OnlyGenusCaps

Well, the current BAP auction for MAS is coming up. I have plenty of Julies in this tank I could auction, if I could catch them! The other thing is that there are now at least 4 different ages of fry in the tank. So they are doing well. However, the adults have stopped tolerating the oldest fry. In fact, they have started murdering them! It's so weird because they take such good care of them as fry and even as juvies. But then it's like a switch is flicked and BAM, murder time. I've tried @Patrick_G's excellent suggestion to use a drink bottled modified into a minnow trap. No dice. I only caught snails after a week of trying. So, this is my new plan. I've loaded some of the same sort of rocks into my Ziss Breeder Box, which has otherwise proven to be useless, in the hopes that the fry will use the smaller spaces to get away from the adults. Here is that it looks like (also how great is the app at making my tank look good in photos?!): Day 1 - No luck. But it's still new in the tank. If it doesn't work by day 3, I'm going to turn it on its side and try again. Maybe this will be the big moment for this breeder box to finally find something it can be used for! If not, I think I am going to have to drain the tank and just pull fish that way. I really don't want to do that with small fry, but I may not have a choice as I have concluded I might be the worst human on the planet at catching fish out of an aquarium.

You are a hero among men, sir! For me, it's not just their color. In my estimation, they have the most endearing personalities. I feel like sometime people attribute hunger to personalities in fish: it comes right over when I am going to feed it! But my pupfish were the only fish in my rack that after being fed, kept at the glass. They would cruise across the tank to whichever side I was one, jockeying for the best position to see what I was doing. No matter what work I was doing in that room, I could rest assured that all of the pupfish were supervising the operation. I've never found fish more curious about what is happening on the other side of that glass wall. I'm not sure about the personalities of Florida flagfish as I haven't kept them. But, I'm surprised that more folks don't try to keep Cyprinodon variegatus, as it is common throughout much of it's extensive range along the eastern seaboard, and likely has the same peppy personality as the rest of the genus. I think you are inland, but you could probably go collect them along the bay this summer if you wanted to give the genus a try. With a little selective breeding, I think that species could become quite brightly colored. Just a thought... 😇

This is an amazing list, @Fish Folk! I appreciate that you have properly capitalized only the genus and not the species epithet (with one exception so far), as well as italicized the Latin binomials. What can I say, small thrills in life over here. I particularly love this list as a pupfish nerd! So many great ones making the list. On that note, the photo you have included for the white sands pupfish, I believe is actually the desert pupfish (C. macularius), likely one of the Salton Sea populations. Here is a photo of the white sands species (not many on the web): You can see how well they blend in with their habitat! I believe, the white sand species is part of the much less colorful "South Plains & North Chihuahuan Desert" clade, whereas the desert pupfish is from the typically very blue (at least in males) "Western" clade. Sorry, like I said, pupfish nerd here. 🧐

There are a number of problems with incentives within the peer review system at this time, and I could go on about it, but I suspect that would take us way, way down the garden path. Suffice it to say that between predatory journals (as @CT_ brought up), now incentives in P&T for reviews done, little value placed on replicating others' results to validate them, and greater weight placed on "productivity" than quality of research, the system needs some help. CT_ has a great and details explanation above, but I think there are two things that should be added. Those things have been happening primarily in humanities and social studies fields, and it's a problem. Those fields know it. Since the 1970's there have been a growing number of disciplines based around social dogmas. So, I think it is important to recognize that: academics ≠ scientists It's true medicine has some issues with this as well, but it's usually from the early stages, and driven by what I think is a good decision: we've decided not to allow researchers to experiment on people, leading to many correlative studies. This is why eggs are bad for you one day and then good the next, only to be vilified the day after. Not running highly controlled experiments on people hampers medical advances, but I'm good with not allowing people to scoop others out of their cars to suddenly be taken off to be part of a medical experiment. Seems like an okay trade off to me. Flawed as aspects of the system may be, I will always take inquiry over ignorance. My respect will be directed toward those trying to build knowledge, and never to those who are only capable of tearing it down. As my dad always told me "It takes care, time, and skill to build something. But any idiot can destroy stuff." I am amazed at how often today we hold up those as paragons who only seem to be able to tear down others work.

Nope, that's a fairly correct interpretation. For what darts cost to get properly set up, you could do a nice starter reef tank. And do it right! Nothing about darts is cheap. I'm lucky because the at least plants are free for me, but otherwise it all starts out as eye popping prices. Then you acclimate and you are like, sure $45 for a stick, that seems right. 😶 Technically me either. We'll see if I can ever get the stuff clean enough to use. It feel like it must be degrading in the water back to the clay it came from to make this big of a mess. Part of me thinks that it will just dissolve away entirely leaving me with a bucket of water and a clay patch in the yard. 😏

Well that's it. I'm sold! I'm going to use AI to start writing all of my forum posts, like all humans in a goodly manner.

If my efforts are successful, I hope they will be far more available in far less time. They are beautiful, curious, and fun fish! I think if they were more available they'd find many who would appreciate them. I like this list! I hope I didn't accidentally derail it at Kansas. I want to see what else is around.

I've decided to keep the Blue Grass tank with just the sand on the bottom. But in the 75 above, with the black backing, I'm going to try @Patrick_G's suggestion of a layer of sand over Safe-T-Sorb. It should be interesting to see the difference between the two tanks. I mean, it's not a controlled experiment as the sand will differ, as well as the rocks, fish, and plants. But, it'll be interesting to learn from. One thing I will say is that Safe-T-Sorb is the filthiest stuff I have ever had to clean to use for substrate! There seems to be an endless supply of fine particles. After doing 6 washings in a bucket and finding no visible difference in the murkiness of the disgusting rinse-water, I've decided I can't clean it by the batch method for rinsing. I'm going to have to wait until the weekend when it might be warm enough to turn on the garden hose again to try to run the hose until the stuff can get clean under a continuous water stream. This is the 6th rinse, I mean look at this stuff: I sure hope it's worth it... In other news, the goby fry are still alive. This is my record with them so far - about 2 weeks. They are not fast growers. Also, I have put together my second dart frog viv. Now I just need the frogs.

Hey @Fish Folk. You can see the whole sad, sorted affair here (it was in my signature, but I removed it after the sad end of that group): That's the first post with photos of the fish. I think I messed up by bringing in wild algae. There was no way to clean it without killing it, and I suspect that's where the parasite came in from. I'm not making that mistake again! But many were lost in shipping even before I had a chance to make my own mistakes. Looking back it had the feeling of a doomed experiment with the multiple issues. But, I love those fish so, I'm trying again. They should be way more common in the hobby! And I'd like to help make that happen. The new colony will end up going in my "Subsclarium Journal" in my signature. In terms of where to get them - it took me over a year to get plugged into the community of keepers to where someone was willing to sell me fish. Luckily, that crowd is willing to give me a second chance, mainly because I kept and bred them successfully over a decade ago, so I know I can succeed. It'll be good to have these fish back in my life. I've missed them at least weekly for the past decade.

Sounds delicious! When should I pop by for dinner? 🤪

@Fish Folk, I had some C. longidorsalis last year. They were wiped out by a parasite of some sort. I'll be trying them again this spring. There are a few folks, and one zoo working to keep these in existence in the States. They are amazing fish! Perhaps my favorite.

I think it's funny this followed @lefty o's comment. Are you saying I should report his comments as spam? 'Cuz I'll do it! 🤣 There is a lot of copied content, and a lot of programmed content that updates itself on the net these days. Apparently a bunch of the web pages that pop up when you search for "reviews of _______" are just crawlers that update the highest rated products on Amazon, the current year, and then offer affiliate links so they get some $$$ if you buy a product from their link. Same thing goes for a lot of copied content. I mean in a era where major news outlets don't even seem to hire copy editors how can we expect rando websites not to lift content from each other? Perhaps we should just aim for the original content to be better so that when it is propagated across the people aren't letting their aquarium plant roots go dry between waterings. "Time to drain the aquarium so the plants' roots can dry" "What about the fish? Should we take them out?" "Nah, it'll be fine."

Wow, that's serious! I max out at the tubing to build automatic water change systems. I'll put on my weight belt if I need to carry a tube and a joint to connect the tube. 🏋️‍♂️

In honor of Danny Elfman making a public appearance at Coachella, I thought I would post an Oingo Boingo song. I think the music vid from this one must have influenced many groups vids from the 90's. I see elements used here that appear in songs from Billy Corgan to Marilyn Mansion. Insanity:

That's a great question, sir! I don't know of any rigorous studies looking at this specifically. It could be that there are algal species that do better than most of the vascular plants in our tanks under blue light. That's a real possibility, although there is no reason to believe that it must be the case a priori. Part of the problem is the tendency to lump all algal species into the same bin. They are incredibly diverse, which is I point I feel I make often enough around here to now have crossed the line into being annoying about it. But we do know very well the photosynthetic processes of light response curves, and how species can separate out on light availability gradients. So, your PAR suspension has merit drawn from a large body of our existing understanding. Okay, I have to get off the computer today. Ah, look at the time! I've got stuff to do. Gotta go!

Yup, I understand that. I don't want to get too far off topic here, so I'll make it short (for me). I have a light that you can control the intensity of the red, blue, green, and white LED lights. My blue LED bulbs are turned up the brightest. If you want to see, you can click on the "Pesudo Saltwater Journal" link in my signature. But, the going belief about blue lights and algae doesn't hold true for me at all. I only have to clean the acrylic like once a month in there, and there's basically no algae on the rocks (well, I am doing my best to maintain some diatoms because I like the look). I had way more trouble with algae when I had less blue light.

Oh no, I have a tank that I have under predominantly blue light and there are zero algae issues. That's not a concern. However, I don't understand the appeal of having a dim blue light on for hours at night. Perhaps it is important for some saltwater inverts? They do weird things. Don't know.

Yup, you can find them at garden centers here, and tiny ones at LFS being sold as "true aquatic" plants to be submerged. But this is the first time I have seen them being sold specifically for nitrate reduction in aquatic systems. That was the piece that surprised me. That's some dedication! Looking good though! You might want to offer @Biotope Biologist some tips on growing mangroves then. 🤪 I know he was struggling previously. Not sure if he's found success or even still trying. But I thought I'd tease him a bit. Hey, there are certain segments of the hobby that would list those as "fact". 🤣 In all seriousness, there are some things unproven that are championed by a few, which if they ever bothered to test it with the rigor you have here, the issue would be settled. Ah but I suppose if they did, then, to paraphrase Huxley, an ugly fact may slay their beautiful theory.

Well, I was in my local reptile shop (well the older one, we have a new one too), and look what I saw they were selling: I asked the associate there why they had so many of these, and they replied that adding them to a pauldarium keep the nitrates low in the water portion. Then apropos of nothing, she added that fish keepers have found out that this plant works particularly well, and I could learn more by looking online. So, apparently word is spreading to the herping community. Interestingly, I can't find stuff like this at any of the LFS around here. But now I know where I can go to get a stalk if I need one!

I do not know of anyone growing it in the States, or of a vendor. However I've imported plants from all over the world to the US. I'm in the process of a similar type of search. My advice would be to identify a German or Czech vendor, or make contacts there who can help guide you in that direction. The phytosanitary permits you will need to import the plant are done in very organized ways there making the process pretty easy. You will of course need a USDA PPQ permit, which the US has made more annoying in the past few years. It will need to specify species you are importing and the country of origin. You will need to get that in advance. One of the easier counties to deal with from SE Asia for random plant imports in my experience is Thailand. They seem to love plants like the Brits do, but have a far better climate for growing all of the cool tropical stuff. Good luck with you search, and if you do decide to import and need help walking through the process, please feel free to DM me here.

Looking through the chart, at least you can rest assured that nearly all of them have the critical feature of "moonlights". *wipes brow*

Mine have wiped out snails in a bucket when I didn't feed them enough to keep up with the population boom. So, they have a history...

Ah, so you have seen my technique in action before. That is one crazy set up for your flat pieces!

Good news on the goby front! Here is Fry Falls: Can you see anything in there? No? Well, it's probably my awful photography! And my dirty glass, and algae covered tanks. Also, I should get a macro lens for my iPhone. But I digress. Let me get you a closer shot: See the little fry circled in red? They are still alive a week later! I thought I just had a couple hanging on. But then I saw an amphipod in the fry container, and fearing for the safety of the few remaining fry, I thought I'd see if I could get it. When I touched the moss a bunch of little things came swimming out. Check it out: Admittedly a terrible photo, but I will call your attention to two things. First and foremost, these are all little goby fry! I have maybe 15-20 in there. I really thought the fungus got most of the eggs, so this is really exciting. Secondly, these things are tiny! In the previous photo notice the monster plant in there is actually just moss. The gravel in there that is the side of their little heads is sugar-fine pool filter sand. Not sure how this will turn out, but for now it's promising!

The weather was finally warm enough to polyurethane the boards for the stand. For a day. I did get it done, but now it's taking for-ev-er to get them to dry. I was a bit baffled as to how one is supposed to get both sides done, and the edges on something so thin, without drips and generally looking messy. I ended up doing one side and the edges, letting that get mostly dry, and then going back to get the other side and the edges again. Here they are drying: The entire time I was doing this all I could think was the if @Patrick_G saw what I was doing he'd have to report me to the varnish police! I am sure none of that I did would meet the high standards of a boat builder. They barely met the standards of my 8th grade wood shop class. Speaking of, despite fond memories of that class, I have decided I don't really enjoy wood working projects. Or at least the smell and mess of coating stuff. 🤢 Also, I learned that acetone dissolves foam board. And fast! Oops. 🤫 Next will be plumbing!