GoofyGarra's Journal

[GoofyGarra]

Its been a few days since I last posted, I've been away at a science based summer program and have only now come home for the weekend to check on the critters.

Fortunately while I was away I had a family member looking after the aquarium. Unfortunately while I was away one of my big cories (Osteogasters?) ended up dying. Before i left everything looked fine, but I wasn't there so I have no good way to diagnose a cause of death, all the other Cories (Osteogasters?) seem to be healthy.

With happier Corydora (or whatever you call them now) news, the eggs that I collected on sunday this week (The ones on the leaf in the previous post) ending up hatching. Before I left i decided to put the eggs and the leaf into the 5 gallon with the red shrimp colony. Turns out the eggs ended up hatching  out while i was away and there are a few little week old cory fry swimming around the tank, scavenging in the piles of mulm that have collected for little things to eat. Definetly reminds me again of Circle of Life in my aquarium, that the parent may have died, but the offspring survive.

Speaking of offspring, the Endler's in the big tank are attempting a takeover. In the week i was gone there was yet another batch of fry, and all the previous ones have started growing up now. Right now they are not a problem, but if the fry production continues at this rate I will need to start removing some off.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Congrats on the cories hatching and the endler fry!

[GoofyGarra]

Not much going on with the tanks. Just wanted to share a few pictures I took.

Beautiful Honey Gouarmi:

Corydora Fry:

Shrimp cleaning live Cory:

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

 

Stunning 😍

[GoofyGarra]

On 7/21/2024 at 7:45 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Stunning 😍

For sure.

It is always crazy cool when I get to see my little guy out and about. One thing I have noticed is that his coloration is definitely affected by the lighting in the tank, when he is in the shade his coloration is very washed out, but out in the open you get colors like in the photo.

I'm not much of a gouarmi expert, but at this point I'm assuming this guy is a male just based upon his stunning coloration. However if anyone here knows more about gouarmis, i'm happy to be corrected.

Edited July 21 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

Finally home for real this time. The program I was away at was cool, but it's nice to be back with my critters. Fortunately no major updates to share today, the tanks pretty much handle themselves without a lot of attention for a week.

The biggest change I've really seen is that the Corydora Fry are much bigger now. They are probably about double the size as they were last week. Tts crazy to see how much 1 week can make a difference in growth in fry of small fish.

 

[Guppysnail]

On 7/21/2024 at 8:00 AM, GoofyGarra said:

I'm not much of a gouarmi expert, but at this point I'm assuming this guy is a male just based upon his stunning coloration. However if anyone here knows more about gouarmis, i'm happy to be corrected.

It’s a boy.  Females have orange across the top of the dorsal. 

[GoofyGarra]

On 7/26/2024 at 4:31 PM, Guppysnail said:

It’s a boy.  Females have orange across the top of the dorsal. 

Thank you for clearing that up for me, I have been confused on it for a while. Do you think he would be less shy if I got him a pair or a group?

[Guppysnail]

On 7/26/2024 at 4:36 PM, GoofyGarra said:

Thank you for clearing that up for me, I have been confused on it for a while. Do you think he would be less shy if I got him a pair or a group?

Doubtfully. Mine all picked a territory and stayed there no matter how many I had. 

[GoofyGarra]

We are back on the Sunday schedule!

Got my WCs done this morning and fed out some BBS to all the fish. I underestimated how much BBS I would need for the big tank, so I supplemented by feeding with Grindal Worms, the fish were sooo disappointed.

Also a little shrimp project update, I have now started spotting some Berried Shrimp in the 5 gallon! In a few weeks I should start getting some shrimplets and then the hard work in the shrimp project begins, culling out all the non-red shrimp, I have a feeling there will be a lot of them in the beginning.

 

[GoofyGarra]

1.8 gallon is full with water once more, fingers crossed it doesn't leak this time. I added a small pump for circulation and once the water test is confirmed I will start using it for life again.

[GoofyGarra]

I have recently started using the Master Breeder Dean method for BBS of Separate once, feed twice. As such the fish got another BBS feeding about an hour ago (that reminds me, i need to go clean the ziss hatcher...)

I managed to catch this little platy fry on camera, enjoying his little treats. There only appears to be 1 fry of this age right now, I'm skeptical the rest of them got eaten (none of my endler fry get eaten, wouldn't make sense if all the platy fry did), so I suspect maybe something is up with my platy females, they are definetly old so that could be a potential cause. I'm not so sure, but TBH right now I dont need 6 million platies, so only having 1 fry in batch is just fine. I'm just really hoping it's not a male because my plan is to let my current females age out, then as all my juveniles are female I'll just keep a female only platy tank, but a male could mess that all up.

(Platy fry is center of the picture above the red shrimp, head is partially blocked by the Guppy Grass)

[Chris]

On 7/28/2024 at 6:48 PM, GoofyGarra said:

I have recently started using the Master Breeder Dean method for BBS of Separate once, feed twice. As such the fish got another BBS feeding about an hour ago (that reminds me, i need to go clean the ziss hatcher...)

I managed to catch this little platy fry on camera, enjoying his little treats. There only appears to be 1 fry of this age right now, I'm skeptical the rest of them got eaten (none of my endler fry get eaten, wouldn't make sense if all the platy fry did), so I suspect maybe something is up with my platy females, they are definetly old so that could be a potential cause. I'm not so sure, but TBH right now I dont need 6 million platies, so only having 1 fry in batch is just fine. I'm just really hoping it's not a male because my plan is to let my current females age out, then as all my juveniles are female I'll just keep a female only platy tank, but a male could mess that all up.

(Platy fry is center of the picture above the red shrimp, head is partially blocked by the Guppy Grass)

Let me know if you see a real difference with rinsing the BBS. I usually just let them marinate till I'm done using them. 

[GoofyGarra]

On 7/28/2024 at 6:50 PM, Chris said:

Let me know if you see a real difference with rinsing the BBS. I usually just let them marinate till I'm done using them. 

I admit, rinsing the BBS is one step that Dean does that I do not. My issue is that the straining method I have is some cheap BBS nets, which don't have much of a wall around them, allowing for BBS to overflow really easily. As such rinsing the shrimp could basically put my entire hatch down the drain.

When I hatch BBS these days, I:

1. put a light on the bottom, wait for 15 minutes
2. Drain about half the water, which at that point contains most of the BBS
3. I take the strained salt water and add it to a catch cup and then add the netful of BBS to the water
4. I then get rid of the rest of the saltwater and give my hatchery a simple washdown
5. I add some fresh tap water to the catch cup and then poor about half back into the Ziss hatcher, leaving it to bubble until the evening
6. I feed out what I have left in my catch cup in the morning, and what is bubbling in the hatcher in the evening

Personally I don't use this method because I am a brine shrimp purist or anything, I just like it because I can't afford a second Ziss BBS hatcher, but like the idea of feeding multiple times a day.

 

[GoofyGarra]

After making a mess in the 5 gallon transporting a matten filter around, filtration has been reinstalled on the 1.8 gallon tank. In the past I used air power to run the matten filter, but right now I have a pump set up because i had it on hand.

[GoofyGarra]

Garra Guy enjoying a treat of some Zuchini

[GoofyGarra]

I have noticed that some of my Cory fry were growing much faster then their siblings, and the size difference posed a risk of competition and the little guys getting eaten, so I caught out all the biggest cory fry and moved them into the 20 with their parents.

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/28/2024 at 7:40 PM, GoofyGarra said:

rinsing the BBS

Rinsing BBS is not so much to get rid of salt but rather, to get rid of the ammonia that the brine shrimp produce.

The Cory fry look great!

Edited August 9 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[GoofyGarra]

Despite my best efforts Guppy Grass has cropped up again in my big tank. I don't love it because it grows really fast but any time I try to get rid of it, there is always a sprig left that starts it up again. Shows why this plant is illegal is certain areas because it can become invasive. I've just given up on removing the guppy grass at this point, it doesn't look horrible, and it's impossible to get rid of.

[GoofyGarra]

So for the past few months I've really been missing Mystery Snails, first it wasn't safe in my tanks with Noplanaria, and then the one at school ended up dying (probably my fault), However, it has been months since I dosed NoPlanaria, and I have started seeing Limpets and Standard Ramshorn snails in my tanks again, which are both killed by the chemical, meaning my tank should now be safe for snails. (i will be very sad if it turns out it isn't, snails are expensive)

With all that in mind, I ended up at my LFS today not necessarily intending to get a snail, but...

[GoofyGarra]

A few little updates happening. Mystery snail has disappeared, small snail in a big tank so hopefully just hiding.

The platy fry are basically grown up at this point and I've really started liking the light colored ones more then the darker colored ones, they stand out a lot better against my dark substrate and background then the darker ones do. I only have a few of the nice bright platies and here is a picture of one of them. I really like the combination of the sheen mixed with the yellow color and the red fins, in the right lighting they can look golden. This is similar to a Sunrise platy, but without the red on the back of the body, I'm sure it has been done before but this is definitely a strain I want to try to continue with. However, at the moment I have only platy females so I would either need to wait and hope for a male to raise up in the future, or introduce new genetics which could mess up the strain, Im not sure yet which is the better option.

 

 

[GoofyGarra]

Anubias sending up a new flower

[GoofyGarra]

Went on a trip to the National Aquarium today, I took a bunch of pictures.

[GoofyGarra]

Sunday update, lot's of little things happening in the tanks.

I did a water change as usual this week as well as cleaned out my sponge filter for the first time in months (maybe in a year...) it wasn't very dirty but that is ok because I use my ACO sponge filter primarily for biological filtration and air, and I use my aquaclear 50 for mechanical filtration. The sponge media in the HOB was pretty full, but as I have had an increase in tank stocking lately and I missed last week I am not fully surprised. I also cleaned out my Easy Flow kit with a toothbrush and it seems to be working much better now with a lot more flow, definetly closer to what was advertised then what I had been recieving.

Side note: Was there some sort of cleaning method for the Easy Flows using chemicals that people were liking? @AllFishNoBrakes did you have a method? I might want to give it a try of my own.

I forgot to setup BBS on friday like I usually do, so I fed the fish some Grindal Worms instead. The fish love them and for me it is as simple as dunking the feeding plate full of worms into the tank to harvest, and feeding and watering occasionally when i remember. Big thank you to @Guppysnail for this culture, I love the easy live food source.

I trimmed back some guppy grass that has been growing very quickly, in the process I discovered a batch of Endlers' (Endler? I feel like Endler's is more correct since they are named after Dr. Endler but Endler is easier to say) that were only a few days old. The Endlers' population is growing quickly and I will need to do something about it at some point. Right now I'm thinking that while the Endlers' are great, due to their rapid reproduction rate I might not want to keep them in my tank forever, and if i do i would probably just do males.

Mystery snail is alive, but is not super active in the tank, I have seen them crawling around but most of the time they are just napping in their shell. I think this is normal but I'm not sure what to do if this is a problem at all. My pH and hardness are up there so the snail should be doing well. I'm going to try feeding some zucchini to get the mystery snail out and eating, the fish like it but they usually calm down after an hour or two and there is plenty left.

Honey Gouarmi is also doing just fine, he still hides in the guppy grass sometimes, but he looks healthy and is eating well so I am not concerned. I've said this before and I'm repeating it now, but I wanted him for a centerpiece fish and right now he is just so much smaller then all the rest of the fish (besides the endlers') that while he is doing great I'm not getting that effect from him. Right now assuming everything is good at the School Tank from over the summer, I think my best move would be to transfer him there where he can be the center of attention. I am also now looking for a female, but my LFS prices are not workable with my current economic situation, so I'm hoping to find a local breeder or be able to breed for some credit and get the fish for cheaper.

Garra Guy has been getting rambunctious with the Cories lately, my guess is that I have triggered something that makes him think it is breeding season, but it could just be he is getting big and there is not infinite room (a lesson I learned the hard way with Vulcan, I still miss him). I'm thinking right now that my most preferable  option would probably be to rehome all of the corydoras and get 2-3 more Panda Garras for Garra Guy to be friends with. The best option ultimately  is to move Garra Guy to a bigger tank, but I don't have anything bigger and I am having trouble giving him up.

A lot of words in this post, i apologize for lack of pictures, my camera is dead and I needed to charge it.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 8/25/2024 at 6:05 AM, GoofyGarra said:

did you have a method?

At this point I just use my 20ml syringe with some airline attached to it, and plain water. I always “clean” the inside of the air collar with my finger, and then hook the airline to the air collar. Dip in water, and pull back on the syringe. The first time it will probably be pretty slow… Once the syringe is full of water, push down hard to push the water through the air collar. Do that a few more times, and each time you should notice the syringe filling up faster. From there I hook it back up the air pump and reinstall. Viola!