GoofyGarra's Journal

[Guppysnail]

I’m very excited for you. Once she releases the babies be sure fine powdered food gets spread about once weekly. The babies hide and don’t move much for the first week so food needs to find them  sera micron, first bites or extremely finely crushed to powder flake food is good  

 

What is different about the family tank than the 5gallon?  I would just wait and see but if no berried females in a few weeks that’s definitely a question I would be thinking on. 
 

[GoofyGarra]

On 11/21/2023 at 7:02 PM, Guppysnail said:

I’m very excited for you. Once she releases the babies be sure fine powdered food gets spread about once weekly. The babies hide and don’t move much for the first week so food needs to find them  sera micron, first bites or extremely finely crushed to powder flake food is good  

i have repashy powder, will that work?

On 11/21/2023 at 7:02 PM, Guppysnail said:

What is different about the family tank than the 5gallon?  I would just wait and see but if no berried females in a few weeks that’s definitely a question I would be thinking on. 

ok, doing a water test:

family tank:

pH: 7

Temp:76

Hardness: pretty high

Fishroom tank (5gallon, i call my setup a fishroom even though its 3tanks...):

pH: 7.3

temp: 76

hardness: pretty high.

The fishroom tank has a box filter running crushed coral, so that is probably helping raise pH, but i can go to my LFS soon and get a bunch of crushed coral to throw in the family tank  if that will make a difference. The 5gallon also got fed more while Vulcan was in QT as he would not usually eat everything so when he wasnt eating the shrimp got lots to eat. I feed the family tank once a week, i can increase feeding if that would help too.

 

[Guppysnail]

On 11/21/2023 at 7:20 PM, GoofyGarra said:

The 5gallon also got fed more while Vulcan was in QT as he would not usually eat everything so when he wasnt eating the shrimp got lots to eat. I feed the family tank once a week, i can increase feeding if that would help too.

This is more the stuff of difference I was speaking of. More food, more plant cover, roommates etc. they will reproduce in most parameters. I would not change that. But if they are only just getting enough food to survive they won’t produce babies since that means less food for them. Maybe just increase feeding a little.  don’t go hog wild or anything. 
Repashy powder should be fine. 

[GoofyGarra]

prepping a thanksgiving feast for my fish, should be perfectly hatched for dinner tomorrow:

 

[GoofyGarra]

ok, i was grocery shopping and noticed the store had some turkey basters for sale, i decided to get one as it seems like a very versatile tool for removing uneaten food, collected specimens, feeding BBS etc...  It will work much better then my method of using a syringe as i will have much more control.

[GoofyGarra]

I need some time to talk about my tank, im thinking about some things.  I think i had the tank perfect then messed it up. The week after i rehomed the last batch of cories, the water was clear and the aquaclear ran strong all week. Then i added a bristlenose pleco and a mystery snail, and the aquaclear is having trouble and i have cloudy water, so i need to reduce my tank stocking. I really have been liking Vulcan and don't want to rehome him, so im rehoming the mystery snail first as my friend has agreed to take it. \

Vulcan has been very fun in the tank, he's not really nocturnal and i see him out grazing on leaves throughout the day. Its very fun to watch and im hoping i can keep him for longer, but if my tank is overstocked he might need a new home.

The albino cories have been very fun as well. Even with a small(er) group they are very active and goofy and they remind me of kids running around a playground when they are following each other around in the tank. They often like to rest on one of the amazon sword leaves which i find funny. I like the amount i have

The berried shrimp have been doing fine, i throw some food in there a few times a week and do weekly water changes, really not doing a lot in that tank, but it has lots of plants and small bioload so not much to do.

The teardrop mosquitofish have been fun. They have grown a whole lot since i got them a few months ago. They are just grey, but have lots of personality in them, they like to swim around together, but also will nip at each other so im kinda confused if they are friends or not, but their sparring is intraspecies specific so im not concerned. This picture is a curious mosquitofish checking out the camera...

Got some pothos from a friend the other day and split it into two. One went on the main tank in my holder, one went on the 2gallon.

At this point i wasnt getting any fry from the female in the two gallon, so i moved her back to the main tank. I then discovered that  the heater in the 2gallon was not working so her metabolism was slowed down which would explain a lack of fry. Honestly i like my amount and ratios of platies that i have right now so im not rushing to breed them. I want some fry for a next generation, but if i dont get any fry i probably will just move on from platies when my current ones die of old age.

[GoofyGarra]

Did a WC today the tank is looking clear, the clarity probably wont last after a day or two.

Ill be rehoming a mystery snail tommorow, hopefully that helps reduce my stocking to a balance.

I was floating some hornwort in the main tank and it was doing pretty well, so im trying to plant it now. Im hoping i can get it taking off because a hornwort forest would help make my tank look good, help with water quality, and be good cover for platy fry.

Also very fun to have Vulcan photobombing, he is scared of me and hard to photograph.

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by GoofyGarra
removed picture

[GoofyGarra]

ok, im trying again with platy strain breeding...

Often when i try projects like this i get disinterested because i think "thats been done already" and there are many many platy colors out there so many of them have been done already. But not purple. Now i cant say ive seen every platy ever, ive seen platies in videos and at maybe 3-4 LFSs so its possible purple platies are a thing already, but i want to try it.

I have a female platy right now that is mostly dark orange which is standard on a platy, but she has an ivory/purpleish stripe on part of her that i want to breed out. She is gravid right now but im not sure which of my 4 male she is gravid from, ill probably have to wait some time before i can know that, or ill never know. Ill try to get the stripe on camera but it is hard because she is pretty shy.

I have moved her into the 2gallon which i have setup to be a really good gestation and birth tank. The tank is smaller then optimal but it is temporary.

pH is 7.3, i added a tiny amount of marine salt to raise hardness, and i replaced the heater so the tank is now at 76. There is cover from guppy grass and staghorn algae, and the matten filter helps keep the water clean and oxygenated. I will be feeding heavily though so i will be doing lots of water changes to keep water quality high.

[GoofyGarra]

Cory Pile!!!!!!

 

and a berried shrimp: (in the 5gallon, none berried yet in the 4gallon)

 

 

[GoofyGarra]

good news! found a berried shrimp in the family tank too!

[GoofyGarra]

another berried shrimp in the family tank. Probably a timing thing at this point, as the rest of the females molt i suspect they will become berried as well:

[GoofyGarra]

I have to say im really liking Vulcan my new bristlenose pleco. While plecos aren't generally considered oddballs, i kinda consider Vulcan to be an oddball, but maybe im just inexperienced with plecos. He is very cute and its fun to see him wiggle/swimming his way around the tank, and its also fun to see him cleaning some of my plant leaves. Ive also never had a pleco before so the body shape is pretty unique to me. However, he is really shy, and scared of me, so its hard to get a good picture. He is growing so i suspect he is eating, i just cant see it because if i come up he runs away from me,but by sneaking up on him i got this picture of him eating repashy. Its just super fun to have a little (for now), goofy, colorful, but shy little buddy in the tank. It makes my day when i see him out cleaning leaves  or just chilling on the glass.

I just thought i'd share. I think i might start a series like this one on here where i talk about my fish specifically and my favorite things about them. I happened to get a picture of Vulcan this morning so i thought id start there.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/13/2023 at 8:14 PM, GoofyGarra said:

Ok, houseplant holder attempt #3.

Attempt #1 cut into the strainer and put suction cups in the holes, the suction cups did not stay and the strainer fell, this design did not work.

Attempt #2 took attempt #1 but used hot glue to secure the suction cups, but i used too much hot glue and couldnt get the suction affect by the suction cups so it didnt work.

Attempt #3 is so far the best design. It uses a fresh strainer but instead of cutting it, i just stretched the strainer a bit to fit in the suction cups. It took a bit of force but the cups are not coming out. This is the best design as i get the suction of the suction cups, and the suction cups work. Its also the simplest design, something ive learned sometimes works best:

I built this now as a friend will be giving some Pothos for my tank in a few days and i want to be ready. This will also be nice as i can move it around as needed if i needed nitrogen export in a particular tank.

What I did was bundle the pothos stems together with a twisty tie.  Then I kept the twisty tie out of the tank but allowed the pothos roots to hang down into the water.  I scotch taped the ends of the twisty tie to the rim of the tank.

I am behind in reading your journal. Trying to catch up! 🙂 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[GoofyGarra]

On 12/4/2023 at 12:36 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I am behind in reading your journal. Trying to catch up! 🙂 

 im behind on posting. i had lots of stuff happen yesterday but life has been busy so i havent gotten to posting.

I appreciate the fact that you find my shenanigans worth your time 😁

Edited December 4, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/15/2023 at 6:48 PM, GoofyGarra said:

I planted in some brazilian pennywort two days ago and the cories haven't uprooted it yet! Im hoping they dont and it does well because i really would like a jungle of pennywort in my tank, it sounds super cool.

The Pennywort looks very nice!

[GoofyGarra]

On 12/4/2023 at 12:46 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

The Pennywort looks very nice!

the bottoms ended up rotting and the pennywort floated up, now its just floating. Ill take some pictures when i get home.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 12/1/2023 at 6:48 AM, GoofyGarra said:

I have to say im really liking Vulcan my new bristlenose pleco.

I just adopted one too 🙂  A diver friend and fellow hobbyist tank raised them and I have it in quarantine now. I have had it only for a few days. It is sort of a marbled black/white color, and the tips of its fins are white.  The parents have white tipped fins too.  It is too young to have bristles.  It will be cute to see them grow in.

Also, I'm all caught up on the journal now. I didn't quote all the things but wanted to add some comments.. 🙂 

Congrats on shrimp eggs (lots of them!) and very sorry to hear about John.  The shrimps must be very happy in your tanks!

I often use Repashy powder to feed my shrimplets. I pinch it between my fingers and rub my fingers together under the water. The whole tank gets very active when the Repashy powder goes in.  Also shrimps love to eat soggy catappa leaves. 

I love turkey basters for removing food and waste. I'm planning to get more so if I'm running more than one quarantine (what I'm doing now) then I don't have to disinfect between the tanks; each tank can have its own dedicated one.

For hornwort, whenever I plant it, it doesn't do well for me..?  The bottom will melt because it doesn't get enough light.  I float it and have better luck; it lasts a long time. Shrimps love it.

[GoofyGarra]

On 12/4/2023 at 12:58 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

For hornwort, whenever I plant it, it doesn't do well for me..?  The bottom will melt because it doesn't get enough light.  I float it and have better luck; it lasts a long time. Shrimps love it.

I have hornwort growing floating well in multiple tanks. In my main 20high i have a piece of hornwort planted and its not doing much, im having success with planted hornwort in the school tank though.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 12/4/2023 at 1:01 PM, GoofyGarra said:

I have hornwort growing floating well in multiple tanks. In my main 20high i have a piece of hornwort planted and its not doing much, im having success with planted hornwort in the school tank though.

It looks like your school tank is getting light from the window too, and I am sure the hornwort likes that.

[GoofyGarra]

On 12/4/2023 at 1:03 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

It looks like your school tank is getting light from the window too, and I am sure the hornwort likes that.

it is getting light from the window. At the moment the val and hornwort are doing well, the guppy grass did not take off. Then my friend who grows guppy grass incredibly fast in his tank gave me a ton of clippings so the new guppy grass is doing great just floating.

[GoofyGarra]

ok lots of things happened yesterday.

I went to my friends house and we fish-nerded, we had split an ACO order to save on shipping so i picked up my part there too. I got a 1lb bag of Easy Fry Food and a maracyn.  I love easy fry food as all my fish love it, including the guppies at the school tank, it is high protein so it promotes breeding and growth, and the 1lb bag compared to other quality nano foods is a really good price. This stuff is my secret to growing corydora fry very quickly, i fed twice a day with this stuff and the cory fry grew incredibly quickly, using other foods their growth rate was not as fast. So i highly recommend to anyone breeding fish. (not an ad, i just really like this food)

The picture shows 2 maracyn which leads to yet another story of amazing ACO customer service. My friend placed the order but accidently added 2 maracyns, after contacting ACO they refunded him but sent the extra maracyn anyway. One of the many reasons i love ACO, customer service is off the charts.

My friend is also very skilled with wood, so as i didnt like how my 5gallon tank was sitting as it made it rather inaccessible, we built a new stand for that tank. It doesnt look the best but it holds the tank just fine and ive also moved my air pump to the top shelf. It was fun building the stand to be able to put in features i wanted, like a shelf for my air pumps so i  can reduce the clutter space on the floor and just raise my air pumps to reduce the need for check-valves. (that being said most  of my tanks are still higher then the pumps, but it reduces the risk). The shelf below will certainly become cluttered soon, i need more storage room.

The 5gallon isnt looking too good right now as i havent figured out lighting yet, but ill fix that soon so i dont kill all the plants. The shrimp are all alive and well in that tank right now though.

[GoofyGarra]

Ive been very confused why ive gotten no fry, or at all signs of gestation from my purple female in the 2gallon. Parameters are perfect. she is well fed, and there is cover. Ive decided to start thinking like a gravid platy.

I believe that it is not true that platies dont care about their fry, rather they dont care about their fry after birth. Often a female platy will try and find somewhere hidden from predators to give birth to try and give her fry the best chance of survival.

I noticed that there were no signs of further gestation on this fish which was odd as she showed a gravid spot when i added her in. I noticed that she spent most of her time in that tank hiding in the back, as far from me as possible, so she is probably stressed out and worried about predators. If she thinks there is constant risk of predation in an area, she wont drop her fry and might consider gestation to be a complete waste of energy. So im trying to make her feel as comfortable as possible.

What Ive done is taken a small trick from discus breeders to make the fish feel more comfortable which is blacking out the sides. The back of this tank is a matten filter so i cant work with the back, but i cant see through it either. The sides however i covered with black plastic from an outdated planner, to try and make her feel like she is in a safe area.

The other thing i noticed was that there was a decent amount of light going into the tank, and these fish probably want to give birth in heavily planted areas with much less light. I accomplished this with two remaining parts of the planner cover. By strategically placing them on the lid i can control how much light, and where gets into the tank. The V setup i have now allows more light at the front, but less and less as the tank goes back, to imitate a thrush of plants with various light spots. The female has been noticeably less shy and has been more eager to come to the front now that ive made these changes. I also implement hair algae in the tank as cover for fry, due to its complex structure giving the fry lots of hiding spots.

\

These are just some ideas i had "thinking like the fish", im not sure if they will work but im hoping they will, either way it was a fun experiment.

[GoofyGarra]

school tank update:

There have been a few deaths but everyone else is healthy. The guppy ratios are messed up though so fry are unlikely. I think its a 6:1 male to female ratio which is not ideal. People like the fish but everyone's favorite is the mystery snail, which is a great match with the guppies because the guppies are just going crazy which is contrasted by the mystery snail just chilling along doing his mystery snail thing.

We also have hydra in the tank, most likely from the fish. Its just a few now and its not a problem, and furthermore its a bio-lab so the bio teacher wants to get the hydra under a microscope in a week or two. I dont think hydra will be an issue as all the guppies are adults.

[GoofyGarra]

I was watching Vulcan and i saw him puff out his neck spiny things (odontodes?) a few times. Is this normal and healthy behaviour? Does it say anything about sexing?

@Guppysnail

Edited December 7, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[Guppysnail]

On 12/6/2023 at 7:09 PM, GoofyGarra said:

I was watching Vulcan and i saw him puff out his neck spiny things (odontodes?) a few times. Is this normal and healthy behaviour? Does it say anything about sexing?

@Guppysnail

Both my mom and dad do this. However I’ve only seen mom do it like twice and she was mad.  My dad does this to show off. Show everyone in the tank who’s boss and when he is keeping critters from even thinking about entering his cave. 
edit to add moms do not look impressive like this  hers looks more like tiny powder puffs