What are you doing today?

[GaryE]

Last Monday, a breeder in the Czech Republic sent me 25 plus eggs from Epiplatys ansorgii Massana. We caught some of this fish in 2023, but inexperience got me with them. I decided they'd never make it back since we got them early in the process, and had 10 days in hot weather to go. Now, I'm sure they would have survived. I regretted that mistake, because the related Epiplatys huberi we caught turned into great fish. I can see myself getting into keeping some Epiplatys again.

We never went to Massana in Gabon, but we were very close, and probably saw fish from the same drainage.

The eggs arrived today - remarkably fast for an international mailing like that. They shouldn't hatch for another 5 to 8 days, but they looked good. I'm pleased.

We have had sheets of hard rain all day, which is unpleasant but not as unpleasant as wildfires. The winter was too dry, and I think we have to grit our teeth and swim for a week. The explosion of green has been great all day - leaves are opening at high speed.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Off work today; started the day sick. Was out in the garage working on some arrows and suddenly started feeling extremely not right. Weakness, nausea, cloudy thinking. Sat in a comfy chair and did very little most of the morning; rallied around lunch time, ate a little, wend for a walk with the family, tried out my new arrows. Took a nap and now I'm about ready to call it a day.

Life in the fast lane.

 

[MattW]

So the weather in the UK this week is warm. My town has peaked at 31°C so far, and with the humidity it feels a lot worse. My 60L in my attic room is set to 23°C but currently reads 30.2°C . What's the best way to bring it down a couple of degrees? I'm definitely not going to have the lights on, and I can't take the lid off as the fish do like to jump sometimes.. A chilled bottle of water floating perhaps?

 

[GaryE]

@MattW - you are stuck. Floating iced bottles gets you cooler water as long as you constantly replenish the supply. Otherwise, you cause temps to bounce up and down. I now live in a place where temps rarely get high, but for me that's recent. I spent the first 6 decades of my life in a place where 35 degree humid summers were part of life, for a few weeks. I sweated and the fish suffered from the temperatures.

I learned that if I didn't have air conditioning (which I didn't til the last house there) I gritted my teeth and rode it out. Extreme heat can be awful for many fish species, but cooling the environment is hard, and expensive. I have an old air conditioning unit gathering dust in my garage if you want to paddle over. Get a plug adapter...

 

[MattW]

If I can ever afford a boat, I might take you up on that offer.

Luckily, the fish are from Indeonisa, so I suppose they can deal with the higher-end temps?

To be honest, I think the shrimp are more likely ot have issues than the fish..

 

[BlaiseinLondon]

Off work today; started the day sick. Was out in the garage working on some arrows and suddenly started feeling extremely not right. Weakness, nausea, cloudy thinking. Sat in a comfy chair and did very little most of the morning; rallied around lunch time, ate a little, wend for a walk with the family, tried out my new arrows. Took a nap and now I'm about ready to call it a day.

Life in the fast lane.

Hope you soon feel much better.

 

[GaryE]

Off work today; started the day sick. Was out in the garage working on some arrows and suddenly started feeling extremely not right. Weakness, nausea, cloudy thinking. Sat in a comfy chair and did very little most of the morning; rallied around lunch time, ate a little, wend for a walk with the family, tried out my new arrows. Took a nap and now I'm about ready to call it a day.

Life in the fast lane.

I'll turn into Grandmother Gary here and say if that doesn't turn into a virus, keep a close eye on that. You might want to get it checked if it doesn't vanish. Making arrows is fine, but time's arrow delivers complications for us.

We had our first 10c overnight last night, and today is predicted at 16c. I'm going to say the frost giants have retreated, and get the tomato garden in today. It isn't what people in the UK (and I assume western Europe) are getting, but it's solidly Spring. Actually, here, summer.

I was watching Hoplisoma melini this morning - one of my favourites. They are completely insane, and very fun to watch. No eggs yet, but they've had the mad zoomies for days. I think it's safe to say these fish really like each other's company.

 

[gwand]

Off work today; started the day sick. Was out in the garage working on some arrows and suddenly started feeling extremely not right. Weakness, nausea, cloudy thinking. Sat in a comfy chair and did very little most of the morning; rallied around lunch time, ate a little, wend for a walk with the family, tried out my new arrows. Took a nap and now I'm about ready to call it a day.

Life in the fast lane.

I agree with @GaryE. Those symptoms can be a warning. As a physician I recommend you be evaluated, especially if symptoms return.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Feeling pretty weak today but good enough to wrangle short people. We'll see how things go.

 

[GaryE]

@WhistlingBadger - I hope things went well, and you're feeling not only better, but medically checked.

I'm feeling good. I started my morning, after a 5:30 AM pot of coffee by scaping 2 tanks I made last week. They're around 24 gallons, 2/3 filled for killiifish species that seem to breed best in larger tanks. I'm going to use them for 2 Gabon 2023 species - Epiplatys huberi and Aphyosemion escherichi. Right now, the new set ups are foggier than the bay outside.

They're hybrid tanks - decorated but with unavoidably ugly spawning mops. I also put a row of peace lilies roots in across the back of one, and boston ferns set up the same way across the other. The fish come from streambank root habitats, so this is my latest attempt to create that. I may possibly have learned from previous misfires. I hope the roots fill in. They should. Patience, but this time, small plants spread better.

Just as I leaned back feeling like an undiscovered impressionist to look at my work, I noticed activity in the tank behind me. My Hoplisoma atropersonatus, my favourite corydoras, were spawning for the first time, in a hanging mop. I could see a few eggs, so I pulled the mops and replaced them with fresh ones I'll check later. The group were all rowdy, but one smaller loner male was traveling behind them eating their eggs. I ruined his breakfast.

It's a cool rainy day at 9:30 in the morning, but that's a decent start. We'll see what's next. It seems to involve groceries, and house stuff.

 

[Lanpenn]

I will try to contact Tetra or any Brazilian distributor of the brand here in Brazil, because it seems that my air pump's air filter is somewhat saturated. Does it make sense?

I tried to open the equipment and apparently it is not possible to remove the air filter to clean it. Does anyone have this air pump? I have had this one since 2022.

Yesterday I read the very interesting article "Palm kernel expeller (PKE)-based feed for brine shrimp Artemia production: effects on growth, biomass, and microbial composition" (Gopi et al. 2025). Very cool. Does anyone imagine that is possible to feed brine shrimp with a cheap by-product like PKE?

 

[bgarthe]

Just put in an order for a shoal of 10 Muzel Red Cherry Tetras……can’t wait.They’ll join the rummynose rasboras in the 33g long tank after QTing.

While I don’t currently have a Tetra Air Pump, when I did, I would grab that cottony button air filter with sharp pointy forceps and pull it out of the holding spot. Sometimes tilting a heavy duty needle and popping it out will work. Clean it and push it back in with forceps handle or pencil eraser end.

 

[Back in the fold]

Hotter than a tri-testicular tom cat this week . Did some water changes today and unplugged the heaters . Glorious summer is upon us !

 

[Back in the fold]

Today is a weird day . The weatherman had his undies in a bunch over a great rainstorm that was supposed to happen this weekend but nothing has yet materialized . It was cloudy enough earlier that it seemed like it could but now the sun is coming out . This does not bother me at all despite the fact that we could really use some rain . We’re in full blown drought here along the banks of the Yellowstone . No , what tickles me is that old cocksure weatherman is wrong . I guess his computer models didn’t eat their Wheaties .
So after gloating over that I checked my Killifish eggs I harvested yesterday and several look about to pop . Now I’ll feed the fish and I have to find out what Svengoolie is showing tonight .
Life is good .

 

[GaryE]

Third try lucky. I've had a forty gallon long (150 litres, 1.3 m) tank leaking very slowly for a few months, puddling into a bucket on the garage floor. I emptied and resealed the old tank, and missed the leak. I have a bad habit of false efficiency - of working too fast. But I was able to identify the general area. So I tried a spot repair - again, too fast and a bad idea. Missed it again. Yesterday I re-emptied, re stripped it of silicone and redid it properly. I had it under excellent light, and worked slowly and steadily to apply the silicone. It is holding water just fine today, after the silicone has cured. It's like a brand new old tank.

Trouble? Yeah. But if you consider the cost of aquariums now? Here, they've shot up for no apparent reason. We don't have tariffs and shipping them is basic. Prices have still tripled since the pandemic. This repair cost me under 14 dollars in silicone and about 2.5 hours in labour, including my screw ups. A new tank? A couple of hundred dollars.

Online, I see people throwing out aquariums that leak rather than fixing them, often when the leak is probably from a filter, or from an airline, a plant or such wicking. I understand the panic in an apartment or a living room with expensive flooring. But people throw out tanks they keep on cement floors in basements rather than fix them.

I cut corners and worked fast on my first try. That was dumb on my part. Had I proceeded slowly, the repaired tank would have been running for months, and would have been good for another 10 to 20 years. Now, it seems to be there.