29 Jan 2011
jphutchersonPosted under Home
I’m actually sort of relieved the babies are getting so big. I can now feed them all blood worms and white worms and if need be I can feed them my adult sized pellets as well, although I usually stick with the NLS grow for them. Now instead of thawing food for the babies and the adults I can just feed blood worms to every one and save time. I think the bigger food will also help them grow even faster.
I’m still sad when I think about getting rid of them.. but I’m also relieved that it will be over soon and I can just focus on enjoying my fish as pets. Not having to worry about development and breeding stock and genetics will be a nice change of pace.
28 Jan 2011
jphutchersonPosted under Home
They say that horse racing is the sport of kings, most likely because of the expense and prestige involved. In that respect I must deduce that fish keeping is the hobby of kings. If you ever go into a pet store and ask the employee which fish is the least expensive and they give you an answer, please laugh in their face. There is no such thing as a cheap fish if you care for them correctly.
Lets go over the cost analysis of my newest project, the 10 gallon bachelor pad. Since my tank cracked I was forced to buy a new one so we can consider this project starting completely from scratch.
Heater- $27.81
10 gallon tank- $14.17
Silicone for the dividers plus caulk gun- $17.35
Filters- $21.95
Terra cotta pots to use as caves-$1.50
Total spent so far: $82.78
Still left to buy: substrate, air pump, and plants. This could be anywhere from another $50-100. Most likely it will be nearer to $50 because I’m not planning to go crazy with the plants and I could possibly use an air pump I already have.
So for a total of lets say $150 I’ll have a planted, divided tank for 4.. count em.. FOUR fish.
Yeah, I might be crazy but at least I’ll know I’m giving my fish the best life they possibly can get. The added benefit? Only one water change a week necessary 
27 Jan 2011
jphutchersonPosted under Home
The plan is under way to get my males out of 2 gallon unheated bare bottomed tanks and into a divided, cycled, planted, bachelor pad.
The tank will be 10 gallons divided 4 ways. Each section will have it’s own penn plax small world filter and one middle section will also hold a 50 watt Marineland stealth pro heater. The reason for the 4 individual filters is so each section will have optimum aeration, also because these filters are driven by an air pump so the current can be controlled via a gang valve.
Once all the hardware, plants, and gravel have been added each fish will have roughly 2 gallons of swimming room so they aren’t really being upgraded but they will have the benefit of a heated and filtered tank with more than just an IAL.
I still haven’t decided what substrate I want.. my choices would be eco-complete (black), sand topped with gravel, sand topped with dark colored fluorite, or just plain fluorite. I’m leaning towards the eco-complete right now but it is by far the most expensive choice. I would like an enriched substrate to help the plant growth.
As far as plants I have a general idea of what I want but I’m not sure of exactly what plants I will use. They have to be low light and easy keepers. I’d like each section to have a similar look without having the exact same plants in the exact same places. Some of the plants I’ll use will be anubias, java ferns, and crypts with the possibility of an oddity or two thrown in.
When it’s all said and done it should be very pretty as well as functional and hopefully the boys will be very happy in there.
Tomorrow I have to go pick up the filters from the mail and then go buy a new tank since the one I had already divided cracked on me. I may also go ahead and get the substrate tomorrow as well if I can make my decision by then.
Hopefully by this time next week I’ll have the tank set up and running, even though I won’t have the plants. This way the tank can already be forming a cycle before the plants are added. I’ll then go about ordering some plants. Once the plants arrive I’ll stick them in and continue to cycle. If my numbers level out the way I think they will I should have the tank ready for fish by the beginning of March!
Look for updates with pictures as the project progresses.
24 Jan 2011
jphutchersonPosted under Home
Or rather… lady looks like a dude 
I realized today, after much suspicion. That the “female” I bought with my double tail male back in November turns out to be a male. I finally put him in my picture tank with a mirror and a female to look at and this is what I got…
Jenny is a Dude
It’s a good thing I never got around to spawning them I guess. It’s nice to have something to laugh about with the fish even with all the sadness that’s be going on lately. Hopefully the to-be-renamed Jenny will be happy in my forthcoming divided bachelor pad with my other males.
20 Jan 2011
jphutchersonPosted under Home
I’ve never been so busy in my life. I’ve come to the sad realization that when I get busy.. I lose fish. In the past two months I’ve lost 4 adult males, and two male fry. I can’t difinitively say what caused the deaths of the adults… but I can say that its highly likely that I didn’t take the time to notice the beginnings of illness. I also made a huge mistake by putting fish into a divided tank without being 100% sure they were disease free. This caused me to lose an entire tank. I made the heartbreaking decision to cull an entire spawn, I just do not have the time and it was not safe to ship in this cold. Humane culling instead of death by starvation and poor water quality was the right thing to do, but it still hurts like shit to have had to do that.
I’m absolute in my resolution to get rid of the fish. In the coming weeks I’ll be screening homes for the fry and possibly the adults. It is my hope to cycle a tank to house my remaining adults but that can’t happen unless I’m willing to put in the work for a fishless cycle. I’m giving myself a 1 month probationary period… if I can’t get my act together by then.. then ALL the fish are going.
To say a dark cloud has been over my head is just the start of it. Not only has my personal life been thrown into a tumult but my fish life has as well. The most recent of my fishy woes is my discovery that not one, but two of my heaters have malfunctioned, over heating my tanks severely. For some lucky reason I have not sustained any losses in my guppy/invert community tank, but the other tank was the one that housed the 4 males I lost, leading me to believe that high temperatures quickened their demise. I’ve also had unexplained ammonia swings in my cycled tanks, either from something in the water (there has been a lot of construction lately) or not enough water changes.
But.. one of my mantras is “you can’t change the past, you can only try to improve the future”… so tomorrow I’ll be making a trip to buy new heaters and I will also be looking into ordering filters to set up my divided tank. I can hear my wallet begin to sweat but it must be done. After some bleaching and gravel baking I’ll begin cycling the tank fishless.
So..what can you look for in the future? First off, It is my goal to blog more often and about different things. Second, look for lots of updates on my planted tank projects which will commence as soon as all the fish are successfully rehomed. Third… look for lots of pictures exclusive to the blog as I attempt to take my first forays into photography with no better subjects than my finned friends. Last, but not least… look for a NEW blog. There are big changes coming in my “fish” life and what better way to show off those changes with a new venue… out with the old and in with the new!
23 Dec 2010
jphutchersonPosted under Home
So after the stress of finals and working I sort of shut down. For the past month it’s been work, sleep, eat, work, eat, sleep. I don’t know if it’s depression or just too much all at once but even the fish began to suffer.
I finally decided that enough was enough and I was going to get out of the hobby for a while. I’ll slowly be pruning my fish down until I have 3-5 tanks. Breeding will be put on hold until I’m more settled. It’s sad but I can keep going on pretending that I can do it all. Working 30+ hours a week plus going to school full time and volunteering just doesn’t leave enough room to raise fish properly and keep my adults kept up as well.
Who knows.. maybe I’ll change my mind but all I know is something’s gotta change and it’s gotta change soon… it’s not fair to myself or the fish.
As I was cleaning tanks today in preparation for a two day stint at home for the holidays I began to feel horribly. Some of my fish have developed fin rot, others are getting thin because of only being fed a few times a week. The worst feeling was when I looked at the half empty spawning tub that my last spawn was in. I hadn’t added water or food to this tank in the longest time. I’d left the top off and left the window open so cold air came right in onto the tank.
All that in mind I’d pretty much thought the poor babies were goners and began to remove the java moss to dump the tank when all of the sudden I saw something move. It was a fry! A very well fed fry. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I quickly scooped the fry up and put it in a little critter keeper. As I did another came out! Then another and another. I carefully picked out each individual fry and came out with exactly 15 fry (coincidentally the exact same number as my previous spawn).
I feel like someone who has just been told they’re having a baby.. wide eyed, nervous, super excited. I can’t believe these guys survived. I guess its a testament to how important it is to have live plants and snails in your tank to create infusoria.
I’m going to do right by these little miracles. Starting with moving their tank and multiple daily feedings and water changes. They’ve proven they have the will to survive so who am I to deny them that.
27 Nov 2010
jphutchersonPosted under Home
Well.. my four remaining sorority girls have had their last meal with me. This coming Monday they’ll be packed up to be shipped off to their new owner. Hopefully they will have a safe and uneventful trip. I know they’ll be happy in their new home.
Also today I jarred the first males out of my 8.5 week old spawn. I have 4 males in various colors. I also have 4 confirmed females and 7 unknowns. I’m really looking forward to seeing how they continue to grow in the coming weeks and then having my first experiences selling fish that I bred and raised.
My other spawn will be 1 week old tomorrow. The father is still with them but will be taken out tomorrow when I do my first water change on the tank. They are eating Vinegar eels and infusoria. In another week I plan to spawn the same pair again and mix the fry once the younger ones are big enough not to be eaten by the older. That should give me a good number of fry to focus on for the next month.
I’ll also be adding another gorgeous blue male to my breeding collection. He’s a double tail so he should throw awesome dorsals as well as give me some HMDT.
On the tank front I’m excited to announce I’ll be trying out my first natural planted tank in a few weeks. I just put in an order for some plants and some red cherry shrimp. I’ll be adding soil and sand to a 2 gallon tank and planting it and using the shrimp for live stock. I’m excited to see how it turns out. I’m also currently trying to figure out a way to effectively filter my divided 10 gallons so that each section is properly aerated.
18 Nov 2010
jphutchersonPosted under Home
So it’s been forever and a minute since I last posted. Its one of the pit falls of working, going to school, volunteering, and keeping up with an ever growing number of fish, I just never have enough time to sit down and blog.
So… how about a recap of the past few months.
Freddie Mercury as well as three of my females mysteriously passed away. After much searching I have yet to figure out the cause of the deaths. Because of the deaths I decided to disband my female sorority and adopt out the remaining 4 females. I’m happy to say they will remain together and be going to an awesome home with a fellow Georgian.
I’ve been doing a lot of work with my breeding program of late. I have even taken the plunge and joined the IBC. Words cannot describe how much I’ve been learning from the experienced breeders. I currently have a 7 week old spawn of 15 multicolor halfmoons. They are all looking extremely good and I have already selected two that I will be holding back for breeding. I’m hoping to hold back two males and two females but we’ll see what I get. None of the fry are sexable quite yet but in the following weeks they should begin distinguishing themselves. I also have my blue MG/Melano geno pair in the spawning tank as I type and I’m hoping for a nice spawn from them.
Although I don’t have the space to really get into too much line breeding, I’m trying to focus on MG and Melano Halfmoons and I am hoping to get into showing possibly as early as next show season. I’m also playing around with multicolor butterflies, pastels, and dragon HMPK.
Some of my current non-breeding projects include a new community set up in a planted 10gallon with 7 male guppies, one Betta imbellis, shrimp, and snails. I also plan to try out my first “Walstad” planted tank in a 1 gallon glass bowl with small plants and red cherry shrimp. I’m also beginning to culture live foods for my adult bettas. I currently have a small culture of wingless fruit flies and white worms. Feeding live foods will greatly improve the health and longevity of my fish, as well as enabling me to condition my breeders in less time than it would if I conditioned them with frozen or dried foods.
I’m hoping to be able to sell off my current spawn by the beginning of January. If I can do that I can feasibly do a spawn every two months, provided each spawn grows at the rate my current spawn is.
29 Sep 2010
jphutchersonPosted under Home
It’s been a minute since I updated this. I’ve been super busy with school, work, and water changes 
Since the last update I lost two more fish 
Nancy- a Multicolor HM female breeder and Poe- my beautiful King PK that I adopted only a few months ago. I don’t really know what was happening but I’ve put off buying any new fish for a while.
I’m having troubles with fin rot lately. One of my females has it and I just noticed it on another male. We all know what this means.. I’m not doing frequent enough water changes. Last week was super hectic and it through my entire schedule off kilter. Tomorrow is going to be a “catch up” day to get my water change schedule back on track.
A few weeks ago I received 4 beautiful fish from a top IBC breeder. This past weekend both pairs went into the spawning tank and I now have two spawns 
One is not doing very well, I can only see 3 wigglers when there was originally over 100 eggs. I have a feeling that the female ate a bunch of the eggs before I yanked her from the tank. The other spawn is doing great, at least 100 viable fry.
I will probably attempt another breeding with the pair from the first spawn in a month or so. The current fry will be mixed with the larger second spawn.
From my summer spawns I have one remaining fry. He or she will stay with me, his mom, dad, and entire spawn didn’t make it and I’m not getting rid of him. He is a daily reminder to me to keep up with feeding and water changes on these new spawns. I will not let them endure the same fate as the summer spawn.
11 Sep 2010
jphutchersonPosted under Home
Today was my 20th birthday *woo hoo*. My present to myself was 4 gorgeous new half moon bettas from a top breeder. They arrived yesterday and have settled in nicely. In a few weeks I’ll be setting up my spawning tank so there will be babies in the house once again. On a sadder note, Freddie Mercury passed away on Thursday. It seems he had a bacterial infection but by the time symptoms began to appear it was too late. Freddie was a favorite around here and he will be missed. I’m thankful to have these 4 new fish to keep my attention. It will help me get over losing Freddie so suddenly.
I’ll be updating with pictures of the new fish very soon.
-TTFN 
)
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