RogueAquarium

Are seed shrimp cysts so small they are born along on the wind with dust particles? Do they somehow survive the chlorine and come in with the tap water? I notice them more commonly in my dirted tanks, do they possibly just lay their eggs EVERYWHERE and hope that someday that patch of dirt will be submerged long enough to hatch out and reproduce, similar to a fairy shirmp? That's just ONE of the THOUSANDS of micro fauna that could be found in the average healthy tank. I have been VERY curious about this for a long time. I know we have disproven the old Greek hypothesis of "Spontaneous Generation" but looking at and thinking too deeply about my aquariums can have me questioning sometimes.

Checked AquaHuna. They have them, but they aren't in stock :( not sure why I asked though, because if it's the only place I can find them I'm kinda stuck. I can either chance it or chance the girl stressing her self to death before my local store can get more in.

So, all of this is great, and I am glad to hear it probably wasn't negligence that killed the poor thing (always good to hear) But I still need advice on what to do with the girl. She is all alone now. I have 2 (about to be 3) tanks of a guppy breeding program I could toss her in with to school with, but I am worried the male guppies might bother her more than it's worth. Anybody have any opinions on that? She's still in with the Cory for now. I notice she is trying to stay near them. This whole thing just makes me incredibly sad. Additional question. Aquatic Arts seems to be the only online retailer who has them in stock. I have never ordered fish online before, Do they have a reputation (good or bad)?

As far as assimilation time (by which I think you mean "how long did I float the bag") They where in there for about an hour before I did the ole "pour them into a net over a bucket" trick to get them in. Both the Cory and the Rainbow where new to the tank at the same ish time (The cory went in about a half hour later, if that matters)

Must have been the "overload" I suppose. The tank HAD been home to a very large and slow beta (and snails and shrimp) before the Cory and rainbow. I moved him over to a new tank specifically built for him the day before I got the Rainbow and Cory. And this tank WAS supposed to be their quarantine tank. Didn't think anything they potentially had would bother the inverts, or vis-versa, and it's the closest to my desk and easiest to observe for anything going wrong. Tank size 10 G Temp 79 Filter/Flow: It's a 2 arm sponge filter with a media ball container on each arm. It's built to filter "up to 55 Gal". I have one of those 50 gal air pumps that have 2 output's. It has one output hose dedicated to it. The flow is extremely minimal, which is what I was told these fish need (they are swamp dwellers) Plants: Amazon Sword, Couple of small crypts, a tiger lotus, some "4 leaf clover" that is finally starting to spread, and a couple of moss balls. ph: 7.4 Ammonia: When I tested after pulling him out I had a spike up between .25 and .5. That has gone this morning. I SUSPECT it's from an algae wafer the Cory didn't touch that I t didn't see until it was all come apart. Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: it hovers around 5 ppm KH: haven't run the test after it passed, but my tank generally runs about 6 dKH GH: Also didn't test this today, but it generally hovers around 100-200 ppm, and I have to reason to suspect this. Ill run these tests if asked, but I don't think that had anything to do with it.

Let's get the sad part out of the way first, I FINALLY got a pair of fish I had been wanting for a long time. 1 male and 1 female Pseudomugil Luminatus. They are supposed to be in schools of at least 6, but my local store only had those 2, so I got them. It's been 3 days now, in a 2 year established planted 10G tank with a colony of Neocardinia shrimp, 3 nerite snails and 5 pygmy cory I tossed in as a hopeful known peaceful schooling fish that might help them feel less alone without a school and thus less stressed out. Well, 4 hours ago I checked in and did feedings, everybody seemed to be doing fine, boy was flipping his little pom-pom flippers around happily, so I vacuumed out the remains of an algae wafer the cory didn't eat and went about cleaning my office/fishroom and setting up a new rack and a couple of new tanks. Turned around about 20 min ago, male was belly up, all color gone, dead. Got him out and into a bag/fridge to preserve for diagnosis/return (that's the most I have ever spent on fish... I want more now) but what do I do for the female in the mean time? I'm worried by what I view as potential missing scales on the male that make me suspect the pygmy's could potentially not be as peaceful as they are made out to be? Tested water, and I did have a bit of an ammonia spike from that algae wafer, but it was nothing horrendous (between .25 and .5) and the female still seems fine...... nothing else is out of whack water wise that I can test for, so IDK what to think.... Should I move the female over to one of my guppy tanks for now just so she has somebody to school with, or would the male guppy's give her too many problems? Any and all help appreciated

I had a pea puffer problem, and in the process of solving it met a pea puffer fanatic. She keeps 6 different tanks for JUST pea puffers, it was cool. She said in her EXP all puffers are different. She said she has some that do GREAT as a single in a 5-6 gal, but she has some that just get lonely and don't do well. Part of how we finally fixed my poor little male not eating is by buying a female to put in with him. He watched her eat, and that seemed to trigger a competitive drive in him that was not there before, so in his case I think it's best to move him over to a 10 and grab 1 more female. Something I learned though is it seems to depend on how the fish interacts with YOU. The ones that seem to do well by themselves (all of hers anyways) were the most interactive with her. They can see a LONG way outside of the tank, so it makes sense that they would count that as interaction and fulfillment, but if it's too timid or scared to interact with you then it would not and just count that as a vague threatening presence. IDK, just trying to get inside the fish brain I guess.

FINAL UPDATE!: JUST saw him eat his first baby snail, which means he is FINALLY eating what will be his primary food source! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for all the help and advice you gave me! Very glad I found this place.

Welcome! Hope your enjoy your stay!

Congratulations everybody! (How I feel with 3 topics submitted, lol)

I live in a state that is a black out as far as local clubs on any of the maps I have seen. There are a couple of large and active FB groups, but they are limited by obvious FB limitations, and I would VERY much like to try and do local meetups. How do I go about doing this? I know and am on friendly terms with the people who run both of the major groups, do I just approach them and say "hey, lets start an actual cub?" or is there some resource available where it's an hour + long video of Cory talking about how to do this?

Here it is! 2 happy fat puffers! Now time to plan the transition to the 10, and figure out what to do with the desktop 5.5.... Male pictured on the left with bulged tummy from black worms! Female has been eating good since she got in the tank so is getting nice and plump.

SUCCESS!!!!! I dropped one in front of both of them and they watched it wriggle as it hit the ground. The Female took a chomp, but left half, and the boy got the other half!!!! FINALLY!!!!!! We aren't out of the woods yet, but this is SO encouraging! He was curious about the other worms before, but now appears to be actively hunting for more instead of just investigating what the strange new wiggly thing is. HE ATE!!! HE FINALLY ATE!!!!! Edit: He's eaten 2 more full worms now. He's not so good at hunting them (they go still and confuse him if they have their tail in the sand) but if I drop one in and it wriggles trying to get into the sand he sees and catches it just fine. Ill post a pic in a bit, I WATCHED his stomach go from pinched into his body, to now nicely rounded and I figured you guys would like to see that!

I sometimes gut load them with spirulina for things like beta which won't eat it naturally, but it's really good for them.

Update: The two are exploring around the tank, and have seen the worms (several in the soil, and I put one out so it was on top of a leaf when I woke up) but the little guy appears scared of them... He fixed in on one in the soil and started maneuvering like he was going to eat it, but then it waved toward him and spooked him and he ran away. He did the same thing to the one on top of the leaf. This is hopeful though, It's the first time I have ever seen him lock onto a target and start hunting maneuvering. When he goes for micro fauna it's much like other fish. Maybe he just hasn't had any live food like this before and his instincts are a little weaker than the female? I suspect he will get the hang of this one sooner or later and hopefully this is our bridge up to hunting larger things and putting on weight. Tank just finished a second round of general cure (wanted to hit the female after adding her, just in case.)

I may take you up on that! Luckily, one of the people in the local community gave me a small culture of black worms today! He has been hiding since I got home with them, but I have about 8 or so in there now, and I'm sure they will be found (sticking half way out of the sand wiggling around)

CONTRATULATIONS! I wish you many cute little hairy potato's and will be watching this thread to see more!

IMO....just make a couple Big colonies of vinegar eels. They reproduce like crazy, they are tiny live food, they are SUPER easy to keep and harvest and the yield is awesome. I just got my first colony, and I'm going to make that the basis of my next guppy fry feed, probably with some "Hikari First Bites" a couple days a week.

Should I maybe move this over to a journal section? Update, he's still around, and seems to be more active and a little less shy, but I don't notice his pinched stomach looking any better, and I haven't SEEN him eat for a day or 2 now. Brine shrimp should be hatched out in another few hours, will update when I put them in.

Yeah, I've tried everything I have access too. I live in a small community. I have a petco and a petsmart within 100 miles, and 1 local pet store. none of them stock live food like this, unless I can get them to eat little crickets. I've asked around my fish keeping community and the vinegar eels and brine shrimp are as much as people around here have.

Tested water quality. Holding steady at 0-0- somewhere between 5-10 Nitrate and 7.6ph. No luck with the tool, but that was because I couldn't get fine manipulation on the syringe. Will try again with a pipette, as squeezing will probably be easier than pinching.

Update. The two are getting along well, I don't notice any aggression, and our little guy keeps hunting micro fauna, but dispite watching the female eat MANY baby snails, he still shows now interest, and I don't think I can keep up with just micro fauna. Devised a new feeding tool that will hopefully tempt them both to frozen blood worms, and provide ME with easy clean up. Behold. It's a stainless steel chopstick hot glued to a sterile plastic condiment cup, with air tubing curled around so anything that gets pushed out the far end should land in the cup, and a hose long enough to let me hide, but sill do little pulses on the syringe to make to worms dance. I filled the device with baby snails earlier and set it down in until they got used to it and swam around it. Ill load up a syrange with worms in a bit and report back how it goes.

What kind of sponge is it? It's really easy to colonize new sponge with established sponge, it's just a matter of logistically making it work and look good. Mind posting a pic of what you got?

here is a pic of the 2 of them.

Morning Update: 2 more baby snails are missing, and both puffers are looking less thin this morning. I added a LOT of vinegar eels and I SAW him eating them!!!! He was doing those little 1 inch chomp sprints after I put them in. Still no interest in frozen blood worms or brine shrimp, but I have a batch of known good baby brine that should be ready by tomorrow morning at the latest! As long as he keeps eating the little things we might be OK!!!! If he eats the first batch of baby brine shrimp, ill do another batch and gut load them with spirulina.