Marc's fish room build

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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.

Elhank
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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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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

A few updates on the .

One of the larger females received some damage to her operculum, a chunk of it was missing with a clean cut leading up to it, hopefully this was caused by a male! It happened over a week ago, there are no signs of fungus or infection, and it appears to be healing well, a much thinner membrane has grown back to fill the gap, which I'm assuming will thicken over time.
IMG_20200511_201610.jpg
The smallest female has taken on a more yellow colouration in the past couple days. Previously I had heard they are often yellow when captured, due to living in silty water, which then fades to silver in captivity. No idea what caused this, one idea from another keeper is that it may be related to tannins in the water, some of his fish became more yellow after he added more leaves to the tank.
IMG_20200517_195134.jpg
As a side note the females, regardless of size, seem to eat a lot more than the males, I'd guess twice as much, and more frequently, hopefully related to producing lots of eggs :)) .
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by bekateen »

Would be great to see fry Marc.

Good luck!
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Some new arrivals today, as the courier service are accepting fish occasionally.

A group of 12 for my Sierra Leone, Kassawe Forest Reserve, loose biotope which I am setting up, in addition to these there will be a group of Epiplatys annulatus (Clown Killis), and a group of Ladigesia roloffi (Jelly bean tetra) which should be arriving on Monday. @racoll I'll share some pictures once it's all setup! I'm calling it a loose biotope as I can't find any leaf litter from Sierra Leone, everything else should be correct for the area!

Also in today's delivery, I got 12 more because they are so much fun to watch, especially when there is food about. A few more Rainbow Shiners for the small outside pond, and some Barilius ardens for the Asian hill stream tank.
IMG_20200521_162338.jpg
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by Jools »

Those "synos" are one of my top "I should have kept these by now" species, I hope you enjoy 'em!

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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Thanks Jools they seem to be settling in well so far, I'll add some more pictures and try to take a video of the tank when it's setup.

If you feel the urge to get some Neil has "loads" in at Pier.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by Mart1996 »

MarcW wrote: 14 Apr 2020, 08:40 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 Mart1996 »

I've wanted to try oak but wasn't sure (afraid of the sap/oil)
Thanks for the post ! 👍
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by stuby »

Mart1996 wrote: 07 Jun 2020, 15:06 I've wanted to try oak but wasn't sure (afraid of the sap/oil)
Thanks for the post ! 👍
All the wood in this tank is Red Oak.... works great and is safe! Just know fresh Oak will turn your water a nice tea color..... but my fish seem to love the tea!

Take care,
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by fishguy1978 »

stuby wrote: 07 Jun 2020, 17:30
Mart1996 wrote: 07 Jun 2020, 15:06 I've wanted to try oak but wasn't sure (afraid of the sap/oil)
Thanks for the post ! 👍
All the wood in this tank is Red Oak.... works great and is safe! Just know fresh Oak will turn your water a nice tea color..... but my fish seem to love the tea!

Take care,
Chuck
By "fresh" do you mean green or just new to the tank? I don't think I would add green wood of any kind it should be completely dried out before introducing. I have ready access to alder but I would like to add some oak, maple, and possibly hazelnut(filbert).
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by stuby »

Fresh as in I just added a bunch of it to the tank...… I would never use green wood for my tanks!

Take care,
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by BRLaquatics »

Hi Marc

I stumbled onto your fish room build thread and I am blown away by how well thought-out and clean cut everything is.

Absolutely stunning, definitely one of the build rooms I've seen over the internet.
I hope my future fish room is half as nice as yours

regards
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Hi BRLaquatics,

Firstly welcome to PlanetCatfish!

Thanks for your kind words, there was a lot of investigation before hand, reading many threads like this one, and watching lots of YouTube videos, which I hope helped me to avoid mistakes, and build things out better than I might have done otherwise. Hopefully this'll give you some ideas for your fish room, when you get started on it we'd love to hear about it and see some pictures :-).
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by BRLaquatics »

Thanks!

My own fishroom is still many years away yet, But I do have a 'fish rack' with some L134s, L201s, Peppermint plecos (L071), Super Red Bristlenose and sterbai corys.

The L134s and peppermints just spawned for the first time a few days ago so the eggs haven't yet hatched.

Any tips or advice on what to do once they hatch and are wrigglers?

Cheers,
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by panaque »

Hi BRL,
My advice would be to leave the dads to do their job and only intervene if they turn out to be rubbish at it (kick the eggs out).
Good luck!
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Hi BRL, I'd suggest the same, leave the dad to it, I have only spawned once, the first thing I knew about it was finding small fry in the tank, at the point where they had already absorbed the yolk sac.

More about my efforts to spawn them here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=32242&p=212851#p212851

It was a while ago, and one of the first dedicated breeding setups I had attempted.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by BRLaquatics »

Thanks guys!

The male seems to be doing a great job so far. Fanning away on the eggs.

Should I pull them a few days after they hatch?

They're in a tank with adolfoi corys and rummynose tetras both of which would probably stack on a pleco fry also there's about 5000lph worth of flow going across the tank.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Personally, I have had the best luck leaving the fry in the parents tank, until they are 1.5 inches +. I wouldn't worry about the flow it seems a lot for a tiny fish but they will find a quiet spot if needed. I wouldn't think corys or the rummynose would cause them any issues. Good luck.
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by BRLaquatics »

MarcW wrote: 16 Jun 2020, 14:02 Personally, I have had the best luck leaving the fry in the parents tank, until they are 1.5 inches +. I wouldn't worry about the flow it seems a lot for a tiny fish but they will find a quiet spot if needed. I wouldn't think corys or the rummynose would cause them any issues. Good luck.
Thanks a heap MarcW :d
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by Mart1996 »

Nice pictures
Thanks,
Jim
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Re: Marc's fish room build

Post by MarcW »

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted, not a lot fishy has gone on in the past few months! I should have been going to the All Aquarium Catfish Convention in a couple of days, but unfortunately it has been cancelled, even if it had still been going on I wouldn't currently be allowed into the US anyway, due to COVID-19 restrictions, not because of anything I have done :))! Hopefully things will improve next year and some events can take place.

I'm still searching for some Amphilius or Chiloglanis for my African stream tank, there are just 12 Arnoldichthys spilopterus in there at the moment, a lovely fish but not a catfish! So after some maintenance at the weekend I decided to visit a couple local fish shops, just in case there was anything interesting hidden in a tank.

Just the usual selection, shops near me don't often stock many catfish, if they do, it'll be one tiny gold nugget, a handful of bristlenose, or some common Corydoras. I'd been considering some for a while as they seem a nice fish (active, peaceful, and small), given my struggle to find the catfish I am after for the African tank, when I saw a group of 13 at a local store I bought them. They are currently in a quarantine tank, and seem to have settled well, I'm looking forward to getting them in the larger tank soon.


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