After no rain for nearly a month now here on the UK East Coast, I have run out of rainwater.
Except for my Aphanius Mento I have been diluting my very hard tapwater (400ppm) with 50% rainwater. I had not diluted it any more as I knew that rainwater availability could be a problem in this area. So I am now looking at installing a RO system to help me to improve things. Does anybody have any suggestions for good companies in the UK to supply one of these?
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I know that I have been very remiss in doing these daily blogs, but things have been very slow what with the lockdown for the Coronavirus.
Tonight though I wet a number of my containers for non-annual killifish where the eggs have been stored on top of a wet coir/peat mix which were collected around 29/2 to 6/3/20. Will let you know how things turn out tomorrow. 13/4/20 and have removed the following fry from the small containers and placed them into larger ones, along with some Java Moss and Ramshorn snails and started to feed a mix of newly hatched BBS and Banana Worms. 1. Fp lacustris - 1 fry 2. Fp oeseri - 11 + 13 = 24 fry (2 containers) 3. Fp gresensi - 5 fry 4. Fp marmoratus - 6 fry 5. Fp spoorenbergi - 7 fry (with some unhatched eggs still in the container) The water has been left in the incubation containers to see if anything else hatches over the next 2-3 days. At which stage the water will be drained off and the containers set up for collecting more eggs. 14/4/20 collected some more fry this evening, 1. Fp oeseri - 4 fry 2. Fp spoorenbergi - 2 fry (only 1 transferred as the other was hiding somewhere in the peat) Not the best time in the world at the moment, but I hope that you all stay safe and isolate yourself from the affects of the virus on yourself and your families. A lot of us killifish enthusiasts are elderly, so may feel the affects more than the younger generations, so take care.
I think that by the end, as long as I don't get very sick, then my garden should be completely weed free and my tanks all looking pristine (but maybe not), as all activities away from the house are being suspended for the foreseeable future. Maybe I could also write on here more often, but that could be taking it a bit too far. Keep well. Today I collected over 20 eggs of Fp gardneri lacustris so this species seem to be doing well in my fishroom after a very slow start, as I now have adults, fry and eggs in storage.
Also collected a few eggs of Fp spoorenbergi and Fp oeseri though have lots of these in the fishroom at the moment. Hopefully, when the BKA website has the online "Egg and Fish" list up and running I will be able to offer some of these to BKA members that are interested. Before I left the fishroom yesterday I caught a pair Fp marmoratus Mbonge and put them into a smaller tank on their own, with a sunken mop.
Now 24 hours later, I have collected 10 eggs from the mop and placed onto damp peat, so it is early days yet, but it looks as if the adults in the main tanks are eating most of the eggs that are laid, and maybe just leaving the newest ones for me to collect. Day 2 was not so successful, as only collected 1 egg. Plus 1 egg fungused on top of the peat that was removed. Day 3 missed. Day 4 a bit better but still only 4 eggs collected. All other eggs were fine. Though 14 eggs is a lot better than I have previously experienced with multiple pairs in a larger tank. So maybe I will isolate a few more pairs, as I have a some spare small tanks that will be okay to house a pair for a few days. Look for a future post on the outcome from this. Day 5 gave 6 eggs. Day 6 gave 5 eggs, but 2 white/fungussed eggs were removed from on top of the peat Day 7 another 5 eggs collected. So that is enough for this container, 1 weeks worth of eggs, which should be ready to hatch in 4-5 weeks. So sometime around mid-April. Well I wet some more eggs yesterday that were stored on damp peat, and today have a number of fry of Fp gardneri lacustris and Chromaphyosemion volcanum Ekondo Titi CB3SR 07/21 both of which are very welcomed as the number of adults I have are limited. Therefore it would have been very easy to have lost either species in my fishroom.
So for the non-annuals, as well as the two lots of fry already mentioned, I have young fry of Fp spoorenbergi and Fp oeseri GEMHS 2000-45 Bioko Island plus a small number of Fp marmoratus Mbonge. The latter being most worrying as I have only been able to collect a small number of eggs even though I have 25-30 adults in the tank, evenly split between males and females. The other species that is worrying is Scriptaphyosemion guignardi Mamou as again I am not collecting many eggs, and the M:F ratio in the tank is approx. 1:4 which cannot be helping. In the 4-5 years that I have had this species I never used to collect eggs, as there were always small fry swimming with the adults but recently that seems to have stopped. Not sure what happened, as I do not believe that I have changed anything in their setup. So new fry from the eggs I wet are,
So in the last 2 days, I have collected 14 eggs from the Fp gresensi and also 14 eggs from Fp oseri, but must admit that I have run out of room in my small collection of egg storing boxes (that can be seen under my New Fishroom). I think that I will have to use some other small containers, which will be a first for 5 years in this setup.
Also wet some eggs of Fp spoorenbergi (collected 20/1/20), Fp marmoratus (collected 6/1/20 and 27/1/20) and Fp oeseri (collected 28/1/20 , so we will have to see what we get from these in the next few days. The Fp marmoratus egg collected on the 6/1/20 was nearly missed, as I do not keep a list of non-annual eggs with approx. hatching dates, as I do for my Nothos. Maybe this was because it was only 1 egg, and not many in the other container either. Well the male Fp gresensi Takwai that I found in an unused tank, just 2 days ago, is definitely doing his business as this evening I collected 14 eggs from the mops. So it looks as if I will keep this species going in my fishroom for at least 1 more generation.
I really feel sorry for this male, as he was left on his own for nearly 5 months, without any feeding or water changes. Though he looks very healthy. Well surprises are always nice to receive, and I got a wonderful one yesterday evening.
Now I have been maintaining Fundulopanchax gresensi Takwai successfully for some years, and even gave a trio to the 2019 BKA Convention, but since Christmas I lost both males, and from the last batch of eggs I only hatched females. So have been looking around for a spare male without any success, and was thinking that I would have to purchase some eggs (probably from overseas) once some warmer weather comes. Now prior to last year's Convention, the trio were isolated in a separate tank in order to make it easier to bag them up prior to travelling up to Wetherby. Now this tank (which is on the bottom level of my stand (hence cooler) was not needed until now (I have a lovely group of Fundulopanchax mirabilis mirabilis that I hatched from purchased eggs) so yesterday evening I decided to clean out the tank. From the title, I expect that you can guess what I found, yes, a lovely full coloured male Fp gresensi Takwai. So he has now been transferred to the tank with the group of females, and hopefully I will be successful in getting eggs for the next generation. Just to say that I have added my updated list of Nothobranchius species that I am currently keeping (see Nothobranchius under menu heading My Killies).
Also added a piece on my new Nothobranchius breeding setup (8 tanks so far, with 2 more to come), but it is still early days so I am not sure if it is any better than having small containers in the tanks to hold the peat/coir. Just to say that I have today added some details and photos of the homemade food I have recently being using to feed my fish on a daily basis and it is based on a mix of frozen sea fish. The packets of which I purchased from Iceland, and must admit that it is a lot easier to prepare than beef-heart.
To have a look, go to "My Killies" --> "Food" --> "Fish Based" We here on the East Coast actually got away with a lot less problems than most of the country over the last 2 weeks, but our thoughts and best wishes are for those that have been affected.
In fact the rain that we have had over the last week have refilled my water-butts which is good news for my killies. Though we will have to see if we get enough during the summer to continue with the regular water changes as I have been doing. Normally, we get a lot less rain here than the rest of the country, so I may have to purchase a RO Unit to take up the slack during those drier times. I have started to remove details on specific species of killifish from the common genera name or locality and instead will enter them as sub-sets of the genera (if that makes sense). Anyway, you will see what I mean when you look under "My Killies" --> "Species" where I have started updating "Nothobranchius".
Hopefully, this will allow me to build up details and personal observations on particular species to such an extent that I can write some articles for the BKA newsletter or the BKA website. Well that is my plan at the moment, but we will just have to wait and see how it progresses. If anyone has any suggestions or comments for the website then please drop me a line and I will see what can be done. Just remember, that though I have kept killies for donkey years my experience with websites is minimal at the best. Well it has been some time since I added anything to the website, but today I have been busy updating the "Other" category under "Species", for those species that I have lost and added since I wrote that section. Also added a sub-section for Chrom. volcanum which gives a bit more insight into the strain that I have been maintaining since June 2015 (nearly 5 years). Well worth a look as I have added a link to a great video by Jan Tropicalfishlover Wirén showing these fish in full display.
Also have converted most of my killies over to a 50/50 mix of rainwater and my very hard tapwater, except for Aphanius mento Zengen. After a few problems I was having with reduced number of eggs especially from my Nothobranchius species, I thought that using 100% tapwater at 400ppm (26dH) was just too high to be used for both fry and adults. We will see how this works out and I may have to adjust further, especially for those species that I am currently finding it difficult to breed. Therefore, in order to help me do regular water changes I have added an additional large water container (95 litres) which holds the 50/50 mixture, and it is fitted with it's own pump and line for filling the tanks. Electrical Costs.
Whether you have only a few tanks or a fully equipped fishroom the cost for electricity can result in large expense in our lovely hobby, and why some people leave. So for UK people be aware that staying with the same electrical provider, year after year, could mean that you pay a lot more, if you do not check out alternatives. Now I am with British Gas, and just received a letter saying that my current tariff finishes at the end of January and gave me 2 options for renewing, cheapest was standing charge 23.9 p/day and 17.2 p/kWh. So I checked through Uswitch on the internet and I am staying with British Gas (easier as smart meters have already been installed) but standing charge is 13.8 p/day and 13.8 p/kWh and fixed until 31st January 2021. So a saving of just over £172 per year for the whole household usage. Which nearly covers the total cost for running my fishroom. So be careful. Since the fishroom was built I have been collecting rainwater from the fishroom roof into 2 x 200 litre water butts and this has been sufficient for most of the time in a year with normal weather. Though this was with me keeping all my fry and Nothobranchius species in my very hard tapwater. So I have started to keep all of my killies in a 50:50 mixture of rainwater and tapwater to see if I get an improvement in the number of eggs I collect. Initial thoughts are that this change is helping. Recently I ran out of rainwater, even though we had only a week of dry weather after lots of heavy rain so had to do something different.
My fishroom is approx. 10ft x 8ft, so I was collecting the rainfall from 80 ft². Now the bungalow we bought 6 years ago already had a "rain catcher" on one of the down spouts which was quite near to my fishroom but really not enough room around it for a waterbutt without limiting access to the back garden. Therefore I purchased 15 metres of black ribbed hosing from Ebay, and fitted this to the "rain catcher" and ran it around my fishroom into my water butts. Now the house roof is approx. 60 ft x 30 ft, so I am collecting only half of this, but still that is 900 ft² which is more than 10 times what I collect from the shed. The first rains afterwards filled both 200 litre water butts, so we will see how this goes over the next few months. Only other alternative would be to add a RO unit. Well I had an hectic afternoon yesterday, and I could have spent the wasted time looking after my killies if only I had thought through the problem first.
I collect rainwater from my fishroom roof into 2 x 200 litre water butts for use in my tanks (normally 50:50 with my very hard tapwater), and then I pump this into a 80 litre storage container in the fishroom so it can warm up before using. Well I was experiencing problems in pumping this rainwater, very low or no flow at all. So I pulled the pump from the water butt, which was no easy task, as the butts are under some staging in a lean to greenhouse (don't we hobbyists like to keep adding things) but it seemed to be working fine. Tried putting the pump in a bucket of water, but again very low flow. Now the problems started, as I broke the outlet spigot on the pump. Did not have a replacement spigot, but did have another pump of a slightly different design, so spigots were not interchangeable. So ended up having to wire in the new pump, which was not an easy job, and still only a low flow. Thought the hose could be partially blocked, so linked up the garden hose to flush everything through. Still no improvement, so back to what I have should done initially. I checked the outlet pipe along it's length and found a kink where it went through the fishroom wall, which was easily fixed and now the rainwater pumping rate is very good. Should have thought the problem through before jumping in and trying to fix the wrong thing. My current list of fish in the fishroom is as follows,
I have been very quiet on here, during the summer months, on what was happening in the fishroom, so a few things to bring everyone up to date.
Quite a lot has changed over the last 8 months, and I will be writing (hopefully) in a bit more detail in future comments, but to give you some insight on what to expect, this is a list of my current thoughts,
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