Rays on a budget- My (somewhat long) story w/pics
- Thread starter Clearwater guy
- Start date
tamzor;4078434; said:
Well...It could have been worse. Yes, it's money...but since it was a pup, it was a seed for the future instead of something I was counting on for the short term.
I don't think I could have done anything different... In hindsight...I could have picked them up at O'hare last week... but I can't dwell on all the if's, and shoulda's.
Moving forward... The male is still doing well. I'm not actually sure he's eaten yet, but he's swimming and alert.
Mike
Ok, back to more good news.... The Male is continuing to improve, and he did for sure eat a worm and nibbled on some shrimp.
I was sorting some of the Blue Tilapia back into the 75 gallon, and I think I have a male and 5 females in there. I'm not sure if that's a proper breeding colony, but I'll keep an eye on them, and see if I got them sexed right. I can see the male anatomy when they are interested in spawning...but it disappears as soon as I net them.
As I was sorting...I came across a female with eggs!!!!!! I put her in the 10q with the white tilapia that are now around an inch or more. I wasn't quite prepared for the eggs, so we'll see. I need to get some more smaller tanks set up for this....
I also decided that I don't think the breeders will work in the 150g because it is too hard to catch the ones I want, and I was afraid that if the eggs all hatched in there I wouldn't be able to net them out in time. So we'll see how the 75 works out for the colony I put in there, and maybe I'll get more of those. I'll use the 150 for fingerlings once they start kicking out the fry...
Mike
I was sorting some of the Blue Tilapia back into the 75 gallon, and I think I have a male and 5 females in there. I'm not sure if that's a proper breeding colony, but I'll keep an eye on them, and see if I got them sexed right. I can see the male anatomy when they are interested in spawning...but it disappears as soon as I net them.
As I was sorting...I came across a female with eggs!!!!!! I put her in the 10q with the white tilapia that are now around an inch or more. I wasn't quite prepared for the eggs, so we'll see. I need to get some more smaller tanks set up for this....
I also decided that I don't think the breeders will work in the 150g because it is too hard to catch the ones I want, and I was afraid that if the eggs all hatched in there I wouldn't be able to net them out in time. So we'll see how the 75 works out for the colony I put in there, and maybe I'll get more of those. I'll use the 150 for fingerlings once they start kicking out the fry...
Mike
Never mind about the eggs...they are gone. Oh well... I didn't expect them anyways. Gives me more time to get some tanks set up.
Mike
Mike
I thought I'd take a break and post just a few things. I started on the 2nd ray pool today, and remembered that I'd promised to keep the photos coming.
Yesterday, I decided to separate the female that is most pregnant. I may be a couple weeks early, but I figure it's better safe than sorry. I had been thinking for weeks how I was going to do this without spending money, and finally decided to use my old busted 65 gallon tank. I only cut one finger trying to remove the broken glass from the front and bottom panels, but I managed to get it in place without killing any rays, and without cutting my liner...lol. I actually had her planned for the other side of the pool to get her away from the overflow...but the numbers were against me when I was lowering the tank into place.
For this reason...just today I have decided that I want to use one of the rubberized coatings for the new pool, because I want to make slots with wood trim that I can use to slide dividers into place to section off this larger pool.
The pool is going to be 10.5' x 58" wide. I realized that I didn't need to raise it up on 10" base this time, so I only used 2" boards to hold it up, and the water can just be deeper in this pool than the other one. Makes me actually want to re-do the other one now...but we'll see how it turns out.
Here's the pics...first, the divider in the #1 pool. I love to rig things up to avoid a trip to the store...but trust me, it's secure. I put a tile under the glass so that water can flow underneth. It actually gets the bottom cleaner than before. Then, the pictures of the new pool build. Just the floor is done now, but I'm lovin the way it will be. Since there's a longer span on this one, I'm going to build an actual wall to hold it. Since there is a 4" x 4" post on the left side, it won't be in the way at all..
Yesterday, I decided to separate the female that is most pregnant. I may be a couple weeks early, but I figure it's better safe than sorry. I had been thinking for weeks how I was going to do this without spending money, and finally decided to use my old busted 65 gallon tank. I only cut one finger trying to remove the broken glass from the front and bottom panels, but I managed to get it in place without killing any rays, and without cutting my liner...lol. I actually had her planned for the other side of the pool to get her away from the overflow...but the numbers were against me when I was lowering the tank into place.
For this reason...just today I have decided that I want to use one of the rubberized coatings for the new pool, because I want to make slots with wood trim that I can use to slide dividers into place to section off this larger pool.
The pool is going to be 10.5' x 58" wide. I realized that I didn't need to raise it up on 10" base this time, so I only used 2" boards to hold it up, and the water can just be deeper in this pool than the other one. Makes me actually want to re-do the other one now...but we'll see how it turns out.
Here's the pics...first, the divider in the #1 pool. I love to rig things up to avoid a trip to the store...but trust me, it's secure. I put a tile under the glass so that water can flow underneth. It actually gets the bottom cleaner than before. Then, the pictures of the new pool build. Just the floor is done now, but I'm lovin the way it will be. Since there's a longer span on this one, I'm going to build an actual wall to hold it. Since there is a 4" x 4" post on the left side, it won't be in the way at all..
