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Kirsten

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Everything posted by Kirsten

  1. Kirsten
    Yeah depends entirely on your fish and how hard your water is right now. Some fish prefer hard water, some prefer soft. I don't think softer water will hurt any of them per se (unless they're mollies, who practically need brackish water to do well), but you may need to add more minerals back in for fish, snails, shrimp, and plant health.
  2. Kirsten
    Hi! Welcome to the forum! The injury alone doesn't look serious enough to give me concern. Maybe dose with 1-2 tbs aquarium salt per 10g of water to help it heal without getting infected. But the bullying behavior the fish is experiencing gives me a little pause. If it's just one or two bad boy fish giving him trouble, I say isolate them and let them cool off. But if he's getting bullied by several fish, might be good to give him his own space for a bit to heal up. I know rainbow fish like to be in groups. If he has a few mild-mannered buddies to keep him company, that'll probably be good for him, too.
  3. Kirsten
    From what I understand, that's natural and normal for stem plants and how they reproduce. If it bothers you, I'd recommend trimming the plants just below where the roots are emerging, then replant the top portion so the roots are in the substrate. If you already have root tabs in the substrate near your plants, I don't think it's necessary to add more at the moment.
  4. Kirsten
    If I had a 120, I'd probably get a massive school of slivertip tetras, which school in really cool ways in large numbers. Another option for liveliness are giant danios (there are other, less giant danios that are also very active, but few keep giant danios because of the space they need. Not a problem here!). For larger livebearers who'll help fill up the space, swordtails could be a lot of fun, too.
  5. Kirsten
    You're really flying blind without knowing your water parameters, knowing how hard your tap water is, exactly, your pH, etc. Many fish, including many african cichlids, like hard water and may do even better than they are now with RO water, but you'll need to test to know what you're looking at. You'll also need to buy some water conditioner like Fritz Complete or Seachem Prime, which will dechlorinate your tap water and neutralize other harmful compounds as well. But the cost per gallon will be far, far less than RO water from the store. Other than that, you're good to go! You may want to look into a Python water change system which hooks a hose up to your faucet to make water changes even easier.
  6. Kirsten
    I don't think it'll make them sick, per se, but they stand a good chance of rotting at the bottom of your tank, creating an ammonia spike which probably will hurt your fish if not taken care of. If you have a strong clean-up crew, might just want to test for ammonia for the next few days. Otherwise you might want to gravel vac, but still monitor for ammonia for a little bit.
  7. Kirsten
    Yeah... while a responsible fish owner should use it to alleviate the crowded conditions of another tank... I'm going down the killifish rabbit hole and getting seriously psyched for them. Great, just what I need! More babies! 😄 Given my luck, my betta will make a full recovery and I'll just be chewing on my thumbs until I can find space for killis somewhere.
  8. Kirsten
    Poor ol' betta! Yeah, my betta has the same symptoms, though I doubt he's half as old: lethargic, uninterested in food, labored breathing, fins are ragged. So I'm treating what I can see: gill trouble and fin rot. I've moved him into an unlit quarantine tank with his favorite floating log and dosed the water with about 1 tbsp marine salt for every 2 gallons. He's moved around a little since moving him this morning, but still mostly sleeping. No idea if it'll work or not, but I figure it'll give him a fighting chance. You could try adding some aquarium salt to your tank, but at that level it might start hurting your plants, so you might want to set up a QT if you can.
  9. Kirsten
    Oh right! Aquabid! Totally forgot to look there. You're right, much better chance of finding them there.
  10. Kirsten
    Yeahhhhh I'd probably be foolish to buy any more fish at this point while I'm still overstocked on endlers. I just dropped off about 30-40 youngins at the pet store this weekend and still don't feel like I've made a dent. I have an angelfish on the way but it'll probably be awhile for a baby angel to get big enough to eat anything but the smallest fry. I also have some shipping supplies coming to me because I can't seem to sell them locally, and seeing the state of some of the fish in my local pet store...let's just say it doesn't fill me with joy to bring them there. So into the 10 they'll go! At least some of the males, if/when I can catch them! Fast little buggers.
  11. Kirsten
    10g. So I was thinking killifish, too, but it's so hard to find gold lyretail / golden panchax, which is what Cory recommended for a 10. Any other killi varieties that could go in such a small tank?
  12. Kirsten
    Beautiful choices! Will the lack of much floor space be a problem for them? There is already a plastic log "cave" though, so that's a plus.
  13. Kirsten
    Beautiful!! What size is this tank? It's making me feel a lot better about how overstocked-looking my livebearer tank is. 😄
  14. Kirsten
    Funny! I have some on the way from Aquahuna as we speak! Was intending to also put them in the 29g croaking gourami tank to help brighten it up. But that is an option!
  15. Kirsten
    So, my second betta fish is circling the drain and I'm feeling a little burned out on betta. Just as the tank was finally coming into its own as a betta paradise with jungle val, duckweed, all sorts of niceness. So he's in quarantine, again, with his floating log, and we'll see if he pulls through. But if not, what should I do with the tank? Currently home to 2 nerite snails, a bunch of ramshorns, and 4-5 pygmy cories who I'm thinking about moving to a larger gourami tank to give it a little more action (along with some more friends). As you can see, it's got lots of hiding places, particularly up top, and only has a sponge filter, so it'd be great for another labyrinth fish or for fry to hide. I have 2 heaters in it to keep it at 78, since my house is usually around 65 in the winter, but it's getting on toward summer and I don't have central air, so a fish that can take up to 78 would be preferable. What would you do? - 2 to 3 dwarf gourami in a species only tank - Apistogramma breeding pair (not a lot of floor space though) - Golden lyretail killifish (SO hard to find online, though!) - Pygmy cory species-only tank - Another betta! Third time's the charm. - Shrimp tank time! - Don't you have a billion and a half endlers? Put your males in there, dummy! - Something else? (I'd love to do a sparkling gourami species-only tank, but guides seem to put them at 20g minimum)
  16. Kirsten
    My 10g took awhile to get here, but the jungle val and the cardinalis took off!
  17. Kirsten
    Ahh! So many awesome goodies! Thank you so much, ACo!
  18. Kirsten
    Yeah I recently had a shipment of tetras start disappearing 1 by 1, to the point that I soon needed to buy more to keep up their numbers. Important to keep in mind, too, that even brightly colored fish can be really good at hiding, especially when they're small. And when they die, they seem to be even smaller and harder to find. So you'd probably have to tear apart your tank looking for tiny bodies that may not still be there. I wouldn't worry too much. As fish keepers, we try so hard to do everything "right" and it sounds like it should be easy, but fish can have any number of unseen problems, especially small and mass-produced fish like tetras. Sometimes they're just weak to begin with and the inherent stress of moving does them in. It happens, and it's not necessarily anything you could have prevented. Just keep an eye on their population and keep it from getting lower than 5 or 6, and keep testing for ammonia to see if you need to do a body hunt.
  19. Kirsten
    Altruism discovered in, of all fish, convict cichlids! https://phys.org/news/2021-03-experimental-evidence-altruistic-nature-small.html
  20. Kirsten
    Sorry to hear about the fish loss! I wish I had an answer, but I'm actually really curious myself since I seem to have chronic, mild columnaris on at least one fish in each of my livebearer tanks at any given time, no matter how often I change water or how aggressively I treat the external infections. I'm glad they were at least in a quarantine tank. I definitely think the two survivors should stay in quarantine for a bit longer just to make sure they're clear. If there's just one male and one female, you might want to get a few more females to reduce the stress, but otherwise I say just let em chill for awhile before adding any more fish. Common wisdom is that an ounce of prevention's worth a pound of cure for bacterial infections. Keep the water pristine, keep the salt level elevated while they're in quarantine and otherwise just stay on top of aquarium maintenance. But I hope there are more specific answers, because I'd like to know, too!
  21. Kirsten
    Definitely a stem plant, probably ludwigia repens. It'll probably get more reddish coloration with high lighting & CO2 but otherwise is pretty easy to care for.
  22. Kirsten
    Nerites aren't adept at righting themselves if they fall over and they often need help to get back upright. So you should try to flip them back over if you see them like this and wait a bit before assuming they're dead. Nerites also like to sleep for a day or two at a time after a long bout of activity, so give it at least a few days after flipping it over to see if it moves.
  23. Kirsten
    Lethargy, unusual behavior, hiding, disinterest in food are sometimes the only signs we get that something's wrong. If possible, I'd recommend quarantining him separately for closer observation and give him 1 tbsp aquarium salt or marine salt for every 3 gallons or so to see if that helps.
  24. Kirsten
    You don't necessarily have to cut your plant. Eventually the stem below the rootlets will rot away and the upper plant will float free, which you can replant in the substrate or let float. But if you don't want to wait, feel free to snip it off with your fingernails, or you can take it out of the tank briefly and snip it with any scissors you have around.
  25. Kirsten
    Hmm...the ramshorns are looking pretty normal for babies. What are you feeding them and do you have any other animals in there? Is there a fish or another animal preying on them? Have you dosed the tank with anything with copper in it? My first suspicion is there's something actively killing them off and the MTS are safer since they stay burrowed half the day. But assuming it's just snails in there and you've dosed nothing but easy green and wonder shells, you could feed heavier, and in the morning, so the above-ground snails have more time to eat. Leaving the lights on longer will help keep the MTS stay in bed a little longer and get some algae growth. Or you could do a rescue mission, scoop out as many ramshorns and pond snails as you can and put them in their own tank with a seasoned sponge filter, keep them fed and let their numbers increase.
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