outdoor stock tanks...successes and failures
- Thread starter jjohnwm
- Start date
Why not? You could use a break from your typical Thunderdome-style tanks.Maybe a giant goldfish?
It's okay not to walk around clenched up all the time, wondering who's killing whom back in your fishtank...in fact, it's really nice.
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Speaking of a-hole fish...
After killing his rival male, the dominant male C.dimerus and his lady have been heaping abuse on the third-wheel female, and I will be removing her as soon as I can catch her without too much drama. The pair has produced about 80-ish fry, who have been free-swimming for a couple days. Their number is already down to about 20-25; this pair is just about the lousiest set of parents I have ever seen, fish or human, and has eaten all its progeny for the past two summers. They seem to be off to a gang-buster start this year as well.
The G.rhabdotus have at least three families of fry being shepherded about by their guardians...likely lots more, but three is the largest number I've seen at one time. Today I watched one parent with 40 or so fry approach another with almost twice as many. As the adults passed by...without incident!...the two clouds of fry merged, then separated and each parent continued on its way with what seemed to be the same number of offspring as before. I had to wonder if they were the same fry or if they just swapped out at random.
Also have lots of new Jordanella floridae, Medakas (fry so small they are almost invisible), and of course tons of Green Swordtails.
After killing his rival male, the dominant male C.dimerus and his lady have been heaping abuse on the third-wheel female, and I will be removing her as soon as I can catch her without too much drama. The pair has produced about 80-ish fry, who have been free-swimming for a couple days. Their number is already down to about 20-25; this pair is just about the lousiest set of parents I have ever seen, fish or human, and has eaten all its progeny for the past two summers. They seem to be off to a gang-buster start this year as well.
The G.rhabdotus have at least three families of fry being shepherded about by their guardians...likely lots more, but three is the largest number I've seen at one time. Today I watched one parent with 40 or so fry approach another with almost twice as many. As the adults passed by...without incident!...the two clouds of fry merged, then separated and each parent continued on its way with what seemed to be the same number of offspring as before. I had to wonder if they were the same fry or if they just swapped out at random.
Also have lots of new Jordanella floridae, Medakas (fry so small they are almost invisible), and of course tons of Green Swordtails.
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The season for my outdoor pond and stocktanks is an unusual one in many ways. For reasons I don't understand, the Hornwort and Guppy Grass I put outdoors in most of the tanks has almost completely failed this year. Most years the Guppy Grass takes off like wildfire immediately, while the Hornwort sheds all its needles but then bounces back and overwhelms the ponds. This year, both species have virtually vanished; the inground pond normally needs a minimum of two purges during which at least a couple bushels of Hornwort is ruthlessly removed and composted, whereas this year it is open water.
Other plants...Duckweed, Cattails, Papyrus, Wild Garlic and others...are thriving, as is Hair Algae. The latter is pulled by the handful from various stocktanks to be thrown into the two tanks containing Jordanella Flagfish and a new bloodline/strain of Ameca splendens I recently got. Both species eat the stuff as fast as I provide it. Amecas are especially ravenous of the stuff; the young are born live at a size of .5 or even .75 inches, and are fully capable of eating adult food...hair algae!...immediately.
The Medaka tank is so full of fry of various sizes that I am puzzled how they survive. In other years the tank is thickly choked with plant life, and yet relatively few fry are seen or caught at summer's end. This year the plant life is sparse and yet the fry are everywhere.
The Gymno.rhabdotus are their usual productive selves. This year they have an 8-foot-round stock tank all to themselves. At any given moment I can usually spot 4, 5 or even 6 family groups of parents and fry milling about simultaneously. Some parents seem like good neighbours and friends; the adults mix amicably and the schools of fry merge into one large group, but moments later as they continue on their separate ways they split up again, all with no aggression. But other mixes do not work as well; some pairs of parents remain very aloof and keep their fry well away from others, and also keep other adults away with determined charges. At first I thought that the "friendly neighbours" would be a single male and two females with their respective broods, but careful observation shows that there are definitely two pairs involved. Sadly, these assorted interactions are not as easily studied from above as they would be in an aquarium. There are also numerous larger fry from earlier spawns now on their own and moving randomly about. This stock tank is a maze of rocks, wood, pipes, hair algae, cattails, papyrus, even a couple trays of Vallisneria; the fish have plenty of opportunity to seize and protect territories...but most of them roam around seemingly randomly with their broods, resulting in interactions that vary from totally benign to fairly vicious. They'd better watch themselves; one of the things I like most about these fish is their generally calm and unaggressive (for cichlids) demeanour. If they start to turn into buttheads like most other cichlids...I will lose interest. Maybe
FINWIN
will take the lot of them? Depending upon survival, I'll have several hundred, and my freezer is mostly full. Hmmm...cichlids as catfish bait, perhaps?
The Goldfish in the inground pond engaged in numerous spawning frenzies throughout the summer, but with no hornwort thickets in which to scatter their eggs they have instead been plunging into the cattails along one side of the pond and wormed their way well into the vertical tangle to lay. I have seen no fry at all; the open water makes them easy for the adults to pick off so thankfully I will have no worries housing another goldfish glut this year. In terms of enjoyment derived per unit of effort expended...Goldfish are contenders for the top crown. The gentle bubbling and gurgling of a school of Goldies snatching up food as you toss it into the pond is incomparable. And I don't care if they are as common as stink...they are peaceful (i.e. stress-relieving, not stress-inducing) and beautiful.
And, finally...as usual...my Cichlasome dimerus have enjoyed the summer in their spacious 6-foot tank...have produced and hatched at least 2 broods of eggs of which I am aware...and have eaten apparently every dang one of their offspring! Third year in a row of this nonsense; I'm getting thoroughly fed up with those fish.
If I take another pic of them it will probably show a thawed dimerus corpse impaled on a hook, protruding from the mouth of a big Channel Cat.
It's not even August yet, and already nighttime temperatures are well down into the single digits some nights. Last night got down to 7C, with water temperatures less than 10C when I checked this morning. Of course, daytime will rocket back up into the 20's. Not a problem, yet, but...the end is in sight...all those almost-empty tanks in the basement will be filling up sooner than later.
Other plants...Duckweed, Cattails, Papyrus, Wild Garlic and others...are thriving, as is Hair Algae. The latter is pulled by the handful from various stocktanks to be thrown into the two tanks containing Jordanella Flagfish and a new bloodline/strain of Ameca splendens I recently got. Both species eat the stuff as fast as I provide it. Amecas are especially ravenous of the stuff; the young are born live at a size of .5 or even .75 inches, and are fully capable of eating adult food...hair algae!...immediately.
The Medaka tank is so full of fry of various sizes that I am puzzled how they survive. In other years the tank is thickly choked with plant life, and yet relatively few fry are seen or caught at summer's end. This year the plant life is sparse and yet the fry are everywhere.
The Gymno.rhabdotus are their usual productive selves. This year they have an 8-foot-round stock tank all to themselves. At any given moment I can usually spot 4, 5 or even 6 family groups of parents and fry milling about simultaneously. Some parents seem like good neighbours and friends; the adults mix amicably and the schools of fry merge into one large group, but moments later as they continue on their separate ways they split up again, all with no aggression. But other mixes do not work as well; some pairs of parents remain very aloof and keep their fry well away from others, and also keep other adults away with determined charges. At first I thought that the "friendly neighbours" would be a single male and two females with their respective broods, but careful observation shows that there are definitely two pairs involved. Sadly, these assorted interactions are not as easily studied from above as they would be in an aquarium. There are also numerous larger fry from earlier spawns now on their own and moving randomly about. This stock tank is a maze of rocks, wood, pipes, hair algae, cattails, papyrus, even a couple trays of Vallisneria; the fish have plenty of opportunity to seize and protect territories...but most of them roam around seemingly randomly with their broods, resulting in interactions that vary from totally benign to fairly vicious. They'd better watch themselves; one of the things I like most about these fish is their generally calm and unaggressive (for cichlids) demeanour. If they start to turn into buttheads like most other cichlids...I will lose interest. Maybe
FINWIN
will take the lot of them? Depending upon survival, I'll have several hundred, and my freezer is mostly full. Hmmm...cichlids as catfish bait, perhaps? The Goldfish in the inground pond engaged in numerous spawning frenzies throughout the summer, but with no hornwort thickets in which to scatter their eggs they have instead been plunging into the cattails along one side of the pond and wormed their way well into the vertical tangle to lay. I have seen no fry at all; the open water makes them easy for the adults to pick off so thankfully I will have no worries housing another goldfish glut this year. In terms of enjoyment derived per unit of effort expended...Goldfish are contenders for the top crown. The gentle bubbling and gurgling of a school of Goldies snatching up food as you toss it into the pond is incomparable. And I don't care if they are as common as stink...they are peaceful (i.e. stress-relieving, not stress-inducing) and beautiful.
And, finally...as usual...my Cichlasome dimerus have enjoyed the summer in their spacious 6-foot tank...have produced and hatched at least 2 broods of eggs of which I am aware...and have eaten apparently every dang one of their offspring! Third year in a row of this nonsense; I'm getting thoroughly fed up with those fish.
If I take another pic of them it will probably show a thawed dimerus corpse impaled on a hook, protruding from the mouth of a big Channel Cat.It's not even August yet, and already nighttime temperatures are well down into the single digits some nights. Last night got down to 7C, with water temperatures less than 10C when I checked this morning. Of course, daytime will rocket back up into the 20's. Not a problem, yet, but...the end is in sight
...all those almost-empty tanks in the basement will be filling up sooner than later.
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