jwcarlson

Pretty fish 🙂 When I maybe, eventually start looking at a native tank I want to collect them myself (again, no idea of legality here, just spitballing). In the past we've seined creeks for trot line bait. And ran minnow traps with cat food to catch creek chubs for walleye fishing. There's all sorts of stuff around to go find. Doesn't get cheaper than that. 😄 Years ago I bought all of the stuff to start "microfishing" and have never done it. Now that my kids are a little older I think they would like to do that, so might start recon work for native tank this summer. I don't know where you live, but our DNR has a list of native fish along with maps where they've been documented as well as ranges they *probably* inhabit. My main concern with natives is the fact that most of them live in (probably) high quality, faster water. And also cool (or cold). Most of our creeks here are quite cool in the summer. We keep our house at 62 in the winter and like 76 in the summer. I'm sure they're fine with the cooler stuff, but not sure about the warmer temps. And then there's the water quality question, can they handle some waste build up that's inherent in a home aquarium? Shiners seem to be just about everywhere around here though, so I think they're pretty hardy. They might be ultra rare in one corner of the state five hours from me for all I know 😄

Oh, the only other word of caution would be that typically bait shop fish aren't particularly healthy. It's usually pretty fast turn over and since that fish is going to be dead *momentarily* there's usually not a lot of consideration for the state that it's in when they dump them in their troughs. That said, I've also bought bait from some smaller shops running out of their garages that have really well cared for bait.

I don't have any experience with them other than seeing them 'in the wild' while fishing or sometimes catching a fish that has one in its mouth. They can get pretty darn big, so be prepared for that. A 6"+ shiner isn't uncommon. I've been mulling over the idea of someday trying a native "creek" tank and @Fish Folk has a couple pretty examples there. 🙂 We have some neat fish in Iowa (and the whole country, really) and I think it would be pretty cool to collect them as well. (unsure of the legality of this or if they would be able to thrive in captivity) Redside Dace Southern Redbelly Dace Now... these are likely in their breeding colors in these pictures and are probably more drab most of the year. But most of them remain pretty small and I think it would be neat to make a higher flow creek-type setup.

They probably are distracted, they should be ashamed of themselves. 😄 The cardinals were like this before the rummys were added, they actually might be a bit better now with the rummys. I think they're just a bit less active fish and they do seem to kind of hang lower in the column and a bit farther towards the back. Kind of under and behind where the rummys like to zip around. It's also a new tank (37 gallon, but from a *very crowded* QT 10 together). Perhaps, there's probably a lot that goes into schooling. Breeding activity, predator pressure (as you noted), seasonal changes, age of the fish, etc etc. I just chuckled this AM when we flipped the lights on one of the rummys had drifted farther away than most of the others while they were sleeping and he certainly seemed panicked when he realized it. So maybe you're on to something, Flumpweesel.

I don't think there is anything wrong with them. After one jumped through a tiny crack in their new tank's lid, I'm down to seven of them. But they're never hanging out all together as a group. It's like a 2-4 together at most. And there's no actual "schooling". Meanwhile my eight rummynose are seemingly tied together. Part of me wishes I had 16 rummynose instead of split between cardinals and rummys. Even the sterbai corys join in with the rummynose in their school, which is really funny to watch. The corys aren't nearly as good as the rummys, but they do give it a good try. Water isn't perfect and the glass is dirty because our nine year old just did a water change, but the fish were sure "having fun". The corys cannot turn nearly as sharply as the rummys so they are usually only get a good pass in about 10% of the time. Makes me wish I had a 10 foot tank with rummys and corys. *hmmmmmmmmmm*

Marci, this may or may not help, but I had something that looked a lot like ich and it ended up being Epistylis. As soon as the food meds and garlic guard got here there was a marked difference after the first feeding for me. This AM I finally saw zero spots on the fish after just short of two weeks of only medicated feed 1-2 times a day. And I've been having to over feed to make sure the sickest looking tetras get enough to be dosed. The spots do seem to come and go a little bit. If the sad looking cardinals bloom some more spots tonight I'm going to net them and put them in a little mesh breeder box thing so that I can target feed them. Colu's suggestion is what I used to treat. I had been (what felt like) pounding them with Ich-X for close to a week and it kept getting worse.

I had an anubis come in awhile back that did the same thing. Not sure what the scoop was there, about half the plant died and was "rotting". I plucked the leaves off and then when I finally went to put it on wood, I sprayed it off with the sprayer function on the kitchen sink. Cleaned it up pretty good. It is sending a new leaf now, so I think it will be just fine. I think it got damaged in shipping and hurt part of the rhizome. Not saying that's what happened to you, but it looks pretty similar.

Shrimp are real good at hiding. Even the bright red ones sometimes I'd see one or two for days on end. I hadn't seen more than three for two or three weeks. Then tore it down and all six were still alive and they'd made about 30 babies. Amanos would be even more difficult to spot.

I am continuing. Still... six more days.

Just a couple of spots left on two cardinal tetras. Went from 10 gallon "qt" to their 37 gallon now, so hopefully that helps reduce stress long term. There were A LOT of fish and I figured it was going to be a lot faster than a month QT. It was a late and something (HOB from their previous tank to help bacteria growth) was holding the new lid up a bit and one of the biggest cardinals took a leap at some point last night. 😞 Haven't lost any to this bacterial mess, but did lose one to jumpin'. Still extending the treatment for the 2nd week, but kind of wonder if they would recover on their own at this point. Nothing really to report, thanks for the help!

I had a bunch of fish and plants in a 10 gallon QT than just moved to a 37. 6 cory sterbai, 8 cardinal tetras, 8 rummy nose, and a dwarf gourami. The six adult cherry shrimp are still kicking. Moved the fish and adult shrimp yesterday and just netted out about 30 baby shrimp. Granted, there were a lot of plants in this 10 gallon, but it was a new tank (started a bit before Christmas). Additionally, it had Fluval Stratum as substrate, so that may have helped. As far as cover goes, they were packed into the Aquarium Co-Op course sponge filter like it was a condo. So if you plopped a 4" square of the course sponge material in somewhere hidden, I'd imagine they'd have a lot of cover in the interim. In the new tank I set up a nice sized rock pile and they seem to be liking that setup already on day one. Not a huge sample size, I know. And I only had six adult shrimp, so it's not like I dropped 100 into a new tank on sterile gravel.

Cute little things, I had spotted one of the bigger ones the other day. All the fish moved to their 37 yesterday and I waited until this morning to catch all the baby shrimp. Put them in a container and released them in the rockpile in the new tank, so hopefully they hide well. Probably close to 30 of them. They LOVE the course sponge filter, I bet there were 15 of them just living in it.

In a recent live stream I think Cory was saying that he thought Canadian shipping was going to happen really soon. But it might have been a replay of an old one that happened to auto play while I was listening. I think it was recent though.

I'd say that first you should get proper schools of the barbs and the cory. As far as shrimp, not super experienced. But I've got cherry shrimp in a heavily stocked tank (moving to a bigger tank tomorrow) in kind of a group quarantine with plants, corys, a dwarf gourami, cardinals, and rummynose and the shrimp are fine. Even found a baby the other day and with all the extra plants there's probably more than one baby that I just can't see. I'm sure the babies take a hit, but the adult ones aren't getting bothered as best I can tell.

I can't answer specifics, I know some people suggest sterilizing plants (1:20 bleach:water solution). You could probably do that. The more I think about it, the more I kind of wonder if it wouldn't be acceptable to do something like a combination of med trio and (if possible) leaving the tank uninhabited for some period of time. That doesn't solve the problem for all pathogens, but would probably at least help with some. Could also increase the tank temp to help burn through some of that stuff while treating/waiting. Could also change a bunch of water as well leading up to tropical inhabitants. I don't know what you're planning on stocking with and what your quarantine procedure will be like. But perhaps stocking something hardy into the tank first as a "hero" fish or small school of fish? I know that's common practice while mixing discus from different suppliers. Editing to add that this is just me spitballing and thinking on what I might do.

Glad to see it wasn't just a wild idea I had. I have some sealing to do!

I'm impressed that you have plastic plants in place for more than 15 minutes, @Atitagain. 😄 I couldn't imagine trying it with live ones. At least not live ones that I cared about whatsoever.

The two roughest looking cardinals seemed to have made a step change for the better overnight and were going after food a bit better this AM. Guess I should just stay the course. One week is up on Thursday, but it says 1-2 weeks. I think I'm going to extend to two weeks to make sure I kill the nasty.

@StevesFishTanks I have a pretty old FoodSaver that I bought on sale probably close to a decade ago. I use it for sous vide, biltong, and longer term storage of stuff. I'd buy something affordable that gets good reviews. There's a lot more options now than 10 years ago.

Make yourself a system that makes a water change easy. I added a bunch to a new tank and jacked up the cycle. Been doing twice daily 40% water changes checking with strips in the evenings. Today nitrites were finally low (not zero, but nearly so). So skipped tonight and will do it in the AM. I just age a bucket of water next to the tank with spare heater so it's warm. My tap water pH swings 1.0+ higher, so aged is the way to go for me. And an empty bucket is staged there with siphon. Takes a couple minutes while I'm checking for bacterial infection I'm fighting as well. If I had to gather stuff and fill buckets it would take twice as long. But this is pretty darn efficient. You can WC your way though it. And with your currently light stocking maybe it's less frequently required.

Can I dose Kanaplex in water AND in food? I am 4 days into it in feed and it seems to be having good results, but a couple cardinals aren't eating much even given the opportunity. Or would it be best to feed it out the rest of the week and see what happens?

I've never had them until a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately they came in with *something* that we're still sorting out. But they're clearing up and they're really fun to watch. Excited to get them out of QT and into the 75.

Totes are pretty cheap and the heavy duty-er ones can probably hold water reliably at least temporarily.

I have a dedicated raw food freezer for our dogs and cats, so that shouldn't be too much of a deal for me. Wife already knows I'm nuts. 🙂

Does anyone freeze or refrigerate excess dry foods to extend their shelf life? I'm sure I'm not the only one who tends to over buy fish food. Truthfully, I probably have well over a year's worth considering the Aquarium Co-Op fry food, Xtreme Krill Flakes, freeze dried blood worms, and various wafers/shrimp stuff. I'm used to oscars blowing through Hikari BioGold many years ago so this wasn't ever much of a concern. Any special guidelines for doing this? I can vacuum seal if that would be a better idea, but considering the almost non-existent moisture content, I'm not sure how much that would help. What I'm picturing is me having a smaller secondary container that I go put some frozen dry food into when I'm empty of a certain type. A couple weeks' worth or something like that.