Minanora
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Posts posted by Minanora
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They're so cute! I am excited to see more of them hiding in there. I wonder what the grand total will be.
I have swordtail fry in my 75g that I find more of as they get bigger. When I first found them I thought I only had 6, last week, maybe 10, yesterday I counted 13.
Then, one of my new guppy females had surprise babies in the 20g. I've seen 3 babies so far. There's tons of cover, so I'm sure I'll count more as the weeks go by.
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On 12/2/2021 at 11:09 AM, JettsPapa said:
I don't want to keep being a wet blanket, but using fish to control algae in aquariums is kinda putting a band aid on the problem. Controlling algae by balancing light and nutrients is generally a better option. However, if you want to get one anyway, you might investigate Siamese algae eaters or bristle nose plecos.
Hey, wet blankets put out fires. Personally I don't think you're a wet blanket, just making good observations, recommendations, and comments. 🙂
I agree: Light and nutrient balance are indeed best for algae control. My experience, My otos eat some algae but they actually like to go feed on my corydora food and pretend they're corydoras... Vacuuming up brine shrimp and fallen pellets around the bottom. I keep the lights on way too long for the fry, so I have a bit of algae and plenty of snails. Bladder snails and pond snails.
In my 20g, my clown pleco does nothing for the algae. He's spoiled and gets repashy twice a week. Plus he eats corydora pellets and anything else he can vacuum off of the substrate, and, he snacks on my crypts.
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On 12/2/2021 at 10:03 AM, Chad said:
I didn't find that to be the case. But again, I believe my issues won't translate to your situation. Your tank is bigger and other species will keep them distracted from one another, at least I would think that to be the case. Aggression's worth watching for but not worrying over.
I keep a male guppy only community tank with other species. I have a 75G for this. I do not have issues with my 7 males. When I had 3 males only, I did. Higher numbers seem to curb the issues, especially with other fish to distract the males. My notorious problem boy, Paco, does like to dance and chase the other males on occasion, but he gives up and goes about his business after a while. He was much worse with females in the tank, he chased one female so much that she injured herself badly. At one time I kept males and females together. Even with 8 females to 3 males, Paco was a problem. He was relentless in his pursuit. Now that I have 7 males in there, I haven't seen any issues. I keep harlequin rasboras, corydoras, otos, a swordtail pair, and some amano shrimp with the male guppies.
A temperature of 78 would be great imo. I keep my tanks between 76 and 78. The only warmer tank is my fry grow-out tank which is at 80.
Don't be too put off by otos, read up on them, watch the Co-Op video regarding Otocinclus, weigh your options. They can be poorly treated by importers and wholesalers in many cases, but you can find good ones. Plus, if you buy them you're giving them a chance to live a good life. So long as you understand what you're in for. Never be afraid to ask lots of questions. I bought my otos from a local fish shop and had a lengthy discussion with the staff prior to purchasing them. I also made sure I knew how long they had been keeping them prior to my purchasing them, what they were feeding them, and I made sure to buy ones that were showing full tummies and playing a lot. I got one straggler that I was sure wasn't going to make it, I was right, and the store replaced him for me since I had expressed my concern that he wouldn't make it since he was very thin at the time of purchase.
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Welcome! I know you've been having issues in your tank but hang in there. Even with the issues, don't be afraid of total failure. You're not obligated to share photos, but sometimes it can ease your mind to see it, and have some fish fam encouragement along the way.
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Awesome! It's good to challenge yourself. I think you'll do great! I also feel that you don't give yourself enough credit as an aquascaper. You're amazing! Plus, you enjoy it, which is the most important thing. Messy or not!
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@Gator I have a mesh breeder inside that same 20G with two female guppies in it right now. Ha. I currently have just over 130 baby guppies, and around 15 baby swordtails. I'm letting nature take its course with the cory eggs. I know better than to overfill my plate, I just cleaned the floors, don't want to spill. ^_^
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@Gator Great ideas and I appreciate the detail. I am afraid to move the wood in my tank. It's quite massive. I may try in a future setup. I'm not so worried about my 3 year old helping me. He's actually a great helper for just about any task. Including using my giant tweezers to remove snails, and snail eggs without damaging anything in the tank.
I indeed make...many... new plants from cuttings. I am frequently told to get rid of my recycled taco bell specimen/experiment cups full of plants. 🙂
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So I had pretty much the same in my 20G tall for a while. 360ppm hardness, 8.2pH. My cories lived, but did not thrive.
My water in that tank is now 150ppm GH and 7.6pH, and my salt and pepper high fins are scattering eggs and making with the lovey dances. I doubt I'll see babies, but there's eggs being placed in the plants as of this morning.
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I think it's a decent idea so long as you don't have an issue with condensation inside the cabinet. I'd be worried about swamping out the cabinet and damaging the wood/structure. Maybe put some desiccant down there or some damp-rid to keep it from going musty. Even with an open back, the heat, bubbles, volume of water could get swampy without some form of desiccant.
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On 12/1/2021 at 6:53 PM, Gator said:
@Minanora; Yeah, you can glue plants to wood, but my experiences say that it's best to tie the plants to the wood after the wood has become soaked enough to sink, this allows the roots to grow into the wood to anchor itself. I've tried using superglue to hold plants in place until they anchor themselves, but the roots didn't take off like they do when they're tied to the wood, maybe the superglue damages the roots somehow (?).
Totally agree with this point regarding root damage. But if you can get away with using very little glue, and not on the primary roots, I can see it really helping. I recently glued an anubias nana to a plant weight to set it level with the substrate and it worked quite well. Glue did kill bits of my christmas moss, and java moss, but once it grows over, you can't tell.
I would tie things... but I have very little patience for these types of tasks. I was previously of the mind that if I can't glue it, I don't need it. So even if gluing makes it harder for the plant to take off, at least I'll have tried at all. 🙂
However I am obsessed with plants and will not, and would not ever, risk killing a plant entirely with glue. I'm not an animal. Just lazy.
And by lazy, I mean I have a full time job, a kid, etc. I just am not willing to dedicate more time to tying plants with my arms in the tank and my glasses falling off of my face. I've dropped them in the tank before!
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The new guppy crew has arrived and they deserve some attention. They're young, but lovely in so many ways. There's 4 new males, and 6 new females. The red female dropped fry this morning, which I wasn't expecting. I called my husband and he was happy and surprised. Toddler was extremely excited. I was a bit less enthused since I'm trying to contain the babies and not have babies loose in the 20G... But, I'm excited about them. there's not so many, and I watched the other new guppy females eat three or four that were brave enough to go into the open. We'll see how many make it over the weeks to come.
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@Nanci B Here are my newest ladies. Female Guppies.
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On 12/1/2021 at 4:41 PM, Odd Duck said:
I’ve glued most of my Buces in my 100 gallon with the wood under water. I have also done it during a water change, sometimes dropping the water level farther than typical in order to do the gluing. But I’ve done it so many times now, I usually just stick it in there.
It especially helps if you have a bigger rhizome that you’re trying to attach or attaching to a trickier spot than usual.
Mind.... Blown. I have always wanted to try to glue stuff after my tank was full... NOW I KNOW I CAN! \
🌈*The more you know*🌟
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I am definitely interested in seeing this after a month of use. My only drawback I see right now is the lack of substrate for bottom sifters like corydoras and things that like to dig like kuhli loaches. Kuhli loaches would probably be okay with the right hides but I'd worry about losing them if they burrow into the foam.
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On 11/30/2021 at 3:42 PM, Nanci B said:
I have never wanted live bearers. Guppies, the females are ugly IMO, but I have heard there are some that are pretty. I am not interested in breeding at this point, but we'll see. And I have not seen the appeal of mollies, platies, and goldfish. Although the wild type swordtail looks amazing! So live bearers in general do not have much appeal due to the looks, and dealing with all the babies.
But you never know.
I'll post some photos of some of my girls tomorrow... I have a few lookers. But I love them all so I may be biased and blinded by love. Haha
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@Odd DuckI didn't even consider that! 🌈*The more you know*🌟
@scott the fishman I would consider that a pretty well planted tank. It's a glorious jungle and it's B.E.A.UTIFUL!
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On 11/30/2021 at 11:29 AM, Mmiller2001 said:
Your GH is kinda low and could be where you are seeing your deficiency. Once you test K we will know more. I would recommend increasing GH to 5dGH @ a 2:1 Ca:Mg. I would like to see KH at 3dKH or lower, but that depends on your stocking.
I'm on this train. Excellent advice for sure. Making sure your plants can uptake nutrients that are being given is a biggie.
Hopefully the rhizomes make a comeback with the changes.
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On 11/30/2021 at 3:59 PM, abbie said:
I thought about doing guppies! My only concern was since they're livebearers I am concerned about possibly getting over run by them haha I also sadly don't have a lfs within an hour or two of me to sell them to. Could you think of a fish that would eat the fry but leave the adults alone?
I have no idea what you're talking about with being over run with babies... They only have 20+ babies at a time, every 3.5 weeks or so. I mean, I only have 130ish babies right now. I'm not drowning, I swear. 😛 Yeah it can be a problem if you keep both males and females. I let mine have babies outside of a breeding net and hoped that other tank mates would eat them. I can say, well fed swordtails, tetras, other guppies, don't eat enough of them to make a difference in my tanks. I watched a swordtail eat two or three, but it wasn't enough.... Rams will eat babies, dwarf cichlids, there's a few others. But I'm not sure about the species behaviours with the adult guppies/swordtails/mollies/platies and other live bearers. I've only ever kept angelfish with guppies in the past. I wasn't breeding guppies at that time though. I just always say Guppies because I love them so much.
I do think you could get away with keeping your tank closer to 82 with your current stocking idea. Other than that I like your list you have personally.
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Totally get you. I feel like every time I get a tank dialed in, I add or remove something from it and have to start all over again haha.
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@PineSong Who knows! I was just a kid. Maybe the ones I had were platys? I dunno, but I was not amused. *Shrug* I'm still not buying mollies.... I swear... *Googles videos of mollies, looks at Corys ponds with mollies...*
Dang it.... No. Lol, but I may consider it in the future... Maybe.
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Generally when I see my ammonia go 0, I see a few days of super high nitrite before I see my nitrates go up. Especially on a sterile (new) setup. Which is the life that my 10G used to live. I restarted that tank time and time again.
My 75 was an anomaly because I used recycled media and planted substrate. Columns are: date, test type, ammo, then nitrite, then nitrate, then water change percentage. This was with fishless fuel. My nitrates have never again gotten above 10ppm, even with adding a ton of fish. As the plants fill in, it's even lower nitrates. Then... I keep adding cuttings in there.
10/17/2021 Master 4 0 5 10/19/2021 Master 2 0.25 10 20% Change 10/20/2021 Master 0.25 4 20 10/21/2021 Master 0 2 40 10/22/2021 Master 0 0 20 10/23/2021 Master 0 0 20 20% Change On 11/30/2021 at 2:58 PM, scott the fishman said:thank you my nitrites are at 0. not a new tank 5 months with plants 4 months with fish. lots of plants and pothose growing out of HTB filters.
I see a touch of pink on that nitrate test there! You're looking good imo.
It appears to me that your plants are doing their jobs. 🙂
And yes, there are different test strips for ammonia that you can get. Aquarium Co-Op has an Easy Ammonia Test Strip product.
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I would say it's less than .25, but not 0.
How are your nitrites looking? If you have a lot of nitrites you won't see your nitrates yet.
Is this for a Cycle? Fishless or fish in?
If you have a lot of plants it's possible that they're eating all the nitrate as well.
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On 11/30/2021 at 1:21 PM, PineSong said:
Even stranger--I have literally NEVER seen my mollies poop. My platies, daily! Some guppies, some times. But never my mollies. I was even thinking of them as a replacement for my family member who no longer keeps goldfish, that they would provide the same color but without the growth problems and without the poop!
🤔Are you trying to convince me to give mollies a second chance? I feel like the next thing I'll be doing is posting on this thread about how I fell in love with mollies! hahaha. Wouldn't that just be the hair of the dog. 🤣
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Bring on the guppies! Just kidding; but I have to go there. 😛
Rams are so cool! I look forward to seeing what you decide to do. What do you have in your current tank?
White fuzz on new Anubias Nana Petite
in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers
Posted
I am curious to read what our seasoned aquatic plant keepers have to say about this as well. I thought this was a sort of bio-film when I saw the same thing in person. I had similar growths on some African Fern, and an Anubias Petite Nana that I recently got from my LFS. I didn't think much of it until I read your story.