[Fish food. What do you use/recommend?]

I have guppies, corys, snails, and neons in a tank right now, and they all love CommunityPlus Repashy as well.  It's a little shocking how many tiny pest snails come out to chow on it when I feed it though!  I'd like to try the Soilent Green as that seems to have lots of fans around here, just waiting until I have enough other things I need to put in an order!

I feed a rotation of:

X-treme Krill Flakes and Bugbites spirulina (you could get the X-treme community flakes and get a similar mixture without having to buy 2 foods--live and learn!)  

Hikari Fancy Guppy

Hikari Vibra Bites

and Repashy Community Plus gel

The least favorites for me personally with the small fish in this tank are the Vibra Bites.  They seem a little large and hard for most of the small fish in this tank.

I also have stuff to set up a brine shrimp hatcher, which has been on my to-do list for a few weeks.  Getting to that eventually!

 

 

 

 

[Dwarf Chain vs. Kuhli Loaches]

Good info and much appreciated!  I do have a bit of room in my 20 gallon now that the guppies have gone to live in the 90...maybe a smaller group of Kuhlis could go in there.  I really like the idea of something eating the pest snails and being more active, so I was leaning towards the Dwarf Chains but I've just wanted Kuhlies for so long... 🙂 

[Dwarf Chain vs. Kuhli Loaches]

Hello!

Trying to decide what I want to do in my 90 gallon tank and am wondering--what have your experiences/preferences been with Kuhlis vs Dwarf Chain Loaches?  I've always found Kuhlis appealing and have wanted to keep them because of their snake-yness, but after seeing @Irene's videos, those Dwarf Chain Loaches are awfully cute and might eat some of my little tiny pest snails--which IMO would be GREAT!  I know lots of people like the little snails, and I like some snails, but the little pond snails drive me nuts!

I know that the Dwarf Chain Loaches are much pricier, but it would be doable to get a group of 8-12.  I'd likely get around 10 Kuhlis if I went that route.  I hear Kuhlis hide most of the time, but I also hear that the Dwarf Chain Loaches occasionally have issues with long-finned tankmates.  Kuhlis and an alternate option for the snails would also be a good option--but I want to keep the nerites and some of the ramshorns, so I haven't gone the assassin snail route.

Thoughts?

Other tankmates will include:

Guppies

Platys

Corys

An Angelfish

Hillstream loaches

Temp 78, PH 8.0-8.2, GH around 300, KH 200

 

[Repashy & Guppies]

1 hour ago, OceanTruth said:

I kind of like the females more because of that even though they aren’t “man pretty” like the males. Lol.

My females are my secret favorites too 🙂  

[Repashy & Guppies]

I also use Repashy for guppies--I've been using the Community plus but would eventually like to add Soilent Green for variety (when I have another order to put in).  It's SUPER easy to make, you can make as much or as little as you want, it stores for about a week in the fridge, and my guppies (esp. the females for some reason) go NUTS for it.  It's definitely less intimidating than brine shrimp!  I had some little silicone candy molds lying around and usually use that to set it in--they make particularly nice seashell shapes and seem to be a good size for my group.

[Wonder Shell and package claims]

I have hard water to start with and had never heard of Wonder Shells until several came with the used aquarium I recently purchased.  I read the packaging--the reproductive enhancing in particular made my family laugh--and thought "this sounds totally fake!" so I let my daughter paint them as decorations for her room. 

Then, what do I start seeing on videos and forums?  Wonder Shells!  I don't need them with my water, but I've gotten a kick out of the fact that they ARE a real and useful product despite the very "quackery" sounding label!  Not sure if I just didn't pay attention before that because they're always referenced with soft-water or what, but they keep popping up now!  

Here's an example of how the ones in MY house look!  Whoops!

[Med Trio & Ammonia]

I used a well-cycled sponge and Fritzime in the QT I recently set up and made it through the med trio okay, but now that I'm feeding before doing round 2 with the paracleanse, I'm having issues with nitrites--no ammonia, but I'm having to dose with prime and do water changes.  So, I think it's just doing the best you can. Good luck!

[Purigen PSA & Question]

Ironically, I did the same thing yesterday with my first ever bag of purigen!  I DID rinse it, but not well enough and I have a bit of haze.  Looking forward to hearing the answer (I think 😉).  

[Dumbest thing you've done with your aquarium....]

I finally replaced my 10 gal black kit lid with glass.  I reached to plug in the filter again behind the tank and my bad cord management meant that everything was twisted up, so I leaned over the tank to untwist everything...that lid lasted a total of 10 minutes--GLASS lids and leaning elbows don't mix. 🙄

[The best thing I've ever made]

What a fantastic idea!  It looks very well-made!  Nice work!

[QT for Livebearers--add treatment for Camallanus?]

I've decided to add levamisole for livebearers from the fish store.  I'm still debating about the trio I got from a local breeder with the cory cats. 

They're all going through the med trio right now.  Then I'll do a 2nd round of paracleanse.  I just haven't decided what the risk level is like with the camallanus worms when it's coming from an individual's fishroom rather than a wholesaler/store.  I know he's been breeding this strain from his own stock for 5 years...and I normally wouldn't treat the corys, but if they're in the same QT tank, wouldn't they have been exposed to it too if the guppies have it?  Sigh.

[Oops, the root tab popped out]

I had the same thing happen with about 10 of them yesterday in my new tank...they had been completely buried.  Now I'm wondering if I need to re-dose them.  I'm a wee bit annoyed.  I'd heard about them "floating" but didn't understand that it happened AFTER they were buried.  Guess I'll be poking holes in them next time.

[What did you get done today?]

This didn't all happen today, but the past 3 have been busy!  

-My husband spent most of Saturday plumbing in his plan for our new 95 gallon tank, and other than the fact that the cpvc valves we bought are poorly made and drip when they're open (working on a replacement plan) it's AWESOME!  He only gets 1 weekend off a month, so it was a pretty big deal for it to get spent on MY project, too!  There's hot water, cold water, a connecting hose so they can be mixed, and a drain pipe all hooked up and functioning! (pic 1)

-Since he got water plumbed, we filled up the tank!  It's now in the murky bacteria bloom stage (yuck) but is already clearing a bit.  Dosed with Fritzime 7, added an established sponge filter, and have a 2nd sponge seeding to add later this week.  Couldn't resist sticking in a few guppies after a couple days of letting it sit and feeding it with fish food.  I'll keep watching ammonia and nitrite as it establishes and dose with prime or move everyone back into the old tank if I need to. (pic 2)

-I also went and picked up fish and plants from the very first fish club auction I've ever participated in.  5 green cory cats, a trio of purple dragon guppies (though they're more pink, which is fine b/c they're just going to mix in with my yellow and blue ones after they finish quarantine), italian and jungle val, crypts, a small stem of pogostemon stellatus octopus, lots of dwarf sag, and java moss.  Will add more crypts and anubias that I've ordered...just waiting.

-The night before I picked up the fish I set up a QT tank for the very first time.  It's in a plastic tub with a broken edge with a seeded sponge filter, fritzime 7 dose, and fake plants.  It's cloudy looking, but everyone seems to be doing well so far.  One cory went and got himself wedged into a fake plant, but I freed him this morning with no apparent ill effects.  Treating with the QT trio and then will do a 2nd dose of Paracleanse before they become the next addition to the big tank in a few weeks. (pic 3)

Sorry for the poor quality photos.

 

[Black sand substrate]

I just put it in my 95 gallon too--2 50 lb bags at Tractor Supply for $20 and 2 kids who liked washing it.  They did curbside pickup, loaded it for me, and it looks really good!  I got the medium grit, which is quite coarse--it's what most people online recommended.

[Stocking for 95 Gallon--too big of a cleanup crew?]

Well, I only won the green corys tonight (5 for $5--no one else bid!), but they're the same species as the albinos and bronze corys so I think we can add more to the school as we go.  I paid a lot more for the 10 val plants!

[Stocking for 95 Gallon--too big of a cleanup crew?]

Just now, Colu said:

Have you consider snails and bristlesnose plecos for your clean up crew

I'm sure we'll have snails too, and I considered a bristlenose, but I want to do swords, and I hear they like to eat those.  My choice of cleanup crew fish is because I just plain LIKE all of those fish!

[Stocking for 95 Gallon--too big of a cleanup crew?]

Specifically for today with the auction, I need to decide between 1 lot of 5 corys or 2 lots for a total of 9 🙂  Opinions?

[Stocking for 95 Gallon--too big of a cleanup crew?]

Hello everyone,

The 95 Gallon project is progressing to the point of making some stocking decisions.  Currently, there's a very cheap, very nice group of corydoras available on our local fish club auction, and they're precipitating my question.  I LOVE bottom-dweller/cleanup crew fish, but I don't want to end up overstocking.  Here's what I'd LIKE to do (all added very gradually.  Starting with 8-10 guppies who will increase from there)

-Livebearers, main focus of the tank--mostly guppies, plus a few platys and they'll increase their own population to be controlled eventually with the planned last addition of the tank:
-1 Angelfish

Then I'd really LIKE to add--

-Kuhli loaches

-Corydoras

-Hillstream loaches

Too many cleanup fish?  How many of each for the best behavior/balance?  With a population of guppies/platys and an angel (eventually), how many of each would you suggest for a 95 gallon tank?  I know the guppys and platys will carry plenty of bioload as they reproduce, so how do I figure out the bioload of the "other guys"?

[Anubius and Bucephalandra Failure to Thrive and A Little Freakout/Vent (sorry).]

Is it just me, or does the anubias leaf in particular look like it's been frozen?  At least that's what my outdoor plants look like after a frost!

[Aquarium Biology Science Experiments]

My favorite biology project ever was testing to see where on drinking fountains had the most bacteria and what cleaners worked best (result--the buttons are BY FAR the dirtiest and don't drink out of the drinking fountains near the cafeteria!).  If I wanted to aquarium-ize that experiment, I'd think about maybe swabbing and figuring out where most bacteria grow in a tank--are all surfaces colonized evenly?  Do plants affect it?  Substrate type?  Filter?  Lights?

[Lonely schooling survivor]

13 minutes ago, Alexa said:

 Or see this as an excuse to set up another tank and buy more white clouds. 😋

That would definitely be the most fun option--and also the most unlikely to get "approved" by the budget police .  If he (the minnow, not the budget policeman😛) is still alive after the big new tropical tank is going for a while, maybe I'll work on starting a cold water one.

[Lonely schooling survivor]

My question for today is what do you do when you have a group of schooling fish that slowly die off over a period of years leaving one or two lonely survivors?  

I started with a school of 10 white clouds a few years ago, and I'm down to one.  He's gotten skinnier and just looks stressed out.  I've been treating for internal parasites because of some white poo with his guppy co-habitants, and I figured it couldn't hurt with him being skinny too, but I really think he's just stressed out.  What do other people do when you have a single lonely schooling fish who's lost all his friends?  I want to keep the tank warmer than white clouds like, so I'm not looking to get him a new school to hang with...but I'm feeling bad for him.

[All male guppies tank?]

I agree--it's the only way to do it if you don't want tons of babies!  I've had a male only tank for a little over a year now, and it's gone okay--they do chase each other around some and one kind started to pick on males of the other color pattern, so you could watch out for anyone getting bullied, but the number you have sounds like a good number to spread out any aggression but not overcrowd things IMO.

[Lights on 20 Gal High]

I swapped my lid lights for a Nicrew Plus Planted light about a month ago.  I have anubias, java fern, water sprite, moss balls in my 20 high tank, and I'm happy with the amount of light it provides.  I have some brown diatom algae showing up on the tank glass with the increased lighting.  Haven't noticed a change with the anubias (they were doing well before with the tank lights), but the java fern and water sprite are happier.  I went with these just because they were a cheap option and I was on a sneaky budget where I didn't want $ questions getting doodads for the smaller tanks while I have a big tank project in the works.  😉

[What algae eater is best for my tank??]

There's a really good video that @Irene made comparing Otos and Hillstream loaches Otocinclus vs Hillstream Loach.  I found it helpful, so it might be handy for you too!