My dog and fish

[axelrod12]

Just spotted this section of the forum and figured I'd share.

I'll start with my dog. She is 2 years old, half bluetick coonhound, half who knows what. We assume the 2nd half contains at least part sighthound, maybe whippet, due to the shape of her body.



Up next and there's a lot of them are my fish/fishtanks. I don't have pictures of all the different fish I have but I'll do my best to take some pics and add them to this thread. All of my tanks are planted with live plants.

First up, my 29g high tech, this means high light and a pressurized co2 system injecting co2 into the water.


A few of it's inhabitants, my African Butterfly fish


There's also a school of Pareutropius buffei, not the best pic but they are the most active and personable fish I have ever owned apart from puffers. I have been able to feed these guys by hand since day one and they constantly swarm my hand and nibble my fingers when I'm working in the tank:

There is also a pearl Gourami, can't seem to find any pictures of her though so those will come at a later time.

Next tank is my 28g bowfront. Medium light, low tech, also sorry not the best picture I'll do my best to update that:

One of it's inhabitants a German Blue Ram. I have a trio in the tank at the moment.


After that is my 20L. This is just recently done establishing/cycling and is now ready for shrimp/shrimp breeding. I'm thinking of stocking orange eyed blue tiger shrimp but Crystal Red Shrimp are my back up plan:


And finally my 2g Fluval Spec. This houses a few Red Cherry shrimp and several Crystal Red and Crystal Black shrimp. The crystals have just recently started breeding. I have had one set of eggs successfully hatch so far and I have at least 3 females that are currently berried.


I also have several planted vases with no inhabitants. Well one of them will have cherry shrimp in it very soon. I may throw pics of those up later on.

[Phal grower]

Very cool. I've only had a few shrimp and they were gone in no time. How do you breed them?

[RandomGemini]

Very cool! I love your dog!

I have a 10 gallon freshwater planted tank with loads of cherry shrimp. Cherry shrimp breed readily in home aquariums. I started with four, two females, two males. Now I probably have a hundred or more in there. You just have to add more every year or so to increase the gene pool.

[axelrod12]

Originally Posted by Phal grower

Very cool. I've only had a few shrimp and they were gone in no time. How do you breed them?

Shrimp are tricky. They are more sensitive than most freshwater fish. I'm not sure how much you know about aquariums but shrimp require a fully cycled and preferably well established tank. They don't produce much waste and don't contribute much to the bioload but they are sensitive to nitrates so routine water changes are necessary. They prefer stable parameters so water changes should only be around 20% and should be performed once a week. Large changes can cause shifts that will stress them out. If they are happy and the water parameters are close to what they prefer they will breed on their own over time. It took my CRS/CBS about 2 months to start breeding.

Certain shrimp are easier than others. Generally Red Cherry Shrimp are considered the most hardy and easiest to breed.

[RandomGemini]

That's a good point. My aquarium was up and running for a year before I added any livestock at all. Just plants. I added six ember tetras and left those in there for a while, two or three months, before adding cherry shrimp. The last to be added were my three cardinals tetras. My tank seems pretty happy right there. I do water changes weekly, but I think having it up for a year first gave me a leg up on keeping nitrates low.

[axelrod12]

Yah a well established cycle definitely helps. Further establishing a tank also allows a biofilm to build up on surfaces. Shrimp will feed and gather nutrients from the biolfilm, this can be crucial to baby shrimp. Plants can also play a huge role in keeping nitrates down. I actually dose nitrates into a couple of my tanks because the plants utilize it faster than the fish produce it. Certain plants will do a better job than others.

[Ferns Daddy]

Love your hound, does she sing for you yet ? your tanks look great.

[Leafmite]

Cute dog and nice looking fish and tanks!

[NYCorchidman]

This makes me want to have aquarium again!

Thanks for sharing, I really like your pictures of water tank with graceful looking water plants in them.

[axelrod12]

Thanks everyone.

Originally Posted by Ferns Daddy

Love your hound, does she sing for you yet ? your tanks look great.

She kind of does. She's actually a very quiet and mellow dog until you take her outside. Or ask her if she wants to go anywhere. Once she hears "go" she perks up and starts running all over the place. If we make barking or howling noises at her while she's like this she will howl back at us. I guess its called baying when coonhounds bark.