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Biotope Biologist

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Everything posted by Biotope Biologist

  1. Albinos cannot just pick up melanin from their diet and environment. I think the ‘palette’ theory talked about above holds the most water for why an albino picked up colors. true albinos are devoid of pigment. And usually comes with a host of genetic disorders. Thus breeders typically avoid true albinos and attempt leucistic and other variations of albinism instead. Those angels are beautiful btw!
  2. Cory carries them at ACO every once in a while. I imagine he gets them from a local breeder. As for the loaches and their confusing scientific history, I believe they are referred to as Petruicthys rosy most recently. They were once only associated with small localities in the late 1980’s like one town in south east China and one in Myanmar. At that point they were referred to as Yunnanilus as they were thought to only be from Yunnan. Later in the 2010’s to current day loaches and fishes as a whole were looked at again more intensely and they discovered what they were referring to as Yunnanilus was actually 6 species that branched into different genus. And that they actually inhabit the entire lower half of the Mekong and it’s tributaries. I don’t believe they can interbreed but they do look awfully similar. I believe part of the issues for delayed research was the remoteness of some of these areas. There are actually old Chinese naturalist books that refer to all of southeast asia as having a thick miasma in the jungles and therefore could not be traversed.
  3. Pruinosus ‘powder orange’ although I get some ‘orange cream’ from time to time. The culture is still 1000+ strong. I should probably start selling and trading to get some more crosses 😅
  4. I had to scrap it! I sold the zoomed terrarium and the tall terrarium wouldn’t hold water no matter how much silicone I used so it will now be a humidity box for my partner’s orchids I bought a 12g high aquatop tank and once the rest of the tropical plants show up I will make a post about it!
  5. Pretty sure that’s a silver rasbora (Rasbora argyrotaenia). They have a habit of just showing up in random fish orders.
  6. Shadow cats stay small around 1.5-3” and feed primarily on mixed worms and small crustaceans. They are also a shoaling species so 6+ is recommended They are fairly rare so you may not get a reply back on personal experience. According to some websites they prefer soft acidic water slow moving water with dense vegetation.
  7. Pictus cats need a school and there are smaller knife fish that are becoming more readily available. But with an all nocturnal tank you may have issues of food aggression. Otherwise thats a doable tank. If you want you could also do smaller species of catfish. Anchorcats stay small same with cories and many loaches. If you wanted smaller knife fish, caterpillars are becoming more common. Or centipede knifefish. They all need a school though
  8. My water is pretty consistently sitting at 65-67 degrees in the winter I do water changes with unheated water, and the water comes out of the tap at 55 degrees. This is enough cold water in a 20% water change to get my temps down to 60-62 for a couple days but it snaps back to 65-67 pretty quick. I am still unsure if cold water triggers my fish seeing as the minnows breed constantly year round and the trout im not even sure of their sex let alone their breeding behavior. I think @dasaltemelosguy suggestions might prove to be useful.
  9. Appears to be a species of semi aquatic springtails. Despite their name they rarely truly submerge themselves and instead inhabit the tops of leaves on the waters surface. hard to tell from the pics. Could also be an aphid
  10. He still has quite a bit more growing to do, but in my experience bichirs are one of the most docile large fish you can have. Even if you have a group as long as there are enough territories they will squabble amongst eachother but never maim or injure. When yours gets older and bigger it may attempt at some of the smaller tetra. But I doubt it they are rather lazy predators. An ornate bichir or two is still on my dream tank list at some point.
  11. Pretty much! Like an exotic blood worm 😄
  12. Let me know how it goes! For marine water we use a chiller. In some areas it may be required to get the water down to 45-55 degrees Fahrenheit. Which I believe river run fish are used to the temperatures dropping that much from snowmelt this time of year
  13. Appears to be a cranefly larvae of some sort.
  14. Happy holidays everyone from my family to yours!
  15. Blood worms and mosquito larvae are easy to culture outside in the spring and summer: 1. Set out a stagnant tub of rainwater 2. wait 3. prosper Otherwise I agree with the above suggestions
  16. You could use a drill but a rotary polisher moves in a motion that helps to mitigate swirling and other such defects and is easier to operate for long uses. I say it’s easy because it’s not a lot of skill involved, it’s not ferrari paint. But it will be time consuming depending on the scratches. here is what you’re looking for. Or honestly a smaller handheld one would probably be better
  17. That tank is worth a few hundred dollars even in less than ideal condition. Scratching my head as to why your neighbor didn’t try to sell it…. Acrylic is very easy to restore. Just like headlights even the deepest scratches can be restored with liquid plastics and some novus acrylic buff and polish products. I would rent a polisher from a hardware store and buy novus on amazon. Looks like so: If I recall the dark tint black is to reduce glare as the light is meant to be mounted inside the tank. There are special waterproof cased LEDs you will have to consider. But I think you can get freshwater ones for around $40 for 32” light bar. The suction cups suck, do be aware. I just replaced them with cheap suction cups you can find at most general stores. You don’t need a lid, the tank is the lid. Dont enlarge the holes keep it as is. The holes are meant for feeding and equipment. The idea is you invest in robotic or magnetic algae scrubbers and don’t ever reach in there other than initially to setup the tank. Again I can’t stress this enough that tank was around $600 new at it’s absolute cheapest and depending on brand, it is well worth the time investment and elbow grease even if your goal is to flip it. Good luck!
  18. I think the topic has pretty well covered, but I just wanted to tackle the nitrates reading and your plants. With mature plants and tons of plant growth you should have a very hard time reading nitrates in your water. Unless you have a real time monitor that conducts readings every 10 minutes it will appear to you that your nitrates are always at 0. When in fact they are not. So if you were to somehow dump a bunch of nitrate fertilizer in your water to get it to 40-80 ppm you would likely injure/kill your fish and shock your bacteria population. Id advise if you are seeing melt you can add more fertilizer using the somewhat accurate leaf chart. But chances are they are missing some sort of micro nutrient and not nitrate. Eventually plants will get to the point where they starve algae out of the water for competition over the same nutrients. Only mature algae will survive.
  19. If I engage from my field, I would say we are kind of still unsure. There are many many fish health and medicine studies all around the world being conducted as farm fish provides humans the easiest form of protein with the best ratio of feed to edible protein. But farm fish all have a common problem that we see in our fish tanks. Once you take a fish from the wild and put them in an enclosure they become more susceptible to bacterial, fungal, and parasitic interactions. Even if you ship them with water from their native land this happens. I wouldn’t even hazard a guess as to why this happens from a biological point of view. But I notice that when I keep my fish in a tank where I allow the flora and fauna to flourish and the mulm to buildup versus a sterile environment with no substrate and constant turnover of water I have a easier time keeping them alive. They get fin rot, some sort of bacterial infection on the gills or in the marine world eye infection if kept in these sterile conditions . Perhaps it is similar to the theory that the children who eat dirt and bugs snd play outside have a stronger immune system because their immune system is engaged with threats constantly and thus is better at identifying actual threats versus perceived threats? Suffice to say I don’t know. I think if we did know the aquarium industry would be better for it, not to mention aquaculture.
  20. As far as flow goes I noticed they did like hanging out on plants sometimes near the flow from an HOB filter. But I don’t think they like strong currents or anything of that nature. In their native habitat they seem to prefer small creeks or pools with heavy vegetation and overhanging plants. Mine almost exclusively hung out on plants or pieces of wood during the day. Then slept in the corners of the aquarium glass. They seem to like sleeping in shallow crevices where escape is possible. If that makes sense. I think as a camouflage species they feel safer being out in the open where they can mimic their surroundings.
  21. If you know the scientific name then fishbase.org has some decent information about ecology and natural distribution. And sometimes can provide you with additional sources.
  22. Mine were easy going. They didn’t take to algae wafers which I think is a similar experience amongst twig cat owners. But they were greedy frozen food eaters! If I remember correctly they even ate live blackworms, but they also ate fresh blanched veggies. They were shy at first but then after a few months started being a bit more active.
  23. I wouldn’t attempt it. Larger characins may be peaceful in a large fish community but they are absolute terrors when they are the biggest fish in the tank. If you are looking for a large peaceful fish that doesn’t need a school I would steer you towards geophagus. Despite their size they are incredibly docile. Only getting mildly aggressive about their nest. But with smaller fish they probably won’t be phased. geos will move the substrate around though.
  24. Rocket killi or clown killi or there is a plethora of nano rasbora species that fit the bill. Just a fair warning nano fish tend to have a rather short lifespan ~1.5-2 years Photos credit to ACO: dwarf rasbora Chili rasbora clown or rocket killifish
  25. I would specifically look for root tabs with lots of iron as I remember amazon swords use quite a bit of this in leaf building. Cheers good luck
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