KaitieG
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Posts posted by KaitieG
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I am growing out my first successfuly-saved-from-the-angelfish batch of koi swordtail fry (plus a few random guppies) and my 7 year old son noticed that we have two that appear to be albinos. I got this picture of one next to a normal colored sibling--they have no black, only orange and white, and their eyes are different. In thousands of guppy fry I've never had them throw an albino, so this caught me by surprise!
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I think @JettsPapa makes a good point, but my experience has been more varied. I had them not take off at all in one new tank (a 5 gallon), but I had good luck transferring them into an established 10.
I recently set up a new, sterile 10 with new substrate and new water (cycled filter and media from an established tank--not sterile) and loads of plants as a fry grow-out. I threw some extra shrimp in there since the colony in my 20 was getting pretty big, and I expected that they wouldn't do very well with it being a new tank.
They have taken off! It's by far my most active colony. They're always out and about, probably because the only fish in there are small cories and fry the size of a grain of rice. I was just commenting yesterday that I can't believe they're doing so well in an unestablished tank.
Can you spot 8 in this picture (there are about 50 blue velvets in the tank, but that's how many were visible IRL)
And more soon!
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I have PH 8.2 and 300-350GH and have also struggled with Java Fern. It's totally died in 3 of my tanks and hangs on but has brown spots in my 95 gallon. What has done well:
Val (not sure what type...I tried 2 different ones that looked similar. One died out and the other went nuts), crypts, Amazon Swords, Anubias, Hygrophila Angustifolia, Pogostemmon Stelatus Octopus, Dwarf Sag, Dwarf Water Lettuce.
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Lowering PH is usually done by using RO water--but it can be tricky to keep things stable and can be a pain. My Ph is 8.2 and I just leave it there. If your fish are mainly coming from your lake, it seems like the fish should be well adapted to it. That said, the higher the Ph the more "Toxic" ammonia is to fish, so I'd start dosing with prime and keep doing big water changes.
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I had a betta with neocardina shrimp for over a year--the colony grew like crazy. Might depend on the betta, but mine was totally uninterested in the shrimp. Angelfish is a different story.
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I'm not a brine shrimp expert, but here's my experience:
1. Most of what I've heard has been "freeze for long term storage" BUT let them come up to room temp for a day before trying to hatch. That's worked fine for me.
2. I've never reused the water. It would be super convenient, but you have all the shells and stuff in there after they hatch. It's not too hard to mix the solution up, and it keeps anything nasty from getting started growing in the dishes/equipment if you give it a rinse after each batch. Maybe someone else with more experience will have done more of a "continuous add" system, but it's not something I've heard of.
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From what I've read, shrimp and fish don't usually share diseases. So, when I added shrimp to my fish tank, I did not QT the shrimp. If I were to add additional shrimp to the already established shrimp population (which I've avoided doing) I'd QT those without meds and just watching for any signs of disease.
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Seems like it could only add more places for bacteria to thrive to me! You can add decorations and plants as you go, so gravel should be the same.
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I live in Wisconsin, and last winter I had an order go from Seattle to Pennsylvania, back to Washington, make a stop in Colorado, and then FINALLY come to me. Guess it decided to travel the "road less taken."
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For stem plants specifically, I've had great success with Hygrophila angustifolia in my super hard Wisconsin water. I've had failures with Brazilian Pennywort, Scarlet Temple, and Water Sprite.
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Seems like a fantastic idea to me!
If you leave it in 6-8 hours it should come out nice and tender too 😉
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On 12/3/2021 at 1:24 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:
@KaitieG that's a vintage or antique pan. They're the only ones I use. As you said they're lighter, smoother and the best nonstick money could buy.
Yeah--we like it a lot because of the smooth finish. My mother in law has one she uses a lot that has been at the farm house for several generations--this was as close as we could get. My husband has tried to figure out the differences in the casting, but no matter how much we cook in the new pan, it just doesn't quite feel or look the same. We've actually considered sanding it (the new--15 year old--one) down so it's smooth and then re-seasoning it...not sure if that's a terrible idea or not. I'll let you know the results if we ever give it a try.
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On 12/3/2021 at 1:28 PM, Patrick_G said:
I’ve had similar issues and I have soft low ph water.
Edit: I should revise this to say my Coop strips were detecting some ammonia when the API wasn’t. This was in a newly set up, heavily stocked tank with pre-seeded media so some ammonia might be expected if the filters weren’t quite up to the bioload.Well there goes that theory! 😃
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My brother has exactly 3 pieces of cookware: a cast iron griddle, a cast iron fry pan, and a cast iron dutch oven. I have the same lodge pan that @Streetwise bought and I like it well enough for things--especially bread and pizza, but my favorite is this one. It's an old garage sale find, weighs about half what the newer lodge pan weighs and has this nice smoooooooth finish.
Pro tip from my husband: if you burn hash browns in it, DO NOT heat up a bunch of oil in it and then try to scrape it out with a plastic utensil. I just got to smell the whole thing while I was teaching my class this morning 🤨
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Thanks! Got that as a free piece when I bought some local snails and shrimp. It's one of my favorite plants now and I've cut off huge chunks to use in my other tanks (grows like a weed...unlike the Java fern that barely hangs on). I like the bright green contrast with the other plants.
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My bottles are about 6 ish months old and I haven't had any pads fall off--I think the issue is resolved.
One thing I'd mention is that every single tank I have registers trace ammonia according the the Co-op test strips. API and Tetra test strips show none, and since most of them have been established for a long time, I dont think there's any there.
I just set up a new tank again recently, so I was testing for ammonia (I had a used sponge filter), which I often skip on older tanks. Noticed it turned pale green, so tested all the other tanks too--same exact color. Then I tested with the other test kits and had the expected "0" reading.
I'm not sure if it's an issue with me having super hard, high ph water or something else, but you might want to double check what "0" looks like on that test with your water and other test kits if you're using it to determine when you do water changes...you might be doing lots of extra ones otherwise. 🙂 I've found the other tests on the Co-op strips to be quite accurate for me, though, and definitely more convenient than the liquid tests.
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We're working on getting my 7 year old more interested in reading, and based on a suggestion from his teacher he's started reading to our fish. It's pretty awesome actually beause you can tell them to "make sure you show the fish the pictures" and (since fish think they're going to be fed anytime anyone approaches the tank) when the child holds the book up to show the fish, they all come crowding around to look (for food) at the pictures. The idea hadn't ever occurred to me before. Anyone else have cool things you've tried with your kids to get them interacting with your fish?
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or sprinkle in some fish food and pretend you have fish in there! That's usually plenty to sustain a cycle.
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I have also had success (on accident) with my aeneus corys in 8.2 PH very hard water. Only ones that hatched out were after I moved adults to a different tank. Otherwise they eat their own eggs for me.
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Welcome! I'm a fellow midwesterner, and plants definitely help with maintenence! If you keep your stocking levels relatively low and your plant volume relatively high you can get away with very few water changes most of the time. My only problem is that I always want to add one more fish...or one more tank 😄
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He's very beautiful! Looks like a Phillipine Blue to me.
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Congratulations! 🎊 still working on getting there myself, but definitely excited for you!
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No real advice on changing the PH, but I've had luck keeping and breeding neocardina at PH 8.2 for about a year now. I will say that it took me a few tries to get a batch that did well, but at least with this strain of blue velvets it's not been an issue.
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I know my angels eat a full grown male guppy here and there and ALL the fry. The smaller fish were there first. I think you'd very likely be fine with full size platies, and they don't look twice at my swordtails or corys if that's worth anything.
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Surprise Albino Fry
in Fish Breeding
Posted
It doesn't have black eyes--hard to see in the picture but they are white with pink centers. I actually don't usually like koi colored fish, but I love the koi swordtails (especially as fry--all the colors on the tiny little bodies are so cool)
Yes, I think you're right that that's what they'd be called, but at least half the time or so they are referred to as "albino kohaku" so I'm thinking that MIGHT be the name for the albino varient, especially with the red eyes vs. black like the others have?