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CalmedByFish

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Posts posted by CalmedByFish

    Water Lettuce

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted

    When I was trying to decide between water lettuce and frogbit, I found out that water lettuce is illegal to own in many of the U.S. states. If you happen to live in the U.S., I'd suggest a quick google to make sure it's okay to own it. (I ended up with frogbit, but I do like it. No regrets.)

    Dwarf/Teacup Fish: Harmed by their shape?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    @Fish Folk You make good points. Thank you.

    Bouncing off the topic of ethics in fish keeping: Since posting this thread, I've been looking online for a lfs that I could take my extra endlers to. Not wanting to waste time, I used betta care as a good clue for how well they treat fish. If they're selling bettas in cups, or selling unfiltered tiny tanks for them, I'd skip over the store.

    Then it occurred to me that putting a betta in a cup is only barely worse than my current situation. My most overstocked container is 3.6 gallons with 13 nearly-grown female endlers. It's full of pothos roots and hornwort, but I can't keep nitrates down. Being tired of water changes is my main motive in trying to give away some of my endlers... or 3/4 of them. 

    13 endlers in 3.6 gallons. 🙈 Gosh.

    I guess even somebody who's trying to be conscientious is going to blindly mess up sometimes.

    Dwarf/Teacup Fish: Harmed by their shape?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I have "dwarf red coral platies" and do very much like them. However, I keep wondering if having been bred to be short has decreased their quality of life at all. Best I can tell, being short caused their organs to have to bunch up and extend downward.

    While my fish are active, eat well, and appear healthy, I don't have confidence that continuing to let them breed is ethical.

    Anybody know whether fish experience any negative effects from having been unnaturally bred like this?

    • Like 1

    I got lucky!

    in Introductions & Greetings

    Posted

    Welcome! Nice color variety!

    It really is great to have the forum, and other online fish people. I kept fish about 20 years before I found out that pH matters, and another 5 or so years before I found out nitrates exist. It's SO good to have resources like this! 🙂 

    I wonder if the lady who loved her aquariums would be comforted - in some way - by seeing that they're full of life. Does it chance that you've been able to tell her? 

     

    • Like 2

    Fish at Bag End

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted

    On 12/18/2021 at 10:53 AM, Hobbit said:

    The trick is it takes them several months for their fins to turn black. *sigh* Do I need even more grow-out tanks? 😜

    I don't know how old my original red platies were when I bought them. But about a week ago, when they were somewhere between 8-12 months old, a few suddenly had faint horizontal stripes running the length of their body. A few days later, all of those original fish turned a more vibrant red, in a matter of hours. (What?!) The stripes and deeper color have stayed. Then just yesterday, at least 3 had an obvious bright blue tint to the fins on their undersides, plus 1 had the blue tint on the bottom edge of its tail. I have no idea what triggered these changes.

    On 12/18/2021 at 9:00 PM, PineSong said:

    I would love but have not been able to find solid red platies (without wag pattern making tails and fins black) anywhere local or even on Aquabid.

    I looked for "dwarf red coral platies" online, off and on, for at least 6 months before I found some. The site had a phone number, so I texted it. Turns out, that tank was about to be taken down, so I spoke up just in time. When you do find some, be ready to pounce. I have no idea if that person has reds again, but I'll PM you a link to the website, so you can at least keep an eye out. Maybe you could even text to ask.

    • Like 1

    Moving with Multiple Aquariums: Have You Done It?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    After reading some of the above comments, I would be amiss to not urge you to avoid moving companies. They're notorious for getting people's possessions into their hands, and then telling the owner that they can't have any of it back until some exhorbitant fee is paid. I'm not sure I would've believed my experience, nor that it's common, if I hadn't gone through it. I even found out in the aftermath that @Torrey has spent years trying to change laws to make it harder for moving companies to do this. I wish I'd left 3/4 of my perfectly good possessions out for the trash to pick up, just so what I had left could've fit in a small Uhaul, and been kept in my possession. 

    • Like 1

    Moving with Multiple Aquariums: Have You Done It?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    As @Guppysnailmentioned, here are the threads associated with my move. I'm linking all of them so you can get the big picture, from planning to a few days after arrival. I think it's important to know that all my careful planning still landed me in a traumatic situation, even though most of my fish lived. My most solid advice is to make this move WAY less complicated than you can fathom that it would ever need to be. 

     

     

     

    • Like 1

    Fish at Bag End

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted

    That's a very pretty blue platy! Bummer that it doesn't show up as well in the store.

    I actually was looking for blue platies online, just last night. What I was finding had a lot of black on them, but I was looking for ones with little to no black - much like yours! Too bad we're not neighbors. ❤️ 

    • Like 1

    Small guppy triumph at last

    in Fish Breeding

    Posted

    On 12/17/2021 at 7:58 PM, PineSong said:

    That's a lot of propping up for a long, straight-bodied fish with straightforward dietary needs.

    I'm hoping the fry from these big females will be my bullet-proof breeding moms. They are born nearly too big to eat and by day two or three swim boldly around in the community tank, very confident and fit.

    That is a lot of propping up! 

    I hope the fry turn out hardier. Your description of them sounds promising. 

    I'm starting to think toward breeding for hardiness and best color. I've always just let my fish have babies, simple as that. But now I have too many endlers! So I've set aside about 20 males that I'll try to find a good lfs to take to, and before long, I'll probably do that with females. Plus, I have about 50 endler fry too tiny to sex, let alone know the colors of.  So months from now, I'll likely be doing Round 2 of "culling" to a lfs. 

    I also like the idea of putting some of the males in an outdoor pond in a few months to see if that makes them "color up" more.  I hear tale it does.

    My algae issue

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted

    Since it hasn't been directly addressed yet, yes, there's nothing wrong with trying amanos. Just make sure your water parameters are safe for them first. I've seen my adult platies eat hair algae, and I've heard there are other aquatic critters that eat it. So the answer's yes.

    Anything that eats hair algae, would be safe in that specific tank, and doesn't interfere with your future plans for the tank, is a yes. Just research the species first.

    Small guppy triumph at last

    in Fish Breeding

    Posted

    On 12/16/2021 at 6:59 PM, Jawjagrrl said:

    I got some assorted Male endlers from AH awhile back, and most seemed more like hybrids. One is that Japan blue and quite striking. Fun addition to my shrimp setup.

    Awesome that you scored a Japan blue! I also ordered assorted male endlers from AH, and I think most, if not all, were actually hybrids instead of what was advertised. Plus 8 of the 10 arrived dead. 1 that was alive had an interesting silvery area, and survived just long enough to breed with 1 of my females, resulting in 1 blue male fry that looks similar to the dad, so now I'm trying to breed the 1 fry with my females. (I actually gave away the other survivor because it looked so blah.) 

    • Sad 2
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