nabokovfan87

Very much agreed.

1. Shrimp LOVE flow, especially from the siphon when I'm trying to avoid them and clean the tank. 2. One of the more annoying characteristics is a fish just sort of going "meh" when you excitedly feed them for the day. Even better, when they decide that the food you drop isn't what they want today and go hunting algae on rocks or go dig in the substrate for little critters. 😂

I think it's a product called entice. It's basically garlic that you dip the food in and it should encourage the fish to eat it. Garlic guard is a similar product and should have a similar effect. Oscars are known to be a pretty temperamental fish. Rachel O'Leary would affectionately call her fish "Mr. Crankypants" and other keepers have reported that they can be moody. Just be persistent, keep trying, and hopefully the fish starts to get comfortable in the new situation.

Me too! But, this was a preorder of rare plants and I'd been eyeballing them for practically a year and never listed in stock. That led to me thinking that the only way to ever get them was to "preorder" and play the shenanigans game. Timeline for the order was ~4-5 weeks, but I just need to have good communication and I'm a pretty forgiving customer. We'll see.

A few have been mentioned. Essentially I think of oddball as something where it's not usually fit for a simple community tank. It might be something that works best as a species only tank or something where the fish itself has care requirements that dictate a bit of extra work. Unique characteristics all play a role in that definition for me. One of my go-to fish would be a goby species, something that crawls on the substrate. Darters and mudskippers also going into that realm. Fan feeder shrimp is a fun oddball type of thing and they might actually really do well in a tank setup just for them. A wild betta tank needs almost a biotope just for them, and it's one I mentioned earlier, but I don't have any experience as far as care with them to really understand what they truly need long term. Exodons are a fun little species only setup and honestly tiger barbs can be treated the same way. They aren't like a lot of other fish when they have a massive horde and it's feeding time. I can only imagine what it would be like to feed exodons, but species only, big schools of barbs are a blast for me. African butterfly fish seem really cool to me, but I don't really know if I've ever seen on in a tank that is happy and doing well. Trapdoor mouth fish can be interesting and enjoyable. Archerfish also have the same sort of specialized tank needs. Pipefish is about as classic of an oddball for me as it gets. They just need specialized care and don't look like something most people keep. There are some interesting freshwater eels as well. Lungfish. elephant nose fish. Loaches, hillstream species, and that almost river style tank is fun, but it's not for everyone. I think seeing a hillstream loach suck in some food is just a goofy and interesting thing to watch. Pea puffers is the other big category. I really dig a dragon / hairy puffer. Crabs can be another avenue, same thing with crayfish, but I think shrimp give you a similar type of experience. If you're wanting something to eat and use claws, that's a whole different thing, but in terms of interest, I prefer shrimp and would lean towards unique and rare shrimp. Wolf fish, bicher, and then you have the big pond size catfish have their own appeal just because of how fun it can be to feed them. I personally think some of those species shouldn't be available to hobbyist. There's a lot of interesting catfish, plecos, and they might not be your traditional oddballs, but they do need some special care requirements that can be appealing for someone looking for "unique" fish. ..................... So, given all of those items on the mind and the tank in question. I would really lean towards "looking into" a puffer, goby, darter, hillstream tank, biotope setup, or some unique catfish like the upside down cats. If I was set on something unique, interesting, and I had all the knowledge to do it properly.... I would go for an african butterfly fish. You have the view from above and can keep the water a little lower. It opens up a lot of creative opportunities for you!

Yeah, the way you might get around that is to use something called a worm feeder. you can let the repashy defrost and then sort of squish it into the grate to hold it's place. The ice cubes are just too slippy of a surface for the repashy to grip for an extended period. Love the idea, but I think you're just running into friction issues!

Sometimes sitting, sometimes obsessing over reflection - I did cover that wall now, and sometimes exploring. But the ram is startled very easily: wrong color light, or sees my movements.. goes and hides. Still trying to figure out what light he will tolerate. Ah, I was just asking about the way the flake is when you drop it in. Frozen brine works for a lot of bottom feeders because it acts like flake food for me and they eat that. Apart from the taste and why they like it. Even the corydoras go for that over the other stuff slightly easier. When I feed it though, I have to turn off the filter for ~30 mins. The behavior is cool. The traits I like is that he is watching you and doing the "this is where I am going to be, please don't come in my forest" thing. I also like to see the in-place, fanning the fins and being a bit excited. I'm not sure how to word it, but it's that classic ram behavior of being in place, flapping the fins around, and then going down for a bite or swimming around. In that vid at 2:36 or so, he jumps to the front of the tank trying to ward off the fish. So fun. Rams are fun. Is there any chance there is vibration from noise or a door nearby this tank that opens/closes a bit? Do you have any way of making a vertical wall on two sides (or 3)? Not as critical right now at all, but you might get different behavior if you have that rock as a wall for him to protect a corner or something. I don't think he'll use the cave decor because it has a roof part, but maybe you see him go in there sometimes too?

I don't really think a betta community tank is the right choice due to temps, but just keep in mind flow requirements, temp, and activity level of the fish. Maybe the loaches would be too much in a 10 with a betta? the rasbora will want different temp than the other 2 species from what I am aware of. Just something to consider or further dive into. (most rasbora are cooler water fish, prefer low 70's as opposed to high). I really don't know much about what apisto will want, but depending on what the temp is currently, I just wanted to mention it.

It looks like hole in the head disease, pretty classically. Sometimes the damage can be to the severity where it's permanent. cc @Odd Duck or @Colu , can you please verify this for us!? I commend you for trying to give this fish a better home and I have my fingers crossed for the both of you.

When it's frozen it might take a second to thaw, but it should always sink. Hm. maybe you just need slightly bigger chunks? What is your recipe when you make it? How much water to powder and is the water piping hot? congratulations! I equate the video to two kites fightiing eachother. 😂

Very beautiful! Nice work.

The only real concern would be the fish. Has the BNP or the tetras been treated before? Have they had any meds recently?

I like this one. Just need to play around with the left side or a medium size stone. I like the contrast of the darker rock on this wood and the grip the wood has on the stone.

I'm sorry @Monkeypoint . My condolences.

In the video they look good! I would expect them to spawn for you and that would increase the numbers over time. I wouldn't be concerned much at all of adding to the herd at this point. Give them time to grow and just do their thing. Getting GH higher than KH might be helpful. It's a ratio used and recommended for plants. Just a sidenote and something to keep an eye on if the GH drops further. At minimum feed once a day. Preferably twice whenever you have a day where you want to feed them again in the afternoon (2-3x a week) is always fine too. I tend to use repashy or something and then let that sit in the tank for them to graze on. the same thing works in the afternoon and they can feed through the night. One thing to keep in mind with both the shrimp and the fish is the substrate that you have. The food might end up being too hard to them to get to if it falls down in the crevices. It just depends on what you're feeding. It's also a good thing for the shrimp too and they get to have their fill a bit easier when it comes time to feed them calcium based foods. Adding a snail issue on top of all of those things means that any food that isn't in the dish, then you'll end up with that being very accessible for the snails and that might make issues worse for you. That's a roundabout way to simply say, having some dishes for the shrimp to feed on, using a feeding plate (or having a sand section) for the corydoras could be helpful to control the snails and make sure food is indeed eaten. Give the tank a good cleaning, use some snail traps, and just repeat that until you're satisfied with the progress. corydoras usually do well with a mix of krill / spirulina granules, pellets, or flakes as long as they don't have something that too big for them to digest. Algae wafers might not be a bad idea, repashy would be good for them too and you can try a variety of the recipes available. Bug based foods like aqueon nutrinsect are pretty good and most corydoras seem to love some bugs! While omnivore food is good for corydoras, just keep in mind they do need some good protein sources as well.

Yes I've used them. They have phosphate (green) and carbon (black) ones as well.

Interesting. Does it move around a lot in the filtration flow or drop / sit? Hm. definitely a bit of a puzzle. Hopefully one bite of the brine leads to a few more. In the video, he looks good! Active, not lethargic, and actively searching for food. His personality seems to be a little feisty, so that's fun.

Grace has been seemingly transitioning to long autumn walks and gently strolling around the garden. The word that came to mind watching her was that she was being a bit whispy today. She normally naps right below the strainer intake sponge and her chunky wood hide. I can only think it's a reaction to being able to sit in the flow and just have a bit of a space that isn't right under the light anymore. She glides out of her little hole and she was just in the tank, open space today. No aggression and she was not chasing fish at all. She grazed on a rock, the algae on the substrate, and then went across the front glass. She met up with my male swordtail and they had a casual hello this morning. A little fin wave and she glided around the side of the tank. She wasn't just doing rounds as she normally does, but she was exploring and relaxing out and about. I take it as her small way of telling me shes happy and content today. She's relaxed and doing just fine. No word in sight on plants still, but we do have a "side tank" intended to be there for only plants (and maybe a Riddick). I imagine when it's over 2 months on the plant order and no progress I will just request a refund and start that process. It's a bit ridiculous. I hope I can find a deep discount on some contrasoil for the tank during black friday and that will greatly help me to get things going whenever plants do arrive from whichever source. A bit of cleaning and just fixing things around the tank today. I am moving piles from one spot to the next and pretending it's progress.... it seems. 😂 Enjoy your tanks, be sure to relax a little today, feed some good flake food and just watch the fish do their thing. Have a good week everyone.

Yeah, that's probably to be expected. I would just take the cap off next time and run it under hot water or just use a specimen container / cup to dissolve it in some tank water. no biggie!

You're right, gotta love a good espresso!! 😉 This is a good one. Especially things like the blades or if you're using other methods, those bits as well. It's not like the algae is going anywhere. To add a few.... -Magnetic hooks or magnet bars for items on metal stands -zip ties and tie cutters -things for CO2 tanks, o rings, and all the bits and bobs we use but never replace often enough. -bucket lids (definitely don't try to fit that in a stocking) -clips for holding hoses and things for acclimation or QT. (media with bags, botanicals, salt, etc.) If you are someone who has the pieces, might be a nice gift to take the time to cut foams for someone too! Especially for people who don't have the ability or tools themselves.

I would tend to stick to pellets or granules. Essentially try different recipes and see which one gets the fish to show interest. Then that's the one you keep working with. In the meantime of those attempts, you'd try something like frozen brine or frozen worms. Frozen brine should be pretty good food for the ram and it's likely very easy for the fish to eat. The sand sifting might just be trying to eat little critters in the substrate and it's a behavior I tend to see a lot. Brand new substrate though, yeah, that's a bit of a concern. For me the main 3 types of food would be Krill, bug, or omnivore. Krill food would be like the Xtreme krill flakes and that should work. Bug food, the go to for me is aqueon nutrinsect and it has 3 types of bugs. Another one you could add to that is the hikari discus bio gold granules, which are pretty decent from what I can tell. For the omnivore a lot of Xtreme foods are so dense, too big, or float and it would be really hard to feed them to a ram. I would use the smaller pellets that are designed for cichlids (usually they have a veggie one and a normal one with the veggie of course having both veggies and fish). If the fish is chewing a lot (sand sifting) then you would try to just crush it a little and you'll get variable size chunks for the fish to pick through. It could just be a matter of soaking nthe food to soften it or waiting. I would try feeding a little frozen brine shrimp once a day or something at least. Can you make a video of the little dude after you drop food next time?

I kind of want to give you a list of a bunch of fun things, but I swear my definition of "oddball" isn't the same as others! 😂 I think a 20L might do well with some darters or goby species. I think the "walking fish" are really interesting to watch and study and I like the intimate style setting and being able to get up close on a 20L. I would say go to town and find a nice wild betta pair too. Something from the coccina complex is pretty unique and needs a bit more specialized care.

That's awesome news. Your bioload will go up over time with that specific floating plant and it's ability to grow really quickly. The tank is setup really well for success! I would find an all-in-one fert and dose that once a month. You won't need root tabs or anything else, just the liquid fert weekly. Once the ferns get a bit more grown in you might have a secondary dosing of iron or potassium, just once a week. For now, for the time being, just an all-in-one. 🙂

Yeah... it's been a while since I've been happy in net. (Booing Nabby out of the stadium all the way back to his home country really still hurts and I'm so thankful that relationship was mended) Option 1.... bucket everything and disassemble the tank, replace substrate, QT the plants, and try to get rid of them manually. Every night, you check the tank when they are most active and get rid of any snails you see. You can also do this with snail traps as well over time, but that's a lot slower. Option 2.... try something like a ton of salt, pull the fish and plants for ~3-4 days, treat the plants with RR (or alum), and then you would go ahead and try to re-assemble everything and go forward with manually removing them as much as possible. Option 3.... try a medication. It could be anything from noplanaria to other medications like cupramine. If you use copper, there's a lot of indications that you'll never be able to keep inverts in that tank again, including shrimp. In order to give yourself the *best chance* at removing all of the copper I would go ahead and get cuprisorb and be running that after treatment.

What is the full stocking in the tank? It definitely is a possibility to eradicate certain things in the tank. There are a variety of methods you could try too. Welcome to the forums also @Bitty!