Shady's Latest Dumbassary

[ShadyStump]

Years ago, I raised thousands of Bettas and Gold fish for pocket money. The fighting Siam bettas were highly prized and brought a lot money. I remember going to the Betta fish fights and bought the injured ones that the bettors discarded for cheap. Then I brought them home, treated their wounds, and used them for breeding.

I imagine my kids would be interested in the breeding end of things, but we'd have to get a much more comprehensive and expansive setup first. Does sound fun, though.

 

[Cajunrider]

That is extremely intriguing!!!

How do you observe for these traits?

There must be SO many notes to take!!

Sounds really fun!

That was the very reason for me to attend the fights and to buy the fish with known traits. Every brood of bettas usually yields about 100 - 200 fish but only about 5-10 are suitable to fight. I observed the babies when they grew and selected the dominant ones and raised them in solitary. The rest of the brood were sold at $.25 for females, $.50 for males for children to raise as pets. The fighters were sold for $20 to $100 (1970's dollar value) depending on their trait and their track record as fighters.

Now that I am older and in a different world, that practice seems cruel but back then it was my means for making money.
PS: It was kind of funny when I could buy those wounded fish for $2-$5. Most people at that time didn't know how to treat the wound and the fish often died so they sold those wounded one for cheap. Knowledge of using antibiotic to treat the fish back then was my secret. Proof that a little knowledge goes a long way eh? Furthermore, if a fish lost bad, it often lost the edge and were more prone to give up in a fight. Some of them made full recovery once they got healthy and being confined in a solitary tank for a while. Some never did. Regardless, most of them were used for breeding. BTW, bettas males protected the eggs and raised the babies. During that time, they seldom eat and got super skinny. A male bettas can only raise about 5 broods max in his lifetime. The females are a different story. They are ready for a new batch of eggs every few months and can do at least 10 broods in its life.

 

[Carol 83]

So, you may have heard - or maybe not - about my kids going out with friends about a month ago, and nearly a dozen goldfish following them home.

I asked in the Tea House about fishtank advice, but no takers.

YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!!

Anyways, we're sick of changing the water in the pickle jars twice a week.
View attachment 472321

My dad just happened to have a 20 gallon tank sitting around, and I had a little pond/fountain pump taking up space in the shed. Seemed like a good start.
Just needed some substrate for the bottom of the tank. We live in the ROCKY Mountains. Why would we pay for sand?
View attachment 472322
That's why.
And that's AFTER allot of washing.

We anticipated the need for a filter, though, and had root beer floats for dessert last night. A bit of polyfil and some more sand - extra washed this time - and voila!
View attachment 472323

It's working!
...ish
View attachment 472324

I decided we needed more mechanical filtration, and also that the pump noise bothered me. Two birds, one finger... I mean stone.
One small coffee can for the inner housing, another larger on for the outer. Outer housing only has intake holes in the side that's now the bottom.View attachment 472326
Stuffed the intermediary space with polyfil, slapped the lid on. It likes to float if you move it, so a rock for now.
draws water in THROUGH the substrate as additional filtering.
View attachment 472327
The pump outpaces the filter bottle by allot, but the aeration is good I guess.

By the time I get the water clean I can definitively say that the tank has been cycled.

Anyone know a tree species that'll live happily in a floating raft in a fishtank? Tropical willow of some sort maybe?

Pretty resourceful.

 

[Carol 83]

Anyone know a tree species that'll live happily in a floating raft in a fishtank?

For awhile peace lilies in a vase filled with water and a Beta in them were all the rage. Not a bonsai though.

 

[ShadyStump]

For awhile peace lilies in a vase filled with water and a Beta in them were all the rage. Not a bonsai though.

I remember those. Someone decided it was inhumane because some people would leave no room to feed the fish and it would have to survive on the plant roots.
It was an easy fix, just like greyhound racing, but there's no compromising with the self-righteous.

 

[HorseloverFat]

That was the very reason for me to attend the fights and to buy the fish with known traits. Every brood of bettas usually yields about 100 - 200 fish but only about 5-10 are suitable to fight. I observed the babies when they grew and selected the dominant ones and raised them in solitary. The rest of the brood were sold at $.25 for females, $.50 for males for children to raise as pets. The fighters were sold for $20 to $100 (1970's dollar value) depending on their trait and their track record as fighters.

Now that I am older and in a different world, that practice seems cruel but back then it was my means for making money.
PS: It was kind of funny when I could buy those wounded fish for $2-$5. Most people at that time didn't know how to treat the wound and the fish often died so they sold those wounded one for cheap. Knowledge of using antibiotic to treat the fish back then was my secret. Proof that a little knowledge goes a long way eh? Furthermore, if a fish lost bad, it often lost the edge and were more prone to give up in a fight. Some of them made full recovery once they got healthy and being confined in a solitary tank for a while. Some never did. Regardless, most of them were used for breeding. BTW, bettas males protected the eggs and raised the babies. During that time, they seldom eat and got super skinny. A male bettas can only raise about 5 broods max in his lifetime. The females are a different story. They are ready for a new batch of eggs every few months and can do at least 10 broods in its life.

That's SOOOO COOL!!!

 

[ShadyStump]

New batches of cuttings started.

A somewhat random assortment of fern, gardenia and rose of Sharon.


And some Mormon tea to experiment on.

 

[ShadyStump]

Started some big tooth maple seeds cold stratifying in the fridge a few weeks ago, then got my curly leaf mountain mahogany seeds finally.

Just now getting those prepped. Only so much info on what sort of treatment they do best with, but what little I found suggested a short soak in sulfuric acid. I don't have any, and am not inclined to buy a whole bottle for a single ounce of it, so I experimented with what I had.

Three days soak in a warm dark place in H²O² 3% solution.

Then about 60 to 90 days cold stratification. Sources vary on the time.

I kept half a side that I just did an overnight warm water soak on. This is my control.
Will play by ear on the time.

 

[penumbra]

Always enjoy your posts. You are a circle within a circle to me.....

 

[ShadyStump]

Back in early December, during the town Christmas parade, my youngest daughter - 6 at the time - discovered that the trees lining Main Street were Bradford pears, and kept trying to pick the tiny fruit that still hung from them. She eventually broke off a whole branch. I gave her a mild scolding about how to treat public property, and we took the stick home with us. I figured I'd plant some cuttings, but none struck, and all desiccated.

I was going to try again, but never got around to it, but the branch has remained in in a can of water on the shelf all winter.

This morning while checking on the plants and trees I thought I saw extra green somewhere, didn't have a chance to look closer until I'd dropped the kids off at school.
That's when I saw this.


Three months later under all the wrong conditions! If I see roots I'm i'mma crap myself.

 

[penumbra]

Back in early December, during the town Christmas parade, my youngest daughter - 6 at the time - discovered that the trees lining Main Street were Bradford pears, and kept trying to pick the tiny fruit that still hung from them. She eventually broke off a whole branch. I gave her a mild scolding about how to treat public property, and we took the stick home with us. I figured I'd plant some cuttings, but none struck, and all desiccated.

I was going to try again, but never got around to it, but the branch has remained in in a can of water on the shelf all winter.
View attachment 476009
This morning while checking on the plants and trees I thought I saw extra green somewhere, didn't have a chance to look closer until I'd dropped the kids off at school.
That's when I saw this.
View attachment 476010

Three months later under all the wrong conditions! If I see roots I'm i'mma crap myself.

I wouldn't count on roots forming better just in case, keep the toilet tissue handy.

 

[Colorado]

Yeah I have had a lot of cuttings leaf out, then stall and die. No roots discovered upon “autopsy” lol

However, it’s a good sign and hope it grows some roots for ya! I love the flowers on Bradford pear.

 

[ShadyStump]

I really don't expect it to root, just surprised it's actually budding and still acting healthy after 3 months. I only kept it this long thinking I could learn from how it died, but maybe now I'll try a couple cuttings.

 

[ShadyStump]

Single dad fail: Totally missed that the school Science Fair is the 31st, and my 1st grader and I barely got started.

Single dad win: Totally doing it anyway, AND it is relevant to the interests of a bonsai forum.

We're growing marigolds in orbeez!

One of regular potting soil as a control, and one each of regular water, sugar water, coffee, and MiracleGro.

There was one of salt water, but those didn't hardly expand, so we scratched that.
The coffee took a very long time to expand, sugar coming in second to that. The fertilizer seemed to also take a long time, but then we realized there were fewer orbeez in that one, so we can't be certain.

I'm looking forward to this!
It is a 1st grade appropriate science experiment, so I already have an idea what might happen between the different pots, but there's always a surprise, and just seeing what the medium does is largely the point. I'm sure anyone who's done anything with hydroponics has won't be surprised, but I'm excited. I'm hoping to discover something that might help keep my trees alive in summer.

 

[ShadyStump]

Oh, and there's a snail in the aquarium now.

 

[dbonsaiw]

That was the very reason for me to attend the fights and to buy the fish with known traits. Every brood of bettas usually yields about 100 - 200 fish but only about 5-10 are suitable to fight. I observed the babies when they grew and selected the dominant ones and raised them in solitary. The rest of the brood were sold at $.25 for females, $.50 for males for children to raise as pets. The fighters were sold for $20 to $100 (1970's dollar value) depending on their trait and their track record as fighters.

You're an interesting dude Mr. Rider.

 

[nuttiest]

Single dad fail: Totally missed that the school Science Fair is the 31st, and my 1st grader and I barely got started.

Nice, because you could've been like 'not my problem to memorize your homework... go in the back of the fridge and get something that has mold '
I like the way you came up with something you can reuse

 

[ShadyStump]

Nice, because you could've been like 'not my problem to memorize your homework... go in the back of the fridge and get something that has mold '
I like the way you came up with something you can reuse

I'll spare you my gripes about the OTHER half of the parenting dynamic but it's a project we'd originally intended to do last summer just for the heck of it, but never got around to.
I decided this time that waiting until you're ready means you never get to anything, and just went with it.

We won't get to the actual science fair, unfortunately, but I fully intend to try rooting cuttings in these things once we have an idea how they work.

 

[ShadyStump]

Observations on the orbeez plantings.

Two cotyledons in the regular soil, but no clue if they're marigolds or weeds.
The coffee is growing specks of white stuff - mold or fungus of some sort - on top.

Watering just a squirt daily to keep the orbeez expanded, soil shows no signs of needing water so far.

 

[ShadyStump]

On the suggestion of @nuttiest I
pulled out one of the coffee orbeez that as far as I can tell was originally clear and cut it into a few pieces.
As far as I can tell under artificial light with just my naked eyes, the coffee coloration does extend all the way through.

So, we're fairly certain that the beads are absorbing the whole solution, and not just the H²O leaving the rest behind.
This does have me wondering just how these things are interacting with the solutes that might explain why some don't fully expand, or take longer to expand. I'm not chemist, so I really don't understand it.