[Aquarium Memes]

saw this funny on FB, fleshed it out a bit on Canva. 😉 

[What did you get done today?]

At some point on Th-Fr, we lost the fish book. You know, the one with all the past tank parameter tests & all the measurements for the water treatments...that fish book. 

Since we were changing water, I had to redo some of that math & decided to go ahead & start a new book. 

We eventually found the old one,  but I spent an hour or so this morning moving everything into the new one. 

I have an app. I don't like it.  I like pen & paper. And as it so happens,  or new fish book looks great with our first Aquarium Co-op sticker! Win- win! 

[What did you get done today?]

Ugh...I had this tank too! Definitely not for shrimp or babies. I covered all the openings with pieces of sponge,  but still had shrimp climbing UP & over the edge. It drove me nuts. LoL! I had a small round shrimp net that I'd ordered from Amazon. I turned on the flashlight app on my phone & sat it against the outside bottom of the back of the tank. That have me just enough ambient light that didn't glare so I could dip them out. Needless to say,  that tank is sitting empty outside on my porch. Too much work for me! 😆

[Red-Tail Botia question]

We're south of Davenport. No, never get north to Daytona. We're homebodies. 😆 

[How I Dealt with Livebearer Disease 3x This Year]

On 7/14/2020 at 4:18 PM, Irene said:

I was actually researching livebearer disease and came upon Greg's website. The measuring spoon makes it so easy to dose, so definitely check out the information on his page for more info: http://www.selectaquatics.com/Levamisole.htm.

I also made a video about my experiences with dosing levamisole and the exact recipe I used: 

 

This video rocked, Irene! Thanks so much for linking it here. Just purchased Levamisole and the measuring spoon!

[Hello Fish Friends!]

I wanted to do this with my 55-gallon & was successful to a point. My favorite addition were the big rocks you see in the attached pic.  My dad had collected them throughout his life (he passed in 2016), & they were spread throughout his yard.  I excavated them & proudly added them to my tank. You could see them better before my plants grew in. 

Your tanks look great! 

Alesha 

[Red-Tail Botia question]

Those are good ideas, Brandy, thank you!  I don't know of any fish clubs in my town or within an hour's drive. I think they have them closer to Orlando, but that's a little far for me to travel, due to health issues. And Craigslist is an possibility...I'll check it out. Thanks again!

[Red-Tail Botia question]

7 minutes ago, Nataku said:

Does the store offer a return or exchange policy? If so, it may be a good idea to take this one back.

OR. This is the incentive you needed to get another (much bigger!) tank. Come on, 75 gallons are a great size! 

Thanks for the great info! I really would love to see a group of them playing and enjoying life. 

I contacted the store about their "mistake" (truthfully, it was either an uninformed salesperson or a deceitful one), but they didn't bother to contact me back. So, no I can't return it and they have no exchange policy in place.

As much as I would love a bigger tank, our less-than-800-square-foot house will not hold another one!  

I think I'll have to ask around our LFS and see if someone will take her. I just wonder if her life will be any better there than it is here. Even our privately owned local store is less-than-desirable in it's fish department.

[Prepping for power outages in large tanks vs. smaller tanks]

I live in FL. 'Nuff said. 😁

I purchased 2 of these from Amazon. They have both plugs and a USB port (which can be used for an Aquarium Co-Op air pump!) They work really well with our many outages. Our electricity has at least brown-outs during every thunderstorm and during the summer, that's every afternoon. They click on immediately and then go off when the power comes back on. In fact, I hear them click before the lights dim sometimes. That's really impressive.

I also bought an older one before these 2. It had 2 USB outlets on it, but it's no longer available for a good price. But I've been really impressed with it too. They are handy little tools to have. 

I've not needed them during an extended outage before, so I can't speak to how long they run the air pumps. I will definitely unplug lights and heaters should that situation happen. 

Hope that helps. 🙂 

[Red-Tail Botia question]

We have a lone red-tail botia loach in a 20 long tank. I'll include a couple pics and a video so you can see her. We call her Peek-a-boo.

It was never our intention to own this fish. We were looking for pygmy chain loaches. While my husband was out of town one day, he popped into a pet store and asked if they had the pygmy chains. They said, "Yes, we have 2!" He thought that was great and brought them both home. He had no idea they weren't  pygmy chains. I'd done all the research and thought I'd explained exactly what we were looking for, but even in the best marriages, this kind of communication can be tricky. 😉

We popped them into our QT with our crooked-back guppies that we cull from the 55-gallon. They were both incredibly shy, scared and erratic. They hid behind the sponge filters, heater, anything they could find. We didn't see one of them for days. We still have no idea where it was, but eventually it came out of hiding. So...the next time one of them disappeared, we weren't concerned until several days passed and we still didn't see it. We searched the tank and then the floor behind the tank and found it. The only hole in our lid was where the airlines for the sponge filter came out and the plug for the heater. I guess it was just big enough and it jumped at just the right angle and that was the end of the story.😢

So now we have poor, lonely Peek-a-boo who almost never leaves her cave. If she ever does, like today, we immediately check the water parameters, do a water change and get her back on an even keel. Her only tank mates are ram's horn snails and one baby crooked-spined guppy.

Can you recommend whether to get more botia for her to school with or not? How many can safely go in a 20-long? Should we get a powerhead to add more current? I've read they prefer that. I hate that she is so lonely.

Alesha

[How to Use the Forum - Tutorials and Guides]

Thank you, Lizzie. I did all of that right,  except the very last step.  I tried adding it by using the "other media", then the "insert image from url". Now I know to just add it in the editor.

These posts are super helpful. Thank you for your time! 

Alesha

[How to Use the Forum - Tutorials and Guides]

Ah...I didn't know you could resize a pic! Good info to know. 

Thanks,  Lizzie! 😁

[Black marking on Ember Tetra]

I'm sorry for the loss, Pete. ☹️ Hopefully someone can give you an idea of what the problem was, so you'll know what to watch for. 

[A Forum "how to" Subject Group Would be Helpful]

20 minutes ago, Cory said:

In time there will be handy gifs and videos showing forum functions. 
 

As for a how to forum. Forum categories are created on a need because there are enough topics to support it, not the other way around. Get 30 to 50 meaningful how to threads going and there is a chance we make it a category. 

Thanks for the explanation, Cory! 🙂 

[A Forum "how to" Subject Group Would be Helpful]

7 minutes ago, Bill Smith said:

 

Nah, I think I've only posted 4-5 here so far.

I also have a few I haven't posted, because I have lame photos...but I'll see what I can dig up.

Can't stop the signal!

I do love your DIY posts, Bill! I look forward to seeing others, too. Wishing you a great photo shoot for them! 🙂 

[Enjoy Nature Daily]

This was one of those "uh-oh" things:  we tried to grow a pineapple, but it died. So, my hubby pitched it to the back corner of the yard. A year later...Ta-Da!!! Our cute little pineapple was growing. We enjoyed watching the progress of it, and the EATING of it a few weeks ago. You will never taste a sweeter pineapple than the ones that grow in your own back yard! 🙂 

[A Forum "how to" Subject Group Would be Helpful]

There are a few things that I'm not able to figure out yet, as I'm not familiar with forums.

• How to upload a video
• How to view the forum file uploads

And some things I finally figured out, but it took me a while 😉

• How to leave a "like", "laugh" etc
• How to quote someone's comment
• How to upload a file

Just thought something like this might be helpful and if it already exists, could it be pinned to the top of one of the subject groups?

Thanks,

Alesha

[Pond snail overpopulation]

I had an enormous pond snail population. I tried the cucumber and the traps, and also the Denerle snail catcher. Nothing worked for me. So, I got 3 assassin snails and 6 pygmy chain loaches and they are controlling it admirably. The assassins actually bred and I now have over a dozen of the cute little guys in my tank. Almost all the ram's horn snails are gone and there are very few pond snails left. I make sure to include food for them all when I feed the fish, since the snail population is dwindling. But honestly, I see lots of snail eggs on the glass surface and in the java moss, so I suspect there'll be plenty to go around. 😉 

[Hello from Central Florida]

It is a community tank. And it's guppies and endlers...so yeah, it's a breeding tank, too, by default. We started with 14 guppies last June. (Had no idea what endlers were, but one of the guppy mamas had several fry that were endlers. We love them!) We had well over 500 in this tank at one time. They have been dying off over the past several months. I've treated repeatedly for parasites - using maracyn, paracleanse and aquarium salt, - but nothing seems to work. I'm losing about a dozen a day. And yes, it's been almost impossible to keep the parameters right with that kind of bioload. We're hoping the loss will level off at some point.

We've given some away to friends, we've dropped off at our LFS and now this die off:  We have waaaaaay fewer than we had before. 

Here's a pic from January, before we started losing fish.

[Hello from Central Florida]

It's good to see a few other Floridians here! 😉 

My name is Alesha. My husband and I have a 55-gallon with guppies, shrimp, assassin snails and pygmy dwarf loaches. OH, and yeah, pond and ram's horn snails, too. (Thus the team of assassins and loaches.) We also have a 20-long tank for our little crooked-spine guppies, the majority of the ram' horn snails and one red-tail botia loach. (Long sad story there, but we call her "Peek-a-boo" because she rarely pops her head out of her Cave; and we think she's beautiful and do everything we can to make her feel happy and safe.)

We found Cory on IG while doing research to re-immerse ourselves in the fish world after years without an aquarium. We adopted a special needs kiddo who required LOTS of our energy for many years and we had none left over for pets. He's fairly stable now at age 20, although still non-verbal and non-mobile and requires 24-hour care, but we decided to try fish again and we all enjoy our tanks so much!

This is really my first forum. I hit social media around the time that blogging was hot, so I've done that, but forums are new to me. I'm looking forward to learning a lot and making new friends.

Alesha

[Hello from Central Fl]

Jana,

You took my subject line! 😉

Good to see Central Florida well represented!

Alesha

[Oh no! BBA!!! Say it isn't so!]

On 8/6/2020 at 1:07 PM, Irene said:

Last week I got a pipette full of liquid carbon and squirted it on some plant leaves while they were underwater. Didn't see much of a difference, so this week I'm going to spot treat a plant out of water and see if it makes any difference. Not sure how long to leave it out of water; will listen for any sizzling sounds. 😉

I've had this work too! After removing water for a water change, we doused the leaves with BBA with Easy Carbon when they were out of the water, waited a few minutes and then added water. The BBA turned pink and died. I've tried it while the plant is immersed and that's never worked for me.

[New crinum going yellow]

I purchased my crinum from Aquarium Co-op and it didn't die back at all. It did really well...for a while. Then it started turning yellow, then dying off, like yours. What I finally figured out was that it wasn't getting good light, due to an algae build up on my glass lids. Once I cleaned them, and trimmed back a few ruffle sword leaves that were blocking the light, it did really well again.  Hope that helps. 

P.S. In total honesty, right now, though, my crinum has died back in a really bad way, due to the aquarium salt I treated the tank with about a month ago (to treat some illness going on with my guppies). It just did NOT like the salt. So keep that in mind, too.