guppies, plants, stuff keepin me busy *lots of pics*

[ohiogoatgirl]

I don't remember if I have posted about this other hobby here but I got into fish a bit. guppies. and I might dabble in some ghost shrimp and planted bowls here soon-ish.

currently I just have a couple bowls and a redneck-tank.. ie: its a storage tote used as a fish tank. and I had an issue after the move and then a weird die off. so now I have a young pair and some babies. the female is actually the only remaining offspring from the initial group I got while living in VA, even though I had three drops of babies. the last drop of babies were still wee littlies when I moved and they didn't take well to it. so her dad was quite pretty with a silvery head, blue/black middle, and a red tail. and her mom was pale yellow/orangey with a pale reddish tail. she looks like the mom.
then I had gotten 10 feeder guppies at the pet store here a while back. I immediately separated out a couple that had obvious issues (bent spine) and whenever one started going off wonky I separated it and sure enough it would soon pass.
after I had them all together they slowly tapered down for unknown reasons. unknown to me anyhow. and although I got three drops from various females none made it.
so the current male I have is a pretty wild type coloring. clearish body with color patches. I cant really explain it i'll have to try and get a pic of him.

the babies currently are 2 older fry that could be from this female or remaining from the others, I really don't know. then a drop about a week ago that caught me off guard a little because I didn't think she would be old enough, and certainly isn't as big as the adults I bought. and neither is the male I have. anyhow I counted 8 by the time I noticed them and now i'm down to 5.

they are in a big bowl and I am rearranging things and all and trying to sell off a bunch of houseplants I've managed to collect or get stuck with. the plants i'm cutting way down to just a couple pots.

and then a bit of photography and pinch of fun editing that i'll toss in here as well. <br /><br /> __________ Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:11 am __________ <br /><br /> the four cali bucks.. it turned out of all the rabbits I bought.. I ended up with one doe! she is in her own cage now.

then the line where the cage has been moved. lol they sure do eat it down. I try to move it at least twice a day.

then the last of my garden spot. zucchini plants. the whole area here in front of the barn I am working on because no one else does anything with it and it will continually grow back with briars and poison ivy and pokeberry at least 7ft tall. and I am not exaggerating in the least about that!
right now I have so far cleared the weeds around my garden bed, then from the bed back to the barn porch. its actually got a real nice roofed area and gravel.. if it wasn't covered with piles of junk.. and didn't have 7ft tall poison ivy and briars and pokeberry in front of it.. lol. then I also hoed off the area over to the left of this pic where the space for walkway and all is. its down to dirt now. but farther than that is still grass and pokeberry and weeds 5' 5" tall :| and somewhere in that jungle is piles of junk..
BUT!!! I am determined to clear it all out and mulch the area with old bales and have it all prepped for spring so I can plant it all and it will be nice! EVEN IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!! **shakes fist at sky!**

 

[akane]

Due to our crappy water my 40g is still sitting with a single betta and a periwinkle plant from the yard that I turned aquatic. :lol:
Are you running any filtration on containers with fry? Guppies are not air breathers. They do better than other fish but they should have either enough real, fast growing plants with enough light to make them put out enough oxygen or at least a bubble stone. Fry will perish in small containers with minimal items and no air. A 5-10g is best for growing fry because it withstands negative effects on the water better. You need a good place to colonize bacteria, usually an air driven sponge filter, because they need really stable water and they need a food source of very small items which algae is the best. There is a lot of wasted food when feeding fry so the greater water volume or more frequent changes will help offset that problem. Along with the sponge allowing enough bacteria explosion to avoid a tiny, undetectable ammonia spike that will steadily kill off your young fish. Actually greenwater is the best for fry. Put a ton of sunlight on some aquarium water in a safe container and it will grow microscopic floating algae that gives the green tint. The fry eat this and the algae cleans the water so long as the algae has conditions that allow it to keep growing. Greenwater usually sorts itself out if you don't have enough nutrients and light constantly. It's how more sensitive and smaller fry are often raised.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

right now I have all 8 in a ~2gal 'bowl'. lol it's actually a big sugar kitchen container without the lid. it has a small heater and a small filter (2-5gal) that hooks up to the air tube. the original little filter doo-dad got nasty and when I had a pond snail invasion it was covered with snails and eggs... so after the snail invasion was taken care of I tore the fabric stuff off the front and dumped the little bit of carbon in it. now I have some poly stuffing in there. its doing a good job, I think a heck of a lot better than the weird filter doo-dad. but yes even when I first got them I had an air stone before I got the little filter.

I also have a HOB filter with 3 filter doo-dads that was given to dad from someone he knows that bought a house in town that ages ago used to be a pet store (shocking to me!). the air hose tubes were icky so the bits of that got tossed. then there was this nice air pump that has a dial for the air. its pretty awesome but too much for just the one 'bowl' lol. but it did have a nice metal doohickey that you plug the air tube in the end and it has 3 spots you can hook up air tubes to and each is adjustable.

then I have a little corner tank that's probably about 1gal plastic with the lid that has the teeny 7watt bulb. that I got with the milk crate of stuff for $1 at the auction when I bought the rabbits. plus that came with its wee little air pump. now I actually have FIVE air pumps! hahaha its nuts.

I have plastic craft mesh and I think I will try to install it as a wall in the storage-tub-tank. that way I will have more space and the fry can have a section and the adults can have a section. and if the HOB fits on it I could more easily put it on the 'adult side' and have less worry about sucking up fry. <br /><br /> __________ Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:57 am __________ <br /><br /> more pics you can see the bowls in the pic with all the plants. (actually I have three more little bit bigger pots in two other windows in the other room). the bigger bowl is actually a big sugar/flour container. smaller bowl is generic fish bowl from Walmart that I want to do a wee planted tank and try a few ghost shrimp in it.

 

[ottersatin]

It would be in yours and your fishes best interest to purchase the biggest Fish tank
you can afford. The larger the water volume the more likely your Guppies will survive.
They also require some sort of filtration system. A sponge filter will suffice till a better solution can be attained. You will also need some sort of light source other than the Sunlight.
Some aquatic plants are a must, you might want to try Water sprite, or any of the other
more easily grown aquarium plants. Try Amazon.com.
I have just recently gotten back into the tropical fish hobby, that I had been heavily involved
with in my youth.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

ya I was told hornwort and duckweed.. impossible to kill.. well *I* killed em! >.< the duckweed was all done for by the third day. the hornwort started off great and then as soon as I was happy with it doing well and the fry doing great hiding in it.. it decided it didn't want to live anymore because it was dropping its needle-y leaves all over. it slowed growth and I clipped off what seemed to be the dying sections of the plants. nope it just went on and on dropping needles so last ditch effort I trimmed and kept only the nicest looking pieces. before the end of that week it had dropped half of the needles and I tossed it all.
plus the plants brought in the snail invasion. I swear I squished at least 20 tiny ones each day plus picked out all the big ones I could grab *every day* for three months! I ended up having to move the remaining fish to the bowls and no gravel bc it was all infested with snails and eggs. now I finally have no more snails and gravel that's laced with wee bitty shells lol.

ya if I start the storage-bin-tank back up I will set it up with the HOB filter for a while before adding the fish.

funny ya mention the green water, I was just rereading a thread about that on a fish forum and thinkin where I can wiggle in a jar of water in a windowsill for a while. have one now with some water from the bowls doing the water change today.