Fish at Bag End

[Hobbit]

@Patrick_G I’ve been really happy with it. There’s always lots of condensation under the glass, which I’m sure will grow algae after a while, but it’s worth it to keep some of the heat in.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Hobbitbrilliant upcycling of the window screen. Also congratulations on the $$$ from the LFS! 

[eatyourpeas]

I came across this cottage on the road, with a chicken coop! All I could think was @Hobbit sitting inside having tea and enjoying her tanks! It appears to come with AWC!

Edited December 2, 2021 by eatyourpeas

[Hobbit]

Aww that’s super cute!! Although I think I would get dizzy in that house. Nothing straight up and down 😵‍💫😄 I’ll take the tea and all that stonework and the working water wheel though! 

While I’m here I’ll do a brief tank update:

• Outdoor tub looks pretty quiet. Haven’t seen the medaka in a while. Not sure if I haven’t been feeding enough or if they’re just hibernating at the bottom. We’ll see in spring I guess!
• Platy breeding setup is going strong. Not too many new babies, but that’s okay. I need them to slow down!
• I moved the adult medaka into the grow-out tank that I emptied when I sold my last batch of fish. Now I’ve got several little wrigglers in the old tank and I’m trying to keep them alive with infusoria. I also bought some materials to try to make an automatic infusoria feeder.
• The 55g display tank is doing okay. I really want to switch out the substrate. I feel like the fish and the plants are surviving but not thriving, and the whole tank would benefit from a re-do. Dad Fish made a tiny bubble nest for the first time this week and tried courting one of his daughters. They’re getting bigger than him! Oh and I put one platy in the 55g: a blue girl with a bent spine that I’ve named Ziggy. She was the first bent-spine platy I noticed, and even though I’ve culled all the others, I wanted to keep her around.
• The bowl for Squidward is doing great! It’s my cat’s favorite water source. No lights but the occasional direct sun late afternoon. 

[Guppysnail]

I just love that Squidward has his own little home 🥰

[eatyourpeas]

On 12/5/2021 at 1:24 PM, Guppysnail said:

I just love that Squidward has his own little home 🥰

He is so cool looking! 😍

[Patrick_G]

The bowl looks great. It’s fun play around with ambient light tanks. I’m impressed with how well plants can be grown without any electricity. 

[Hobbit]

It’s been a fun project! And now that Squidward is a little bigger it looks like his shell is actually growing in an unrolled shape, rather than having been pushed out of shape somehow. So maybe I will get little baby Squidwards!! 😍

[Hobbit]

I dropped off close to a hundred more platies at my LFS yesterday. They still had at least 20 of the group I brought last month, and they’d mentioned things have been really slow for them, so I decided to just give them the platies as a Christmas gift. We’re having unseasonably warm weather here, which can’t be helping them.

Unfortunately, my blue platys don’t look very appealing under their lights and against their bright blue backgrounds. The ones they hadn’t sold were mostly the blues and a few light orange ones.

I’m wondering if I need to give up on the blue line altogether and try something red or yellow instead. Maybe a swordtail? Only if I can find something that’s pretty small.

I really like the blue line, but if I can’t get rid of the babies, there’s no point breeding them. 

I also rescued two orange baby platys form the adult side recently. So tiny!

The mom platy gave birth in her anacharis enclave rather than on top of the fry slurper (predictable, since she spent all her time in the enclave). So I think most of the babies got eaten. Here’s a picture of the enclave while a blue platy was living in it:

The enclave is now being deconstructed! 😈 But in stages so she doesn’t totally freak out. 😇

[CalmedByFish]

That's a very pretty blue platy! Bummer that it doesn't show up as well in the store.

I actually was looking for blue platies online, just last night. What I was finding had a lot of black on them, but I was looking for ones with little to no black - much like yours! Too bad we're not neighbors. ❤️ 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Honestly, when I saw the picture (of the LFS leftover) I thought, wow what a beautiful fish. 

Edited December 18, 2021 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Guppysnail]

Blue is less common. I would have thought even though they don’t show as well against the background they would have sold better. 

[Hobbit]

Aww thanks everyone. ❤️ They definitely sold some blues, but they sold all but one of the orange ones. I think it’s like what Cory says a lot—it has to pass the grandma test.

@CalmedByFish I got my blue spotted platys on Aquabid, so if you haven’t looked there, I’d recommend it. I would say they had less black on them than the picture showed 😄 but that’s okay with me! It’s possible the black spreads as they age, too.

Maybe I won’t entirely give up on the blues. If I can get a line going of entirely blue wags, at least they’ll all have black fins, which will help them show up. The trick is it takes them several months for their fins to turn black. *sigh* Do I need even more grow-out tanks? 😜

[PineSong]

I like the blue platies and it's a shame they don't look as good at the store--maybe they should showcase them in a tank with dark substrate and background!

I have blues (my favorite platy color) that I am breeding with a green lantern because I could not find a blue male. Because there are some silver females and also some orange tux females in the same tank, I guess I will be finding out what happense when those mix with the green lantern male, too.

I would love but have not been able to find solid red platies (without wag pattern making tails and fins black) anywhere local or even on Aquabid. I have one male like that but have found no females. I think the very intense red color would be popular with the grandma test set.

[Hobbit]

Keep us updated on what colors you get! One of my blue platy juveniles has a red tail and it looks pretty interesting. I have no idea where it came from though. My best guess is an orange firetail sperm must have gotten slurped up through the fry sorter, then pulled through the matten filter, and ended up impregnating a blue female on the other side. I don’t think the parents have ever been in the same area, even for a moment!

[CalmedByFish]

On 12/18/2021 at 10:53 AM, Hobbit said:

The trick is it takes them several months for their fins to turn black. *sigh* Do I need even more grow-out tanks? 😜

I don't know how old my original red platies were when I bought them. But about a week ago, when they were somewhere between 8-12 months old, a few suddenly had faint horizontal stripes running the length of their body. A few days later, all of those original fish turned a more vibrant red, in a matter of hours. (What?!) The stripes and deeper color have stayed. Then just yesterday, at least 3 had an obvious bright blue tint to the fins on their undersides, plus 1 had the blue tint on the bottom edge of its tail. I have no idea what triggered these changes.

On 12/18/2021 at 9:00 PM, PineSong said:

I would love but have not been able to find solid red platies (without wag pattern making tails and fins black) anywhere local or even on Aquabid.

I looked for "dwarf red coral platies" online, off and on, for at least 6 months before I found some. The site had a phone number, so I texted it. Turns out, that tank was about to be taken down, so I spoke up just in time. When you do find some, be ready to pounce. I have no idea if that person has reds again, but I'll PM you a link to the website, so you can at least keep an eye out. Maybe you could even text to ask.

[laritheloud]

I'm on the verge of going to this LFS and picking up those blue platies myself. Just waiting for the 20 gallon to cycle...

[CalmedByFish]

On 12/19/2021 at 11:55 AM, laritheloud said:

I'm on the verge of going to this LFS and picking up those blue platies myself. Just waiting for the 20 gallon to cycle...

The same lfs? If so, that's way cool!

[laritheloud]

On 12/19/2021 at 8:31 PM, CalmedByFish said:

The same lfs? If so, that's way cool!

Yes!!! I suspected which shop it was when Hobbit alluded to it in another thread. I typically frequent 2 LFSs near me, and the one Hobbit takes her fish is the one I go to a little less frequently but who I would absolutely trust to take any fish I've bred or can no longer take care of myself. Small local shop who accepts and sells mostly locally-bred fish. Selection is hit-or-miss, but the fish are always very healthy.

I have wanted blue platies for a long time, though, so I'm really hoping I can take on some of Hobbit's babies next time I'm up that way!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Hobbitthe blue is very reminiscent of some of the wild-types I have seen. Like everyone else I love the sparkle. My LFS was pretty clear with me recently that solid colors sell and encouraged me to breed more solids vs wag or snakeskin etc.

I will DM you the name of a good breeder on Aquabid for the Platys. You continue to innovate your breeding setups which I think is so fun. 

 

[Hobbit]

Yeah, I think your LFS is right that solid colors might be the biggest sellers. But it just doesn’t seem nearly as fun! Thanks for the DM! 

[Hobbit]

Update on the tiny orange platys. I’ve seen at least 4 at once in the middle compartment, so I think two of them actually did make it into the fry slurper. 😀

I have still never seen a livebearer drop fry. I have purposely avoided watching any videos because I really want to see it in real life first!

[Guppysnail]

Watching them drop in person is a very different experience than the videos. I sometimes feel bad for my girl because I stare at them while they are delivering. I have probably given them a complex 😝🤣. 

[Hobbit]

Haha yeah I’m pretty sure they don’t want me to watch—probably why I’ve never seen them!

[Hobbit]

When I my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I said I wanted help with fish projects. Particularly I wanted his help making lids for the tanks, and his help changing out the gravel in my 55 gallon.

He has now spent the last 20 minutes rinsing gravel for me and gathering supplies.

It’s happening!!! 🤩😃🤩😃🤩

Say a prayer for my fish—they’re going to be stressed!