Welcome to the Hood Elliot (pastry)

[Second Hand Pat]

Join me in welcoming Elliot to the neighborhood. I am sure he will bring his own unique style to our neighborhood gatherings. :p Hope you like your new place Elliot, plenty of room for the family, fish and any other pets. Holler if you need anything :D or need any threads moved. :)
Pat

[pastry]

Oh Pat, you know I'll be keeping you on your toes ;) It'll probably only be my posts that get edited!

Alright... I guess the bakery is open for business! Borderline risque posts here we come! :antlers:

[pastry]

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[pastry]

If you spy the little guys, those are my new ones from Somefin's Fishy. Mark & Matt threw in an extra :o. Pleeeaase don't confuse them with the "other similar named" place.

[Second Hand Pat]

Oh Pat, you know I'll be keeping you on your toes ;) It'll probably only be my posts that get edited!

Alright... I guess the bakery is open for business! Borderline risque posts here we come! :antlers:

hehe Elliot, you are actually a moderator in your homesteader so you can edit your own posts. :D
Pat

[pastry]

Shoot... where's the fun in that?

[Second Hand Pat]

Shoot... where's the fun in that?

:evilgrin:

[pastry]

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[pastry]

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Sorry for random pics but I just wanted to get just enough pictures to document the new little ones while having bigger ones in the pictures to show growth over time.

[pastry]

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[pastry]

Just added 6 juv. Borellis and lowered the temperature to 80.

[rickztahone]

Welcome to the hood!

[pastry]

Damn Rick I've been here stinking up the place for a while! Either way I love you man;)

[pastry]

Added 6 juvenile borelli's last week. Will update soon with pics. I lowered the temperature of the tank for them. The discus will be fine. I am sure a compromise of 79 to 80 degrees will be just fine. So cool seeing dwarf cichlids that small throughout a 150 gallon tank.

[LizStreithorst]

The Discus won't be happy long term.

[pastry]

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[pastry]

Above are grainy pic updates. Shocked to see baby bn's in the tank. Also, my lone raphael getting fat off cherry shrimp but still not putting dent in shrimp population.

[pastry]

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[pastry]

Just realized that I do not have two Bushy nose plecos. I have one bushy nose pleco and one regular common pleco. I never really looked at the common one because I bought it as a bushy nose juvenile but apparently that's not the case. I guess there is no other way that I could have little babies unless they can totally crossbreed. That just blew my mind.

[pastry]

Just set up small anoxic trial. Approx 2 gallon canister with kitty digging. I probably didn't do it right... but that's why I set the bar low :antlers: still left big canister going.

[pastry]

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Bad pic but new pair I loooove. Fanning about 100 wigglers. The mom is SUPER red normally. The dad was supposed to be a male red rose but he is so blue that I am pretty positive he is not a male rose red. Closer to a Cobalt. Regardless, that's the exact cross I want! Meanwhile, they'll have to fend off tankmates for any to survive. If they succeed, they'll be the third pair to successfully raise some babies in my community 150.

[pastry]

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About to go to bed and the first few little guys are free swimming to the parents. We shall see how many make it until the morning

[pastry]

Update: saw about 50 free swimmers feeding off mom and dad. Dad forgot that he had the babies on him when I put food in the tank and darted for the food. About half of the babies made it back to Mom. Half a day later, I did not see any more babies. They have already laid a new batch of eggs and I think I will try the net divider technique I use about 3 or 4 years ago. Please look at old thread for that information. Pretty much is a pretty shady net that really doesn't stop anything from coming from one side of tank to the other but for some odd reason it helped tremendously with an a heavily planted in heavily driftwood display tank in regards to babies surviving so they are large enough that there are no more worries

[Paul Sabucchi]

Just added 6 juv. Borellis and lowered the temperature to 80.

Welcome to your new 'hood. If the pastries are as sweet as your fish you are onto a winner. When I kept borelii here in Italy had a real job keeping the temperature in summer below 80, in the end passed them on to a friend who keeps the tank in a room with air-con

[pastry]

Yeah, the borrelli's are long gone. I just didn't want to admit it so Liz can tell me, I told you so!

[rickztahone]

Very nice. Wigglers sound super fun

[pastry]

Old pics. Took forever just to get them off my old damn Photobucket account. If anyone knows the secret of downloading albums rather than one photo at a time then dear God private message me! These photos are of my last pair that successfully raised a spawn beyond 6 weeks in the community tank. I did put in a little makeshift net divider for week 1 of fs that really did not divide anything but it just slow down the amount of other fish that came to their side of the trank. I just did it again today for my current pair and used some sort of bag made out of netting. So far so good. They have a new batch of Wiggler's.
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[pastry]

The last post was of an old pair. These are pictures of the current pair. You can see the net divider I put in there. By tomorrow morning there should be free swimmers. Fingers crossed
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[pastry]

I introduced two pairs of apistogramma eunotus a few months ago and all of a sudden today I noticed one of the females where about a dozen and a half fry that have noticeably been in there much longer than I noticed. They are already little miniature versions of their parents. I'll try to get pictures but if I try with this phone then I guarantee the pictures will be horrible!

[pastry]

Trying to get pics of the eunotus babies. They're now miniature versions of their parents. The damn bristlenose BNs also had another spawn. It's about time to catch one of the parents and remove them. I would love to see my favorite combination pairs of discus spawn and raise a few and see if you new Ember tetras appear. Regardless, I really do love how my tank always has something going on without me doing anything but simple water changes and a little vacuuming. Just like Vegas... whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

[pastry]

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My apistogramma eunotus are multiplying in my discus tank.

[danotaylor]

Nice one Elliot! Do they have big spawns?

[pastry]

Supposedly they lay up to 200 eggs but I was not able to see where they laid eggs. The first spawn I saw about two dozen free swimmers when the mom finally allowed them out of her hiding place. I have counted a dozen of the first spawn still alive in the tank but I'm sure there are more since my tank is full of plants and driftwood. A second spawn happened during the hurricane yet she still had three free swimmers that are still around that I could count. There might be a few more that I can't see.

[pastry]

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[pastry]

Not really the best pictures of the adults. The spawning female is actually in the very blurry picture underneath driftwood. She looks kind of dull but she is a beautiful yellow right now.

[Sturiosoma]

Talk to us Elliot, tell us what you do, water changes, food, and everything else.

Jeanne

[pastry]

Jeanne, I am probably the worst discus keeper on here. I knowingly do not do enough water changes (70% twice a week), clean my canister often enough, hardly ever quarantine new fish, don't vacuum enough, don't age water,... yet I have multiple different types of fish multiplying and usually have to weed them out. My discus are not as big as BB hobbyists but I am a strong believer in the more water changes and the cleaner the water, the bigger and healthier discus will get.

That said, over time I have learned to still get decent growth out of them (6" average, 6.75 max, 5.5 min). Usually within the first year of having young discus I changed the water more frequently. Still not as much as I should though. Either way, I still love seeing all the different fish interact and multiply. I've even had a few pairs of discus raise little ones in the community tank because there is so much crap I have put in there for little ones to hide.

If ever interested, look at one of the threads I started a while back on Growing Discus in Planted Tank. It's long but brutally honest so that folks who don't have as much experience don't think they can consistently grow humongous discus and planted tanks. However, it does show what I think are some very cool things that happened over the course of that thread.

[Sturiosoma]

Actually Elliot sometimes I think people get so techy, techy ,all the time in their tanks that it becomes a job and they lose touch with the hobby, it sounds like you're enjoying the hobby and you haven't yet made it a job ,so don't change what you're doing.

Jeanne

[pastry]

Thanks Jeanne :D

Few more pics. One of them has the mother who is very golden and at the bottom of the picture you can make out 2 of her little ones from the first spawn.
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[Mando]

Good morning, Elliot!

I really enjoyed this thread! I cannot believe you were able to manage a grow out in your community tank. What was the outcome to these fry? Any updates?

[pastry]

The apistogramma eunotus or discus?

[Mando]

The apistogramma eunotus or discus?

Discus

[pastry]

The very first pair that we're very protective parents and fended off other fish, raised about 40 to the size of about a dime or a little bigger. My dumbass decided to switch filtration systems during that time and I killed them by accident.
The second pair several years later that were just as good as the first particular pair, raised there's until about 5 weeks when I forgot to put seacham safe
In the tank when I was filling it back up during a water change. All fish we're stressed. Only one little one survived and made it to about a year but only grew to about 4.5 in. That year I did horrible on water change routine because of being in the middle of my master's program, working full-time, and having my first kid.
I have a pair right now that might be good enough to be my third pair that can raise a few but the "boss" discus of the tank keeps over powering female when the Male (not the "boss") strays away for a minute. Very frustrating. Boss eats them

[pastry]

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Second pair with little ones

[Mando]

Sorry about those mishaps. Incredible how they were able to grow into the 5 weeks in a community tank. Congratulations on your masters! I'm literally done with my BA now and starting to apply to med school. The real hard work starts now.

[pastry]

Finally got somewhat of a picture of a female while all gold.
Few pics of a Male too. The one of the female has a little one from the first bond in the top right of the picture
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[pastry]

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[pastry]

Posted more but they came out upside down

[pastry]

Got 1 RC &
2 3R from Kenny. Hoping at least 2 are female. Good grief they're red. I know as they get older they're faces will darken (maybe) but that red will stay. Added river rocks. Still working with Aquascape

[danotaylor]

Beautiful Elliot! Looking forward to watching them develop in your care.

[pastry]

Thanks Dan! I'll try to get some full tank shots tonight. I hope they don't upload upside down again though. Not sure how to fix that.

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[danotaylor]

Love it mate, looks mint!!

[pastry]

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[pastry]

So I took out some known red cedar and put in branches (not cedar). Also noticed ph was dropping big time. Fish were skiddish while cedar was in there. Especially after WCs which wasn't good. So with DW switch I've also added Epsom salt (about 1 measuring cup per 80 gallons) during WC and discus are back to being active and extroverted during WC.

[pastry]

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[pastry]

Okay... I can't figure it out... why upside down?????

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[pastry]

Well... discus not doing so hot. With all the corners I cut (no quarantine of new fish, using random dw, not aging water, only 2 70% WCs a week, etc) then it's no wonder I haven't had more problems in the past.

Lost my biggest discus (1/32" shy of being 7" long) and another one that I've always been kind of "meh..." about. My 3 new ones are fine (eating, active, no problems) but last 5 of original crew not well. All other fish & shrimp have been totally fine. Although my Gh/Kh is damn near 0 and I've started using baking soda until I get crushed coral (because ph has been nose diving... 7.8 putting in then in like 12-24 hours it's 6.2-6.4), I think it could be something only affecting older discus. I'm sure ph instability hasn't helped but I don't think it's the root cause.

Ah well, I'm an idiot. I always learn the hard way. Moving in about 1.5-2 months and definitely setting up tank the right way at next place (sump, plumbing designed for even easier WCs, hidden water aging barrel, dedicated QT tank, etc).

Hoping current living group survives. We shall see.