Livebearers are cool! (40 breeder journal)

[FyaNyan]

Hello 🙂

I’ve decided to turn a new leaf in my aquarium adventures. I’ve had multiple tanks for a few years, but felt as if none of them were truly at their best. So for the present, I’m going to downsize to on one tank and really pour some love into it. I want to make a journal of my progress with this tank!

THIS WEEK

I decided to give up my goldfish (for various reasons) and move the stock and plants from my 20 gallon into his 40 breeder. I spent a little extra on new plants and am very happy with the results!

Current stock: 1 BN pleco, 2 cherry barbs (leftovers from a previous batch), 6 guppies, and 2 snails.

The guppies are looking a little ripped up. Not sure when or why that happened, but they seem active and are eating well. One looks a little sickly, but I think he’s looked malformed since I got him. They are in much cleaner conditions now (I had neglected their tank somewhat).

I plan on adding a school of orange or red colored livebearers, leaning toward a small group of swordtails. I had always stayed away from livebearers at the beginning of my time in the hobby because I thought they were boring and too “fake” looking. Now their “fake” colors are exactly why I want them! They are super cool fish, perhaps my favorite.

I’m going to hold off on getting new fish for the time being, address any potential fin rot on the guppies, order some root tabs, and let the plants settle in. I know some of the Amazon swords will die back before growing in for real, but I’m very excited for this project!

Edited September 8, 2023 by FyaNyan

[Guppysnail]

Looks great. That is an awesome and interesting piece of wood. 
 

[FyaNyan]

On 9/7/2023 at 8:41 PM, Guppysnail said:

Looks great. That is an awesome and interesting piece of wood. 
 

It’s actually three pieces of spiderwood. I have found if you put the wood upside-down the shapes are more interesting and dynamic.

[FyaNyan]

JOURNAL ENTRY #2

So…I immediately regretted adding the hornwort because the whole thing shedded and looked TERRIBLE. I moved the guppy grass onto the “tree” to make the leaves and the result is better anyway.

Today I added two tall Amazon swords to the tank. Just waiting for the store to get another so I can plant something in front of the heater to cover up/fill in that area. I also finally put root tabs around every plant and am looking forward to the new growth that will surely come! This is what the tank looks like currently.

The plan is to make this into a molly tank. I am going to cycle out the guppies and cherry barbs naturally, so I will be left with only mollies, snails, and a BN pleco.

I bought some young gold nugget mollies from the store today and am treating them for ich (preventative). They will be in quarantine for at least three weeks. At that time I will check if they are healthy enough to put into my display tank.

[JE47]

It looks really cool! Great job! I have yet to venture into livebearer territory but I will some day soon

[FyaNyan]

JOURNAL ENTRY #3

Well, the new fish all died. Except one. He’s not looking the best but will perhaps make it. Sad day. 😢

The fish all died at the same time and suddenly. Didn’t appear to be ick, maybe they got zapped?? I don’t know. I’ve got a Fluval M series heater but I did accidentally (lazily) leave it running while doing a water change for like a minute. Perhaps it got broken.

I am going to set up a larger QT bin, use a different heater, and make ABSOLUTELY SURE I was dosing meds correctly. There’s so many factors as to why they died that it’s very dissatisfying. Hopefully I can correct the mistake so I can actually see them through QT.