tolstoy21

Crushed coral will raise the Ph, but if you do a lot of water changes you might struggle to keep it as high as you want. I guess this depends on the Ph range you're targeting. In tanks that I do a lot of water changes in, I find crushed coral adds some KH, keeping the system above absolute zero, but it doesn't create what I would consider alkaline water. I personally find it doesn't move the GH much. Again, this is probably more a result of my water turn-over rate than anything else. To boost KH or GH, I typically mix Seachem products into my change water (for tanks I'm targeting a specific range of parameters impossible to meet with very soft well-water). For GH I like equilibrium. For KH, Seachem has a range of different buffering products. WonderShells are also certainly good solution but I haven't used them myself. I don't want to downplay crushed coral. I love it and use it all the time (I put some into every box filter I have). And in my water aging barrel. But for my water, which is highly acidic, it doesn't do the job I need it to do for fish that require a higher Ph, given amount of water I change. I use it to avoid KH crashes more than anything else. Coral certainly is the easiest, most cost effective first thing to try, that's for sure. But if that doesn't do the trick, there are a ton of other options, my personal preference being the Seachem line of products.

I just started with plecos about 6 months ago and am growing out some leopard frogs right now. I've had 6 in a 29 gallon for that entire time without any issues. Leopard frogs don't make nearly as much waste as the wood eating species do, so I have had no issues with water quality (But I do change a ton of water via an auto-change system). I keep them in moderate flow and have a school of kerri tetras as a dither fish (the plecos currently live in my kerri grow-out tank). My temps are between 78-81, but that's more a result of how cold my basement gets and the fact that I'm finding that I should probably go out and grab a higher wattage heater for these winter months. Average tank temps are probably around 79F. I've heard people say sand in the tank is good for them, so I have a sand substrate. But in all honesty, I find that a pain to clean, so I might try bare bottom at some point with them, or bare bottom with a shallow scattering of sand. For food, I feed mine a 50/50 mixture of Repashy grub-pie and solient green, or a 50/50 mix of bottom-scratcher and soilent green. I've tried different kinds of sinking wafers, but they don't touch them. They also happily eat whatever the tertas don't in terms of flake or frozen foods. For frozen food, I feed mostly frozen brine and daphnia (for the tetras specifically, but as a bonus the plecos get some. I don't feed blood worms because of my own allergies to them. I'm new to plecos at this moment, and maybe have about 6 months experience with them. But those are my observations thus far. I'd say they will be AOk in a 29 gallon for athe time being. Just give them some caves or hiding spaces. Keep the water clean and meet there parameter requirements, as you would for any other fish, and they should be happy. As for how to keep them when they are of breeding age, I guess ask me that in, what , like another year and a half? 🙂 Hopefully we'll both be having oodles of success around that time!

Cacatuodies females can get quite aggressive if there are fry present. So if you're planning on breeding them, I'd pull the eggs or have a dedicated breeding setup for the mother to rear the fry. Additionally, apistos are traditionally a soft water species and mollies are a hard water fish. Not to say apistos can't be bred in harder water, but if you run into issues with them not spawning, you might want to isolate them out into something with a lower GH/KH.

Man those prices seem high! Check Aquabid. There are plenty of neocaradina of all types offered there at much better prices. You can also sometimes find them locally on CraigsList for great rates. An I'm sure you know, there are a number of good breeders that have full storefronts online. $10-15 a piece for shrimp seems more like a prices you'd see for a Taiwan Bee shrimp than it does a neocardina. I just started breeding orange rilis, but won't have an established colony for a few months yet. I have a lot of culls from these that are Orange Sakura. Been moving those to my betta tank when they are big enough to not be 'snacks'

Agreed. I find they 'usually' pair up, but not always. What kind of apistos were you looking to breed?

I've been using BacterAE for quite a while now and find it a very effective food for shrimplet survivability. Snowflake food is also very good, as it scatters about the tank effectively and gets into the places shrimplets are tucked away. Indian Almond leaves are also a good addition. Kale is great natural source of calcium for shell development, so keep adding that! This is a snap from my CRS colony this morning. Lots of little guys!

Thank god for the below, cause I have a tank full of these!

This is what I do. The water for my aquariums comes from line that i installed before the water treatment system. This way, I bypass both my softener and a second house hold filter we have that boosts the Ph for tap water. The aquarium water runs through a sediment filter and a de-nitrate filter that I installed specifically for my aquarium water (my well water is high on nitrates. Higher than I want for aquariums, but not high enough to warrant the cost of a whole-house de-nitrate solution). I'm getting straight well water this way. It has a very low natural Ph, but I mostly keep south American, softer water species. I age the water mostly just to bring it up to temp (I have a heater in the barrel), and a bag of crushed coral to boost the Kh a tad, and get it above zero. The water coming out of the well is like ice cold, so i cant go straight to the tanks with it. I have one tank of Multis that I have to put additives in to boost the Ph.

Clip any point close to where the leaves meet the stem. New shoots should develop out of the leaf union (the point where the leaves meet the stem). If you do this regularly, and closer to the base, maybe about 2/3rds the way down, the plant will get bushier. Otherwise the plant growth will be focused on the portion of the plant closer to the water's surface/light source. Replants the trimmings and you should have a thicker bunch of Wisteria in no time. Once established, this stuff grows like weeds, and will want to get tall again, but just re-trim and either replant the cuttings or toss them.

I've had crypts go that wild as well. I put my fingers into the substrate around the base of the plant and feel for its root ball, and then pluck that up. If there are runners that come with that, I'll snip those so I'm not tearing out a whole row of crypts. I thin mine out all the time, and also prune back the overly large leaves and let the plants grow back in again. Everyone talks about 'crypt melt' associated with disturbing their roots, but I have only experience melt when planting newly acquired plants. I tear my existing crypts out all the time and replant them without any melt at all. I don't get overly worried about disturbing the gravel (mine are in Fluorite sand). Yeah the water gets super cloudy, but that subsides in a day. Over time I learned, the substrate is going to get disturbed, the water is going to get cloudy no matter how careful I am.

I have done something like this for a 125. Mine is a little more automated, and plumbed directly into my tank return water lines. But the concept is essentially the same. My waste water is discharged by an overflow bulkhead in my sump. This eventually makes its way to a slop sink in my basement. I also pump water from a brute trash can where I age and heat it, so it's not a pressurized system. But one could just as easily run a pressurized pex line up to their room and fit it with a hose bib for the python hookup. Not sure any of that would be 'up-to-code' but I won't tell if you don't. 🙂 This is what the plumbing looks like behind my tank.

If you try this approach, use RO tubing and john guest fittings for the water lines. The drip emitters fit nicely into these. The problem with the lines and tubing rated for gardening is that they are very leaky (not a problem in a garden!). They are also much much more likely to pop off if not seated properly and flood your space than RO tubing is. How do I know this? Don't ask! But the concept is the same if you use RO tubing with drip emitters. Also, make sure you have a pressure/ flow restrictor inline to make sure to not put too much pressure on the emitters.

Auto water change doesn't need to be that costly. Unless you have complicated schedules, you could wire up a single solenoid and plug it into a inexpensive outlet timer. I think I paid around $30 for the solenoid below. To deal with the waste water, have it drain into a tote with a utility sump-pump that pumps the water into your utility sink when the tote is full. If you want to manage how much goes into each tank, use different irrigation drip emitters. They come rated at various gallons per hour and cost pennies each. This is not as precise as using a rain-bird with multiple zones and schedules, but it works if your needs aren't overly complex. Also, Pex and RO tubing are waaaaaay easier to work with than rigid PVC. Below is my 'cistern'. I stage water here for various uses (like sudden bulk water changes), and pump it to my tanks with a Sicce Ultra Zero utility pump attached to a python hook. Admittedly, I only have a fish 'wall' with about 20 aquariums. But it's not hard to scale this setup. None of this is the most neat and attractive setup, but it works well, and when i got into breeding fish, I didn't want to start out of the gate by dropping a lot of money on equipment and materials in case I discovered it wasn't for me.

My Odessa’s are from Greg Sage. I got a some from him a couple years back and have bred them a few times since then.

I've had this colony for a few years now. Been very happy with how solid the whites are and the vibrancy of the colors over all. Speaking of "reds", I was also shooting my Odessas again this weekend!

A few more . . . . Thanks for looking. . . . 🙂

I find that once the shrimp colony is a generation or two old in your specific water params, they tend to become much more bullet proof. I do 50% water changes with crystal reds shrimp in my tanks with no deaths. But, I do make sure the water going in is approximately equal to the water going out in terms of temp and GH/KH. But this is approximate, I don't go nuts trying to do an exact parameter match. If I drop the temp by 5F, or lower the TDS 20-30 points, give-or-take, I personally have not experienced adverse effects. I probably have a few hundred CRS (give or take a bazillion) at the current moment. I find neocaradina are even more forgiving in terms of water chemistry changes, so long as the changes are not super crazy dramatic you'll be ok. I have a bunch of orange rilli shrimp in a betta tank and do 30% WCs there maybe every 2 - 3 weeks, and they breed like mad. The only problem I have encountered with those is that the betta likes to snack on them!

Been practicing the old fish photography thing a bit these days.

@Irene Thanks for this reply and added links. There is a thread somewhere on a forum where a biologist/aquarium hobbyist documented some of his success at this. If I can find it, I'll add a link to it in this thread. My first attempt at this was a disaster due to a short in my Fluval Spec pump that killed off my Nerites! Didn't realize they were getting shocked until I put my hand in to see what was up and (youch!) got a shock myself 'first hand' (pun intended). Been meaning to give Nerite breeding another shot but haven't yet found the spare time amongst other breeding projects I have going on. Also, [insert shameless fan shout-out here] been a fan of 'Girl Talks Fish' for some time now (stumbled upon your channel when I found your interview with Greg Sage a few years back). Thanks for all the content!

I've moved java moss to a tank I was cycling for shrimp and, within a week, zebra danio fry magically appeared! The danios in my other tank scattered eggs on a regular basis but typically they were consumed by the other fish before they hit the substrate.

I've been selling on Aquabid for a year+ now and it's been a positive experience. As fishfolk said, spend some time getting packaging down. Aquabid is simple to use, but keeping up with inquiries and sales via email can be time consuming. Email is not the most efficient way to manage orders, in my experience, but if you just sell occasionally, it's not too bad. It's also useful to spend some time going back through the auction histories via the 'Closed Auctions' link to see what the things you want to sell have typically sold for.

Trying to get better at the whole photography thing.

What are your GH/KH readings? Just curious.

I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying here? Breather bags are designed to allow water to escape? Since I posted this some time back, I’ve experimented with floating breather bags and didn’t have any issues floating the fish to acclimate them. My original question was not how to acclimate fish. It was if anyone knew of any published, official stance on acclimation via floating with breather bags from any of the breather bag manufacturers.