tolstoy21

Not sure about a 'hurry' unless you have a lot of it. Then yeah. If you have a bunch of decent sized-plants, you can get a jump start. This is my plan, to grow out as much of the floating bits as I can and then look for some very nice large-sized driftwood pieces and connect the fern to that. Then perhaps sell or trade some of it at a swap once its firmly attached and full looking. I'd like to make very nice pieces that you don't normally at find at most LFS's that would be like a turn-key sort of instant aquascape for folks who don't have the patients to wait for the fern to grow in. In the meantime, while it grows out, I'll just enjoy it in my aquariums, and as it sends off more plantlets, I'll just rinse/repeat. I'm pretty sure this will be a no-profit/cut-even venture, but it's a much better plan than composting it!

😆 😆 😆 😆 They should make glo oscars and glo bichers!

Companies do this all the time with genetically modified things. It's widespread with seeds and crops. I'm not sure where I weigh in on the 'you can't patent a living thing' because then that leads to the, well then why is ok to buy, sell or own a living thing? This is a slippery slope so I just don't go down that path of thought. I probably shouldn't even have mentioned it in this thread! I'm thinking something along the lines of a fishy disco tech. But I guess that can also be under the sea, right?

Hmmmmm . . . then I shouldn't admit I'm getting ready to go all in on a glow-fish aquascape for my kid's room. Every time we go to the fish store, he asks me for glow fish and I always say "NO WAY!!!!!!' But recently I thought, you know, it might actually be fun to just embrace the whole glow-fish thing and go all in on the crazy plants and decorations and substrate and lights, etc. and just do it up to an extreme glow-fishiness!

I order mine through Home Depot. The brand I use is American Fire. You can get bags of it in various sizes, which I like to do to give a varied appearance. I have mine on top of black Flourite sand which is the same exact color and I believe made from lava rock as well. You can see it in my tank pic below. Just give it a good rinse, as it can sometimes be dusty. But as @Tanked said, yeah I've also used it straight out of the bag as well and its been fine (filters pulled dust out of water after less than a day). I'll even sometimes use the medium sized pieces as bio filtration in box filters. No issues using it at all. I never buy the stuff they have in the store cause it's always red (I like black) and never the size I want. You can also find American Fire lava rock on Amazon.

I do the same thing with the Ehiems. I dial them into the temp I want in a bucket first, then hook them up to an Inkbird and set the desired temp in again there as my failsafe. If I notice the Inkbird never getting to the desired temp according to it's probe, I'll tweak the Eheim a bit. I also have some that are at, or surpassed, the 5 year point. But these have been in and out of service. Only maybe 2 have been running non-stop.

I agree. The Eheim Jaggers seem to run forever. However, I find that their 'calibration' is hit or miss and well. A lot of mine are inaccurate in terms of what the dial says, and the calibration seems impossible to set given how far off they are (unless I'm doing something wrong). However, I still run them because of I have found them to run forever. I just dial them to the temp I want (ignoring what the dial says, if needed), then back them up with an Inkbird.

I have about 40+ male apistos of three different species in a 40G. Admittedly they have been in there longer than I'd like (I had massively male heavy spawns and it's hard to move males without accompanying females. I'm trying to raise them at lower temps now in an attempt to even out the ratios of future spawns). They are going on 6 - 8 months of age right now, and they do squabble at times. But what I notice from them is more like posturing and displaying. I have yet to lose a fish in this setup. All my fish are healthy and colored up well and show no stress. However, yeah they need new homes. I have a couple large ornaments for them to shelter in, but usually a handful of males will hang out together in the same cave, or skull or log (I think the key is to make sure the hides aren't small enough to be defended by a single individual). I also have large clumps of Java Fern, but this is more for them to feel comfortable from me or theoretical predators than it is to separate them from one another. Now, I don't advocate keeping apistos long term in this kind of setup as 'pets', but it does work if you are breeding and need to hold a large spawn for a period of time longer than you might have anticipated. Perhaps I might start offering some of these in the Sell/Trade section here for anyone interested, free of cost as long as shipping is covered by the recipient.

Yes, you absolutely can, but with the caveats that @itsfoxtail raised. I'd say itsfoxtail's points are 100% spot on in my experience. Agree 100% You can definitely breed apistos in 20G, and raise a decent number up to about three or four months of age. After that, you'll either need to move them to something like a 40 breeder (depending on the number of fry you are growing out), or trade or sell them. Also, very true. When crowded, they will stay smaller much longer, but . . . when separated out, they do tend to begin to take on size. If you are growing out a decent number, they tend to not get too aggressive with one another if there is no real opportunity for them to create and guard territories. They will squabble, but they don't kill one another (in my experience) like the adults defending their breeding area can. For this reason, I set up my grow outs with this in mind, that I don't want them creating territories. I may put in a large hollow-log style ornament (like the very nice one from pleco ceramics!) or a large patch of java fern, but nothing that a single fish can attempt to call their own. You can hold the fry well into adulthood this way, but it is better to try to find them new homes before this time.

Totally agree! I once had a bunch in some manzinita wood, about mid-tank height, and the roots all grew down in these tangles with a awesome kind of mangrovey kind of look With java fern, on the other hand, I find that since the roots are more hairlike, when they get out of control they tend to become mulm and detritus traps. I will occasionally pull mine out and give them a hair cut (or to be more accurate, a root cut!)

Thanks! I literally do nothing to care for it. I mean maybe every once in a while if I remember, I'll hit it with a fert, but other than that, it just does it's thing. It's also been growing and sending off plantlets now for about 2+ years. If there is one thing I have learned it's that java fern (and anubias) take patients. I found the way to grow them is to just forget you have them. Like buy a good sized, healthy bunch and then just forget you have them for a couple years. Then when you go back and look at what there is, you'll be like 'Holy cow, where did this all come from!?" You can't rush either of these plants, they are definitely a 'long game'. But in that long term, you will suddenly find you have more than you know what to do with. I keep java fern because I have a lot bare bottom breeding tanks that get torn down and set back up and java fern is easy to just move from tank-to-tank. It's one of the few plants I keep anymore and is more a convenience thing, but I do really like it.

I'll be shipping them again in January if anyone is interested. I'll post them here again with a 'nerm' discount like I had last time.

I have no rigid opinion on this topic, but my feeling is that keeping a larger number of 'same species' fish in a space that isn't how they would naturally co-mingle does reduce or alleviates aggression amongst fish that would otherwise want to establish and defend a territory (sometimes to the death) because there is no possibility of establishing that territory. Do the fish enjoy this arrangement? Dunno, they can't really answer that other than to perhaps exhibit stress. I personally wouldn't keep fish in this type of setup except in a grow-out tank, or a holding tank that is not meant to be a fish's lifelong home. But this is just me and my personal opinion. If someone else sets this kind of environment up, I won't judge. If someone else has done it and has had healthy, long-lived fish that have coexisted peacefully despite the fact that this isn't how we would find them in nature, all the power to them. A lot of what we do in this hobby isn't how a fish would exist in nature. Some of this is good, like no predators and a consistent, easy food supply! Some of this is bad, but usually the bad stems from either neglect or lack of experience. Either way, responsible pet owners should just look to exhibit some common sense and take whatever actions are needed to alleviate a bad environment they might have created for their pets, be it re-homing them, getting more tanks or dividers, etc.

Ah, missed this. Yeah I had similar problems with the pet-chain-store java fern. These plants were sold in tubes with moisture in them so I'm guessing not grown submerged? I don't know enough about java fern to be able to say if emerged vs submerged matters like it does in a lot of other plants. But . . . .since java fern is so slow growing, if you have melt back, and there are few leaves to begin with, you're left with a naked rhizome. The Coop sells some healthy java fern, as well as some other online places I won't mention by name cause I'm on the Coop's forum! I would buy a few of them so you can arrange them in a nice clump and not have to wait forever for them to fill in. I find planting in clusters of three to be effective visually for both aquarium and garden plants.

I literally do nothing with mine at all. Like no care in the least bit. The only thing I can think to test would be the Gh, as in, make sure there is at least some mineral hardness in the water. Also, make sure the rhizome isn't buried. It could also be where you're getting the plants from. I find starting with larger java ferns is easier than starting with the couple leaf ones you find at places like PetCo, etc. What I have been doing over the past 2 years is collected and potted all the little plantlets. Often I'll leave the broken off floating leaves in my tanks to make more plantlets. I started with 3 'mother pots' which were larger plants than on average, and that got me going . . . . I hate to admit that I recently threw out as much as is pictured here since I ran out of space for it all. But, I've since regretted that and am working on attaching everything to wood or potting it up so I can maybe sell it at a swap in the future. Below is only half of what I have from the three plants I started with. This is my Java Fern grow out tank! Hey how did this picture get in here?!?

I can't stop java fern from growing. I have so much java fern I'm going to have to buy a storage unit to keep it all! How do you plant it? What are your water params? I literally do nothing and it grows like mad (well more of a slow, smoldering madness, cause it grows slow).

Bladder snails are just a fact of life. Sooner or later, they just seems to appear magically in your aquarium! As others have said, just don't over feed and you'll be fine. If you do become overrun with them, an easy trick if to leave a piece of zucchini on top of a net or in a jar or something at the bottom of the aquarium. Leave that overnight, and in the morning lift it out. There should be quite a few snails on the zucchini. You can do this a few times until you put a dent in the population.

Yes, definitely course sponge. Anything else won't draw water properly. Honestly, in every method I've tried, a cotton filter sock works the best (these are typically used in reef-tank sumps). But, you do have to clip it to the side of the tank and it's only for extracting water, not vacuuming out mulm. I use this with some pretty microscope fry and don't lose any. I also use this on my shrimp tanks.

What did you have in mind? Are you looking for something you can plumb into a DIY water change system? If so, what volume of water do you plan on running through it on a daily basis? I have no experience with this type of carbon, but I have rigged up a number of filters for my auto water change system that pretty much just utilize different filter media (mostly DI resin) in Big Blue filter housings.

I keep my plants in pots in rock wool in a lot of tanks (bare-bottom tanks, so the rock wool isn't in the substrate) and this has never caused me issues with any fish I've kept. My typical setup is a plant in a terracotta pot in rock wool. I doubt it will matter if the rock wool is buried in the substrate vs kept in a pot.

My experiences have also been mixed in terms of customer service, but this is to be expected in any industry or hobby marketplace or whatever. I've not had any bad experiences buying online, just some vendors are better than others on the customer service end of things. To be honest, and I hate to say this, my only truly bad experiences come from buying fish locally from the LFS's near me. I feel bad saying that, but it's true. Dan's Fish is excellent in all regards. Highly recommend. Top notch. However, they are a tad more pricey than other online sellers. But . . . . you do get what you pay for. You want excellent healthy fish, delivered fast and alive and backed by a very helpful, knowledgable staff who will assist you should things not meet your expectations, you have to pay a little more for that. Their shipping rates are comparatively decent in my experience.

Yeah I have heard that if and how well oscars will tolerate tank mates or shred plants is different with each individual oscar. So far so good on the plants. But if they do shred them to bits, the scape will still be nice in my eyes. The green just adds a splash of color to a rather bleak looking, craggy scape. As for tank mates, I had a very large Siamese Algae Eater in there with them, far too big for them to eat. At the time, it was similarly sized to them. Then, one day, out of the blue, they took turns swimming as fast as they could across the tank and ramming their heads into the SAE over and over until it was lights out. They kind of did what you see Orcas or dolphins doing to sharks, that his head-butting them in the stomach as hard as they could to kill it. When they were done, they swam away and I swear they were pleased with themselves. This all happened right next to me. My office chair if right next to the tank and so right next to the murder scene. It almost was as if they wanted me to witness what they had done, as if to say 'No tank mates! Got it bub?' They were totally uninterested in the SAE as food.

I've had good experiences with Dan's Fish, Redfish Bluefish, WetSpot, GetGills, Aquabid and Ebay.

Thanks! it's been pretty ugly up until the past month. Yeah. I'm pretty happy with it. And thus far, the oscars haven't re-arranged anything, though they did dig a large pit/bed in the shade of the anubias barteri. One of my reasons for going with anubias, other than it being a tough plant, is that i can easily pull it out of the aquarium and clean off, as there are no algae eaters in this aquarium for obvious reasons. I clean them by removing them from the tank and dropping them in my shrimp tank for 2 days. At the end of that time they are as clean as can be.

I posted a thread the other week asking about plastic plants for an Oscar tank, as they were shredding my java fern to bits. In general I was having problems thinking about an actual aquascape that I could be happy with that relied on hardscape more than plants, and gave the oscars room to swim. That being said, I, and the Oscars, agreed upon a simple scape that utilizes some driftwood and lava rock of various sizes. For color, I've added a few clumps of various anubias types, which they seem leave alone and not destroy (so far at least!) I put a bazillion trumpet snails in here to help with the cleanup of uneaten food that falls down between the lava rock. Anyway, just thought I'd share for those interested in taking a gander.