# Fishpunk Follies



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

What the heck. I'll journal my misadventures.

Current status:

10 gallon - 2 pairs pachypanchax playfairii. Need to add a spawning mop eventually.

10 gallon - 2 pairs Black Moscow guppies, still young but I have a handful of fry. Am trying to train hair algae to cover the substrate but struggling against some rogue growth.

29 gallon - 13x false penguin tetra, 2x male Apistogramma cacatuoides (very different coloration so get along), 1 Bolivian ram, , 1 pair bushynose plecos. no issues at the moment other than some floating cabomba I need to tie down.

29 gallon - 2 pair + a handful fry black bar endlers

10 gallon - 4 dario dario, 4 blue neon rice fish. Fighting some green slime algae but I added some duckweed and raised the light a half inch a while back and I'm getting a handle on it.

5 gallon brackish - 10x bumblebee gobies. Have been unable to get them to breed.

5 gallon least killi (Heterandria formosa) - Needs a permanent lighting solution eventually.

10 gallon brackish, 3x 2.5 gallon brackish - Australian Desert gobies. recovering from a posioning incident. One small tank has 4 gobies never exposed to poison, the 10 has several who survived the poisoning, the other two small tanks have a litter of fry each, both from the fish that survived poisoning. Need to be sure there is no genetic impact from the poison before consolidating the tanks.

15 gallon - 2x pairs peacock endlers and handful of fry.

4 gallon male betta named Mojo. Mojo was given to me to cure an infection, which I did. This is my only named fish and he came already named.

20 gallon extra tall - pair angelfish, still young, maybe 2 inches body diameter. Need a bottom-feeder solution here, the angels keep killing anything I put in there.

46 gallon bowfront, 7x wild caught flagfish, 6x f1 (parents were wild caught) sailfin mollies, 1 female endler of mixed strain. Also need to tie down some cabomba in this tank.

2.5 gallon bowfront quarantine - 1 female endler of unknown strain, undergoing treatment for some kind of infection, possibly columnarus.


So there is how I start the year. I'll note any happenings of interest in this thread.


----------



## lmb (Nov 1, 2011)

Wow you have a lot of fish tanks.

Pictures  ?


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Yeah, I'll post some eventually. I don't have a decent camera at the moment. I have to use my video camera for stills. I may have some time for pictures after life settles back into a routine following the holidays.

I did post some photos on my blog back in November.

Dario dario tank before I added the rice fish.










Bumblebee goby tank with one anemic plant.










Least killies










Pachypanchax tank










South American tank (apistos etc.)










Angelfish










Desert gobies


----------



## lmb (Nov 1, 2011)

Great looking tanks!


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Happy, happy, happy. I have the following fry:

Least killies
Black Moscow guppies
Desert gobies
black bar endlers
peacock endlers.

I love having baby fish in my tanks!


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Desert gobies have yet another clutch of eggs.


----------



## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

I thought i had too many tanks! Only got 4... but they are all i my bedroom. thehe. Im loving your tanks and fish.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Truth be told, I have plenty of space for tanks, it's just I am not allowed to put tanks in those spots. So I keep mostly small fish.


----------



## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Still nice though. My room is now called the zoo  so many animals in it. Birds, fish, whats next


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Found one of my peacock endler females dead last night with no obvious cause. Fortunately, she already dropped fry and the other female is squared off about to drop. Sad, but not a catastrophe for the colony.


----------



## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

Yay,babies!  I love babies, too. It's nice to see your work pay off.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Latest batch of desert goby eggs have hatched.


----------



## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Woot!!!!!!


----------



## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

Awesome, congrats! Pictures..?


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Stocking update:

3 otocinclus into the 29-gallon black bar endler tank
1 bushynose pleco temporarily into the black Moscow guppy tank for a hair-algae cleanup, then into the angelfish tank.


----------



## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

Good luck with the otos. :/ Everyone seems to have a tough time keeping those guys. Maybe you can get THOSE to breed!! They seem to breed easy (if you can get them to live long enough)
Grats on all of your babies!
Oh, question on your moscow gups. Have you been able to get any 'albino' from them? When you see the moscows without any of their black, they have BRILLIANT rainbow coloring!


----------



## S-hag (Jan 8, 2012)

I had the exact same problem with my angel fish. They killed most of my bottom feeders I tried. I ended up having some success with a cory catfish. He did die a few weeks ago, but that was due to poor water quality at the time (my water is extremely clean now). My angel fish are huge now so it's hard to introduce new fish without some fin nipping. If you've had some sucess with other bottom feeders I'd love to hear it.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I watched a pair of angels kill a pleco by dive-bombing him. They'd take turns going up to the top of the tank (a 30H) and ram him at full speed on the back of his head. You might try leaving the tank bare-bottomed and siphon out the crud, but you'll likely get bit. 

On the plus side, that means you have a devoted pair with a strong parental instinct. They should make good parents if they don't kill each other.


----------



## S-hag (Jan 8, 2012)

They actually layed eggs a few weeks ago (they unfortunetly got sucked in to the filter). I took 2 much smaller angel fish off my friends hands two days ago because they were getting too big for his tank, so I'm at four angels now


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

I bought a BN pleco from one of our regulars here the other day. He's a lot bigger than the one the angels killed, plus I'm going to add a flowerpot for the pleco to hide inside. The opening will be such that the angels can't get inside. Once the pleco is finished eating the hair algae from my guppy tank, he'll join the angelfish. We'll see how that goes.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Aaaaand I have still another clutch of eggs to hatch. Currently two litters are growing out (I lost still another litter) in two separate tanks because older fry will eat younger fry. So, I have to figure out where to hatch this next clutch of eggs. I don't want to leave them with the father and let him eat the fry when they hatch.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

I now have three litters of goby fry. It's like they want to re-establish their species in this area by me taking them in to stores.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Last May, I rescued a betta from someone I know. She had gone out of town and the fish-sitter did not take care of him. She returned to a fish with bad finrot and infection, possibly columnaris.

I recovered the fish and kept it with periodic relapses of infection that I would attack with medicated food and/or water.

Sad news, I found the fish on the substrate this morning. Now that the tank is no longer being occupied by a rescue fish, I have to decide what to put in there.


----------



## Guest (Jan 26, 2012)

That is sad. But at least you tried to save the betta. 

I would get another betta and put him in the tank. But first clean the tank really well so that the next betta will survive and not get what the previous betta had. 

The betta I would suggest is a halfmoon betta or a doubletail betta. They are really cool. Once I get a clear pic of both my bettas then I will post them on here for you to see.


----------



## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

Fishpunk said:


> Sad news, I found the fish on the substrate this morning. Now that the tank is no longer being occupied by a rescue fish, I have to decide what to put in there.


Baby fish? :fish:


----------



## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

question: how well do plecos clean algae? and would angel kill a pleco if he was small or is it only when they are bigger?


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

@Angelclown I put a red crowntail betta into the tank. He'll get immune booster food for 10 days.

@Sorafish I considered that. The urgency is on the gobies but this is not a brackish setup.

@Zebradanio I'm not really the best person to ask.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Alas, I lost my flame apisto today (true).

I am thinking of getting this kind of fish next, but I can't identify the species.


----------



## Guest (Feb 4, 2012)

hahahahahahahahaha!

I like all bettas, crowntails are pretty cool. But I love the halfmoon and doubletail bettas the best.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

I think it's BarneyMillerous vigodus.


----------



## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

bwhahahahaaaa


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

I really shouldn't attend fish auctions when I have zero available tank space. Anyway, I consolidated two of my three desert goby grow-out tanks together to empty a tank for my new Aphyosemion striatum pair. They are still quite small, barely able to sex them.

I also picked up a small bag of daphnia I will try to culture.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

I just completed my experiment trying to keep these fish in local tap water when I discovered my last one upside down in the plants.

They just seem to fade away. This one, for instance, became reclusive and lethargic. He shared the tank with a Bolivian ram, a pair of young bushynose plecos, and a school of false penguin tetras (dithers). Only the apistos showed any problems, and they seemed to come on them suddenly with no symptoms other than lethargy--almost like they were dying of old age. Except, the previous fish that died was young and only starting to color up.

Whatever is happening seems to only affect the apistos.

Here are my water parameters just after removing the corpse.

Temp 77F
pH 7.8
NH3 0 ppm
NO2 0 ppm
NO3 0 ppm
GH 322 ppm
KH 179 ppm

All I have read indicates that A. cacatuoides should be able to live in hard water, but I suspect the root cause of the deaths is the KH/GH is just way too high for them. The die-off is about the same time-frame (4-6 months) that Neale Monks warned me about regarding German rams.


----------



## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

Your tap is 322 GH?


----------



## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Sounds about right. I have a higher KH than him, and I live in the same area. I don't have a GH test, but I'm sure it would be similar.


----------



## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

My ph is 6.8 and my apistos have been really well and spawned alot....


----------



## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

hmmmmm...it looks like an Abeus Vigodaeus Barnymilleri to me....a very rare species only found on certain channel islands....

put a peat filter in the apisto tank......and some malaysian driftwood...


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Yes, our water is AKA liquid rock.

I've already got two large pieces of driftwood in the tank the apistos were in, and the water is quite yellow from tannins.

API makes a small kit with the GH and KH bottles in the same box.


----------



## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

hmmmmmm....remind me to never consider living in the american southwest....
i am spoiled by the near perfect tropical fish water here in cleveland...


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

It's great water for livebearers and rift lake cichlids.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

If anyone is interested in science fiction, my new novel is in pre-release. A limited number of electronic copies are available free of charge. Follow the link for details.










http://www.ricknovy.com/2012/02/rigel-kentaurus-pre-release-offer-free/


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Two fish losses today. I had one female endler's livebearer suffering from some kind of infection. I have been treating her for about a month. She nearly recovered, then relapsed. This morning, she was suffering on the bottom of the tank and I euthanized her.

The other one was also a gravid female endler's livebearer. This one I found dead on the bottom of my peacock endler tank with dropsy symptoms. Sad, as I now have lost both adult females, but I do have plenty of female offspring, so it's not a threat to the colony.

I have already torn down my hospital tank, but I have another clutch of goby eggs, so I may be setting it up again as a hatch and grow-out tank. I just don't really want to leave myself with no hospital tank.

By the way, the first batch of goby fry are getting big enough I may be able to release some of them into the main tank soon.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

And now I have three new Crossocheilus siamensis to help with the algae problem in my black Moscow guppy tank. chow down, guys!

SAEs are great fish. I had a pair of 6-year-olds that were not small when I got them. Life expectancy is 5 years according to the literature, and they would have lived longer had they not been in a tank that ended up with Camallanus worms.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Breaking news! I have four desert gobies who were still in the grow-out tank during the infamous great heater poisoning incident and were never exposed to the toxins. Today, I discovered the male guarding this group's first clutch of eggs!


----------



## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

That's awesome. Congrats!


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

I found a really nice looking female crowntail betta at Petco of all places. This particular Petco keeps their fish in really good conditions--one of the higher managers of this location is a fishkeeper herself.

Anyway, I decided to test my skills to see if I can keep a betta healthy in a large bowl without filtration. (I have several alternative housing arrangements if it doesn't work out.) I hope my male starts building bubble nests soon, maybe I can fill all the flat space in the house with cups.

Wish me luck, and I'll try posting some pictures tomorrow since it's water change day anyway.


----------



## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Fishpunk said:


> Anyway, I decided to test my skills to see if I can keep a betta healthy in a large bowl without filtration.


I've heard that some people do this very successfully with plants. I guess it would be a matter of which type of plants.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

I've got a large silk plant for looks, then some java and christmas moss on the substrate. Heater was too much for the bowl. Have to go get one with a lower wattage.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Lots of people do this. I don't. Even fish in a bucket get a sponge filter.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

It's been a while since I posted here.

Desert gobies are doing well, breeding regularly. Have brought two batches to club meetings and auctions already.

The female crowntail betta in the bowl is doing great. Bowl finally cycled and the little lady is very active. (Yes, I did measure my nitrogen compounds daily as it cycled.)

My black bar endlers are breeding like mad. Lost a few adults in my peacock endler colony but I have plenty of juveniles.

Lost two of my juvenile sailfin mollies One had a bacterial infection and died in quarantine, the other somehow got a big hole ripped in its side and it did surprisingly well for about 3 weeks, then I found it on the substrate one morning. Just hoping I have both males and females in the 4 remaining fish. They won't sex out for a few more months yet.

I have a flagfish guarding a territory. Hopefully I'll have eggs soon.

Don't ever keep dario dario with Oryzias woware as the badis will eat the eggs of the ricefish.

Lots of Heterandria formosa in my tank. Love these little guys.

Got ahold of a pair of Aphysimeon striatum and promptly lost the female to jumping despite the tank being covered. I now have a reptile screen on that tank, so the male ain't going anywhere.

Got my first mystery snails at auction this month. They are cleaning up an algae bloom in the 5 gallon H. formosa tank. Once they finish, they'll move into my 46.

That's about it.


----------



## P.senegalus (Aug 18, 2011)

Are your sailfin mollies wild type? I've had better luck with them than I did with the pet store sailfins. I wish I still had them.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

They are offspring of wild collected mollies. I lost another one today, down to three, but they seem healthy.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Over the holiday weekend I traded six Heterandria formosa for six Fundulopanchax gresensi. A very good trade, and by the way, reptile screen tops are great for jumpers like killies.

I made the trade because my betta died of bloat. Was unable to help him to clear out his innards despite feeding peas and using epsom salts. This was the betta in the filtered 5-gallon tank. The betta in the large bowl is doing very well and has quite a personality.

So it goes.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

I just added six juvenile Julidocrhormis dickfeldi to the tank containing sailfin mollies and flagfish. It will be interesting to see how they interact when all the fish are adults and start breeding.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

In a open bowl you can do non-aquatic plants, bamboos and the like. 

Sounds like you have some different fish than we do around here. I love it the when the club does a "box swap" with another club across the country.

Everyone should have heterandia formosa. They have as much personality as a swordtail and you can keep them in a shoebox.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

I'm not aware that any clubs in Georgia have ever done a box exchange with Drywash Aquarium Society in Phoenix. We can't ship this time of year, but it might be something to look into for fall or spring.

I know we've done exchanges with a club in Texas.


----------



## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

If you are wondering about my username, here is where it comes from.










When Wisconsin Territory botanist Calvin Scholz receives a mysterious package from an old friend who recently came to an untimely demise, it sparks a wild adventure. The mid-1840s is a dangerous time, for the Americans are at war with Mexico.

Scholz survives attempts on his life as he tries to deliver the package to his friend’s brother, a Savannah ichthyologist interested in fish-powered machinery--ichthyotech. The situation grows increasingly dire, and Scholz finds himself aboard a riverboat in the Amazon Basin wilderness.

While this novel contains a fast-moving, original story, it is also a tasteful parody of the Steampunk movement. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, as well as a few compulsory bad puns.


Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008S5SUG0
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008S5SUG0
Amazon Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B008S5SUG0
Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B008S5SUG0
Amazon Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B008S5SUG0
Amazon Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B008S5SUG0

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fishpunk-rick-novy/1112365893?ean=2940014923309


Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Fis...lrlEg/page1.html?s=dwviDbYELUWkTj8CQf1cZA&r=1

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/212384

Trade paperback should be available in a month or so.


----------

