I have three tanks.....a 20 gallon where I keep a breeding pair of Bolivian Rams and some dither fish, a 4 gallon fry tank for the ram fry, and a 20 gallon grow out tank for the growing fry, with a few more dither fish and a school of panda and julii corydoras.
I've had great success with the breeding pair, after all those posts I made when I was struggling to get started - but now I'm getting better at raising the fry, I suddenly have far too many of them to cope with! I raised just 6 from the first spawn, and only 3 from the 2nd after I messed up, but this last spawn - I appear to have some 30 fry in my 4 gallon tank, and they eat and poop for England. It's looking awfully crowded, I never expected to ever be managing more than 10-15 at a time! That last bit of advice my LFS gave me was far too effective, obviously....
So I don't know what to do with them, or how I'm supposed to net 30 fry and acclimatise them.....etc etc. I'd sell them, but I could only advertise them locally for collection, as its illegal to ship fish in the UK without a DEFRA licence. I can only hope the LFS will take them while they're still small.....
In the meantime I'm having terrible trouble with diatoms and green spot algae taking over my breeding tank - it spoiled my vallisneria, which I've had to thin out heavily, and the stuff now grows on the glass and stones as fast as I can clean it off. I euthanised 2 neons in there a few weeks back which had odd white growths or deformities, and now one of the pygmy barbs looks like it's blowing a big bubble.
The grow out tank was quite easy to maintain and never had algae, but I noticed today that a rash of green spots has broken out on the glass of that tank too. :swear: And a neon inexplicably expired in that tank last weekend - it looked very very fat but otherwise normal.
Both main tanks have external filters with active carbon (Fluval 105 on the grow out, and 205 on the breeding tank), both have vallisneria planted in the substrate. I feed the main tanks only once per day, the filters are cleaned every 4-5 weeks. I do water changes of 15-25% (depending on how well my back copes with the bucket carrying) once per week.
The fry tank is ok at the moment, although 3 fry have died off in the last 48 hours for some reason.
So, no specific questions as such, just heaving a bit of a big sigh and wondering when it all became so awkward. I liked it when it was easy LMAO.
Any advice on the algae front would be welcome.....I've read lots of articles, but can't use phosphate remover because of the vals, and I also have inverts loitering in all my tanks.....it appears that only keeping up the water changes and keeping the filters clean is the only solution.
*grump* How can fresh algae grow on the glass when I only scrubbed it off 2 days ago and the filters are freshly clean????? :help:
I've had great success with the breeding pair, after all those posts I made when I was struggling to get started - but now I'm getting better at raising the fry, I suddenly have far too many of them to cope with! I raised just 6 from the first spawn, and only 3 from the 2nd after I messed up, but this last spawn - I appear to have some 30 fry in my 4 gallon tank, and they eat and poop for England. It's looking awfully crowded, I never expected to ever be managing more than 10-15 at a time! That last bit of advice my LFS gave me was far too effective, obviously....
So I don't know what to do with them, or how I'm supposed to net 30 fry and acclimatise them.....etc etc. I'd sell them, but I could only advertise them locally for collection, as its illegal to ship fish in the UK without a DEFRA licence. I can only hope the LFS will take them while they're still small.....
In the meantime I'm having terrible trouble with diatoms and green spot algae taking over my breeding tank - it spoiled my vallisneria, which I've had to thin out heavily, and the stuff now grows on the glass and stones as fast as I can clean it off. I euthanised 2 neons in there a few weeks back which had odd white growths or deformities, and now one of the pygmy barbs looks like it's blowing a big bubble.
The grow out tank was quite easy to maintain and never had algae, but I noticed today that a rash of green spots has broken out on the glass of that tank too. :swear: And a neon inexplicably expired in that tank last weekend - it looked very very fat but otherwise normal.
Both main tanks have external filters with active carbon (Fluval 105 on the grow out, and 205 on the breeding tank), both have vallisneria planted in the substrate. I feed the main tanks only once per day, the filters are cleaned every 4-5 weeks. I do water changes of 15-25% (depending on how well my back copes with the bucket carrying) once per week.
The fry tank is ok at the moment, although 3 fry have died off in the last 48 hours for some reason.
So, no specific questions as such, just heaving a bit of a big sigh and wondering when it all became so awkward. I liked it when it was easy LMAO.
Any advice on the algae front would be welcome.....I've read lots of articles, but can't use phosphate remover because of the vals, and I also have inverts loitering in all my tanks.....it appears that only keeping up the water changes and keeping the filters clean is the only solution.
*grump* How can fresh algae grow on the glass when I only scrubbed it off 2 days ago and the filters are freshly clean????? :help:
