Gudgie's 20 gallon long build

[Gudgie]

Cleaned up the jungle a bit today- the Salvinia especially needed to be thinned out.

Sadly that nest of gudgeon eggs was consumed..,perhaps I’ll move it to a breeder net the next time after all. Regardless, all the adults are doing well.


Finally moved the four juvenile rainbows into the 20 gallon from their 5 gallon. There are definitely 1M and 2F, just not positive about the youngest/smallest. I’m a bit worried about how small that one still is - hopefully no one tries to eat it - but I wanted to free up their 5 gallon. Once I moved them, I could move the 5 very young fry into the 5 gallon. Plus several more eggs still waiting to hatch.

youngsters on the upper right:

youngest fry that just moved into the 5 gallon:

 

[Gudgie]

Two and a half weeks ago, I added a male super red BN into the aquarium. And today.....EGGS!!! I can't believe how fast that was! They definitely weren't there when I checked yesterday evening. Fingers crossed they're fertilized and will do well! Thinking I'll move the entire cave w/ eggs and male in a couple days to my 10 gallon, in the hopes of being able to raise some fry! New breeding post to come, most likely!

(I may be a *wee* bit excited about these...)



After losing a couple of other fish in other tanks while we were out of town, this is very welcome news!

 

[BigManAquatics]

Two and a half weeks ago, I added a male super red BN into the aquarium. And today.....EGGS!!! I can't believe how fast that was! They definitely weren't there when I checked yesterday evening. Fingers crossed they're fertilized and will do well! Thinking I'll move the entire cave w/ eggs and male in a couple days to my 10 gallon, in the hopes of being able to raise some fry! New breeding post to come, most likely!

(I may be a *wee* bit excited about these...)

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After losing a couple of other fish in other tanks while we were out of town, this is very welcome news!

My super reds i think were displaying some breeding behavior the other day, as a male and female were both in a cave together. Haven't checked for eggs yet though.

 

[Gudgie]

Cleaned up the tank a bit yesterday, since it was overdue. I was starting to think I’d lost a gudgie at some point since I’ve been consistently seeing 7, but this morning I saw all 8. Whew! He’d been likely sitting on a nest somewhere, unfortunately not somewhere I could move it. Thus far, it seems like the gudgeon eggs get eaten every time in this tank - never seen any free swimmers. Hopefully I’ll get lucky and one of them will nest in the pvc again, which I could move easily.


In other news, it appears that one of my original two super reds is a male. I’d debated it before due to some tiny bristles around the mouth, but they hadn’t changed in forever so I thought perhaps female after all. Nope! Bristles definitely got much more pronounced over the last week or two (though not as pronounced as the other male). Wondering if the addition of the new male could have spurred quicker bristle development? Now I likely have 2M:1F BN in this tank, which isn’t ideal. I may move the extra male over to my 75 gallon, except I have an older regular BN female (5-6 yrs?) in that tank already. I don’t really want those two to breed, though I suppose most fry would just get eaten anyway. Otherwise, I’ll be looking to sell a male super red soon. I’ll try to get some updated pictures of him soon - he’s the most camera shy.

 

[Gudgie]

The breeding male BN has been officially dubbed Quasar. Not entirely sure why that name popped into my head, but it seems to have stuck. Yet to name the female though.

Also, started a BN spawn log on the breeding forum to track progress/success - future updates on the fry will be posted there. Super red bristlenose spawn log | Breeding Fish Forum | 513623

 

[Gudgie]

Did a water change today, since I needed to transfer some tank water when I moved some BN fry to their own tank earlier. One of these I need to spend more time pruning and adjusting the plants, since some things are starting to run rampant. The Hydrocotyle tripartita is weaving its way through everything in the tank these days!

 

[Gudgie]

Well, looks like all three species in this tank are breeding now!

My super reds are into their second [tiny] batch of fry, as tracked on my other thread. Super red bristlenose spawn log | Breeding Fish Forum | 513623

The rainbows have been breeding all along, but only a couple eggs here or there lately, and I haven’t been constant about checking mops. Decided to up my feeding of BBS to the adults and see if that helps a bit - I feel like it did when I tried it before the holidays for them.

And finally, I have evidence of a gudgie nest that’s actually in a moveable location for once - it’s in the small piece of pvc right up front! Yay! Thinking I will move the nest with the male in the next day to either a hanging basket in the main aquarium, or potentially to one of my five gallons. But fingers crossed I’ll have gudgie fry again soon! This would be the first batch I’d raised from this aquarium I think. If I get the nest successfully moved, hopefully I’ll post some updates on their development too.

Here’s a pic of the dad I just took, when he popped out of the nest for some bloodworms and brine shrimp. Then he immediately went back to fanning his nest.


Update: I pulled the male gudgeon and his nest and moved them to a 5 gallon aquarium that only has a few baby plecos in it. I think the eggs were probably just laid today, so not even close to wigglers yet, but decided I’d play it safe. Here’s a shot of him fanning after the move.

 

[Gudgie]

Long overdue update, but finally getting around to it. I've been off of fishlore for awhile for various reasons, namely life and other things getting in the way, and my tanks certainly suffered a bit for it. The rainbows and gudgeons have dwindled down to my final few, though at least my breeding pair of super red BN still seem happy and healthy. However, I've decided that it's time for a massive overhaul of the 20 long. For now, I've moved the remaining inhabitants to a 10 gallon I've kept running for QT and such.

Yesterday, I tore down everything from the tank and thoroughly cleaned it out. I had tried dirt under the sand in this tank previously and was not a fan of how finicky it was during water changes so it had to go. Now I've got some fresh pool filter sand in, some new driftwood, plus some of the hardscape (some of which already had attached plants).

I let things settle overnight, and now I'm debating what other plants I have to put in here. I'd like something for the background, but definitely focusing on easy to care for plants that won't need much maintenance this time around. Maybe a small sword species or something grass like for the back? I have lots of val going nuts in my 75 gal, but it's way too tall/long for this tank. And I did try balansae in this tank previously, but it didn't too well. I just never seem to have much luck with crypts for whatever reason. I think I may still have some dwarf sag in another tank, so perhaps I can give that a try.

New stocking plan for this tank as well! Planning on a pair of German blue rams, and then some ember and green neon tetras. I currently have some in a QT tank right now, waiting to be introduced into the 20 gallon. Hoping the rams won't prove to be too finicky for me. Still undecided whether I should move my BN pair back in too, but I suspect they may be better off in my 75 gallon.

The temp is currently holding steady at 85F, but I think I'm going to back that off to ~82F so that it's hopefully more acceptable for the tetras.

Anyone have a suggestion for an algae eater that would be okay at this temp? Thinking possibly nerite or ramshorn snails, but the temp might be pushing it. Otherwise I know some oto species can handle warmer temps, but not sure how hard they are to find...

 

[Gudgie]

I moved the rams and tetras into the 20 long late Tuesday, since I 1) wanted to avoid crashing the cycled filter if possible, and 2) can finish QT in this tank since I moved the old inhabitants out. I've been checking parameters a couple times of days, and thankfully no sign of ammonia or nitrites - so far so good!

I added my remaining java ferns back in. I also picked up one pot of giant hairgrass (Eleocharis Montevidensis), though it's still sitting in a bucket waiting to be planted.

I've dimmed the lights to 50% for now, though wondering if I'll need to bump that back up for the Eleocharis. In the meantime, I'm liking the look of this light level with the tannins that have leached out of the driftwood and the catappa leaf I added.

Everyone is eating well and most of the fish look great, but one of the green neons doesn't look to be in the best health (skinny, a bit of sunken belly). To be safe, I've opted to treat everyone for parasites. Currently treating with general cure; first dose was yesterday, and the second dose will be tomorrow. I plan to follow up with a couple doses of levamisole (Expel-P). I have Ich-X and other meds on hand, but presumably won't use any of those unless any relevant symptoms pop up. Fingers crossed that the dewormers will do the trick for the neon!

 

[Gudgie]

Ugh. Over the course of a month I ended up losing both rams (made another post in the sick fish forum). Super frustrating, and I wish I knew exactly why. Initially, I was thinking perhaps they were just weak/sick stock when I got them. However, I'd picked up a second GBR female from another LFS, who was in a completely separate Qt tank, who ended up dying after a week or so (never had apparent symptoms). So maybe there's just something about my tap water making them unhappy. I know they can be delicate, but I wasn't expecting *this* much trouble.

The tetras continue to seem fine - so that's a plus. It really does seem like it was limited to the GBRs.

Now I'm just mulling over potential stocking ideas to add with the tetras [eventually]. Currently leaning towards one of these three:

1. Wait til warmer weather and then order a pair of GBR from a reputable breeder. Odds are that they'll be healthier, but I'm hesitant given how poorly the recent ones did...I don't want to keep losing fish. Currently leaning away from this idea, though I haven't 100% decided.
2. Scrap the GBRs and just add some cories. I have missed having cories in my tanks.
3. Go for some inverts instead - possibly CPOs, unless folks find them to not be hardy.

 

[Rye1]

While I know it’s not related, I’ve been debating on getting either green neon or ember tetras for a future tank and was wondering if you had any preferences between the two. I’m sorry to hear your GBR pair died.

 

[Gudgie]

While I know it’s not related, I’ve been debating on getting either green neon or ember tetras for a future tank and was wondering if you had any preferences between the two. I’m sorry to hear your GBR pair died.

Sorry, apparently I’d missed your comment. So far, the embers and green neons seem to have similar hardiness for me. I like the green neons better between the two, because their color seems to pop better with my scape and lighting, but behavior is otherwise quite similar.