Expectorating_Aubergine

Yeah, mine get tons of light that might be part of it. I've never tried spider plants. Interesting....

Anybody growing houseplants out the top of their aquariums? I had some bananas but they got too big and I had to take them out. I currently have lots of Epipremnum pinnatum albo, monstera peru, and Epipremnum pinnatum cebu blue. I have to add dry ferts to the tank since they pull so much out of the water..

Anybody breeding guppies outdoors year round? I get that it's not possible in some areas, but there must be places outside of south Florida that are possible. I've been keeping guppies in my outdoor pond for about 2 years. It's not heated, and it gets down into the 40's at the coldest here (inland empire southern california). They seems to be doing fine. I also have a 55 gal drum full of water that I soak hypertufa in. It's in the blazing sun and they seems to be doing great. It's full of green water and never seems to have mosquito larvae. These particular guppies have been there since April. Hoping to see if they make it through the winter. They are all from the same group (a batch of wild type looking guppies that were bought originally as feeders).

About a 2 years. The tank started off with about 2.5 inches of compacted miracle grow potting soil and a peagravel cap. I just put the rhizome in the middle of the tank resting on the gravel and put the lexan top on. After that I'd forget about it for a month or two at a time. I eventually had to fert with dry orchid ferts since the miracle grow soil was pretty much tapped out. I don't have any fish in there right now.

So I have a 29 gal biocube that I've been growing some anubias in. When I first put it in there it was pretty small. Now it's grown so big that it's touching the cover. I know I need to cut it back, but I'm a little hesitant. Should I treat it like any other plant? Cut then let it callus before planting it? The tank lives in the garage and I only really see it on the weekends. Also, I removed the divider in the tank that separates the refugium from the main tank. So there is no partition.

I say hold off on water changes until your test strips say so. I have tanks going on 3.5 years that I only do top off on. One of them is a tank with bichirs and rope fish. The only thing I ever worry about is ph.

I always add a layer of soil to all my tanks big or small and my plants grow like GANGBUSTERS I currently have a 29 gal that's packed to the gills with anubias. It's about a year and a half old, and I started with a small potted anubias from petco. I use a lot of oakleaf mulch in my soil. I've used aquasoil in the past, but always found it to be more trouble than it's worth. I cap my soil with pea gravel that I get from homedepot. Never had an issue with fish digging, but then I don't keep fish that dig. If you wanna give it a shot, I say keep the plants in there first for a bit before you add fish if you're worried about ammonia spikes....

I wish I had taken pictures on mine. I got a thick mat of the stuff 3" thick! I had to cut it away with pruners to see the fish! Then again, I've had other aquarium plants do this as well (Utricularia gibba).....

Keep some outside, and you'll have all the flowers (and frogbit) you'll ever need!

That's an interesting line of questioning. I have a feeling they aren't going to be responsive through. The zebramussel in the marimo ball thing has made many of the small lfs around here a little cagey about "contaminants". On a side note I knew a guy years ago who got a tentacle snake as a contaminants in a shipment of fire eels....

The guy I asked said that they weren't allowed to tell people who their wholesalers are.....

I'm in Southern California. It looks like it might be one of those two for sure. Thanks for the ID!

My local mom & pop pet store got these guys in. They say that they were marked as "regular crayfish". The ones they usually have are red and black, you know, the common kind. Does anyone know what kind this is? Google search only revealed that there are TONS of brown crayfish species...

Originally I started with three, and they were only about 3" long. One mysterious death and a few years later these two are still fun to watch. In the picture the smaller one was courting the bigger one...

For some reason, I have no problem with aquatic snails, but I HATE terrestrial snails and slugs....

There are actually quite a few plants that can handle salt in the water. Vallisneria, dwarf sag, anubias, dwarf hair grass, java fern, and bacopa, just to name a few. The key thing is to add the salt slowly and see how the plants handle it. Some can handle more than others, and any plant that is struggling won't handle it well at all. I always try and find out where plants naturally grow when researching them. You'll find that there are many that will grow in brackish water.....

Most aquarium plants can handle low temps like what you describe. That's part of the reason why you see some shops keeping their tissue cultured plants in refrigerators. They will just grow slower.

They are seemingly easy to keep. I keep mine in heavily planted paludariums. Room Temps, and I feed them flake food. I have even observed them eating the scale off some of my ferns. I don't see them very often, but when I do they seem to be doing well...

I came for the plants. I noticed that most aquarium plants were really just sneaky terrarium plants parading about like full aquatics......

Anyone here keep these interesting inverts? I only have 3 aquariums, and two of them are basically breeding tanks for feeder guppies. The rest of my setups are paludarium-ish, and mainly have plants. I really like how the crabs eat the smaller pests and keep them in check.

I have rosy boas, box turtles, musk turtles and vampire crabs. I grew up in apartments, so dogs and cats were a no go (this was in the 90's. Most apartments didn't allow cats or dogs as much as they do now.). I like cats and dogs, but I prefer stuff that lives in tanks and is small.

We have an elephant in there too. No marimo on it though...

Anyone ever wrap a marimo ball around a chiapet? I did it to a hippo chiapet in my daughter's tank. Seems to be working out fine....

Noyice.

Yeah, my flag fish live with guppies, and they beat them up all the time. Once the guppies started having fry, they focused on the fry. Having an over planted tank helps with aggressive flags, IME....