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Biotope Biologist

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Everything posted by Biotope Biologist

  1. All tetra have adipose fins. It is a distinguishing feature used in the field for marine and freshwater fish alike. Although we still don’t know what it was used for, as it appears to be vestigial in most fish.
  2. Really depends on your budget. Doing some cost analysis the fluval equipment listed prices out to $750 so your question now is, is a 88g tank and stand worth $1k to you? I would imagine fluval used low-iron glass and looking at prices online of other reputable high clarity glass manufacturers, fluval is being quite competitive here. Also it looks like it comes with a magnetic scrubby and some sample products. Fluval gets a bad rep for being overpriced with little to show for it. But one thing you know is that it is going to be quality. I do wish it came with maybe some glass lily pipes or some acrylic baffles to show its meant to be a high-end aquascape showcase but I can’t fault them on that too much. I like it!
  3. Geos are pretty docile but once they get older and start nesting your aquarium will be subject to… their design choices. You can probably add a couple pairs of EBA without any hassle. I might add some more sight breaks and caves though. And be aware that geos are messy so filter maintenance regime will have to be more frequent.
  4. Quit using it. As said above test your water parameters. It’s basically a buffer that adds iron, magnesium, and potassium back into the water. Many plant fertilizer and water buffers also accomplishes this so if you do have a low gh from the tap look at gh up or one of the several other water buffers not directly marketed to shrimp keepers. It will be cheaper in the long run. Not to say that this aqueon product is a gimmick but it is very niche. It is meant as a supplement on nano aquaria where dosing water buffers may be rather difficult to measure
  5. I know some municipalities and wells have water thats non-potable, but using water bottles will become very expensive. Check if there is a local spring you may fill up at or worst comes to worst go to your LFS and ask to fill up 5 gallon water totes from their tap, they will usually be amenable. As someone who worked with farmers that had non-potable well water this seems to be the most cost efficient way of doing water changes. I was more than happy to give them tap water. Bottled water adds up quick even if you buy the big costco packs. Not to mention the plastic waste 😬
  6. I have the rootball of the fern it did die back after the move. I assumed from shock but it could be the wort stage seeing as the roots are still very much alive and growing
  7. 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.
  8. It’s been about a month so here is a review! The nyos Viper is a dream no more sitting there after a water change playing with the ball valve. It’s quiet and best part is the shrimp don’t like the frequency of this pump so they no longer hang out in the pump chamber. And the wiper function on the intake is actually useful it clears duckweed and dead leaves even while it’s on! I also found this clear eggcrate on amazon that locks into eachother and it is so much better then the netting from BRS and best part is this product is made with aquariums in mind so it fits snuggly 2x wide across my 50g breeder. The netting had no structure so it would get waterlogged and grow algae like crazy Its sunny this morning so I managed to capture the 6 new WCMM added to the school. We are now at 14 total and I am hoping this will lead to more fry in the spring. Don’t mind the debris in the water this was 10 minutes after a WC. Also have this wort type thing growing on the log as well as the moss really starting to stretch out
  9. Sounds like you have rhabdocoela, planaria, and some sort of detritus worms. They are harmless and make good fish fry food or cleanup crew. I have heard of planaria attacking and killing shrimplets but I’ve never seen it. But my snail population suffered some heavy casualties
  10. There are definitely some cool roaches and beetles! I kept turkish roaches and hissing roach cultures for my bearded dragon. One thing roaches are escape artists you need to make sure everything is secure. There are also some fun harvestmen “spider” species that have made their way and are super easy to take care of. Despite their rather drunken walk they are pretty good ambush hunters and fun to watch.
  11. Seed shrimp are ostracods they will eat any decaying matter and detritus. They are usually a sign post of a healthy aquarium ecology
  12. I 2nd seed shrimp. Harmless little tank cleaners. Evidence suggests they pass through fish intestines completely unharmed so they will persist
  13. No not really I am setting up a river/creek biotope and unfortunately it’s still pretty unpopular. Especially the use of algae as the main display plant. In the spring I can post pics of the algae when it’s in full production. Beautiful and it pearlesces(?) a ton. Here is a pic of water willow all grown up. It forms these woody rafts in high flow environments. And I also have white top sedge and some random riparian things I didn’t plant like some sort of violet and a deer fern that really take a while to take hold. It tests my patience sometimes but it’ll be worth it in the end and the gobies really enjoy tunneling into the island edit I found a pic from last summer, still doesn’t do it justice but:
  14. Those are seed shrimp really pretty shells when they get bigger. completely harmless tank cleaner
  15. Mine really needed to seed and algae takes a good long while to grow. I would say I am still only halfway there after 1.5 years. Emergent plants are really coming in now although I had some die back during these winter months. This tank looks so good in full sunlight! Algae looks brown now but turns vivid red and green. Something that my lights no matter how bright cant seem to reproduce Above: algae algae so much algae: Gobies are much less camera shy now. Although I have to pay them in food or they get real cranky… divas
  16. That’s what these forums are all about is evolving as a collective group. I have been in this hobby and profession over a decade and I still learn new things all the time! Beautiful tank btw!
  17. @Fish Folk has some NANF tanks. I have kept sunfish before mine were pumpkin seed. They lived in a tank of rejects and behaved like any other aquarium fish. I did feed them live insects and fish when they were young but they quickly started taking frozen foods and weirdly hikari algae wafers. They were quite territorial over those haha
  18. It greatly depends on the cichlids in question. I had a male convict raised him from a fry. He was a puppy. Just followed everyone around and liked being social. Very curious. He was in with gourami, sunfish, a goldfish, a BN pleco and a chinese algae eater. cichlids have a ton of personality so the best answer to their compatibility is that it depends. You have 2 tanks if they fight separate them. If they get along great!
  19. Looks like a red-headed centipede they are pretty ubiquitous in the western United States. Great hunters when I kept them they were pretty prolific spider hunters. I believe they will also eat isopods or tiny crickets.
  20. They do this when they are breeding or displaying for breeding. My WCMM have produced 3 batches of fry for me and I have 2 males. The two males will fight for territory but really they just flare their fins and posture. Then the school will split into two groups and about 3-4 weeks later there are baby WCMM swimming around. They do like current but you have to train them. When I had them in a 12g the current was too much for them so I bought a tiny hygger wavemaker and turned it all the way down. As they grew older and I grew more confident in their swimming ability I increased the speed. Now they are at max speed and they surf pretty much all day.
  21. Emperors can hold their own in more rambunctious tanks including bigger tetra characins so the danio aren’t an issue at all just make sure everyone gets enough food Pretty much all danio are very food motivated so slower less aggressive fish can go hungry sometimes
  22. Yeah archerfish need to have a group. There will be some infighting at first but the aggression should go away after awhile. Especially if you have had 1 and now have 3. I would add a few more roughly the same age and you need good sight breaks in the tank. They are incredibly intelligent fish and social like piranha they will need to establish order amongst the ranks. So to speak
  23. My profile pic? Or are you asking about the rainbowfish that want their picture taken desperately in the foreground of @mynameisnobody’s shots?
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