Biotope Biologist

Off topic from your off topic. Psychologists have published pieces stating that without nature to look at from day to day, especially urbanites stress levels are a lot higher vs. people who incorporate some form of nature whether it be plants, aquariums, or pets into their home and work environments. We are still animals after all. I will for sure have to give this a read. It's hard finding good "naturalist" books to read.

Unfortunately the large water change likely set you back a day or two. But your macro fauna will speed things up. I would throw some extra waste in there to counteract the water change. If you have some filter gunk from your established tank this will help. Or fish food is easy too, plus your snails will appreciate it.

I have all my old aquarium driftwoods downstairs in a fabric basket. They have been sitting there for at least 5 years, some for 8. Some still have old algae encrusted on that I couldn't be bothered to remove. Probably a home for cellar spiders now.

I wouldn't worry it's not deep enough. It'll still get some water movement through it depending on the grain. If Cory still sells his sand that stuff is the best! It's coarse enough to allow good circulation but fine enough that sand rooting fish don't injure themselves

I have never quarantined mollusks period.

I can discuss this point a bit as I have done a lot of research of "water treatment" both in marine and freshwater systems. So anaerobic bacteria as you know is bacteria that exists in the absence of oxygen. In fact oxygen is toxic to most species of anaerobic bacteria and will kill them. The benefits of anaerobic bacteria is that they produce some pretty awesome organic compounds as waste that especially plants love. Commonly they produce phosphorous, carbon dioxide, and sulfates. In a wastewater treatment faculty anaerobic in combination with aerobic bacteria are used to breakdown complex waste and turn it into, basically fertilizer. Both populations are considered a must for proper waste water recycling especially in combination with planted detention ponds. Now in a home aquaria you have a closed system. Which makes utilizing the advantages of anaerobic bacteria, rather difficult. I have tried many times to incorporate anaerobic bacteria in both large industrial fish ponds and aquarium to limited success. Usually I try to separate anaerobic bacteria in their own sump or filter because disturbing the bed leads to oxygen and oxygen leads to mass die offs. The other concern is methane and carbon dioxide, if the gas exchange in the water is not monitored you can cause toxic stress to the gills of your fish. When people have typically had issues with anaerobic bacteria in the aquarium, the scenario usually follows having deep unaerated substrate. Either you or your fish decide to disturb this bed releasing trapped CO2 and CH4 and killing the anaerobic bacteria causing a die off. This causes basically ammonia spikes. EPA and department of Ecology are wonderful free resources for wastewater treatment here is a brief one: https://www3.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/alagoons.pdf

Oops didn't see the "more oblong than round" of course I'm just shooting in the dark here based on actions. You could have any of an assortment of things. Always exciting to have microfauna

@Hobbit oh you're spot on. I must have missed that in the post. @Samanthabea Well no need for lowering pH or buying alkaline buffer then I'd leave your tap as is. Of course dechlorinate if your city uses chlorine.

Sounds like planaria and daphnia without seeing anything, although pics would help me be more confident. As for the 2nd question they will just kinda hangout and do their thing. As long as the water isn't super turbulent they will be happy eating extra food and suspended particles.

That's unexpected! Where did your kH go in your tank? Did you retest either of them? I am stumped here, I couldn't think of anything that absorbs carbonate ions at that rate...

As a general rule don't keep anything smaller than 2.5-3" with a bichir of any variety. They will try the oto will deploy it's defense tactic and get lodged they will both die. Same goes for corydoras.

Just something to be aware of. Not all of us can afford the space for a quarantine tank or have the luxury of a LFS that actually quarantines upon arrival.

A few things here. First crushed coral will not dissolve efficiently to raise the kH. The thing you have to understand about water chemistry is that it does not exist in isolation. Don't worry I teach this point a lot ☺️. Crushed coral is calcium carbonate. In order for the carbonate side to dissolve the calcium side also has to dissolve. With that in mind let's move on to what kH and gH are. General hardness (gH) refers to your dissolved calcium and magnesium levels. Carbonate hardness (kH) refers specifically to carbonate and bicarbonate dissolved in your water. Now back to the crushed coral example. If you have hard water (which looks like you sit pretty close to 150ppm) and low kH (40 ish ppm here) your coral cannot dissolve efficiently because there are already calcium ions in the water. I do not want to go into excruciating detail here so I will just leave it at that. What you need is carbonate salts. Apparently seachem(r) has a freshwater variant of theirs called "Alkaline buffer" from what I understand it is only carbonate salts. You can pick this up at most major pet store chains or maybe Cory has some. Make sure to dose this initially to your tanks size, then subsequently to the amount of water used in your water changes. Play chemist outside the display tank first, although kH doesn't harm fish per say any water changes can cause some initial stress. Your ghost shrimp need kH to be healthy and your mollies will be happier with it. Also your molly is likely pregnant don't dose the water with any more medications. Even if it is gastro infection usually feeding lighter is enough to get rid of it without medications. Whew long winded sorry

No and Petco and Petsmart don't quarantine either. They throw methylene blue in and call it a day. With a U.V filter depending on your flow rate if you keep it on all the time usually you will kill any bacteria or fungus but parasites in their juvenile state tend to linger in the substrate thus you will still have problems with ich and helminths (parasitic worms). When I worked at one of the chain stores I would at least look at the fish prior to addition to make sure there was no infections. I commonly saw ich and columnaris, sometimes fungal and bacterial fin rot. I doubt most associates know to do this though.

Correct Elodea canadensis and nutalli are native here. Several of the smaller lakes around Seattle and Shoreline are teaming with native shoreline plants. I have only ever had issues with Rangers when transporting invasives, of course you cannot collect in state parks. Public access are usually fair game though. Real question is if anyone has seen Olympic mudminnows in the Seattle area? Rumor has it they were breed and released from state university labs. They are considered threatened so being able to breed them would be fun.

Praziquantel or fenbendazole will kill the free floating stage. All indications say it's safe for plants as they are both anthelmintic

Fascinating! I suppose I have never sniffed smartweed before. I forget that 'smart' meant something different before this century. They do produce gorgeous flowers. Does Petsmart/Petco sell native Elodea or do they sell the invasive variety from Brazil? I haven't stepped foot in either of those places since I left after college.

Nope that is perfect!

I remember dolphin pets! They sold me a very sickly and sad Glass Knifefish. Way back then I asked Cory if he would stock them ever. At one point I think he did get a shipment of them in, but I was already out of the hobby and into the profession by then. I digress, welcome aboard! Hope we can answer any questions you may have!

If you are POSITIVE it is fungal fin rot than I would use ich-x in combination with a sulfa drug. If it is actually a bacterial infection these drugs will not work and erythromycin would be my go to. If you switch drugs mid treatment, you will have to do regular water changes for 2-3 days without dosing to allow your bacteria colonies to come back. Malachite green (Ich-x) and Maracyn (erythromycin) are hard on your nitrifying bacteria. Albeit ich-x is slightly more hospitable. Another thing to note. Make sure your water is close to neutral preferably on the basic side otherwise these drugs will be less effective.

I will use common names here to make them easier to search for The lilies and watershield show up fairly commonly as either a bulb or a full plant. Marsh cinquefoil is irregular but some specialty nurseries such as Sky and Flower World have them from time to time in their pond section. Elodea and coontail are generally not sold by anybody but they are extremely common in lakes and ponds. Water Smart weed similarly shows up commonly in ponds and lakes and often times people will just get them in their ponds suggesting the seeds are transported by something. Maybe this is why they are thought to be "smart."

Planting season is very soon, but just our luck here we get a coldsnap 2nd week of April. I am getting anxious I want to make sure the black salvia I planted last year comes back so I can plant more. The ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor) is budding now so that's always a good sign

To clear up, we were unsure if the first fish was a male without a solid profile pic. But we were positive the aggressor was a male. I suppose it all makes sense now he was just getting frisky. You can always give them a piece of styrofoam or a fake plastic leaf with a suction cup (I think they are called betta hammocks?) to protect their bubble nest and give them more structure to adhere to.

You have at least one male silver molly based on the 2nd pic and a female (maybe?) based on 3rd pic. I wouldn't trust my I.D though unless you can get a profile of all of them. Easiest during feeding time

It is biofilm from a bacteria colony. It is common with anubias transferring from a semi-aquatic to a fully aquatic phase. Also commonly referred to as rhizome rot- although not technically accurate. Some growth might die in the transition make sure to remove it so it does not foul your aquarium