29 + 10 planted

[nirbhao]

Regarding the 10 gallon:
Tested parameters again last night and had .5ppm ammonia. 0 nitrites, though, so that's something. 50% water change and now water is almost completely clear. We'll be getting some of those stainless steel mesh guards soon.

 

[nirbhao]

Regarding the 29 gallon:
The fish look so pretty under the SAD light. It's way too intense for anything more than a few minutes (ten effing thousand lux), but wow do they glitter!

Fast Sparkles laid eggs on a little bridge decoration, kind of in a corner. Neither she nor Stubby has eaten them yet, which kind of surprises me. Her ovipositor is still a bit big, so maybe she's still laying? When she's over the bridge, she sits a bit sideways and curled up. She's fine while swimming elsewhere.

The two of them were outright attacking our dwarf gourami, although the stupid thing kept going for the eggs. I put bloodworms in the far corner, but nope, he wanted those eggs. He's in a 5 gallon bucket until I sort that out.

AND as I am typing this, Silvery jumped out of the bucket. He is not my favorite fish. Enjoy your towel lid.

Not a long term solution.

I don't want to be a breeder, but I do have a guy who buys babies (even if he doesn't pay well), so it's not as if they would have no place to go. However, the male is a balloon, and I worry about the genes he will pass on. I genuinely was hoping that I could count on the bad parent characteristic, and maybe that will still happen. Blarghety.

 

[nirbhao]

Regarding the set-up as a whole, I need to do some rearranging. I would be interested in insights.

Right now the thinking is to divide the 10 gallon and move male guppies there.

We have the 29 and 10 gallon tanks. Our stock is as follows:
· Blue ram pair
· Male dwarf gourami who will hopefully survive
·7 Harlequin rasboras
· 2 mystery snails
·4 nerites
·1 Japanese trapdoor and a couple of her babies
·3 rabbit snails and a couple of their babies
·Guppies

One female guppy is the dam of three of the males and one of the females. That daughter was born with a bent spine and so must remain virgin. We recently added an unrelated male and female. It seemed like the mother, Sunny, doesn't like her daughter, and so we wanted to give her some company. We assume that she's pregnant because she came from a tank where males and females were together. We got the male because he's so stinking pretty.

The fry are slated for the menu in the 29 gallon. I'm okay with having a slight population increase, but I don't want any other pregnant females.

I also need to sort out what to do with Silvery, given that he didn't consider vicious attacks a deterrent to eating the rams' eggs.

 

[nirbhao]

Okay. Serious question-
What if I make the 10 gallon just for the ram pair and trapdoor snails? Everybody else could be in the big tank. The snags are keeping the one guppy virgin and pH at or above 7.5 in a CO2 injected tank. Not minor.

 

[coralbandit]

If you ever want to raise ram fry you should pull the eggs and artificially hatch.It is easy as all get out. I say you should do this if you ever want to raise ram fry because they breed for EVERYONE!!! Every pair I sell breeds within 1 week of arrival in their new home.No joke....
They are just one of those fish that are pretty difficult for even an avid fish keeper to raise to sellable size or in any number that has double digits. This is part of what has driven me so hard with the rams for over 3 years now...No joke on that either!
I got em down now but I got help from other members and it took LOTS of 'practice'...
I keep one pair in a 10g and they are just fine...They are bigger then my GBR in 40b and breed as often if not more...I like keeping the rams[both GBR and EBR] in dorm like set ups with multiple pairs in a 40b.
IMO th fish is so overbred that in 99 out of 100[if not more] cases the parents will not raise fry even with all the help one can offer....Ask me how I know this?
Raising GBR fry you only need first tank for fry like a 5g if you can sell them before they are 2 months.After that a 10g is best.
I hatch in a dip and pour that I float in tank with parents.I save space ,heaters,lights all that.

 

[nirbhao]

Alright. I think I'll move the rams and the three male guppies that were born here to the 10 gallon. I'll move the three female guppies and mystery snails to the 29 gallon. Get the gourami out of the bucket!

Tomorrow I can see if I can trade a couple of male guppies for females, so then all the guppies can be in the 29 gallon.

I would love to breed rams, but I really just don't have the mental or physical resources for it. I'm disabled and I homeschool our six year-old.

She's made out of magic.

She helps me with the water tests, and she knows a ton about the different needs the critters have. Still, she resents water changes, and she doesn't like to feed the fish because she doesn't want to have to wash her hands.


Edit:
My plan is to put some water from the 10 gallon into a bucket and drip acclimate with water from the 29 gallon. I'll remove a bit more of the water, then siphon some directly from the 29 gallon to the 10 gallon. I'll trade some filter media just to cover my bases.

 

[nirbhao]

Silvery is pretty beat up. The snails are very happy, though.

I will be firing my ceramic trees this weekend.

I'll switch out the house. That skull has to go, too. I've got the pancuraji ready for one of the trees. I might move the subwassertang from the amphora to a tree.

 

[coralbandit]

She is precious and that tree is pretty sweet.
You got it going on there so enjoy!
Long time since I named fish!

 

[nirbhao]

She is precious and that tree is pretty sweet.
You got it going on there so enjoy!
Long time since I named fish!

She picks the names. Spot, Snaily, Bluey, Silvery, Stripey, Sunny, Friendy Friend, Happy, Glowy, Fast Sparkles, Stubby, Coral.... Oh my goodness talking about crushed coral in front of her! She turned completely white and asked why we would crush her. I love her names.

 

[nirbhao]

The rams have gorgeous color this morning, and everybody in the community seems happy. Good appetites and activity.

I do have some trace ammonia in each tank. Hopefully that sorts itself out pretty quickly.

 

[nirbhao]

Dinoflagellates or cyanobacteria broke my filter.

Ughhhhh

It's this light brown jelly. I initially thought it was from snail jelly, so I just wiped it up. But then it clogged and took a blade off the impeller.

Thanks, Obama.

So now I have an Aqueon Quiet Flow 10 with only BioMax and some quilt batting (and the sponge prefilter) and nothing else.

We ordered a new impeller through Amazon prime, which means SUNDAY.

The 10 gallon has an AquaClear 20, but I don't want to switch the two and get whatever this mess is in both tanks.

I turned the temperature down. I turned off the lights. I turned the air pump on.

The filter housing and its guts are in a bucket of water.

 

[nirbhao]

We have fry!

I'm pretty sure they're from Sunny, which would be great. Her last brood was in August, and she seemed to be in distress once a month between then and now.

I also put together my trees.

I've already decided on some improvements in future iterations, mostly surrounding attachment methods. I might remove the plants at some point to glaze them, but that would be as close to the glaze fire asput possible.

Removing the house was important. It didn't have a bottom, so all kinds of nasty stuff accumulated under it. I had to take it out with every water change, which was very disruptive.

 

[Caliban07]

We have fry!

I'm pretty sure they're from Sunny, which would be great. Her last brood was in August, and she seemed to be in distress once a month between then and now.

I also put together my trees.

I've already decided on some improvements in future iterations, mostly surrounding attachment methods. I might remove the plants at some point to glaze them, but that would be as close to the glaze fire asput possible.

Removing the house was important. It didn't have a bottom, so all kinds of nasty stuff accumulated under it. I had to take it out with every water change, which was very disruptive.

Congrats. Nice work with the trees.

I had similar problems with some fake caves/wood I had. Smelled a bit sulphurous when I pulled them out too.

 

[nirbhao]

I put some fry in with the rams, and they showed no intetest whatsoever. So they'll eat my baby trapdoor snails, who only have a handful of babies a year, but not the guppies, who multiply exponentially. No one else in the community tank is eating them, either.

Glad the guy offered store credit for fry once they are a saleable size. What is a saleable size?

 

[nirbhao]

Not sure what happened, but the harlequins suddenly became very dark and a deep red. Look at the purples-

That doesn't even come close to capturing it. It's stunning. They look like garnets.

 

[coralbandit]

Nice!
Could be breeding colors!
But seriously center pic looks like skinny male with egg heavy female in background...
There are 'purple' Harleys I believe...
They look happy....

 

[rsprangers]

Love love love your tree!!!
Kiddo is cute too
~Rachel

 

[TMaier]

We have fry!

I'm pretty sure they're from Sunny, which would be great. Her last brood was in August, and she seemed to be in distress once a month between then and now.

I also put together my trees.

I've already decided on some improvements in future iterations, mostly surrounding attachment methods. I might remove the plants at some point to glaze them, but that would be as close to the glaze fire asput possible.

Removing the house was important. It didn't have a bottom, so all kinds of nasty stuff accumulated under it. I had to take it out with every water change, which was very disruptive.

Like your trees! You should sell them! Wink [emoji6]

 

[nirbhao]

Nice!
Could be breeding colors!
But seriously center pic looks like skinny male with egg heavy female in background...
There are 'purple' Harleys I believe...
They look happy....

Yes, the purples were about twice as expensive as the originals. They are so pretty, though. None of the other fish are so reactive in their coloration. These guys usually get almost transparent during water changes. Hopefully not having to remove the house each time will be easier on the critters.

Love love love your tree!!!
Kiddo is cute too
~Rachel

Thank you and thank you!

Like your trees! You should sell them! Wink [emoji6]

Thank you!

I am looking forward to getting back into art professionally. If public schools weren't so closely reminiscent of that scene in 1984 where they show the babies roses in sunbeams, AND if an elementary school education at a private school wouldn't cost as much as my bachelor's degree, I would actually be able to work right now. Our little person needs a good education, though. She's my top priority.

That said, I do enjoy tweaking, and I have lots of ideas on how to improve these sculptures, so I definitely will be making more. I'll have to research how appropriate it would be to list that kind of thing in the classifieds.

 

[coralbandit]

That said, I do enjoy tweaking, and I have lots of ideas on how to improve these sculptures, so I definitely will be making more. I'll have to research how appropriate it would be to list that kind of thing in the classifieds.

You should sell these on this site no problem!
Members sell all sorts of stuff so I see no issue..
I sell fish here and on other forums....
I really like the trees you make also...I would buy one or more!
Too cool
And way to go with your priorities