Emika_B

My set up is a clear plastic storage bin that I’ve marked off by the gallon up to 12 gallons, a sponge filter, a multi-stranded plastic plant and a few live plants (moss balls and anacharis currently). I try to use water from my display tank for two reasons: 1) I know the parameters are settled, 2) it’s the water they’ll be living in when quarantine is over so they might as well get used to it now. Up until I add the meds I do parameter checks and make changes as needed. For the fish, I’m trying to observe for 3 - 4 days, feeding and checking their poop. I’ll siphon up poo and debris as needed. Then one day of no food and siphon up all of the poo and debris. Next is a 10-day soak in the Co-Op’s med trio. After the 10 days I’ll change about 25% of the water and start feeding. Every other day or so I’ll siphon off the poo and debris and do about 25% water change. I alternate between using water from the tap and water from the main tank for these changes. This goes for about 2 weeks. If I saw white poop at any point, I do another de-worming treatment according to the package directions. Otherwise, another week or so of feeding and observation. I get my fish from several sources, some more reliable than others, so I like to preemptively treat with the meds. So far it’s served me well - fish may die in quarantine but I’ve yet to have anyone die in the main tank. It’s still early days, though, so take my procedure with a grain of salt.

I haven’t fed my shrimp at all. I set up the tank and let it sit for about 3 weeks to grow algae on the surfaces. Once I saw algae on the rocks I knew it was okay to add the shrimp. Oddly enough, my algae was pearling! I’ve read that feeding once a month is okay if needed but only really small amounts. Think tip of a toothpick dipped in powder and shaken off. They are tiny and they have really slow metabolisms so it doesn’t take much food. As to water changes, none. I top off with distilled water and check the salinity but other than that, no water changes. I don’t have any plant life in my tank except the algae that grew because of light. Since you do have plants you may need to do water changes as the plants break down. I also have a small bio load compared to tank volume - 25 shrimp in 5 gallons. Depending on your population density you may need to change water from time to time. Brackish is a tricky thing. Generally speaking neither fresh nor marine plants will work. In the long term the water’s too salty for fresh water plants and it’s not salty enough for marine algae. I’ve only found one site that sells true brackish plants, or algae anyway. I can’t post it here but the guy who runs it, his name sounds like Mufasa. You can see my set up here:

Beardedbillygoat1975 - Aloha! Great looking tank; they’ll be happy with all of the coral bits! I’ve had my opae tank inhabited for about a month now. I love watching them scuttle about. Other than topping off with distilled water, it’s very low maintenance. If you don’t mind a bit of advice? Keep an eye on the moss ball. It’s not meant for salt water, even brackish, and will begin to degrade.

One thought - if they’re wild caught there may be parasite issues that salt can’t take care of. Keep an eye out for white, stringy poop.

FriendlyLoach - I’m sorry he’s not feeling better. Maybe he’s pooping the parasites and will be right as rain in the morning - one hopes.

If you can remove the ones with odd behavior, I’d do that. If you can’t, then do a water change. Give them a few days to relax then try the meds again. Before adding the meds, do a water check just to be sure it’s not a parameter problem. If you get the same reaction from the same fish you might need to look for a different med. I’d think that just like people fish can have bad reactions to medicines that for most others works just fine.

Just to add another layer - substrate may also be a factor in KH readings. Some are called ‘buffering’ substrate. For a while I was doing everything I could to bump my KH from 1 degree to at least 4 - removed drift wood, added aragonite, etc. I got maybe 2 degrees more KH and it’s held steady at 3-4. My pH has held steady at 8.2. I’m using Fluval Stratum as a substrate and was told it may be the reason I’m not getting any real increase in KH. *shrug* I’ve stopped chasing KH but do keep an eye on my parameters and how my fish are behaving.

In one video a while back Cory recommended using a white container (like a sour cream container) to observe the water. Scoop out water - if you don’t see anything, it’s probably white particles and so bacterial. If it’s green, then algae. I suppose brown would be tannins or diatom algae. I was able to do that and confirm an algae bloom, which a UV sterilizer took care of. Just a thought.

Fenrir - Octopus. I love the light shade of green, it’s just more wispy than I like.

Living in Hawaii, it can be troublesome to reach customer service by phone - time zones. Depending on the issue, I prefer email to phone. There’s a trail with email, there’s no waiting on hold for 1/2 an hour, there’s not accent/language barrier. Email allows one to slow down, keep a calm mind and pick words where a live conversation can get heated very quickly. Of course, if I don’t hear back on an email within 24 hours, I’ll call. Some companies are better by voice than email. Just remember that, no matter which way customer service is contacted, don’t take frustrations out on the representative. They don’t set policy. Be kind, speak (or type) to them as you’d want to be spoken to.

My water‘s generally 8.2 pH, 13 degrees GH. The valisneria finally took off and is growing like crazy. Anubis is doing very well. Java fern Wendelov is holding its own, making little sprouts on the tips of the leaves. I’ve found it’s happiest if I dose fairly heavy on the Easy Green. Java moss is growing well, very bushy now. My Pogostemon is long and lanky. It’s my first time doing this plant and it’s not winning me over but it hasn’t died yet so that’s good. The micro chain sword (I’m pretty sure) is…okay. It’s not filling in as well as I’d hoped but it is growing. Crypt Wendtii is big and strong. I may replace the chain sword with more crypt and the pogostemon with more valisneria.

Dr. Fish - I live in Hawaii and my house isn’t temperature controlled (no AC or heater), so my tank gets over 79 degrees pretty much every day. I use an InkBird controller for a heater and a set of fans. When the water gets to 79 the fans kick in. WIth the fans the tank generally hasn’t gone over 82. It can take all day and into the night to get back down to 77. It does mean the tank can’t have a solid lid; I use egg crate light fixture cover. Evaporation can be an issue so be prepared to top off more frequently. I’m not sure how effective the fans would be if there was no ‘fresh’ air but I have a feeling having air moving is better than nothing. Oh, and someone mentioned adding more surface agitation, so add an air stone.

Samanthabea - Yes, I’ll probably start with ghost shrimp. Actually, I had some in another tank a while back and I really liked them. And yeah, they’re much easier to find. They may be ‘plain,’ but I like ‘em.

Ererer - Thanks for the inspiration. The fish I have are all small mouthed, so I don’t think the adult shrimp will have any problems. And the babies will have plenty of plant cover, plus some shrimp caves I got from Aquarium Co-op. I’m hoping I can find cherry shrimp, though I’ve never seen them in any of the shops here. I have seen them on Craigslist, though, so I’ll probably go that route.

InkedPhoenix - Yeah, I should have worded that better. I know cories don’t eat algae (though they will much on pellets) and are more for eating the leftovers that fall to the bottom. I have to say that the albinos kinda freak me out - something about their red eyes. *shiver* Pandas are okay and Sturbai are lovely but a bit large, yes? The Pygmies are just so cute, though!

Aloha all. I’m just about ready to look into the clean up crew for my tank. I’d like to do Pygmy cories (corries?) since I don’t have a lot of open ground. Do cories care about that or will they burrow between the plants to get to the food bits at the bottom? At least the tiny ones will have a better chance, I’d think. How many? I’m also thinking ottos for algae control but I worry about how much they eat - will they eat all the algae on the tank walls too quickly? And how many? Of course, I’d feed them and the cories their own food; wouldn’t want to starve the little guys. Or would a single bristle nose pleco be a better idea? I’d like to do a rubber lip but I’ve never seen them in any of the stores here. I’d love to do do khulis, too, though I don’t know if they really qualify as clean up. And shrimp, but that will be a while down the road after the tank’s had time to really season. 40-ish gallon, planted (I’d say heavily) with mopani drift wood, pH generally 8.2, GH in the 13 degree range, temps mid to high 70s, sometimes into low 80s. There’s an internal Aqueon filter (sponge only) for flow and a Ziss-type fluidized filter. Substrate is Fluval Stratum and aragonite. Occupants will be 15 rummy nose tetras, 10 dwarf neon rainbows and guppies (currently 2 males but will be adding more). Loads of Malaysian trumpets and what I think are bladder snails.

One time I kept goldfish in a bare bottom tank but I had quite a few plants in terra cotta pots. They’re such poo factories it was easier to keep up with the maintenance if the bottom was free of gravel. However, I did scatter some large gravel around so they’d have something to ‘suck’ on. And if they did pull a plant out of its pot it was easy to replant. It wasn’t a traditional look but I rather liked it.

I’ll add this - I picked up 9 male guppies from a big box store. They looked good in the tank - no shredded fins, no odd swimming, no bullying, etc. The fellow who helped me was knowledgeable, as I saw when he explained how best to house a betta and that if the patron wanted such a tiny tank to go with something like shrimp instead. Over the course of quarantine, about 4 weeks, I lost all but 2 of them. The deceased showed no outward signs of illness and observing them every day in the quarantine tank I saw no chasing, bullying, fast breathing or erratic swimming. Just one day there, the next dead. The dwarf neon rainbows in the same quarantine tank were fine and passed with flying colors. However, I purchased rummy nose tetras from a local shop. I didn’t really get to see how knowledgeable the employees were as this shop is’t well known for customer service. I shouldn’t have purchased the fish - all but 1 died in a 48-hour span. They weren’t quality fish. I purchased more rummies from a different local shop and haven’t had 1 die yet. However, this shop is reliable. I’d tried to purchase cardinal tetras and the fellow didn’t want to sell them to me because they’d just arrived and hadn’t been through quarantine. He knew they were wild caught and likely to have parasites. Long winded way of saying - you just never know. The fish may look perfect but have some underlying issue. The shop may not be pretty but have the most knowledgeable employees. I will say this, though - that third shop is the one I’ll use for the majority of my fish purchases.

Just for comparison - I have a pH of 8.2-ish and GH is generally 13 degrees with KH of maybe 3 degrees. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the KH to rise - Wonder Shells, aragonite, removing mopani drift wood. I gave up chasing it. It’s probably my substrate sucking up the KH and acting as a buffer. Lots of plants, mostly slow growers, not to many inhabitants yet but the ones I have are happy. I’ve given up chasing parameters. As long as ammonia and nitrites are in the acceptable range, I’m good.

Sandra the fish rookie - I'm using Fritz Complete and the med trio in my quarantine tank and haven't had any issues with it. Do know that the meds will throw off testing results so keep an eye and nose on the fish. They'll let you know if something's not quite right. If you feel the water needs to be changed because you're seeing signs of fish distress, then go ahead and change it. Give the fish a few days, maybe a week, to rest up and try the meds again.

I absolutely love your livebearer tank! Honestly, I think the video you'd posted a while back with the O-Nip tabs was what got me started thinking about going all-guppy. That, and Cory's assorted videos on livebearers. I ended up not going all-guppy but one of the next rounds of fish will definitely be livebearers. As we say here, mahalo planny (plenty) for the inspiration!

I've done frozen baby brine shrimp in frozen cube form and I love how it melts slowly enough to just float mid-water. Of course, I turn off the filter when I feed frozen food just so it has a chance to melt and float, not be blown to the far side and down to the substrate. I've not had the same result with frozen brine cubes, though. They pretty much just float, thaw and fall straight down. Haven't tried other frozen things yet. Maybe it depends on what you're feeding - worms vs brine shrimp vs tiny (baby brine or cyclops)?

Gator - Thanks for the ideas! I’ve never had Paradise fish, so that might be interesting in the future. Not really interested in breeding them, but should they decide to have kids, well good for them 🙂 Mahalo!

Angelfishlover - Thanks for the reply. I had thought about an axolotl before I went with fish; they’re just so cool! Unfortunately I can’t think of a way to keep the water cool enough. I decided on basic tropicals since they prefer warmer water, but I’m worried about it being too warm in the quarantine tank. I guess in addition to an air stone I should have a frozen water bottle or two on hand, just in case. Mahalo!

Gardenman - That’s true about the oxygen; I hadn’t thought about it. The main tank has two air stones and a Ziss-type fluidized filter, so lots of surface agitation for air exchange. The quarantine tank has only a sponge filter so I should probably drop an air stone to help with surface air exchange. Mahalo!