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Kirsten
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Posts posted by Kirsten
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LOL actually the angelfish seen here just got an eye injury the other day, probably from some dumb young fish smacking into his eyeball in the dark. Maybe that's a sign I got too many!
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If the plants are growing, no signs of disease, water levels look good and only rarely need a change (usually more like a top-off) can an aquarium ever be called over-stocked?
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In my experience, all puffers, including pea puffers are highly intelligent and enjoy the thrill and puzzle of the hunt as much if not more than the food itself. So even if a pea puffer is stuffed full, it'll still have fun murdering every snail it can find with its clever eyeballs.
I stocked my pea puffer tank with trumpet snails (highly recommended, because they're a little less palatable than other kinds, can reproduce asexually, and they burrow in the substrate, which gives them a fighting chance), ramshorns, bladder snails for a few weeks before getting my puffer to help get their numbers established. But the puffer still eliminated them all within a couple weeks.
So now I harvest 8-10 small snails from all my other tanks to feed the puffer every couple days. I don't bother crushing them because I feel guilty enough sending these pretty ramshorns to their death, and because I always pray a couple will survive for at least a day or two to help eat up some of the puffer's leftovers and some of the algae on the walls. It's definitely the only tank in the house with enough algae to eat!
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On 3/12/2022 at 6:33 PM, Colu said:
I would Qarantine and treat almond leaves don't have much of an effect on your pH in larger volume of water you could also add a small amount of aquarium salt just increase theirs any fluid buildup in the eye
Gotcha. Either way, yeah, sounds like I should definitely isolate him. My plants are really taking off in this tank with the better lighting I got for them, so I'd hate to hamper them with dark water and/or marine salt. I'm now off to buy Kanaplex, Focus, and Garlic Guard just in case!
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On 3/12/2022 at 6:23 PM, Colu said:
When it's in one one eye it's usually caused by an injury what I would do is add some Indian almond leaves as they have antibacterial and antifungal properties if you notice not improvement after a couple of day or its getting worse then I would treat with kanaplex in food feed a small amount twice a day for 7 days
Thank you so much! I think I still have some almond leaves from back when I had a betta. Will they make the water too acidic, though? Should I put the angel in a quarantine tank?
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Ack! Poor Fafner! I can't imagine this developing in 24 hours, but I've been watching the tank every day and haven't seen it til now:
It's also majorly distended vs his other eye. It this pop eye? All the other fish in the tank (endlers and platys) seem happy and healthy. Just checked their levels this morning and everything looks good: nitrates 50, nitrite 0, GH around 200 (for the livebearers), KH about 40, pH about 6.8, chlorine 0.
What the heck is going on? Should I dose with salt and/or meds?
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Got it. Yeah, you might want to cut it with the fancy, dialed-in ferts for a bit. Honestly, my epiphytes are still at like 1 for 2 even with an over-stocked tanked and Easy Green. They'll survive, but with a lot of brown and holes. But you should seriously consider at least some inverts. There's only so long you can keep any plant in a fully immersed system without some CO2 in the form of fish exhalation, solid waste, or otherwise. I wish I could send you some of my endlers, they'd make quick work of everything.
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Oooh, thank you! That's just what I'm looking for.
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On 3/3/2022 at 9:13 PM, Patrick_G said:
I think I see some Java fern next to the Sprite. I does look like it’s not happy but give it time and it will recover. I see a nicely planted tank that’s going through the early awkward stage. Algae is starting to grow and plants are converting to underwater growth. I’d manually remove as much algae as possible and trim off any dead or dying leaves so the plants put energy into new growth. I’d also add more plants. I think everything gets easier with more plants. Swords don’t have a conversion period so they might be a good option.
I totally agree. It's absolutely a great start. Remove the algae by hand, get some fish and/or inverts in there, and you'll get more nutrients to your rhizome plants and other water-column feeders. I wouldn't throw in the towel just yet. Plants can often rebound and surprise you.
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So, I did that rookie mistake a couple years ago when I was starting out, bought some discontinued 36 gallon bowfronts from PetSmart for a song, and have installed tons of plants and livebearers. I didn't even mind the junky cover with built-in meh lighting it came with, especially since the only remotely close-to-fitting glass cover is super expensive and doesn't really fit. The junky stock cover kind of squares off the shape and my cat sure loves sitting on it. This is the one that still works:
Unfortunately, the lights have burned out in one of them. So I got out the Finnex Stingray 30" and the glass top I had originally planned to use with it out again, and while I don't love the look of it (and my cat's too scared to get on it), the plants are LOVING it. It's so much brighter and better.
So now I'm wondering if there's any light I could attach to the old hood (or even the hood of the one that's still working) that could give me similar brightness and plant-friendliness.
The Finnex really shouldn't get wet. So I was looking at submersible lights that I could "suction cup" (I know better—I'll either be screwing it or super gluing it on) to the underside of the lid, but they all look different degrees of junky and/or generic.
Anyone have any tips?
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Are there any fish in the tank? 8 weeks seems like more than enough time to cycle a tank. And is the java fern in the picture? I'm seeing some crypts, some water sprite, maybe a buce, and a whole lot of brown algae. If this is a current photo, I'd say the algae's what's hurting the plants more so than the stock lighting.
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Ahh! My longfin danios are going at it, too! So proud!
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On 2/1/2022 at 7:37 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:
That's tough, if you can get your fish feeder to do it daily that would be better. Agree on the risks with the autofeeder, could scare them by making that little big of mechanical noise although you could try it while your home and see if it could work.
Hmm...I do have some repashy kicking around. Maybe I'll whip up a batch and see if they'll eat it. That could last more than a day.
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On 2/1/2022 at 4:59 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:
Really with Fundolopanchax if you're not doing a mop or clump of moss and removing from the tank it is all about keeping the parents well fed and more interested in breeding then hunting. Croaking gouramis are micropredators and are not afraid to take down foods that are bigger than their mouths. Danios are opportunists and if it moves they'll peck at it. So there will be a lot of natural selection going on. Those that do make it will be very robust!
Thanks! Hm...I'm currently giving a heavy-ish 1/day feeding which I see everyone nibbling on throughout the day, and the adults certainly aren't acting hungry (it's a heavily planted tank with a ton of snails, so the food's not going to waste). But I'll be going off on vacation for 10 days and I wanted to tell my fish feeder she only has to come over every other day. Right now it's a species-only tank for the killifish (well, plus the snails).
Should I look into buying an autofeeder for that tank to keep the adults fat and tranquil? I'm worried about something like the co-op's auto feeder because it looks like it sits outside the tank, and I don't want to leave any large holes in the lid for the killis to jump out of.
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On 1/30/2022 at 4:27 PM, Levi_Aquatics said:
Congratulations! I would probably choose option 2 or 3
Whew! As a hands-off kind of fish keeper, that's what I prefer, too. I might reach out to the breeder, too, to see if they have recommendations and/or want some of the offspring.
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Now the big question. Do I:
1) Move the parents out immediately to separate tanks and hope they get along well with a small Croaking Gourami and/or a small school of longfin danios? (Runs the risk of the parents dying from the change in parameters, though I'd naturally do my best to transition them, and dying before the fry are really proven, possibly leaving me with 0 killifish)
2) Wait a month or two to see how the babies fare, see if I get more, see if the parents up and die naturally before removing them?
3) Never move them out and just rehome the children once they reach maturity, reserving another breeding trio to continue the cycle?
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On 1/30/2022 at 2:32 PM, Patrick_G said:
Wow, cool! Did you just let them breed in the tank or did you pull the eggs?
Just in-tank. I tried hatching eggs before and it didn't go well, was too hard for me to keep all the parameters right and give them enough tiny food to eat and keep track of them after I added them to the tank. So I got a young breeding trio from another breeder and set them loose in a heavily planted 15 gallon and let nature do its thing! Took several months, and I never saw any eggs (or maybe I just can't distinguish them from snail egg sacs), but I figure these are bound to be very fit and healthy babies to survive this long!
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Woohoo! After many months of patiently feeding and waiting, I finally have Fundulopanchax scheeli babies! My first babies not from live-bearers.
I reckon about a half dozen fry of different sizes, so I'm feeling good that they're getting enough to eat from Aquarium Co-op's Easy Small Fish and Fry Food, natural algae and infusoria, and able to hide from their parents among the metric ton of java moss. Fingers crossed they can keep nimble and hidden till they're too big to fit in a mouth, then I'll have to figure out what to do with em!
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I have a 9-day trip planned for the fall and folks here said everything should be fine to go that long without food, which surprised me.
For puffers, I'd recommend stocking their tank with ramshorn or trumpet snails before you go to hopefully keep them fed while you're gone. Or maybe start a small snail colony in another tank, then move some of the plants or hardscape in with the puffer before you go? Otherwise, maybe a friend or pet sitter can plop in a cube of frozen blood worms once or twice?
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So sorry to hear that! They may have had illnesses, injuries, or weaknesses that were hard to spot in the store. Standard advice is to first put them in a smaller, relatively sparse quarantine tank, even if they're the first fish in the new tank, so you can keep an eye on them for the first couple weeks and more easily treat them if you spot something. But I have trouble following that advice, myself, when I'm excited to start a new tank.
The store you bought them from may have a refund policy for a certain number of days, but be prepared to bring in a sample of your tank water for them to test to prove it wasn't your fault.
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I might be getting ahead of myself, but it'd be so cool to have a Nerm Retreat to get together, finally be able to shop at the ACO store, and maybe have some hands-on classes on aquascaping, CO2 injection, hatching killifish, or how to ship fish (maybe we can ship them to ourselves!)
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7 minutes ago, Brandy said:
I have a love/hate relationship witth duckweed...I want it in some tanks but it gets everywhere, and is sometimes fairly impossible to eradicate without resorting to a near scorched earth policy. I envied Cory his goldfish solution, but my tanks are too small.
A few months ago I bought 3 mystery snails. I had heard they were not as great at eating algae, and I have tons of other kinds of snails, so I thought why bother paying for them? But then I saw @Kirsten's magenta snails, and I needed them.
They were small when I got them, but they grew really fast. I was worried my tank didn't have enough algae, as it has nerites, pest snails, and otocinclus. But boy, did they grow...
And then I realized suddenly my duckweed kept disappearing...weird. I thought it couldn't be...I put a cup full of duckweed in from another tank in order to get this pic. The snails made a beeline to the surface as soon as the duckweed hit the water. Who knew?!
Oh wow! I didn't know mystery snails ate duckweed either! Time to ring the dinner bell!
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I'm always down for a small discount on ACO orders or swag, but honestly I'd sign up and pay a small fee just to be a member, to have access to the guest speaker videos and Q&As, and to be able to swap and buy from my fellow members. I'd love to learn more about breeder programs and step up my fish-keeping game.
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1 hour ago, lefty o said:
thats a nice looking jungle in that tank.
Thanks! It was almost all scavenged from other tanks: Jungle val, duckweed, hornwort that had grown out of control in other tanks, hardscape that didn't jive with the rest of the decor, a few loose java ferns, moss, and anubias, some cardinalis and some scarlet temple (I think?) that was otherwise languishing in taller tanks, and the moss ball. Only new things are the substrate (obv), the sword and the little patch of baby tears.
Fingers crossed these babies survive to enjoy it!
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Can Driftwood Cause Ammonia?
in General Discussion
Posted
That's a little unusual! Are you sure there wasn't any ammonia in your tap water? If it's municipal water piped into your home, it can sometimes fluctuate. May want to test in a clean test tube with just water from your tap to really rule it out.
My first thought is that 2 months is a long time to soak. I'm thinking it's possible that some of the plant material is decomposing, feeding bacteria, which create ammonia. If you want to keep soaking it, I'd recommend using water from a mature aquarium, and possibly adding some pond plants like duckweed or hornwort to start eating up the byproducts.