An Aquarist's Journey

[Anita]

On 4/11/2021 at 5:47 PM, H20CultureLabs said:

@Anita 

ありがとうございますア二タ先輩！こと立山知らなかった、今私はしります！これcrayfish名前の立山富山にです。

(Thank you very much Anita-senpai, I did not know about Kototateyama, but now I do! This crayfish is named for Mt. Tateyama in Toyama.)

あんたの幹事上手ですよ！私の幹事は上手じゃありません。

(Your kanji is skilled! I am not very skilled in Kanji)

So much fun to type some 日本語 in this forum!

初めまして @H20CultureLabs！敬語を良く分かりますね！でも、上下関係の事を困りましたね。アメリカの名前そのだけ下さい。

MicrosoftのIMEキーボードは漢字を上手に出来ます。日本語や英語で書道をまだ下手で書きます。どうぞ宜しくお願い致します。

[Nice to meet you @H20CultureLabs! You are so polite! But giving me a title is a little embarrassing. Please use my American name without the honorific.

Microsoft’s IME keyboard is skillful at writing kanji. My handwriting is poor, in Japanese or English. Warm regards.]

琴立山  Kototateyama [Zither-like Standing Mountains]

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Anita

[H20CultureLabs]

Just a quick pic of single tank water change this afternoon. Not having to carry a bucket around makes water changing so easy.

[H20CultureLabs]

Another picture of one of my photogenic E. evergladei males. The iridescence of their aquamarine is otherworldly; very similar in appearance to the blue of a morpho butterfly.

[H20CultureLabs]

I built a new egg trap yesterday and found eggs in it this afternoon! I think these are CPD eggs, but I won't know for sure until they hatch. Enjoy!

[H20CultureLabs]

Here is the egg trap in the aquarium with my Golden White Clouds and CPDs.

[H20CultureLabs]

Loads of eggs this morning! Let's see how many fry will hatch.

[H20CultureLabs]

A quick update on the rack. No fry yet, from that last hatch, but the water they are in is very, very green, so I'm uncertain if any have hatched yet. The crypt beds are looking amazing and I'm excited to slowly replace the pellia with pink crypts!

[H20CultureLabs]

Also, if you have never done it, co-culturing Moina and Neocaridina is amazing! The moina keep the water crystal clear and provide an awesome snack for badis, elassoma, and other small fish!

[H20CultureLabs]

Here's a fun project from tonight, let's build a worm farm!

In one of my shrimp tanks, I have a huge population of detritis worms. Since the Elassoma and the Badis love them so much, I've decided to culture them. 

Now that I've upgraded my brine shrimp hatcher to the Ziss one, my San Fran Bay one has been sitting idle; no longer! Here's how I repurposed it. 

Edited May 16, 2021 by H20CultureLabs

[H20CultureLabs]

I had some Matala mat lying around, and I cut it to fit one of the many "to-go" containers I have lying around. To this I cut a hole in the bottom so the bubbles could find a way out of the media. The idea is the worms will cling to the Matala mat and if I want to remove the culture, I can grab the to-go container and pull all of it out. 

[H20CultureLabs]

Here are the worms I am seeding it with, and the second picture is the finished product! I'll let y'all know how it goes. I'll probably put some salvinia floating plants at the top to prevent the water from fouling. 

[Hobbit]

Nice! Very curious to see how it goes. 

[H20CultureLabs]

I got a new toy today! Honestly, I'm now 100% on board with using a bag-sealer. I havent shipped anything with it yet, but the professional seal it makes is next level!

[H20CultureLabs]

Got some methylene blue today, lets try hatching some eggs again!

[H20CultureLabs]

Update on the eggs. 48hrs, no hatch yet, but no fungus either, which is a huge plus! We'll see if we get any hatch!

[H20CultureLabs]

Exciting finding in the methylene blue cup today, wiggler fry! No idea which species they are, but they are TINY! You can even see their small yolksacs as the buzz around the cup!

[H20CultureLabs]

More wigglers today, they seem to be doing well! I've diluted some of the methylene blue now that the eggs have hatched. 

I made an interesting discovery today. In one of my egg traps, I noticed I was having large amounts of copepods and daphnia in it, which didn't make sense to me since the white clouds and danios in the aquarium should have eaten them all. On closer inspection, I found the source of them; Tateyama the crayfish's pvc pipe cave! You can see in the attached picture the daphnia hanging out just above him. 

For people into making refugium and microfauna, it seems that some fish will not go into tubes to hunt prey, which can act as a sort of incubator for these microfauna. I hope this discovery helps someone else out there!

[Hobbit]

1 hour ago, H20CultureLabs said:

On closer inspection, I found the source of them; Tateyama the crayfish's pvc pipe cave!

Really cool! Do you think the crayfish has anything to do with why the fish won’t go in there?

[H20CultureLabs]

@HobbitThat probably has something to do with, I also imagine the microfauna are eating the crayfish's waste as well. I bet a similar system could be done with dwarf crayfish and smaller pipes for a higher overall yield. 

 

[H20CultureLabs]

The mixed Golden White Cloud and CPD wigglers were transitioned from the methylene blue "incubator" into the green water "nursery" today. Lets hope many of them survive. I counted at least 25 at the bottom of the cup; there could be more in there! Every single one of the "black dots" you see are eyes from a single fry. Hard to believe how tiny they are!!

Edited May 16, 2021 by H20CultureLabs

[Hobbit]

That green water 😍

[H20CultureLabs]

@HobbitI feel very lucky as I have never had much trouble growing green water. I find keeping a dedicated backup culture really helps. 

[Hobbit]

Do you feed it a lot of fertilizer or do anything special with the light?

[H20CultureLabs]

@HobbitThe light is a 60W equivalent cool white LED bulb from the hardware store. I pour in Osmocote, about 15 grams worth, to get the culture going and then add more if it starts to lighten. 

Basically, I do not think it is possible to have too much light for greenwater. 

Edited May 16, 2021 by H20CultureLabs

[H20CultureLabs]

Another beautiful Elassoma fry picture. I need to pull these soon to try and get my Badis to breed again, but I love watching them too much. Its fun to watch them prowl around and display to one another. In many ways they are like tiny, underwater peacocks.