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I just changed out the pads on my Magnavore 8 magnetic algae scraper when I let the 2 halves get too close. Bam! 2 fingers and a thumb slammed inside. Fortunately my wife was nearby and was able to help me get my fingers and thumb out. Now, beside the pain, my current problem is separating the 2 halves again. The nearest strong thing metal thingy nearby were kitchen knives and I have gotten those wedged in but still no luck at getting even a millimeter of separation. My wife is incredulous at this knife solution saying, 'I'd film this but I don't want to get blood on my phone.' Any ideas on getting these 2 magnets apart that won't involve a trip the emergency room?

I recently changed over my big aquarium. I sold the fish to my LFS and I am starting again. Why? Because it was not the tank I would sit down in front of with my cup and coffee and just watch for 1/2 an hour. My wife was highly skeptical. 'That's the best aquarium we have ever had. Nothing ever goes wrong. It is easy to take care of. What possible benefit of can come of getting rid of the angelfish? I like those fish!' And she was right on every count. I like(d) them too. Back when the parents were spawning and then growing the babies, there was excitement and even a little risk everyday. But after 4 years the tank had settled in to a happy monotony. Breeding wouldn't happen again as there were too many adult angels for a territory to be defended. It wasn't bad, but it was one big school of angels, almost like a school of tetras, very pretty to watch and very predictable. I need a challenge, I want a project, I want some risk. So now there are 11 discus in the big aquarium. The tank is new to them. I feel their apprehension as they are exploring the nooks and crannies of the driftwood. Each day they venture a little further and with more confidence. The biggest fish is the leader of the pack and initiates foraging runs and also serves as chief look out. Now the old excitement is back. That's the tank I want to be watching now because now that tank gives me hours of pleasure again.

You can move the fry anytime you are comfortable that you will be able to consistently provide food for them. A tank with a sponge filter and heater, maybe with some java moss or other free floating plants would be nice. If you can take water from the parents tank I would definitely do that. The water change for the parents could trigger another spawn. For moving the fry a turkey baster will work bitch is inconsistent and you will always lose some. Netting them can turn into a big mess and can also damage their tiny fins at such a small size, I would not use this method. The best way in my opinion is to use an airline tubing siphon, the key is to not have a large fall in distance and always have water in your catching container before you start catching the fry. Oh and do not siphon into a net, use a plastic container and pour the fry into their new home.

I've got an OG 324 1/2 Starrett vice that I could try.

Your videos are cute! Love the use of music. Here's one of my limias and my catfish sharing an Onip.I can't believe how small my catfish is in this video! Now she'd just scrape the Onip off in one bite. One of my ctenopoma pushing Dragon, my bichir, out of a cave. Not the best quality because I was zoomed in from a bit away, spying on them. And here's one of me hand feeding Pooka, the catfish.

Hey everyone, I delivered some Orange Japanese Medaka Rice Fish and some unsexed Betta mahachaiensis to Aquarium Co-op yesterday. Not a huge quantity of either so get them while you can. If you do miss out, more will be coming at some point.

Some do some don't, but here is why I rinse my newly hatched brine shrimp before feeding to fry. So in a tablespoon of brine shrimp eggs there approximately 420,000 to 450,000 brine shrimp eggs. I use eggs that are supposed to give a 90% hatch rate so let just say around 400,000 hatch in a little less that 2 liters of water. It is generally agreed upon that they hatch in 24-48 hours and I run my hatchers for 36 hours. Now I want you to think about this. . . baby brine shrimp hatch and start swimming about, they also more that likely start feeding on whatever exists in the water be it dead shrimp parts, decaying shells, etc. we know this because you can see growth right from the start. Well. . . if they start eating they also start peeing, pooping, excreting, whatever shrimp do. All this umm stuff is of course just bubbling around in the hatching water, and you want to dump it into your fry tanks? Just for the sake of 30 seconds of rinsing it off? My picture shows what the hatching water generally looks like after straining all the shrimp and shells out, pretty grungy right, and the saltwater ammonia test is way off the chart. Do you still want to just dump that into your fry tanks? Now just take a whiff of that hatching water, you still want to dump that in your fry tanks. I know that there are those on both sides of the benefits to rinse or not to rinse your newly hatched brine shrimp. I"m not on the fence with this, I'm firmly on the side of the fence that I always rinse my newly hatched baby brine shrimp before feeding. What if it makes the difference between having 90 fry surviving from a spawn or 300 fry surviving? I've found that sometimes in the fishroom it's just those few extra minutes here and there that produce the much better final results. Oh, and I can't imagine that any fish wants that shrimp pee, poop, or ammonia flavor on their first meals of their life.

Hello all. So I have a pair of gold rams that have been spawning. The first few clutches of eggs were eaten which is to be expected for new fish parents. I am happy to report that the last two clutches hatched successfully and it seems as if I have two great parents that have learned to raise their fry. The first batch that hatched lasted for a week before they died off. This was my fault because I was not prepared with my live baby bribe shrimp and they would not take frozen baby brine or Hikari first bites. This last batch is doing great however. I have been feeding live baby brine 3x a day and occasionally frozen babh brine which they are now eating at 10 days old. They all look to be very healthy with nice big orange bellies. My question is about moving the fry to a grow out tank. How long should I wait to move them? What is the best way to move the fry. Turkey baster? Siphon? Net? Any help is much appreciated. Here are some pictures.

Just found a 1934 movie where a key scene revolves around a Betta fight! Dragon Murder Case

Very nice, I may have to add a quick disconnect now 🤔

At this point you can move them whenever it is convenient for you. It is more fun to leave them with the parents and watch all the cool parental and fry behavior, but the price you pay is a bit of risk. The risk being that the parents might suddenly eat them if they got spooked or who knows why. But if they have been good parents up to now, my guess the risk is reasonably low. Water changes have worked for you (I do water changes like this) and I would keep dancing with one that brung ya, meaning if ain't broke, don't fix it. It also means the fry will be well acclimated to your tap water when you do move them.

Okay, I've got it. The ne plus ultra of Pythons! Python hook with Python shutoff valve Gardena heavy duty quick connect with water stop on female end DIY gated intake/outflow made from undergravel filter parts Always add 'the good' washers Python can send the royalty checks for product development to @Daniel at the Aquarium Co-Op forum by way of @Lizzie Block

Picked up a bag of this salt from Home Depot. Just checked and the Ziss is loaded with ity bity swimmers. LOADED! https://www.homedepot.com/p/Diamond-Crystal-Solar-Naturals-Water-Softener-Salt-Crystals-100012454/100172669?MERCH=REC-_-searchViewed-_-NA-_-100172669-_-N I am in no way affiliated with or work for Home Depot.

She wasn't ready for a picture...

Really hard to believe how fast these guys grew:

Back in the day (1960s) we didn't have have all fancy smantzy choices you young whipsnappers have grown up with. We proudly put our Longlife box filters in our Metaframe slate bottom tanks and were amazed when we saw the first Metaframe Dynaflo HOBs (it was impossible to get those siphone tubes going). And in the winter we had to walk to the LFS (it was Barncle Bill's if remember correctly) uphill both ways in the snow.

Make them do double duty! RCS under the baby fry and snails and plants in the sexed grow outs--for my future pea puffer project, lol. You are right. We need more tanks!

Hey all, as most mornings, I spent this one cleaning filters and feeding turtles and fish. This morning I thought I might show off a filter I've been using for years. Mostly cause I think its cool...."nerd"....but also cause someone might could find it useful. Materials: Lee's mini critter keeper Top fin small under gravel filter Plastic canvas Tools: Scissors Super glue (gel type) First I start off by trimming slats out of one of the under gravel tiles so I can latch the bell end of the tube to the center of it. Next I remove the clear plastic door off of the lid of the critter keeper. Then trim a piece of plastic canvas to fit it and super glue it in place. Making sure to cut out a center hole for the upright tube. (You can see on this one I kinda messed up centering the hole) Now assemble, fill with media (i like lava rock and poly fill), attach and air pump and thats it you're done. The under gravel filter kit comes with a standard air stone which clogs super quick, so i recommend replacing it with a no clog air stone from Aqurium Co-Op when you get a chance. These filters have about the same capacity as an aqua clear 70 and considering you can build 2 of them for under $40 including the air pump and media they're awesome. I've been using them for years with turtles (a lot of turtles) and fish alike.

No trouble so far; I've had some 90 degree days. Interestingly, the feeder has a bright blue LED that points upwards, so the fish get a blue circular "moon" effect overhead each night. 🙂

LOL, I just played a video of a user saying 'Alexa, turn on fish feeder', and his iLonda started and dropped a load of food in the user's aquarium. My Alexa was listening to this and butted in and said "I am sorry, I don't recognize a device called 'fish feeder'". This is a good sign.

Thanks @DaveSamsell and @MickS77, between Dave’s vice idea and Mick’s leverage idea, I was able to get the 2 magnets apart without further bloodshed by using a large bronze wedge for leverage in combination with the vice.

Background: 5.5 gallon nano tank Stingray light sponge filter Fluval Stratum anubias/java fern/java moss/swords/crypts/frogbit spiderwood + a few rocks (~20) x carbon rili shrimp, (2) x amano shrimp, (2) x nerite snails Problem: Over the better part of a year, my little nano colony of neocaridina shrimp slowly went the way of the dodo. Testing the water for any kind of ammonia/nitrite spikes always yielded zero. Temps never fluctuated beyond 74F - 77F. Lights were on a timer so algae existed but was never excessive. Plant growth was slow but constant. GH/kH were monitored as well and kept stable with the help of Wonder Shells. Water changes were occasional but never more than 10% so as not to shock the system. Point being: I really like shrimp so I made a concerted effort to keep the tank pretty darn stable. (Suspected) Culprit: Eventually all but maybe two or three of the carbon rili shrimp had either actively died and were removed or went "missing/melty/through a time portal back to 1985" so I finally decided to change things up and broke down the tank in order to start fresh. Oddly both amano seemed alive and happy. Well, one of the things that I was apparently doing well was growing plants in this tank and so with enough foliage cover - and admittedly a little bit of oversight on my part - it hadn't occurred to me to keep an eye on the two nerite snails. I would always see at least one on the glass so I figured everything was kosher. Fun fact: that was not the case. Guess what I found under the bottom of the spiderwood in a little area with tons of plant cover. A sadly deceased nerite (that smelled utterly like something death would bring on vacation). I have no idea how long that was in there and I'm guessing the decay was, at least in part, taken care of by the plants and even some of the shrimp themselves to a certain extent but I can't quantitatively say by how much. Issue: All that being said, how are people generally dealing with little hidden gems like this - I would never have normally be able to look in the spot I found the dead nerite without breaking down the tank. A good chunk of the semi-decent aquascaping would have been uprooted and/or who really moves around hardscape "just because"? I'm open to any and all suggestions - even including, "man...why you so bad?"

Not possible with the strength of a mere mortal to slide these things.

I just use water or vinegar if I have some hard water deposits. I really love using the cleaning sponges from the co-op, they work surprisingly well.

Not sure how many tanks you have but maybe consider one or two "test" or "in work" tanks. Play in the test tanks and let your display tanks mature. Your display tanks will thank you.

That is good salt, I’ve used it in my aquariums and for hatching brine shrimp for a long time. I usually add a pinch of baking soda to the brine shrimp hatcher too.

I wrapped my Rubbermaid tub in this reed fencing material from Home Depot: https://www.homedepot.com/s/reed?NCNI-5 (non-affiliate link) It clips pretty easily with shears or heavy scissors. By cutting the fencing a little too tall and angling it, it pretty much stays where you put it. 🙂 I think it was less work than painting.

Just throwing another idea out there; black water tank with a betta? That way you can satisfy the biotope craving, have a centerpiece that would pop against the tanins, and you get to be creative with botanicals.

You could add a small powerhead and/or have your filter flow lengthwise along the tank and do a small river tank. tinwini or other small fast flow friendly Danios to enjoy the flow and freshwater gobies or a clutch of rosy loaches for bottom feeding. I have my powerhead on for extra flow about 4 hrs a day, the rest of the time it's just my filter flow along the length. Lots of stone for a natural river bed, with driftwood and vallisnaria caught in a little pocket. Generally these loaches and Danios wouldn't need heat; you would want to really oxygenated the water with flow if your room was keeping them too warm. Keep us up to date, I want to see what you go with! As a completely different idea, I set up a one species tank for sparkling gourami s and some amano shrimp. Completely charming, elegant and very interactive with me and each other. And actively hunting through the plants all the time. I may never go without sparkling gouramis again. (I got mine from dans fish at getgills.com).

Hello, everybody. I'm James, from Knoxville, Tennessee. I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and my mom and dad ran a shrimping company and a marine construction company. So, aquatic life has always been a big part of my life. I temporarily left the hobby for a few years, when I had children , but I got back into it about a year ago. It started with my piranha tank, as I've always been drawn to them, but then the bristlenose pleco caught my eye. One tank turned into two tanks, two into three, all the way up to 53 tanks, which is where I am at today. I now keep everything from the piranha and plecos, to guppies and tetras, to cichlids , and lots of fish in between. There is beauty in every fish if you take the time to learn about them. Studying aquatic wildlife and plant life is one of my favorite pastimes and truly brings me joy. I collect a variety of species not only to enjoy them, but to also help breed them. I especially love the more rare species for this reason. I like to try to do my part in ensuring the longevity of these amazing and endangered species, so that they may live on for many generations to come. There are so many beautiful, fascinating creatures that you can keep, there is something for everyone. I like to think I'm doing my part in protecting them and also displaying them for the world to see. When you have enough passion about something, you can make it enjoyable for anyone, and my fish are my passion. I like to joke that I never need to watch the TV. If I'm bored, all I have to do is look at a different tank. That is another reason I like having so many different species, because just seeing the similarities and differences in each one is fascinating to me, even just fish to fish in the same species. I love being able to tinker around with the tanks until I get everything just right for the inhabitants. I hope to pass on some of my knowledge to others as well, so that everyone can have the opportunity to thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the wonderful underwater world in the comfort of their own home. As I said earlier, I grew up with the ocean as an integral part of my life, and I only hope to spread that sense of wonder with the world to the best of my ability.

I live in an apartment and watch you all with jealousy. I have this window sill water garden, growing floating plants and daphnia for my guppies. They are greedy guts and I really need more space to feed them as much as I would like, but it is stable and pretty. The window gets morning sun only and the plants keep it from getting hot. I have to offload plants weekly.