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cleoismyspiritanimal

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Everything posted by cleoismyspiritanimal

  1. There are some great ideas for what to feed mystery snails in this thread from Guppysnail. This is where I got the idea to try green beans. It might be worth a look though? I also loved the feeding dish ideas in here too. 🥰
  2. Sorry for the long absence but things got a little hectic here in August and are just starting to get back to the normal pace. I have taken the zeolite out of all the tanks now. I didn't realize that it took out calcium and magnesium. New Nano Tank 3?g - java fern and bladder snail eggs Found this cute little thing at the local Goodwill with all parts (including heater) except the base. Passed the holds water test so I disinfected it with a mild bleach solution. Set it up and ran with dechlorinated water for about a week. Drained and filled again today and added a piece of floating java fern with plenty of bladder snail eggs. This will most likely live as a planted tank with snails. 10g hospital/quarantine tank: Empty Broken down and awaiting disinfecting with a mild bleach solution. 36g - Shrimps (ghost, cherry, blue) & Snails (bladder, nerite, mystery), guppy fry (mutt) and mollies One of my last guppies from earlier this summer must have had fry as I found 6 little ones while breaking down the 10g. I put them in a breeder box and moved them to this tank a couple weeks ago. All appear to be doing really well. Then, husband brought home the Dalmatian? mollies. Happy to say they've thrived as well and are in this tank now and have adjusted nicely. I'm pretty sure the guppies and mollies are decimating the shrimplets as I haven't seen any for a few days. This tank is also being treated with PraziPro as I found worms. I'm almost certain these are detritus worms and are hopefully harmless but I'm going through the treatment just to be certain. Still a little jumpy with how things went in early August. 55g top - Red cap oranda & fancy fantail goldfish These guys went from being my happy tank to tearing up their plants. I did find worms in this tank as well though instead of white they are red. I haven't gotten a good picture but they are smaller than the white worms in the 36g. This tank is going through the a course of Flubendazole. I hope this gets them off the struggle bus and back on the happy train. Today this tank got the scrub down before moving forward with the dewormer. Glass wiped down, decor scrubbed and plants (what was left) pruned. Water parameters were ok-ish at 0/0/50 so did 50% water change and pulled out carbon filters from hob and canister before dosing dewormer. (Also rinsed out sponges in hob and canister.) This tank also get a daily 5-10% automatic water change. 55g bottom -Koi & Shubunkin & Pleco This is now the happy tank! All inhabitants are eating well and are active and a bit more curious than before. Mama Jerkface doesn't go and hide at the drop of the hat and will eat from the fork, if not the hand now. Ghost is enjoying his homemade cave though his tail hangs out so I am looking at adding in some clay plant watering spikes to see if the length fits better. I'm a little worried about Shu as he hasn't put on much size (length or width) and will continue to monitor.
  3. Mine also love Hikari Crab Cuisine, like GameCzar and xXInkedPhoenixX above. They also go crazy for green beans which is their Friday night treat.
  4. I've only used Seachem Prime so I really don't have anything to compare it to but it works great for me. As for food, I feed a variety and am just starting with live baby brine shrimp for guppy fry. They seem to love it (as do the momma guppies). The food brand that I have the most of is Hikari (frozen brine, crab, guppy and shrimp), with Repashy (community plus and super gold) being a close second. Xtreme Krill flake is loved by all (goldfish, koi, shrimps, snails and guppies). Filtration varies by tank. Koi and goldfish tanks each have a hob and a canister while shrimp/snail tank has hob and sponge and guppies just have a sponge filter. Each seems to work well in the appropriate situation. Thank you for the fun poll! I had to go read about trickle/wet dry filters to figure those out. ☺️
  5. Loss 😢 10g hospital/quarantine tank: Empty Unfortunately, I lost all guppies with the last one lasting until last night. So plecos were moved to the 55gs and I broke down this tank. Rinsed out and set outside to dry. I'd like to give guppies another try but after watching Cory's video I need to make some adjustments in preparation. Most notable is that I have r/o water that is soft and pretty much mineral free. So I need to add the minerals back in and adjust hardness (and buffering). Then comes the deworming and having those meds on hand. When ready I'll set the 10g back up and add coral to see what it does to hardness and buffering and if it looks good I'll get the deworming meds and see if I can make another go at this. Tank Goals: -take a break until certain I can keep guppies alive for longer than 2 weeks.😢 36g - Shrimps (ghost, cherry, blue) & Snails (bladder, nerite, mystery) These guys are still doing well though lost one cherry shrimp this week. Not too sure what happened though it looks like it was right after molting.🤔 Friday this tank got a treat of steamed green beans which everyone seemed to enjoy. This tank got a pretty thorough cleaning today with wiping down the glass, pruning out some of the plants and replaced the carbon filter that was taken out previous week for the PraziPro treatment. Also did a 20% water change. Tank Goals:-Add Potassium for plants? 55g top - Red cap oranda & fancy fantail goldfish & pleco Still such a happy tank! Everyone still looks good as they are all active, curious and eating well. Pleco is hiding out, usually behind the filter intake on the hob, but comes out for feeding when I dim the lights. This tank is getting multiple small (10% or less) daily water changes. The addition of pothos does seem to have made a bit of difference with nitrates as they seem to be increasing a bit more slowly. Tank Goals: -Keep it going! 😊 55g bottom -Koi & Shubunkin & Pleco Still seeing the same behavior here as well. Everyone seems health as in active and eating well but still using the hide quite a bit. Pleco is hiding by the canister filter intake and is slow to come out when lights are dimmed for feeding. I found some clay and am currently firing a 'cave'. Hopefully it works out and gives these guys another place to hide out. This tank is also getting multiple small (10% or less) daily water changes. It also got a bit of donated plant greenery from the shrimp & snails tank. Tank Goals:-Find a way to add more cover while not restricting too much swimming space (that isn't plants)
  6. Well, it seems the green beans were a great start to Friday 'date night' for Ivory and Golden. 😄 Thank you very much for all the snail care tips here. I never would've thought to even try feeding green beans. Your niece is going to have a *fabulous* ivory!
  7. You all have such beautiful snails! Here is one of mine. Pretty, little Ivory who I didn't realize was so small until this thread. ☺️ I'm excited to say that the snails and shrimps are enjoying some steamed green beans this evening.
  8. Greetings from another Michigander! Shrimps and snails are so much fun to watch! You have a beautiful tank. I have a small group of cherries that I hope will breed someday as well. Though I'm still working on dialing in some parameters (using reverse osmosis well water so pretty much lacking in any and all minerals). Hope to see more of your tanks as you progress!
  9. Ick!!🤒 10g hospital/quarantine tank: 2 common plecos & 5 guppies (2? girls and 3? boys) After losing my last male and seeing a fuzzy spot on one of the females I moved the guppies back to QT. Husband brought me four more guppies in a (possibly) misguided attempt to say that he thinks the issues were with the guppies he originally bought and not with my care. Unfortunately, I did lose the female with the spot and another female from the original batch that I quite honestly did not see anything wrong. She was swimming and alert the night before and when I went down to feed in the morning she was gone. Right now the rest of the group seems alert, healthy and happily swimming. Plecos show the white grainy appearance of ick. So I am going through ick treatment with API Super Ick Cure. Today was the second dose. Wednesday will be the water change and end of treatment. Hopefully all goes well and this clears up. This tank got the second dose of API Super Ick Cure and a bit of Prime. Water was already salted with 2TBS and heater is preset at 78F. Floating plants added to provide cover? for guppies. Filtering with one sponge filter. Keeping lights dim for plecos and (hopefully) general lowering of stress. Tank Goals:-Continue to monitor health/ick 36g - Shrimps (ghost, cherry, blue) & Snails (bladder, nerite, mystery) Not much excitement in this tank besides the removal of the guppies remaining from the first group. These guys got a nice moss mat and shrimp house that the cherries and ghosts seem to enjoy. Also added a couple of new plants: Pogostemon Stellatus 'Octopus' and an Amazon Sword. The mysteries have really enjoyed checking out the new plants. Nerites have been hiding a bit in the corner by the filter while bladder snails still seem to be living it up. This tank got a 50% water change when remaining guppies were removed. Ran through on treatment of PraziPro just on the off chance there is something in the water of this tank that affected the guppies but not the invertebrates. Also treated with prime. Took out the water sprite plant to add to the fancy tank. Moved the Vallisneria to the koi tank...which hasn't worked out. 😞 Tank Goals:-Add Potassium for plants? -Continue to monitor to see if anything is affecting shrimps and snails 😐 55g top - Red cap oranda & fancy fantail goldfish This tank is probably my happiest tank right now. Everyone is happy and Winnie and Tails, the two newest fantails, have started taking part in Baby's point exercises. Pooh doesn't seem to be as engaged as before but is eating, active and seems happy rummaging through the top part of the gravel. They've checked out the new water sprite plant that I moved over from the snails and shrimp tank and are happy to swim through it. 🙂 This tank got the full treatment this weekend. Inside of glass wiped down to remove the haze that seemed to have built up on it. Took out the barrel decoration and gave it a good rinse and wipe. Plants were pruned a bit with some added to the bottom 55g and others to the 10g for guppy cover. Filters were cleaned (rinsed) and carbon replaced. I did add pothos to the hob on this tank and will see how it affects the nitrate levels over the coming week. Did a 30% water change and tested out the autofill system (works!). New water treated with Prime. Tank Goals: -Keep it going! 😊 55g bottom -Koi & Shubunkin These guys are pretty much the same. Everyone looks healthy, eats well and is active but still seem stressed. I tried added the Vallisneria to this tank in the rock planter but it was ate in less than 48 hrs. Maybe I am underfeeding? This seems a bit unlikely to me but I plan to weigh these guys just to make sure I'm still on track. I haven't found any good 'hides' to add to the tank to see if that will help. Might just head over to Menards and pick up a couple terracotta planters and drop one in there on its side. They won't be able to swim through like they can with their 'log' but maybe it will help just to give them another place to hunker down. These guys have been getting small near daily water changes, much like the top tank, so the numbers were pretty steady. Just did a small 10% water change on this tank. Dosed Prime and Stress Guard. Tank Goals:-Find a way to add more cover while not restricting too much swimming space (that isn't plants)
  10. Getting Settled 10g- plecos in quarantine The guppies were moved to the 36g but I've kept the plecos in here to make sure they are well fed before moving to the 55gs. Both seem to be doing well and their bellies are looking much more full. This tank got a 50% water change today as the test strips were registering nitrites. Dosed tank with salt, cleaning bacteria, prime and stress guard. If all looks good in a few days I'll start moving these guys to the 55gs. Tank Goals: -Move Plecos over to the 55gs 36g - Shrimps (cherry, blue, ghost) & Snails (bladder, mystery, nerite) & Guppies Unfortunately one of the guppies does not seem to be doing very well.😔 He is swimming but his tail is not moving and he's hanging out at the bottom of the tank instead of the top with the rest of the group. The rest seem to be well and are active, swimming and eating. Mysteries seem to be doing much better with the bump up in temperature. These guys seem more active and well less floaty. Tank Goals: -Add Potassium for plants -Monitor guppy health 55g top - oranda & fantail goldfish These guys are doing great! Everyone seems happy, active and eating very well. This tank is getting multiple small water changes during the week. Their nitrates seem to be climbing so might try adding additional plants either in tank or pothos to the hob. Overall, very happy with how things are going in this tank. Tank Goals: -Add more plants 55g bottom - koi & shubunkin These guys all seem healthy and are eating well. They're active but seem a bit stressed? They will cluster together and hide in the resin log and seem to be spooked quite easily. I have added in more plastic (I know, I know) plants to add cover since they seem to tear up the live plants. This tank got a 30% water change since nitrates were creeping up. Also dosed with salt, prime and stress guard. Added pothos to the hob and replaced the charcoal in hob and canister. Plans for an outdoor pond are moving along. The rains here caused part of the pool to collapse so we've filled it in with plans to build that space into a koi/shubunkin pond though it still may be next year before construction begins. Tank Goals: -Find a way to add more cover while not restricting too much swimming space
  11. Happy NERM Week! Another week of changes here with some new additions. 10g- guppies & plecos in quarantine I was gifted a group of guppies (5) that are adorable! Not sure if these guys are a particular 'strain' of guppy but I love the color of the fins. They are lively and looking good. At this point I *think* I might have 3 females and 2 males? Eventually, these guys will go in the shrimps & snails tank. Along with the guppies came 2 plecos which I think may be common-type plecos. So these guys will eventually move to the pond in planning. These guys are in need of some fattening up as both came to me with pretty concave bellies. I plan on keeping them in the QT tank until I get those bellies a bit more full. Eventually they will probably be separated with one in each 55g. Current parameters in the QT tank are 77-78 degrees, 0 nitrites and 10 nitrates ppm. Currently have aquarium salt and doses of Prime and Stress Guard along with a bit of cleaning bacteria added in the tank. Feeding a variety of foods 3 - 4x/day. Mix of algae wafers, brine shrimp, repashy gel, sinking pellets and flake. 36g - Shrimps (cherry, blue, ghost) & Snails (bladder, mystery, nerite) Not much has changed here. Mysteries are still floating and just hanging out. They tend to be a bit more active with lights off. Plants are doing... ok... though I'm noticing some pinholes in some leaves. I'm thinking there is a potassium deficiency happening (reverse osmosis well water here) and am looking at trying some Easy Green in the near future. Raised temperature from 72F to 74F to see if its just colder than the mysteries like. Parameters are good at 0 nitrites and 10 nitrates after 20% water change. No additions to water besides Prime. Feeding variety of foods: Mix of algae wafers, brine shrimp, repashy gel, sinking pellets and flake. More updates to come during the week.
  12. Happy 4th of July! I missed posting an update last week since power was out. Unfortunately, I lost Tail, my orange fantail goldfish, to a filter intake mishap when power was restored. 😢 May he swim in peace. This necessitated some rearrangements to the tanks and residents. Pooh, a fantail, was moved to the 55g with Baby, a recap oranda. Shu, my shubunkin, was moved to the 55g with Jerk Face, a koi. Shrimps and snails were then moved into the 36g after it was moved downstairs by the other two tanks. 10g is now empty and returned to use as a quarantine tank. My Aqua Huna order came in with four mystery snails and 10 cherry shrimp. The shrimp seem to be doing very well. Though I've lost one mystery snail... and I'm not entirely certain the other ones are very happy. They've been spending a lot of time.... floating.🤔 Husband brought home two fantails and another koi, again thinking the koi the a shubunkin. So the two fantails are in with Baby and Pooh while the little koi went in with Jerk Face and Shu. Ah yes, and the 55gs have been moved from the stand to shelving. Backgrounds have been added to all tanks except the 10g. 55g bottom - koi & shubunkin Real plants did not fare well in here with Jerk Face (koi) so I added some plastic plants as well as a resin rock cave to give more things to explore since I rocked Jerk Face's world by adding Shu (shubunkin) and Mini Jerk Face (small koi) to the tank. 55g top - oranda & fantail goldfish Baby's tank gained a few more occupants in the form of three fantails: Pooh (from 36g), Tails(small orange) and Winnie (calico). It also inherited the barrel decoration for a small hiding place for Pooh as well as a couple more plants. 36g - Shrimps (ghost, cherry, blue) & Snails (bladder, nerite, mystery) These guys got a lot more room! So added an Aquarium Coop sponge filter. I also recently added another brand sponge filter and have to say the coop one seems much better made. Also added more plants from the coop: vallisneria and water sprite.
  13. Happy Father's Day! 55g bottom - koi (Jerk Face) Jerk Face has eaten the plants that were in the tank. He is getting daily water changes (20 to 50%) and I swapped out the air stone for a bar to help aerate the tank. For whatever reason nitrites and nitrates are very high in this tank which is why I'm doing daily water changes. In addition, I'm dosing with Prime, Stress Guard and salt. I've also dropped temperature. I plan on moving in the HoB that was on the 39g tank to this one. Might try plastic plants to see how Jerk Face does. 55g top - oranda (Baby) Baby has settled in well and seems to be quite content in her tank. Parameters are stable though I have been doing daily 5-10% water changes these past couple days. 10g - Shrimps & Snails Lost two more ghost shrimp this week. :-( Parameters have been testing well though I did a 50% water change just in case I'm missing something. I also took the new java ferns out of the pots and rockwool and floated them in the tank. (Also attempted to super glue some java fern to a rock and it seems to be working better than when I tried this with the java moss.) One of the nerites was relocated to the 39g. And it looks like there are two shrimps carrying eggs. Both are still alive. So far. 39g - 2 fancy goldfish (Pooh & Tail) and a shubunkin (Shu) & a nerite These guys are doing very well. Did a 20-30% water change today and dosed with prime, stress guard and salt as nitrates were over 20ppm. Took out the plastic plants and may move these into Jerk Face's tank. Also took off the HoB to move to Jerk Face's tank as well. Nerite came over from the small tank and seems to be enjoying it (fish are leaving it alone).
  14. Movin' On Up 55g bottom - koi (Jerk Face) Moved koi the Jerk Face to the bottom 55g earlier in the week since the bullying resumed. He's settled in over the past couple days and water parameters have been holding steady. Two Marineland canister filters are running on the tank along with a new Fluval E300 heater. One air stone is in there as well. Plants are pretty sparse - just some water sprite, Brazilian pennywort and a bit of guppy grass and accidental java moss that came along for the ride. Parameters tested at over 20ppm on nitrates so did a 10% water change. Everything else looks good so far and Jerk Face seems to be good. Tank Goals: -Add background? 55g top - oranda (Baby) Moved Baby into the top tank after the live stream. While listening to the live stream today, I watched Shu and Tail chase Baby around the 39g for 2 hrs. After the live stream I saw that red streaks were back in Baby's tail and fins. :-( So I moved her into the top tank since parameters had been holding pretty steady. This tank has two filter: one canister and one HoB. Both are Marineland. Plants are same as in the bottom tank: Brazilian pennywort and a bit of guppy grass and java moss. However this one does have a new background which adds quite a bit. Might do something similar on the bottom one. Parameters tested at less than 10ppm on nitrates (as well as 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites) so no water change. Tank Goals: -Add more plants 10g - Shrimps & Snails Lost another ghost shrimp, presumably from failed molt again. :-( Besides that this tank is holding steady and doing well. It looks like one of the ghost shrimp may be carrying eggs again. :-) Parameters tested at less than 20ppm on nitrates (as well as 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites) so no water change. Tank Goals: 39g - 2 fancy goldfish (Pooh & Tail) and a shubunkin (Shu) These guys are getting used to having more room in the tank now that Jerk Face and Baby have been moved into the 55gs. Re-planted some of the pennywort and took some trimmings off the water sprite for the 55gs. Parameters tested at less than 20ppm on nitrates (as well as 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites) so no water change. Tank Goals:
  15. New Tanks!! 55g x2! - empty Many thanks to the wonderfully kind Craig's-lister (also was a goldfish keeper!) for two new-to-me 55g tanks with stand, filters, filter inserts, substrate, air pumps, decorations and more!! Both tanks are set up with a filter (or two) running right now. Need to pick up another heater for the bottom tank and starter bacteria. Very excited for these to cycle so Shu and Koi can move into more spacious digs. Parameters test out at 7ph/0ammonia/0nitrite/0nitrate. Took out 10% of water to add gravel substrate. Topped off with fresh water. Added pennywort and water sprite to top tank. Will add to bottom tank once heater is installed and temperature is stable. Tank Goals: -Complete cycle -Add more plans - java fern? I heard there may be a deal on these at the Co-op in the live stream earlier today. 🙂 -Add heater to bottom tank 39g Goldfish Community tank + koi Weighed everyone earlier this week and found that even with treats I was underfeeding a bit. 🙁 Increased amount being fed and keeping feedings at 4x a day. Everyone is looking pretty good and a bit less aggression from Koi now that food amount has been adjusted. Added a hang on back filter to help 'seed' it for the new 55gs (part of the items from Craigslist). Parameters test out at 6ph/0ammonia/20-40nitratesppm. Did 20% water change. Gravel vacc'ed about 1/3 of the bottom. Took out a floating piece of pennywort to add to heated 55 along with a cutting from the water sprite plant. Heater was swapped out for a different one to move the from this tank to one of the 55gs. Added Prime, stress guard, paraguard, water conditioner and salt to new water. Tank Goals: -Will move Shu & Koi to 55g once cycled -Might move Pooh and Tail (two fan tails) to the second 55 once cycled -Move Shrimp & snails with plants from 10g to this one with Baby? 10g Ghost Shrimp Shenanigans & Nerite Snail tank & Electric Blues & Unknown? Reds) Husband brought me four little shrimp earlier this week. 2 blues which he said were called electric blues? (Not sure if that is correct).And 2 reds which he didn't remember. These guys got the old preset heater in the great heater switch-a-roo. Added one of the SunGrow Shrimp Mineral Rocks and saw a successful molt during the week. 🙂 Everyone seems to enjoy the new shrimp food, too. Parameters tested at 6ph/0/0/5-10 nitrates ppm. Did a 20% water change. Added Prime to new water. Tank Goals: -Move contents to 39g? -Use at hospital/qt tank as originally intended?
  16. Happy Memorial Day Weekend 10g Ghost Shrimp Shenanigans & Nerite Snail tank Moved Baby back to the 39g tank earlier in the week so it's back to the Shenanigans & snails. Did a deeper clean on the filter and replaced the carbon cartridge filter floss and added in few Sera Siporax Professional 15 mm to the filter compartment, under the devil's ivy. Moved filter from short side to back wall of the tank to help slow down the flow by 'banking' it off the front of the tank. Planted some of the water sprite in a net pot with rock wool. Still need to figure out what to do with the substrate. Purchased SunGrow Shrimp Mineral Rocks and plan to add to tank midweek as I lost a shrimp to what I think was a bad molt. 😞 Also got Fluval Shrimp Granules and will move to this instead of the Repashy Super Gold during the coming week. Water parameters are steady at 0 ammonia and 5 ppm nitrates. So no water change, just topped off evaporated loss with fresh r/o water. Tank Goals:-Keep reading up on ghost shrimp care & breeding to see what to improve. -Decide what to do with Fluval Stratium substrate - not suitable for goldfish & koi? -Convert to shrimp and snail food (Fluval Shrimp Granules) 39g Goldfish Community tank + koi Shrimp in this tank was moved back to the 10g quite by accident - moved with the water sprite. Baby was brought back in midweek and things seem good again. Baby is showing red streaks in tail again. 😞 Dosing with salt and stress guard to see if it will help. Shut down the canister filter and rinsed out the filter pads and media in tank water. Gravel vacuumed 3/4ths of the tank. Took out the shrimp hides (pvc pipe) and moved those to the 10g. Water parameters were at 0 ammonia and 40 ppm nitrates. So did a 25%-30% water change. Added 1 cap stress coat, 1 tsp clarifier and 1 tsp salt to the new water. Tank Goals:-Keep monitoring the Gang -Track down larger tank/pond for Shu & koi-Research greenhouses; heating in particular
  17. Spring Clean 10g Ghost Shrimp Shenanigans & Nerite Snail tank + Baby (red cap oranda) Did a quick clean up of this tank since last week was more of a deep clean. Nitrates tested at 5ppm and .25ammonia so did a 10% water change. Added in 1ml of Prime with new water. Cleaned out some of the brown moss and a quick vacuum of the bottom solids. Brushed down the nylon cover the filter. Moved Baby over to this tank since Shu (shubunkin) and Koi (yes, a koi) were pestering her? in the big tank. She had red pinstripes in her tail and fins again. 😞 So temporarily moved Baby out of the larger tank to this one to see if it would help settle things down. Shenanigans and Nerites seem to be well. There are (were?) a few baby shrimps but I'm not sure what will survive the addition of Baby. Moved in more plants(water sprite and pennywort) and anchored some of the java moss in the net pots. Tank Goals:-Keep reading up on ghost shrimp care & breeding to see what to improve. -Decide what to do with Fluval Stratium substrate - not suitable for goldfish & koi? -Research & purchase shrimp and snail foods 39g Goldfish Community tank + koi + ghost shrimp This tank got the scrub down. Wiped down glass again. Took a soft toothbrush to the plant leaves (live and plastic). Gravel vacuumed half the tank since while ammonia was 0 the nitrates were at 25ppm. Replaced the 'filter cover' on intake. Replanted one of the floating pieces of pennywort. Rearranged the tank a bit to give more open swim area in the middle. Moved Baby (red cap oranda) after the changes since Koi and Shu were sucking on her face. 😞 Tank Goals:-Keep monitoring the Gang -Track down larger tank/pond for Shu & koi-Research greenhouses; heating in particular
  18. Introducing: The Snails 10g Shrimp Tank: Came across some nerite snails (4) and guppy grass this week so all are in the small tank. Snails seem to be settling in fine and are happily munching on the algae. The Shenanigans are enjoying the guppy grass. The babies are getting bigger, little by little. Took the java moss out of the floating pot and added to bottom of the tank to give the Shenanigans some more plants. Moved another floating pot of moss from 39g to 10g. Added crushed egg shell to the repashy super gold and see a lot of it on bottom of tank. Hopefully it helps and it seems like quite a few of the shrimp are molting and I've seen them consume their cast off. Scrubbed down filter, bubble bar and heater with a toothbrush in old tank water to get off the layer of gunk that had accumulated. Left the glass, sides and bottom, and tubes undisturbed. Water parameters tested well with 0 ammonia and 5 nitrates so things are back to normal there. Tank Goals:-Keep reading up on ghost shrimp care & breeding to see what to improve. -Try to attach java moss to bottoms of the net pots -Decide what to do with Fluval Stratium substrate -Research & purchase shrimp and snail foods 39g Goldfish Community tank: The gang is good and getting along pretty well. Baby's fins continue to grow and Shu's color is looking good. Koi is doing very well with hand and point work, as is (unexpectedly) one of the Shenanigans. Though it seems most creatures in my tanks tend to be food motivated. Cleaned the algae off the glass in this tank and scrubbed down the heater, spray bar and filter intake with a toothbrush. Removed one of the decorations (skull) as I found bits of it floating in the water. 😞 And started scrubbing down the bubbler and fake plants but was called away so will need to continue on this later in the week. Also floated another of the potted pennyworts as the gang finally uprooted it. Did some gravel vacuuming and a 20% water change. Added in another cap of stress guard with new water. Parameters check out at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrates. Tank Goals:-Keep monitoring the Gang -Track down larger tank/pond for Shu & koi-Research greenhouses; heating in particular
  19. Great live stream today and am happy to say I've joined the Nerm family. And thank you Cory & Team for the extra hour!🎁 Fish Folk - I love having this journal! I'm certainly hooked! Let It Rest - Happy Mother's Day! 10g Shrimp Tank: The Shrimp Shenanigans' have lived up to their name with some, well, shenanigans. We have baby shrimp! I've seen a few swimming around and managed to get a pic of one of the larger babies. They're just eyes and tail but I'm happy to seem them in there since no special care or prep was done. I've been feeding Repashy Super Gold mixed to a more watery consistency (.25tsp rsg to 1tsp water) for the past few days to the larger Shenanigans and am hoping that works for the babies as well. Added about 1 to 2 gallons of water to top off what was lost due to evaporation. I don't want to disturb too much in the tank or remove any food that the babies are able to find so I just brushed off the moss from the nylon and let it go. Parameters test come back with 0 ammonia but also 0 nitrates. I'm a bit puzzled how it went from a reading of 5 to 0 in the past week for the nitrates and plan on retesting in the morning. Temperature is holding steady at 75F. Added another floating planter with small chamomile plant that was on the aquaponics system (small proof of concept system) to see how it will (or if it will!) transition to fish water. Another shrimp has molted and I left the cast off shell in the tank. From what I understand, the cast off shell has some minerals that the shrimp can reuse. Tank Goals: -Keep reading up on ghost shrimp care & breeding to see what to improve. -Leave Java Moss out in this tank. Maybe attach to bottoms of the net pots for now? (No glue, just secure under 'bars' of the upside down pots? Find tweezers. -Try mixing in some crushed egg shell with repashy for extra calcium? -Decide what to do with Fluval Stratium substrate -Add plants in from big tank 39g Goldfish Community tank: This tank had an unexpected midweek cleaning. Family decided that there was an unpleasant aroma and decided that my nose was broken as it smelled ok to me (kind of like a humid greenhouse). So I took apart the canister filter (Sunsun HW-302) and rinsed pads in tank water, replaced charcoal media with Marineland Zeolite and carbon. I also added a nitrate reducing filter pad as when I had noticed an unhealthy aroma previously it was due to ammonia spike. When tested though, the parameters came back 0 ammonia and 5 nitrates (before canister maintenance) so smell could've been something else. Though I'm happy to say that we all now agree that nothing 'smells bad' now. Added one of the unused filter media bags to the intake to help keep moss out of the filter. Seems to be working ok so far. Today I did some more gravel vacuuming and did a 20% water change. Reburied plants that needed it. Added a capful of stress guard with the clean water. Parameters at 0ammonia/0 nitrates. Temperature stable at 73F. Shu is still nipping at Baby though Koi seems to be settling in just fine. Hoping the stress guard will help alleviate some of the stress though I'm happy to say that the red streaks in Baby's tail has faded away. No response on the hopeful Craiglist listings for tanks/pond stuff. So still keeping a close eye out for larger tank/pond. Tank Goals: -Keep monitoring Shu and Baby-Keep working with koi to get him comfortable with hands; point work-Track down larger tank/pond for Shu & koi-Research greenhouses; heating in particular
  20. Sunday Fun Day😄 10g hospital/quarantine tank: Current home to 10-ish? ghost shrimp (the shrimp shenanigan's as they're starting to be known) that were gifted to me Friday as well as a mass of java moss. Oh! and a newly found bladder snail. 20% water change - parameters tested 0 ammonia/5 nitrates before change Filter is hob that came with the larger tank (marked whisper 20-40 on spill edge) that I fitted with a nylon to help keep out the java moss. Pruned back some of the devil's ivy (pothos) in the filter hopper and rinsed filter 'bag' in dirty tank water. Replaced the charcoal in filter bag as I kept the bag since the ivy has started root in it. [Note: will cut apart the bag material before replacing to keep some in tank and reposition to keep roots in place.] Brushed off java moss from nylon and moved some into 3d printed floating pot. Lastly, rock with moss on it to the spill edge to slow down flow. Added pvc tubes to add hide spots/exploration places for the shrimps. Tank Goals: -Move java moss to floating planter. Nylon is holding up better than anticipated. -Research ghost shrimp care and breeding. Pretty sure there are a couple females with eggs. -Research calcium supplements. We have r/o well water here so any such minerals will need to be added. -Put in fancy substrate? Did pick up Fluval Stratum but realize after some more videos that it might be more muss than its worth for the shrimps? -Add more plants. Will clip some water sprite and pennywort from large tank to move into this one. 39g Goldfish Community tank: Current home to one shubunkin (Shu), two fancy fantails (Pooh & Tail), red cap oranda (Baby) and one surprise koi (yet unnamed) gifted to me on Friday. (the koi was supposed to be another shubunkin - was a surprise when I saw the little whiskers😄) 10% water change - parameters tested 0 ammonia/5 nitrates before change Slight gravel vac done to get up excess food and poop. Reburied plants that had been disrupted during the week. Brushed moss off from filter intake and added to a floating pot. Starting to see some aggression from Shu (shubunkin) towards Baby (oranda). No tail or fin nipping as I was kind of expecting, instead Shu is nipping at Baby's face. I don't see any marks or wounds but am starting to see a bit of a red streak starting in Baby's tail. Seems to do it mostly around feeding time. All fish except koi are handfed pieces of Repashy super gold in addition to a larger chunk being dropped in the tank (all together it equals out to about .25tsp). May try moving to 3 feedings per day from current 2. Shu's color seems to have stabilized again though I'm still keeping tabs of spots that I think may be or have been ammonia burn. Baby's tail is still a bit bent from where it has started growing back in. Concerned about possible stress from Shu causing the red streak in tail Koi seems to be settling in fine. Kept overnight in 10g and then given a paraguard bath before moving to tank. Having koi and Shu has moved up pond plans for this year. Thankfully craigslist to the rescue and I have a couple messages out for larger tank and stock tank/pond. Originally I was hoping to set up the pond in a greenhouse to run it year 'round but that may have to wait. Tank Goals: -Move java moss to floating planter. -Keep monitoring Shu and Baby -Start work with koi in a couple weeks to get him comfortable with hands; point work -Track down larger tank/pond for Shu & koi -Research greenhouses; heating in particular
  21. Hello everyone! Greetings from MI. I found my way to Aquarium Co-op videos while looking up information on tanks and goldfish. From there I found the live streams and while watching the stream earlier today I saw the link to the forums. So here I am! My fishkeeping journey started two months ago with a 39g tank and stand which is home to four goldfish. I started with 6 however there was an ick outbreak and I lost two. 😿 During my search for info on how to treat ick, I found the Aquarium Co-op videos on YouTube. Thankfully I was able to successfully treat the tank and while there were casualties I now have a better grasp of what to do for my remaining goldies. And the addition of a 10g quarantine/hospital tank. Special thanks to Irene's video on water changes, I have a good log of water parameters and have reigned in the feeding much to the chagrin of my fish. I do a 10-20% water change each week but this has come down from the 20% I was doing daily during the first month. Short-term goals: -Continue to log water parameters and observe what is working well -Find a better way to keep java moss out of the filter. (Currently using an old, clean! knee hi nylon in the 10g but will need a way to contain it in the 39g) -Monitor Shu's (the shubunkin) suspected ammonia burn (what I thought were brown speckles have been 'coming off'? and revealing different colors) -Monitor Baby's (red cap oranda) tail as part was lost in the ick battle and a bit seems to be growing back in bent -Continue to work with all to be comfortable with people to make it easier to monitor these guys Mid-to long term goals: -Keep an eye out for larger tank at reasonable price as larger tank will be needed as these guys grow -Research greenhouse pond set ups in MI
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