Ginaekdal's Tanks

[ginaekdal]

I have been thinking of keeping a journal thread for a while, and there is no time like the present to start.

Today has brought a huge surprise in the form of the discovery of a free-swimming fry in my recently purchased secondhand tank.

The tank holds 115 litres, measures 74x39x40 cm, and was purchased about a month ago. It was bought empty save for sand substrate and a colony of Malaysian Trumpets. It stood drained for a little over a week following the purchase whilst I got a stand set up; it was then filled and has been running for approx. two weeks. It did come with a mature Eheim internal filter that I kept wet in the meantime. I have recently been soaking Redmoor and added a piece yesterday, however the scaping is nowhere near finished as three others are soaking and have yet to sink. The idea is to have the sand substrate with pieces of wood and floating plants for shade.

I have obviously not been treating this tank as if it has been holding fry, and I imagine chances are I have inadvertedly lost some to water changes before today. Upon discovering the fry I hastily pulled the filter out and put a piece of stocking in place over the intake. I do not have a gentle sponge filter at hand and it being Easter means I have nowhere to get one quickly. There is a bit of a current in the tank and I am unsure whether to attempt muffling it or to leave it be. It has obviously worked fine up until now.

I am fairly sure the surprise fry is a Puntius titteya, as I know the previous owner kept the tank as a planted species tank. There must have been a spawning before we picked it up and somehow an egg has made it through the rather rough treatment over the past few weeks! According to SeriouslyFish, P. titteya eggs "should hatch in 24 – 48 hours with the fry free swimming around 24 hours later". This obviously cannot have happened in this instance. The tank was drained of water for a significant amount of time, and I have also performed several water changes due to a mini cycle upon restart.

As stated in previous threads I have soft water with a pH of 6,4 and hardness of 1. There is currently not a heater in the tank and it holds a fairly steady 20 - 21 degrees Celcius, or room temperature. I did purchase a heater recently that came with a stuck wheel, which is why I have not added it (the tank being supposedly empty of fish). I want the temperature at roughly 22 for the species I have (had) planned, and the faulty one is stuck at 26. I do have one dimensioned for slightly smaller tanks that I could put in in the meantime. SeriouslyFish tells me P. titteya will thrive from 20 and up and therefore I will probably await the fry situation before doing any big changes at this point.

Now I know not to hold up too much hope, but I am thrilled a fry have gotten to the point of being free-swimming. Regardless of the outcome I feel it bodes well for my tank.

I am aware P. titteya should ideally be kept as a group. I will however not be adding anything else to this tank until such a time the fry is much bigger.

My second tank, which holds 63 litres, is empty. I have a delayed shipment of plants coming in over Easter containing Limnobium laevigatum, Vallisneria americana "Natans", Vallisneria americana "Asiatica", and Nymphoides sp. "Taiwan". The idea is loosely to start out with the floating plants in the big tank, and do a "wild jungle" setup in the smaller tank meant to eventually house a Betta splendens. Whilst it would not make a true biotope I am thinking of possibly ordering some Anubias in the future.

This is a link to a video of the surprise fry.

 

[HarpyFishLover]

Sounds cool, I hope the little guy survives!

 

[ginaekdal]

Thanks! He, or she, is adorable. No colour discernable but the lateral black line is clearly visible already now. He stays in the bottom third of the tank, blends in perfectly with the substrate, and I only discovered him due to stray movement in the corner of my eye as I was inspecting my paint job on the outside glass. I have been keeping the tank dark over the last week to prevent algae and he must have grown on and started swimming around while I was not looking! I figure he must be a hardy sort to have made it this far given all that has been going on with the tank since the last inhabitants spawned under care of the former owner.
 
He has obviously been feeding on infusoria and other goodies present in the tank. I caught him eating from the walls earlier. There are some remains of decomposing dried leaves and I hope to order more after Easter (regardless of fry status). I do have different flakes with both protein and spirulina algae that can be ground up very finely. I also have dry decapsulated Artemia cysts, but I will have to read up on feeding those. I certainly was not planning on setting up a feeding schedule yet, never mind one aimed at fry. It does seem like the tank provides for him nicely without much input from me.

 

[ginaekdal]

The little one is still happily swimming around. Given the complete lack of appropriate shelter, shade, and plants, I put in a Fluval ceramic log, that I happened to have lying around, last night. I placed it in a such a way as to create a "quiet" spot from the filter current and to provide a little bit of extra cover in daylight. Unsurprisingly that corner of the tank is where he seems to hang out the most. I have yet to observe him inside it but he hangs out on the substrate along the edges.
 
There is still a bit of fungus on the wood and I am wondering whether to pull it out entirely for now or to take it out and give it a good scrub.
 
I figure for water changes I will put more cut stocking over the gravel cleaner to make it fry proof, and try to use it in the upper levels.
 
Other than the above I am leaving the tank largely undisturbed at present.

 

[ginaekdal]

Fry update. He is getting bolder and venturing farther in the tank. This is making it harder to locate him! It is usually stray movement that gives him away during my daily check. He does use the ceramic log I added so it will stay in for now but admittedly I cannot wait to remove it and properly scape the tank... sometime in the now distant future.
 
I am very happy with my decision to paint both tanks. I find it makes it easier to observe the fish and it makes everything in the tank stand out really well. As I previously posted about elsewhere on the forum; I painted both backgrounds first, and then later on I painted one short side on each tank, on the day I spotted the fry. Had I not done this I would in fact not have had reason to look closely on my big tank in the first place and the fry might have gone unnoticed! I have one room in my flat that is designated the combined living room, kitchen, and fish room, and as such I have limited options for where to place the tanks. Upon consideration I elected to paint the short sides angled towards the windows in the same black as the backgrounds. This seemed to me the best option to minimise the amount of sunlight directly on the tank. I reason it also shelters the fish a bit more as there is now really only lights and movement coming in on one side of each tank. Me and the dog are both quite sedate at home and the TV is happily in the blind zone between the tanks so there should be no undue stress put on the fish.
 
I am wanting Easter to hurry up and end so I can get my plants in the mail. If the fry is still present I might choose to put them all in the big tank whilst he grows on.
 
The small tank is now without substrate but filled with water and running again, all is working perfectly, and I will be soaking the remaining roots in it. I am very happy, now, that I have two tanks to play with.
 
I have two spots in the flat left that could potentially hold a third (and fourth, if it comes to that,) tank. These would have to be slightly smaller than 63 litres, and ideally with a square footprint, or close to. I would be looking at Bettas for those. I will however not purchase anything anytime soon! It does amuse me that smaller, nano tanks, often come out as more expensive to purchase than the big ones. A popular 30 litre shrimp cube would come out as equally expensive to my 63 litre Juwel, if I include shipping. Go figure.

Addendum. My mother, I do not know why or what goes on in that woman's head, voted that the fry be named Churchill. I have compromised and gone with Winston. He does evidently have competitive genes and the "win" nod seemed appropriate.

 

[ginaekdal]

I am now soaking all the wood, five pieces, in the small tank. I removed the existing piece of wood from the bigger tank today, as I have been battling fungus and I don't want to compromise the water quality with the fry present. I will have to look into the best way to deal with this! Two out of the five pieces have sunk, so I can only hope the remaining three hurry up.
 
I have found a nice routine for water changes in the big tank, and my improvised altered stocking-clad gravel cleaner works wonderfully.
 
The big tank is looking extremely bare now, with two temporary Fluval ceramic logs for the sake of the fry. I think I will have plants in the house before I get the wood fungus sorted, so the logical course of action might be to put all the plants in the bigger tank instead, like I have been thinking about, and rescape with wood at a later date.
 
In any case I want to be content with the state of the big tank before turning my attention to the small one. I will most likely put a small piece of sponge from the 63-litre inside the existing established filter, and leave it be for a few weeks in the meantime.

 

[ginaekdal]

I have plant growth in the big tank. There is something, as of yet unidentified, coming up through the substrate in nine locations. It all appears the same species of plant.
 
A little while ago I also salvaged a tiny, tiny floating leaf that I have been letting grow on in a cup on the window sill. It appears to be duckweed and I have now chucked three separate plants stemming from the original leaf into the tank again.
 
Considering the tank was sold as empty I have gotten two plant species and a fish fry along for free! I hardly think I could have purchased a secondhand tank healthier than this one is proving to be.

 

[ginaekdal]

I am waiting for an update on my plant order. It is hopefully not too far from being shipped.
 
Another piece of Redmoor looks like it might be on its way to sinking. I expect many who have had to soak Redmoor will have encountered the clear, white-tinged fungus coating the wood, that has an unpleasant consistency somewhere between jelly and slime. From what I have read it should go away on its own eventually; however, as I find it both unsightly and a pain with the floating jellyfish-like detached patches I have to net out of the tank, I take each piece out and give it a scrub with a toothbrush under hot water every few days. This does seem to allow me to stay on top of it but I am hoping it will eventually stop recurring completely.
 
The fry is doing well in the big tank. Provided he makes it past the stage where he is small enough to be eaten, I will look into placing an order for more P. titteya to keep him company. I am a little worried I will have a hard time getting my hands on females. Sexing the fry seems impossible at this stage, certainly to my untrained eye and without more for comparison.
 
This does, of course, impact my original stocking plans somewhat. My initial plan was to pick one small shoaling species such as B. brigittae or M. kubotai, or a small species of tetra, and pick one of the smaller cories to go with them. A second alternative was to pick two small peaceful shoaling species and leave the cories out. P. titteya are bigger than the fish I originally had looked at getting, about twice the size in fact, and I wonder if the group of 6 - 10 will take up the space intended for my picks.
 
I will be posting a separate thread on hypothetical future stocking scenarios.

 

[ginaekdal]

The fry is now boldly using the entire tank and I frequently see him swimming around as he stands out nicely against the black background. It might be wishful thinking but he appears to have grown in the week that has gone since he appeared. I can only hope it continues.

ETA. I have tested the timer that came with the tank, and I will happily be using it when the plants go in.

 

[ginaekdal]

The fry is doing very well indeed. He or she is active, eating well, and has grown notably. I find him a bit of a character to watch. Truthfully I am torn as to whether I will move the eventual group to the small tank, or leave them in the big one. The fry might win me over yet.
 
There are two very stubborn pieces of Redmoor left floating in the small tank, the rest have sunk. I am still battling the unsightly fungus. The latest tactic is simply to leave one root covered in it and see whether it goes away on its own. I am in no rush, given that I will be doing plants, but they are nice roots and I look forward to using them eventually.

 

[ginaekdal]

I thought I might as well put test results here.
 
The 115 litre had a 20 % water change 3 days ago and these tests were done today.
 
I use the JBL Professional test kit.
 
pH 6,0 - 7,6 = 6,6
KH = 1 - 2 dKH
GH = 1 dGH
NO2/Nitrite = < 0,01
NO3/Nitrate = < 0,5, possibly just over
 
The tank is currently bare save for substrate and tiny plant seedlings, and extremely lightly stocked with one P. titteya fry and a colony of Malaysian Trumpets.
 
I have been in touch with the company I ordered plants from, and the rather lengthy delay is due to the Limnobium laevigatum from the supplier unfortunately not being up to par. The company did not want to ship it out due to the state it arrived to them in. Given that I did salvage a seedling in the tank when I set it up (and that I currently have about eight tiny ones growing on in the tank stemming from the initial one), I have asked that these are simply dropped from the order. I expect it to ship on Monday with the remaining plants.

 

[ginaekdal]

The fry continues to thrive and he or she is visibly growing.
 
I have been wondering whether it might be worth putting up an ad locally in the hope of acquiring more fry, as this would mean a lesser wait for a group compared to waiting until he is big enough to go with fish ordered via a store.
 
He is actively and boldly using the entire tank save for the surface area, and eating really well. He is fed a varied diet including algae flakes, protein flakes, and dry decapsulated Artemia cysts. I have observed he does go absolutely mad for anything resembling a worm, which is unfortunately the one food I cannot provide due to the allergy risk.
 
Sometimes he will appear to "play" in the filter current and other times he will "chase" floating debris such as a stray plant leaf around the tank. For a fairly bland-looking species I find the behaviour very pleasing to watch, and admittedly based on this little one I am looking forward to observing a group.
 
I have had, and am having, no end of trouble with the long-awaited plant order. This will certainly be my last time using the supplier in question. I have two species of seedlings growing out in the tank, but I want a fairly dense cover and that order was not placed needlessly. I might end up having to travel a distance to acquire the plants I want when health and money permits. I am coming to realise there is, sadly, a lack of reliable aquarium suppliers here which must surely be bad for hobby recruitment.

 

[ginaekdal]

I have removed the temporary Fluval hiding places from the bigger tank and moved some of the plant seedlings closer together for more natural cover. The floating plants are taking off nicely, but if I can source more I will make sure to buy some to help the process along. I want enough to make a nice, dense cover in both tanks after all. If my estimate of the fry being about 1 cm long the last time was about correct, he is now roughly an estimated 1.5 cm and easily visible in the tank.
 
I have discovered a second species of snail, likely ramshorns, in the big tank. While they are at present incredibly tiny the shells are cleary discoidal. I have not introduced anything they could have ridden along on, so they must have been present in the substrate but too small for me to notice before. I am unsure how well they are likely to do in my water but attempting to remove them all would be futile and I do not mind snails as such.
 
Having struggled with the slimy fungus growth on my soaking roots for weeks and weeks, I have decided enough is enough and removed them from the small tank. The fungus virtually caused a floating jellyfish-like soup and I could see no end to it, so I have now freed the tank for sand and plants to go in. I will certainly source any future wood with extra care, and until them I will leave wood out of it. I might give soaking them another go later this summer, but outside of any stocked tanks. I have sponges waiting in the big tank and whilst the bioload is low I expect a speeded up cycle when I move them over.

 

[ginaekdal]

I have now put sand in the small tank. I do need a bit more but it will have to wait a week or two. I have also moved some duckweed over which will hopefully take off in this tank as well. And last, I moved four or five Malaysian Trumpets over from the big tank.
 
I am more or less considering my plant order a lost cause. On the bright side I did not pay upfront. Incredibly disappointing, however, as I have no store local to me stocking what I am after. I need to consider the matter a bit.

 

[ginaekdal]

Observing the fry I can tell there is a definite coppery sheen to the fins and, when the light hits right, to parts of the body as well. At present it looks, in colouration, similar to an adult female. I will of course not be surprised if it colours up further and proves to be male, but I have found very little information on how they can be expected to develop and I have none for comparison so all I can do is watch and wait.
 
The initial growth stages were easily told apart as it took on the shape of a more fully formed fish and lost the transparent areas, but I expect the wait for it to actually mature in size might be a slow one. I have read a couple of breeding accounts from Norwegian breeders and at least one made a note that the species is rather slow to reach full size.
 
I keep trying to take proper shots and I do this by resting the lens against the tank glass and wait for it to swim into focus. I have had little luck so far which I think is due to the tank being huge compared to the fry - it seems to swim everywhere but where I want it to.