TwoTankAmin
Fish Maniac
I have been down to my last breeding group of Hypancistrus having sold off all the rest. These are my wild caught L173. I sill have 9 of the origanal breeders plus one of their offpring to fill the spot of the 10th oone I lost some years ago. I also have two grow tanks fro offspring. One hold 19 fish under and inch and the other 21 fish of which 20 are over an inch and the largest is 1.75. I have not sold any in some time now. But I have a regular buyer who has been pushing me to sell him some.
I told him until I could get into the breeder tanka and see what might be there in terms in new offspring. I did not want to price the ones ingrowout, I know for sure I had a couple of spawns over the past few months but I was having hard time spotting ore than 1 or 2 offspring. So I did not know what was in the tank. I have had the fish ovver 10 yeats and they were anywhere fro, 3.5 to 5 years old when I got them.
The breeder and growout tanks are all 33L. They have a lot of rocks, slate, wood and caves in them. I am a believer in providing a lot of cover for Hypancistrus. I have a method for breking down breeder tanks to do a fry hunt or to catch all the adults. A 33L is 4 feet long and 1 foot wide and 1 deep amd to catch fish I need to remove everything else. It is not so eady having to catch plecos in a space that size and with that depth full of water as the plecos will go up and down the verttical glass to escape the net. I need to reduce their options,
To do this I divide the tank in half. Because i use this methid, I have the center of the tank bare except for a Poret cubefilter. I remove this to a bucket oif water and then I creat a space in the substrate with a spatula so that I am able to insert a 2 inch thick Poret 20 ppi foam sheet. The water can pass through this but neither the biggerb fish or fry can get under, around or over it. Once the tank is iovided, I go to work on one side. I will also lower the water some and turn off any filter flow on that side as well. The filter in the other half is left running. So now I am cathcing the fish in less than half the area and volume of the tank. This make it a lot easier to do.
When done catching and sizing the offpring, I put all the rock and wood back in place and then return the fish, Then the filter on that side is turn back on. Along the way I may have to add water as removing the rocks and wood lower the water and it may be too much for any hang ons in use. The nice thing about doing 1/2 the tank a ta time I I can stop in the middle if I want to eat or rest. Ot is something comes up and i cannot finish. I can leave the divider in place top up the tank and return later in the day por the next day. But what normally happens is I do the other half th dame day.
When I finished the first half which was where I have seen sapawning the past few months, I had pulled out 39 offspring from fry which were barely free swiming to ones over and inch and a few at 1.5+. I sorted them with most being in the under an inch group which numbered 33. Here is a pic of them in a buckey before they went into the small fish grow tank in out other building where I have tanks. The bucket had and airstone in it as well as the heater, But the fish were ready to go out to their new home / I shot this before they were moved, Ther were 6 more fish not pictured that were bigger than an inch and destined for the other grow tank.
After I put all the rock and wood back into the tank, I broke for lunch. After that I went to work on the other half of the tank. That side held what turned out to be another 21 fish. More bigger size fish were in that half than the first, but there were smaller ones also. The 21st fish UI found in one of the two 5 gal. buckets. I park the rocks in one and the wood in the other. I took no pics. of tthe second half fish.
So, I now have almost 100 offspring in total. One of the last things I did was to check the three caves in the 2nd half of the tank. To my surprise, there was a dad on eggs. I am pretty good at telling when I have a spawn because i will see the dad doing the bump-bounce-boogie at about 1 minute untervals. He is cleaning eggs, working to exchange the water with some that outside of the cave as well as expelling any junk tht may have accumualted inside the cave.
I will only ship offspring at over 1.5 inches. However, I will sell them at 1 to 1.5 for pickup only. The other thing I do is to reduce the price by 20% from what I normally charge when I have to ship them if a buyer picks them up. This removes any chance they might die or be injured while in transit when I have no control but for which I am still liable.
I am not sure how much longer I can continue with the number of tanks I have and the sizes of some of them as.
p.s. I forgot to mention than once the stuff is out but before I start catching fishm, I siphon out most of the snails. In any tank I have with gorwing offspring, I feed well and I have a bunch of snail. I harvest them for the tanks I have with assassin snails as they have eradicated them in their tnks already. I will not put assassin snails in tanks with bottom dwelling fish that are spawning.
I told him until I could get into the breeder tanka and see what might be there in terms in new offspring. I did not want to price the ones ingrowout, I know for sure I had a couple of spawns over the past few months but I was having hard time spotting ore than 1 or 2 offspring. So I did not know what was in the tank. I have had the fish ovver 10 yeats and they were anywhere fro, 3.5 to 5 years old when I got them.
The breeder and growout tanks are all 33L. They have a lot of rocks, slate, wood and caves in them. I am a believer in providing a lot of cover for Hypancistrus. I have a method for breking down breeder tanks to do a fry hunt or to catch all the adults. A 33L is 4 feet long and 1 foot wide and 1 deep amd to catch fish I need to remove everything else. It is not so eady having to catch plecos in a space that size and with that depth full of water as the plecos will go up and down the verttical glass to escape the net. I need to reduce their options,
To do this I divide the tank in half. Because i use this methid, I have the center of the tank bare except for a Poret cubefilter. I remove this to a bucket oif water and then I creat a space in the substrate with a spatula so that I am able to insert a 2 inch thick Poret 20 ppi foam sheet. The water can pass through this but neither the biggerb fish or fry can get under, around or over it. Once the tank is iovided, I go to work on one side. I will also lower the water some and turn off any filter flow on that side as well. The filter in the other half is left running. So now I am cathcing the fish in less than half the area and volume of the tank. This make it a lot easier to do.
When done catching and sizing the offpring, I put all the rock and wood back in place and then return the fish, Then the filter on that side is turn back on. Along the way I may have to add water as removing the rocks and wood lower the water and it may be too much for any hang ons in use. The nice thing about doing 1/2 the tank a ta time I I can stop in the middle if I want to eat or rest. Ot is something comes up and i cannot finish. I can leave the divider in place top up the tank and return later in the day por the next day. But what normally happens is I do the other half th dame day.
When I finished the first half which was where I have seen sapawning the past few months, I had pulled out 39 offspring from fry which were barely free swiming to ones over and inch and a few at 1.5+. I sorted them with most being in the under an inch group which numbered 33. Here is a pic of them in a buckey before they went into the small fish grow tank in out other building where I have tanks. The bucket had and airstone in it as well as the heater, But the fish were ready to go out to their new home / I shot this before they were moved, Ther were 6 more fish not pictured that were bigger than an inch and destined for the other grow tank.
After I put all the rock and wood back into the tank, I broke for lunch. After that I went to work on the other half of the tank. That side held what turned out to be another 21 fish. More bigger size fish were in that half than the first, but there were smaller ones also. The 21st fish UI found in one of the two 5 gal. buckets. I park the rocks in one and the wood in the other. I took no pics. of tthe second half fish.
So, I now have almost 100 offspring in total. One of the last things I did was to check the three caves in the 2nd half of the tank. To my surprise, there was a dad on eggs. I am pretty good at telling when I have a spawn because i will see the dad doing the bump-bounce-boogie at about 1 minute untervals. He is cleaning eggs, working to exchange the water with some that outside of the cave as well as expelling any junk tht may have accumualted inside the cave.
I will only ship offspring at over 1.5 inches. However, I will sell them at 1 to 1.5 for pickup only. The other thing I do is to reduce the price by 20% from what I normally charge when I have to ship them if a buyer picks them up. This removes any chance they might die or be injured while in transit when I have no control but for which I am still liable.
I am not sure how much longer I can continue with the number of tanks I have and the sizes of some of them as.
p.s. I forgot to mention than once the stuff is out but before I start catching fishm, I siphon out most of the snails. In any tank I have with gorwing offspring, I feed well and I have a bunch of snail. I harvest them for the tanks I have with assassin snails as they have eradicated them in their tnks already. I will not put assassin snails in tanks with bottom dwelling fish that are spawning.
