Question on "Culling"

[Vengified]

Nerites will be fine with salt. They may even breed if yours are a male and female.

I have no idea. Isnt it near impossible to tell? I just have the two nerite, one tiger, one zebra. Dont necessarily want them to breed, but I'm sure it wouldnt be bad, because I wouldn't be keeping the tank brackish, or with salt at all. As long as the otos and gourami would be ok, the rest I'm not too concerned about.

 

[NickAu]

Bumblebee Gobys are best in a species only tank, they are a micro predator and will eat just about anything thats alive and fits in their mouth including fish fry and shrimp and while they leave my Mystery snails alone ( other than using them as a water taxi ) I have seen them attack Rams horns and Malaysian Trumpet snails.

 

[Vengified]

Oh wow. I better stay away from them then. At least until the wife lets me get some more tanks. I already got the MTS. Hopefully, if her work ever gets rid of any of their 50-255g, she will ACTUALLY do as I ask, and take one (she works at hospital), she has already brought home a few maintenancethings, scrubbers, nets, etc, but a big tank is a whole different discussion lol.

Why do all the cool fish have to be like gobies and puffers and need their space! Dangit! Lol. Just more reason for more tanks I suppose.

 

[Colin_T]

Don't use the salt for tanks with Otocinclus or the gouramis in. That level of salt will be too much for them. If you move the Otos and gourami into another tank then you can add 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres to kill snails.

 

[NickAu]

Just to wet your apatite

 

[Vengified]

@NickAu is that your tank?! If so, that is BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE all the aquascaping in it!

Dont worry @Colin_T I havent done any salt yet. Figured I would try the algae wafer again, no luck though. Wafer was gone, no snails on it. I'm assuming the fish, probably especially the fry, helped eat it, since it's been a few days since I've fed anything at all.

I was in the LFS today, actually all 3, looking for assassin snails, but no luck. The local one said if they get any, they will call me and loan one or two if I dont want them permanently also. But while browsing, I had to stop and stare at their 20g with about a dozen "Pea Puffers" in it, and then repeatedly tell myself "no" and "one leg at a time, keep walking, you dont have the tanks ready yet." And it was SO hard not to buy one or a few...

I noticed something cool though, nearly every tank had a betta or two in it! Not the puffer tank, and not most of the cichlids tanks, but most of the others did! Even with fancy guppies! I keep seeing this one teal/blue/red betta labeled "baby girl" at the other pet store, in one of those cruel cups, and I want to bring her home so bad! She is one of the most active ones, even in that little cup, and I'm sure she would be gorgeous when grown, but I would hate to not have it work out.

Anyone have any experience with betta community tanks? I know the general rule is just dont, but I've read some have luck too, most stating as long as the guppies have established their order and spots in the tank, then add a betta. If anyone has tried, I would be interested to know if it did or did not work?

In any case, I know enough now, to know better than to buy the fish I want, especially right now! I wont be adding any fish, to any tanks, until I have dumped 98% of the fry, and hopefully have some of the snail explosion taken care of. Fortunately, the one LFS, will take my fry at 3/4" and give me $0.50 credit, and a few are there now, so I might be making a trip back with a few in the next couple days.

 

[NickAu]

Yes its my tank. Thanks.

 

[Vengified]

Yes its my tank. Thanks.

It's no wonder you got tank of the month! You deserve it bro! What is that brown/red giant leaf looking thing in the bottom left?

I really wanna do some aquascaping, but "technically" the fish tank is supposed to be "Myles' Tank" (my 5 yr old) so despite me doing all the maintenance, stress, culling, purchases, etc, he makes most of the calls on what and how, within reason, and with my limited guidance knowledge.

If I could convince my wife to let me get another tank (would be our 3rd), I would totally be happy with a 5 or 10g, with just pea puffers, and maybe shrimp after it filled in with plants. I need to order valisneria, and really want frogbit too. Maybe I can convince her for xmas/bday (since bday is 4 days after xmas) to let me get a tank that's 100% my choice of what goes in.

If anyone is paying attention also, somewhat related to culling, can you tell an older fish is nearing the end of his life, from natural/age causes, by his activity? My oldest fish Sophie, over the last few weeks, has been moving a bit slower, gradually more apparent as time goes, and takes more "breaks" and for longer amounts of time. Along with his more "laid back" attitude, he seems to have more trouble keeping his huge tail behind him, instead of dropping below him. Not sure if it's just normal mid/old age guppy behavior, or end of life guppy behavior? He has no spots, marks, sores, rips, or any of the like signs, and still eats, grazes on substrate, normal poo, etc, hes just taking breaks, and never really used to. Tank parameters are all still fine, even the nitrates are 0-5 with the hornwort exploding and the purigen bag in the filter. So, ya, thoughts?

And again, seriously nice tank nick! I honestly dont think I even know what @Colin_T tanks look like? I've posted dozens of mine, but I guess I've never tried to find his lol.

 

[NickAu]

What is that brown/red giant leaf looking thing in the bottom left?

Its a Crypt

 

[Colin_T]

Most fish die from diseases well before they get old. But the symptoms you describe Sophie having would suggest either a disease or age. Since there's no sign of disease its probably age related, especially considering he is bigger than the others. Unfortunately you don't know how old the fish was when you got it and it might have been 2 years old then. But under good conditions guppies can live for 3-4 years. In cooler water they live longer, in warm water they grow faster but die sooner.

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You could always invest in a double tier stand and have 2 tanks on the same stand (one above the other). It won't take up any more room but you get 2 tanks in the place of one. And if you get a big double tier stand, you could have a 4ft tank on top and a couple of 2ft tanks underneath. You could also set up a green house and put ponds in it and put guppies in the ponds during the warmer weather (your construction season I think you referred to it as). A couple of months in big ponds and the baby guppies would be big enough to sell and the money could go towards another tank

 

[Vengified]

I wrote a long message, got sidetracked, set my phone down, came back, and for the first time ever, it cleared it all....

Anyways, wanted to ask nick, crypt is cryptocorne right?

And colin, I do have two tanks on one stand. Had to reinforce the bottom with aluminum angle, just to be sure. But cant really go bigger until we move, since we are on a second floor apartment, and I'm sure 400lbs on that one spot is pushing it with the apparent lack of structural capability of the rest of the house. Which is why it's on an exterior wall to begin with.

My dad has a pond, in his living room, actually grew up with turtles in it! Now he has Koi, but I dont believe its heated, I'm not sure. His house is always way too warm for me though, his girlfriend is from Vegas, and likes it warm, so its 80F usually, not sure of the pond temp. I'm headed out there today, I should see what it's at, and then take a bunch of guppies and sneak them into his koi pond! Lol.

Hopefully sophie is just having a rough week, but I doubt it. I will keep watching for any danger signs very closely, but still, nothing so far. He did have a tough life since I got him, 3 different tanks, two of them he cycled in, the first was WAY too small and I knew nothing when I started.

 

[Colin_T]

yes crypt is short for Cryptocoryne plants.

once your baby guppies are adult size drop the temperature to 24C (75F).

 

[seangee]

My dad has a pond, in his living room, actually grew up with turtles in it! Now he has Koi, but I dont believe its heated, I'm not sure. His house is always way too warm for me though, his girlfriend is from Vegas, and likes it warm, so its 80F usually, not sure of the pond temp. I'm headed out there today, I should see what it's at, and then take a bunch of guppies and sneak them into his koi pond! Lol.

If it can fit in a Koi's mouth its food. Don't know about your dad's but I get nervous when our kitten gets too close to my Koi.

 

[Vengified]

Rofl @seangee my dad doesnt have any animals besides the koi. So no worries there. It is cool that its inside his house though. And he and his lady are always cold, there house is almost always above 80°F, it makes me nauseous, lol.

Anyways, for kicks, here is a couple pics of the koi pond where some of my fry/juvie guppies may end up, since I dont wanna throw tanks out of order to raise a thousand fry at once.

 

[Colin_T]

It's only a baby pond. Here I was thinking it was gonna be huge.

We delivered some Koi to a Japanese guy who had a huge house, and he had 2 massive swimming pools (1 at the front and 1 at the back) connected by streams/ channels and it surrounded his entire house and also went underneath some decking in his backyard. It had over 100,000 litres (25,000 gallons) of water and was pretty incredible. We spent about an hour there just looking at the fish. They weren't that big, only about 1 foot long, but the water feature was really impressive.

Hurry up and drop some guppies in your dad's pond. Tell your dad his pond is too small for Koi and he needs to get rid of them so the guppies have space to grow