Ben C.

Thanks for the great advice everyone! Looks like I'll try the plop this time, unless the shipper gives me explicit instructions to preserve the live arrival guarantee!

To add, I've noticed for my tanks the water lettuce is a total nutrient hog. Like, obscene. Never enough ferts. So if your lettuce is doing okay, it may be eating up everything before anything else can get it.

I've never gotten mine to attach to anything. I just jam em where they can't float, or use a weight. But take that with a grain of salt, because I usually just throw my java fern anywhere, lol. As for the spots, for me, java fern takes a LONG time to get used to your tank. I got some from the coop months ago, and it just turned into a browned mess, and just a couple weeks ago, it has exploded into new growth, pearling, etc. Same thing with one I bought from a LFS almost a year ago. Threw it into the back of my aquarium and forgot about it. Occasionally pulled out dead leaves. Broke down the aquarium a couple weeks ago to consolidate, and boom, there was twice the amount of java fern, and beautiful. Anecdotes aside, check for nutrient deficiencies as posted above, and give it time. It's a long haul plant, and pretty darn hard to kill in my experience.

For me, I've had good luck leaving them in the pot they come in for a while, until either I see new consistent submerged growth, or strong roots coming out of the pot. At that point, I will remove it from the pot and plant it in my substrate as I think it is used to my water enough, and leave it with some fresh root tabs right next it in the soil. You could also put a root tab in the pot it comes in to help the process.

Great work on this! Really excited for you. A group of CPD's I held briefly spawned, but I could never get the fry eating well. Awesome you've got them to this point!

Very cool as always. Haven't seen these before!

Hello! Seen a lot of conflicting information on acclimation processes lately, and as I'm getting a shipment on Wednesday of some fish, I was curious as to what the nerms are doing to acclimate their fish. My process so far has been to pour the shipment bag out into a container, and slowly replace the water with my tank water by filling it up, emptying half, etc. since I don't have a good actual drip acclimation method. For this upcoming shipment, I was thinking to add all the fish (3 different species) into one larger bucket with an airstone, add Stress Guard/Prime, and repeat the same process. My concern would be: 1) Is there harm in adding water from different bags of fish together, even if they came from the same facility? 2) Is the slow acclimation process worth it, or is it more dangerous to leave them with their bag water? 3) What is your current favored method for more delicate fish? There are Blue Neon Rasboras and Reticulated Hillstream Loaches in this shipment. Thanks y'all!

@Cory will do, thanks for the advice!

@Cory it would appear so - here's the water report for my area, compared to the chlorine test on the test strips. Should I be using dechlorinator?

@Steph’s Fish and Plants that's a great idea, thank you!

@JaredL @Steph’s Fish and Plants thanks for the advice on the baking soda, I haven't heard that before! Fortunately my water out of the tap is rock hard - yay Texas water - but I might try that next time. I am using marine salt though. As for the bubbles, its...quite a bit at once, but I don't have a way of turning the USB air down. I'm hatching a small amount, maybe a quarter teaspoon. I have another batch running today, so I'm going to see once I add them to the water if they're still wiggling even when they settle.

The ones that settle on the bottom are mostly not visibly moving unfortunately, although I didn't look super close admittedly...

I love how the EBA are like "yeah, seems good time to breed". Fish are weird. Hope to get to this level of fish fatherhood someday though! Keep up the good work!

@Fish Folk Yeah, I remove the air for a few minutes and shine a light in a dark room at the bottom to separate the eggs and shrimp, which seems pretty effective so far. I am just using tap water though. Just seems like there's always a graveyard of bright orange at the bottom, lol. I guess it's not an issue as long as they all get eaten?

Hello all! I've recently started hatching baby brine for my fish, using the Ziss hatchery. Fish love it, and I love making it - but I tend to have a lot of baby brine that hatch, but die. Is this normal? They quickly sink so it actually works well for my loaches and shrimp, but just wondering if I'm doing anything wrong. My method: - Fill a little below line, so there isn't splash - Use Aquarium Co-Op Measuring Spoon™ to measure out two tablespoons of salt - Room temp water and no heater, so around 74 degrees - USB air pump, with the rigid tubing and diffuser included with the hatchery, reaches to the bottom - collect after 24 hours Thanks in advance!

Following this, because mine is TDS 300+ and my pH is 6.8, if not less. Buffer is lower though. Doesn't seem to cause issues to my knowledge so far, but seems super weird.

Man. I would name my snails. If there weren't a million. LOL

@Isaac M wow looks amazing. Even with nothing inside!! Thanks for reassuring my concerns!

@Isaac M awesome thanks! Wish this were 40 gallons haha. Yeah I was just worried because the stand itself was pretty wonky before adding the pads. Not the best construction I suppose...

@s1_ the stand was rocking on the floor which was solved by the feet, and the aquarium did rock some before I added the pads. With the pads, there is no rocking, but it lifts the aquarium up off the stand so the only points of contact are the 4 corners.

So I got an aqueon stand today - test assembled and it's quite wonky. I put the pads on the corners like it said, and the aquarium does sit without rocking, but the pads lift up the aquarium from the stand. Is this correct? Want to make sure before I..well add water. Thanks!

Thanks, that's what I've done! I just put the paracleanse in, and since the ich hasn't gotten any worse and everyone is still eating well, I'm going to wait until tonight to put ich-x in.

Hello! So I have some Rasboras in quarantine right now (for a little over a week), and just as my Neocaridina shrimp arrived to be quarantined with them, I noticed a few Ich cysts on 2 of the rasboras. They've already had one dose of Paracleanse, and their second dose is due tonight. I need to add Ich-X into the mix to treat the Ich now, but I worry about the shrimp being overwhelmed having just acclimated to the tank and then loading meds in, especially as I got a bonus lil shrimplet! Would you recommend waiting until tomorrow to dose the medicine, giving the shrimp some time to acclimate, or will the meds not affect them enough and I can go ahead and do it tonight? Thanks!

@CorydoraDaisy thanks for sharing your experience! I was thinking of that - the daunting task of a new house would really bog me down. Guess it'll come down to how much I'm willing to invest in the tank!

@Diving Aquarist I already got the 55 gallon, and promptly locked it away so I wont touch it 😂 thanks for the advice though!