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RedPots

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  1. RedPots
    Mudville - no joy. admittedly compromised maintenance schedule due to outside pressing pursuits. coop test strips revealed nitrites in this Medaka Bowl. API test confirmed + 1ppm ammonia present. 😖 Livestock: 6 midnight Medaka , snails and shrimp. just 2 gallons of water. duckweed, water lettuce, Val, Pennywort, spider plant, spiderwood and only a bit of fluval aqua soil. such a small ecosystem - figuring how to correct the spike with moderation. I did a 50% water change and a few extra drops of Fritz complete to neutralize. I removed most of floating plants to get a good look at things and I can confirm that all 6 Medaka are active and looking good. tough little fish… regular maintenance schedule has been a 1qt mason jar out and a fresh qt jar in - twice a week. clearly requires reexamination. Today’s water change included vacuuming a good deal of waste from the bottom of the bowl. But test strip continues to show nitrites… I’m going to hold off on further measures and continue to monitor - planning another water change and vac tomorrow. if levels remain high I am thinking of pulling livestock into another bowl with healthy water , plants, snails and shrimp. Though I’d like to see if I can correct this water without a freak out.
  2. RedPots

    Mostly Medaka.

    Indoor mini ponds.

    Playing a round with Water Capacity, Air Supply and Light Requirements in my wheel thrown earthenware FishBowls.

    Pots get made upstairs and put in to use in the fish room formerly known as the living room. 😏 

    As little as 2.5 gallons, no added air / filtration and natural light - these little Ricefish look stoked to me.

    traditional tanks on standby as necessary 

    1/2 quart water changes twice a week.  Seasoned Lava Rock substrate, plants, snails and shrimp seem to make for a healthy bowl of fishes.

  3. RedPots
    Been awhile….. the fishes get daily attention - my participation here is more sporadic. i’ve got 7 tanks and bowls with fishes operating and All of the excellent knowledge I’ve gained on this forum has been put into hands on - day to day service. asking more questions of the ecosystems themselves these days and less frantic searching here on the forum…which is nice. two of my hand made bowls are in service. One has 6 Midnight Medaka , shrimps, snails and plants. the dark oval is seasoning with plants , shrimps and snails - Midnights will be transferred soon. I’m intending to sell that first big bowl at an upcoming Dandelion Day festival here in town ( gotta support the habit… ) more bowls in the works… ten gallon Coleman supporting the original bunch of Galaxy Medaka from Dan’s Fish and 6 more from Aqua Huna joined the gang. They are smaller and grey but healthy little wrigglers. Big black commercial bowl is a roughly 7 gallons topped off and I’ve got 6 AQHu orange Youkihi living it up. midnight bowl has zero air or mechanical - same practice with oval bowl. Grow bulb on 1st bowl , ambient natural light only on oval. I’m pumping a little air into the cooler and the black bowl. Both at the garden window. Cooler has LED assist - bowl natural light only. I’ve not leaned in to breeding at all - but I will. So far I’ve seen eggs carried on the original Pearl Galaxies but have not found deposited eggs or any sign of fry. I’ve got a noodle and scrubbies waiting in the wings. Along with a 20 long that is not yet running. Arthur the Goldfish (18 months from 1” feeder) is in a 30 gallon. Negotiations for where and when his 55 will establish are ongoing… thanks for tuning in. #medaka #ricefish #greatearth #fishbowl
  4. RedPots

    a boy named Harriet .

    IMG_5268.jpeg.dd17a2fb3fedb76949e4f5d40cf1665f.jpeg
    a February 2o23 baby Harriet.

    he’s been with me since before i went fish crazy.

    moved him from a 14 gallon community into a ten gallon shrimps and snails before the new year.  His fins were wearing.  I think it could have been exposed Pothos Roots - that and the stress of some Spunky CPD’s and increasing air traffic of a growing shrimp colony.

    so he moved and watching his dragon mane fill back in has been fascinating.  with MTS in full bloom i do recognize HowMuchLess attention Harriet receives.  Such a social Beast - i know he enjoys attention. Such a good boy - he’s allowing a little red Cherry colony to take hold 🤞🏽.

    the 10 gets a fair wack of sunshine - so way less work for the grow lite & an interesting relationship with hair algae is developing.  i really like the look of Harriet in the sideways sunlight.

    IMG_5371.jpeg.e1eb293f602be59effc1e5edef885bf4.jpegIMG_8541.jpeg.43f002a9179fe6fe83d2231e44f6a839.jpeg

    a boy named Harriet. 2 March, 2o24.

    🪴

     

     

  5. RedPots
    Medaka Pond week 1 reverse chronological. testing out rudimentary video skills…
  6. RedPots
    6 of 7 Medaka arrived healthy and cuter than buttons. 8 red cherries (+1 bonus shrimper) and 3 Nerites all present and accounted for. who knows what happened to that one ricefish between Wyoming and Colorado ? i really appreciated Dan’s practice of 1 fish per bag. Bad apples and all of that… yesterday morning i decided to create a larger ‘shallows’ for the incoming Medaka in the 10 gallon Coleman pond. a 9” diameter terracotta bowl atop a brick. Medaka seem really happy to hang out in the shallows and make them easy to observe. they are extremely curious and explore the whole pond but spend the bulk of their time quite near the surface. happy to see them in the morning sun. still figuring how to manage the light. i’ve been sliding off the clip on hygger in the daytime - for better viewing and also so as not to fry the light in the sunshine. probably ok to leave it attached so long as power is off. 🤷🏽‍♂️ reckon i’ll give them a few hours with the LED in the evenings after work. Very pleased with the fish and Dan’s service. Immediately refunded for the 1 DOA as well as its portion of shipping cost. Of course i wish there were 7 little wigglers in there. they seem stoked on Aquarium CoOp fry and small fish food ( like all my other nanos). So many thanks to Cory and team for excellent information and products. 🪴
  7. RedPots
    Daisy’s were at the top of my list. They are so pretty. I read Some Thing about Daisy’s wanting to stay a little warmer and since I’m counting on window light ( with a cheap Hygger support ) i went with the Medaka. I’ve learned a great deal from your posts Guppysnail. Look forward to learning together ! 🪴
  8. RedPots
    diving in to the world of Ricefish. Summer Tub Rocky Mountain style. ( indoor pond ) i’ve been keeping fish for a bout 15 months now - beginning with an impulse buy of some hornwort & 5 feeder goldfish. the hornwort continues to pay dividends & Arthur - the lone survivor is eating me out of house and home : learning more & more every day - i’ve come to the realization that what i wanted when i bought those 5 feeders was 7 Medaka. so they ship today from Dan’s & arrive tomorrow. i am in that liminal space where i am trying to get my head a round what i do not know… 10 Gallon Coleman cooler will be the landing pad for 7 Galaxy Medaka : Coleman has been cycling for a bout 9 months. acting as a catchall for snails and plants. i added a fair dozen wild type Neocaridina last week and all signs point to healthy water. so - what am i forgetting ??? Long Range plans include establishing a handful of 3 to 5 gallon ponds in these extra large terracotta bowls i’ve been making. ( i am a potter ). i’ve got a fair wack of south facing windows that grab that good, good Rocky Mountain Sunshine. Temps fluctuating between high 50’s to high 60’s these days - but will spike come summer - though house temps rarely rise into 80’s. stoked to bring these little treasures into my home. i’ll also be trying to establish a colony of red cherries in my 10 gallon betta - hoping i’ve successfully relocated the small group of Wild Types i added last month. 🤷🏽 the three Nerites will drop one each into heated tanks. at what point do you just start calling your living room the Fish Room ? 😓 wish me luck & feel free to fill in gaps or ask questions. thanks for being. CARE is the Jam!
  9. RedPots
    Medaka Bowl dreaming…
  10. RedPots
    Inched closer to making a bowl large enough for a small group of Medaka. this large bowl started as 25 lbs of wet clay on the wheel - whittled down to about half that. estimate 3 gallon volume. i really want to get to a 5 gallon volume before i think about these bowls for anything but fry. continued research a round Medaka in general and what’s out there and how to prepare. and caught Harriet cozied in between freshly pruned lettuce leaves and Val.
  11. RedPots
    Arthur with Bodhidharma & Val. This growing boy(?) is at home in a 29 gallon Valissneria Valissneria forest. Ramshorns help with cleanup and old Bodhidharma sets the tone. Do we make him a bigger tank in 18 months ? or Do we find him a legit pond ? While i hold a SuperSoftSpot for goldfish and Arthur is like family … i continue to learn that a goldfish simply is not an Apartment fish. 10+ years. 12+ inches. 55 gallon minimum (each). $o.59 can get you into quite a 🥒. but who doesn’t Love that face ? other tanks are doing well - enjoying a journey from tanks with some plants in them -to> planted tanks. 🪱 14 gallon cube - CPD / Ember Tetra / Black Neon Tetra ; Wild Type Neocaridina colony. 🪱 5 gallon Ember tetra & shrimp 🪱 & Harriet in his own 10 gallon + a handful of juvenile shrimp that seem to be fairing well i am just a little better than a year back into the hobby and continue to learn so much. the daily grind of required attention is a great ballast for me. too many plants, dying plants, cloudy water, oh no Fry !, hair algae, too much light, not enough light, shrimpsplosion 👍🏽, snailspolsion 👎🏽, fin rot or fin rip ? Repashy great in here - not so good in here, how’s the water ? … Co-op CARE forum continues to be my go to resource on the daily as i navigate something like facility in eco system management. Giant thanks to all the advice givers and experience sharers out there….
  12. RedPots
    Very nice tanks @partari0 I’m keeping CPD’s with a betta on an 14 g cube with a little (1.5 gallon) sidecar for shrimps. Shrimps came in So small from aqua huna that I’d think something was wrong if my Betta Didn’t eat them. 🦐 >🐟 so they are growing out. What is your experience with shrimp as too tempting for Betta to resist ? my Harriet has been remarkably cool with the (also tiny) CPD’s so I’m looking to go with a ‘trust but verify’ approach once the shrimp colony takes. I’m also running an ember tetra & blue velvet shrimp tank. Adult blue velvet females end up being the largest animals in that microbiome - which is pretty kool. Thanks for sharing.
  13. RedPots
    I’ve pulled up to this Tiger Lotus training thread with my own maintenance questions. Mine is in a 14 gallon cube and what a Beast. 3 months in the tank and it’s a total boss. Now that it’s playing the lotus pad game my concern is the low lying plants - Monte Carlo and Red Flame sword in particular. 🪴 💬who turned the lights out ? a little strategic pruning is surely in the cards. slow and steady removal is the advice ?
  14. RedPots
    i asked for a few MTS at LFS last time i bought some Vallisneria. MAY BE 6 weeks a go. they are present and growing - but no menace so far. in a 5 gallon planted ember tetra and shrimps tank along w. Ramshorns , bladders and Nerites. seems like everyone has a job to do and does it. word is they like to be In your sponge filter so mind their sharp edges when performing maintenance. ✌🏽🪴🐟
  15. RedPots
    I’ve taught pottery for 25 years and learned to introduce students to the concept of ‘studio time’. 5 hours - or a semester - can fly right by -unless you’re waiting for something to dry. Similar but different phenomena in water life. Until 5 weeks a go i was keeping 2 Fish. Harriet (pictured here under a 6 week old ACO Tiger Lotus w. its1st Lilly Pad) and Arthur (not pictured). The OG white Goldfish who came in With 4 other feeders and decided to stick a round. He’s hung in there as I’ve learned some ropes & is fixin to move from a Coleman cooler to this Walstad inspired 10. I tired of the dry start Monte Carlo experiment. My heart wasn’t in it… so - I’ll let this cycle with a few stowaway snails and move Arthur up in awhile. Kind of nice to have a plants only - no bubbles tank going. Though Arthur will appreciate the change of scenery. and there’s always the cooler… any tips for a filter less planted 10 w. 1 common goldfish are welcome. #Walstad #goldfish ✌🏽🪴🐟
  16. RedPots
    Looking Good in the Cube. Harriet is sprung from solitary. Curious as ever but no aggression 🙏🏽. CPD are my kind of fish. Apt to tuck into the brush with any sudden movement - but super friendly. Love the spots - like they are made of stardust.
  17. RedPots
    ~2~ Harriet&Redpots : Introductions and Greetings 5 gallon feels in balance with: 11 embers colony of blue shrimps & snails 🐌 . 14 gallon cube needed a crew. so. Harriet ( male Dumbo betta ) is hanging out in the penthouse ( acrylic .75 gallon floating breeder ). 2 surviving Black Neon Tetras (of 10 - 3 DOA , 5 more dropped like flies - ammonia poisoning 🏴‍☠️ ? ) have been joined by 8 celestial pearl danios & i hung a sidecar (Fluval exterior .5 gallon breeder) to grow out 10 ‘algae eating shrimp’ ( Aqua Huna colorless NC ). my thought on these shrimp is that they probably have interesting genetic diversity and it’ll be fun to see if offspring present color 🤷🏽. so this : exploded into this : i'm going to rearrange some hard scape and plants to reset territories and spring Harriet from penthouse solitary tomorrow. the CPDanios are small enough to be tempting prey for the betta - but i think the plants are dense enough to quell any impulses and He’s pretty well adjusted 🙏🏽. thanks for following along 🪴🐟💩🪴 2a~
  18. RedPots
    Thanks @Lennie i feel like he is Dr. Frankenstein & i’m the monster.
  19. RedPots
    RedPots & Harriet Journal thank you @redfish . nice name. 🙃
  20. RedPots
    7 months / 7 tanks i just now went back to the well to grab a 10gallon 1/2 price Aqueon BB PetStore tank while the getting is good. i want to try a dry start with the Monte Carlo that need thinning and thought wtf? yolo! i deserve this… i may have a problem 🤷🏽 potter, teacher, antique dealer and greenhorn fish keeper journal. coming at you from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. ~1~ a long , long time ago…my now delightful significant other returned from the Pacific NW with a mason jar terrarium and gifted it to me. thoroughly charmed, i added it to a display of new work presented for a holiday show, for ambiance. i had nice pots for sale, i was proud, but - all anyone cared to talk about was that mason jar terrarium so i sold it. fast forward a bunch of years. mushroom foraging got me into the forest floor - got me into moss - made me think - i should recreate that mason jar terrarium. so i did. made a few more& found that i really enjoyed keeping living things in glass jars… ( not mine ) enter Harriet Tub Man. december 2o22.
  21. RedPots
    Diana sees the beauty here - I’m certain. 02 for every one. !
  22. RedPots
    Thanks for the thoughts. @jasper5150& @Fish Folk Funnily I’d miss the Embers in the 5gallon in front of me. Even if they were in the 14 behind me. 30 years an artist brings me deep colour satisfaction to watch the blue shrimps vibrate with the orange tetras. so my today question is - are 11 tetras and 🤞🏽dozens of shrimp going to overwhelm 5 gallons of increasingly forested water sometime soon ? tank health seems more vital than ever and the water has been Good… 10% changes 1/week & mid week top off. in which case - i’m thinking on a nice sized shoal of CPD’s in the 14 cube. Aqua Huna would send 8 or 16. I’m going to think on it Any real world experience with Aqua Huna Celestial Pearl Danios would be gratefully received. i know they’ll be smallsmallsmall and blonde - but i like that kind of thing. my plan would be to ‘time out’ the Betta in the large acrylic hatchery i grabbed as insurance for previous switcharoo (within the 14gallon) , rework enough of the waterscape to reset Harriet’s territory habits , add the CPD’s , reintroduce the Betta , trust but verify. certainly do not want to feed Harriet a bottomless trout buffet , but he’s not like that 🙏🏽. thinking out loud here. guess i should start a journal. stoked to join all y’all. ✌🏽🐟💩🪴 #cpd #betta
  23. RedPots
    embracing the wisdom that decaying plant matter is an excellent producer of O2 for the water column. ☕️💦🪴☕️
  24. RedPots
    Greenhorn 2 cents : I’ve been leaning on ACO Easy Fry Food as my daily go to for Ember Tetras. Next step up in my quiver is Bug Bites tropical - which just looks like boulders falling down on these little guys. They do OK with finely chopped frozen foods - but a lot gets missed on the way down. Easy Fry is like a powder that floats and Slowly sinks. I’ll usually tap down a little right away and very little gets past them.
  25. RedPots
    Greetings with gratitude. Steven here in Colorado. I’ve been keeping (a) fish for about 7 months now and greedily soaking up advice and information from this wonderful forum for almost as long. One five gallon betta tank quickly became an ecosystem of the betta, a two gallon snail tank ( ramshorn & bladders ) an aquarium water 5 gallon bucket with air stone and most recently a 14 gallon cube (1/2 price) which began with seasoned water, seasoned sponge filter and some established plants ( Val, Java Fern, Pennywort ). Substrate was a new batch of Fluval Stratum ( also 1/2 price ) and I doubled up with a fresh small CoOp sponge filter. My delightful Significant Other has had quite enough with my early stages of multiple tank syndrome - so these are the tanks I have to work with. So - I went big ( too big ? ) on my 1st Aqua Huna order : 10 ember tetras 10 black neon tetras 8 blue velvet nc shrimps 4 nerite snails added to already existing Male Dumbo 1/2 Moon Betta ( his name is Harriet ) nocturnal nerite ( called Dark Helmet ) Ramshorns, Bladders and Malaysian Trumpets water Parameters for both tanks : CoOp test strips Cl2 - 0 PH - 7.2 KH - 80 Gh - 300+ 🤷🏽 NO2 - 0 NO3 - 15 in 5 gallon , 25 in 14 cube Aqua Huna fish came in satisfactory excepting the Black Neons. Three DOA , 5 more didn’t make the 1st week. And one empty nerite shell. So - 14 gallon cube houses : Harriet ( male Betta ) 2 nerite 2 black neons ramshorns, bladders, trumpets and a Hydra bloom 5 gallon houses : 11 (!) Ember Tetras 8 Blue Velvet 2 nerite ramshorns, bladders, trumpets Which means I have two healthy tanks🤞🏽one which is under stocked and one may be over stocked. So far so good in the 14 gallon with Betta and 2 Neons. Embers and Shrimps are stoked in the 5. At least 1 shrimp is berried and 2 more saddled. My query is this : do I add the Embers to the 14 and go shrimp only in the 5 ? only concern is stress level on the Betta. I could split the embers 6 & 5 ditch the SO and start a few more tanks 🥹 keep things status quo for a couple months ( boring). Trips to LFS have me eyeing a single Venezuelan Cory living with Angels or a few Otos. Either would probably like a more seasoned tank than the 14 is at present. But I Can be Patient… So BIG THANKS for all the help I’ve gleaned from lurking and thanks in advance for any thoughts. Very Happy to have found such a wise and generous community. Yours in Gratitude, steven.
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