tolstoy21

I have super soft acidic water and used Seachem's Lake Cichlid Salt and Malawi Lake Victoria Buffer. I know multis are from Lake Tanganiyka , but mine did well and spawned a lot in a Ph at the low 8's. Either of those two (Malawi or Tanganika buffer) will work to set the Ph/Kh at an optimal level. The Salt is for boosting the Gh. As others have mentioned, it's good to know what your water parameters are first so you know how much adjustment it needs. Test your GH and KH. If you only need minor buffering, then an aragonite sand and some crushed coral substrate could be all you need.

This pair is in a 20 gallon high by themselves. I've also had them in a 10 gallon when I first got them, as a temporary holding place. They were fine in the 10 and to my surprise had a decent sized spawn shortly after I put them in there. But, a 20 gallon feels more appropriate and is ample room for them

Was waiting for this guy to flare his tail. About 200 photos in I decided he won the waiting contest. Third shot is of the wifey.

Yeah, starting with a higher quality shrimp jump starts the process. If you don't already have shrimp you plan on working with, I'd shop around for something that seems affordable to you that's closer to where you want to be. A lot of shrimp breeders sell culls for reasonable rates. These are not perfect specimens, but they tend to carry decent genetics. Plenty of good articles and youtube videos out there that discuss how to think about selectively breeding shrimp to improve a line.

Yes. But it takes many generations and a lot of attention to selective breeding and culling.

Yeah, that's a good plan. Get as much out as you can in the bucket, then when you put the wood in the tank, run the Purigen in your filter to remove the coloration from the water. Regenerate the Purigen as needed.

Purigen is most effective if the water is actively flushing through the bag its in, much like water softener resin. It can only remove stuff from water its in contact with. It won't attract the tannis. Purigen is great in a filter if you want to pull the tannins from your tank because the water in the filter is forced (mostly) through Purigen media bag, and across the resin beads. I'm not sure you'll get any benefit over just soaking, rinsing, re-filling bucket with clean water, soaking, rinsing . . . . rinse, repeat until done (pun intended). Purigen certainly won't speed up the process. At best, it will clean tannins from a small amount of the bucket water, but this won't affect the rate at which the tannins are leached from the wood.

It could be transitioning from an emerged to a submerged form. Are the new leaves on the re-planted clippings different from the old falling off leaves?

I would ask the following: What type of shrimp? How old are they (and were the dead older, younger, both)? Did the water temp swing wildly? Are the parameters widely divergent from what they were before the water change? I sometimes do some pretty massive water changes on my shrimp tanks. I find as long as the water going in is roughly equivalent to the water coming out in terms of GH, KH, PH and temp, the shrimp can handle it fine. Obviously, massive changes downward in the bad stuff, like nitrates etc. is a good thing.

Check out dripworks.com for drip emitters. Their color-coded ones also contain a check valve (or something internal) that prevents back flow. https://www.dripworks.com/ceta-pc-emitters i use those attached to standard RO tubing. You’ll also need a pressure regulator upstream of them so you don’t blow them off if your line pressure exceeds their rating. https://www.dripworks.com/senninger-high-flow

This is how I make mine:

I used metal racks for a bit, but now prefer to just make them myself from 2x4s. Lot of good videos on this topic. The King of DIY has some good ones. You might want to check out his YouTube channel for some easy rack builds if you go the DIY route.

For those of you who heat your fish rooms instead of using in-tank heaters, what temp do you typically run it at? Do you also use some in-tank heaters to encourage breeding?

@Fish Folk Do you every see any aggression from the female towards the dither fish when she is guarding fry, or do they stay high enough as to be off her radar?

Crystal Red Shrimp tank.

So breeding status update . . . . no fry. 😞 @Beardedbillygoat1975 I don't know about other's experiences with Zebra Akara, but mine don't spook ever. In fact, they are the most personably fish I've ever owned. When I enter the room, both male and female come up to the glass to greet me and watch what I'm doing (obviously they want food). Even if these never ever produce fry, I really enjoy having these fish. They are slow and peaceful and colorful, and just all-around good natured. As for earth worms, yeah agreed. If you see them un-eaten on the bottom, siphon them out. @Jdogtrainer As for finding worms small enough, I chop them up most of the time. Nasty business! Put that on the 'downsides' list as well.

@AquaHobbyist123 Good luck with this! I started down this same path a few years ago. I haven't yet tried to build any relationships with LFS's near me because I don't have the free time required to drive about the state talking to store owners. I've only been shipping fish, which, despite its challenges, I've been enjoying. Anyway, it's certainly 100% doable if all you're looking to do is cover the costs of the hobby. However, I'd recommend spending some time tracking your income and expenses so you have insight into how you're actually performing . . . if you're breaking even, making a little pocket change, or losing money.

I think it depends on the fish species and if they like to hide at the bottom or top of the tank. For top of tank kind of fish, I will use masses of floating java fern or penny wort. Both are very easy to grow. For fry that hide on the bottom, I use large java ferns with extensive hair-like root systems stuck to rocks or drift wood. Also leaf litter. Masses of anubias. Really just about anything. I tend to just use what I have on hand in abundance. I have literal buckets of java fern, so that tends to be my goto. I also like java fern and anubias because I can just pick them up out of the tank and plop them into another tank to jump start a cycle. After some time, you just naturally wind up with a lot of it. When this stuff gets too gunky, I'll drop it in my CRS tank and they'll have it sparkling clean in about a day.

Not impossible, but hard work and your mileage may vary. I did this on a 125G I picked up used off of CraigsList. You'll need to use cerium oxide and a good drill with a buffing attachment. A 2.5 has thin glass, so I'd worry about it breaking from the pressure of the buffing. Also, it's a small surface to work on if the scratches are inside. A new 2.5 gallon might cost less than the supplies and manpower you'd wind up putting into this. However, if it's an acrylic tank, then something like Novus scratch remover will do the trick more easily than working with glass.

@smoore I was thinking about doing the same with a 2.5 gallon tank I have sitting around. If I had a suggestion as to your setup, I'd either go with minimal, few well washed substrate (something like the old-school aquarium gravel that has like zero dust), and I'd let it sit and the tank settle a day before putting any photography subjects in there. Also, get the glass real clean the day before, inside and out. Doing it the day before allows the stuff you cleaned off the glass to settle and get you clearer water. For me, I find some fish very very hard to shoot, like endlers, and some tetras, because they are always in motion and my camera's focus cant keep up with them. My personal hope is that the smaller tank allows them less room to wander and gives me a fixed space/range of focus. Anyway, good luck and post back any photos you take!

@Ken Burke Pros of feeding earthworms: free! Cons: I'll let you know when my tanks get fouled or some of my fish die!

I was going to say the same. Looks like an internal problem leading to bloat. I've had that with zebra danios before (as well as other fish) in one of my aquariums.

@Jdogtrainer The eggs have been in the little flower pot a few days now, so I'm beginning to question whether or not they will they will hatch. The only thing I've done differently recently is I started feeding cut up earth worms that I get out of my garden. Also, I started putting my Orange Rili culls in there with them and they snack on some of the slower, less cautious ones. That could have triggered them, or that all could just be coincidence.

I use a filter sock over a standard python/gravel vac. Nothing gets through. I use this method to change water on Odessa Barb fry tanks, and they are so small you can barely see them in the initial days. I also pump the change water back in, through the sock, to buffer its impact and prevent accidental fry death. I like the filter sock cause I can just clamp it to the side of the tank and it does not restrict the water flow through the siphon. I find that media bags tend to want to suck up into the siphon and restrict the flow, and if any floating plants or debris get pulled in, they stop the flow and you have to clear the obstruction. Honestly, I cannot emphasize how much easier the filter sock is than any other method I have tried. And I tried more than a few. The only downside to this is that it's only for water changes, not cleaning detritus off the bottom. For that I siphon very gently and slowly into a white bucket, let that settle for a bit, then transfer any fry I accidentally siphoned up back into the tank.

Just an update on this thread. My pair has finally laid some eggs. I noticed them a day ago and the female is still guarding them. I'll keep you all posted if I get some fry.