Getting ready for the holiday

Done a water change today and cleaned the filters ready for the holiday. Although a late evening water test still showed the nitrates as between 10 & 20ppm - so still too high for my liking.

Cleaned both filters - not touched them for 2 weeks, which is a good indicator. The small one was dirty, but not really toobad. Especially considering it had been put in with used filter pads. But the large one was basically clean. About 20% of each pad was dirty, the rest spotless. They should last the holiday!

I've set up the old tank for the huge number of danio fry and added a couple of algae covered rocks from our local store. Will set up an airline before too long as well. Need to try to keep this lot alive longer than the previous lot! They lasted 2 weeks after spawning, well this lot need to last at least 3 weeks to be alive when I get back from holiday!

Maintenance - 20% water change; nitrates still high teens ppm after change; set up tank for baby danios; both filters rinsed; 1 foam and 1 polyester pad changed in fluval 2+.

Danio Fry Galore

Noticed last night that the danio eggs had started to hatch - one of the two I'd caught had hatched. Then managed to catch another 20 or so fry throughout the day - all have joined their sibling in the glass jar.

Danios at it again...

2 of the female zebra danios are being pursued by up to 4 leopard danios and I've recovered at least one egg, although no idea what to do with it at the moment! Only 8 days until I go on holiday.

Also, a records with the shrimps - one has carried the eggs for 14 days - hoping they hatch and some survive...

Off for a break away, so that's about it for today & tomorrow - more desertion of the Guppy babies!

AWOL Danio

The female Panda Cory that I noticed wasn't well a week ago might actually be making a recovery. She's been out a little more this afternoon and the marks on her side seem to have subsided. Likewise, the male Guppy is a little more active.

But what is strange is that the Danio who has been misbehaving - swimming vertically at one point - is missing. He's nowhere to be found there's not even a dead body. I've ripped out most of the plants and ornaments in turn to see if he is about, but I just cannot find him. I wouldn't have thought that the snails would have eaten the entire fish - bones included! In the past the most I've witnessed is the fish stripped to a skeleton, and that was a small Neon.

Maintenance - 20% water change; old filter running in tandom with new filter.

The troubles plod on...

Neith of the 'sick' fish are showing any signs of their 'conditions' improving, although the female Panda Cory did appear twice - around feed times, although I hadn't added food - and hunt for food. The male Guppy continues to hide away.

And now there's a leopard Danio that's acting strangely! His colour, I've noticed this evening, has paled off and he doesn't seem to be able to hover without sinking. Maybe some infection that is affecting his swim bladder and mucus?

On a brighter note, 2 shrimps are now bearing eggs. Maybe one can go to term and produce some baby shrimps - which will probably be food for the rest of the tank!

Splitting out the Guppies

The female Panda Cory continues to plod on. She was eating today, but she is still very thin and worryingly so. Chucked in another load of bloodworm this morning. The Corys are loving this new daily diet!

The male Guppy was also looking quiet, but later on did perk up. There wer probably 2 danios spawning today - I think all 4 females have spawned this week, they are all looking thinner and not about to burst. But the result was that not many fish, apart from the Corys, wanted feeding this morning. Full of fresh eggs, I suppose. I'll keep my eye out for babies hanging around next week!

I've also removed 13 female Guppies to the second breeding net. I found one near dead and another small one with most of its tail bitten away. The near dead one died at lunch time. I dropped it into the main tank as feed, but the larger fish tried to eat it and spat it out. So I suppose the larger males, and much larger females, are probably safe from the hungry mouths.

With nearly all of the females removed - there are a few smaller ones that seemed to know to hide with the males, it should be less stressful for the males. More space for them all, and 2 nets for the danios to hide behind.

The nitrate readings are back up to 20ppm. A bit disappointing, since I changed water mid week. I do need a few decent bunches of plants as areas are looking thin, but apparently the plane bringing the plants in on Wednesday didn't turn up, so we are without new plants in the whole area!

I have bought the Fluval 3 Plus filter. Almost twice the capacity of the Fluval 2 Plus, so should keep the water cleaner. Although I've not plugged it in yet! I'm changing the water tomorrow so I'll need to move a few bits about. The only space where there new filter could fit in (it's a lot longer) is right over the air curtain. I was concerned that the filter would suck in the air bubbles and produce micro bubbles if positioned there...

Maintenance - nitrate 20ppm; 13 female Guppies into separate breeding net.

I'm worrying again...

I'm worrying again. When does this become a peaceful hobby? I suppose when everything settles in (I thought they had done) and I'm not so attached to the fish.

Well, the Danio Fry that was released into the main tank seems to have survived the night unscathed. He seems to be swimming around happily. But someone has taken the biggest nip yet out of our male Guppy's tail. A good portion of the top has gone.

But what I am worried about is the female Panda Cory - she's suddenly very quiet and looks like she has a couple of marks on her side. Just like the Albino Cory did when it started its demise. And that lasted for 5 days!

So I've done a 20% water change and cleaned the filter and removed the last 'fern'. Kicked up plenty of dirt doing that! Also, I'd not added salt for a couple of changes, so in case they are wounds on the Panda Cory I added ½ teaspoon of salt to bring the salt levels back up. I worked out that 20% would have been lost in the change at the weekend, and then a further 20% of the remaining 80% with this water change, bringing it down to 64%. (Wonderful maths!). So ½ teaspoon seemed a little conservative, but I didn't want to overdose them!

Maintenance - 20% water change; filter cleaned; ½ teaspoon salt added.

Never the twain shall meet...

The Guppy fry seem to have separated into 2 groups, except when I'm feeding them. I'd noticed a few days ago that there was a large variation in sizes and now we have half the fry at the bottom of the net and the larger fry swimming at the top. It only became noticeable because I moved the direction of the outflow of the filter, which meant that the fry were not getting as strong a blast as they had been.

It does look like most or all of the larger fry have gravid spots, whilst the smaller fry do seem to have the modified fin of the males. But it's funny to see the way they have separated themselves, but I suspect that I'm going to have to work out how to separate them shortly, else I'm going to be coming home to a dozen or more pregnant Guppies after my holiday (three weeks until I go...).

The sensible thing to do would be to get a small tank for the females and put those I'm not keeping in there - but I know what my wife would say... The fish are developing their colours well, and all seem to have their mother's eyes - totally, black, no white. They also have her black flecks on their tails, which are yellow (her's was red), which has probably come from my yellow tailed male.

It's a pity the other female lost her fry. They would have looked great as she is just a pale colour and should have taken his yellow well.

Also, we've finally let the Danio Fry loose into the main tank. He seemed to latch onto the Glass Bloodfin Tetras for some reason, and they didn't appreciate that. We darkened the room to give him plenty of time to settle in, but the lights were long since off, so hopefully he'll be OK on his first night in the full tank.

Maintenance - 'MadAlec' released to the main tank!

Just the one fry now...

We seem to be down to just one danio fry, or the other one is hiding extremely well. TO hasten its growth (before our holiday), I caught it and placed it in a small tub in the main tank. I'm hoping that the extra heat and plenty of light plus the smaller container (easier to find the food???) should help it grow quicker - in just over 3 weeks it will be tipped out into the main tank!

The plan is to get the baby up to a size that it cannot escape from the breeding net and then swap it over. Hopefully, that will ensure maximum growth and that equals maximum chance of surviving the mouths of the fish in the main tank.

Fed the main tank some frozen daphnia today. I'm trying to work out what made them spawn 2 weeks ago that hasn't happened since. The other 3 female Danios look ready to burst and the one that did spawn is getting there again. I was hoping something as simple as extra protein from thee frozen food might help. Although, if they do spawn then at the earliest the hatching would be Monday - giving only 3 weeks' growth before tipping them out!

The next batch of eggs I collect will be kept in the tub in the main tank to keep them warm throughout - and easier to look after. I'm hoping that helps the survival rate. If they do spawn before we go away, unless the hatching would be after we leave, it would be worth trying our best just as a learning exercise. And if it protects a few eggs or fry for a couple of days, then it might just allow one to survive. I suppose even dumping eggs in an empty breeding net and letting them swim out when they hatch might help some.

Maintenance - Moved new baby danio to tub in main tank

Shrimps mating and a danio fry has survived

It looks like adding salt may just have done the trick for the shrimps! I should know for certain in a few days, but I've seen the older shrimps swimming around with him mounted on top of her. Quite a bizarre act to observe!

Last time around it was three days after witnessing the potential shrimp mating that I noticed her carrying eggs, so I'll have to watch carefully from Thursday to see if anything has happened.

It's just a shame that if anything hatches this time around it will only be 12 days before my holiday! I can always move her to the small tank after a week and take that to my in-laws for them to keep feeding!

Speaking of the small tank, we have found at least one Danio fry swimming in there, possibly 2. We're planning to release the existing fry to the expance of the main tank some time this week, so his breeding net will be freed up for anything in the tank to be moved to - if we are moving the shrimp in... Not sure then what killed the others off - could have been low oxygen or high wastes if moving them and adding some water saved this one or two.

Sods law is that if it's going to work it will be this time - just before we go away. I expect the Guppy will also decide to drop some fry soon! I have been watching her tummy changes for 25 days...

Quiet day, after the various upsets! The Danio fry is doing well - it must be reaching 2cm, the size of some of the small fish that have been put in, so I'm expecting that we'll be able to release him / her to swim with the older fish later in the week. The last few days have seen a lot of growth there since it's been on it's own.

Likewise the Guppy Fry have also grown well since the Danio was removed to its own breeding net on Thursday. They must be around 8mm - 12mm each. I think at least one has a gravid spot showing and some have been showing black flecks for a few days and one is also possibly showing some yellow behind the black on its tail.

Aside from that, the Danio Fry in the spare tank seem to have died off completely. Next time I collect eggs, I'll have to put them straight into the tank, or at least move them over quicker. I'm guessing that they all died in virtually the same 24 hours because of water quality - too many small fish in the one small volume of water. If it had been lack of oxygen, the fry that were alive when I moved them should have survived as that would have aerated the water. Either that, or there wasn't enough food in the water?

It's a hard learning curve - but I'm sure with experience I'll get there.

Another departure...

Not a good day! Blackie, the paralysed Guppy, was ddead when I looked in this morning. No idea what has happened there - nothing on the other fish. Then I did a good clean with a 20% water change. This had been planned for morning, but got delayed until evening.

I forgot to aerate the bottle the baby Danios are in and it was planned that they would come out of there today - I was intending to use the water taken from the main tank to set up the small tank. When I got around to that nearly all looked dead. There are maybe one or two that are swimming about.

Also, the shrimps haven't carried eggs for a while. Was pondering that and researching what could have got Blackie when I found a few diseases for which the treatment is salt. I've had salt in the tank occasionally, not often. I first added it when the female halfbeak had a strange growth - so the 26 April. 15 May I noticed the shrimp carrying the eggs.

She lost them after a large water change (and low oxygen) and at some point recently I added salt again, and I'm sure it was after that both shrimps carried eggs. Then the last few weeks I've done quite a few water changes.

Maybe, just maybe, the shrimps will only carry eggs when there is salt in the water? I'll hve to watch for that.

Maintenance - O2 normal; nitrate approaching 20ppm; 20% water change; 2 teaspoons tonic salts added; baby danios to spare tank.

Nitrate reading down, Danios hatching

The nitrate reading is down more to where I like them to be - although normally after a 25% change I would expect them to be even lower. But they have dropped significantly, so I'm happy. The high nitrate readings could have been caused by many factors - the oxygenating weed dieing & rotting on mass; the filter getting blocked because the shrimps were molting in the bracket etc.

Not convinced the food rotting in the oxygenating weed that was released into the water could have done it, but removing it from the water will have helped stop the problem from getting any worse.

We've been desperately trying to measure the length of the babies - no luck yet! I'm going to have to photograph them again, I think!

I've seen the first sign of hatched Danios today in the bottle of water. I did count 16 eggs in there last week and can now see 3 fry at the bottom of the bottle, each about 4mm long. But they are so little that it's easy to miss them swimming around and as I move the bottle they swim off. Still, 3 wouldn't be a bad start - especially if they do spawn weekly.

Also, I've found 5 or 6 fry swimming around in the tank - hiding behind the breeding net. Not the way I expected it to save their lives, but great! So I syringed them up and also put them into the bottle - I'm sure there are too many hungry mouths in the main tank.

It does show that once a few are spawning a couple of survivors should make it to a good size...

Maintenance - nitrate 10ppm; O2 8mg/l+.

The party's over...

Finally, I found a spot when the shrimps weren't partying in the filter bracket! Threee were still on the outside of the filter, but these did eventually move as I lifted it out to clean it. But it was a worrying time as they held their ground and I was concerned they might jump!

Then, when I was putting the filter back in, three shrimp were back in place cleaning the bracket... Had to shift them first! But once the power was back on the difference was obvious! Bits of dead plants were suddenly blasted away and trapped food (they weren't fed yesterday at all after the spawning) sent flying everywhere. The water is a right state, but moving well!

No spawning today, even though three Zebra Danios are still very plump. Maybe they aren't quite ready to start. I think I've got at least a dozen eggs collected, so will have to watch that for now. Should know more in a day or two.

Also, this afternoon we bought a breeding net - so the fry are in that. I'm hoping that by being in the same water as the main tank the wastes in the water are cleared away. Hopefully, cleaner water and better oxygenated water will encourage growth. Then in a week or so, there might be more baby Danios to join them.

Also, since our fish expert said there was plenty more space in the tank, we've added a female Peppered Cory as company to the male (?) Peppered Cory and a trio of Cardinal Tetras. It's getting to be a busy tank!

Maintenance - cleaned filter pads; bought breeding net and added 1 Danio fry and ??? Guppy Fry.

Danios Spawning

It's been a quiet week in the tank - just developing nicely! I was sitting with my wife's uncle watching the tank a few days back and he said he thought a few of the danios were ready to spawn. I tried to catch the fattest one last night to move her into a tank I'd prepared for her, but failed...

But this morning, another Danio, which my daughter calls 'Wavy', was being chased by 2 male Zebra Danios and 2 male Leopard Danios. I was watching them for 2 hours! I think they have just about finished and my oxygenating weeds, which were falling apart and ready to be replaced anyway, are battered by the amount of high speed swimming they have been doing.

I've never seen anything like it from them. All the fish are obviously snacking and I did see some eggs at one point, which were eaten within seconds by 'Blackie', the female guppy.

After a lot of effort I have removed some water, with eggs, so I think I have at least a dozen eggs safely put aside. Next Wednesday I'll remove the same fish into the tank I have ready prepared and see if she'll spawn if I add a couple of males.

The tank should be better settled in by then - the water aging a little... Although I have used tank water and odds and ends of plants to start it off. Plus I've placed some chicken wire across the bottom. It's carefully laid so that there are no sharp edges for the fish to catch, whilst I'm hoping that the mesh it too tight for them to swim through. But it should allow plenty of space for eggs to drop down through and be hidden below.

'Wavy' is looking a lot thinner now - a remarkable difference. Just leaves 'Patcho' and 'Ziggy' still fat. I thought maybe I was missing them spawning and the shrinkage was very little. Obviously not!

How do you measure fish fry???

How do you measure your new fry to see if they really are growing??? I've read reports by people where they give detailed measurements as the fry grow each millimeter. No way do my quick guess measurements come up to that standard!

So, today I tried a new trick. A digitial photo of the fish with a scale held at water level. And for most accuracy - I'd just fed the fish to bring them to the surface!

The results - well the Danio (???) comes in at 12 - 13mm long - he / she had their tail bent, so it's still hard to be accurate (large fry, dead centre of the picture). Body width is much easier to measure at 2mm...

The Guppies - well they are all roughly the same, so only measured a couple and they are around 7mm long and just under 2mm wide. They are 10 days old and have increased by almost 50%. Not a bad growth rate, I suppose. Especially as there was no sign of growth for the first few days.

More Corys

We've added a pair of Panda Corys finally today - it's taken ages for them to turn up in the shop - we've been pestering the lady for weeks! Hopefully she picked out a male and female for us - my daughter is absolutely desperate to get breeding more inhabitants!

The Albino Cory spends a lot of time swimming up and down frantically. Aparently, that can be the sign of a female looking for a mate - I already thought it was a female, so that backs it up. So it looks like I'll need to arrange a large albino male partner for her - no juveniles for her, that won't do the business!

The shrimp is still carrying the eggs and the tiny Guppies are continuing to survive, and might even have grown slightly - width if not length. They definitely are far more interested in feeding - I spent 5 minutes tonight dipping food into their tub after removing the waste from the bottom.

Also did a 10% water change today - although the nitrate reading last night was only 10ppm, 12 after the last water change. But I did notice the male Guppy looking like a barrel - and so are a few of the Zebra Dabios. I'm assuming / hoping that it's just too much food, so no evening feed for anyone tonight.

Another quiet day...

Nothing much has happened today - the Guppy fry continue to grow at an impossibly slow rate - will they really reach a decent size by 4 - 6 weeks as I have read? If I'm optimisitic, they might be a whole 6mm long now. The Danio fry does seem to be growing - maybe 10mm long. But it's hard to work out the size of any of them - they are all so active.

The best way of feeding the Guppy fry seems to involve gently chasing them around the tank by moving the floating plants. Once they are woken up properly they are really eager to feed. Or maybe it's just their age - they are more willing to feed.

Still the older shrimp carrying eggs. Sometimes I think the other might have a few eggs, but I think it's just her keeping her balance.

Apart from that, I've not noticed the dreaded whitespot for a few days. Hopefully, the cycle has finally broken. Now I need to work out why the halfbeak has lost his colour and get him back on form.

Are the babies growing?

Little sign of growth on the Guppies - but I am wondering if they are going wider. On a couple of the feeds, ones when I cleaned out their tub first, but didn't add water, a lot of the fry did come to the top of the water to feed. Maybe they are getting wider, before they grow longer.

No sign of growth for the baby danio and there's still one of the shrimps carrying eggs. I also noticed in the water removed from the tank over a week ago something swimming in the waste water. There are usually some little tiny insect type blobs swimming around, but I also saw some longer blobs in 2 of the waste water bottles. Maybe if I moved them upstairs to a window, where they would be warmer and more light to create algae, then there might be some growth.

Watching the second female carefully, her tummy has also flattened out slightly and she's hiding around. So I think she's going into a container for the night...

The local shop had an arrival of Panda Corys yesterday - a pair of the cuties are reserved for us. Was tempted for a trio, but apparently they aren't easy breeders. Save the space for some Corys that might breed.

The Guppy fry survive their first night

All but one of the fry survived the first 24 hours - the one that didn't looked a bit deformed, or that could just have been the way it died. We had noticed one had an interesting colouration on top - too much black on one side. It was either that one that died, or the black patch has cleared up.

I dropped the dead fry back into the main tank and in the blink of an eye it was eaten - the little fry wouldn't stand a chance in there alone! They are still around 5mm long, but do seem to be trying to take some of the food off the surface. I expect that once they start eating, then as long as the water stays fresh etc, hopefully they will put on some decent growth.

It is fascinating watching them. They all hide at the back when I open the tank, but if I stand still and watch them they make their way to the top to find food. The Danio (???) fry is about 8mm long - possibly grown ever so slightly. Really need him to make some progress so he can be put into the main tank. It's almost a month since I recorded him as 5mm - 6mm in length. Mind you, I thought there were 3 of them then, but only found one the next day.

Come on little fishies - do some growing!