Wigglers At Last!!!!!

[Andy Sager]

Thanks Andy, It's a shame you don't live just a tad closer. I have family in Jacksonville and go that way few times a year.


I put a little gravel, heater and box filter in the tank and have it full of water now, time to start the cycle.


Also quick question. Any of you guys use prime? I had a bad experience with Amquel some years back. (it depleted oxygen and killed a few fish) and was wondering if prime did the same thin with O2. I prefer to cycle without chemical help but was just curious.

Well if you feel like taking a 3 1/2 hour drive, that's about how long it takes to get from me to Jax. Just let me know

I use prime all the time. Not had a problem with it. That being said, I never use my well water that hasn't either sat or been in the filtered tank for less than 24 hours. So I can't say that it has no effect if used immediately. The only times I do use it immediately is when I am treating my rainwater before using it as a partial water change so it's highly diluted in the main tank.

Hope this helps

 

[Karay]

Prime is an excellent water conditioner. Can't go wrong with prime. I don't think that it'll help speed up cycling a tank but does help remove the nasty stuff in tap water that will slow down a cycle.

 

[Autumnsky]

Color of tile???

Perhaps an odd question, but is there a color of tile which helps you see the eggs/babies better than others. I could possible take the time to try and figure this out myself but experience would be appreciated!

I would love to get the Koi pair a new tile tomorrow before I go out of town as it seems they don't care for the two rocks I have in there now. Well except for the one rock kind of has a concave shape underneath. But not acceptable for the eggs i guess. I thought they would like the convex side for the eggs

 

[delfisherman]

Just go a local tile store and get a long 3inch tile and thats what i use.

 

[Mr Fisher]

Just go a local tile store and get a long 3inch tile and thats what i use.

Any specific type? I see slate being mentioned lots of places but today while in home depot all I could find were porcalin




Went to one of the fish stores today that is interested in purchasing from me. Gotta say I was kinda disappointed. Store size and layout were on the not so good side. The angels they had in stock were terribly small and very dull looking.


And my adventure continued when I got home. The one fish I mentioned about being kind of not so perky looking on arrival still isn't so perky. He's sitting in one corner near the top and not schooling with the others. I also haven't seen him eat and his fins are slightly clamped. Three's no visible sign of a bacterial infection and the water parameters are near perfect. <.25 ammonia 0 nitrites 5 niTRATES. I figure from all the shipping stress his immune system may be weak enough for a parasite infection. I picked up some Prazipro from the LFS (18.00 OUCH) and have begun treatment. A couple hours after starting he's leaving the corner some.

 

[delfisherman]

I just go to home depot and get the 3x18 in tiles that i use in my big tank or stack 2 4in terra cotta pots and that works great too.

 

[Autumnsky]

Mainly I was wondering about the color,

dark brown maybe see the eggs good but not the wigglers

medium brown/tan maybe not see either one all that well

Cream or white not too well on the eggs but maybe better to see the wigglers

Anybody have a preference, or the fish care or ???

As a side note my 4 young Angels like the 72G tank but my one large Koi Angel is annoyed with them hanging out in his favorite spot. He is kinda charging & nipping at them!

Thinking of moving him over to the 37G with the pair who aren't really doing anything anyway??? Any opinions about that possibility?

 

[Andy Sager]

Mainly I was wondering about the color,

dark brown maybe see the eggs good but not the wigglers

medium brown/tan maybe not see either one all that well

Cream or white not too well on the eggs but maybe better to see the wigglers

Anybody have a preference, or the fish care or ???

As a side note my 4 young Angels like the 72G tank but my one large Koi Angel is annoyed with them hanging out in his favorite spot. He is kinda charging & nipping at them!

Thinking of moving him over to the 37G with the pair who aren't really doing anything anyway??? Any opinions about that possibility?

I'm currently using grey slate and red shale rock for breeding sites. I see everything just fine ( with a flashlight. ) You can also get 3" diameter PVC couplings ( the wide ones) and place them on some 3" PVC pipe so that they are higher in the tank and let them spawn on that. You'll see the eggs better and with the meth. Blue, it won't matter if you can't see the dead eggs. If you are hatching the eggs out yourself, just remove the coupling from the pipe and move that to your hatching tank.

As for "do the fish have a preference?",One of my pairs first spawned on a piece of slate. While the slate was in a hatching tank, I placed 3 other pieces of red shale that other fish had spawned on in their tank for them to use. I watched the female become engorged with eggs and not spawn on the rocks. I added the piece of slate back into the tank and withing a few hours, they were spawning on it. Maybe some have preferences? I have posted before about some of my pairs spawning only when they get the slate. The females to my 2 new pairs have spawned on everything from a plastic plant for one of them to trying to clean an internal filter from the other one. ( Both came out of the same community tank. lol) So all I can say is " Fish are funny!" I suggest, if you go with ceramic tiles, try to get a slate grey color.

As for your putting another fish in with your pair, I wouldn't do that. The new comer will most likely be mistreated or killed by the pair. Put him by himself in another tank if you have to but NEVER put another fish in with a breeding pair. If the pair isn't spawning on a regular basis and the fish are not too old, It's the habitat not the fish. I'd check into that if I were you

Hope this helps

 

[Autumnsky]

Well I moved him to the 37G and the other Koi Angels didn't like the intrusion, so I moved him into the 16G. Boy is he ever stressed out, me too.

I wish he hadn't of bothered the Angel babies, he didn't bother any other fish just them!!! Bratty Angel, didn't he know that one of them could have been a future mate???!!!

 

[Autumnsky]

Thank you about the slate info.

The pair are new about a year old and were spawning in the community tank with the 3rd wheel, the one of which we are having this conversation. But when I moved them to the 37G my heater broke and so maybe the change and the cooler water and different rocks caused them to stop! I have some petrified rock pretty much smooth, and the other stone is rough but got a nice curve to it, or so I thought .

 

[Andy Sager]

Looks like I was right on not mixing them General rule to follow: NEVER add fish to a tank with a mated pair of fish. The outcome is rarely a success.

 

[Autumnsky]

Looks like I was right on not mixing them General rule to follow: NEVER add fish to a tank with a mated pair of fish. The outcome is rarely a success.

Well they USED to get along

That makes sense I was just so panicked he would kill some of the little ones.

 

[Andy Sager]

Well they USED to get along

That makes sense I was just so panicked he would kill some of the little ones.

And Guppies used to be $1.00 per pair. LOL ( Sorry, I'm old and remember those days. )
I had a similar situation with my trio. After the first spawn together, the male would then go from one female to the other but not both at the same time. He finally picked a female and would have nothing to do with the other female when she was laying eggs on her own. ( She's now part of the 2 new pairs.) Things change, rarely do they go back to what they were. This really applies to fish.

 

[Autumnsky]

And Guppies used to be $1.00 per pair. LOL ( Sorry, I'm old and remember those days. )
I had a similar situation with my trio. After the first spawn together, the male would then go from one female to the other but not both at the same time. He finally picked a female and would have nothing to do with the other female when she was laying eggs on her own. ( She's now part of the 2 new pairs.) Things change, rarely do they go back to what they were. This really applies to fish.

Thanks for the primer! I had guppies in the early 70's...when I was a kid! Some of the most beautiful I have seen, there were some great breeders in Southern California, better than almost any I have seen in a store since!

 

[Andy Sager]

Thanks for the primer! I had guppies in the early 70's...when I was a kid! Some of the most beautiful I have seen, there were some great breeders in Southern California, better than almost any I have seen in a store since!

I couldn't resist. My grandparents always used the "And bread use to cost a nickle" line on me as they got older. lol

I had Hahnel Guppies back in the 60s. The most amazing Delta tails you've ever seen. And expensive too. ( My dad bought mine for $25.00 a trio. ) I haven't seen any like those since I left NJ.

Anyway, good luck with the Angels

 

[Andy Sager]

AAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH....
All my set up 10 gals are full, the only empty one needs to be sterilized, the temps tonight are going to be close to freezing and I don't have any extra heaters or sponge filters for the new 10 gals I just bought, my hatching table creaks from the weight of all the bottles and there's no more room on it for another bottle and just a little while ago, my new Gold Marble/ Silver veil pair spawned on a rock too big for anything but a tank ( 2 1/2 gals or larger) and my only 2 1/2 has fry in it already waiting to be moved outside when it warms up a bit. I hated to do it ( actually it killed me to do it) but I left the spawn with the parents I have about 2 days to get something set up for the eggs before they hatch. I really want to see a whole new veil variation on my fish. AAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH....

 

[Autumnsky]

AAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH....
All my set up 10 gals are full, the only empty one needs to be sterilized, the temps tonight are going to be close to freezing and I don't have any extra heaters or sponge filters for the new 10 gals I just bought, my hatching table creaks from the weight of all the bottles and there's no more room on it for another bottle and just a little while ago, my new Gold Marble/ Silver veil pair spawned on a rock too big for anything but a tank ( 2 1/2 gals or larger) and my only 2 1/2 has fry in it already waiting to be moved outside when it warms up a bit. I hated to do it ( actually it killed me to do it) but I left the spawn with the parents I have about 2 days to get something set up for the eggs before they hatch. I really want to see a whole new veil variation on my fish. AAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH....

Don't you have a floor?

 

[Andy Sager]

Don't you have a floor?

LOL. I live in an older mobile home and I barely trust the floor to hold me let alone a number of tanks The floor has a space between the layers so I can't even shore up the floor from underneath. I positioned my racks on the support beams of the outside porches so they hold a lot of weight. Can't do that inside. That's why I am building a building for the fish so I don;t have this problem anymore

 

[Autumnsky]

LOL. I live in an older mobile home and I barely trust the floor to hold me let alone a number of tanks The floor has a space between the layers so I can't even shore up the floor from underneath. I positioned my racks on the support beams of the outside porches so they hold a lot of weight. Can't do that inside. That's why I am building a building for the fish so I don;t have this problem anymore

That makes sense now! Building with extra electrical!!! Building, Building, Building, Buil-ding! And new electrical!!! Because electrical in older ones can be scary too, and small service panels, because all you needed was a toaster and a couple lights! ...but rolling gently on the floor!

 

[oscarchic11]

so my surprise wigglers became swimmers yesterday! they are soo awesome! already i can see variation in color with some being almost black, and others clear (im guessing they will be golds?) and my juvies are growing nicely since being moved to the divided side of the 55 when i gave the males each their own tank and will cycle females through to get variety. i really wish i could find a camera to show everyone the amazing fins on one of my first ever babies! pretty sure is a super veil.