Jungle Fan

In my experience Cardinals caught in the wild like those from Project Piaba tend to in the long run be healthier than farm raised, however, that said they sometimes can have a harder time adjusting with higher pH and 7.8 is at the upper end of what they prefer also you can have an occasional batch that might have some internal parasites, but I would likely first look at lowering pH.

With the dark start it's best just to leave the lights off and keep the hands out of the tank for four weeks, then do the water tests and mess with things after planting and turning the lights, and CO2 on. I know it's hard but it works.

@Fish Folk I bet you know what I'm gonna say😄!

No issue with mixing, as long as you keep track of what you are dosing and how much of it. Trace minerals in my experience are a good idea with most public water supplies, then again, check your local water values by getting the annual water quality report from your utility company. Also keep an eye on the length, and depending on the light, intensity of your photoperiod. Track the amount of CO2 if you are dosing CO2. Other things to consider: amount of plant mass, level of livestock density, and amount of feeding, and whether you are heavy on stem plants that feed primarily from the water column, or root feeders that need the addition of root tabs.

Maybe these links will get you started in the right direction: https://www.killi.co.uk/speciesProfile/Fundulopanchax/oeseri/ https://www.fishbase.se/summary/9774 https://fundulopanchax.weebly.com/blog---comments/fp-oeseri https://eol.org/pages/218782 https://www.killi-data.org/zz-oeseriPancha.php https://aka.org/ https://aka.org/beginner/

When they arrive I first inspect them for damage, place them in a bucket of water with Prime to hold them during processing, trim off the damaged, or dead leaves, and put the processed plants in a basin with water and Prime until processing is complete and then they get planted as immediately as possible. With any potted plants I remove the pot and the stone wool, give the plant a rinse under running water and divide up the root bundle into as many plants as desired, and they join the rest in the basin waiting to be planted asap. If they are crypts, other than Cryptocoryne parva, I cut off their leaves half an inch above the rhizome to skip the melt back phase. My plant holding tank is exactly that, a tank where I hold plants trimmings, or baby plants until I'm giving them away to friends, or where I keep certain plants until I have room in the tank for them, not a quarantine tank. Do I get snail hitchhikers? Yes but they don't stress me. Have I had other hitchhikers? Not to my knowledge, a good rinse off with running water has always done the job for me.

Stevie Ray!

Did I forget to mention a good portion of my family is from Texas?

Seachem Prime, quick and easy, Repashy, and Sera for the fish food, North Fin, or Hikari for cichlid sinking pellets, Dennerle for shrimp food, a combo for fltration: lava lock below the substrate with deep sea minerals, and bacter, pre-filter sponge, and canister filter with another pre-filter, mostly sponge, and one tray of Sera Siporax sintered glass, and loads of plants. Python water changer with 25 FT extension tube, brass snap connector, faucet pump, and nylon cover with rubber band for refilling.

Got to meet her after one of her gigs in West Berlin through a friend who worked for Radio In the American Sector-Berlin (RIAS-Berlin). Awesome sax player, and extremely talented, with a huge following in Europe.

There ya go!

...and then back to some old favorites from Germany.

Sometimes this for a break from Rock.

Five, the originals name was "Titanic", not "Titanic I".😄

With too much flow, you get less accumulation of debris, the less debris, the less decomposition the less decomposition, the less nutrients for new growth. When I used to go snorkeling different rivers and creeks in the Southeast, and South, the most amazing plants were generally located in slower moving waters, and yes there was the muck, and slime. The one exception was Florida where there were some creeks and rivers that looked like aquascapes but did not have as much muck on the bottom but even there the closer you got to the edge of the water the mulm/muck was present, and that's generally where the majority of plants were. By the way it is always a good idea to have others with you going snorkeling in that region because of alligators, and snakes.

They definitely look like snail eggs, but the leaves look like cryptocoryne leaves not Java fern.

Very understandable, they might want some privacy but most likely they're unwilling to provide "big boss" lunch.

Still the addition of the Roman numeral VI leaves room to ponder if I - V are still around😀And begs the question what might have happened to them, so better choices in naming were available.

You didn't have to guess, you could've simply sent me a personal message I would've told you. Just following forum guidelines. However I would agree I'm a service veteran too, and been in the hobby for a good long while as well, great minds usually think alike and make similar decisions with similar outcomes, good, or bad. 😎

@James Black your pictures of the fishbowl are not bad. It's hard to take pictures of a fishbowl with the flash. Most of the time these days I'm using just my phone for quick tank pictures as well., but if you are interested in more here are some easy tips for aquarium photography: https://aquariuminfo.org/photographs.html

That's how a life time of fascination begins😍

In my experience Nerites can live anywhere from 1-2 years in most cases, although I've read claims of anywhere from 3-5 years, but those are few and far between. It mostly depends on what type of conditions they were kept in before you got them as well, and how long they spent at the dealer's tank. I would assume if your other snails are doing fine, and the shrimp are doing fine it was death of natural causes and old age. I'm sorry you lost the Nerite but I hope this helps.

I'm using the Aquarium Co Op black airline tubing for my air pump and it works great, I also use it to hide white cables that would otherwise stand out in my tank like a sore thumb; however for CO2 I would recommend using CO2 resistant tubing and check valves, especially the check valves because the air check valves are made either from silicone, or also food grade PVC and the CO2 will corrode them over time and the best warranty on a good dual stage regulator will be moot if water gets to enter it because you used air line check valves. Ask me how I know!😉

@CalmedByFish we all make mistakes, in my 53 years of keeping fish and plants I have made lots of them, first of all don't beat yourself up over them. Normally I place root tabs every six inches in my tank, I try to keep them with at least one inch of distance from the swords, or crypts. I don't recall you mentioning the size of your tank but instead of trying to dig up root tabs, which would probably just fall apart and end up in the water column, I would move the plant away from the top of the root tab. While you do that you can inspect the root if it is still white and firm, or brown and mush. If it is mush it won't recover, if it is white and firm, then you can remove any leaves that are brown, or translucent with holes, leaving those to recover that are simply just yellow, a condition called chlorosis caused by lack of chlorophyll which it needs to use light for photosynthesis. Trim the roots back to about 2.5 to 3 inches left, this will encourage the sword to develop new roots and anchor itself at the new location. In regards to the Vallisneria I would move them off the root tab as well if you have them directly on top, The cuts you made were o.k. with them, you'll see the brown line where you cut them but if the leaves were green below the cut they should be fine. Inspect the roots the same way as you do with the swords, and I would also do the same in regards to trimming and moving the roots. The trimmed Vallisneria won't look real pretty for a while but in time it will grow new leaves at which time you can remove the current ones at just above the substrate level if you like, or you can let them grow with the rest of the leaves whichever you prefer. Plants are much more resilient than many believe and in general will recover as long as the roots are still fine. Just for illustration some of my very big Amazon swords in the past I have propagated by slicing with a razor blade straight through the rosette to create two new plants and they took about four months to recover, but recover they did. With all the root tabs and the Easy Green your plants should be doing fine, if you notice continued chlorosis, the yellow leaves, then you might need to extend your photoperiod, the length of time you run your lights, or it could be you might need to add some trace elements. I hope you don't feel discouraged, and I hope this helps.