Jump to content
Watch our video on the rules of this forum.

Sapere_Ceta

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    210

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Sapere_Ceta

  1. Sapere_Ceta
    Morning, everyone! I just finished up some tank maintenance. I trimmed a lot of the unhealthy looking leaves away and brushed away detritus, leftover sand, and a little bit of diatom algae off from the leaves. I also fixed the substrate up a bit, replanted some of the plants that came loose, and pulled off a little more of the biofilm that was starting to encase the plants. The filter and heater will eventually be swapped as well, and be placed on the other side, rather than staying on the right. I actually really enjoy doing maintenance on this tank. I have barely been getting three hours of sleep this whole week because of the amount of pain I’m in. So having something to keep me a little busy without being too harsh on my body is nice. It’s tranquil too.
  2. Sapere_Ceta
    After doing a water change yesterday and cleaning off the glass and plants, I let the twenty gallon settle. I did video some of the copepods and worms in the tank that were swimming around and on the glass before I water changed and cleaned it. It was pretty cool! There were so many, and I still see a good amount. Here’s a photo of a few of them, the rounder white ones being the copepods, and the longer thin white ones being the tiny worms. I left the back panel and a little bit of the side panels untouched, until I replace the equipment. It’ll be easier to get in between everything after that. Today, I added some root tabs to the tank, because I’m starting to see some deficiency and needed to dose them for the root feeding plants especially. I started dosing my fertilizers again lately as well, as I was waiting until the plants adjusted to the big transfer they had. Combined, it should take care of my potassium deficiency, which seems to be the only deficiency occurring. I had the same thing occur in the plant holding bin, though the same additions seemed to solve it. The water cleared up, and the biofilm isn’t as prominent tonight. It’s nice seeing the tank at night before the light goes off. I’ve been laying down watching it for a little while. It’s pretty calming, especially when I’m not feeling well. Gandr also let me take some photos of him, a little closer this time! I made it pretty quick to not frighten him though. Little guy seems in better spirits, and I couldn’t be more relieved that he finally ate.
  3. Sapere_Ceta
    I got him to eat!! I’ve been trying food one by one, and today, Gandr finally ate thawed out krill! I got a very terrible photo of him eating seconds haha. Can you guys see it in his tiny little graspers? Too cute! I’m not sure if he’ll continue to keep improving, but this gives me hope! I’m not sure why his molting behavior is slowly dissipating.. everyone I’ve talked to and shown the behavior agreed it was a bad molt, along with the people I got him from. Nothing has changed in my water. Yet, he’s being more active, not curling his tail as much, going on his side, wiggling his legs, or going onto his back. I’m honestly a little baffled as to what’s occurring and if he’s okay or not. I reached out to a lot of people on forums that are more crayfish oriented, and we were all still stumped as to what could be the cause. There’s times he’ll start the behaviors again, but it’s not nearly as frequent. I haven’t seen it all today so far, for instance. Someone messaged me saying their crayfish would just do that for seemingly no reason and that it was normal for that particular crayfish. I’m not sure if Gandr is a similar circumstance, or if he’s going to keep improving, or what the cause was. But I’m grateful my little dude finally ate, and we’ll take the rest on day by day.
  4. Sapere_Ceta
    Afternoon, everyone. So far, Gandr still cannot molt, and he’s seemed to have stopped trying, though sometimes he will go back to it, but he is too fatigued to continue. He’s been walking around lately more often, but is very clumsy and still under-active. He will occasionally fall, though not very often, luckily. I still can’t get him to eat (I’ve been trying blanched fruits and vegetables, high quality shrimp pellets, decaying plant matter), and it’s been a week. I’ve spread out my water changes more, as they are stressful to him, although I try and make them very small, quiet, with no movement, and drawn out in duration. I thought maybe using water from my well established main tank would be less stressful, as I’m not having to use dechlorinated tap water (they are the same parameters). But, he handled it the same way, with a lot of stress and the little guy has been huddling under a leaf for a long time. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to have him for long term, and if it gets to the point where he’s struggling too much, I’ll have to euthanize him with clove oil, since I don’t want him to suffer. But, if he manages to molt or somehow make it through (which I’m not entirely sure would be possible), then I will go through with setting up a large habitat for him. I really wanted to do a large sandy space, with deep substrate he can burrow in, the same leftover rocks as what I used for the twenty gallon, leaf litter, and have an out of water area with some of my house plants that would enjoy that environment. But I’ve since held off on making the final purchases, because I wouldn’t be able to refund the expenses, if he doesn’t make it through. Although I really want to start readying everything, it wouldn’t be the correct approach. So, I’m begrudgingly holding off.
  5. Sapere_Ceta
    Well, he still hasn’t made any progress molting. He was trying all through last night again, but he seems to be more tired and had to take a lot of breaks. Is a bad molt typically this difficult for them to deal with? I just got him a almost a week ago (the whole time he had been preparing to molt, then trying to molt for the past three days out of that time). I know people can occasionally intervene when it comes to drop eye, an overgrown Wen, things like that. Is there potentially a way I could loosen the shell, maybe right where the cephalic groove is (the part between the head and the rest of the carapace), if it still isn’t going well?
  6. Sapere_Ceta
    Although I didn’t use wonder shell, I added powdered egg shells to the water. I do that with my main tank as well, though I’ve never had a problem with calcium being low. I also have added iodine a few days ago, as I heard it also can help.
  7. Sapere_Ceta
    I managed to just take a picture of one of his legs. It’s all twisted, like it’s almost doing a figure 8. He hasn’t seem to make any progress at all the past few days, and he does this almost all day, periodically taking breaks, making doing a short walk, and then going back to trying to molt.
  8. Sapere_Ceta
    The crayfish is approximately a 4.5” Australian Red Claw crayfish. I got him recently, and he was shipped to me while he was nearing the beginning of molting. This seems to have stressed him out, and he seems to be struggling to molt. He never has eaten since getting him (this month the 21st). the 22nd or 23rd, he started being less active, waving his legs around above his head, and laying somewhat lopsided on the ground. Fast-forward to the 24th til currently, and he’s been falling onto his side and waving his legs and claws around periodically. Occasionally, he gets up to walk around, and does so very clumsily, while some of his legs remain completely outstretched. Tonight, I finally got a better glimpse at him (as he’s now doing the behavior in front of me every now and again), and some of his legs are looking twisted up. I have iodine in the tank that was added a few days ago (maybe two). But I want to know if there’s anything else I can do. Should the molting process be taking this long, and is it normal to not see any progress so far? I’ve heard of people intervening, and I’m curious if that would be on the table if no progress is made by the time the molting should be done. Though I wouldn’t want to risk it, if it seemed far too dangerous or stressful compared to just leaving him be (as getting involved usually makes things worse). Here’s how he’s been looking, if that will aid in any advice. Him when he’s laying on his side (often what he’s been doing: Him when he was walking a little today:
  9. Sapere_Ceta
    You got it! Haha. I do, I dose Easy Green and Fluval Gro+ Micronutrients. Occasionally I will even add crushed egg shells leftover from what my mom makes for her breakfast, which slowly disintegrate and add extra calcium.
  10. Sapere_Ceta
    @Koi So I have some floating. These are the best looking out of the bunch. So I’m hoping they make a comeback. The rest have sunk on their own 😂
  11. Sapere_Ceta
    Nice! I’m glad they are bouncing back for you! I think a few will start looking better for my tank. But a lot of them are sinking down and the leaves are really degrading. Still giving it a go though! It’s nice to know even some rootless leafs are coming back for you.. so cool how plants can be very resilient!
  12. Sapere_Ceta
    Decided to name him after the Greybeard, Wulfgar. The resemblance is uncanny, am I right? 😂
  13. Sapere_Ceta
    Haha, I did exactly that actually. The only ones that looked seriously bad were given to the crayfish. Anything with roots or was mostly intact went into the main tank 😄 That’s awesome you see some new growth already!
  14. Sapere_Ceta
    Gandr was on his side most of last night and moving his legs a lot. He was incrementally doing it for hours. This morning, I woke up and he was in the front of the tank. He occasionally will try again, though he hasn’t seemed to make any progress. On occasion, he’ll walk around. But, he’s more clumsy and will keep his limbs occasionally outstretched. He’s very determined though at continuing to try and molt, so I admire that. I took a quick photo of him this morning, but I am keeping my distance to avoid stressing him, so it’s not the best quality. When I can see him, I want to take occasional pictures day by day to see if there’s any change in his appearance or if I can see something loosening. The company I got him from got back to me, and they are at the same conclusion that it sounds like it could be a bad molt potentially. But I’m happy to have reached out to them, just in case they speculated it could be something else.
  15. Sapere_Ceta
    It’s alright. It was pretty disappointing, and I definitely agree about questioning if I’d ever buy from them again or not (I probably would never). But, hopefully they will respond eventually and maybe reach some good consensus about how to handle or what to change next time for other customers.
  16. Sapere_Ceta
    The plants arrived in pretty bad condition. For a pretty expensive purchase, for my budget at least, it was pretty disappointing. I also couldn’t help but chuckle because they packaged things so wonky. Two of the plants were refunded without my knowledge and therefore won’t be happening. The anubias nana pinto and red root floaters were wrapped into smashed nearly completely dry paper towel. The anubias nana pinto was bone dry, along with most of the red root floaters. The red root floaters were smashed together so badly that they were basically mush, and the leaves crumbled away or stuck to the paper towel. Both of the plants were covered in duckweed and snails (which isn’t too bothersome, but a bit of a nuisance). The hilarious part is that I finally went to unbox the last plant, which is Tissue Culture. I’m staring at the packaging befuddled because not only is it sealed in a bag, but it’s also completely wrapped in super saturated paper towel.. a plastic sealed container wrapped in wet paper towel! The only paper towel that was appropriately wet too 🙃 So I ended up emailing them with a good amount of pictures as well, but I’m not sure if I will hear anything, because they haven’t really communicated, until I started sending messages every now and then asking about the package. But I thought it would be worth it to inform them, maybe if there’s a resolution or an acknowledgement that the package maybe could have gone better. I’m not sure. I always feel bad for messaging companies if something is wrong, but they might not even know there’s a problem with something occurring until it’s brought up. I tried to save as many of the red root floaters as I could, but they were total mush, and then being stuck together just made it worse. Like 85% were all rootless and just a pile of mushy, deteriorating leaves. The photos really can’t do it justice for how bad it was, especially when they were separated. The rest of the plants were planted and are settling in. I added the plants in bad condition or completely deteriorated by pieces to Gandr’s tank whenever he’s ready to hopefully eat them in the future. Making he likes expensive dinners and tears from my dismay 🤣 Meanwhile.. Gandr is trying to break the shell it seems. He’s been on his side off and on, stretching his limbs and trying to bend. He’ll take occasional breaks every now and then, standing back up. He’s made himself a little leaf “burrito” to try and molt in. I don’t know how he made the leaf so curled up, but I’m impressed by his creativity. The Indian Ricefish have been showing a little bit of spawning behavior, though none of the females have eggs they’re carrying. The males are wiggling and showing off. I’m not sure if it’s to impress the females or to ward off/compete against other males. But it’s been neat to watch when it happens.
  17. Sapere_Ceta
    I’m very thankful for the internet haha. I’m hoping so too. But the fish are acting completely unaffected, as well as Gandr. So I think it’s alright, but I definitely need to keep an eye on it. I don’t think so because the water had 0ppm ammonia in it since I had him, and it was three days when he started showing molting issues. Definitely think it was just bad timing with shipping. I test every day on both bins, and today after a water change was the only day it spiked.
  18. Sapere_Ceta
    I’m doing some research because I’ve never had this happen before. The two small bins have filters that were added two days ago with some biological media from the large filter that’s been cycled on the main tank. Apparently it could be chloramine from the tap water causing it to read as ammonia (when it’s actually ammonium, which is less toxic). I use Fritz Complete Water Condition which neutralizes them, but that would make sense why it still is reading high (it’s waiting for the bacteria to eat it up while remaining non-toxic or much less toxic). I think to be safe, I’m going to add a small amount of conditioner to the water, and I’ve heard people dose the same way with Prime. So maybe I can dose it until the bacteria starts consuming it more and it stabilizes. I did a smell test for my tap water today, and it definitely is getting a more concentrated pool smell. My sense of smell is really bad because I have terrible allergies, so I think it’s maybe getting more concentrated and I couldn’t smell it until now (when it’s super concentrated). But once I add everything, I will monitor behavior and if that worsens, the main tank water will need to be used to WC for the QT tanks.
  19. Sapere_Ceta
    Well my tap water suddenly has 1.0ppm ammonia in it apparently. I did a water test today after I took a shower and my tanks started showing 1.0ppm, which had be pretty startled. I did a water test on the tap and it was the same. I wanted to see if the test is malfunctioning, so I tested it on my main tank, and my main tank didn’t seem to show any sign of ammonia (the yellows are a little difficult for me to differentiate). So I added an ammonia guard on one tank to see if I get any results within 15 that agree (though if I see nothing in 15 minutes, I’m going to water change with water from the main tank). I don’t understand how everything would be this high after a day of one water change, unless the ammonia was truly that high from the tap (it never has been before). But I’m going to try and confirm soon, if not, water change is going to occur immediately after.
  20. Sapere_Ceta
    Gandr is looking a little better today. He’s still doing a lot of stretching of his limbs and body out and has been under-active, but I haven’t see that sprawled out laying so far today. I’m hopeful the iodine will help through the molting process. The fish are all doing well through their salt treatment so far. They all sleep in the leaf litter, and it’s cute seeing them sometimes dart in and out of it. I have yet to name the betta still, but I notice he has Grey coloration on his mouth that travels to the underside of his head. I’m thinking of naming him after a Graybeard from Skyrim Elder Scrolls V (my favorite game that I used to play for seven years). On another note, those rare plants are finally supposed to arrive today! They responded back to me and shipped them out. I just hope they weren't sitting in a box for weeks.
  21. Sapere_Ceta
    It can be pretty stressful and difficult on them. Juveniles seem to have a slightly less difficult time, and the molting process is typically much shorter for them. For larger crayfish, it can take longer and be more difficult. Since he seems to have been preparing to molt just before he was shipped to me, that added stress can ruin the entire molting process. But iodine seems to help prevent this in both shrimp and crayfish when used previously to molting, and when used during, it sometimes can help get that bad molt unstuck or finally shed off, if the crayfish or shrimp struggle with it.
  22. Sapere_Ceta
    Alright, I added the iodine. He’s starting to thrash and stretch his legs out. Definitely seemingly trying to loosen that shell. Hopefully this will help. I’m going to keep an eye on him, but give him his space as much as I can, in order to limit added stress.
  23. Sapere_Ceta
    He finally stood up for the first time for today a second ago. He still doesn’t seem to be doing well, but I think if I dose some iodine, it can help with the process. It could be that he’s struggling to loosen the shell potentially. Though I’m not entirely sure.
  24. Sapere_Ceta
    My mom finally found a store that has Iodine, thank goodness. I’m hoping it will help, but I am a little worried. But I think it could maybe do the trick. I was looking online to try and find possible ways to help, and it seems like this is pretty high up on the list of recommendations. My mom has been a pretty significant help in all of this, and she kept fish even before I was born and for many years after. So I definitely am lucky to be able to go over different approaches and ideas with her. I feel pretty bad for not being up the later half of the day yesterday. But, I’ve been feeling very bad, symptom/health wise, and was asleep for almost all of the day and slept through the night entirely. But what matters is that action is being taken now I suppose.
  25. Sapere_Ceta
    My mom is trying to find some iodine for me today. I haven’t been able to get the crayfish to eat (I’ve tried blanched vegetables, shrimp pellets, decaying plant matter). I woke up and he has been laying somewhat lopsided on the substrate, and he’s been waving his legs above his body. I did a water test right away to make sure the parameters were okay, and they all were. I have the sad inclination that he was going to molt before he was shipped, and the stress triggered it to go badly (given the symptoms and behavioral changes). I did a 75% water change after to try and ease the stress, as I heard that can sometimes help. I know iodine is said to help the molting process if they go badly, assuming that is the issue. So my mom offered to drive around and see if she can find some iodine, but so far she can’t find a single store that carries it (all of the pet stores around us are terrible). I’ve also reached out to the business I purchased the crayfish from, but it’s going to probably be a while for them to respond back. I have a terrible feeling this is going to go badly.
×
×
  • Create New...