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Biotope Biologist

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Everything posted by Biotope Biologist

  1. Correct planaria have triangle shaped heads and rhabdocoela move much slower as well
  2. Keep your eye out for ads of seafood markets or fish breeders selling stuff. Granted I live near Seattle so these are both extremely common place but that’s the best way to get display tanks or hundreds of breeders for cheap. There are online retailers who wholesale tanks but they aren’t cheap and they are usually looking to sell whole displays not individual breeders. I’ve seen a few Petsmarts/Petcos selling their old blue acrylics to replace them with more modern fish walls. So depending on where you live that could be an option. And yes Cory partners with local businesses and breeders to earn the title Co-operative. I was around when Cory first started it’s great to see how far the store has come but the success of the coop was a lot of work and some luck and Cory garnered alot of respect with his passion and kindness that was then rather rare in the aquarium hobby imho. I know nothing of business ventures though, im just a lowly marine biologist haha so anything past that I got nothing.
  3. Looks like Astyanax paranae as Colu mentioned. This is a species that occupies rio de paraña which is east of where you were located It also looks like there are some 2 spot mixed in there? Im looking at fishbase to see if these species overlap in your region. It looks like bifasciatus overlaps
  4. The problem with a comprehensive guide to identifying micro organisms in your tank is that this forum has members spanning the globe. As does the hobby. Not only that but even though many of our members are NA, fish plants and substrates come from all over. And if that wasn’t complicated enough there are hundreds of species of flying insects especially in the warm months that sneak into our homes climb into our tanks and lay eggs… When I or someone else identifies a microfauna we can only guess at the genus or even group of critters it might belong to. Blood worms for example refer to something like 100+ different species of midges! And even more midge larvae aren’t red 😬 Anyway I hope you enjoyed my TED talk and delightfully unhelpful answer haha
  5. 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.
  6. 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!
  7. 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.
  8. 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
  9. 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 😬
  10. 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
  11. 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.
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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.
  15. Seed shrimp are ostracods they will eat any decaying matter and detritus. They are usually a sign post of a healthy aquarium ecology
  16. I 2nd seed shrimp. Harmless little tank cleaners. Evidence suggests they pass through fish intestines completely unharmed so they will persist
  17. 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:
  18. Those are seed shrimp really pretty shells when they get bigger. completely harmless tank cleaner
  19. 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
  20. 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!
  21. @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
  22. 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!
  23. 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.
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