CalmedByFish
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Posts posted by CalmedByFish
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On 10/5/2021 at 10:13 PM, Atitagain said:
I had platy fry in a 10G and it didn’t seem like they grew for 6-8 weeks I was waiting for them to get big enough to join the shoal. I finally had to move them thinking I hope their big enough. 60G with 20ish platy then a few other adult fish. It’s been a week and it seems like they tripled their size. I kept looking thinking there’s no way those are the fry! But they were.
Since I currently have platy fry, I'm very interested. Could it be that in the big tank, they have more food or more heat?
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@gardenman That's genius! It never occurred to me that it could be an option. Is it hard to get enough light into the water?
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I've had guppies die on the floor, 2 species of snail readily crawl out, and my 1 angelfish jumps half-way out when startled. (I remember seeing an angelfish in one of the Peru videos jump entirely out of the water.)
I haven't kept the other species you mentioned, but I'm guessing that the number of species that are safe without a lid is very small.
If I needed to go without a lid, I'd lower the water level enough that the walls of the tank, above the water, are at least the length of the longest fish's body. Or at least 3" to protect the snails - whichever length is greatest.
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I landed on the below link for everything but the angel, and got the angel his own 5 gallon bucket. (I bet nothing will actually be full of water, since they'd be too heavy.) This is a good framework for working out the rest of the details.
Anybody have suggestions for my many pothos vines? I'm currently just thinking of putting them, moist, into a couple plastic trash bags, then into a cardboard box. The leaves would be in moisture for about a week, but I've seen people keep them alive submerged for a month, so maybe it's fine. If you're sure the trash bag idea is bad, let me know.
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I have a trick for this. The remaining grungy water in the HOB, without media, can be pulled out using a big syringe or turkey baster, with the tip held at the bottom. (Basically a gravel-vac for the HOB.) That'll get most of the grunge out.
On 10/5/2021 at 10:28 AM, DannyBWell said:Cleaning my HOB filters, particularly turning them back on after you've cleaned out the filter media and all that nasty water goes into the aquarium.
On 10/5/2021 at 3:28 AM, Guppysnail said:Cleaning the lines involves standing in the bath tub using my feet to anchor one end 🤮🤢. My bathroom needs scrubbed immediately after and then a very long hot shower.
Any chance a HOB (or 45 per tank) could make your life easier?
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On 10/4/2021 at 11:08 PM, Odd Duck said:
A piece of coarse filter foam cut to fit diagonally across the square/rectangular container would really limit sloshing and if you stuck those foam pieces in your tanks before moving they would get seeded with BB’s. Soft floating plants (wisteria, water sprite) would also tend to baffle the sloshing a little or at least minimize risk of a fish getting slapped against the side of the container.
Oooh genius. So this is like @Patrick_G's idea of baffling, but the sides of the sponge would go into 2 opposite corners, so I wouldn't have to glue anything. Right?
I only have a few handfuls of soft floating plants. Of these fish, whose bodies would be in most need of cushioning? Endler males, females, fry. Platy males, females, fry.
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Tedious time-consuming liquid test kits... but sometimes, you gotta have numbers closer than the strips can get. Bleh.
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On 10/4/2021 at 5:33 PM, Ken Burke said:
After 20 years in the Air Force, and another 10 in civil service I’ve moved interstate/internationally 12 times. The one thing I’ve learned: moving is one of the most stressful things in life. Up there with divorce, and loss of a close loved one or friend. Planning is a good first step, but deciding on your priorities is a must. When things go awry and you can’t do it all, make sure what you do is the priority.
Hear ya. When I was 18, I counted 21 buildings I'd lived in. And 9 since. A total of about 22 towns, in 3 states and 2 countries.
Priorities: [Huge sigh.] I actually found a new home for all my other pets when I decided to make this move, realizing that my fish give me the best work-to-benefit ratio, by far.
Everything you said is exactly right. It's rough.
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On 10/4/2021 at 6:03 PM, Patrick_G said:
The only tip I can add is to try and make some internal baffling for the traveling containers.
I've decided to use rectangular containers so I can use them as little tanks after arrival. Taking that shape into account, can you clue me in? Even 1 idea would be enough for me to get my thoughts moving.
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@Torrey That is seriously impressive! What an accomplishment! Thanks for the loads of ideas.
By the way, I do have fry. But my thinking is that they can be in fry-only containers, so I can give them a couple snacks and little water changes, while most of the others stay in the car.
It just occurs to me: No matter how well I plan this, I'll probably have to edit the plan en route.
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This is all I can contribute, but it might matter.
Lead is very harmful to humans, and is at an unsafe level in about 1/4 of the homes in my city - so much so that the city mails instructions to every house, telling them how to drink water safely. I paid for an independent lab to test the water from my house, and sure enough, I'm among the 1/4.
So part of my fishkeeping is making sure my fishes' water doesn't have a harmful amount of lead. Lead pipes leech a harmful amount of lead into standing water in about 6 hours, so I certainly wouldn't use a lead plant anchor.
I have no knowledge about 3D printing though.
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On 10/3/2021 at 12:14 PM, carefulest said:
I would think that if you plan on breeding fish, you need space to grow out the fry as well as enough room for the breeding stock fish to feel comfortable. So probably there's nothing you could do in a single 5 gallon.
This. Unfortunately. But maybe you live in a good climate for putting a container outdoors? Or maybe you could just use the 5 gallon for the fry until they're big enough to put in your tank with endlers?
I breed endlers too, and have considered medaka as fun egg-laying tankmates. They might be worth a bit of research.
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On 10/4/2021 at 3:26 AM, Helan said:
@CalmedByFish I heard they breed like crazy , I wouldt want to overwhelm myself with babies 👶
Valid point. Many platies will eat every baby they have though. A lot of other fish will eat their or other species' babies, too. Some people keep a betta, dwarf gourami, or other small fish for that purpose. (It's why I got my angel actually, and he's TOO good at it!)
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I don't remember there being another forum member who was or is professionally into art - though I could be wrong. That's an interesting detail!
And yeah, a bit of aquarium life on the desk makes working so much less bleck. I'm about to move, but I hope to set up the new place with that lovely little feature. 🙂
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On 10/3/2021 at 1:10 PM, Colu said:
Welcome to the forum my advice would be to check your local water parameters and get fish that will go well in your local water
This! It'll make your life easier long-term.
But yes, "cheap" and "community" are good words to look for in your research. Bettas aren't a bad idea, especially since you live in a place that's warm, since they need warm water. I hear tale that among the beginner fish, platies are among the most hardy, for what it's worth. They're peaceful, "community," and many of the colors are cheap. Even snazzier colors are cheap compared to most fish.
Welcome to the forum!
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1) Welcome to the forum! It is *beyond* exciting, isn't it!
2) All those warnings above about not falling face-first into burnout? Yep. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't go hedgehog-wild with the tanks... just, carefully.
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🙂 It is normal! For me, it's only mitigated by the absolute necessity to not spend time and energy on quarantine and other forms of "putting out fires." I get my fix via the magical internet instead. But that's okay, it's resulted in intentionality - a thing which almost always gets good results.
Anyhow, welcome!
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So many good ideas here! I'll be busy googling for a while. Hmm.
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On 10/3/2021 at 8:25 PM, Odd Duck said:
I can’t think of any containers better than bags for travel. Anything else is going to slosh around more plus risk spilling water.
Keep the whole lot of containers packed in a cooler
Since I'll need to use some of the containers as temporary tanks after arrival, they'll need to be fairly large and solid, instead of bags. I've seen some rectangle-ish totes that have lids that lock down, so spills shouldn't be worse than drops. (Hard to find though.)
The cooler idea makes me wonder if there might be insulated coolers with lock-down lids. If so, that would be an insulated, large enough, solid container. If I could get a half dozen small ones, or even just a medium-size one for the angel, that would be great. I gotta find out if those exist.
On 10/3/2021 at 8:35 PM, Odd Duck said:I would put plants in a separate container from fish unless you can run the air stones overnight.
The ACO USB air pumps can run 2 to a plug and should each run 2-3 air stones with valves and appropriate arrangements of tubing. I would keep the containers packed and padded in the cooler.
Unfortunately, I can't be confident that I can run air stones overnight. My little human might even be such a handful that I have to leave the fish in the car and cross my fingers.
I have 2 air stones on 1 ACO pump right now. How would I do more than 2 per pump? Is it that little metal strip that has about 4 outlets on it, each with their own screw-like adjuster?
You guys might really be on to something with this cooler idea... somehow...
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On 10/3/2021 at 7:58 PM, SWilson said:
What about packing the fish and plants in the same containers, so the plants can oxygenate the water and consume nutrients?
I'm concerned that if I can't run the air stones during dark hours (because kid), the plants might take the oxygen from the fish. Thoughts on that?
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I'll surely have more posts on this topic, but let's get me started!
I'll be moving all my aquariums from the Northern U.S. to the Southern U.S. in November. My time and effort will have to go to myself and my kid, who has a lot of special needs. So the fish need to be set up for travel in a way that's low maintenance. To focus on my kid before and after traveling, the fish will be packed up 2 days in advance, not put into tanks for a couple days after arrival, and some will use their travel containers as temporary tanks... so this is not a "just put the fish in bags" situation.
Here's what I've figured out so far, with some questions. I'd appreciate answers and ideas.
The fish will be in their travel containers a minimum of 10 days, 4 days of which will have unstable temperatures as I'm on the road.
There will be at least 7 separate containers of water (5 animals, 2 plants). One container needs to be tall enough for an angelfish. The others can be wider than they are tall, and just need to be light enough to carry. Do you know of specific tall or short containers that are sturdy and seal well?
4 of those containers shouldn't dip below 65 degrees, though it may be as cold as freezing en route. Suggestions for warmth? (My only thought is to tape heat packs to the sides of the containers.)
I have enough pumps and air stones to give each of the 5 animal containers several hours per day, if I use them in both the car and the hotels. Is that enough aeration?
The 2 containers of plants will have bacteria on the plants. Do I need to give that bacteria some air stone time?
None of my sponge filters are short enough for the travel containers. How about if I float the sponges in the same containers with the fish, so bacteria is present?
The dude I bought my platies from bagged each fish separately, with a small piece of "Poly Filter" to absorb ammonia. Every bag of water smelled from-the-tap clean when I opened it. I intend to put a chunk in each animal container, but let me know if you have instructions about Poly Filter, or an idea you like better.
Since the animals will be in these containers for 10+ days, I think it wouldn't be smart to fast them for a day before putting them in. Maybe just a snack the day before, and a snack every 3-ish days?
I'll travel with water conditioner, a net, and a cup for scooping water out. What other "oh no" supplies might I need?
Okay! Enough for this post! TIA.
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On 10/2/2021 at 11:23 PM, WhitecloudDynasty said:
Breeding them to have more overall blue
Stunning! I'm enamored with bright shiny blue on fish, but I need to stick with easy fish, so options are limited. (I recently put my only blue endler in the same tank as all the mature girls and the 1 angel. Give ya 1 guess what the angel did.) Anyway, gorgeous!
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On 10/2/2021 at 2:32 PM, Torrey said:
So far
😂
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On 10/1/2021 at 6:41 PM, ADMWNDSR83 said:
Put together an inexpensive stand for my new zoom meeting backdrop. It will slowly come together over the next few months.
A tank is the best zoom backdrop I've heard of! It'll make your square on the screen hard to ignore. 🙂
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I've thought this so often! But I've sometimes realized that if I reply with a "wow," people might not know whether to take it as a positive or negative.