r/medaka

Maybe a bit of a humble brag post but I started this year vowing to get started with live food including moina. I first started with vinegar eels, and when that was a bit lacklustre I decided I was going to try moina. I failed so many times with getting a green water culture, and so I found a guide to culture them in jars with snails. It works, it keeps a stable population, but not enough to feed to my breeding medaka.

Then I found a Japanese guide where you mix some hyponex fertilizer with tank water, 1ml per 5 litres. Left it outside in the sun in a white bucket. Bam, water the colour of strong green tea after 3 days. I poured it into some jars with maybe a few moina in there and forgot about them... Until this week where I went to check on them. I have too many moina, send help. I fed all my fish nothing but moina for days and now they all have bloated fat happy stomachs. I'm going to fast all the fish over the weekend, but then I'll be left with an explosion of moina again.

I also went back to check my vinegar eels culture and it's now so strong that the eels are climbing up the sides of the bottle, and I harvest them with a sponge and ziptie by scraping the sides.

So happy with the results so if anyone needs advice I can help.

As this is my first year with medaka and summer now in it's peak here in the states, Georgia is hitting around 90-100ºF daily with water in my spare containers almost getting up to ~115ºF (ponds housing fish ~80-90ºF), what are some way's I can provide cooler temperatures for my ponds?

Some things I've done already:
I have my fish in semi deep tote containers ~10-20 gallons to help with temperature swings. I have lots of floating plants to provide shade. I also put tote lids perpendicular to the opening of the tote so that half of the container is shaded by the lid as well. I don't really have a "shady" area in my backyard, so the best I could provide in terms of shade is a shade cloth.

Any other tips?

Today I learned that wild rice is an aquatic grass, as compared to paddy rice that grow in shallower water and can’t be submersed. Since I keep my fish in an indoor tank rather than a pond, I’m wondering if adding a wild rice plant into my tank (I have a nutrient-rich planted setup) is doable since I can’t afford dropping the water level for regular paddy rice.

I want to sort of mimic the tanada, Japanese rice paddy tank look, but with something native to my region, like wild rice. My medaka are in a 20 gal, so for the sake of space (and to avoid over-competition with other plants), I can probably only add one for now to see how it matures then go from there. I’m not really interested in harvesting much, just want to do it to see if it helps fry survive better and kind of bored.

Can’t build a pond since I’m going away.

Has anyone done this, and if you have, did it work for you? What does it look like? Thanks!

This is a stupid question, but please bear with me.

So a week ago I put ten tiny fish in a big 200 liters outdoor container, and I gave them way too many hiding places (plants, rocks etc). Now I almost regret my decision - which is why I'm here. It's my first time keeping fish, I read a lot and watched many videos in preparation, trying to offer them optimal conditions. I've been checking the water almost daily, everything seems ok.

The stupid question is: HOW DO I KNOW ​WHETHER OR NOT THE LITTLE SH*TS ARE ALIVE, IF THEY'RE HIDING??!!

A few days ago I sat next to them for about half an hour and managed to count at least 7, but since then I only see 2-3 at a time. It's driving me insane.

If they die, will I find them floating on the surface, or will I just have to wait until the water smells of fish-soup-gone-bad? Is there anything I can do? I tried luring them with food, but I think the mosquitoes are already feeding them too well.