Leaderboard

Hello, You can also check gold white cloud minnows. My friend @beastie has gorgeous ones. Sad thing is, I couldnt find any that look as good as hers. Everytime I find a good stock they always had black dots here and there and none were that clear gold. Check her journal! - Gold barbs are way too active and grow a bit big. If you are okay with barbs and their high activity level and size, you can also check rosy barbs. Males are orangey but females remain in gold tones. All those orange pics you see online are the males. This also gives you two different colors in one school. Another option is gold laser cories if you don't exactly want mid column schoolers You can also check yellow mollies. They are the fish that shows the best yellow irl I have seen so far. Not exactly a "schooling" fish, but they like to be in groups anyway yknow.

Maybe furcatus https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/forktail-rainbowfish

I'm very happy! I dropped Repashy in today, and Spike went right over to it and began eating it! Hooray! I could not tell if he had any of the zucchini yesterday or not. I pulled out what was left at the end of the day.

@Fish Folk Ok, update time. With my current Rube Goldberg Chilling Machine I can lower the temps in a 20 gallon aquarium by 5F, going from 74.5F to 69.5F, approximately. Soonish, I'm going to experiment with using a larger, more efficient heat sink and running up to three peltier modules on a larger water block (a 120mm x 40mm block as compared to 40mm x 40mm). The peltiers run pretty hot (by design), so the more heat I can dissipate, then--from what I have read--the more heat I should be able to draw from the water. Three peltier modules is about all my power supply can handle, but I think I should (finger crossed) be able to get a 10F reduction in aquarium temp. I did switch out water pumps after a few tests. I opted for a small, inexpensive in-tank pump that had a variable rate so I could adjust the water flow and increase the water's contact time with the chilling block. The in-tank pump also reduced the gangliness of the set up a tad. I'm now also wondering if the addition of a lid (dual wall, polycarbonate) and perhaps some form of insulation on three sides of the aquarium will have a meaningful effect. I'm thinking to temporarily silicon 1" polystyrene sheets to the aquarium back and sides and see if this increases overall efficiency. I keep my tanks oriented portrait so this shoudl significantly reduce the amount of uninsulated surfaces exposed to the ambient room heat. This will probably be somewhat unsightly, and impractical on more than 1 tank, but I think it's worth measuring the effect. Right now my power consumption runs at about 130 watts. As I scale up, usage should increase proportionately (and so will my electric bill!). This should also have the effect of adding heat to the room (not sure if this will be by a proportional amount), but this is probably a good thing. Right now, my Frankenstein's Chiller runs continuously, but in production it shouldn't, as I don't really need to reduce my temps by that much. My goal is 2 -3F reduction for the first month after fry hatch. Anyway, more to come. (If anyone is wondering why I am doing this, it's to see if I can dial in the sex ratios of an apistogramma spawn, as suggested by published research on the topic).

Dang, it's been a while since I've posted! My algae scraper broke so GSA has been slowly building up, hence it looks kinda gross. I do have another one on the way, but I figured I should post and updated photo while it's on my mind!

Hey guys so I purchased 7 turkana jewels all about the same size I would say 2.5 inches. My question for you is how do you sex them? Now a couple do apppear to be a little beefier which I am assuming is a possible male? But how do you tell the females? all of mine have some spangle around the cheeks and on their fins so how do I find out who is a female or not? Also there do appear to be a couple that are starting to turn more red than the others so what does that mean? Thanks for the information here are pics.

I have 100 gallon/day RO Buddie (from Chewy or Amazon), they're about $80. I haven't had any issues with it, but I'm making something like 30 gallons or so a week. Nothing too crazy.

I was super worried before I started my first shrimp tank as I read so much that they’re sensitive and difficult and can have all sorts of issues. My experience has been the exact opposite, though. -Try to get your shrimp locally, if possible. If they’re born and raised in your water the likelihood that they’ll thrive for you goes up. My first cherry shrimp came from someone on Craigslist and the shrimp thrived from the start. I’ve also gotten shrimp from my LFS and they’re crushing, too. -Shrimp need stability. My current shrimp tank I’m not even sure I’ve done a legit water change. Just topped off when it needs it. That being said, I also have tons of shrimp in tanks that get a weekly 30% water change. Just keep things stable. -Lots of plants, and if you have it, moss. Shrimp forage all day long, so provide them surfaces to graze and they’ll thank you. -You want a seasoned tank, not just a cycled tank before adding your shrimp. You want algae for them to graze on! Both of my shrimp only tanks were up for at least 8-10 weeks before I added my shrimp and I truly believe it is a necessary step. Be patient and you’ll thank yourself when you have more shrimp than you know what to do with. -I feed my shrimp every other day. For me, shrimp have been pretty easy and I currently have, have made/bred, and have sold hundreds and hundreds of them. Provide a seasoned ecosystem from the very beginning, keep that environment stable, don’t put them with predators, feed good foods, and the shrimp should take care of the rest.

Just through water changes and strong filtration. Essentially, let's say that some of a root tab or some detritus in the substrate got released into the water column. If the filtration isn't up to the tank of handling the spike quickly, that's where you can run into issues. If you're running a sponge filter, maybe it means turning up the air a little bit. You can also add some ceramic media in a small media bag near (or on top of) the sponge filter and that will help with stability. Water changes are your friend. 30-50% daily if you have to. Siphon the substrate just to check for some major excess debris. You want to limit yourself to dosing dechlorinator once per 24 hours based on manufacturer recommendation. If you have a major spike, you did the right thing. Move the fish for the sake of reducing stress and then you can do as high as a 90% water change in a situation like that. Then proceed with the smaller WCs, 50% max, as need be.

Susswassertang. It’s essentially an immature, aquatic form of a terrestrial fern. It forms lovely mounds of bright green like this when it likes the conditions. It can be a bit picky and randomly disappear when you first get it. Remnants of it often adapt and you’ll find regrowth when and where you least expect it. It is also a bit fragile and pieces that break off can spread elsewhere in the tank whether you want them to or not. It is pretty easy to control by just plucking it off from where it’s attached and moving or discarding (or selling) it. You can also scissor it back if you want it more controlled, but you’ll want to corral all the stray bits unless you don’t mind if it takes over random spots in your tank. Terrific for tiny fry and shrimplets to hide, impossible to catch fry and shrimp out of it.

Definitely consider Honey Gourami. They are not a schooling fish but are really yellow and unlike other gourami are completely peaceful. You could do just one but they are a social fish and and a group of 2-4 would be ideal in that size tank. I keep a pair in a 20 gallon at 76-79° and at 8.0pH. The only problem I could think of is if the rams are aggressive so make sure to keep an eye on that if you do get them. This is not my picture but mine look very similar to that at around 1.5 years old.

Used a string and couple of clamps to keep a semi steady line. Then followed the trick Aquarium Co-Op recommends to screw the valves in. Pretty happy about it. Then got it hung and the wife was actually not upset about our living room changing into a fish room 😂

Reminds me I seriously need to clean my grinder and box it up. (needs new burrs, which are the cost of a new grinder) The one I gave is for espresso, Italian mazzer burrs that seem to be unavailable now... Which is frustrating. So cost went up from $45-65 to about 5-8x that price. Getting a drip coffee grinder is anywhere from $80-250. So.... Time to retire it for now. Lots of cold brew these days! I appreciate it. Hopefully a simple GH fix and I just need to be better about keeping an eye on that. Sundays were bee pollen day. They will end up being GH+Pollen day now.

Got a picture? Because that sounds like duckweed.

Weirdness today. My one caucatoides girl hides her babies and patrols the center of her territory midwater. Unlike the other caucatoides girl who boldly parades her babies about the tank expecting everyone else to get out of the way. Tammy (borelli Opal) has I’ve got fry black markings. Her lower fins keep changing color and patterns like she is signaling to fry. A few days ago she had eggs. I see no fry anywhere 🤪 She will not allow George in her side at all. She even has her shrimp backed into a corner. Picture of Crystal who is normal pattern and color when not breeding. I fed the tank as if there are new hatch babies. So 🤞🏻 Tanmy today Tammy cornering shrimp out of her territory Crystal normal color and pattern for comparison

Welcome to the forum. You said you've been doing water changes, but how often, and how large? If they weren't at least 50% each time you really weren't doing much good. I'd recommend doing one at least that large daily until it gets under control (down to no more than 1.0 ppm). It might also be a good idea to get an independent test. I wonder about the test accuracy, because I'd expect your fish to be in bad shape with it as high as 10.0 ppm. Most places that sell aquarium fish will test your water for you. I believe they usually use strips that don't test for ammonia, but that's not a concern here anyway.

One of the funniest was about 30 years ago. My wife and I, and her sister and husband, were going to San Antonio to stay at a nice hotel on the Riverwalk for a few days. They'd flown in from Virginia, so we took my truck. I pulled up in front of the hotel and we waited while my brother-in-law went inside to see about the rooms. A few minutes after he went in several men came out to the truck with a cart. At every hotel I'd ever stayed at previous to this if you wanted your luggage in your room you carried it there yourself (this place was above my pay grade), but I'd seen this kind of thing on television, so I knew why they were there. For a little background, I was driving an old Ford extended cab pickup, with a hitch in the back for a gooseneck trailer. Since we didn't have much room in the cab for luggage, and we didn't want to expose it to the weather, I had borrowed two 55-gallon barrels from work, put the luggage in them, put the lids on, and laid them down in the truck, with one on each side of the hitch. I put a rope across one, down through the hitch, across the other one, and tied on the other side to keep them from rolling around. Anyway, I guess these fellows took one look at that old truck, and me untying the ropes holding the barrels down, and wondered just how far back in the woods did these folks come from, because one of them looked at me and asked, very politely "Sir, will these be going inside?"

Couple of shots of the embers. Still doing great in quarantine with healthy appetites. The light is up higher now which is why they seem less vivid. Just trying to keep everyone comfortable.

I raised the light so now it’s here And here are some photos of Spike. He has a favorite “hut” or “lean-to” consisting of a single catappa leaf.

I'm back with a tardigrade at 300x magnification for comparison. The translucent silhouette is an exoskeleton with eggs. My creek water didn't have rotifers today but I can try to get some photos within the next few weeks if there is interest.

It is Soilent Green! Nobody but Geppetto likes community plus. Well, I suppose the embers like it. Seems they’ll eat anything.

I dropped off a package with a "Live Shrimp" sticker on top and all four sides at my little local post office Tuesday. The guy behind the counter jokingly asked "When are you going to start shipping dead shrimp?" I replied "Hopefully never. People tend to want their money back if the shrimp are dead." I worked for probably one of the best known beekeepers in the world in the mid to late '90's. Try showing up at the post office with a 2-pound package of bees.

Hi all, look what I found while doing deep maintenance on my Phoenix moss carpet! I thought this crinum died almost a year ago, but clearly I was wrong. Does anyone have any advice on how to get the bulb healthy again? My current plan is to leave it in substrate with root tabs and LITHA (leave it the heck alone).

And I'm back. I was just on vacation for the last week and a half. That's part of why the plan was to let the aquarium sit for a while. Here how it looks now: A few issues have cropped up: 1) Mold. Not just the biofilm on the wood, that's expected. There's also mold on the river bank portion. Serpadesign talks about adding spring tails to fight mold in some of his videos. I may have to look into that. 2) Flow There is a lot of surface scum which o think is because there isn't enough flow and surface agitation. With the evaluation the water level went below the top overflow so it wasn't getting skimmed off. Another thing I think is contributing is the design of the waterfall. I suspect that a large portion of the water is just going back under the lid due to capillary force (I think that's what it's called). I'm thinking I'll need to extend the ledge or slightly and make it a more downward pointed ledge. 3) Water loss Between splashing from the waterfall and evaporation, the water level dropped quite a bit and that was without a heater. Two ideas for fixing this. It definitely needs a lid. Cover the uplift tube more so that splashes do go as far. 4) Getting water to the plants on the bank. This is still a bit of an open question... But the good news is that there are still quite a few live daphnia and cyclops. That makes me feel like there a good chance that there's nothing too toxic in the water. I'm still going to move cautiously when adding fish to make sure I don't just kill a bunch of them

Definite lack of males with the black phantom tetras. 1M 2 F made for a LOT of eggs, but also for a lot of fuzzy ones. Good news is that there are still some ok looking ones! I’ll use a pipette to get the duff ones out and WC the egg tank. Have a nice day!

I have shipped a few dozen orders and one employee asks me "What fish have we got today?" I will tell him the breed and show him a pic if I can. The older guy always gives me a "Did the last one make it?" with a bit of side-eye. Neither has denied a shipment tho.

Frozen bloodworms and snails for mine.

@Chick-In-Of-TheSeait is Psuedomugil Luminatus Red Neon Blue Eye Rainbow Fish. They are super fun!

Posting this mostly for posterity more than anything. It's been slightly cold this week. Temps for the tank are well within range. I have also had a metric TON of baby shrimp. I lost 1 female shrimp yesterday (overnight) as well as one last night. The one from this morning was something where she did appear to have the white ring, but I also saw baby shrimp that were just hatched. I really tend to lean towards food, lack of, or general issues with stress from releasing shrimp as being the main concern. There's going to be more cover, but right now, maybe there isn't quite enough. I'll test GH and KH for the sake of clarity. This also could be due to just having Riddick in the tank and that causing some stress. It's tough to really say for certain the root cause here. I am not overly concerned, but I did want to record that for future notes. The water change today was fine, one stubborn baby shrimp, but the only real thing of note was that the water change water was slightly colder than I would like. I will use water from the sink where I can control the temp in future. Mentally drained, no sleep, and no coffee, so let's just reset and move on! 🙂 Sidenote: New filters are slightly easy to clean and work immensely well for a shrimp tank. They hold the gunk in well and I can just siphon the sand as need be. The baby shrimp I can just dip the sponge and they generally try to get away from the sponge. It feels hefty and very heavy, which is just the sign for me that it is doing a good job of the mechanical filtration.

I have 1 bumblebee otto in my tropical tank with honey guaramis, Cory’s, and ADFs for the last 2 years. I would like to be able to keep more but I don’t really know why the first one is still alive. Has anyone else been successful at keeping theses guys and can share care tips? i started with 2, and tried adding 3 more a year later, but the numbers returns to 1 after a couple of months. I don’t think it’s a food availability thing since they were the only ones in a 55 gallon at the time. I added 3 regular otts a couple of months ago and it hasn’t affected the remaining guy, he’s still fat and producing long solid poop strings. I don’t target feed him or see him eat any of the algae wagers I put in, he just eats the brown sludge around the tank and fuzz film off the wood when I’m watching.

I am looking to expand my plant keeping in my tanks. We will focus on 12-16 inch tall tanks for this. PH 7.8, GH 300ppm, KH 180 ppm. Dirt tanks capped with sand. Lights are random depending on the tank but are medium-low to medium. I do have easy green too. My water is high in calcium and iron. No C02. Plants I have had success with: Jungle Val. (super good results) Dwarf Sag. Salvinia Java Moss Plants that struggle: Java Fern Bacopa Duckweed (not a flow issue) Plants I am interested in: Dwarf Chain sword Pogostemen Stallatus Octopus Various crypts Any suggestions welcome! Thank you.

woo hoo! Improvement!

I have never shipped fish, but have shipped live queen bees quite a bit. I think the hesitation comes from a good place typically. Usually it takes some hand holding and it helps to find then right person that knows how to do it. There's one lady at our PO that knew what to do without a lot of fanfare. Stinks they took it and just left it on your porch. There was some discussion on another forum talking about higher rates of fish theft in boxes labeled as fish.

It is a 40g breeder full of other plants, mostly bacopa and pearlweed, a barteri, java moss and some crypts and the nana petite is the only ones yellowing. The tank is over a year and a half old and I have been using root tabs and dosing easy green about 6 pumps every morning. Before I go adding some, would you think its a potassium deficiency. I am at work right now so I do not have a picture but I can when I get home. They have always been the most finicky of the plants in the tank and there are 5 of them. What are your thoughts?

Cut the light to 6 hours until you see the anubias thriving and be sure to dose in your ferts. 8 hours is about the max you want to shoot for with 10 being about as high as I've ever been comfortable pushing it. That being said, anubias is all about placement. If you're seeing green spot algae, the plant might just be too close to the light. BBA could be indicative of too much flow hitting a struggling plant and then it spreads from there. Looking at the photos you have a very heavily caked in algae plant as well as leaves that are curling. I would recommend the above light time changes as well as finding a riser for the light (if it is one that is on top of the lid). These are on Etsy or you can make one out of Legos if you're feeling creative. Essentially, you'll get a lot better spread for the floating plants and won't burn them. You'll back off the intensity of the anubias and give it a chance to recover. So... 1. Let's fix the light window, drop light settings to 15-25% power (lower is better), and install a light riser. 2. Let's make sure ferts are happening. 3. Let's absolutely make sure we use something like a toothbrush and clean leaves off. You can also use an art brush and "paint on" hydrogen peroxide. To do this, just pull the wood, or drop the waterline, and then paint on a section. Repeat that for a few days and you'll be good to go. You should see that alone make it easier to clean off any stubborn algae. 4. Remove any dying leaves and check the rhizome for any brown mush/rotting parts. 5. Make sure you're cleaning the substrate and filtration. 6. Consider attaching the anubias to other places so it's not sitting directly under the strongest part of the light. 7. Consider trying something easy in the foreground. I am not sure what works with goldfish. I would say microsword could.

If it's in the red you just keep running it. It's a sign for you to keep an eye on it. Check it every morning. Maybe weeks, maybe a month left.

Och aye laddie!

Thanks for your reply. I just found this aquarium co op article on using salt, so I'll try this. I did initially move her to a quarantine jar but her new behaviour of gasping at the surface concerns me, so I've moved her back into the main tank and now she is behaving normally again. I'll follow the Level 1 dosing from the article for the whole tank for now, since it specifically says it should be safe for all fish and cherry shrimp. Hopefully it's enough, but if not then I will revisit a quarantine tank.

The neocaridina shrimp can handle up to 1 tbsp per 5G of water. Any higher and I ran into some issues. I am unsure about the kuhli loaches. Salt would be a good place to start. I would treat the betta by itself if you can. Preferably I would get a sterilite tote that can hold a little bit more water and swimming space as a QT area. 1 tbsp per 2G for just the betta fish as well as adding in some botanicals would be a good place to start.

Some Home Made Babies Growing up

No worries at all, absolutely no rush!

This is Cheeto my brackish Ceylon puffer, He started life as a tiny little guy in my father in laws fishroom, he was living happily in a 75 gallon with some pretty rare fish, then this spring decided to go on a killing spree, i ended up adopting him along with a 55gal tank before he got flushed (Have never seen a man so mad over fish!) So far i havent tried putting anything else in the tank with him, he seems to enjoy just doing his thing, loves bubbles, and really enjoys chasing fingers along the glass! The pics really dont do him justice he's almost a neon green color with those big bright blue eyes! His diet consists of clams, mussels, raw in shell shrimp, the occasional silverside, blood worms and ramshorns snails from my other tanks, the night i brought him home i had quickly converted a 10 gal quarantine tank to brackish just to get him moved while i setup his 55, there had been a ton of snails in the tank prior and i had thought i got most of em out, he immediately got in there and started finding everyone i had missed and for hours i just kept hearing crunching of shells, went in to check a few hours later and he was so bloated i was worried if he would make it through the night!! Not a singe snail in that tank after that! T

The sticker is the first thing I look for. (Kind of like Cracker Jack when I was a kid, when the toy was better than the Cracker Jack.) With ACO, the sticker is great, and the products get better from there.

Shrimp!

By using a sponge filter from an established tank, the tank most likely cycled very quickly, or there wasn't even one. I keep extra sponge filters in several tanks so that I can quickly set up a tank for quarantine, or some other reason, and never have had problems with losing fish due to ammonia or nitrite.

Again trying to get Spike to eat is a struggle. He did eat a small flake or two, then for some reason ignored the rest. I tried some vibra bites again but no go. He will sift sand around food but not actually taste the food. I thought, maybe he needs really soft food? I put a Snello pellet in there. A Snello pellet will expand and then fall apart into a little pile of dust. So, he cruised past it like 8 times, but kept stopping to look at it. Each time it would be a little fluffier. Then, he tasted it. And then he would do a lap around the tank and sift sand here and there. Then return and have another taste of the Snello. And again. Progress!!! And then a tetra came to investigate and Spike defended the food and ran the tetra off. Awesome. That’s just what Snoopy would do. Also tonight I noticed he swam mid level in the tank a few times, which is nice. He’s becoming more comfortable. He does accept white light more now but swims more dart-y and his breathing quickens when that is on. So I only do that briefly to check coloration and health of the fish. Spike (right) with green Snello dust pile (left). He’s now staying closer to it.

Hi @PBA, Thank you for the 'shout out' @Rube_Goldfish. The photos certainly help when trying to diagnose a nutrient related issue. Yellowing (chlorosis) on plant leaves are most often caused by insufficient available nitrogen (NO3), magnesium (Mg), or iron (Fe). First I check my nitrate level (NO3) and verify it is in the range of 10 ppm to 30 ppm. If it is in range then I look more closely at the leaves of the plants. I took one of your pictures @PBA and cropped and enlarged it. Then I added an arrow. (See pic) If you look at the leaf the arrow is pointing to you will see darker leaf veins with yellowing (chlorosis) of the leaf material in-between the veins. This condition is called interveinal chlorosis and caused by one of two conditions: 1) insufficient available magnesium (Mg) or 2) insufficient available iron (Fe). But which one is it you ask? If the condition shows up on older leaves but new leaves look 'normal' then the likely issue is magnesium (Mg) related. When the condition shows up on newer leaves then insufficient available iron(Fe) is the likely cause. It is difficult to tell from photos but in the photos that were provided it looks like it is the newer leaves that are being affected so if it were my tank I would look first at insufficient available iron (Fe) as the likely cause. Please note I am saying 'insufficient available iron' and not saying 'not enough iron being dosed' - what is the difference? Although the most common reason for a nutrient deficiency is not dosing enough however sometimes an excess of other nutrients effect the uptake of a nutrients making it unavailable to the plant. Also sometimes it is the water parameters that effect the availability of a nutrients. This is the case with iron (Fe) especially. There are several types of iron the most common and least expensive is EDTA chelated iron and it is the one most commonly used in fertilizers. However EDTA chelated iron has one shortfall, it's availability is very sensitive to the pH of a tank. (See chart below). As you can see the EDTA chelated iron is 100% available at a pH of 6.0 however it drops off sharply as the pH of a tank increase above pH@6.2 to the point that less than 10% of the iron is available when the pH is above 7.0 (neutral). I see shrimp in your tank so I am guessing your pH is above 7.0 to avoid issues with the shrimp. If this is the case then to provide the iron the plants require I suggest dosing an iron supplement that is more readily available to plants when the pH is alkaline. In conjunction with the Easy Green dosing you are doing now I suggest using Seachem Iron to provide addition iron in your tank. Seachem Iron is made using Ferrous Gluconate which plants readily uptake even at higher pH levels. I recommend dosing per the instructions on the bottle one a week which will provide about 0.26 ppm of available iron to your tank. Now the hard part...........waiting. Dose the Seachem Iron for at least a month and watch the new leaves that emerge after you starting dosing the additional iron. DO NOT WATCH THE EXISTING LEAVES THEY WILL NOT IMPROVE AND MAY DECLINE FURTHER. After a month or so look closely at the new leaves of the plants. Do they look greener; more healthy? If so you are on the right path. You may also notice an increase of the growth rate of all the plants in your tank since insufficient available iron prevents the production of chlorophyll which gives plants the green color and allows the plant to make the glucose (sugar) that it needs for growth. Hope this helps! -Roy

The anubias is over a year and a half old and not a new edition, the rhizome is attached to lava rock above substrate and surrounded by moss. Its something thats happened gradually over the last couple of months. I noticed and started adding a bit more easy green and it hasnt changed over the last month.

Your patience is much longer than mine. After 2 weeks I would’ve been asking for a refund lol.

A pvc pipe like you described with some course sponge on the outside at the bottom, with an airline and an airstone might work just fine. Perhaps a small diameter pvc pipe with a course pre filter sponge at the bottom. Don't forget a check valve if this is going in your kitchen 🙂 I'm no expert, but I think you want a pipe of some sort and not just an airstone to get the water movement you want. I think an airstone by itself isn't bad, but it'll be better with some sort of pipe. Airstone by itself is more "make sure we've got surface agitation" and less "be a filter". IMO my .02...