Corbidorbidoodle

I tested the ammonia. 0. Weird, right? All of the CPDs have finally died. And some of the dwarf emerald rasboras too. But there're still several hanging on. So you know what else... I set up a new little tank for the yellow neo shrimp that were in the 20, cuz it just seemed like a good idea. I still had 10 adults with 3 berried females. And I moved at least a dozen babies. But probably more like 20 (and there's still a bunch in there). But in the new tank I noticed something non-shrimpy swimming around. It's freakin' fry!? So the DERs made some babies! I'm not going to the trouble of culturing daphnia or anything like that. But there are quite a bit of babies in the 20. Pretty much anywhere you look, if you hold still, you'll see a little thing darting about. It'll be cool if some of them actually survive.

I've got a 20 gallon that can't decide if it wants to fail or not. I don't know what the deal is with this thing. Things I did right: lots of healthy growing plants, fully cycled, passive CO2, ACO Sponge Filter, ACO heater, balanced lighting, regular water changes, regular testing - NO3 10-25, NO2 0, GH 300+, KH 80-120, PH 6.8-7.2, CL2 0 Things I probably shouldn't aughta have done: Thrift store tank, thriftstore wood (was in my back yard for a while but I didn't sanitize it), BDBS substrate, lots of water changes to remove tannins, some temperature fluctuations cus it's hot here right now (tank set to 72 but it's around 74 to 78 inside), and who knows what else. And I think that piece of wood may have been in a reptile tank at some point in it's past. So I can't figure this tank out. I had about 12 CPDs, about 8 Emerald Green Dwarf Rasboras, and a dozen or so Yellow Cherry Shrimp. Everybody was happy for a while, but then I started loosing the occasional shrimp. Several freshly molted females, sometimes just a random male, but kind of randomly. No big die offs. Also losing some CPDs. Was occasionally, but just lost three to saddle-back, I think, but not totally sure. I just put three Golden Endlers in there to pick at some of the algae. They're making a dent and the CPDs feel better with them in there it seems. At the same time, I'm seeing healthy CPDs with mating behavior, nice bright colors on the EGDRs. And I just watched a berried female give birth to little shrimplets that're happily cleaning the Mopani Wood. I'm not terribly worried about this tank. If everybody dies, I'll just start over with some new knowledge. If everybody lives, it's a good looking tank for now. But I wanted to avoid a long, slow, agonizing, failed experiment. When you've got a tank that's only kinda working, but all the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted, what do you look for? You can't test for everything. But I'm sure there's some black magic folk knowledge that you pick up along the way. What kinda stuff do you guys look for or try out?

Shrimpes be crazy.

I have a Aponogeton Crispus from ACO that is growing beautifully. It's sent out a thing that I assume must be a flower. What should I do with it? Just leave it? Guide it out of water? Cut it off? I'm not sure if the flowering will make it go dormant or something. Like cutting of the long leaves of a tiger lotus.

When you're ready, hatching brine shrimp are easy and pretty reasonably priced to get into. And everything else sounds perfect. I wish I was that organized. I just sorta grab a different food at random for each feeding.

So, I was thinking of setting up a shrimp rack with 4 10gal tanks, for 4 different colors of shrimp, cuz it'd be about the same size as a 40gal breeder, which I have a perfect shelf for. I was going to try to connect the 4 tanks for a bigger water column, but I was thinking itd be better to split up a regular 40gal breeder instead. Do y'all know of a good, shrimp safe/effective way to split up the tank? I've seen lots of tank dividers, but it seems like the little baby shrimp would just waltz right through the holes. I was thinking about maybe making something out of window screen, or maybe filter material, some kinda big sponge... Have any of you tried something like this? Is there an off-the-rack solution? Best DIY suggestions? Thanks!

Do you guys ever trim your Val? Like, when it gets to the top and starts to curve around? I love how it looks, and I'm not worried about light or O2 or anything. Just wondering how y'all maintain yours.

I'm pretty sure that's normal, right? I can't seem to grow Scarlet Temple, but pretty much all my other stem plants grow roots from nodes all the way along the stems.

You say that now...

This was it! Totally did the trick. Suckin' like a boss now.

This probably seems like a dumb question. But I picked up some freeze dried blood worms and daphnia, and this stuff is so light and fluffy it'll barely break the surface tension. Let alone sink... I put a cube of tubifex worms in and the fish didn't even notice it. Still a pile of worms at the end of the day, just wetter. How do you get this food into the water column? Or is it just for fish that only eat off the surface?

Makes me wanna try going topless. All my tanks are lidded. Really cool looking.

Is that spreading on it's own? Or are you propagating it?

I've found that my Gouramis don't get along with other kinds of Gouramis, but I have 6 pearls and they're the best of friends.

The metal y'all are referring to... Is that like chunks of metal scrap? Or, like, traces of heavy metals or something like that? Like is it something you can see and pick out or, like, something you have to test for?

I've got it in several tanks with cherry shrimp, neon green rasboras, neon tetras, CPDs, a betta, and all manor of plants, and they're all fine. I don't have a control group or anything, so it's not very scientific... But seems to be fine so far. I had cheap "real" aquarium sand from, like, Tetra or something and the black was coming of on my Gold Rams' mouths. Like they'd been drinking chocolate milk or something. Never a problem with the BDBS.

It's a 43 gallon with 4 Kribensis, 9 Lemon Tetras, and 5 Khuli Loaches. I'm prolly going to add a dozen of another tetra, but I dunno yet... They seem to school pretty well too. Maybe I'll get some more Flag Fish instead.

If I had that tank I'd go Sparkling Gouramis. But it just happens to be the fish I wanna do next. Sometimes, to help me decide, I go to the store and there's always a fish I have to talk myself out of getting. Then I obsess over it for a few weeks and probably buy a new tank... So whatever fish keeps you up at night should go in there. For me right now that's Sparkling Gouramis.

I never figured out what exactly was going on, but I think it's just some sort of very delayed adjustment melt. They all melted all over the tank, but now they're all growing nice new leaves. So all's well that ends well.

I think it's working! Two of them live in the same rock crevice now. They take turns swimming out to glower at the other fish. There's another one that lives under a rock at the other end of the tank. And then the 4th one lives up at the top behind the filter intake/outflow. I don't think that one is very happy. Kinda grey and bored looking. But what're you gonna do. 3 outta 4 isn't too bad.

Whatever was wrong is all better now. All I did was double check parameters, gave the tank a half dose of sea salt, and gave it a little time. Everything turned out okay.

I ordered a new faucet pump part. It's working like a champ now. And it was only 5 bucks on Amazon. I still can't figure out what the difference is. I gotta go to Harbor Freight to get a giant allen key to take the old one apart.

I went with the frogs. Was at a super cool new-to-me fish store the other day an picked up 4 ADF. One of them was a whooper too! Pretty much full grown. I've never seen one full grown before. Anyways, I think they're doing their job already. Fun to watch. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow.

I'm not totally sure about quarantine, I completely trust the store to quarantine them properly. And I'm very lazy... But the behavior I saw was just for the first day I had her. She's actually doing really great now. Schooling with the others and everything. I think she was just nervous about her new home, and maybe getting used to different water parameters. Here's another picture!

I picked up 4 Flag Fish yesterday. Three of them are awesome. Swimming around, eating algae, making friends. But one of them is just kinda hanging out by herself, resting in some water wisteria. Is that okay? Looks healthy otherwise. Just not acting like the other three. I'll attach a photo. But it's pretty much from the back of her, so not sure if it's helpful.