The Oto Journal

Update 05-Oct-2010

Eggapalooza in the holding tank. There are eggs and new fry hatchlings all over this tank today. The females must not have been able to wait to lay eggs as they even placed them all over the glass. Here's a nice shot to illustrate the findings. You'll even see a fry that is only a couple of days old in the pic.



Over in the main breeder, did a 20% water change in there. Didn't like what I found. The filter cartridge looks like it has been dyed a greenish color. Swapped out the media for new. Also pulled the pre filter to give it a good squeezing. The water from the sponge was the same greenish color. This is consistant with the water stains in the sink and tub that we get.

Definately not good. Just shows how bad the well water got during the drought. On top of that, well water is now brown due to excess rain. From one extreme to the other. Will have to buy a few jugs of spring water to get this one back in order. Will have to get a TDS reading but fear it's going to be pretty high. Youch!

On a brighter note, the fry continue to grow and remain extremely active. The plants are growing increasingly fast. And this is without any fert dosing. I stopped dosing due to the drought so keep water changes minimal.

Wow!

 

Update 07-Oct-2010

Most of the eggs in the holding tank have hatched. There are still a few on the glass the are in progress. Why I was examining the tank for others, I noticed the new wigglers swimming in and out of the fern. This my first observance of ones of this age swimming around. Normally they stay put for awhile.

Had another idiot of week move. This one involved my main breeder. Left the filter off! Dad gummit! During my last maintenance, I unplugged it as the water level was pretty low. So I was going to drip the new water in and the turn it on later.

Dummy me, I didn't catch it until today when I did another WC using spring water. I was wondering why there hardly any flow coming from it. Then I looked and BINGO...still unplugged. DOH! Got it plugged in and the flow still wasn't all that great so I took the opportunity to clean it properly. Pre-filter just about expired. It's starting to fall apart. Will have to pick up some more sponges.

Fed fresh zuc and the powder feed. I think this may be what caused the green stains on the filter and in the sponge. Just a thought as it wasn't present in any of the other tanks. Not sure, but sill will test for copper when the kit comes in.

 

Copper test kit arrived. Great news! No detectable copper in any of the tanks. Whew! I feel better now. So I'm guessing now that my theory of the powdered food is what caused the green stain. As long as it wasn't harmful I'll do it again. I believe that method helped to attribute to the the higher success rate of the fry.

Little guys are all over the zucchinis. Giving it a good work over.

Over in the holding tank, there are new wigglers all over the place. Almost every pane of glass has some on it.

 

Update 09-Oct-2010

I know it's early but I wanted to share this with you. Stand by for a major posting.

Went down to the basement this morning to start working .. ok actually cleaning. As usual, I always check the tanks first. I walked into a major hornets nest.

Details to follow.

 

Alrighty then. As mentioned just awhile ago, I walked into a major hornets nest when I walked downstairs this morning. By hornets nest, I meant major spawning! Again it's in the holding tank! There are eggs all over the place......again.

When I first checked the tanks, I saw some spawning activity. Needless to say, I didn't have the camera so I just watched for a couple of minutes. Then I thought maybe I should try to get it but they would be done by the time I did. Wrong. Started filming and the activity never stopped. Actually increased at times. Shot a ton of video and some pics too.

So we'll just start with a couple of still pics.

Here's is one of the older fry in the tank:


Some of the eggs found:


And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you....The Double Spawn:
[youtube]EMyqM_A02WY[/youtube]

Now if I can just figure out the deal with the lighting. May have to play the camera in video mode more.

They were still going at it when I came back up here to post this. These two gals were just overwhelmed. I'm sure they will have a nice relaxing break when all is said and done.

I don't know if I should classify this as a holding tank anymore but as another breeding tank.

 

Today is definately a scratch for doing any work down there. Just went down again.....(3) ladies are now in the fray! Incredible!

 

Update 13-Oct-2010

Check of the tanks. Found (14) visible wigglers in the holding tank. All continues to look good in here. No telling how many may be hidding in the fern. Will be topping the tank off and stirring the sand a bit.

20% water change on tap for the main tank. Juvies continue to grow and doing very well. Really working over everything.

Topping off the other tanks as well. Prepping fresh zucchini.

 

Update 17-Oct-2010

Major maintenance on the holding tank today. Actually started yesterday but continuing into today. Removing most of the sand and giving it a good scrubbing/cleaning. It was turning colors and even though I kept it shifted, it wasn't working. So had to pull it out, wash it and then put it back. One section looks too far gone. It looks permanently stained gray. I have it out in the sun right now to see if that will help.

I did wind up sucking up a baby yesterday during the process. Luckily he was up far enough on the side of the jug that I was able to use a turkey baster and pull him out. Whew! He swam right off as soon as I put him back in the tank. Hopefully he will be just fine.

Continuing with cleaning and trimming the tanks. Pulling quite a few Dwarf Sags as well. They wound up growing behind the big plants amongst the crypts. Two very nice size runners with several plantlets. Nice.

 

Update 19-Oct-2010

Fry in the holding tank seem to be doing well. Really not sure how many I have in there though. I do seem to see quite a few out and about. Constantly on the go. Still working on the rescaping and sand cleaning. Should have it all cleaned up by the weekend.

Juvies in the main tank are growing like weeds. I may have to start thinking about moving them over to the bigger tank.

Prepping fresh zucchini.

On a side note, was at PetSmart earlier today and looked in the Oto tank. Was a bit surprised that there a couple of O. Macrospilus in the mix. Just what I've been looking for. I picked up (3): 2 males and a female. This balances out the numbers for that tank. Still a bit young but we'll see how it goes.

My search continues for O. Flexilis and O. Mimulus.

 

Found a fry guy yesterday and this morning in the holding tank. Makes me feel a little better. More eggs were laid yesterday. Will see how many I can count in a bit.

Messed around with the wife's DSLR camera. I might be getting the hang of it. At least in regards to my subjects standing still.

 

Update 27-Oct-2010

Fry is the word for today. Eggs in the holding tank hatched out today. There are (4) different age groups of fry in here now ranging from a few hours to a few days. This was an interesting period of time in this tank. There were eggs laid one day, more the next, hatching and eggs, more hatching and then today's hatching. Very, very busy beavers in here. All the ladies are still very eggs laden so I'm expecting a big round of eggs within the next few days.

Here's the best shot I could pull from todays pics. Waiting on the macro lenses to come in and see if I can improve.


It's about time to move the little ones from the main tank over to the holding tank. They have grown up nicely.

 

Update 30-Oct-2010

As expected, the spawn has began in the holding tank. I can see (6) eggs at the moment. Ladies are sooo plump. The question will be if this will be the major or just continue the trend of minor laying? So far the females aren't really unloading but when they do, I can only imagine what it is going to look like in there.

Fry in this tank are getting increasingly active.

The main tank has just overgrown itself. Hard to believe that it was trimmed no too long ago. Might not be able to do any good maintenance this weekend with all the halloweed festivities but will have to try to do some.

 

Update 31-Oct-2010

Ladies still haven't had the big spawn that I was expecting in the holding tank. They seem to just be laying a few eggs here and there each day. Very interesting behavior. They laid a few more last night including one on the glass. Counted (23) at the moment. Ladies remain very plump. Will continue to monitor.

Over in the main tank, the ladies there are the same way. Looking to bust out of the seams. I think it's overcrowding issue as before. They seem to hold onto the eggs when there is too much activity in the tank.

 

Went down for a quick check of the tanks. All doing very well. Little fry guys all over the holding tank. The older fry have started to color up.

Walked over to get a glimpse of the main tank. Boy was I shocked. There weren't any eggs but there was activity. Needless to say didn't have the camera, but I did have my phone. Let's how this video turned out:

[youtube]eXfvedOkHkU[/youtube]

I would have to say that my estimate of 30 fry is a little shy. All I can say is wow!

 

Everything continues to progress well. Doing some small water changes in the main and holding tanks. Too many little ones to let it go a week. Going to see what, if any, impact a 10% water change every three days will have.

Rearranged the RI and Downoi. I think it will be a good look once the Subwassertang wall is trimmed again. Still waiting to move out the little ones before I do that. On a funny note, while I was replanting, one my briggs came up to my finger and crawled up it just a bit. It then started rasping on it. Felt weird. lol. I didn't let him do it too long as I don't know if it would bother anything.

CO2 was recharged today and prepping new zucchini as I type.

 

The Oto Journal - Update 14-Nov-2010

More spawing going on now in the holding tank. And here I was about to do some more work with the rest of the sand in there. Oh well...that will have to wait a few more days.

Have to go back and check the ages of the juvies in the main tank. They may be old enough to move over now. Which would be interesting with all the other little ones over there. ;o)

 

Most of the eggs in the holding tank are non-viable. That was a pretty big blow. Only a few left to hatch tomorrow.

Topping off tanks today with minimal maintenance. Will start to do a pretty big gravel vac in the Macrospilus tank tomorrow. Since there are CRS in this tank, I'm going to be doing something a little different. I'm going to filter out the gunk and put the water back in. Only since the tank was just topped off and the water parms are perfect.

 

Update 18-Nov-2010

Another spawn in the holding tank today. So far I was able to count (41) eggs however (6) were already non-viable. Hopefully this batch will fair much better than the last. The last spawn wound up a complete fail.

Here's a shot from today:


Came up with another idea for filtering out the Macrospilus tank like I want. I gravel vac'd into (2) one gallon jugs. I'm going to let this settle for a couple of hours and the drip the water back into the tank through the filter. No idea why I didn't think of doing it that way at first but we'll see.

 

The Oto Journal - Update 20-Nov-2010

Well this is a rather unique situation. I was expecting hatching today in the holding tank so made my morning rounds to check on things. It's an egg-splosion down there. Yet more spawning going on in the holding tank. This spawn is a little different than the others in this tank as it appears they aren't going to be holding much back this time. The amount of eggs so far will make this the largest single day spawn.

I didn't spend much time observing since they are still in progress. I did notice a couple non-viable eggs though. I'm beginning to wonder, if you can imagine this, that there is just too much activity and competetion for the males to handle leading to the non vertilized eggs? Just a thought. I know there are at least (3) egg laying la-fems in here and if they are all spawning at the same time as before ... I can only imagine.

Will check again later in the day and see what we get. Between newly hatched fry and freshly laid eggs, this is going to be a busy tank for the next few days. I won't be moving juvies over just yet. Need to go back and check their age and see if they are ready for new homes.