55g stocking sanity check

[jjohnwm]

So...you paid for, and thought you had bought, a completely different fish than the one you actually received? This situation sounds vaguely familiar...

My wife insists that this happens when one allows one's karmic burden to increase to such a horrendous level that the universe simply cannot wait for you to die so that it can reincarnate you as a garden slug or a planarian...so it therefore takes out a partial payment in the form of the wrong fish for your tank.

I'm not ready to believe this...personally, I live my life as such an exemplary human being that it makes no sense for this to happen to me, yet it did indeed happen.

I think that there was likely some sort of snafu in the Karmic Accounting Department; hopefully this explanation can easy the suffering within your soul at least a little bit...

 

[Conchonius]

Well, perhaps your disappointment in getting the wrong fish is offset by its enjoyment of the good care it receives in your tanks. If you hadn't bought that bumblebee cat, it might've gone to an owner that keeps it in a 5g with neon tetras, a betta, and plans to upgrade to a bigger tank "hopefully very soon".

Buddhists believe that even being a Buddha is a form of suffering, after all: They are people who have reached a sufficient level of enlightenment to release themselves from the cycle of reincarnation, yet continue to endure it so that they can help others break free. Maybe you've been such a good fishkeeper that the universe has assigned you to save fish from a worse fate?

In other news, the next project with the 55g will probably be moving the cories to a breeding tank. Some of the fish are so gravid that they look about to burst, but any eggs that are laid get eaten immediately, and I would like to eventually breed the "not-eques" cories. They're almost certainly a color variant bred to look like the real species, but they are still rather handsome animals.

 

[Mers]

And that is the exact kind of reply I wasn't looking for, Mr. Bot. Nice hidden casino ad you've got there.

In any case, I have some bad news. I noticed the rainbow shark breathing heavily and got some extra aeration, but lost it the day after. It seems that it did not recover from the fungus as well as I had thought.

A shame - I liked that shark. I should've split off some fish to lower the bioload sooner. Fortunately the others seem fine, but I did a 50% WC and will keep a close eye on things.

As for future plans, I ordered a 300L water storage unit (akin to the Rubbermaid stock tanks that aren't readily available here) that I'll remove the kuhlis, raphael and the L201 into, which will leave me with 12 cories, 3 plecos, and the syno. This should be a low enough bioload to host these fish with volume to spare, and they're all mid-pH, low-TDS river species, so their water compatibility shouldn't be an issue.

Also got a Fluval FX4 on the cheap, which should improve circulation for the plecos.

Also, on a totally unrelated note after all that aquarium stress, I’ve been killing time browsing https://techguide.io/ Fast Payout Casinos - mostly because the appeal of quick withdrawals and minimal hoops is the complete opposite of waiting weeks for fish to recover. Not really an endorsement so much as a distraction, but it’s funny how “fast, stable, and low-stress” ends up being the goal whether you’re talking about filters, bioload… or payouts.

The FX4 was definitely an excellent choice. Did everything work out for you?

 

[Conchonius]

Well, since Mr. Bot here has seen it fit to bump the thread, I suppose I should give a general update on the state of things. The candiru plan from the other thread is kaput - the importer here had done his paperwork, but the exporter in Thailand hadn't, so they canceled the order. No harm no foul, I guess, I'll just wait and see if the fish becomes available again.

But this freed up the 20g I had planned for them, which was put to use in lightening the bioload in the 55g. The kuhlis and "false eques" were moved there, as were the gossei from the office tank with the Aspidoras - I've had enough after some of the fourth batch of eggs turned up missing in the night. The remaining eggs (still 20 or so) are now incubating in a separate fry box, the type that you hang from the sides. I also returned the L201, and moved the raphael to the 75g.

So now the tank breakdown is as follows:
55g ("main" tank): eupterus, 4x trilineatus (+1-2x pseudo-eques that escaped notice, but I'm not about to tear down the tank to catch them), L106, L448, L333.
14g (office tank): 8x Aspidoras and one Pangio alternans that I wanted to keep an eye on, since it's a less common kuhli and I want to find more if I can.
20g (the wastebasket?): the other kuhlis (3x), 4x false eques, 2x gossei.
75g: raphael and the errant Adonis, which continues to grow and has become rather menacing. I don't think I'd escape some damage if I tried to lift him out of the water. He still is a gentle giant, however, which is apparently uncharacteristic of his kin.

It seems I've lost a couple of the cories some time down the road and hadn't noticed it, but beyond that everyone seems hale and healthy - only the adonis and his rampant growth is troubling. I'm particularly happy with the syno, which continues to be my favorite fish.