Marc's fish room build

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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Thanks Darrel, I do still have a few Asellus, they didn't seem to reproduce, but a few are still kicking around!

I also still have a few ostracods in one tank, I'll give them a go too.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Well the handful of juvenile (1.25 to 1.5 inch) rainbow fish which were too crafty for me to catch out of the quarantine tank went missing a couple nights ago! Plus today at least one of the A. magoi ate an earthworm, two were eaten but it happened so quickly I can't be sure it was two separate fish. None of the others were interested and just backed away as I wiggled the worms nearby with long tweezers.

I'll try again with shrimp and worms when the lights dim later, I also have some whitebait arriving tomorrow, which was part of their diet in the store, hopefully they'll remember :-).
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by Martin S »

Very envious of your new arrivals! How are they looking whilst seemingly not feeding?
Have you tried live river shrimp? No doubt the rainbows were an easy snack for one or more!
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Thanks Martin! They are still looking healthy and not skinny at all, they tend to hug the bottom and swim in place when the lights are on, then at night (it needs to be really dark) they are swimming around all over the tank.

I haven't tried shrimp yet, i only have one cherry shrimp kicking around somewhere! I have some daphnia coming soon, I'll see if I can get some shrimp delivered to me. Ideally I want them eating frozen/pellets, but if they start to look skinny I do have a couple hundred juvenile rainbowfish that can move tank!
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Well they are eating daphnia, 3 of them at least! They were eating larger food (shrimps, whitebait, mussels, etc.) in the shop, but for some reason it seems they like smaller food at the moment. I've been offering all the food they ate in the shop plus live earthworms every night but they just aren't interested and it is always all there the next morning! The trouble is mail ordering large amounts of live food for a reasonable cost given the current circumstances! I have some live bloodworm arriving tomorrow hopefully they'll like that too!

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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Some good news on the , this smaller female seems to be eating best, although only small things, a couple days ago, live daphnia, and today live bloodworm.



In even better news, I was trying to place some small prawns near the fish to make it easy for them, and one of the males swallowed a whole prawn! You can see the bulge in his stomach!
IMG_20200401_190114.jpg
I'm hoping it's just a matter of a few days before the rest find their appetite!
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by bekateen »

Those fish are gorgeous!
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Thanks Eric, they really are stunning fish, they still have loads in Pier. These, some which look the same, have a more yellow base colour and are bigger ~8-9 inches TL, unfortunately just 3 females, possibly just larger A. magoi. They also have several , picture below.

I can't wait to get these into my large tank once they are eating well, I'm hoping they will become more confident and active with more space.
Ageneiosus marmoratus.jpg
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Some new fish arrived today, after a couple week pause, the one courier in the UK who ship live fish have resumed their live fish service.

In addition to some rainbow shiners for my small outside pond, and some Garra sp. Red Tail, I got the following catfish.

Group of 10 which are quite large already, the biggest ~130-140mm SL. After quarantine (the fish kind :-)) they will be going in the large 8x3 feet tank.
Trachelyopterichthys.jpg
To go with the Garra sp. Red Tail in my new Asian hill stream tank I have 12 Akysis sp. sold as , the Akysis all look very similar to me, but purely based on the pattern I'm thinking they may be more likely to be ?
Akysis 1.jpg
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by bekateen »

Very nice. Marc, you get some great species. ;-)

Good luck with them,
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Thanks Eric!

Now I have an Asian tank, I'm already thinking of setting up an African tank. Hopefully I'll be able to find some interesting fish for that one too, it will be a long way off though, I need to move some fish on to make more room!
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Not catfish related, but thought I'd share for anyone with a similar issue.

This morning I found my largest ~100mm Garra sp. Red Tail, in the middle of the fish room floor about 5 feet from the tank they are in. It was too late to help the fish unfortunately.

Any gaps in the tank are plugged with foam, and it has a very tight fitting glass sliding lid. There is a small hole behind the matten filter where the airlines for the lifter tubes come in, however there is no gap larger than a foam pore, max ~1mm anywhere around the perimeter of the mattenfilter, including above the waterline.
No gaps between foam and glass, even above the water line.
No gaps between foam and glass, even above the water line.
The only way it could have got behind the foam and have access to the small gap to escape would have been to swim through the lift tube, which would have been a tight squeeze for this fish as they are only 25mm outside diameter ~23mm ID! It seems then it panicked and made the leap out of the tank.
I did find another fish behind the foam when looking around this morning.
I did find another fish behind the foam when looking around this morning.
corner hole.jpg
So now I have moved the one other fish stuck behind the foam, and placed some mesh, actually filter media bags, over the openings of the lift tubes, as well as plugging the small hole in the lid behind the foam.
net in place.jpg
foam in corner.jpg
They must be attracted to the flow, but I have a large power head, capable of 100x turnover per hour, although dialed right down, at the other end of the tank. Hopefully my modifications will stop this from happening again!
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by bekateen »

Wow!
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Over the weekend I decided to try making some tubes for my , as I only have clay caves, I thought they'd appreciate some shelter which they can just swim through easily, rather than a dead end cave.

We have a large oak tree (Quercus robur) in our garden, a while ago in strong winds a large branch fell off, so we had a tree surgeon come over who removed a few branches to give the tree a better shape. It had been badly managed in the past and had been left with a lot more growth on one side than the other.

It was cheaper if I kept the wood, so I did, and it's been stacked and drying for about 5 months now. I picked out a few smaller bits ~5-10cm (2-4 inches) in diameter and used my mitre saw to tidy up the chainsaw cuts (as I was paranoid about oil residue), and cut to appropriate lengths. In my case an appropriate length was no more than 20cm, ~8 inches, as my largest spade drill bit is 10cm long once in the chuck of my drill, allowing me to drill from each end and meet in the middle.

Firstly I stripped the bark, this was a pain and time consuming! I used an old chisel and a hammer where needed, this would probably have been easier if I had allowed the wood to dry out longer.
prepared oak.jpg
no bark left.jpg
I then used a 32mm ~1 1/4 inch, drill bit to drill through from both ends to make a tube.
drilling hole.jpg
I had a few smaller bits of wood so I made a few small caves which I'll try in my tank.
through tunnel.jpg
finished tubes&caves.jpg
I messed one up, and split out the side, I should have used a narrower drill bit for this smaller diameter piece of wood!

They are currently soaking in a bucket in the garden so they sink before I put them in a tank.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by bekateen »

Looks great Mark. Good luck!

Fwiw, my zamoras spends all day in pipes and few of them touch caves.

Cheers, Eric
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

A couple videos for you all!

Firstly my Asian hillstream tank, the catfish in there are , they are so active when feeding, great fun to watch. They seem to have a little trouble knowing when to stop eating though, they get huge (for their size!) bellies!



The second is of my , they are still going through quarantine and doing well, they are now eating, mostly frozen foods (whitebait and shrimp), I had to get used to them eating larger amounts less frequently, as most of my fish are grazers rather than predators!

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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Possible fertilisation or just a scuffle?! I'll keep a lookout for eggs, any idea of a timeframe between fertilisation and eggs being laid?





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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

No eggs, but they are out feeding with the lights on now!

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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by bekateen »

You and someone else (another Marc I think) are having great luck with these. I hope to see baby ducklings soon!

Good luck, Eric
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by Lycosid »

Apparently I've missed some updates here. Quick comments:
I've also had fish swim through uplift tubes into the space behind Mattenfilters. For glass catfish I've jammed a slice of plastic into the tube, splitting it into two halves which are each small enough that the catfish doesn't want to go through anymore. Convict cichlid fry also love to swim through uplift tubes. Eventually I just let their water level drop so the water dropped a short distance out of the uplifts. (I have come to despise convict cichlids.) A proper solution to this would be excellent.

I've also stripped bark on logs. A draw knife works wonderfully. Not the easiest thing to find, but I have one for other reasons and it works great.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by bekateen »

Lycosid wrote: 26 Apr 2020, 23:55I have come to despise convict cichlids.
I think many people have. :))

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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Lycosid wrote: 26 Apr 2020, 23:55 Apparently I've missed some updates here. Quick comments:
I've also had fish swim through uplift tubes into the space behind Mattenfilters. For glass catfish I've jammed a slice of plastic into the tube, splitting it into two halves which are each small enough that the catfish doesn't want to go through anymore. Convict cichlid fry also love to swim through uplift tubes. Eventually I just let their water level drop so the water dropped a short distance out of the uplifts. (I have come to despise convict cichlids.) A proper solution to this would be excellent.

I've also stripped bark on logs. A draw knife works wonderfully. Not the easiest thing to find, but I have one for other reasons and it works great.
Good idea with the piece of plastic in the lift tube, I'll keep thinking about a more permanent solution.

I did consider buying a draw knife, it'd certainly have made stripping the bark easier, if I make more of the caves in future, then I'll get one, it wasn't a fun process stripping the bark without one!
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by fishguy1978 »

Enjoyed reading your thread. I am considering rain water collection as I have just recently had a metal roof installed.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by Bas Pels »

Before you start to put fishes in that wate,r be certain there is no kopper or zinc in the metal. THose metals are commonly used but highly toxic for fishes
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Thanks fishguy, as Bas mentioned, be sure to check what metal the roof is made from before using any for fish.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by fishguy1978 »

Thanks, I will double check the materials.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by Elhank »

Hi Marc,

Really enjoyed reading your thread what a fantastic job on the fish room.Im a big fan of Pier and have purchased my 8 l046 over the last 18 months in ones and twos.

Can I ask what is your tap water is like where you are. I’m in the Trafford area of Manchester and use just an hma filter for all water needs.

Regards Elhank.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Hi Elhank,

Welcome to Planet Catfish!

Thanks for reading through the thread, glad you enjoyed it. The tap water here is hard, it's actually been a while since I tested it, usually coming out at a TDS of ~300ppm, pH of ~7.8, one of my main concerns is that I have 40ppm of nitrate in my tap water. That along with the hardness is what led me to move to cutting rain or RO with a smaller amount of tap water.

I believe around Manchester the water is much softer?
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by Elhank »

Hi Marc,

Thanks for the reply. I think I’m lucky with my tap water

Ph 7
Kh 0
Nitrate 0

Reason I asked was the problem you were having with fungus on eggs.Did you get to the bottom of this?

I don’t have a tds meter.

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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

I haven't got to the bottom of that unfortunately, some of my thoughts which I haven't tested yet are:

Something in the water - I would hope unlikely due to the small amount of tap water I use which is filtered through an HMA system first. If it is this, it's probably something I couldn't test for/detect in a home setting. I am trying to increase the amount of plants I keep to see if they help absorb excess nutrients which may not be helping.

Too much light - I have heard in the past that some eggs can be light sensitive, occasionally I have put a towel over tanks with no difference, but haven't always been careful to replace it, or maybe it's too late by the time i notice the eggs.

Just a couple thoughts, it's a bit chaotic in the fish room at the moment moving stuff around for a couple new setups. Once that's done I should have a bit more time to try and figure this out!
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