Maggie

Welcome! Nice pics of your fishy and non-fishy kids, especially your feral cat! My daughter fed a semi-feral cat one spring, summer and fall. She named him Peter and over time he allowed her to pet him. When winter came (northern US), Peter decided he didn't really want to be feral anymore.

I am looking forward to watching that happen! Note the coop brand sponge filter!

Day five. I lost one baby on Monday for unknown reasons, and now have eleven remaining in quarantine. The lost one stayed off to himself when I brought them home and didn't hang with the gang much, so I think he was too stressed out. There was nothing on his body that I could see wrong. They're extremely shy and do not like being watched. I put a pile of java moss in there after the one death. None of them have any physical signs of illness. They love the moss and hide in there. They all appear healthy and are eating - its hard to watch them actually eat bc they dart back and forth and get very active at feeding, and there are lots of little black dots in the tank afterward! Plus they've grown a bit tho the view into the mini-bow is very distorted. I feed them 4x day and clean up with a turkey baster. Feeding live baby brine shrimp and powdered (by hand) flakes and freeze dried blood worms. Once or twice I've seen them nip at the larger pieces, but they haven't quite got the hang of that yet. I got a 10-gal for them because I decided they'd do best in a smaller tank with just some shrimp and snails and lots of plants, in my spare bedroom where it's quiet. I was thinking about getting a shrimp tank anyway. Plus they're so tiny I think I would completely lose them in my 45. I wish I knew how old they are. They appear to be about 3/4 grown lengthwise but need a lot of filling out. Caught this one cruising by and he/she didn't see me! Sorry about the cell phone pic quality.

Kat, I have a question. Can you explain "buffering capacity"? My water pH drops significantly from the tap (about 7) to aging (6.8) to in the tank (no occupants yet except plants and hitchhiker snails) with driftwood (6.4) and I checked again and it's now fallen to 6.2. The driftwood leached a little color when soaking, but has not discolored my tank so far. My gH and kH are both ~89.5 ppm from the tap. Will Wonder Shells work to help keep pH closer to 7, and how do they work? Thanks!

Kat, your explanation fo GH and KH in this post has helped me understand what they mean, and I don't have a water softener bc my water is already soft. Thank you!!

Hi David! Welcome! Your tank is lovely. I just bought my second tank. I decided to keep my new baby dwarf emerald rasboras (currently in quarantine in a 5-gal mini bow) in the 10 gal instead of the 45-gal as I'm afraid they'll disappear from view and have trouble finding the food because they're so tiny! Also going to get some dwarf shrimp. Not sure how many tanks I can handle as my water changing has to be done by hand right now.

Just got my order of Ocean Nutrition instant baby brine shrimp in a jar from the coop and my baby rasboras went nuts! They're going to get this every day for one of their feedings. I'm starting a hatchery soon.

Some of my twelve baby dwarf emerald rasboras in quarantine. I haven't been able to snap a pick of them all together yet bit got instant baby brine coming from the coop so maybe can get a wide shot then.

I know nothing except that I cycled my tank w plants and ammonia and got several nitrate spikes requiring water changes. I figured my numerous half dead plants were the culprit.

I am looking at mid-top level. I'll have 6 cory cats at the bottom. Any size as long as its pretry, peaceful, likes low 70s for water temp, and won't breed. I like the idea of a female betta sorority!

Gouramis seem to like it alot warmer (80-ish) than my new emerald babies (70-75), so I'm considering something more compatible as a centerpiece. What about 4 female betta fish? Tank seems kind of big (45 gal) for just one male, and the females are also quite striking to me! Suggestions/advice welcome!

My val died, and its spot in the corner is bare. 🙁 On the plus side my water sprite is going nuts and I already cut off one "runner" (not sure of technical name but it had its own roots) to sacrifice in my quarantine tank and another runner is ready to be cut when the time comes. And all 12 of my baby dwarf emerald rasboras made it thru the night! Here's the tiniest one, a bit worrisome he (?) seems to stay off by himself alot, but joins the group occasionally.

Found my ammonia & nitrites at 0ppm, nitrates <40ppm. Did a 25% water change and nitrates now 20. Tank is now cycled!! Went to LFS and they're out of harlequin rasboras. Big time bummer. LFS has great supply of frozen food though. Got flakes and pellets and a few other things coming from aquariumcoop. Change of plans. I saw some adorable young emerald dwarf rasboras (danio erythromcron). I got twelve. They're so tiny and adorable! I have them in my quarantine tank (5 gal mini-bow). I had to add a little baking soda to the tank while they were floating in the bag as my pH is too low for them (they prefer over 7). Here are a couple of my new babies.

Found my ammonia & nitrites at 0ppm, nitrates <40ppm. Did a 25% water change and nitrates now 20. Tank is now cycled!! Went to LFS and they're out of harlequin rasboras. Big time bummer. LFS has great supply of frozen food though. Got flakes and pellets and a few other things coming from aquariumcoop.

Aqueon 45-gallon