I bought this group on an impulse at the October MAAH auction in Madison. I’m very pleased with how they’ve turned out – I didn’t think they would have such brilliant yellow color. Thanks Scott W!
Author Archives: kim
Epic 9-hour, 8-stop Wisconsin LFS aquarium shop tour
On the way to state darts, I hit 7 aquarium shops in Marshfield, WI Rapids, Oshkosh, Appleton, and Green Bay, plus I stopped by the GBAS rummage sale.
My first two stops (Animal House in Marshfield and The Aquarium in WI Rapids) have very limited aquatic selection, no saltwater – not worth going out of your way except to support the mom n pop shops.
My next stop was Aquarium Pets in Oshkosh. Worth the visit. I think they had some saltwater. I noticed an albino halfbeak – kind of neat to see something a little more rare.
Next I stopped by the GBAS rummage sale – got some great deals, I hope they do that again.
Next was Just Pets in Appleton. This one I was impressed had an entire tank of albino koi guppies. I would have bought some, but he said they got them from a wholesaler in CA – I can get some direct from Thailand at Tamed Waters in St. Paul or from Twin Cities Guppies.
Next was H2O pets in Green Bay. Smaller selection, but nice, and a really nice guy running the place.
Next was Advanced Aquarium Systems in Green Bay. Fantastic selection, lots of plants, VERY knowledgeable owner (he really knows his crypts!), and lots of things that would be interesting to a true hobbyist as opposed to a casual fish keeper. A little pricey, but well worth the stop. No saltwater, if I remember correctly. He’s in the process of putting together a room with just vintage tanks, can’t wait to see that.
Last was Reef’s Aquatic. Again, smaller selection, but I got some very reasonably priced spider wood here. They had quite a few saltwater tanks. Sorry I didn’t notice when there were cichlids – I’m mostly into nano fish, planted tanks, shrimp, snails, and livebearers.
All in all a very enjoyable road trip for a fish geek! In case you want to follow in my footsteps, here’s a link to the Google map: https://goo.gl/maps/hBrQWjgvhBT2
Goodbye 45 gallon, Hello 38 gallon…
A 45 gallon tank is the same footprint as a 30 long or a 38, so they all fit on the same stand. Being vertically challenged, though, it’s difficult for me to reach the bottom of the 45 – the tank is just a little too tall. So last week I tore down the 45, and today set up my new 38 gallon for shrimp.
I used black EcoComplete substrate, and “mountain stone” and a piece of driftwood for hardscape materials. There is currently a piece of lacerock holding down the driftwood, but I will replace that with some black river stone when my LFS gets more in.
It is planted with a Kleinar Bar sword on the left, a couple of Crypt Parva, a piece of pennywort that I hope will climb the driftwood, corkscrew val behind the driftwood, and a small Crypt Undulata (I think) on the far right. A glass bowl with a dwarf lily is also in the tank, although I’m not sure that’s staying forever.
I’ve stocked the tank with my new Goldenback Yellow Neocaridina shrimp. Hoping for a population explosion soon!
New Arrivals – Shrimp, Corydoras, Guppies
Another great MAAH (Madison Area Aquatic Hobbyists) meeting and auction yesterday! Here are my new additions:
Goldenback Yellow Shrimp:
Orange Shrimp:
Japan Blue Guppies (so hard to get good pictures of!) – this line will throw Top Sword, Double Sword, and plain tails:
Blue Grass Guppies (from my buddy Mike, aka Mysterguy on Aquabid):
Corydoras Pygmaeus (adorable mid-water schooling corys!):
Shrimp Tank Reboot
So, I have this 45 gallon tank. I hate it. Since the first day I set it up, I’ve been planning to swap it out for a 38. It’s just too deep, and I can’t easily reach the bottom. I originally set it up with my Dream Blue Velvet Shrimp, and the colony went crazy right off the bat, ruining my plans to move them to another tank quickly (once there are tiny shrimplets, it’s impossible to find and catch them all). I decided to slowly move my Red Cherries out of my existing 38, and slowly move the Dream Blue Velvets there. Once the Dream Blue Velvet colony is moved to their new tank, I will tear down the 45 and replace it with another 38.
There were two additional things I wanted to accomplish with this reboot. The first was to change the substrate for the Dream Blue Velvets to a lighter color – I had them on black substrate, and I’ve read that they show up better on a lighter substrate. The second was to reset the colony. I had gotten a little lax in culling the darkest from the Dream Blue Velvet colony, and I’m seeing fewer and fewer of the brighter blue color I prefer.
I began today by moving all the Red Cherries from the 38 to a 10 I had ready for them. I had been culling heavily from this tank, as well as moving adults, especially berried females to another tank for a couple of months now, so I’m relatively sure there were not teeny, tiny shrimplets that I missed. Most auctions and swaps I go to recently seem saturated with Red Cherries, so it makes sense to move them to a smaller tank and keep a smaller colony of only the best colored shrimp. This way I can devote my bigger tank to something that is more in demand.
Next I emptied the 38, including substrate. I refilled with a lighter colored gravel I recently picked up, then set my decor and planted a couple of crypts and a baby Kleinar Bar Sword (not sure how this sword will do with regular gravel rather than Eco-Complete or Flourite, but we will see).
Here is the tank before the reset (set up for Red Cherry Shrimp) and after the reset, ready for Dream Blue Velvet Shrimp:
You may note that I had two sponge filters running in the tank previously, I opted to use a slightly bigger size, and use only single filter now. This should be enough filtration for a shrimp-only tank; shrimp don’t have a huge bioload, and I do frequent water changes.
Now I will pull only the Dream Blue Velvets with the bright blue color I prefer to populate the new tank. The culls I will start to sell off. Once the 45 is empty and I can replace it with another 38, I plan to get some Golden Back shrimp for the new 38.
Happy fish keeping!
UPDATE: It turns out the Blue shrimp looked better to me on a black substrate as opposed to the light substrate – so I ended up re-booting this tank yet again in 2018.
New Arrivals – Shrimp, Corydoras
I attended the MAAH (Madison Area Aquatic Hobbyists) fall auction on Sunday. I also stopped at Aquatics Unlimited in Milwaukee on the way home. Here are my new additions:
Red Rili Shrimp (from the MAAH auction):
Skunk Corydoras – Corydoras Arcuatus (from Aquatics Unlimited in Milwaukee, WI):
New Arrivals – Guppies, Swordtails, Kribensis
I ordered a large quantity of fish from a guy in Florida. Fortunately, he was able to get them out this week despite the hurricane, they arrived today.
Tequila Sunrise Guppies – a strain I’ve always loved, and I decided to order a large group (30 pairs) so I could choose the traits I like best to better the line. These are very big bodied males with good color. Hoping that their offspring retain the large size. I’m already eyeing up my favorite males in the quarantine tank. Once quarantine is over, I plan to set up 2 breeding tanks – the first will house the best (in my opinion) male and 5 to 10 of the best females. The second will house the remainder of the females and the next best 2 or 3 males.
Berlin Black HiFin Lyretail Swordtails – I was a bit disappointed in these. The video of the sample fish showed some very dark black, but what I got were not that dark, and some are even marbled or mottled. In fact, the only viable male is mottled (the other male is a lyretail). Still nice looking fish, though, and should be fun to work with. I actually kind of like the mottled look, maybe I’ll create a new strain with them.
Albino Kribensis – I already have a pair of these in my living room tank. They spawn constantly, but have yet to emerge from their cave with fry. So I thought I’d get a couple more pairs to see if I can get them to spawn in a different tank. These guys will likely join the inhabitants in my 55 gallon once they are out of quarantine.
New Arrivals – Swordtails and Bristlenose
I attended the Rockford, IL fish swap today. I came home with RREA HiFin Lyretail Swordtails, Super Red Longfin Bristlenose Plecos, and Red Marble Longfin Bristlenose Plecos:
Absolutely gorgeous trio of swordtails! Unfortunately I see a spot of Ich on one of the females – pays to do a close visual inspection before you introduce them to a tank. Also a reminder to quarantine, quarantine, quarantine, even when you trust the source – experienced, reliable fish keepers get disease on occasion, too. (And seriously, what is it with me and Ich the last 2 days?)
I’m almost sure to get a couple of pairs from the Red Marble Bristlenose group. Crossing my fingers for a pair in the Super Reds – but most likely I’ll end up with 2 of the same sex. Either way, it will probably be a year before they are big enough to breed. In the meantime, they are adorable little babies!
New Arrivals – Gouramis
I’ve always liked gouramis, and I just couldn’t resist these beauties when I saw them at our locally owned pet store today…
I came home today with a gold pair and an opaline pair (the male gold is camera-shy). I don’t expect them to breed, but I may give it a try!
These 4 are intended for my 55, but the gal at the pet store let me know that they’ve been fighting Ich in the tank unit these came from. So they are stuck in a 10 gallon for the next week or two while I treat and observe them.
[Video] Full Black Guppies – original Thai females + young males
The two females I originally got from Thailand, plus a couple of their sons. Note that both of these males have a small amount of white under their bellies, unlike their father who has ZERO white.