ghostechino

[ghostechino]

Mom took all my Legos.

Mary Queen of Scotts managed to find her way under the Lego scape I set up for her and also I want to do more testing to be sure the Legos can stay stable underwater, so removed temporarily. In the meantime, we've moved in some more natural scraping pieces with a couple nice hides.

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Next stage of the 2-gallon bubble!

We've got our dirt and our focal hardscape piece, and today we added a Pennywort stem and rooting wisteria section.

Lovely dirt tea.

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My girl who I wasn't even sure was pregnant finally had some babies. She didn't die from it! Huge positive! But now I've got maybe eight additional super tiny baby guppies swimming around. Big sigh.

We'll see how many are around by tomorrow.

Anyway, water change today and some plant trimming and stem replanting. All in all, still looking good!

[ghostechino]

Stage one of my 2 gallon to-be plant bubble. I'm setting up with ceramic filter media on the bottom, organic leaf-litter-and-homemade-compost from my vegetable garden bed, and eco-gravel on top. I've added some water to let everything settle before moving plants in. It's lovely and dirt-tea brown.

I'm thinking to start off situating the smaller of my 2 Water Wisteria in here and I'll expand with other plants as I go.

Ultimately maybe picking up some shrimp and see if I can't get a colony started.

[ghostechino]

The Guppy Sorority Nursery!

I got female guppies under the impression that the guppies were most comfortable in a 3:1 female:male ratio. I had one survivor from my first failed fraternity tank and on advice picked up some girls for him. I was assured they would be most comfortable like that and they regulate their own baby-load, you really need to try to keep fry alive. That was COMPLETELY INCORRECT information. I should have done more research, etc, I know, I know, everyone makes mistakes.

From there, I quickly had a Population™ and needed to pay more attention and care to the tank to keep the water chem balanced and fish happy. That said, the mixed guppy tank actually became my MOST STABLE tank in terms of water params pretty quickly and the fish thrived, and yes, once I had a Population™, they did self regulate community size.

But my girls were quickly losing color and I noticed the boys harassing them nonstop, chasing them around relentlessly. I think they bothered them even when my girls were busy giving birth. Like, relentless. So after losing a couple girls I took them out.

In their own tank, my girls settled down quickly. They are very communal and have very specific behavior when one is birthing, checking in periodically and then swimming a small distance away where all the girls would wait, like keeping vigil. Guppy moms do not have a great survival rate after birthing. they can hold on to the babies for a long time too, so when they go to have them, the babies tend to rip out of their stomachs and the trauma kills the mom.

I have lost a number of guppies this way and wish I had known that before getting girls. But life continues.

At the moment, I have one surviving adult female and a handful of fry. As they grow, the fry sex becomes more clear and I fully intend to remove the males before sexual maturity.

Guppies have been awful to keep.

Anyway, that's my bit on guppies, thanks for reading. Here's my current tank: 1 adult, 6 fry.

Some specs:

10 gallon. Carbon and sponge filter. Submersible Heater. 75°.

3 x Vals. 2 x Water Wisteria. 3 x Pennywort. 1 x Java Moss bridge. 2 x terrestrial Spider Plants.

Ammonia <.25

1 x adult female, 6 x fry.

[ghostechino]

The Guppy Frat!

So these guys are in a 10 Gallon, separated out from my girls and the babies. They had the largest renovation last Saturday where I removed all of their eco substrate, rinsed it thoroughly, tossed out their slimy, gunky filter media and restarted with their plants in terracotta, some rooting terrestrials in the filter casing, and a new cherry tree bonsai Lego set for coverage and color.

All but one of these guys were born to one of my girls who was already pregnant from the shop. They have lived very harmoniously for the whole time I've had them. They have become less aggressive and more school-like since I separated out the girls and the babies. All in all, I've been pretty happy with them.

I've had trouble growing my plants this year. I've fallen into some kind of aqua plant slump and need to figure out how to get back into a more attentive plant care routine. I picked up a grow light that clips onto the side of the tank and I'm hoping it helps to boost my plant growth.

I'm excited to build a more intricate Lego-scape for them to adventure in. My boys are super active and curious and deserve an interesting tank!

Some disclaimer specs because I got comments on PlantedTank:

10 gallons. Filter/pump with sponge media. Submersible heater. 74°.

2 x Amazon swords. 2 x anubias nana. Lucky bamboo. Spider plant.

Ammonia <0.25

8 x fancy guppies

[ghostechino]

Early morning shot of my pretty, angry girl.

Cleo gets a partial water change in the morning and a full water change tonight. She's been responding really well to the aquarium salt and the wound on her side is hardly visible anymore. She glares and charges at me if I forget to do it, it's part of the routine now, so I don't know how I'll break it to her that we're stopping daily treatment on Thursday (day 10). Somehow, I think she'll manage!

[ghostechino]

A fresh new start for my aquariums for 2025! I spent about 75% of my weekend working with my fish. Pulling plants, removing and rinsing substrate, repotting plants for a neater layout, reinstalling layered substrate, repositioning, water changes galore, better lighting, a trip to the aquarium store, and days 5 and 6 of treating my jumbo female for a fungal infection. Woohoo! We are on a roll!

I love taking care of my pets and while it's still too cold to do any work outside, I'm really enjoying cultivating the aquarium 'scapes and making sure everyone is staying healthy! Nothing fights seasonal depression like happy, wiggly fish.

I might do a break down of specific tanks later, but for now the final product for later reference and progress comparison:

Cleo's 5.5 gallon. I was having some trouble with her plants melting on me last year, but they're doing better now that she's in front of the window and the salt treatment for her fungal infection is livening up the plants. Who knew. I've been keeping Cleo for a couple years now. She is a BIG girl with a lot of attitude.

One of the last sightings of Carmilla since given her new colorful decor with all its hidey spots. 5.5 gallon. A big upgrade for her since her previous layout was fairly bare-bones. She's zippy and likes watching the guppies next door and doing patrol loops.

The guppy frat 10 gallon. They're tank got the largest makeover reset. I took out all their substrate and sectioned it into terracotta for their plants to keep things a little neater and easier to vacuum. I've had an awful time getting these plants to grow (of course they're the "anyone can grow these" variety) so I'll have to do some more work with them. I've got them situated by the window, but because it's winter, we tend to have the curtains drawn and their tank just needs better light. We're working on a solution. For now, they're a fraternity of 8 and seem pretty stable there, please do not @ me.

The guppy sorority and fry club 10 gallon. I lied above, THIS tank got the largest mark over reset of the bunch. This was initially my emergency backup tank, but when I realized my girls were getting stressed out and harassed by the boys in the mixed tank setup I had them in initially (learning curve here, I'm figuring it out) I went ahead and caught them and moved them into here full-time. I got new plants from my LFS and have them situated under my best lighting fixture. I'm hoping to be able to take cuttings from the plants in this tank to plant out into the others as everything gets established.

I'm not sure about how much I enjoy keeping female guppies, to be honest. It's kind of stressful and they tend to die after giving birth. I'm also wary of the way they start developing brighter tail colors like the males once they're in their own tank... But! Otherwise they do well in here and form cute little friend groups.

And that's where we stand as of February 16! I'm hopeful for a good year with these fish and these set ups.