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I've been pretty quiet here lately, doing my own thing and being patient with my fish. I'm up to 7 tanks now. I would like to say that's it, but who knows... I've been wanting to attempt a 40g salty tank but the rubber band snaps on my wrist are actually starting to hurt from thinking of it so often. Well here's some pictures, nothing great since I still have a garbage point and shoot that requires flash mode to come up with someone crisp pics.
First of all - My 55gal stocked with F1 Ikola fry that I got from Rama probably 6-7 months ago. They're all doing great and starting to lose their solid bright yellow and getting a more defined band around their bodies. They range from 1.75" - 2.5" probably. They grew to 2" very quick, but the tank size probably stunted them slightly since then. They still seem quite happy and glow after each water change.
Next - Is my new setup. I made the stand a few months back. It holds 4x 20gal longs and still stays low enough to fit nicely under my bar height counter top. I tried to make this setup somewhat energy efficient. The first pic is with flash, the second is without just to show the type of homemade lighting that's on it. It doesn't show fish color great, but it's still an aesthetically pleasing light for a breeding tank.
Each tank has a LED light strip, 1-2 sponge filters, and a small HoB (Aqueon quiet flow 10). Absolutely love those little filters. I picked them up at Petco when on sale for 13.00, which made them 8.00 each after the Aqueon mail-in-rebate. One Whisper 60 airpump powers all of the sponges nicely. Then for lighting: I bought 5x cool blue 19"(42 LED) rope lights for 7.00 each. I picked up a 24watt power supply, a 5way splitter and an on/off switch. So now I have 4 tanks decently lit with using only 1 outlet and a total cost of maybe 50.00-55.00. I picked up some 24" diffusers from home depot and siliconed the strips inside them.
The top left houses my Lithochromis Xanthopteryx group. 12 in total, I believe it is 5m/7f and they breed like crazy. They only need to hold for 12-14 days, then back at 2-3 weeks later. It's rare that 1-2 aren't holding at all times.
The bottom left houses 1m/2f Aulonocara Jacobfreibergi Eureka Reds. They breed a little slower, with smaller batches than the Lithochromis, but stay pretty steady. The male is absolutely stunning. His dorsal flows back past his tail fin.
The bottom right has my 1m/4f Pundamilia Nyererei group. I think these females have been housed together too long. Their menstrual cycles are on the same timers... last month 3 of the 4 females held at the same time.
The top right is my Nyererei grow-out tank. There's about 30-35 up there now that are all around 1/2" in size.
Lastly, I have a 20tall growout tank for the Lithochromis and Eureka Reds. They are all about 1" each and have a good 40 in total. The 40gal tank has Albino Red Tail - Thick Skin haps. These are fry from Spots group and first generation albinos since none in her tanks were albino. I split up the regulars and albino, and kept the albinos to see what they look like grown up. They are nearing 2" now.
Just a closeup of the Lithochromis/Peacock fry in the 20tall.
Thanks for looking!
First of all - My 55gal stocked with F1 Ikola fry that I got from Rama probably 6-7 months ago. They're all doing great and starting to lose their solid bright yellow and getting a more defined band around their bodies. They range from 1.75" - 2.5" probably. They grew to 2" very quick, but the tank size probably stunted them slightly since then. They still seem quite happy and glow after each water change.
Next - Is my new setup. I made the stand a few months back. It holds 4x 20gal longs and still stays low enough to fit nicely under my bar height counter top. I tried to make this setup somewhat energy efficient. The first pic is with flash, the second is without just to show the type of homemade lighting that's on it. It doesn't show fish color great, but it's still an aesthetically pleasing light for a breeding tank.
Each tank has a LED light strip, 1-2 sponge filters, and a small HoB (Aqueon quiet flow 10). Absolutely love those little filters. I picked them up at Petco when on sale for 13.00, which made them 8.00 each after the Aqueon mail-in-rebate. One Whisper 60 airpump powers all of the sponges nicely. Then for lighting: I bought 5x cool blue 19"(42 LED) rope lights for 7.00 each. I picked up a 24watt power supply, a 5way splitter and an on/off switch. So now I have 4 tanks decently lit with using only 1 outlet and a total cost of maybe 50.00-55.00. I picked up some 24" diffusers from home depot and siliconed the strips inside them.
The top left houses my Lithochromis Xanthopteryx group. 12 in total, I believe it is 5m/7f and they breed like crazy. They only need to hold for 12-14 days, then back at 2-3 weeks later. It's rare that 1-2 aren't holding at all times.
The bottom left houses 1m/2f Aulonocara Jacobfreibergi Eureka Reds. They breed a little slower, with smaller batches than the Lithochromis, but stay pretty steady. The male is absolutely stunning. His dorsal flows back past his tail fin.
The bottom right has my 1m/4f Pundamilia Nyererei group. I think these females have been housed together too long. Their menstrual cycles are on the same timers... last month 3 of the 4 females held at the same time.
The top right is my Nyererei grow-out tank. There's about 30-35 up there now that are all around 1/2" in size.
Lastly, I have a 20tall growout tank for the Lithochromis and Eureka Reds. They are all about 1" each and have a good 40 in total. The 40gal tank has Albino Red Tail - Thick Skin haps. These are fry from Spots group and first generation albinos since none in her tanks were albino. I split up the regulars and albino, and kept the albinos to see what they look like grown up. They are nearing 2" now.
Just a closeup of the Lithochromis/Peacock fry in the 20tall.
Thanks for looking!
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