Wmarian

Dan's fish has some cool Corydoras equus (sp) that I have been eyeing...turquoise sheen to them.... Reading back thru noted your low kh problem. Crushed coral really helped me there, to buffer and stabilize my ph.

Hello! My gouramis came to me pretty small. The behaviors described by others is consistent with mine (inquisitive, constantly exploring). But my 6 gourami alone in heavily planted 20g l tank are an argumentative bunch, constantly nudging or bludgeoning each other out of the way. Some fin and tail tears on occasion. Croaking for the first time today! I am starting to think I may have all males and or too high a flow for nesting. Favorite foods:baby brine, daphnia, grindal worms, frozen live (cyclops, bloodworms), and some nibbling of extreme nano pellets.

You could add a small powerhead and/or have your filter flow lengthwise along the tank and do a small river tank. tinwini or other small fast flow friendly Danios to enjoy the flow and freshwater gobies or a clutch of rosy loaches for bottom feeding. I have my powerhead on for extra flow about 4 hrs a day, the rest of the time it's just my filter flow along the length. Lots of stone for a natural river bed, with driftwood and vallisnaria caught in a little pocket. Generally these loaches and Danios wouldn't need heat; you would want to really oxygenated the water with flow if your room was keeping them too warm. Keep us up to date, I want to see what you go with! As a completely different idea, I set up a one species tank for sparkling gourami s and some amano shrimp. Completely charming, elegant and very interactive with me and each other. And actively hunting through the plants all the time. I may never go without sparkling gouramis again. (I got mine from dans fish at getgills.com).

Yes, I want to try D. Moina sometime. I ordered magna (although Sachs said they were the larger type) because I had to just pick one type to see if I could raise them and how they would work with my fish. Plus all the earlier/smaller stages in daphnia growth are edible too, so only the full adults are a challenge. My fish are micro Gobies, sparkling gourami and tinwinis Danios. All an inch or little bigger as adults...but with small mouths. I tried white worms for awhile and the Gobies and tinwinis Danios couldn't deal with adult white worms very well...and it's easier if I am raising foods that work for all. And although maintaining the daphnia is cheap, I should add that purchasing them from Sachs was not (particularly shipping). But was very successful culture with their food from the get go. I keep three 3 gallon containers with crushed coral and some floating water wisteria, snails, a light shining next to them 24 hrs, keeping them a little warmer. I change 50 percent of water about every month (straining out the daphnia using a cloth over a sieve), replacing with used aquarium water. And I use an air pump bubbling slowly in each (no air stone). I feed several times daily with Sachs food mix, but will eventually use a mix of spirulina, yeast and flours for feeding. A piece of Wonder shell added whenever I remember. I use a turkey baster to transfer to tanks. Some internet people say air isn't needed, and research has shown that too many fine bubbles can catch in their shells and keep them at the surface, thereby killing them. I figure small containers might be a little challenging to keep healthy, so I keep a slow air bubble flow going to keep it stirred up. Other advice from internet world: keep more than one culture. This I can endorse, three identical containers right next to each, my one that was producing the most heavily so that I was using it for food daily quickly crashed down to none. Other two are fine. Go figure. Other advice from internet world: don't be hesitant about using your cultures...daphnia multiply so quickly you have to keep culling them for food or they will crash their culture within a couple weeks (or even quicker) Would be interested if people have experiences that agree/disagree with these pieces of internet advice. And what food combos others are using.

Daphnia are I think my fishes' favorite, although maybe it's just my favorite because the fish have to hunt and chase them down so its more active to watch. White worms are too big for my nano fish. Grindal worms (basically one size down) are just right size and I use same instructions for them as for white worms. But also the Daphnia and the brine shrimp. Even adult Daphnia are too big sometimes. Bought starter batch of Daphnia from Sachs Systems Aquaculture in Florida along with their daphnia start up food mix (although i feed a lot more than they suggest, 1 capful per 3 g tank 2-3x per day; and will be switching to my own food mix soon). It's been pretty successful, supplementing occasionally with a little live yeast or a little spirulina.

Daniel...it was the dead cat in the tank reference....yooooour'e out! Or did I miss something worse? JK

You could consider shading (patio umbrella?) and/or insulating with bricks or an outer layer, to try for a more consistent temperature/narrower range. And when monitoring the water temp, you might check what the bottom temperature is compared to top. Looking forward to hearing updates!

Has anyone found the Merck Veterinary Manual online to be helpful? They have an array of information about fish health. Page on Fish Diseases https://www.merckvetmanual.com/all-other-pets/fish/disorders-and-diseases-of-fish?query=Fish Fish parasites https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/aquarium-fishes/parasitic-diseases-of-fish?query=fish parasite Nutritional diseases https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/aquarium-fishes/nutritional-diseases-of-fish?query=Fish Viral diseases https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/aquarium-fishes/viral-diseases-of-fish?query=Fish Fungal diseases https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/aquarium-fishes/viral-diseases-of-fish?query=Fish Bacterial diseases https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/aquarium-fishes/bacterial-diseases-of-fish?query=Fish Also much more info on types of diseases typical for different families of fish, fish nutrition, fish anatomy, and fish health management, and the environmental factors that contribute to disease (e.g., tank parameters).

I found crushed coral results in a lower* (correction: higher) ph,but very gradually over a couple weeks. Aquarium Coop recommends starting with 1 lb per 10 gallons. Don't know what amount of aragonite would be needed or pace of change.I put crushed coral in media bags rinse thoroughly and place behind stones and plants. My ph has slowly risen to 7.6. Aquarium Coop says leaching from the coral slows in about 6 mnths and needs to be replaced...I figured the bags would be easiest to change out when that time comes. Other products for raising PH are baking soda (does it way too fast, hard to keep consistent, can blow your ph up) and Seachem products (equilibrium, buffering additives, etc.). I found guidance about the Seachem products to be really confusing, though. Keep monitoring. The first thing that crushed coral and aragonite additives do is raise kh. And that impacts ph. Are you measuring kh and gh? Higher hardness (kh and gh) preferred by guppies and keeps them healthier. If your kh already high, coral and aragonite might not make much of a difference to your ph. Check the impact of the cholla wood on your tank ph. My tank, with no kh in my tap water, dropped below 6 ph when I added driftwood. Adding coral added kh which helped maintain a higher ph, even with driftwood. And what temperature and other parameters for your guppies' tank?

I am sure you have all the same theories as I would....Maybe another lady spot gourami or two or three would cheer her up? Or dwarf gourami s....or sparkling... maybe she doesn't care about the mellow fish and wants something a little more fiesty or annoying to interact with. No fun chasing sheep... And from your experience, how long might she live? And any clues as to why other gourami died? I am glad you figured out something she can feed on once you've walked away from the tank. Maybe make sure the room lights are off to reduce your shadow so she can readjust? Nothing's changed in the room as far as lighting? Nothing else changed in the tank? I hope she calms down and begins to come out more

I am soery to read about the recent losses...Some additional thoughts backing up those already stated: the heater doesn't sound trustworthy...and maybe confirm that your thermometer is accurate too. Also: I would establish a plan to address that kh. The tank is really vulnerable to a complete ph crash if no kh to take up ions produced from the nitrogen cycle; it might be slipping even lower at night or other times, as mentioned by Tre. I fill media bags with crushed coral and tuck them in the corners, etc. You can put it in filters or just scatter on the substrate. I think I have read for secure buffering 1 lb of crushed coral per 10 g is recommend. Also you might check the water out of your tap...sometimes seasonally city water is changed (in my neighborhood, the source of water changes in the summer, and base parameters change). Most test kits only go down so low on ph, so how sure are you about accuracy there? Might your ph be even lower? Hope things are looking up

Found three daisy rice fish fry in the daphnia/scud culture bin. I had put an algae covered plant in there for scud clean up...and apparently it was carrying a few eggs

Good question. Here is my approach, I just don't know if I am "really" raising such a culture or not...do we have a technical definition of infusoria? And what would we say is technical difference from green water (also useful for tiny fry?) I have only small set of fry, so my set ups are small. Infusoria: I started by setting water outside for two weeks. Moved it inside in to a half gallon clear plastic container, keep it on the windowsill with pretty bright indirect light, uncovered. Throw in a dandelion leaf, piece of banana peel, lettuce leaf or slice of zucchini (etc.) about once every week or two (once the previous leaf/food source is almost mulm). I can see lots and lots of critters zinging around in there when I hold a light to it. Use a turkey baster to clean out about a cup of mulm/waste at the bottom every week or two, and top off with aquarium water. Green water: Then I also took half of that infusoria mix into another container and topped off with aquarium water. Added a handful of grass clippings and fertilized heavily with Easy green. Keep on a windowsill with a few hours of direct sunlight, and got green water eventually. So far have just been feeding this with Easy green. So this has both floating algae and little critters zinging around in it. Looking forward to seeing other answers/tips

For my tanks, I use a clipboard to gather the info (one per tank) and load the info into excel until tank established. The clipboard comes.back out if testing or fish/plants indicate an issue. I tried notebooks, loved them, but they keep disappearing right when I need them and so I would miss data. Setting up the clipboard/pen with just the right columns meant I didn't move it around to get lost. Trillo looks great! I am going to check that out

People have been saying the blender doesn't work with an air stone, but I haven't had a problem there that I have noticed. Can anybody explain what the problem is?