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itsfoxtail

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Everything posted by itsfoxtail

  1. itsfoxtail
    Thank you for the suggestions! I honestly had never heard of keeping croaking gouramis with bettas before! That's exciting! Cherry barbs are also on a bucket list of fish so I'll have to do some research on them as well! Maybe with a short-finned quicker betta. Least killifish sound so awesome, but I'd be worried they'd be uncomfortable in the hotter water? I'd love to try these guys (especially the dark ones) but I keep my bettas at 78 or so and am just worried they'd be too hot? I've heard they like cooler water since they're technically like a minnow (?) I think? I'd love to! I still have to build the rack and buy all the tanks tho so it will be... a slow process... Also there's a giant old TV sitting where I want to put it so I'll have to figure out how to lug that thing away lol. Oh, that's so great to hear! If you don't mind me asking, what size tank and how many corys? Do they just pretty much leave one another alone?
  2. itsfoxtail
    I support the idea that the first six months are the biggest learning curve. Second six months are the rabbit-hole-fall which results in an... addition to your curve, I guess? Then the final 6 months to the year and a half mark is when you embrace the chaos, and through doing so find yourself much more well-rounded and have a much better feel for things. That said, there's stuff I have to google every single day and goodness knows how much that I don't know, let alone all the stuff I don't know I don't know. Keeping with it is the key! The struggles are part of what makes it so much more satisfying when things work out! Also tanks take a bit to come into their own. I struggled endlessly with my big community (still do to some extent) but once that year old tank sets in, things start evening out and become so much more reliable.
  3. itsfoxtail
    I find myself finally getting around to building out a "betta rack" housing all my breeding stock/pet/fallen-in-love-with bettas. I have them now all strewn about the house in 5-10 gallon tanks and with the new setup they'll all be in 15 gallons. This has been something I've wanted to do for quite some time and I'm very excited! So! With the newly added space for them, I'm looking for a tank-mate or two for each betta! I've had luck with kuhli loaches, tetras (ember/cardinal/neon), and even shrimp (my blind girl is very docile bless her lil heart). So I'm wanting to know what you've ever had success with! There'll be about 9-12 tanks in total so bring on any and all suggestions! (Also any live-bearers that people have had success with bettas besides endlers? I don't mind them getting an extra fry snack or two.) Any help greatly appreciated!
  4. itsfoxtail
    Weird! Mine did their biggest spawning session right after they were added to the tank, freshly planted, too! I wonder if it sort of plays into the "rain/cool water change" method of spawning them just moving them to someplace new... I wonder if moving them between two tanks would have the same effect. Although I'm not sure I would have the stamina to keep catching them they're so fast, lol! It is wild how well fry hide. I am just flabbergasted every time I look at one fly into some thick plants not to be seen for another week or two just like "a day ago you were attached to an egg". Nature is insane. I keep swearing I'll go find a little roll-y chair that I can use just to look for eggs/fry after I've spotted a rogue one since I obligatorily, like you said, must watch the tank for the rest of the day. 😂 I hadn't seen it as a tan until you said that. Now I can't unsee it. Only the females have that color variation in my little herd, the males stay pretty much all dark. For some reason they remind me of tug-boats with that coloring and I can't honestly tell you why.
  5. itsfoxtail
    I actually did an inadvertent test of No Planaria and its mortality rate on snails (because my snail tank had java moss that was absolutely DRENCHED in hydra). While it definitely knocked out the population I ultimately was surprised to see how well ramshorns in particular did. They had about a 50% survival rate while the pond/nerites were tanked by it. Now I kind of wish there would've been some MTS in there just to see. This info doesn't really apply to anything but just thought I'd share lol. Oh, and sorry to snail people; it wasn't a pretty sight even for me, a 'snails are food' person. Also rip to my two nerites that I genuinely forgot were in there. You've already gotten loads of awesome info but I will say if the poos are red and long (and you haven't been feeding krill flakes) I would go with Expel P. I know this is possibly harmful to your ramshorns (I've dosed in tanks with them before and haven't seen die-off anyway) but if it were to be callumanus worms levimasole is really the only thing I think does the job effectively. I'd second a round of Prazipro after the Expel P as well!
  6. itsfoxtail
    This is a lifesaver! I've somehow hot-glued one of my own that's janky as heck but you best bet I'll be perusing etsy tonight! No idea it actually existed!
  7. itsfoxtail
    ooOOH my gosh it exists!! My dream has come true! Thank you thank you thank you so much for this link!
  8. itsfoxtail
    Off the top of my head I'd just throw out there the Bug Bites Spirulina flakes. I believe first ingredients are spirulina and black soldier fly larvae but I'm not sure about it as you get into the nitty gritty of the paragraph that is ingredients. Also I think you're probably just asking for dry foods but brine shrimp (frozen or freeze-dried) have the spirulina option too which I think is great for corys! And now I'm off to go look at the ingredients in my foods because tbh I guess I haven't paid that much attention to it...
  9. itsfoxtail
    Something I need more than life itself is a net/intake cover/grid/thingamajig that fits over the python water changer hose but actually also sucks water through it. I've rigged a hot-glued bit of craft mesh but I know it won't last forever... Gonna ask my 3D printing-inclined friend if he can manage to cook me up one but until then I live in constant fear of sucking up fry. Yes! Spirulina pellets?! Why don't they exist?
  10. itsfoxtail
    The idea is that if they're eating and feeding themselves, they're also eating and feeding the internal parasites that they have. I too have lots of snails in my quarantine tank so I wasn't able to stop the little buggers from eating. I simply did two full rounds of parasite treatment a couple weeks apart and haven't had any issues with internal parasites coming back and I've had them for... gosh... a couple years now, so I think you'll be good! I always like to do double parasite rounds for puffers anyway, just to be safe!
  11. itsfoxtail
    Brian looks like a handsome gentleman! Can't wait to see what his lady friend looks like! The red caucatoides are still the prettiest apisto in my mind and he's a specimen! 😍 He looks like a little troll under the bridge, waiting to take his tax for crossing.
  12. itsfoxtail
    Wow! You're definitely going the extra mile for this! Kudos! There's no way I would be able to rig something that impressive! With constant water changes the size would in theory be up to you and your space. Big enough for them to be able to swim around a little bit at least, but they won't have to worry about clean water/water changes so no need to go big enough to be able to skip days (I go 2 gal so I can do every other day once they're on their own. I'm lazy). If you want to go crazy, I'd say add some catappa (or oak) leaves to your system pre-drip so they can get some of the tannins. Helps with color and overall health of the fish. Definitely not necessary but could possibly help! They're so cute! How many do you think you have? Looking forward to seeing the progress on the setup! Oh, and there was a bathtub involved after all! I knew it! 😂
  13. itsfoxtail
    Looking forward to this! I know it would take one heck of a camera but do you think you could get pics of the eggs with the spine/eye? That would be super cool to see. Also I legit thought your profile picture was from a book or something. A+. Wish I could take photos like that! Oh and thank you for the proactive red circle 😅
  14. itsfoxtail
    Oh, thanks! The tank itself is an eyesore (hence only corner pics) but it does its job and they love the room! They don't to my knowledge cross-breed, but I'm not positive... maybe I should research this. They're only together like you said for grow-out, though, and a few rogue Julii. Feels like Where's Waldo trying to find them lol. I was thinking the same of you! I'm in the middle of your breeding thread (no spoilers I'm slow and haven't gotten caught up yet 😋). I've had a surprisingly easy time spawning them but it's very sporadic compared to my other corys. Yours are so cute! Do I spy a little orange brine shrimp tummy?!?! Those are my favorite thing in the world! They should turn much darker once they get on some substrate. I thought it was strange how light they were and then bam once they have a substrate they color right up!
  15. itsfoxtail
    I felt this in my soul. I would like to say first off it could definitely be test strip expiration/problems. Are all your tanks reading the same drop-off in ph or just one? If it's all of of them I'd take a hard look at your fish/plants and see if you see any differences. If everyone is acting like nothing has changed at all I might lean towards a strip error. But assuming it's not: what is your normal ph level? Is 6.8 around what it's always been or has it been dropping? You haven't added co2 recently have you? And I suppose my most important question of all: do you know what your kh level is? Or perhaps what it was in the past? My guess off the top of my head would be that your tap has a low kh and your tank/plants have finally eaten through the buffer causing your ph to drop. My own tap water has a kh of 1 degree, or 2 if we're having a good day, and my heavily planted tanks eat through that buffer on the regular.
  16. itsfoxtail
    Simply because it's so over-filtered and heavily planted I stick to just 2 50% water changes a week. If I'm extremely busy 1 water change I think works just fine but I'd rather be safe than sorry, haha! Yup! From what I've gathered and seen I believe the larger/stronger bettas release the most of it. I think it's actually from a competition standpoint. They don't want their future potential competition both for food and mating to grow as fast and large as they do. This way they'll have optimal choice of territory and mates. In captivity however it kind of backfires since I think it can affect themselves in such small water volumes. I separate my males first when cupping and notice that the females tend to grow at a normal rate together even when there are a lot in the same tank. Don't think it's been said whether males produce more but my hypothesis is that they do. 🤷‍♀️
  17. itsfoxtail
    That's so cool! I know it's pretty far in the future but are you leaning towards a certain method for checking them? It's amazing the eggs can survive being dried out that long (or at least I think so anyway). Do they require light or could someone just bury them? I'd assume they'd still have quite a bit of sunlight in the dry season in the wild. I feel like the ghost shrimp of now are SO much less hardy than the ghost shrimp of even about a year ago. I had a whole tank of ghost shrimp about two years ago just for the heck of it and they were tanks. Could probably survive the apocalypse. Now the ghost shrimp I get will only last longer than a couple days in my brackish tank (that is if they avoid my puffer for that long). I ironically got them as a test run for neos as well but found temperament/diet/size/everything is in my opinion not very comparable. I've watched a ghost shrimp literally chase around a pea puffer until it had it cornered in fear. Those little clear dudes scare me a bit. I'd say to both of you to give the neos a go! As long as parameters don't fluctuate drastically and you get them at least sort of locally bred I'd say you can't go wrong!
  18. itsfoxtail
    How long are you planning on keeping them in the baggie? How do you know when to take them out? I know next to nothing about killis and this is so exciting! In my experience ghost shrimp aren't great at eating algae; they just snatch extra food. They also are sometimes weirdly mean? They bully the shy fish away from the food, anyway. I'd side with Amanos as they're pretty cool and calm in general, algae-eating or not.
  19. itsfoxtail
    It does! 😭 I never put my finger on it but boiling rice is exactly it! I won't be able to un-hear this now. I remember setting up my brine hatchery for the first time and my dad saying it sounded like we lived in a mad scientist laboratory.
  20. itsfoxtail
    I see; sorry I misunderstood about the bathtub/tub (lol). I'd for sure say the size is the issue at hand then. I'd say the shallow container with dividers would be a great alternative to cupping if you don't have the room! It sounds like a daunting setup, especially since the plastic would probably have to be pretty opaque for them to not see one another constantly and I'm not sure how water flow would work but you sound very capable in rigging up reservoir/water changing setups so I don't doubt you could succeed somehow! I wouldn't recommend raising any higher than 84. Their metabolism is likely as high as you're going to want or need it so a higher temp could just stress them out and have an adverse affect. Personally I've never kept mine hotter than 82 but that's really just me and how hot I can get my tanks in our chilly house haha! On whether or not they'd stop releasing the GIH if they felt they were alone... I'm not entirely sure. I remember reading a paper a while back on male and female bettas being kept in the same water but unable to see one another. They could still tell by the hormones in the water that another fish was present or something of the like. I'm not sure if the same would be true for GIH. It most certainly wouldn't hurt to try your idea, though! Oh! I meant frozen adult brine shrimp as opposed to baby brines! Some of the bettas might be too small to eat it right away but they're great predators and will pick up on it eventually. I worried about the size until I watched a fry eat a shrimp that was quite literally the same size he was and I haven't been as worried since. I don't know where you're located but I'm not sure I've really ever been to a big box store, let alone LFS who doesn't sell the frozen adult brine shrimp (though they could be out of stock). Live daphnia or scuds are sort of superfoods but take quite a bit of effort to keep. If you could find the freeze-dried Hikari bloodworms they're actually quite small and the bettas may take to those quickly, just be careful not to feed too much as they sort of puff up in the water and can do the same in their stomachs. Spectacular names! Why is Papa Fluffy Tails so accurate 😭 I love it! I do use live plants. I really only have frogbit or floating plants in the tanks when they are really young as it provides good shelter/cleans the water/doesn't mess up the water either, but when I move them to the grow-out tank it's pretty heavily planted. Of course when I jar them I really just have a stone or two and catappa leaves. If you get yourself some hardy plants I don't think they'll too much mind the water changes, especially if you throw in a pump of fertilizer here and there. Wow only 50 tds?! I'm a little jealous I won't lie, haha! The plants would probably do best with a fertilizer pump or two then. I don't know what sort of space you're working with or what tanks you have and the like but I'll just throw out there what I do (so feel free to ignore this at will): I also keep them in a 5 gallon bucket (or tank if I'm feeling fancy) as they grow up with frequent water changes. Then when they hit... oh I don't know probably a half inch or so, I move them out to a 40 breeder that is WAY over-filtered. It also has a pretty decent sized pothos plant that absolutely destroys the nitrates in the water. The space is what matters the most at this stage imho. Then we get into jarring blah blah blah. I'd even suggest using your shallow plastic container idea and just letting them swim free in it until you get your grid system figured out if you decide to go that way.
  21. itsfoxtail
    Oh man, yeah there's another issue: the resistance. As I type this I can hear the lid to the one I have on my 15 bopping around, clacking with every little bit of water that goes in. Not quite floating but enough to give me a little insight into what it'd be like to have tap-dancing neighbors.
  22. itsfoxtail
    This is such a cute thread! Both in idea and pipsqueak-ity! Pipsqueak flavor of the week on my end are some Panda and Black Cory babes getting moved out to their growout tank. (And also a ridiculous amount of flakes so hopefully they can get some before the guppies steal it all...)
  23. itsfoxtail
    I'm glad I'm not the only one who has struggled with keeping fry in the box. A brine shrimp sieve is brilliant 👌
  24. itsfoxtail
    Your hair algae (if it is really tough and can sort of hold its own like string) looks like some sparse staghorn to me. My only luck with it has been manual removal and SAE until the tank balances out. It's so good to see the female with a full tummy! I hope she continues to eat. If she does hopefully she'll transition onto frozen foods for ease if nothing else. Congrats on the eggs as well! Are you planning on storing the eggs for the "dry" season?
  25. itsfoxtail
    I have never seen these guys before; they're amazing! Looking forward to seeing the journey!
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