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Kirsten

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Everything posted by Kirsten

  1. Kirsten
    I've thrown plenty of shade on angelfish in the past, and I don't think I'll ever like the creepy boney look of white angelfish, but I just got this lil guy in the mail, dealer's pick, to help control my endler population and he just got of quarantine. So gosh darn cute! I love how curious he is, looking around slowly at everything, and how he has to tilt his whole silly body to look at things, like "...wooowwww..." I probably shouldn't call him "he" yet because I have no idea how to sex angelfish. But I'm thinking of calling him "Fafner" since I hope he teaches these young endlers a little fear 😛 Anyway, I formally apologize to the angelfish lovers out there for dissing them. They are totally fun to watch and I'm so happy I have one. May have to get another for the swordtail/guppy tank!
  2. Kirsten
    Good luck! And be sure to keep your guppies and endlers separate, as they can hybridize.
  3. Kirsten
    Guppies I've noticed have more color distinctions in females than in endlers, probably because they've been bred for color and patterns for a lot longer. So I'd try to stick to breeding pairs/trios of guppies if you want a specific strain.
  4. Kirsten
    Those are only for specific bacterial or parasitic infections and won't help here. Her bottom just fell out, probably after a hard birth. Epsom salts may help as a general antiseptic / wound care while you wait to see if her body recovers.
  5. Kirsten
    Something I only learned recently, despite endlers being my first fish love, is that most color patterning is carried on the Y chromosome for endlers. So as long as you get some females from somewhere (wish I could send you some of mine!) you should be able to breed them.
  6. Kirsten
    Plants consume nitrates, so the solution might be more plants! Have you tried testing your tap water? Sometimes it can come out of your tap with nitrates in it.
  7. Kirsten
    100% To get all nerdy and D&D about it, it's all about the multi-classing 🙂
  8. Kirsten
    Yeah, that'll happen! 🙂 Female platies can hold on to sperm for weeks for several successive broods. Safe to assume that every female platy is pregnant at all times, basically! Platies will be fine with salt, more so than many other fish. I can't promise that the babies will survive the ich meds, which you'll have to do for the entire tank for a full 2 weeks to ensure it's truly wiped out. But the good thing about platies is that they're almost always having babies. So there'll probably be a lot more where that came from! Don't worry about feeding them specially, just crumble up the flakes a bit more than usual. I wouldn't bother with holding them in a breeder box, either, assuming you have lots of plants for them to hide in. They'll probably be able to chase down more microbia and algae to eat if they can swim around.
  9. Kirsten
    I say go for it! I'd get a 5 gallon bucket with a lid, which you can find at most hardware stores and tractor supply for a couple bucks. The day you head off, siphon a couple gallons of tank water into it (don't fill it up more than halfway, I think. It'll get too heavy and sloshy) and put in any floating plants or epiphytes like java ferns in there. Transfer your fish, then reduce the tank water as low as possible while still keeping the substrate wet. Keep the lid on and maybe wrap in plastic wrap to help keep humidity in for any snails or rooted plants. Since bettas can breathe at the surface, no huge need to run an airstone. If you're staying in a motel overnight, might want to get a heat pack to strap to the side of the bucket to help him stay warm out in the car. He should be fine for a few days without food, but for longer vacations like spring or winter breaks where you can't stay on campus, you might want to see if there's a local who'll take him in once you get there. Me, I was planning on taking my betta to college with me, too, with a similar length drive. But the day of, my youngest sister was so upset about me leaving, that I decided to leave him with her, and I don't regret that choice one bit. Freshman year was such a crazy time, I'm glad I didn't have to worry about a pet at the same time.
  10. Kirsten
    Sounds good to me! You can look up the ideal water parameters for your different fish but that all sounds in the ballpark. Gouramis typically like softer water and platies love hard water, but they're both adaptable. If the gouramis seem happy and healthy, you're fine. My only concerns are: 1) that many fish in a 10 gallon. I think the honey gouramis alone would fill up that tank. Do you have any female platies? Because if so, they'll probably give birth and crowd the tank even more. You can still keep them all together, but be prepared to do a lot of water changes. 2) 50 ppm nitrates are the upper limit for me. You'll probably want to do a 20-30% water change pretty soon.
  11. Kirsten
    Thanks, @Hobbit! I should also mention that I got out of that bad work situation and into unrelated and quasi-related jobs. Translating my technical writing skills to freelance technical editing helped me feel more capable and independent. Now I'm back in the yarn world fulltime, but editing patterns instead of designing them all the time, which is a much better balance for me. For anyone contemplating a career change, combining your experience and skills with a hobby you're passionate about can be perfect, if the pressure is off and if the balance is right. Just be sure to save some hobby space for yourself to enjoy at the end of the day.
  12. Kirsten
    Mmm, that's a good point! I don't have central air, so the upper floors can easily get 74-78 in the summer unless I put an ac unit in the room. Much to consider!
  13. Kirsten
    Hahah, I feel you! I grew up in my mom's yarn store. Designing patterns and knitting them are what I "do," but doing it professionally for a company had me burnt out and unwell, feeling so trapped and stressed that I was actively contemplating suicide. Producing on demand, whether you want to or not, I felt like a dog in a puppy mill, disconnected from my work, my identity, and my major source of joy in life. I've since gotten lots of therapy, which involved a lot of work cultivating other hobbies, unrelated to what I do for work. I have a huge entrepreneurial streak and I'm always thinking of angles, ways to turn 1 dollar into 10 into 100, and while I could see the path to making money designing patterns for a living all on my own, I knew that it would be hard, hard work doing a lot of stuff I don't enjoy (like working the convention circuit, teaching, promoting a book, pitching concepts, endlessly posting pictures on instagram, maintaining a perfect-looking, aspirational lifestyle). It was also making me miserable and increasing the trapped feeling. So, fish keeping, along with all the other hobbies I started, like gardening, painting, taking voice lessons, hiking, and traveling, got me to appreciate the joy of the non-monetized hobby. No pressure to do anything you don't want to do or to cut corners that compromise your values. No anxiety about how you're going to pay rent if an experiment fails. Now, to find a way to give away all these endlers! 😄
  14. Kirsten
    I grew up in my mom's yarn store, and I've been working on and off in the yarn world ever since. The "don't tell the hubby" stories never ceased. From the women asking if we had "discreet" bags and who were delighted when we shipped in discounted boxes from an auto parts store, to all the "jokes" about how their husbands were going to murder them if they came home with 1 more skein of yarn (ma'am, would you like the number of a local crisis center? here, take it, just in case). But the best advice came down to one older woman who regularly came in for classes and catching up, who'd say "my husband saw the credit card bill and complained about how much I was spending on yarn. Then I pointed out half of those purchases were for his golf clubs." Hobbies, man, they cost money and often take up a lot of space. Best we can do is support our loved ones in what makes them happy and have their support for ours.
  15. Kirsten
    How sad is that? Wish we could work with Fish & Wildlife to conserve wild populations while breeding for aquarium life.
  16. Kirsten
    Ahhh how is it that we have so many insanely beautiful fish right out our back door and not have them being bred for the hobby?
  17. Kirsten
    I can't get over the insanely bright and beautiful colors here. What a wealth of striking and exciting fish we have here in North America.
  18. Kirsten
    Right. It's more a problem I've heard of with yeast DIY kits and unpredictable CO2 production combined with upcycled materials that can't handle the pressure spike. My partner had to already stop me from getting into distilling ("please no potentially exploding things that are also illegal"). I imagine his patience would be worn thin by exploding things that dump several dozen gallons of water, dying fish, and yeast all over the living room.
  19. Kirsten
    Yeah I'm in the same boat. For me, the risks (gassing your fish, tanks exploding, pH problems, algae problems, the arms race of co2 & lights & fert described above) aren't worth the reward (dwarf baby tears). My java ferns, java moss, swords, crypts, apongetons, anacharis, and stem plants all seem to be doing fine getting co2 the old fashioned way: airstones and a billion endler babies. Would be amazing to find a way to grow carpeting plants in a low-tech tank, but yeah it's not worth the risks for me. It would be amazing if someone could design a nice-looking but still inexpensive version of Ocean Aquarium's old-school method of going around and pumping co2 into overturned water bottles in tanks. That's about my limit, though.
  20. Kirsten

    Angelfish fin rot?

    Kirsten replied to Sean's topic in Diseases

    I think salt would be a good place to start. See if it helps. If not, you can move up to the maracyn.
  21. Kirsten
    Whoaaa cool, I gotta look those up! Thanks for the tip!
  22. Kirsten
    I saw some rainbow shiners for sale online recently and wow are they beautiful! It got me thinking about what to put in a North American tank, if I could find space for it. Since I live in New England, aren't too many aquarium-size species out here to collect. I'd probably have to take a trip down south, or just pay someone who lives there or breeds them. And while I'd love to start a pond instead for native species, I probably couldn't do it year round. But what would you put in your perfect North American tank? How big would it be? What plants would you include? Any inverts?
  23. Kirsten
    Yeah, a little research seems to indicate they're about the same as cherry shrimp. Mid-60's to 80's. So as long as you keep your house around 68-74, you'll be providing all the heat they'll want or need.
  24. Kirsten
    Might depend on the variety, but it sounds like temps in the 70's F are ideal for most ricefish and your shrimp, and your snails certainly won't be picky either. So if you have an adjustable heater, maybe set it at 74 in case the room gets really cold in the winter or you want to leave the heat down when you're on vacation? But I don't expect you'll need it much. But, hey, that just means you'll be able to use it for another tank or QT if you ever get any other fish!
  25. Kirsten
    Yup, like @JamesB says, everything other than Kuhli loaches could work. Whichever one you choose depends on what you want them for, what you like, and what you're willing to take care of. Remember, your betta doesn't have to be with anything! He can be perfectly happy living on his own in a planted 5 gallon aquarium, especially if you interact with him and don't overfeed him. Anything you put in there with him will be more because you like it and want it.
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