My Suppliers.

If your in Providence and looking for a great fish shop I suggest AquaLife on wickenden street. I believe that this is the best shop in the state, especially for freshwater fish. I'm not into to salt water fish but from what i can tell they only carry fish that have a successful track record. But freshwater fish is definately their thing. The aquatic plant selection is fair enough. In fact if you are not satisfied with the plants it's probably because your at the point where you should be ordering them online. The selection of food is the next strongest part of the store for me. Not only do they carry a huge variety of dry goods and a fair amount of frozen foods but also 6 kinds of live foods. Two of which are fish, which i'm meh about. The rest are blackworms, tubifex worms, brine shrimp and ghost shrimp(though ghosts kinda count as pets so). Hard tack is good as well. Good selection of filters and replacement parts, tanks and subsrtates. Decorations are 50/50, lots of natural materials like driftwood and stones but sorely lacking in the artificial side of things. You always see the owners and they always have advice for you. Four star rating.
http://www.aqualifecentral.com

I also use Repashy Super foods purchased from Invertebrates by Msjinkzd. Rachel is an independant importer of nano fish and shrimps. Great person to order from, orders always show up on time and progress is quickly updated. The repashy food i get from her is a gel food you mix at home. The food once mixed is stable in the tank for 24 for hours or so and allows the fish to browse naturally throughout the day. I'm using this for the first time inthe rearing of paradise fry and the fry are definatly growing twice as fast as they did last year. All the fish seem to have a preference for the Soilent Green. http://msjinkzd.com/

During the summer I grow most live foods i use in a bucket in the backyard. I pretty much find a pond scoop up some pond mud and leaf litter and toss it in the bucket and harvest what grows. I also grow my own squashes and what not tp feed the herbaceous fish. During the winter i also grab a bag of frozen prawns, thawed and crushed any size fish can take it. I also am not afraid to get decaying leaves into the tank, not only for the natural look but also for the infusoria that grow. I feel these little guys eat  disease organisms or at least compete with them for resources.

The Filter Myth

     Most people are under the impression that filters actually clean the water. And while they do remove large particles and trap them in a sponge or similar device, all this really does is concentrate the debris in one area where a bacterial colony can easily access it. What the colony can't take care of can simply be rinsed away weekly or monthly. Perhaps even yearly depending on the filter and the bio load. Unfortunately, i have never found a filter i liked or was confident in their effectiveness. Hob filters always seemed to clog up quickly and canisters always seemed way too over priced. Under gravel filters while i liked them, i liked the look of sand better.
     I discovered matten filters at some point and i thought they were good but unattractive. Also the material seemed always out of budget. In one article i read where folks were strapping moss and other plants to the matten filter masking it and i thought this was a great idea, if only the material wasn't so pricey.

Look Closely at the right side. You can make out the uplift tube of my sponge filter.

    What I'm running now and am incredibly happy with are sponge filters. I use over powered air pumps to run them. My 45(actually water 20gal) and my 55(actual water 30gal) have two sponge filters each, run off of an air pump rated for 100gallons. These are planted tanks that are not co2 injected but i due dose excel and they covered with glass so i believe co2 levels build up under the glass and the pumps find a balance. Which is more important then increased co2 levels in my case. I believe the plants can deal with low levels of co2 if it is stable. I do weekly water changes of 5 gallons on each tank. I strapped anubias frazeri and barteri to the filters and they quickly rooted into them. Faster then i have ever seen these plants root. I also have tied    red myrio and other stem plants to the sponges with success.
     In the environment that i created i believe the plants on the sponges due well because nutrients of all types are constantly brought to the plant's roots allowing the plants to divert resources to light gathering or co2 gathering. Root disturbance happens twice a year when i give the sponges a through cleaning with a garden hose and a couple of squeezes. I use the hose because it takes only a few moments versus squeezing with tank water that can take forever with fairly poor results.

Let's play find the sponge in this one.

     In smaller tanks of ten gallons or less i don't even use sponge filters. I believe water movement is more important then actual "filtration".I use a 30 gallon air pump to run an air stone in a ten, a sponge filter on a five and three air stones in three different 2gallon containers. I'm using the five gallon to rear some fry and it's a wee bit over crowded. The ten gallon is so thickly planted that 10 ottos, a pair of drape fin barbs, their fry and lonely male betta can all hide to the point of invisible.The 2 gallon containers are the winter homes of my paradise fish and paleatus cories. also thickly planted.

This ten gallon is runs just an air stone for water movement.

     I truly believe water movement is vital in an aquarium environment. I also believe plants are the best nutrient exporters around and should be in every set up. In the average, moderately planted tank this should all work. In an over stocked or impossible to plant tank then a hob or canister filter is necessary, if only to add additional space for bacteria colonies. The water Change volume also has to change. Where as plants will use up the final stage of the nitrogen cycle or even use ammonia directly your filter will not. Slowly this will build up and your fish will be just as dead.
    Terrestrial plants grown hydroponically in the system will lead to complete nutrient exportation, i.e . the plants with sequester the nutrients in their leafs outside the aquarium versus aquatic plants that sequester the nutrients in the aquarium. If the leaves die on aquatic plants they stay in the aquarium releasing the nutrients back into the water, with hyrdoponic plants the leaves fall to the floor and outside the aquarium.

Drape Fin Barbs, Filament Barbs, Paradise fish and other fish that I have Bred

The Drape fin barbs are breeding non stop. I have fry ranging from freshly hatched to looking like the adults only much, much smaller. As you can see the tank is heavily planted which ensures the fry have both cover and microorganisms to eat. The barbs are housed with a male betta splendins and i see no signs of fin nipping of course the two species seldom meet in the jungle of that tank. Also in the tank is a trio of male formosa and 10 Oto cats. The otos came from the outside ponds and i figured the heavily planted tank was perfect for them and aside from the occasional egg they might eat should leave the drape fin fry alone and perhaps even breed themselves.


The Filament Barbs Spent the summer out in ponds and have seriously put on at least an inch in length and girth! The color is amazing on top of the lime green shine they have aquired pink/red high lights. The dominate male and female are more red then pink especially around the lips. The juvenile I put out with them has taken on his adult colors minus the reddish high lights. Interestingly i left two fry in the house, feeling that they were too small to sucessfully compete outside. The fry still had the typical tiger barb stripe they have when young but within hours the larger of the two had faded out his stripes, three days later he is rocking the adult colors. YOu can spot him getting chased in the video. Oddly enough these Barbs did not breed in the tubs.
                                                             
This little guy is one of the five bristle nose plecos i housed out inthe ponds with the Filament barbs this year. He is approximately 1 year old and about two inches bigger then his father yet is the sub male. Seems age wins out over size in this species. Unfortunately these guys didn't produce fry int he ponds, the dominate male did have eggs in his cave when i pulled them in and once in the new tank he immediantly went back to being a dutiful male so hopefully the eggs make it. Even their muddy brown colors were enhanced by the summer out.

On the right we have my dominate female paradise in her winter home. These guys were super productive this year. They produced ten fry, half of what they did last year, but these guys are only a year old and the fry were actually much sturdier. I was shocked to see a paradise fry in the Filement barb pond, this one was the biggest of the ten. How he made it I don't know.

Other fry spotted are black neon tetras and various live bearers. Given the tank mates i doubt the tetra fry will make it. The molly/platy/guppy fry never survive for me, must be something in the water i'm missing. I have gotten some to grow up, in fact the adults breeding now are those fry. I have also bred Kribensis.

Drape Fin Barbs Breeding Rapidly

Gave the Drape fin tank a trim the other day and was pretty shocked over the quantity of fry. There was about ten fry of various sizes hiding under some driftwood and java moss. While this number isn't huge, when you consider this tank is only a ten gallon and houses the Drape fin Barbs, a male betta splendens and a trio of least killiefish males, you'd think the fry wouldn't stand a chance. Aside from predation, you'd think they would be out competed very easily. Not to mention I've only had these guys a couple of months. It's interesting to note that the old pros in my neighborhood seem to be having issues keeping these guys alive never mind getting fry. I wish i could take credit but considering i simply through them in a ten gallon tank on my porch, it's all nature's course in this case. I think the temperature swings help to stimulate them, after all very few places in the world sees no temperature changes between day and night.

I actually believe live food int he form of micro fauna in the tank is vital to these guys. My impression of them is they meticulously search the tank for small things to and while they certainly gorge themselves at feeding times, it does not take them very long to start searching for food again. I believe they have a high metabolism and much like dragonets in the ocean require a steady stream of food. Seems like the folks around here doing the worst with them house the fish in bare tanks set ups. I would assumed a sponge filter would provide food for them but it seems not to be enough.

With this in mind i trucked down to the nearest pond and scooped up some leaf litter and muck. This gave me a starter culture of various little buggers. I'm not concerned about disease i let the culture grow for a couple weeks with water changes, giving plenty of time for unwanteds to work themselves out.Surprisingly though, as my copepod, daphnia and other critter populations increase in the bucket, mosquito larvae seem to be disappearing. Next year I'm running two buckets, one for mosquitoes and another for other critters.

The Drape Fins seem to be plant safe, though truly the tank has such dense planting i really couldn't tell the odd nibble from simple wear and tear. Obviously, after two months if they were voracious plant eaters the tank would be bare. I believe. like the larger Filament barbs I keep, they make an occasional snack of duck weed or anachris(i mean who wouldn't?) in a moderately fast growing tank you won't even notice.

Drape Fin Barb Fry and how To Grow Utricularia

Fry!

your guess is as good as mine as to where the fish are.

 The Drape fin barbs have produced fry! It's nice to be the first to spawn a fish in your local circle. From what I hear over at Aqua life, I am the first to have spawned these guys, Of course since the tank they are in is dense so i have no interest in hunting down fry and moving them to another tank for rearing. I figure since I barely see the adults in the underbrush that the fry should have an okay time reaching a non edible size in the tank. The tank is full of daphnia and other freshwater inverts so growth should spectacular. For anyone interested these guys are housed in a ten gallon tank on my porch under a car port. Temperatures have been as low as 57degrees over night. The parents have definitely fattened up in that tank.

All bladderworts look pretty mush the same.

     Also in this tank is some kind of  Utricularia. I'm simply not knowledgeable enough to identify individual species. My specimens must be natives that got caught when I caught my daphnia. Whats cool about these guys is the little traps in the corner of the stem axis. They aren't big enough to take anything larger then daphnia, mainly built to catch infusorians really. They grow much like moss but much more rapidly then mosses in my experience. The tank is under a car port, so is constantly in moderate shade. They tank has no water movement, outdoors, natural air flow take care of gas exchange. I dose 1ml of Excel every day. Inside the tank is going in front of a window and will have a sponge filter. This may effect growth or cause the plant to die, much the way turbulence kills duck weed.

How I Feed My Fish

     Fish food companies promote multiple daily feedings. While some fish, such as growing fry or fish with higher metabolism might need multiple feedings daily in a new tank, in a properly aged tank they should be able to find enough food to carry them over to your next feeding. Though specialized feeders such as algae grazers should be fed food like slice squash that they can slowly graze over. I prefer fresh veggies in this case as other fish are less likely to eat it versus an algae wafer.
     I start with a good flake. I used to be on the wall about flake food, thinking it was messy but if you can buy large flake that can easily be sized down for smaller fish. I find it very hard to find  appropriate sized pellets for all my fish. When i went the pellet route I ended up with five different cans for three tanks! Flakes can be crushed to feed even small fry or left whole for my driftwood catfish.
     Another food i find to be versatile and eagerly accepted is Repashy gel foods. Repashy foods are a powder that you mix with boiling water to create a gel to feed the fish with. This food is incredibly easy to mix, make, store, and feed. It's a gel so can be cut into any size but once fish realize it's food they simple bite chunks out of it. The gel takes along time to dissolve int he tank so overfeeding is not a real concern, just don't add more till the first cube is gone. The gel can also be poured over drift wood or rocks before it cools creating a natural feeding station. Down side is if you have scavenger snails they will also get to it and their population will explode. This food also makes feeding night time fish a breeze.
     For plecos and other grazers i use slice and chunks of any squash, cucumber and the like. I try to rotate between green and yellow veggies. I also only feed this twice a week unless i am raising fry.
      I live feed at least once a week. Tubifex worms and black worms will live indefinitely in a freshwater system so very little pollution is created in their feeding. In the warmer months i mostly feed mosquito larvae. A five gallon bucket filled with stale water and a handful of grass clippings will produce quite allot of critters, not just mosquitoes that your fish will love.You'll also get a variety of sizes to feed different sized fish. Weekly harvesting is a must.
    Once a week i also feed frozen food. Since I keep fish of different sizes I usually feed market prawns. these can be thawed out and crushed to various sizes and the relish it. I break off the tail fan and toss into the tanks with nosy fish like loaches so they can work the meat out. Plecos will rasp the shell down to nothing.
     Once a week i fast the fish. IN this case i don't even open the tank lids allowing any extra nutrients, fertilizers and what not to either get taken up by the plants or bacteria. This is usually a Monday. Tuesday becomes prawn day where i let the fish gorge themselves, this is the day i also do water changes. I feed fairly sparingly throughout the week. Though I'm sure the micro fauna in the tank keep the fish fat.
   

Expanding Foam!!!!!

I have been playing around with expanding foam this week, look:

     I was going for a swampy mouth of a cave kinda look. I realize it doesn't look super realistic, though i hope once i get the pothos and other plants to grow it it'll look better. Even with out the plants i feel the foam looks organic. The shapes did naturally occur for the most part so that helps.
      I did foam in some terracotta pots but I actually prefers the planters i made by simply carving some foam once it was dry. since this tank already had fish in it I did not foam directly onto the tank, instead i had to glue the pieces in place later. This was dumb on my part and would have been much easier it i had simply relocated the fish for foaming the tank. But I prevailed.
      I used crazy glue and black silicone. The super glue is not recommended for foam but I found it  held the pieces in place long enough for the silicone to skin and dry over night, so it worked for my purposes. Of course i used the liquid glue versus the water proof gel so things got a little runny and glue did hit the water. It skinned immediately and i scooped it out. Might want to shut power filters off for this, i use sponge filters so wasn't worried about things clogging and what not. After gluing i left the lid off the tank for a few day to let fumes rise out.
     I think all the folds and crannies will eventually build up the organic material that epyphitic plants will need. The foam structure it self will allow roots to anchor into it. Plecos are going in this tank so i made sure just the edges of the foam were under the water, i worry they could chew it up or at least scrape things off.
      I foamed onto a Plexiglas sheet i had and actually cut my face when the plexi broke. Because of this i would recommend foaming onto card board if foaming backgrounds or decorations for a filled tank, The foam should peel easily from cardboard or it can be soaked off once the foam hardens.