What Did You do With Your Tank Today?

[Autumnsky]

Today got some new Guppy food from the fish store.

Yesterday though it was brought to my attention how the tanks on the tank wall - the placement was off. I tried to put the one favorite tank where it could be seen easily from all around the room but the
72G bowfront black stand next to the 30G lower 30G Waterbox white oak grain next to the super tall stand lagoon (more shallow) Nuvo Innovative Marine black just looked off.

Wrong shapes / colors / patterns, and heights just a mess!

So we emptied 2/3 water out of the freshly done Waterbox 30G, slid it across the floor. Emptied about 65% of the water in the 72G and slid it to another wall all together.

The 72 Can be seen when entering the house, it has a nice location. The tank wall at the end of the family room is tall 80G Nuvo Marine (4' wide) black tank and stand in the center, left is the 12G Edge in the white stand and right is the 30G Waterbox with nearly white stand with oak wood grain.

Very excited that probably next week that 80G is in the schedule to get built. The DW Cypress knees is still frozen into the kiddie pool. We are apparently getting Colorado winter weather in the 50's this week, and I will be able to get it the DW out of the ice pool, lol!

Moved the left over plants into the bucket to the 3G jar as I just didn't have room for it anywhere else.

Cleaned up my other messes.

Went to the lfs and wanted to get some Dwarf Cories and a few nice red Cherry shrimp but left empty handed in the creatures department.

In the Thai Bettas tank I added a few shrimp and saw three the other day, and they are mutt shrimp, clear and hard to see, so thought it would be nice to see some moving around. Maybe later.

 

[Inkdork]

I bought a 75 gallon for my goldfish... Lol.

They're currently in a 36 bowfront that I just bought a month ago. Accessories and equipment will arrive over the next few weeks and since they're not in immediate need of an upgrade, I can take my time with getting the new tank set up and cycled and looking nice.

 

[Autumnsky]

I bought a 75 gallon for my goldfish... Lol.

They're currently in a 36 bowfront that I just bought a month ago. Accessories and equipment will arrive over the next few weeks and since they're not in immediate need of an upgrade, I can take my time with getting the new tank set up and cycled and looking nice.

You are a hero for your fish, lol!

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Yesterday got my new filter, AC 70, I added the new media and the other media from the old tank, which was sitting there, then forgot to add water for about 12 Hours :/ Added it this morning. For the 30G Waterbox build.

 

[Autumnsky]

Could not get the light over the plant table and fish bowl to turn on. Almost a week I think.

Then after a few attempts of trying to figure out what the problem was, and found that after a few wires getting mixed up, was plugged into itself, and not an electrical plug - derp, not power.

 

[Autumnsky]

Ran into the local big box store to get a new air pump as the old one sounds like a rattle trap when turned all the way up.

Funny that on the shelf the Fluval Q2 (50-160G) adjustable flow rate, cost $46.99 and on their same store online it was $24.99! Pays to price match for sure.

It took 2 days to get to plugging it in and making sure it worked, and I had to turn around and check it to make sure it was on. So quiet, but also so big, I guess that is because it has a dual wall thing for helping it be quiet.

As opposed to the hand towel I cradled the very old, loud, rattling one in...

Moved 3 more male Guppies from the Waterbox Fry tank.

Added 3 and will add one more into the tank, as the half inch females already are preggo. And I would like some variety for the future babies, not all Snakeskin.

I did see at least one Purple female remaining in the tank could be 2 but they move around like a huge jumble, it is hard to keep track.
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My big ice pond melted and now the DW and Cypress knees are free and plunked down on the grass.

Will start getting the 80G tank set up, set up soon so I can get the water in the tank to keep the Cypress knees wet and hopefully waterlogged enough to not want to float.

AD store has
Chili Rasboras 3.99

AI store - and closer to me.
Chili Rasbora 2.99 plus buy 5 get the 6th free - plus they said they'd toss me something extra because of 2 trips coming (50 min drive one way) for nothing when the other batch was sick. Will head over there for at least 12 but hoping for 18 / or 20

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Needing to move the 5 WCMM from the 12G over to the 72G.

Make more room for when the Chilis will be able to go in there. Maybe looking for some additional Pygmy Cories, or some Stone Cats aka, Moth, Asian, Anchor Catfish (Hara jerdoni) as that tank doesn't have any bottom feeders.

Also will be planning son some new Mystery snails for the 72G when the Clown Loaches move to the new 80G.

BTW, also bought some Hikari Carnivore Sinking wafers (price matched in store and saved about 5-$6- like half price), they are small sized like a small pea only flatter, and the Clown Loaches LOVE them! And the other fish and Cories pick at them too.

My Coral Banded SW shrimp loves them too! Funny to watch him miss them as they drop and finally grab one! He gets quite excited.

Ordering some fenbendozole dewormer food (from Angels Plus) for the 2 sickly Guppies in the QT. Will order extra and do a random free drawing for a couple people (look for my alert when it comes in and in a couple weeks I get a chance to get it set to mail the samples out).

Thinking I will order antibiotic options too in a couple weeks (will have more fish $) as it is impossible to find in local stores and when one needs it, you generally need it NOW!

 

[earhtmother]

Autumnsky
I've admired Pygmy Cory from afar but wasn't sure I wanted to risk cash on something so small as all the ones I've seen were TINY. Well I finally bit the bullet and got some since I found them at $4 each instead of the $8 I've always seen before at a store I trust. The rest of my Cory herd get NorthFin kelp pellets and bug bites but even breaking the kelp into peices it still looks huge for these little guys so do you have any other tips on the care of these little ones?

 

[Autumnsky]

Autumnsky
I've admired Pygmy Cory from afar but wasn't sure I wanted to risk cash on something so small as all the ones I've seen were TINY. Well I finally bit the bullet and got some since I found them at $4 each instead of the $8 I've always seen before at a store I trust. The rest of my Cory herd get NorthFin kelp pellets and bug bites but even breaking the kelp into peices it still looks huge for these little guys so do you have any other tips on the care of these little ones?

Awww! Yes, they should like frozen defrosted worms (blood worms or tubifex) too or freeze dried. You can slice the cube to make smaller bites.

I'm allergic to bloodworms.

Just a public service announcement - as some people can be allergic. Choke up, eyes swell, can have breathing problems and hives / welts. Wash hands after use.

 

[Autumnsky]

Since the 50 min. drive closest lfs had Chili Rasboras, I made the trek to Boulder. On the way there called the other lfs to ask them about a couple fish if they had them, including Chilis, =just to compare. The store was maybe sold but anyhow had new management which cleaned it up and offered more nano fish and some nice stuff.

The person who answered was very abrupt and rude and basically hung up when he said they didn't have them. And I was planning on asking him about any Dwarf Cories but sorta got hung up on there. Very irritating. Not planning on going in there any time soon.

Anyway got a red tail female Guppy from the nice people lfs.

And a dozen little Chili Rasboras (Boraras Brigittae).

A circle cork bark and 2 slim Okho Stones for a little vase one for mine and one for a friend who we will finally make the planted moss ball jar/vase this week!

Plus they had frozen baby brine shrimp in stock so fed a bunch to the fish as a tiny treat, lol.

Checked on if they had any flake dewormer food. Which I didn't think they would and they didn't. Only a liter of Prazipro for like $58 which I passed on, for $5.00 worth of 2 Guppies. Will order online instead.

 

[Autumnsky]

This is the unbelievable blue body fish I like so much. Apologies, the pics on my phone look much more clear than this, so thinking the transfer over the the website left something to be desired...

And I had earlier added water and obviously did not wipe of the glass, what a torture to see those water spots, lol. Next time probably will remember to wipe of glass, probably.

The Japan Blue Lyre Tail

A little sass modeling pose

Was getting ready to turn around so the tail body doesn't look as nice but you can see the tail, so I kept this shot. Guppies swim fast most of the time!

The tail isn't in focus but it is nice and long...

The Yellow Albino Snakeskin will not sit still!

 

[Autumnsky]

Today.....

is the start of the Congo's Lazy River build.

sneak peak - snowy day

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f19/autumskys-lazy-river-styled-im-80g-370444.html

And, I caught the illusive male spade tail Cobra to go visit the females...!!! Yay Sneaky cup in the water with baby brine shrimp in it "trap".

 

[Autumnsky]

The tank looks pretty similar, though added a few brick pavers under the DW.

Added a few pieces around it. Looking at the set up and my previous dry build idea was too wide front to back to work.

Thinking I need to check around more for a few pieces which seem like Cypress knees locally. Shopped around online and saw a few possibilities.

Curious about the sand option. The one I already have or a new option.

My concern for planting is what to use in the back and keep the pebble sand and sand in front.

Also bothered that all the Chili Rasboras are hiding or ??? in the Hornwort mass, I do not think the Guppy was big enough to eat them..... Need to pull out the filter and look inside... doing that in a few min.

 

[Autumnsky]

The very sad news is that ALL the Chili Rasboras are dead, and the 2 ill Guppies as well. The big momma new Guppy is seemingly fine. The MTS were and had already gobbled up the bodies, only 3 little parts were under 3 clumps of MTS.

Due to the massive die off, I removed the Guppy momma and the snails I could grab (also some RH) and moved the Hornwort mass to the bucket and rinsed the media and filter sponge, and the sand which was a bit mucky.

Put it all back with the Guppy after acclimating a little to the new water.

Also checked the before water pH, the tap pH and the present new water pH and they were all near each other 7.2-7.4.

So disappointed. Glad they went to QT and didn't kill off my DT fish.

The only thing I did was add the heater when I did the water change. Water changed from 69/70F to 75/76F. Used prime and a drop of magnesium calcium as usual due to my low kH.

Might call the fish store and ask if their Chilis were noticeably sick. If they were I bet I could get a replacement. Otherwise I'm out of luck.

Big bummer.

On a more pleasant note, specifically fed the Amano shrimp in the 12G Edge a carnivore sinking wafer every several or so days the last couple weeks, and it got leftover baby brine shrimp / BBS. It looks noticeably larger and has a wee bit of an orange tint to it now

It looks like the male Guppies added recently to the 72G are doing well.

 

[Autumnsky]

All my river stones for the 80G are still - more like again, and again, and again, under snow. Thanks winter! So for now just sitting. Might wipe things out and try the pumps. Going to be checking out a couple different ways to use media for filtration.


The most exciting news today was that whilst feeding the fish, I saw 2, maybe 3 young male Guppies (or mixed with Endlers) with the long bars with the Cobra body pattern, and a blue sheen with bars on the tail like the Japan Blue Lyre tail.

 

[Autumnsky]

Here is the pic with the arrows In the tank while swimming the color is really coming up now.

Very exciting color and pattern

 

[earhtmother]

Autumn do you have any sites you'd recommend if I wanted pics & descriptions of the various Endler types?

 

[Autumnsky]

Not that I can recall. I have done lots of reading and hop scotching across the web. But there were a few really good articles I can look. One way is to start with posters of endlers from images on google. Then start looking for the breeders.

But knowing
N class is documented pure strain from location and waterway.
P class - pure not mixed but no papers of documentation of collected fish
K is hybrids
The main thing is it is hard to find pure and sellers say they are pure but people who know can see what looks like mixed traits.

There are posters for N class too.

Posters because there are maybe 20 - 48 pics usually with names.

 

[Autumnsky]

AdrianHD Endlers is on FB. I don't do FB but just saw it listed when I was looking him up
He was / is one who helped popularize Endlers.

 

[Autumnsky]

Autumn do you have any sites you'd recommend if I wanted pics & descriptions of the various Endler types?

Here - I have NO personal contact with the website and do not know about quality reliability or any thing else FYI, other than being a big presence in breeding and keeping.
Wild Endlers

There was another one or two sources of good info Will see if it pops up, I will share it.

Mostly it came from breeders and collectors and some forums from over 10 to years past posts.

Tunamanphd has or had Magenta Endlers. Really pretty! I wanted some but was trying to reduce number of tanks (forever - constant battle, )

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f25/magenta-endlers-363927.html

Resources would be local breeders whohave a line going, if you are able to, check in with an Aquarium Society, members generally share their information and often sell.

 

[Autumnsky]

earhtmother (and any others interested)- I have a friend who has a strain, I believe are P class and he has lots last time we talked in October about them. I had just bought a bag with males and and he told me he'd wished he had known because he had a whole tank of them. I saw them at his house and they were just like mine.

I think they are Red Chestnut Endlers. I started out to do a water change on the Wine glass tank where they live and ended up on the 30G Waterbox scaping details and other water changes.

The other big thing about N class is there are selective breeding projects from the N class fish which end up with a fish which can look substantially different from the originally capture parents.

So a found in nature look and a line bred variation, still being N class though I feel like it is really a different fish than the naturally captured because it looks so different.

Not that I don't appreciate line breeding, because I do!

Check out Ginga Rubra cross with Guppy dwarf fish and Ginga sulphureus.

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Today I spent a significant amount of time adding some small stones and beach pebbles incl. the tiny 2-3mm ones. It is looking very nice though I have a root looking DW which I am considering incorporating. And with the present DW on the left side it doesn't sit like I would want.

The 3 tanks (72G, new 80G and Waterbox 30) will get some shifting of plants and DW pieces. And the next should be the 80G .

The rooty DW is a delicate looking beautiful piece, and my thinking is it will end up being best in the 30G to show with it's size. That tank is planned to be a shrimp tank probably towards fall.

The Guppy Endler breeding for males for the 72G is going pretty nicely.

That was what got me side tracked. Removing about 6 more males to the 72G.

The new rule is... if the fish is 1/2 inch and not looking gravid, it gets moved to the other tank - little male! The smallest females are already having gravid spots. It is hard to believe! They were getting pregnant from the tiny males which all looked like little females.

So the newly added big males will be the better chance of passing on their gene pool. Why the fry males need to get the boot asap! Fingers crossed.

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Pwc
2G Thai Betta Phoenix
2.5G 12G Pencilfish
2G Endler Waterbox 30G
Wine glass 1 or 2G doing that one in a minute.

Added water to the SW and 72G

The new female Red Guppy in the QT is now in with the other Endlers /
Guppy in the 30G Waterbox.

New female Guppy with her new sweet suitor

Before the front stones detail work

And the pretty good for now view. Also the DW is not decoratively placed as I would like

 

[libertybelle]

Look who was back at my lfs!!

I looooove these guys so much.

Also I had a mini heart attack today because I fed my glofish tank frozen brine shrimp and put a tiny bit into the shrimp tank as a treat. Turns out there were some larger shrimp in the mix. Came back a minute later and saw three dead shrimp and my brain panicked for a moment before I realized what had happened.

It’s more than a little bit disturbing how excited my shrimp got when I put.... dead shrimp in the tank...