Almost Done

[TwoTankAmin]

Last Friday I sold 143 plecos. Since I began my planned retirement from the hobby I have sold all of my breeders save the WC 173. I also have about 30+ F1s as well.

My 3 oldest zebra plecos are going to a retirement tank in CA to live out the balance of their lives. The 8 assorted offspring I should have will be at sellable size by the summer. When they go out it will be the firs time in about 22 years that I will not have a single zebra pleco.

I am negotiating to sell all my remaining RB 236 offspring. My tank of mixed Hypans, my Altums and all my clowns and redline barbs. I am also negotiating to sell the remaining dozen L173 from the tank raised breeders which were the first breeding group to go.

From 20 tanks I will be down to 8 and 6 of them are planted communities. They will be consolidated some over the coming months as they range in size from 5.5 to a 75. I am keeping the in-wall tanks (the 75 and a 30B). They will likely be the final 2 when I reach a point of having 0.

I will have some corys and likely a few young ancistrus (but no breeding allowed). And I recently got 3 dwarf hoplos all male at my clubs monthly auction.

I am not happy about all of this. But nothing lasts forever. Age is a cruel master.

[bekateen]

Thanks for the update TTA. You've done a wonderful job over the years curating your lines, not allowing hybrids to spread as real fish, etc. You've been a resource for so many hobbyists.

When things are working, you want to keep going, but yeah, age has its way, no matter what. Good luck with the scale-down. I hope you find a comfortable peace with it.

Cheers, Eric

[Jools]

Yes, what Eric said indeed. You've been a longtime companion on PlanetCatfish's journey too. I hope that doesn't end quite as soon as your fishkeeping endeavours and the few tanks you are reducing to sound fun.

Cheers,

Jools

[Shane]

I agree. Cut down on tanks, but not your activities for the hobby. Too much knowledge would be lost.
-Shane

[aquaholic]

A yearly admission ticket to your favourite freshwater public aquarium(s) may help? Many are well set up for impaired mobility access. I am able to chat with the curator and often invited behind the scenes at mine.

Or perhaps use a competent aquarium maintenance company to look after what tanks you want to keep?

In my case, I've been setting up larger and larger tanks with automated and self cleaning filters, water change, redundant systems. Not 100% sure if successful yet but I'm getting prepared for the future.

[TwoTankAmin]

MY problem has been the house itself. My brother and I , two old bachelors, share a lovely house we inherited. Out parents built it in 1961 as a summer and weekend place. It is in the woods and has its own private well which is mostly why I have done so well with plecos. But the house has no basement and is not huge. There are two buildings though.

My fish tanks are in both buildings and 4 different rooms. In the summer I have set up temporary tanks which come down in the fall. So, I have no fish room. Ramping up over the years meant every tank had its own heaters, filters etc. Over the last decade I began migrating in two rooms to central air power for the most part. I mostly also duplicated pumps, hoses buckets etc so I had them in both buildings.

And that is what made it hard to keep up now. But I do have a bit of good news. I kept my WC 173 tank and a grow tank with a bunch of their kids. I had a tank disaster in the breeding tank last year due to it getting way overstocked. I lost over 75 fish including one of the breeders. I feared that the surviving 9 breeders and a dozen assorted sized offspring that also survived.

But I was afraid that those survivors might no longer be able to breed as a result of being exposed to insane ammonia etc. levels. I felt I could not sell any of these fish if my fears were realized. So, I decided to keep the fish until I could feel good about whichever way things worked out.

I had a couple of spawns a few months back- I saw eggs in one cave and wigglers in another. Some time later they were no longer there. I did bot know if they survived and were in the tank or had died being more casualties of the disaster. I did spot a single 1 inch fry recently but that was it. Last week I was doing maint. and water changes on the tank and I spotted two 1/2 inch fry. So, maybe things are actually OK.

I know that having WC 173 is not a common thing. I was lucky to be offered the chance to buy by their owner and could not refuse. I have always considered having these fish was a responsibility. So, I am overjoyed to see that are not all sterile.

I plan to maintain them and a grow tank for them for a while longer. In the not to distant future I will pull the tank apart to get a head count. The best part is my main pleco space is set up such that the two tanks I will keep are pretty easy to manage. I can drain them directly into the utility sink and can even refill them directly from my tap.

But I have no illusions as to how long I can keep up with this. I am thinking maybe one more year or so since there will only be two more tanks than originally planned. I will have to replace the central air pump with a smaller one as I only need 8 outlets.

What is that old saying? "No rest for the weary."

[DBam]

I really appreciate getting to read about other people's experiences in the deeper places of the hobby. Hearing you say you felt a responsibility to raise rare fish stuck out as particularly interesting. As much as there is disappointment to hear you're reducing your hobby, it's understandable. Your experience makes me wonder what kind of perspective it has given you; what kinds of things were major turning points in your hobby, what things brought you deeper into it, those kinds of things.