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Brandy

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Everything posted by Brandy

  1. Brandy
    I think Seachem makes Potassium fertilizer by itself, check amazon. I have that and I have some ADA Brighty K that someone gave me--too expensive for me, but the dispenser bottle is lovely, and it works well also.
  2. Brandy
    You have live plants. They are likely sucking up all the nitrogen/ammonia in the tank. I have a VERY hard time getting my nitrates up over 10ppm, I have to overdose fertilizer to see any. I change water when the mulm gets to me, because I would never have enough nitrates to need to change--I could top off my tanks forever. You can slow down your water changes.
  3. Brandy
    It could be lack of light on the lower leaves, but I would still vote potassium. If your tested nitrates are over 20ppm, you can get/dose potassium separately. I have a few tanks that have lots of Java fern and anubias and they just preferentally suck it up. Of course my water is low on minerals also. You can also trim and replant the tops of that plant--the bottom leaves won't recover but if you add more fertilizer it should prevent holes from recurring.
  4. Brandy
    Sponge filters would be enough from a biological filtration perspective. But if your HOB is "not keeping the tank as clean as you would like" it probably means you want to see more mechanical filtration. Personally I am happy with the sponges because I have low current tanks, so witthout the added current caused by the other filters it seems the particulates settle and get vacuumed out. They are still there, but I see them less.
  5. Brandy
    It's hungry. It wants more fertilizer. Probably potassium. What are you using currently?
  6. Brandy
    I have Red and I love the fire reds and am culling toward that in my colonies. I like the blue and orange when I see pics, but in my dark substrate tanks the blues would disappear, and I love the hardiness of my reds. I think because most of my fish are cool tones the pop of red is really nice. If I were going to start over I would probably spend the money for bloody marys, but the Painted fire gives me a goal to work toward and is almost as awesome.
  7. Brandy
    @James Black I mean, you should be working at work. This doesn't seem like a Cory type thing to have on here. But there are independant apps to do that...
  8. Brandy
    I have recently gotten some Large ACO sponge filters and decided to switch my bigger tanks to straight sponge filters. Under the category of that which can happen will happen... I very nearly lost an otocinclus this morning. One of my littlest must have been munching along the airline, and went into the uplift tube. I found him stuck in there. I expected him to be dead but he was very much alive. I tried taking off the uplift tube but he was still stuck. I tried gently pulling on his body, but nope. I ended up disassembling the filter, and finding that he had wedged his head in the grate at the top. I pushed gently on his nose with forceps and got him free, none the worse for wear. I assume large filters, being designed for large tanks, assume you will have large fish...Or possibly smarter fish. 🙄 I will be adding a disk of plastic needlepoint mesh to the airline above the uplift to prevent further casualties.
  9. Brandy
    +1 on the nicrew and aquaneat. I have knocked both in, and managed to rescue them. I have a DA beamsworks light that managed to draw moisture into the casing WITHOUT being knocked in. It is still functional, but I siliconed the thing and added a lid. As my most expensive light...Yeah, I went back to buying the nicrew and aquaneat lights. I see no reason to use more, on tanks where I decide I want more light (wide tanks) I just add a second and it is still cheaper.
  10. Brandy
    Agreed, and also I would call the females mid or sakura grade.
  11. Brandy
    Sorry! No chance anyone is already berried?
  12. Brandy
    Well I have to correct myself. Several hundred shrimp in, I found a red rili this afternoon--a pretty nice dark one actually. I fed him/her to a juvenile acara. Whether that arose spontaneously (genetically unlikely) or was the result of a recessive that is buried in my colony (very likley) I can't say for sure, but obviously I have my suspicions. I bring it up because assuming all your shrimp came from the same colony, you may find a high number of rili among the offspring either way to start. A straight mendelian recessive will show up at 25% to begin with. If you cull those, the remaining shrimp will be 2/3 carriers, so it could take quite a while to remove it. In light of that I reverse my position. You can buy more shrimp that are not rili if you need to. If you just want shrimp for yourself it is fine of course, but if you want to develop a pure line...That is more work than necessary.
  13. Brandy
    not generally, though I hear some snails actually tolerate it well, like nerites. You might want to set him up in a container with no plants. It does not sound like Ich. It does sound like fungal or bacterial or both. Salt will work eventually, but if you are in the US, Maracyn is faster for the bacterial infection, and IchX also has anti-fungal qualities, which I know makes the name confusing. Ich looks like little white grains of salt stuck to the fish all over. It is very distinctive and consistently sized. It looks like you could brush it off. Irregular white patches sound more like bacteria and/or fungus. The two can occur together and are a factor in fin rot also. One concern here is that he is not eating--this can be hard to come back from. You might want to move the plants instead of the fish as shock is going to be hard on him at this point. Here is a really extensive thread that might be helpful:
  14. Brandy
    I suspect bacterial or fungal infection on an injury related to the breeding activity. I would focus on salt or other meds you know of for that and consider separating them until you can add the additional females. I have found a dither fish like an adult male guppy, or maybe an otocinclus, to be a great distraction also--my puffers are still young and mostly see the guppy as an innocuous neighbor rather than something to be agressive toward, so you might have to watch that carefully. It is against most advice, but for now it seems to have made everyone more confident and relaxed and I have a guppy factory with an unlimited supply so it was worth the attempt.
  15. Brandy
    That seems well within the guppy happy zone. I am the opposite, have to add argonite to get some buffer into my very soft 6.6pH tap water. Tank pH is around 7.6 tho. If you are on a well, and they are on municipal water, I know it can be very different. Good luck! If it isn't dramatic, I would start thinking about another source.
  16. Brandy
    @Fish Folk I'm just playing with mutt guppies right now, and upgrading a red cherry shrimp colony, but your rams are so awesome I am determined to pull the eggs next time I get some!
  17. Brandy
    Can you compare your pH GH and KH to the water in the bag/at the LFS? I also would more likely expect this to be a source issue. Mutt guppies are so tough I have had tanks experience a nitrite spike (and presumably an ammonia spike I missed) and not lost a one or even noticed odd behavior. If your pH is dramatically different that could be a problem though. Inbred strains may be more fragile, but mutt guppies are generally pretty tolerant.
  18. Brandy
    I got them by accident out of a order of christmas moss. My guppy grow outs don't seem to eradicate them, amazingly, despite a largely bare bottom tank. I should deliberately try to encourage them, as other tanks will eat them like crazy.
  19. Brandy
    as lefty o says, yep you should be fine. One way to do it that works well is to bury the whole thing, sideways part and all, and then GENTLY pull up on the leaves until the sideways part is just out of the substrate. It can be a tough thing to get them to stay down, gluing or tying them to a small rock can also help if you are having trouble. They will eventually hang on by themselves.
  20. Brandy
    I have seen an amano eat a guppy fry. I think betta fry are smaller. I would use a 3rd container for the breeding attempt, and have nothing but the parents, then the dad with nest, then just the fry when free swimming and mom and dad returned home.
  21. Brandy
    You could possibly also plumb that into your sink drain under your kitchen sink. However, I think guppies are typically one of the hardier breeds, and I think 4x/day is a little unecessary unless you are wildly overstocked. If the breeder is keeping hundreds of guppies in a 20g grow out tank for instance, this would be more important.
  22. Brandy
    Neither of those plants really want to be buried. I would take them out. I would also not bother with root tabs, as they will do better with easy green in the water and feed from their leaves more than their roots. Their roots are more for holding on to things than gathering nutrients.
  23. Brandy
    I think Daniel has hit it. Do less. Do a simple thing and scale up slowly. I like beauitful tanks. I like beautiful plants. But I didn't start off with a jewel orchid and rare cacti, I started with pothos and spider plants. I think if you go slow, and pick things that are super bullet proof to start you will get there and not burn out. On tthe other hand if you don't enjoy the hobby, you don't have to do it! You can just find one you do enjoy. Hobbies should be fun. I am very goal oriented and have to struggle not to make my hobbies into work. I know how that goes. A twist I make in my head is that my "goal" where hobbies are concerned is to have fun--if not fun, change something until it is.
  24. Brandy
    How did I miss this thread? A small sampling...
  25. Brandy
    I would be concerned about the discus with angels, and the rams with apistos. You have chosen 2 pairs of similar fish that want the same resources. I imagine the angels may out compete the discus, and maybe the same for the apistos with the rams. The setup on the 125 would be critical to keep it from becoming wall to wall aggression, and then when some pairs start breeding it will escalate. Probably it can be done, but it sounds challenging.
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