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Jack CO

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  1. Jack CO
    Have you had any issues with the males fighting? I’ve seen many people saying that the males will often fight once they’re mature enough to spawn. I’ll probably use the vibra bites because I already use them for a lot of my fish, especially my African butterfly fish and petricola cats. I’m definitely ready for the long haul with these plecos. I just love the whitish pink coloration on the snow whites, so I won’t mind having them growing up in my tanks before breeding. Do you know if they eat susswassertang? My fry grow out is full of the stuff, which helps with the water quality, but I don’t want to fill it with fry and watch my susswassertang disappear, especially with how hard it is to find it available. I appreciate the advice. I’ll update again once I get my group of 6, which should hopefully be in the next few weeks.
  2. Jack CO
    I think I’ve seen Dan’s fish using that method for his plecos. Do you do anything specific with the zucchini before adding it in? Washing or anything like that? I just worry about possible contaminants on store bought zucchini. There are quite a few lfs around me that have never had the snow whites in as far as I can tell, so I should be able to sell them there. I also plan on getting into some online sales, like aquabid. Sounds like I’ll have about a year to figure that out, just waiting on my group to arrive.
  3. Jack CO
    I’m surprised I’ve never heard about this in my research on BNPs because I pretty thoroughly researched, but I’ll be sure to drip acclimate them knowing this now. Is there a specific cave you use? I’ll most likely get the aquarium co-op ones, but I know many people have varying preferences on pleco caves. Does the zucchini need to be organic or can it be just about any zucchini from the produce section? I assume boiling would remove most contaminates if there were any, but it doesn’t hurt to be safe. I definitely would have preferred to start off with larger ones, but the adults are quite difficult to come by. My lfs has a buy 5 get 1 free deal on all their fish, so I’ll likely get 6 of them to grow out to get a breeding group established. When selling the extra grow outs, do you normally sell them online or to a lfs? I know that generally you’ll make less money selling to a fish store because the store typically buys them for 25-30% of the full price of the fish. Thanks for the recommendations, I’ll make sure to follow them to ensure the health of my fish for the future.
  4. Jack CO
    I’ll definitely look into it and most likely pick some up. I’m glad to hear that someone with nearly my exact parameters has found a good solution to it. Now that I’ve got my KH problem resolved I might get a group of Snow White bristlenose to grow and breed.
  5. Jack CO
    I recently learned about the Snow White bristlenose pleco and have fallen in love with them. I am planning on getting a group of them to grow out and breed, but I just have a few questions before I spend the money, especially since they’re not cheap. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on them and it seems that some people claim they are more sensitive than regular bristle nose, so I’m wondering if anyone here has experience keeping the Snow White variant. As far as a group goes, would 4 or 5 be a good starting group to grow to get males and females? As a follow-up, what would be the best foods to give them to ensure they stay healthy? There are so many brands and foods out there, so I’d like to know what has worked in other people’s experiences. My only other main question would be how old, or what size, do the plecos need to be to before they can start breeding? I’ve bred other fish species in the past (goldfish, green ear sunfish, Ricefish) and am currently trying to breed my trio of African butterfly fish and group of CPDs, but have never bred plecos. I know bristlenose are some of the easier plecos to breed, with some saying all you really need is a cave and they’ll spawn, but I’d just like to get as much advice as possible. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!
  6. Jack CO
    Sounds like I solved my problem on accident then. I appreciate the reply!
  7. Jack CO
    A few months back my tap water changed and I noticed the pH in a couple of my smaller tanks (2.5 and 10 gallons) kept crashing seemingly randomly. After doing some testing I discovered that my KH was extremely low, causing the pH to drop from 7.2 to almost 6 in less than a day. I have since resolved this issue with crushed coral in those tanks, however my two larger tanks (29&60 gallons) haven’t experienced this problem, which I believe to be a result of the seiryu stone I have in these tanks. My tap water comes out at 7.2 pH, 2 KH, and 2 GH. I have not tested aged tap water, but I am going to set out some to age today and will update on that. After testing the largest tank today, the parameters within it are 7.2 pH, 3 KH, and 6 GH. The substrate is a layer of gravel capped in pool filter sand and the only other hardscape is Malaysian drift wood. Filtered by 2 larger co-op sponge filters. Is it true that the seiryu stone is causing the increase, and should I do something else to buffer the KH and GH to prevent a pH crash? I’m wary to add aragonite sand or crushed coral to this tank because it houses my 3 African butterfly fish, which I know prefer more acidic and soft water. Thanks for the advice!
  8. Jack CO
    That’s one of my favorite videos. I actually based a lot of my setup from that video. I think I’m in the comments of that video telling him about the possible breeding/courtship that my ABF were doing. I typically keep them to about 40% of the surface, but I had spent about a week away from home and they covered the surface in that time. There is actually an airline tube that is stretched across the tank to hold them to one side, but they spread across it still. I’d be willing to give bacopa another shot for sure. Any specific type you recommend? I haven’t been able to find PSO for sale here in Colorado, but I might order some bacopa and PSO from LRBAquatics, which he sells pretty cheap and already immerse grown. I actually have some hornwort in my koi pond, so once winter is over and it grows back I might take some. I might actually try more anacharis because it was great floating coverage for my ABF for the few months it lasted before. Thanks for all of the recommendations and advice, I really appreciate it!
  9. Jack CO
    I just looked at that post and I sort of see what you mean. The only real difference I can see is with the PSO when it comes to opening up for the light. Maybe one of the lily leaves is more opened too. Most of them seem to be in the same position imo, but that might be my colorblindness talking with all the plants stacked up there haha. After reading through a few of your journals I’m definitely going to bump up the lighting to 11 or 12 hours and watch for the plants “blooming.” My red tiger lotus is growing pretty well, so I’ll watch it to see if I can notice any difference between first light and a few hours in. Taking pictures would probably help me with that. I moved a giant piece of dwarf water lettuce into my 60 a few days ago to see if it will actually survive and spread, whereas when I first set up the tank it didn’t survive. So far it seems to be growing and working on spreading. My 29g is filled with it, even with a hang on back being the filter. The water lettuce is trying to replace all of my Frogbit it’s doing so well. I’ll definitely try to keep you updated on my findings with the increase to the light. I really appreciate all of your advice.
  10. Jack CO
    All the stems I’ve tried have been emergent growth, so all I’ve ever noticed was the leaves melting back. I didn’t know that they opened and closed throughout the day. I’ll pay closer attention over the next few days to see if my octopus is doing that with what little growth it has. I’ll give that a shot, worst that can happen is a little algae growth.
  11. Jack CO
    This tank has been set up since about June 16th of this year. The only filtration is the two large sponge filters, and there is no wave maker. I was able to grow algae for a while, both on the hardscape and some string algae that was growing on my plants. Since adding my hillstream loaches, the algae has been kept well under control. I’m actively increasing my lighting period to see if it helps the plants, so I’m going to push it until algae starts showing back up. Regarding the low flow, that is due to the main inhabitants, my 3 African butterfly fish. I set this tank up specifically for keeping them and they have been thriving since I’ve had them. The other stock is 6 petricola cats and 3 hillstream loaches.
  12. Jack CO
    I can’t seem to figure out what I’m doing wrong with my stem plants to cause them to keep melting away, so I’m looking for advice as to what might be the issue. My tank I’m having the most trouble with is my 60 gallon. My pH is 7.2 with a KH of 3. I keep the tank at 79 F with about 8 hours of light (hygger full spectrum) at 60% power. My substrate is a layer of gravel capped with sand. I dose easy green weekly, which doesn’t get fully used up so I’m going to lower my dosage, and use root tabs for all the plants as well. My dwarf tiger lotus and vallisneria are growing fine, but they are heavy root feeders unlike stems. I have some pogostemon octopus I got from LRB aquatics that is growing ever so slowly, but every other stem plant I’ve tried has melted. I’ve tried bacopa caroliniana, red myrio, Brazilian pennywort, anacharis, and most recently scarlet temple, which I got on October 30. Since then it has melted quite a lot, to the point of some of the stems completely melting away. My nitrate as of checking tonight is at 30 ppm, which is a week from my last dosage of easy green, which is why I’m going to be doing less easy green in the future. I do not run CO2 and would like to avoid running it if possible. I appreciate any advice on how to better grow stem plants or suggestions on a plant that may grow better than the ones I’ve tried. Thanks for the input.
  13. Jack CO
    Thank you for the help everybody! Hopefully I’ll get to the bottom of this tomorrow
  14. Jack CO
    I do not have a kh test kit unfortunately. I’ve been doing close to daily water changes of about 40%, so I guess I’ll do another tonight. In regards to KH I’ll probably swing by petco tomorrow and have them test for it, and possibly pick up a test kit. Is it possible the KH could be different for individual tanks? I’m just wondering this because my two main tanks both have driftwood in them and don’t experience pH drops, yet this tank does without the driftwood.
  15. Jack CO
    I will share my experience with my 4 hillstream loaches just to give you an idea on how they act for me. I keep them in a 60 gallon aquarium which is 4 feet long, and the only filtration I have is 2 large aquarium coop sponge filters. The tank stays at 79 Fahrenheit. 3 of the loaches are lineolata, and the 4th is sewellia sp. spotted. My loaches are extremely active and are usually in the open where they can be seen. In regards to feeding, I’ve found that they will eat anything I put into the tank. They cleaned up all of my algae within a few days and will gladly chow down on vibra bites, algae wafers, brine shrimp, and catfish pellets. Not only this, but I just recently saw one of them eating the meat off of a cricket head that one of my African butterfly fish dropped to the bottom. I have one male and 3 females as far as I can tell. The tank has very little flow and higher temperatures to accommodate my 3 ABF, but it seems to have no impact on the hillstreams. I also keep them with 7 petricola catfish.
  16. Jack CO
    I have been dealing with the pH in my 10 gallon fry/shrimp tank dropping over time for a while, but it seems to be getting worse. I had been using the tank as a quarantine system for 5 petricola catfish as I grew them out and made sure they were healthy. After having them for a couple of weeks I noticed that my pH in the tank was at 6.4, which was extremely strange to me because my tap water is 7.2 and stays there, which I know because my two main tanks (29 and 60 gallons) stay at a pH of 7.2. Having these catfish in with my fry I figured that it was overstocked, which appeared to be the case because my nitrates at the time were about 30 ppm. I have since introduced the petricola into the 60 gallon and thoroughly gravel vacuumed and water changed, as well as adding more plants yesterday. After doing that the pH had been brought up to around 6.8-7 area. I just tested the water again today and am in utter shock to find the pH has dropped to 6 (or possibly lower as the test kit can’t show lower) in just 24 hours. There is no drift wood in my tank, just gravel, a rock, a variety of plants, 5 Ricefish fry, 9 adolescent yellow neos, and my sponge filter. I truly have no idea how this could be happening and will gladly accept any advice you can give me. I will attach pictures of the tests from today and the tank below.
  17. Jack CO
    I’d had an adult bamboo shrimp in my 29 gallon tank for over a year, where she thrived, but I unfortunately lost her a few weeks ago out of the blue. I’ve decided that I’m going to get one or two vampire shrimp to go in the tank because I love fan shrimp and would like to try them out. The two should have plenty of room and food in the 29 because I’m good at target feeding fan shrimp since my HOB has very good flow, especially where the water hits, which is where the fan shrimp like to sit. I have a nice piece of drift wood in that area, so I suspect the vampires would reside on the wood like my bamboo did. The 29 gallon is stocked with 2 amano shrimp, 4 corydora, a myer’s hillstream, and 8 Ricefish. I know the vampires are unlikely to carry anything that would impact my fish, but might have something that could harm my 2 amanos, which are very big. The issue I have is that my 10 gallon quarantine/fry tank is run by a sponge filter and has very little flow. I worry that keeping them in it for a quarantine would only harm them since they won’t be able to feed properly. I can’t add a power head to the tank because it has Ricefish fry in it. I’m pretty trusting of my lfs, which will be getting them in on Saturday, so I might place 2 on hold and let them stay at the store for a week or two to make sure they are healthy before I pick them up. I’d love to get some of your thoughts on what I should do.
  18. Jack CO
    I have seen the video. It’s that video along with the 8 foot tank build that gives me hope in keeping them with the hillstream loaches. There’s so many little fish species in that tank that they just leave alone
  19. Jack CO
    Just wondering if ropefish could coexist with hillstream loaches in my 60 gallon. My 4 hillstreams that are currently quarantining are close to full size, but I’m worried that eventually a full sized ropefish might try to predate on them. I don’t think they will because of how wide bodied they are, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to ask. The ropefish my lfs has are around 8 inches, but only the girth of 2 pencils.
  20. Jack CO
    My lfs has some Papuan and Peruvian freshwater soles available right now and I’m very interested in keeping them. I currently have a semi planted 60 gallon with 4 African Butterfly Fish, some petricola catfish, and 4 large hillstream loaches in quarantine right now. I originally planned on getting ropefish, but I worry they might predate on the hillstream loaches even though they’re well over 2 inches. I was thinking the Papuan soles would be a good option since they only get 5 inches, and likely stay smaller in captivity. My main worry is that they’ll uproot my plants when they bury themselves in the sand. Would love to hear people’s thoughts and possible experience with the Papuan sole
  21. Jack CO
    That would work perfect for good surface coverage until my banana plant and tiger lotus reach the surface. I’ll definitely keep a lookout for more available at my lfs, or possibly water sprite since I know that floats well also.
  22. Jack CO
    I’ll likely pick up one more bunch of Brazilian pennywort whenever it’s available at my lfs so I can get it floating. I actually just picked up a group of 4 hillstream loaches today while I was at petco buying more bugs for the ABF. I try to avoid buying fish from the big name stores because they usually aren’t very healthy, but the hillstreams were at a price I couldn’t refuse. They were $10 each and I got the 4 biggest ones, which are around 2 inches. I have them in a 10 gallon for quarantine, which is far too small for a group, but should be fine since it’s temporary. Three of them are the reticulated ones, which I know will do well in my butterfly tank even though it’s not high flow based on Cory’s experience. The 4th is one that I’ve never seen before, but I’m hoping will do just as well. I keep the ABF at 79 degrees, so they wont be in the 80s at least. I figure they’d do well as an algae eater for my already oddball tank, which I really like. The 10 gallon acts as my fry tank, which is why the breeder nets are there. They’re just holding some Ricefish and goldfish fry currently, which I have a surplus of. Here’s the picture of the loach I am unsure about. Edit: After doing some more research I’ve discovered that it’s a spotted hillstream loach. Sewellia sp. ‘spotted’ That’s about it for updates. I plan on getting more petricola catfish for the 60 gallon in the future since I could only get my hands on 3. Fish are pricey so I’ll be adding on pretty slowly, especially with quarantine also taking time. Thanks for the knowledge
  23. Jack CO
    I have witnessed chasing similar to yours during the day, but based on my experience keeping them over the last few weeks it only occurs during feeding time, although I haven’t watched them at night. Just wondering what schooling fish you’ve kept with them successfully. I am planning on getting 6 or 7 Denison barbs to go with them, and possibly a school of Congo tetras. I’m still iffy on Congo tetras but I do think I want 2 ropefish because I love the look of them and they are commonly kept with ABF. I figure they’d do a good job of eating the occasional mealworm that sinks past the butterflies even though mine handfeed. I am still working on getting better surface coverage for them since my dwarf water lettuce has been dying back in my 60 gallon even though I just have 2 sponge filters on one end. I might try Frogbit to see if it fairs better, if not I’ll try to float a stem plant, like Brazilian pennywort, which I have growing well planted in their tank already. I figure it will reach the surface soon for some cover. I also just added a banana plant and a red tiger lotus, so hopefully those will send up lily pads soon.
  24. Jack CO
    From what I understand after reading that journal, my ABF were not breeding. According to the journal, the male will hold the female with his fins in order to internally fertilize, which I have not witnessed, although it possibly could have happened. I have also heard that the ABF have a very unique courting process, which is what I believe this to be. Thanks for finding that journal for me, definitely a good read.
  25. Jack CO
    I had just fed them so I figured the initial biting I was seeing was the food aggression nipping and chasing that one of them does, but I realized that both fish were biting each other, which never happens. As it progressed it appeared to become a mating ritual. I am further convinced that this is what it is because it is between a male and female butterfly.
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