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Ninebreaker

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Everything posted by Ninebreaker

  1. For sure. I've never seen something so dramatic. I've kept snails that do change a little and you obviously can see that the yellow part is new growth on the snail since I got it. Just since there may be questions. I keep them at 80F with an aquarium coop heater, their primary diet is kale (from the supermarket), zucchini, green beans, and some shrimp foods (bee pollen, snowflake, shrimp envy foods as well). The blue/green color happened way before I started feeding shrimp envy foods. I remineralize RODI with Sulawesi 8.5 to 150TDS and the water TDS is around 220 or so. There is some driftwood in the aquarium as well as lava rock. Their original tank had a few large "river stones" I got from the LFS. Substrate is crushed coral. They live with Sulawesi-originating (in theory) shrimp like white orchids and cardinals. Some unknown species shrimp as well.
  2. No, the shell isn't painted. When I originally got them, they were pure white and over time algae / water conditions have turned them that green color. I'm not sure what "happened". Pic below is them right out of the shop. Over time, the new shell grew and led me to believe it was some kind of sanding or something that took place. Possibly between diet and conditions, the color of the new growth shell changed. Interesting that someone seems to have potentially gone through the effort (at least in one case) to sand the shells to "fake" a Hercules snail to a wholesaler / store owner and in the second case perhaps didn't know what they were selling.
  3. Some odd research terms took me to a website that did a review of the "broita" genera. https://biostor.org/reference/105345 Anyone else think it may be a different species or maybe a different population? Any thoughts about Brotia dautzenbergiana? Does that seem correct?
  4. Howdy everyone, I have a question that's stumped me and I need some advice. I ordered 2 "hercules snails" from a seller online and received two snails that looked like the top one. A few months before, a LFS had sold me 4 "hercules snails" that had the more traditional white shell and are much much larger. Although the size likely isn't any indicator of species just yet, I have a feeling they're two different species. The top one just release a clutch of what I feel like is 20+ baby snails into the tank, while the bottom ones (which are close to 4" or so) haven't produced any eggs in the time that I've own them. Both are being kept at 80F in my sulawesi setup (crushed coral substrate and very hard water with a pH around 8.2). Could anyone positively (or attempt to) confirm what the top species may be? If you answer is "Malaysian Trumpet Snail", then I appreciate the effort, but you're not correct, lol. These are much larger than any MTS.
  5. Well, honestly I am about 80% confident it's correct because the club itself I got it from is well known and the person who kept them had a lot of interesting things that were super fish nerdy. If that makes sense. I might reach back out on Facebook to see if they have time to chat or are on FB.
  6. Thanks! Appreciate all the info. I'll reach out if I can. I heard of an upcoming talk RE: cyprinodons locally. I may have to become an expert haha.
  7. Hey all, I'm not new to fisk keeping, but am new to pupfish. Specifically, I picked up some C. Nazas from a local auction. I couldn't connect with the seller, but wanted to know if anyone had information on this fish? All I currently know is that they do well with extreme conditions and prefer tubs (not happening until next June with me being in the northeast). Currently, I popped in a heater for 72F and a handful of crushed coral and a large java fern mat into a 5G tank (juveniles), along with a cycled sponge. Bonus for breeding tips. I've bred ricefish and killis with mops and peat, so just looking for what kind of spawners they may be too.
  8. The plywood itself seems off. The bubble levels on the rack look perfect, but there's gapping under corners (think like a 3 legged chair situation) of the tank depending on where you place the tank. I'm not bothered by slanting to one side or another. These stands will notoriously "twist" and I've leveled the racks themselves as best I could.
  9. Hi all, I have a question regarding building tank stands with muscle racks. Firstly, this is the muscle rack I am using: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Black-3-Tier-Heavy-Duty-Industrial-Welded-Steel-Garage-Shelving-Unit-65-in-W-x-54-in-H-x-24-in-D-HBR652454W3/310651476 Given the space constraints of the fish room, this was basically the tallest and deepest I could get without a tank hitting the ceiling. The problem I am running into is that while it's super strong and I have leveled the shelves, obviously I needed some support over the shelves since my tanks are slightly shorter than the shelves themselves. Also, the shelves are not actually 65 x 24, but actually 60 x 24. I had home depot cut some 3/4" plywood sheets for me to size (60x24), which I painted black and put over the wire racks to help distribute the weight. The shelves fit perfectly. The problem is when I put a 40B or even a 10G on top of the sheet it really varies as to how the tank sits due to some warping of the plywood itself (I assume due to humidity, etc.). In some areas, the empty tank is off about 1/8" of an inch. Obviously, I have concerns and don't want to start filling with water until I get some more advice. Does anyone else use this kind of stand? Would the plywood "level out" once I put pressure on it from water-filled tanks? So, do I just fill the tanks and see if they level out or am I missing something to making these stands "work". Thanks!
  10. Yeah, I have CW010s too... mine spawned in my swordtail tank several times once I got them (about 1.5 yr ago) and then just never really did again. I think in October, I start getting busy with work and "ignoring" the tanks, which may have had something to do with it. I had mine spawn again in about September / October last year too. It's super seasonal and I presume it has something to do with temp + light because my old house had a huge temp swing and the tank was next to a window. My new one has less of a swing and almost no natural light. Same plants and everything.
  11. Oh yeah, I put in the leaves already. I feed the fish so much that I might kill the swordtails first, hah. Seriously, there's so much food just sitting there, the swordtails ignore it. Swordtails ignoring food is like my dog ignoring food. Something has to be wrong with it or they're bloated, lol. I EVEN found blackworms GROWING in the tank itself (which I discovered after removing the substrate) and they were like.. MEH... I mean... Corys are supposed to root around and find that stuff.... I used to have the corys in a tank by themselves and they were so frightened of everything, which is why I moved them in the first place and figured they could use the "dithers" up above. They seemed to come out after that. I have some rice fish I could put in there, but I just got them in, so they need QT time. I might end up pulling the swordtails though after a few weeks of no water changes. I don't want to stress everyone out at the moment. I'm sure you know stress + corydoras = death and since I would be doing small water changes, stress + small water change = potential harm from toxins.
  12. Yeah, I honestly have super soft water, but I'm dosing my own ferts. The ferts do not have any nitrates in it. Long story short, I used to use NilocG ThriveC, but found out that my tanks have nitrates, but literally nothing else in it, hah. It's super soft. Basically, I can't get much to grow unless I use root tabs and ferts. I should probably do less water changing as my fish are probably knocked around a bit. Initially I thought I had hard water because the TDS was like 300, but got a KH / GH test kit and wondered wtf was going on with a high TDS, but 0KH. I mean, technically black Venezuelan corydoras are just Schulztei with a different coloration. The guy I bought them from spawned them locally before he moved.
  13. Well... I see a rise in kH locally (water locally right out of the filter seems to change kH slightly), but for some reason the rest of the tank doesn't seem to get the effect. My thought is that the plants may be sucking some minerals because there's so few minerals in the water. I suspect something is off because there's almost no snails in that tank... I do have hornwart in the tank, so I thought that should be fast growing. Seems like not much grows quickly. I do use root tabs and ferts, but never have been able to get a ton to grow in that tank. You're probably right that the large water changes that keeps the kH knocked down. I could probably try some wonder shells or crushed coral to help buffer if argonite isn't helping/working. Just on a side note, I cannot for the life of me grow green water in any tank I have, so that might be useful info.
  14. I have a bag of aragonite. Would that work? I have put it in my filter, but it seems like the hardness gets "sucked out" quickly. I did (for kicks) put a few pieces of aragonite into tank water to try my kit and it seems to work. So Idk why it's not going into the water with the flow.
  15. Thanks! I will try not fluctuating the temp for awhile and smaller WCs. Then do a larger change. I'll try 3 weeks of it. Seems like a good start. I'll stick to 2x a week maybe 10 to 25%. Less volume should mean less fluctuating temps regardless. I don't have RODI, but I'll try this for a bit before buying a unit. I haven't seen their buddies spawn in a few months, but if they start doing it, I'll hit them with the WC water.
  16. Thanks for the suggestions. Usually, I feed quite a bit of food, so I know it's making to the Corydoras. Yes, the swordtails do pick stuff from the bottom, but the problem is the nitrates getting too high if I feed way too much, which is part of the reason I change water at so high a %, but I also heard it was good for spawning. It kind of is serving double duty. I'll be honest and say the swordtails that are in there look like little balloons they're so fat. Probably overfeeding the swordtails, but it's only to get to the corydoras. The guy before who bred them keeps at room temp. Generally "room temp" in New England means around 68-70F for us by his reckoning. I have a feeling breeding was too inconsistent for him, which is why he gave up on it. As far as how cold the water is when I change, it's pretty cold. I'm not sure of the temp exactly, but a quick temp check of my water shows it's 60F. I've not tried the lower % water change, but maybe multiple times a week with lower % water changes would help. Now that you do mention it, my other corys seemed to do better (as in, they bred also in a tank with swords) when I "did nothing" (I got super busy and didn't change water for a month or so...). Maybe I should try more frequent, smaller percent water changes and see how that goes. I would say that the swords likely aren't eating the eggs only because I have another tank with corys in there and they seem to leave the eggs (when they do appear) alone. I've not seen any eggs at all, which is weird (to me). I do have an idea of what the "sticky spot" looks like when an egg gets eaten.
  17. They're older. Someone before me bred the group, so I know they can breed. They had been in their own tank for QT. But that was a few months back. I'll consider moving some of the swordtails out, but I do check at all hours of the night (like we're talking 2AM) and I really don't see any activity that's indicative that they would be laying eggs.
  18. I have about 8 corys. I'd find it hard to believe that there's not 1 female (or conversely 1 male). Not impossible, but improbable. I will say that there are a variety of sizes (from a few giant ones to smaller ones). Since sexual dimorphism exists for corys to an extent, I believe there's at least a mix.
  19. Hey everyone, I have been having some difficulties breeding corydoras and would like some tips / advice. I have a decent sized group of Black Venezuelan Corydoras (~8) in a 20H as seen below. I do cool water changes of >50% 1x a week and haven't been getting so much of a "corydora dance" out of them, let alone random eggs. As you can see, the setup has a sponge filter and a HOB filter (sorry, the coop pre-filter sponge is on there, but just fell off!). I recently (~2 wks ago) also switched from gravel to sand since I know that helps. About 1wk ago I added the java moss as well. Tankmates: Shrimp, a few snails, a few (3x) "lonely" tetras, and a few swordtails (probably like 5 or so). Diet: I feed the following foods 1x a day in general, "randomly" (no fixed schedule): Repashy gel (they don't really like it, so I've been laying off) of soylent green / spawn n grow mix Freeze Dried Tubifex Shrimp Pellets Red Wigglers (cut up) Live baby brine shrimp (more for the swords / tetras, but weird, but they seem to react to the live food, even though they can't really get to the shrimp??) Frozen mysis Frozen bloodworms I probably feed mostly the frozen bloodworms probably 3-4 days a week and the shrimp pellets 1x a week, followed by one of the remaining foods. Water Parameters: My water is pretty hard, out of the tap it's something like 290-300TDS. The KH is pretty low (doesn't register on my liquid kit) and the pH is around 6.6. Temp is around 70F. I keep the nitrates in the tank to about 20ppm with 1x a week water change of >50%. Any breeding advice would be helpful!
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