Crabby Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Hey all! I’m Crabby! I’m an aquarium hobbyist from Australia. I’ve been obsessed for the last 2 years, since I fell in love with some brackish shrimp in an estuary in NSW, and dove headfirst into research about the wonderful world of aquatics. I’m hoping to someday have a tank of those particular shrimp that brought me into what is now a massive part of my life. Just a preface to the rest of my intro- I’m a huge plant guy, I love my plants, and I’m pretty good with them too, thanks to my great tap water. But when it comes to fish, I have ones that I’m great at keeping (not totally what you’d expect), but most fish seem to lie in a category of semi-success for me. I’ve unfortunately lost quite a few fish and shrimp throughout the time I’ve been keeping them, and despite the massive amounts of research I do and content I consume, I still have odd losses. I no longer have multi-fish die-offs, but now I just have the occasional loss, and nowadays I’m just clueless because everything seems like it should be right. So that’s one of the main reasons I joined the forum; I’m hoping I can get advice from multiple people when I start to notice a fish going downhill so I can fix the problem before it’s too late. Currently I keep 4 aquariums, but that’s purely because I haven’t had time to set up my 5th tank since moving houses. My main tank is a well-planted 29 gallon tank that I’ve had for 2 years now (stocked with BNs, a pair of Apistogramma Nijsseni and their fry, my last female pseudomugil luminatus, a SAE, and a squadron of ember tetras). I also have a rack of three 5 gallon tanks that I’m trying to finish setting up. The top tank houses some emerald Moscow guppy fry and a male betta that I just purchased, the middle tank is a work-in-progress iwagumi scape that will hopefully be home to a colony of caridina shrimp and a breeding group of rocket killies, and the bottom tank has my female betta and my last blue dream shrimp. Historically I’ve had some shrimp issues due to fluctuating parameters, but I’ve finally got it figured out. Rack: Anyways, I’m already part of a wonderful forum called SKFA, based in Australia, but I figured for my upcoming betta breeding project it might be wise to get a larger spread of opinions and tips! I’m a big fan of the aquarium co-op YouTube channel, and Randy’s Aquarist podcast, so I figured this would be a pretty cool place to come hang out. I think forums are one of the best ways to share the hobby, and I’m excited to see what comes of this. Sorry for the essay ahaha, I tend to ramble. Here are some more pictures of my tanks and my fish! Note - some images of the 29 gallon tank are very outdated, but it’s a total mess right now, so just imagine everything has grown in a lot, there’s Java moss everywhere along the bottom, and all the fish have grown. 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xXInkedPhoenixX Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Hi there! Tanks are beautiful. It's pretty cool how this forum gets together to solve mysteries so whenever you're ready post the tank/parameters and problem and you'll see answers of all kinds. Your tanks are very pretty though. 🙂 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameCzar Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Great tanks! Welcome 🙂 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 welcome to the mess. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Welcome to the forum nice tanks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabby Posted July 11, 2021 Author Share Posted July 11, 2021 Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I think I’ve got a question for one of my bettas. She was eating well for the guy who bred and raised her, but now that I have her she’s barely eating. I’ve tried everything I can think of - live food, frozen food, flake, pellet, all really good quality foods that the rest of my fish love. She just won’t take them. I’ve had her eat maybe 3 or 4 times in the last week, and it’s worrying me. I even tried fasting her for a couple days, and she ate when I gave her food after that, but now she’s stopped again. Any tips? I want to condition her for breeding but I can’t exactly do that if she doesn’t eat. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xXInkedPhoenixX Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 I had the exact same problem with a female giant galaxy koi. Complete failure to thrive- she passed. What I SHOULD have done as a last ditch is ask the breeder what specifically they fed and try that. The only think I could think of was maybe the water difference from TX to CA and stress of shipment was too much. I know lots of people order fish online and LFS get fish that way, but it completely turned me off to the whole process and now I'll only "save" a Betta from the box stores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwayne Brown Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 I agree with @xXInkedPhoenixXI would contact the breeder and see what they fed the fish. I have had some fish that get "spoiled" after a few meals of daphnia or blood worms and stop eating pellets and flake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwayne Brown Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 Also I would highly recommend posting this on the Disease section of the forum. There are a lot of other very knowledgeable people that might not otherwise see this post, since they might not be into the introduction section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabby Posted July 11, 2021 Author Share Posted July 11, 2021 Will do Dwayne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 You could try soaking his pellets in seachems garlic guard to help encourage him to eat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabby Posted July 12, 2021 Author Share Posted July 12, 2021 On 7/12/2021 at 3:29 AM, Colu said: You could try soaking his pellets in seachems garlic guard to help encourage him to eat What does the garlic guard do? I haven’t seen it in Australia before but I might be able to find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 garlic guard is flavour enhancer garlic has appetite increasing properties to help encourage feeding 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyBWell Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 I'm so jealous of that rack such a cool idea does anyone make those that you can buy or is it a diy projects? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabby Posted July 12, 2021 Author Share Posted July 12, 2021 On 7/13/2021 at 4:35 AM, DannyBWell said: I'm so jealous of that rack such a cool idea does anyone make those that you can buy or is it a diy projects? Thanks! It was a DIY project with my dad actually, he’s much better with wood working than I am, so we planned it together, he worked out how we would do the joints and stuff like that, and then we built it. On 7/12/2021 at 9:47 PM, Colu said: garlic guard is flavour enhancer garlic has appetite increasing properties to help encourage feeding Oh okay, that’s quite interesting actually. I’ll see if I can get some. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HonourWest Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 How ya goin', Mate! Queenslander here. Good to see another Aussie join the forum. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trish Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 On 7/8/2021 at 6:18 PM, Crabby said: Hey all! I’m Crabby! I’m an aquarium hobbyist from Australia. I’ve been obsessed for the last 2 years, since I fell in love with some brackish shrimp in an estuary in NSW, and dove headfirst into research about the wonderful world of aquatics. I’m hoping to someday have a tank of those particular shrimp that brought me into what is now a massive part of my life. Just a preface to the rest of my intro- I’m a huge plant guy, I love my plants, and I’m pretty good with them too, thanks to my great tap water. But when it comes to fish, I have ones that I’m great at keeping (not totally what you’d expect), but most fish seem to lie in a category of semi-success for me. I’ve unfortunately lost quite a few fish and shrimp throughout the time I’ve been keeping them, and despite the massive amounts of research I do and content I consume, I still have odd losses. I no longer have multi-fish die-offs, but now I just have the occasional loss, and nowadays I’m just clueless because everything seems like it should be right. So that’s one of the main reasons I joined the forum; I’m hoping I can get advice from multiple people when I start to notice a fish going downhill so I can fix the problem before it’s too late. Currently I keep 4 aquariums, but that’s purely because I haven’t had time to set up my 5th tank since moving houses. My main tank is a well-planted 29 gallon tank that I’ve had for 2 years now (stocked with BNs, a pair of Apistogramma Nijsseni and their fry, my last female pseudomugil luminatus, a SAE, and a squadron of ember tetras). I also have a rack of three 5 gallon tanks that I’m trying to finish setting up. The top tank houses some emerald Moscow guppy fry and a male betta that I just purchased, the middle tank is a work-in-progress iwagumi scape that will hopefully be home to a colony of caridina shrimp and a breeding group of rocket killies, and the bottom tank has my female betta and my last blue dream shrimp. Historically I’ve had some shrimp issues due to fluctuating parameters, but I’ve finally got it figured out. Rack: Anyways, I’m already part of a wonderful forum called SKFA, based in Australia, but I figured for my upcoming betta breeding project it might be wise to get a larger spread of opinions and tips! I’m a big fan of the aquarium co-op YouTube channel, and Randy’s Aquarist podcast, so I figured this would be a pretty cool place to come hang out. I think forums are one of the best ways to share the hobby, and I’m excited to see what comes of this. Sorry for the essay ahaha, I tend to ramble. Here are some more pictures of my tanks and my fish! Note - some images of the 29 gallon tank are very outdated, but it’s a total mess right now, so just imagine everything has grown in a lot, there’s Java moss everywhere along the bottom, and all the fish have grown. What a great fish stand! A space saver. What are the tank sizes? Welcome to the forum! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabby Posted July 17, 2021 Author Share Posted July 17, 2021 On 7/18/2021 at 5:49 AM, Trish said: What a great fish stand! A space saver. What are the tank sizes? Welcome to the forum! Thank you! The whole idea with the ‘staircase’ style was to decrease vertical space and increase stability (I’ve got a large clumsy dog who I wouldn’t entirely trust around a thin vertical structure containing fish and glass) while still allowing plenty of room for me to get in and put my hands in the tanks. They’re all just 5 gallon tanks, it’s all I could fit at the time. I’m rather a fan of nano tanks though. 10s would be ideal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 Welcome! 😎 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 (edited) The tank stand is really impressive! I’d love to see a pic from the side. Edited July 17, 2021 by Patrick_G 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HH Morant Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 On 7/17/2021 at 5:18 PM, Patrick_G said: The rack is really impressive! Made me look! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 On 7/17/2021 at 3:21 PM, HH Morant said: Made me look! 🤭 I guess I should edit that ! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben_RF Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 What beautiful tanks! Welcome. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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