Final check of the eve. Counted (57) eggs. (6) were not viable. Found (11) on one stem of L. Repens and moved it over to the test tank.

Surgically removed the bad eggs using a big needle. We'll see tomorrow afternoon if the number of good eggs stays up there.

Yes, when the weather warms up a bit, I will be selling the juvies. Too cold to ship such a sensitive fish.

So James I was wondering about how many juvies do you have

Currently have just over 50.

Evening check. Found more non viable eggs. :o(

Test Tank: (4) bad eggs found and removed. That leaves (7) good in this tank.

Main Tank: Found quite a few bad ones. Seperated a few from good eggs. Didn't bother counting at this time. I may try later before the lights go out. Prepping water for a top off in here.

Hatching expected late night/early morning. Will know more tomorrow afternoon.

Hatching today. Little fry guys everywhere.

Main tank: Found several little fry on the glass. Still have a few from the previous batches in there too.

Test tank: At first was discouraged. Checked the stem of L. Repens and found nothing. No bad eggs, no unhatched eggs and no fry. Initial check of the tank...nothing. Now this tank isn't designed for the best of visibility. It's an algae play field. Finally spotted (2) fry in here. Hopefull of more but we'll see. If successfull, it could be at least a week to find out judging by how fast the other little buckaroo has grown.

Took some fry shots so we'll see if any turned out well.

Well....here's the only good shot for the day. This is one of the newbies hatched this morning.

Test Tank: Still could only find (2) wigglers. Starting to doubt the capabilities of this tank even though ideal conditions.

Main Tank: Found (15) wigglers over here. Topped off tank and added veggie flakes.

All continues to do well in both tanks.

Main: Still counted (15) wigglers today. A few of them are getting nice and pudgy. Guess adding the extra ground up flakes might be paying off.

Test: Found a third wiggler in here. Yay!! That now makes (4) in the tank. Three that are a couple days old and the one that is four weeks old. Might be a good sign here that the tank will support fry development.

Some shots from today. These guys are about 2 weeks old.

Nightly check and all still looking well. Fry numbers still up. Only found (1) small wiggler over in the test tank. Hard to see in there. ;o)

I'm not ready to draw in conclusions from this latest round of experimenting but it does seem to be better on the fry to keep the air stone on full time. Probably keeping O2 levels up and added circulation. Just my thinking at this time. May be able to verify with next spawn.

I know I mentioned it a while back but definately deserves repeating...it so cool to watch a little fry guy swim from the back of the tank and lite right in front of you.

On a side note....found (4) CRS shrimp berried. Kewlness!

Water change Monday. Big test for the little fry guys. 20% changes across the board. Duckweed erradication still on going. Only find a few floating pieces here and there and they get removed when found.

Think I'm gonna fold up shop on the test tank and just convert it back. I haven't seen any fry for two days now. I would have thought under those conditions they would have done well. I don't know...maybe I'll keep it around for one more batch of eggs.

Been a few days since last update.

Main tank: Visibily counted (6) fry guys yesterday. Looking quite plump and coloring up nicely. Moved over (3) Tiger shrimp from the juvie tank due to mysterious kill off over there. Duckweed erradication continues. Looks like I will need to trim the crypt jungle again soon.

Juvie tank: Found almost all of the Tiger shrimp dead the other day. Oto's are just fine, which is a good thing. Two water changes done with another slated for today. Best I can tell, (1) male tiger remains. He is being stubborn and doesn't want to leave the Java Fern. If I can catch him, I'll move him over to the Main tank as well. Very strange as nothing has been added to the tank. Leads me to believe possible bad water used for a top off.

Test tank: Failed again. In what I thought would have been excellent conditions for the fry to survive (lots of diatoms, excellent water quality and constant running of air stone), it wasn't meant to be. I had that one successfull batch prior the power outage and nothing since. And now the strange part....my big fry guy that has been in there has vanished without a trace. No remains found at all. Yesterday I started breaking down the tank to give it a cleaning and revert it back to where it was. I removed all the plants and rocks, cleaned the pre-filter and filter and even sifted the sand. Nothing and no clue. I left some diatom growth on the sides and back for now. I may try the tank once again. Maybe the power outage did something funky with it and just needed a good once over. I'm contimplating moving a pair of O. Macrospilus in here. It doesn't match the specs of the main tank but may be worth a looksie.

Second Breeder: Still seeing a lot of "playfullness" from this pair but no spawn as yet. I don't think they feel very "comfortable" at this time. The flora hasn't gotten very established yet either but it's getting there. I have a few more to remove and some to add. There is no dense section to this tank as yet.

Finally able to catch the male tiger shrimp from the Juvie tank and relocate him to the main. That puts (4) tigers in the main, 2 females, 1 male, and 1 too small to know at this time.

Only found (2) fry in the main yesterday. Hopefully all just hiding.

Turned off the airstone this morning. Going to revert back to some earlier testing methods as I don't think running the air had the impact I was looking for.

Will be removing the remaining juvies from the main this weekend.

Test tank cleanup completed. I did leave the diatom growth on the sides and back panels for now as I will give it another go. Removed all the rocks and gave the sand bed a good cleaning. It's all nice and bright in there once again. I'm shifting around some plants in a couple of tanks to get more flora in here.

Major changes today.

1) Had to thin the Crypt jungle. Always looks so different after replanting. At least it was easier to seperate all the different plants this time. The C. Retro was entangled a bit but nothing too bad. Wound up removing the mother plants of both species.

2) 30% water change due to the replanting of the crypt jungle. Removed all crypts and performed a pretty good vac of the substrate. Removed alot of gunk. Running the air stone full bore during and after the wc.

3) Moved over (2) juvies to the juvie tank.

4) Only (2) fry remain in the main tank. Hopefully they will do ok with the major changes.

5) On a sad note...I lost Boris. I kinda expected it the way he has been acting of late. Makes me sad. He was such a big guy with character.

All the Tiger and Yellow shrimp doing just fine. One Tiger still carrying eggs. Got to see a yellow molt which was a pretty kewl scene.

Plan is to revert back to some earlier testing. Think I had better success. We'll see how it goes.

Kind of gotten away from posting water parms so I'll try to get that back on track. Here are the numbers from yesterday...the day after replanting the crypt jungle and doing a pretty good vac of the substrate:

Temp: 77
PH: 7.4
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 20
GH: 4
KH: 4
TDS: 101 (This number is way down from last recorded reading of 240. Guess I removed a fair amount of stuff when I re-did the crypts)

No room parms taken as I had moved the guages out temporarily. They are now back in place as well.

GH and KH numbers reflect the constant running of the airstone and inadequate CO2.

Recharged the CO2 and have it back in place under the filter. Airstone use back down to night time only after the lights go out.

Will be placing two small pieces of cuttlebone in the tank today. Have some Briggs on order. I'm just going to place (2) in the tank when they arrive.

Little more work to do with the Ludwigia and Downoi and that should take care of things for a while. I still have to trim down the Suesswassertang wall. Have to figure out the best way to do that.

Crypts are pretty thin looking without the mother plants in there. I hope I didn't make it too thin. I have others on stand to go back in there if need be. The lack of Duckweed is also adding to that effect.

Didn't find either of the two fry guys yesterday. I'm hoping they are fine and just hiding since the major overhaul.

I think that just about sums things up for now. I'll get some pics of the tank once the dust settles.

Eggs found! Came in to finish the scape with the Ludwigia and Downoi and found a bunch of eggs. Excellent! Hopefully this is a good sign that mama still feels comfortable with the environs after the change. Current count is (41). Cannot determine at this time if any are not viable however, there are a couple that I suspect of at this time.

Didn't look like too many in the crypt jungle this time which is understandable. Majority appear to be in the Ludwigia and Bacopa areas. I'll get better counts later.

Found one stem of L. Arcuata with at least (14) on it. Have made the decision to move this stem over to the test tank. Getting ready to test that water to try and match parms closely.

Also found (4) on the drop checker. lol

Working on some pics now.

Final check of the eve yields (57). One egg has already been deemed unviable. There are a few that I am watching as suspect. We should know by tomorrow.

Now we'll see how the Tiger shrimp do with eggs in the tank. Hopefully they won't bother any good eggs.

Removed the stem of L. Acuata and placed it in the test tank. Counted (15) eggs on this stem. Water parms of test tank:

Temp: 75 - Turned it up a smidge.
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 10
GH - 4
KH - 3
TDS - 105

Airstone turned on for the eve. Prepping zucchini for all tanks.

Here are some shots from today:

I am watching these two closely. I believe the one on the right is not viable. Notice the color difference.


One of mama's favorite spots...the Bacopa:


Does yellow mean preggers...or is it the plus sign?

Evening check and all seems to be right on track in both tanks. Found (2) non viable eggs in each tank. Much better results than recent batches.

Hatching will be soon. As I was snapping pics...I could see them move around in the eggs. Pretty kewl.

Some shots from today:
Egg shot shows one non-viable egg and development of others:


A shot of the beautiful lady:


And here is their current home. Since it will be a spell before I can finish it, figured I'd get a current shot of it up.

Hatching today.

Main tank: Was able to locate 11 wigglers around the tank. Mama also laid some more eggs today. Will try a get a count before the lights go out.

Test tank: Was able to locate 6 wigglers in this tank.

Prepping fresh zucchini to add to the tanks.

I'll leave you with this shot. This is one of the wee ones that hatched today: