What did you do with your tank(s) today?

[DMD123]

@lloyd378, turns out the mini pellets I have work perfectly. I just have to feed slowly or else they fall and get missed. I bought a small canister of the mini kelp pellets for these guys and will use it up on the community tank when they outgrow it in a couple weeks. Then I have the small kelp pellets on order from Kens to start their next food phase. Problem like with the big pearsei is that not many choices in a good floating plant based pellet that is medium/large sized.

 

[Madness]

@lloyd378, turns out the mini pellets I have work perfectly. I just have to feed slowly or else they fall and get missed. I bought a small canister of the mini kelp pellets for these guys and will use it up on the community tank when they outgrow it in a couple weeks. Then I have the small kelp pellets on order from Kens to start their next food phase. Problem like with the big pearsei is that not many choices in a good floating plant based pellet that is medium/large sized.

Spirulina Grain Free Crumbles

Is made with fresh locally sourced food from the USA. Farm fresh USA grown spirulina and not dried spirulina is the backbone of our grain free limited ingredients diets

www.yourfishstuff.com

 

[DMD123]

@Madness, thanks for the suggestion. I need to look and see if they have a product in a vegi based formula that would also feed them at larger sizes too. I think I have enough of the small stuff for the next couple months. They are at that stage where they should put on size pretty quick.

 

[DMD123]

Cleaned two more garage Aquaclear filters and then disaster… I knock a filter off my table onto the concrete floor. Of course the plastic on the Aquaclear being so brittle in nature ends up cracking and even the motor is not salvageable since the mounting tab broke, ugh. So off to Petsmart to replace that filter. Still have one filter I want to clean but going to wait till tomorrow when Im fresh and not so klutzy. Only silver lining is that I have a couple spare parts now, lol.

While at the Lakewood Petsmart I look at the fish selection and very pathetic. This used to be one of the better ones in the chain for having a good all around selection and well stocked. Ever since the new tank layout, they have been very lame. The Lakewood Petco is now the better choice of the two box stores.

 

[John58Ford]

Pulled a couple dozen juvenile mystery snails out of my tanks and got to go see @sir_keith. Highlight of my day hanging out in the fish room before driving my mother in law to the airport in Seattle-Tacoma's classic traffic.

 

[lloyd378]

Well, fishguy1978 warned me this would happen…. 2 out of the five rainbow cichlids I have paired up and are wrecking havoc on my live plants ( I never thought they would get to this size as they are in with my wolf fish and I figured he’d eat them before this). Anyways, now all of my guppy grass is floating.

I think I’m going to move the rainbow cichlids up to my bedroom 75 with my fire eel and my tiger Oscar , but that will be a project for another day. Here are some pics….

 

[Madness]

After I got home from work I took advantage of the dry weather and performed a full Fish Room water change day. Also pulled out the inhabitants of three of my QT tanks so that they are empty and ready for tomorrow's new additions. Three very rare Colombian wild-caught Festae. Update photos tomorrow when I get home

 

[fishguy1978]

Well, fishguy1978 warned me this would happen…. 2 out of the five rainbow cichlids I have paired up and are wrecking havoc on my live plants ( I never thought they would get to this size as they are in with my wolf fish and I figured he’d eat them before this). Anyways, now all of my guppy grass is floating.

I think I’m going to move the rainbow cichlids up to my bedroom 75 with my fire eel and my tiger Oscar , but that will be a project for another day. Here are some pics….

View attachment 11493View attachment 11494View attachment 11495View attachment 11496View attachment 11497

There are some nice spawning surfaces in there!!

 

[DMD123]

lol, @fishguy1978 and your rainbow cichlids. They are everywhere now! I saw a tank full of them on my last visit to Petworks in Olympia.

 

[fishguy1978]

lol, @fishguy1978 and your rainbow cichlids. They are everywhere now! I saw a tank full of them on my last visit to Petworks in Olympia.

It was very satisfying to get them moved and free up some space. I've almost completely moved the BNPs out too.

 

[sir_keith]

lol, @fishguy1978 and your rainbow cichlids. They are everywhere now! I saw a tank full of them on my last visit to Petworks in Olympia.

That's one of the problems with excessively fecund cichlids: you saturate your own market. I was supplying all the LFSs in the Princeton area with Haplochromis burtoni (now Astatotilapia burtoni) early on in the 'African Invasion;' they were easy to sell initially because no one had ever seen them, but less than a year later I couldn't give them away because they were everywhere.

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[Madness]

3 newest members of the fish room

 

[DMD123]

The dominant Bocourti... at this point almost looks and acts like a pearsei. Very greedy little eaters without any fear of me sitting in front of the tank watching them eat.

 

[DMD123]

Morning water changes in the garage. Nothing special, just cleaning.

 

[DMD123]

The Fluvel Flex 32.5 has been running for a bit now and seems to be okay but the intensity of the lighting is still a cause of high algae growth. I will need to go into the bluetooth settings yet again and try to get it in check.

The existing sponge system leaves much to be desired and there are many diy solutions to try and upgrade this along with aftermarket companies making some expensive media baskets ($55 x2). I found plans for one I liked if you had a 3D printer. Well my brother happens to have one so I asked him to make me one to try. If it works well then maybe a second one.


Like the big removable media basket on the bottom and can put filter floss or sponge up top

 

[fishguy1978]

Got to stop by and see @lloyd378's fish garage. Fun time talking big fish and puffers.

 

[DMD123]

Just came to a realization… how did I end up with so many pleco poop machines? Seven, and some babies too, lol. Have a rhino, an L001, L200, L200 hi-fin, albino bn male, albino bn female, a calico bn male, and a couple baby bn in the 46.

I came to this realization when I was figuring where to move fish. I want to put a pleco in with my Bocourti growouts and am thinking the L200 in the 46 would do well, or the hi-fin from the oscar tank. I originally was thinking to rehome the L001 but Im loving the color and pattern on it and think it would be a perfect fit with the oscar long term.

 

[sir_keith]

Had a great visit with @John58Ford and his boys yesterday, who delivered another batch of Gold Mystery Snails for the great Tanganyika experiment. Spent some time in the fish room, but most of our time was spent down on the beach, fussing with my oyster bags and digging clams. Thus inspired, dinner turned out like this-

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[lloyd378]

I moved 4 rainbow cichlids to my 75 gallon puffer tank which left 1 in my planted 75 tank ( which is good since they were destroying plants).

I noticed yesterday that a pair of rainbows were guarding a couple of shells . Upon closer look, there is fry hiding out in the shells. The parents were being very protective and nipping at both the other rainbows and also the puffer.

Well, today, I came out and found the male of the pair missing his whole back half. He was dead and floating. I think the puffer got tired of the nipping
.

I did just recently have 3 other fish in with him for about 4 months and they never even were chased, let alone bit in half.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the rest.

 

[lloyd378]

Rehomed my 9” male Rio blanco RTM today as he just doesn’t get along well with others….. I moved him to my 220g as I wanted to free up the 125 for the fish coming home for the summer from my classroom and my wife’s office. He lasted in that tank for less than 24 hours before making his first kill.

Since he previously killed four female rtms, it was time to let him go to a better home who might have better luck with him.

I also swung by AP and found a cute little tiger shovel nose cat (3”) to grow out and live with my Lima shovel nose.