Brandy

I have been thinking a lot about how we make money in this world. I have a good job, working for the university, it is in some ways my "dream job", secure, engaging, flexible, intellectual, challenging...But I still crave MAKING things. I have always enjoyed producing things with my hands. sometimes it feels like I was born too late, or something, because we outsource production jobs these days, and if I had been born earlier I would have ended up a housewife anyway...But still. Some time this next year we are buying a place. I keep telling myself to wait to buy any more tanks. It is sooo hard though, some of my tanks are producing things people actually want! And somehow, despite the fact that I have a REAL JOB now, with benefits and a big girl salary, those little trickles of money feel so much better. I keep pointing out places with basements... There is something about producing a thing with my own hands, be it a shirt, a plant, a loaf of bread, or a fish, that makes me feel much better about whatever meager income it nets me. It isn't really practical yet. But I think one day, before I retire, it actually likely will be. The trouble is it will never replace the kind of money and benefits I currently enjoy--and I am far from wealthy. This pandemic has made me question what I am doing here in this world a lot. Much mulling over of life decisions. Mostly I am satisfied with my choices, but I do miss the pride I once got from selling things I directly produced. What has it made you question?

If you give a mouse a cookie...

Not necessarily. So rimless tanks need to be carefully supported with no point loads. Not a crumb, not a feather, not a pea under them. Perfectly clean smooth surface. Some have thin foam mats that keep them from any pressure points. If you have a perfectly flat surface (like a laminate countertop) then you CAN easily use the tank as a rimless tank--especially temporarily. Do an overnight fill test to be sure it is sound.

I overflow something weekly. I am the worst!

Also, dear god, can you imagine the line if he posted his schedule? Cory, you famous! 🙂

Aww, he pinch hits in the store once in a rare while. I have seen him there once in the last year. But I don't think it is a regular thing guys.

Biochem is a GREAT and AWESOME direction to go! Does she know what she wants to do with it? Pre-med? Grad School and PhD? Or Tech track to research? I took the tech track, and I love it. If I had been younger I would have gone for my PhD, but I am glad I didn't actually, I get to stay at the bench more this way. Techs make the discoveries, PIs just write about them. 😆 However, you can set yourself up to do both if you think about it at the outset. Then both options stay open.

From this angle it looks very like pigmentation to me. I think you are probably ok. Good news is, it is very not fatal, and can be easily cured, so you won't have to worry either way. If you find scutariella 6 months from now, it is easy to take out with consistent treatment.

If that is scutariella then it will be more apparent in profile. Hard to tell from a top down shot if that is a shine, a pigmentation, or a little white wormy thing sticking up. Try to get a side view shot. If it sticks up, then treat them with praziquantel once a week for 4 weeks. It is fairly easy to kill on their face, but takes 4 weeks to get all the eggs.

As the wife of an accepting and not supportive spouse, I have trouble with this all the time. I get into a thing and go nuts, could be fish, house plants, sewing, gardening, breewing beer, sailing, art, you name it. It takes over my life for a while and I dive deep. His issue is not decor--I can make a tank look like a beautiful design element and not a disaster--but that there is duckweed in the sink, and hoses and puddles on the floor and he feels like he has to compete with my hobby when I get sucked in, and I am too busy to watch a movie with him. Totally fair, but I actually don't like movies, lol. We all make sacrifices.

I am not sure I am so much afraid as lazy...

I think I would want a stream tank set up with trout and crayfish. I know that is incredibly impractical. It would need to be huge, and refrigerated. But those are the freshwater fish I would want. The only way I would do a salt tank ever would be if I could do a PNW tidal tank. we have INCREDIBLY beautiful invertebrates here, and the rock fish are also pretty spectacular. Again, needing to keep it cold enough would be the issue.

The main reason to separate into 3 intervals...or at least two...Is that Iron and the phosphate in the all-in-one will react with each other and become unavailable to your plants. This is why they are sold separately. I tend to dose Easy Green, and a day or so later follow with easy iron and potassium (my water is very low in everything, you may not need potassium). I don't like liquid carbon, but if I were going to use it I would use it by itself at least 48h after using a dechlorinator, and be very careful to never exceed the recommended dose. Liquid carbon is dangerous stuff, use with caution. I use it in the lab, with gloves and in a fume hood. For more info please see link. Used cautiously it can be "safe" but one has to ask if it is worth the potential for error. I work with this and am trained to do so and still hesitate strongly to use it in my tank. Last resort algecide, never as a "standard" part of my regimen. https://www.jbl.de/en/blog/detail/133/the-story-of-liquid-co2-fertilisation-the-reliability

baby brine is often appreciated too.

I would tell myself to relax and enjoy it more at the very beginning. But I would also tell myself to feel less guilty--not of killing fish or anything, but of spending "frivolous" money on myself. This hobby is fun, and more tanks, bigger tanks, really are better (who really needs a couch anyway?). In retrospect I regret a lot less than I expected to, and the hobby has greatly contributed to my mental health during a stressful time. I needed this, and it really has been "cheaper than therapy".

I have found mine to be quite hardy in terms of healing injuries. I had one somehow get a huge gash on his head, I thought he would get sick and die for sure. There was no easy way to catch him, but the tank parameters were good, and he made a full recovery. With the exception of bettas, I have found that most fish heal from injuries rapidly, without intervention, as long as the water is clean, the temperature is appropriate, and they are not being re-injured. Long finned bettas seem to be cabable of injuring themselves by swimming.

I have had amazon swords be very slow to start in new ecocomplete. They like established roots and they like a LOT of root fertilizer. They are also unhappy being replanted because their roots seem to be very brittle. I think it is likely those factors rather than the scuds. Maybe boost them along with root tabs until you start to build up fish waste in the substrate.

Thanks, that was what I thought I remembered. 🙂

So I think I heard from @Dwayne Brown that these fish feed on mulm and biofilm, and the internet agrees. I see lots of warnings that they need a high rate of dissolved oxygen at the higher end of their temp range. The tank I wanted them for houses angelfish and rams, so there is a narrow window of overlap right at the top of the goby's temp range--short of owning an O2 meter, is there any way for me to figure out how much dissolved oxygen is enough? I have a 29g, heavily planted, @ 82 deg F and about a pH of 6.5-7.4. I run 2 large sponge filters with airstones and a lot of driftwood. The substrate is ecocomplete, and it might be 25% exposed, and mulm gathers faster than I really want to vacuum it up, or more often than I need to change water. I have thought also of adding sterbai corys or more khuli loaches. I don't want to add more tech to the tank, I want to work with what I have. I have considered a gravel cap, but I think that is a temporary solution at best. I have also considered Maylasian Trumpet snails or deliberately introducing live black worms...

I have shrimp in soft water, and LOW pH. I added crushed coral, and the went up a little, and stabilized at 7-ish. I just feed a mineral supplement and they do really well for me. I would expect what @Patrick_G says to be true, you will have a few losses at first and subsequent generations will do well for you. If you can get locally bred shrimp you will be wildly more successful, they are very much worth looking for.

Skittles!!

I think that the wag genetics breed true, but the male with her may not be the dad of this first drop. The tank I purchased her out of had sunsets, gold speckles, micky mouse tails, blue, all kinds, so really I have no idea. On the other hand I have had her over a month so she could have been open when I got her. If they do belong to these parents, I would expect all to be consisently wags I think.

So I have a pair of red wag platies in a 10 gallon with some guppies...I have been wondering if and when I would see my first platy fry. Mom was bigger than dad to begin with (as is normal with livebearers) but pretty small compared to some adults I have seen. Mom is dropping now. I see 10-15 fry so far. They are distinct from guppy fry which is fun. They are...gray? I know guppies are not born the color they will be, and guppy females can be bred when you buy them so it is a grab bag and this first drop could be any kind of mongrels. At what age will I know what I have? Edited to add: closest bet gets the entire drop as a prize!! (A joke, this is against forum policy)

I once packed the aerator screen on the kitchen faucet with blue paste food coloring...My room mate had a panic attack the next morning when trying to make coffee.

I think that this is the thing with having a used tank with "free fish". the previous owner knew this would be a hassle. With persistence you will find someone who wants the fish. I was a person looking for exactly that kind of larger wet pet just a few months ago. I knew there would be someone desperate to get rid of a large fish and that I did not have to "grow my own" but could rescue one. I haunted craigslist and I saw a lot of plecos and oscars. I got what I was looking for eventually. Someone will be happy eventually to rescue him for free.