GoofyGarra's Journal

[GoofyGarra]

i having a bad day. Rather tired, mostly.

So i hand fed my fish usually helps cheer me up:

you know my hand is safe if the shy betta comes down for a bite:

afterwards i took my hand out and let the fish keep the wafers, they were pretty happy about that:

especially the cories:

i did a water change on the mystery fry 5gallon:

moved water lettuce into the 2.5 to try and help dim down some of the lighting:

aquaclear maintenance today, or sunday when i do my water changes?

also if the weather is nice i might head to the LFS, so stay tuned for that...

[GoofyGarra]

there has been a slight change in plans...

I normally walk to my LFS, but in the summer heat i didnt want to risk walking live fish. So i wanted to get a ride to the LFS,and figured that was most feasable on Sundays. But i got myself a ride today, and i just called the LFS and they said i could bring in the fish, so it willl probably happen today.

There were actually 2rides i couldve taken, one already left but i realized i had not redisinfected my big nets so i couldnt take that ride. But the nets are soaking in a bleach solution now, so by the time my second ride leaves i should be all good to go.

ok, bags are setup.

Its just water from the tank, i have it setup with an airstone in each bag for lots of dissolved oxygen into the water. Its more of a shipping fish thing, but whenever i bag up fish i always include some ammonia pad, just a small precaution. (ive never needed them, but just in case...).

picture:

Edited August 25, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[Guppysnail]

What type of ammonia pad do you use. I’ve not used them for when I ship fish but have been considering it. I just do not know what type. 

[GoofyGarra]

after chasing cories around for a few minutes 5-6 juviniles have escaped the net, as far as im concerned at this point they earned the right to stay. (ill have to take them out at a later date, the important thing is im not super overstocked now).

On 8/25/2023 at 12:54 PM, Guppysnail said:

What type of ammonia pad do you use. I’ve not used them for when I ship fish but have been considering it. I just do not know what type. 

 

i use the ACO ones, I have NO clue if they work for what i want them to do, but  its just a peace of mind for me.

 

[GoofyGarra]

back from the LFS.

I brought in my cories, but there was some initial confusion as seemingly the employee who said i could bring in the cories did not exist. (neither employee said they confirmed my request), + the fact that the store had just received a bag of albino cories in their fish delivery made me a bit nervous. But whatever it was about my cories (i suspect size), they took them. In return i got back some xtreme krill flake. (i normally prefer the crave mix, but beggars cant be choosers).

cories at the LFS (when you have water lettuce like me, you can net out fish without getting some in the bag):

I think i brought in 10 or 11 cories, and i still have 6or7 i need to rehome later (they escaped catching), but i hope my stocking problems will be less now.

Overall i think it was a successful trip.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/25/2023 at 1:03 PM, GoofyGarra said:

use the ACO ones

Me too.

On 8/25/2023 at 1:03 PM, GoofyGarra said:

its just a peace of mind for me.

Exactly

[Elodie Rose]

How is the tank doing? Feeling a little roomier now? 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Elodie Rose

[GoofyGarra]

On 8/26/2023 at 3:20 AM, Elodie Rose said:

How is the tank doing? Feeling a little roomier now? 

It does feel roomier, at least on the bottom level of the tank, im hoping to feed less now that i have less fish. Looking back now it appears that while 10ish cories made it to the fish store, but 10ish (my initial count was incorrect) that were supposed to go evaded me on friday and will need to be caught out on a later date.

[Elodie Rose]

One step at a time! And we learn something at every step. 🙂 

[GoofyGarra]

On 8/26/2023 at 8:41 PM, Elodie Rose said:

And we learn something at every step. 🙂 

thats how a hobby like this works.

i want to end up with 8cories in the end, and i want to keep my 5adults, so its a Work in Progress. This is something that has happened both times i have culled down my platy population (that some stayed by evading the net), so im not surprised it happened with the cories.

 

also i was looking through that fish encyclopedia i mentioned earlier in the journal.

I think my mystery fry are a Gambusia species, so far my best guess is Sexradiata, but thats just based on the book. (teardrop mosquitofish i think is the common name).

[GoofyGarra]

bigger post this morning.

Sunday morning=water changes

water changes on the big tank, and the 2 smaller tanks:

and all filled up:

I then went to reprime my aquaclear, and nothing happened...so i took it down, and rinsed out the impeller, which seemed to do the trick. (i was hoping not to mess with it today as i cleaned it friday, but i guess i cant escape. I hope with less stocking ill have to clean the filter less)

I plugged the hole in the matten filter tube with some sponge, the air goes through but fish cannot:

I did the water change on the big tank first. It gets 20-25percent a week, so 4-5gallons, but i only have 1 5gallon bucket. So i did the water change on the big tank, then pulled out some water for family member's plants

this is how i water change (at least for the big tank, i use different diameter tubing for each tank...)

then dumped out this water, then water changed the other tanks.

after all this i fed the cory fry:

and although ive been a snail lover in the past, that has changed a bit. I have no problem with mini ramshorn snails, they are small, colorful, and slow. But i dislike bladders, as they are big, dull, and fast, and though they havent made it into my big tank, they have taken control of the 5gallon.

 

[GoofyGarra]

its a sad day...

 

One of my mystery snails has not moved (himself) in the past 24hours, and is not smelling good. I think he's dead. Im going to wait a few hours to see if he has moved, but otherwise he might be dead. I dont want to be so fast to blame the 1tsp marine salt per 20gallons of water ive been trying for my platies, but i think it could be a possibility.

[Guppysnail]

On 8/27/2023 at 8:31 AM, GoofyGarra said:

I then went to reprime my aquaclear, and nothing happened...so i took it down, and rinsed out the impeller, which seemed to do the trick. (i was hoping not to mess with it today as i cleaned it friday, but i guess i cant escape.

I use a grill skewer or pipette when I don’t have time to tear them apart. Just push the impeller and it usually kicks right in. 

 

On 8/27/2023 at 9:02 AM, GoofyGarra said:

its a sad day...

 

One of my mystery snails has not moved (himself) in the past 24hours, and is not smelling good. I think he's dead. Im going to wait a few hours to see if he has moved, but otherwise he might be dead. I dont want to be so fast to blame the 1tsp marine salt per 20gallons of water ive been trying for my platies, but i think it could be a possibility.

I’m so sorry. I’m always heartbroken when one of my snail kids passes. If there is any smell other than water he has passed remove him so it does not pollute the water. 

[GoofyGarra]

@Guppysnail

the dead snail has been dealt with. Im just hoping that whatever killed him wont kill my other mystery snail as well.

[GoofyGarra]

im going to start a series of tests on Bladder snail eggs.

Snail eggs have to be pretty hardy to survive what people put them through,and to "infest" tanks out of the blue, But how tough are they really?

I have inserted several smooth river rocks into my 5gallon tank (full of bladder snails), i will wait for the snails to lay eggs on the rocks (im pretty sure they will lay eggs on the rocks), then subject egg+rock to various things. Afterwards, i will put both in a clean enviroment (with no prior snails), and i will see how much the snail eggs can take. I plan to try things like Bleach, drying out, RR (no offense to all the great RR researchers, i just like to do my own testing), and various other methods.

I will also run a batch of snails eggs, from the tank, to the hatching container as a control. Success will be determined by A.is there a successful hatch and B. If so, how many snails.

Im using bladders just because i have lots of them, any "pest" type snail would really work.

why? mostly because it might help explain some explainable appearances of snails in peoples tanks, its also cool to see how powerful nature can be sometimes.

 

 

[GoofyGarra]

do mystery snails do better in groups?

I had 2 and their interactions were kinda interesting, but now i only have one. Should i get another one, or will my current one be fine alone?

[Guppysnail]

If they are together they are social. I have seen no adverse reactions to keeping them alone though. If you are still adding salt I would not put more snails in. Mysteries are much more sensitive than pest snails 

[GoofyGarra]

On 8/27/2023 at 12:56 PM, Guppysnail said:

If they are together they are social. I have seen no adverse reactions to keeping them alone though. 

ok, ill keep that in mind.

I think that id rather just have one at this point just from a bioload perspective.

[GoofyGarra]

what is the average lifespan of a well kept betta?

[GoofyGarra]

a few little things happening, it did not come out in the pictures, but some Val i got from my friend is spreading, so far there are lots of runners, but most of the new plants are rather short, im hoping they will gain some height, as i like the idea of a val jungle piece of my tank:

Betta in eel mode in his little tunnel. He is usually a rather shy betta, but this is the one spot in the tank he is territorial about. If he is in the tunnel and a platy comes too close, he will go flare him off. Nothing serious though, he will chase them for a minute, then go back to napping in his tunnel. He is a big fan of the tunnel and spends most of his time there.

 

Garra Guy just chilling on a leaf (he was grazing on it earlier). The leaf cant really support his weight though. Its even funnier when he tries grazing on DAL leaves, though can support his weight even less, though he tries to stay on.

Tempted by these cory eggs, they were laid this morning and im surprised they havent been eaten yet. I suspect in the next day or two they will get eaten though. Who knows, while i dont really want more cories right now, if i could colony breed them that would be rather cool (fishbreeding wise, and financially wise). The cories are on a breeding spree, they have been breeding for a good part of the past two weeks. But i make sure the females stay well fed. Often after big breeding sprees the females bellies will be concaved in, and it just makes me feel horrible, because it does not look healthy, but feeding them will put their bellies back to normal.

also if i get another mystery snail, im really hoping for a female. The idea of mystery snail babies sounds pretty fun.

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

a few interesting things this morning.

I hand fed my fish. The cories were the main ones eating wafers from my hands, there was an occasional platy at it too though. Garra Guy was on once or twice (never on camera...) but was a bit scared. But my favorate part was when i got my mystery snail to come eat from my hand. I like to feel the different fishes mouths on my skin, and honestly the mystery snail's felt just like i have observed them eat, a slow rasping, unlike the cories's barbeling mouths, or the platies pickers, or Garra Guy's sucker mouth.

Mystery snail nibbling on my pinky

 

 

lazer cories, or did i forget to turn off flash?

cories eating from my hand

 

random platy picture #1

Garra Guy says "Hi!"

random  betta picture

the betta is curious about my arm (it is not food!)

A cool little buce black pearl i got back when ACO sold them. It had a rough time initially, but is growing back strong now. Its really a beautiful plant, the camera does not do it justice.

Cory eggs are still there, who knows what will happen at this point

female platy in isolation, her colors are rather apparent in this shot. Still hoping for some fry.

and a mystery snail picture.

I wont get it on camera, but the mystery fry were showing spots ive never seen before, which is pretty cool. Assuming my identification book is correct the spots also strengthen my theory on the species of gambusia they are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

At the moment my platy female in isolation is at the summer room temp of 76degrees, would adding a heater and increasing the temperature to 80 make any positive differences?

 

[Guppysnail]

On 8/27/2023 at 6:42 PM, GoofyGarra said:

what is the average lifespan of a well kept betta?

I’ve only had 1 betta so this is not fact based but observational from other fish I’ve kept. 
My guy lived over 2 years. Internet says 2-5 years. What I’ve seen most folks get is 6 months to a year. 
With the increase in inbreeding the long fins colors etc it weakens genetics from wild caught. So I would think this shortens lifespan. 
Care as fry and juveniles I think plays a part in longevity. How long they lived in a cup and what damage they sustained from that would also play a role. 

My big mystery snail Chestnut used to crawl on my hand alot. It’s a very cool feeling. 

On 8/29/2023 at 6:58 AM, GoofyGarra said:

At the moment my platy female in isolation is at the summer room temp of 76degrees, would adding a heater and increasing the temperature to 80 make any positive differences?

 

I have not had platy in decades and did not intentionally breed them when I had them. With other fish and increase in temperature often stimulates breeding for me and I noticed with my guppies it seemed to shortened times between fry a bit. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

@GoofyGarra I’m so sorry for your loss of the mystery snail. I believe I lost one today as well due to old age. I discovered it this morning and moved it to a quarantine, but I believe it passed during the night in the tank. I will check back on it shortly.

My betta loves his tunnel too. I made it out of a PVC pipe and a suction cup, and he spends a lot of time in it. If you suction cup your tunnel to the side, you can drop your waterline so there is some air in the tunnel, and the betta will be able to take a breath while chilling out in there. Mine makes a bubble nest inside his pipe. I always think he’s lonely and want to give him buddies, but when I show him fake fish he flares and acts violent, so…

A mystery snail crawled on my hand a few days ago while I was doing tank maintenance. It was so cute and felt cool.

[GoofyGarra]

On 8/29/2023 at 4:33 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

My betta loves his tunnel too. I made it out of a PVC pipe and a suction cup, and he spends a lot of time in it. If you suction cup your tunnel to the side, you can drop your waterline so there is some air in the tunnel, and the betta will be able to take a breath while chilling out in there. Mine makes a bubble nest inside his pipe. I always think he’s lonely and want to give him buddies, but when I show him fake fish he flares and acts violent, so…

i used the extra suction cups from the ACO heater for mine...I also have a viewing/feeding hole in the top, honestly when it comes to my fish, i dont pay my betta enough attention. He has a sad story behind him, and i was pretty much forced into keeping him (not trusting my betta at the LFS, i dont want to see him in a cup), but there are other fish id prefer...

 

also my life is changing and this journal will be too. Sunday posts will probably stay, but unless its something im really excited/sad/curious about, the "this is a cool picture" weekday posts will probably end.