Fishroom Fysics

"Physics" might have been a difficult subject in high school or college. Why do we need this in the fish-keeping? This is using the natural laws of physics to work for you. Yes, work for you - do some tasks for you. Since fishes live in water, these physics-related tips would revolve around water - specifically, water change. Here are four 'concepts' that I find most useful:
1. Gravity. Things from up have to go down.
2. Balanced level. Water balances out to one level. Higher "levels" of water will flow to lower "levels" of water until both sides have the same level.
3. Sealed systems. In a sealed system, water will continuously flow as it becomes one mass.
4. Density. It is easier to suck up air (light things) than water (heavy things). If air gets in your system, it is no longer sealed and flowing stops.
All of them are connected so it is beneficial to see how they work together. The first three concepts are essential in making water flow. The last one is important as a fail-safe. For example, if you forget you were draining a tank, not all of the water will be sucked away and your fish will survive. The following images are simple designs that uses these concepts.

My contraption of hoses, switches and Y-joints. These help create a long sealed system and allow water to travel from one end of the fishroom to the other.

The high end draining water from aquarium. Gravity dictates that things from higher places goes down.

The low end flushing water to a pond. The water level (at the end of the hose) will never reach a balanced level with the water where it's draining from. Thus, water continuously flows.

Overflow with net so fish don't escape.

A smaller example. Water drains from a fry tank to a bucket using an air hose.

The draining end uses an airstone to prevent sucking in fry. The airstone has holes all around. The higher holes will suck air and thus un-seal the system and not all the water will be drained.

The draining end.

The filling end. Gravity, Balanced Level and Sealed Systems.

Rubber strips are useful for wrapping and sealing leaks.

I hope you get some ideas about using physics in your fishroom. There are other applications that I have not explored or discovered yet because what you might need may be different from what I need. Apply your ideas to what you find most useful.

Happy Fish Keeping!
EESDA

Building a Betta Sorority Tank

It's been a long time (very, very, very long time) since I last posted. Only recently, I had the time again to get back into fish keeping. 99% of us don't have the whole day to spend for fish keeping. Time-saving, effort-reducing and productivity-increasing have become the rules of the game. Keeping in line with that, I decided to set up a betta sorority tank again. This was how I have always done it until I became very busy and had very few fish left.

So, what is a betta sorority tank? It is a tank of female bettas. Just google "betta sorority tank", "female betta community tank" and other similar keywords. You'll find article after article about setting one up. For this article, I just want something free-flowing. I'll simply list down my experiences and some points on how I do things.

Tank.
1. I don't use tall aquariums and I always choose horizontally-shaped tanks.
2. Gravel or no gravel, it doesn't really matter.
3. I make sure that there are many different hiding places for the females. These are places where they can retreat and rest between fights. Hiding places I've used are coconut shells, driftwood, pots, clay tiles and live plants. There are other things you can use.
4. I don't use any aeration or filtration for any of my tanks.

Number.
1. For me, the minimum number of females for a sorority is five (5). If it's less than that, keeping them separate is manageable too.
2. I allot 1-2 gallons per female.
3. I haven't read an article yet that says it's alright to add new females to the sorority but I have done so in the past. Yes, there is the fighting but I've seen it mellow down in a few days.

Tankmates. I've had placed different tankmates for my female bettas. These include corydoras, rainbow sharks, guppies, angelfish and even goldfish. The females get out of the way of the bigger fish and ignore the bottom feeders. They do show some aggression to the guppies. The long fins and colorful patterns remind them of other bettas. In my experience, this does some good - the female bettas get distracted and show less aggression to others of its kind.

On breeding. I have taken females out of the sorority to breed them and then put them back afterwards. There is not much fuss with the females. They do remember tankmates but there might be some nipping as a reminder. It is as long as the returning female is in good shape. If not, then she might not be fit enough for the tank.

Feeding. I feed my sorority tank as I would any other tank. I drop the food in two or three places (only one if I'm rushing). Leftovers are cleaned up by the bottom feeders and the snails in the tanks.

That's about it. I just wanted to share. I hope you can find this useful in addition to whatever else you've read in your research.

Happy Fish Keeping!

My Flowerhorn

Bonee

Saia

I really like the short bodied-flowerhorn (aka bonsai flowerhorn). I prefer them over normal-bodied ones. I like them because they are more than the usual although they can be hard to find. Also, one of the challenges to bonsai flowerhorn is developing their nuchal hump/kok/head bump. If you have one with a kok (a well developed kok), you have quite a catch.

I am planning to breed these two fish together (Bonee is the male and Saia is the female). Saia is hinting some kok development and I want to further develop the kok in future generations. I am also planning to get a titanium/thai silk female to pair with Bonee because I want to develop the pearling pattern even more. Bonee is showing some very promising pearls. There are other strains that I plan to cross with my bonsai to develop the pearls namely the Heavy Metal strain and the Pinoy Super Perfect strain. Both local strains have very good, very big koks and will help develop the kok too. But, I wonder what the effect will be to the body of my bonsai...I might have to breed out the bonsai body again after generations of damage control.

Hey! I stumbled on this fish in a local forum. I really like the fine pearling on this fish. A friend of mine told me that redness will also help develop the kok. The redder the fish is, the bigger its kok could get. So, this could be a very good candidate and stands as the number one choice in outcross breeders. I just hope I find one that is a short body.

I'll give you updates when I breed them. I'm still trying to make space for a 50gal tank for them to breed and raise fry in.

Less Strains, Less Strain

It's been a while since I last posted. I've been busy with the fishroom then not busy [got sick]. During my sick days, I started to think how complicated it is to maintain a lot of lines. My dreams of getting a really large farm for my fish has faded because it can only come later. I now just want to maximize the tanks I have so far.

Here's a breakdown of my tanks:
3pcs 100gal tanks
3pcs 20gal tanks
4pcs 35gal tanks
8pcs 18"x18"x12"
30pcs 12"x18"x12"
1pc 36"x18"x12"
1pc concrete pond (around 55-70gal)
16pcs 4"x6"x8"


Here's what I'll use them for:
16pcs 4"x6"x8" = Male Individual Tanks: These tanks will be used as they are.

4pcs 35gal = Female Betta Community Tanks: I will have one tank for the form betta lines I will maintain. Formwise, most of the fishes will be halfmoon plakats (HMPK) carrying doubletail (dt). The offspring will be a mix of singletail (st) and dt fish. I will have one specific form line, CTPK. At first, I really segregated and diversified my lines numbering to more than fifteen. I decided that I should integrate some lines together.
1. Copper-based Line = Copper + Platinum + Pastel + Grizzle + Marble
Since my Marbles have red, I might inject some red loss genes or maybe even yellow. I have a copper-based spawn that produced no red in the offspring. The lineage is:
Copper DTPK x Copper DTPK             Copper DTPK x Red HM
               Copper Marble DTPK      x     Multicolor SD                    (half-sibling cross, same father)
                         Green marbled, no red expressed
2. Bicolor/Butterfly Line = Copper Red + Copper Orange + Copper Yellow + Platinum Red + Platinum Orange + Platinum Yellow + Cambodian + Butterfly + Blue Black Lace
I will be producing red/black butterfly bettas. To further integrate my lines, instead of using the red gene to produce the red color in my lines, I will use a combination of nr1 (yellow) and nr2 (orange) genes. A fish with nr1 and nr2 does not produce yellow nor orange but it produces red. Crossing two of these nr1nr2 fish will produce 25% yellow, 25% orange and 50% red in the offspring. I have all three colors in one combination.

For Lines 3 and 4, I do not really care about the color but am focusing on form. I will be solidifying the Pearlscale body and CTPK form.
3. Pearlscale Line = I just combined the different pearlscale lines I have = Copper + Marble + Platinum Red
Actually, these lines are very related. I have actually one male that started as a Copper but Marble-d out and now he is a Platinum Red. It's like magic.
4. Crowntail Plakat (CTPK) Line = CTPK line, any color/pattern
For this line, I specified "any color/pattern" because I want to fix the form. Currently, the colors of my CTPK are iridescent and metallic. However, if I see a CTPK with a really good form in the future, I will try to get it and if I do, I will not hesitate to breed it no matter what color it may be.

However, I do not intend to rigidly and strictly implement these divisions. I would like to keep my options open. I recently noticed a broad-dorsal female from my F2 CTPK line and that would perfectly match the broad-dorsal (almost sailfin) HMPK I have. I will not hesitate to cross them. Development could be hastened this way.