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What's going on here???
By New Guppy Momma from the Perplexed NGM department, Section Diaries Posted on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 01:00:05 PM PST Tags: (all tags)

What's up with the site?

Anyone know. I keep getting logged out?
Is someone working on it behind the scenes or something.

Anyway my fishies are all doing good. Just my maternity ward 10 gallon went all cloudy on me. I jumpstarted the cycle with a filter that had been running in my big tank as well as 60% of water from my big tank. The gravel and decorations werenew tho and rinsed really well. There are 6 adult female guppies in there as well as 3 half growns and now about a half dozen to a dozen fry of varying ages as well as 1 ghost shrimp. I was doing weekly 2 gallon changes and have for the last 2 weeks been doing every other day 2 gallon changes. I did have 2 femaes die on me within the first 2 weeks. This tank has been re-setup since the third week of January. So I'm thinking what cycle I did import wasn't enough. Or my Momma's are just very wasteful.

Well Gotta go tend to the fishies. Hope someone knows what's going on. Let us all know PLEASE.

< Finally | early color in fry? Seeing spots at 7 days! >

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What's going on here??? | 5 comments (5 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

I also have been experiencing funny (none / 0) (#1)
by unclescott on Tue Feb 27, 2007 at 02:44:03 PM PST

business which kept me out of GL in varying degrees. I either couldn't get in or would get to a certain point in editing or submitting a dairy and was then denied further access. (But in cleaning up my computer to see if the problem was on this end, is it clean!) Scott Lockwood knew as of last night that there was a problem or problems. He probably spent a lot more time on it than he had planned. I'm guessing that when time permits he will give us a quick briefing on what happened.

I would like to thank him for the time behind the scenes which he takes.

As for your cloudy water, the fish's waste load is still beyond the cycling capacity of your aquarium to accommodate. Nature will follow one or more of several strategies to process it. A bacterial bloom (the white stuff in the water) is better than fungus on the bottom (at least visually), an outbreak of planaria on the side of the tank, a Cyanobacteria bloom or something really serious attacking your guppies. If at all possible increase the number of partial water changes per week and increase the amount changed from two to three gallons (still "only 30%) at a change.

Several people from the Inkmaker to the TFH editor have figured that if we aren't changing almost half the water a week, in many cases we are falling quickly behind in getting that unwanted stuff (even if it gets processed to nitrates) out of the tank and it will accumulate. Fancy ammonia/ nitrogen absorbers in the filter, tons of plants (like over 30 growing stalks of a bunch plant per square foot), a trickle (wet-dry filter) or some fancy filter which used anaerobic bacteria (which just let into our gravel can set up killing conditions) can tip the balance in your favor.

In fact, DJ's diary of a month ago and some more recent reading have begun convincing me that even a package or part of a package of dry culture material can tweak up you nitrogen cycle in a hurry. (Check for the "freshness date" on the package though.) That still only means that the ammonia is broken down to the nitrites and the nitrites are broken down to the nitrates. If nitrates are over 20 PPM that can be dangerous to the fish and guppy tails are probably already splitting and worse. So (sigh) water changes must continue and maybe increase in frequencies and volume.

I like what you did to transplant the nitrogen cycle. I'm surprised that the water got cloudy, but it did. You know not to overfeed. So do I. Yet if we have a bottom feeder like the shrimp, we feel (probably correctly) that we need to let a little drift down to it. Try feeding a little less though. That way you are limiting the output of nitrogenous wastes a bit more and with the increased changing of water, are taking out more fishy wastes. Hopefully that twin strategy will cause the white hue in the water (the white peril?) to dissipate and disappear.

All the best!

More water changes = less computer time (none / 0) (#2)
by New Guppy Momma on Thu Mar 01, 2007 at 08:24:06 AM PST

Here's my third try at posting this. I finally got smart and wrote it as a word document and then just have to copy and paste. Here goes....

I had a really nice reply to this all written up last night but due to the problems with the site it went bye-bye into cyber space.

Anyway as to my fishies: I guess in my maternity ward tank I will probably have to do daily 3 gallon water changes for a week, then the e-o-d changes for a couple weeks then do 25% changes twice a week once the water is clear again. I did drop the feedings down to only 2-3 times a day. But with 6 pregnant females in there and all of whom have dropped fry in the tank recently and the low number of young fry swimming around I'm guessing that the majority of the fry are becoming snacks for the others. Thus cancelling out the decrease in my feeding schedule. Ghost shrimp is getting moved to the Beast today.

As to the comment about changing at least 50% of the water at least once a week that actually sounds like a good idea and probably very sensible. I guess that means upping my changes on the beast a bit too. I've been doing bi-weekly changes on that of 12 gallons at a time but that only runs me around 35%-40% weekly. An experamint is in order. I wonder also if using a product like Cycle http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Hagen_Hagen_Cycle_Water_Treatment_4_oz_Plastic_Bottle would help get a handle on the problems. At least give the fish a better working nitrogen cycle.
Also my males are still having problems with shredded tails so I guess the increase in clean water couldn't hurt. I may also have it slightly overstocked ;) These durned guppies won't stop popping out babies. Guess I might want to get a small angelfish to drop in the Beast or a small oscar or ciclid for now and then set-up a new tank for it. Or maybe just a mate for Princess Pat (dwarf gourami) and have them on double duty.

Oh well. Anyway I think it's time to take a shipment of Guppies to my friend who has a pond. It is deffinately warm enough for them to survive outside now. It's been running in the mid 80's (high temp) for the last 3-4 days so I think summer is now here. Sorry to see more chilly weather headed your way Unc.

Oh and anyone want blood-fin tetra's? I have 4 to give away. I wonder if Walmart will take them back without them being dead? Guess I'll have too call them. They were an impulse buy. Serves me right for not researching them better. They are VERY aggressive (compared to the other fish I have) and like to torture other fish. They are also very skittish and fast moving which tends to freak out anything I put in with them, except for the ghost shrimp. They also aren't very big eaters. I guess that's why the ghostie in there has already molted twice. He's getting too much too eat.
It would be nice to turn their tank into a second maternity ward/fry grow-up tank. I seem to remember someone at Petco in Corpus saying that they will accept donations of almost fullgrown guppies into their "pet" adoption tank. I guess the fish would then be going to school projects. So gotta call them too.

Also gotta go change some water. If I spent less time on my computer I think I'd have more time to change more water. ;) have to think on that one a bit. But I doubt if my Hubby will let me build an automatic water changer for just the few tanks I have.
Before all else fails....do a 25% water change ;)
[ Parent ]

"Guess I might want to get a small (none / 0) (#3)
by unclescott on Thu Mar 01, 2007 at 09:25:40 AM PST

angelfish to drop in the Beast or a small oscar or cichlid for now and then set-up a new tank for it."

LOL! There does seem to be a need for small predators. When we were collecting in a cyprus lake in NC a couple of weeks ago (40 degrees water, but it blows me away to be ambling (staggering?) through any water in February. We encountered a couple of fish I had never seen the habitat of before. Also found a lot of Gambusia and (their natural predator) pickerel (probably red-finned someone said). In the shallows the pickerel, probably born last year, were only 2-2.5 inches/5 cm long. They couldn't have yet taken any but the smallest of the Gambusia. They are the smallest of the pikes, but even a 10-12" pickerel would be a tankful. It would do well in your beast, but in time you would run out of guppies.

You might get away with a small angelfish for a time and then, as you suggested, would have to move it to spacious quarters of its own. A personal prejudice, but I think they show better in the company of another or several angelfish.

Angels are more gentle than many cichlids. I may be slandering them, but I fear that the guppies an oscar and many another cichlid would be unable to eat, it would shred. I have seen an oscar swimming around with a feeder goldfish hanging out of its mouth - it was that full!

And when one enters cichlid country, as you know, one does enter the land of large tanks (30-55-300 gallons/114-208-1136 liters perhaps) and python water changers which need to be used a lot. ;)

[ Parent ]

Re: "Guess I might want to get a small (none / 0) (#4)
by New Guppy Momma on Thu Mar 01, 2007 at 07:51:35 PM PST

Guess another Dwarf Gourami would be the best bet. Or better yet just eliminate female guppies from the Beast. I do have a home for a few of my ladies. I've also noticed a particular color/tail design that seems to be developing severly bent tails in all the females. They have a kinda off-white color to the tails and a black "lacy" pattern. The one is now so far gone that I had to remove her to the 1 gallon as she could no longer evade the males attentions. But I looked really well today and only saw one very young fry in the Beast. There are roughly a dozen which are starting to show gravid spots which is the reason for the free Blood-fins. (Oh and NO Walmart will not take them back unless dead.) I may end up giving them to a friend of mine who had a tank of goldfish. She lost all the goldies during their recent move :( . But a nice tank with some free fish from me is always a welcome sight :)

So the soon to be empty 10 gallon will be for virgin female fry. I hope. Unless I get the itch to try even more species (here my Hubby is rolling his eyes at the very idea;).

Well gotta go get the kids off to bed. Thanks for all the advice Unc. Sleep well andstay warm. We gotta turn the AC on tonight. A bit too hot and humid.
Before all else fails....do a 25% water change ;)
[ Parent ]

Have your friend clean that tank very thoroughly. (none / 0) (#5)
by unclescott on Thu Mar 01, 2007 at 08:52:13 PM PST

And make sure they know that soap is not involved. ;) Then explain cycling to them. :)

TFH for April came today. One of the cover stories indicated an article on "Mini-predators." One little voice in me said, "Ooh! Ooh! Just what we've been talking about!"

With considerable curiosity I turned to "Pocket-Sized Pikes", already developing a half correct guess as to what that would be about. The article wasn't about keeping a flock of livebearers to size. Indeed most of them - pike cichlids, a natural predator of guppies; the pike characin, related to the tetras and able to eat many of them; needlefish; Central America's (and now Florida's) Pike livebearer, already a natural predator on small livebearers, tetras and cichlids; and "rocket gars" or "freshwater barracuda" Ctenolucius hujeta (which of course are neither of those fish, but another South American pike characin) can all take adult guppies. Fortunately they can be trained to take earthworms, crickets, mealworms and eventually slices of whitefish.

One of their "pikes" is a killifish from India, in the old books called the Malabar killifish. You may have seen a color sport of them in the shops = the golden wonder killie. (For an account of how it was developed see http://nzka.fnzas.org.nz/ )

I have a wild strain of it now, the so-called red form. They are great jumpers and must be in a tightly covered tank or they will quickly succumb to terminal dehydration. This is redder than mine, but sort of gives an idea of what Aplocheilus lineatus can look like.
http://www.aquatropica.be/aquatropica/articles/aplocheilus/aplo_lineatus.htm

They are also prolific breeders and lay big eggs. Their's were the killie whose eggs I used to teach our kids how to pick eggs - at the age of 2 1/2.

They are a good example of if it can fit into the mouth, but are pretty gentle towards larger fish. Indeed I made the mistake of putting three of them into a 29-gallon tank with a pair of like-sized pike livebearers (Belonesox belizanus). I had to remove the pummeled killie soon after!

The books and hobby often suggest that one can't get fry to grow in a tank of adults and I've seen that disproved several times. However, just because a species tolerates a few of it's own fry, doesn't mean that it tolerates the fry of another species.

I think you would get no guppy fry in that tank. Ok, maybe not a good idea after all.

[ Parent ]

What's going on here??? | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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