Odd Duck

Just in case anybody was worried about how “sharp” black Diamond blasting sand (BDBS) is or isn’t and how it could affect cories barbels I’ve got a couple pics for you. I see this question come up regularly and I don’t think it’s an issue at all. I had a couple cories be a little more cooperative after feeding the other day so I snapped a couple pics. These cories have been raised on BDBS since they hatched in this tank. My BEL boys have settled down a bit and the water is more clear than it’s been in a couple weeks so I got decent pics. These are just a couple of my bronze cories, Corydoras aeneus. They all have fabulous barbels and so do the trilineatus in the same tank. The tri’s are less bold than the bronzes, so no pics today. But I have cory zoomies and eggs again after the weather front that came through yesterday. I haven’t even done a water change. 😆 Enjoy the fabulous “mustaches” on these kids - probably both girls, BTW.

Somebody posted a video on here a while back where a guy tied Suss to cords that were tied to something at the top of,his tank and anchored to a rock or other weight. He essentially made a nearly solid green wall across the back of,his tank with the “Suss on a string”. I just saw the tank again in the background on another video that was posted. Was that you, @nabokovfan87? I know you’re the king of video links. 😉 Maybe they were MD Fishtanks vids?

That looks fantastic! Excellent work! Can’t wait to see it come to life with plants and moss!

I also started with a metal frame, slate bottom tank in the mid 70’s and it was older when I got it. The slate bottoms will sometimes start leaking right through the stone, so it isn’t only about sealing the edges sometimes. You can drop a piece of glass down into the bottom on top of the slate and seal around that if the tank is otherwise worth saving. Metal frame tanks are very nostalgic for many and can often be sold for far more than expected to the right buyer. Especially the 40 breeder size since those are quite uncommon to find with the slate bottoms these days. The slightly newer glass bottoms were easier to keep sealed, but the older, slate bottom tanks are more sought after now. You’re not likely to get rich selling them, but if you find the right buyer for those tanks it might fund your hobby for a bit. Nice little find!

I always keep at least one tank cycled and ready for fish. Just in case. I also have severe MTS, though, so keep that in mind. And that’s not about snails. 😆

Meh. Plants grow. You’ll have more eventually. 😆

Yes. I pull them out to go in a different tank when they get too large. I still never seem to manage to get them out soon enough to prevent reproduction. I would like to have a single ramshorn at a time in this tiny tank but I can’t seem to ever get there.

Wingless fruit flies should not revert but “flightless” fruit flies often revert to flighted. I suspect you got “flightless” flies instead of “wingless” flies. Depending on where you got them, you should be able to return them and get your money back. As far as clearing the flies from your house, that can be hugely problematic. Have no fruit out in bowls of course, and no access to anything that could be food - so all foods of any kind are in containers. Use fruit fly traps made from soda bottles and vinegar water. Then try again with wingless flies from a different source completely.

I have lots of gold shell, red foot and they look kind of rose gold or coppery depending on the individual and the light. I also have groups of white shell, red to pink foot, but I’ve never found any in my area or tank that has a gold foot although I know it happens. I’d love to,get a gold foot, gold shell line going. I’ve also never gotten an ivory although I have some that have very pale pink feet. My gold shell, red foot will sometimes throw a brown randomly, but not often. I always put browns in a separate tank and pull them out of my color breeding population as soon as I notice them. I rarely have blues and rarely have spots though I get spots once in a while. I did add a few new to me snails from a tank I bought intact from a guy that had multiple species of snails and some of those have spots. I separated them by color into my tanks so we’ll see what changes they may bring to the genetic dice roll. I don’t think I have any good pics of snails, let me see if I have some accidental decent pics of snails. These are the palest of the gold shell, pink foot. They are nearly pink only but have a touch of gold to the shells.

I have that one, too. It’s held up very well, just over 2 years now.

@Rose_Wolf, this is the fish show / expo I linked to you. If you can make the drive, this is a chance at a whopping good deal. I know it would be a long drive for you, but thought this might entice you into going.

I think you could do a cube for pea puffers, but keep in mind, they are a species that pretty much requires live foods of multiple different types. I have no less than 10 types of live foods that I raise now, which all started because of pea puffers. You don’t absolutely have to have that many unless you plan to breed them, but you will want to keep at least 4-5 different types on hand. Mine will never eat any dry foods, even the ones I raised from the eggs. They barely ate frozen bloodworms and frozen Daphnia and brine shrimp were both a hard no from them. Wingless fruit flies were met with utter disdain like I had contaminated their tank with them. You could potentially breed a pair of very small plecos, like my L519’s that only get to 3.5-4”long. But that’s about the max for pleco size for a 20 cube since a cube has less square footage than a lower height tank. My big blue eyed lemon bristlenose boys are tearing up my 100 gallon, mostly nanofish tank right now. It’s been silted up for a couple weeks since they’ve both decided to dig wallows under my driftwood and I made the mistake of putting a thin layer of high iron, heavy clay dirt under the sand never dreaming these guys would decide to dig down almost 2” deep. They’ve been in the tank about 2.5 years now and only started digging like this recently. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I really love the look of a bigger school of small fish in a cube like this. It makes it feel like it’s a whole little world in there. One school of tiny rasboras is a great idea. You could also have a school of one of the dwarf Corydoras species with them. Some Neocaridina shrimp, too. Maybe a smaller shoal of some very small tetras, too, for a bit of contrast. You can add more fine detail in your hardscape in a tank like this so it looks different from every angle, like the pics @Lennie posted. You could also switch up and do some forced perspective tricks where you use bigger leaves towards the front and smaller leaves towards the back so the eye thinks the space is deeper than it is. This works best when only viewed from the front, so keep that in mind when scaping - where is the tank going to be viewed from? The species you like will determine what substrate you do (or don’t) use, what filter(s) you will use, what plants, what hardscape, etc. I sometimes design a tank, then plan fish around it, but I usually pick fish, then design the tank for those fish.

I’ll definitely post up, but that’s a project months away from now. I’ve got to actually make progress on my fish room because the only spot for that tank is where my current rack is. I’ve got to rearrange practically the entire house to get there. Hubs and I have been living in this house for 26 years. We’ve accumulated. 😆 Past time to purge! 🤣 We’re not as motivated or as strong as we used to be. 😂

I’m completely obsessed with trying to breed gold nugget plecos. Started with a “used” fish that I stumbled onto when I went to pick up some used lights. Guy asked if I was interested in any fish. What ya got? African cichlids. No, anything else? I’ve got a cool pleco. Took one look and said how much! That was my first and I’ve been strangely convinced from the beginning that he is a he but I truly have no idea. He’s caving a lot these days so I’m even more convinced for no truly good reason. I just added another 2 more fairly well grown fish (paid twice the price that I did with the first guy and these 2 are smaller than the first guy was when I got him). This brings me to 1 subadult, probably near breeding age, and 6 more juvies (2 still fairly small) in a grow out tank. I recently picked up a 180 G tank that will get set up where my current rack is standing. It’s already drilled so I’ll have some options I hadn’t previously considered in creating current in a riverine set up for them. This will help push me through the mountain of tasks I need to complete to get to the stage where I can set up the “gold nugget breeding tank” that I hope intensely that the 180 G turns into. First pic is the most recent with the stupid cloudy water since the lemon bristlenoses are still stirring up the substrate like crazy. Second is the best clear pick of him from many months ago. He’s caving diligently right now. I’ve been so worried about how I would ever catch him out of this tank. He’s so tucked into his cave that I’m certain I’ll only have to pick up that wood piece and move it to the new tank. He’s welcome to keep it in the new tank. Whatever makes him comfortable! Once that tank is set up, it’s big enough all the gold nuggets can go in at the same time. Previous obsessions include gold laser Cories. I also now favor the sterbais I have in that same tank. Much bolder and more interesting to watch. I’ve also all but given up on my Betta persephones. Still have a pair but they just hide too much to hold my interest well. I was prepared for reclusive fish but not for quite this reclusive. Same with my pygmy sunfish, hide too much and too well to keep my full interest, sadly. Even though my big BEL boys are tearing up my substrate and have recently floated an Amazon sword that has been planted for 2.5 YEARS, I still love them. I’m definitely finding myself a bit pleco obsessed overall. The babies with their giant, “laying on a beach ball bellies” are just so stinking cute!

Good point from @nabokovfan87 . Your scrubbers may not have enough surface area to support the biofiltration you’re needing. It sounds like you have plenty of overall volume. The other thing is the scrubbers have lots of flow through. Maybe you need slightly slower flow to let the beneficial “grab onto” the compounds you need them to process. Definitely test your water if you haven’t already and let us know your tap parameters.

I’m sure your tank is still recovering from the crash. You are taking all the right steps. Do a water change again if parameters are high on testing tomorrow. A mild bacterial bloom in the water can be a warning sign but doesn’t necessarily mean catastrophe is eminent. Get some rest tonight. Do the testing in the morning and see what your values show and post it up. If I’m doubt, add Prime or other dechlorinator at double dose. Have you tested your water from the tap?

Make sure you have enough room above the tank to clean, etc. A 20 long might be a better choice than anything taller - they are essentially a stretched 10 G.

I’m sorry you’re faced with such a difficult decision. Mixing the clove oil into a small amount of alcohol lets it mix into the water more effectively. Here is my recommendation with doses. Euthanasia solution with clove oil: For 100 mg/mL stock solution mix 1 part clove oil with 9 parts of 95% ethanol (Everclear, 190 proof), (in the USA, over-the-counter clove oil is ~1 g eugenol/ml clove oil). Then mix to 40-120 mg/L bath - around 1 ml/L to make it simple. You can add the clove oil solution gradually to transition the fish into sleep more gently. Example: 0.1 mls clove oil into 0.9 mls Everclear (190 proof ethyl alcohol) = 1 ml stock solution to add to 1 liter of tank water (per quart is close enough). For larger fish, 1 mls of clove oil into 9 mls alcohol for 10 liters of tank water (2.6 gallons). For a 10 gallon tank, you will need 4 mls clove oil into 36 mls alcohol. The alcohol is what lets the eugenol (the active ingredient) dissolve into the water. Otherwise the clove oil just floats on the water surface and may not be effective. Keep the fish in the clove oil mixture until at least 20 minutes past any gill movement, then remove the fish from the water, place in a plastic bag with as minimal air as possible, then freeze as quickly as possible for a full 24 hours or more before disposal.

I don’t think there’s a good way to limit eggs produced but if you have other fish in the tank nature will take its toll even with a male defending the nest. You could collect a few eggs to hatch and let tank mates do the, um, culling. But your tank will NOT be a peaceful tank. The only time I bred bettas I ended up with about a dozen males and slightly more females by letting the male raise them until they became free swimming. I removed him and left them in the tank (had already removed her). I used a sponge filter so there was always air going into the tank and snugly covered the tank with plastic wrap over an already tight fitting lid for no drafts during that critical 2 to 4 week old period when the labyrinth organ is developing. This kept the air above the water as warm and humid as possible.

Feel better soon! And don’t feel bad about not being able to complete it. We can’t prevent all health problems. Sometimes you have to just focus on taking care of yourself. YOU are more important than any aquarium project! Plants are replaceable, you are irreplaceable. First and foremost, take care of YOU!

That reminds me, I need to order more rooibos tea! 😆

If limpets are back you should be fine with any snails by now. If you have any pest snails, you can test with one. If it’s alive after a week, you should be fine for any snails in there. If MTS are n]back and growing, you really should be fine for any snails in that tank now.

In the 200 G, you could probably add 4-6 more and they’d have plenty of room for each their own territory. They could pick their own mates.

Very nice! 3 cm isn’t bad for a pleco that only gets to 8 cm! Quick read says to look for more ondontodes on the pectoral fins and a broader head in males. That’s all I know and Google and planetcatfish.com helped me. 😆 Nice win, for sure! Hoping you have a true pair!

Make very certain that you do multiple water changes before you put snails back in and be prepared to do a potentially sacrificial snail to see if the No Planaria is cleared enough to put multiple snails back in. I’ve read that nerites are particularly sensitive to it. I’ve also read that the effects can linger for weeks. So when you think the med is clear, do a couple more water changes, then try a single snail of each species. If all is OK, try a few more snails. I can tell you with certainty that it kills bladders, ramshorns, nerites (I missed one in a tank), and MTS. So presumably also chopstick snails or any others in that family. I’ve read it kills mysteries so I would remove any apple snail species just to be safe. Quite frankly, since it kills MTS, I would assume it can kill any species of snail. It does do a good job killing planaria and likely most any other flatworm species. Just be very cautious before you add a bunch of snails back into that system.