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Odd Duck

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Posts posted by Odd Duck

  1. On 3/27/2024 at 5:34 PM, jodip said:

    Well you sure know a heck of a lot more than I do, so I'll take any advice I can.  Maximum red won't be my goal just starting out, but I'd like to get there some day.

    Then I’d suggest making some floating rings to corral the floaters since none of them like surface agitation. Some can tolerate it but none like it. Most dislike surface spatter or drips but frogbit tolerates it far better than red root floaters.  If you get a sense enough mat of floaters they make their own surface calm and block spatters from air stones from getting to the top surface of the leaves.  Most floaters tolerate undersurface water flow just fine as long as they aren’t just churning around.

    I’ve done rings to keep an area free of floaters and rings to keep them contained whichever you prefer. I do like the double diameter silicone airline and matching fittings for floating rings. More expensive but they work 10 times better than regular airline. They also last much longer than regular airline and are very re-usable.

    Here’s red roots in moderate light and a bit too much nitrates to get optimal color. See the lighter, greener streak across them?  That's where the opaque hinge blocked the light. Plus a closer pic showing their adorable, tiny flowers. See the tiny spatter droplets on the surface?  They can tolerate some as long as it isn’t too much.

    IMG_2733.jpeg

    IMG_2736.jpeg

  2. On 3/27/2024 at 4:41 PM, jodip said:

    That is great information to have.  I'm currently at about 20ppm nitrates.  I'm using the easy green all in one for now. I do have aquasoil so I know that releases some nutrients into the water column as well so I did a half dose of the easy green during the second week. My pH has dropped in that tank from the first day from 8.2 to about 7.6 and my KH has also dropped from 180ppm to 80ppm.  My GH is 240 or higher I guess.  Will those parameters have any effect on red root floaters?

    I don’t know the exact number that gets the best color from red root floaters but that is likely a bit high to get maximum red. It’s a perfectly good number for most plants except for the plants that get their best color in “lean” waters. I’m definitely not a plant expert and I honestly don’t fiddle with my water chemistry much other than to blend RO with my very hard tap water to varying mixes depending on the fish species in the tank. My plants have to rough it!  😆 

    I know just enough to get a feel for the tank status based on hints from floaters and other various things. 

  3. On 3/27/2024 at 2:15 PM, Guppysnail said:

    I’ve got them in with reef salt.  My understanding is most imported guppies were raised with some measure of sea water.  @Colu @Odd Duck any thoughts?  Maybe recommend an amount of reef salt to add? Right now it’s a small pinch in my insanely hard water.

    Smart to do some salt to start but with hard water you can probably gradually water change out the salt and they should be fine.  I have no idea if overseas they use some seawater but guppies do like hard water and never seem to mind some salt.

    Gorgeous fish, for sure!

    • Like 1
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  4. On 3/26/2024 at 10:23 AM, jodip said:

    That is good to know. I have the band app for my kids school activities. I will look there. Could you explain how you use the plant to determine water changes?

    I watch how fast it’s growing and how big each leaf grows. If the plant is growing gangbusters it’s likely getting too much nutrients so I dial back the feeding. I tend towards being too heavy handed on feeding.

    If it looks puny and it’s in planted tanks (vs the tanks where it’s the only plant) then I likely need to step up ferts for the sake of the other plants.

    Red root floaters can be used to roughly judge the amount of nitrates present - kind of an overall picture over time. They turn red better with somewhat scanty nitrates and plenty of light. It can be hard to get them to a nice red with too much nitrates. 

  5. BAND app is another option for finding local sellers, fellow aquarists, or clubs. Frogbit usually grows like mad once you get it established since the leaves have access to much more CO2 than is in the water. Red root floaters are slightly more finicky but once they establish they can choke out a tank, too.

    I’ve thrown away gallons worth of both when I’ve had tanks that were producing like mad.  I sometimes use their growth rate to help determine how often I need to change water. 😆 

    • Like 1
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  6. On 3/25/2024 at 3:51 PM, knee said:

    J

     

    Can you tell me why the pea puffer isn’t a right fit? I have an empty 20 long that I want to make into a dedicated pea puffer or shrimp tank but I’m still on the fence about it. 

    Sure.  They hide so much that it was hard to see them. Even the solo Bad Pea Daddy (AKA BPD) would hide a lot. He had fish in the tank next to him so he had visual contact with “dithers”.  He got fed the most enticing live foods I could manage every day. He got frequent water changes to optimize his health. Yet he still hid most of the time to the point I didn’t realize he had yeeted himself out of the tank for 3 days.

    The shoal of peas that I worked soooooo hard to acquire and raise the right sex ratio - 2 males and 7 females in a heavily planted 29 G, with all the same consisting as BOD, would still hide so much I could rarely get an accurate count on them.  There were always some that were so sun-dominant I barely saw them eat.

    They had plenty of live foods every day: 3 different species of snails, whiteworms, blackworms, Grindal worms, Daphnia, and / or scuds daily. Adults wouldn’t eat microworms or vinegar eels, rarely ate any frozen foods, never ate any dried or freeze dried foods and never ate any live wingless fruit flies.

    They were such jerks to each other that they whittled down their population to 4 (1 male, 3 females) by the time I finally moved them to a ridiculously heavy planted 10 G.  Then they whittled down to a single female who just recently passed, possibly of old age.  When / if I found bodies they always had bite marks and other injuries.

    They don’t call them murder beans for nothing!  While all fish have potential to be territorial and have occasional battles, most nanofish won’t actually kill each other. I’m not really fond of fish that regularly kill each other. Angels are as far as I go and if mine start to be bullies they get pulled out of the tank and go into isolation for a few weeks.  My Jack Dempseys when not breeding are far wimpier than my angels (not in the same tank) and the bigger of the little festivums is the tank boss over the Jacks.  The silver dollars in that tank only spar among themselves.

    So it boils down to fish being jerks which is not my jam. The Jacks and Festivums are tolerable, the angels are tolerable.

    The pea puffers are stone cold killers. BPD killed 6 pea puffers (3 peas x 2 tries at breeding groups when he was younger) and tried to kill number 7 before I gave up on integrating him into a shoal. And the dominant male in the shoal and whoever else helped him, plus the dominant female, between them killed 7 more peas. Not my jam.

    I really did learn a lot about keeping live foods when I had them and still keep live food cultures for other fish.  But I won’t deliberately choose another highly aggressive yet territorial, shoaling fish.

  7. On 3/25/2024 at 1:21 PM, Loc Tran said:

    Everything that I have set up in the tank are from an established tank that I move over, including a piece of wood. Two exceptions are the rocks and caves and my fish are tank raised

    I watched Nick from Keeping Fish Simple and saw that he only used sponge filter with air stone and an aeration from the air tubes for his L046 set up so I tried to do the same except that I have a power head inside the tank. And I keep my fish at 84 degree

    That all sounds perfect.

    Have you tried offering some veggies yet so they can munch if they want?  Maybe that will trigger more appetite. I would still offer the meaty foods daily, too.

    Did you buy the fish from a breeder or pet store?  Did you have to have them shipped or buy directly?  If they had to be shipped they might have gotten some ammonia burn on their gills and not want to eat. Have you noticed them breathing faster at all?  Can be hard to see with plecos depending on how they position themselves.

    I can’t think of anything else right now. Your answers have ruled out most of the obvious potential issues. I know it probably feels like I’m giving you the third degree but I’m just floating out questions as I think of them trying to help you figure this out.  It’s hard when we aren’t right there and able to look, test, etc, ourselves.

    I guess I would still add an air stone to the tank, too. You can’t have too much air without doing crazy stuff and a little more air just might help. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

  8. Wood present and is it seasoned / aged?  Veggies?  Was the tank fully cycled?  How did you cycle it?  How big are the plecos now?  Do I have it right that the tank is 4 weeks old now?  How long have you had fish in this tank?  Was the filter brand new?  Did you see the tank go through a full cycle?  Did you challenge the biofiltration before adding the fish?

    I forgot an important question - are the plecos wild caught or tank raised?

    • Like 1
  9. On 3/25/2024 at 12:06 AM, Loc Tran said:

    This is the parameter in my current tank (20 gallon long). I just do water change today 

    IMG_0345.jpeg

    If you can place the tubes in front of the white portion of the card it’s much easier to tell the color.  Those look OK from what I can tell, but with such low nitrates, was the tank fully cycled?

    I going to ask a lot of questions because the more we know about your set up and experience, the more likely it is that we can help you pinpoint any issues and get things back on track.

    What size tank?

    What type of filter?

    How long has the tank been set up?

    Have you fed any vegetables?

    Is there well-seasoned wood in the tank?

    Are there caves in the tank and how many?  What size caves?

    How many total fish and what size are they?

    How long have you had them?

    Do you have experience with other pleco species?

    What pH?

    What temp do you have the tank?  It should be 76-86’F (26-31’C) with midrange to slightly higher usually suggested.  By the way, not many cories are going to like the middle or high end of the normal temp range for zebra plecos.  In fact, most fish aren’t going to really like this temp range.  They’re from a small section of the Rio Xingu river so you may need to try to match those parameters for them to do well.

    Do you have extra aeration in the tank?  They do like higher temps than most plecos but need extra aeration since they are from warm, but fast moving waters that tumble over lots of rocky areas, so they still carry good dissolved oxygen levels (which tend to drop at higher temps so extra aeration is important).

    I know this is a lot, but we need you to help us help you.  This is a more particular species than most which is why so many questions.

     

    • Thanks 1
  10. Pea puffers are TOUGH and very challenging to maintain.  The last of mine finally passed and I won’t be getting more as they aren’t really the right fit for me, either.  And I tried very hard, even raised some babies from eggs (somewhat by accident, honestly).

    I would leave the tank running with no fish for at least 2 weeks, 4 weeks would likely be better.  Leave snails in, they’re fine.  Then just work on getting plants back the way you want them.  Root tabs, liquid ferts, dial in the lights, etc.  Make any necessary adjustments to flow rate of the filter you need for flowy-finned bettas if that’s what you settle on.  Outflow baffle, for instance, to slow any current without reducing flow rate through the filter.  Then you should only need to pick out the fish you want.

    You shouldn’t need any big changes to the tank as your filter will be fine as long as any excessive current is controlled / baffled, and your substrate isn’t really important to bettas other than making sure it isn’t sharp.  Make sure you feed the snails so your biofiltration maintains.  You may (or may not) have a tiny ammonia / nitrite / nitrate bump as you have some beneficial bacteria die off from decreased feeding without a pea puffer in the tank.  They are such messy eaters!  But you should still maintain enough to account for a betta as long as you keep at least a little bit of food going in for the snails.

    • Like 3
  11. Levamisole or fenbendazole are more likely to take out the species of internal parasites pea puffers are more likely to get.  ParaCleanse gets other species of worms that are possible but less likely.  Deworming with Expel-P (if you’re in the US) would be the first step I would recommend.

    There are highly variable differences on expected age of pea puffers depending on the source you’re reading.  Some as low as 3-4 years, some as high as 6, some say even up to 12 years but I find this last extremely unlikely.  My oldest pea puffer was about 3 years old when she finally passed a few months ago.  My biggest was a solo male (see 6 G Buce link below) was HUGE for a pea puffer before he yeeted himself out of the tank when I took my eyes off for a second during a water change and I missed it completely.  He was around 2 years old as near as I can estimate from his size when I got him and he was at least double the mass of any of the other pea puffers I’ve had and I’ve had several including raising a dozen or so from eggs and raising multiple juveniles trying to form a solid shoal with the right sex ratios to keep the tanks within reasonable behavior expectations.

    I mention all this because none of mine ever had teeth issues.  And your kiddo may just be showing signs of age and a potential internal issue that may not be parasites.  But it’s possible to treat for parasites and worth trying at least.

    On 3/25/2024 at 12:04 PM, Colu said:

    Am seeing conflicting information on whether you have to trim pea puffers teeth if they don't your more than likely dealing with wasting disease for that you would want to treat with levamisole active ingredient in expel p once a week for 4 weeks and black out the tank during treatment as levamisole a light sensitive medication am to tag @Odd Duck keeps pea puffer for a second opinion on wether you need to trim there teeth 

    @Colu, I was nearly done with my reply when I saw you posted.  We’re both thinking along the same lines, for sure.

    • Thanks 2
  12. With a group of 10 G tanks you would almost certainly be fine.  But I would personally rather sleep better at night and would choose the 3/4” stained and sealed outdoor plywood to be extra sure.  I also have a profession where I tend to see the worst of things and have to always be thinking of preventing problems.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 

    • Like 1
  13. On 3/21/2024 at 7:20 PM, johnnyxxl said:

    In freshwater ecosystems left versus right twist is a water quality thing

    I believe it’s a genetic trait, not a water quality issue or the chirality would not hold across species.  Bladder snails (Physella acuta) are consistently right chiral, “pond” snails (Lymnea stagnalis) are pretty consistently left chiral.  There are some snail species that have rare occurrence of opposite chirality but it’s been found to be a genetic trait.

    You might be referring to a study that counted left handed vs. right handed twists in snails and correlated it to water quality, but that is also a genetic trait that makes right chirality snail species more sensitive to poor water conditions.  I can’t remember why.  I don’t think it makes the snails within a species curl a different direction.  Rather it selects for left chirality because of higher survival of those species not specific specimens in poorer water quality.

    If you have studies that say otherwise please link them.  I’m always interested to see stuff like that.  Nerd central over here.  😝 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

    • Thanks 2
  14. I can’t tell from looking, but are you fully dipping the strip for the recommended time, gently tapping off the extra water sideways onto a paper towel (so water doesn’t run from one test pad to another) or similar, then laying flat?  If you dot water onto the test pads with a pipette it can cause the central spotting like I see on some of your test strips.  And if you leave too much water on the test pads it can cause the bleeding / blurring effect I see on other test spots.  If neither of those are being done and you’re doing exactly as the first sentence, then definitely call ACO and discuss it with them.

    • Like 1
  15. On 3/19/2024 at 7:11 AM, JS Fish said:

    Thanks for the advice! I'm fine with it hiding, I'm planning bladder snails and to very heavily plant the tank. The bladders will most likely get a while to populate the tank before I get the puffer!

    I tried this in my 29 gallon with 9 pea puffers. The ramshorns, bladders, and MTS were all established for at least 2 (edit to add - I checked my post in the 29 G and it was closer to 3 months from snail and plant add to pea puffer add) months before moving the pea puffer colony into the tank. All but the MTS were decimated within a couple weeks. I still had to grow snails in separate tanks to feed them. 

    • Like 2
  16. On 3/18/2024 at 9:57 AM, NOLANANO said:

    If you plan pea puffer(s) then you won't have snails for very long.

    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.

    • Like 1
  17. 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.

    • Like 1
  18. 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. 

    • Like 5
  19. 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. 

    • Like 1
  20. 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. 

    • Like 1
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  21. On 3/7/2024 at 3:39 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

    You might be right it does look like that! I didn’t plant half the plants I have haha so it could really be anything. This duckweed spawned out of nowhere.

    😆 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.

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