gardenman

Keeping a few large predators does help solve the issue of culling. No matter what you feed your predators, it was in all likelihood at one time a living fish that was killed to make fish food. (Or human food.) The fish meal that often makes up a large part of the pellets and flakes we feed our fish were living fish that were killed to make them into food. When we feed them pellets instead of live fish, we're just avoiding the killing part ourselves. Fish still die to feed your other fish. It truly is a fish eat fish world out there. Well, it's an everything eats fish world to be exact. Most of my cat food (canned or dry) has some fish component to it. They didn't just wait for a dead fish to wash ashore and then rushed it to the processing plant. They went out and caught living fish and then processed them. In my younger days, when things were a bit less regulated, most local pet shops had a caiman or two. Why? To dispose of unwanted fish, dead or alive. They were sort of a living garbage disposal for pet shops. Have a dead hamster, fish, smaller bird, etc., drop it in the caiman tank and it disappears. No muss, no fuss. Whether you feed your culls to other fish or buy pellets, you're still feeding them fish. You're just a step or two removed from when the fish you're feeding them were living. And if your culls have been raised right, are healthy, and well cared for, it's hard to find a better food for a predator. And the fish you're feeding to predators as culls likely ate their younger siblings at some point or would have given the chance. It is a fish eat fish world out there.

And speaking of carnivorous plants, there are some aquatic ones you can keep in an aquarium that might eat small fish. The bladderworts are the most common, but there is also the Waterwheel (Aldrovando vesiculosa.) They aren't common in the hobby, largely because they can eat small fish, but they do exist. Pretty fascinating how quickly they can move to trap their prey. The waterwheel can close its trap in 10-20 milliseconds.

They're native to Venezuela and that's not the easiest place to do business these days. They may still very well exist in the wild in Venezuela, but not be on the market. There's a list of tropical fish exporters in Venezuela (link below) and they list three exporters, but none seem to specialize in tropical fish. If no one in Venezuela is collecting and exporting them, they won't reach the US market. Given the issues in Venezuela, it's unlikely there's a hot market for the fish down there. Here's that list of tropical fish exporters. Venezuela is on the right-hand side near the top. Tropical Fish Exporters, Sellers, Suppliers, Distributors, Wholesalers and Manufacturers by country You can click on the number after the country to see the list of exporters. As you'll see, none specify that they export tropical fish as a primary business. That overall list is a bit iffy, at best, but it's the best I could find in a few minutes' time. They're reportedly native to the Paria Peninsula in Venezuela, so if you ever happen to find yourself there (very unlikely) take a net along and prowl the streams and you might just find what you want.

For a "less hardy" fish you'll want something cheap, that's readily available, that you don't mind keeping if they live. Neon tetras might fit the bill pretty nicely. They aren't super hardy, tough fish. They're generally pretty cheap. They're nice fish for almost any tank where the inhabitant won't eat them. If the wood releases tannins and lowers the pH it won't bother them. I'd probably look at them as an easy, readily available, cheap choice.

Timing might be a challenge for you. Wanting sellable fry for March when it's almost October makes things a bit trickier. Most fish you'll buy are young and may need a while before they're ready to spawn, then you'll need to raise the fry to a sellable size. You've got about a five-to-six-month window in which to achieve your goal and that's not very long. You'll need to find breeding sized fish (not that easy) and then get them in condition, have fry, and raise the fry to a sellable size in a pretty narrow window. You can pretty much rule out most of the more exotic, or even common plecos. If you can find adult cory cats, they'd be an option. Most livebearers would be an option. It's a pretty narrow window though between now and March.

I keep my Venus Fly Trap on my front porch here (Southern New Jersey) through January then move it back inside under the lights. It's the easy way to give it a cold dormancy it wants. They grow very well and quite fast. Mine's probably four times the size it was when I bought it.

As a gardener in the above water world, I can say that all parts of a living Boxwood are poisonous. Now for a root mass that's been out of the soil and air-dried, and sun-bleached, for a year or longer, eh, it's trickier. Buxene (buxine) is the primary toxin in Boxwoods. How stable is it? Is it a fish toxin? I have no idea. I truly doubt if anyone else "knows" the answer to whether it's safe or not at this point after being out of the ground and exposed this long. If you've got some "expendable" less hardy fish, you don't mind potentially losing, you could set up a test tank, pond, bucket, bathtub, whatever, and experiment with them to see if they live or not. You'll notice I said, "less hardy fish". That's because there are some fish that will tolerate pretty much anything. If you're testing toxicity on them, they might live despite there being a "toxic" level that would devastate less hardy fish. And you'll want to run the experiment for a while and rotate in some new fish from time to time. Why? The toxins may leach slowly from the wood (assuming there are any active toxins left which could be assuming a lot) and the fish constantly exposed to a slowly increasing level of toxicity, might adapt to that level of toxicity, but dropping in a previously unexposed fish might find the level toxic. I don't think anyone can give you an absolute answer, but experimentation is your best option. I wouldn't recommend using it for an endangered species tank, but for "normal" tropical fish where if things go horribly wrong you can get replacements, using it experimentally is probably your only way to know if it is or isn't toxic at this point.

In the past you could get some really tall tanks that would fit a 55-gallon tank stand. Four, five, and even six-foot-deep tanks were around for a while in the eighties/nineties. They weren't common, but they existed. Maintenance on them would be a nightmare, but they were around for a while. The fish stores I frequent now tend to be smaller and have just "normal" tanks, but back in the day when there were bigger stores around, you'd see some interesting sized tanks out there. Custom Aquariums lets you build one in a 55-gallon footprint that's as tall as 96". (Might be a teensy bit unstable though.) Fish Tanks Direct has a wide selection of 48" wide aquariums in a variety of depths and heights from 55 gallons to 310 gallons. When you get into the more "exotic" sizes the price goes way up, but they're out there if you want one and have the cash to spend.

Interesting. I've put bulkheads in the upper part of cheaper Rubbermaid trash cans for rainwater collection, but they have a flat spot so I never had to use one on a curved part. I've always just assumed the curved wall and the flat bulkhead wouldn't be a good fit. I guess the sidewall is flexible enough to conform to the flatness of the bulkhead.

The survival rate in the wild is likely less than one percent and even the most ruthless culler saves more than one percent of their fry. I can't find any stats estimating the real-world survival of fish fry in the wild, but given the number of eggs laid and the relatively small number of adult fish, I would assume less than 1% would be about right. Pretty much everything eats fish, fish eggs, and fry, so yeah. Going from a fertilized egg to an adult fish is very challenging. Captive bred fish have a much better survival rate and can survive with defects that would doom them at a very young age in the wild.

The bulkhead could be an issue unless you mount it to the very bottom in a flat spot. Bulkheads don't like curves so any side penetration would likely fail. The Brute dolly design looks like you might be able to knock out that round thing in the middle of it but you'd need to be sure the bulkhead fit in cleanly.

I've always liked the idea of a string/thread strung across the top of the tank with a small bottle of wingless fruit flies at one end of the string. The fruit flies could climb out of the bottle and across the string making themselves into perfect targets for an archerfish. A pole on either end of the tank to support the string/thread with a guard of some sort on either end to prevent fruit flies from wandering off. (A sticky trap perhaps?) Then let the flies wander out and along the string as targets. If you happen to have houseflies in your home (hey, it happens) then putting an attractant near the tank to lure the flies towards it could make the tank self-feeding. (And yes, there are house fly attractants.) Lure the gullible flies into the range of the archerfish and let them do the rest. If you have a very, very forgiving/understanding spouse, you could even raise your own flies and let them fly around and feed the archerfish when they got in range. Things could get out of hand though as flies are pretty prolific. You might need more archerfish.

In the aquaculture world, hormonal injections are commonly used to encourage breeding. Lots of stuff has been published about it. Here's a link to a Texas A&M series of articles on it. Induced Spawning - Aquaculture, Fisheries, & Pond Management (tamu.edu) (Farther down that page is an article titled "Hormone-induced spawning of cultured tropical finfishes" from the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea with many references to other articles. As to hormones in the water column, I've seen the breeders of exotic plecos use guppies and other livebearers to encourage their plecos to breed. I would assume it works since they do it and they believe it works. You want to minimize water changes while doing so for the hormones to reach a substantial level, but it's a fairly common practice among that group of breeders. Most common aquarium fish breed readily, so most of the time you don't need to encourage breeding. Just give them adequate conditions and they'll breed, but some of the more exotic plecos are a bit more challenging so the addition of hormones seems to help. (Or at least the breeders think they do.)

I use a brine shrimp net instead of a sieve. I also use it for scooping mosquito larvae from my rain barrels for fish food. I just find the nets more versatile. And because they're fabric they tend not to get clogged as easily.

Supreme/Danner made those type of pumps under the Airmaster and Dynamaster labels. You can still find them around in thrift stores and eBay. They were on their way out by the 60's as the more modern type was replacing them. Supreme used those same motors on a variety of items. You could find the same motor on their HOBs, diatom filters, and airpumps. They did a good job, but with exposed belts and moving parts you'd get sued out of existence if you tried to market an air pump like that today.

In general, water doesn't get cycled, but tanks do. Beneficial bacteria need something to attach to (hardscape, gravel, filter media, tank walls, etc.) and not just hang out in the water. There are some bacteria in the water, but the real populations are on the hard stuff. The more hard stuff you have in a tank, the more beneficial bacteria you tend to have. Breathing in algae filled water is interesting. During daylight hours, algae, like all plants, breathe in CO2 and exhale oxygen, so during the day an algae filled tank/tub is probably easier for a fish to breathe in than a "clean" tank/tub. At night things get reversed. The algae strips oxygen from the water and the fish can be in trouble if there's a lot of algae all taking the oxygen from the water. Massive fish kills, whether in commercial fish farming or home ponds, often take place overnight when the oxygen gets depleted, and the fish suffocate and die. In deep ponds stratification can lead to massive fish loss when the stratified layers get disturbed. In a tank setting, something simple like an airstone or surface agitation from a filter return will prevent too much oxygen depletion overnight, but without that, things can get messy if you've got a lot of green water. In general, green water is a good thing if you're trying to keep fish. Not great to look at, but good for the fish. Just avoid extremes.

Back in the day, those were the high-end hobbyist type of pumps. They moved a lot of air. They also needed a lot of maintenance. The motor needed oiling. The belts needed replacing. They often used felt as the facing on the piston and that would get worn and need replacing. When they were finely tuned and working well, they were largely unbeatable in that era. They were also pretty loud. Supreme was the big maker of them back in my day. They also used the same motors on their Aqua King and Super King power filters.

The experts in shipping big fish are Predatory Fins. They import and ship out very large fish on a regular basis. If you drop them an e-mail they'll likely offer you lots of good advice and maybe even offer to sell you some of the supplies you'll need. In general, you don't want to feed him before shipping. At least double bag the fish. There are super strong vinyl bags that can be used also. They're not common or easy to find, but they're pretty much bulletproof. Heat or cold packs depending on temps can be important. You'll often see small chunks of the Poly Filter material included with smaller fish. A full 4"X8" pad of the material might be a better option with a full-grown Oscar. A hungry Oscar might be inclined to eat the smaller pieces typically used. There are fish anesthetics that can be used to calm a fish also. A local vet might be able to help you with those. It's doable. It won't be easy, but it's doable. Very large fish get shipped quite often with good results.

Snowstorms also. I was born in November of 58 and we had two blizzards in February and March of 58 where couples were trapped at home with nothing else to do. I was one of many blizzard babies born that year. About half the kids at my school were born in that blizzard baby window. If you check out Facebook Marketplace you're apt to find used cylinders selling pretty cheap. (As low as $15 locally though most are in the $50-$100 range.)

Teh Marina/Fluval hang-on breeder boxes are great. You won't be disappointed with them.

Cheap and easy would be to get a 10' long piece of gutter with two end caps and paint it all black on the outside. Inside of that put some of the T-5 LED shop lights (6500 K) daisy-chained to one another. (You can get six of the 4' long 6500K Barrina T-5 Shoplights at Amazon for $42.) They can connect end to end with an included cable so you only need one switch/smart outlet/timer to control the lot. For around $60-$70 you can have a ten foot long, very bright light for the tank that looks pretty good and is the right spectrum (daylight.)

Flow through an under-gravel filter is an interesting topic. (Flow rate through any bio-filtration is an interesting topic.) You want some flow, but how much is enough and how much is too much is highly debatable. Some say the bacteria can convert the ammonia and nitrites nearly instantly, so the fastest flow rate is best. My gut says more exposure time is better, so a slower flow rate is better. Matten filters are typically considered one of the best aquarium biofilters and the flow rate through most Matten filters is very slow. In many cases very, very slow. Some of the bigger koi houses in Japan use very slow filtration rates also. When you watch veteran fish breeders, they typically use sponge filters, and they often have them set up with very slow airflow. Now part of that is to protect the fry from buffeting, but it also seems to make their biofiltration more effective. As long as you've got some flow through your biofiltration, I think it'll function fine.

Cuttle bone is one of those "It can't hurt and might help" things and it's cheap. I've used it before and once it sinks it's easy to tuck into the gravel and it does slowly dissolve. How slowly it dissolves largely depends on your water chemistry. If you have very acidic water, it'll dissolve more quickly than it would in neutral water.

Parasites typically need a host and that host is usually a fish, not a plant. Is it possible one was resting on a plant that you brought in? Sure. Is it likely? Probably not. Parasite eggs tend to drop to the substrate and linger there, so they're not in the plants. Duckweed tends to have fairly minimal roots, so I wouldn't be terribly concerned about contaminated fish eggs on it. Things like water hyacinths with large bushy roots are more attractive to egg layers. If you're moving those or water lettuce, or similar plants with long bushy roots, then I'd be more worried about bringing in eggs. Duckweed isn't as common a place for eggs to be laid. Could there be an issue? Sure. There can always be an issue. Is it likely? Probably not. Many of the fish we buy in stores are wild-caught and most have had little to no treatment before we get them and by and large things work out okay.

Add more fish. They all exhale CO2. (Well in as much as fish exhale). Adding more aeration might help also. Air has more CO2 in it than aquarium water. Which is why commercial aquarium plant producers grow plants emersed. If you throw enough air in, the water should absorb more CO2 from the air. I've been intrigued by the idea of putting an air stone under a plant so it gets bathed in air, potentially exposing it to more CO2 than the water could absorb. Think of it as a semi-emersed system. It might not work because emersed growth is different from submerged, but it might work. You'll want a plant well anchored or rooted though if you try that. The air will want to lift it. More fish, more air, both should get you more CO2 in the water. Not as much as you'd get from CO2 injection, but maybe enough to make a difference.