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Chick-In-Of-TheSea

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Everything posted by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

  1. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Same.
  2. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    There’s a special term here on the forum: “nerms” - came from a Cory livestream I believe where he was trying to say normal people by day, fish nerds by night, or something like that - and it came out NERMs. There are even annual contests here on the forum during “Nerm Week” for things like best scape, best breeding setup, best inverts tank, etc where other forum members vote - each reaction- love, like, heart, trophy etc has a certain number of points. And for the most part the prizes are bragging rights, or sometimes real prizes (usually stuff NERMs would like). Anyway, my friend Erin has an axolotl. His name is Quex. She went with slate tiles for the bottom of his tank because if they consume even a little bit of substrate - easy to do with their big mouths - bad news (take to vet; digestive blockage). She tried bare bottom but it was hard for Quex because he couldn’t get a grip when walking around. Since no substrate she uses water column feeding plants in the tank such as Java fern. She attaches them to rocks and puts the rocks in little terra cotta pots so it looks nice. She said that he cannot have any fertilizer in his tank. They absorb everything through their skin, I think. She raises worms for him as he only eats live foods, with the exception of some kind of carnivore Repashy. When I saw Quex, I could not believe how BIG he was (9” and can get to be 1’). She tried big sponge filters at first but had to go to a canister filter and dampen flow quite a bit. Currently his nitrate production is a problem and results in extra tank maintenance. Here’s Quex and his worm farm thingy. He’s chillin on some Indian Almond Leaves since axolotls cannot have any fish meds. The almond leaves are antifungal and antibacterial, and he benefits from the tannins. The silver insulating material around his tank is helping to keep his tank temps down. Some people buy chillers; some locate their tank under an A/C vent. She uses a vented lid with fans that lay horizontally on top and blow air down into the surface of the water. P.S. would not recommend a 10g for an axolotl, not even to start out (despite what people are doing on YouTube in their axolotl unboxing videos). Heavy bioload, worse than goldfish, very sensitive to parameters, and they grow FAST! Also fun fact, if their gills (frilly things) are curved forward, they are stressed.
  3. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Oh, I get it now. I like your way better because there will be more air and water flow through the sponge, better for bb growth . The downside is if the top of the riser tube is open, you could have Plecos or snails make their way down the tube and under the plates.
  4. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    I have an UGF but it's disabled, I disconnected the tubes so that I could use sand and plant plants. The good stuff/mulm is going to be under your plates, and having the ACO sponge on the top of the riser tube may reduce/slow aeration. Why not have the ACO sponge at the halfway point on the riser tube? Just having the sponge in the tank will allow it to collect BB until you are ready to deploy it. (P.S. I like your creativity) The ACO sponge (only the sponge, not the plastic pieces) is just a tube really. It would be fitting a sponge tube over a plastic riser tube. Unlike the prefilter sponges which are closed on one end. Another thought would be to supplement with bottled bacteria. I do that sometimes when changing out filter media.
  5. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    The bushy ones look like anacharis to me. If they are, I've found they do better as floating plants. Mine have always been unhappy when planted. If the leaves melt off, remove the leaves with a net or something, but leave the stems in the tank floating around. The sides of the stems will then develop roots and new, fresh, green leaves. It's normal for new plants to melt. Depends on where they are coming from. Most aquatic plants are grown emergent (partially out of water). If the plants do not spend enough time fully submerged before they get to you, they are going to melt in your tank. Not to worry though. Most will spring back. It's just part of the acclimation process from growing emergent to growing submerged.
  6. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    If she's feisty. Pepper.
  7. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Ah ok. That one has 8% protein. You could supplement with fish food to bump it up a little. I let my gang eat Hikari cichlid gold sinking pellet. It has 40% protein. You probably already have some fish food on hand that would be fine for them. They enjoy flakes, but you may have to stick your hand in and then let the flakes go so they get to the bottom. They also eat brine shrimp and bloodworms. I find those hard to feed though, because my fish are a bunch of piggies and gobble them all up. Because I extra spoil them, I make a Snello recipe for them. Lots of varieties on YouTube for that one. I just keep it in the freezer and drop a cube in like once or twice a week. Of course, there are easier options than this! LOL I'm pretty sure my snails eat better than I do. 😳
  8. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Which Kat's aquatics tablet do you feed? I see there is one that says calcium + protein. Maybe yours already has protein in it. But I wouldn't buy more stuff. Try the sinking pellet. They aren't picky. Mine eat everything; they are like little vacuum cleaners.
  9. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    I just let mine eat sinking fish food.
  10. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    I know Dean made a video - it's here:
  11. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Hi @faded.mallard and welcome to the forum! I doubt it was caused by water change. Looks like buildup. My snail has algae on her shell because she's been in the tank for a long time. If there is nothing affecting her foot and she is eating normally and moving around normally, I would not worry. Side note: snails cannot be medicated. As soft-bodied invertebrates, meds harm them. Good quality water is the most important thing for them. Great job with feeding a calcium rich food. If you can get some protein into her diet as well, it helps with her operculum, and she would really love veggies, especially boiled or canned green beans (no salt).
  12. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    That looks like biofilm to me. Newish tank? I would not worry about it, but if you'd like you can gently just rub the film off with your finger.
  13. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    According to my poorly executed and hasty internet search, the female will eat the fry.
  14. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Well they sure didn't waste any time, did they?
  15. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Bleach = chlorine. Dechlorinator removes chlorine. I do 1/10 bleach solution to disinfect. Let soak 10 minutes (including nets and decor - whatever touched the water), then I use a cloth to wipe all the surfaces down. After that I rinse well and let dry. The drying plus the dechlorinated water going back in prevents toxicity when using bleach to clean fish tanks and equipment. Video here. The disinfection process is toward the end of the video.
  16. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    As of yesterday's reading, ammonia has been eradicated with no water changes, so the bacteria has sprung back from the salt. Our patient continues to improve and had a good breakfast this morning.
  17. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    I did a poor job of tucking roots in. I'll fix that later.
  18. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    So I got a package. Who do you think this is from? 😉 It’s plants! We have “guppysnail grass” which I placed in the plant nursery (garage) to recover from the long journey. The grow light has a ratcheting clip on top of the cord which allows me to raise and lower the light as needed. Also check out all that nerm glitter (duckweed & salvinia)! Then we have swords. Within seconds these 2 guys needed to inspect the product. And here’s a photo dump of the other swords and what I’ve been told are “various bulbs”. I'm told they are in need of some TLC so let's see how they do! Nibbles makes an appearance. No breakfast for snails today. They are on gardening duty and will remove any failing leaves. Failing leaves stop producing allelochemicals (snail deterrents that healthy plant leaves produce) and that’s how snails know they are allowed to do their pruning. 🙂 Thanks @Guppysnail! 🥰
  19. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    This just in from Erin. Gumdrop is loving this green bean! She offered some lettuce on Weds but Gumdrop was not impressed. LOL
  20. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    I either do four 25% water changes or two 50% water changes before next treatment @Mahi27 and I make sure they have 2 airstones going in the tank. Also you can run some carbon between treatments to help remove the previous meds. It’s great to see some healing
  21. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Hahaha this is kinda what happened to me. I was in & out of the hobby a few times (mainly because of moves, one being out of state) and finally bought a house and set up a 10g. Then a friend brings over a bunch of pristella tetras because his landlord decided he can’t have a fish tank. Sooo now I’m overstocked. Fortunately still had a 29g with all the stuff so the fishies got an upgrade. Aannnnd now another 10 was set back up because I needed a baby mystery snail growout tank. And since most of those guys are adopted out it’s a snail/shrimp tank that I’m just treating as a nano tank. Planning to add some little nano fish to school around. Possibly ember tetras.
  22. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Especially if there’s current. 🤣 Water will slosh in and out of the pumpkin and if you have a delicate piece of carving it gets washed away. 😭 Also a bunch of fish come and eat all the shavings as we cut.
  23. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    @Mahi27 poor fishies. I see some tail rot going on as well. In my experience columnaris starts off white and as it’s medicated it turns to a grayish patch. After treatment scars will remain for awhile and it may seem like the fish is still sick based on appearance (still looks patchy). The scars take time to heal. It’s obvious in mine when they’re healing because they have a solid black lateral line that was interrupted. If severe/no improvement I water change for a few days then do a second course. Otherwise I switch to salt only and monitor progress. The swordtail in the last pic is pretty. I like how his sword has a black outline.
  24. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Love it @xXInkedPhoenixX! Thanks for allowing us to come on the journey. How about Violet? Grace?
  25. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    How do you dose meds in water in such small tanks @xXInkedPhoenixX? Do you just mix meds in a different big container and then add that to the tank that needs it? Or do you have one of those mini scales that measures in grams?
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