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Brandy

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Everything posted by Brandy

  1. Brandy
    I have stuffed java fern in one, and hornwort in another--they make fabulous plant weights for non-rooting things. I hide shrimp pellets in the one in my betta tank or he will be a piggy and steal their food.
  2. Brandy
    Hi! So, I have a few questions for you--how big is your tank, and do you plan to have 2 same sex rams, or a male and a female? My rams can be territorial, but they seem to only worry about other territorial cichlid type fish. They ignore schooling or bottom fish. They are serious about chasing any other fish they think are going to try to take their "spot" though. I think they might act that way to a gourami, but at least the gourami wants the top and rams want the bottom more. If your tank is big enough, it could work. I have a 29g that is packed with plants, driftwood, and rocks, making tons of little hiding places everywhere. I have 3, a male and 2 females. One female is the favorite and the other is not happy, she gets chased. I need to rehome her to a different tank or a new home. It doesn't work to have more than one pair in a 29g even with all my sight breaks and cover. I think if they were all the same sex it might be different.
  3. Brandy
    I do just love being able to control them from my phone. I was on a trip and my house had a brief power outage. My kid called in a panic and wanted to know if he had to reprogram everything...I turned lights on and off from my phone, from 3 states away. Felt like something out of the Jetsons. No need to do anything, they auto reset with no issues. Cory was recently describing in a livestream using them on a powerhead for tank filling, not having to run back and forth to the sink to avoid an overflow, sounds great, but like you I just have a few tanks and do things with buckets.
  4. Brandy
    they may shoal, but they won't likely school.
  5. Brandy
    so...a thought. I have heard that fish with directional markings like a lateral line stripe (like neon tetras) are better at schooling. If you try this again that might be the trick to try next. I can't believe the angel didn't drive schooling. good grief if that wont do it it wasn't possible!
  6. Brandy
    weird. here it is again. It is actually from the same article RyanR linked.
  7. Brandy
    Well, In the 29g I have amanos with khulis. they ignore each other, but there is a LOT of space, and a ton of plants. I think it could be done, but starting with one or the other is probably a better plan. Adult amanos are pretty big to be bothered by khuli loaches...Honestly, I would think the betta would be the bigger shrimp menace depending on personality. My betta (in a 5g with red cherry shrimp) really just focuses on stealing their food. Good luck!
  8. Brandy
    What kind of shrimp? I have never had much problem just literally dumping the shrimp (red cherry and amanos) from one tank to another--as long as temps and parameters are close. My shrimp are most bothered by predators, so the real thing I do if they are going into a stocked tank with larger fish is collect them into a small container in the day, wait until night and turn lights off before I release them and feed really heavy before I do. If you are moving them to a tank with no fish, you should be fine? Like I have literally netted them out and directly dumped the net into a new tank with zero losses for hundreds of shrimp. Now, shrimplets getting eaten are another thing...
  9. Brandy
    I did the same as Irene--to divide I put the full dose on a folded sheet of paper and cut it into 2 heaps with a butter knife. I put one in the tank and half back in the packet which I folded and taped closed and labeled "5g dose".
  10. Brandy
    totally. It was easier when it was a smaller group.
  11. Brandy
    I kinda love my dwarf waterlilly and tiger lotus plants, and the madagascar lace plant--all the bulbs are so satisfying for some reason. They grow and change more than anubias, but they don't get out of control and require a bunch of maintenance. The plant I wish would love me back is hydrocotyle tripartita japan. I really want it to take off, but it seems to struggle a lot for me.
  12. Brandy
    I am afraid of Excel.... I have shrimp and valisnaria in the tank, both reputedly hate Excel. But if the H2O2 doesn't work, I may have to give it a shot as a spot treatment. Or get those SAE...lol.
  13. Brandy
    I think in a landscape (not portrait) 5g tank, 3 kuhli loaches would be ok...I have a 29g with 3 and they are honestly lost in there--they are fat, fat little noodles too. My teen has a 10 gallon with 4 or 5, (with a betta, and a few danios), and they are doing very well. They tend to pile up in a little puppy heap and love lots of cover, so if you really crowd the bottom with plants and hardscape and be sure to get food past the betta to them I think 3 would do well. They inhabit such a different part of the tank and are so comfortable crowded together--they seem to prefer it, even when there is tons of space--that I don't think you will run into trouble as long as you stay up on water changes. They are a very fun fish to keep.
  14. Brandy
    I found this really decent video. There are images and tips on metamorphosis at about 5:50-6:ish. I got amanos recently, and kinda still like my cherry shrimp better. But It looks like a heck of a fun project, and they would be a profitable project if you were into that sort of thing.
  15. Brandy
    Ok, admittedly, I love the jungle planted tank that you had set up previously, but I am a plantoholic. I don't think that is black beard? Maybe staghorn? Here is a side by side pic--BBA in blue. That is only moderately helpful...they are about the same for all the recommendations I have found for getting rid of them. The otos wont touch that stuff unfortunately. I have tried the spot treatment method with hydrogen peroxide, and I am not thrilled with my results so far. However, I am impatient by nature, and what took months to grow probably wont be resolved in under a week. I hear fabulous things about Siamese algae eaters, but I am strongly resisting buying them. I plan to hold out 3 more days at least...
  16. Brandy
    I have had bad, bad, bad advice from various LFS over the years, and I have had a super enthusiastic teen employee at a big box store jump into explaining nitrogen cycles and stem plant melt beautifully correctly, and warn me that the fish and plants arrived on a Friday, and that was the best time to shop. He then turned around and diplomatically explained to some very annoyed college girls that keeping a betta in a vase would shorten it's life, and here were some lovely and reasonable 5 gallon tanks...I think the experiences I have had in box stores vary just as much as those in LFS. The single thing a box store doesn't usually do that a LFS usually can is that dead or sick fish are likely removed promptly in a LFS, leading to a healthier overall impression. This is a direct function of staffing limitations in a corporate setting. I would add that I am pretty darn sure that teen was quoting some of @Cory's videos directly, and that made me smile to no end. I hope he knows he has an incredibly far reach.
  17. Brandy
    You probably want to use the version of paint that matches what you used before. If you used oil based poly and stain, water based paint wont always stick or cure properly. Oil will take longer to cure fully--a LOT longer and I would wait it out to the bitter end so that there is no chance of off gassing VOC building up under the hood. But once fully cured oil will be more durable.
  18. Brandy
    worked for me
  19. Brandy
    You want Luer loc to hose barb connectors. These are used with IV tubing, etc. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-16-1-4-Plastic-Male-or-female-luer-lock-Connector-barb-adapter-luer-fitting-/332261079263 The tough thing is figuring out the exact ID of your hose, I just scavenged mine from the limitless collections in the lab where I work.
  20. Brandy
    You can test...what is your ammonia/nitrite now? Here is what I think might be happening: You added Stability, which is a bacterial culture. You want it to bloom and do its thing, and your room temps are almost the same as an incubator. You are in Phoenix, I took a quick look and you don't have any obvious sources of ammonia in the water, but that hunk of wood looks real, not ceramic, so you might have some organic matter in there for the bacteria to grab at least. You also have lights on the tank, and if you leave warm water standing around long enough something (algae, bacteria, even mosquitos, lol) will usually find it. I don't think you have a problem, I think you have a cycle starting. Last test: reach into the tank. Do the sides and decorations feel slimy? If so, congratulations! The stability is working and you are well on your way to a cycled tank. That clarity will come back, mostly, with time, as the bacteria settle out of the water column and attach to surfaces. You may also want to clean the glass, it could be the glass is a bit cloudy. But truly truly crystal clear water is dead water. We put chlorine in it to make it look like that. You will need to lower your expectations a tiny bit.
  21. Brandy
    Totally the moment I brought home otos--they were overjoyed to clean that all up. But you have to find a way to feed them after it is gone. I have since discovered many omnivorous fish (guppies for instance) will eat it also.
  22. Brandy
    93.5/11.7/8 My boyfriend has suddenly decided I have an "obsession" for which I need "help". He isn't joking. He has never had to so much as feed my fish, and he does not live in my home. Thanks for the perspective. I think I will keep the fish. He can go.
  23. Brandy
    Question for @Cory, or anyone more fish-experienced than me. In a case like this, what is your next thought regarding the flashing? My thinking is "itchy fish" doesn't necessarily mean "parasite"? Could be other (bacterial/fungal) infection, or a parasite that is not susceptible to paracleanse, or even an environmental contaminant, right? Is there a "next-most-common" cause of flashing, in your experience?
  24. Brandy
    Lights, and time. Mine took a couple of months to get redder. This one is under a beamsworks, gets fert, in eco complete (also a bit of tannins in the water): This one is under a kids cheap led light, no ferts, gravel with a tiny bit of dirt under it: Also, started these both from bulbs. They seem to be heavy root feeders.
  25. Brandy
    I have the same thing, but I think I just don't have enough light. I have cheap Nicrews, and my fert schedule is a little haphazard. But I have other strongly red plants, they are just closer to the light than the crypts. They are short, and get shaded easily.
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