Aquatic Journal

Hello all, I am setting up summer tubs. Usually I rinse out my tubs completely and start over. However this year all I did was drain them and refill them. The water is super dark. I do not know if this is from tannins or contaminates. I just went to drain and fill them again today to put fish out either tomorrow or Monday and saw Mosquito Larvae in all of the tubs. So the question is, do I drain the water and start fresh killing off a great supply of free food or do I risk putting the fish in there? My thought was if the mosquito larvae are alive and well my fish will probably be alive and well as well. Let me know what you all think!

I think this comes down to two different things. One your canister filter may be getting equally as dirty but you do not see it so you don't clean it. The sock in the sump is something that is easy to see and therefore you are more likely to clean it. Two if you are using sponges in the canister and something like poly fill in the sump those will clog up at vastly different rates. I change poly fill every two days and a sponge filter once a month. So what are in each of the tanks, what type of filter sock you are using, and the size of the tanks vs the sump or canister would help answer that question.

My two favorites right now are for two different reasons. One is the standard congo tetra. They are absolutely beautiful and one of the best looking tetras that are out there. However, if I was buying tetras I would buy a big group of rummynose tetras. They are amazing when they school together and they make a great addition to basically any tank.

I had a 5 foot long tank and actually had the outlet and inlet directly next to each other. I set the input to blast the long way on the tank and it created like a circle effect. You could see the water path by watching the Duckweed. It worked for me!

If you are trying to grow plants. Co2 is a great way to do that. If you are fighting algea and that's why you want to get co2. That's a really expensive solution and the level of co2 you need to kill algea may kill your fish. If you take that route. Fzone pro co2 regulator. And an atomizer for co2 diffusing. Then any drop checker and just try and get it barely green.

Looks like some of these have already been mentioned but I'll give you my take. 1. Any killifish pair. Gardneri killifish are a great starter and beautiful! 2. Any of the rasboras. I love the emerald green rasboras but any of the small ones will do! 3. Cherry shrimp. Or any neocaradina. You could even pair them with a small fish. 4. Celestrial Pearl danios. Small danio with great patterns. 5. Endlers. If you want to breed fish. Endlers are the easiest for this. Honorable mention. I think you would enjoy the pea puffers or the ricefish as well!

I've never found a way to break a fishes habit. The best option for this is to put in more decor or more plants and try and break up the view. If you can't rehome the fish then your next best option is to setup another tank. 9 endlers or the betta could easily go in a 5 or 10 gallon. Best of luck!

Rotala Wallichii. It can also be a little harder to grow but it has that needle look you are going for and under the right light can get a nice red or pink hue to it. I love that plant!

If it was me with that stocking I would not worry about feeding. The fish will be hungry when you get back but they should be fine! Best of luck!

What I would do is either not feed or ration out some food so when someone does come to feed they do not over feed. I was gone for 10 days a few years ago and the person that came to feed my fish killed them with ammonia poisoning. You have to be very careful with having people feed your fish. What fish do you have in the tank?

What other fish are in the tank? It looks a lot like a cory egg for sure.

With my baby BN Plecos I will tend to just feed one food for a few days in a row. Then switch and feed another food and so on. Eventually they will figure out that it is food and eat it when they get hungry. If you are always feeding the food they want then they won't eat the food that isn't their favorite. But if they get hungry and their favorite food is not around they will find something to eat. Really as long as they are eating and their bellies aren't sunken in then they will be just fine!

A Background should definitely help. Sometimes it is not you actually walking by it is the shadow that you cast behind the tank that scares them. I typically would put a background in and sometimes even blocks on the sides as well to reduce shadows completely if possible!

Hello, I am curious where you are from as we are also having our first swap soon near me! I do not think there is a lot you need to know. I have only had one fish ever die that I purchased from a swap. What you can remember is most of them are breeders so they have raised the fish in the same or similar water to what you have so the quality is probably better then the LFS. Used Equipment is a crap shoot. However, it is worth if depending on the price. I won't pay over 50% of the new price for a used piece of equipment. As for getting deals It will probably already be a deal. Shrimp are $6 a piece at your lfs you can probably get them for 15-20 for 6 high quality shrimp. If it doesn't look like a deal then don't buy it! Best of luck!

I have 4 tubs ready to go and am considering moving it to up to 6. My plans so far include: Daisy Ricefish, Whiteclouds. Orange Swordtails, and Guppies. I have endlers, cherry barbs, bloodfin tetras, and danios that could go out as well. Just trying to decide if I want to try that. I have had no success with egg scatters outside so I am going to try bigger river stones and hope the babies can slide through and hide in there. Hopefully I can stock up on hornwort and guppy grass!