To water change or not to water change

Nat's Fish

Member
Nov 14, 2011
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The rain stopped and I ended up just refilling each tank with treated tap water. The female left the cave without eggs but will hopefully go back in after being fed tonight
Do you guys mean testing the rainwater for ammonia or nitrates etc?
 

dw1305

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May 5, 2009
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Hi all,
Do you guys mean testing the rainwater for ammonia or nitrates etc?
If you are worried about the quality of your rain-water you can use Daphnia as a "Bioassay". <http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Business/daphnia208_1669241.pdf>

All you need to do is add some Daphnia to the rain-water and leave them over-night. If the Daphnia are swimming around in the morning, the water is OK.

Our rain-water has a bit of limestone dust in it and I can keep a Daphnia culture in the water butts, but if your water is really soft they don't so well.

cheers Darrel
 
Last edited:

Nat's Fish

Member
Nov 14, 2011
514
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Hi all,
If you are worried about the quality of your rain-water you can use Daphnia as a "Bioassay". <http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Business/daphnia208_1669241.pdf>

All you need to do is add some Daphnia to the rain-water and leave them over-night. If the Daphnia are swimming around in the morning, the water is OK.

Our rain-water has a bit of limestone dust in it and I can keep a Daphnia culture in the water butts, but if your water is really soft they don't so well.

cheers Darrel
Thanks Darrel. It took me a year to find frozen daphnia around me but I think I know someone who sells the live ones a couple of hours away

The poor female left the cave but went back in for the past couple of days
Still no eggs. I might do another water change with rain water today
 

Nat's Fish

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Nov 14, 2011
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The rain water seems ok and none of the readings were usual. I didn't know if there were tests I didn't know about so just used the testers in my API test kit :)
Thank you
 

Nat's Fish

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Nov 14, 2011
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Just another update
I did a water change yesterday with 25% rain water, fed brine shrimp overnight & left the heater off allowing the temp to drop to about 25.5

The female left the cave overnight & the male is now in a new cave. The females are all gravid but I don't think the males are serious.
I'm going to stop the rainwater, do weekly 30% tap water changes & 50% if it's raining & storming. Otherwise I will leave them alone. Very frustrating fish & I'm just an idiot for not recording the water parameters I bred them in when I first got 134's. I was so stupid moving them to a new tank too but I guess learning along the way is what it's all about!
Thanks :)
 

Allfinsfishy

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Feb 22, 2014
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Don't stress !

A wise man once told me patience is the key (;

I'm in the same boat to with my 201s she's Gravid keeps going in an out and no eggs ): makes me wanna cry did all the same as u even let temp drop to 24
 

Nat's Fish

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Nov 14, 2011
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A wise man once told me patience is the key (;

I'm in the same boat to with my 201s she's Gravid keeps going in an out and no eggs ): makes me wanna cry did all the same as u even let temp drop to 24
Hahaha the wise man that helped you get your Pepps to breed? Haha.
I'm glad I could help you with that but 134's can be so much more stubborn, especially now people are driving the price down so much.
I'll be patient & let them do their thing but they better not take too long haha
 

leisure_man

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Mar 24, 2014
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3rd Rock from the Sun
I do daily water change with cooler water. I keep my tank temperature high and the L134s breed like roaches. Females are always lining up by the males' caves. I just saw another female in and out within a day. She left with a scrape mark down the side and a thin belly.

 

Nat's Fish

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Nov 14, 2011
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Sounds like yours are doing great. Mine bred twice straight away but stopped when I moved them! :( How much water do you change & how high is your temp?
Thanks a lot
 

leisure_man

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Mar 24, 2014
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3rd Rock from the Sun
Water in the tank is around 84F. Water change is automated with around 15% with water at 76F, but they breed regardless if they get the daily water change or not (since I put in the programming that if the storage tank temperature is less than 74F, skip the water change). My WC L134 breeding group has over 14 of them with 5 males so the daily water change is to keep the water quality up rather than trying to induce breeding. I have moved the group 3 times into different tanks and they never stop breeding. In fact, I had to move a female trapped in the cave with a male once, they spawned the very first night in the new tank. I poured out the water in the cave and they still wouldn't come out, stubborn little guys. You may want to increase their daily ration, if your female is not laying, she is just not 'fat' enough. When they are super gravid like my females, it is like 'wham bam thank you ma'am', in and out within a day. Some of my males are so busy with eggs, they cant even come out of cave since other females are trying to get in, so the males would eat some of the eggs when hungry. You can tell which male is eating the eggs by looking at their poop. Fortunately, there are still plenty of fry in the caves, in fact I have to clean out the fry every month of so, otherwise, the little ones get out compete by their bigger siblings as they grow much faster than Hypancistrus. I am thinking about selling some of the breeding stock to 'thin down' the herd and get them to a manageable size.
 

fishy

Member
Dec 18, 2011
50
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sydney
/

Hi all,
If you are worried about the quality of your rain-water you can use Daphnia as a "Bioassay". <http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Business/daphnia208_1669241.pdf>

All you need to do is add some Daphnia to the rain-water and leave them over-night. If the Daphnia are swimming around in the morning, the water is OK.

Our rain-water has a bit of limestone dust in it and I can keep a Daphnia culture in the water butts, but if your water is really soft they don't so well.

cheers Darrel
not worried just trying collect info on other methods results members members have example your suggestion we always learning .thank u
 

fishy

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Dec 18, 2011
50
0
6
sydney
Water in the tank is around 84F. Water change is automated with around 15% with water at 76F, but they breed regardless if they get the daily water change or not (since I put in the programming that if the storage tank temperature is less than 74F, skip the water change). My WC L134 breeding group has over 14 of them with 5 males so the daily water change is to keep the water quality up rather than trying to induce breeding. I have moved the group 3 times into different tanks and they never stop breeding. In fact, I had to move a female trapped in the cave with a male once, they spawned the very first night in the new tank. I poured out the water in the cave and they still wouldn't come out, stubborn little guys. You may want to increase their daily ration, if your female is not laying, she is just not 'fat' enough. When they are super gravid like my females, it is like 'wham bam thank you ma'am', in and out within a day. Some of my males are so busy with eggs, they cant even come out of cave since other females are trying to get in, so the males would eat some of the eggs when hungry. You can tell which male is eating the eggs by looking at their poop. Fortunately, there are still plenty of fry in the caves, in fact I have to clean out the fry every month of so, otherwise, the little ones get out compete by their bigger siblings as they grow much faster than Hypancistrus. I am thinking about selling some of the breeding stock to 'thin down' the herd and get them to a manageable size.
well done and thanks for sharing you handy info
 

fishy

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Dec 18, 2011
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sydney
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Sounds good thanks Mason.
I don't know if I should do daily water changes of all my tanks with a week of storms & heavy rain & what percentage?
I'll catch the rainwater directly into plastic buckets. It's meant to be up to 80mm of rain here in Cronulla today!
now you should have plenty of ideas as plenty handy info provided by fellow members good luck natt
 

Nat's Fish

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Nov 14, 2011
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Thank you very much. Your fish sound like great breeders
We can't get a lot wild caught here & it's difficult to get the correct temp etc the fish were kept in previous tanks.
My fish are showing a lot of positive signs but didn't seem to like rain water as the female left the cave each time.
I might bump the heat up a bit tonight & do a cool water change tomorrow and see how I go. There's 3-4 females that look ready to go & spend a lot of time sitting outside caves.
The most likely were the trio I separated. The colony don't seem to fight but I am thinking of dividing them up too. I'll give them a few months
Thanks again
 

Bigjohnnofish

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Apr 15, 2010
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Perth, Western Australia
your tap water over there is perfect for breeding fish - wouldnt even waste my time with rain water.....

134's like a change followed by stability and plenty of food then they get busy...

stability could be a large volume tank with no water changes... or a small tank with daily water changes... either way seems to work for me....
 

leisure_man

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Mar 24, 2014
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3rd Rock from the Sun
I also keep a strong light on the tank to promote brown algae in the tank. That is the first food for the L134 fry. As they get bigger, they will start to eat the same prepared food I provide for the adults. As the population of fry increases, even the bigger fry will get territorial like guarding their patch of anubias plants against other fry which will cause the newer smaller fry to suffer. That's when is time to go catch all the babies.
 

Nat's Fish

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Nov 14, 2011
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Thanks again. I think I will leave the rain water. My water here is pretty soft and I can't see us getting rain that heavy again for a while anyway.
I will do a big change today and leave them for a week.
If the big females haven't popped in a few weeks I'll try a week of daily changes and then leave them a week
Thanks :)
 

fishy

Member
Dec 18, 2011
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sydney
/

your tap water over there is perfect for breeding fish - wouldnt even waste my time with rain water.....

134's like a change followed by stability and plenty of food then they get busy...

stability could be a large volume tank with no water changes... or a small tank with daily water changes... either way seems to work for me....
nice to know. if our water is perfect i wonder how water is your way johnno i bet needs your magic work to make it perfect like water our way personally i hate attempting lower or higher ph takes a lot of experience i still kind of stuff it up at times that is why i only do 1 tank with less expensive ls water change first then the others but now with this news i may just stick to what you suggested johnno as i looking to for first time to have 002 and 397 eggs thought need rain water are these same suggestion as 134 johnno your advice would be awesome thanks. note these may be breed by hundreds others and may be old news less excitement but to me to get them breed means a lot to me as have been trying while now and really love them two numbers