Somehow, duckweed returned... (Summer fish tubs 12.vii.2024, part 1)

[@mongguppiesandendlers]

In your first tub i saw a damselfly on the plants. Keep an eye out for their larvae as they will eat small fish, fish fry, shrimp and just about anything they can catch. I would almost think that is why you aren't seeing fry in some of your tubs especially since they did so well last season. I had a whole colony of king kong yellow caridina (40 shrimp) wiped out by damselfly larvae last season. If you suspect that is the case, go out at night with a good flashlight and look for them. They hunt mostly at night and are excellent hunters. I am chancing it again this season as i have no way to cover my tubs, both bc i have nothing to cover them with and bc like your tubs i have taller marginal plants in mine. Next year we are hoping to build a screened in porch on the side of the house just for my tubs.

[@bathyphila]

Thanks for the head's up! I do get damselflies and other odonates in my tubs every year, but so far haven't had any major issues I could trace back to their presence. I think this is for a couple reasons: I believe most of the odonates in my area take a full year or more to go through their life cycle, so when I pull down tubs in the fall I've only seen 1/4in larvae. Also, I completely empty my tubs and store them dry over the winter, so I don't get the previous year's larvae predating on this year's fry. Most of the production issues I've been having this year can be traced to other causes, especially the Gold barbs and Hikari medakas. Also, for several species I don't typically see fry until late July or early August so I'm not overly concerned with predators at this point. We'll see how things ended up shaking out when I take down the tubs in September!

[@PureAndShrimple]

Hi, new sub! I'm hoping to start a tub soon. I feel your duckweed pain 😂

[@jay-remedy-plz]

I agree with not liking long finned varieties. Also the Temps are crazy high lately

[@bathyphila]

I wish that the 'Hirenaga' gene long fins ('Satan' is one of these types) had fins half as long as they end up reaching. It really impedes the fish's ability to swim, and makes them much more susceptible to fin rot. There is another long fin gene in medakas ('Rongu') which only effects the dorsal and anal fin, which seems like it would have less of a negative effect on the fish.

[@kovenant7]

Most of my plants just aren't growing. I think probably not enough sun. You seem to be getting direct full sun

[@foxsake3099]

Do you just leave the fry in with the adults - don't some of them get eaten? Or are the tubs planted heavily enough to give them lots of hiding places? Also, are you specifically feeding the fry or are they just finding enough to eat in the tubs. Great channel - I've just subscribed :)

[@bathyphila]

Looks like YT ate my previous reply: The fry stay in with the adults. I'm sure a few get eaten, but I usually end up with more than enough for my purposes. You absolutely could optimize things over what I do to increase fry production, but these tubs are just for my own enjoyment (though I do wholesale some of the fish to help cover costs). The plantings in the tubs provide cover for the fry, especially the water lettuce once its grown in. As for feeding, I feed twice a day (morning and evening. Adults and the larger juveniles get various flakes and YourFishStuff "Nano Crumble." I prefer to feed the fry 200-300 micron size "Golden Pearls," but YFS was out of stock when I was buying my food for the season so I grabbed some Aquarium Coop fry food as a substitute. Having switched back and forth between both products several times, I much prefer GP over the Aquarium Coop stuff. I think the real secret to getting fry going is having live foods in the tubs. All of my tubs have Daphnia in them, and I don't add fish in the spring until the colonies are booming. There are also lots of copepods, ostracods and aquatic insects the colonize the tubs each year and provide additional food.

[@foxsake3099]

@@bathyphila Thanks for your reply, some great info and advice here! I'm a novice medaka keeper with some of my first fry this summer so I'm trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks!