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Chick-In-Of-TheSea

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Posts posted by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

    Bolivian Ram Journal

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted · Edited by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

    Forgot to mention, the first 3 minutes in the tank, the ram sand sifted. 🙂  came out of a gravel tank so was probably excited to see sand. I usually do bare bottom qt but this was a tank that was recently vacated so that’s why the sand.

    • Love 2

    Stocking Stuffers and General fishy things to Consider

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Dechlorinator. 💙

    On 11/9/2023 at 5:18 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

    I got one of the "telescoping shrimp nets" and it's not great in terms of handle quality or build quality.  That sort of material being "stiff"

    Yeah mine got bent at some point and now it doesn’t sit flat against the glass when I want to inspect a shrimp. Also the seams confuse shrimplets, the material holds a big air bubble, and the net wants to collapse.

    • Like 1

    Bolivian Ram Journal

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted · Edited by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

    On 11/9/2023 at 9:07 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

    The fins all say male to me, so definitely looks like it.

    I said the same thing last time so.... Knock on wood.

    Fingers crossed for you and it'll be exciting as always to follow along.

    Sidenote.... Totally can relate to ridiculous amounts of time trying to ID the gender on some fish, especially rams in the store all washed out.  Best I got from the employee was, "yep, I got no clue, take your time." 😂

     

    On 11/9/2023 at 9:07 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

    Totally can relate to ridiculous amounts of time trying to ID the gender on some fish

    I think the breeding tube is the key to everything with these rams. After staring at them and comparing them for so long, I’d bank on that as the method to differentiate.

    • Like 1

    Bolivian Ram Journal

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted · Edited by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

    Was in big box today to buy a small piece of mopani to get some extra tannins going on Geppetto’s tank vs doing the rooibos tea every water change. I looked up at a tank (I rarely look at tanks in big box store) and I stopped dead in my tracks. I saw like 5 Snoopys in a tank. Now mind you, I haven’t seen Bolivian rams in about a year, not even at Aquashella. They were labeled as Ruby Clown Cichlids. Hence they were priced at $7.99 instead of $14.99…. Just as a reminder, when I bought Snoopy she was labeled as a “red ram”, whatever that is.

    So my friend who always swoons over Snoopy has been wanting one very much, so I did get one for her, and I spent, no lie, like 45 minutes in the store trying to decide what to do for myself and trying to sex the fish. Because I want Snoopy to stop glass surfing. I hate when fish do that, and I believe it’s out of boredom (although some of it is to get my attention too). The truth is, she’s been doing this a long time, and I always feel like she deserves better, socially.

    I believe, (and I explained to the associate what I was looking for, and she helped look for those features) that I got a male. We made sure NO breeding tube, the bump on head, looked at pointy fins. This could be an epic failure but because I have seen one success story by @xXInkedPhoenixX who definitely has a male and a female, I would like to try this out, under careful observation. I am taking everyone’s experiences very seriously, however. If things go south, I have an extra tank as well as hobbyist friends who live closeby and could potentially adopt.

    Now this is a terrible pic because the fish is confused/just was transported. Also I had to take it with the light out to ease stress of reflections.


    IMG_6108.jpeg.ca7027f39c9a761453ef50d28951f04d.jpeg
     

    Maybe I can get better pic later. (A little sunken belly, no?) Anyway, this fish is in with the new ember tetra which were recently started on preventative paracleanse. Also there are live brine shrimps hatched out and are ready for the morning feeding tomorrow for all the tanks. The paracleanse is a 7 day soak (ACO instructions) and then water change with 2 week rest, then we repeat 7 day soak.

    Again, this could crash and burn.. or it couldn’t. For now 1 month (minimum) quarantine .

    Oh also, friend’s ram has separate setup in a bucket and will be picked up in the next day or so.

    IMG_6104.jpeg

    • Love 2

    Coffee with Teejay

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted · Edited by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

    On 11/9/2023 at 10:15 AM, TeeJay said:

    Oh yes quite the poop machines they are. I know having 2 in a 29 gallon is already pushing it. That's why all of my tanks have 2 types of filtration on them. I either run hobs with sponge filters or canisters with sponge filters. That way as my bioload increases I have extra room in my media to build up to the amount of bb that I will need.

    I know once lemony and luna get a bit older I'll need to move the Cory crew out and just let the 29 be them and the least killis. I'm ok with that since the killis have a very small bioload. This tax season I want to get the 29 off the stand it's on now to an actual tank stand and add a canister to it as well. Most likely another fluval. I run the 207 on the 20 long so I think I'll go with the 307 on the 29. And keep the penguin pro 125 and the two med sponge filters going as well.

    Yep I run the Penguin 200 on the 29g tank. It's actually for tanks up to 50g, and I sure put it to work w/ all those snails. I have 3 new juvenile snails; some of the old ones have passed, sadly. 3 old ones are left now and I don't intend to add any more, just the BNP.  Also I always run a sponge filter in there too as well as extra air. And then I do lots of plants, hornwort, and the emergent pothos, so my last month of nitrate readings were like 5-10.  I still do the weekly water change anyway to keep the detritus level down.

    • Like 1

    Winter is coming ....

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 10/31/2023 at 11:59 AM, Ruud said:

    (insert Game of Thrones meme here) 

    So this is my second winter in this house that has limited central heating. Last winter I woke up to temperatures as low as 13 degrees C ( 55F) in the house some mornings. Needless to say my tanks were suffering and I had to put in additional heaters on the spot to keep the water up to temperature. 

    This year I have 2 tanks with L numbers that run into 80F so I am worried. Both tanks have 300W heaters even though they are around 20G each only. Both tanks have double side Poly carbonate lids to keep as much as heat in. 

    I am thinking of wrapping the back side and sides with some sort of insulation material like Foam boards or the reflective matting stuff. What would be my best option to keep the heat in? Anybody any experience here? 

     

    Thanks
    Ruud

    I've seen folks use the reflective windshield thingies for cars .

    image.png.efb378584cbb23f5d05b690389d027f4.png

    Just for laughs

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted · Edited by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

    On 10/18/2023 at 2:09 PM, Matt B said:

    Neighbors backyard pond.....

    Anyone need some duckweed? :classic_laugh: Ha Ha

    20231016_144508.jpg

    Ha!  Yeah, some dive sites I've been to look like that.  But the water is crystal clear underneath.  But the duckweed sticks to our gear when we exit. 😛 

    • Haha 2

    Coffee with Teejay

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted · Edited by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

    Oh sidenote, I am being given a bnp; Idk what color or anything yet, or even when - LOL! - just, my friend's friend bred them and has too many etc and so, one will travel with her from South FL to me and will come help eat my driftwood and stuff.  Technically I could get as many as I want at no cost. I've not researched about bioload yet, so I just said one for now.

    • Love 2

    Coffee with Teejay

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted

    On 11/9/2023 at 8:40 AM, TeeJay said:

    Thank you... Going to try and get some new larger caves ordered this pay. I know they are right at the edge of being to small....I don't wanna see another pleco in a apistos cave incident like before 😆

    I mean, was the word "apistos" actually written on the cave?  Because if not, it's fair game...

    • Haha 1

    Too much calcium

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    @Guppysnail I do have a small HOB I can run and a bunch of floss, with the clarifier.

    @nabokovfan87 the air bar is creating a lot of churn too, so the jetlifter wouldn’t be a cure-all. Although I could discontinue the air bar. That went into the setup during scutariella japonica and I never took it out.  They do seem to love the current, and it’s cute to see them swimming around in it ♥️🦐. 

    IMG_5833.jpeg.0bf5de8d239b93ee6096ed3bf909b4e7.jpeg

    Not concerned with output of HOB because I made a baffle out of a water bottle. Without the baffle, the shrimps do struggle, especially the juveniles. I had used that on this tank for a good two weeks running carbon after the No Planaria treatment. The HOB has a coarse PFS as well; it’s the Marina S10, so the shrimplets should be OK.

    I have been trying to vacuum as well as I can, but shrimplets… and not a lot of open sand - there are feeding dishes, driftwood, plants, shrimp houses, lotus pods, alder cones, rocks.. there’s a lot to work around.

    On 11/8/2023 at 8:28 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

    I'll snag a quick photo before I mess with the tank and siphon today and give you an idea of how well you can clarify things with a sponge filter only setup

    I can see in your UFO beam above you have the particulates as well.   …was.. was that shrimp abducted? 👽 

    • Haha 1

    Too much calcium

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

    So, see this here?

    IMG_5898.jpeg.e615342168c26d859b36b6ac950a1c62.jpeg

    Well, unfortunately I was using the competitor calcium (food). Now I got this goin on:

    Is Fritz Clarifier the answer?

    Running a fine sponge filter in there currently. Water changes don’t help. Been dealing with this for quite some time and decided I need to figure something out.

    Also is Fritz clarifier ok with shrimps? I know it claims to be. Asking if anyone has personal experience using it with shrimps.

    IMG_5472.jpeg

    It’s like it’s snowing in there all the time. ☹️

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