CJs Aquatics

This is good advice. I’ve done something similar in other tanks and it admittedly might have to be adjusted slightly because of the way this guy eats but I appreciate that bc honestly I didn’t think to try something like that with him, might make things a bit cleaner.

No problem at all, I hope things work out

If your parameters are correct perhaps they are eating and your just missing it. Some things that have worked for my picky eaters in the past have been: -blanched vegetables (for the pleco) - when they aren’t eating pellets sometimes I’ve switched to flakes or sometimes using a pepper grinder to crush the pellets to an even smaller size almost dust has stimulated a response live baby brine is a miracle or any of the cultures really, sometimes that stimulates a feeding response time- I listed this because it takes some fish a while to get used to there new set ups some of the gel foods you make like repashy are a good baseline staple to have. finally I’ll say patience. You can continue to introduce foods you want them to eat daily and remove them before they spoil if they aren’t eaten. Eventually 95% of the time the fish will start to recognize it as food and will eat it, sometimes it takes days sometimes 2 weeks or more, but when they are hungry they will eat what’s available. you can also call the pet store or place you got them from and ask specifically what they were feeding them and start them on something they are used to as well, I typically don’t but it might be worth mentioning. idk if you ran them through quarantine or not but if you don’t notice after trying some of the suggestions above a change in eating behavior that would be what I would recommend as perhaps they have some sort of illness preventing them from wanting to eat. Hopefully this helps, this is what has worked for me in the past.

It’s odd that nothing is eating, my first question would be how long has it been going on?

I’ve never done it, but I don’t see why you couldn’t set up some sort of a symbiotic relationship between the 2. If the tank parameters required are the same, they can share the same tank, you may lose some to the crayfish but I think overall technically it should be able to be done, would be no different then people who are able to breed shrimp with fish who eat shrimp. They may actually help balance the tank by eating his leftover food, helping outcompete snails reducing there population etc. i would say if your LFS has a shrimp that does well in your water, it’s worth a shot…

Pretty hard water here in Ohio lol. Considered repurposing them when I figure out how to remove them for other applications but currently they are super unsightly in the tank I’m most proud of

Anyone who keeps puffers or other snail eaters have a clever way to remove unsightly leftover shells from your tank without disturbing substrate?

Your on the right track. Best advice I have for most things, at least that works for me, set it and forget it. Obviously you do maintenance including ferts and tabs and algae removal, assess water quality issues and lighting, but all in all I’ve had the best success when I set the plants up for success and just allow them to do there thing. You will probably find that some plants grow like crazy for you, and some you have trouble with. Example, everyone can grow guppy grass so it was one of the first plants I tried many years ago… it all died immediately, but hornwort grows daily in my water… things like that. Once you find what grows well for you in your water, and dial in the nutrients and lighting, I would guess your going to love live plants… make sure your rhizome doesn’t get buried, Not sure why it’s mushy, best guess, eighter it’s about to die or it’s transitioning, I typically glue rhizome plants or weigh them rather then tying them personally but which ever way ends up working for you. Plants are trial and error but in my opinion worth it…

depending on the floating plant, it will do better without the glass plate on top. I’ve found that once your aquarium is well established things are less likely to jump. Perhaps there is no harm in attempting to grow the floating plants with the plates, however if it were me, I would get them started, then remove the plates bc floating plants also encourage things to stay put. They can also indicate water quality issues for you as well as in my opinion look more natural.

I feel like what everyone has said on here is right on the money, I was going to say water changes can trigger breeding but aren’t necessarily required

Repashy Community Plus I believe it’s called would be my vote…

what kind of fish are we talking about if I may ask?

Do you happen to know the biggest factor contributing to your algae issue? For example is it light related? Nutrient related? Both?

I have not but what a beautiful plant, your making me consider it for sure it’s amazing…

Interested in the answer to this as well I have one in my cart I haven’t committed to yet but I’m considering it

It sounds like you love this fish and he is well taken care of. That being said, you seem to be aware he eventually needs more space to grow and swim. You also seem to be aware of his needs and have a good plan of action for him. I think one of the biggest reasons people come up with the rules about tank size is less often about the amount of space or quality of water or requirements fish need to lead happy lives and more often then not to dissuade people who don’t have the fishes best interest at heart from taking them home or not properly taking care of them. Can he survive, yes, is he happy is the question? in this situation I think your doing everything in your power to meet that fishes needs, I see no reason to give it up as long as you stick to your plan, and continue to love and enjoy it and the hobby.

😂 story of my life, lol

@nabokovfan87 I’m glad it’s not just me lol my water change bucket is often times more storage when not in use, I’m trying to simplify things as we speak…

These are so amazing!!! They looked a lot like some red dragon strains I’ve seen

Tupperware works. The best success I ever had personally was when I left them where they were. The tank I was using has a lid on it and a heater in it. This allowed humidity and they hatched naturally. Can be simulated with syran wrap with holes for aeration or different things etc. with regards to Tupperware I use dry paper towels under wet ones and a lid with a hole in it. I haven’t changed the paper towels or had to, I remove the lid once a day to add fresh air. Then float it in a tank, or even outside of a tank it’s worked for me. They aren’t terribly hard to hatch. I’ve been playing around with some alternative ways recently. I’ll post if any of them work. I feel like by now they should sell mystery snail hatching kits lol

i think it would be in the best interest of the fish to proactively quarantine and med trio any fish not just wild caught. This is a highly debated topic, so this is just my personal opinion without getting to in depth. Fish diseases are a complex science and based on what I know about them, have experienced, seen and heard about first and second hand, I feel it’s a good practice to quarantine, medicate and acclimate everything that joins your fish room. It’s not ideal and some will argue things like don’t sell sick fish, why medicate something that shows no symptoms, creating medicine resistant strains of illnesses etc. but personally, I just treat them, insure they are healthy and won’t negatively effect things I already have, give them in my opinion there best chance at health and happiness and I don’t think twice about it. Just got done treating a wild caught fish earlier this week I just got, he looked healthy, but I will say and I’m only using this example because it’s very recent, a few days into medicine his personality changed even more so for the better and his appetite seems healthier as well as his visual appearance. Long story short I don’t think eighter choice is wrong, this is just my thoughts, hope this helps…

there’s gonna be a lucky fish keeper out there somewhere in my area bc I think I’m gonna donate to there clutter lol

In my years of fishkeeping I never thought to have a box for each tank, or label them. Thats a great idea. That way if it doesn’t fit in the box (with some exceptions of course) it’s probably adding to the extra clutter. I really appreciate that input. I feel like it’s such a simple solution but for someone like me that’s genius lol I think I’m going to be stealing some elements of what you described to put into practice and if nothing else you may have given my day today some direction. Thanks again @FLFishChik

I can try to take one, it’s literally just a small room in the house with fish in it, 11 tanks 3 of them small, and 3 small “ponds”, the issue is the accumulation of foods, chemicals, filters, heaters, airline tubing, nets, diy things, etc. basically the equipment side of things is cluttering everything up, I have a closet full of things, I have 10-12 storage containers of things, just equipment everywhere lol I need to downsize it. My first thought was to categorize everything then keep an extra and eliminate everything else, idk, I love organization it seems it’s just gotten thrown out in here

Perhaps if you have an empty container of some sort lying around you could run a test in that? I would fill it with tap water measuring volume, test the tap water, then add some of the elements from the original tank as well as the coral, and test it daily until you see where your parameters lie when they stop fluctuating. It might give you a bit of an indication of what the coral is actually doing to adjust your water without having to adjust and readjust in your main tank as well as how long it takes to get where you desire it. It won’t be 100% accurate because there are other factors involved however it might give you some numbers to go by as well as an idea of how much you need to do what you want to do without shelling out a bunch of extra money. I suppose the cons would be it’s not a “today” solution. Aside from that if I understood your question correctly, I feel the best way to measure what kind of kh you get from adding the aragonite would be to try it at a much smaller volume then your 75 gallon then adjust amounts to suit your specific needs.