Rundle's fish house maintenance schedule
Expert fish breeder John Rundle gives us an insight into the maintenance schedules he uses for all of those breeding tanks.
Copyright © Practical Fishkeeping
Sunday is said to be the day of rest, but since closing down my large fish house and moving the tanks indoors into a small room next to my study, it is a day of work for me!
Sunday mornings are the time when I carry out a set maintenance schedule on my aquaria. The room consists of 22 tanks, plus additional containers that hold killifish eggs or fry and live food cultures.
The tanks set on wooden racking attached to the wall range from 90 x 30 x 30cm/36” x 12” x 12 “; 60 x 30 x 30cm/24” x 12” x 12” to 30 x 20 x 20cm/12” x 8” x 8”. At any time there could be up to 12 plastic tubs holding killifish fry and about another 12 holding killifish eggs.
Resting on the glass covers of the top row of tanks are live food cultures of microworm and Grindalworm and two bottles that contain my hatching brine shrimp.
In the tanks there are adult breeding stock and young fish that could go down in size to minute just free swimming fry.
Here’s the procedure I use to make sure the system is working and all the livestock remains in good condition.
The first thing that I do is to carry out a visual examination of all the stock and fry. This includes any fish that may be held in quarantine. This of course is something that I do every day, but Sundays would be the time to sort out broods of young fish for size and pick out any runts or deformed fish for culling.
Killifish
I adapted a method for keeping killifish fry healthy when held in small containers that have no aeration or filtration.The killifish I keep are all top spawners that hatch within 14 days such as Aphyosemion australe gold form, A. australe “Chocolate”, Aphyosemion bitaeniatum, Fundulopanchax gardneri makurdi, F. gardneri “Gold misage” and A. hera. The first job is to examine all the spawning mops for eggs; they are removed and placed in small round old plastic cream dishes.
Each dish has a label with the name of the fish and date the eggs were placed in the dish. When the fry hatch they are removed and placed into rectangular margarine or ice cream containers.
The water in the fry containers is taken from an established planted 75cm/30” tank that holds Gold A. australe and Corydoras panda. With the fry in situ I place a small clump of Java moss in the container.
I have examined the water with the Java moss under a powerful microscope in the marine lab where I work and found that it contains minute life and I am sure that this gives the newly hatched fry their first meal.
Next I add a few grains of Aqua Zorb. I feel that this helps to keep the water sweet. Every day live brine shrimp is fed to the fry in the container.
Dead brine shrimp can soon pollute the water and the Aqua Zorb helps to keep pollution down. Having said this I do remove any dead brine shrimp each day with a small pipette.
The last ingredient in the container is a few grains of aquarium salt crystals; this helps to buffer my very soft water and I am sure keeps away such things as the dreaded Velvet disease.
The fry are fed live brine shrimp nauplii and micro worm for one week until the next Sunday when the water is changed and the cycle is repeated again. I have carried out this routine for many years and it works very well.
A point to note is that the containers are not overcrowded, and when the fry reach about 5mm they are moved to tanks that have filtration.
Tanks
In my fish room tanks, I use three types of filtration and when a water change is carried out each filter is removed and cleaned.Commercial sponge type filters: The sponges are removed and rinsed in old tank water.
Commercial internal box filters: These are filled with medium grade aquarium gravel from the filter medium. The gravel is cleaned in old tank water and the box and grid cleaned in warm water.
Homemade internal filters: In my tanks I use old ice cream or margarine containers to hold the gravel filter medium. The other part of this set up is a plastic funnel.
On the front of each tank is a plastic clothes peg attached to the glass by silicone. In the jaws of the peg is card that contains information such as:
* Tank number
* Date of last water change
* What the tank holds (species etc)
* Date and dosage of any medication.
Most of the tanks are set up without a substrate, but at the moment I have two tanks with a gravel substrate.
One is a stock tank holding adult Barbatus catfish, Scleromystax barbatus and African darters from the genus Nannocharax. The other holds five dwarf cichlids Nannacara taenia which I hope to breed.
In the tanks I keep clumps of Java fern and Java moss. When changing water the plants are removed along with the filters.
Each tank on the system has an individual heaterstat which is turned off prior to changing water.
Because I can be a bit absent-minded I insert a card in the peg that reads “Heater is off” to remind me to turn the heater back on when the job is completed!
To remove the water I use a home made syphon to remove debris that has accumulated on the base of the tank.
The syphon works on exactly the same principle as the commercial gravel cleaners, but I have been using this method long before they were sold commercially.
About 25% of the water in a tank is changed – there are times when 100% is changed if a tank has been cleared of fish or a new breeding project is being set up.
Regular water changes are a must in my area, especially in bare tanks because the tapwater is very soft and this can cause a buffering problem and a drop in pH.
Normally on a Sunday morning I would service about 50% of the tanks. The tanks containing small fry may need a extra water change during the week.
Once the maintenance is finished, I feed all the fish.
Live foods
While I do check the microworm and Grindalworm cultures every day and also feed brine shrimp on a daily basis, Sunday is the time to maybe restart new worm cultures if production of worms is dropping.The water in the brine shrimp hatching bottles is also renewed. I use seawater and I find that this will last for a week before needing to be changed.
John Rundle 1129 (words, 11641 hits)Published online: 02.11.09
"I don't have access to any other shots of John's fish room in my archives, unfortunately. "
Posted by: Matt Clarke - 9 months, 3 weeks agoDate: Wednesday February 11th, 2009, 11:05 am
"I cant beleiev you cull perfectly healthy fish, i dnt mind if thewy are deformed just because there runts doesent mean there worthless, you treat them like they are worthless that is like you going to a home and culkling the smallest twin or smallest shild."
Posted by: Rhys Tomlin - 9 months, 2 weeks agoDate: Tuesday February 17th, 2009, 2:58 pm
"Excellent and informative article, as a breeder with around 14 tanks on the go of one species or another I know what Sundays are for and it isn't resting not if you have a full time job as well !
As for the culling of fish I don't do it unless I have to but I ensure that any deformed fish is not used for breeding.
In the end excess fish are sold to pet shops and they won't buy fish if they are deformed, you have to be practical.
Never used Aqua zorb but I'll check it out now."
Date: Thursday February 19th, 2009, 9:06 pm
"Rhys;
Healthy fish aren't culled. Culling fry that aren't perfectly healthy (and physically perfect) is what protects a breeding strain and ensures the quality of fish we are able to buy. "
Date: Friday February 20th, 2009, 11:29 am
"I understand where you are coming from, but, Just because people try to make a profit from breeding which i have done dosent mean deformed fish cannot be kept i have a cousin who keeps all my deformed fish while i am setting up a special tank for them and everyone of them has it's own characteristics, sometimes fish that are deformed are more interesting to keep. they are eye catchers and you dont need to breed form them if you do not wish."
Posted by: Rhys Tomlin - 9 months, 2 weeks agoDate: Friday February 20th, 2009, 1:16 pm
"Let's not spoil a good article by these critical comments. Unfortunately, thousands of fish are killed by the aquarium trade and by fishkeepers every week, accidentally for the most part. It's an inevitable consequence of shipping fish long distances and keeping them captive. If you are really that concerned then you should not keep fish. Captive breeding of fish helps to preserve wild stocks and reduces losses from importing fish. It also helps to reduce natural disease and parasites thet may be present in wild fish, so its swings and roundabouts. Culling of substandard fish is an important part of quality control. Those fish would be the first to be eaten in the wild anyway.
Thanks John for that insight into your regime."
Date: Friday February 20th, 2009, 3:31 pm
"Excelent article. Very informitave for a not so experienced breeder. I wil be using some of your ideas in our fish room.
Thanks John!!!!"
Date: Friday February 20th, 2009, 3:52 pm
"Wasn't this article in the PFK magazine?
"
Date: Wednesday February 25th, 2009, 9:34 am
"Very interesting article well explained,good tips for future breeders "
Posted by: Michelle Stapleton - 9 months agoDate: Sunday March 1st, 2009, 3:34 am
"nice article.
Alex"
Date: Monday March 2nd, 2009, 11:42 pm
"Rule number one of internet:
Don't enter into a debate with someone who can't type in sentences.
Nice article, thanks."
Date: Tuesday March 3rd, 2009, 1:29 pm
"A very well organized system, but being American, just can't make time for such a routine.
I just leave the eggs and fry in with the parents and on ocassion dip a few survivors out. Despite this I have thousands of fish. Must find hungrier adult pairs too many fry surviving.
Just poking a little fun, fact is I found your proceedures well thought out and most productive.
I realy do have too many fish, just ask my wife!"
Date: Monday March 9th, 2009, 10:45 pm
"Don't Kock what John does, my partner and I have known him through the aquatic and show world since 1990.
We even spent a spell in his club The Plymouth and District pond keeper and aquatic Society.
He is a very knowledgable man and a nice and imformative person to boot.
Keep up the good work, John and nice article very informative.
Hi to all we know in your Society.
Dave and Val"
Date: Monday April 20th, 2009, 10:52 pm
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 | John Rundle is one of the UK's top amateur fish breeders. He is the author of a number of books on fish breeding, livebearers and the preparation and production of live foods for aquarium fishes. John works for Plymouth University where he is currently involved in breeding cephalopods. |
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"Photo's would be interesting, is there anywhere to find them?"
Posted by: Wayne Simpson - 9 months, 3 weeks agoDate: Wednesday February 11th, 2009, 11:02 am