GoofyGarra's Journal

[GoofyGarra]

Some updates on sick platies. While i said they were recovering well, most of them were, but not 1. I found her siting floating head down this afternoon unable to right herself, still alive but not looking good. I did a water change on the 1.8 gallon tank and moved her into it. I dosed aquarium salt, but not any other meds because im not sure how to measure how such small amounts of maracyn.

The other sick platies in the 5 gallon tank are recovering well. They dont have slime coat issues anymore and the ones with tail rot problems have started healing. Hopefully in another week or two i will be able to add them back to the main tank healthy. In the meantime the 20gallon feels very empty with one 2 platies in it, (the cories have decided that it is upon them to make up the number of platies missing, and have been breeding all week)

Getting a good picture of the platies was tricky, I bought an ACO auto feeder and am trying it out, so my light is stuck in the back of the tank, and the front is not very illuminated. I will need to figure out a solution with the auto-feeder soon, i dont like the situation i have it in now. Maybe i could cut the top like Cory and Dean did, but I'd probably mess up and I only have 1 top.

To show how dark the front of the tank is now with the light in the back, i got this picture of Garra Guy. (That or i got the picture of Garra Guy and needed an excuse to post it)

[GoofyGarra]

Platies in the sick tank are doing much better. I put in some Easy Fry food and they were happy to eat it

 

I'm also starting to rethink all the hornwort in the tank. It is growing very well, but i have a small problem, the hornwort on the bottom of the pile  is dying off and shedding its needles, they are getting EVERYWHERE. I removed the hornwort from the tank, ill probably replaced it with guppy grass and wisteria, same plant effect but much cleaner look

Without all the hornwort though, the tank feels open and empty

I've been using Easy Fry Food for grindal worms as well. It has been giving me some very harvests

This Crypt. tropica is getting bigger. I know crypts grow slow, but this one has been growing for like a year or more and is still only 4-5in tall. My water isnt the best for crypts though, so im surprised its survived so long

 

[GoofyGarra]

I am growing concerned about Rohan. She recovered from the platy disease well and got moved back into the main tank but things are not going well for her. The sunburst male has decided she is not lady-like enough for him and he is treating her like a fellow male and bullying her, she spends all day hiding from him. It is not a good situation, Rohan will need to get moved soon, i like the male too much to move him at this point.

I also realized that the mass of floating hornwort i had in the tank was blocking out a ton of light, now that it is removed photographing fish is certainly much easier

Native Mosquitofish

Whole tank shot:

Garra Guy was being a good boy and posed for lots of pictures.

The corydoras have pretty much accepted Garra Guy as one of their own when he chooses to join them. They are both active, goofball fish, that love to play in the flow so it makes some sense.

Also what do you call a group of Cories? I spotted a few of mine lined up nicely next to each other. Right now im thinking its a gaggle of cories...

[JE47]

On 4/8/2024 at 4:32 PM, GoofyGarra said:

gaggle of cories...

Honestly that is what they should be called rolls off the tongue nicely and makes me smile

 

[GoofyGarra]

The platies that had been previously sick were behaving very healthy and looked good as well. I introduced them back to the 20gallon tank to be with their friends

Shrimp tank continues to be overstocked, i will will need to do a big cull through soon, keeping only the best rest ones and moving the rest of them

My grindal worm culture is doing very well, i have discovered that i can harvest and feed it out multiple times a week. The fish seem to be enjoying this update

 

[GoofyGarra]

Did a WC as usual this morning

Unfortunately the Sunburst Platy Male was not playing nicely with his friends and was bullying them. I had to move him into time out in the 5gallon for now until he learns to be nice.

I got some Water Wisteria from my friend a few weeks ago, i have been floating it in the 20gallon tank and it is growing nicely, not too slow and not too fast

[GoofyGarra]

Female platy looking rather squared off. Babies soon hopefully? 🙏

[GoofyGarra]

Got home after a week long vacation today, I was worried because the fish were left unattended for the whole time, they had an auto-feeder but i had no way to know if they were doing alright. Fortunately I saw no losses, the water levels were low and the filters struggling a bit, but the livestock were all alive.

If there was 1 casualty it may have been the heater on my 5gallon tank, part of it was emersed with the water level so low. Fortunately i have an extra on hand so if this one fails i can always replace it.

Instead of collapsing in bed exhausted from travel, i spend this afternoon doing water changes on all the tanks to make sure all the animals were okay.

 

I was in Indiana for vacation, so while i was there I had to check out the LFS. It is called The Reef and it is a really nice store. The name would imply that the focus is more saltwater, but there were sizable freshwater and terrestrial sections as well. There were very nice displays as well as many healthy fish for sale. I apologize photo quality is not the best, i only had my phone to take pictures with and its not as good of a camera as my normal camera.

Large Planted Display:This tank was definitely more south american themed and as well as angels contained some bristlenose, twig catfish, and cardinal tetras

There was also a monster fish display tank, it was a few hundred gallons at least and had large South and Central American cichlids, the fish in that tank were BIG. As shown below is the biggest oscar compared to my hand, not a small fish.

All the fish that were out were nice and healthy as far as i could tell, and if not they made it clear on the tank

They had some really nice hardscape selection in the back of the store

As well as some artificial decorations

Lots of interesting livestock for sale as well, including:

Albino Sterbai Cories:

Normal Sterbai Cories:

Normal and Albino Glowlight Tetras:

Gouarmis and  Barbs

Yellow Shrimps:

Blue Phantom Pleco:

Mystery Snails:

And for the pond season, koi and goldfish:

The bettas unforunately were in cups, but bigger cups then i've seen before and each with a plant clipping. Plants in every tank was definitely something this store does well

Some saltwater stuff as well:

Just overall a very nice store, i was not paid for this or anything, but i just wanted to share this amazing store. I highly recommend for anyone in the area.

[GoofyGarra]

Sunday morning.

Got a WC done this morning

hatched and fed out some BBS, the fish are very excited to have some live foods.

 

Edited May 5 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

Got some work done on the 4gallon shrimp tank, it has been pretty neglected lately and the duckweed and guppy grass were getting out of control. I trimmed back the guppy grass, netted out the duckweed, and then added the guppy grass clippings to the main tank.

[GoofyGarra]

At this point I won't bore you all with my standard sunday routine. Just did the standard stuff, did WCs and fed out BBS. I will probably get more BBS eggs now that they are on sale as I am running low.

Anyway. Got some new fish foods to try out. @Guppysnail recommended the Ultra Meat Wafers from Ken'sFish, and then i also got some Northfin Kelp Wafers for some vegetable matter. I haven't had a chance to try out the new foods yet as the fish are all stuffed on BBS, but I tried the Kelp Wafers for the shrimp and they seem to like it.

I have lots of terrarium work to do today, I have been neglecting them lately and some of my setups are not doing too well. I need to tear down a bunch of setups, let their substrates dry out, redo the substrates and then figure out what setups i want to do/restart. I think i'm going to move terrarium  stuff back to this journal, the main parts of the journal will be aquariums, but its much easier for me to only have to keep 1 journal, not multiple.

Despite some of my terrariums having trouble, others such as this fallen log jungle terrarium are doing very well. I've discovered that the mosses and plants do much better with a light on a timer. Kind of a face palm moment 🤦‍♂️, as i've heard and used this advice for a long time with aquariums, so it makes sense that it works well in terrariums too.

Also a few weeks ago I collected some aquatic moss from a local stream, here is an update on that. The moss is doing very well, i have it in a jar just by the windowsill and it has been growing both aquatically and terrestrially in the jar, my next project is see if i can reduce the light levels to get the moss to grow in aquarium settings as well. The only stream-life i found in the jar were a few detritus worms (or other similar species) and a insect larvae or two that quickly died off.

 

 

 

[Chris]

Please let us know how you like those foods! I'm kinda wanting to try out some different brands. The stuff I've been feeding for the last few years seems to be dipping in quality. 

[GoofyGarra]

@Chris Definitely will keep you updated, i will be feeding out the new stuff this week and will be doing semi-reviews on the journal as i go.

[GoofyGarra]

I have been observing my tank the past few weeks and i have been thinking that i really want a centerpiece fish for the tank, just something big and personable for the tank. Garra Guy would be a great centerpiece, but he is slim-lined and blends in with the substrate so he doesn't quite do the best centerpiece job. (still love him though).

Thus after a trip to the LFS, and cashing in some store credit. I introduce you all to the newest addition of the GoofyGarra "FishRoom".

Yup, i got a Honey Gouarmi, at @Guppysnail's recommendation. I see a line down the middle of her body so I think she's a female, but i totally could be wrong. No name yet, but once i get to know her better she will definitely get one. (open to any ideas)

I have her temp. acclimating now and she will be added to the 5gallon for QT once she is done acclimating. Not doing a pair yet, but in the future i might add a male to try and get some babies from her.

Edited May 12 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

After the acclimation process the new Gouarmi has been introduced to the 5gallon for QT. She is rather small right now, just about an inch but with some food she should start growing nicely.

She is swimming around actively exploring with her feelers and picking at things so she seems pretty healthy right now, hopefully i dont run into too many problems.

[GoofyGarra]

Trying out the Kensfish Ultra Meat Wafers today. The bottom feeders seem to go nuts for a minute or two, then the hype wears down and they dont quite go for it as much, at which point the platies come in and start picking at the wafers.

Despite the thing with the fish only going nuts for a minute i think it is still a decent food. Keep in mind, i paid $4 for 1/4lb of this stuff. $4 for a 1/4lb of food that everybody in my tank will eat (whether or not they go super crazy for it) to me is a success. So personally i'm liking these wafers a good amount. 4/5 stars.

 

Edited May 13 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

New Honey Gouarmi is still doing well. I accidently bumped the tank and now she is a bit camera shy, but still actively exploring the tank, swimming around with her shrimp friends. (well she swims up curious about the shrimp and they get startled and swim away)

I also have a new plan for the 1.8gallon tank. For a while now its been sitting with no air, no heat, and just a ton of hornwort i've been afraid to get rid of. Pretty much neglected. The tank also had a few shrimps that hitched a ride on some plants, the shrimps were doing fine (they are pretty darn hardy)

I was thinking and now i have a new goal for this tank. 1.8gallons is too small for most fish (maybe fry) but I was thinking that a 1.8gallon tank with an oversized matten filter could be great for shrimps. So i plan on using the tank to conduct some shrimp genetics experiments (When i cross x color with y color, what color(s) are the offspring). I gave the tank a clean out, and removed the hornwort and duckweed. The hardest part was removing the shrimp, i have the ones i want to play with and dont want to contaminate my bloodlines. Now you might say, its a bare bones 1.8gallon tank, how hard can removing a few shrimp be. Answer is pretty hard, these shrimp are young so they are mostly transparent and designed not to be found, i think i've pulled all of them out at this point, but i'm waiting a day or two before adding plants and my breeder shrimp just to make sure all unwanted shrimp are out of the tank.

Also fun little shrimp genetics nerd tibdit. I crossed a snowball shrimp with a red shrimp and all the offspring are red, so i can guess the punnet square would look like shown below. Their offspring are one of the groups i want to use in the new shrimp testing tank by my basic punnet square genetics, crossbreeding the offspring should give me 1 or 2 more snowball shrimps, which i think are alien-like and super cool. On the other-hand shrimp genetics could be non-Mendelian which is harder to track, and then i would be sad. But im going to try anyway.

 

[Chris]

On 5/13/2024 at 6:31 AM, GoofyGarra said:

$4 for a 1/4lb of food that everybody in my tank will eat (whether or not they go super crazy for it) to me is a success.

Honestly, that's what its all about. If everybody eats it, it's probably at least a decent food. 

Looks I can get a lb of the meat wafers for about $16. I may order some to try!

[GoofyGarra]

Honey Gouarmi continues to be shy, I am trying to teach her that I am the hand that feeds her but so far no success. I added in my old betta tunnel for her and i spotted her sleeping in it last night! (The lighting wasnt great, the challenge is finding the fish...)

Also tried out the Northfin Kelp Wafers this morning. It took the fish a minute to find them but they are going bonkers. This food is more expensive then the Ken's, but also better ingredients so it's a you get what you pay for. Fish are going nuts for this stuff, the ingredients are good, another success.

 

[GoofyGarra]

With the Honey Gouarmi (Still needs a name) in the 5gallon for QT, i re-introduced the Sunburst Male Platy to the main tank. His time out seemingly worked, he is acting much nicer to all of his platy friends now.

My friend has been having lots of success with Taiwan Lilies, so he gave me a few to try out, i planted them in the big tank.

[Guppysnail]

On 5/13/2024 at 8:23 PM, Chris said:

Honestly, that's what its all about. If everybody eats it, it's probably at least a decent food. 

Looks I can get a lb of the meat wafers for about $16. I may order some to try!

The high protein tropical green granules and growth granules are also staples for me in all sizes. 

[GoofyGarra]

I hurt myself a bit yesterday so decided that carrying 40lbs of water around today was not the best move, and chose to skip the water changes. Fortunately my water change schedule is a bit redundant so i can go a week skipping water changes and be fine.  I fed out BBS like usual this morning, and also took advantage of the sale and got myself a new canister of BBS eggs, so i should be well supplied for another 2 years. (It takes me a while to go through one of those cans)

Honey Gouarmi is still doing great. She is eating nicely and is being very nice to all of her shrimp buddies. Only issue right now is that she is a bit camera shy, but if that's the most of my problems I really can't be complaining. She was enjoying some BBS and it was nice to see she is doing well.

Just got a better shot of the Taiwan Lilies I got from my friend. They are settling in and one of them is putting out a new leaf. I'm hoping they do well because i really like the large bright green leaves this lily puts out. I don't really like lily pads though (blocks too much light), so i will probably have to train these lilies to stay short and not put out pads.

The other plant i got my friend, a few weeks back now is Water Wisteria. I have a few stems floating and it has been thriving and putting out lots of healthy roots. I could plant it at this point but i prefer the floater effect and want to keep it that way

Just doing some Platy photography

 

 

[GoofyGarra]

Been a while since i talked about the school tank. The Endler's have been doing very well and there is a ton of babies and juveniles in the tank now. There is are also small Shrimp and Ramshorn snail populations going.The guppy grass not so well, the Pothos that i added is removing all the nutrients from the water and the guppy grass is not getting enough. All that could be remedied with some Easy Green but im super lazy so haven't dealt with it yet.

My original plan had been to take the tank down for the summer as evaporation would have been a real issue, but the Bio teacher has agreed to top off the water weekly (with dechlorinator) so it really shouldn't be an issue.  That being said i want to reduce the odds of disaster when i am not around to deal with it, so i will be leaving 1-2 trios of Endler's in the tank and the rest will come home or eventually to the LFS.

I was doing a project on Bioreactors and i managed to convince my Biomed teacher that Aquarium filters are good examples of bioreactors, so for class we built a Fluidized Bed filter. The container is just a reused squeeze bottle and we 3D printed all the media. So far the fluidization isn't working too well, but i plan to add an airstone and drill more holes for air to escape as well as adding more media so we should get a cool filter done by the end of the year. Anyway here is what the filter looked like when we set it up this afternoon. The yellow media isnt the most natural but it makes it easiest to see the fluidization through the opaque plastic.

[GoofyGarra]

Sunday morning routine. Water Changes and BBS.

I did a ton of work on the 5gallon this morning, the tank was just getting filthy with mulm. The tank has so many shrimp in there now, it was hard to siphon water and mulm without getting babies with it. I was a bit rough handling the Gouarmi so hopefully she is still ok and does not start to develop diseases now.

I spotted a fun little Anubias flower in the big tank, the Anubias have been thriving, going on 3years now.

Right now im waiting for the BBS to finish harvesting.

Also spotted some limpets in the 20gallon tank, super cool. I took a picture through a jewler's glass and they are pretty cool. Reminds me of tiny nerite snails.

And the results of my fishroom work is a mess to clean up later...

I have not updated the Isopod/Terrarium journal for a while. Here is an update. With the warmer weather  the isopods have been thriving (so have the fungus gnats...) there are babies and juveniles everywhere for both species of Isopods.

[GoofyGarra]

Ok, this is going to seem crazy  but  its true.

I did the post a few minutes ago, then harvested and hatched out BBS thats when i spotted a little fish by the sponge filter. I could not believe it, it was a baby platy!!!! It's been so long, I am so excited!!!

So far i have 3 that i caught out, i have them in the 1.8gallon to grow out for now.

My best theory is a variety of high quality foods. Before i could only afford to feed 3 foods, now i'm feeding 6, 2 of which are live, so much better for them. This change does seem to line up with a fish giving birth around now. So far its my best theory.