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Brandy

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Everything posted by Brandy

  1. Brandy
    Not a moment too soon. Forgive the sloppy video editing, I'm no Jimmy Gimbal.
  2. Brandy
    Yep, molting is how they grow. Their shells don't stretch to get bigger, they shed the old one and make a whole new one. Many times they hide during this process, and also if they are carrying eggs (called "berried" because the egg cluster looks like they have a yellow raspberry attched to them kinda). They are incredibly good at hiding despite their bright colors, and babies hide for a few weeks once hatched, before you can really even see them very well. If you are seeing babies you have happy shrimp!
  3. Brandy
    @CanadaAmanda is right, but you won't be starting from scratch--you have a seeded tank. I recently filled a tank an put in 3 fish in the same day, I had a pre-seeded sponge filter from another tank and I fed lightly at first. No issues at all. Then a few weeks later I dumped in about 30-40 guppies. I didn't feed for 3 days, then fed very lightly. I got a bacterial bloom for a day or two, but again, no problems with the fish, no obvious ammonia spike. It is much less scary once your tank has bacteria in it.
  4. Brandy
    In my experience all dead shrimp are red. White is probably not dead, but a molted shell? Even amanos who die become red/pink like a cooked shrimp color, but the molts are white. This is a molt:
  5. Brandy
    I do have them in the wine bottles. But I haven't checked the culture in a month or two.
  6. Brandy
    Will do. I have vinegar eels too! I should check on that culture actually.
  7. Brandy
    As I drove in to work, I decided to pull the eggs as soon as I get home. They are on a perfect rock, and eventually the driftwood will sink. When it does they may spawn on it, and I won't be able to do this as easily. By all acounts, they will continue to spawn regularly, they can try with the next batch. Next question, @Fish Folk what was your first feed? I have first bites, and baby brine, and I can find a bit of mulmy filter media that likely has infusoria cultured on it.
  8. Brandy
    So I have a dilemma. I have Electric Blue Acara eggs that showed up unexpectedly in my 40 breeder. The parents have been diligently guarding them, and they appear viable. They are about 3 days old, so I expect them to hatch soon, and the parents have been digging little hollows to put the fry in in preparation. Their only tankmates are a cloud of mutt guppies who are curious but not gutsy enough to challenge an acara. They have been SUUCH good parents. I bought a Ziss EZ Breeder box because I would really like to grow out the fry, and I did not expect them to be this successful. I assume that if I left the fry with the parents they would raise them for 2 weeks and then possibly eat them and spawn again. So I think I should pull the rock, but I kinda want to see if they will raise them? Ahhh, decisions decisions. The fry will be easier to target feed in the box, and I would get more to adulthood maybe. But if they can raise them to the brine shrimp eating stage I would be able to catch the fry in a few weeks before the parents spawn again...And it would be easier maybe? Thoughts? Suggestions?
  9. Brandy
    If you are vacuuming weekly just a part of the tank you will still have more snails than the tank can hold very quickly. If you don't vacuum, without plants you will have toxic water parameters in a tank that size and you will need to change water very often. When trying to amass a large amount of anything (money, snails, water in a bucket) there are 2 schools of thought. You can spend a lot of time trying to eliminate every tiny ineffecient leak in your system, or you can dramtically increase production and not worry about the "leaks". In snails, as in life, it is usually easier to do the latter. The driftwood is food also, as is whatever grows on it.
  10. Brandy
    Because of the very low ph any ammonia will not be as toxic for your fish. However, because of the low pH you may have to aclimate your fish slowly and carefully. I would test the water in the bag, and aim for a midpoint if possible. Normally I would say go slowly with the fish, add the two groups about 2 weeks apart. Alternatively, in this situation get both and try to feed lightly to begin with. The bacteria will increase to fit the load and the load comes in from the food, not the fish (unless they die and then it comes from the fish body directly). You can jumpstart the process by feeding the tank a small amount now, and watching your parameters. the amount you can feed today without an ammonia spike is how much you can feed, no matter how many fish you have. Tomorrow you can feed a bit more, etc.
  11. Brandy
    Did you cycle the tank first? Sorry for the possibly silly question, but it is a primary reason for new fish death. That is a lot of fish for a brand new set up, especially without plants.
  12. Brandy
    Give them ample calcium and sinking fish food and they will multiply. Protein is helpful I find, though they like veggies too. If I were going to set up a snail only tank, I would use driftwood set vertically, and skip plants mostly, and leave myself plently of room to vacuum the gravel, then feed like crazy.
  13. Brandy
    Every tank I say is my last. I am up to 10 and counting. I have no physical space for more tanks, and I am very likely in violation of my lease. But, I don't have platies yet... and I want to breed some german rams and corydoras. And I want to have golden whiteclouds...and common body goldfish, like Wakin. And I want a feather fin squeaker...and and and... I am on a new tank diet. I have to stop for the moment. I will be moving in a year--that makes me hold off, but it doesn't make it easy. Until then I am focused on upgrading the scapes in my current tanks, and making my maintenance more streamlined and routinized. And maybe I can squeze in a few more fish in my current tanks...😎
  14. Brandy

    Snail ID

    Brandy replied to darkG's topic in General Discussion

    Yep. My pea puffers think they are the BEST.
  15. Brandy
    what about dwarf petricola syndontis?
  16. Brandy
    I would try to wait 24h after adding the Fritz Zyme. Then you should be ok. That number is arbitrary but the bacteria should stick to the filter/decorations/tank walls fairly rapidly. If it has been 24h, you are good to go.
  17. Brandy
    This one fit barely in the top of the filter compartment. The lids both still fit-clear glass and black plastic, tho the plastic part was always a little floppy and ill fitting on mine.
  18. Brandy
    I have the VIVOSUN Aquarium Light Blue White Clip on Fish Tank Light LED Light on that tank, planted with madagascar lace plant (fun, but wrong for this tank on so many levels), amazon sword, and dwarf hair grass. I see that is unavailable from the original amazon seller, but maybe you can find something similar?
  19. Brandy
    Planted my new ACO plants, and laid on the floor watching my guppies and acaras until the light timer went off. Biggest aquarium regret: my lights are too strong to be on the whole time I'm awake.
  20. Brandy
    I have had an amazon leaf melt like that. In my case the plant was unhappy because of a number of factors, being shaded, not enough fertilizer, and higher heat than it was used to. My snails and shrimp ate the soft tissue first. That leaf was a gonner, but the plant recovered just fine.
  21. Brandy
    Kudos to you--as an adult science nerd, my physical science class was a hard sell at 14. It lacked the immediate applicability of biology for a farm kid. Later as an adult once I became aware of how biology is driven by chemistry, and chemistry is driven by physics (and physics is driven by math!) I became a much bigger fan of the hard sciences--and even math! If you can tie those things together for your students they will be lucky kids indeed!
  22. Brandy
    Guppies aren't territorial really, so I don't think it will work. Males just do this. With females they spend a bit more time trying to mate, but without they just bug each other. It won't get out of control, they are amusing themselves, like boys roughhousing to see who is toughest, it will just be a constant pecking order test, with no real hard feelings. If you add MORE of them, it is more distributed and will actually settle down, also you can always feed a tiny bit to refocus them on something they love even more--FOOD!
  23. Brandy
    This is always a good policy. I even quarantine fish from Aquarium Co-op. Some people never quarantine. It has more to do with you and your personal comfort level than the store you are purchasing from.
  24. Brandy
    I don't think they look dramatically different in the soft shell stage. Mine hide more in a tank that contains fish--they don't worry if there are no predators around.
  25. Brandy
    I would have said it is the shrimp you can't find. Mine seem to hide immediately after molting.
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