December Update - Visit To Finatics Tropical Fish

I've fallen a bit behind with my postings over the fall months.  As some of you may already know, we stepped in and removed Mike's grandchildren from their drug addicted mother in May 2013.  Having two extra children + 2 current court cases has certainly taken its toll on the amount of free time I've had lately.  Thankfully the kids have a dad/step dad and he would like to raise them :) Lucky kids! So it looks like by January I'll be devoting more time to my fish breeding hobby, which makes me very happy!








This fall an old friend of mine, Don Petty, opened an exclusive Aquarium store in the  Tri-Cities area in Washington State, Finatics Tropical Fish.  Don is known for his specialized breeding or Corydoras catfish for almost 20 years in the Aquarium Hobby.  Mike and I just spent last weekend in Kennewick, WA taking photos, video and delivering about 200 green Cory's, around 50 BN Plecos, and some Northern Red Oak leaves to Don.  I'll be making another trip down this month to deliver some plants I've harvested:  Rotala Vietnam, Water Primrose, Sunset Hygro, Water Wisteria, and some tall Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia, I may be able to spare some Java Moss.  I'll also deliver some HMF filters from Swiss Tropicals.  If you've never seen one of these foam filters in action stay tuned as Don will be outfitting one of his 55G tanks as an example of what you can do.

The list of what I brought home from Finatics:  8
Red Spot Rasboras (Mike's pick), 5 Celestial Pearl Danios, 3 Siamese Algae Eaters, 2 pair of German Blue Rams and a school of African Glass Cats (Mike's pick)





My Hasmani Whiptails spawned a few days ago with the male in a cave guarding a bunch of green eggs.  I've moved him, his cave and his woman to a 20L with a HMF filter. The tank currently houses a small Corydoras Similis spawn (their first, happened about 2 weeks ago).




 I lost one of my large fat healthy Corydoras Seussi last week.  When I pulled it out of the tank it had evidence of parasites.............. I treated them and the Eques multiple times after receiving them, as I do with all new Cory's.  The tank has been healthy with no issues for months and this fish showed no signs of being sick.  I've since netted all the Cory's from the 36 bowfront and quarantined most in a 20L for parasite treatment leaving the 36 for a colony of L204 plecos.  I placed the adorable Corydoras Caudimaculatus in my 20L planted shrimp tank in the hopes of them spawning soon.  I also placed the Celestial Pearl Danios, 3 Siamese Algae Eaters and all the of my Ototcinclus in the shrimp tank.  The shrimp tank had previously been home to about 100 or more of the C. Aeneus  juveniles and when I removed all plants and decor there had to be 1000 cherry shrimp!  It was crazy.

Update On Rescued Cichlid

Well it seems the mystery cichlid is some type of Flowerhorn and definitely male instead of female!  Can't wait to see the next shot Zach!

Bushy Nose Plecos Take Over A 20H

Well, in a past post I called my male bushy nose the worst father ever........this is certainly not the case. He and the female have produced two large spawns back to back and filled my old 20h with a wriggling, eating, pooping mass youngsters. At any given time there is at least one or two hanging off their parents, which doesn't appear to bother them much. In this video they are about a month and the small guys 2 weeks old now. Half of each spawn are long finned, not sure what color variation they will be but their 3 month old sister looks like a calico long fin and is really an attractive pleco. I'll be taking some of the older ones and some really nice green corys to the Finatics Tropical Fish store in Kennewick, WA at the end of this month.

I'm also taking some more Amazon Frogbit down to Finatics.  If you've never used or grown this aquatic plant I recommend it highly in your freshwater shrimp, community and fry tanks.  It propagates rapidly in my fry tubs with minimal care, helps them feel secure along with helping with the waste cycle.  The freshwater shrimp enjoy hanging from it and I'll also place food in the floating plants for them to consume without interference from the Cory fry at the bottom.  It is not an invasive plant like Duckweed and is easily removed.  FYI ramshorn snails will eat this plant.  I've found that Bladder snails will not though.

Alder cone collection and green corys ready for sale

Been trying to find time to go on an alder cone collecting walk, just never seems to be enough time in the day.
Yesterday, as I was driving down my parents driveway, I realized it was lined by alder bushes/trees! I collected a grocery bag full in 10 minutes.
On another note, my Aeneus corys are ready to sell. I am truly impressed by their color. They have yellow pectoral and caudal fins, a rosy tinged dorsal, tan head and a gorgeous green sheen to their bodies. They have thrived on live micro worms and Daphnia, prepared Repashy of all flavors, Ken's earthworm sticks, Tetra tabs and plant detrius. They were spawned in the first part of August, so they are about 3 months old now.

Corydoras Haraldschultzei A Month After Purchase

I recently rearranged and added a new HMF style filter to the 20Long that houses my C. HaraldSchultzei.  They were very spooky in the previous set up so figured I couldn't go wrong by rearranging. 

They are already acting more confident about feeding and being in out of the plants.  They seem to enjoy hanging out near the HMF foam toward the front.  In the video I had just placed the filter in and they were investigating the back glass.

Mosquito larvae, week old otocinclus fry and colored up Cory fry

Both the C. trilineatus spawn from 7/14 and the C. aeneus spawn from 8/02 are in adult coloration now and right about the same size.  Amazing how quickly the aeneus fry caught up with the 2 week older trilineatus.  The trilineatus were slower to hatch AND slower to grow.  Its like aeneus is the "super" cory.  I think I have right around 150 fry (kinda hard to count.....) and should be ready for them to find new homes in another couple weeks or so.

I've been harvesting mosquito larvae from the "toxic" swamp (aka green water growing receptacle, aka stolen kiddy pool) to feed my breeding pair of Killifish.  She has a voracious appetite for anything that squiggles and moves!  I also ordered a huge bag of Java Moss for the breeding tank which basically covers the entire floor.  My home made fluidized filter is working like a charm, very pleased with how quickly the 10 gallon tank cycled.  I will let the Killi's spawn for a few more days then removed the adults and see who hatches :)



The one week old Otocinclus fry has been out and about ever since I threw some Daphnia in his shoe tub with him/her.  I keep adding green water for the Daphnia and some Repashy soilent green for the misc. snails.  There are also some mature floating plants and a sponge filter.  Anywhoooo the little guy is grown and now very active.  I did a 50% water change on the tub last week and remove water to add green water each day, so far all looks good.  Interested to see how fast the little guy grows.  Meanwhile in the parents tank some eggs obviously hatched around the same time he did as there was a whole lot of activity in there from the corys.  Real doubtful there was survivors!  I will eventually move the otos in with the cherry shrimps where they can all reproduce to their hearts content ;)



Keep your eyes open for the grand opening of Finatics Tropical Fish in Kennewick, WA!!!  The countdown starts!

Daphnia

Daphnia arrived yesterday, two big bags of nice red ones of all sizes along with a few scuds that must be in the ponds of the grower. 

Pretty excited that I finally get to use the green water I've been culturing in the "toxic swamp".  You can see I'm floating the daphnia in some green water.  I made sure to keep the bags separate and make two different cultures in case one crashes.

This is the second culture in a plastic tub.  I ran a airline to both cultures and added some fresh water to the green water  to bring the water level up.  You could see quite a few scuds swimming in the bottom of the plastic tub culture.  I saw no real dead daphnia, the live rate after shipping was excellent.

Then today I harvested some more green water from the swamp to add to the newly put in free pond that the boys and I dug into our dirt pile last night, also planting some gooseberry, currant bushes and some mint.  Next we need to add rock to the hill and some more plants.
 

Hoping the culture takes off when it warms back up a bit, meanwhile I kept the other culture inside as a back up and I'll possibly start another culture in a different container.