Adventures in Fishkeeping or A Fish Tale

[TwoTankAmin]

I was just in the fish space where we have our extra freezer where I have frozen fish food. I needed to bring in and defrost the two Repashy mixes i feed, While I was there I figured I would check the caves in the two remaining pleco breeding tanks out there. The other 4 tanks are for growout or segregating for sale fish.

In the RB 236 tank there are two trapings in progress, one with a vibrating male. For any who want to be 236 spawners out there, that breeder group of for sale this year. (Shameless plug.) In the the super white 236 breeder tank underneath the tank above, there is one active trapping. I am about to do long a overdue water change and maint, on the WC L173 breeding tank which has a bunch of recent new fry in it. I wonder what the cave check there will reveal.

 

[fishorama]

Dang TTA, all your plecos are crazy good breeders!! Part is your magic well water & part is just good husbandry & having lots of active proven breeders. Like we've discussed before, fish want to breed! We just need to help them do that with good water, good food & good maintenance...& good fry care too.

You work hard with so many different species & variations...& a lot of tanks to take care of. But it would be much less for someone with just 1 species or variety. A breeding tank & a few (or several) grow out tanks...I'm not suggesting just "anyone" could do it, not a newbie or "slightly experieced" hobbyist project. But I bet many more really "experienced" hobbyists could do it too.

That's my shameless plug for you. I "could" probably do it on a smaller scale but you know my shorter term issues in the near future...drought, moving? etc...& shipping, especially in our hot summers now.

I know you have privacy isssues; I have mine too but less than you

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have to confess I backed into this. When I set up my first tank I could not have cared less if any fish I ever put into would breed.

I just di a slightly lated weekly maint. round on the 8 terrace tanks. I only have fish in 5 and 3 are still being dosed with ammonia to keep the filters cycled. A small box with a dozen pelcos is going out this week.

 

[fishorama]

Well, you need to get up to speed, man! Your health issues will be catching you up soon & you need some "wiggle room" in case those take up your time...What's the hold up in your terrace tanks? Cycling? Moving fish? Tick, tick, tick...As Nike says, "just do it!"(sorry that was a bit obnoxious but you know what I mean...)

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I start July 5. There will be 28 treatments 5 days a week at 3 pm every day. They do a dry run on Wednesday to get both sides ready.

I just shot pics of a dozen zebras a d a few TR 173 kids. I am getting readu to go out to the fish space and get pics of two groups of the true F1 L173 to list.

With luck, I will fill all the terrace tanks before the 5th. The only good part of that is when I break down a permanent tank to move the offspring to the terrace tank, I also clean the breeder tank so it comes off that weeks normal WC and maint. schedule.

Part of the who treatmenyt thing and the prep is that they tend to create fatigue. Turning off the testosterone does that as well. When I was cleaning the terrace tanks yesterday in 88F + temps and high humidity I had to take regular breaks inside. Yoday to set up the fish to box fast tomorrow I had to take a break between the two tanks.

Old age sucks.....

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Under the heading of "Strange but true."

The lady to whom I just sent 12 fish is somebody to whom I first sold plecos about 4 maybe 5 years ago. She has sold offspring from the first 236 I sent her. She is now selling my fish. To start this arrangement I sent her a box with 39 of my 236s.

This was a decent sized box and I packed 5 bags with the fish and one more with some plants. I double bag and use 2 mil bags inside and a 3 mil for the outside bag. I inflate them using an air pump and I knot the and use a pliers to pull the knot very tight. I do not use rubber bands. The bags are laid flat in the box and in two layers. I use bubble wrap and newspaper to fill spaces and then toe separate the heat pack(s) from the bags.

When the box of 39 arrived, the air was mostly out of juts one bag but there was enough water and the fish were all alive and well. All the other bags were fully inflated. I buy all my bags from the same source and have for some time.

The box I sent out Tueasday this week arrived in time. There were 6 fish for each of two species. They were packed 2/bag - so 6 bags. Again, one bag was deflated and a big of water had leaked into the 2nd bag. But the fish were all alive and fine. Again, we have no clue why that one bag deflated.

I have been shipping fish since 2003. I am in NY and have sent bristlenose to Alaska in April and they took 4.5 days to get there- all aliv and well. I am a pretty good shipper. I rarely lose fish which are delivered on time and not beaten up by the shippng company. I have sent fish by Priority and Express mail, via FedEx and UPS and airport to airport.

So these last two boxes havibg 1/6 bags deflate and then not losing any of the fiish in them is one heack of a mystery and coincidence.

 

[fishorama]

Maybe time to trim/file your fingernails, lol? Plecos spines? Were these "junior size" subaldults, adults or fry? Double bagging is supposed to prevent that (as we know), but maybe through the first bag layer? Could it be a temp thing? Oldish bags maybe? I've had plastic bags degrade in the garage after a long while, we get higher heat here than you but less cold by a long shot.

(shrug) I have no idea as you know. I've only gotten fish sent to me a few times; never sent any. Once was in "breather bags", looked a bit odd with lots of water but fish were fine. I don't recall if they were double bagged too, hillstream loaches have spines I think but they're small if they do, not like botias, plecos or many catfish.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

And the adventure continues. Despite 22+ years now of having tanks I am still seeing things for the first time. I have some of kens mini veggie sticks with calcium for shrimp. When I feed them the corys are also all over them. But what surprised heck out of me was what happened when I removed a large anubias on a tall driftwood from my clown loach 125 gal. because it was covered in algae and put it into the 75 gal. with a lot of amano shrimps, and assortment of tetras and danios and a y LF paleatus and 5 albino aeneus. I expected the shrimp to swarm it and go to work. And they did, But even more aggressive going after the algae were the corys. They were nibbling like crazy. I have never seen this before. My hunch is the algae also contained some meaty organisms as well.

The there was the case of the plecos in the Altum tank. I have had that tank for about 10 years but most of the altums did not last a real long time. Once I got the hang of it I got a disease that wiped them all out save one small youngster from the last batch I bought. I trades some plecos for bigger altums about 2 years ago ao I have had five ever since. When the very first altums went in I want more fish so a added a couple of Hypancistrus contradens, a cute spotted fish. They almost always were in hidi g in the rocks and wood pike in the middle of the tank. I rarely saw them so I never knew if they were both still alive.

Then one day I found a body and there could only be one. Now and then I caught a glimpse of it but it was never out in the open. A couple of days ago I found it stuck to one of the Poret cubefilters. I still looked quite pretty even dead as a doornail and stiff as a board. It did pretty well in that tank for a long time.

The final thing that happened just yesterday was that I got an email from one of the first people I sold true F1 L173 plecos to. He has about 20 fry from two different spawns. After spotting eggs/babies in one of my tanks my next favorite thing is to hear from somebody to whom I have sold fish that they spawned for them.

 

[fishorama]

Sad about the contradens, but 10 years is pretty darn good. They are very attactive fish. Were they adults when you got them? Might not have been a pair or you'd likely have fry with your great care & magic well water LOL

So you're a grand fish father once again! Congrats!

My aenus corys like to lounge on tufts of black beard algae (;( but true lol) & maybe nibble any food that goes in it. I don't think there's any food I've given they won't eat, maybe green beans... I got a sample of rice worms with my Repashy order, I bet they go crazy over them too. I'd never heard of them before, have you?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I bought 5 or 6 contradens and spawned them. And the contradens was more like 13 or 15. I sold them pr gave them away eventually but I kept the two which went into the altum tank.

I have a funny stiry about them and I cannot remember if I posted it anywhere on this site before.

All of the Hypans I have worked with have been B&W wormline or striped patterned. So I decided a change would ne nice and dots made perfect sense. And. of course, they spawned. As usual, I was space constrained and and I ended up with three offspring after I have gotten rid of most to the other kids. I needed a place to move them and I could not dedicate a tank for them. So I got this "brilliant" idea.

I had a grow tank for mY Hypancistrus L450s, a striped fish and they could not look more different than the contrradens so they should be easy to tell apart. Fast forward and there was a one day auction coming up not to far from me and I offered presaled to be delivered there and i also was putting some of my fish in the auction. A guy pre-ordered 6 L450s and I bagged them making sure not had dots and took them to the event. All went well.

Ffast forward a couple of years and I was a vendor at a weekend event nor too far from me and which I had sold at for several years. One Saturday I guy stopped by my tables and asked if I remembered him. It was the fellow who had bought the 450s. I said yes i remembered him and asked how the 450s were doing. He responded by telling me that one had turned out to be a contradens. Of course I appologized and explained how it had happened and, since had 450s at the event, I offered to replace the contradens with a 450 and that he was welcome to keep the contradens at no charge.

To my surprise he said that was not necessary as he liked the fish and was happy to have it.

The thing is, when fish are stressed they can lose their colors and parrterns The process of breaking down the 20L with the 450s and the 3 contradens was they were stressed byt it all and despite "making sure" I did not accidentally net a contradens by mistake, I did just that.