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Odd Duck

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Odd Duck last won the day on January 5

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  1. Truth. The longest survivors in my pea puffer tanks were horned nerites (their shell projections appear to be fairly effective protection) and marble limpets (these have all their flesh tucked under a helmet but if they fall off the glass onto their backs they will be eaten). Even adult mystery snails can’t withstand pea puffers. They will lose their antennae and bits off their foot until they spend most of their time hiding and not eating. You will have to intervene and move the snail to another tank. MTS can survive if the group is sufficiently established before the pea puffer goes in but an individual likely will not survive. Lone pea puffers tend to spend a lot of time hiding, by the way. I hope you’re OK with not seeing your pea puffer much. Pea puffers in general excel at hiding, so be aware that you may not see it as much as you expect.
  2. I have black Diamond blasting sand (BDBS) in multiple tanks (3 of those tanks have 5 species of cory between them) and all are doing well. I use the medium grit sand (blue on the label) and it’s close to the same size as pool filter sand. I have pool filter sand in a few tanks (medium to light tan depending on the source) and the grain size is very slightly coarser than the medium BDBS. Most of my BDBS was very easy and quick to rinse but that is not a consistent experience across the board from my reading. The last bag I got needed more rinsing but still not what I would consider excessive. It took about 30 minutes to rinse instead of the 15-ish minutes of previous bags. The pool filter sand that I’ve gotten locally has needed about 20-30 minutes to rinse depending on the bag. You will need plenty of root tabs or liquid ferts if you go with straight sand. You will still need ferts if you go with planting substrate but initially less than with sand. It eventually gets depleted and you will need equal ferts as compared to straight sand after a year or so, even with planting soils.
  3. I think you would have happier fish by going with either some very small tetras or micro rasboras like chilis, strawberries, or exclamation points, or something similar in a 6 gallon tank. That’s very, very small for dwarf gouramis or any type of mollies. A single betta and single snail would be appropriate or a few smaller snails that you would have to keep under control might also be appropriate and a few shrimp would be OK but some bettas will go on killing sprees with shrimp. You didn’t mention if your 6 G is a cube or rectangle tank. Rectangles do offer a longer swimming distance but still really aren’t suited for fish that get 2-3” long if they’re very active. Smaller fish will let you gradually add more as your biofiltration and experience level builds. Tiny micro rasboras could eventually be built up to a group of a dozen or more with plenty of plants. Even a single gourami would be a lot of fish for a 6 G. Unless you went with a tiny licorice or sparkling gourami since they are much smaller bodied than dwarf gouramis. You could potentially get a pair of licorice or sparkling gouramis if the tank was planted heavily. Just a little food for thought and maybe some other options to consider.
  4. I’ve had up to 7 adult bristlenose plecos in my 100 G nanofish tank with up to 20ish cories of a couple species and no injuries from the plecos. What size tank is that and are you spreading out the food? How often and what are you feeding? Do you see your pleco in the front glass sometimes so you can see their belly to assess if it’s nice and full or if it’s hollow looking? If it’s ever hollow looking you need to feed more often or feed differently. If that isn’t enough, then you might need to deworm although that’s less likely to be an issue for bristlenose plecos than other species. It’s far more likely that BN plecos need more vegetables or need feeding at a different location vs. needing dewormed. Try spreading out the food and offering veggies that will stay in the tank 12 hours or so (overnight would be good) and see if that reduces the pleco being overprotective of the food.
  5. Water changes on my pair of 100 G’s while a storm was rolling through today. Everybody is stirred up! Probably have some cory eggs soon and might get some blue-eyed lemon pleco eggs, too.
  6. Do you have any other live foods planned for your pea puffers besides snails? Most will not take dry prepared foods at all but some will take frozen, meaty foods like bloodworms. Most do better with live foods like scuds, whiteworms, blackworms, Grindal worms, Daphnia, etc, in addition to the bladder snails, ramshorn snails, or MTS. Some will even pick at mystery snails enough to eventually kill them. Most will take live brine shrimp - adult or fresh hatched. Most are unfortunately still wild caught and can have significant parasite loads and need deworming. Plus 5 gallons is very small for a shoal. Most are sold as juveniles and they can be extremely hard to tell the sex in juvies. If you end up with too many males the dominant male will often kill the non-dominant males. Dominant males will even kill females. They are definitely not what I would consider a beginner fish so be aware they can be quite challenging to keep healthy. There are multiple posts about them on the forum so you might want to do some reading here before you settle on pea puffers.
  7. 😆 Free plants! Do you still have that maidenhair fern in there? They go through a wort stage. It could be another kind of fern from spores, too.
  8. The controversy around Ethoxyquin has been blown all out of proportion. Most of the supposed bad effects have been debunked. Not to say you are wrong to avoid it. There’s nothing wrong with wanting less chemicals in your pet’s food. But it’s not something I spend any time worrying about, either. I worry more about appropriate protein, fat, and fiber ratios, trace minerals, vitamins, etc. Ethoxyquin has long since fallen off my radar as a concern.
  9. Linear air pumps are usually quieter than diaphragm air pumps. I have one that is serving I think about 17 air outlets - air stones or UGF (I’d have to go count since it’s not the same in each tank 😆). It’s far quieter than the diaphragm style I was using while putting out far more air. Mine is smaller than the one ACO sells but I expect it will likely be able to serve about twice the number of tanks I have on it now. @Cory has shown their linear air pumps in his home fish room videos a couple of times when he and @Dean were setting up his fishroom. They are loud until you get them connected and running against some pressure (it doesn’t take much). They are not designed to run with zero back pressure so they rattle when run open. Once you hook them up they are remarkably quiet. I had a line come loose the other day and that hiss was far louder than the pump was.
  10. Have you ever had susswassertang? Looks like the start of that (that’s kind of what suss is, after all). All looking good!
  11. It is pretty. It might still stabilize and come back. Don’t give up.
  12. Definitely doesn’t move like a puffer although I can certainly see why you thought it might have been initially. Every puffer species I’ve ever seen closes the tail a lot and uses it to turn in place vs mostly using their pectoral fins to turn (although they will do that, too). But they usually have some color in their tails and flick them the tiniest bit to rotate on the spot. They will curl their bodies right up when they spin in place. Plus the mouth isn’t right. No guesses from me although I think you’re on the right track with pupfish / flag fish body type.
  13. They are very slow growing and highly prone to melting. Pink Panther crypts are highly prone to melting and fading with moderately high light and CO2 and they still have green chlorophyll, just reduced. The pinto and white rose forms of Anubias are also extremely prone to melt unless in perfect conditions. I still have a tiny remnant of Anubias pinto struggling along in one of my 6G cubes attached very high on the rock so it only has about 2” of water above it at max water depth. It is centered under the light (not a great light) and also gets just a touch of diffuse sunlight. The tank is currently only shrimp and a few snails so it has minimal algae but this plant has 4 tiny leaves and hasn’t really changed much in the last 2 years. Other Anubias and Java ferns in the tank are prospering at substrate level. It looks pitiful. It’s the only Anubias in all my tanks that gives me trouble (as long as whichever tank they're in is appropriately in balance and not rampant with algae). Any white form of a plant is going to struggle to survive and need near perfect conditions both in nutrients and water quality since it can’t feed itself without chlorophyll in its tissues. Even heavily white streaked land plants struggle. People who get Monstera ‘Albo’ varieties that go to all white leaves pretty much always lose them because they can’t survive. Even the variegated forms are challenging to grow. Beware of all white plants or at least be aware of potential outcomes.
  14. I have a 2’ x 4’ x 6’ tall Muscle Rack with 8 10’s and 4 5.5’s on it. The flimsy particle board was replaced with 3/4” outdoor grade plywood with 3 coats of polyurethane sealant. The shelves still bow slightly despite the tanks being shifted forward a bit to be closer to a supporting edge. The end tank’s water level on the 2 shelves with 10’s show that the shelves have not stayed 100% level. The tanks are as far to the outside supporting edges as possible with essentially no weight directly in the center (only very light random supplies like scissors, tweezers, etc). The bottom shelf with the 5.5’s does not show bowing. I have only light stuff on the top shelf where I have the 3 puny, particle board shelves stacked to get them out of the way. The rack will not really sway, but doesn’t exactly stand rock solid when pushed on an upright. Even with 1” plywood, I would not trust a tank that size on a Muscle Rack. I think their rating far exceeds the reality and if we hadn’t replaced the flimsy 3/8” particle board shelves they would have long since fallen through. Estimated filled weight for a 180 is 2100 lbs with any substrate and hardscape. Water alone is 1500 lbs, sand averaging 3” deep is another 300 lbs. Add rocks and you could easily be another 100 lbs or more. Driftwood won’t be as bad but still another 50 lbs minimum. Combo could be 150 lb or more. Then you’re at almost 2000 lbs. Theoretically, it should handle it. The reality is, maybe, maybe not. I truly believe Muscle Racks overstates their actual capacity knowing that most people will never come even close when stacking tools or bins of the usual garage stuff on their racks. But aquariums definitely push their limits. You want to trust 180 gallons and your fish to a maybe not? You also need to consider how high you’re willing to go above your head to work on the top layer tanks (unless you’re well over 6’ tall). You need enough space above the sump to get stuff in and out - pumps, filter socks, etc, will need at least 8” or more. Then above the tank you will need at least another 8” or more. I wish I had more room between tank rims and the next shelf up on all layers. Make sure you do the math on the total height and shelf height allowing for your 1” of plywood. Unless you put your sump on the floor, it will take up about 4” below the sump (2” shelf edge, 1” plywood, ~1” below the lowest shelf support at the lowest position). Then add height of your sump plus at least 8” (9-12” would make your life easier). Then another 3” for the shelf under your tank, 24” tall tank, plus another 9-12” to get hardscape in (unless you plan on scaping without the upper shelf in place). Depending on the height of your sump, that puts your top shelf at max height for a 6’ rack. Stepladder time for most folks. I use a small step stool for my top layer of tanks if I have to do anything other than routine water changes. Catching fish, scraping glass, scaping, removing / adding plants, etc, is all done on a step stool for me at 5’5”. I don’t know if all this helps, but it’s a bit of my experience with my Muscle Rack.
  15. Here’s some pea puffer fry for comparison starting younger.
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