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Irene

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Posts posted by Irene

    TheSwissAquarist Journal 2.0

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted

    On 7/24/2023 at 11:40 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

    @Irene had made a video about how to cool down tanks, talking about the water bottles and how they didn't really work, and she mentioned chillers and fans and the car sun shade thing.  I can't find the video but I found this one which mentions some of those things.

    Here's my cooling video, as requested!

     

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    Ammonia high - Ideas why

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 7/18/2023 at 12:21 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

    Great point.  Your tapwater may have ammonia or chloramines which may also present as ammonia. (Cc @Irene I know fritz has a blog article on the subject, is there any way we could have a "co-op blog" article on this topic to help new hobbyists understand the use of double dosing chlorine and how the chloramine turns into ammonia ions in the aquarium after those bonds are broken?)

    Yup, we do have a blog article on water conditioners, which briefly mentions the following:

    Does dechlorinator remove ammonia? Some of them do, as stated on their packaging. The main reason for this is because when dechlorinators are used to treat chloramine, they only react to the chlorine part of chloramine and not the ammonia part. The remaining ammonia ions left in the water are toxic to fish, so some dechlorinators — such as Fritz Complete Water Conditioner, Seachem Prime, and Kordon AmQuel — contain extra chemicals that temporarily lock up the ammonia into an inert state (i.e., ammonium) for up to 24 hours. During this time, the ammonium can be consumed and further broken down by beneficial bacteria in your aquarium and filter.

    Further down in the article, it talks about dosing multiple times and the possible side effects.

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    I switched from Co-op brine shrimp eggs to XXX and the results haven't been great for me. Advice would be great.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 2/20/2023 at 4:55 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

    I add the tiniest little dash to my Hatcher per I think it was @Irene as we are in the same area and it works great. Good tip!

    I ended up switching to just using 1 tablespoon of marine salt per 1 liter of water, and that's gotten the most consistent results for me. No more having to measure out separate NaCl salt and baking soda!

    • Like 1

    Shrimp Safe Fish

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Yup, I had no problems with the green neon tetras at high pH, and I think they'd look amazing with the orange shrimp. You can always talk to your local fish store and see what pH they are currently living and if they've had any troubles keeping them alive. Had no idea that snails could survive the alum treatment! I wonder if it crawled above the water line?

    On 2/3/2023 at 2:50 AM, Lennie said:

    I've seen this one 😞 I always search for her videos when I'm looking for a species spotlight!

    But @Irene mentions she keeps them at 8.0.

    I'm considering lamp eyes too as Rachel O'Leary says they aren't jumpy like other killis and she usually keeps no lid tanks too

    I have never seen them irl. I don't think we have them here, althought normal sized schooling fish are available commonly.

     

    Also not relative to this topic, but I've seen a survivor for alum dip it seems. @Irene, They've survived the 4 hour method on my case obviously, lucky meee 😄

    Well,,,, is this a normal baby ramshorn? or a mini one? I will keep them in a snail tank if it is a mini I guess. If it is a normal ramshorn, I may let them stay in the main tank. Would love to hear opinions as Ramshorns are the ones I've never kept before.

     

     

     

    • Thanks 1

    Corydora Difficulty

    in Diseases

    Posted

    When I got sudden deaths from my newly purchased pygmy corys, I talked to the local fish store I purchased them from and asked them (1) how long they've had the corys, (2) what are the store's water parameters, and (3) what was the store feeding the corys. Turns out the store and I had very different pH levels and that was the cause of death.

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    Reverse Respiration

    in Community Resources

    Posted

    On 6/15/2022 at 2:26 PM, Guppysnail said:

    I want to give a special thank you to @Irenefor her diligent work and videos on the best methods for snail removal. She put a lot of time and work into them.  This gave us the opportunity to follow her detailed instructions on the most common methods of pest removal so we could compare the differences in damage on a cellular level. Thank you for all you do Irene your videos are all wonderful and fun I enjoy watching them.

    Wow, congratulations and huge thanks to the whole team for all your hard work and documentation! I'm so excited to try this out since I have definitely found that some weaker/more fragile plants do not like the alum treatment I use. 

    I also discovered that Malaysian trumpet snails were able to survive for several days in normally lethal levels of alum solution, and I assumed it was because their trapdoors were so tightly shut. Guess I'll have to make a Petco run to get  some different types of pest snails!

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    Betta Fin Rot Not Healing

    in Diseases

    Posted

    On 5/11/2022 at 12:54 AM, Torrey said:

    Cory, thank you and Irene so much for the reminder to double check the basics.

    Just because a hammer fixed a similar presentation the last 5 times, doesn't mean a hammer is the right tool this time. 

    Sometimes, a grounding probe to test for stray current is what is needed. 

    I've actually never personally experienced stray current, so you can thank @Cory's live streams for that one. They're a gold mine for random information that you never know when you'll need. 🙂

    • Like 1
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    Betta Fin Rot Not Healing

    in Diseases

    Posted

    @RachelM Random thought, but does the water give you a little "shock" when you touch it? My friend went through a similar experience of not being able to stop fin rot despite good temperature, good water quality, slow water flow, antibiotics, and then salt treatment. Turns out the heater was shocking the fish.

    • Like 1

    Just an amateur scientist

    in Off Topic General

    Posted

    I sometimes look up research papers on places like ResearchGate to confirm statements I write for our blog, so I figured I'd try to sign up for a free account. Unfortunately, I didn't get approved since I am not a professional scientist with published papers, but I thought you might get a kick out of the description I filled out when listing the "research" I've done (mostly for my YouTube channel):

    1) Effects of alum, copper, sodium chloride, and other substances as invertebrate pesticides for aquatic plants
    2) Methodologies for establishing nitrifying bacteria colonies in sterile environments
    3) Effectiveness of treatments against cyanobacteria without harming aquatic ecosystems
    4) Methodologies for growth reduction of Audouinella algae 

    Honestly, I feel like all fishkeepers are mini scientists. 🤓

    • Like 4
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    ACO dream

    in Off Topic General

    Posted

    On 2/7/2022 at 12:58 PM, Zenzo said:

    LOL! I would have let it fall. A 40 breeder is pretty inexpensive vs back pain! 

    It's a dream world, so you've got the super human power of being impervious to back pain. 🦸‍♂️

    • Haha 3

    Pygmy Corydoras Breeding Journal

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted

    On 1/27/2022 at 12:50 PM, Isaac M said:

    @Irene That is a lucky find! My school of pygmy corydoras recently spawned for me and I agree with you about the bloodworms being too big. I usually will feed mine frozen tubifex worms though which they can easily eat. Also, I was able to fatten mine up with Xtreme sinking wafers. It worked really well as they are very stable in water which allowed the pygmy corys to graze on them all day every day. 

    I do minimal tank maintenance as well but I have pH on the higher side (between 7-8.2 usually) and harder water. I also do not have a heater on my aquarium so my pygmys spawned in 68-70 degree water. 

    I'll definitely have to try frozen tubifex worms; I didn't know they were small enough! Yes, I find that my heater seems to rarely turn on in that tank, and the temperature tends to be around 73-74°F.

    • Like 2

    Pygmy Corydoras Breeding Journal

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted

    July 24, 2021

    Oops, correction – I added 9 corydoras originally, not 12. Today I went to a not-so-local fish store to browse for plants, and a lady brought in 4 pygmy corys that she had been keeping in a 5-gallon tank. She found them to be too shy and didn't feel comfortable getting more for her nano tank, so she brought them back to the fish store. I promptly bought them for my 10-gallon breeding tank. What a lucky find!

    Because of their tiny mouths, I find that even frozen mini bloodworms are too big for them. Their favorite foods so far seem to be baby brine shrimp, frozen daphnia, frozen cyclops, Repashy gel food, and nano pellets. I've also tried Easy Fry and Small Fish Food, but sometimes I worry that the little particles get stuck in the floating plants and the corys don't find them.

    image.png.486f731ee42ed62f2aac177cbd213428.png

    August 15, 2021

    I tried doing a giant water change to simulate the rainy season, since I heard that sometimes stimulates corydoras to breed. The pygmy corys seem to be out and about a little more than before, but I don't think it really did anything. Because of all the plants, this tank really doesn't need a lot of water changes; nitrates are around 0-10 ppm so I have to add Easy Green occasionally to keep the plants alive. I've been thinking of minimizing tank maintenance to let the water slowly acidify (since my pH is on the high side) and to encourage mulm/microfauna growth for future fry to eat.

    image.png.bc44ea6a028aa6badfc6da53a68370cd.png

    • Like 3

    Need Help - Eroding Betta Fins

    in Diseases

    Posted

    On 1/8/2022 at 10:47 AM, Levi_Aquatics said:

    I would probably up the salt dose a bit and maybe put in a couple Indian almond leaves. 

    I agree with Levi. Here is our salt article and you can see that Level 1 concentration of salt is the equivalent of a mild antibiotic ointment. When my fish's fins grew back, they were usually discolored and then would turn back to normal colors eventually.

    https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

    • Like 1

    Pygmy Corydoras Breeding Journal

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted · Edited by Irene

    I'm usually a lurker on the forums and rarely talk about my own tanks here, but I decided to document my progress with breeding pygmy corys because they're just so stinkin' cute! I got them seven months ago, so please excuse me as I backfill the earlier entries...

    July 1, 2021

    I purchased a group of captive-bred pygmy corys from Aquatic Life Farm, and they shipped to me in June. After a few weeks in quarantine, 9 of them got added to a 10-gallon, species-only breeding tank in my kitchen that has been running since late 2020. I have 8.0 pH and relatively soft water (which is boosted with Seachem Equilibrium minerals to keep the plants alive). The plants are floating water sprite, dwarf water lettuce, needle leaf java fern, anubias nana petite, and dwarf sagittaria. Hardscape includes sagewood and pink granite. Substrate is CaribSea Eco-Complete, light is a Finnex Stingray that is on for 6 hours, filtration is a sponge filter, heater is set for 74-78°F, and fertilizers are Easy Green and Easy Root Tabs. This is a screenshot of me pouring in the pygmys, so some of the floating plants got disturbed.

    image.png.3fa2c576590504645566d65eb01eefe0.png

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