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Daniel

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Everything posted by Daniel

  1. Daniel
    @Alesha prompted me to get out the microscope to see what makes my green water green. And it turns out my sample of green water was full of a single cell phytoplankton of the genus Ankistrodesmus. I bet other forum members green water is the result of other phytoplanktons like Chlorella, but who knows. If anyone else has a microscope, it would be interesting to see what your green water looks like.
  2. Daniel
    @quirkylemon103 Merry Christmas! I would just start from the beginning. It is a good read and it builds as it goes along. I would love to hear two things. Any thing that surprises you about how much like now aquarium keeping was back in the 1930s Any thing that surprises you about any differences with aquarium keeping back in the 1930s What wonderful parents you have!
  3. Daniel
    Just added the angelfish mom and dad.
  4. Daniel
    It is time to move the angelfish into the aquarium. So that also makes it a good time to mess with the substrate. I have been very encouraged by the plant growth in the 'Dirt' aquarium in the dirted tank project. And since adding soil is period appropriate that is what I did this morning (not having access to sheep manure). I removed all of the animals, plants, substrate and water and put in 2" of soil from my garden asparagus bed and put the old substrate (sifted gravel from the creek out back) back in over the soil. I am refilling the aquarium now. The only plants I have added back so far are the Vallisneria. The angelfish, which were dime to quarter sized in this September 16, photo, have now started to pair up and are laying eggs. I segregated one of these pairs yesterday and as soon as the aquarium fills up, I will add the pair of angel fish.
  5. Daniel
    When I feed newly hatched brine shrimp I do not strain out the salt water. I measured the amount of salt water and it was 1/4 of a teaspoon. I have never found tiny amount of salt water like that to be harmful to Corydoras.
  6. Daniel
    Cory in a dory?
  7. Daniel
    UV will clear green water. Patience (sometimes extreme patience) will clear green water eventually too. Maybe more patience than you have to give. For me the biggest green water battle was back in 2007 during first 3 months after I set up my big aquarium. I loaded the aquarium up with several inches deep of everything I could get from ADA. Naturally the aquarium turned a milky opaque green. After 6 weeks of waiting it was just as green and just as opaque as day 20. Diana Walstad was member of our aquarium club and said one of her first dirted tanks had been pea soup green for the first 60 days or so before clearing. So I waited. Somewhere around day 70 ish it suddenly cleared up and has never had green water since then. But back to the topic. UV will clear green water (much better than Daphnia).
  8. Daniel
    This is just a guess, but I think the majority of the forum member unhappy with their water parameters and who purchased some kind of water conditioning system ended going with a reverse osmosis unit.
  9. Daniel
    Kribensis breed readily and are good parents not prone to eat eggs thereby giving you more stock to sell more quickly. Local markets vary, but Kribensis are probably a bit more marketable to the general public. Someone specifically looking for Apistogramma (like me for instance) might want a wild type or more rare form of Apistogramma. But you never know. The way to find out is to ask your prospective customers what they would be interested in buying. Ask how big the fish need to be and what they are likely to pay. This will give you the information you need to make a decision.
  10. Daniel
    The Kribensis are likely to be both easiest to breed and most profitable and a lot of fun. If it were my 29 gallon aquarium though I would most likely do some sort of Apistogramma, because...and I am not sure why...I always end up breeding Apistogramma.
  11. Daniel
    That always worked for me without fail.
  12. Daniel
    Rosario LaCorte (91 years old) started working with characins in the 1930s and recently authored a very good book called 'An Aquarist Journey' that I highly recommend (I am about half way through it now). He was the first to breed many of the characins now in the hobby. Rosario has had several interviews with @Randy on the most excellent Aquarist Podcast.
  13. Daniel
    The angelfish that will go in the 1930s aquarium started breeding yesterday so it might be time to move them into the aquarium. The reason I have held off so far is that the pygmy sunfish I have in there now are currently breeding also. I might wait until I can collect some pygmy sunfish fry before switching to angels.
  14. Daniel
    I agree with everything @tolstoy21 said. I too took the time to get a properly sized one (it was huge) and it did help make the water marginally more clear. But when it came time to replace to bulb, I bailed. It wasn't worth it to me. In the end I felt ambivalent with irradiating with DNA damaging radiation the less visible part of the aquarium ecosystem for aesthetic reasons.
  15. Daniel
    I can hold that for you. 🙂
  16. Daniel
    @Irene had a good blog post on this Nutrient Deficiencies: Why Your Aquarium Plants Are Dying WWW.AQUARIUMCOOP.COM Do you have the perfect planted aquarium setup, but your plants are still dying one by one? Even if you’re regularly dosing fertilizers, your plants...
  17. Daniel
    My day job is being a beekeeper. Locally collected pollen is a potentially a good source of protein. But depending on what species of plant the honey bees collected the pollen from that protein content could vary from 5% to over 40%. Bees are very sensitive to the sugar content in nectar, but are unable to assess the protein content of pollen. I have video of my bees collecting coffee grounds from a neighbors compost pile this summer. Most commercial sources of pollen are from oversees and when tested have been found to contain high levels of insecticides. The larva of honey bees are tasty (from personal experience) and nutritious . In some countries they serve as a source of fats and protein. But so are most insect larva. I doubt there is anything special about the larva of honey bees. From an economic point of view I suspect bee larva (and pollen) are most valuable as future honey bees rather than as food for tropical fishes and pet shrimp. And just for the heck of it, here is some video I shot this spring of my honey bees bringing in some pink pollen. I never did find out the source of that pollen.
  18. Daniel
    Thanks for the photo! What do you feed them?
  19. Daniel
    Almost all aquarium plants flower (even hornwort). Dwarf aquarium lilies produce typical lily flowers and flower readily in my outdoor ponds. I have never seen them produce flowers inside. I suspect the reason they flower outside is that they are in rooted in rich soil and get strong direct sunlight. I don't know whether aquatic lilies are long day or short day plants but this likely plays a role in the flowering cycle also.
  20. Daniel
    @Kieflow, Like @Fish Folk I am unaware of the recommendation to do daily water changes for betta fry. I used to breed bettas and what betta fry need are what other baby fish need, that is good quality water, and frequent feeding with good quality food. Temperature plays a factor in growth rates too. How big are they now? How big did you expect them to be at this point? It would be helpful to a see photos of the baby bettas and and your grow out tank if you are able to post one.
  21. Daniel
    Addie is the mom, Wink is the uncle. The rest are Addie's children.
  22. Daniel
    It looks like Vorticella.
  23. Daniel
    @Mr. Ed's AquaticsI have no doubt the post you mentioned disappeared. My intent is not and was not to say or imply you aren't trustworthy or that what you mentioned about a deleted post wasn't true. Anyone who reads this forum knows that you post high quality, helpful material. And yes the content here is lightly moderated. I think my intent is summed up by the old maxim "never assume malice when incompetence will suffice." Meaning, whatever mistakes are made in the moderation the intent is good, even if the execution can flawed. At the end of day, the primary rule for this forum is to be kind and helpful. This is what makes the forum the safe and inviting place that it is.
  24. Daniel
    I think the best evidence of lack of censorship on this forum is to look back at all the posts since that first day on July 14th, and look at all the links that have been posted and all the products that have mentioned and ask yourself, does this look like a forum that is trying censor a free discussion? It can be tricky to the keep a place like this as kind and helpful as it has been since that first day July 14th, but I think it has worked amazing well.
  25. Daniel
    Yes, pair bonding in aquarium fish is is about as strong as it is in humans. That is, it is breakable.
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