Katherine's Planted Tank Journal

[TeeJay]

On 8/24/2022 at 8:48 PM, Katherine said:

8 pm ish. Tank lights go off at 9. Room lights were on and the sun was still out.

I've got one actually rooted, one being held down with a plant weight, one whole plant floating, and a few bits floating. We'll see how things go.

This is from about a month ago. It's a much bigger cluster of them now 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/24/2022 at 8:48 PM, Katherine said:

8 pm ish. Tank lights go off at 9

Interesting. Most times York lays eggs in the dark, but one morning I watched the tank and did an egg check, went to get a shower, came back and there were eggs. Light was on. That time it was maybe 7am-ish.

[Katherine]

On 8/24/2022 at 8:28 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Interesting. Most times York lays eggs in the dark, but one morning I watched the tank and did an egg check, went to get a shower, came back and there were eggs. Light was on. That time it was maybe 7am-ish.

I can see why they would want to lay in the dark. It keeps them in one spot so long, you'd think it would be safer in the dark in the wild.

[Katherine]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea It's 8:30 pm, lights are still on, and Penny is laying eggs directly underneath the light.

[Katherine]

My mom gave me 'fish' money for my birthday, so I went shopping! Lots of new things today. I'll start with an updated full tank shot, maybe you guys can guess what some of the new stuff is before I tell you.

Next up ... drumroll... a snail! I got a second zebra nerite, who my son named zebry (zee-bree). I set Z on top of algae mountain for an easy settling in meal.

Here's a full shot of algae mountain. Somebody cleaned 98% of the upper surfaces and appears to be letting the algae come back.

Now for the plants:

I got a small ball of subwassertang.

Some Riccia Moss that's been glued to my fake log. I also repositioned the log.

A cutting of pogostemon stellatus octopus.

4 cuttings of Golden Lloydiella.

And a big handful of guppy grass, which Goldilocks has already decided is a fun place to be.

While I was there I asked if they had any calcium block type foods, which they didn't. It came out that they only feed their snails algae wafers, which explains the difference in shell between the original 5 ramshorns I bought from them, and the ones that were born in my tank. Oof.

I pulled a few babies out to examine their shells more closely and they're almost clear, just the slightest tinge of orangeish brownish. Almost like a light amber glass. I don't know how well you can tell in the photos.

The glass needs a good cleaning, but the fish were already miffed at me for planting all the things, so I figured I'd leave that for another day. So not the best photos.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Nice!  Fish money! 😍

crayfish empire has a lot of choices for snail foods and calcium blocks. They even sell snail cookies!

[Katherine]

On 9/4/2022 at 6:52 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

crayfish empire has a lot of choices for snail foods and calcium blocks. They even sell snail cookies!

I have gotten several of their sample items. Their snail pellets are one of the things my first zebra nerite was eating the first few days in my tank. I'm getting low on those though, so I need to order a full size pack soon.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/4/2022 at 7:58 PM, Katherine said:

I have gotten several of their sample items. Their snail pellets are one of the things my first zebra nerite was eating the first few days in my tank. I'm getting low on those though, so I need to order a full size pack soon.

Good to know. I haven’t tried anything yet off their site personally, because when I made Repashy Snello it made A LOT!  I’m trying to get through that; I have all the little cubes frozen. Plus I keep feeding veggies too.

The calcium chips I got are from lifewithpetsgci.com, but actually it seems my guys are tired of the flavor or something? 
 

But this was the initial reaction. 
 

 

[Katherine]

My first two adults completely ignored the calcium chips from crayfish empire, at least long enough for them to dissolve into the substrate. The bladder snails liked them. Lol. I plan on trying them again now that I have a feeding dish and ramshorns as well. So far I've been putting in those vacation feeder blocks that are basically a super hard calcium block with a tiny bit of food. Everyone likes those. And the snail pellets have calcium and I mixed a ton of calcium powder into my last batch of repashy, which we're still working through.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/4/2022 at 8:10 PM, Katherine said:

My first two adults completely ignored the calcium chips from crayfish empire, at least long enough for them to dissolve into the substrate. The bladder snails liked them. Lol. I plan on trying them again now that I have a feeding dish and ramshorns as well. So far I've been putting in those vacation feeder blocks that are basically a super hard calcium block with a tiny bit of food. Everyone likes those. And the snail pellets have calcium and I mixed a ton of calcium powder into my last batch of repashy, which we're still working through.

I’m doing something similar. My Soilent green Repashy is mixed with calcium carbonate powder, and I always have some cuttlebone in the tank. I break up the nano banquet blocks and put those in from time to time. The mysteries seem to prefer the banquet blocks over the calcium chips now. 

Lately I have been feeding Snello after dark because otherwise the fishes steal it.

[Katherine]

My 5yo has informed me that she doesn't like the guppy grass. She said we should get rid of it. Lol. I told her when she's old enough for her own tank she doesn't have to put any in it. Now she's looking through my tank telling me what she's going to have in her tank (in about 5 years, lol). She wants 8 blue mystery snail babies, Rusty (the magenta mystery), some of the danios, some of the glofish, all of the golden lloydiella, and the fake log with the moss on top. 😂

 

Edit: She specifically needs 8 blue babies so they can have a book club.

On 9/4/2022 at 7:14 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Lately I have been feeding Snello after dark because otherwise the fishes steal it.

Yeah, mine steal it too, though not as much of it as they do algae wafers and snail pellets.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Katherine

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Ask her what book they would read.

[Katherine]

On 9/4/2022 at 7:31 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Ask her what book they would read.

When she had to think about it she said "Well... Umm... Actually a club where they talk about things, because they can't actually read a book."

My 7yo said they should call it Mystery Club.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

LoooooL she is too cute

[Katherine]

Last time we had a sera tab on the glass Penny scared the fish away and ate at least half. I guess they were hungry enough to stay this time.

[Katherine]

She now has the entire thing covered by her foot. I took pity on the poor fish and gave them another one. These things are Penny's absolute favorite food.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

She knows her job is to clean the glass. She can’t understand why all the interruptions.

[Katherine]

I've had an injured hand the last few weeks, so typing is a lot slower than usual. The quick version update is that I'm working on treating illness in the main tank (I had no confidence in my ability to catch 3-4 specific danios without destroying everything) and I'm having issues with my plants as a result. I think I under fertilized during the initial round of meds. I'm pretty sure I killed my new guppy grass and several other things are covered in algae. Planning to do RR once the illness is taken care of.

[Guppysnail]

I hope your hand feels better soon. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Not fun @Katherine

Hoping for a speedy recovery on your hand as well as for your fishies that aren’t feeling well. 

[Katherine]

Quick update:

My husband helped me take out all the decor and catch the danios so I could put 2 specific ones in QT earlier this week. All but 2 had gotten better, I decided we needed to try a different med that's not snail safe. 3rd day of new meds today, no improvement yet.

I did find a piece of (I think) living guppy grass in my tank, so hopefully it'll rebound now that I've got my ferts under control again.

The algae that was new from under fertilizing is going away on it's own. I do still have a need for RR at some point though.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 10/9/2022 at 4:57 PM, Katherine said:

so I could put 2 specific ones in QT

Oh man, not fun. I just had to do the same thing today with black neons. And this was after a month qt. But looking at them with a good light and through glass made it apparent 2 are ill.
 

How is your hand doing? What type of illness are you treating on the danios?

Edited October 9, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Katherine]

On 10/9/2022 at 5:10 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

How is your hand doing? What type of illness are you treating on the danios?

My hand is doing better, but the Dr said this type of injury usually takes at least 4-6 weeks to fully heal. I have my dominant index finger taped to the one next to it 90% of when I'm awake which makes a lot of things difficult, but it doesn't hurt all the time anymore.

I think columnaris. I first tried ACO's suggestion of Maracyn and ich x and that cleared it up on all but 2. (Maybe 6 of the 23 had visible symptoms.) Now I'm trying jungle fungus clear fizz tabs and kanaplex.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 10/9/2022 at 7:44 PM, Katherine said:

My hand is doing better, but the Dr said this type of injury usually takes at least 4-6 weeks to fully heal. I have my dominant index finger taped to the one next to it 90% of when I'm awake which makes a lot of things difficult, but it doesn't hurt all the time anymore.

I think columnaris. I first tried ACO's suggestion of Maracyn and ich x and that cleared it up on all but 2. (Maybe 6 of the 23 had visible symptoms.) Now I'm trying jungle fungus clear fizz tabs and kanaplex.

In my signature line columnaris (resolved) that is what I did (and what I’m doing now for these 2 patients).  There are photos in that thread if you want to compare.
 

Full recovery last time I treated that way.

I also used salt as well for electrolytes and slime coat.

Edited October 10, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Katherine]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea @Guppysnail What do we think this is? It's smaller than a full grown bladder snail. I haven't seen anything else like it elsewhere in the tank, including on my other snails. The snail is on a 4" terra cotta planter dish if that helps with scale.