MrJim's Fishworks

[MrJim]

I have to say at this point I'm pretty happy with the way the tanks are set up. Turns out one of the male guppies left a gift before being eaten; found some fry in the guppy tank yesterday--caught two to add to the fry tank (5 total). Moved a larger baby out into the main tank and everyone getting along famously.

There are just 3 female gups & an oto in the 10~~like to get a couple more females and a male. I'd like to add a few more zebra danios to the bigger tank, don't think I'll add any more swords except maybe another female. Corys are good. Swords don't harass them anymore but the do follow them around sometimes 'cause they know if there is food the corys will find it then they try to snitch it away.

Yeah getting rid of the comet was the smart thing to do.

[MrJim]

CAE disappeared~last seen he was normal & active. I moved around the caves & plants but nothing. All I can figure is it died and got eaten by the corys

[MrJim]

I added a male sword last week~~disappeared like the CAE, gravel vac and moved everything and not so much as a loose scale...corys are looking exceptionally healthy, guess the meat is doing them some good.

[MrJim]

I added a male sword last week~~disappeared like the CAE, gravel vac and moved everything and not so much as a loose scale...corys are looking exceptionally healthy, guess the meat is doing them some good.

Found the male sword this morning in the AC70 filter on the 29gal~looks great; also found 5 fry in the AC20 filter on the 10gal.

[MrJim]

All is well ~ did the monthly filter clean/rinse...nice to see how well the neons are doing~while I had healthy neons before (except when the comet ate them) they were never as social and lively because they were housed with onery zebra danios so they essentially clustered together on the bottom. These guys come right up to the glass when I go to the tank~they are curious and fun and get along great with the two female guppies in there. I don't think I will add any male guppies; I like the tank just as it is. I added a marisoa moss ball last week too.

The fry growout tank is doing well~I'll be moving one of them to the gup/neon tank next month.

The big tank is doing well also~the swords & zebras do their thing and the corys do theirs. One thing I've noticed since bringing the corys downstairs is that I don't see any eggs anymore. Upstairs in the smaller tank they would occasionally lay eggs but not once since. I don't plan on setting up the 20L upstairs (even though summer is over and I did get an A/C unit in the bedroom)~things are going well enough.

Last month I finally broke down and bought a Master API Test Kit after all these years. I only had an ammonia drops kit, PH drops kit, and everything else was those dip strips. Pretty happy when I tested the tanks and everything was perfect.

[MrJim]

All continues well in my tanks~regularly feeding (once a week for 3 days) zucchini in the two larger tanks for the otos though everyone else nibbles at it too...everything is boringly perfect I suppose.

I discovered I have a male gup in the growout tank, will be putting him in the larger tank soon; I'm sure the girls will like that lol.

I put a half of a marimosa (?) moss ball in the two larger tanks, they've been doing well, have to pack in the stones around it to keep from floating away. I'll notice particularly the swords nibbling at it.

Swords haven't given me any babies, I think the male may be impotent

[Trillianne]

He's biding his time looking for the right girl. ;)

Just a fun note, Marimo "moss balls" aren't actually moss at all... they are a form of algae! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimo)

[MrJim]

Both of my otos are rather chubby, and the one in the 10 has gotten so spoiled with the zucchini that he's letting his algae-eating slide so I brought in another for company and maybe some competition.

I thought about moving the oto from the 29 over and putting in a bristlenose, even got a nice piece of driftwood in the tank, but after further research not sure it would be able to compete with the corys for food, especially any algae wafers...the corys are beasts when it comes to eating.

[MrJim]

I've had 3 otos in the 10 for quite a while now~~they are doing fabulous; they greatly prefer cucumber over zucchini...the only problem is that they aren't getting the algae cleaned up lol. When I came home from work yesterday the fattest one was lying on his back underneath the remains of the cucumber slice; I think he fell asleep under there--I flipped on the light and he scurried to right himself next to it...I think he was embarrassed to be caught.

I use a mag algae cleaner for the front and clean up the heater once a month..the algae growth is odd though, the smaller tank gets more than the larger though the smaller tank is between the larger tank and the natural light...I wonder if there is any connection with the moss balls and algae growth; I was told the moss balls are actually algae.

[Trillianne]

I don't think the moss ball is doing it.

There is a sticky in the plant section by Dave66 that can help you identify what kind of algae you are getting. It may be a type that Otos do not eat, OR maybe you are overfeeding them and need to cut back a bit more so they eat it.