Fish at Bag End

[Hobbit]

Hmm I could try bringing them inside. (We don’t have a garage unfortunately.) They were inside at the beginning of the summer. But it would look messy, and one of the ways I keep my husband from getting too annoyed at this hobby is by keeping things looking neat. It could be a temporary solution! But I’m honestly thinking about throwing some rice fish in them and keep them outside over the winter. It would let me keep growing plants to sell, at least for a few months.

[Hobbit]

Well, yesterday I took more plants (20 anacharis bunches, 9 hornwort bunches, 2 water wisteria, 1 water sprite) to my LFS. I got $25, which is just over 75c per plant! 😃

The owner’s sister was there doing maintenance and let me come by when they weren’t technically open. (Though she lets any customer in if they happen to come.) She told me that when she’d texted the owner saying I wanted to bring plants, he said, “Oh anything she brings is great.” ☺️

And she confirmed that they’d love to take lots of platys when they’re ready! 🤩

I decided to put the baby platys through the “med duo” (skipping the antibacterial) to see if it would help their fins. I noticed some gill redness and flashing as well, so I thought I’d go for it.

Not sure if they healed on their own or if it was the meds, but it’s been a week and they look much better!

I also decided to test something I’d read—that ramshorn snails are hermaphrodic, but not truly asexual, meaning they need at least one other snail to breed with if they’re going to reproduce.

So I found the youngest snail I could and put it in the ricefish breeding tank. Yes, the one where I tried really hard not to get any snails whatsoever.

One snail would really help with the algae. Just one. If there’s just one, it probably won’t eat the eggs because there will be plenty of algae for it to nom. 

Can you see the snail??

I put the little guy in. One of the ricefish may have immediately swallowed it. Only time will tell I suppose!

I also have lots of ricefish fry in the old ricefish tank. The adults left behind plenty of eggs, and it seems there’s enough microorganisms in there to keep them alive. I’ve been supplementing from my own infusoria cultures, which I don’t feel like I have perfectly dialed in, and my microworm cultures. Some, but not all, are big enough to eat BBS, too!

Also is this my sixth lily flower? Seventh? I can’t remember 😆 I’ve been trying to find slightly different ways to photograph them. I didn’t come up with much. 😅

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I am terribly jealous of your Lilly flowers! I didn’t get any flowers this year. Here’s to hoping next year! Loved catching up on your journal! 

[Hobbit]

Well, it’s been a hot minute. I’ve been in survival mode over here—I was already operating at my margins before my husband broke his hip. We’ve had lots of family and friends helping us, but there’s only so much other people can do. Meaning my overall health has been in a downslide. Meaning not very much time for fish updates.

Here’s a brief summary of what’s going on:

I figured out I can siphon my tank water out the door! Unfortunately if I do it this way my cat can get out as well.

After much planning and effort, I emptied the outdoor tubs. I managed to break up the process so I could spread it over three days. I spent a long time sitting in a chair trying to net out platy babies (and adults). Thankfully there were no scary fry-eating bugs hiding in the substrate! #phew

I had a sponge seeding in one of the outdoor tubs, and when I pulled it out I saw a little tail sticking out one end, and a little orange nose out the other…

An adult platy had gotten stuck! She swam in there to hide while I was chasing them all and got totally stuck. I had to cut the sponge to get her out, but she did okay!

I’m just realizing I don’t have a full shot of the breeding tank with fish in it and I don’t want to wake up the fish, so I’ll just post this picture I took of setting it up:

Hopefully I’ll get around to starting a separate thread about the details of this setup. Suffice it to say: the adults are on the edges and the small fry are in the middle. I decided to do boys on one side and girls on the other to give the girls a break.

I also decided to take one tub and put it on the back steps to try to keep it going over the winter. I got as many platys out as I could, drained it to 1 inch of water, and got some help moving it. And and as I was planning all this, I saw something that might make me the luckiest nerm this fall.

My house has a hole in it!!

This old cable goes right though the wall and into the house to a little outlet plate.

Which means I can run an airline tube through it… which means I can pump warm air into my tub all winter… and I didn’t have to drill the hole myself! Because we all know what my husband would have thought if I asked him, “Can I please drill a hole in the side of our house??” 🤣 And this is how close it is to the tub:

Here’s what it looks like on the inside. It’s also conveniently hidden behind a chair.

Once the tub was set up again, I got my B selection of medaka out of the 5 gallon and took them out. I was going to film them swimming out into the big, beautiful tub full of lush plants, but instead they just sat inside the specimen container like this:

Eventually I got tired of waiting and dumped them. They seem happy now that they’ve settled in. 😄 

Back in the house…

I have so.

many.

platys.

That’s the middle compartment September 28, the day (or the day after) I brought them inside. From the still picture I counted over 120. The larger fry went in a 10 gallon along with the 60 or so I scooped up a few weeks ago before taking the tubs down.

Now of course the females have kept having babies (though at least some of them absorbed their pregnancies when they got moved—sorry ladies 😕) and the babies have kept growing.

So now there are even more!!!

I estimate I got around 300 babies out of those tubs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I have at least 400 now.

Aaaahhh!

Some of them are having problems with bloat, which I think is just due to being overcrowded. I’m monitoring water quality and I ran everyone through two doses of ich-x and paracleanse when they first came in. I was unsuccessful using maracyn to treat a similar-looking case of bloat in one of the medaka (they got fairly overcrowded before I took some out to the tub on the steps). It could all very well be bacterial but I’m sure keeping the crowding down will be much more successful than treating the whole tank with antibacterials and killing the cycle while I’m at it.

The good news is that I’m going to take the biggest fry to my LFS on Thursday. Phew!! I just hope they transition well to their hard water. The tubs got really really soft over the summer, so I’ve been keeping them at a sort of middle-ground (middle-water?) inside: pH 6.8, KH ~40, ~GH 50. Tonight I raised them to pH 7, KH ~60.

Oh and my female pleco is going to POP OPEN she is so fat with eggs. The male has picked the driftwood cave as his cave of choice, but I’m concerned he hasn’t had success because the female can’t fit in there. 😆 Poor clueless dude! And poor female!

This is one of those seasons where I feel like I’m barely keeping on top of anything, let alone my fish tanks.

But at least my lily flowered again! (yes after I moved it!)

Edited October 20, 2021 by Hobbit
I always have to edit my posts, don’t worry about it 😄

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Everyone looks great - a plethora of platys! For the plecos ive had success with getting them to switch caves by putting something yummy in it like a wafer or slice of cucumber or zucchini. I think it’s almost Pavlovian. Congratulations on getting the transition to fall completed. This weekend I’ll finish my last tub preparation.

[Guppysnail]

Looks great. My male never traps my female.  She goes in and out many times then lays when she is ready. Dad loosely guards the entrance when she lays. He just started letting the batch 4 babies out. I’ve seen pictures of them laying on the side of logs if no cave is available so I would not worry.
 I have the same door cat issue. I tuck my intake hose under the door near the opening and close enough that they can’t get out and sit something against the door heavy enough they can’t move it but light enough I can move it. 
take time even a moment for some self care. Hang in there! 

[eatyourpeas]

Looking great! Don't forget to pause and breathe. It is the one thing I myself keep forgetting. 🙄

[Hobbit]

Oh rats—ORD, probably from reading the meme thread last night. 😄 But thanks everyone. I’m finding that getting enough sleep and eating enough food helps—which I knew before, but I always seem to have to re-learn. 🤪 And breathing too @eatyourpeas!

@Beardedbillygoat1975 looking forward to hearing how the tub prep goes! 

@Guppysnail Oh good, I think I’ll just let them do their thing then. @Beardedbillygoat1975 I do have a pleco cave from the coop in that tank, but one of the yoyo loaches has claimed it. The plecos could totally kick him out if they wanted, since they are definitely the bosses of the bottom! But I don’t want to initiate a forced takeover if I don’t have to. One thing I’ve thought about is taking a little scaping spatula and trying to dig out some gravel from the log cave, but it sounds like I need to just leave them be. Maybe the female just isn’t attracted to the male’s stubble and is waiting for him to grow a real beard. 😆

[Chris]

That was a good read!

I love how big all of their bellies are - I'm a heavy feeder, so it's nice to see some other fishkeepers who keep their fish fed like they can't say no!

[Hobbit]

On 10/20/2021 at 7:50 PM, Chris said:

fishkeepers who keep their fish fed like they can't say no!

Ah yep that would be me. 😄 Thanks!!

[Hobbit]

A few days ago I posted a separate topic for the full story of my new platy breeding setup:

Honestly I thought the story of getting a million fry would surprise no one, but it sounds like the number of platy fry I got actually was more than normal. It was my first experience with livebearers so I thought a population explosion was to be expected. Well… I guess I’ll count my blessings? Or maybe just estimate them. 😄

I just had my one year anniversary on this forum. 💖 I cannot overstate what a blessing it’s been. I would not be having a quarter as much fun with this hobby if it weren’t for you all. Having other nerms to be excited with, whether it’s over my tanks or your tanks or some random thing about tanks, makes all the difference. And at a time in my life when I’m fairly isolated, it’s so nice to have some online friends. 🥰

My forum-versary coincides with my birthday! That was totally a coincidence—me coming here had nothing to do with my birthday one year ago.

Needless to say, my birthday gifts were 100% about fish. Including this perfect cake my husband got for me. Sums up our life pretty well.

I also got a coop gift card, a lab/kitchen cart to wheel 5g buckets around, some twin wall polycarbonate greenhouse siding to make tank lids, a Dremel for various fish-related projects, and some aquarium light risers. It was a great haul! The coop order should arrive either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Some of you may remember that I had a ramshorn snail unroll (how that happened is still a mystery). The forum named it Squidward, and since it got a name, I knew I had to give it a bowl of its own so I could make sure it doesn’t starve or get eaten by a muderous platy. The forum would NOT be pleased with me if I let anything happen to Squidward! 😅

So today I drove down to the dock in our neighborhood and picked up some driftwood and rocks. The rocks came out of the drainage ditch. But we paid our HOA dues this year so I feel okay taking a few cents worth of rocks. 😄 

I have this 1 gallon vase/bowl thing that will be Squid’s new home.

Everything was looking great until I added water. Then my beautiful piece of driftwood turned into a giant ugly monster. So I rearranged.

Now I’ll just let it sit, do a few water changes to get rid of the dust, and add some plants… and then Squid will get to explore its new home.

Squid also has a little blue shrimp buddy that I got as a freebie when I dropped off my platy juviniles at the LFS. Should the blue shrimp be named Gary? 😄 

Also, here’s a picture of my cat because she’s too cute:

Edited October 31, 2021 by Hobbit

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

HAPPY FORUMVERSARY AND BIRTHDAY HOBBIT!! 

This forum is definitely a nice outlet for us Nerms. 

Squidward's new home looks like fun. Glad they get special treatment (not that I'm surprised! 😃 )

[Guppysnail]

Happy forum-versary and birthday 🎊. 
I don’t get out much either and I don’t know any in person folks who enjoy fish so your sentiments on this community are spot on for me as well 😁. 
Squidward and Gary’s new home looks adorable. My unique Aqua kids always get special treatment too so I’m glad you are loving Squidward up. Yup kitty is just too cute 🥰

[Hobbit]

Thanks @xXInkedPhoenixX and @Guppysnail! I feel blessed to be able to call you friends. 🥰

[Hobbit]

I’ve been pretty absent from the forum lately. It’s been a busy/draining week and I’ve been using my downtime to just vegge. (Not sure how you spell that 😄) I probably won’t be around every day until I get my feet back under me.

I’m planning to bring some more baby platys and medaka to my LFS tomorrow! Hoping to earn $50 since I’ll be bringing a few adults, too. I’m going to start saving the best babies and rotating in new broodstock.

I had to toss the nice piece of driftwood I picked up for my 1 gallon vase/bowl. Turns out it was charred!

I also had a crummy doctor’s appointment (doctor was nice but he couldn’t help me) that I had to drive an hour each way for so it took up my whole day. But at least they had a fish tank! The loaches all came and wiggled with my finger, just like my loaches do at home. 🥰

[Patrick_G]

Congratulations on your forum anniversary and happy birthday! (I’m a little behind on this thread! 😆) 

Your snail vase looks great. What kind of plants are you putting in there? 

[Hobbit]

Thanks @Patrick_G! I’m going to add a cryptocoryne tropica and anubias nana, and I’ll try some hydrocotyle tripartita “Japan” but I’m sure it won’t make it—right now the bowl only gets light from the windows. I may add a light later but I want to see what I can do in pretty low natural light.

[eatyourpeas]

Happy birthday, an anniversary!  🙂 Just catching up, but I wanted to wish you well.

[Patrick_G]

On 11/8/2021 at 4:35 PM, Hobbit said:

Thanks @Patrick_G! I’m going to add a cryptocoryne tropica and anubias nana, and I’ll try some hydrocotyle tripartita “Japan” but I’m sure it won’t make it—right now the bowl only gets light from the windows. I may add a light later but I want to see what I can do in pretty low natural light.

We have a shallow no tech, ambient light bowl with Ludwigia Repens that’s doing pretty well. I wouldn’t go out and buy any but if you have clippings it might be worth a try. 

[Guppysnail]

I find that plants on the angles that receive some direct sunlight thrive even better than those that get the most intense aquarium light. I hope you are pleasantly surprised with thriving plants from natural light. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@HobbitYou’ll be surprised what natural light can do. I’m excited to see what happens with your snifter! 

Happy anniversary and birthday! Sorry to hear about an unhelpful healthcare experience. 
 

[Hobbit]

Thanks for the well wishes and suggestions everyone!

Good news: I brought way more fish than I expected to my LFS, so I decided to ask for $100. And… I got it! 🤩

[Patrick_G]

Way to go! 😁 I hope you bought some fun stuff with your windfall! 

[Hobbit]

Well, it went into the breeding budget which is still quite a bit in the hole. So no fun stuff, but certainly a fun experience. 😊

One thing I got with my birthday gift card was the coop brine shrimp eggs. I am pleasantly surprised to find they TOTALLY live up to the hype! The hatch rate and separation is amaaaaaazing. 🤩

I also put an old window panel on my outdoor tub and it’s keeping the temperature a good 5-10 degrees higher than it was before.

One more thing to hoard for your fish: old windows! 😜

[Patrick_G]

I like the cover on the tub. I’m considering covering my goldfish pond.