Fry

If you had wondered why no updates have been posted to my fishroom blog in two months. Well I have been selling my house and purchasing a new house with the lovely girlfriend.
Out of all 12 tanks in the fishroom, I have managed to narrow down my stock to just 4 tanks.
1x Proven breeding pair of Kribs (F3)
1x Unproven Pair of Apistogramma Cacatuoides (F1)
1x Proven breeding Pair of Green Severums
1x Proven breeding Pair of Jack Dempseys

I've been narrowing down the tanks to help with the move. Things previously in place to aid spawning had been removed. Plant pots etc.

Well... it hasnt stopped them one bit!
The previously unproven Apisto. Cacatuoides are currently rearing two separate batches of fry in the same tank. Which is fantastic news as I have been waiting for these to breed for a good few months now. I originally purchased these from a friend in my home town, who breed the wild parents. Fry are currently being fed on powdered fry food & the bacteria growing on the moss in their tank.

The Jack Dempseys have spawned AGAIN, this time a much larger spawn - I was concerned at one point as the parent exposed the tank bottom one day, then changed their mind and covered it up. Only to spawn on a smallish piece of slate instead. Fry are less than 1 week old at the moment and have not started to swim yet.

The Green Severums were purchased over 6mths ago, from a Rivendell store in nearby Widnes. They had been brought in my another customer who simply couldnt look after them. When asked about their history, the guy at the store didnt know too much about them. Only that they had bred previous and have been together for a long time. Since I wanted to breed them, I thought fantastic, these will do. Since that day, I have waited and waited for signs of spawning activity. Sometimes they appears to 'play' together, but nothing ever came from it. Well.. last night I was in the fishroom doing my stuff. Fed the fish etc and didnt spot anything in the Sev tank. Today after work I walked into the fishroom and the first thing I spotted - hundreds of very well developed on the outside of a massive broken plant pot (24"). Infact 2 hours later I returned to the fishroom to find all the eggs wiggling. The eggs are only hatching right now! How on earth did I missed the spawning! ;-p

No news on the Kribs, these really dont like my fishroom one bit. After the relocation to the new house and new larger fishroom. Im thinking of giving them a setup similar to the cacatuoides.(Very close to nature)

Until next time..

I have Wiggles (Fry)

Finally, after multiple failed spawning attempts and fry being eaten by one or both parents. I have 2 day old fry.
They were spawned sometime between late Friday Night and Saturday teatime.
Water temp constant 25^C
Hatched on Bank Holiday Monday.
I was not taking any chances with the parents this time round, so on the Monday (which timed perfectly for the 3rd day after spawning took place). I remove both parents and relocated them to a 4ftx12x15 tank. They can stay in the 4ft for about 1 week - whilst I monitor the fry in the original tank they were spawned/hatched in.

The original tank, is filter by a 1200 litre external canister filter. So I need to keep a close eye on the fry to ensure once they start to swim a little. They do not get too close to the filter inlet (filter inlet + fly = no fry!).

I have a 8x12x12 tank cleaned and ready with a biofoam filter (matured) and a 8" air stone, which looked like to turns over the water pretty good. Hopefully this will be enough to keep them clean, healthy and fast growing.

I'll get a photo on here as soon as I am able. The fry are currently located in a gravel pit in the furthest corner from the filter inlet. Directly underneath the filter outlet. so not the best place to take a photo.
To be honest, ill probably get a photo - when I am relocating them to the 8x12x12 tank.

Off-topic: On a separate note, I am now the proud owner of 2x 12" Diamond Sturgeon in my garden pond. They cost a small fortune - but are worth it. Plus I used my birthday money to pay for them. So to all those who gave me money for my birthday.. You collectively bought me these. Thank You! x

Eggs no more...

Well, turns out either the male or female JD (or both) found the wriggles to be a tasty treat. They ate them on the 3rd day. I did managed to see actual fry, and hatching, at one point I seen up to 10 wriggling on the clay pot waiting for mother to collect. (eat!)
Think I have learnt a lesson with these pair now. When eggs are spawned in future, I will remove the clay pot & eggs to a separate tank, with plenty of aeration and nice clean water. Raise fry manually!

Photos of JD Spawn - Take 2!

As promised photos of the JD eggs, with proud female.
about 5-6 eggs are white this morning. much better improvement than the 100+'s last time.
Will keep updated.

Jack Dempsey Breeding Take 2!

As you can see from the pictures below, none of the eggs from the last time my Jack Dempsey's spawned were viable. However tonight I have noticed more eggs! The eggs have been deposited on the same plant pot as the last spawn, however there is one noticeable difference: in the previous spawn the eggs remained a clear orange colour throughout. Yet today's spawn look much different- a clear orange but with a distinct blank centre. So hopefuly this means the latest batch of eggs have been fertilised. Will get a photo on here soon and keep you updated on their progress.

Photo Of JD Eggs - Tuesday Morning

As you can see from the difference in the photos, more white eggs are appearing?
Over 50% are none viable now, starting to question why?

Photo Of JD Eggs - Monday Night

Photos as promised, of JD Spawn & Fishroom.

Jack Dempsey Spawning!!

Exciting stuff!
Since my last post I have adding to the fish room. all tanks are in the room, and some have fish relocated into them. Namely guppies, Mollies, Kribs, Ancistrus and my newly acquired Jack Dempsey pair (Previously bred pair, expect their spawns kept getting eaten my other tank inhabitants (previous owner had very large fish, aworanas etc).
Reason for this post, and to explain why there are no photos this time is because..

The Jack Dempsey pair (named 'Jack' n 'Jill' by the girlfriend) has started spawning. She is currently laying eggs on a very large broken plant pot and he is circling behind he leaving his milt on the eggs. So far ive only managed to see 100+ eggs as i happened to disturb them whilst going into the fishroom to do the nightly feed.
Figuring ive just disturbed them in the act. Ive left them to it, and all the other fish in there can miss their feeding for tonight (ill feed in the morning)

Once the pair our 'finishing' ill try and get a photo or two.

Well, its late. time for bed.

Breeding Tanks Setup

Very Quick Update, New photos of the Breeding Rank & tanks fitted back into the room.
Insulation have been completed, tanks were ready to go back in. Which is good, as they were blocking half of the halfway.
400w Oil Filled Panel Heater has been fitted to the wall and is running on a ET05 Thermometer Plug Socket. Set at 25c.
Opening the door to the fish room, lets some cold air into the room. reducing the room temperature from a steady 25c to 24.9c. (even 24.8c if left open a bit longer.)

Each of the 8x 23L tanks have been filled & both of the 47L tanks are also full of water. Each has been pre-treated with Water-safe. To remove any metals and chlorine.
A Haliae 8 outlet airpump will power the 8x 23L tanks, however this has yet to be fitted.

Until next time...

Insulation (Part 2)

Finished off fitting the remaining ThermoWrap Foil Insulation this afternoon.
Prior to stapling the rest, I checked the temperature of the room. Over night it drops below 10c and peaks at around 14c. However this is whilst a 60w standard incandescent light bulb is on. I can account a fair amount of the temperature increase to the heat given off from the 60w bulb in the day.
After completing the foil insulation earlier I left the thermometer in the room to gauge a stable temperature.
With the 60w light on & 2 people in the room, the temperature peaked to 20.7 (and shown signs of a still present gradual increase).
With the 60w on & just myself in the room, the temperature dropped to around 19.5.
With the 60w on & no one in the room, the temperature dropped again to 18.4.
Based on these results it clear to see the body heat from individuals in the room greatly effects the ambient temperature of the room.
As humans are warm blooded and fish are cold blooded, I do not envision the same temperature swing up/down to occur when the room is stocked.
As a final experiment, I left the 60w off and closed the room door (as I did with all experiments). Leaving the room for a good hour, the temperature dropped to 16.3c showing a good indication of further temperature reduction as time passed. I have clocked a minus 0.1 difference in as little as 10 minutes.
Hopefully the 400w panel heater will compensate for the low temperature drop in the evening. I'll update again once the heater is installed.
Some new photos are attached below; Walls have been finished, door and skirting boards. Also the wood work around the door frame to prevent any heat loss.

Insulation

Since my last blog entry, I have been hecticly searching the internet & fish breeding forums for advise or ideas on how to insulate the small cupboard(soon to be fully operational Fish Breeding Room).
Numberous searches yielded result stating I should install cavity wall insulation to the inside of the external walls. For this room, that type of insulation is not suitable, I need to ensure the room can be returned back to normal (if I move etc).
My first idea was cork tiles; place tiles on the walls, ceiling and floor to create a cork box, with the tanks inside the box. Then I thought about how i would return the room back to normal. The cork tiles require gluing to the wall/floor/ceiling and this would great a must larger and messy job if and when it came to removing them.. So back to the drawing board.
On a visit this weekend to get a panel heater(more on this later). I drive past a Homebase store in my town. I quickly changed across 2 lanes.. and when for a nose around.
After finding the correct panel heater I wanted, the Girlfriend noticed some ThermoWrap General Purpose Insulation going half price. They only had 8 rolls left and thats not enough to do normal size loft (so could be why going cheap). So anyway, came home did some researching on the net to find out if I could use this insulation in my fishroom.
Fantastic news, the insulation had been used in the past in USA on some guys Marine setup. He has a large 8x4x3ft display tank in his house, with all the water change tanksx2, and filtering done in a shed in his garden. Pipes where ran 6 meters from the shed to the house and he used ThermoWrap to insulate the pipes and shed.
If its good enough for an expensive marine setup... its good enough for me!

I purchased 4 rolls, which should be plenty to insulate the walls, ceiling and door leading into the room. Not decided about the floor yet..so open to suggestions if you have any?

Here are some photos of the work completed so far, I have stop work because I am have a new electrical board fitted and would prefer the work on installing the new board to be before the insulation is fitted.

Electrics Are In, New Aquariums in Place.

I need to get 2x 4ft aquariums for the white stand... Then the room will be at full capacity ;-p

Photos of the Fish Room

Received a phone call today from Jez @ http://www.poseidons-palace.co.uk/ my 8x 10"x12"x12" and 2x 20"x12"x12" breeding tanks are ready. Jez is dropping them off tomorrow night. So I took some time this afternoon to re-arrange the 30" metal rack(as I had previously set up as two smaller units) and take some photos.
So here goes, here is the room without any tanks. Ill take some photos once the tanks are in.

Small Update

The room that will be my 'Fish Room' has been decided. It is a 'Cloak Cupboard', previously used to stored Coats & shoes (And Course Fishing Gear amongst other things).
Room measure 3ft Wide by 5ft Deep. So not much room.
I found a nice 3ft tank shelving unit on eBay, which ive set in the room against the back wall.
I have also ordered 10 custom spec'd tanks;
8 x 10"x12"x12" (LxWxD)
2 x 20"x12"x12"
which will fit snug into the shelving unit. I had to have the tanks custom made, because the 3ft width isnt exactly 3ft, its slightly less which ruined my plans for simply 12" tank. So 10" it is.. and they should fit just right.
I'll take some photos of the room in the next day or two.

The Kribensis fry seem to be doing well, they are still in the 6ft tank. I plan to relocate them to the fish room once its setup and running correctly. For the moment, however they are 'stuck' in the big tank.
The Blue Lobster who also lives in the 6ft-er, being an opertunisitc feeder has decided to relocate his home from the far side of the tank(Where he has his own coconut house), to inside the front section of the sucken ship. Which just happens to be right outside the Kribs spawning site...hmm. Crafty bugger! Ive witnessed him attempted to grab fry, so far the parents have been fighting him off.
I must say, its quite a sight seeing a Krib fight a Lobster..(esp. one that is 3x larger or more in size than the fish). Attacks are made to the face/eye area of the Lobster. Avoiding the pinchers, attacks are also so fast the lobster doesnt even see them coming. If I can get a video of this, I will...
Well, its late time ive fed the fish tanks, its time for bed.

Photos Of Community Aquarium

I received a request today from a friend to put photos of my Main/Community Aquarium in my Living room on my blog.. So here it is.
Ive only recently got my own camera...so not the best photos.

Kribenis Fry, In Community Aquarium

After the unfortunate fry loss, the 1st time parent Kribensis were relocated to the main Aquarium (6ft, 72") in the living room. (Which recently had to be completely re-setup, due to a leak before christmas).

Both Kribs were still showing very strong spawning colours, so I provided them with their original coconut shell from the earlier breeding setup. This was an instant 'hit' with the fish, who took to it straight away.

Two weeks have passed since, and I am very proud to say they have successfully spawned a fresh batch(making this their 2nd batch) of fry.

As this is also a community tank, there are other inhabitants. 2x8" Green Severums, 2x3" Red Spotted Severums, 5x Mustached Danios, 1xRainbow Shark, 1xSwordtail, 1x 6"Eartheater, 1x 6"Blue Acara. As you can see these are some quite large fish, however this is not preventing the proud parents from taking their newly hatched fry on 'day-trips' round the tank. At the moment the parents are keeping to just the left side of the tank, as this contains the most cover(large sunken ship, rocks and a few plants).

Below are some of the photos they let us take..