BAP Breeders: what's your setup?

[chriscoli]

I thought I'd start a new thread for the BAP participants in our club to find out what you all are doing, too. In another thread I was asked how many tanks I have....but I wanted to know what you all have, too.

So let me start. I'm on Montgomery County municipal water, I dechlor with Safe. I do have RO water available, which I mix at approx 3 parts RO, 1 part municipal for the pelvicachromis, Apistos, and Rams. I'm a big fan of plants in a tank, even if it's just guppy grass and hornwort. Nearly all of my tanks have some sort of plant in them. None of my tanks are over 4 ft long.

I'm also a huge fan of live food. I've got microworms, white worms, grindal worms, and red wigglers that I frequently offer as supplemental food. Nearly all of my fry get started on golden pearls and then microworms as soon as they can eat them.

I offer a wide variety of pellet and flake food throughout the week. Most fish get fed in the evening. For really fussy babies (like the Altos) I'll put golden pearls in an automatic feeder set to feed a little bit a few times a day.

I try to provide decor according to the spawning preferences of the fish in the tank. And I try to give them options. I may put anywhere between two and six different types of cave-like hidey-holes in a tank for a fish that I know is a cave spawner. Once I see what works, I often remove the other rejected caves unless they seem to like to move around betwen spawns or if I have multiple pairs of fish in the tank. I find that fish don't always spawn where you think they're going to so I just watch and see what they want to do, then go with it.

I frequently use the Marina hang-on breeder boxes. I have about a dozen in different sizes. Almost all are in use most of the time.

Downstairs tanks get water changes weekly. Every few months I seem to get behind on that, though, and they may go 2 or 3 weeks without a water change. When they do get one, I often get a flurry of spawning afterward. I'd like to do weekly changes for the upstairs tanks, but to be honest, they get water changed about once every 3 weeks. I just don't get around to it as often as I'd like. This is where I think the plants buy me some wiggle room.

I have 28 tanks total

6-foot long rack, all use mattenfilters:
20L - divided in half with two types of shellies, one on each side fo the divider
20L - Ancistrus breeding
40B - heavily decorated with rocks with Vics and some rock-dwelling tangs.
40B - heavily decorated with rocks, lots of tangs.
40B - Ancistrus grow-out
40B - Vic grow out

4-foot long rack, all use Mattenfilters:
33 long - heavily rocked with vics and Julies
10 gal - baby Ancistrus rescued from community tanks
15 gal - Pair of Apistos
15 gal - goodeids and Ancistrus
15 gal - Nannacara
10 gal - pair of rams
15 gal - heavily rocked with pair of Julies
15 gal - goodeids and Ancistrus
15 gal - vic grow out
10 gal - vic grow out
15 gal - krib grow out
15 gal - vic and julie grow out
15 gal - Quarantine

Stand with 20 longs, both use mattenfilters:
20L - heavily planted, ancistrus, white clouds, Pelvicachromis
20L - Altolamprologus and Punks growing out

4 ft stand, both use canister filters:
60 gal - mbuna and vics
55 gal - SA cichlids and Jewels with Hypancistrus

Plus, I have some 10 gal tanks and rubbermaid totes I can set up on the floor for temporary quarantine.

On the main level of the house
45 gal - mixed community tank (watching sub-adult cichlids pair up)
15 gal column - community tank

Upstairs...
56 gal - mixed community tank (watching sub-adult cichlids pair up)
29 gal - heavily planted, goodeids and other mixed fish
29 gal - heavily planted, mixed fish

 

[Ading522]

I thought I'd start a new thread for the BAP participants in our club to find out what you all are doing, too. In another thread I was asked how many tanks I have....but I wanted to know what you all have, too.

So let me start. I'm on Montgomery County municipal water, I dechlor with Safe. I do have RO water available, which I mix at approx 3 parts RO, 1 part municipal for the pelvicachromis, Apistos, and Rams. I'm a big fan of plants in a tank, even if it's just guppy grass and hornwort. Nearly all of my tanks have some sort of plant in them. None of my tanks are over 4 ft long.

I'm also a huge fan of live food. I've got microworms, white worms, grindal worms, and red wigglers that I frequently offer as supplemental food. Nearly all of my fry get started on golden pearls and then microworms as soon as they can eat them.

I offer a wide variety of pellet and flake food throughout the week. Most fish get fed in the evening. For really fussy babies (like the Altos) I'll put golden pearls in an automatic feeder set to feed a little bit a few times a day.

I try to provide decor according to the spawning preferences of the fish in the tank. And I try to give them options. I may put anywhere between two and six different types of cave-like hidey-holes in a tank for a fish that I know is a cave spawner. Once I see what works, I often remove the other rejected caves unless they seem to like to move around betwen spawns or if I have multiple pairs of fish in the tank. I find that fish don't always spawn where you think they're going to so I just watch and see what they want to do, then go with it.

I frequently use the Marina hang-on breeder boxes. I have about a dozen in different sizes. Almost all are in use most of the time.

Downstairs tanks get water changes weekly. Every few months I seem to get behind on that, though, and they may go 2 or 3 weeks without a water change. When they do get one, I often get a flurry of spawning afterward. I'd like to do weekly changes for the upstairs tanks, but to be honest, they get water changed about once every 3 weeks. I just don't get around to it as often as I'd like. This is where I think the plants buy me some wiggle room.

I have 28 tanks total

6-foot long rack, all use mattenfilters:
20L - divided in half with two types of shellies, one on each side fo the divider
20L - Ancistrus breeding
40B - heavily decorated with rocks with Vics and some rock-dwelling tangs.
40B - heavily decorated with rocks, lots of tangs.
40B - Ancistrus grow-out
40B - Vic grow out

4-foot long rack, all use Mattenfilters:
33 long - heavily rocked with vics and Julies
10 gal - baby Ancistrus rescued from community tanks
15 gal - Pair of Apistos
15 gal - goodeids and Ancistrus
15 gal - Nannacara
10 gal - pair of rams
15 gal - heavily rocked with pair of Julies
15 gal - goodeids and Ancistrus
15 gal - vic grow out
10 gal - vic grow out
15 gal - krib grow out
15 gal - vic and julie grow out
15 gal - Quarantine

Stand with 20 longs, both use mattenfilters:
20L - heavily planted, ancistrus, white clouds, Pelvicachromis
20L - Altolamprologus and Punks growing out

4 ft stand, both use canister filters:
60 gal - mbuna and vics
55 gal - SA cichlids and Jewels with Hypancistrus

Plus, I have some 10 gal tanks and rubbermaid totes I can set up on the floor for temporary quarantine.

On the main level of the house
45 gal - mixed community tank (watching sub-adult cichlids pair up)
15 gal column - community tank

Upstairs...
56 gal - mixed community tank (watching sub-adult cichlids pair up)
29 gal - heavily planted, goodeids and other mixed fish
29 gal - heavily planted, mixed fish

wheeew!!! an awesome setup! would like to have a similar setup down the road.. and would like a chance to see your setup! hmmm..house must be filled with tanks.. hehe.. how do you setup your matten filters? are they DIY? or bought?

 

[jonclark96]

Right now, I'm running 16 tanks. Only a few are dedicated species tanks. Most of my spawing takes place in community tanks, so I have to remove fry if there is any desire to raise them up.

I'm on well water and that goes straight from the tap to the tank. My water is around pH 7.2 and hard as a rock. I have a whole house water softener system, which I partially blame for my inability to get fish that are from soft water environments to thrive.

I feed most fish 4-5 days a week with the exception of fry which get fed daily. For the big boys, I feed Xtreme Big Fella and Kensfish Cichlid pellets. Medium sized fish get Kensfish pellets (a mix of spirulina rich, cichlids, and color pellets). Grow outs get small Kensfish pellets, earthworm flakes, and Repashy (when I remember to feed it). Fry get golden pearls and crushed flake.

From a fitration perspective, I'm on a more is better approach. All tanks over 30 gallons have multiple filters:

180G - 2 FX5's, 2 sponges
120G - Eheim 2028, sponge, 2 AC110's
75G - AC110, AC70, Eheim 2026, sponge
55G - AC110, Aequeon 55, Eheim 2217, sponge
40G & 39G - 2 AC70's, sponge
Smaller tanks (29, 20's, 10's) are filtered by a combo of AC HOB's, sponges, and box filters.

The redundancy of filters keeps everything going if there is a problem and allows me to pull a seeded sponge to set up a QT tank or fry tank in a heartbeat.

All tanks are heated internally with a combination of multiple brands of heaters. Most tanks have lights, all have hoods/lids.

I try to do between 50% and 75% water changes on all the tanks on the weekly basis, although it usually works out to 3 changes every 4 weeks. My issue is with water pressure. As many may know from being at my place for last year's picnic or from my presentation in January, I don't have a traditional fish room, but have my tanks spread around the house except for the spare bedroom I took over. Upstairs in the house are 13 of the 16 tanks. I can drain 50% of the water from all 13 tanks in a little less than 40 minutes, but it takes another 90 minutes to fill them back up. I keep thinking of trying to come up with a good way to improve this time, but I don't think I will be able to do anything without replacing the well pump at the house. That isn't going to happen any time soon.

I've considered getting an RO unit to address some of the smaller tanks that I have with plecos, nannacara and such, but just don't have a good place to put it. My parents live in our basement, so I don't have the extra space to move into.

All my tanks have a mix of driftwood, clay pots, rocks/stones, and fake plants for decor. I keep trying with live plants but I have the blackest thumb this side of the Mississippi when it comes to aquatic plants.

I think this addresses most points. I'm trying to come up with a good way to move pairs of fish around to get them to breed, but don't have the best plan as of yet. One day I'll have more room and can dedicate tanks to breeding pairs.

 

[Ading522]

Right now, I'm running 16 tanks. Only a few are dedicated species tanks. Most of my spawing takes place in community tanks, so I have to remove fry if there is any desire to raise them up.

I'm on well water and that goes straight from the tap to the tank. My water is around pH 7.2 and hard as a rock. I have a whole house water softener system, which I partially blame for my inability to get fish that are from soft water environments to thrive.

I feed most fish 4-5 days a week with the exception of fry which get fed daily. For the big boys, I feed Xtreme Big Fella and Kensfish Cichlid pellets. Medium sized fish get Kensfish pellets (a mix of spirulina rich, cichlids, and color pellets). Grow outs get small Kensfish pellets, earthworm flakes, and Repashy (when I remember to feed it). Fry get golden pearls and crushed flake.

From a fitration perspective, I'm on a more is better approach. All tanks over 30 gallons have multiple filters:

180G - 2 FX5's, 2 sponges
120G - Eheim 2028, sponge, 2 AC110's
75G - AC110, AC70, Eheim 2026, sponge
55G - AC110, Aequeon 55, Eheim 2217, sponge
40G & 39G - 2 AC70's, sponge
Smaller tanks (29, 20's, 10's) are filtered by a combo of AC HOB's, sponges, and box filters.

The redundancy of filters keeps everything going if there is a problem and allows me to pull a seeded sponge to set up a QT tank or fry tank in a heartbeat.

All tanks are heated internally with a combination of multiple brands of heaters. Most tanks have lights, all have hoods/lids.

I try to do between 50% and 75% water changes on all the tanks on the weekly basis, although it usually works out to 3 changes every 4 weeks. My issue is with water pressure. As many may know from being at my place for last year's picnic or from my presentation in January, I don't have a traditional fish room, but have my tanks spread around the house except for the spare bedroom I took over. Upstairs in the house are 13 of the 16 tanks. I can drain 50% of the water from all 13 tanks in a little less than 40 minutes, but it takes another 90 minutes to fill them back up. I keep thinking of trying to come up with a good way to improve this time, but I don't think I will be able to do anything without replacing the well pump at the house. That isn't going to happen any time soon.

I've considered getting an RO unit to address some of the smaller tanks that I have with plecos, nannacara and such, but just don't have a good place to put it. My parents live in our basement, so I don't have the extra space to move into.

All my tanks have a mix of driftwood, clay pots, rocks/stones, and fake plants for decor. I keep trying with live plants but I have the blackest thumb this side of the Mississippi when it comes to aquatic plants.

I think this addresses most points. I'm trying to come up with a good way to move pairs of fish around to get them to breed, but don't have the best plan as of yet. One day I'll have more room and can dedicate tanks to breeding pairs.

wow..that is some system for sure.. do you drain all the tanks and fill at the same time? all of them plumbed to same out and in source?

 

[jonclark96]

For waterchanges, I have a Rubbermaid tote that I sit in the middle of my fish room. I use siphons to drain tanks into the tote, and a Mag 9 pump to pump the water out of the tote, through a hose to the roof on my porch. The gutters then drain the water to the flower beds around the house. I also have a smaller pump with a garden hose that I pump directly out the window. For the tanks in each of my kids' rooms (a 29 and a 20) I drain to buckets and dump in the tote. I refill using a python hooked up to the tub in the bathroom. For the tanks downstairs, I use the pump/garden hose configuration and pump out the front door to the flower beds.

All in all, I can change all the water in the house and only dump about 1/2 a gallon in the septic system. I do tax the water heater if I try to do the upstairs and downstairs on after the other. It can keep up if I give an hour break in between. From a gallons perspective, I have 349 gallons on the 1st floor and 348 upstairs.

 

[Ading522]

Wow...must have had some planning to do.. do you do all the water changes from the tanks in a single time? or multiple changes divided throughout the week? wow.. thats definitely a good idea though- draining to the flowerbeds.. good fertilized water..

 

[jonclark96]

I usually do all the tanks on a floor at one time. Once I've got everything set up, it makes more sense to do them all. There isn't a lot of heavy lifting, but I do have to pay attention to not spill. With water coming out of some tanks and into others, there have been a few times when a puddle ended up on the floor.

I stole the idea for the tote sump from Tony. He has a tote in his fish room set up with a sump pump on a float switch. He drains to a central drain and the pump moves water to his utility sink. I just modified it to better fit my needs.

When I first got back into the hobby 5 years ago, I was doing changes with buckets and dumping into the toilet. The lightbulb went off one day when I finished doing waterchanges then hooked up a hose to water the flowers. And to think I have an engineering degree...

 

[dogofwar]

Having tanks (and/or a fishroom) set up primarily for breeding fish and raising their offspring is different from having one set up with communities and groups of fish.

Most of the tanks in my fishroom are 2'x2'x1' 30-ish gallon tanks...which are great for pairs of small and medium-sized pair-breeding cichlids (and their offspring). These tanks have been great for groups of mouthbrooders (peacocks, mbuna, Haps, etc.) as well.

While I've also bred fish in community settings, raising fry usually requires pulling fry or wigglers before they're consumed...and raising them artificially.

I probably have 10x more spawns than I do spawns in which I bother to raise fry.

Matt

 

[mchambers]

My meager setup

Okay, I can do this.

I'm on DC (DCWASA) tap water, and also use Safe. I sometimes use rainwater as well and occasionally water from a dehumidifier, for corydoras, rams, nannacara, and pelvicachromis. All of my tanks have plants, but only relatively easy plants. Almost all my tanks have pool filter sand for substrate.

I use live food, too: mostly microworms, white worms, and grindal worms. I also can collect small earthworms from my compost bins.
Feeding varies. For most fish, I feed five days a week, taking Tuesday and Friday off. Based on the April meeting talk, however, I've been trying heavy feeding of corydoras on Saturday and Sunday, and then fasting them Monday through Wednesday.

For fry, I'll feed golden pearls and microworms. I often use the golden pearls in an Eheim autofeeder. I have two Marina breeder boxes, but have just begun using them, and put some corydoras eggs in one last weekend.

For adults, I feed a variety of flakes, pellets, and Repashy.

I change the water at least weekly, 50% or more, although I'm thinking about cutting back to see if that will affect spawning.

I have 11 tanks. Two are in our family room. One of those is a 20 gallon mixed community tank that houses the male offspring of the guppies and endlers my daughter wanted 6 or so years ago. (That's how I ended up with this addiction again.) Also has some neon tetras and 7juvenile German rams. The other is a 10 gallon that currently houses only Celestial Pearl Danios and Rosy Dwarf Loaches.

In the basement, I have the other 9 tanks:
55 - mixed community. currently Bolivian rams and Laetacara Thayeri, some panda corydoras and a few other small groups of corydoras
10 - used for breeding whatever I want. Currently has some corydoras loxozonus. Has red cherry shrimp, as well. Last week it had six celestial pearl danios. Reminds me: I need to see if any CPD fry made it
40B - 2 pair nannacara aureocephalus, 7 or so gold laser corydoras (cw010), and 7 or so corydoras atropersonatus
40B - 5 Australoheros oblongum and 17 yellow cat corydoras (c123)
29 - Electric blue ram pair, cardinal tetras, and corydoras sterbai
29 - 3 serpae tetras, 3 black skirt tetras, a few female guppies, and lots of juvenile archocentrus multispinosa (free to members)
20H - pelvicachromis subocellatus and a group of corydoras melanotaenai
20L - corydoras erhardti and habrosus
15 - pelvicachromis roloffi kolente pair

All but one of my tanks have canister filters, mostly various Eheim models. I have one tank with an Aquaclear HOB and a couple ACs in boxes as backups in case something goes wrong.