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drewzero1

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Everything posted by drewzero1

  1. drewzero1
    My go-to centerpiece in a 40 breeder (my main tank) would be a pearl gourami. I'm a bit hesitant to try any gourami with shrimp, but both pearls I've had have left the Amano shrimp pretty much alone.
  2. drewzero1
    My LFS owners said the same thing when I asked them a few years ago. Still bummed, but I've been looking into local swaps as an alternative.
  3. drewzero1
    This would be really good as a "getting to know you" game to get people talking to each other: everybody gets a sheet with these and other requirements and needs to write down the name of someone else in the room for each. (Only write down each person once though!) So people spend some time wandering around trying to meet everyone, get to know their names, and what kinds of things they're interested in.
  4. drewzero1
    I nearly forgot! I've been disappointed by endlers twice now, and my second breeding attempt is essentially over. Both times the adults died off one by one over a few months, and I only ever saw one fry. I'm giving up (again)(for now).
  5. drewzero1
    So far so good. I need to get my own tests; I've been bringing samples to the LFS weekly (and checking out other stuff while I'm in there... that's how they get ya!). I'm a bit nervous about swings when I start adding more sensitive livestock, plus (like in freshwater) it's been hard to find fish that will do well in a 5 gallon. I've done about a 25% pwc per month but with heavier stocking that will probably need to go up. Thanks! I can't wait to see what it turns into. Good point, I haven't looked too closely at the rock. I'm glad to hear they might still be around; I love feather dusters and hope to have a large one in there at some point. I'm flattered! I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. There's so much to learn!
  6. drewzero1
    Ap I had a pearl that really had it out for a male molly in the tank. (Can't remember for sure, but I think he was my only molly at the time.) A few weeks ago a pearl was rehomed to me after bullying a honey gourami and another pearl. In my molly-heavy community tank (with no other gouramis present) she's been just a perfect angel so far. When I got my first pearl my tank was young and plants hadn't had a chance to grow out yet. I put some fake plants in for cover until the real ones grew in. My aponogetons grew fast, but the fish needed cover right away!
  7. drewzero1
    I finally finished my pickles! Now I've got a gallon jar to do something cool with. I'm thinking plants from a 10 gallon I'll be breaking down next month, plus shrimp and snails. Debating between a small sponge filter and a DIY undergravel thing. Also, I learned that there is a difference between "catappa" and "catalpa" (the former being Indian almond which is supposed to be great for tannins and shrimp, the latter being a US native bean tree with some poisonous parts). Guess which one I had put in my tank 🤦‍♂️
  8. drewzero1
    It's always my goal to do enough research that I'm not surprised by a fish, though a few have slipped through. Most recent example was probably the sparkling gourami, which seemed too small and too shy to be attractive...until I saw one in person and couldn't ignore the glistening fin spots and piercing blue eyes. It became the centerpiece of my office nano tank where I really got to know it over the following months. I loved the way it hid inside its little rock cave, then would come out to inspect everything cautiously but deliberately. There's something about the way a small gourami looks at a large snail that gets me every time. I couldn't find a picture of my sparkler doing it, but here's one of my dad's honeys checking out a nerite:
  9. drewzero1
    I'm reading through your thread now and really enjoying it! I forgot to mention that mine also had the micro feather dusters on one of the rocks, but they disappointingly disappeared shortly after the introduction of the hermit crab. I hope he enjoyed his tasty snack.
  10. drewzero1
    Yeah, I've done a lot of reading about palytoxins and safe handling. Some really scary stuff, but with caution and respect it seems manageable. And they're so pretty! One LFS has some real stunners:
  11. drewzero1
    A cup would be a great idea! I've got all my stuff in a box in a drawer in my stand, which is conveniently located but less portable. In addition to some of the fine ideas already suggested: - a long, fine-toothed comb for scooping duckweed - a long-handled spoon for adjusting the substrate - a very long chopstick for nudging/moving things on the bottom without sticking my hand in the water. (Every so often a snail gets tipped over and needs a little help!) - small forceps (I mostly use them to relocate floaters I want to keep while duckweeding) - a plastic razor blade for scraping glass without scratching (also less chance of injury, safer for kids) - a large assortment of deli containers, butter tubs, and peanut butter jars - a "fish use only" towel in easy reach to dry hands, wooden tank stands, and glass I've already learned a few things reading this thread, and I'm excited to hear more ideas!
  12. drewzero1
    At the beginning of October I picked up a cheap reef bulb. Tank had been using a hardware store full spectrum PAR LED until this point. The caulerpa and aiptasia didn't sem to love this development, but hair algae also seems to be growing a little less. (I also cut down on feeding after some pellet food started fouling up the water and growing a bunch of unwanted algae.) Around this time I acclimated a baby molly from my 40B, so I now have molly fry in 3 of my 4 tanks! I was curious to see how well a fish would do in my saltwater tank. It's been growing noticeably in the last month; I'll be moving it (along with everything else in this tank) to the 10G I'm building once that's ready. When the molly gets too big for that I'll either reacclimate it to freshwater or see if my LFS would like it. So that's about the current state of affairs. Starting to build the new 10 gallon tank, trying to avoid any more big changes until that's done. Enjoying watching the inhabitants go about their business.
  13. drewzero1
    The story so far: I've always looked at people's beautiful reef tanks with equal measures of awe and sticker shock. I told myself I'd never be able to have one unless I won the lottery, and conversations with reef keepers only seemed to confirm that I couldn't afford a reef. Then my kid comes along with a fierce and lasting clownfish obsession. After seeing his reaction to a tank full of clownfish at an aquarium this summer, I wondered how much harder saltwater really could be. I started looking into pico reefs and was amazed by some of the things people were doing in gallon pickle jars. I set up a 5.5g I had lying around with a HOB filter to provide some flow, added sand and a mix of cultured (wet) live and dry rock. Mid-July: August 17th, added blue leg hermit crab: At the end of August I found a molt from the hermit and thought it might all be over. Then I noticed a shell moving and realized it was okay. (Phew!) September 30, added Caulerpa (seen from the side): I picked out the aiptasia I found except for one which anchored itself to the top of the big rock. It's really fun to watch it eat food particles out of the water. I've also added a rather large margerita snail which has been working very diligently cleaning the glass and sometimes the rocks. Between the crab and the snail, the pretty stubble on the cultured rocks has been almost completely mowed down. September 30:
  14. drewzero1
    Thanks! The Caulerpa has been a mixed bag. It's bleached and died back twice now, most recently when I added the new light. I don't think it likes the intensity very much, but the parts that are growing back look stronger. Plus it introduced Aiptasia to the tank. I'm not fighting those yet because I don't have coral and anemones are super cool. (This tank is an experiment, after all. I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep anything alive on my skills, time, and budget. )
  15. drewzero1
    I've been dabbling at saltwater for a few months and thought it might be time to start a journal. With this tank my goal has been very literally "testing the waters" for whether I can handle a marine tank (and possibly a reef down the road). Tank: 5.5gal standard tank with HOB filter on the end.
  16. drewzero1
    I've been avoiding making a journal for this tank because it's been very much an experiment. I'll link here when I've got one started. I'm waiting to get clownfish, goby, and corals until after the new tank is finished and re-cycled/leveled out, so pictures now may be a bit underwhelming. Edit: here is the journal for my baby reef tank experiment.
  17. drewzero1
    My favorites so far are the zoanthids, but I'm looking into both of those you mentioned as well. I think a watchman goby/pistol shrimp pair would be pretty awesome: the goby stands guard while the shrimp digs a burrow for them to share. I'm trying to avoid adding anything else until I get everything moved over to the new tank I'm building and get it settled in.
  18. drewzero1
    Here's an update after a few months of growth. The leaves definitely seem to be getting longer but not broader. The paired-opposite, alternating-perpendicular leaf pattern definitely matches the bacopa in your pic.
  19. drewzero1
    I have not, but keeping mandarins isn't really a goal for me at this point. My current plan is just to be ready for a clownfish and some beginner corals by some time next summer. I only started saltwater in July so I've got a ways to go. (Try me again in 5 or 10 years!)
  20. drewzero1
    Thanks! That was my first breeding group, in a 20 long which ended up pretty cramped. I lost most of them when it crashed. I'm on my second group now and things seem to be going a bit better in my 40 breeder, though I've spread out the fry to a few other tanks for a bit of insurance. Those are amazing! I've seen them come up a lot in my nano reef research but it sounds like they're picky about food. My baby reef tank definitely doesn't have the pods yet to sustain one of those beauties.
  21. drewzero1
    It's always mollies for me. I've got some less common and more interesting fish, but nothing matches their curiosity and confidence. I especially love the way they pick at everything looking for food. Plus they can live in saltwater!
  22. drewzero1
    I believe it's been done but it's very difficult. As far as I can tell the adults are pretty much impossible to sex, and the larvae are planktonic so they'll get filtered out of the water column by regular filtration. Mine is a blue leg hermit which are usually considered clean up crew, but in my pico reef he/she is definitely the centerpiece.
  23. drewzero1
    I had a snail growing algae like that in my SW tank but it died and the hermit crab finally caught up to it. Clean as a whistle now!
  24. drewzero1
    I've been very lucky that in the past year or so a few of my "someday" fish unexpectedly turned into "soon" fish. (And some even turned into "right now" fish!) Someday fish: GBR or Bolivian Rams, Geophagus, Nannacara, Licorice gourami, paradise fish, killifish, shiners, gobies. I nearly bought some black paradise fish this summer, but decided to hold out for the more colorful ones (since I already have black mollies). Now I've got a pearl gourami again so those will have to wait! Soon fish: Variatus, cherry shrimp, sw gobies, clownfish(!). I'm preparing to shuffle my 4 tanks down to 3 again in time for the new year, but hopefully having the pond ready for next spring will allow some more flexibility in stocking. (Not my pic/fish, paradise fish image from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_fish)
  25. drewzero1
    I used a 5gal as a grow out tank for some white cloud minnow fry, but the adults need more swimming space. Currently I'm using my 5 to experiment with keeping saltwater and the star inhabitant has been a blue leg hermit crab.
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