GoofyGarra's Journal

[Guppysnail]

Your hornwort story is very close to home for me.  I sent snails to @TeeJay with a little clipping. It took over his tanks.  I accidentally killed all mine so he brought me some back in his vacation.  Hornwort is the gift that keeps on giving. 
 

My nerites will eat lightly blanched to raw veggies once they run out of algae. Fresh Green beans and zucchini are their favs 

[GoofyGarra]

Fed out some Repashy, Vulcan was having some

[GoofyGarra]

I noticed some of my female platies are looking pretty gravid right now. Its been around 22 days since i did my big destocking, so chances are if they are going to give birth, it will be in the next week or two. However, i need to figure out if i am not getting platy fry, or if they are just getting predated. So i need a good method for protecting the fry from the big fish, and moving females around has not worked too well for me. So i built this, it is a vegetable steamer from a rice cooker that comes with a bunch of holes on the bottom and floats. I drilled a bunch of holes in the sides and will float this in my tank for the next 2weeks, so any platy fry (ha ha) can hide in here so the fish can't get them.

One problem with this container is it floats using the lip at the very top, and fish can easily jump in and out of it, so i made a circle of airline tubing and wrapped that tightly around the container, which allows it to float, yet makes it harder for fish to jump.

[Guppysnail]

On 2/8/2024 at 6:51 PM, GoofyGarra said:

I noticed some of my female platies are looking pretty gravid right now. Its been around 22 days since i did my big destocking, so chances are if they are going to give birth, it will be in the next week or two. However, i need to figure out if i am not getting platy fry, or if they are just getting predated. So i need a good method for protecting the fry from the big fish, and moving females around has not worked too well for me. So i built this, it is a vegetable steamer from a rice cooker that comes with a bunch of holes on the bottom and floats. I drilled a bunch of holes in the sides and will float this in my tank for the next 2weeks, so any platy fry (ha ha) can hide in here so the fish can't get them.

One problem with this container is it floats using the lip at the very top, and fish can easily jump in and out of it, so i made a circle of airline tubing and wrapped that tightly around the container, which allows it to float, yet makes it harder for fish to jump.

This is a fabulous and creative method. I’m impressed. If it works you may want to start a thread in general discussion to let everyone know how well it works.  If it does not work…. 🤫 🤣

[GoofyGarra]

After cleaning off plastic bits,washing it off to remove dust, and adding the airline collar, the contraption has been added to the tank. I added guppy grass and hornwort to make it more attractive to platy fry.

Also turns out, drills dont work so well when spinning the wrong way 🤣

Edited February 9 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

My first generation of shrimp bred in my tanks have started hitting maturity and carrying eggs.

I'm very excited because i had isolated an orange pair in my 5gallon to breed out the oranges, and the female of that pair is now carrying eggs! I'm making it my own little project to try and breed out a line of orange shrimp, mostly just because its fun, and i want to learn about genetics.

The shrimp that were raised in the 5gallon with the guppy fry are around 2weeks older then the rest of the shrimp born in my tanks, and were also fed much more when i was trying to raise up the guppy fry, so these ones have grown much much faster.

[GoofyGarra]

Corydoras were spawning this morning, a lot. I didn't collect any eggs, but it was fun to observe. They have not had such a spawning run in a long time, but they were getting pretty fat so the females probably had lots of eggs to lay

Despite having just done a water change the water is pretty cloudy, i wonder if maybe in the spawning run some chemicals ended up in the tank and that explains the problem.

After all that i fed out 2bottom wafers, Vulcan was munching on one, and kinda hogging it. I must say when i was thinking about getting a bristlenose pleco, i thought i would never see it and i'd have to feed it at night. Vulcan is not like that at all. He has mostly gotten over his camera shyness, and while he is sometimes afraid of me, I see him out all the time and he competes for food with all the cories. I'm not sure if i just have a weird pleco, if i'm doing something wrong, im doing something right, or he just likes the low light conditions.

Vulcan eating a wafer:

[GoofyGarra]

Trimmed back the big sword leaves, i didn't like how it was intruding down into the bottom-middle of the tank.

Before:

After:

 

 

---

[GoofyGarra]

Ok, i admit i keep going back and forth on this, but i think Garra Guy is going to get some friends soon. I was on the Steenfott Aquatics livestream and asked about it, and they said to get 2 more, and considering that channel got me into panda garras in the first place, im regarding it as my best source and i'll go with it.

 

[GoofyGarra]

Ok, some updates on the tank at school.

After doing some more research, they are endlers, not guppies, unlike what i was informed. They have started making more of themselves and some of the juveniles have started developing coloration. I caught a few juvinilles out today, they went to a friend's son that has aquariums. I also provided him with Easy Fry and Small Fish Food, and Guppygrass and Hornwort.

My mystery snail that went to school after NoPlanaria unfortunately died. He was probably dead for a few days, but after a sniff test i confirmed it today. That being said from what i hear 11months is pretty good for a mystery snail.

 

[GoofyGarra]

Garra Guy sitting on a rock, posing for an adorable picture 🙂

'I hate photographing fish with flash, because  i find the pictures unnatural, but sometimes at night i need to.

Also here are some of Vulcan's bristles developing. @Guppysnailis this a sure male? I've read that sometimes females get bristles too

Also the fish i would consider my grade b tricolor. The grade A female is in the 5gallon, hopefully going to make more tricolor platies

[Guppysnail]

On 2/15/2024 at 6:11 PM, GoofyGarra said:

this a sure male? I've read that sometimes females get bristles too

They get small mustaches. I would need to see the top view. 

Looking at the previous picture it’s still up for debate. 

[GoofyGarra]

On 2/15/2024 at 6:15 PM, Guppysnail said:

They get small mustaches. I would need to see the top view. 

I will try, unfortunately Vulcan is camera shy and will most likely dart if i try to photograph. But i will try

[GoofyGarra]

@Guppysnail

Here is the best i could get. I bribed Vulcan out with food, the only issue was then Vulcan was too busy eating and hard to get a clear picture of

I hope this helps

Also not fully grown and some bristles are still developing, so its possible we just can't know yet

[GoofyGarra]

A  Garra Guy picture. My issue at this point is he is so personable he is hard to photograph 😄. I will see him sitting on the gravel and try to take a picture, he will get curious and try to investigate what i'm doing , thus getting pictures of anything but his face can be challenging at times. He is also super active which also makes photographing hard at times.

[GoofyGarra]

A few shots from my nature hike earlier today

[GoofyGarra]

Trip to one of my LFSs. I actual hit both on the trip, but the second one gets their delivery tommorow so their stock of fish was low and i didn't take any pictures. Ended up talking to one of my friends who works there about isopods though 🙂.

Pics from LFS #2, i might have gone a bit overboard with pictures, but its a big store with lots of cool stuff

 

 

X-ray tetras (albino) and Dojo Loaches (Also Albino)

Some kinda cory:

A pleco of some sort:

Glofish Tiger barbs,  skirt tetras, and X-ray tetra (top to bottom)

Electric Blue Ram:

Cherry Barbs:

Guppies:

 

Figure eight puffer:

Dwarf Gouarmis:

Apistogramma Caucatoites:

axolotls

red severums

Platies:

Koi pond:

Shrimps:

Rafael Catfish:

Bolivian Rams:

Turtle:

Cardinal Tetras:

Plants:

They also have this cool overflow plant system:

Discus:

Koi:

Great fins on this angelfish:

Oscar:

Eartheater of some sort and large clown loaches:

Cool Flowerhorn:

Big Bristelnose Pleco:

Fancy Goldfish:

And display tanks:

This is just freshwater, the store also has a saltwater side but i didn't spend too much time there.

 

[reefhugger]

Such a nice LFS!  Just big box stores within reasonable driving distance for me, so I rely on shipping sources.  It would be fun to have a knowledgeable source to chat with. 

[GoofyGarra]

Cherry Shrimp from @Guppysnail are THRIVING. We have so many juveniles growing up!

They really like to eat their veggies, so we fed them some boiled, shelled peas, they loved them, this picture is after scattering a bunch with flash, but there is a whole lot of them.

[Guppysnail]

I’m so glad they took off for you!  My shrimp are not babied and delicate.  They are tough little buggers that like to eat 🐷 

 

[GoofyGarra]

Been a while since i did a real tank update

Fed out some spinach on saturday, Vulcan was a big fan and i got a good picture of him:

Also got a good picture of Garra Guy:

This morning i did a water change, i also removed the rice cooker contraption, so far i had no results and it was ugly and blocking light. The tank this morning after the water change:

Also noticed a sick moquitofish, @Colu any ideas how to treat? (referring to the white splotch around the top-middle of the fish). The 5gallon has shrimp in it so my only available tank was the 2gallon, smaller then optimal but that's what was available.

Also upon further research I misidentified these fish, they are not Gambusia sexradiata (teardrop mosquitofish) like i thought, rather they are (Eastern Mosquitofish) which are actually native to my area, so thats kinda cool. @Fish Folk i guess i'm in the NANF club now

I also hatched out some BBS. I am running out, but i said "If i don't feed it, what's the point" so i decided to feed some today. The fish were so excited i couldn't get good pictures 😄

 

 

 

 

[Colu]

On 2/25/2024 at 12:39 PM, GoofyGarra said:

Also noticed a sick moquitofish, @Colu any ideas how to treat? (referring to the white splotch around the top-middle of the fish). The 5gallon has shrimp in it so my only available tank was the 2gallon, smaller then optimal but that's what was available.

That could be were it's rub against something in the tank I would just monitor for now 

[GoofyGarra]

I will admit I wasn't quite planning on getting a new centerpiece fish for a while just because of budget issues. However my buddy just contacted me letting me know he is taking down a tank and his betta will need a new home, so its very possible I will be adding a betta as a centerpiece fish to my tank in the near future. It wasn't exactly in my plans, but i want to help my buddy out and I've been missing my old betta. I will just put my betta tunnel back in the cave and turn down the flow on my HOB

I'll update this post with a picture of the betta when i get one. It is a nice looking one and has been getting along with my friend's platies so i'm hoping it will work out well.

[GoofyGarra]

Took @Guppysnail's advice and fed out some zuchini. The shrimp, Garra Guy, and Vulcan loved it. I put some in for my nerite snail, so far no results but she moves kinda slowly so its possible she just hasn't gotten there yet.

 

[Guppysnail]

My nerites do not beeline to it.  Unless they run across it the first time they don’t eat it. I started putting new nerites on top of it right away. After that they always make their way back. Kind of like needing to show a kitten where the litter box is.