58g Planted w/overflow and sump

[myswtsins]

Dang these things can eat/poop! I couldn't imagine trying to keep a whole batch of babies in anything less than a pond! lol I've had them for 7 days now. They have gotten a 10% WC everyday except Sat and Sun cause I was away and a 60% WC today. Before the WC nitrates were at 30ppm! 0 to 30 in 7 days while vacuuming all their poop out almost every day, whoa. And they aren't even 2" yet. Ammonia and nitrites 0 btw. I think I want to throw some of my giant duckweed in there. Calm down it's not that hard to get rid of.

They haven't eaten much of the supplemental food I've given them either(which I also vacuum/scoop out of course) but that's fine, they are obviously enjoying the natural food more.

I can't wait till I can throw one in this tank and one into my 72g so they can make them sparkly too! (which is totally coming down soon....yeah, see it happening? me either) I think I will set up a breeding tank for them soon and just put the extras into other tanks. I feel like if I put them all into this tank now I'll never get around to the breeding part, ya know?

So 2 now have better colors. I think the pictures actually give them more orange than they really have though.

The others are still yellow/pinkish

"Hey neighbor, what you doing" "Uh nothing much just hanging out. You?" "Same" "Sweet"

 

[fishorama]

Yes! They are looking more red (orange) & still cute. They don't eat anything other than algae? Sheesh, what kind of BN mutant fussbudgets did you get? Are they growing? They look like it but hard to tell.

Pretty soon you should be able to see size differences among them. IME w/L144 fry, big is male, small female. But are they really all from the same batch of fry? No telling. The "other way" to sex them is the reddish triangle on the back of males heads...when they get big enough...That 1 on the white sponge filter base & maybe the bottom of the 2 on first pic could be male...& maybe the right 1 in the last, "he" looks big.

My fish are spoiled & get Repashy Soilent Green most days in addition to other foods, but they're not picky eaters like yours seem to be. How long are you lights on? Might need to increase light time as they grow...or make them eat what you offer. Have you tried other veggies with bits of wafer/pellet stuck into them? Not all "algae wafers" are as "veggierific" (I'm sure that's a word, lol) as some others. Have you tried my spiking of the veggie technique?

 

[myswtsins]

I know seriously! Eat the food! lol They go up to it but don't detach their mouths from the glass to get it onto the food lol. They are pooping so they are good, I find green poops for algae and brown poops for wood. The lights are on for 7 hrs right now. I will increase that to 8 for tomorrow. I have not tried spiking the veggies lol but they don't eat the veggies yet anyways. I have tried cucumber, zucchini, kens veggie wafers/bits, drs foster and smith algae wafers and shrimp pellets so far. Tomorrow I might try some spirulina flakes cause they are flat and who can resist spirulina?

It is hard to tell but I feel like they have grown. It's only been 7 days so I told myself I am just crazy but if you think so too then at least we are both crazy.

The biggest one is the orangest one and I thought I saw the red patch on it's head but thought it is too soon to be seeing that and attributed it to them being "red". I am trying to find out how old they actually are and then I'll have a better idea. Tomorrow I will take a closer look with gender in mind and make some guesses for fun.

 

[fishorama]

Sexing fish is always fun, snicker! Just how big do you think they are? I'm guessing almost an inch? You saw my votes as to possible genders, but who knows? Time will tell...& hopefully they be eating something other than algae by then, picky babies.

 

[myswtsins]

Today there was visibly less waste so I dropped half an algae wafer in and lo and behold they all came right over to it! Guess their preferred natural food ran out, not so picky after all. These 2 pics are right after lights on so they all have about the same blah color but they are all together.


The smallest one is just over an inch, biggest one 1.75+. I have 4 bigger ones, similar in size and they all have much wider heads and all have the better coloring with 2 having the best color (actually as I look at them the 3rd one has colored up nicely too). Males? Just bigger/older? The other 2 are obviously smaller, more slender with narrow heads and lighter in color. This picture was taken a bit later and you can see the 3 orange/bigger ones and the 2 smaller light ones in the back, unfortunately they are behind the rock so not a great comparison shot but that wasn't intended when I was taking it. Just wanted to show them all together with their food. 1 is kinda on the cusp, the one furthest in the corner.

 

[fishorama]

Cute! I'm glad they're eating something beside algae. They're bigger than I thought, you must have bigger tubing than I'm used to. I "think" I see red on the head of the 1 on the rock in the last pic.

The 1 on the white filter base looks like the best color but it may be a bit of better contrast. Smaller head & more slender sounds girly. So, 2 F & 4 M?

When they're done with QT will you move 2 of the "lesser" males to the other tanks? Or a "possible pair"? Your QT seems like it'd make a nice breeding tank...

 

[myswtsins]

4M:2F is my guess so far, hoping that one will end up female though for 3:3.

If I end up with only 2 females I will go with 1M and 2F in a breeding tank and the other 3 males will go into other tanks. If I get 3 females I will do 2M with 3F in breeder.

Yes, the 30g, my QT, is a nice breeding tank size for these guys and for the planted soft water tank I want to set up as well. *sigh* MTS takes over so quickly! I have a bunch of plants coming that I have no idea what i am going to do with as well! lol

I do have a 45g (36x12 base) that I could put on the top of the stand the QT is on and put the 30g under it but I hate floor tanks! But I am running out of room again. Where I am sitting right now I have the 29g in front of me, the 58g to my left frontish, the 30g QT to my left backish and the 20L behind me, oh and the molly fry tank is being setup to my right, I'm literally surrounded lol. And once the 72g is gone from my main living room ALL my tanks will be in my (living) room which I do like so I don't want to set up a tank in my bedroom or other parts of the house when I am so close to having them all together. Sorry for the ramble, I'm stuck right now as to what my next move is gonna be, if you couldn't tell.

 

[fishorama]

Close together tanks are aces! Low tanks are not. You & I know they are a PITA to do WCs in, avoid that! ( Dr.-speak for never ever do it again, lol). If they are not at least 8 inches above the floor, forget it!

What happened to the parent's LR happy community tank? Are they having a rethink? I believe it's "their house"...do they like the mollies? Shrimp? But still sounds like not as easy WCs? Gah! I'm glad I only have my husband to appease....& he helps w/WCs!

 

[myswtsins]

It's basicly a mother/daughter house, I'm in the mother part though. So I have my own apartment that happens to be connected to my parents house lol. They don't really want to get rid of the tank (most days) but they want furniture from my deceased uncle that is much bigger than our current stuff and the tank would have to go. In the meantime I am trying to convince them that we need to upgrade the 72g to a 135g I saw for $100

The WCs down there on the 72g are more difficult too. I have a spigot for the water I use but it is cold (upstairs I age it in a barrel and heat it) so I have to run a 50' hose from my barrel down stairs and even when I used RO water same thing, different barrel. But I'll be honest lately I just use the regular house water softener water for the 72g.

They haven't even seen my mollies since I brought them home, they don't come into my apt often if ever. But they would not like them because they are nippy and chase each other constantly which makes them hide in the plants most of the time, heck I'm starting to not like them for those reasons! I love my shrimp and snails more than the mollies so I don't want to subject them to the pestering. And I intend to get some mystery snails soon and maybe some rabbits if I find a good deal so I think I need to rethink my fish stock. :/ It's hard finding alkaline water loving fish that work though.

I need to get some pics of the molly babies for you guys though! The all light colored one is HUGE compared to the others.

 

[fishorama]

Yes! $100 135g!! It can live outdoors until you convince them...I bet if they had cute loaches to look at they'd love them! Weather loaches are pretty adaptable to water conditions...I'm thinking xmas, birthday, anniversary gift, yeah (are they legal in NJ? I think so)? Just on a trial basis...they need some "puppy-ish" fish with cute names & personalities!

Of course we need molly pics...