KittenFishMom

@Hobbit I would guess it might have to do with the pH in your water, but I don't know. @gardenman Great idea about the pussy willows

Brown eyed girl, Van Morrison It is snow hard here. We need summer music !

I am finally getting back to this project after several detours. @gardenmanI don't have any willow growing near here. but I think the cuttings will root without it. I will try to get some willow in the spring. The bag of rockwool recommend soaking the rockwool in water with the pH adjusted to 5.5. It says I can use lemon juice, so that is my plan for the pH part. I also think I'll use part of a squirt of easy green. (Squirt it in a cup, add water and pour part in the soaking water and put the rest in a fish tank.) I am then planning to put the cuttings in the rockwool in the pot in an active aquarium to get them growing. Has anyone started cuttings using rockwool under water? Any tips, advice, or warning before I get underway on this project? Thanks, KittenFishMom

@Odd Duck Do you have any photos?

Thanks !

I would bet the tank was designed and built for other fish. The contractor probably borrowed or rented the discus for the photo shoot before the intended fish were put in their new home. The contractor can then use the photos in his advertisements. "Look, I can build beautiful things! Hire me for your next project" I am guessing that then the water is lowered to below the end of the banister, the banister and top of the tank can be unclamped and removed to work on the lower part of the tank. It might even come off in an upper half and a lower half, depending on what area of needs work. Not easy, but they probably hire it done. When the seals wear out, they might fill the whole thing with shells or a sand painting. Then again, it might be photo shopped 8-)

Before I retired, the place that I worked had a saying: "9 women, + 1 month = 1 baby" It meant that when a project got behind schedule, management always want to add more people to get it back on schedule. Of course, bringing those people up to speed on the project often slowed things down even more and added more stress to the original people on the project that had asked for more staff at the beginning of the project. I made mistakes when "staffing" my tanks. I want to be very careful not to just add more fish and make things worse for all the "staff"/fish involved.

@Colu Thanks. I realize that as a newbie, I didn't realize the fish at the store were young and going to grow much bigger. I got the wrong combination of fish for the tanks I had. I am trying to sort it out and make it better.

@colu Thanks for explaining this. I could buy more agasizzi, for their tank, or move the other corys to the agasizzi tank, but then I won't have a clean up crew for the betta. Also, I don't know if the agasizzi will think the paleatus cory belong in they school. How many corys do you think I can have in a 10 gallon tank with 10 young neon tetra and a very small crayfish? This spring, I will move the native fish back to the 120 tank and will be able to move the tetras and the corys to the 55 gallon tank. I want the agasizzi to be healthy and comfortable in the 10 gallon tank until then.

My 2 types of corys act so very differently. My 3 agasizzi corys that are in with my tint blue neon tetras and one very small cray fish are so skittish. The only time I see them is if I feed the tank and sit very still and wait. Then they come from their hiding places and eat what has fallen to the bottom. If I move at all, they zip off to they hiding places, and I can not find them from above or from the sides. I thought it was because they were adjusting to their new home. but it has been about 2 weeks and they are still hiding all the time. There is lots of drift wood and hornwort in the tank, along with creek stones and scuds and algae on some of the stones. Thinking back on buying them, the sales person and I had a hard time finding their tank because they were all hiding behind the one decoration in the tank. Is this normal behavior for agasizzi corys? They are so pretty, I would love to see more of them. On the other hand, my 3 paleatus corys are very busy, swimming all over the tank with the male betta and the little flag fish. When I only had one, he hid all the time, but now that I have added 2 more, (the same day I got the agasizzi corys) the tree of them are out and about all the time. They nibble on stuff next to the glass as I stand up and add a bit more food. I can put my nose close to the glass and they ignore me as I admire them up close. They seem so comfortable and confident. Nothing bothers them. The water in the agasizzi tank is about 80f, with no ammonia nitrates or nitrites. The betta tank is closer to 82. again no ammonia or nitrates or nitrites. I haven check the pH lately, but I can if you think it might explain the differences. I put the little crayfish in with the agasizzi that I caught when I was catching scuds about a week ago, and he molted his shell last night. when I think is a good sign that the tank is in good shape. the crayfish is about the size of the corys in length. Any idea way these corys act so differently?

@bettta999 Aquarium Co op has multi test strips, 200 for $16.99 plus shipping If you order less than $59 total. And you can cut them in half. It is a great place to shop. Amazon has a lot of test strips for nitrate and nitrite with high rating for less. Look on eBay and craigslist too. Someone might have some to sell/rehome. I floated a turnip in my tank and it sucked out a lot of nitrates and nitrites.

This Craigslist post did not last long at all: rehoming different kinds of fish Posted 2022-01-09 14:29 I have a 10 inch fire ell a five inch tire track ell 4 silver dollars almost full grown a green terror that's still small and a large black knife fish and a big black and silver angle fish they are all free just want a good home for them have raised them since juvenile just want to go a different way with the hobby

I saw this on craigslist: A 400 gallon tank divided into 32 compartments plus a 50 gallon at the bottom? This would be so cool if the dividers were removable. I did not write to them to ask. If I don't know, I won't be tempted. I assume the 50 gallon at the bottom is a sump, but maybe not. One of those things dreams at made of....

"Mom, I can't go down and fold the laundry, it would stress the fish."

Whatever you do, DO NOT FALL DOWN THE STAIRS !!!

I have the large dark scuds. I have been trying to find live blackworms. Where do you get them? I called the 3 pet stores that carry fish. They were not familiar with them. I'm going to start looking for Repashy.

@Odd DuckHow do you make a scud refugium? I put some large rocks that the fish cannot move over gavel and pebbles to give the scuds a safe place to live, so the corys and catfish do not wipe them out completely.

crayfish are much more peaceful than they look. I had a lot on my 120 tank cleaning up all the odds and ends. They do need a source of air. If you use minnow traps to catch things, I recommend putting your bait in a knee high stocking, That way it doesn't get washed away, or eaten so quickly. Put the bait in the toe, then make a loop by folding the top over and tying a knot. put the rope for the trap through the loop and stick the baited toe in the tarp and clip the trap shut with the clip at the end of the rope. I caught a lot of snails and crayfish in my minnow traps, as well as fish and mud puppies and a few water snakes.

I was giving all my tanks some frozen bloodworms this evening when all of a sudden a scud in the betta tank grabbed a bloodworm and was off like a shot. I was so startled, I thought in was a small fish. (Our scuds are big.) I thought maybe the scud was confused, so I dropped a few bloodworms in one of my scud tanks. The crowd went wild. They loved them. Before long it looked like most scuds in the tank were swimming around hugging a hunk of bloodworm. I have been feeding the scuds hornwort and chunks of pumpkin and banana. Now and then I give them a bit of fish food. I wasn't impressed with the rate at which they were multiplying. I am eager to see if bloodworms will help. The fish in my native tank love scuds. They spend long periods, staying very still in the water, staring at rocks waiting for a scud to appear. At first I thought maybe the fish were confused, or depressed until I saw one catch a scud. Anyone else have interesting food they feed their scuds?

I was looking at those too. ACO if a dangerous place to shop, it is all such good stuff !

@lefty o I usually find 4 or 5 things to add when I was only looking for 1 @WillC I got the measuring spoon. the cats keep hiding mine.

I was putting together an order at Aquarium CoOp last night and was just 8 cents short of getting free shipping. I wondered what you would add to your order to push you up over the free shipping mark?

@Torrey He is a small betta. He sometimes has trouble with the betta bead food I have being too big. What would be a good size to order? This is from their web site: https://reefnutrition.com/collections/tdo

Wow, that is interesting. I thought there must have been signs before Wuhan. I have gotten so depressed by COVID, that I have not kept up on it lately.

I heard it was researcher studying bats in china that brought COVID out of the bat caves.