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JettsPapa

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Everything posted by JettsPapa

  1. I don't know where you got that information, but I keep neocaridina shrimp in tubs outside year-round in southeast Texas. This past winter the temperature got down into the upper teens, and the top of the tubs were iced over for several days. The shrimp were fine when it thawed, and they're still thriving. Maybe that's referring to caridinas?
  2. I agree with the others who said not to feed while you're gone. I'd much rather come home to hungry fish than the mess that could result from an auto-feeder malfunctioning and dumping all the food at once.
  3. Some of my best looking crypts are in the 5.5 gallon tank on my desk at work that doesn't have any mechanical filtration or water movement, so maybe. On the other hand, in my other tanks I'm disrupting them occasionally to pull plants to sell, so maybe not. I'm interested to see what others have to say about it.
  4. I tried red root floaters in several tanks. It died a horrible screaming death. Duckweed also did very well for me. I didn't mention it above because I'm trying to forget the experience. Every time I think I have it eradicated it rears its ugly head again.
  5. I have very similar water, though maybe not quite as hard, and I've also struggled with some floating plants, and most the ones that do well seem to only do so in one or two of my 10 tanks. Dwarf water lettuce did great everywhere I put it, but then I learned it's illegal to keep in my state so I got rid of all of it. I recently got some variegated frogbit that I introduced to about half of my tanks. It's doing great in one or two, growing and expanding slowly in one or two, and just hanging on in the rest. Hornwort does well, if it can get past the initial period of being introduced to a new tank. When I do that it seems to either keep growing without missing a beat, or drop every needle in the first two days. Guppy grass and pearl weed do well, but they aren't classic floating plants. Anacharis is finicky, but once established it does well for me. Oddly enough, it's doing best in a 5.5 gallon tank with no mechanical filtration or water movement.
  6. As mentioned above, color and fin shape don't matter, but I would like to mention that some guppy strains will ignore fry, and others are relentless fry hunters (looking at you, albino koi guppies). I'm not familiar with the female you mentioned, so I don't know what would happen with yours.
  7. Turkey vultures were very common in my area years ago, but have just about disappeared. The black headed vultures (I'm not sure of the correct terminology) have migrated up from Mexico and displaced them. Turkey vultures wait for an animal to die. If an animal is too injured or weak to get away or fight back the black headed ones will just start eating.
  8. My well water is 8.2 pH, and harder than OP's (gh and kh both close to 300 ppm), and I keep a wide variety of fish, plants, and invertebrates. Unless there's something going on with your water other than pH and hardness I don't see why you couldn't use it as-is (other than adding conditioner to neutralize chlorine of course). There are some things you wouldn't be able to keep, of course, but here is a list of some that have done well for me. There are probably others that I'm forgetting. Guppies Lake Kutubu rainbowfish (turquoise rainbowfish) Pearl gouramis Green corys, panda corys, and Corydoras trilineatus Serpae, pristella, lemon, and black neon tetras (though the black neons started dying off after about four years) Amano, along with red cherry shrimp and several other colors Several crypt varieties, corkscrew val, several stem plants, guppy grass, pearl weed, susswassertang, hornwort, and anacharis I see no reason African cichlids wouldn't also do well, but since I enjoy the plants about as much as the livestock I haven't tried them.
  9. Ammonia is less toxic with lower pH, so yes, it might matter.
  10. No, but keep an eye on it and do a water change if it gets much higher. That's not a problem. I'm perfectly fine with 40 ppm. I don't believe it's really needed now, but if it will help your mind it certainly won't hurt anything. That's a very good question. If nitrites are high enough to show up when tested I would definitely recommend doing a water change.
  11. Being 62, it's probably not surprising that I like mostly older music, but when I listen to Pandora on Shuffle (based on my stations) I never know what's coming next. It could be Bonnie Raitt, or Hank Williams Sr., or John Lee Hooker, or Stevie Ray Vaughan, or John Prine, or Jerry Jeff Walker, or Bonnie Bishop, or Ray Wylie Hubbard, or Ray Price, or CCR, or Gene Watson, or Lynyrd Skynyrd, or Freddy Fender, or Otis Redding, or Albert Collins, or Junior Brown, or Cody Jinks, or . . .
  12. They're one of my favorite fish. I currently have somewhere around 15 in my 40 gallon breeder tank. They're especially attractive in planted tanks since their colors contrast nicely with green foliage.
  13. I did. There are none closer than a 4-hour drive.
  14. I would love to get involved with one, but as far as I don't know there aren't any in my area (southeast Texas).
  15. That's understandable. I only tried it because someone was breaking down a tank and wanted to get rid of them and I didn't have a better place for them (there were two, but one died a year or so after I got them). Mine seems to be intimidated by the other fish, especially when I feed frozen blood worms. It likes them, but will pull away if the other fish get too close. I understand this isn't always typical behavior.
  16. Welcome, and I'm jealous. The only egg layers that have reproduced for me were rainbowfish. I'd love for my corys to raise fry, but I've never even seen eggs. Pea puffers are fun to watch. I have one in my 40 gallon community tank.
  17. I use black poster board, cut to fit and secured to the tank with black electrical tape (all of my tanks have black rims, so the tape doesn't show).
  18. You get told that anyone who does fish-in cycling, even when done with regular water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrites very low, is cruelty to animals. 1) The "hardy" fish don't get burned if the water is changed when needed. 2) This also doesn't happen if the water is changed when needed. It's my understanding, from multiple sources, that with low pH the ammonia toxicity is so low that it's not an issue.
  19. As long as the fish keeper is diligent about doing water changes during a fish-in cycle, I don't see a problem with it. There are some people who vehemently disagree (I will leave it at that so I don't get in trouble).
  20. Welcome to the forum. The pictures aren't loading for me, but the small bubbles will go away on their own. Like many other things in this hobby, patience is key.
  21. Welcome to the forum. As far as I know al guppies are the same species, but just different color and fin type strains, so no, it really won't matter, but beware, if you get her some "friends" you will likely soon be overrun with guppies. If you want guppies I'd recommend re-homing her and getting a group of males instead, if you have room. Or just get more chili rasboras. The longer I keep fish the more I enjoy watching larger groups of a single species of fish instead of many different kinds.
  22. Seedlings are notoriously difficult to identify. You may need to wait until it gets larger, but regardless of where it came from, I'd think it's likely to be a terrestrial plant instead of aquatic, and if that's the case I don't expect it to survive longer.
  23. If left floating it will also grow into a dense mass that makes great hiding places for shrimp and fry.
  24. If you're planting trees, most terrestrial ornamental plants, or some aquatic plants (like crypts and swords) that's good advice. For aquatic stem plants that grow from cuttings it doesn't hurt a thing, and especially pearl weed. It will likely be difficult to get it to stay rooted without putting some of the leaves below the top of the substrate.
  25. I'm not sure what you mean "a paint suited better for this application," since the only thing you mentioned is the color. Did you mean is black the best choice? If yes, that depends on you. If you are asking about what kind of paint to use, I'd probably use a semi-gloss enamel.
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