anewbie
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Posts posted by anewbie
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On 9/11/2023 at 4:40 PM, Lennie said:
I have a question
If a fish is not wildcaught, how is it supposed to know what fish they would know or react with in their natural environment? They basically grow up seeing only their own species, with different plants, rocks, water parameters, substrates, etc compared to what they have in their nature.
In our tanks we keep different fish, plants, shrimp, even rocks, substrate and woods from all around the world and in water parameters nothing like their natural environment. A lot of fish dont even look like what they would in nature nowadays. I bet even their colors play a huge role in their nature and in their behavior. Like most rams, apistos, discus, angels look nothing like their wild colors
It isn't a question of knowing the fish it is a question of understanding the signals; most fishes will signal aggression before physical contact. Having said that just because it signals doesn't mean the other fish will react in a positive way but sometime they will - I kept krib pair with a male nanncara amolae in a 40B (only cichilds) and they faught daily like cat and mouse until the kribs double team the nannacara and he backdown and avoided them - but he would still attack them if he got one of them isolated. He was a smart puppy - my favorite fish other (not the fighting but other little tricks he did). Anyway there are supposedly signals dwarfs use to sort of indicate when another fish should just go elsewhere. Of course we run into the same problems with mixing cory and other fishes. Even if they are both from sa cory dont' really understand not being allowed somewhere so there will be frequently attacks.
Unfortunately kribs are far more robust than most species of apistogramma so we know how things will end up with you mix a species of apistogramma with a pair of kribs. I suppose nijjensi complex and D50 might be an exception as both of those are pretty robust - anyway i don't really want to know how it ends up and while a 40B is not super large it isn't tiny.
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Depends - are you going to keep pairs or just females or just males or males of one species and females of another. Not enough details. Also are they bolivian rams or gbr. Also which species of apistogramma; are they d50 or d124 or a5 or cockatoo or nijjensi or abaxis or ..... 90 species later or .....
A few comments from first hand experience:
africans don't speak sa so don't put the kribs with sa dwarves esp if we are talking about pairs.
If GBR there are only a few sa apistogramma species that are temp. compatible. If bolivian rams well no comment.
If just males things are likely to go better but kribs aren't really that pretty unless you are breeding them and then they aren't really that pretty but they are interesting.
Some species of apistogramma are less aggressive than others - go for the least aggressive species.
Btw my D50 male and my female nijjensi faught like cat and dogs until i removed one in a 40B; that should give you a hint.
Gallons for an aquarium size is not very useful some aquariums are tall but small floor and some have huge floors but not very tall. Dwarf cicihld only care about the floor size and not the height as long as they are more than 6 inches high.
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Ok - this is really a tomorrow thing - i get to move the other 29 tomorrow - i hope it doesn't spring leaks like the first one. I guess tomorrow i'll post what i'm moving the next day ... or maybe i'll be too tired to post tomorrow.
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What a pia day. I moved the first aquarium to the new home (a 29); naturally just to spit in my face after i got 80% of the water out it decided to leak; i.e, the seam broke at the bottom. I suspect what happened is the change in weight as i removed the substrate caused the bottom to sep from the side - after all it was a dirt cheap aqueon aquarium that had been sitting there for 4 years with 70lb of substrate. Not really sure but it makes me dread moving the next aquarium monday (another 29; though this one is a little newer since a couple of years ago the original also had a seal broke at the bottom). Yea aqueon tank built to last a few years and then spread water across your floor. Oh well will see how the fishes are doing when i go back to the house tomorrow. I had to pick up 2 new 29s - one to bring back to my condo so i can put the braces in for the matten filter (so tomorrow i will remove the braces from the old 29; put them in the new 29 and take a hammer to it so i can stuff it down the garbage thingy). the 2nd 29 was so my poor fishes didn't have to spend overnight in the pail. I also moved two of the angels from the 120 and put them in the 8x4; man was he ever pissed at me - wouldn't let me near him at all - i'll see if he is doing better tomorrow morning - hopefully he won't take his furor out on the poor rummy in the 8x4. I'll also see if i can take the 2 angels that are going in the 10x4 over - not sure they feel like being caught.
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Monday i'll move the 29
Tuesday the 10 (hopefully i won't have to take all the substrate out of this one); if i die doing the 29 on monday i suppose i can move this one next saturday.
wednesday the 120
thursday the 40
friday my furniture
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Sigh. Gonna be a short week.
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Did a little work on the 8ftx4ft which is on the other side of the room (i had posted the 10x4 a few days ago) - there are a few rummy in it now swimming back and forth back and forth back and forth over and over and over. I'll be adding more driftwood tomorrow and have to think a while on the plants.
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On 8/31/2023 at 12:37 PM, Odd Duck said:
Bristlenose plecos in the tank will eat the eggs. Ask me how I know. Although getting all that fresh protein did trigger the plecos to spawn. 🤷🏻♀️
I have 4 bn in my 120 and they never touched the angel eggs; mostly because angel lay their eggs high.
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One thing I should have mentioned - just an fyi - but angels are not discus; angels can be vicious monsters while discus are much more tranquile so you might keep that in mind.
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Anything smaller than a cardinal will be eaten by angelfishes and cardinals are iffy so keep that in mind when picking angel tank mates. This is my marble angefish not so different than koi since you ask for aquariums (I'm not overjoyed with the substrate and would use something different if starting over):
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Depends on a lot of factor; you can use prime (or similar product) to help neutralize ammonia/nitrite for a few days. Won't help this minute but i'd recommend you put sponge filters in your aquarium as they have excellent bio-filtration even if the canister goes out. If you have a test kit i'd test ammonia level each morning and if it rises above 0.25 add the appropriate amount of prime (just add it once a day or ever other day don't panic and add it more often).
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khuli will bury themselves if the substrate is soft and fine (something they prefer); also khuli are one fish you do not want in an immature aquarium and are very sensitive to ammonia. Having said all of this there is no way to answer your question - but will comment that khuli have very little mass and over-feeding even if you vacuum is always bad.
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On 8/30/2023 at 9:30 AM, Schuyler said:
Just got my first BAP points today!
On my way to being a master breeder
What do you do with BAP points? Is that sort of like points for dollars spent or similar where you can redeem them later for special fishes or aquariums ?
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Working on setting up my blackwater aquarium. It is 30 inch front to back; 48 inches side to side and 18 inches high:
Always open to scaping suggestions:
TDS is around 25 so a bit on the hard side but will work on that.
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ph is less important than actual water parameters (gh/kh/tds); naturally there is a relationship between those parameters and ph but the ph itself is not what is impact the fish ability to spawn or lay eggs. My personal experience is eggs can hatch around 130 tds but success is much more likely at lower tds (below 80); kh has an impact on ph but i've not had much problem with kh as high as 4 - never tried with higher kh as that is my tap plus some fertilizer. Many domestic rams have problems taking care of the eggs - wild less problematic also like most cichild even those that are good parents might take 4 or 5 trys to get right. One thing that throw a lot of people off is most cichild will move the wrigglers from the location where the egg hatch. If you choose to steal the eggs or frys be aware that frys are extremely sensitive to ammonia and other impurties and food decaying for a few hours will kill them - so use a turkey blaster or something similar to remove all uneaten food; don't let it decay around the frys. Most frys will require live food initially as they require the food movement to trigger chase/eat behavior - sort of like a cat and a mouse - if only that darn mouse would sit still.
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When you answer this question you should also comment on if they are young or adults as the routine changes - i could repeat what i've read but rather people with first hand experience comment.
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On 8/26/2023 at 6:56 PM, Guppysnail said:
@TeeJay has 2 of my lemon blue eye. We were shocked when BOTH male and female came out of one of the tiny 2 1/2 x 1 3/8 inch Apisto huts.
Im sorry no babies yet but at least you know he will be a great papa 🥰
I'm more of the fan of just using driftwood on soft substrate; instant cave - and the wood has other benefits when it leeches into the water. I do have a couple of ceramic caves - but am slowly getting rid of them - i one really large ceramic cave complex my loaches love but i found some nice 14 inch slate to lay over some larger driftwood pieces and hope they will accept that alternative - esp since they have gotten large enough to start scraping themselves when they squeeze through some of the smaller holes in the complex. Still i guess i'll hang on it just in case they pout when they see their new home.
I suppose I should take some pictures... soon .... soon ... 5 years later .... soon .... 20 years later ... soon....
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I have three fishes on my immediate want wish list:
Krobia xinguensis (usually show up once a year)
geo mirabllis (not very often anywhere)
and
biotodoma wavrini (less often than mirabllis)
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also i wouldn't mind some wild caught Abacaixis (maybe once every year or two but usually excesslively expensive)
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On 8/20/2023 at 2:53 PM, nabokovfan87 said:Oh man.... that's awesome!!!
I need 2 please. 🙂
That's wonderful. I just saw pics of some on Dan's website and they are a beautiful pleco. Very unique pattern.
How many braces are there?Braces? Hum - not really braces but lid supports there are 5; talking about L519 - here is one of my young pleco - it is NOT a L519 but still similar:
Final picture of my 40B before i tear it down - might do some photos of the tear down so you can see how truly dense it is but not sure - might be a hurry when i rip everything out:
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On 8/16/2023 at 12:43 PM, Mmiller2001 said:
New Yugang reactor version 3 installed. The tank hits a 1pH drop in a mind boggling 30 minutes. I will never use any other method for CO2 infusion. This, coupled with a precision regulator is quite amazing.
how does v3 differ from v2 differ from v1. I want to make one of these for my 10 foot aquarium when i have time. My thought is i will want to use 2 inch pvc and run it along the back (inside) at 8 foot then have a tube that connects to a 2nd 8 foot and run it above the first one and then send it into the tank - pump would be a 3/4 inch connector so cap with 3/4 inch connector for water tube and of course an co2 connector somewhere hum - probably be months before i get to the point where i can think sanely about this.
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Are the bimaculata less aggressive than the adoketa ? They are not a very common fish at all but quite lovely.
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On 8/11/2023 at 11:15 AM, Mmiller2001 said:
It’s looking like reducing light was the correct move. Tank is growing again.
Those are weak p? What was the previous light - wrgb ? I really like the balance of these new lights; makes the tank really pop without mucking with the colours.
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Tetra don't really 'kill' frys - they just swallow them whole 😉
I think this was covered in the thread but rams aren't really cave loving dwarf cichild though there are many species that do want caves or better crevices they can defend - and it is usually the female portion of a polygamous species that like caves as the male tends to roam and guard the full territory. This is speculation but I think most pairing species don't really use caves since both the male and female guard the wider territory as well as the frys.
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On 8/9/2023 at 11:04 AM, nabokovfan87 said:
S.Repens is the same way for me. I like them both!
S. Repens i really liked but it is more sensitive plant and my wonderful cluster quickly died after it became shaded. I'm moving in a couple of weeks and will probably buy some more - the new bedroom aquarium is 30x72 (old one is a 40b so 18x30); and will keep the front area completely void of floating thing - one i move and replant things i;ll take what i learned about plant behavior and reorganize things a bit and the front 10ft make a real effort to keep under rigid control - shading have killed quite a few of my prized plants including the wonderful purple aflame which i had for 4 years.
On 8/9/2023 at 11:05 AM, gjcarew said:Do you not like it otherwise?
There is nothing really wrong with it - it doesn't rot at the stem like ludg so you never have to replant it - and it isn't picky if you trim it - i just didn't find it all that interesting or 'pretty' either in leave shape or colour tone - so i never pulled it out but i mostly ignore it and let it do what it does. for small plants i prefer s. repens and for larger stem plant PSO (though it grows a bit on the fast side so can't be totally left alone). If you have an open top PSO will produce a lovely flower when it break the surface - though i suppose it isn't compatible with dutch scape.
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The only thing good i can say about bacopa caroliniana is everytime i trim it - it smells fantastic - a nice minty smell....
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Slowly working on setting up the 10ftx4ft aquarium. When things get this large it presents new challenges. A minor splash can be 40 gallons of water.... a leak - i don't want to think about it.
Shades should be put up soon - i hope.
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What did you get done today?
in Photos, Videos & Journals
Posted
yea; i think removing the substrate cause the weight to shift enough the seal broke. At least the 2nd 29 moved without issues. Today i spent working on the 120 and after about 8 hours realize it wasnt' going to get finished today - the issue is i had some larger fishes in it and didn't feel comfortable having them in pails for hours on end (even with sponge filter) so i drove them over to their new home; drove back got some more fishes; drove them over; and now i have to finish the rest tomorrow. Got most of the large fishes out (6 inch clown loaches and adult festum); now i just have smaller clown loaches and some yoyo to move - i discovered at least 3 of my pangio were still alive after all these years - so tomorrow i'll finish the 120 but this means i have to move the 40 on monday instead of tommorrow. I think i'll move the fishes sunday and saturday i'll move the 10 - whole thing has been a pia and i have to be packing my stuff in boxes for them movers on friday.