What are you doing today?

[Naughts]

I've just come home after being at a family wedding all day to find my tank at 33°C. Fish don't seem to be happy, perhaps that's down to them not
being fed?

How much aeration is there? Try a cool water change, point the filter to the surface, add an air stone and leave the lights off.

 

[MattW]

After an incident a couple years back I always have airation on my tanks now. Whether it be through air stones or sponge filters. This tank has an air stone one for about 11-12 hours a day now. I probably should of done a WC though.

 

[Lanpenn]

In some heat waves I have experienced (and Brazil itself), my tank reached about 32 ºC. After removing my lids, the situation improved slightly; I believe it became about 2 ºC cooler. Fortunately, my Betta never jumped. Well, it has been 2 years since he arrived home. Is it not that, my dear Betta?

Brine shrimp from Vietnam can tolerate temperatures higher than 35 ºC, making it a suitable variety for testing in Brazil. Additionally, we have good varieties from Rio Grande do Norte. However, there was not exactly a formal and regular brine shrimp production in Brazil. It is so informal, yet.

Our home has had some refurbishment (how can I call "reforma" in English?). I suppose that, due to painting after the sanding and other construction activities, such as cutting the floor, some construction dust went into my small brine shrimp culture. I picked up an old MarineLand activated carbon for a MarineLand canister filter, and adapted it for my sponge filter from Artemia cultivation (and also to my Betta's tank). I do not know if this will help, nor if the activated carbon still works. Some pellets escaped from the sponge filter... okay, I will pick them later. Some brine shrimp are still alive, and some of them are already adults. I believe that for now, no more dust is coming here, at least is that I hope so.

 

[GaryE]

Brine shrimp from Vietnam can tolerate temperatures higher than 35 ºC, making it a suitable variety for testing in Brazil. Additionally, we have good varieties from Rio Grande do Norte. However, there was not exactly a formal and regular brine shrimp production in Brazil. It is so informal, yet.

That really caught my eye. I wish our hobby were large enough and vibrant enough for North Americans to have access to Vietnamese or Brazilian brine shrimp eggs. I used American Salt Lake ones for decades, and they could be very good, but I've also used Russian ones, that produced very small shrimp ideal for fry. I got those via a local Russian aquarist who would visit home and bring back a few pounds to use and sell. I haven't seen those cysts for years.

I now use Chinese artemia cysts, which I find better than US ones in that they hatch at a higher percentage for the price. We need more "too serious" aquarists to create a market for such things.

Hatching out brine shrimp was one of the biggest changes that improved my hobby, and that opened doors to keeping and breeding some weird and wonderful fish.

So today, I work on my live food resources, since I'm caught up on water changes and such. The fishroom is as neat and ordered as it's ever been. Some Austrian friends are coming to stay for a week, and the guy in the couple is bringing me three species of rarely seen Cichlids. One isn't a dwarf, but it swam around my feet in Gabon in 2023 and I spent a pleasant afternoon unable to catch the quick little #$#^s in open water, but studying their habitat to my heart's content. He was able to catch some fry with his better net (and, frankly, better skills and experience), so I am going to get to learn how to keep their young in a fishtank. I have a 75 gallon I prepped yesterday, and am hoping the fish survive the trip, airline willing.

There were no plants in the natural habitat of these Chromidotilapia kingsleyae, but I cheated there. I'm not going to say I'm getting them for sure because of the ways of travel, but I hope so. It's always fun to hope for new fish.

 

[Lanpenn]

That really caught my eye. I wish our hobby were large enough and vibrant enough for North Americans to have access to Vietnamese or Brazilian brine shrimp eggs. I used American Salt Lake ones for decades, and they could be very good, but I've also used Russian ones, that produced very small shrimp ideal for fry. I got those via a local Russian aquarist who would visit home and bring back a few pounds to use and sell. I haven't seen those cysts for years.

I now use Chinese artemia cysts, which I find better than US ones in that they hatch at a higher percentage for the price. We need more "too serious" aquarists to create a market for such things.

Hatching out brine shrimp was one of the biggest changes that improved my hobby, and that opened doors to keeping and breeding some weird and wonderful fish.

So today, I work on my live food resources, since I'm caught up on water changes and such. The fishroom is as neat and ordered as it's ever been. Some Austrian friends are coming to stay for a week, and the guy in the couple is bringing me three species of rarely seen Cichlids. One isn't a dwarf, but it swam around my feet in Gabon in 2023 and I spent a pleasant afternoon unable to catch the quick little #$#^s in open water, but studying their habitat to my heart's content. He was able to catch some fry with his better net (and, frankly, better skills and experience), so I am going to get to learn how to keep their young in a fishtank. I have a 75 gallon I prepped yesterday, and am hoping the fish survive the trip, airline willing.

There were no plants in the natural habitat of these Chromidotilapia kingsleyae, but I cheated there. I'm not going to say I'm getting them for sure because of the ways of travel, but I hope so. It's always fun to hope for new fish.

According to some journal articles, the Great Salt Lake brine shrimp are the best, however. Most cyst production in the world comes from the United States (more than 70 %, according to the article "Review on integrated production of the brine shrimp Artemia in solar salt ponds" from Van Stappen and others, published in 2019). Here in Brazil, most cysts are imported (according to Marcos Camara, in "After the gold rush: A review of Artemia cyst production in northeastern Brazil", 2020), but I have never bought American cysts, and yes, the Brazilian ones. For some months, I stopped accompanying brine shrimp articles; however, there are still bottlenecks in cyst production, because the Great Salt Lake is a natural environment, therefore, its seasonal changes in temperature and water level influence the cyst availability (maybe one day we will have brine shrimp as a commodity?). Recently, as a matter of curiosity, I have seen a job offer for potential workers in GSL (I do not know if this also includes foreign workers), related to brine shrimp cyst, if my memory is not mistaken.

If this depended only on me, I would think of something such as RAS production, but I know that every region has its challenges and particularities. Vietnam has the same issues as other emerging countries, such as Brazil, but it is poorer and there is less skilled labor (for example, there are still some Brazilian universities among the best in the QS World University Rankings, but where are the Vietnamese ones? I have found only one.). But I believe that Vietnam will get richer than Brazil, since we here we had two lost decades (1980s and 2010s), at least. However, they are doing important structural reforms in the small Asian country. I have shoes that were produced in Vietnam! My gym gloves were made in Pakistan (and they are good ones, at least since I bought them last year). Brazil's hobby in fishkeeping is still poor, mainly compared to North America, Europe, and Asia, even worse for a country with the largest biodiversity in the world.

Yesterday, I took another civil service exam, in a small city called Vinhedo (but, for some reason, it is one of the richest ones in São Paulo state). This time, I have got a good score (although the definitive result will be released only in a few weeks), getting 92% of the questions right. Indeed, the exam surprised me; it appeared so much easier for a position such as a biologist related to an environmental specialist. In 4 years of doing exams like this, it is the easiest I have done. On the other hand, I have taken exams that were far more difficult than any TOEFL iBT... of course, I do not have any idea if they will give me this position (this would help me to pay for more TOEFL iBT). While I was driving home from Vinhedo (almost 248 miles), I was thinking about my "crushes" from the gymnasium (including the one who inspired my poetry and my simple drawings), my future plans, while listening to Daft Punk and, after, some Björk... the probably Altocumulus floccus clouds... later, I wrote another poem and my pseudojournal.

 

[GaryE]

The Great Salt Lake artemia are a major commodity in aquaculture. There are Canadian ones that might be different, or not, but that go 100% to fish farming, so I'll probably never know. There are also American SF Bay ones, which are smaller, much like the Russian ones I had.
I have no nutritional breakdowns, but the Chinese ones I'm using do the job well. I feed them to my fry and to small fish every second day.
It's a car day for me - 4 hours through pine trees to Halifax. I'll pick up my friends tomorrow morning, and no doubt talk about fish, fish collecting and whatever else on the long road back. it should be a very good week ahead. I'm hoping to learn a lot, and that's kind of exciting.
With luck, I should have fish I've admired in photos for many years, and that are either holy grail or bucket list projects, depending on how you choose to say it.
One of my daphnia cultures has a lot of mosquitoes in it. The screen keeps being removed in the night, and they lay eggs. It's a good food source, but I have to be aggressive about harvesting it. I thought a raccoon was taking the cover off to drink, but last night I spotted the neighbour's cat walk into the space, pass 2 tubs and knock the lid off the 3rd, seemingly as part of its routine. It didn't even drink the water.
Cats.
I should have suspected him.

I think it's a Dropkick Murphys kind of day for driving. That band, Fontaines DC, Kneecap, and some old ska and roots reggae. That long highway is going to call for upbeat outside energy.

 

[connorlindeman]

Harvested all cucumbers before leaving home exactly one week ago. This is what we came back to:

 

[jaylach]

Just got done watching the new How To Train Your Dragon movie through Prime Video and have to say that I liked it but, given a choice, I take the original.

Watched it at home but I have a pretty good video situation with a 55 inch screen about 8 feet from where I sit and a pretty kick butt Yamaha audio system.

 

[Back in the fold]

Yesterday we had a 60 degree day with a lighter than drizzle mist all day . Overcast and cool . It felt so nice to run in that rather than the 100 degrees Monday . Today is 68 degrees and no rain but still overcast . I think I’ll snag a seven mile run today before the heat returns . Tomorrow is supposed to be 80 and climbing back into the 90’s next week . It’s nice to have this respite from the heat and a little taste of fall .

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Just got back from a two-week road trip through Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. Spent last night holed up at a hotel in scenic Thedford, Nebraska, waiting out a tornado warning. It was less boring than Nebraska usually is. Gotta see the bright side.

It was a very fun and in many ways eye-opening trip, but man oh man, is it good to be home.

 

[Back in the fold]

but man oh man, is it good to be home.

Have you had time to kick off your ruby slippers and relax ?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Have you had time to kick off your ruby slippers and relax ?

A little. Mostly unpacking and dealing with the four guests who have been living in our house and will be here another three days before we get our bathrooms and den back. It's all good though. They're very nice people and they're doing some good work here in town and need a place to stay.