Alesha

February 10, 2021

10 hours ago, Wes L. said:

I have a great technique for Java Moss. I trim mine and then get a couple little river rocks and place a wad of the moss on top and then tie it down by looping either thread or fishing line all over it. At first you can clearly see the fishing line or thread, but the moss grows quickly and in about a month you can no longer see the thread. Here's a pic of some new moss I trimmed from one tank and tied it around the three river rocks, which are on the right side of the pic sitting on the driftwood. The second photo is how it grows out. It stays in pretty nice dense clumps once it grows out, and of course trimming the tops makes the moss clumps thicker. And since it's attached to a stone it stays put and you can easily move it around the aquarium if you choose.

Wow, @Wes L. - It looks really tidy that way! And the way it grows out is great! I love that you can move it around the tank. I'd done this in the beginning (well...I glued it down to the rock), but it eventually separated from it. I was afraid to re-do the glue INside the tank. Your way with thread/fishing line is a safer choice, I think. Thanks so much for sharing!

10 hours ago, Wes L. said:

I learned that my tank consumes phosphates and potassium in lightening speed, so I started dosing a phosphate and potassium supplement along with my all-in-one, and it will be 2 weeks tomorrow and 95% of that fuzzy algae is gone and all of my plants have noticeably perked up...and in just 2 weeks. I still can't believe what a difference the added nutrients have done to my tank.

Yeah, I'd suspected the potassium insufficiency after reading the blog where @Irene included the different pics of leaves and their needed nutrients.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies?_pos=1&_sid=0fd082582&_ss=r

I just haven't researched the supplements to see what to get. I do use Easy Green, but very sporadically. This tank lost its cycle when I had to treat with Levamisole and I've struggled with Nitrites since then. I didn't want to add the Easy Green during the time of re-establishing the cycle.

I think it's completed now. We just did our first water change since late November and it's only slightly clouded, so I think my various algae/bacterial blooms are almost over. I should be safe to start regularly dosing with Easy Green. If the leaves don't start growing in better in a few months, I'll look into other supplements. Thanks so much for the info. It just confirmed what I was thinking. I appreciate the input.

February 10, 2021

5 minutes ago, OceanTruth said:

Wow! I don’t have any clever tips, I’m just impressed that you can grow moss that well.

Ha! It's one of the few things I grow well. Get this - I can kill off HORNWORT! 😱 I know! Wow!

I can grow wisteria & moneywort. All my other plants are holey due to some nutrient deficiency. My sword is growing flowers, but all it's leaves look like lace... holes everywhere.

But yeah... my java moss is quite prolific. 😁😁😁

February 10, 2021

My java moss is always just a junky clump...full of baby shrimp, fish, snails & food.

I've tried compressing it into decor, but it doesn't grow well. I've tied it to decor & that works until it gets too big & makes the stick float.

I just don't like the floating messy glob! But it's vital for all the babies.

Do you have a clever way of keeping it tidy & anchored? I'd love some tips!

February 9, 2021

6 hours ago, Shadow_Arbor said:

@Alesha Done. Let me know if they're visible for you know!

Yes! Wow, what a process, too! Very impressive. I imagine it's very satisfying to know *exactly* what you're feeding.

And I realize I'm so spoiled to be able to purchase from Aquarium Co-op, knowing Cory's already done his homework so I'm getting only the best ingredients.

Thank you so much for sharing your process! 👍👍

February 8, 2021

43 minutes ago, James Black said:

Just a question,

How many sparkiling gouramis do you have in your 5 gallon, I am wondering because I have sometimes thought of getting a little 5 gallon for a sparkiling gourami.

I have 10 in there...most of the time. LoL! They are little champs at hiding in the leaves of the plants. Most of the time I can only count 8 or so. But on a good day, when they're hungry, I can see all 10. 🙂

February 8, 2021

35 minutes ago, Daniel said:

I have kept sparking gourami in community tanks including several 40 breeders recently. The even breed successfully in one of the tanks! They always had plenty of floating hornwort and water sprite to lurk in, in all the tanks.

Thanks, Daniel. As always, I really appreciate your input. If we make the move, I'll be sure to have floaters in there for them.

February 8, 2021

25 minutes ago, Maggie said:

Hi Alesha! I had trouble with cycling my 5 gallon minibow originally bought as a quarantine tank. It was so awful I shelled out bucks for a whole new 10 gallon setup! I put the minibow away for maybe a future shrimp tank or super-emergency hospital tank.

I have an identical one, to the sparkler's tank) that I've used as a q-tank, with no trouble and no spiking ammonia. Go figure!

It is comforting to know I'm not the only one with the same problem. 🙄

February 8, 2021

@Shadow_Arbor - aw, I'm bummed your pictures didn't show up! It sounds like a really ambitious thing to make fish food. I'm curious if you bought the ingredients separately and then combined them, or if you actually dried some of them yourself, before grinding to powder? I'm thinking your pics would've answered those questions.

Here's a helpful post for adding files:

February 8, 2021

On 1/12/2021 at 2:55 PM, H.K.Luterman said:

Guess who I drew.

AHHHHHmazing!!! I truly love your fish pics. They are excellent.

February 8, 2021

I'd leave it in the 29 gallon and then add the other 5 when they are done with quarantine.

I ordered 8 cherry barbs and only 1 of them survived the shipping; but I added him to my tank when his Q-time was done. The stress of moving them back and forth will be greater than their being the only one of their kind. Just think how happy it'll be when his buddies join him soon!!!

February 8, 2021

You might consider also some colorful endlers or a few inquisitive sparkling gourami. I really enjoy both of these in my tanks. 🙂

February 8, 2021

What I've found is that the seed shrimp in my tank wax and wane. There will be weeks that I see tons of them everywhere, but then I'll go for a month or so and see none. I think *maybe* my guppies eat some of them when they are smaller. So, if I feed sparingly at the right time, the guppies and endlers will snack on them. I guess my timing has been ok on that. I have shrimp too, but I've never seen them *on* the shrimp. I had NO idea they'd do that! I guess I've just been lucky in my ignorance.

I wish you the best of luck as you restart your tank!

February 8, 2021

Yeah, ditto to all the above! I am LOVING the towel! It's the perfect size and absorbency. They really did their research well on this product. 😍

I'd love to leave mine on the stand door too, but my dog loves them too much. She would have them stripped off the door and in her kennel in a heartbeat. 😁I have to make sure I carry the towel on my shoulder, so she can't reach it when I'm working on the tank!

February 8, 2021

Does anyone have Sparkling Gourami in their community tanks?

I'm considering moving mine from the 5-gallon Marineland Portrait tank to my 55-gallon. I just can't get the 5-gallon to cycle...or to stay cycled. I don't know. It may be the glass beads I used. It's got tons of plants, but I'm still spiking ammonia of 2.5+ just about every other week. It's very frustrating.

So, I'm thinking of adding them to the community tank. It has the following inhabitants:

3 Siamese Algae Eaters
2-3 Dwarf Chain Loaches (I can never see them all at once in order to count them!)
Assorted guppies
6 Honey gourami
13 Albino cherry barbs
Nerite, mystery, ramshorn and pond snails
Various neocaridina shrimp

How do you think 10 sparklers would do in this set up? They are still quite young, none are making bubble nests or courting yet. The 55-gallon is a very peaceful tank. The only chasing is male guppies chasing female guppies.

I'd love to hear if you have a similar set up and how it's worked out for you.

Thank you so much,

Alesha

February 8, 2021

Hey Fellow-Nerms! Just a little update!

Yes, I do indeed have a SECOND flower blooming on this crazy ruffle sword plant! All thanks to those ROOT TABS we added a couple weeks ago, I am sure!

Annnnnnnd...I *think* I may have figured out how the little blossoms work. Most of them were out of the tank, because the stalk is almost 4 feet long and it had to go somewhere. It is continuing to grow still. BUT there was one little set of blossoms that were growing UNDER the water. I didn't even know they were there until I removed some dying hornwort this morning. This is what I saw:

(Please excuse the less-than-pristine water. I'd just knocked over the huge piece of driftwood while adjusting the flower stem. I tried to re-seat it, but just stirred up all the mulm instead.)

So, I think I will get new baby ruffle sword plants from these blossoms. I just have to figure out when to separate them from the mother plant stem. The new leaves seem to be growing under the set of blossoms. I'd seen those t-r-y-i-n-g to grow on the stem that was sticking out of the tank, but they turned brown and brittle very quickly. So I guess they need to be under the water.

I pulled the entire stem back into the tank. Of course, it still floats close to the top, but we'll see if this will help it to grow properly.

I'll keep you updated!

Alesha

January 31, 2021

Oh. My. Word

Do you see what I see???

January 30, 2021

Thanks for the laughs this morning, @quirkylemon103 and @Daniel!

I'm pretty sure it's just a change they've made recently. Here's your "head" @quirkylemon103:

January 29, 2021

49 minutes ago, Fish Folk said:

Kind of liking the green tiger barbs! How are they in your community? Ever had them spawn?

The barbs are in the tank with 12 male guppies & 1 red-tail botia loach.

They were very young when we got them & they have grown quite a bit in our tanks. They haven't spawned, that I've noticed. I think they are probably just now maturing enough for that. But I haven't done the research on that, so I don't know for sure.

They are very zippy fish. Always moving quickly around the tank. They chase each other, but not the guppies so far. We've had 2 guppies lose their tail, but there were no wounds. And the trails grew right back. I think they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time & got bit.

They are a gorgeous fish, but I wouldn't put them with peaceful, slow- moving fish.

January 29, 2021

Nope...not a plate of salad greens!

The wisteria had gone a little crazy in the 20 gallon Long, and I had no idea until I got in there trying to tease the "branches" apart to trim them! There were more "trunks" than branches and I really had quite a bit to cut out of there.

My favorite thing is that as soon as I'd thinned and trimmed them, the green tiger barbs started darting in and out of them. I love it that they do that...it's so fun to watch!

We added a new ACO plant - a dwarf sagitaria there in the background. I've never grown this plant before, so I'm eager to work with it.

And then I did maintenance on the Marimo moss balls. It was hard work, I tell you!😆 Yeah, I gave 'em a squeeze and plopped them back in there. They'll float for a bit and eventually settle down somewhere.

Interestingly, they've been dropping little tufts of green lately. I took one little piece of fluff out and tried to roll it in my palm, but it wouldn't quite ball up. Instead it came out a little tear-shaped.

I'm hoping I'll be able to eventually get it to go into a ball shape and "grow" more moss balls that way. @Irene mentioned in one of her videos that they were super-slow growers, so I'm hoping I'll have the patience to see it through.

The other little green tuft you see there was full of snail eggs, so I just left it as it was. Couldn't bring myself to smoosh it between my hands.😜

January 29, 2021

So, here's a few update pics of the sword flowers.

And here's a close up of those buds:

And here's how tall the flower is UP out of the water. From the base of the plant, it's about 3 feet in total. It's just amazing!!!

I'm still clueless about what these little buds are going to do, besides blossoming. If anybody else has an idea, let me know! 😉

Posted January 25, 2021 · January 25, 2021

It arrived today!!! Can you believe it???

I was very excited! Wanna see what I got? I am just nerming away down here in Florida!

I knew this was the GOOD stuff:

So classy with their own packing tape:

Allowing the anticipation to build:

And there it is!!! All the nermy-nerm goodness!!!

And I'm not even going to lie. These two items were my absolute favorites!

Thank you, @Lizzie Block, @Cory and all the rest of the crew, truly from my heart, this was such a sweet surprise and blessing to me. 😍

I'll do my best to keep contributing well in the days ahead.
Alesha

January 25, 2021

Female guppies are incredible, in my opinion. I'm pretty sure some of them are pregnant all the time. I have some Mamas whose bellies will go down a bit when they give birth to a few fry, but they never completely "deflate". And I'm also fairy confident that some of them take days to drop all their fry. So your mama may still give birth to more over the next few days. When they are super stressed, they seem to hold the babies longer. I really think they just do what they want...lol! They decide when conditions are right to let those little fry go out into the big, vast tank.

Best of luck with yours! The process is utterly fascinating. 😍

January 25, 2021

Yessssss. I do that too! I have found that after the number of fish goes over 12 or 13, I don't count as often. So...that's something. And I had to stop counting guppies within a month or so...there were just too many to keep track of. And I am no longer able to say I love all fish equally. I count my "favorites" several times a day. My bias definitely shows up in my counting!😆

January 25, 2021

I think some of the lack of tags is the fault of the app. I've never been able to add them there. I've included screenshots here, so you can see what happens when I try to add tags to a new post:

This is what I see when I click "create a new topic":

Then I clicked the pencil:

I enter my new tag:

I clicked the "add" button"

You can see it kicks me all the way out of the forum:

So the ability to add tags on the app has a glitch.

Also, I realized that I can't "create new topic" on this thread labeled "Forum Announcements". The option is there for every other thread, though:

Now, I'm wondering if that's been locked on purpose? Anyway...just thought I'd mention it.

So...the app has some issues. I know that is to be expected. But it may be the answer to some things that are not working well on the forum. I hope this information helps. 🙂

Alesha

January 25, 2021

2 hours ago, Ruud said:

Been a while since I have been posting here, too much stuff going on at the moment. The tank still runs like a champ, super stable, bit of green algae (prob feeding a bit too much), plants are thriving and I even have a baby Swordfish!

Will post a pic one of these days!

So good to hear from you, Ruud! Glad to hear the tank is doing well. And yay for baby fish!!! Congrats!

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