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Anita

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  1. Anita
    Haha, I heard you tell this story on The Aquarist podcast. My other favorite story was Bream vs the Neon Tetras. "Dad, don't you know, Neon Tetras are the fastest swimmers on Earth?" 😂
  2. Anita
    I have many talents, although I do not know if I would call them hidden, haha! @Fishdude is a fan of my PA announcing. I know how to wear traditional Japanese clothing and have studied classical Japanese theatre. I am a Japanese history and culture buff and 日本語を少しい分かります。👺
  3. Anita
    Love the nature sounds too! Sounds like Red-Wing Blackbirds. 🥰 For anyone interested, here’s a bit of etymology on the koi variety names: Shiro Utsuri Koi, 白写鯉, White Reflection Carp: shiro means white. utsuri means reflection or image. Doitsu Koi, ドイツ鯉, German Carp: These scale-less carp were developed in Germany. doitsu means German or Germany. Shōwa Koi, 昭和鯉, Shōwa Carp: Named after the Shōwa era, which covered the reign of Emperor Hirohito (1926-1989). Tanchō Koi, 丹頂鯉, Red-Crowned Carp: Named after the Japanese Crane (tanchō tsuru), which has a red patch on the top of its head. tan means cinnabar (mercury oxide). This red-colored mineral is valued for use in immortality elixirs because it was believed to have magical properties that could prolong life. In China and Japan, cranes are symbols of longevity. Benigoi, 紅鯉, Safflower Carp: Named after a natural, red-orange dye made from safflowers. beni hana means safflower. Kōhaku Koi, 紅白鯉, Red-White Carp: kō means scarlet red, haku means white — the two colors of the Japanese flag. @Cory identified the red markings using the term hi. This word comes from hi no maru (sun disk), the red disk on the Japanese flag. Speaking of symbols, the Japanese carp represents masculine strength and courage. On the traditional holiday known as Boys’ Day (tango no sekku), families raise carp-shaped wind socks in hopes that their male offspring will grow up healthy and strong. Rippling in the wind, the wind socks simulate carp swimming against strong currents. Carp are frequently featured in Japanese mythology as fearsome water monsters capable of climbing waterfalls, riding rapids and whirlpools, and blocking streams. They are often depicted in battle against a lone, male hero. So, in a few years, I predict those pond carp will be like... Source: National Diet Library
  4. Anita
    Hip, hip, HOORAY!!!
  5. Anita
    Instead of a custom tank, how about building a "safety" display case to surround a regular tank, with one sheet of bullet-proof acrylic in the front for the viewing window? I wonder if this option offer two benefits over a custom-built tank: 1) cheaper to build, and 2) easier to find a custom craftsman/builder?
  6. Anita
    Wow, things looking really good in the tank. And Hugo's fins are coming back. Yay! 🥰
  7. Anita
    Sorry, I spaced out and forgot to answer your question. Juggling so many balls at once right now, haha! I do not have personal experience with native fishes. That said, while looking up references about Gambusia, I found multiple articles suggesting that native fish are as good as Gambusia—reference 1, reference 2—and one concluding that native fish are better at controlling mosquitoes! 🦟 Guppies are omnivores that feed in all three water layers (top, middle, bottom), so you might not expect them to go after floating mosquito eggs/larvae. However, in my personal experience, guppies do an excellent job of mosquito (not to mention algae) control in my outdoor setup. With a dozen guppies, I never see a single wriggler in my 130 gallon pond. 😁 Putting these various pieces of information together, I think you do not need to focus on a particular top-feeder or insectivore. But rather, I expect any small, omnivorous fish will do the trick for you. 🦈
  8. Anita
    And keep the substrate, loose or in bags, immersed in water. Many of the bacteria will die if they dry up.
  9. Anita
    Bummer. Seems like giving Pooka the Wild Child her own space is for the best. 😎
  10. Anita
    And I announce live sports events for the local colleges. It's the perfect break from staring at a computer screen.
  11. Anita
  12. Anita
    Feeding time in the community tank. Lots of jostling, but no fatalities. In the animated GIF, you can see the guppy going around the shrimp to pick at the gravel.
  13. Anita
    I try spend quality time with my furballs every day.
  14. Anita
    ORD 😆
  15. Anita
    My guppies and shrimp live together in 10 gal community tanks. I provide plants (stem, floating, and rooted) as cover for baby fish and shrimp. Both guppies and shrimp are thriving and multiplying. The key is to keep the guppies well fed so they are less inclined to seek out shrimp snax. 😇
  16. Anita
    I agree with @Kirsten! 😎The nice part about this forum is that members sift through the hearsay, F.U.D., and lies floating about in cyberspace to offer up genuinely helpful suggestions. Everyone has their own recipe for cycling their tank(s). Like you, I started from scratch, so I did not have any mature tanks to borrow seasoned media or substrate from. I am a low-tech (translation → lazy + cheap) aquarist, so specialty substrates were not part of my plan. I did use options #5 and a version of #6. 🌿 ↓ I do not think we can repeat enough times the following truth about cycling. 💯 ↓ I too made the mistake of not waiting long enough before adding critters. 🙄I would like to add that this is actually a very smart suggestion. ↓ I guess the last thing I might suggest is that before you run out and buy a larger tank, try working through all the bugs in your small tank. In addition to letting you practice for the larger version, you may find that building an ecosystem for a smaller tank is quite rewarding. None of my tanks are larger than 10 gallons. All are community tanks, packed with life—fish, plants, and inverts. 😁
  17. Anita
    I agree, spotting the gonopodium is the most reliable way to sex juvenile (not baby) guppies. Even fin size won't become obvious until they mature quite a bit.
  18. Anita
    A stock tank heater is probably w-a-y too big for a 17 gallon tub. I suspect that people are using those in large ponds of over 100 gallons. For example, this one ↓ ↓ ↓ is rated for up to 300 gallons. @ererer has a better suggestion. You can also find bucket-/birdbath-sized heaters that are outdoor-safe. A cold frame might work. But like @WhitecloudDynasty mentioned, I think it will be hard to collect and store enough solar energy in such a small volume of water. Cold frames work on the principle of using water as a thermal storage source. The larger the volume of water, the better the thermal storage. With small volumes, there just isn't enough water to hold in the heat. If that makes sense?
  19. Anita
    Sorry, my bad. 🙄 I should have written that water lettuce hates any kind of change (with shipping causing the most extreme trauma). In fact, the outer leaves and roots that "died off in a week" is exactly what I would expect them to do. Most likely the plants reacted to being placed into a new tank with new water, regardless of agitation. Hang in there, those leaves are already coming back and the roots will come back too. FWIW, the roots do not look rotten to me. Rotten roots are mushy, brown, and falling apart. Most of the roots in the photo look like victims of an exceedingly bad haircut—the root tips and fuzzy root hairs are missing. The snails are eating dead plant matter, which actually helps stop the decay from spreading. (It's like how cleaning a wound in animals/people helps prevent an infected wound from getting worse.) 😁 BTW, you now have less plant mass, so I would suggest cutting back on fertilizer until the plants recover.😎
  20. Anita
    Me too! Bumblees rock! 🐝
  21. Anita
    @lefty o has a good suggestion. I am going to try it myself! I forgot one more thing. Haha! The plastic media beads are designed so that when covered with a good growth of biofilm, they have almost neutral buoyancy. When the filter is new, the "naked" beads are slightly buoyant. Because of this, they tend to float up and clump together at the top of the filter column rather than tumble evenly throughout the entire filter column. This clumping media seems to make the air bubbles coalesce and "burp" out in eruptive spurts rather than in a continuous stream of bubbles. As the media beads get closer to neutral buoyancy, they stop clumping at the top of the filter. You can run less air and still get nice tumbling action. 😁
  22. Anita
    Ah, I have that one too! I am afraid I have never been able to get fine bubbles from that one. And yes, mine also produces very LARGE and very LOUD bubbles. I believe this has to do with the mechanics of the tumbling media, aka the moving bed. I believe a faster airflow is needed to keep the filter media tumbling properly. For example, I discovered the USB Nano Air Pump does not push enough air to keep the media tumbling. Hence my conclusion that the moving bed filter needs a higher and faster airflow. And as I said, the faster the air flow, the larger the bubbles. Sorry I couldn't be more help! If you come up with a solution, be sure to let us know! 😁
  23. Anita
    No reason why it couldn't work. Just like a tank community, you would need to make sure your pond water parameters are compatible for all your community residents. I seem to recall that tetras and corys like soft, low pH water. Is that also true to rasboras and apistos? Also, you would need to check that all the residents are behaviorally compatible. Some of the more delicate species may not survive the rigors of outdoor living. Remember, outdoor ponds are subject to more extreme environmental conditions—daytime/nighttime temperatures, sun/shade exposure, predation by animals, unseasonal cold snaps/heat waves, leaves/branches/dirt/fruit/whatever falling into the pond, etc. And depending on the size of your pond, gravel vacuuming may not be possible. Another thing to keep in mind is that your summer pond might hold significantly more water than your winter tank. So you may have to make decisions about who gets to go inside when fall comes around. Not really a downside, but one thing I try to consider with my outdoor pond is whether any of my pond plants and animals could escape and become a problematic invasive species. Might a stray bit of invasive plant get picked up and carried to a local waterway by a visiting duck? Could a heavy thunderstorm cause my pond to overflow and spill the fish, inverts, and plants into a nearby creek or irrigation ditch? Let us know what you decide to do! 😎
  24. Anita
    Hey, I am about to log off for the evening but I wanted to suggest that soft-leafed floating plants, like water lettuce, are highly susceptible to melting. They really do not like being shipped. Looking at your photo (thanks for posting it, btw), it appears that only the outer, older leaves have died. If you look at the centers of the plants, all the tiny new leaves are coming in a nice and healthy green. So I suggest being patient. It looks to me like your plants are already on the road to recovery. One thing you might do is trim off and scoop up all the yellow leaves to avoid creating an ammonia spike from the decaying plant matter. Hope that helps and I'll be back again to see how things are going for you! 🥰
  25. Anita
    So by "Ziss Bubble Filter" do you mean an Aquarium Co-Op Coarse Sponge Filter and a Ziss Never-Clog Air Stone? It took me a bit of fidgeting to get the bubbles the way I wanted. So I hope the following explanation helps! See the fiber disks (they may be a different color than green) sitting between the two black, plastic parts of the air stone? Those fiber disks are what create your bubbles. Grasp the top plastic part of the air stone and twist the bottom part clockwise (to the right). This tightens the gap between the top and bottom plastic parts and squeezes the fiber disks together. The tighter you squeeze the fiber disks, the smaller you make the bubbles. I have a weak grip, so I need to hang on really tight to both parts and crank hard. That said, I would not recommend using pliers because you could easily damage the plastic threads and ruin the air stone. Also, try turning your air shut-off valve way, way down until the air is barely bubbling from the outlet tube of your sponge filter. Then, very gently, nudge the shut-off valve open just a teensy bit at a time until you get a fine stream of bubbles. You want just enough air to create a stream of fine bubbles. The faster you push air through the air stone, the more likely it is you will end up with big, boiling bubbles. Aquarium Co-Op also has a video on optimizing your sponge filter.
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