Transparency: Do you log — and share — your fish deaths and new additions?

[GaryE]

It's a different thing, but this thread made me dig up an old journal - 2 years of my current fishroom.

It wasn't an exciting read, even for me, but I realized how it worked. Sometimes writing down what you are trying gives you perspective. Effectively, you're talking to yourself. I found myself looking at how ideas developed over a week and I wrote about different aspects of what I had in mind.

Plus, since I constantly make changes in my set ups, it is good to look back at why - what I was trying to do. Some of the ideas were good but circumstances changed, and some made me want to whack myself up the side of the head.

So maybe a point form log will never work for me, but noting the same things and more in a written out journal is useful if your mind works that way.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

Shortly after abandoning the notch on tree branch method, I switched to papyrus scrolls.
As technology progressed I switched to an app on my phone. I use Aquarium Assistant.
This allows me to keep a running log of water parameters and reminders for mundane tasks such as cleaning a filter intake tune or impeller. I can log anything from expenses to Fert levels. It also has a nice calculator feature to convert any measurement.
Everything else is in my head. I already have a plan for next year. That's right, 1898 is going to be a stellar year for fish keeping!

 

[Back in the fold]

I keep a notebook in which I record when I’ve set up a new aquarium , bought new fish , when they died , who spawned and how old the fry are when they eat certain things . Those are things that help me and I feel it’s important to keep track of how old fish are . Some fish , like the Nothobranchius I’m keeping now , are very short lived and I want to know when to set them up to spawn before it’s too late . In the case of my Aplocheilus lineatus Golden Wonder Killifish I’m interested in how long they stay viable as breeders . So far three years is pushing it .

 

[GaryE]

I have a question, because I see a possible divergence in what we record. I'm curious.

I keep my records (such as they are) mostly in words. There are scarcely any numbers, which makes most apps useless. I don't care about the API type results - I don't own a kit and don't see that as lacking. I have the room divided into racks of tanks, and a whiteboard on the wall where I scribble down dates for water changes. I check my city site which updates every 3 months, so I know what my water is. I stock lightly and change regularly.

What I record is arrivals, losses and how I've tried to breed fish. I brainstorm - that notebook's the last place I use writing on paper. If something's not working I'll note the tds. I want to know when broods hatched, how long they took to hatch and growth rate, so for there, numbers in the form of dates matter. But most of what I read back to myself yesterday was observations. The date's at the top of the page, and the rest of the entry is what's going on. If I'm not happy with that, there'll be speculation on what I can improve, so I can look at it the next day and see if it stands up as an idea or ideas.

Sometimes, when someone on the forum offers an insight, or when I read something about a fish I'll write it down, because writing seems to work with memory in my brain. I'm more likely to remember what I've written down by hand. Or, since I scoured the net recently looking for info on breeding a fish, and found nothing substantial, but opened my ancient Baensch aquarium atlas and found the problem well analyzed in a few sentences, I'll note the species and the source. I rarely reread the journal, but the act of writing it seems to place it in accessible memory.

Are your records mostly numbers?

 

[gwand]

My records are mostly words. I describe behavior, how the plants and fish look that day, Births, deaths, water changes, success and failure at breeding, etc. When there is an unexpected death I record water parameters numbers.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

I have a question, because I see a possible divergence in what we record. I'm curious.

I keep my records (such as they are) mostly in words. There are scarcely any numbers, which makes most apps useless. I don't care about the API type results - I don't own a kit and don't see that as lacking. I have the room divided into racks of tanks, and a whiteboard on the wall where I scribble down dates for water changes. I check my city site which updates every 3 months, so I know what my water is. I stock lightly and change regularly.

What I record is arrivals, losses and how I've tried to breed fish. I brainstorm - that notebook's the last place I use writing on paper. If something's not working I'll note the tds. I want to know when broods hatched, how long they took to hatch and growth rate, so for there, numbers in the form of dates matter. But most of what I read back to myself yesterday was observations. The date's at the top of the page, and the rest of the entry is what's going on. If I'm not happy with that, there'll be speculation on what I can improve, so I can look at it the next day and see if it stands up as an idea or ideas.

Sometimes, when someone on the forum offers an insight, or when I read something about a fish I'll write it down, because writing seems to work with memory in my brain. I'm more likely to remember what I've written down by hand. Or, since I scoured the net recently looking for info on breeding a fish, and found nothing substantial, but opened my ancient Baensch aquarium atlas and found the problem well analyzed in a few sentences, I'll note the species and the source. I rarely reread the journal, but the act of writing it seems to place it in accessible memory.

Are your records mostly numbers?

Oh no numbers and words. I can take notes and just type them in and save them, with a timestamp. This is what I like about using and app, and @GaryE as someone with multiple tanks I would think this would be so much easier. You already have your phone in your pocket when you're standing there looking at fish. Are you holding your notebook as well? Do you have to run over and get it when you want to record an observation? How easy would it be to just pull out your phone and record your observations instantly while they are still fresh in your mind?
You still have the ability to record incoming/outgoing fish. Expenses, breeding, or set a reminder to alert you to set them up to breed before it's too late. I find it declutters your mind by eliminating the need to remember every individual detail about your tank.
I agree with the notion of writing things down for increased retention. That's the way we learned in the old days, we took hand written notes during a lecture. But with an app I don't hand to retain things if I can find them and reference them quickly so it frees up my brain for other things.

 

[GaryE]

I rarely carry my phone - and it usually sits in the house. I jam it in a pocket when I go out or if I expect a call, but I'm somewhere in the 1920s when it comes to constant phone use. The notebook sits on the work table, and it's the last place I still handwrite. Somehow, note taking and memory are connected in my brain, while if I type, I have to reread it to remember. There's a nice little bin the info falls into that controls clutter.

I don't think we'd find any 20 year olds following that strategy.

It's very much a thing of phones, I suspect. I try not to use mine online unless I'm killing time somewhere. Most of my posts and checks as a mod are when I'm between tasks and use the laptop. I know too many people who don't even look around themselves with their phones, and know I have that potential.

 

[gwand]

I keep my fish journal on my iPad. Journaling occurs in the evening when I’m in the fish room/office listening to music.

 

[raylove]

I keep a paper record of when I bought my fish just so I know how long I've had them. I also add such things as when I last replaced critical equipment such as heaters and lights (lights not so important with LEDs but essential when we used fluorescents).
I started doing this in 2017 - not too many losses hence still on page one

 

[Panda_Monium]

I have just recently begun keeping a running record (journal of sorts) of the spawning, number of eggs, hatchings, location and any losses of my panda corydoras. They (the parents) are out of control!
After a totally disastrous re-entry to fish keeping which spanned the last year, and tested my resilience, sanity and determination to get it right, so that I would have happy fish and something I could sit back and enjoy watching. MY panda corydoras are so happy and healthy that they spawn approximately every 4 days.
Although they are well-documenyed as being generally inclined to lay a total of 10-15 eggs per spawning session, my little female consistently lays between 17-36 eggs, with a viable hatch rate of about 97%! I have now got 3 tanks in use for the fry - each catering to a different development stage.
I started writing the information in the notes app on my phone when I lost count. The attached picture shows my entire journal to date.
It was never my intention to actually breed my corys - if they had babies, it would just be a bonus, since I only have 5 left out of the group of 10 that I initially had. I have 4 males with only 1 female. After the last spawning, I took her out of the big tank and put her in with the oldest of the fry (just over 4 weeks old), thinking she would appreciate a break, and trying to keep her in good health. She stressed so badly that the fry started stressing as well, so I put her back, and they all settled down immediately.
I am keeping track of the fry and hope to raise them to trade for some more panda corydoras to increase the female population, gene pool and balance out the group. I have a theory that they are spawning so often as a survival instinct to increase their own numbers....
So that's the how and why of my fish journal.



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[realgwyneth]

Maybe not what you're looking for ... but we keep a lengthy Excel file, primarily to record water changes, but over time we included when we roottabbed (is that a verb?) various plants, if something unusual is occurring (e.g. cloudy water, increasing algae), as well as new plant and fish additions and changes to hardware (like a new light). It helps us identify patterns if things go awry.

 

[Essjay]

You already have your phone in your pocket when you're standing there looking at fish.

In my case I do not have a smart phone (the screens are far too small for me to be able to touch the correct spot, I have trouble with a 10 inch tablet). I would have to keep a laptop in my pocket to use an electronic database. Instead I scribble anything I need to record on a scrap of paper then when I've finished I write it up in my notebook.