All is silent in the pond

In case anyone is wondering what is up with the lack of activity on this blog, here’s the Cliff’s Notes version: I’m all out of aquatic friends to blog about. Yes, that’s right, no more turtles, crabs, guppies, goldfish. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

For the benefit of keeping this post within reasonable limits, I’m not going to go into much detail. In the past couple of years, there have been a lot of changes in my life, big changes, the milestone-kind. I moved a few times which led to some downsizing in my aquariums, I’ve spent 2 months in Europe which meant leaving my fish in someone else’s care, and recently I’ve moved again, this time over 4,000 km away. We barely had room to breathe in a car stuffed full of things, so lugging aquariums was not an option.

I must admit, one of the things I miss is the routine of having an aquarium – the regular feedings, the water changes. Or just taking my eyes out of the computer for a few minutes every now and then and watch the fish’s elegant dance, listen to the filter’s soft murmur.

Getting an aquarium now is not a viable option until I know for sure that my situation is stable and I won’t be moving again in the foreseeable future. This is why things are going to be awfully slow around here for a while.

Net Breeder

My guppy fry are currently housed in a glass jar of about 1-2 gallons. I was looking into purchasing a very weak filtration/aeration system because changing the water every 3 days is a real pain.

Last week I came across something that I didn’t know existed and I decided to buy it instead of the filter. It’s called a net breeder and it is placed inside the community tank to isolate newborn fry and pregnant females. From what I understand, it comes with suction cups which attach it to the side of the aquarium.

Brine shrimp and colouring

I have always used and favoured brine shrimp as a staple food for fish fries.

It wasn’t until recently that I’ve tried feeding it to my adult guppies. I was pleasantly surprised when, after only a week, the colouring on the male guppies has intensified significantly. Orange hues turned into bright red and grey hues to light blue. Even the females got a little bit more colour on their tail (caudal) fin.

I am now feeding brine shrimp to all my adults twice a week, fasting them one day, and feeding regular flake food for the rest of the days. They also get spinach leaves occasionally. They’re much more colourful, active and healthy since when I got them a few weeks ago.

 

Note: Dried brine shrimp cubes can be found at most pet stores. Make sure not to overfeed because when the cubes hit the water they break apart into many little pieces and could cause the water to cloud. It’s better to feed smaller quantities, more often, than one huge meal.

This is the brand that I’ve been using for a long time: Big Al’s Brine Shrimp Freeze-Dried.

The elusive guppy fry

A minute ago I spotted a guppy fry and in the moment it took me to go find a net and container he was gone… simply disappeared… possibly eaten?

Chances are there should be more coming up, I just need to figure out which guppy momma is responsible for the imminent guppy invasion. I’d like to separate her to save as many fries as possible.

 

Edit: 2 hours later

I found it hiding under the big decoration, managed to catch it and move it into a different tank.

Still don’t know who’s the baby momma.

 

Edit: 24 hours later

No other fries have popped out since that first one. This is a pretty rare occurrence, but it happens sometimes that females have one premature fry and a couple days later have the rest. So I’m still keeping my eyes wide open for the rest of them.