[My trip to the National aquarium]

Also I’m not flipping all these photos, I tried but that’s so much work

[My trip to the National aquarium]

Since I live in central Maryland my mom thought it would be a nice idea to go to the aquarium here are some pics

 

special note to the Amazon exhibit where they have schooling fish, plecos, large catfish, caimans, cichlids, turtles and rays all in the same tank

[Bolivian ram - is this a bully behavior or a sign of illness]

On 6/19/2023 at 12:36 PM, beastie said:

Ofcourse no pictures, because horrible skills on my side and them moving too much

I can tell I have one male (though it has no black fins on top), but has a sharp anal fin and two extensions on the tail. Three are females, based on the incomplete black (that is very vague but stops in the middle of the dorsal fin) and on the protruding sex organ

I have no idea what the last one is, seems to be male but the tail is not so prominent, though the anal fin is longer and sharper.

I could separate it, but the only tank that could work houses all my rabbit snails babies and I would have for the bram to kill them unnecessary. What do you think. Move and risk rabbits or keep and risk illness 

I just use the vent method to sex them, much easier and more reliable

 

how large is the ram? and how small are the snails?

you could put a divider in with him in the snail tank 

[False tiger knife fish????🤔]

so anyone who is a member of the aquarium coop youtube channel (if you arent, you should be!) knows about the most recent talk (im not going to go to indepth, you gotta be a member to find out what happened 😉 ) but basically false tiger knifefish were mentioned as being a good community fish, and with me losing over half my fish to diesies, an interesting opportunity has opened up. Would a false tiger knife work in my 40b with 2 bolivians and some endlers, corys, tetras, and clown pleco?

[Hello from India]

On 6/19/2023 at 7:42 AM, Fish Folk said:

Welcome aboard! Very nice fish you have there. I’m curious to learn about the aquarium hobby in India. Do you have a local fish store in your area? 

if you live in india you probably dont need an lfs, just go outside and scoop up some awesome fish! lol

[Bolivian ram - is this a bully behavior or a sign of illness]

i have a male and young female, spooky (the male) chases the female around all the time

 

to me the lone one seems sick, its odd that its acting normally otherwise, could you try separating it? that case if it is sick it wont infect the other fish

 

try checking for redworms aswell, ive heard that they are quite common (and experinced) them in bolivians 

[decorative wooden bowl as part of hardscape]

I probably wouldn't risk it

[My milksnake 🥛]

On 6/19/2023 at 8:57 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Educational snek video.

 

haha I've seen that! very educational! 

[My milksnake 🥛]

On 6/18/2023 at 6:30 PM, TheMosster said:

to avoid parasite and sickness or whatnot? or so they dont get eaten super fast?

A bit of both! I only collected a few, so if they breed in a small container I’ll have a ton to put in with my dude

[My milksnake 🥛]

My guy is super long now!

look at his little booplsnoot!!!!

On 6/18/2023 at 6:26 PM, Themosster said:

maybe ill look for some myself then...

or ill be smart and leave my terrariums alone.

hard decision. 😄

What I’m doing is letting them breed for a few generations until I introduce them

[My milksnake 🥛]

On 6/18/2023 at 2:54 PM, Themosster said:

nice! i guess im not the only terrarium person on here, though our interests appear to be rather different.

please share more details on this V. where do you find isopods in the wild? I want free ones!

I just dug through some pine needles and under bark

[My milksnake 🥛]

On 6/14/2023 at 6:57 AM, Andy's Fish Den said:

I'm just guessing from what he looks like in the pics, but he should be able to easily take fuzzy or even small hopper mice. When I kept snakes several years ago, I fed prey items that were up to 1.5 times the diameter of the body. 

thats what i was thinking, i have 1 pinky left so I was going to start getting fuzzies

[My milksnake 🥛]

My dude is getting pretty large (for a small dude) when should I start feeding fuzzies instead of pinky mice?

[My milksnake 🥛]

Not the greatest shed (it was an entire body shed but I accidentally ripped it when pulling it out) probably because my auto mister hasn’t been working properly because I was ironing some kinks out because I increased the storage to a 1 gallon jug

(I think I heard him shedding this morning so that’s pretty interesting)

[Drift wood question]

Any wood will leach tannins just do water changes if you don’t like the look, unless it is a huge peace in a small tank and never do water changes then maybe the water parameters may be an issue for some fish

[What do you wish you did differently when setting up you tank or pond]

I wish I actually got a good amount of set up time, all my tanks had fish introduced the first or second day they were set up due to not preferable circumstances 

[My milksnake 🥛]

I think he is going to molt again soon 

[Phantom fish deaths]

On 6/3/2023 at 7:26 PM, Colu said:

Melafix is more like a mild antiseptic treatment it will do nothing for more severe bacterial infections you need antibiotic treatment like the ones I recommended or maracyn2 and high dose of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 1 gallon 

it seemed like it worked, i have had a DREMATIC decrease in deaths today (only 1 so far)

[Best algae eater for breeding tanks?]

Honestly no algae eater probably would be best as not only do they eat the algae but they also eat microbes that fry may eat

[Best algae eater for breeding tanks?]

On 6/3/2023 at 2:55 PM, Lennie said:

Yea

My worry would be any shrimp or snail that breeds, so in case a medication is needed, it would be impossible to remove.

Thats why I don't consider pest snails or neocaridinas tbh

Could do nerites and amonos 

[Best algae eater for breeding tanks?]

Probably any shrimp would work well (besides predatory ones)

[Bolivian rams are great and community safe… unless (ongoing)]

On 6/3/2023 at 2:42 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I deal with similar things with Grace the RTBS.  Rams from the single experience I had keeping mine, Dean's breeding setups, and other places, like to have 3 sides.  One exposed side for them to protect and that gives them comfort.  It isn't a cave per say, but just shelter and a place to call their own.  A flat rock against the something in the tank would be a place to start.  In @Chick-In-Of-TheSea's case Snoopy has a tube of PVC that became her shelter and it helped to make sure she got food and stuff.  Rams can be finicky, but like most fish they just might be trying to tell you something.

I think he probably is doing fine but me stressing and reading into everything little thing, I just think I caught him eating a dead fish that had some disease (which I am now treating) so I hope that will help fix it

 

in addition each day I seem to be losing more and more fish, which would not be the case if spooky was the one killing them

[Phantom fish deaths]

I started medication with melafix (all I could get my hands on) almost certain it’s not spooks now because I found a medium sized female endler dead with messed up mouth 

[Bolivian rams are great and community safe… unless (ongoing)]

On 6/3/2023 at 1:26 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

What does Snoopy's usual hiding spot look like?  Maybe it's just a matter of having a certain structure for the rams to use while the other fish don't have easy access. 

For the sake of verifying any background reasons for any issues, can you share full water test details?

Yes I made a post about the deaths

 

also my theory has swapped to bacterial infection, because I found a female endler that is much to big for him to have taken down

On 6/3/2023 at 1:26 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

What does Snoopy's usual hiding spot look like?  Maybe it's just a matter of having a certain structure for the rams to use while the other fish don't have easy access. 

For the sake of verifying any background reasons for any issues, can you share full water test details?

He doesn’t really have a “hiding spot” he is the king of the tank and usually just patrols or sleeps out in the open, he knows that he is the top dog 

[Fast setup a tank for emergency with no preparation]

On 6/3/2023 at 2:19 PM, beastie said:

If i need a quick tank and have nothing cycled, i put fresh water, wait for it to temp equalize or put heater in and throw in some plants like duckweed or hornwort...and then do daily changes, not 50% but like 20%.

This i think is enough for a one fish with low bioload. For bolivian ram some sand but like mm high, not 2 cm substrate height should be ok.

 

Also please stop scaring me, i have five bolivian rams, ember tetras, yellow tiger and many other fish you have and do not want to hear about killing sprees 🙂 fingers crossed 

Yay I’m pretty sure it is not him anymore, I found a female endler (about mid sized, not fully grown but MUCH larger than a male) dead with half of the color faded so I am almost certain I’m dealing with pathogens