new ACO sponge filter product, i just used two tubes and a sponge filter connector that was not in use.

Cory colony breeding is achieved. I dont know if he survived but  i saw a cory fry swimming around the main tank, that seemed to be surviving so far, here's hoping he survives.

 

Edited October 3, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

At this stage i want to go all out in the platy line breeding.

My game plan:

1. Rehome cory juvinilles over the next few weeks, and a few platies
2. Introduce fresh genetics into my system, probably a trio (1m 2f) that matches my current platy sizes, hopefully looking for eyecatching color strains or interesting fin variations (such as High fin, pintail, etc..)
3. get some fry and breed out some amazing and hopefully unique color strains

@mynameisnobody any tips?

I have noticed something very nice for livebearers that i dont think gets enough credit, this product, in the large or medium size:

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/cleaning-supplies/products/aquarium-co-op-fish-net?variant=39419347632197

The larger size makes it much less stressful for a female platy, while allowing her to be in waters she is used to. The fry can get through the coarse holes but the female cannot. I think i will get another one of these nets so i can have 2females setup to give birth at a time, one in each net. Another nice thing is as its in the same tank, you only need one filter. One sponge filter will oxygenate the tank as well as both nets with females. I think that maybe with some modification i could get away with 3nets in my 5gallon tank but i think that is pushing it.

 

[GoofyGarra]

im not sure what, but there seems to be something in the big tank that is beneficial to the platy females. It seems that when i move the females out into other tanks the gestation period pauses, then resumes if i move the female back to the main tank. Im not sure whats different, possibly tannins or some other factor im not thinking of that the females like. So in tank breeders are my current testing option. I caught out Rohan, as she has some features i want to breed out namely red pectoral fins. Her pectoral fins are about half red, my deep red male (Balrog) has full red pectoral fins. Ive seen them breeding as well, so im hoping if there are fry one feature id want to breed out in my "ideal" platy project is red pectoral fins because against a orange or other color platy they really stand out. (i could not get a good picture of the fins unfortunately).

[GoofyGarra]

who will brave the ring of fire? (or the feeding ring i made that fell down...)

cories are doing their crazy things, swimming around the tank

and some pictures of Rohan in the breeder box. (no fry yet unfortunately). Red pectoral fins do come out in these pictures though.

Also thinking about getting some Hikari Fancy Guppy. While it doesnt appear to be available in the quantities i want (id finish one of those .77 bags in a week), it seems to be designed for cases like this and may provide benefit. Anyone know if that food comes in larger quantities? Or for larger sizes do i need to place a special order through my LFS?

Edited October 4, 2023 by GoofyGarra