Nyssa

Thank you, this is really hard but we're pulling through the best we can. The pump on the upper pond has been broken for a while, so the water hasn't been spilling into the little river and lower pond. I don't think he was well enough to feed them, and I would feed them whenever I was over, so I think the two ponds are their own little ecosystems now. The upper pond has some really big chunky koi, and all of their offspring would go into the spillover river and into the bottom pond. I need to take a better look at it when I'm over there tomorrow to check on my MIL, I'm not even sure how many there are right now. Last I remember there were maybe 10 or so really big ones, and several babies throughout the system. The river is pretty much dried up from what I can tell, but I'll get a better look. It was kind of the last thing on everyone's minds to be fair with the circumstances, but I can't help but worry about them 😞 I didn't know there were koi specific clubs, I'll have to do some digging I suppose.

Sorry if this belongs in the other section of the forum(feel free to move it if needed), but I'm not sure how to go about this. Here's a bit of background of the situation: So my husband and I are in a bit of a pickle. My FIL just passed away this past weekend, and we're worried about the koi fish in his multi-tiered pond. My MIL most likely is going to have to sell the house since she won't be able to stay there anymore on her own because she is disabled. My FIL was too sick to do maintenance on the pond the past year or so, and we will most likely need to rehome the fish. We're at a loss on how to even begin that process with everything else going on with funeral arrangements and well... grieving. But it is something that is on our minds for the near future while we start going through things in the house. There's also a 55 gallon aquarium inside the house with parrot cichlids, and I would imagine we could just bring those to our LFS, but the koi are a big question mark here. Does anyone here have any suggestions on what we could do or who we could call in this instance? We are in Ocean County in New Jersey. Thanks in advance.

My fish really seem to love the Xtreme Community Crave and the Krill Flakes, they go nuts over them 😊 sometimes I'll switch it up with some Fluval Bug Bite flakes as well so they have some variety.

I just placed an order this morning because my usb air pump decided to unalive itself, but when things aren't breaking I can see ordering every 6 months or so. In the beginning of my tanks I was ordering more frequently for plants and such, but now that everything's established and thriving it's more for maintenance items.

I do for specific fish, if they're unique and/or have their own quirky personality. The rest of them... not so much (oh the joys of being overrun by platy fry) My original parent platys: Daisy (female, orange mickey mouse), Kali (female, tuxedo), Jared (male, White Wagtail), Misty (female, blue mickey mouse, recently passed from dropsy...she was my favorite 😕) Some of their offspring are named too: Mini-Misty(looks just like her mom), Sierra(Misty but with black fins, female), Dakota (Misty but with a bright orange top fin, female), Naranga (deep orange female, no markings and really stunning), Amber (gold mickey mouse, female), Luna (white mickey mouse, my prized female) Sadly all of Kali's offspring kinda look the same so they're not named 😳 those strong tuxedo genes! In my community tank, I added an angelfish that I originally named Oreo (but has since morphed into Oiyo), and a neon blue dwarf gourami named Mordenkainen... Kai for short (MtG reference, my husband named him LOL) Also my betta is named Vazidas, Vazi for short (my husband named him too) Can you tell I get emotionally attached 🙃 I love my wet pets!

Honestly I just leave my zucchini in my tanks until it's all gone, up to two days. How many plecos are in the tanks? Maybe they need a little more time with them, or it's too much are the only things I can come up with. My bristlenose in my community tank usually hogs it and doesn't let anyone else near it, she takes her time 🙃

I think the angelfish is your best bet, they'll have fun hunting them so it's enrichment and food 😅 It's a big reason I put an angelfish in with my community tank with platys that I'm having trouble pulling all the females out of, the fry "suspiciously" go missing 🧐 free food!

I personally got my nerites from one of the big box stores, snails are pretty indestructible so I confidently get them from there.

I quickly learned the hard way with livebearers (as I'm sure many of us do), that you need to separate them out in a timely fashion, otherwise you'll be overrun. Luckily I was (sort of LOL) fast enough to stop the vicious cycle and ended up with a lot of interesting color combinations from my original 4 platys! My pride and joy of all the spawn is a perfectly white mickey mouse platy, her name is Luna 🌙 I don't think I have it in me to be a proper breeder, I get too emotionally invested! But that was a fun/hectic introduction to the hobby for sure 😅

Joining the chorus on the nerites! My betta likes to flare at the two that I have in my 5 gallon tank, and sometimes he'll get a bit huffy with them, but they're big enough that they're totally unfazed. They keep the tank spotless... until they lay eggs everywhere and add the spots back in. But they're really easy to remove so I think it's a fair trade off.

Plants for sure, I've been eyeing the Brazilian Pennywort for a while 👀 and I've always wanted to try some crypts, my parva died a slow and tragic death and I want to try a larger crypt.

I have a dark window film on my 55 long, it works wonderfully! I've found it helpful to have it be semi transparent when you look behind and into the tank to check on some of the fish. From the front it's close enough to the wall that you can't even tell it's window tint.

There's no way I could do that with my all girls platy tank, I moved them all from my original tank as they grew out when I was being overrun with fry. They like to school together, but there are just too many to count. If I had to guess probably 40-50 easily in my 55 long. Livebearers seem to make this notoriously difficult I'm noticing 😅 My original tank is turning into a community tank, I just added an angelfish and a dwarf gourami along with all of the male platys, so it'll be much easier to track that one!

Oh my god, that gave me a good hearty laugh 🤣

Yeah I generally don't vacuum around my pogo octopus, it doesn't seem to mind the extra gunk 😅

What a gorgeous little man 😍 Bettas have such colorful and diverse personalities, that's a big part of why I'm a total mush for them. My platys are pretty derpy and have their own personalities too, but bettas are on a whole other level imho

Yup totally normal, I took to smooshing small ramshorns for my platies when the population got out of control, they loved them as a treat. Heck, even the bristlenose pleco and the albino cories went nuts for them. I figure that the food we feed them is made from other fish, so really what's the difference? It's just really fresh, and locally sourced 😅

For me it's many of the heavily genetically modified fish for our enjoyment but their detriment—namely ones like the bubble eye goldfish. I used to be a big fan of the telescope eye goldfish, but now I can't bring myself to support that either. Also Glofish really really get my gears going, and it really upsets me that they're just a marketing gimmick, and the fish suffer for it. Genetically modified fish didn't ask to be that way, and buying such fish to "rescue" them only perpetuates their existence and ups the demand. Corporate greed and playing god simultaneously really rubs me the wrong way.

This is the same 55 set that I picked up when it was on sale, it's a good one! Only thing is, throw away that heater ASAP or keep it only as a last resort back-up. It's terrible and you can't adjust the actual temperature on it since there's no labeled dial... so you have to turn the dial and guess, which is horrific that that was an oversight. Get yourself a nice adjustable quality heater instead. Mine currently houses a bunch of juvenile female platys and their moms, and many different of snails. I need to get a bristlenose pleco and corys eventually... 🤔

I'm a graphic designer currently working in prepress at a flexographic printing company. I miss being more creative and actually designing and creating things, but I wanted to go down the line of the creative process. Through my different jobs I started as a graphic designer(making the art), then a production designer(creating/refining the art), and now prepress(getting the art press-ready). At least I'll be well-rounded on my resume for whenever I get the creative itch again! ☺️

Is there a way to have a poll function? I feel like that might be a fun way to ask a quick question and get a lot of information. I've seen this on other forums where you can still comment below the poll like a normal thread as well. I'm not a programmer so I'm not sure if that's possible, but it might be a fun idea! 😅

Shrimp make me really apprehensive because of how sensitive they can be, and plecos are pretty much bullet proof which is why I went with them. I want to get shrimp eventually, but I find them intimidating since they're not exactly beginner friendly. Plus there is that whole being a really expensive tasty treat for my fish that's a bit of a deterrent as well...

Hmm... perhaps she can have the light on only when people are home/viewing the tank? That's how I go about it—I have my lights on in the morning while I get ready for work and turn them off before I leave, then turn them back on when I'm home, and off again before bed. That would put a massive dent in the algae, if the lights are on for 16 hours a day, that's a lot of fuel for that pesky algae to gobble up!

Do you have your lights on a timer? How long are the lights on per day? I find that algae can easily be reeled back in by reducing the time that the lights are on for. I'm currently battling some hair algae and saw an improvement when I reduced the amount of time that that lights were on for.

I think it would be fine as long as you get under the table and tighten up the screws if they're easily accessible, or put corner support brackets to reinforce it. I'm using a TV stand for my 55 gallon, and that's what my husband and I did—for peace of mind more than anything.