An Ichthyogeek's attempt at Aquascape + Fish Breeding

[ichthyogeek]

So, I recently moved, and it's time to start the tank journals. For background, I've moved to LA County for my first job post college (!!!!), and I'm excited to give aquascaping and fish breeding some serious tries. Here's what's happening currently:

pH after overnight degassing is around 7.00, and TDS is 175 (that's like, scary good, right???). I need to ask if they use a water softener though. I know they use chlorine since I can taste it. But given the slight "off" taste to the water, it might just be that I'm tasting the calcium or magnesium in the water.

Petco sale is happening, but I don't get out of quarantine until next Monday. My boss is also a fish person so I'm debating asking him to pick up and hold the tank(s) for me until my work starts next week. Also wondering if I should ask him for like, a cup of cat food for grindal worm cultures (I don't own a cat but he does, so like...?)

Right now I need to go over my stocking list and check to see if I have the right stocking listed for the current water parameters I have.

[ichthyogeek]

Update!

So I've been to Petco, which was having its $/gallon 50% off certain tanks sale, got myself a nice 20L, and we're gonna get started!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMi7Zk6D...on_share_sheet

I've decided to use Instagram (and maybe YouTube as well) to see what I can do with that. Mostly as picture/video hosting sites, but we'll see what happens later down the line.

Right now, I'm running a lot of the plants I have through a fenbendazole treatment to prophylactically treat for hydra and planaria, as those are two hitchhikers that I don't want in my tank. They're currently sitting in 2 gallons of medicated water, and the equation goes as follows:

1 ppm = 1 mg [medication] / L [solvent]
The current dosage for treating hydra and planaria with fenbendazole is ~0.6 ppm.
The packets of fenbendazole I'm using are from Chewy, and they run at 250 mg fenbendazole/packet, which roughly comes out to 1.60 grams when emptied.
1ppm = 1 mg/L -> .6 ppm = .6 mg fenbendazole / 1 L water
1 gallon = 3785.41 mL
.6 mg fenbendazole/ 1000 mL water = x mg fenbendazole/3785.41 mL water -> x = ~2.27 mg fenbendazole
250 mg fenbendazole/1.6 grams powder = 2.27 mg fenbendazole / x grams powder -> x = .014 grams

Because my scale only goes to .01 grams, I doubled the recipe (so 2 gallons of water), and ended up with ~.029 grams powder needed, which rounded up to .03 grams powder. The less said about the white powdery stuff that I was measuring from a ziploc bag the better....

Ouch List [Prices may have changed]:

20L Aquarium: $25
Sponge Filter: $11
Heater: $19
Aquarium Light: $25

Weighing Scale: $14
Airline Tubing: $7
Air Pump: $18
Airline Splitter: $11
Aquarium Backing: $14
Fenbendazole: $20

[Jawaeater]

What kind of scape do you have in mind for the 20L? Are you using aquarium soil? Nice IG. I'm terratropicals

[robmcd]

Following this both here and that other little site.@olddirtyrob on IG

[ichthyogeek]

What kind of scape do you have in mind for the 20L? Are you using aquarium soil? Nice IG. I'm terratropicals

I'm just using some sort of black sand (black diamond? unsure.) : http://scapeclub.org/forum/showthrea...e-can-I-buy-it

I'm planning on seeing what I can do with a heckin' amount of leaves plus just a few plants to absorb nutrients from all of the feeding I plan on doing. I know it's not going to be competition worthy, but I'm wanting it to be aesthetically pleasing enough to look at throughout the day.

[ichthyogeek]

It's been about a week, and I may have gone overboard.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CM5vP6zJ...on_share_sheet

The fish tank cycled fairly quickly, and I believe that it's because of all of the plants I ended up purchasing. Which meant that I was able to add in more stock! I'm excited to finally add in some more fish! And the best part was that I got to get a deal on all of the ones I purchased, which is really, really great (although not so great for my wallet).

I actually like buying blackworms and letting them sink into the substrate. They provide a good enrichment food for all worm eaters in the tank, AND they also help process waste in the tank. The one issue is that you can't really gravel vacuum the tank a lot until they're all gone, but that's not really an issue for me at the moment.

Another thing I like is Repashy. I first tried using it in college for a lab I was in, and the fish I was working with (northern Mexican swordtails) really took to it. I also like using it since Oto cats seem to thrive on this mix. Currently I'm feeding one cube of soilent green and one cube of spawn and grow a day.

Ouch List:

Cholla logs x3 - $10
Black cotton thread - $3.5
2x Anubias nana var. petite - $10
1x Melon sword (Echinodorus osiris) - $15
1x banana plant (Nymphaea sp.) - $5
10x pygmy corydoras (Corydoras pygmaeus) - $30
5x otocinclus catfish (Otocinclus sp.) - $15
1x portion of blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus) - $3.5
6x amano shrimp - $24

1x Mini bloodworms SF Bay Brand - $5
Silicon molds for making Repashy - $9
Repashy Spawn and Grow - $10
Repashy Soilent Green - $20

[ichthyogeek]

I'm finally almost finished with my build, and just have to wait on a few things to grow in.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNJHIQqp...on_share_sheet

I decided to wait a bit this week before buying any more fish. I'm still waiting on some lucky bamboo from Amazon to arrive, as well as some Azolla from an LFS. Some stem plants have been floating around in the water, so I went ahead and planted them today (fingers crossed that they'll survive). I was able to get in some pretty nice looking melastoma roots from Tannin Aquatics, which was really fun. I also got in some helix pods, guava leaves, and my favorite: Indian Almond Leaves.

I've been holding back on feeding Repashy this week since I had a small nitrite spike for some reason, which resulted in me doing a lot of water changes in order to get things under control. Another reason why I'm holding back on getting more fish at the moment. In the meantime I'm adding one guava leaf and one indian almond leaf each week.

I did finally bite the bullet and ordered some stuff from Brine Shrimp Direct, so I'm fully stocked and prepared to hatch out a ton of brine shrimp now! I also bought some golden pearls to feed the fish as well, since those are supposedly a good diet for smaller fish.

Ouch List

• 2x Melastoma Roots - $36
• 10x Helix Pods - $7
• 24x Medium Catappa Leaves - $14
• 24x Guava Leaves - $16
• 1x 57g 300-500uM Golden Pearls - $7.25
• 1x 2oz. spirulina powder - $3.95
• 1x Artemia Sieve (120 uM) - $5.95
• 1x 100mL EZ Eggs - $15.95