skipper

Lol just this evening… when I use the python on my kitchen sink for some reason the brass adapter always locks on to the faucet tighter then the green plastic connector and I inevitably use channel locks around a wad of paper towels to pry it off. Bored of this, tonight I lightly tightened. Filled my 55g, turned the water off at the faucet. Filled my 15g (which I don’t walk away from), flipped the switch near the siphon, prompt spewing explosion at the sink. Channel locks it is…

@DebSills a journal is a great idea! I’m glad she likes the pot and is finding fun spots to hang out 😊 I may have to try the pots out… $0.79 for aquarium decor is indeed quite the bargain! If my frogs don’t like it I’ll just have to restore it to its original purpose, ….and get a new succulent, of course (multifaceted excuses to always get more plants 😂). yessssssss to poaching the pogo!!! So discouraging about the anubias, that happened to me with a big box store anubias. I can never get them to stay in the substrate without burying the rhizome. I’ve had much better luck supergluing them to rocks or stuffing them in driftwood crevices. You have one very lucky frog!

I catch mine routinely in similarly ridiculous poses 😂. Why are you under the sponge filter when you have a carefully curated arrangement of hardscape? Anyone? Bueller?? Personally, I’d get 2 more ADF and add a fast growing plant like elodea or red root floaters or pogo octopus. Because, more plants 😈🙈 (also I’ve applied the advice of trios > pairs of fish to frogs, and have no idea if that’s appropriate). I have 4 ADF (ordered 3 and got a bonus passenger), 6 bronze cories, and 6 golden barbs in a 15g. Some ramshorn snails, population in check thanks to squad cories (the frogs were surprisingly useless at quelling the snails’ endless quest for tank domination). Sponge filter. Red root floaters, elodea, Marimo moss balls, needle leaf Ludwigia, anubias, and an Amazon sword set to take over. Everyone seems to get along nicely. I’m giving away/composting the elodea trimmings and red root floaters. My one issue is that the barbs seem to be getting a bit rotund from my Italian grandma “everyone gets a big plate of tubifex pasta” style of feeding. I plan on moving them. (LFS said they were top feeders, they are not at all, my fault for not researching). The tank is by the rule books quite overstocked. I think I did a water change 2 or 3 weeks ago? Nitrates are ~25, I plan on a water change this week sometime for formality sake, after which my customary offering of easy green to the plant gods. Plants make such a difference with stocking, in my very inexperienced observation. They do so much! Clean the water, provide surface area for BB, break up lines of sight, serve as frog furniture… I vote for more frogs and more plants!

@Guppysnail my new shrimp thank you tremendously. This is brilliant.

@PineSong the struggle is real!!!! Yes... the mollies/fry school to my hand like those cool tetras in the last coop store tour 😂🙈. I feel bad sending them to the salad bar of pothos root algae... one meal a day twice is the same as a fast day, right? Inquiring grandmas want to know 😂

Literally ditched all internal parts of my hob for the ACO coarse sponge sheet/prefilter sponge/biomedia and my water is now crystal. Mostly thanks to many friends on the forum encouraging a fast day aka “just say no to fish gluttony” (Italian grandma mRNA is in my bones that last bit was HARD). results:

“I’ll save money and end up with a much higher quality stand if I build my own” says I. Right when the price of lumber skyrocketed. Yes you can likely park a car on top. Yes I spent ~$300 at Home Depot...

My betta Charles (for Baudelaire, moodiness/dandyism, but the coincidence is serendipitous) literally watches YouTube. Little does he know he’s watching the people who taught me good fishkeeping 😂

@DebSills I’m sure anything you do/feed will be much appreciated! Everyone must be loving that clean water. I absolutely agree underfeeding is always better than overfeeding. I don’t know if feeding repashy is necessarily “good” for them, it’s just one of many things I’ve seen them go for. Here’s a link from the co-op on ADFs if you haven’t seen it. I have never seen black worms for sale by me, so I’ve never tried it and can’t weigh in. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/caring-african-dwarf-frogs i love your anubias! Crypts sound like a splendid addition. I hope she acclimates to her new home and has a happy healthy life with you!

I’d suggest some buddies... they are social with their own from what I’ve read. Mine eat a variety, frozen blood worms and brine shrimp, omega frog pellets, hikari sinking wafers. I’ve also seen them eat soilent green repashy and peas I dropped in for mystery snails. That one was surprising. They also LOVE freeze fried tubifex worms... I take the cubes and split them up and stick them to the sides of the tank near the substrate. It is super entertaining to watch them pull at them 🙂. I’m sure they must pick off baby ramshorn snails, though I haven’t seen it, it’s my only tank where they aren’t out of control 😂🙈 (possibly something to do with the cories too). They also poach freeze dried blood worms floating on the surface. That might be worth trying as a treat since they are sadly accustomed to flake food 😡. I don’t have a separate food dish for them. I used to and the food always was around it and the substrate was always in it. I added cories to shark their plentiful leftovers 😂 As far as plants/decor... they like to hang out on anubias leaves as well as a betta leaf hammock (the suction cup one, top right in the pic). They also like to lounge across elodea near the top, snuggle under Marimo moss balls, and sprawl below red root floaters. They have goofy and entertaining lounge poses (top left 😂😂). Here’s my set up, by no means a professional. The driftwood is newly added growing quite the cushion of biofilm. I will note that I have relocated the mystery snails as the frogs would attack/rip off their antennae (likely because they looked like food/worms). I don’t have guppies, but will second the suggestion for hikari fancy guppy. My mollies (different tank) love it. Sorry this is long, I hope it’s helpful.

What I really want to know here is what kind of person never used a 200g tank like that. Madness. Literally put in some substrate and said never mind!?! @Littlefish I hope you gave it a good home 😂 Although... Selection of bathroom cleaning products in a set up like that would be a legitimate concern. I envision endless water spots and no way to windex

@GardenStateGoldfish I’ve seen ADFs at petsmart too, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the clawed frogs anywhere. Must be a Jersey thing? ...Like the axolotl rule I suppose. Good luck!

@GardenStateGoldfish This is super random, but my bf ordered ours (they are dwarfs, but they had all sorts of frogs/tadpoles) from a science education company, geared to teachers/schools. 😂 I haven’t ordered plants or other animals so I can’t speak to other species, but the 3 pack he ordered in January arrived well-packaged as a healthy group of 4. Maybe expand your shopping venture to unlikely sources?

@KaitieG didn’t even notice the Java ferns, was so busy admiring everything else 😂 love the contrast of the green with whichever type of crypt you have. The angels are a great centerpiece!

@Streetwise it’s a beautiful set up you have there! I love that you specified “the tiny pail is for my cat.” It is their kingdom they allow us to live in, after all 😂 @Guppysnail I started a plant bucket. I have it under a (south facing) window with no additional lighting and the elodea is managing beautifully. However, I can relate to you. It invariably became a snail bucket with plants 🙈 I too lack self control… I took said snail bucket to my LFS (the ramshorns are endless, it’s what I get for feeding them). Wherever they put said snails… the bucket was returned to me with duckweed all over the side. A sensible person would have hosed it right off into his or her lawn. I now have a snail/duckweed/plant bucket.

Gorgeous fish!! But I must admit, I zoomed in for the plants 😍😍👍

I laughed out loud at this… my mom loves to fish and her boat is her retirement baby. My dad has to say “no, you want to ask HER if she needs help, not me” when they are out together and she’s shopping for a boating/fishing item. Or “it’s not mine, it’s HER boat” if he goes along for a ride 😂 She has many hilarious stories of bay conversations that started with: “you drive that by yourself? you don’t see many lady fishermen out here.” And the market is sadly lacking in high quality women’s fishing waders (apparently). She questions why I keep glass boxes of “bait” in my house, and has offered to stock my tanks with river findings 😂 I think I have it easy in this hobby, compared to what the “lady anglers” go through in theirs.

Lounging on their second-hand steal from a betta who prefers to lurk under lilies. One man’s trash…

I have absolutely no idea if this would work, but if anyone with more experience wants to chime in… Hippy me instantly thought of camping supplies 😂 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hydro-Life-52700-Hydroponics-C-85-Inline-Water-Filter-with-Flexible-Hose-Protector/55635357?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101003675

@Rudles I have a 15g with 4 ADFs who were the solo inhabitants for many months, then added 6 cories (I felt they were getting outcompeted for food in their original tank). In all honesty, it made for a boring tank 😂 not a ton of activity since everyone just kind of hangs out. I imagine the nocturnal/“hidey” kuhli loach might put you in a similar situation. I’m growing out half a dozen gold barbs in with them now (eventual goal for them is my 55g), and I love the added color/activity. Although they hang out mid/bottom as well 🤦🏼‍♀️. My ADFs are downright greedy at feeding time and I have no issue with them getting enough to eat. My 2 cents based on my limited experience is... you may want to consider the level of activity you want to see, and if you have space to spare down the road to fill things out more if you find it’s not exciting.

I give them a couple very light squeezes on their way down to “pump” the air out. I also make sure they are horizontal under the substrate. Once I started doing this no issues with re-emergence. I had one pop up/break open once and my betta immediately swept in and actually ate some of it... it was months ago and he/tank were completely fine.

@Aubrey thank you! This is super helpful. Checking out the YouTube now ☺️

You could post to the subreddit r/whatsthisrock to see if anyone can help you ID. It would be a bit of a gamble though. I second @Hobbit’s test method. I’ve done that in the past for reassurance about wild caught rocks.

Took a screenshot of this gem last week. Made me wonder if they received complaints when said bowl arrived sans feline 🙈

I love all of these! @Aubrey a microscope is on my wishlist! Can you recommend one? I’d like to be able to take pictures with or through it. @Patrick_G your landscaping is beautiful! The pockets of red remind me of red ludwigia 👌 @Alesha I remember that post, brilliant! I hope it has been a fruitful endeavor, would love to see an update! @Fish Folk I do use tank water in the garden when I have it, which triples as exercise 😂 I confess to being a plant hoarder (aquatic to terrestrial) so I never have enough nitrates to get by on fish poop alone. My tanks are an alchemy of turning nitrates into elodea... Which makes for fantastic compost btw, just a couple of extra steps and another set of beneficial bacteria before it becomes garden food. I guess my hobbies boil down to bacteria farmer 😂😂.