Thursday, March 13, 2014

Things I've Discovered

First off, I've realized that bringing new fish into the fishroom is like what the white man did to the Native Americans.  I have no idea where these poor fish pick up all these super resistant diseases but not quarantining these days is a recipe for tank wipe out.
We innocently brought home some Khuli Loaches that my son received for helping someone out.  They appeared healthy, happy and active.  Having just moved our existing fish into the new fishroom we had no quarantine tank set up, plus hey, these guys looked great.  Three weeks later all I can say is the tank is a barren wasteland of death!  About a week after adding the loaches I noticed one appeared to be a lighter color.  Meh! Not a biggie, he must have stress color from being such a freak.  (The loaches freaked out from day one, never settling in.)  Zipping around, banging into stuff, just panicked in general. Next day I noticed the loach had a slime hanging off him.  NO!  The slime made its rounds and soon covered all three loaches.  Everyone else in the tank looked great.  The next few days my sub-adult black Corys had cloudy eyes and fins.  NO!  So.............after 2 weeks of tank treatments all three loaches are dead, two black Corys are dead, the plants are torched, every snail is on its side in the sand, bodies hanging out of shells. I've dipped the remaining black Cory and 3 Similis Corys in Methylene Blue and done a 90% water change.  I removed my young black Cory to her own tub to keep an eye on her (as she's a hybrid experiment of mine) and this morning she appears to be looking better and actually swimming around again.  Looks like today I'll be netting out the mass snail casualties out of the 30 gallon................The entire time the plague was ravaging, I had a few female guppies in the tank and they went about business as usual, having babies, eating, it never did effect them.  It sure laid waste to everyone else.

Second thing I learned this month, chickens are a handy thing to have around a fishroom.   Who knew?  I use snails in my grow out tanks to control the extra food rather then me do constant siphoning.  Well I get overrun with snails, its insane how they can reproduce.  I had about 200 of them I'd pulled from tanks not sure what to do with them when I see my chickens standing outside by the food bowl.  Hmmm, why not?  Boy do chickens love eating snails!  I also discovered that as long as there is chickens around you won't have duckweed growing in your pond, must be to yummy.  I use amazon frogbit and duckweed in my tanks to help with water quality.  The frog bit is easy and people love to buy it, the duckweed not so much.  I've found offering up a mix of snails and duckweed to the chickens kills to birds with one stone.  Pun intended............

On a different note, we finally found some Corydoras hastatus for the fishroom.  Paid way to much, but wow the little dudes are hard to find!  Guess my patience isn't so good, I was done waiting to find some at the right price.  They are swimming happily in the 30G plant tank that houses the cherry shrimp colony and poso snails.

Rainbow Endler male on the left a couple C. hastatus on the right


We also set up a Fluval Spec 5 gallon tank on the breakfast bar.  I put some young male guppies in to cycle the tank before the addition of shrimp.  We aren't sure if we are just going to add our Crystal Red Shrimp or acquire a new type to study while we eat breakfast.



Arriving at the fishroom today is two different orders of Corydoras "nanus" from the eastern part of the country.  I say "nanus" as these Corys usually aren't actually the true "nanus" but a  similar fish, as there are quite a few with the same color pattern.  Here are the two photos I was given.  Each photo is a different order of fish.  I'll post my finding and new photos of the fishies soon.
 


Friday, March 7, 2014

Fishroom Happenin's

We transitioned into our new fishroom over the last month.  So far so good, tanks cycling out and only a few mishaps and overflows ;)  New Micathermic heater working well.  HMF filters take a while to build up to good bacteria and become high functioning, we used our K1 filter media out of a canister filter to provide some good bugs for the tanks.  Our 30 gallon plant tank has been up and running for about a week now and all looks well.  We are taking photos and videoing its progress for sharing later.  Meanwhile the P82 Killies, misc. Corydoras, Bushy Nose Plecos and some fancy Guppies have been reproducing.  We also had our fist successful German Blue Ram reproduction.  I took it out of their "fins" this time and hand raised the babies.  They are growing and thriving in with a group of Corydoras similis and S. barbatus fry of the same age, along with some pond snails and a group of Cherry Shrimp.  The German Blue Ram fry are getting big enough to eat fry food and micro-worms, previously they have been eating Golden Pearl Powder and insuforia and we really had to strain our eyes to even see the fry!  On the Guppy front, we are finally getting some young guppies big enough for some males to begin coloring up and plan on taking a nice groups of youngsters and trios to Finatics Tropical Fish next month :)

On an interesting note, I walked into the fish room about 5 days ago to check on fry and see a Cherry Shrimp chewing on a German Blue Ram baby, it still had its yolk sack at this point.  I was stunned as I watched it rotate it, put its head in its mouth, rotate it and put its tail in its mouth!  I thought to myself "They lied! They all say Cherry Shrimp are harmless and this stupid thing is eating my babies", I was stunned.  I kept watching thinking I needed to pull all the shrimp from this fry tank.  Then I thought, no, I bet it was a dead fry and its just snacking.  All of this went through my head in a matter of seconds..............I was really bummed :(  Then I watch the shrimp toss the baby out and it drifted in the current for about an inch then swam off and joined its brothers and sisters on the sand, swimming and bouncing happily.  Whew!  Guess it needed to be cleaned off.........who knew.......what a relief not to have to remove the "killer" shrimps ;)


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Monday, February 24, 2014

A Couple Corydoras Similis Spawns


I recently combined two breeding groups of Corydoras Similis.  Don Petty's group of 6 and my young group of 4.  They are extremely shy and skedaddle the second I show up in the fish room.  I knew they were spawning but they would just sit and stare at me while I was in the room.  I tried out waiting them...........that didn't work......I finally caught the typical Cory spawning T position on this short video though.  I think you can see some eggs on the sides in a few spots.

I had removed the eggs from the current spawn and a previous spawn to the 10 gallon tank right above the C. similis tank.  Also in the tank, I placed a group of Cherry Shrimp and some Bladder Snails along with some live plants.  I had, the previous day, put a Pleco cave with a large German Blue Ram spawn into the empty 10 gallon tank.

Just now I was enjoying watching the Ram wrigglers flit their tails on the sand when I noticed a tail hanging out of one of the older C. similis eggs.  I started watching the maple leaf the egg was adhered to, when a Cherry Shrimp came walking around the edge of the leaf.  Guess that was all that Cory needed to blast the rest of the way out its egg, land on the sand and go skittering off through the tank!

If all goes well this should shortly be a VERY busy little tank ;)

Happy tank keeping!

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Sales (Trade) List ~ Pick up at fish room only

Crismore Corys Sale (or Trade!) List
February 22, 2014


  • New animals and plants in bold
  • Limited to availability, animals and plants may have already sold
  • None available” either means they are to small to sell or that is a species we are currently trying to breed.
Inverts and snails

  1. Cherry Shrimp ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------$10.00 for 5
  2. Blueberry Shrimp ---------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
  3. Crystal Shrimp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
  4. Large Ramshorn snails------------------------------------------------------------------------$ 1.00 for 4
  5. Leopard Bladder snails (great in fry tubs!)------------------------------------------------ $ 1.00 for 10

Livebearers

  1. Unsexed juvenile Fancy Guppy varieties  ---------------------------------------------------$2.00 each
    Sexed juvenile Fancy Guppy varieties -------------------------------------------------------$3.00 each
    includes Nebula Steel, Supercross, Red Russian Lace Snakeskin
  2. Fancy Young Guppy Trio's (if available)---------------------------------------------------$15.00 group

Plecos & Odd Catfish
  1. Bushy Nose regular short fin -------------------------------------------------------------------$5.00 each
    regular long fin------------------------------------------------------------------------------------$8.00 each
    albino short fin -------------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
    albino long fin -------------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
    lemon drop short fin -------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
    lemon drop long fin -------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
  2. H. Hasemani Whiptail ------------------------------------------------------------------------$10.00 each
  3. L204 “Flash Pleco” -------------------------------------------------------------------------none available

Corydoras

  1. Corydoras Aeneus spawning groups ------------------------------------------------------$20.00 group
  2. Corydoras sp. Black --------------------------------------------------------------------------$ 20.00 each
  3. Corydoras similis -----------------------------------------------------------3 available------$ 7.00 each
  4. Corydoras sterbai ---------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
  5. Corydoras concolor ------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
  6. Corydoras eques ----------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
  7. Corydoras seussi ----------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
  8. Corydoras caudimaculatus ----------------------------------------------------------------none available
  9. Corydoras "Orange Laser" ----------------------------------------------------------------none available
  10. S. barbatus "bearded Cory"----------------------------------------------------------------none available
  11. Corydoras tukano---------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
  12. Corydoras virginiae-------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
Live plants
  1. Amazon Frogbit (floating)---------------------------------------------------------------------$6.00 for 5
  2. Rotala Vietnam (potted) ----------------------------------------------------------------------$7.00 each
  3. Water Primrose (potted) ------------------------------------------------------------------------$8.00 each
  4. Sunset Hygro (potted)---------------------------------------------------------------------------$6.00 each
  5. Water Wisteria ------------------------------------------------------------------------------none available
  6. Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia (potted) --------------------------------------------------------$8.00 each



*Local Pick only - no shipping at this time


*All our fish are raised on Repashy Superfoods, live Daphnia (seasonal), live black worms, micro worms, fresh veggies, frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp, high quality flake and pellets. Our fish are raised in a natural environment with planted tanks and sand substrate. We do 25% or more water changes once a week to all tanks and have a low incidence of illness.
*Our plants are fertilized with Flourish and Azomite Minerals in a low tech environment. We do not use CO2 or high intensity grow lights.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Adventures Last Week

My nasally mumbly video showing the fish room layout. 

I made my trip to Finatics Tropical Fish in Kennewick, WA and brought home 7 species of Corydoras.  Any of you folks out there with Green Lasers we have two lone males in need of a fat healthy woman!

Also while at Finatics I cleaned them out of Lemon Tetras, Stendker Discus and Blueberry Shrimp.


I also picked up 3 Tylo Snails.  If you've never seen those they grow a sponge on the outside of their shell and are live bearers, in fact there is already a new Tylo snail in there this morning.  The freshwater shrimp love to pick at the sponge, in fact even the baby Otocinclus was hitching a ride.

Right now I'm cleaning up the fish room after all the shipments of supplies in the last few weeks, plus all the fish arriving late Saturday night.

Fish room is open by appointment only, feel free to email me CrismoreCorys@gmail.com 

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Update On Our Fish Room Progress

Its been an interesting few weeks setting up the new fish room.  Due to inclement weather and deep freezes throughout the country, many of our orders were delayed and we even had a "train derailment" hold up our HMF filters from Swiss Tropicals........... interesting ;) So instead of having our filters on Friday we didn't get them until Monday.  The trickle down effect has been cancelling trips to Finatics Tropical Fish to pick up a few groups of Cory breeders, live food and filters for my fry/hatching tubs, plus dropping off youngsters I've raised freeing up tank space.
Train derailment??

6- 10 gallon filters 2- 20 gallon filters and 2- 29 gallon filters





Hooked up the air pump and started running lines

I decided not to run pvc pipe, buying a 500 ft roll of python air hose instead

I ordered in some LED lights that were on sale AND 30% off with free shipping
Meanwhile, Corydoras Caudimaculatus had their first small spawn.  I left most of the eggs in the Cherry Shrimp Colony tank, which is where the parents reside, removing about 10 eggs, 7 of them hatched the other day.

Then three nights ago the fish room heater malfunctioned and fried out the "on" switch.  Room was 74 degrees by morning.  I placed emergency tank heaters in a few of the sensitive tanks, while in others the guppies and corys enjoyed the cool waters.  Purchased another heater at Fred Meyer, not the one I wanted but a temporary replacement, brought it home last night and wa la it doesn't work........  I just quit screwing around and ordered the heater I wanted from Amazon, it will be here today.

Messy Fish Room progress


Two 29G tanks with HMF filtration





Monday, January 27, 2014

Fish Room Progress

Moved existing tanks and fish to the new fishroom over the weekend. Now to bring in the new tanks. I've had 6 ten gallons and a twenty nine gallon in my Subaru for 4 days now.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

First Shelf Assembled In New Fishroom

I decided on some Whalen shelves carried by Costco. At $55 per unit, 1000 lb rating per shelf felt it was very cost effective.  I am only using the middle two shelves for tanks so I don't have to climb or kneel.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Moving Operations To A New Fish Room

Arbor covered patio.  I plan on seasonal outdoor tubs + aquatic plant areas here
   Crismore Corys has outgrown their current space............AND since agreeing to take Don Petty's Corydoras breeders the need for tank space became imperative!

I am moving my breeding operation into a 16ft x 16ft room that was an add on off the back of my house.  It has two exits to the outside, one to a concrete patio with arbor overhead and the other to the deck and carport.  Perfect..........no carrying buckets, tanks and fish through the house anymore!  Now it won't sound like we are in Niagara Falls while trying to watch tv ;) 


View from carport to entrance


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I replaced the hideous curtains with natural wood blackout shades