GoofyGarra's Journal

[GoofyGarra]

I realized my nerite snail probably was not too happy in the 2 gallon with no algae in it, and the tank at school has started developing some glass algaes, so i ended up moving the nerite snail to the school tank, she seemed happier in the bigger tank with food for her.

I also wanted to free up my 5gallon for QT and breeding purposes so i moved the orange shrimp that we in there to school as well.

I've pretty much decided at this point that a 2gallon tank besides for maybe fry is too small for fish, but as it is heated it could work well for live food cultures, which i want to feed more of because they are more sustainable then just prepared foods which are more expensive to feed.

I also noticed  that in the shrimp tank we have developed an outbreak of )stracods, which from a biodiversity side of things is exciting. I want to try to culture some and maybe feed them out to my tank once a week if i can get the culture going strong. While the shrimp did not eat that much of the zucchini today, it definitely attracted Osstracods. So i had an idea to use a planaria trap i had on hand with zucchini as a bait to try and catch out a starter culture of Ostracods.

(Black dots in picture are Ostracods)

My setup for them at this point would just be the 2gallon tank, i might have an issue if they get sucked into the matten filter, but i can turn down the air on the tank to prevent the issue. The tank has no inhabitants besides for some little snails. The substrate is a coarse gravel originally intended for blackworms, which will be my next live food project. The tank just has some guppy grass floating in it and right now it has a piece of zucchini so i'm hoping it will be a good setup for the Ostracods. From the article i read they sound like are pretty easy to culture so i thought i'd give it a try. Open to ideas and suggestions though.

 

On the topic of zucchini my fish were big fans, i put it in at 7am this morning and this is what it looks like now:

I also got some water wisteria from my friend so I'll see how that does for me.

[GoofyGarra]

Got some Water Wisteria from my friend yesterday. I have it floating in the tank now, I hope it does well for me.

Also some breakfast pictures:

 

I also now have a new mission for today. I heard from my friend there is a different tank in the school with some platies in it and one of them is significantly bullied. So far we are not sure if the bullied one is a male or a female, but i will have to check it out and potentially rescue it later today.

[GoofyGarra]

On 2/28/2024 at 7:02 AM, GoofyGarra said:

I also now have a new mission for today. I heard from my friend there is a different tank in the school with some platies in it and one of them is significantly bullied. So far we are not sure if the bullied one is a male or a female, but i will have to check it out and potentially rescue it later today.

rescue was successful sorta...

The tank in question is a 10 gallon tank, only with about 4in of water level missing. Right now the tank stocking is 2male platies, and 1 neon tetra. When I came in this morning the stocking was 3male platies, 2 plecos (not sure on the species), and 1 neon tetra. The neon used to have friends but they all died off, and between this morning and typing this,  both plecos ended up dying, no clue why.

I ended up removing the male (thus the 3males to 2males) that I was told was being bullied, he was in pretty good shape and didn't look that bad. I moved him to the tank with the guppies for the day and brought him home. Over the day i was talking with my friend and we ended up talking about doing some work on the tank. The issue was not that 1 platy male was being a bully, he was just the dominant platy male and thats what happens with platy males. We decided that we could rehome the platy males and restock the tank more properly. At first we considered adding some platy females, the issue is they could overtake the tank with fry rather quickly, and the tank is in a lower school and I don't want to explain to 2nd graders that the parent fish are eating their babies. We ended up deciding to try and restock the tank altogether.

Our plan for the 10 gallon tank now is a colony of Cherry Shrimp, a mystery snail, and a honey gouarmi. The neon tetra will probably stay in the tank for now until we can find it a new home. We will have to see if the tank owner likes our new plan.

 

As we were rehoming the platy males and I was looking for new platy genetics, i decided to adopt one.

So here is my new platy male, it is a Sunburst platy. I will have him in the 5gallon as QT for now, but will move my current male to the guppy tank before i add him to my 20gallon.

He is a nice looking fish and I'm hoping adding fresh genetics to my platy line will help with my problem. I have him temp acclimating now and will post more pictures once he is settled into the QT tank.

 

 

 

[GoofyGarra]

it is the next morning and the sunburst platy appears to be settling in. I tried to feed him Grindal Worms and he will not eat yet, but he got caught and moved around a lot yesterday so its possible he is still rather stressed. I am hoping i can get him eating in the future:

I have also noticed that while they spend most of their time hiding, i do seem to have adult shrimp doing well in my 20gallon tank:

I also unfortunately may have to rehome Vulcan in the future. I have noticed at feeding time he becomes very agressive against the corydoras and will chase them around, even trying to suck on them. I haven't paid this much attention so far, but yesterday I noticed one of my cories appears to have been bleeding, and unfortunately Vulcan is the most likely suspect.

 

[GoofyGarra]

So far the sunburst platy does not seem to be doing super well. He spends the day hiding in the back of the tank, or in a tunnel, and is not eating.

I'm slightly concerned at this point, but I did put him through a lot of stress a few days ago, so time will tell how he does. I have turned off the light on the 5gallon to try and reduce stress on the fish.

[GoofyGarra]

Small update on the sunburst platy. He is not in as bad of condition as i thought. 

I realized that while i have not been seeing him eat, its possible he is afraid of me, and won't eat while I am around.

To test my theory, i setup my camera on a tripod 2 feet from the tank, then put it some live grindal worms. After checking the footage after 10 minutes, i found he quickly came out and ate a bunch of Grindal Worms.  Now that i know he is eating, it is just one less thing i have to worry about, I am very relieved.

[GoofyGarra]

Unfortunately we will have to be saying goodbye to Vulcan 😞, he is still alive and healthy however, I've been running into problems with him. The biggest issue is that a 20high with 11 Albino Cories does not leave enough bottom room for a growing Bristlenose Pleco. At feeding time he has been harassing the Albino Cories, and I've spotted one with torn fins and marks the suggest bleeding, and unfortunately Vulcan is the most likely suspect.

He will be going to live in my friend's tank later today, the tank is a 75gallon so with much more bottom room hopefully the territory issues do not persist. I am sad that I have to let Vulcan go and I enjoyed keeping him, but unfortunately it did not work out. I now understand why Bristlenose Plecos are not recommended for 20highs and have learned my lesson.

While having to let go of  one of my favorite fish is a hard lesson, the real lesson was when i tried to catch him out. I swear he has a PHD in evading nets, it took my 30minutes, with everything not rooted down removed from the tank to catch him out.

Before trying to catch Vulcan (I happened to be feeding BBS at the time of this picture)

After catching out the pleco:

Vulcan is double bagged up and is just floating on top of the big tank to keep him heated. For how hard he was to catch he is surprisingly calm inside the bag which should mean he is using less oxygen so that is good.

 

Unrelated to Vulcan:

I fed out some BBS this morning:

And i also spotted F2 shrimplets! These are the offspring, of the offspring, of the shrimp i received from @Guppysnail. As the adult shrimp have been surviving just fine in my community tank, they have had shrimplets. I'm not sure how many will survive, but its cool to see my shrimp are doing well. (the orange blur in the center of the picture is a shrimplet, it was difficult to photograph)

 

[GoofyGarra]

Sunburst Platy Update: Slow Improvement

The sunburst platy is slowly but surely improving. I put in some grindal worms, and he ate them when they hit the bottom, even though i was standing there watching him, he would not eat while i was watching when i first got him a few days ago.

Unfortunately I am still having a few issues with him. He will only eat live foods at this point, and he shimmies around the tank probably due to a nerve issue that i can't help. I'm hoping he will improve enough to replace my current male in the 20gallon, but right now i'm skeptical.

 

[Guppysnail]

On 3/5/2024 at 6:59 AM, GoofyGarra said:

he shimmies around the tank

Try adding a small pinch of aquarium salt and a small pinch of epsom salt. 1/4 teaspoon each should not hurt your plants.

Shimmying most often occurs for me in livebearers that were raised in water containing more minerals or salt than I have in my water.  The minerals often balance that out and they straighten up. 

[HelplessNewbie]

On 8/18/2023 at 3:39 PM, GoofyGarra said:

and a venus fly trap (completely unrelated...)

I just got my first one! I wonder if we can feed it grindal worms, if I rinse them in distilled water?

[GoofyGarra]

On 3/5/2024 at 7:22 AM, Guppysnail said:

Try adding a small pinch of aquarium salt and a small pinch of epsom salt. 1/4 teaspoon each should not hurt your plants.

1/4 teaspoon per gallon or for 5gallons?

[Guppysnail]

On 3/5/2024 at 5:10 PM, GoofyGarra said:

1/4 teaspoon per gallon or for 5gallons?

Oh I thought it was a 10. Start at 1/8 tsp each. Wait a day and see if improvement happens if you think you need more add more 

[GoofyGarra]

On 3/5/2024 at 5:45 PM, Guppysnail said:

Oh I thought it was a 10. Start at 1/8 tsp each. Wait a day and see if improvement happens if you think you need more add more 

I ended up adding 1/4 tsp of marine salt (thats what i had on hand) and also added a wonder shell to raise the hardness. I'll see how he does now, if its doesn't work ill do a few water changes

[GoofyGarra]

Was working on some fish photography today, I got 1 decent picture of a platy

 

Also update on the Sunburst platy, still improving, just slowly. I added in a wonder shell last night to increase hardness, this morning he is shimmying a bit less but not fully cured. He also ate some Easy Fry Food Pellets this morning, previously he had only been eating live foods. Slow improvement, but going in the right direction.

 

[GoofyGarra]

On 3/5/2024 at 7:22 AM, Guppysnail said:

Try adding a small pinch of aquarium salt and a small pinch of epsom salt. 1/4 teaspoon each should not hurt your plants.

Shimmying most often occurs for me in livebearers that were raised in water containing more minerals or salt than I have in my water.  The minerals often balance that out and they straighten up. 

@Guppysnail I appreciate your help. This (view quoted statement) is working really well. Even since i added a wonder shell to the tank he has started improving. This morning i barely saw him shimmying and he was eating krill flake from the surface after a few minutes.I'm hoping i can get him to a point where he is coming right to the surface when i put food in, but im just glad he is eating right now.

[Guppysnail]

I’m glad it’s working for you. The thing is when you return him to your main tank he may face the same issues again so keep your eye on him. 
You may want to try transitioning him by slowly each week water changing out the boosters until he is in the same parameters as your main tank and see how he does. 

[Guppysnail]

An extra thought.  Your platies have not been birthing recently. Maybe they could use a mineral boost also. Live births deplete their calcium. Do you put wondershell in your main tank?  The salt may interfere with your plants if you use too much.  

[GoofyGarra]

On 3/7/2024 at 6:54 AM, Guppysnail said:

I’m glad it’s working for you. The thing is when you return him to your main tank he may face the same issues again so keep your eye on him. 
You may want to try transitioning him by slowly each week water changing out the boosters until he is in the same parameters as your main tank and see how he does. 

The only issue is my water is decently hard out of the tap and between both tanks my ACO test strips just read 300+.

On 3/7/2024 at 7:10 AM, Guppysnail said:

An extra thought.  Your platies have not been birthing recently. Maybe they could use a mineral boost also. Live births deplete their calcium. Do you put wondershell in your main tank?  The salt may interfere with your plants if you use too much.  

I have not recently had wondershell in the big tank, i can add some though, that may help with the problem of acclimating the platy to the main tank parameters. It also might explain why i've had females die during birth.

[Guppysnail]

Maybe you’re low on magnesium.  In order to use the calcium they need magnesium. Maybe try a pinch of epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) first. 

[GoofyGarra]

On 3/7/2024 at 7:19 AM, Guppysnail said:

Maybe you’re low on magnesium.  In order to use the calcium they need magnesium. Maybe try a pinch of epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) first. 

I don't think i have any right now, I will look into getting some magnesium into the tanks though. I think i have some marine salt on hand which has magnesium in it.

 

[Guppysnail]

On 3/7/2024 at 7:22 AM, GoofyGarra said:

I don't think i have any right now, I will look into getting some magnesium into the tanks though. I think i have some marine salt on hand which has magnesium in it.

 

That could be what’s helping your sunburst.  Your fish may have adapted over time but they new guy couldn’t take the sudden swing. Very akin to old tank syndrome but not from stale conditions just lacking magnesium.  A small amount of Mari e salt should not harm your plants. 

[GoofyGarra]

On 3/7/2024 at 7:31 AM, Guppysnail said:

A small amount of Mari e salt should not harm your plants. 

it has not been harmful in experiences. I will be sure to add some marine salt for the sunburst platy

Edited March 7 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

Cories were going crazy around the tank today. I quickly discovered why, they were having a spawning run.

Also sunburst platy is going in the right direction. I didn't see him shimmying this morning, and while it took him a minute to realize there was krill flake, once he noticed it he came and ate a few flakes. I would not say he is in perfect platy condition right now, but definitely improving significantly from when i first got him.

[GoofyGarra]

Did a water change as usual this morning, I ended up trimming off a bunch of dying and algaefied leaves of my amazon sword.

Right now I'm saving my plant clippings and drying them out. My idea is to mix the dried leaves into my isopod substrates as a good nutrition source

Hornwort is doing great in my tank as well. It has started growing horizontially as well as vertically which is kinda funky, but I'm just going to let it do its own thing for now

And a picture of Garra Guy sticking his head out of my coconut cave, because its cute.

 

[GoofyGarra]

I noticed that the sunburst male was doing super well and I was eager to add him to the 20gallon. I did a water test and between the 20 and the 5 the parameters were almost identical.

I have caught out the Sunburst platy and am keeping him in a breeder box overnight to make sure the parameters are good for him, assuming he is acting fine in the morning I will catch out my previous red male and move him to school, then add the sunburst male to the community tank.