Moss

Sorry that happened. Too bad you didn’t have more support from the school. Good for you for trying! This stuff certainly makes it into my science lessons. So good to have real examples in the classroom to help students relate to the learning more!

What kinds of things do you guys like to do in your clubs? I am considering starting one at my school. I have lots of tanks in my classroom, but am considering getting a new one and having club members populate it with plants and animals of their choosing (after doing some research and learning about cycling tank etc…). Before I propose this to my school admin, I’d love to get a good idea of the kinds of things I could offer for activities. Also, how often do you meet?

I bet you are right about their rough start in life. I got the plants on Jan 1. He was expecting me after 12 pm. I got there at 12 pm on the nose. He went inside and was gone a few minutes. Wouldn’t be surprised if he was out yanking plants from a pond… 6 weeks later I found fish, and a week after that I posted photos here. So if the eggs were just laid and took a week to hatch, those first photos are 6 week old fry. I also wondered if they were a bit small, and thought their development must have been slow due to lack of food and probably pretty poor water quality. They are doing great now though! They love their live baby brine shrimp and frozen daphnia. They seem to be growing fast and are plump and active. Thanks, everyone, for your comments and thoughts on this fun and unexpected adventure! I hope I’ll have these guys for many years to come, and I’ll always remember their bumpy start.

Goldfish?

Tonight’s photo…

Tonight’s photos 🙂

They do look like the photo on the bottom labelled 3-4 week old Black Skirt Tetra Fry. I’ll take more photos tonight with just tank lights on.

Hmmmm, Cherry Barbs perhaps?

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone! I’d love it if they were goldfish. Actually, I’m super stoked to look after them whatever they are. But, I am dying to find out! I have messaged the watersprite guy, and he is driving me nuts by just saying stuff like “too early to tell” and stuff like that. I just sent him a message and asked “ can you please tell me what kind of fish were in that tank?” Here are the photos from his original Marketplace post. Maybe some fish visible in these photos are a possibility. The fish are doing great now. I have brewed up some live brine shrimp, have given them some frozen daphnia, and a bit of ground up flakes. They are eating well, swimming around and looking happy. There are 6 of them!

Hi everyone, On January 1st, I responded to a FB Marketplace ad for water sprite plants. When I got there, the guy gave me a big bucket of plants for $5. It looked like he just pulled out all the watersprite from his tank, and I am guessing it had been sitting around for a while. I took it back to my classroom (I’m a teacher) washed many of the good looking plants and planted some in a number of my aquaria. There were still lots left, so I set up another tank, dumped them in there (no substrate, no filter, just a light) because I figured they would grow infusoria and my students could look at those under the microscope. Last weekend (about 6 weeks later) I decided to wash out some of the mulm and decaying plants, so I scooped out the green plants and then netted out the crud. When I looked in the net, I found a wee fish flapping in there. It must have been an egg, or a very tiny fry, when I got it on New Years Day, because I saw nothing like that while working in the bucket and sorting/washing plants. Anyways, I looked more and found another 5! Does anyone have any guesses what they are? I have contacted the guy who sold me the plants, but he hasn’t responded yet. The fish are now in my quarantine tank eating live brine shrimp, daphnia and fine flakes. They seem to be doing OK! I’d love to hear your thoughts on what they might be. 😊

Thanks, Lennie! I do have happy goldfish. I got them as little feeder comets about 5 years ago, and they have been doing really well and making me happy. I bought Repashy super gold for them a little while back, and I think their colour has improved, and they always seem so bright and active. I bought the snails about a week ago. I have 5 nerites and 5 mystery. The temperature of the tank is 20 C (68 F). I think I am at the boundary between ideal temp for goldfish and snails. I am confident the goldfish are good with this temperature as they have lived in that all their lives, and I am hopeful the snails are OK. I did drip acclimate them and did some research (including Lav’s snails - she does have awesome videos!) that convinced me to give them a try. Do you think I should bump the temp up a degree or two for the snails? There should be lots of algae for the nerites! I will definitely make some snello for the mystery snails as well. I just need to track down all the ingredients. Do you think if I put a couple of snello cubes in an apisto cave that the mystery snails would find it? Are they good at sniffing out food and hustling over to it? Thanks again!

Thanks, Ninjoma! It’s good to know you have had success keeping these species together, and that the snails do fine with algae, leftovers and first nibbles. I like the idea of the apisto cave! A little Snail Restaurant. The gold fish would never get in there, and the snails could feast in peace.

Thanks, Phoenix! Both great ideas!

Hi everyone, I have some nerite snails and mystery snails in a 55 gallon tank with 3 two inch goldfish. The goldfish seem to know that the snails are not food (thankfully!) but they do seem to eat everything I throw in there for the snails to eat. They are little piggies, but I love them. I am trying to figure out how, when, and what to feed my snails so my goldfish don’t hog all the food, and so I don’t have to put so much in that I pollute the tank. I’ve been sneaking some Repashy super gold under the snails when the goldfish aren’t looking, and the snails seem to be happy about that, but it doesn’t take too long for the hungry gluttons to sniff that out. The snails are doing OK, and there is always some algae to munch on, but I am wondering if anyone has any thoughts. I do have other aquaria I could move the snails to, but I really want to keep them with the goldfish if I can to help with algae and general clean up. Plus, it’s funny watching my goldfish react to them (I think they think they are monsters 😉

Hi again, I took some photos of my some of my other tanks today: 1.) My Cherry Shrimp tank. There are some really small ones in there now, so they are breeding! 🙂 2.) My Zebra Danio tank. I only have 3 just now. I know they need company, and I will get some more soon. I’m also thinking of putting some tetras in this tank. Leaning towards Lemon Tetras. What do you guys think? 3.) My Stickleback tank (collected with permission and license from local wildlife branch). Henry is hiding in his cave 🙂 4.) My neon tank with blue neocaridina shrimp and ramshorn snails

I didn’t know that the shrimp babies are territorial and only move is a radius of 20 cm! That’s good to know. Thanks for posting this video!

Hi everyone! Thanks for your notes! Funny about the old school carbon blocks 🙂. I just recently purchased that under gravel filter and it came with those, so I thought I might as well set it all up. I will try to take some photos of my other tanks soon and add them to this post. I have a tank with neon tetras, ramshorn snails and blue neocardinia shrimp, another with zebra danios, and another with cherry neocardinia shrimp. I’m new at shrimp and snail keeping. Also new at plant keeping, but I have a wide variety of plants now and they seem to be doing well. My shrimp are already reproducing and my snails…well, I have lots now 🙂 I am a biology teacher, so these tanks are in my classroom for display, but I am trying to get the students involved in caring for living things. My grade 11 students also have plants (terrestrial) that they care for and observe daily. That really helps to give the classroom a great natural ambiance, but the aquaria do the same and more! My grade 8 science class are going to help me culture infusoria and probably brine shrimp as well. It’s a great way to get them to see and care for living things. I’m looking for more ways to have my students learn and be involved, so happy to hear your suggestions if you have any! It seems like there is so much to learn, and I have freedom in my class to allow students to explore their own questions about things they are interested in. Thanks again for a warm welcome 🙂 Moss

Hi, Shmaty! I use under-gravel filters in most of my tanks. The gravel is on a raised-false bottom that allows water to pass under the gravel. It then rises up those tubes. The air causes uplift. This circulates the water through the gravel, which assists with mechanical and biological filtration.

Hi everyone, I am new to the group and new to using forums (hope this post goes well 😉. I live in Victoria, BC, Canada. I teach at a local high school and currently have 8 aquaria set up in my classroom (only 5 with animals in them). When I was a kid, I had a 10 gallon tank with neons. During my university years I worked at UVic in the aquatic unit looking after 10,000 gallon recirculating seawater systems and fresh water flow through systems. I learned lots doing that, but am definitely still learning now. My project over the Christmas break was to give my goldfish a new home. They were in a 30 gallon tank, but I found a used 55 gallon tank for them and built a sturdy stand for it. I’ve had these goldfish for over 5 years now. Funny story there…I had a tank set up with no fish in it. It had been set up for some time, and I think my students were wondering why I hadn’t put any fish in there yet. One day (a Tuesday), I noticed two small feeder comets in the tank. I asked who put them in there and, after class, two sweet grade 9 girls fessed up. Their plan was to purchase a goldfish a day in my tank until I noticed. I asked them if they had other fish. They replied yes. I asked where they were. They said in a jar in their locker! So, we got the fish and put them in with the others. They named them after the day of the week that they were to be introduces to the tank: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, Wednesday and Friday died shortly after being introduced to the tank, but I still have the other three. I love them. They are like my little puppies who greet me every morning looking for their breakfast 🍳 The girls who gave me the fish have now graduated, but it’s nice that they come in sometimes to visit the fish and me 🙂