What did you get done today?

[Odd Duck]

On 10/25/2021 at 1:09 PM, Patrick_G said:

@Odd Duck, congrats on winning the pump and shelves! It sounds like it’s going to be quite an Offish 😆. Have you ever posted a clip or pics of your Jack Dempsey tank? I think they were my first Cichlid. I remember keeping one with a Jewel and for whatever reason they got along just fine. 

It’s the 75 gallon in my sig.

Funny you mention jewel cichlids.  The owner I got them from thought they were jewel cichlids since they were sold to her fiancé under that name.  I’m reasonably certain they were bought from a big box store because anybody with much fish experience would know standard morph Jack Dempseys on sight.  I knew instantly without ever having seen the fish before.  Walked in, peered in through the lime and algae and was like, “Those are Jack Dempseys”.

Edited October 25, 2021 by Odd Duck

[WaFfLe]

Half de rimmed and Filled the new Aqueon 15 column…

So upon taking it out of the box, the base fell off and revealed the assemblers handiwork… there’s so much sloppy silicone fingerpainted onto the seams, you’d think it was a first time diy tank😳

I may take off the top rim next…

Edited October 26, 2021 by WaFfLe
Grammar

[FishPlanet]

Well, yesterday I got tanks cleaned and pond plants taken inside. 

[Ken]

Today I received an order from Aqua Huna! 10 male Endlers and 8 Neon Green Rasboras. Two days from Seattle to a city just South of Salt Lake City. Everybody got here healthy and happy. I just finished acclimating and getting them settled. I'm really happy with how they look and act already. They will be great when they are fully colored. I'll start the Med-Trio tomorrow after work, I like to give them a minute to get over the shipping stress.

[ADMWNDSR83]

Yesterday, I visited a local LFS, to ask about shell dwellers and the possibility of them buying some of them off me when the need arose.  They declined the opportunity to buy, stating they were not a frequent seller, although they always have them in stock.  Apparently, they received 5 by accident several years ago, and have kept a breeding colony going with the same line since then.  I ended up taking 4 home.  My hope is a male and 3 females, although it may be two males two females.  Going to wait a while and see if I get any babies, then decide if I'll buy more or not.

[Guppysnail]

@ADMWNDSR83 too bad they won’t buy but all I could think when I seen that pic was PEEKA-BOO 🤣 that is too cute. 

[ADMWNDSR83]

The one in the battleship was the largest in the sale tank, so I figure he's a he.  The three smaller ones seemed to head straight for the shells, and since they're smaller I hope they will be cooking up fries before long!

[Brandy]

Finally reinforced the floor. 125g completely blank canvas. 

[Jawjagrrl]

Learned a whole lot more about planaria worms, freshwater leeches and scuds than I expected to after discovering 2 of the 3 in my nano shrimp tank. Managed to catch a molt happen too. 

Overall kept all fish, shrimp and snails alive in their boxes of water 😄

 

[ADMWNDSR83]

With 4 shell dwellers still swimming in the box, decided to offer up some frozen fare.  They seemed to enjoy the blend of bloodworms, mysis, and brine.  Also picked up some bugbites cichlid that will go into rotation tomorrow morning.

[isaly]

On 10/29/2021 at 2:24 AM, Brandy said:

Finally reinforced the floor. 125g completely blank canvas. 

That's really nice. I like the long form factor.

[Maggie]

Finally my 5 gal is ready for shrimp, so I went out and bought six Blue Dreams about 2/3" in size, and acclimated them. They're now exploring their new digs. I have 2 pieces of cholla wood to add that are currently soaking, and gave the newbies some shrimp cuisine pellets so they know where the food bowl is. The LFS are all over an hour away so next time I'll hit the farthest one - when my guppy tank is ready (hoping by Thanksgiving- sponge is already seeding).

[ADMWNDSR83]

Caught another multi, which I believe is one of my females, playing hide and seek in a different hole in the battleship.  I've been troubled that they don't seem to like the shells, and hang out more in the ship, but I also realized the tank they were raised in at the shop had no shells, only decorations, so the four I have likely don't understand the concept of shells.  The new breed, when they come, will hopefully catch the drift.  Watching for a month or so to decide if I need more or if these four will produce fry.  Also thought some more today about if I want any tank mates for these multis, and what that could look like.  I know the top two thirds of the tank could use some loving, and some Cyprichromis Leptasoma may look pretty cool up there! 

[isaly]

I stayed sane, but what's that?

ADM, that battleship is cool.

[gregoryord]

It's been an ongoing thing but finally done . PVC and poly greenhouse around the 300 gallon outdoor pond . I am anxious to see how much it helps maintain the ecosystem through the winter. 

[Patrick_G]

On 11/3/2021 at 2:52 PM, gregoryord said:

It's been an ongoing thing but finally done . PVC and poly greenhouse around the 300 gallon outdoor pond . I am anxious to see how much it helps maintain the ecosystem through the winter. 

That’s a neat looking setup. Do you have any other pics? 

[gregoryord]

Only a few before I built the greenhouse . I will try to get some more and post the the next couple days .

[Patrick_G]

On 11/3/2021 at 3:59 PM, gregoryord said:

Only a few before I built the greenhouse . I will try to get some more and post the the next couple days .

Really cool, I like that you have the pond set into the raised garden. Great idea. 

[gregoryord]

On 11/3/2021 at 5:31 PM, Patrick_G said:

That’s a neat looking setup. Do you have any other pics? 

 

On 11/3/2021 at 6:38 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

So they can have minds of their own - like cichlids each puffer will have their own ideas. You will see stories where they do really well with tank mates and others where they’ve murdered every inhabitant of a tank. Keep this in mind. Have backup tanks and plans for it this goes wrong. 

So t

 

On 11/3/2021 at 8:14 PM, Atitagain said:

Pea puffers are known to be fin nippers to long finned fish, guppies? They will either eat all the snails or I have heard of them getting full then killing off all other snails in the tank. Get 1 or 3 not 2 if there’s aggression issues need to be able to spread it out, even if just by a little. 
good luck mate 

 

On 11/4/2021 at 8:36 AM, BrycePilaf said:

Hi everyone,

I bought a used 55 gallon freshwater tank a couple of months ago. It came with 2 medium to large angelfish as well as a community of tetras, albino corys, and 2 bristlenose plecos. It also came with a lot of Anubias species, crypts, an Aponogeton, and some driftwood. I'm new-ish to aquariums (had one in high school) and new to aquarium plants.

Aside from some MAJOR crypt melt that I had after I got the tank (they were out of the water for a few hours and really wilted), I haven't had many problems with the plants. They've been putting out new leaves regularly. I have been using Aquarium Co-op root tabs. I think the crypt melt caused a spike in ammonia and later on, nitrates--my nitrates were around 80 ppm a couple weeks ago, and my pH has been as low as 6.4 (my tap water, and another aquarium, are around pH 7.5). The crypts and Anubias had been doing fine but I have been having issues with getting newly planted Val and Pogostemon (from Aquarium Co-op) to grow or not lose leaves. I thought maybe the low pH and high nitrates might be affecting the new plants, so I'd been doing 30% water changes every 2-3 days to bring down the nitrate levels and raise the pH. 

However, after a few days away last week I came home to see that many of the leaves on the crypts and Anubias were starting to turn brown/black, starting from the tips and edges. The crypts were just given root tabs so they *should* be good. I occasionally dose with a bottle of SeaChem Flourish that I got from the previous owner. I had bought some Easy Green but haven't used it yet because of the high nitrates in the tank. My light is a generic looking Aqueon light that came from the previous owner; it's been used to grow these plants for a long time.

Could the high nitrate level caused the browning of the leaves? My nitrate levels have been 20-40 ppm for the past week now. I'm not sure if the browning leaves are the delayed result of the 80 ppm levels from 2 weeks ago, or if something else might be causing it. 

I'm a little concerned because the Anubias in particular have never showed problems until now. I don't want to have my plants die on me. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

On 11/4/2021 at 9:57 AM, BrycePilaf said:

Thanks for your reply. The Anubius runners are not under gravel, and some of them (I'm guessing it's A. nana petite) are on one of the pieces of driftwood. It's really densely growing on the driftwood, I've never been able to actually see the runners, so I suppose it's possible the runners aren't being exposed to light. However, it was that way when I got it and only now am I seeing any leaf browning.

I have been suspecting high nitrate levels as the possible cause of the leaf browning based on some google research I've done, and based on the high nitrate levels I've had. However, I have also thought that maybe the frequent water changes could be part of the culprit. My rationale for the frequent water changes has been to reduce nitrates and increase the pH. I'd bought 2 Pogostemon stellatis octopus plants about a month ago and put 1 in my 55 gallon and 1 in my 20 gallon tank. The plant in the 20 gallon tank (with a pH of 7.5 even with driftwood and nitrates never over 40 ppm) has been growing great--the 1 in my 55 gallon (with pH as low as 6.4 and nitrates as high as 80 ppm) has new green shoots but the lower leaves have been melting. So, I thought maybe the lower pH might be causing the new plant not to thrive. 

Maybe I'll hold off on further water changes for a bit and add some of the Flourish or Easy Green and see if that helps.

 

On 11/4/2021 at 10:17 AM, Jennifer V said:

Pea puffers are shoaling fish, so they do best in larger numbers so getting three would be better than just one, however as the others mentioned, they can be very feisty little guys and may not get along with anything else in the tank. Mine immediately murder anything that comes near the tank. They even picked the nerite I had in there to death before I could tell what was happening and they were just tiny juveniles at the time. They're such fun, rewarding fish, but definitely require a lot of patience and dedication to make sure they live their best life. 

 

On 11/4/2021 at 10:49 AM, Patrick_G said:

I’d check the most recent few threads on Pea Puffers. @Odd Duck had some greats recommendations on keeping Peas in a community setting. 

 

On 11/3/2021 at 7:24 PM, Patrick_G said:

Really cool, I like that you have the pond set into the raised garden. Great idea. 

It's just some clear poly . 2 layers 3.5 mil thick . It's clipped onto a pvc frame I built . The frame separates into 2 ft sections . When I am not using it I can break it down into something the size of a tent or a small canopy . Feel free to borrow the idea if you like . No patents pending.  LOL.

[ADMWNDSR83]

On 11/3/2021 at 12:38 PM, isaly said:

I stayed sane, but what's that?

ADM, that battleship is cool.

IT IS!!  I was given this tank by a friend, and it came with the tank.  I've realized just how many different ways it can possibly sit in the tank, so I may try it at some point on end, or on it's side, as there's a big hole in the bottom for them to swim through as well.

 

 

Today I:

1.  Got my latest Co-op order (Brine eggs and easy fry food.

2.  Feed my multis the fry food.

3.  Watched them go nuts for their new favorite food.

4.  Left a 5 star review for that junk and looked forward to my next feeding time!

Edited November 5, 2021 by ADMWNDSR83

[anewbie]

Did the usual water changes today - only got bit once by the angels. This is my 120 (the 2nd picture is back from march - long story between the two pictures):

(current):

 

(march - 7 months ago):

--

 

What happened inbetween - around may i turned off the co2 for 3 months and that created a massive mess - this slime started to form on everything and the pre-filter on the fx6 had to be cleaned 5 times a week to keep it from clogging. I turned the co2 back on in early in july ( think) but i had to chop down all the sword plants (they are regrowing if you look in the middle back and left back); the jungle val took off like mad and some of the leaves are over 12 feet long but the density is so great i can't reach the sponge filter on the left side - some of the anubia are still coated with bba but they have new leaves growing now. I removed 2 of the gold male angels because they were beating up on Dad but i still have 8 angels (5 males 3 females - yes i can sex my angels); Btw this is how no to stock a 120 (mine is way way over populated):

7 clown loaches (2 new - small 5 large)

5 L204

3 bn (2 lemon one very very very very grumpy old male)

?? kuli loaches maybe 7 or 10 been a long time since they have come out to play - they stay in the java fern mess on the right front.

16-18 cardinals (3 died the past 12 months - 1 had an eye injury, one just died and one was sucked against the prefilter); i'm growing out 9 more in my 29 and when they are large enough will add them.

2 or 3 yoyo (should be 6 but 3 died when the pre-filter got clogged)

10 zebra loaches (these are great)

4 or 5 krib females - left over frys when i had a pair - managed to get the males out but can't catch the females

2 serpae - had 3 but one died after 2 years so now just 2

2 glow light - had 3 but one got the skinny after 3 years so i put it down now just 2

8 to 10 sterbai

?? oto - i keep thinking they are all dead but then find a bunch here and there so maybe 8 or 10 left.

-- I think that is all

[James V.]

I setup my first multie tank! Now I just need the fish!😃

[ADMWNDSR83]

Way to go, @James V.!  I have 4 in my new tank, and I've been loving them.

[Kyle murfitt]

Large water change on the 55 gallon,  moved some vallianeria and removed all the cryps that were struggling into my 20 gallon fry tank . 

Added some Java moss and cryps to the 29 gallon that cycling for apistos 

And adjusted the 20 gallon mbuna fry tank , added the rest of cryps here 

[James V.]

Got my Multies at my LFS! They are so awesome! They are selecting their shells 🐚 . Also added a sponge filter from an established tank 👍

Edited November 9, 2021 by James V.