500 Gallon Peacock Bass Aquarium
- Thread starter jtalley
- Start date
Orinos are schooling and fairly shy, but have downed about 30 feeders so far. I will start mixing feeders with some FD Hikari tomorrow.
Note that snookn21 shipped 3 extra (with excellent packaging), and only 1 was DOA.
Few pictures.
Note that snookn21 shipped 3 extra (with excellent packaging), and only 1 was DOA.
Few pictures.
Not everone made it through the night as only 6/54 feeders remain 
Orinos are all looking good with fully bellies, no losses there which is great. A lot of them are just chilling in the corner on the sand in a little pile. One of the feeders is 3/4 their length, so I think it may be in there for a bit, but I expect the smaller 5 to meet their doom today. Right now it looks like they are having more fun just chasing their meals than eating them.
Friends coming over this afternoon to move the 500 gallon. Hoping to complete stand revision plus put the tank back up by the end of the weekend.
Orinos are all looking good with fully bellies, no losses there which is great. A lot of them are just chilling in the corner on the sand in a little pile. One of the feeders is 3/4 their length, so I think it may be in there for a bit, but I expect the smaller 5 to meet their doom today. Right now it looks like they are having more fun just chasing their meals than eating them.
Friends coming over this afternoon to move the 500 gallon. Hoping to complete stand revision plus put the tank back up by the end of the weekend.
Very productive day.
2 friends came over and together we took the tank off, lowered the stand height (which looks so much better), equalized the distance between the supports (somehow I was off 1/2" when I first made it), and modified the plywood support to better prevent warping. Then got the tank back up and moved into place.
Before..
and after...
Tomorrow, and probably for several more days, I get to put in the support bracings (adding more than the previous design) and cleaning up the living room that I basically made uninhabitable for the deconstruction. Dust from the reciprocating saw and styrofoam beads all over.
For the fish, everyone is still going good. Fed about 20 feeders today, they didn't take any krill so I plan to start giving less feeders to make feeding more competitive so they strike faster and will mistakenly accept prepared foods.
2 friends came over and together we took the tank off, lowered the stand height (which looks so much better), equalized the distance between the supports (somehow I was off 1/2" when I first made it), and modified the plywood support to better prevent warping. Then got the tank back up and moved into place.
Before..
and after...
Tomorrow, and probably for several more days, I get to put in the support bracings (adding more than the previous design) and cleaning up the living room that I basically made uninhabitable for the deconstruction. Dust from the reciprocating saw and styrofoam beads all over.
For the fish, everyone is still going good. Fed about 20 feeders today, they didn't take any krill so I plan to start giving less feeders to make feeding more competitive so they strike faster and will mistakenly accept prepared foods.
Had to order a few more things for the braces, so I am hoping to get that all taken care of by Wednesday. Planning 4 diagonal braces, two on the sides and two in the back.
Dropped the number of feeders today to 15, trying to find a good number to cause competition for food. However, I have pretty much used all the available feeders from my LFS. If anyone knows of a breeder in central PA I would love to find out.
Still, the introduction of the orinos has caused a mini cycle, did a 50% WC today, re-scaped to remove any food wastes, triple dose of Prime and double dose of Stability. Will be monitoring the situation closely.
Dropped the number of feeders today to 15, trying to find a good number to cause competition for food. However, I have pretty much used all the available feeders from my LFS. If anyone knows of a breeder in central PA I would love to find out.
Still, the introduction of the orinos has caused a mini cycle, did a 50% WC today, re-scaped to remove any food wastes, triple dose of Prime and double dose of Stability. Will be monitoring the situation closely.
Nice update! The orino's look great!
Have you thought of trying to feed frozens? I would get some frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. Thaw em out in a cup a drop in little spoon fulls at a time. Im sure they will eat em. Once they are hammering the little cloud of bloodworms/brine start adding a little bit of crushed up pellets to the mix. Over time gradually up the amount of pellets. Eventually they will be eating straight pellets. And much cheaper and healthier than feeders.
Have you thought of trying to feed frozens? I would get some frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. Thaw em out in a cup a drop in little spoon fulls at a time. Im sure they will eat em. Once they are hammering the little cloud of bloodworms/brine start adding a little bit of crushed up pellets to the mix. Over time gradually up the amount of pellets. Eventually they will be eating straight pellets. And much cheaper and healthier than feeders.
I haven't said too much about their feeding yet, but I have tried things other than live feeders. So far I have been able to get one orino per feeding to accept from thawed krill and even an NLS pellet. Not sure if it was the same fish though.
I've also tried a few bloodworms, but they just watch them sink. Does a cloud help? I only did a little because I would want to clean it up that night if they don't eat it. I have brine shrimp as well that I can give a try. I think a few of the smaller orinos are starting to get hungry enough to try something else perhaps. No problems cuttings them off from feeders for a few days?
The really annoying thing from feeding is if a lot of the feeder is sticking out of the mouth, another orino will try and steal it. Then once its out, no one will eat the dead feeder. If they just would have left it alone someone would have had their meal...
I've also tried a few bloodworms, but they just watch them sink. Does a cloud help? I only did a little because I would want to clean it up that night if they don't eat it. I have brine shrimp as well that I can give a try. I think a few of the smaller orinos are starting to get hungry enough to try something else perhaps. No problems cuttings them off from feeders for a few days?
The really annoying thing from feeding is if a lot of the feeder is sticking out of the mouth, another orino will try and steal it. Then once its out, no one will eat the dead feeder. If they just would have left it alone someone would have had their meal...
Surprised no one has commented on three guys moving a 900 lb aquarium yet, but that made my wife really nervous and she had to leave the room...didn't want to see the aquarium going through a wall I guess 
