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I've been breeding livebearers for a few years now...and usually I don't get more than a handful every few months and had plenty of room to just grow most in the nursery and/or move some to the big tank later to finish. I keep them to sell, so I'm not going to just let them get eaten at birth, those I don't have enough room for are usually sold on craigslist, which is very iffy and rare that people answer, or go to petshops for free. Hurts my pocket a bit for care costs.
Anywho, I have a 55 gallon tank which is my adult tank with about 26+ adult fish in it(I'd say ten or eleven mollies, three adult platies and four younger ones who aren't full grown but are at breeding age and four swordtails, three young females not yet breedable and one adult male, three guppies(one is a young male endlers mix, the other male will be oing to a new home once his tail heals up, he got damaged from a male I had previously), as well as two rubberlip plecos and two three-spot gouramis), and a twenty gallon nursery tank. Both are older tanks, the twenty has been set up almost two years, the 55 since this last December...Since New Years Eve, I have suddenly gotten more babies in a mere two months(every month really) than I have in the last three years combined! I've been giving many away so I don't over-stock. Right now I have about three dozen extras in there who are about two or three months from sell-able. c.c Way over-stocking, I figure regardless of anything extra I can do to help, I'll probably still be giving away half of those, if not more. ^^; Ouch.
Well, I've gotten about three dozen babies that I want to sell that are big enough to be with the adults and are, my tank was just about at full stock before that and my nursery is in use with some new platies and rainbow guppy babies. Of the bigger babies it's mostly mollies and a couple platies, so the bioload can't be good. They're mixed gold dusts that are really pretty and I get quite a bit when I raise them and bring them in to a certain shop who...loves my fish. Anyways, I know I sound greedy but this is how I make my money and only when I bring in healthy kids. lol
I was wondering...how much extra maintenance can be done safely to lessen the bioload? I'm working on getting yet another large tank so I don't have to worry about this, but right now I have only managed these tanks. So being able to raise them all for another two months or so to sell size will probably get me just enough for another large tank. Which I both want and really need.
My tank is lightly planted and has one AquaClear 40-75 gallon filter with everything in it, sponge, filter cartridge and the bags with stuff to help with ammonia and cycling, which it doesn't need anymore...it was just some extra. I was wondering, would it be safe for a second filter for about a 30 gallon on the other side of the tank, or would that be too much? And how much extra water changing can I do without worrying I'm shocking the fish? Usually the nursery gets a 2% change every two days to go with my weekly 30% change and partial gravel vac(usually just under half the gravel in a different spot each week). Can I do a 2% change per day in the big tank along with normal changes? I have read that I could, but I'd rather have more info from others...
Yeah you can see I got slammed with kids, never happened before, I guess they like my tanks. LOL Used to be maybe ten every two months, now the females that used to not have any started dropping fifty+ per month. x.x I m probably going to lessen my stock as well, I have maybe five or six fish I can sell, but still, extra ideas will be good and that's not very much!
Once I can afford my new tanks I'll have room for this! LOL I thought I did before...nope, so maybe I should watch what I say. I intend to get at least another 55 gallon and another twenty or probably a thirty gallon for my guppies and possibly platies to lessen the adult tank stock with my mollies and swords, that should help greatly and I'll have more raising room. But obviously I need to save up first. ^^;
Any other ideas I can use to help out here?
Anywho, I have a 55 gallon tank which is my adult tank with about 26+ adult fish in it(I'd say ten or eleven mollies, three adult platies and four younger ones who aren't full grown but are at breeding age and four swordtails, three young females not yet breedable and one adult male, three guppies(one is a young male endlers mix, the other male will be oing to a new home once his tail heals up, he got damaged from a male I had previously), as well as two rubberlip plecos and two three-spot gouramis), and a twenty gallon nursery tank. Both are older tanks, the twenty has been set up almost two years, the 55 since this last December...Since New Years Eve, I have suddenly gotten more babies in a mere two months(every month really) than I have in the last three years combined! I've been giving many away so I don't over-stock. Right now I have about three dozen extras in there who are about two or three months from sell-able. c.c Way over-stocking, I figure regardless of anything extra I can do to help, I'll probably still be giving away half of those, if not more. ^^; Ouch.
Well, I've gotten about three dozen babies that I want to sell that are big enough to be with the adults and are, my tank was just about at full stock before that and my nursery is in use with some new platies and rainbow guppy babies. Of the bigger babies it's mostly mollies and a couple platies, so the bioload can't be good. They're mixed gold dusts that are really pretty and I get quite a bit when I raise them and bring them in to a certain shop who...loves my fish. Anyways, I know I sound greedy but this is how I make my money and only when I bring in healthy kids. lol
I was wondering...how much extra maintenance can be done safely to lessen the bioload? I'm working on getting yet another large tank so I don't have to worry about this, but right now I have only managed these tanks. So being able to raise them all for another two months or so to sell size will probably get me just enough for another large tank. Which I both want and really need.
My tank is lightly planted and has one AquaClear 40-75 gallon filter with everything in it, sponge, filter cartridge and the bags with stuff to help with ammonia and cycling, which it doesn't need anymore...it was just some extra. I was wondering, would it be safe for a second filter for about a 30 gallon on the other side of the tank, or would that be too much? And how much extra water changing can I do without worrying I'm shocking the fish? Usually the nursery gets a 2% change every two days to go with my weekly 30% change and partial gravel vac(usually just under half the gravel in a different spot each week). Can I do a 2% change per day in the big tank along with normal changes? I have read that I could, but I'd rather have more info from others...
Yeah you can see I got slammed with kids, never happened before, I guess they like my tanks. LOL Used to be maybe ten every two months, now the females that used to not have any started dropping fifty+ per month. x.x I m probably going to lessen my stock as well, I have maybe five or six fish I can sell, but still, extra ideas will be good and that's not very much!
Once I can afford my new tanks I'll have room for this! LOL I thought I did before...nope, so maybe I should watch what I say. I intend to get at least another 55 gallon and another twenty or probably a thirty gallon for my guppies and possibly platies to lessen the adult tank stock with my mollies and swords, that should help greatly and I'll have more raising room. But obviously I need to save up first. ^^;
Any other ideas I can use to help out here?