Diary of the 10G GBR/Bolivian Grow-Out Tank w/pics 7/22/06..

[Jchillin]

That last pic is really good. Looks like a teenie Bolivian as far as I can tell.

 

[Guest]

Yea LWb how do you feel about shipping to Texas. LOL save me 5 or 7. Of any sex. I don't care. LOL There lookig great guy. Oh yea Hey I'm back did you miss me.{ NOT } LOL

And to Crazyred. Mine breed in the same Texas hard water.
My tank reads PH 6.5
GH 300ppm
KH 225ppm
I agree with LWB the STABILITY in the water is the biggest key to breeding GBR's. Messing with the water primes is more of hurting facter then anything. With GBR's it's not really a good thing to mess with a stably pair{s}. The PH is the only thing to really work on. GBR's will spawn any just about any water prime with a low PH level. Once a pr has forumed. It's just up to them to breed are not no matter the levels of GH,KH.
I've had them spawn in soft water and in hard water, tap water and RO water. With a PH of 6.5 to 6.9 never had them spawn in a PH of higher then 7.0. Once you start messing with the water primes they are so senctive you could kill them really easy. So what ever you do { DO IT SLOWLY }.

OK LWB, when can I expect mine???????????????????????????? LOL LMOA
Also on what age to ship them. I've shipped Kribs as young as 10w before. There relly more likly to make it at 3m. Seeing as how there GBR's as we all know there pretty sensetive. But at a young age there not really water senstive as they are at a older age. For some reason when I ship mine out at a younger age. I have less deaths do to adjusting the water prime for the transfer to the new tank.
I've had them go from fry tank to new tank with out even adjusting them to the new tank water. But after 4 mouths on totally differnt then shipping at 10w. Just a little input don't know if that'll help with when you'll deside to ship or not. Here's my record with shipping them at 10 to 12 weeks old 100% lived, At 4 1/2 to 6 months 75% maded it.
IMO they ship better and adjust to new water prime better at a younger age. But the only down fall is can't sex them at that young of age.

 

[crazyred]

LWB, when I get my tank disaster straighted out, and I'm comfortable that I won't be killing any more fish, I want some of your GBR's. Mine did SO well in my tank until, I guess, I introduced a mystery illness when I added the rummynose and cardinal tetras.

I'll seriously give you a good price and pay for shipping....just let me know. I def. trust your stock to healthy and hormone free. I think I'll be ready by the time your are old enough to ship.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Yea LWb how do you feel about shipping to Texas. LOL save me 5 or 7. Of any sex. I don't care. LOL There lookig great guy. Oh yea Hey I'm back did you miss me.{ NOT } LOL

And to Crazyred. Mine breed in the same Texas hard water.
My tank reads PH 6.5
GH 300ppm
KH 225ppm
I agree with LWB the STABILITY in the water is the biggest key to breeding GBR's. Messing with the water primes is more of hurting facter then anything. With GBR's it's not really a good thing to mess with a stably pair{s}. The PH is the only thing to really work on. GBR's will spawn any just about any water prime with a low PH level. Once a pr has forumed. It's just up to them to breed are not no matter the levels of GH,KH.
I've had them spawn in soft water and in hard water, tap water and RO water. With a PH of 6.5 to 6.9 never had them spawn in a PH of higher then 7.0. Once you start messing with the water primes they are so senctive you could kill them really easy. So what ever you do { DO IT SLOWLY }.

OK LWB, when can I expect mine???????????????????????????? LOL LMOA
Also on what age to ship them. I've shipped Kribs as young as 10w before. There relly more likly to make it at 3m. Seeing as how there GBR's as we all know there pretty sensetive. But at a young age there not really water senstive as they are at a older age. For some reason when I ship mine out at a younger age. I have less deaths do to adjusting the water prime for the transfer to the new tank.
I've had them go from fry tank to new tank with out even adjusting them to the new tank water. But after 4 mouths on totally differnt then shipping at 10w. Just a little input don't know if that'll help with when you'll deside to ship or not. Here's my record with shipping them at 10 to 12 weeks old 100% lived, At 4 1/2 to 6 months 75% maded it.
IMO they ship better and adjust to new water prime better at a younger age. But the only down fall is can't sex them at that young of age.

Hey, we all missed you...

Now my problem is telling the difference between the GBR's and the Bolivians, lol. Both are in the same tank, lol. I knew I should have started with 2 tanks, lol.

 

[Guest]

This see they r right at 10 to 12 days old so let try this. Bolvines should have a flat face with wide body by now. The GBR's should have thinner body with round face at there age even the bolvine should start showing the trde mark bull dog face. Give that a shot. Then if that's not it I know at 4 weeks i can tell. let me know lWB if that helps.

Crazyred, I beleave you signed up for my site. LOL if so cool look forward to seeing tank and pictures on there. I need more menbers. LOL Lots more. LOL It's new only a month or 2 old so give it time.

 

[crazyred]

yes, I did join. I've sent you a PM

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Well, I'll have to take a closer look tonight. The Bolivians hatched on the 10th, so they are 10 days old for sure. The GBR's hatched a few days earlier, so I'm guessing they are 12-14 days old. Not sure how many GBR's are in the bunch, as I only had about 50 eggs to start. And I've also had some dead bodies, 4 so far. So out of over 250, that isn't bad so far, lol. 98.4%.

Update:

Not looking so good. They seem to be dropping like flies. Not exactly why. Checked my levels, 0ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitrite. Will check nitrate shortly, but I don't think it will be that bad. Did another PWC tonight, a small one. Also cleaned the pre-filter, was getting pretty dirty. But not sure why they just don't seem to be making it.

 

[FreshwaterJeff]

That's too bad - I hope the die-off ends quickly and your fry get back to thriving again...

 

[Guest]

I call that weeding, alot of time the weaker of them will just drop. I have some Apisto red tail agiss that's hit that stage now also. Just out of nowhere they start droping off. It starts with 2 or 3 then 5 or 6 and ends up at aroun 10 to 12. Before it like cycles throw. So good luck.

 

[maxwell1295]

PICS!

Where are the pics?!?!

 

[Lonewolfblue]

LOL....

Will get more pics here soon. They just haven't grown much more yet, was going to wait maybe another week and see how things go, then get more pics. I'm hoping to get my 2nd 10G this weekend, and will transfer most of the water over, and then the remaining babies, with just the glass bottom. Then will clean up the mess in this tank, as the gravel and couple small plants is just covered in diatoms. Kind of an ugly sight, lol.

 

[Guest]

Congrats on the survivors! You must have been excited.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Yup, I was pretty excited. But with the number that didn't make it, kind of makes me mad, lol. I want to do better. But there is one great thing, you learn by your mistakes, right? lol. Next time I'll be a little better prepared, and if I can get the setup for tank-to-tank, won't have to worry about PWC's, as the water will always be cycling through the 10G from my 75G. As soon as I get my stand that I ordered, will find out exactly what I will need to make it happen. And since you aren't doing PWC's to change the water parameters, maybe I'll have a better success rate. Isn't experimenting wonderful? LOL

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Update:

Here's some more pics. Will keep updating them as they get bigger. They are now all swimming in a pack, both bolivians and gbr's. This morning, there were 14 in one group swimming together, and a few others scattered. So here's some new pics....

 

[crazyred]

I'ven never seen such teeny tiny fishies!!! Platy babies are small, but they seem a lot bigger than that. Perhaps because they're born alive. If you had to guestimate.....how many of each do you think you have at the moment?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I would probably say 4-5 GBR's and 10 or so Bolivians. Will try to get a more accurate count, as it's more manageable now, lol.

 

[crazyred]

That's a pretty good number...hopefully you can get them to full grown.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

It's still hard to count. When I tried counting, I saw even more, lol. But I'm pretty sure I have at least 6-7 GBR's in the mix, and about 12-14 Bolivians. lol. There's just so much algae in the tank right now, as I had upped the lighting. Also being over-run by snails, lol. Should have left the few plants out and bare-bottom. But as soon as I get the next 10G, will use most of the tank water plus some new, and move the current filter over, and clean this tank out completely. Then will put in Eco, which I'm getting today, and plant it out as soon as I get the plants and rock, etc.

I'ven never seen such teeny tiny fishies!!! Platy babies are small, but they seem a lot bigger than that. Perhaps because they're born alive. If you had to guestimate.....how many of each do you think you have at the moment?

They are pretty big now compared to right after hatching, lol.

Edit:
Here's more pics......

 

[Guest]

Lookig good. The bolvines should of out growed the GB's by now even thou they where bron later then them.

 

[rich311k]

Cute little suckers. Glad everything is going well for you Wolf.