drewzero1
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Posts posted by drewzero1
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@Odd DuckThanks! That gives me a few ideas to start looking into. MTS and Japanese trapdoor snails are banned in my state, so I'll have to check whether chopstick snails are also included in the ban. (Trapdoors were my first choice but after a few months of not finding them anywhere somebody finally told me 😁)
I really like the spikes on the Prambanians! You've given me a lot to think about.
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On 1/18/2022 at 2:02 PM, Flynn Naysmith said:
I love the use of tea and coffee cups in your aquarium they are great caves and would highly recommend them to any one that has bottom dwellers or really any fish.
Thanks! When I got back into fishkeeping I had no budget for decorations, but had a few broken mugs and teacups. For a while I had it set up like somebody dropped their picnic basket out of a rowboat... a few teacups, a broken plate arranged on the substrate, even a toothbrush holder with bubbles coming out of the top. I got rid of any sharp pieces when I got bottom feeders and now it's just a way to sneak some blue willow into an otherwise natural scene.
I've often spotted a cory or two hanging out in a cup. The current seems to bring a bit of food into there for them. My rosy red minnows also seemed to like coffee mugs for caves.
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Sad news in the tank this week. My Hercules snail (Brotia herculea) appears to have passed on. I found him stuck between the heater and glass a few days ago and he hasn't moved since I got him out. I had been looking for a mate to try breeding them, but haven't been able to find another one. Poor Herc will be missed.
I'd still like to breed (slowly) livebearing snails but might have to settle for Rabbit/Tylomelania snails which I can sometimes find semi-locally. (Or maybe I'll pivot and consider loaches and other non-snail-safe fish now that I only have bladder snails in this tank.) Suggestions welcome for your favorite snails, or favorite fish that eat snails!
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I had pygmys with endlers and honey gouramis in my 20 long for a few months. They seemed like a good size match and didn't mess with each other. (My dad now has the honeys and cories in a more heavily planted tank, and reports seeing a catfish occasionally.)
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Not sure if it helps, but here's my experience with different species of corys. I also have two species and their behavior has been night and day between the two. I started with a small school of bronze cories, who all became extremely skittish when I moved them to a new tank. They dash for cover when they see me coming (never did that before). I think I might have traumatized them by catching and moving them.
As I've lost bronze cories over time I've been adding in paleatus corys to try to keep a school, though I don't think it's working; the two species don't seem to interact or stick together. The paleatus have been as playful and outgoing as the bronze cories used to be before the move. My eventual plan is to end up with just one school of about 6, just paleatus cories.
A 10 gallon is pretty small for any non-pygmy cories. I'd suggest overwintering just the ones you have in there (if they'll fit all right) and waiting until spring to add any more. I haven't noticed much difference in behavior between a group of 4 vs. a group of 3. I think the group size is big enough for the short term and I wouldn't want to increase that number at all for a 10g. Just be careful not to scare them too much when moving them... I'm not sure exactly what I did, but it probably didn't help that I had a really hard time catching them.
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On 1/14/2022 at 7:24 AM, JettsPapa said:
I'm also a little surprised they aren't more popular, but that may be a good thing. I'd hate to see them get to the same place as dwarf gouramis have reached.
I suspect adding more pearls will decrease interaction with other species instead of increase it. I have serpae tetras, pristella tetras, and Corydoras trillineatus with mine, and the gouramis ignore all of them.
That's my thought process as well, though I was worried it might just be wishful thinking. I've also read that gouramis in general can just tend to pick on livebearers.
I was thinking about adding more mollies but I'm waiting to see if my endler's livebearers ever breed. I've had them since September and no signs of fry, and I'm starting to wonder if they're sterile or if I'm just doing something really wrong! Everything I've read about them says I should have dozens by now. Last month I moved the honey gouramis out of their tank so now it's just an endler trio. I figure I'll give them a month on their own before I give up and put them in the 40.
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On 1/13/2022 at 1:04 PM, JettsPapa said:
I'm also a big fan of pearl gouramis. I have 14 in a 40 gallon breeder.
I know! I read and thoroughly enjoyed your tank thread! For such a beautiful fish that's been in the hobby so long, I'm surprised they're as underappreciated as they seem to be. For my part, I ignored gouramis because I thought they would terrorize everything else in the tank. Then I took care of my dad's honey gouramis and fell in love with their distinctive look and behavior.
I was at the LFS today to help my dad pick out some plants and snails and noticed they have at least one male pearl gourami. I'm sorely tempted but at the same time hesitant to introduce more potential aggression. The female I have often chases the molly around the tank and I worry adding more gouramis will increase that behavior.
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I planted some Hygrophilia difformis in mid-December and it's starting to, uh, difform!
Before:
After 1 month:
So exciting to see it growing and changing!
The aponogeton has been flowering as well. It sent up two loooong shoots but they both got broken off around new year's, but there's a new flower up and blooming. It's hiding behind the filter pipes so I can't get a good picture. For once though, the Amano shrimp has come out from hiding behind the filter pipes, so I *can* get a good picture!
A few more pictures:
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Water change hose, 5 gallon buckets (water out) and 1 gallon jugs (water in), towel. Plastic razorblade for scraping glass if the nerites were sleeping on the job. Long handled spoon for rearranging sand (I used a mcflurry spoon on my 20L but need to make the handle longer for my 40B.)
A comfy chair to sit and watch at feeding time.
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On 12/30/2021 at 4:09 PM, TheBlueBeetle said:
As a kid, I would catch them fishing and always kept a tank of four or five.
I used to catch and eat them (mostly bluegill and pumpkinseed) as a kid. I always wanted to keep some where I could watch them, but they were too big for our little tanks or rain barrels.
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It's not ideal, but I have on occasion kept fish temporarily in a 5 gallon bucket with heater and cycled sponge filter. I only needed it for a couple of days, not sure how well it would work for two weeks. I'm also not very familiar with bettas.
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Some aquarist clubs have breeding programs with titles/ranks. I think I remember hearing that that was why they always call him that. (I'm sure it also looks great in a video title!)
As I understand it, different clubs have different requirements like numbers of species, categories of species, duration of proof, needing to raise a second generation to maturity or not. ISTR somebody joking that Dean wouldn't be considered a master breeder by their club's stricter requirements, though I may remember wrong.
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Great shot of the heat! I love catching my tank in the sunlight. It's a whole different look from when the light is on.
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Wow, that's a hot tub! 😳 I was worried about mine last week, since the thermometer was reading off the top of the scale. It felt pretty warm but it's hard to tell when the room is 60F. Turns out my thermometer was broken, so my fish got a new one of those for Christmas.
Good catch! Glad they're all right!
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On 11/29/2021 at 10:37 AM, drewzero1 said:
😆
I suspect one of the fake plants had something nasty on it that probably killed my poor cory, the tank had smelled odd after I put it in so I pulled it out right away and did a 25% water change. No other casualties so far 🤞.😡On 12/25/2021 at 3:43 AM, drewzero1 said:(the glass tube thermometer that came with it suddenly started reading 120+°F)
It took me almost a month to put it together, but this evening I realized the bulb on the thermometer had broken and was releasing a small amount of smelly red oily stuff into the water. I must've cracked it while rearranging plants, and never noticed until now. So, that's one mystery less!
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Did a water change on the 20 and 40 and added a digital thermometer to the 40 (the glass tube thermometer that came with it suddenly started reading 120+°F). First time cleaning the canister filter and it went pretty well.
Cleaned up algae/detritus in the office tank to prepare for 1.5 weeks out of office. Considered bringing the minnows home but an aquarist coworker offered to feed them, so they'll be fine.
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Wow, those look amazing!
My SO's family always did chili and cinnamon rolls. We'll be making those for our young family today. In past years we've made frosted sugar cookies and pfeffernuesse, but we haven't had time for cookies the last few years since we've had the kiddo.
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I'll second @Wingman12rs WCMM suggestion. I simply put mine in an established 10 gallon with a sponge filter and some java moss, and (eventually) started seeing little swimming shards of glass just under the water's surface.
Similar to what @CalmedByFishssaid about rice fish, WCMM fry can often live off of the 'aufwuchs' (naturally occurring microorganisms) in an established aquarium until they are old enough to nibble crushed flakes. With a removable yarn spawning mop and a dedicated 10gal grow-out tank, I'm sure you could do much better than I have without much effort.
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Wow, looks great! I think I need to do something like this where I've been leaving the lid section slightly open for the air hose.
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I was going to say Geophagus but all of these cephalopods are really making me dream of nautilus. Or cooler yet (and 100% less possible): ammonites! Maybe with some trilobites on the bottom for a clean-up crew. Really a whole Devonian aquarium would be awesome. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devonian#/media/File%3ADevonianfishes_ntm_1905_smit_1929.gif
If I could just get funding to clone the blood in these fossilized leeches...
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On 12/20/2021 at 1:30 PM, darkG said:
What's your experience?
Mine climbs fairly often, but doesn't usually get more than 6 inches up on the glass. When I had it in my 20 long it made it to the top once or twice. My nerites definitely eat off of the glass more often/effectively, but I haven't added any to this tank yet. The herc is usually found digging in the substrate, climbing on driftwood, or hiding in the teacup.
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I love the blue spots on the fish in the second picture! Is that some kind of SA cichlid?
You could spend a lot on plants and decorations but at the end of the day the fish don't care who thinks the decorations are tacky 😁
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Last night, after years of seeing only java fern and anubias for sale at my local chain stores, I spotted a clump of Hygrophilia difformis and snatched it up. I planted it in several places around my 40B and after 24 hours it seems to all be doing okay. I'm really looking forward to the leaves starting to lobe out.
I was especially happy to see a snail trail going around the plants instead of through them, since my hercules snail usually likes to rearrange my plants if I happen to put them in his way.
There are seven different species of plants in this picture! (The tank has an eighth if you count the few pieces of duckweed that are still hanging around.)
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@DaveOA bit of searching suggests it's a Fishtastic 5g or similar. A neat idea I've never seen before!
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How long have you been following Aquarium Co-op?
in Off Topic General
Posted
At least two years. I watched a lot of Cory's old livestreams while my baby was sleeping on me (summer 2020) and I definitely saw care guides some time before that. Maybe 3 years then.