[Garden hose for water changes]

Thanks for the responses, I'll look into it 

[Garden hose for water changes]

Hi folks,

is garden hose ok to use while doing water changes?

I usually use a length of hose I bought from my LFS to pump water from the sink but I've moved tanks further away and it no longer reaches.

the hose from the LFS is quite pricey and I was hoping to save a bit of cash

[Dry food, is it necessary?]

Hi folks,

My fish collection consists of danios, rasboras, Cory's and tetras. All of which are nano species plus cherry shrimp.

I feed live BBS, daphnia, micro worms and vinegar eels. Various frozen foods, bug bites and vibra bites.

I also sprinkle a bit of spirulina for the shrimp 

Other than ease of use is there any dietary need to feed prepared dry food?

[Painting backgrounds]

On 12/1/2023 at 2:55 PM, Tanked said:

Good question!   There might be an algae reduction.  Two sides of my75 face a blank wall.   The narrow side is kept clean.  At night, the fish will spend a lot of time staring at that side of the tank.  It is assumed that they see their own reflections as another school.  Painting the sides might get the same results.

Interesting, I wonder if my cpd's would come out more if they thought the school was bigger?

[Painting backgrounds]

Thanks @BlueLineAquaticsSC I only keep nano fish so aggression isn't much of an issue 

[Painting backgrounds]

Hi folks,

I'm prepping for moving my tanks to a different room.

The tanks will be lined up against a wall and I'll be painting the backs black but are there advantages to painting the sides as well?

thanks

 

Gareth

 

[Grindal worm culture]

@Karen B. Yes just the pad, I put a pad on the bottom with two strips on top of that so I can feed them in the gap. I lay a piece of clear plastic on top which the worms gather on. When feeding the fish I just lift the plastic off and dip it in the tank 

[Grindal worm culture]

As @Comradovich says multiple cultures is the way to go if you're going with smaller ones.

[Water Chemistry For egg Scatterers]

Thanks @Fish Folk that makes sense. I'm currently slowly adding ro to my weekly water changes to reduce the hardness and pH. It was what I do after breeding that had me scratching my head 

[Water Chemistry For egg Scatterers]

Hi folks,

I've had good success with egg scattering that are happy to breed in my very hard water, CPD's, Emerald dwarf Rasbora, most Corydoras etc.

However I watched the recent member talk with Randy Carey and he covered adjusting water for breeding of soft water spawners but he never followed on with the post spawn part.

My question is at what point do you start to bring the parameters back to your tap water? Can you start once you've collected the eggs - Once the fry have some size to them and are eating proper foods or at some point in between?

Anyone have experience good or bad?

[Aqua 2023 UK]

On 3/13/2023 at 11:23 PM, Cory said:

You remembered correctly. I was supposed to go to one. I don't have anything planned for October yet, but I will be in Europe in August 😉

I heard you mention it on the stream, it was nice to meet you at vivarium but maybe I can tempt you over to the UK with Indian food lol

[Aqua 2023 UK]

On 3/13/2023 at 2:07 PM, Flumpweesel said:

Hmmm I'll keep an eye on that and see if more details unfold. It's a fair bit more than 10 mins away for me.

well if you can make the trip it will be good to meet a fellow nerm 🙂

[Aqua 2023 UK]

Hi folks, I spotted on one of my news feeds that Aqua 2023 which is usually a trade show is being opened up to the public for two of the three days. IIRC @Cory was going to attend one a while back with extreme but ended up not going (I am 52 now so may be mis-remembering that)

From what I can gather it's more for equipment and food etc rather than livestock but it might be a nice little meet up for some uk nerms that fancy a day out and a meet up if you're in the west midlands area. I dare say there will be some aquatic critters in the displays but I'm guessing at this point.

The venue is Telford international centre which is literally a ten minute drive from my house so it would be rude not to have a look around.

13th and 14th of October are the public days if you're interested, I'll be the guy in the coop t-shirt so stop me and say hello if you can make it🙂

 

[Bronze Corydora temps]

Google is giving me no help as depending on which site I look at the answer differs wildly

Can my bronze Cory's go in my temperate tank? the tank has a heater but it's down at 68/20, they are currently in a tropical tank which I run at 73/23 but the footprint of the temperate tank gives them much more space

[Aqadvisor makes me smile]

On 1/11/2023 at 8:10 PM, Lennie said:

I don't know how it works in detail but from my previous tries I have noticed that the percentage calculation works a bit different than you assumed actually! To give it a try after you have mentioned that, I checked it for 15g without any filter selected, it shows 28 chili rasboras for 100% stocking level meanwhile it shows 46% for 8 chilis as you said. So it def have changing ratios of calculation based on each addition you make to the tank. Like it shows 36% stocking level for 10 pygmy cories in a 29 gallon tank, but 47 pygmys for stocking level 100% 😄

It sounds more accurate to calculate based on the overall stocking plans I guess.🙃

Bizarre, so my plan of species only breeding tank has a lower stock level than a community tank....I think whoever built the database may have overlooked something there 🙂

[Panda help!]

Never good when you lose a fish

I'd be tempted to treat the whole tank for internal parasites and an anti-bacterial/fungal as well, here in the UK I use esha meds but can't comment on the US.

Going forward it wouldn't be a bad idea to drop the temps down to low 70's/20's as the panda's and the danios will be a bit more comfortable, fairly sure Kuhli's are ok at lower temps as well. Added bonus you'll use less energy heating the tank and depending how warm you keep your house you may be able to lose the heater all together

[Aqadvisor makes me smile]

As a general statement I quite like Aqadvisor, it gives a decent guide on temps, water parameters etc for new fish keepers

Out of curiosity I had a quick look what it thought of me moving my 8 chili rasbora into my new 15 gallon tank.

Now I know it doesn't account for plants but when it said I am 46% stocked I did have to double take.

Taking that statement to it's logical conclusion 16 to 17 chili rasbora would max out a 15 gallon tank!....really? 

 

[Urgent: New Plants arrived today New Tank still has ammonia]

Pretty sure plants can utilise ammonia directly it just takes them a little while to adjust

Whenever I have to QT anything I always throw in some floating plants along with a cycled sponge filter and never had any spikes

New display tanks get fully planted before I even fill with water as its just plain easier and saves the wet sleeves

[Vietnamese Cardinal Minnows with White Clouds??]

Thanks for the info guys, maybe the fallback plan of Vietnamese minnows with rice fish 😁

[Vietnamese Cardinal Minnows with White Clouds??]

Hi folks,

So I'm slowly moving my 'tropical fish' out of my 65 into smaller species only tanks and the plan is to go temperate with my remaining CPD's, Hillstream loaches and add some white clouds (haven't decided which colour yet...and yes you do spell colour like that 🙂 )

Then at the weekend I saw my first Vietnamese cardinal minnows in my LFS and thought wow that's a good looking fish!

This raises the question if I put them in with white clouds will they hybridise being a close relative?

Anybody tried it

 

[Is feeding just live foods an issue for Cyprinids?]

Hi all,

Just moved my 8 Chili rasboras over to their very own 15 gallon tank as I'm hoping to colony breed them.

So far I've been feeding live BBS, micro worms and vinegar eels but do they need some form of fibre in with their diet as well?

It's a newly setup tank (cycled sponge filter and plant trimmings from established tanks) so the plants aren't going gang busters just yet but I am using an active substrate which is holding the Ph at a steady 6.7 to 6.8 - my tap water is 7.3 to 7.4 and hard (high GH and KH). I'm going to give it a couple of months and if I don't see any breeding activity I'll be blending in some RO to bring the hardness down if the substrate doesn't drop it further

[I'm trying to figure out the best method for shrimp tank water changes.]

I have a little 5 gallon with RCS and some Cory fry that I'm growing out.

The easiest way I've found for water changes is to wedge some airline into the uplift tube on the sponge filter. the water drains to the top of the sponge filter which is roughly a 60% water change.

As the water is being drawn through the sponge filter it virtually impossible to suck up any shrimplets.

Not the fastest way to syphon water but you can walk away and leave it as long as the bucket you use for the waste water is big enough

[Thoughts on Tissue Cultures]

On 1/3/2023 at 8:12 PM, Cory said:

My personal opinion is they are still too expensive in the USA. The education for them is missing. I find they are much more popular in Europe, because they are cheap. I get approached by labs that make tissue culture plants, and it sounds great until the logistics of getting them into America.
 

Most tissue cultures I see in America are past their sell by date really. Because they are brought over in large numbers to try and keep the price reasonable. They sit in a fridge trying to keep them from growing at a wholesaler. By the time they get to a store, and the store actually sells them, it's been months since they were cultured and are struggling on nutrients and space etc. Not all are like this, but I think to "launch" them in USA, we need more people having more success with fresher cups.

For once it looks like the UK and Europe actually does something in the hobby cheaper than the US 🙂

Our 'Pets At Home' which would be the closest thing here to Petco carries Tropica tissue culture plants and they're also available in my LFS and lots of online stores

Generally there is a good selection and often they have 3 for £10/15 deals depending if you want the cups or the taller packs which at roughly a 1 to 1 £ to $ exchange rate is good value

I find you get a lot of plants for your money but you have to be prepared to grow on young small plants which potentially where Europe having more smaller/nano tanks works better than the US as they 'appear' mature faster in a smaller tank??

I don't buy them for the snail free aspect but I know a lot of people here do so a plus or a minus depending on your point of view

[Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus???]

Thanks both, I think I'm just going to have to wait for it to convert and see what happens.

Google is telling me that Octopus is a separate sub species that is really easy to grow in low tech aquariums, where as straight PS needs high light and CO2

Luckily I got the plant on clearance so no huge loss if it doesn't make it in my low tech tank I suppose

I'm currently looking for a nice 10 gallon long for my chili rasboras and planning on adding a layer of aqua soil (too lazy/forgetful for root tabs) under a fine gravel substrate so it will have the best chance to thrive I guess

[Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus???]

Happy new year to you all

I'm hoping there are some plant experts in as I picked up some Pogostemon Stellatus from my LFS from the bargain bin.

To my eye it looks like Octopus variety but the label just says Pogostemon Stellatus

A google search tells me that it requires CO2 where as Octopus doesn't. From the images on the web standard PS appears to have more needle like leaves?