Put the Lime in the Coconut and Shake it All Up

The Sarassas were spawning like crazy this morning.  I netted out the couple I like the most and that were the most interested in spawning.  She was very ripe so I decided to hand spawn them in to petri dishes.  There were about a tablespoon of eggs and the male provided ample milt. It's extremely easy and does not harm the fish.

If a female is ready her stomach will be mush. I hold her in one had at the head end of her ovaries and apply firm pressure with your thumb and forefinger from both sides moving to the tail, eggs just come spilling out. If you only get a few and you're pressing give her another day to ripen. I look for eggs and find the female they are coming from.

Same process for the male just requires a bit more pressure.

I collect the eggs first, then squeeze the male on them then add a bit of water to the dish and swish around. If there are to many eggs for one dish I pour them into another dish back and forth and as they start to adhere they get a fairly uniform distribution.

Milt and Eggs

Put them in a small tank with aeration and I add Methylene Blue about 6 hours after they are fertilized. The benefit of hand spawning is that you get all the eggs in a small area in a short time so they all hatch together and make it easier to give them lots of food and water. They can be upwards of and inch long at one month.

The Female

The Male


The Result

A video of them after I put them in the tank.  I might have to isolate the females because he still wants more eggs.

http://www.youtube.com/v/MsNn-zThAIE&hl=en&fs=1

240 Gallon Glass Cage's Frameless Tank

Yet another former reef tank makes it into the Goldfish Garage. It's
a 240 gallon Glass Cage's Frame-less tank (8 feet x 2 feet x 2 feet)
that weighs about 500 pounds. This makes 4 monster tanks, they were
once large reefs but are now large clear ponds. I'm starting to
think of myself as the Grim Reefer, the undertaker who brings dead
reef tanks to the nether world of the Goldfish Garage.

Drove an hour to pick up the tank. Brought it home, had the guys
help put it into place and filled it with water 24 hours after
getting it home. There are a few large Sarassas stretching thief
fins in it. It has two over flow towers with two bulkheads each.
One will be plumbed to the goldfish system and the other to the
Tanganyikan Cichlid system with one of the spare bulkheads going
straight to drain. This way with just a stand pipe or cap and the
turn of a valve it's use can be changed from central goldfish,
cichlid or quarantine flow through.

Cold Hardy Old School Black Moors

Just came in, some healing to do but over all a very nice batch of fish.

The New Racking

As part of the new expansion I've been searching for a new fish rack. Well I finally found a great readily available unit at Costco. It's cross bars are a full 6 feet between the rails and a bit more if you center the tank front to back. They hold 2,000 pounds per shelf and are very easy to set up.

You can't front load a 6 foot tank but you can assemble the rack, disconnect the shelves from one leg allowing you to open the rack just enough to put the tank on the rack. I bought 4 units, two of which hold the new 6 foot by 4 foot tank (with 2x 6 foot tanks under it and storage above) and two units along one wall. 

With 4 shelves per system I have extras so you can connect the two units together forming 3 sections of racking. I put 5/8 plywood and firing strips between the metal grating and the tanks for a solid surface.

The 6x4 tank didn't fit on the two back to back racks as I had hoped
but we came up with a 1.8 inch polycarbonate shim that fit between
the shelves and the uprights that gave an additional 1/4 inch that
was very needed.

A Couple Big Tanks and Sump, adding 1,000 gallons

A friend of mine had a small reef shop for a couple years. These tanks have been on his back porch for a couple more so I bought them from him.

This is a 300 gallon 4 foot x 4 foot x 32 inch acrylic with a black
back wall an over flow tower. There will be two 75/90 gallon tanks
under it. This will be plumbed into my Tanganyikan Cichlid system
which consists of a 8 foot 340 gallon tank, a 4 foot 120 and a large
sump. It will house a colony of Mpibwe Frontosa (gerberosa).

This is a 320 gallon 6 foot x 4 foot x 20 with a over flow tower. There are two 120 gallon 6 foot tanks under it. It will be on the main goldfish system.

They form an island 10 feet long and 4 feet wide in the fishroom where the 4x 100 gallon rubbermaid tubs once were. I think it was a good trade, 400 gallons for 1,000 gallons in the same space. There is room for a few tanks above the 4 x 6 tank but I think I'll use it for storage.

As part of the deal I purchase several really nice tanks including this which will be my new sump (all roads or pipes lead to Rome). It is on feet so you can pass pipes under it. It is 48 x 42 x 30 (24 inside measurement) holding 210 gallons but will only have about 15 inches of water in it once it's plumbed as it is taller than my lowest tanks.

As part of this week long project (Thank you Javier, Norm, Bill and Mark for all your help, I couldn't have done it without you!) I removed my 5 gallon racks that have just become obsolete) moved the 15x 20 tall rack (under the red angel fish) into their place leaving a narrow but passable isle at the end of this isle. There are no long any dead ends in the room.

The wall in the picture above has been completely remodeled.  The old racks were replace with a new inter locking metal racking.  It is easily adjustable and holds 2000 pounds per shelf.  I'm still working out the configuration of this wall but it will hopefully include as many 6 foot tanks as possible as this is the spacing of the racking.

Constant Level Device

This is the original constant level siphon that is the predecessor to pvc continuous siphons and over flow boxes.  Originally made of borosilicate glass tubing with a hold melted as the siphon brake.  Simple U tubes were used to connect tanks on the same shelf with this device on the end to allow water to flow back to sump or drain.

Blue Egg Phoenix

Here are a few of my fish.

Blue Egg Phoenix

The Blue Egg Phoenix.  BEP.

New Fish on Aquabid

New Auctions are up Click Here.

Short Tail Ryukins

The Chocolate

The Sarassa

Cherry Head

White Sided

The Red

The Calico