Brandy

awww....The first 2 clutches, upon closer inspection, looked about half hatched already, but the 3rd is fresh, and stayed out of the water. It is floating on a paper towel nest as directed!!

Yeah, these were some pretty magenta snails and I definitely want more. The tank is full of GBR, loaches and an angel fish, so I strongly doubt any would survive. I'll brood them in a container and see how it goes.

Guys! I have been a terrible fish mom. They get fed, the water gets changed as infrequently as possible. I've been in a holding pattern, dealing with work, life, and the new house. I finally did a big water change, and suddenly 2 giant clutches of mystery snail eggs dropped into the tank! I had given up on these guys, as they never seemed to do anything and one died in the move. I fished out the clutches immediately, and discovered a third up under the rim. I dropped the water level a little, put the 2 knocked off clutches in a floating container with a paper towel, and have not decided whether I should do the same with this one that is still attached? That one is pink the other two are gray and white? Advice from snail gurus sought! Thanks! (Pics in the morning, it is late here)

I have fed vinegar eels for the first day or so, then straight to baby brine.

I can easily tell you everything wrong with my hated 2010 prius. I miss my sweet little screaming red 2005 manual Celica every dang day.

they have little backwards facing barbs. on their gill covers/pectoral fins I think. they need to go forward, then back, and they probably are not going to figure it out. To be honest, a net is cheap. cut it gently with very small scissors, a thread at a time until they can get out.

I'm pretty partial to the corner matten too. Especially since I'm a fan of a coarse sand substrate.

It's 125 gallons. And yeah, pretty sure it is an old all glass. Very nice, lots of hard water stains to scrape off, but then I'll have to do a fill and leak test. It was holding water for a turtle and goldfish until a week ago, but judging by the hard water stains it was not completely full. The fake wood trim might need to be masked and painted black. But the tank seems to be rock solid.

Oh! But with lights.

So I warned you all that this might be slow. All 10 tanks were successfully moved. I lost a few juvenile acaras, and about half the rummy nose tetras. The shrimp, snails, guppies, neons, Bettas, puffers, Rams, and various large fish came thru just fine tho. The plants less so, in the heat, in an open bed pickup, tho they are beginning to recover. These two are in my living room on the floor. The basement needs plumbing and a ceiling... I can't get tote ponds down there so I'm going to go with a row of 100g stock tanks eventually. Unfortunately the first one is already occupied by some squatters... But! I did score the best Craigslist freebie yesterday! That's going to go in the living room soon! The question is... Do I go with a UGF, sponges/corner matten, or just circulation, plants, and MTS? I'm leaning hard toward a @Daniel inspired simple box o' water plan. Much like a super sized 1930's aquarium.

Lousy pic but he's doing great. The kids have named him Disco. The yellow parts have an iridescent blue overlay that flashes on and off.

Rams are small and manageable, but I have found they really really need extra heat. I keep mine at 82-83. That is too warm for some fish, and might affect your choice, also they are less interactive with humans, but very interactive with each other. Electric Blue Acaras don't require the high heat but they get bigger and therefore limit the minimum size of fish you can keep with them. They are very interactive with you, the human, much like angel fish. There are many many other small to mid sized cichlids between there, apistos, or maybe even kribensis? In my experience though, the really small cichlids pay less attention to people, and the bigger ones become more human-interactive.

If they are really crusty, and the tank is glass, I am a HUGE fan of a WET razorblade. Be sure to keep it wet or it will scratch the glass.

Though, knowing @Daniel, he probably lives in an enclave of super amazing science nerds who will save the world...

Ahhh, but are GloFish really that appealing? 😏 No I get you @ARMYVET. Animal abuse does not have to involve hitting something. Arguably research and agriculture are "helping people" but they have limits and are heavily regulated by AALAC, IACUCs, the FDA, etc, and I will be the first to admit that is still not always enough. The thing that always concerns me is the potential for off-target effects. Ironically, with all my extensive training I have many more hoops to jump through to use recombinant DNA than I suspect Daniel's neighbor has--unless Daniel just happens to live next to a trained scientist working for a regulated institiution as I am.

Actually, colleagues of mine are currently working to modify the genes of mosquitos for malaria resistance, malaria itself, giardia, and other human parasites, and also certian agriculturally critical pathogens and parasites, to knock out their lifecycle or decrease their fitness in some way. Those advances could potentially reach the hobby eventually via fish farming. I have not looked into it, but a search of PubMed articles will probably yeild fascinating reading for some. Also, I have worked with many (and even made a few myself) model organisms (Drosophila, C. elegans, Mice, etc) which are genetically altered to express fluorescent proteins in a specific cell or under specific condidtions, this can be a phenomenal tool for studying the very minute or obscure or otherwise rare biological processes. Like a gun or a hammer or an airplane this is a tool like any other, and neither intrinsically good or evil.

I also tend to just do the QT myself. I have never visited any store, LFS or Big Box, that did not at least occaisionally 1) have dead fish or obvious meds in the sale tanks 2) send me home with fish that immediately became sick and sometimes died. Fish care is hard, and if you handle enough of them you will have losses. Better to just be proactive, than worry about their history. I remember even Cory mentioning that he has bought from big box stores.

We have actually discussed this before, if you are interested. There is also a tag for glofish.

There are lots of options in this hobby, and I like everyone to have lots of opinions to choose from, including yours @Mmiller2001. I do want to keep space for everyone else's voice to be heard. It is probably best for all of us to simply state what we do and how that has worked out for us rather than directly trying to dispute others. That way new people can decide how their own practice of the hobby fits in. Streetwise has his own style of tanks, and they look very differnt from the tanks Mmiller posted. Neither are "wrong" they are just different ways of enjoying this hobby, and if a kid wants bubble gum pink gravel, that is ok too--so long as they understand how to keep the fish alive and healthy. If I am a new person, and I love the look of dutch tanks I really want to follow Mmiller and he is going to have the best advice for me. If I want a more natural slice of nature complete with algae, mulm, and tannins, Streetwise will have advice I can best understand and relate to. As tonyjuliano points out, knowing yourself is the most important thing in this hobby, and there is no one right way to enjoy fish...I quite like them battered and fried at times myself!

This is not the place for THIS debate. When we devolve into bickering and challenging each other to back things up or "take this quote to any other forum" we have strayed from the point of THIS FORUM. If you want to have bickering fights, do it somewhere else, the whole internet is available to oblige you.

Pardon me. RESPECTFUL OPINIONS ARE ALL VALID. First and foremost, be kind and helpful to one another on the forum.

This is not the place for this debate. Opinions are all valid. Stop. Or I will lock the thread, and further consequences will ensue.

Woah. Is that tea? 😁 I am not a black water fan, but your folks are clearly tolerant! Still, super impressive balancing, I have a tank or two like this that I just top off. My real reason for water changing is visibility or to remove algae/debris that are "in my way". The fish are never in need of a water change, but my top up water is RO water, so I really have trouble keeping my plants fed if I change water often. For me heavy/frequent water changes result in plant nutrient deficiencies. Sure I could dose more to compensate...but why?

Brandy is still pre coffee....a dangerous time to try to type anything. But I'm still half convinced that Cory built this forum just to give Candi a break from me.

Hi, my name is Brandy, and I think I have a problem... I am moving in 2 weeks. I have been desperately trying to pare down...I went to the aquarium co-op for some hikari cichlid gold floating mini pellets. They were out... But...This guy was staring at me from right next to the door. I don't even like bettas. But I did have this nice empty cycled tank at home...