GoofyGarra's Journal

[GoofyGarra]

Unfortunately the cory fry ending up dying. I think I just overfed and the water quality dropped.

[GoofyGarra]

Aquariums can be the most stress curing and stress inducing hobby at the same time. One on hand (for me) it is hard to stress over things when I walk into my room and a bunch of goofballs come asking me for food. On the other hand when I have a sick fish I need to move to a hospital tank, and the fish is not cooperating and is making me destroy my tank to catch them out, aquariums can be incredibly stressful.

For some context the dreaded Platy Disease has returned. (I forget if I got a diagnosis last time, but it is the same thing that killed off a bunch of my platies a month or two back). This time it has occurred in the one fish who didn't get it last time because he was living with a bunch of Endler's at the school tank. Yeah, Unfortunately Balrog got the disease now too and is making himself impossible to catch and treat, hopefully it doesn't spread to anyone else. If there is a good news it seems whatever this condition is only affects platies not the other fish, but still I don't want to lose all or most of my platies again. Still trying to work out a good way to move him to the 5 gallon for treatment, Maracyn seems to work pretty well against whatever this disease is.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 01:14 PM by GoofyGarra

[Chris]

Just a thought - what're your water parameters like? Hard or soft water?

It's strange that only the platies are being affected. Makes me wonder if there's something else causing their immune system to tank. If your water happens to be very soft, maybe adding some crushed coral or a few pinches of marine salt would be a good idea.

[GoofyGarra]

@Chris

pH is about 7.6 and while I've never tested hardness I know out of the tap its about medium hard, its been this way for a while, i used to use marine salt at 1tbsp per 20gallons each week but I stopped a few months back.

Honestly I'm not sure what it is that is targeting the platies, maybe they are just more prone to squeezing into tight places and damaging their stress coats. Its a complete mystery to me.

[GoofyGarra]

I never wanted to know what a platy skeleton looks like, but shrimp darn it are amazing detritivores. Circle of life lesson  hitting me in the face hard this weekend. A bit of a deeper post this morning.

I was out for most of the day yesterday, woke up and saw that Balrog wasn't doing great, he was just sitting on the bottom of the tank breathing heavy. I wasn't sure what to do as I had a full schedule so I put in another dose of Maracyn and hoped for the best. I came home yesterday evening to find the Shrimp and Snails feasting on his remains, by the look of things he died pretty early into the morning, the clean u p crew had created a hole through the body. Brings me to a big conflict I went through at that point. It's the body of one of my favorite fish and I want to treat it nicely, but at the same time this is how nature is intended to be, who am I to mess with it?

Furthermore I've just been watching my platy fry and they have starting developing some small colors and doing very well. I have just been thinking, how cool is it that I can work out such an essential natural process just by keeping glass boxes full of water in my room. It's not exact but the Platies eat Shrimp babies, the Platies have babies of their own, the Platies die, the shrimp eat the body, the shrimp make shrimp babies etc... (Just a small example, i'm aware in nature this cycle is often much much more complex) All of this is just crazy for me to think about, I've learned about the cycle of life and death in nature before, but seeing it in front of me in my tank is just crazy and it is helping me to solidly visualize everything so much more.

[GoofyGarra]

Finally made it to Home Depot and got a new bucket for Sunday Morning water changes. To compensate for the missed maintenance I gave the big tank a 40% water change today instead of the standard 20%, although everyone was doing great even after missing a few weeks.

The other notable thing that happened during my water change was I actually gravel vacced for the first time in years. I don't like to vac the background areas as the plants pull nutrients from those, but in the foreground the mulm just looks bad. (Even if i could grow them I dont like carpeting plants as they make it difficult to feed sinking wafers). I used the tube I usually use for water changes but used the tube attatchment and actually used it as a siphon. It was interesting to me that just the siphon from gravity and pressure drains water much faster then my ACO powerhead which has about 200 gph.

Most of the foreground areas definetly look much cleaner now. I've known for a while that my substrate is really ugly. A mix of black, blue, and green gravel with crushed coral mixed in is not the most natural or eye pleasing mix. I've thought about changing it a few times but it would be a waste to get rid of the nutrient load of 3 years that my plants could be using, and I've just become used to the substrate mix and just ignore it mostly.

Just for comparison how dirty my substrate is, Before:

After:

The Platy fry are thriving. They are growing super fast on BBS and Easy  Fry Food and are starting to develop some coloration, it's crazy that these guys are only three weeks old and I have a feeling they will be sexable soon, it definitely feels like they are much older just based on how well they are developing. I have been feeding pretty heavy for them which has led to some mulm build-up, but fortunately in a 1.8 gallon bare bottom tank, I can take out all the mulm and do a 50% water change in like 10 minutes.

I have also recently discovered that the platy fry have a friend in their  tank I was not expecting. Basically a week or so ago I found my Albino Cories had laid some eggs, I put some in a breeder box to hatch and also threw a few into this tank with the mindset of "If they hatch, they hatch". Well turns out one of them did hatch, and he is now surviving with the other fry despite being much smaller then the platies. I think that even though the platies are getting bigger, their mouths are still small so they can't eat the Cory and therefore ignore him. Just a fun little surprise I found.

 

 

Edited June 16 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

BBS party! For the big fish and the fry tank

The platy fry gained yet another new friend (they are so lucky). Ever since I caught all of these guys out of the big tank, i have noticed that there has been 1 fry in the big tank that managed to evade me and predation and was now too big to be eaten. I noticed him sitting near the water surface and realized this was my best chance so I moved quickly and caught him out to move him in with the other platy fry. In the big tank he has had a lot more food competition so he is not as big as the other platy fry, but strangely he is very orange and his coloration is more developed then the others.

[GoofyGarra]

Lets go! Baby Endler's!

I noticed a few minutes ago that the biggest female Endler (Mama Endler) was acting strange, and she's been pretty pregnant for a while, so i moved her into the 5 gallon tank and sure enough she has started giving birth. I've been loving the Endler's in the big tank just because they add a ton of activity, and I can't wait to have a bunch more.

 

[GoofyGarra]

Update: All the Endler fry are friends are they are schooling pretty tightly together. I got a good amount of fry so I moved the female back to the big tank, meaning there are now no predators in the tank

 

[GoofyGarra]

After doing some thinking I realized that the Platy fry have been growing pretty well,  are no longer as fragile or food dependant as they were as younger fry, and they probably need a larger space to grow out so they don't become stunted or cramped. So I caught out all or most of the Endler fry (They are tiny in a big tank, i got all the ones i could, but 1 or 2 could be hiding that i missed) , moved all the platies into the 5 gallon to grow out, and then moved all the Endler's (Came out to about 20 fry in that one batch) into the 2 gallon where I can feed and maintain them much easier.

I was worried at first that the platy fry would be impossible to find in the bigger tank, but they group up in a shoal to explore the tank so if i find one I find the rest. I have recently added an internal filter to the 5 gallon tank to add some flow. The filter is a pump from a cheap internal filter I got for free (horrible filter, great pump) combined with a repashy bottle and a piece of sponge. Currently the only input is from the bottom but in the future i plan to drill holes in the repashy container to let water flow in from the side. I can also add air to the filter for a venturi system if i want to, but after playing around with the idea i've decided it is just too loud. The flow seems to be perfect for the tank where the fish like to swim in it but are not blown away. The Platy Fry seem to enjoy shoaling in the flow, as did the Endler Fry when they were in the 5gallon.

[GoofyGarra]

This is a bit different from my normal posts, but its fish related so it has a home on this journal. (Disclaimer, pretty much just me tooting my own horn, sorry)

Youtubers have been making me feel really good about my fishkeeping setup lately and I wanted to reflect on it. Recently I have noticed a lot of content coming out about downsizing fish rooms and setting up aquariums and fish rooms you can really enjoy. I've been listening to this advice, and I've been considering my own setup.

My "fishroom" setup (3 tanks+terrariums) is all setup in my bedroom, I keep all my stuff there and when I am home I am always running in to grab something and checking on the tanks allowing me to observe the fish. Saturday morning I can just lie in bed and watch the 20 gallon from the side without the fish noticing i am there. (Besides for Garra Guy, he seems to know where I am and whenever I am watching the tank lying in bed he will sit there on the side of the tank I am watching, almost watching me back from the tank). I have a rocking chair setup in the room that lets me watch all my tanks very comfortably, I love to sit in the chair and read and sometimes put the book down and watch the tanks.

The only tank I have not in my bedroom is the 4gallon family shrimp tank. That tank is located on a dividing wall between the kitchen and dining room and I watch the tank as I eat breakfast each morning and my family can enjoy the shrimp as well. (I am sitting in the kitchen typing this and my eyes are going to the shrimp tank right now)

In the past I have complained about my mom only letting me have 1 tank (I managed to make it to 4...), but I'm realizing now that it is actually beneficial for my hobby to only have a few aquariums. In my tanks I have identified fish and animals I really enjoy keeping. Platies are super common, but even having kept them for 3 years I love watching them and observing their hierarchies and behaviors.  and since I only have 1 community tank, any fish purchase is a big change in my fish room, I am not too prone to making any impulse buys.

Just a personal reflection on the topic of keeping tanks in a way that you get the best enjoyment out of them.

 

 

 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by GoofyGarra