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ForestJenn

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Everything posted by ForestJenn

  1. ForestJenn
    It's about time for an update: 40 Gallon: Everything is ticking along. I'm seeing a lot of that green stringy hair algae and the nitrates crept up to almost 40. I believe that this is a combo of over feeding while trying to get food to the last batch of fry and length of time the light is on in the tank. We lost the first batch of fry. Even though we saw them eating, they slowly disappeared over the course of a week. There's another clutch of eggs in the middle of our Christmas moss bridge. I'm tempted to pull them because it would be easy, but I'm going to go ahead and give her another chance in the community tank. Sorry for the poor photography. I just snapped off some shots with my phone and I'm afraid there are some reflections. 29 Gallon The tank is growing in so remains a little empty looking. It's currently stocked with 10 black neon tetras, 1 female sunset honey gourami, 6 otocinclus and two baby long fin green dragon ancistrus. There were originally 2 femal gouramis but we lost the smaller of the two today. No sign of injury or disease and the water parameters look great. We purchased her locally so I don't think it was our very soft water. She just never seemed to thrive. We're obviously keeping our eye on things but I think this was just one of those things. She'll be buried under the maple tree later today and my son isn't quite so wrecked. Poor kiddo. 10 gallon and 5 gallon betta tanks. Both bettas continue to do their betta thing. I'm going to revamp the 5 gallon one of these days. The flow is just a little high I think.
  2. ForestJenn
    My 11 year old son is very excited to see another fish keeper his age. Thanks for sharing!
  3. ForestJenn
    I love it! How do your fish react? Do the treats disappear over night?
  4. ForestJenn
    Just wait until you see some of the other names. One of them made me blush. 😉
  5. ForestJenn
    I have no idea what to tell you other, but because of your post I'm now contemplating another tank. This species sounds like fun under the right circumstances. I would think that changing things around and forcing him to start again would be enriching in a way. He's certainly not going to get bored! But I'll defer to the African cichlids experts on the board.
  6. ForestJenn
    I accidentally bred zebra danios years ago. Like now, I was using an under-gravel filter and the eggs were drawn down into the gravel. When I gravel vacced, I noticed little black fry clinging to the sides of my orange bucket. Based on that experience, I think I'd try a breeding tank with a marble substrate. But I'm sure there are lots of ways to do it. Pictures when you raise them please! I love zebra danios.
  7. ForestJenn
    Holy tiny fish! Look at those big black eyes and the belly full of brine shrimp. That's adorable!
  8. ForestJenn
    I was recently doing a water change on my son's 29 gallon and wasn't watching the bucket while I messed with some plants that had come up while gravel-vacuuming. Then as it started to overflow, I over reacted and moved too quickly. The next thing you know the bucket hits the ground the hose is still siphoning water from the tank and my son is finding out that his mom has a colorful vocabulary. My only saving grace was the fact that the 5-gallon bucket landed bottom down. So the water just splashed over the edge. Instead of 5 gallons plus overflow, I only ended cleaning about 2 gallons of water out of the carpet. The silver lining here is that it made me appreciate my python even more. And I'm definitely going to look into extending my python hose like @Daniel suggested.
  9. ForestJenn
    I want to do that but I'm afraid they won't last long once summer is over and it starts getting wet again. I've been meaning to research ways to seal the sticker. I had a friend who attached bumper stickers to sheet magnets and cut them out. I'm thinking about doing that too.
  10. ForestJenn
    I just gave this advice to someone on Facebook and I apologize if I already mentioned this on another thread. 🙂 I think we talked about themed tanks in your greeting thread. But one of my favorite exercises right now is to build a tank around a central fish. For example, when I was planning my 40 gallon, I was sure at that time that I wanted Keyhole Cichlids. So the tank was planned around them. Is there anything that you've always wanted to try? I keep seeing shell dweller tanks and they look fascinating. I'd have to pimp my water for any sort of African cichlid I think. I'm also deeply in love with the idea of an Amazon Puffer but that may be because I keep seeing Murphy in the store. It's hard not to fall for all things puffer when you see him. Is there a particular behavior you want to see? Big schools and shoals are lots of fun. Now that I think of it, there's a new Aquarium Co-op blog post with 20 gallon tank theme suggestions. That might be helpful too. Have fun planning! I think that's almost as much fun as having the fish. Also, regarding your comment, "I really don't have anywhere else to share this stuff with people who will understand, so I apologize in advance for overly enthusiastic newbness." Good lord, don't apologize. I think everyone here is geeking out in some way or another. You're not alone! 😛
  11. ForestJenn
    I have a breeding pair in a 40 gallon and they appear to be leaving my gang of 12 panda corys alone. We thought there was some fin nipping going on, but it turned out to be a false alarm. That was weeks ago and even with fry in the tank, they've been leaving the corys alone unless they get too nosy. I planned the tank with the intention to keep a dwarf cichlid pair, so there are lots of little hiding places. That may help. The advice I hear is that it works or doesn't. It all depends on the individual fish.
  12. ForestJenn
    I'd never heard of a madtom, had to look it up. They look like they are neat little catfish. Other than corydoras, I didn't consider myself much of a fan of catfish, but my son loves them. Now that We have a few bristlenose in the house and I've fallen for them. I found myself sorely tempted by a Sydontis species recently but I resisted.
  13. ForestJenn
    Ooh, what makes them great for betta tanks? We're playing with the idea of setting up a shrimp tank or adding them to existing tanks. Just starting to get serious about the research though.
  14. ForestJenn
    I need to pick up some of these now. NOAA issued a “La Niña Watch” earlier this summer and apparently we're still looking at around a 50 percent chance that it's going to be a La Niña fall and winter. Since I live in a north Seattle suburb that is prone to power outages due to the number of trees (We live in Lake Forest Park but were warned that it's nickname is Lake Forest Dark) we see at least a few power outages a year. The worst one lasted for days.
  15. ForestJenn
    Hi Brandy, my 11 year has been begging for fish but I keep putting him off because water is so soft and acidic. I know you have the same kind of water. Have you noticed any sort of problems? Are you doing anything else to compensate beside the calcium enriched foods? I'd really like to give in and start up a small shrimp tank. My child isn't spoiled, he's just very good at twisting my rubber arm. 😉
  16. ForestJenn
    We spent half a day at a local state park and had some fun walking some short trails. I was fascinated by the black slugs, we get some that are as large or larger in our yard, but they are always baby poop brown. Other times I've seen the bright green ones. Black was new to me. I was super disappointed to discover that they are invasive. That's my face mask for size reference. They have all sorts of uses!
  17. ForestJenn
    This is going to be an oddball comment, but that is some pretty twine you're using there.
  18. ForestJenn
    I've never kept angels and didn't think I ever would. But then I watched the "Master Breeder Reveals His Top Secret Aquariums [Tour]" yesterday and saw the angels in @Dean’s Fishroom Angelfish and Sterbai corydoras tank (See 12:39 in the video). Now I'm trying to figure out how to sneak a 55 gallon tank into the house to hold some angels. Those fish captured my heart.
  19. ForestJenn
    I watched an Aquarium Co-op video a while back where Cory talked about everything that should go in an emergency kit. One of the things he suggested was one of those foil insulated blankets. I've done the blanket over the tank in a power outage thing and I thought the insulated blanket suggestion was brilliant. Found it!
  20. ForestJenn
    I love that obelisk set up! I always go for natural tanks, but that is very eye catching.
  21. ForestJenn
    Don't count on us. We're all a bunch of fish and plant enablers here. And you're right. The hobby has changed so much. I love the idea of a themed / biotope tank. I call my 40 a SA theme because half the plants are asian and I'm pretty sure the spiderwood is too. Maybe pick a fish you'd love to keep and build up the rest of your community around that?
  22. ForestJenn
    You are not alone in wondering! I searched all over the place for an answer when I started my tank back up. Brandy seems spot on, although I read it was a bio film instead of mold. Either way it's distressing if you don't know what it is. I've only seen it on spider wood which is actually a root (unless I'm wrong). For me it lasted about two weeks. It was starting to clear up and then I scraped it off with the gravel vac during a water change. It didn't come back.
  23. ForestJenn
    I agree, the timing on this video was perfect. I purchased a sponge filter for the quarantine tank. When I got home, I sat down and opened up youtube with the intention of searching for sponge filter videos. But lo and behold you'd posted one! It was great!
  24. ForestJenn
    Years and years ago I ended up with what I think was an apple snail. It just showed up one day and grew and grew and grew. I loved that thing. I should see if I have an old picture tucked away on a thumb drive somewhere.
  25. ForestJenn
    I'm tempted to say that my current main tank fits the bill. We live in a small house, 1600 square feet, so not much bigger than an apartment and there are bookshelves and windows everywhere. That makes aquarium placement problematic. I could go as big as 55, but 40 gallons is what I have. It's a South American themed tank with plants and driftwood. While not quite blackwater, the water is a nice shade of weak tea brown. There are tetras, a bristlenose, corydoras and a breeding pair of dwarf cichlids. It makes me very happy. Going up to a 55 would let me have larger schools of tetras and corys. That would be the only way I could improve it I think. But then....if I had gone with a sand substrate instead of gravel, I could sneak in some off-theme kuhli loaches. Oh well! I've added a few plants and the dwarf lily has grown a lot since this picture. I should probably try to take some pictures again this weekend.
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