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shkote

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Everything posted by shkote

  1. shkote
    Mystery snail clutch
  2. shkote
    Here is an example of a female Endler
  3. shkote
    I have honey Gouramis temporarily with my Sparkling Gouramis. They don't seem to have any issues with eachother and the Sparkling Gouramis keep their micro aggressionwithin their own group, but they are all being closely watched. I have 2 Male Dwarf Gouramis together as well, but I'm convinced the only reason it works is because it's 2 male dwarf Gouramis in a 4 ft tank. They definitely try to stay as far away from eachother as possible in there, and each claim one half of the tank for themselves. I trusted putting the Honey Gouramis with the Sparklers more than I did with the Dwarf Gouramis.
  4. shkote
    I'm with @StephenP2003 on being loyal to neither brand and grabbing what I have on hand. I do like the pump though.
  5. shkote
    Discus are beautiful fish. I've always wanted to keep them, but man... I don't wanna spend $100 on a fish that's going to eat my food.
  6. shkote
    I find myself lecturing my fish about eating my plants. As a vegetarian, I realize this is a hypocrisy that needs to be worked on. 😬
  7. shkote
    Seeing a few every now and then is normal and as @Daniel mentioned, part of a working ecosystem. It's a good sign that your tank is healthy. If you start seeing hundreds or thousands of them, then maybe it's a overfeeding issue. I've started up bare bottom empty fry tanks with no plants and had them show up, like magic. They reproduced quite a bit from heavy fry feeding. It worked out though because their numbers multiplied while the fry was small and the second they were big enough to munch on worms, they had a whole buffet of crawlers to stuff themselves on. Now I rarely see them in those tanks, so they must be tasty little critters. They're pretty common in my shrimp tanks where there are no fish to take them out. I like to think of them as roommates. I've seen people advise to tear down entire tanks and restart from just a handful of worms and as @Daniel said, it is far more harmful to your other inhabitants trying to control nature.
  8. shkote
    Looks like a rhabdocoela worm, totally harmless.
  9. shkote
    Here's my female. She's darker than a lot of them. Most of them I've seen are more brown with gold yellowish markings.
  10. shkote
    Just looks like a Bristlenose pleco. They like to sell them pretty tiny in chain stores.
  11. shkote
    My tap runs anywhere from around 300 ppm and I've seen it as high as 500 ppm (18-30dGH) I most definitely have hard water. My shrimp have always multiplied like rabbits. I've never had any issues with specific color morphs. I've seen websites and other forums advise people to use RO and distilled water to soften theirs for Neocaridina because it was "too hard" and I could never understand it. I've kept Neocaridina shrimp in approximately the same water parameters for about a decade without issues. I have brought in shrimp from very different water parameters over the years and they have for the most part always acclimated to my water without issues as well.
  12. shkote
    Hungry Bamboo shrimp chowing down on some Sera micron
  13. shkote
    I stuff excess handfuls in cups under regular fishroom/room lighting topping the water off when it needs it, and it grows in the cups. I've always had better luck with lush green Java moss in lower light than high.
  14. shkote
    Free cleaning service Berried Blue Diamond
  15. shkote
    That has to be the coolest/cutest baby fish I've ever seen. 😍
  16. shkote
    The first thing I did with the fluval chi was remove the box filter and put in a sponge filter. It really isn't ideal for shrimp.
  17. shkote
    Baby Rainbows Staeck Endler growouts- starting to color up Zoogoneticus tequila fry- hard to get good photos of these guys, they hide well and constantly on the move
  18. shkote
    That's one of the best things about the USB nano pump, you can hang it higher than the tank and don't need a check valve. It's virtually silent, even if it's hanging on a wall... no vibration at all.
  19. shkote
    I use the Mini Green Killing Machine to pop into small tanks every once in a great while when I need to clear out green water. I recently broke it out again for the 5 gallon portrait at work. I believe it's 3w, great little tool. I don't think I've ever had to run it more than 4 or 5 days, then it's packed back up again. I don't have @Daniel level patience 😊
  20. shkote
    @Alesha yep exactly. One day you walk by your mixed guppy/mixed livebearer tank and see a color you don't really recognize and go "Oh hey cool, where'd you come from? I don't think I've seen you before" or they seemed to have doubled again within a week or twos time and you scratch your head because at this point you think they're just teleporting their way into your tank somehow. They're a lot of fun 😄
  21. shkote
    I don't keep a specific ratio with any of my livebearers. Maybe this should be posted in the "Confessions of a Bad Aquarist" thread instead. 🤭 They may start out as pairs or trios, but after awhile, they kind of end up however they end up. I've never had issues with overly stressed females due to chasing. I think lots of plant cover helps too. I don't really believe that cooler temperatures produce more females. I think cooler temperatures may cause delayed sexing though, causing them to appear female for much longer as temperature can control growth rate. I keep my livebearer tanks unheated and seasonal and have noticed a lot more sleeper/sneaker males in cooler temperatures, but still males nonetheless.
  22. shkote
    I like to toss random pieces of wood in this tank because my BN Plecos are excellent at keeping it clean while it goes through its "fuzz phase" but this chunk of Manzanita kind of fit, and never made it back out. And on a small scale, a shrimp stick bridge 😊
  23. shkote
    I use Dwarf Neon Rainbows as dithers in my 75 gallon. They are quick and feisty and I've never had any nipping issues with them. I've been so pleased with them, I decided to make some more 😄 I have a timid and shy Firemouth in a tank with a group of Black Skirt Tetras. He seems to enjoy their presence enough to occasionally let them in his hiding spots without bothering them, but they seem far more aggressive than he does. My oddest current dither is a small group of Platies in with a shy young Blood Parrot. They have really brought him out of hiding. He's constantly following them and curious to see what they're doing. I tried Glowlight tetras (fully grown and pretty robust) with my Convict hybrid, but it didn't end well. Everyone made it out alive, but I now have 3 one-eyed tetras in a school of 25. 😬
  24. shkote
    I think the line between informing and policing in the hobby can be a bit thin, especially when it's unsolicited. There is a fish store a couple of hours from me that has a huge amount of negative reviews because "his tanks are dirty" and that according to them, is abusive to the fish. I have been in there multiple times. He has a designated handful of tanks for raising Ancistrus and feeding Ottos, he also has a couple of green water tanks. He is limited on space and can't hide those tanks in a backroom somewhere to make it more aesthetically pleasing to people walking in. So he ends up with bad reviews from people who firmly believe that a few unsightly tanks means he doesn't perform the "once a week water change, keep tanks squeaky clean" maintenance schedule that the internet told them to do. There is such a broad spectrum of what determines "good fish care" in this hobby that I think more time should be invested in learning and experiencing collectively, rather than trying to teach.
  25. shkote
    Ideally, if you want to keep them a specific color you'll cull for any undesirable traits that aren't up to the standards you'd like to see in your colony, rili pattern included. The shrimp above does have a rili pattern, though not a strong one, and has the potential to pass it on. Your solid red cherries can potentially have rili offspring down the road as well. Keeping a colony "true" requires a lot of diligent culling.
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