[driftwoodhunter]

I don't get fish keeping. There, I admitted it.

I have a tank that I really hate. It's always gunking up, much faster than I'd expect. I'm bad & never keep up with water changes like I should, although I'm doing much better. I imagine all the crud due to the stock - they are messy fish. That and my circulation is nearly non-existent. So why do fish spawn in it? I'm hoping to move all the fish in it and turn both my 29's into QT and plant propagating tanks.

The tank is a 29g, and it only had 9 sweet little celebes rainbows for the longest time. 6 months ago I had to break down a 40B to move it. When I did I moved the 40's inhabitants to the 29, knowing I was probably overstocking. I added 4 tiger barbs, 3 rosy barbs, 9 neons, and a guppy. I fully intended on moving them back into the 40B, but my Columbian Tetras in another tank spawned and so I had to move 45-ish fry into the 40 to grow out. Well about 3 months ago, I found 3 surviving rosy barb fry in the 29 tank - 2 survived. That was pretty exciting! (it happened before I found the tetra fry, so the barb fry was the first time I'd ever had fry). Right now I have a huge clump of needle leaf java fern holding in the 29 while I wait to set up a 90g tank this winter. The clump takes up about 1/3 of the tank. Lo and behold, I just saw more rosy fry in the java fern - I can't count them, but I think I saw 6. So much fun, except I've found I really don't like rosy barbs all that much - lol. Why-oh-why can't my celebes rainbows breed instead?! haha

I originally had 1 male and 2 female rosy barbs. One female's belly has looked like the Goodyear blimp for months. Could she release just a few eggs at a time? I've been wondering if she's constipated and I was going to feed a peeled cooked pea this week. I know rosy barbs are regarded as easy to breed and a good beginner's fish, but my tank stays at 72 - 76 degrees, so I'm surprised any fry live at all.

Oh well. The original male is a long fin, so it will be interesting to see how many fry are long fins too. One of the two original fry has developed very rich color, perhaps surpassing his daddy, but he is a short fin. His color's so fine, maybe he's the new daddy in breeding color.

 

[dragonbat13]

I was the same way with the tank cleaning thing. There are a few tips I can give you. First spend the forty dollars on a good siphon that attaches to your water hose outside. Makes water changes much much easier. I just siphon enough to get all the crud out and then let the siphon fill back up.
Get a testing kit..
Buy nice equipment. I have a marineland heater that I paid 35 for, and have never seen the temp move at all. The thermometer is a different animal. I had a digital one, I went to a stick on glass tube.

I dont have algae problems. But I plan on building a freshwater refugium to allow some to grow in the tank and help out with the nitrates.. If the refugium is sucking up all the vitamins and nutrients that the algae and other plants need, it cant grow in the tank. A correct light on the refugium will allow the algae in that tank overrun the light in the main tank.

The last thing is not something I have done yet, and I am still researching. But a friend with lots of experience told me about it. He said it made his 50 gallon the lowest maintenance, cleanest, healthiest tank he ever had. He didnt even do water changes, just had to scrape the run away algae from the top of it.