Surprise fry in the late season (Summer fish tubs 10.viii.2024)

[@jay-remedy-plz]

Post some video of the tear down. Let’s see what you decide to transfer to the fishroom.

[@bathyphila]

I'll definitely record taking the tubs down this year, though there's going to be one more update before I start doing that. Typically I process a few tubs every weekend though September, sometimes leaving a couple of the hardier ones into early October if the weather cooperates. It will be a good opportunity to show off what the fish actually look like as well, especially the ones that hang out at the bottom and aren't especially visible in the normal videos.

[@JMC-sx2vv]

Do you use any fertilizer for your water plants? Your water lettuce does so much better than mine (I have not been fertilizing). Are you using a certain type of soil in your pots? Does the soil have any fertilizer added? My 100 gallon tub keeps filling with string algae and my water lettuce did great for about a month and multiplied but they’re all melting back now.

[@bathyphila]

Here's how I set up my potted plants: filter floss on bottom (to prevent soil from leaking out), organic compost (I get it from a local CSA farm, but the bags you can buy from a garden center should work too), then gravel or Saf-T-Sorb as a cap layer. If I'm not repotting a plant in the spring I'll poke a little finger sized hole in the soil and put in maybe a teaspoon or so of Osmocote pellets and cover them over. Note that you need to make sure the Osmocote is covered by substrate or it could leach ammonia into the water! Lastly, when I first set up the tubs I give them a big dose of Aquarium Coop Easy Green liquid fertilizer to give a boost to my green water, but I don't add any additional ferts after the fish are in the tubs. As for hair/string algae, I constantly have problems with that early in the season before the plants have established themselves. The best advice I can give is wait it out, manually removing it when it gets thick if possible. Of course manual removal is a risk in itself: you can very easily end up pulling out fish eggs or even fry in the process, so I often just grit my teeth and wait for the plants (especially water lettuce) to out compete it. As for water lettuce not doing well: I've found it often dies back if it gets overcrowded, so I regularly pull some of it out during the peak of season. Hope that helps!

[@JMC-sx2vv]

@@bathyphila Thank you so much for taking the time to reply with this much information. I appreciate it very much. I look forward to continuing to follow along on your tubbing progress.