KittenFishMom

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea If you add a few fish culls and maybe a few colored shrimp or snail, you can fool folks into admiring you "trash can" 😉

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea and @Guppysnail I picked up an old formal ornate punch bowl at the thrift store. I put a round UGF for a fish bowl and an extra air stone or 2, and several handfuls of pebble substrate to hold the UGF in place. I toss my duckweeds culls and brown snail culls from my tanks in there, and an occasional lily pad clipping. Every so often the bulk of the snail go to some who feeds goldfish or puffers or whatever. It in near my tanks, so gets random stray light. no heater and just a few air lines. Because of the plants being added, it really doesn't need much light. The ornate carving on the glass makes it hard to tell what exactly is in it, which works for me.

You just might be a nerm if after a rough water change where the siphon hose leaped out of the slop bucket 2 (count them two) times. When you finally sit down after cleaning up the mess and say "I'm going to take a break and have a glass of water" Your non-nerm spouse says "Maybe a glass of 'SeaChem Stability" on the rocks would help". Where do they learn these nerm terms? In favor of my spouse, when I yelled "I'M GOING TO NEED BIG TOWELS !" He didn't ask why, just ran and got them. He is sweet that way ❤️

@cinnanoodles I sent you a personal message in the forums mail. If you click on the envelope at the top of a page, you can read it. If you have problems reading it post here and we will sort it out.

@cinnanoodles One of my cory did one of their "grab a breath of air and dive" and hit some hard scape. I don't know why, but it got a large bruise and died while I was asking for help. Nothing had moved in the tank in months. My guess was the cory that hit the hardscape was dodging another fish, and didn't see the hardscape in time to change paths. Everyone slips or bumps into things once in awhile. Even fish. I don't think this was your fault at all.

@cinnanoodles The hobby can be pretty hard some days. I'm sorry the fish got worse, but head injuries can cause brain swelling. you did the right thing. What kind of corries were they?

@rockfisher My 55 is a big jungle. I was having trouble with water flow, so I put in a bigger HOB today. It swept a lot of the semi rooted plants around. I'm going to re do the placement of the plant once I am done catching the bulk of the corys in that tank. No point it making it pretty and then trying to net fish out.

Indian Almond Leaves (IALs) if you have them can help. The fish like to hide under them and the tannins and very helpful with healing. Maybe you could put the injured one in a breeder box with several pieces of IALs to hide between until someone can give you better advice. you can't go wrong with IALs, but something else might help more.

@Cinnebuns If I don't want to move the eggs, do you think the fry will do OK in the mops? They don't seem to be spawning as much as they were in the other. I think they like to hide the eggs on glass behind plants. I thought they might like the mop. which 2 types of corys to you use them with?

@rockfisher Where did you find the moss? Can I buy it? Where might I find it?

@rockfisher Thanks. What is "tall ground moss"? How do you catch the fry when the time comes, if the are still in with the adults and the moss?

I am breeding some peppered corys in a rather bare tank. I have added some small plants and driftwood. The female seems to spend a lot of time looking for the right place to lay the eggs. I bought a green yard spawning mop. I have never used one before. I'm wondering about the best placement (floating sinking drifting) and if the eggs can hatch in the mop and the fry can find their way out. I don't want to collect the eggs. Any advice is very welcome ! Thanks

We are digging out from a snowstorm, so I have time to shop around.

@xXInkedPhoenixX Are you talking about a big natural pond, or a pond people set up on there deck in a large container? What would be the minimum size if an above ground pond might work?

Do you think it could grow outside in a "Roamwild Pop Up Pond" 23 gallons, 27 inches across, 10 inches high? ( I love the clear sides) I am tempted to get one for out on the lawn. under a tree and a tented netting to keep the leaves out. I love this plant. I think my HOBs would cause it problems in a tank.

@Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics Do you know how much coral? I put shrimp in one of the 2 tanks and have been warning that crushed oral can cause shrimp problems because of too much calcium. It is a 10 gallon tank. The other one is a 55. That should would have saved me a bunch of headaches.

@Pepere I knew I was missing something. Maybe I can go by pH with the chemicals I have from seachem? @nabokovfan87 Do you know how this works?

So if I am looking for 10-15 dH that would be 178 - 267ppm. Now, how do I translate that to (GH)ppm and (KH)ppm on the test strips?

I have RO/DI water. 2 tanks have potting soil under a sand cap. The 3rd is just sand substrate, not potting soil. I'm using SeaChem Equilibrium, Acid Buffer and Alkaline Buffer to remineralize the water. I went to AqAdvisor.com and entered my fish, shrimp, and snails and they recommend: "Recommended pH range: 7 - 7.5.Recommended hardness range: 10 - 15 dH." How do I convert "10 - 15 dH" to "(GH)ppm" and "(KH)ppm" which are on my ACO water test strips? I could not find anything on how to convert it using Google. I also want to be sure I have the right amount of calcium in the water for the adult shrimp, the growing shrimp fry and the growing cory fry. AqAdvisor does not seem to address calcium at all. Should I stay with Seachem, or switch for a different company to do this remineralization ? I was using Salty Shrimp GH/KH+ in the shrimp tank, but I would like to add shrimp to all the tanks. I am getting close to needing to order chemicals, and want to order the right ones. Thanks so much ! ! !

I used organic miracle grow potting soil I put some in media bags and some lose on the bottom of the tank, then capped it with black sand. The plants are growing like crazy, but it is hard to keep the pH from dropping. You can tell when the plant roots reach the soil, they suddenly start growing very fast. You can not gravel vac a dirted tank. @Streetwise knows a lot about dirted tanks.

I would say it depends on the betta and the tank layout and such. If you want to try it, let the guppies settle in a few days before adding the betta. and watch closely for a while, net in hand, to make sure everyone stay calm and happy. I kept male bettas in all my guppy tanks to try to slow the population explosion of the guppies. I found switching the bettas around help me figure out which was more interested in hunting fry. The bettas that I had were pretty small when I got them, so I would assume they were young. they never bothered and adult guppies, but the tanks were well fed and the male only guppy tank had lots of plants. I have had a mellow male betta who ignored all the fish (spawning peppered corys, neon tetras, kuhli loaches, and flagfish) for a long time. I added 3 tiny hillstream loaches. After about 45 minutes, the betta suddenly hated them and would not stop chasing them all over the 55 gallon tank. When I netted the betta, he was in full flare at this tiny little loach. The betta in now calmly keeping company with a tank of corys. Who knows what they are thinking sometimes? It reminds me of the movie "50 first dates".

@Guppysnail and @Cinnebuns and anyone else who keeps mystery snail: During a 20 gallon water change in my 55 gallon tank, I didn't notice that a mystery snail had started to lay eggs. the back end of her foot is now just at the water line. I noticed little white beads drifting down the tank. but it took me a while to find the source. The water level is just right for the filters, and the nitrites had popped up and the water is is cloudy, so I don't think I should lower the water. The water really needs to circulate tonight. Is there anything I can do for this mystery snails eggs or if this happens in the future? Our water changes take a long time to siphon the water out and dump the buckets of water outside (sand substrate) and bring in the cold RO/DI water from the laundry room and remineralize it and boil water to heat the water in the tote to tank temp. Then lift the water and pour it gently into the heavily planted tank. Also, will the eggs cause any problems in the tank? There are corys, neon tetras, kuhli loaches and hillstream loaches and HOB filters. The betta got move to a different tank when he started chasing the hillstream loaches around like a cat after a string. I still don't understand why such a mellow betta got so excited over tiny hillstream loaches. All ideas and thoughts are welcome.

@Pepere What kind of killi fish do you have? I had flagfish in January and they kept bothering my peppered corys. It almost looked like the flagfish were stinging the corys, probably just startling them. The corys took off like a shot. I'm hesitant to try that again. right now I have : peppered corys neon tetras black kuhli loaches and hilstream loaches. I want to add red cherry shrimp and maybe striped kuhlis if I can catch enough corys for the breeder. What would be good at eating cory fry, but not shrimp?

@Pepere What kind of corys do you have? And what are the predaceous fish fish that you keep with them?

@Pepere I'm not sure why my fry all seemed to grow and stay healthy. I only found 2 that didn't make it. I feed them 4 times a day and often changed the water twice a day as they started getting bigger in the 10 gallon half cylinder tank. I didn't collect any eggs, so I was only hopeing for 6 or 8 fry. As the water changes got more frequent, I set up a 15 gallon tank with lots of removable cover, and Stability and Prime and extra sponge filters and an HOB. I caught about 90 using a salad dressing bottle and frozen bbs as bait, watching until there was a good number in the bottle, then putting my hand over the opening and moving them to the 15 gallon tank. I would guess there are still close to 20 that got wise to my tricks and shoot out of the bottle the moment I move. I have to find a way to retieve the 30 or so fry from the 55 gallon heavily over planted tank before they get tout grow the nitrogen cycle. Now that would really be inconsequential !!! Luckily the breeder said she would take any fry I catch and some of the adults. The adults are still spawning daily. They are eating a lot of the eggs, but not all of them. I have a male betta, neon tetras, scuds and leeches in the 55 gallon tank. I thought they would keep the fry count down close to zero, but I was wrong.