Biotope Biologist

I have found a topical ointment that is safe for all aquatic animals. It reduces redding and fin damage. My gobies are fairly aggressive diggers. And sometimes appear in the morning with torn fins or red heads. API fin and body care It was rather hard finding topical stuff that wouldn’t effect my shrimps or snails. Open sores can get infected especially from those fish who burrow or dig. So having this stuff on hand or something similar will help. I dose the main tank, doesn’t effect plants either. Also mulm is healthy. When it gets real bad I suck it into a watering pail to feed the garden.

All I know is there is an X and something something money… If economy lessons weren’t so boring I might be able to retain some of it 😅

Cory had them too when he started ACO. I used to get them often as well. I believe he stated the problem was two-fold. One the cultures would go bad fairly consistently. It was hard to source batches that wouldn’t foul the water something fierce. And 2 the culture never regenerated at a rate fast enough to replace the existing culture. Customer demand was high which drove prices down while making it impossible to sustain cultures which ultimately led to them discontinuing them. Also brine shrimp are just so easy to culture as well as other live food options.

Yeah under the same name but it’s set to private. I have a bunch of rough edits I want to reshoot if I do take the plunge. There is also a lot of misinformation and marine biologists on social media that I don’t exactly approve of. And fighting my way through it seems a challenge. Even the myth that oarfish are incredibly rare creatures. These people have never been in the field. How would they know? Just about every deep sea sample I pulled I found some species of ribbonfish. The truly rare ones have never even been photographed and my dichotomous key is just a crude drawing. I digress. I have thick skin enough to survive detractors haha. Well anyway didn’t mean to tangent with self-promotion. I hope you find the above resources helpful! And if it hasn’t already been said welcome to the forums! It is one of the few genuinely safe spaces on the internet to express yourself.

I want to say toad eggs tend to be in loose aggregates like that. But definitely amphibian eggs.

I absolutely did. Didn’t feel safe, haha but the mud was perfect. I still have it sitting in a bucket with saltwater I refresh every month for when I attempt mangroves/brackish tank again. I keep it outside during the summer and the birds here…. Bathe in it?

Yes hahaha. I believe that alot of scientists are too stuffy and rigid, I aim to have a more relaxed approach. And hopefully entertaining too. Anyway lots of good suggestions here. And since you are new here you will find that even the nerdiest of us all tend to take a similar approach to the hobby. This is a friendly open minded community. @nabokovfan87 yeah tbh I am not sure. I have oscillated multiple times on starting videos to explain more in depth ideas. And have multiple videos of myself talking at screens. It all feels so foreign and weird so haven’t taken the plunge to uploading any of it. It’s not popular. I mean even discussing that most leech interactions with vertebrates seem to be hitchhiking rather than parasitism is met with heavy backlash… But I digress. I think it would be good to have someone who can digest scientific articles, which let’s be honest are a slog. I just don’t know if that person is me.

Glad you’ve joined the dark side. In all honesty things have only started getting easier as I have introduced diverse fauna and flora to my tanks. As far as information though, you aren’t going to find much in the form of digestible content. As you mentioned that content is geared towards beginners so it steers clear of the weeds so to speak. Unfortunately you will have to jump off the deep end. And by that I mean google scholar…. There are a couple Barons publishing company books that go into biotope scaping and microfauna but they are extremely limited in scope usually. I pretty much only watch Cory and Serpa design. I watch serpa for design ideas not so much knowledge and Cory has always been a big nerd so his insights regardless of your experience level always has been refreshing. [Not just saying that because these are his forums either]

Yeah if you have less than hardy plants I would forego the salt. But most hardy species like; anubias, java, vals, all the mosses, will tolerate the pinch of salt But the endlers also will benefit from a pinch of salty every once in awhile. Marine salt not table salt. It has tons of things plants and animals love like magnesium.

My dream 10 gallon is ‘The amazon, things that live under leaves’ and I would just have all those tiny cute anchor cats and pencilfish and a pair of black darter tetra! The males look like viperfish to me (see profile pic).

They thrive with just a pinch of salt. Like the tiniest amount. But they do fine in harder full fresh water. They are often billed as ‘brackish’ but only really tolerate brackish to about 1.005-1.007. Fun little micro predators that squabble amongst eachother as gobies do. Make sure to feed frozen or live or be prepared to tong feed. They are eyesight predators meaning if it aint moving they usually won’t go for it.

The unfortunate thing is I think marine worms have to be axed. That might be in a range where finding brackish habitants will be hard. Most marine worms are fine to about 1.008. There are some kelp copepods around online that live in the marginal region of the beach meaning they tolerate full freshwater for a time. Marginal tidepools are…. On the margins. They only get saltwater during high tide and often their only source of water is freshwater via rain or underground creeks. They are often sold as bait. Thats all I got. You could buy some live mangrove mud from Florida. They at least have brackish micro fauna living in there. Just be careful with it it’s expensive for no good reason so finding a trustworthy source can be hard. I got mine from 2 little fishies I think. And that felt sketchy, website still running on windows vista…

They are pretty common in Lake Washington have a fun name that sounds like a harry potter spell Carpio carpio Or perhaps a love sonnet written about two carps forbidden from love by their families. Speaking of they seem to hybridize with goldfish and Koi that escape or are released into our waterways.

I haven’t seen the presentation but just taking a stab in the dark, was it a medusa pleco? They can get pretty mop headed photo of ancistrus ranunculus photo credit: planet catfish

I mean shoaling loaches really hampers your selection. Even shoaling loaches in the aquaria start to loosely group and do their own thing. A ton of colder water loaches have made their way into the hobby. Panda loaches, lizard loaches, and horseface loaches. Don’t trust any of the temperature ranges for these fish, they are more concerned with oxygen saturation than temps. On the other note, snail busters. I don’t know of a ton of snail busting loaches tbh. If you are having an issue with them perhaps assassin snails are more your speed?

Ah okay then it’s probably a stage 1-2 dipteran larvae. There are so many species it really depends on where you live and a dichotomous key to be more accurate than that.

Did it move at all before? Kinda just looks like a piece of root

Okay went back and forth on my vision but most the plants are in and I quite love it! I still need to grab some native moss-I’m going to attempt to RR it. And I have some Callisia repens ‘Turquoise jewel’ propagules that need to be planted as well. I still need to set aside a day to watch the waterfall feature I installed and make sure it doesn’t drain where it shouldnt. While the plants get situated and the fungal culture takes hold the isos will live in their derelict housing for the time being (I stole some of their hides for the new housing)

Fish are happy as clams! Plants are doing quite well, the java fern is slowly but surely taking over the log. And my maiden hair has finally stopped being a drama queen and put on new fronds… It’s too sunny where I live now so she melted 🙄 Lastly I decided to move my grandma’s glass reef to the tank as my plants started burying them under leaves Grumpy boy- I’m late to feed

I hate to be that guy, but It will come back most likely. The mold spores really like the surface of wood on the water’s edge. Before my wood submerged in water got completely taken over by the fern and moss I too would get some gnarly looking molds. Wiped off with alcohol it would come back after a couple weeks. I am fairly sensitive to air quality and am allergic to molds and weirdly I was never sniffly around the tank. I even had a couple orange slime molds find their way into the tank.

I am growing some emergent swamp plants from clemson and they are growing like crazy! This water willow has beautiful violet-esque flowers. I’m not a botanist. I have also had great success with a maidenhair fern growing on a log half submerged in my tank where most people kill these ferns in a pot. They really do well with constant water running through the soil

I have seen people plant the smaller orchid species on wood that extends down into the water. It is very beautiful! Or idk if plant is the right word. Anchor to wood with a clump of sphagnum moss. The humidity from the water helps in drier climates too I assume. I would not submerge them though unless they are swamp orchids that grow in the emergent zone

I could give a quick run down! First and foremost if you have an object or island or even a large plant species to display you want to place it off center. Doing so will draw the eye to it without making it feel out of place. Often times leaving the mistake looks better. You set a rock down and it doesn’t go exactly where you want it. Take a step back and see if it looks better than your vision. This is a tool even pro aquascapers struggle with. Use a mix of wood and stone to soften and sharpen features. Iwagumi is very difficult to pull off. Use also only one stone type and one wood type. Mixing wood or stone color can really detract from a piece. Lastly the one I prefer doing. Just copy nature. If I ever see a cool formation or tiny waterfall along a path I take many pictures and save them to folders for later use. It’s great inspiration.

You were right on the money they are usually called 'Peach' or 'Coral' Although in my experience that color gives way to White. I had a peach betta in middle school named 'Peaches' but once he was out of a walmart cup and on a better diet he turned bright white

Tensile strength specifically refers to stress caused by being pulled or stretched while the force of the tank is largely bending the board… Although I suppose if it’s supported enough by wood beams and a frame it’d probably be fine. Just the board as support, no. I would not trust it.