Sweetpickles

@lefty oafter this pile up, there will be nothing left! Its a fight to the finish! After I dont know what happened to the 2nd one. Shrimp are fighting over bits fallen apart and the panda garra is trying to dig his way to the wafer. Way more entertaining than t.v.!

How many algea wafers do you drop? I generally drop 2 large ones for this 20. 1 Panda garra and 1 cory are the only fish bottom feeders. Everyone wants the same wafer!

Well.....the bol ram fry numbers have significantly dwindled! I knew that of course. I decided to rescue 12. Been feeding baby brine frozen. I may try the boiled egg yolk. Hopefully they will be ok without their parents hovering. They will have to get used to my big head!

@Streetwisewhat do you think it hitch hiked in on? I have had snails hitch in on plants but not sponge, that I know of. Maybe driftwood or rocks? I pick those up on the beach but have boiled wood and scrubbed rocks with hot water and vinegar. I am glad to have it in my tank.

@GuppysnailI feel so horrible now that I have looked it up!! I have been pinching off a living being good for my tank and tossing it😭 I still have one down at the bottom attached to a piece of driftwood. Thanks for the info!

It's pretty hard and crusty. I do have some foamy crusty stuff that grows on my hornwort in this tank. I usually pinch it off and toss it. I will have to look that up. Thanks! I am going to check the freshwater sponge out. All my snails eggs have been like gel and easy to remove. This is some kind of hard crust. Thanks

This strange cluster showed up today in my 20 gal. Any idea what it is Is? I have several cherry shrimp, one panda garra, one panda cory, 6 wcm, several rams horn and bladder snails. One Amano shrimp and 2 nerite snails. The temp is about 72. Kh40, ph6.8,gh75, nitrite20ppm. I think there i see a larger one on the back of the tank too. No nitrite or ammonia

@Colu yes!! Me too! I have 5! They love all the plants!

@Basement Fishroom Bargains thanks! they have been loving all the new life in this tank! Platy, mystery snails and now these!! Not much excites a teen but they think this is pretty neat

Thank you! It's pretty exciting for a newbie!!

We went from wrigglers to swimmers overnight!!

Me neither til now! At least this one does anyway!! I am so happy about this discovery!

If you are wondering how to get rid of those pesky eggs the nerite snails lay, I caught my Amano shrimp going to town just now on an egg! I remember seeing a bunch in my 20 gal then one day they were gone. I put both in the 36 gal. Eggs everywhere now!! But now I know how the eggs disappeared! Can't really see what he is doing in the pic, but he or she is rolling the egg around, I am guessing eating....

Yeah I would be a bit uneasy trying to adjust parameters that way. Do you keep other fish that require same parameters as bolivian rams? I would continue to do more research and experiment. That's just me, not expert advise by any means.

I am not an expert on water parameters but if you dont already have drift wood and or botanical you may try and add that to make your water closer to what you need for rams. I am not sure how to convert kh to dkh. I actually have elements in my tank that work against one another like the petoskey stone and drift wood. Drift wood lowers ph and stone would cause it to be harder water. Like I said I am not an expert. I just know that what I have in my tank seems to be working. I hope you can have the joy of keeping rams someday. They are very amusing! Definitely need a nice group to get the full appreciation of their behavior!

@BenA my ph in this tank 7.2, kh180 gh150. This is a 36 gal. With birch drift wood and one or 2 fossilized coral aka petoskey stones. I have a 20 gal with a ph of 6.8 with unknown drift wood and petoskey stones. Both are planted tanks. I have no idea why they are diff but our water is hard here in michigan so using nature you can easily change parameters.

I decided a few days ago to put a few flat rocks in the areas I knew the rams have been lingering. I was checking the tank out a bit ago and found EGGS!!!! These are from the original pair. There is definitely new life in this tank and I am so happy about it!! We have lots of baby mystery snails growing out, one batch of platy babies about 3 or 4 weeks old. A second group about a week old and maybe even a 3rd! I have added a super red bristle nose pleco, honey gourami and a molly. I honestly didn't think the platy fry would survive in this community! Going to have to find homes for these fellas or get another tank! 😁 Decided to post this in the journal just to keep all together for this tank.

I have seen panda garra in the plant tank at our lfs. Not sure if that's helpful. They are one of my favs. I have 3 in 2 different planted tanks. They like to rest in the plants but don't seem to harm them.

After I posted this, I decided to put some flat rocks in the tank. I was just checking out all corners to see how everyone is getting along and their hiding places. Well.....this has happened!! EGGS!!!! This is the original pair. Older of the group. I just noticed how black the males marking are! Wowza!! This is completely exciting!! It will be interesting to see how things developed.

This is an amazingly entertaining group of fish! 5 bolivian rams. 2 mature bonded pair. 3 juvies not yet bonded of those I am certain 1 is male. I was almost certain 2 were but now having second thoughts. If so 3 males, 2 females bad idea? Aquire 1 more female to even it out? No one is stressed. They are all so vibrant and full of color. Quite a bit of sparring. I am aware this is normal but when does it cross the line? Many times one getting sparred will lower its head and therefore recieves a "kiss" on the forehead. I want to be sure I have happy fish. FYI....I have a bristlenose in qt for all that green stuff and baby platies! 😉

Thank you @Levi_Aquatics

@Gannonthanks. Being a house plant lover and I enjoy propagating plants and gardening makes it hard to throw out a root!

I divided some anubias and trimmed roots . Any point in saving the roots? Will anything come of them? I have them floating in the tank presently....

@ColuI appreciate the advice the last 2 days! Snowstorms give me time to seek help! 😂🥶 this is a great source! Always learning! Thanks again!

So maybe just try and mix some in a dish of tank water then pour that in? Last time I used it I fed with it. Worked for clamped fins on wcm.