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Chris

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Everything posted by Chris

  1. Chris
    Another update! Not much to go over, unfortunately. I finally had a second male develop in the sword tail tank. No sword, but he definitely has a gonopodium. The tank is doing fine - all the plants are growing slowly, but that's to be expected with such a low light tank, I think. Getting a bit of pink on the new growth on the flamingo crypts, which I like! The air pump that's powering both the Koi sword tank and the guppy tank has only lasted about three months before having issues. It's no longer pumping air to the bottom of the 37 - a deep tank, but not ridiculously so by any means. So, until I can find a good replacement, this is keeping the tank running. Not great, but functional! I have a few fry running around this tank. The Ginga guppies suffered an unfortunate setback a few weeks ago during that big cold snap we had here in the midwest/south. Temps got down to about -11 (basically unheard of in Kentucky) and the power company started doing controlled blackouts to keep the grid up. We lost power for three hours and our apartment went from 68 to about 45. Most of the tanks were fine, except the Ginga Guppies. I'm down to one male and several females, so hopefully the remaining individuals will be enough to get a colony going. The shrimp made it through just fine.
  2. Chris
    Snapped a couple pics of the Ginga Sulphereous guppies tonight. Not my best, but they've really colored up well!
  3. Chris
    Thanks for the sympathy - it's something that's happened to me before with other fish, so I knew better. But live and learn, right? I think I'll be alright with just the one male - but I'll keep that in mind if something happens.
  4. Chris
    I've not been keeping up with updating this very well - my bad! Been spending a bit more time with my tanks and a bit less documenting and sharing, and I think the tanks are better off for it, mostly. Maybe a bit uglier (I'm the only one who's been looking!) but healthy, nonetheless. The Koi swordtails and Ginga Sulphereous guppies I got from @PineSong have done very well. I ended up losing two swordtails, and it was very much my fault. The top of the tank is above my head, and I didn't realize I left the strip at the back of the tank off, and they jumped through the gap between the glass lid and the rim. I fixed that, and no more losses. So far, I only have one male - the other 7 haven't developed gonopodiums or swords, however only about 4 or 5 of them have the "rounded" look, so I'm wondering if a couple aren't just underdeveloped males. I haven't lost any of the guppies, and the males have all matured and colored up amazingly well. The females have grown a bit smaller than I expected (they're just now catching up to the males in size), but they're on a tank in the floor, so temps have hovered in the low 60's over the past month or so since winter has hit. That may have something to do with it. I just added a group of 5 Sunkist Neos in with them, and so far everyone is doing well. I hope to get the tank into a better viewing location eventually. The assorted fancies in the 37 have all done well - everyone recovered from the bout of Epistylis and I haven't seen any signs of disease since. I just recently got salt levels down in the tank, so I added in some Crypts and Cabomba this past weekend - and I'm just now seeing my first few fry in this tank! There's been plenty born in here, but they haven't had anywhere to hide. This little guy seems to be the first survivor, so far! He's right in the center of the Anubias. The tank with the Krib and tetras is doing well, too. I've been manually removing algae every few days and we're down to just the tightly-attached stuff. It's yellowing and not growing anymore, so I think I just need to get some Amanos in here to clean up. The colors on all of these fish are very, very nice in person!
  5. Chris
    Thanks! I've never had hermits eat the dusters - maybe he just knocked the crowns off and the worms are relocating? Those micro feather dusters tend to hide out in rock crevices without much of a crown when things aren't to their liking, and build the nice "big" crowns we can see when things are good for them. Maybe they're not gone, just hiding? You never know!
  6. Chris
    I think the main issue is that conductivity meters don't require any sort of chemical or reagent to function - they just measure electrical conductivity. Most tests we'd use as hobbyists would require chemicals and other things to function, even when the test is performed electronically. I think. I guess I don't really know! Maybe someone smarter than me can figure it out and chime in. I do love the puffer! They're some of my favorite fish, for sure. I feel kind of silly about having one 4" fish in a 55 gallon tank, but he makes it worth it with all his antics! Musk turtles are a lot of fun, too. Everytime I check your Puget Sound thread it makes me want to setup a coldwater tank - if I could find a good resource for ordering livestock, I'd bite the bullet!
  7. Chris
    I think it'll grow fine with intense lighting - it just seems to be more "stems" than "leaves" (it's all just algae, but y'know). To be honest, with the Aiptasia, I'd fight them now rather than later if you plan to have any expensive/sensitive corals in the tank. I had a pico pest reef with aiptasia and a few coral there, but it was mostly easy stuff that grew fast enough to escape the aiptasia. You have a nice looking tank!
  8. Chris
    Looks interesting! My biggest issue becomes that I only ever really use test kits frequently when I have new tanks. Once my tanks are established, I only test every month or two at most, if that. An electronic test would certainly take some of the work out of the process, if done correctly. I'm really wanting to get into wild bettas and gourami, so maybe at some point something like this will make sense for me.
  9. Chris
    It really, really would be. I came within an inch of buying some of the Hannah checkers when I was really into reef tanks - they're so expensive, and the reviews really aren't all that good, either. Not to mention the reagent cost per test is insanely high. I'm still using an API kit - I've really liked the Salifert kits in the past, but I'm thinking of switching to mainly using strips soon.
  10. Chris
    Unfortunately, I see your point and agree. I do think that it could be implemented into a section on the website, much like some forums do a "Tank of the month!" contest. Maybe interested members can send in a picture of a tank, a profile of said tank, what foods they use, little tips and tricks they've learned, and other tidbits of information, and the ACO staff could select a submission and post it. Years ago, I remember Cory being upset when doing viewer's tanks in video format because people were dogging on featured tanks. Maybe the staff could curate each submission to keep that from happening, and either not have a comment section or heavily moderate it so that only helpful comments/questions go through. Just spitballing.
  11. Chris
    I usually do as well, but got caught up with other things and kinda just went with it, honestly. I should run another test on the tank, though - just to be sure.
  12. Chris
    Looking good, man! How's that Caulerpa doing for you? It took me a long time to be able to get it to grow how I wanted - it'd grow, but super spindly and sparse. Lots of nutrients and a bit less light was what got me nice, big, healthy algae!
  13. Chris
    You could totally do that, as long as you don't allow any salt buildup on moving parts. Refractometers are great for reef tanks where accuracy really matters - most brackish fish (and marine fish, for that matter) just need it close enough, and hydrometers are great for that.
  14. Chris
    Alrighty y'all, today is testing day! I'm testing all of my tanks and doing any required maintenance. I don't usually test super often, but with so many new tanks around, it can't be a bad idea. First up, the 33 gallon Koi Swordtail tank. This tank tested within range on all parameters, but what surprised me was the 0 PPM nitrate reading. I feed pretty heavily and don't have a ton of plants, and I dose with Easy Green once a week. I dosed an extra pump of Easy Green and am calling this tank good for the week. This tank is also now home to a random Otocinclus I found in the 20 gallon (hiding in the algae, I guess? I haven't bought Otos in three years!) and a few pond snails. I've noticed most of the plants doing well except for the Bacopa - I'm wondering if that's due to the low light or the low nutrients, or a combo of both. Notice the Bacopa browning at the bottom? Any thoughts? The swords like the Oto's algae wafer, too: Next is the 37 gallon guppy tank - the tank still has salt in it, but tests normally otherwise. Nitrates are between 10-20, so this tank will get a normal 5-10 gallon water change and not much else for now. Here's the 20 long with the Emperor Tetras and the Krib. It tested normally with essentially 0 nitrates - I assume it's all tied up in the algae. I removed about a third of the total algae mass in the tank. Here it is before: And after: I've got a little more to do, but I think that's enough for one post, anyway!
  15. Chris
    Get a flowerhorn... Mine tries to kill me through the glass!
  16. Chris
    I've gotten nommed on a few times by my puffers! My GSPs have always been the worst for it... I once had a group of SAPs that would swarm my hand and eat the air bubbles off my arm hair 🤣
  17. Chris
    Alrighty, so I've been feeding the Xtreme Krill Flakes for about two weeks now, and I gotta say... I think I like them! Its not a magical food or anything. I don't think such a thing exists in a dry, flake/pellet form. But, the fact that my fish go after these flakes like they go after frozen foods is definitely encouraging and makes me feel as if they must be tasty. Long-term health benefits are yet to be seen, but I think it's worth ordering some if anyone has been holding out! Also, I took a video of my GSP eating a pellet for giggles. I don't feed him these often, but he doesn't seem to complain when I do!
  18. Chris
    I think he'll probably get better at it. If you think it's causing your cyano, start feeding only small snails (the ones that he can crush) to keep his beak trimmed, and then supplement that with frozen foods to make sure he gets his nutrition.
  19. Chris
    What kind of snails are you feeding? I like feeding my Green Spotted Puffer a mixture of bite-sized snails and adult bladder/pond/ramshorn/MTS snails. The bite-sized ones are small and brittle, but will get completely crushed and chewed. The larger ones will get the meat scraped out, but my puffers have never really trimmed their beak on larger snails. Occasionally they'll break through the back of the snail, but that's rare IME.
  20. Chris
    So I got home yesterday and the female guppy only had one spot left, on her tail. This morning, she's completely clean - no spots, and so are the rest of the crew. I'm leaning towards just leaving the salt in there for the rest of the week and not medicating, since they appear to be fine. I'll keep a close eye though, and will medicate if I see anything out of the ordinary. I spent a little time looking at my musk turtle tank this morning. Really enjoying having fish and plants in with this guy. So far, no chomping on the plants - he's tried to get ahold of the fish a few times but they're so much faster than him I don't think he'll have much luck. After I checked out the guppies, I looked into the puffer tank. Really happy to see the Caulerpa Racemosa and Palys doing well: On the Caulerpa, all the lighter green is new growth. I've only had it for a week! And finally, the urchin down as up on the glass today. He's done a great job of cleaning up the rock - I think I'll start feeding him seaweed a few times a week to make sure he doesn't get too hungry. He's still carrying thag dang snail shell, too!
  21. Chris
    My current "maybe someday in the near future..." fish would be a Fahaka Puffer - I'm trying to decide between a 120 or a few small tanks along a particular wall in my fish room, and if the 120 wins, I think a Fahaka will call it home. The wild, "maybe someday if I ever have a fish building" part of me really wants a White Tip Reef Shark. They stay relatively small (for a shark), can pump water over their gills unlike most other sharks, and are supposed to adapt to captivity better than most of their cousins. Another one I'd love to explore are the brackish damsels and brackish blennies, along with a lot of the brackish/estuarine plants and algae.
  22. Chris
    So, from what I'm reading and learning, Epistylis itself is more likely an opportunistic secondary infection that's taking advantage of a weakened immune system on fish that have a primary infection, correct? The Epistilis do not feed on the fish, but on the bacteria on the fish, and because Epystilis itself is a protozoa, the antiobiotics don't treat the Epistylis directly, but rather they eliminate its' food source (the primary infection on the fish). Do I have all that right? If all that is correct, I have to wonder what kind of primary infection these guys may have been dealing with... they've all shown some symptoms, at one point or another, but seem to be getting better. Maybe the stress of the LFS and being QT'd weakened them until a primary infection took hold, which turned into an Epistylis infection, but they were able to fight off the primary infection on their own once in a stable environment, and the weakest female is the one still showing symptoms? Or, does Epistylis have a life cycle like ich, and this could just be a "cold" period before the infection gets "hot" again? So many questions!
  23. Chris
    This actually looks more like what she has than ich - I wouldn't call the spots translucent, but they definitely vary in size and are a bit more patchy than ich. None on the eyes, though, but the area around her eyes was covered at one point. As of this morning the sick female is down to 4 spots and the rest of the crew look completely healthy. Current salt dosage is about 25 tbsps for the entire tank, so I'd guess specific gravity is roughly 1.0025-1.003. I'll go ahead and dose the medicated food since I have the meds on hand. but out of curiosity - is salt an appropriate treatment for this?
  24. Chris
    Nope, snow white.
  25. Chris
    Checked in on the guppies today, and 4 of the 5 are healthy. The single female I was concerned about still has a few spots - I'm not sure it's ich, though. The spots aren't uniform, they're different sizes, extremely raised, and look almost spherical. Not sure what this is, but ich it isn't. Regardless, the salt seems to be helping, finally. No spots on any of the other fish, and the female has less spots than she did during the week. All fish are behaving normally, too. I'll continue to observe. I'm going to move an Amazon Sword into my Musk turtle tank today and probably move a few stems and other assorted plants in too, just to see what will and won't survive with him.
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