Aubrey

I just got a couple of mangroves today. As for keeping the leaves above water, do you mean just the actual leaves or the stem part coming out of the seed pod that the leaves grow from?

I think the thing on the left is some kind of sea fan coral. I don't know how safe using any found wood is. Chances are if it came from salt water that the stuff on it wouldn't live in freshwater.

@Jay I do not have any experience with ghost shrimp. I don't think the same identification methods for cherry shrimp apply to ghost shrimp.

Females are usually larger and more vividly colored. That's not always true, but is a pretty general way to tell gender. Females also have a "skirt" on their tail end as to where males have a slender tail end. Also in females a "saddle" will be visible when they are preparing to breed. The Shrimp in the front, below, is a female. See how where the tail starts it dips down a bit and rounds up. That is the "skirt." The Shrimp below is a male. See how the tail just tapers all the way to the end making it look skinnier and less bulky than a female. The shrimp on the left is a female. See the orange coloration on her back, just behind the head to about mid tail, that is the "saddle."

This is my "green jade" colony. Always full of variety.

@Streetwise it's not in or a part of any aquatic/aquaponic setup. It's just in the nursery pot that it came in, but I can show you that. The only aquatic things that it gets are the lighting is an old Nicrew and I water my plants with the waste water from water changes. I need to clean up the shelving that it's on and I'll take another pic. I have some 2.5 gallons, some melted glass bowls, and a 5 gallon portrait as part of the plant shelf display. Along with suffering from MTS, I also suffer from MPS. Multiple Plant Syndrome. Here is what it looks like all together. The 5 gallon in the center has my green jade colony and some rams horns. The 2.5s and bowls just have plants like buce, anubias, duckweed, hydrocotlyle, hornwort, and various crypts I didn't want to throw out along with bladder snails, rams horns, and maybe some shrimp hitchhikers. The bottoms shelves are where I keep my repotting supplies and water change buckets.

Looks like my Alocasia Polly is going to bloom!

Today was the first sunny rain free day in almost a week. I went down to the creek to see how high the water had got. I saw some minnows all clumped together fighting the current in the shallow water running over the limestone slab. Someone was trying to make for an easy meal. There was a larger black mass of them just downstream. I think this is some kind of wild mint that had been flooded over on the bank.

Just curious if our accounts on the forum are linked to our accounts on the store website? Or if somehow we could use a link like that for random acts of kindness or special promos for forum members? Like we can order something for another member and they won't see our address and we won't see theirs.

Have any of you tried baby carrots? I've been feeding them to my BN fry along with xtreme sinking wafer, bug bites pleco sticks, and sera catfish chips wafers with wood. I can't tell if the carrots rot, but they sink right away and I change them out every other day. I tried zucchini and it was hard to keep fresh before I could feed all of it.

I had a similar situation. I live pretty far from any place that sells tanks. I've been lucky and had two glass tanks delivered with no issues. One 5 gallon from Amazon and a 12 long from Bulk Reef Supply. I only have one small acrylic tank and it's a BiOrb, so I feel like it might be more of it's own thing. Acrylic is lighter, bonds tighter, and is clearer. Acrylic also scratches easier, like wiping it with a paper towel will put micro scratches on it. Some Wal-Mart's carry glass 55 gallon kits, and almost all of them have 5s and 10s.

@Cory I would not think it's a calcium deficiency because the tank is littered with the breaking down remains of their Malaysia trumpet snail victims. Not to mention my water tests at 300 gh and 80 kh out of the tap. I think any pitting they have is from burrowing in eco complete. Although I suppose there are enough snails reproducing in the tank that the calcium could be depleted quickly. I don't know if another deficiency or perhaps a disease might cause the coloration or if it is a color morph. I only saw one article mentioning white shells as a rare color variant and only a handful more mentioning an all brown variant. I've counted around 5 in that tank with varying age/size and there are many more that are just normal colored. I guess I will have to remove some and try to selectively breed them to see if they will produce more.

The oldest pic of my 12 gallon over 2 years ago. One year later. You can see a current pic on my profile header.

@quirkylemon103 I usually drive up to Springfield, Mo. it's about the same distance from me as Rogers. They have at least two LFS and nearly a dozen chain stores that sell fish and some plants. There is also a Facebook group that has a couple small swaps a years called Ozarks Aquarium Society based up there. You might ask on there about guppy grass if it's worth the drive for you.

@quirkylemon103 I couldn't tell you. I live a little over an hour from the Fayetteville/Rogers area and don't make many trips that way. Although when over there I really enjoy going to Worlds Under Water. Do you know of any other LFS in that area?

Pros for the coarse sponge: Easy to clean detritus from it Green hides algae and blends in with plants Can be used with an air stone It's weighted so it won't get knocked around or float up Cons: Doesn't filter fine particles as well Could snag a fin Hard to clean hair algae from the sponge Small fry can enter the pores I have them and use them. I do not have a betta. I'm not going to knock them, but it really depends on your application. In my opinion the pros of them are more for the keeper instead of the fish. Out of curiosity for this reply I rubbed both a fine and coarse sponge on my arm, and well the coarse is coarse and scratchy. Although they were dry and stiff. The Co-Op wouldn't sell it if it was hassle for them with negagtive reviews and returns, and if you're dissatisfied they will make it right.

I guess I never really looked that closely in one of my tanks, but I have some assassin snails that are white/cream colored. The tank they are in is also over run with Malaysian trumpet snails that are a similar color, I guess thats why I haven't noticed them before. Is this common? I don't think it's a calcium deficiency. I mean they do have some pitting at the point of their shells, but all of my snails do.

Get used to the country life. I used to have a herd of about 15 white tail that would visit my old place every morning. One night I came upon this little one when I got home from work.

Weeping moss somewhat does that. I think a similar hanging effect could be achieved by having something like valisineria or crypt spiralis planted up higher so that the leaves float on top and then hang back down.

I'm breeding/have bred fish and have no plan for their offspring. I don't have a LFS closer than 75 miles one way and I don't know anyone locally that is interested in fish. I don't have the space to set up anymore tanks. I'm simply doing it for myself, not for money, just to see what I will learn and to say that I have done it and not with the fish's best interest in mind. I'll figure something out, but I do feel some guilt from doing this.

I'd say it depends on why you want floating plants. Do you want them just for looks? Do you want them to reduce nitrates? Do you want them for breeding purposes? For looks, well that would depend on what you like, but some plants have much longer roots than others. So from the top they look fine, but when looking in from the side you'll have less visibility into the tank. I prefer shorter rooted plants like Red Root Floater, Salvinia, and duckweed. That's not an issue in a pond. For reducing nitrates, some floating plants are better than others, but most of them will do well at this since they are taking in c02 from the air and are closer to the light. I've heard that Hornwort is one of the best at reducing nitrates. For breeding, the longer rooted plants like frogbit and water lettuce will work well like a spawning mop, plants like hornwort and watersprite are pretty dense, and almost all plants can be floated in a tank for cover. In my opinion, Frogbit is a pretty good all around floater. It's not too big and the roots get fairly long but they're not super dense. I've found that they generally propagate at a fast enough rate that I will remove the larger ones with longer roots before they get too big for me and still have a decent amount of cover. Hornwort is also pretty good all around, but my issue with it is that it grows super fast and looks like it should be in the substrate and out of place just floating around. I really enjoy the combo of Red Root Floaters and Salvinia Minima. They both have interesting textures and colors and the roots stay fairly short. They are small enough that they don't look out of place or scale in my 12 gallon. They are also easy to remove when needed. The Duckweeds. I've had the large and small varieties. The large is alright, not much for roots, and easier to remove and maintain. The small is good to feed some fish and other tank inhabitants, but is a major pain if you ever want to get rid of it and will stick all over you and anything you put in the tank for maintenance. I haven't kept any varieties of water lettuce. Mostly due to size and root structure. Watersprite gets huge, but I would say is the best for spawning and fry cover. It has quite a bit of root structure and the leaves have a large spread. Although it doesn't really float on the water surface, more just under it with some leaves breaking the surface. Hydrocotyles or Pennworts will grow underwater and across the surface like a vine. I like to think of it as a small delicate pothos. I just ordered some azolla and am looking forward to seeing how it grows. I think it has a nice unique texture, but I'm not sure how useful it is. I have pretty hard water 300+ and all of these plants have done well for me.

An old pic of my shramp nation.

For some insight on what's in your tap water I've found this website helpful. EWG's Tap Water Database: What's in Your Drinking Water? | @ewg | #WaterSafety WWW.EWG.ORG Look up your local water system to find out which pollutants might be of concern, and find suggestions on the best kinds of home filters to remove those chemicals.