Andy's Fish Den

Yes it is very easy to get hundreds of baby shrimp. I got into the neocaridina shrimp game over 10 years ago when a lot of them were first showing up, I initially bought 10 each of bloody mary, and blue dream shrimp, and later on I pretty much built my entire fish room as it is now with what I made from selling shrimp. Now, fortunately for buyers, but unfortunately for sellers, the prices have come down from what I was selling packs for 7-8 years ago, but it is very easy to produce some to be able to have a good sized colony by only buying 10-12 shrimp to start and then be able to sell some to a LFS or anybody and make a little extra money to buy supplies.

That particular light is meant for saltwater and reef tanks. If you are looking at the aquatop brand lighting, I would be looking more at this one: https://www.aquatop.com/skyaqua-led-light-6500k-par-50.html

@Fish Folk one of the board members from my club has been scouting out the creek/ stream that we are going to, and said that he has found rainbow darters and shiners quite readily in it. I would like to get some darters, but I won't be bringing any home as I don't have a tank for natives and don't have room for one right now.

My local club is doing a native fish collecting trip this weekend., I'm excited to go out and catch some and see what we have in our local streams. I am in Ohio, and our DNR has Father's day weekend as a free fish weekend, where you don't need a fishing license to go fishing or to collect native fish, so quite a few clubs in the state do an event like this, so maybe check in your local states and see if any others offer something similar.

Check the directions of the UV clarifier you installed. For a UV filter to work properly, it will have a set amount of water it can work in, so if the flow through the unit is higher, it will not work properly. I have not used one for years, but the one I used on a reef tank before had it's own powerhead unit matched to the UV unit so the flow was correct. How bright green was the water before you did the black out? Did it seem to "dull" the green? If so, then it may have been working, and just needs longer than the time you had it blacked out. How blacked out was the tank? I've seen when people do a black out they just use a sheet or a blanket, and some light will penetrate through. You need to make sure it is completely blacked out, zero light getting through to the water, so front, back sides, top, even bottom if you have a thin layer of substrate. A lot of people will think they have a background so no light gets through, and it may along the edges. If none of that works, me personally, I would drain as much water out using a gravel vac getting any detritus out of the substrate and refill and start over, alsop being sure to clean filter media as well. If the lights are dimmable, turn them down and if not, put on a timer and gradually increase.

No I have not kept that species.

I'm just guessing from what he looks like in the pics, but he should be able to easily take fuzzy or even small hopper mice. When I kept snakes several years ago, I fed prey items that were up to 1.5 times the diameter of the body.

I have kept and spawned several species of corydoras over my years, and each one is different. I have aeneus that spawn a few times a week with no triggers. Some will spawn only if there has been a weather front come through that cause a drop in barometric pressure, others will spawn if I do a water change using cooler water. Then, I have others that no matter what, I have not been able to get to spawn, and no matter what the season is.

All my shrimp tanks have pool filter sand in them. I find using a dark substrate such as stratum or eco-complete makes it difficult to see any of the darker colored shrimp. One time, I figured red would be easy to see on it, but they blend in pretty well. Maybe if you are just wanting to have a few in a planted tank one of those substrates would work, but I was trying to raise as many as I could to sell, and the dark color substrate made it harder for me to see and thus catch in a net.

If you decide to go with a sump, google the "beananimal overflow" it uses three holes drilled in the overflow, and once you get it dialed in, is dead silen. It is the go to design for reef keepers for their tanks, as it is silent and redundant so no flooding if one of the overflows gets plugged.

I use two sponge filters in any tank that is over 24" long in my fish room. I think it helps a lot with flow from one side to the other, in the longer tanks, and would highly recommend using two in a four foot tank.

I saw a show several years ago on TV, maybe something like Dirty Jobs , they were showing a lake someplace down south that water hyacinth and duckweed had grown so thick that boats could not navigate. There was a boat with a conveyer sort of thing on the front that would pull the hyacinth and some duckweed up out of the water and into a pile that then got off loaded into a dump truck to be taken someplace to be composted. I remember them saying that they were working on something new to be able to strain the duckweed because a lot of it fell through and went back into the waterway so there was some areas that was chock full of duckweed and it was growing very thick, and becoming difficult for boats to get through.

I would do nothing as far as putting foods in ahead of time. Whenever I go away on vacation, my fish room does not get fed while I am gone. The only time that I have fed any outdoor fish is when I had a goldfish and koi pond several years ago. Now, with the tub ponds and more natural outdoor ponds, there is so much life living in there, fish will be fine. I know many people, including myself that keep outdoor ponds and tub ponds that never feed the fish out in them the whole time that they are outside. they get plenty of food from the micro-organisms growing all over underwater, as well as the bugs and stuff that land on the surface.

Personally, I like an assortment of colors, unless they are wilds, then all the same strain. I have a 75 gallon discus tank, with six fish in it, and there are five different color strains. I am on the hunt for one more discus to add to it, and it will be different than any of the others that are already in the tank.

All the stands and racks that I have built over my 30+ years of fishkeeping I have made out of standard construction grade 2x4 and 2x6 lumber from either Home Depot or Lowes. I build them using the dado method that several people have shown on YouTube such as Dan's Fish. If I have time I will paint each piece before I assemble, others I have done after its together, some have not been painted at all. One thing I do is put a layer of paint or silicone on the bottoms of the legs that will be contacting the ground, so that if I do spill water, it can't be wicked up into the wood.

I wouldn't use the paver sand, I am not sure what is in it, but it is made to brush into the cracks between pavers and then wet down to lock them in place, so it may turn into a solid block when you add water

The tanks in the co-op that are only supported on the ends are 20 high. I don't know that I would do it with 40 breeders.

Even running a powerhead on the riser tubes, you will get a build up under the plates. I haven't run a UGF in year, but when it was popular back in 90s I had one in a lot of my tanks and had several with powerheads, and I still got build up. Now, maybe I didn't have a strong enough powerhead? But, I had a 125 with the biggest powerhead made at the time on the two corner riser tubes and there was still build up under the plates. There will be areas of the gravel that will fill with waste, whether its uneaten food, fish poop or whatever, but it would take a lot to completely clog the gravel bed and thus the filter. It's no different than in a tank without a UGF or even bare bottom, you will find areas in the tank that waste will build up due to dead area of flow or around rocks, wood, etc. It will be the same and build up in the gravel under those things, the only difference is that the flow of the UGF will pull it down into the gravel.

If there is no power to the solenoid, then no gas should be released. The only time any gas should be able to flow out of the regulator is when power is turned on to the solenoid.

Sounds like the solenoid is not working properly. If you put your hand on the solenoid and plug it into an outlet and then unplug it, you should be able to feel and possibly even hear a click as it opens and shuts.

All the tanks in my fish room have the black trim, your basic Aqueon tanks, and I fill like others have said to just above the trim so that you can't see the waterline. I have a rimless tank in my bedroom, and it has a sump with a built in weir and overflow, and the waterline for that runs about 3/4" from the top edge.

I have an Alita pump the same size, and my loop is made out of 3/4"I am not sure what difference 1" PVC will make, or if it would even be noticeable.

I would not worry about it. Pull the eggs, and hatch them however you normally would. Once the fry hatch you can them put the grain f substrate back in the tank if you wish.

It is all relative to the demand, good old supply vs demand. They may have been introduced to the hobby in 2006, but I don't recall ever seeing them in an LFS until within the last 6-8 years maybe. I remember the first time I saw them in an LFS they were going for $9.99 each. I know several years ago there was several YouTube creators putting them in a bunch of tanks so the demand spiked for them. The last time I was in a LFS nd remember seeing a price they were $5.99 each.

It would depend on what the room temperature is in the room that the tank is sitting in, and what temperature that you want the tank to be. If you keep your house at 68* or the tank is in your unfinished basement, and you are wanting to have the water at 76-79* then it may struggle, and never shut off. But if your house is kept at 72* and you only want the tank temp to be 76* then it would be fine.