nabokovfan87

This is my favorite thing. I cherish the moments when I look up a species, where they came from, and I'm able to learn through the fish I enjoy watching every day. Just one of many reasons that a fish tank is so much more than a glass box of things. Be the fish.... learn the fish.... listen to the fish. I'm sure there's an ancient proverb in there somewhere.

I've heard of issues mixing Epsom salt and normal aquarium salt. Do you use just the one or do epsom baths? How do you handle it?

Nope. Just do a really good siphon to get the substrate as clean as you can.

Jan 21st: Feb 2nd: Feb 16th: I do apologize for the terrible photos. Still a little cloudiness in the eye, but much improved. The little Riddick is doing ok. He's enjoying playing in the sand and trying to find new ways to get it to unstuck from his slime coat. Water is a mess because I was changing water today. I lifted his cave and the muck went everywhere. Trying to get the filter clean, upon touching it, released everything to the water column. 😞 He's a really fun, adorable, cool little fish. Planning to swap the substrate out of this tank when possible, for now it's "fine".... 😩 Minor update, but it was fun to hang out and get some time with him today. I can also confirm you can start a siphon using a turkey baster... much better choice than your mouth.

This. With internal worms you're treating the tank as much as anything else. I would follow Odd_Ducks' recommended schedule for parasites as it works extremely well for a thorough job and this looks like a pretty gnarly issue. It could be a deformity, but yeah.... something is going on. @jwcarlson please feel free to comment and clarify anything I may have misspoken about. Continue treatment for 3-4 weeks, longer for a more severe infestation. OD recommends 6. Day 1: Expel-P, black out tank for 24 hours (it's broken down by light) Day 2: Water change, thorough siphon cleaning, then dose in Salt+Paracleanse Day 3-6: Follow directions on paracleanse. Finish with a good siphon and water change. Day 7: rest. Repeat that weekly (or every other week) as you see fit.

Alright.... I understand now. 😂 😱 I wouldn't do any corydoras in less than a 20L, even pygmy. That's just me. I had the pandas, 30 of them, in a 10 and they were tolerant. It was literally be in that tank or freeze to death in the tub. Needless to say, yeah, 3-4 might work, but I don't recommend it just because of the footprint of a 10.

Check out Anubias barteri 'angustifolia' too. Slightly more common, might be it.

Amano and fish are fine. They are much bigger when full size.

I would have to find the post. But. Do a test.... Get 2-3 amano shrimp. They will live with the cherry shrimp without issue and won't bother them or cross. They handle the same parameters and do fine together. If they like the amanos cool, get reds. If they don't really find that spark of interest, then no big deal, amanos just help with algae and mostly are ignored. I do however recommend only shrimp. Learned that the hard way. The only thing I'd put with shrimp is pleco or otos (edit: meaning neo shrimp). Not much else.

Don't be too hard on yourself. Be in the moment and enjoy being there. I tend to just watch a tank and report on it like it's breaking news and very interesting. It might be just an audience of one, but your joy allows the good things to shine through. Tell us your 3 favorite things about the tank. Be specific, as much detail as you feel like. 🙂

It's one of my favorite plants. I dig ferns. There's "el nino fern" and "African water fern" and both are basically the big box store names for the same thing. Both are types of bolbitis and one of them (or both) may or may not actually be able to grow submersed. The confusion always comes from the plant box saying one thing and people having issues with it, then come to find out it's a terrarium plant and not labelled right. Hence.... Same plant under a ton of names. This one is the one I dig. Here's the other one.

Mine love it! If they only know to eat spirulina then..... 😂 It's definitely something I've heard before and adding something like garlic or krill should get them to go for it and let you blend in some of the healthy stuff. The few times I've tried to feed zucchini or leaves, they couldn't be bothered. Only thing that ever eats that stuff is the snails. That's awesome. Glad to know what it is!

Did you take one plant, trim it, spread it to other tanks? How far apart are those tanks and how.... Open is the top of the tank? Fish can get through some pretty tiny holes. It's a weird thing.

Very very easy to propogate. The progress looks awesome! That's awesome. One of my favorite things to do is watch them do their things. Very unique little shrimp, well.... big shrimp.

Totally reminds me of watching Jackie Chan Adventures Cartoon and having Grandpa explain what vitamins to eat. LOL Moringa, no idea. Spinach, yep. Lots of goodness there. Algae, very broad term, but yes. Walnut, hopefully safe, healthy, but feed in moderation. Artemia, yes they like brine shrimp Bee Pollen, very good. Spirulina, the best! Pumpkin, very good Nettle, very good for digestion Mulberry, very good, commonly used leaf botanical food Paprika, very good for digestion! Cinnamon, wonderful for the heart and digestion, immune booster Beetroot, very very good one, hopefully it doesn't stain the water beet red! 😂 Cucumber... Hard no. Zucchini is better. Here's some fun videos. I haven't seen this one before. WOOOT. Learning something new today.

Time for a big cull then! Can't wait to see it. A few hundred shrimp in a bucket is always fun.

On the right, I'd try something like anubias coffeefolia or one of the bigger buce plants. In the front.... hm. Small centerpiece buce or maybe some hygro pinnatifida.

I know there's a few people here who actually pull lava rock from their yard and have amazing pieces I'd recommend you look at. As far as breaking stone up and scaping.... This is a fun way to approach it and then we can discuss how. About halfway through they start going crazy with hammers and rocks. This is a great way to do it with lava rock specifically. Wear a mask, ear and eye protection, and some cut gloves. It's literally razor sharp often untill you break those edges. If your concern is symmetry, you can take a chisel and break them in half. Make large chunks and make some more pleasing for what you want. Say you have a big circle shaped one, then maybe cut it in half, gap in the middle and it would look a little like a canyon.

Calibrate your screen! 😂 It is just a white bag with a orange base.

Yeah. That's kind of where I'm at. My usual jam is epiphytes, mosses (like it cooler), and stems. Things like PSO, Water sprite, moneywort, hornwort, all those things that go crazy, that's what I tend not to want to grow and attempt to try other things. DHG is a big one for me. I need to get it going. Same thing with the ones in my tank that I need to recover, anubias and a few others.

Just got this email. MY GOODNESS YOU ALL. Run.... Don't walk. 😂 I highly recommend the WBE (world's best espresso) if you like cold brew. All good stuff. Hopefully you find one you like and they can grind it for you. Glad the shrimp are doing good for you. Do you have any ideas on how many adults you have in the tank now? Is there a minimum you want to keep? @TeeJay

Cinnamon bark is used in shrimp tanks. A lot of keepers will use stuff like that, stinging nettle, spinach, etc to get certain minerals to them. Helps with diseases too. Cinnamon is wonderful for you. Usually listed as Ceylon bark on a lot of botanical websites. Same thing. There is a ton of fake cinnamon and fake vanilla, so just be careful on source. 9/10 when you're buying something fancy for cooking you almost always pay for junk. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamomum_verum

I do know that some plants need a certain temp and that lower temps help fight algae. Let's say the room at it's worst is in the 50's... Does a plant only tank need a heater? What would you set it to?

This center island needs about 100 corydoras in it with some tiger barbs. You might be surprised. I recommend the yelp app to try to find local stores If they exist. I am right there with you though, basically big box Petco and I don't go elsewhere.

Alright.... let's try to explain this one succinctly. I have a 75G. Let's just daydream and call it a 6 foot long tank. Whatever that is. I want to have a setup where the substrate is good for plants, the sand is actual sand and they don't do crazy mixing. Massive chunks of seiryu stone or lava rock (black specifically) that have a good shape to them or have been tumbled. I would acid wash the seiryu so it doesn't go too crazy on my water and the crags and canyons it makes in the pattern are actually great for things like fry, aufwuchs, etc. I want to have a few varieties of moss that aren't the typical java moss or similar. I would want something like fissidens nobilis all along the entire back wall of the tank and some of the more difficult ones that have a bit more interesting texture on the fronds through the tank. I want a few pretty intensely big ferns in the tank. I don't really like java fern, but if there is a broad leaf version of java fern, it'd be that or some species of bolbitis that fit the mold. I would want to have a section (not the entire top surface) with some salvinia for cover. A section of hygro pinnatifida featured prominently and doing well. I would want to see S. Repens in the tank as well in front, then some sand, then some hairgrass. I don't want to have a log or a stump, but some interesting, flowing wood that works well with the rock. That sort of wraps through the rocks by weaving through the tank and giving it some life. Moss on the top of the wood and looking good with shrimp hanging out on it. Otos shoaling around. Corydoras doing their thing. I would want 3-4 good size open areas for them to feed and graze. I would want to have a few caves, swim throughs, and places for them to escape to if they need be. Moss balls in the open sections that don't have the hairgrass tufts. If you're familiar with some of Amano's famous tanks then you'd be sort of familar with the setup.... I want to have wood with moss + epiphytes, things I haven't done yet, but you do need a pretty big tank to do well. To have the space to do it well and be able to place things specifically. I want a tank that visually looks really nice. To show a bit of knowledge and growth with my ability to tune things for plants and to actually have something to sit and stare at to transport me elsewhere. I just want to be happy with it, at the end of the day, and I am not unhappy with my current main setup, but I know it has a lot of issues. I know it's cramped too, which doesn't really help things. This is nuts. Well done. I am very very jealous of this one!