HANdS 10G Molly Fry Containment Unit

4899 Views 33 Replies 8 Participants Last post by horsedude, Mar 16, 2013

l8nite

Discussion Starter · Sep 24, 2012 (Edited)

Pictures
Latest (24 Feb, 2013)

Specifications
10G Petsmart Special, De-Rimmed
Dimensions: ~ 20"x10"x11.5"
Substrate: Flourite Black Sand mixed with some CaribSea Super Naturals Tahitian Moon
Lighting: Finnex Fugeray 24"
CO2: None

Flora: Taxiphyllum Barbieri (Java Moss), Cryptocoryne Hudoroi, Limnophila Aromatica, Crinum Thainum, some sort of rotala stem, other stuff.
Fauna: 14x Dalmation Molly Fry, Snails

The "Set it up again" Story
The old scape was building up algae pretty good, so I finally gave in and tore it all down around Christmas. Then, my molly went and had a bunch more Fry (at least 14), so I de-rimmed it and then set it up again hastily (dragged a garbage-bag of old substrate from the side-yard and used that) and moved all the Fry into it.. "it's for the babies" worked well to convince my wife to let me set it up in the livingroom again.

The Acquisition Story
I went to the Petsmart at McCarthy Ranch to avoid some really nasty traffic on the 237E/880NB interchange... complete impulse buy.

They had a really nice tank of plants, so I bought a bunch of them. Then, I shopped for some new fish for my 29G. Then, as I was sitting there, I thought it might be a good idea to get a 10G tank for quarantine/etc. Before I knew it, I had bought the tank, heater, internal filter, substrate, etc.

I decorated it with some leftover rocks and a little porcelain castle that my daughter likes to look at. To be honest, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it. [STRIKE]Well, it turns out the plants I bought were housing some hitchhiker guppy fry[/STRIKE] Update: after they developed some color, it turns out they are Molly fry, probably birthed by my dalmation molly pair! I rescued 7 of them (a few more were munched down by my Gourami) and they're now helping the new tank cycle. So far they seem pretty happy in there.

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l8nite

Discussion Starter · #2 · Sep 25, 2012

I found another guppy fry in the 29G today. That makes 8 total, plus I saw a few get devoured by my Gourami.

I'm starting to think that there's no way all of these fry were able to hitch-hike in on the plants I bought... so, off to read about sexing Guppies I go. Maybe I have a female in my school of 7?

I haven't started researching Ripariums yet, but I'm pretty sure that's what I want to do.

nerdariostomp

· #3 · Sep 25, 2012

Male guppies are normally the brightly colored ones with long tails. Females generally have shorter tails and are typically a more bland grey color except for a small bit on the top fin and their tail. Males are normally colored all over. If you have a lone female amongst many males it may not end well for her as they can get aggressive but that may explain the fry that seemed to sneak their way in

EnigmaticGuppy92

· #4 · Sep 25, 2012

female guppies lack a gonadopium

l8nite

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 26, 2012

Thanks guys, so I'm pretty darn sure that all the guppies in that tank are male. These must have all been hitchhikers. One of my turquoise guppies has dark spots near the anal fin so I was suspect, but I'm pretty sure there's a gonopodium there... will post a picture in a little bit.

nerdariostomp

· #6 · Sep 26, 2012

Yeah it should be pretty easy to tell once you know what to look for. I'm surprised they were able to sneak fry in the bag. Keep an eye on them. At about 4 weeks or so you should be able to sex them before they start procreating like guppies do best

l8nite

Discussion Starter · #7 · Sep 26, 2012

I moved my Nymphoides Aquatica out of this tank and back to my 29G because they weren't looking too great

Patriot

· #8 · Sep 26, 2012

That filter might and will murder your guppies! I would cover the inlet before it sucks them in. Oh and plant that other banana plant lol.

l8nite

Discussion Starter · #9 · Sep 26, 2012

Patriot said:
That filter might and will murder your guppies! I would cover the inlet before it sucks them in. Oh and plant that other banana plant lol.

I took the banana plants out and put em back in the other tank for now. Really think that filter is a problem? They've been in there for a few days already without it seeming to bother them...

Patriot

· #10 · Sep 26, 2012

l8nite said:
I took the banana plants out and put em back in the other tank for now. Really think that filter is a problem? They've been in there for a few days already without it seeming to bother them...

Well of they are still alive then never mind. I just thought it might suck them up. They might be better swimmer than I give them credit for.

doncityz

· #11 · Sep 26, 2012

I just started rearing guppies about 3 months ago. I just bought 3. there is 1 female and 3 male. 1 male died due to unknown cause.

Today I have about 20 guppies. lol... they never stop breeding.

nerdariostomp

· #12 · Sep 26, 2012

They're the rabbits of the aquarium world. That and pond snails haha

l8nite

Discussion Starter · #13 · Sep 28, 2012

nerdariostomp said:
They're the rabbits of the aquarium world. That and pond snails haha

Haha, so I hear! I have yet to experience it first-hand though.

So far so good on these guys. I watched one trying to eat a little pellet food that got right in front of the filter intake. He was swimming hard, but was able to keep from being sucked up.

I added some Malaysian trumpet snails to all of my tanks yesterday. Hopefully they'll help with keeping some of the debris off the bottom

l8nite

Discussion Starter · #14 · Sep 30, 2012

I was doing some maintenance on my 29G tank today, and I threw the carbon pad which I was removing from my Eheim 2217 into the guppy tank so it would stay moist (and also help with cycling the tank).

The guppy fry think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread:

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l8nite

Discussion Starter · #15 · Oct 1, 2012

2

I moved the driftwood out of my fluval spec into this tank today. I also bought some slate tiling (5 pieces of 12"x12" tile for $4 at Lowes), and my daughter and I had a blast breaking it into pieces with hammers... (well, she had a plastic hammer, so it didn't really do much, but it was still fun!).

I should be getting some more plants in the next week or so to fill this tank out.

This anubias is soooo small. It's about the size of the tip of my thumb (the entire plant):

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Patriot

· #16 · Oct 1, 2012

It wont be that small for long. My plant hit the moment where it would put out one new leaf a week. It grow so big that it started to grow out of the water.

Sd760

· #17 · Oct 1, 2012

Cool tank

l8nite

Discussion Starter · #18 · Oct 2, 2012

I'm having high nitrite issues in this tank (_just_ got over this in my 29G tank). I used filter media from the 29G tank when setting this up, so now I'm thinking that there was a really large colony of Nitrosomonas in that tank with very little Nitrospira.

Doing 50% water changes daily until it settles in... lots of bucket-hauling, sigh.

l8nite

Discussion Starter · #19 · Oct 3, 2012

Did a 90% water change today because my 5ml vial turned purple instantaneously when I added the Nitrite-check solution. I hadn't seen that yet, usually it takes a few minutes.

I also doubled the dose of Prime I normally use.

I took the opportunity to add this huge Anubias I picked up from Petsmart and my Java Moss which was sitting in the abandoned Fluval Spec.

Behold, the Anubias Tree:

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l8nite

Discussion Starter · #20 · Oct 5, 2012

3

I rescaped a bit today, moved some Egeria Densa from the 29G tank into this one as well as the little foreground plant, which I'm not sure what it is yet. I also tied my java moss down to the driftwood and arranged it a little bit differently. Overall, I think the tank looks much nicer now =)

Also, after scaping, I saw my anubias pearling! Really tiny bubbles coming off it, but consistent and regular for about 20 minutes straight

I have a 6500K13w CFL and a 5000K in the hood. I'm going to try and pick up another 6500K bulb to replace the 5000K sometime soon. It has to be micro/mini CFL, regular CFL bulbs just don't fit nicely.

What is this?

Here it is with the rest of my desk now:

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