nabokovfan87

I definitely had a lot of fun when I got the "12 pack" of superglue. The tubes are 1/4 the size of any of the bottles and essentially are 1 use per tube. https://www.amazon.com/Super-Glue-15185-12-Pack-07oz/dp/B004YEN37K/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2W9779F2C4Y72&keywords=super+glue+gel+bulk&qid=1699753884&sprefix=super+glue+gel+bul%2Caps%2C301&sr=8-3 I forgot to ask and just realized.... can you show me what you mean with this? I had the dumbest time when I first got my shrimp net because of the way the "pocket" in the mesh folds over on itself. I ended up inverting it and those same edges that were folding now give the net it's structure. It might be that same struggle I had?

you should follow the directions on the package. Hopefully you have enough for the first week of treatment and then are able to get more in on time for the next treatment.

It's definitely not planaria. You have detritus worms and ostracods in there. They are little things, sometimes you'll get copepods too. I enjoy the tiny things, the worms no, but the little copepods and microfauna are fun when you see them. 🙂 Stuff like corydoras will spend a lot of time digging in the substrate go get at all the little critters and that's just fun to watch. Shrimp will eat them too!

Good to hear @Big B Nice work. 🙂

Kind of awesome how all of the small things look big in this photo! George Farmer dropped a video today of someone who has a tank with amanos that are confirmed, 20 years old. Now I have a new target to get to! 🙂 I think it was a chain loach in another photo and that one looks awesome too. I love how dark the pattern is. Nice work, looking good!

I went to the big box store again today, but this time I went to "the good one". IT WAS AWESOME! It's a big box store, but for me it's my one and only real LBBFS and it's what I have available if I want to buy fish in person. I went in the store and the manager was there who is the fish person. He greeted me and I couldn't quite tell if he was excited to see me because he remembered me from visits years ago pre-pandemic or was just being cheerful. I was excited to see him because I know that's good that he's at the store and running things. He is a good dude and works really hard. I went in looking for a tank, but I did the usual search through all of the fish section. Every aisle is half-height and only about 4 foot high, most of them only 2 shelves. To give you an idea of how condensed this is the entire aquatics section is probably 12 foot x 20 foot. Each endcap, in order, you have the betta section, plant tank, frozen food, and then turtles. First aisle is tanks and hardscape. They have actual rock bins and wood chunks. Out of 4 stores in the area this was the first one to really have any sort of decor. They have one of each tank out and then replace it on the floor as customers buy them. This also cuts on dings, scratches, and tank damage if done correctly (and they do). So that alone means it's just worth the drive every time aqueon is on sale. Second aisle is lights and then you have all the gravel and fake plants. Next aisle is your maintenance tools, chemicals, additives. and all of your food. 4th aisle is saltwater and filtration. The last aisle is pond items, reptile frozen foods, and then you have some random assorted things that I would term "specialty" tools for aquariums. Might be a test kit, salinity tools, sand, or something for a trickle filter and big packages of filter floss. It's seriously impressive how much is there. 30+ foods in a little section and you can see everything right there. It's all in stock, looks neat, and everything was in it's place. I checked out the tanks and all the fish looked good. They don't have a massive selection as you'd expect, but I did get to see silvertip tetras for the first time. I really do need to get them some day. They have a guppy tank, a tetra tank, glofish, 2-3 massive tanks for feeder fish, cichlids, and then they have a lot of really good looking clown fish and saltwater tanks. They had rainbow sharks and some plecos, but I couldn't tell what kind they were so I didn't end up getting one. We spent some time with the shelter dogs and really wanted to take half of them home. Just what everyone needs, a horde of pups! As we were standing there the manager tells one of his coworkers that he's headed off to lunch and I really wanted to just thank him for how good the store looked, but I didn't want to bother him during his brief break. As always, sometimes you are doing amazing things and no one notices. Sometimes you're doing amazing things and someone notices, but doesn't say anything. I hope and imagine that the sales in this store compared to all the others in the area make it clear how well the fishy section is doing. Genuinely, I really hope so. I could only imagine what this store would really be able to do if they had double the tanks, removed glofish, had proper betta tanks (like the co-op), but it's just good to see them doing a really good job and to see the fish looking good. As I went to checkout with my new tank, the lady there razzed me a little bit and said, "ah, someone is going to have a fun weekend!" 😂 We talked about planted tanks, neocaridina shrimp colors, and it just continued to add-on to that really enjoyable shopping experience. I'll end up leaving a yelp review or something, doing something for them, but I just wanted to share some positivity. For anyone who might not have an LFS and only has a LBBFS, be sure to check and find "the good one" if you can and take that drive. I can promise you it's always worth it. The good stores really do exist.

Basically cost. If I could wave a magic wand.... -20-25 wild caught or F1 tiger barbs -20-25 melon barbs -amano shrimp -flash pleco breeding project -a Bolivian ram -SAEs -5-8 more otocinclus -2 rubberlip plecos Everything but the ram and flash pleco would be for the 75G and it's purely about the cost. Sidenote, I would also love to have some barbs from Greg Sage.

I would recommend finding a way to keep KH stable long term as well. Definitely keep up on water changes and keep an eye on it. Plants need KH as well.

That's unfortunate. Thankfully they are taking care of you. Keep us posted!

No, you would want to wait 7 days between treatments. You can run carbon in that week as well to remove any residual meds.

I just use repashy but don't turn into a gel. You can use a spice grinder and powderize basically anything as well.

@Coluw a good test I saw mentioned on Reddit. Can you remove all media and sponge and then see if the flow improves back to normal? If you already did this my apologies. I see a lot of issues reported with having to redo pipework due to air leaks, heater causing damage and permanent failures, etc.

Nope! We as humans eat X meals a day, and we tend to put that mindset onto what our fish or pet needs are. In the wild it's a very different situation and some animals will constantly graze, some will gorge on meals if they are available, and some will constantly/aggressively feed. Neocaridina shrimp, for instance, have been studied and found to be able to starve for 14 days without any long term impact. I tend to feed mine every other day, some people feed daily, and some breeders can feed as much as 4x a day to really grow the shrimp quickly. Fish can handle less meals than we think and it is actually a big avenue for research when it comes to things like aquaculture and optimal growth. I believe that otos fall into the category of constantly grazing and being more of the gatherer type of eater. I think repashy 2-3x a week is an excellent diet for them and they may not even eat it during all of those feedings. You can also try small meals once a day or even feed it as a powder food and let it land on the surfaces that the otos naturally graze on. It won't cloud the water or ruin water quality of it is a repashy food. I have heard stories and seem the home batches fog a tank though.

Correct, but.... You want to give eggs of the parasites time to hatch and then do another round of treatment. Usually it's ~3-4 courses of meds. It's to make sure that you are as certain as possible the fish is clear of internal and external parasitic issues.

Yeah, I'm right there with you. The fish looks a little small or a little bit hungry. I would start by trying to make sure the fish is eating well and then from there go into increasing oxygenation. Everything in that tank likes a good amount of air bubbles / surface agitation so feel free to add an air stone and then just see if that helps the fish to perk up and have a little bit more strength and stamina. After paracleanse is done (which is usually ~4 treatments) then I would also follow up with expel P treatments. Because it's a neo shrimp tank, I would separate these out and give some rest time. Basically, don't try to do them both in one week. Expel-P, which is levamisole, is light sensitive, so when you treat it you'll want to have the lights out and cover the tank for 24 hours.

@Stef @AllFishNoBrakes ^^

For Otos, I pretty much start / stop my efforts with repashy. Soilent green is the one I prefer to feed them and you can also try bottom scratcher. I have seen them eat it, but most otos can be extremely nocturnal. They will hide up on the glass where they feel safe all day, then you catch them shoaling at night or at dusk/dawn as the light changes stages. They have gone for things like the hikari wafers for me, but my otos tend to really, really stick to just eating algae and going off surfaces in the hardscape/glass. cc @xXInkedPhoenixX may be able to point you to photos of their homegrown Otos eating prepared foods or other foods as well!

I've read articles on this from major breeders in articles from fish magazines. I think I have it saved, specifically because I am right there with you and trying to breed corydoras successfully. The magazine is called "Catfish Study Group" and the authors are highly regarded corydoras keepers: Ian Fuller and Eric Bodrock. (EDIT: FOUND IT!) They gave a range drop in temp of 10-15 degrees F. So let's say your tank is in the mid-70s, you'd use some low-60 degree water as a means to trigger them. It's a big influx of highly oxygenated water and that could be the key for some species to trigger. The other technique I see a lot is doing a temp drop, lower volume of water, but to be changing the temperature multiple days in a row. People reporting on the scotcat articles changing 10% of their water and doing so over 4-5 days and that gets them to trigger. I will share this... it's a great resource and a very enjoyable conversation about breeding corydoras. Here is a great article I will reference as well, another good resource focused on catfish and corydoras information. This one specifically talks about triggering the species you are working with too! https://www.scotcat.com/articles/article91.htm

Especially this week, I wonder what could've been.... (Also rewatched Cyrano, which didn't help much) Have you ever heard of a guy named Mike McDaniel? He is the newer HC for the Miami Dolphins. I'll toss a video here below, but one of his main things he always talks to the team is that "Adversity is Opportunity." He has a wonderful story to tell. I admire his ability to push himself through difficult moments, share those stories, and the ability to support those around him. It's a nice little chat and you get to learn just a little bit about him. 🙂 That being said, I would simply say that I have been in your shoes and have absolutely felt like I could do it. I even went down the road of getting "fancy" CO2 and having a higher technology setup. I'll show you two photos that were taken moments or shortly after planting the tank. Ultimately, there's always a story and always something more to learn.... THAT'S AWESOME because it keeps you so engaged with the hobby. In the first tank, it was setup for success... I thought, but I just was trying a bunch of plants I ended up struggling with. The moss in the middle did ok, everything green did alright, but everything red melted back in days. It still is a failure I am trying to overcome and I absolutely do want to grow some red plants. Soon! This is one of my more recent setups (end of 2021) and this tank was setup with the best of intentions. I got a better substrate, I had the wood, I had things all setup and scaped for the sake of the plants. I had the tank setup and running and all I needed to do was to let the plants grow and take hold. One plant, one tank, very simple.... I tried 5 or so times with this exact same tank, rebuying plants over and over and I never got this plant to grow one time. This was the final straw for me and it was one of the biggest steps forward with me trying to learn how to grow plants a bit better. This is a plant I have grown in my other tank, but for whatever reason I could not get it to grow at all in the new location. You definitely learn from your mistakes, but you can also learn from so many places you never thought. One thing I try to keep in mind personally is the thought of, "you don't get to choose where you learn from." Something knowledge will just drop and hit you. Sometimes you will find awe and inspiration from a place you never thought possible. Sometimes it really hurts to go through some life lessons. From Coach Mike, one thing I have learned is to keep the big picture in play, and to aim big, but to do things in small manageable chunks. Focus on every single little detail until you have all of those right, then take the next step forward and start on all of those details again. If we look at "I want to grow plants" or "I want to have a nice planted tank" as the goal: 1. Print a photo of an amazing tank that you absolutely love and would cherish if it was in your possession (and skill level) 2. Take that photo and hang it on the wall near your tank 3. Work towards that. This might mean, learn to grow one plant. Learn how to plant correctly. Learn how to setup the substrate. It might mean 100 different things before you get to something as seemingly normal as checking your water parameters. Then you might focus on getting things perfect for that plant. You might absolutely LOVE the journey and getting into those details, or it might just seem like an insurmountable task. It's all about how you look at it and how you decide to view your own capability. I don't know much, but I do know that you CAN grow plants. You can succeed if you want to. Good food takes time. Fingers crossed for you. Best of luck. Please be sure to let us know if you ever need some help and there's some very helpful (and encouraging) people here for you!

It might be a placement issue. Can you show the placement in the tank via a photo or something? It's a bit hard to tell with the video (not sure if that's the same tank) If it is, then the java fern right under the light like that will have some scorching or just get too much light, light causing some spot algae, and that causing some deficiencies with growth.

@Colu just a sidenote while you're working on this.... Many have reported plastic melting when the pumps slow down or the power to the pump fails. That means the canister with heater is just a heater and that melts the thing. I've seen posts from all things to the pump down to cleaning the hosing fixing things. All I can really recommend is taking it to the sink and giving it a deep clean and see if that helps at all. If they have a replacement impeller, start there. Something like the lid for the pump not sealing properly could slow the flow as there's not enough pressure, but it seems like all of that is fine. It's really tough to test for "is the magnet strong enough still" without having one to swap out. Fingers crossed for you. Hopefully someone can chime in.

I have an aquaneat one. Not recommended. Sera has one, dennerle as well. I would check those 2 out from all I've seen, but yeah.... Solid handle if you can find it.

The fins all say male to me, so definitely looks like it. I said the same thing last time so.... Knock on wood. Fingers crossed for you and it'll be exciting as always to follow along. Sidenote.... Totally can relate to ridiculous amounts of time trying to ID the gender on some fish, especially rams in the store all washed out. Best I got from the employee was, "yep, I got no clue, take your time." 😂

Forgot to mention. The co-op measure is ridiculously useful. Especially if you feed frozen food, brine shrimp, use liquids, keep fish, etc.

Yeah, with the driftwoods I've never had an issue with mulm. The clown plecos do go a bit nuts on any wood and that makes mulm, but the wood itself doesn't deteriorate like that. I've seen Joey in his videos where he shows the "manzanita mulm", but mopaninamd the other driftwoods with the bark removed and denser surfaces, I've never seen issues with. To give you an idea... Pacific vs. Malaysian driftwood The second photo you can see that little bit of rough texture. I call it bark, but it's just from cleaning the wood. That is the wood that would give you more debris, I would assume. This is the same type of wood, just different prep. First photo would give you a lot more debris than the second. All of them are pretty hard woods, they should last a pretty long time. I've also heard the term "bogwood" used that fits what you're looking for as well.