[Aquaseafoam]

I started the “Outdoor Tubbin” thread just below this one so set up is the same. However this time I live in a townhouse with no yard so I just have 3 of the smaller, 20 gallon blue tubs.

I used a tub, a few handfuls of sand from the old tub for plants to root in, jungle val, some floating plants and some water lilly bulbs.
Let it sit overnight for temp to stabilize and make sure it doesn’t leak… acclimate and add fish!
I put hardware cloth over mine to keep the many feral cats (and pesky neighbor kids) out of it, but not screen so that insects can still get in to provide live food for the fish/fry.

I’ll try to get some pics soon. It’s been raining nonstop all weekend- major flooding going on around here. I could release some fish in the yard at this point.

[Aquaseafoam]

@Luke* wrote:

great reading thanks! i was just thinking about doing this down here in new zealand over summer. one question is we should ask is is the yield higher spawning them outside than inside? inside you can use an egg trap, breed a pair, then remove the parents… this could be done outside too though. anyway hopefully i will find out

Well, in my case I got NO fry from the fish I kept inside. They never seemed to thrive and didn’t color up like the ones outside. They didn’t eat well either, even frozen foods and live were a lot of trouble.

I had tons of java moss in their tub though for the fry to hide in, it grew so much it almost completely filled the 20 gallon I moved them to in the fall.
Upon returning them inside they continued to have fry and ate prepared foods well.

[Aquaseafoam]

I’m going to say no, but explain why
I can’t say yes without knowing how many tetras, danios and swordtails are already in the tank. Your swordtails sound like they are stunted, this can be from keeping them in a tank too small for them, or in crowded conditions or in water of poor quality.
IF this is the case, I would not add any additional fish to an already overstocked tank- no matter how small they are;)
again- thats why i’m asking since you didn’t day how many fish are in there or how often you do water changes, filtration… etc.

[Aquaseafoam]

Have you tested the pH and hardness of your tank water? the shell substrate could be raising both.

[Aquaseafoam]

great shots! those little guys are hard to capture on camera.

[Aquaseafoam]

Do you have a test kit to measure the actual level of ammonia nitrite and nitrate? those would be helpful in determining if your water is actually “fine”. I have found my rcs to be pretty hardy, so I wouldn’t assume that they would die before you fish get sick.

[Aquaseafoam]

dropsy is a symptom of another underlying cause.. problem is, the cause can vary.
here is a link with a little more information
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hddropsy.htm

[Aquaseafoam]

You are right.. I want as many fry to hatch and survive as possible so perhaps I should forgo this set up right now.
I might just put the gouramis and kuhlis in the endler’s livebear’s tank though, they sure don’t need any help in fry production.

[Aquaseafoam]

I love sand
all the dirt stays on top so you really just need to skim the surface with the gravel vac and it will suck it up, even if you disturb the sand, sucking up a little bit won’t hurt.

[Aquaseafoam]

thanks!
Oh yeah, I can’t wait til about April when I can put some fish back outside. I bought a 300 gallon stock tank too :shock:
I don’t know what I’ll put in that, probably the rainbows and something else??
After seeing how great my CPD pair looks that was out there, they are definitely going back out.
I might put some Endler’s back out… there are some sparkling gouramis at my lfs I’ve had my eye on forever!
Any other ideas?

[Aquaseafoam]

75 Gallon
Blue Acara-Aequidens pulcher
Flag Fish – Jordanella floridae
Yoyo Loach – Botia almorhae
Siamese algae eater – Crossocheilus siamensis
Dwarf Neon Rainbow – Melanotaenia praecox

75 Gallon
Honduran Red Point – Cryptoheros sp.

29 Gallon
Guppy – Poecilia reticulata
GuppyxEndler hybrid – XX
SAE

20 Gallon
Peppermint shrimp – Lysmata wurdemanni
Red legged hermit crab- Clibanarius digueti?
Blue legged hermit crab- Clibanarius tricolor
white mini brittle star – ??
margarita snail – Margarites pupillus
corals – ??????

20 Gallon
Celestial Pearl Danio – Celestichthys margaritatus

10 Gallon
Endler’s Livebearer -Poecilia wingei

10 Gallon
CT Betta – Betta splendens

Other
Red cherry shrimp -Neocaridina denticulata sinensis
Rainbow shrimp -Palaemon hendersoni
Amano shrimp – Caridina japonica
Ramshorn snail -Planoribis rubrum
Malaysian Trumpet snail – Melanoides tuberculata

[Aquaseafoam]

I was going to say Aurora looks like an Australian bow, but you figured it out months ago! lol
Just wanted to add that I also keep M. praecox

[Aquaseafoam]

Nice shots!
Congrats on the fry too

[Aquaseafoam]

cd,
I’m thinking that by the time it is warm enough to ship this spring I will have enough to share Comparing to Glen’s amazing photos I have some fry in the 3-4 week range, which means they are spawning inside too

ste,
I had many rainbow fry, and endler’s livebearers. No sign of the swordtails or any bluefin killis. there was a frog in the wading pool, so I don’t know if it was responsible for some missing fish or not. the swordtail hadn’t ever had babies for me, so I don’t know if it was something wrong with them? I bought two cool looking male guppies today to breed with some female endlers.. I am anxious to see what their offspring will look like. they are separate from my pure endler’s population of course.

[Aquaseafoam]

Sorry, I have been away!
All the CPDs are inside now. The adult pair, especially the male looks amazing! I’ve tried to get good pictures to no avail- they are hard fish to photograph to say the least.
I didn’t feed them anything outside, they ate organisms in the water and probably lots of mosquito larvae.
When I brought them inside (it gets too cold to leave them out) I had the original pair, and at least 15 or so juvie/fry. Hard to count them, I just drained most of the water out of the tub and then dumped the rest.. moss, shrimp, snails and fish into a 20 gallon tank. The moss basically fills the 20 gallon tank.
I bought 6 new fish from the LFS, hoping to introduce new genes- I bought them out last time and this is the first shipment of CPD they’ve gotten since.
Now I still can’t count the fish, but it seems like even more. It could be that they are now comfortable in the tank and come to the front like piranhas to eat!
Now I’m feeding them flakes (beefheart, earthworm, spirulina) and they eat some tetramin tablets meant for the shrimp/snails. I’ve been meaning to get some live blackworms for a while now. I feed them once a day.

I’ll post the pictures I did manage to get in the photo forum

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