Child’s first fish(es)
Discussion
Crossflow Kid said:
Another month on and all is still ticking over nicely.
Population of 11 appears to be stable, with the first captivity-born fish now fully grow adult size.
Cause and effect though.....the shrimp population that previously carpeted the gravel appear to be all but extinct :-(
That's interesting, I never had any issues with Platys eating the cherry shrimp... they can be sensitive to water parameters though so you might have something going on there..Population of 11 appears to be stable, with the first captivity-born fish now fully grow adult size.
Cause and effect though.....the shrimp population that previously carpeted the gravel appear to be all but extinct :-(
Usually with Cherry shrimp its the opposite problem, I started with 5 and had over 50 in a few months.
designforlife said:
That's interesting, I never had any issues with Platys eating the cherry shrimp... they can be sensitive to water parameters though so you might have something going on there..
A pair of the original shrimp batch (of six) are still around and have grown to a huge size...maybe a couple of cm long, but would they be more hardy to water issues due to metabolic size?I did watch the fish preying on the tiny shrimp so they were definitely taking them. Think it might just be a numbers game and the shrimp lost.
paintman said:
Do you have anything in the tank that would act as a refuge for the shrimp?
Artificial plants might be worth considering.
this, i had a couple of plants and a couple of pieces of driftwood, the latter is ideal especially if you drill a couple of holes in it here and there to add some more hidey holes.Artificial plants might be worth considering.
) plus numerous plants.So it’s been a while.....
Did a full empty-tank yearly clean a couple of months ago.
Saved 50% of the water, and used the remainder to flush the gravel and filter elements.
Took a couple of days to re-establish a settled environment but it’s staying cleaner for longer at the moment, and for some reason living plants just won’t take hold at the moment, where previously they were so successful I had to prune them back.
The population was getting out of hand though. We had nearly 30 fish at one stage, and despite best efforts to find new homes were left with no choice but to have a cull.
That took us down to around ten (some were just too small to spot in Round 1) and then with the clean I halved that number again.
We’ve lost another two in recent weeks (with no obvious external symptoms...one got maybe a little bit bloated?) so we’re back down to the original population of just three.
It’s been genuinely interesting to see how things balance out and how it all started to slowly unravel when the numbers went up and how it’s returned to normal now we’re back to three. I guess that must be the prime number for the size tank we’ve got.
The shrimp population, which had all but vanished, is returning too although I have no idea how. Can they stay dormant for months?
Anyhow, all good overall.
Did a full empty-tank yearly clean a couple of months ago.
Saved 50% of the water, and used the remainder to flush the gravel and filter elements.
Took a couple of days to re-establish a settled environment but it’s staying cleaner for longer at the moment, and for some reason living plants just won’t take hold at the moment, where previously they were so successful I had to prune them back.
The population was getting out of hand though. We had nearly 30 fish at one stage, and despite best efforts to find new homes were left with no choice but to have a cull.
That took us down to around ten (some were just too small to spot in Round 1) and then with the clean I halved that number again.
We’ve lost another two in recent weeks (with no obvious external symptoms...one got maybe a little bit bloated?) so we’re back down to the original population of just three.
It’s been genuinely interesting to see how things balance out and how it all started to slowly unravel when the numbers went up and how it’s returned to normal now we’re back to three. I guess that must be the prime number for the size tank we’ve got.
The shrimp population, which had all but vanished, is returning too although I have no idea how. Can they stay dormant for months?
Anyhow, all good overall.
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