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Brandy

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Everything posted by Brandy

  1. Brandy
    If your goal is stability, I would do small daily or even 2x daily water changes, kinda like drip acclimating back to your normal water, or whatever goal prompted you to add wonder shell in the first place. If you haven't removed the remaining pieces of wondershell, you want to do that, obviously. (sorry, just covering all the bases) If your shrimp seem actively distressed I would hurry that along by making the change more rapid.
  2. Brandy
    Dropsy is a symptom of a larger problem. It could be a number of things, and it could take a bit of time to figure out. Slow down. Take a breath. You are going to start with what you can control for now, with the plan that you will keep trying to find the source of the problem as more things be come availble. Start with clean water in a clean tank--don't go crazy, just do a normal water change. You are providing fresh air, not sterilizing everything. Keep the temp stable, and the light off unless you need it to check on symptoms. They get a calm dim room, just like a sick person. You can start treatment with what you have. It may not work, but it may. If you suspect parasites, you may want to get an anti parasite med, like API general cure or Fritz Paraclense. If you are in the US, the co-op ships very quickly. Maracyn can be combined with these--but I do not know about Maracyn 2, maybe someone else has used it. If you feed at all, feed lightly, the best quality food you have. (some of us use a variety-this is the time for tiny amounts of your best--DO NOT over feed) As soon as the test kit arrives, read directions carefully and take a pic of the results. Post it and we can try to trouble shoot further. Start a bucket of 10% bleach solution and dip sterilize your tools between tanks, at least 5 minutes to soak--rinse in tap water before using.
  3. Brandy
    You have plant growth and fish and so you are cycled. Bacteria will now increase to accomdate the fish you have. When you have no nitrate appearing from fish waste your fish to plant ratio is heavier on the plant side and you have "low" stocking. If you have a plant packed tank, you may never see nitrate, and it is possible to overstock in terms of physical crowding without causing a surge of nitrate. You don't say how big your tank is. If you have a 10 gallon, and you want corys and guppies you can easily have 5-6 smaller corys and a few guppies all of the same sex and be lightly stocked. If you have 1 female and 1 male guppy you are already overstocked, lol. (jokes--population explosion incoming!)
  4. Brandy
    They like not to be wet on the top surface of their leaves. So they don't handle being dunked by agitation, or having bubbles shower them, or being rained on by condensation from a tight fitting lid. If you can leave the tank uncovered they are happiest but even a small gap will help. To get bright red color they like high light and a tensy bit of iron. That makes them a fovorite of mine in tanks with low light plants that have an algae problem, the red root floater often sucks up extra light and nutrients.
  5. Brandy
    Not necessarily. If you do truly have a potassium deficiency, you may find that by just dosing potassium your plants start growing like crazy and the algae backs off. My one caution is change one thing at a time, and do it for at least 2 weeks--this is a slow process. Plants respond slowly, so there is a delay. In the mean time just remove the algae by hand as much as you can. As you have found otocinclus are picky and only like certian KINDS of algae. They eat a lot of that kind, but they ignore the rest. Mine like cucumber slices and so when I get nervous that they aren't eating enough I add a chunk and they work on it for a while. If you stick a fork in it it will sink.
  6. Brandy
    You can do 2x weekly for a while to reset the tank OR depending on the shrimp you may get away with 50% changes...OR you can actually do a gradual serial dilution. This means you do a 25% change, wait for water temp to stablize, do a second 25% change immediately and repeat until you have your nitrates down. Then watch closely to see how long the nitrates take to rebound to previous levels. If you fertilize, you may be over doing it. If you aren't you may be over feeding.
  7. Brandy
    To be fair I have a very rich envoironment to choose items from. Seattle is right between the mountians and the sea, so I have pretty amazing choices, and in the city people sometimes landscape parking strips with tumbled rock of a particular color. I am not above scavenging a few pebbles from those places if they are the perfect shape or color. I also would point out that in my area most naturally occuring rocks are igneous and inert (but not ALL by any means) so they are generally safe. I have a lot of conifers here though, and some of those woods are not aquarium safe--knowing what you picked up and how to test for safety might be intimidating for some--Like my kiddo. However, I feel as a local native and biologist, I am pretty capable of identifing things. Mostly why I laugh at the kid a little is that I am RIGHT HERE. But asking old mom is not an option when the internet says it isn't safe... EVEN the bird cage "natural perches" had to be purchased!!! They are sticks!!
  8. Brandy
    Typically I don't, depending on where I find it. If I pick a rock up beside the road, I scrub with hot water, and let dry, because of pollution residue (I live in a city). If I pick up driftwood on a beach I wash the sand and dirt off and call it good--salt water things will generally die in freshwater anyway. If I picked up a goopy stick from a pond or stagnant body of water this is when I might actually consider boiling or setting in the sun to bake. Generally I would just avoid this, but that is because my ponds don't have the kind of cool stuff in them that I want anyway. If I pick up leaves or alder cones I try to choose clean ones and they just get chucked in when I want them. Their purpose in my tanks is to grow bacteria and biofilm for my shrimp to eat, so I don't really think sterilizing them makes sense. It is hilarious to me that my 17 year old will BUY rocks and wood and NEVER put found items in the tank. I keep trying to point out that those things were outside before he bought them...And we very much have the technology and the know how to choose safe items.
  9. Brandy
    Glad to see this thread, I've been using old aquarium salt someone gave me and baking soda, would rather have all in one with a finer crystal when I go to replace. My only failures seem to be when I overheat the water to get the salt to dissolve and then pitch the eggs too soon--because I am too impatient! I always worry I will cook them by accident.
  10. Brandy
    could you test it without shipping? leave them in over the weekend when you are home or something and can monitor them? Ive read that the gas exchange might be lower which is logical, but I can't decide if that is the mfg covering themselves legally, or if it is going to be an actual issue.
  11. Brandy
    I think my red ramshorn snails MIGHT have hitched in on the co-op plants, and they have become my favorite snails...just saying, it might be a win, you never know... So far I am a big fan of all the types I have and I have a lot of types. I would say odds of cichlids snarfing them are high, tho I have never kept venestus.
  12. Brandy
    I have seen pond lilies and lotus grown in tiny tubs in water gardens, they are amazingly beautiful, I am actually evious of that idea! Life goals!
  13. Brandy
    Cheers! And Welcome!! 😄
  14. Brandy
    Thanks @Charlie Herman! Just for others who might find this thread later, Metroplex is Metronidazole, which is also a component of the Paraclense in the ACO med trio--wouldn't want to double up the dose if someone was trying to save a fish and inadvertantly tried both in quick succession, though it would appear that Metronidazole is pretty innocus as meds go.
  15. Brandy
    Haha, when all else fails read the instructions! Sorry I literally have NEVER read the front of the package in it's entirety until now, and am laughing primarily at myself. Fortunately I have not been using them long, and have not YET OD'ed my substrate. I so totally would have though!
  16. Brandy
    I have been obsessively checking my latest brine hatch and feeding anything I can find to my remaining fry. Frozen copepods appear to be a reasonable option in a pinch.
  17. Brandy
    Yes. However it is my understanding that in water with high temperature and pH (such as a guppy tank) ammonium becomes ammonia without a catalyst like prime subduing or reversing that natural reaction.
  18. Brandy
    Put it this way, I work with many animals who draw blood if they bite and I am used to that. I was prepared for her to go after my hand as I had seen the video @Fish Folk has up on youtube. I still couldn't help flinching. I added the music to cover my yelp the first time she nailed me. It is a serious hard bite for such a small fish. No way even NEAR to causing actual injury, but she MEANT it. Think a hard mean pinch. Guppies nibble your hand and it tickles. She wants you to hurt. I have a healthy respect for her and avoid her corner when I clean the tank.
  19. Brandy
    Actually I have wondered about this myself--having bought some of these plants online. The single major factor that was responsible for their sucess was that each item was hand packed and shipped with specialized containers--different for hornwort, floaters, etc. On Cory's scale I can see how it makes perfect sense that this is impractical. I think this is just a case where a hobbyist is the better source, and lucky for us that this is true, leaving us an easy in. I have been known to sell floaters on Craigslist when I have an abundance in the summer. I currently have mops of java moss too. I have been working out how to condition it to make it the most attractive and saleable...pro-tip, scuds eat algae, but also eat java moss leaves, lol!
  20. Brandy
    A thought...I may leave this box in the tank to develop biofilm. I will clean the screens regularly enough to maintain flow, and then see if the extra film improves the outcome. I will count this time a raging success if I make it to the 1 month mark with 3 left. I have never bred any fish but live bearers, and my rams never hatched a single fry on their own in their community tank. The EBA are much better parents, but I still would like to raise some of these up to at least the 1 inch mark.
  21. Brandy
    I was feeding several times a day, hikari first bites, vinegar eels, bbs, but they did not seem to get enough that way either likely the other foods I was offering just were not enough. Mom was not able to protect the ones she had either--they were eaten. This was not supposed to happen only a few weeks after getting "juveniles", lol. If I had known they were about to breed I probably would have kept the tank empty except for the happy couple! The adults have put on some decent size in the past month also, so that is good. Happily as @Larrimore says, they will likely spawn again and this time I won't be caught off gaurd.
  22. Brandy
    Yeah, I meant to set up the other cones, but I left it one day late. I should have tried freezing some.
  23. Brandy
    Since you don't have substrate your best options are going to be floating plants and epiphytes. ACO sells java fern and anubias, but for fry hiding places it is hard to beat hornwort or guppy grass. Also water lettuce has long feathery roots that can be good hiding places. So can a pile of rocks with cracks and crevices left between them. Java moss is another great fry plant that doesn't root.
  24. Brandy

    Lighting

    Brandy replied to Dk127's topic in General Discussion

    I do this, and I think @Streetwise has some kind of split schedule also.
  25. Brandy
    I was not prepared with a CONTINUOUS supply. I underestimated how critical that would be.
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