CalmedByFish

Same! I'd love to have a swimming pool with fishies, and actually swim with them. Even a pond big enough to wade in would be great! (At the moment, I'd just love some kuhli loaches though.)

Welcome!

I got shrimp with the hopes of having easy live food for my fish, but now I won't let the fish have any. 😂 They really are fascinating! Welcome back to the hobby.

I think they're corydoras paleatus. I have a few.

I love the idea of a little jar like this. When I've tried, it soon gets a very thin oily residue floating on the surface. It looks like you don't have surface agitation. Is the surface of your jar staying clear?

Cool lava rock! ETA: All of your new scapes are amazing. Beautifully done.

Interesting thought. A couple months ago, the water company sent a letter, saying they would soon switch from chlorine to chloramines. Maybe you're on to something. Yeah, these are the same kits I've always used. Always been zero before.

I'm reading ammonia at 0.25 - 5.0 straight from the tap today, using 2 separate API liquid test kits, and the co-op strips. 1) Is this something to call the water company about? 2) I added Fritz Complete to a tank that was reading ammonia. I'll stop feeding until it tests at zero. Anything else I should do right away? TIA

Ramshorn and bladder.

I collected 10 eggs. 4 hatched. 2 survived. Those 2 are now 6 months old and healthy. So I'd guess about 1 out of 5 will live. I kept mine in a little floating basket, wrapped in hosiery so they couldn't get out, until they outgrew the basket. I kept 2 neocaridina and 2 snails with them to keep the interior clean. Hikari First Bites is all I fed them, several times per day.

I just bought dark blue a week ago. If I were going to buy more, I'd buy light/bright blue.

@JettsPapa That sounds almost identical to my situation. Maybe I'll try just a couple shrimp for a few days to see if it works before I put in more.

No feed of cooler water. I'd call the breeze moderate, and I could run 3 airstones. I'd say I can shade about 95% of the water's surface. It's above ground. I don't know about rocks, but I could add shade to the sides when I add shade to the top. How's that sounding?

I'm currently trying to breed medaka fry. I use a syringe to collect the eggs and drop them into a breeding net in the same tank. The adults eagerly try to eat the fry through the barrier. My experience is very limited, but I'm guessing you could raise a couple of fry for fun in a tank heavily planted with dense things like blobs of moss. I don't think they'd breed high numbers without active intervention though. Since my oldest fry is still very small, I can't speak to tank space overall. It's looking to me like fry would need to be at least 4 months old before they can live with the adults. As for resale value. My LFS sells rice fish, so maybe yours would, too. And, really, I guess almost any species can be used as feeder fish if need be.

My little outdoor pond has a ton of biofilm, so I'm considering letting some of my cherry shrimp loose to spend the summer pigging out. My only concern is the temp. The water will probably hit 90 F repeatedly. Based on googling, that seems to be pushing the heat limit for neocaridina. Any experience?

Maybe you could stick the end of a large syringe near the eggs, pull the plunger back slowly, and see what you get. (That works for me to pick up fallen medaka eggs, but I can see the eggs when I do it.) A turkey baster might be easier to buy than a syringe.

It's a lot of info to keep up with (as you know!), but my initial impression is that a more hands-off approach might help. Maybe a paradigm of stabilizing parameters, rather than changing parameters. Maybe your ambient room temp would be warm enough instead of using a heater? Maybe you could only do water changes if you see ammonia or nitrite? I might've missed this, but I'd definitely add bottled bacteria if you haven't. I was told on this forum to keep pH stable instead of "chase" it, so maybe just let it be. And at least for now, consider sticking with liquid test kits, since they're more accurate than strips.

Hi guys. I'm trying ponds outside for the first time. One has endlers, one has platies. In both, the fish are clearly scared. Both ponds are about 1/4 covered, and the fish only come out for food. I just saw a shadow of a distant bird go over both ponds, and all the fish darted back to cover. I thought they just needed to get used to the new environment, but it's been 5 weeks for the endlers, and 2 weeks for the platies. If anything, they've become more skiddish. They've switched from swimming to darting. Some of the platies have even become pale, though all the fish otherwise appear healthy. There's no evidence of wild animals. Parameters are the same that they had indoors. Changes I know of are: Size and shape of containers (bigger), indirect sunlight instead of electric light, temp swings from 68-80, feeding once per day instead of twice (bugs and algae are in the water). What could be going on?

Welcome back!

My favoritest-fish-ever is a gold angel, and my favorite color on fish is blue. I am enamored. They are stunning. This is the first time I've come across someone online who I really wish was selling their fish to meee. 😍

I keep a simple word document on my laptop. I track ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, other parameters, new fry, signs of sickness, addition of fertilizer, etc. Anything health-related. As needed, I can use the "find" function or just scroll back up. An entry might look like: date (always in blue highlighter) which tank nitrate 20 3 new fry. Moved to [other tank.]

I bought some bird netting with 1/2 inch holes. Looking at it by the fish, I can tell the fish are probably able to fly right through, but it's a start.

I have a flimsy plastic kiddie pool that's almost 4 feet across. I put platies in it today, and 4 soon jumped out. (I put them back.) I don't think parameters is the issue. These platies were born with me, so I know they've got the same parameters they've always had. But the pool is much shallower and wider than they're used to, so I'm guessing that's why they're bothered. Even after adding hiding places all the way around the edge, they still jump. Do you know how I could cover the pool to keep them in? Some kind of screen? Mesh?

In my home, we often refer to them as a psych med. (With full respect to the actual healthcare field.) The thinking is that if the fish give me a benefit comparable to a med's benefits, then the cost is as justified as the cost of actual meds. If a person can be okay without a thing, it's a luxury. That's probably the case with most fishkeepers.