Biotope Biologist

Appears to be a cranefly larvae of some sort.

Happy holidays everyone from my family to yours!

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The answer to that question is rather complicated because there are many variables involved that contribute to nitrate poisoning. I will be succinct here and say as a general rule for long term health of the fish you want to keep it under 30 ppm.

It’s possible to have murderous inhabitants what does the tank look like water change schedule feeding schedule? I have had a school of 10 before and they were completely docile. But it was a heavily planted 40g so there was plenty of sight breaks

You can just run a pipe cleaner and dish soap through the tubing, but it’s fragile because it is cheap. And 50 cents a foot is pretty expensive I wouldn’t pay that for silicone airline tubing. You should be able to get it for around 13 cents a foot just about everywhere else and you only need about 8 ft. 25 ft is a waste of material. Most LFS I’ve been to sell it by the foot on a spool or have 8’ and 13’ packages for like $3-5. Heck just checked petco online… its $4 for 25’

There is a guy on ebay that sells acrylic prefab sump stuff that I bought mine from for a 20H. Great stuff! Very responsive too Anyway for a fluidized bed my understanding is it can be any size as long as it’s properly moving. Preferably water flow would be circular. They design fluidized media in a way too that you can have it as dense or as loose as you desire without it losing rotation. Most fluidized beds I have seen are cylindrical to allow for curved edges for the water and media to have the most efficient rotation. I think too you want a very good polishing screen prior to the bed, and debris can really gunk up and reduce efficiency of the media. Thats all I got, never built one only worked with them professionally. Good luck!

Hydrophilus triangularis (giant diving beetle)most likely. There are quite a few species in the US, but triangularis is ubiquitous and the most commonly seen. Do be careful, they bite, and they bite rather hard. Their larvae are what are commonly referred to as water tigers and can make fun pets.

I am not sure tbh. I’ve seen adult ramshorn snails and shrimp walk right over them rather carelessly. The hydra recoil into their tubes, which might indicate some immunity towards the stinging cells? There is quite an elaborate interaction in the marine world between hydra and predators/prey but I admit my knowledge is lacking in the FW side. I wonder to if hydra on the FW side can capture free floating algae and instead of eat them, imprison them in their tube and parasitize their photosynthesis as they do in the marine world.

Hi welcome! These tanks take a few months to fully stabilize. Having that much decay requires a rather robust bacteria population. The only thing I might suggest is adding a population of invertebrates to help maintain the tank. Copepods, ostracods, worms, and even isopods (the aquatic ones) would help. There are a few members here with long standing walstad tanks that might have more insight

Yeah not needed to have alternate light cycles. I really like the refugium style for FW. I keep plants that are good at removing more than nitrates and nitrite. Duckweed, frogbit, water lettuce are very good at removing pollutants that make it through most tap treatments even. Granted you won’t have to worry about that if you purchase your water from the store. Also makes a good grow out for live foods away from hungry eyes and fry grow out area! Although my dang gobies don’t eat the cherry shrimp so… that was a waste of 6 months 😅

I have a hydra population that waxes and wanes pretty aggressively. They take over the entire tank then disappear in a month or two. Never seen them harm shrimplets. Definitely seen the adults harm the hydra! But hydra typically feed on smaller things, hydra vulgaris can get quite large and eventually possibly eat freshly hatched shrimplets

They should settle down although rummynose can be a bit delicate towards being bullied so watch for signs of stress and watch them at feeding time. danios are voracious eaters and can hog food. Separate if need be, but my advice is to observe more first

Yes to both! Haha and no worries this industry feeds off the inexperienced. Which is sad because a better business model would be to inform the buyer and have them be successful and coming back for years. ACO follows the latter model hence this forum, so you’re in the right place just keep asking your questions

Looking good all around!