nabokovfan87

I will start with..... I would view this as mandatory viewing for anyone who is considering buying or caring for otos. They are a very misunderstood fish a lot of the time and it's very important to always go back to the "be the fish" mentality. I have had otos that came in and then had some ich. That being one issue and one situation. I would make sure you have a tank with some good algae (brush algae) on the surfaces for them. Barring that, I would suggest the sera spirulina tabs or some other forms of good food that they will easily be able to eat when first arriving. Make sure they don't get too stressed out (red gills and breathing heavy) and then QT them like you normally would with the med trio and the second version of the internal parasite med the co-op sells from fritz. For amano shrimp, you really have to treat them very differently than a fish and this is based on a video I saw from Cory when they brought some into the shop in one of their older unboxings. He basically said that there is no good way to QT them and you want to just get them into a tank. There are a lot of meds that are not shrimp safe but the med trio from co-op has been tested with shrimp I believe. From the co-op QT article:

They are usually in the glo fish section.

Mine went from about 6.8 down to about 6.0-6.2. You can also cap the substrate if you want. It's going to be something that the tank's inhabitants will have to be used to so just keep that in mind in whatever you do. Temperature, hardness, stuff like that matters a lot more than PH to me. Some species are extremely sensitive but most species will handle a pretty big range.

I appreciate the info. There's definitely some options once they replace the tiles and redo the floor but I imagine it won't be for quite a while. The house has been under construction since we moved in and things are slow because of it. Long story but yeah, I really appreciate the information. Great to know some of the options especially with the weight on a 125G in play. What's the expression, measure twice, cut once.... Get something done, do it right so you don't have to fix it a week later.

I would nix it then or use a different location to refill.

I appreciate it @Odd Duck I just found this. Before the crash. Needless to say. I hope to get back to something like this. 🙂

Home Depot and such carry tubing. The marine land stuff is tinted from what I remember, so it means you'll see the algae and stuff on the tubes. That might be a good thing or not. Just be sure to check materials on whatever you get. Some will be fish safe and some won't.

Temperature is the big one, especially just based on needing very specific flow/oxygenation usually. They might need softer flow than the adults (something I tend to focus on) but temps are always critically consistent. PH swings aren't good but "close enough" should be fine. Height of the tank is another thing I keep an eye on because they have to swim to the top to breathe. Keep an eye on how fast they move their mouth and gill cover. If it's extremely fast that is when there will be some concerns and I would start with salt and checking the above to make them comfortable. Pandas are extremely hearty and very good at keeping on. They would be fine. I would give them cover in the tank, they are very smart about avoiding predators. Wood, rocks, I've had mine find their way in so many crevaces. When you feed them they will come out and you can move them. If they still have egg sacks or something, they are too young to be moved, essentially, but that might just be me and how I handle mine.

Just a thought, I had a buddy who made his own candles from bottles. You might be able to find something nto cut the top portion of the glass off and then have a pretty unique tank. The only thing I'd be careful of, especially with shrimp and the age of the glass, is if it starts to leech anything. Looks cool and interesting, shrimp are too much fun. There's a counter and the spray gun thing. Just use that. : 😉 The bleach should either be removed by rinsing, air, or using the dechlorinator. You shouldn't have any issues in either use case. Especially if you're just patient and rinse it a bunch or let it run and let the chemicals leech out over time before adding anything.

My first breeding project success, mom on the right.

The one in Jimmy's video has suction cups to attach it. Another option is to use silicone to attach the Back mesh and then use zip ties or something to attach the front mesh (or glue the moss to the mesh itself like anything else)

Yes, I totally remember this. I will give it another look today. I've probably seen the tour 100x. Roku youtube app loves to re-show it to me. lol. They are already talking about moving again once more of the house is repaired. There's a TV that was put on a wall where I would need to place the tank. I'm pretty sure it was placed there to stop me from having a place to put the tank but yeah. When I say the floor isn't level.... it's the cement, the tile, there's a TON of issues and we are basically having to re-do work because of it. It's not a good situation. Long story short, but I definitely don't feel comfortable shimming this one. The stand I have is from sauder/aqueon and it's a pretty good design with 5 legs. I can cut pieces of acrylic as a shim or use wood, but the floor is just so bad to the point where I would have 5 legs on the floor and maybe 1 touching completely. It physically is going to shift, the tiles are shifting over time, and it's not a great situation. We've discussed getting a 40B temporarily if need be because it's much less weight and I've been looking at lowboys. I plan to have the 75G set up in a different building, but it looks like the office isn't going to be a reality now and the pandas will need to keep waiting. They are doing fine for now, I just know they love the bigger space. I'm pretty sure the living room used to be the driveway. The backyard is on the opposing wall and it has a 3" step down that is also at a pretty severe slope and not true left to right. Once we get the floor repaired I can "re-evaluate" the cement itself, but it is just a pretty old house and the guy that modified it had no idea what they were doing, no permits, it's messy.

I pulled them yesterday. It was a bit late in the evening, but the temp inside was 71. I checked in the morning and the tanks were sitting right around there. I'm running a floor heater to gently raise the room temp and let the fish slowly acclimate while the tanks recover from the water change. So far everything looks good and the corys are definitely chasing one another around.

Very unfortunate. My condolences.

Gift him one of those python or whatever brand siphon pumps! I am sure he would appreciate not having to do that. If he hasn't, I highly recommend checking out Edd China on youtube and particularly his story about why he wears the gloves he does. He went in for a routine med check and they found some hydrocarbons and stuff in his blood from all his mechanic duties. Me neither. For whatever reason I recall someone trying to grow lemongrass or use lemongrass in a tank but it's been years and I don't remember the use case. I would recommend this if you really want something for the studio to help out. Just keep in mind it's going to be something where you are adding those particles to the air and be careful what is and isn't fish safe (none of mine have had any issues as a result of my use). https://www.amazon.com/stores/Organic+Aromas/page/61B115B7-9B5C-4A3A-9165-79895A1689C6?ref_=ast_bln

From the old house, this is from the files I have sent Bentley when I was struggling to get plants going for such a long time. I also have this of my old 75G tank, keep in mind it totally had crashed on me, but it gives you an idea of what I had and wish to get back to. It was a high tech, heavily planted tank and my first real attempt to get back into the hobby. Originally I had pogostemon stellatus octopus in the back/middle of the tank. I had tried about 5 seperate attempts to get some scarlet temple going, it just doesn't like my water or something. I also enjoyed the bacopa caroliniana top down view. The right side was panda cory heaven and the left side was where Grace would hang out. I has some dwarf sag on the left there and it was all across the front of the tank. Anubias flowering all over the place but the tank itself was definitely a shadow of it's former glory. I love that I've entered back into the hobby, especially now that I know what underwater plants are and I'm not taking the substrate out to do a water change with my mom. I loved our tank we had when I was a kid, but only now do I appreciate it and all the things we did. Probably was a 29g tank too. Ironically. 😂

Hello Everyone, I've been trying to get my feet wet on the forums and not sure where to begin with this one. Of note, I started with some smaller tanks, then got a 55G tank which eventually became a 75G tank. I always had this 29G off to the side and in my room for my personal focus and enjoyment while the larger tank was intended for a more relaxing atmosphere. Because of everything going on in the world, we ended up moving and the result of that is that I'm in a house now where there is probably 2 spots in the entire house where the concrete floor is actually flat. (I really hate it when people who don't know what they are doing, think they can just add a floor to their house or add rooms). Needless to say, whatever is up with this house, it's been a bit of an issue. So, I can't setup the 75G tank and I am down to only having my 29G tank with some of the inhabitants from that original 79G, and namely my black corydoras that called it home originally. I purchased these to try to have some passive income, enjoyment, and it's been a heck of a journey trying to get them to a decent spawn. I have raised two fry, but I should have a tank flooded with these guys. They spawned for me about 5-6 months ago and there was a massive amount of eggs everywhere. By the time I had ordered the egg tumbler and breeder box, about half the eggs were fungused over and then at that point they started to just deteriorate or be eaten at night. (that pleco was moved to a 10G tank I have off to the side to help with algae) *deep breath* This tank is also the focus I've been talking with Bentley about his "one tank a a time" series. Before the move, all is well, after the move, fish in tubs for a while, and once I needed to drop heaters back in for winter I had no choice but to setup this tank for them again. Once i got the tank setup, I hit the reset button a bit on the substrate, moved in some different plants, and tried to recover some of my anubias that had been with me for years at this point. At this point is what you see here. After the eggs were gone, a little bit of black and brown algae started to set in. I had stuff under control, made an adjustment with the lights and ended up with the following. Once we all got sick this past January, my tanks lost power and things got even worse. I was in a different room with the pups and it took me far longer than it should've to see the issue with the filter. My 10G crashed, shrimp died, pleco died, but thankfully my 29G had turned back on and seemed to be doing OK. The exception being that algae which had now insanely overtaken everything and I had longer strands of hair algae, staghorn algae, BBA, and the brush algae on everything. I decided to order from aquahuna and got some amanos in. I had cleaned out the local store of their amanos (insanely small size) and replenished the 10G tank with their algae team. After a few days.... this is the same plant in the photo above. Yesterday, before cleaning, I took this photo shown below just to show where things were really at. There is some algae on the sides (I won't scrape it because I want the otos to have it. I also want to get the filter intake cleaned, but it's just a nightmare at this point. The wood is slowly being cleaned by the shrimp, the rocks and plants were their focus up front. So at this point in time the tank is a bit better off and feels like we're getting back to a "good spot". After cleaning, current status, this is where we are now. A lot of the fish besides the corys hang out in their caves all day, but let's talk a bit about the scape, stocking, and why some of the choices are what they are. Current plan: Dwarf Hairgrass carpet, Sterogyne Repens off to the left side (light will be centered at that point), moss on the wood and on the back wall, and some Anubias Coffefolia for the corys to lay eggs. Stocking: 3x Black Schultzei Corys, 2 Cory fry, 2 clown plecos, 4 Otos, "plenty" of amano shrimp, and my red tailed black shark names grace that has been with me for close to 5 years. Scape: I have the Bubble bio as a focal simply because I like the ability to polish the water and it is very easy to clean. The shrimp enjoy it, corys enjoy it, it's been a successful tool for me in this tank as well as the 75G. On the back right side I have an airstone setup. The pump I have is slightly too strong and so I need a way to control the air a bit. I plan to replace the pump and remove the stone as soon as the co-op releases their usb-c version. The stone is setup so that in a moment I can add the hang-on breeder box or the egg tumbler and not have to mess with too much as well. It's something the otos enjoy. The rocks I have in here right now are Seiryu, something for the shrimp specifically, but these are also the rocks I had when I first started getting success from the panda corys. I had some moss on the rocks, the fry can get into these really small crevaces and hide from the adults. I have some other rocks I can swap in, but the goal is to get plants settled and hopefully the rocks themselves will just be more aesthetically there for the corys to swim around. They generally enjoy the open tank, and hiding out of sight of the room. Once there are more plants I know they will relax a bit better. At this point, I need to figure out what moss to use on the back wall. I want to get some susswassertang somewhere and I will absolutely need to find a good source for it. That texture is what these corys prefer to spawn. Moss is definitely going to expedite the process but I truly believe in my 2-3 year journey with these guys that they will spawn on susswassertang without fail. I have already ordered the quilted mesh to mount to the back wall to do so. I've had mops in their tank (and tub) and haven't had much success. Believe me..... that moment I saw the two little cory fry hanging out after I had lost all the eggs was a momentous occasion. This was the tank when it was first setup, for posterity. I was so excited to see it do well. I lost the DHG simply because it was not planted deep enough. Tough, but I re-ordered some more and learned that lesson. I am waiting for that Anubias to be in stock and I have an order ready to go for the co-op. And of course..... The real MVP of this one. Needless to say, I hope I turn a corner with this one pretty soon. I feel like things are getting back to where they need to be and I might have a really nice planted tank again. It's been about.... 2 years I feel like, trying to get to this point and feel like I can get the plants where I want them to be. This is tank right after setup and moving to the new house. A lot has changed since then but I had some high hopes for this scape and this setup. It's been a journey. I ended up losing all of these plants because I didn't plant them deep enough and the flow on the tidal was just too much (and the fish pulled some out). I replaced all of these plants with 3 pots a bit on the right side. I added the rocks as cover on the right side for the corys as well as tried to salvage some of the anubias from the tubs. I really enjoy the look of the tank in this photo specifically and hope to get back to it.

cleaning the meds and tanks is to try to remove any parasites, if you see anything, and is to lower nitrite and nitrates before the viscosity of the water changes. It will stress the fish a bit. Lowering these up front..... helps. It's not about the bacteria, hopefully there is enough and there is some strong enough to stick around. Recommendation is usually not to go above 10-15% WC because of what it does to the water parameters. A lot of people do higher volume changes regularly, myself included. The 25% WC is a bit "higher than normal" if you're following the 15% rule. I would stick to 25% WC when doing meds or treating illness like that. 3 at once is a "shorter timespan" for the fish to be stressed. Dosing them one at a time, you would treat them once with one, then give them recovery time. Then move onto the next one. Over time, it's a lot of stress on the fish. There's advantages and disadvantages to either approach, but for the sake of a storefront, dosing 3 at once is mandatory. Every day people use their only tank to treat the tank itself for some sort of an issue. It happens. Your tank *should be* fine and it's not something I've ever stressed or had any issues with. Especially running 2 filters. If you're having any concern, after you finish meds, you get a bottle of bacteria as a precaution.

It's kind of up to Greg?

I cleaned out the tanks yesterday. It was a slightly biggish water change, but the fish are used to that. I pulled therms, cleaned them off, and got very annoyed at how well I can grow some algae. I woke up today and the silly tidal filter already had the indicator telling me it was bypassing badly this time. I kept hearing prime time aquatic's voice on his review "maintain your filter, no seriously..... maintain your filter". I would love to "fix" the filter, I just need to order a part from seachem so I have a copy to use and swap it out easily. Needless to say, it's too early, no coffee yet, I poured some homemade cider tea (teavana), and just fed the fish and added some filter floss to protect the media from the bypass on the media bag. It's literally an issue with basket design and the allowable "height" of the media basket. I'll end up making a massive guide/post with my 4-6 years of this thing and figuring out every single quirk. BUT FIRST. Some coffee and hopefully some cory eggs land today. They've been swimming around looking for spots to lay or they are just being corys.

😂 What a lot of people end up doing to give some flexibility and placement is to have a small section of flexible tube and then fit that into the rigid piece. It can help it to seal and you end up with ties on either end or something to keep it attached. Doesn't look the best but that's what I've seen a lot of times. People like eheim also sell kits. But between everything you're looking at you should be able to dean something up and follow a lot of what he's got in terms of his spray bar design. 😉 Nylon zip lies would work best and be water safe

I'm having a bug where I cannot edit or remove embeds (Android app). One post, I had a YouTube video where it wouldn't let me remove it / replace the link. I had to go to the laptop to be able to do so. Second one, shown here, similar behavior. I added the tag for the user, then immediately could not type anymore at all whatsoever. Couldn't remove the tag, had to go back to plain text and type the rest of the message before the tag. They have apps in windows that do that. Or you just alt+tab.

They do that on Ohio fish rescue and there is a legit method to "patch it" As long as it's not tempered you could try to cut the crack out or just add a support and fill the crack using the method mentioned above by Odd duck and then trying to seal it using a piece of spare glass as shown in the screenshot. This is the repair they did on their 450G tank for a spot where there was some holes drilled for the sump and no longer were required. Here's a vid on method @Odd Duck

1" = exterior dimension (it will have a tolerance) 3/4" = interior dimension (it will have a tolerance) the thickness of the material on either side is 1/8"... So you're looking at .75 + 2* (.125) = 1.000

Hm.... This is very interesting to me. I entirely understand the means to try and give the fry extra special care. Once my Corys get to a certain size, high flow setup for me, I don't usually have any issues. I will absolutely be taking much greater care when I do have the rare fish spawn again, but my pandas I just never have had any issues. One thing I've always thought about was the height of the tank and how it might be too tall / exhausting for the small fry to swim all the way to the top. Potentially just dropping the height by a small margin you can might be enough? Adding an extra air stone? I post because I wonder what your setup for the fry looked like compared to mine. Usually I try to have some mulm and a lot of hiding places. Moss balls even was enough and all the fry needed despite feeding a "good amount" just to get them something to grub on. 50%+ changes, all I would ask is what the hardness is or even the shrimp type. Some can be very specifically adverse to temp or PH swings. It might cause then to molt early and cause issues. Again, just interesting stuff to take a deep dive into and really figure it out. I'm sorry for your struggles, as mentioned above it will get better and you will hit a groove. What matters isn't what happens when you falter but how you respond. One of my favorite motivational speakers.