Planted Breeder Tank Log.... Pics 9/28/06

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Lonewolfblue

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Jul 24, 2005
Messages
8,435
Location
Wenatchee, WA
Well, I decided to move 3 fish to my 10G planted with my Wisteria and other plants. I figure since the uptake is so high, I wouldn't see any spikes with 2 fish in the tank ultimately. I moved 1 baby female to the 10G, as well as a pair that was in the 75G. Right off the bat the pair started chasing the smaller female all over the tank. So I removed her and moved her to the 75G to possibly pair up with one of my other males in there. If she does, then I'll move them to the other planted 10G tank once I get it all planted out. Should be getting my new plants from Aquabid this week, as well as some from a member in this forum. So far so good. Here's a few pics of the first tank....

All I've done to this tank is dose nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, and traces. No CO2 and for lighting, 2 screw-in 20W bulbs.

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Tank looks great! What is that green foreground plant? Love the look of it. Good luck on your latest adventure :)
 
Yup, and not super high light either, probably lower to middle medium light. :)

kh 60
gh 60
ph 7.4

Wish I could get the CO2 working, lol.
 
I love your breeder tank. Mines just bare bottom with floating stem plants right now. Maybe I can set something like that up. What's the substrate?
 
The substrate is some extra Eco that I had left.

Guess what? After moving the pair to the tank the other day, I came home from work today and I have about 300 eggs so far, and she's still laying eggs, lol. Gonna let them try to raise them this time, as my other tanks have ammonia in them. But if they eat them, then next time I'll remove the eggs altogether. And they did make it tough on me, dug a pit right under the all-in-one heater, filter, aerator, lol. Now I'm gonna need to move that so the wigglers won't get sucked in. But since it's not a cycled filter, the plants are keeping everything in check, I might turn it off and just add a bubbler. But not sure yet. I may just move the filter horizontally along the top on the opposite end of the tank, and have the output going towards the eggs for circulation.

Can't get the camera in a good position either, lol.
 
Just out of curiosity, how do you keep the eggs/wigglers from getting 'lost' down inside the gravel? They are so tiny!! I've kept my breeder tank bare bottom so I can always see the fry and also because I was afraid they would get stuck in the gravel. 8O
 
Actually, the eggs stick to the gravel when the females lay them. As for the wigglers, they will be ok as long as the parents take care of them. So far so good. It's been interesting to watch. After she layed them, she ended up going to the opposite corner of the tank, and he was with the eggs fanning them. In the morning, he was still there, and she was still in the other corner. Then I got home from work, and she was witht he eggs and he was at the opposite corner, lol. Never both with the eggs at the same time, lol. Currently he is with the eggs, and she's at the far corner. And so they would get something to eat, I dropped in 2 shrimp pellets near the eggs, which occasionally he'll go and nibble on. I also dropped a flake in and she came up and ate it and went back to the corner. I put in 1 more flake, and she didn't eat it, so I took it out with my turkey baster. Gonna be interesting feeding them without ruining the water parameters, lol. They eat so little, lol. I'm used to putting a inch in and call it good, lol. But it's going to be fun, lol.

Well, the eggs are looking good. I'm thinking they should start hatching sometime tomorrow. Getting excited, as the parents seem to have a handle on things and aren't eating them. Will see what happens when they are wigglers, then fry. :)
 
Here's a couple more pics. I took out a small amount of ET and sent it to a friend. Also a couple Rotala Rotundifolia "Colorata". I also moved a short stretch of rotalas towards the right some, and there's another runner of Rotala Rotundifolia "Colorata" in the left corner and going through the ET. Looks quite cool, lol. The line you see that looks like dead ET, isn't dead ET, lol. It's the runner of the Rotala Rotundifolia "Colorata" going through it, which is actually red. Will see how many Rotala Rotundifolia "Colorata" I can get out of this. I also placed some ET throughout the open areas as well. And the whole time I was doing this, the male GBR was attacking me, lol. And the female was watching me with great interest. :)

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Well, when I got home from work, I was very suprised. The GBR's in my 10G were laying eggs again. After they finished, I decided to move the eggs this time. And since they did not use my granite, lol, I tried the spoon technique. I took a large spoon, and slowly took off the upper layer of substrate out of the pit, and transfered it to my other not so nice looking 10G planted. It's suffering from diatoms real bad, lol. But anyways, the transfer went great. If you have GBR's laying eggs in a fine substrate, I highly recommend using a large spoon. Then I took the spoon directly over to the other tank, which I had the temps matched, and slowly spread them out over the Eco in the other 10G, and have the filter output flowing over where the eggs are. Can't wait til they start hatching. I need more GBR's, lol.

And where they layed their eggs, was the front left corner, lol. They even ripped out some of the ET and dug a pit. Was a cool looking pit dug in the midst of ET. Looked great.
 
Man that's so cool. I'll be watching your thread for updates. I just updated my GBR baby book. My babies are growing like weeds and thriving. :)
 
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