What did you get done today?

[Odd Duck]

On 4/2/2023 at 8:19 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Waging war on the horrible DUCKWEED 

A fine net is your friend (duckweed rinses out of a fine net easier) and guppies are the pests that won’t get out of the way while scooping.  I have 4 tanks that have duckweed in them and I always have to remove all floaters at least temporarily, trim any tall plants down lower or move them until the duckweed is cleared, then net duckweed frequently (at least once weekly) until all is gone.

I dump the snared duckweed, rinse my net copiously until every visible speck of duckweed is clear, then run my net under scalding hot water until the wire frame and handle are warm and I feel like any duckweed has been scalded to death.  Persistence pays off and you can clear it.

It’s easiest to get rid of it if you do a full reset on the tank and scrub everything inside and out.  All the nerm glitter cleared in a day.  😝  I would have long since cleared it but I’ve never done a full reset on all the affected tanks at the same time so I keep reinfecting myself, slowly transferring from one tank to another, clearing one, infecting another, clearing another, infecting the next, and I always seem to have about 4 or 5 infected.

I think I might have cleared the Wolffia, finally.  It’s too soon to say and it only happened after the worst Wolffia tank got infected with duckweed.  I think the duckweed might have choked out the Wolffia.

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

I recorded my F1 pair of Pao cf palustris deciding the top of the clay pot was a great location for spawning. Added a floor to the 2nd cave in that tank in hopes they change their location. I do love that color change everytime

[mouseturd13]

I’ve been cycling/ seasoning my new 20 gallon for a while and I’m really enjoying all the new phases of life coming along. Today I noticed copepods and I dropped in some bladder snails. I am having a great time enjoying all the parts of the tank I don’t notice when there are fish in the tank. 

[evonner]

I removed the gravel from my 10 gallon tank and some stratum, then vacuumed the stratum and capped it with Eco-complete. It was a messy adventure removing my plants and replanting. Because I was disturbing the stratum it the water got dark and made it hard to work. I finished by touch only as visual was not possible. It was quite the job but I am glad I did it. Before and after photos.

[WaterBabies]

Love all my Aquarium Coop water babies.

Maria in Mount Vernon

 

[Daydre]

Pulled some water lettuce from my plant tank and put it in the temporary quarantine container I set up for some snails I ordered. They should be coming in today so I'm super excited!

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

I finally got guppies!!

@Cory‘s videos made me really want guppies for the longest time now but I didn’t have a tank for them. my tank is finally ready for them so I found a guy local to me that was selling them so I got 2 males and 4 females. I’m really excited because whenever I see fry from my white clouds I get so happy and now I’ll see tones of fry with these awesome guppies!

I also tried xtreme flakes for the first time today. my fish act like I’m giving them frozen food, they really love it 👍

[nabokovfan87]

Very beautiful.  They are very reminiscent of the endler patterns.

[Schuyler]

Put together killifish starter kits to bring to the big GSAS auction tomorrow.

[anewbie]

On 4/20/2023 at 11:11 PM, Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics said:

I finally got guppies!!

@Cory‘s videos made me really want guppies for the longest time now but I didn’t have a tank for them. my tank is finally ready for them so I found a guy local to me that was selling them so I got 2 males and 4 females. I’m really excited because whenever I see fry from my white clouds I get so happy and now I’ll see tones of fry with these awesome guppies!

I also tried xtreme flakes for the first time today. my fish act like I’m giving them frozen food, they really love it 👍

Having kept guppies for years i'm mixed on them; I think the thing i like best is putting a bunch of different types together and seeing what the frys turn out to be - over the years individuals have been amazingly spectacular others not so much but it is still fun to see all the random patterns that have formed over the years. 

[anewbie]

I did the usual water change on my 10 and a little maint (which amounted to thinning the hornworth and replanting the anubia).

-

 

There is something interesting that has happened with the drift-wood as it is now completely covered by either moss or algae. the stuff really looks similar to a m. moss ball which is just behind it and i'm wondering if it has 'leached' onto the driftwood - either way i like it. The tank is doing fairly well - been setup for a while - I think over a year (it used to be a 5 and most of the plants were transplanted. The crypts are doing well. It is hard to see in the picture but it has a fair number of fishes in there - the little critters up in the hornworth are a combination of a. pucallpaensis frys and shrimps. The parents are down in the lower area but they decided not to come out for a photo opportunity this time. I used to have a lot of pearl weed; but the snail ate most of it. There is still a bit up in the hornworth near the top and it is regrowing. This is what the aquarium looked like around 5 months ago so you can see there has been quite a bit of change with larger crypts and the pearl-weed.... Fishes have not changed other than more frys.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by anewbie

[Odd Duck]

On 4/22/2023 at 10:03 AM, anewbie said:

There is something interesting that has happened with the drift-wood as it is now completely covered by either moss or algae. the stuff really looks similar to a m. moss ball which is just behind it and i'm wondering if it has 'leached' onto the driftwood - either way i like it.

I’ve had this happen before and it’s lovely.  Mine didn’t survive the move to a different tank, but I enjoyed it while I had it.  It stays short, velvety, and deep green.  Really beautiful.

[anewbie]

On 4/22/2023 at 1:20 PM, Odd Duck said:

I’ve had this happen before and it’s lovely.  Mine didn’t survive the move to a different tank, but I enjoyed it while I had it.  It stays short, velvety, and deep green.  Really beautiful.

Is it actual leach from the m. moss ball or something else - and I agree it is extremely lovely. I hope it survives when I move. Historically my moss balls break down over time - so if it is grown on the driftwood ....

[Ninjoma]

Finished some trimming in my 29g. I thinks it's in a pretty decent spot. 

[Odd Duck]

On 4/22/2023 at 3:37 PM, anewbie said:

Is it actual leach from the m. moss ball or something else - and I agree it is extremely lovely. I hope it survives when I move. Historically my moss balls break down over time - so if it is grown on the driftwood ....

I’m certain mine was transfer from a moss ball.  It started where the moss ball was touching the wood and spread from there.

[anewbie]

On 4/22/2023 at 6:24 PM, Odd Duck said:

I’m certain mine was transfer from a moss ball.  It started where the moss ball was touching the wood and spread from there.

I think so too and it spread to the sponge filter. However i'm curious what it grows this way as the balls themselves don't seem to do much. Do you know if the balls are artifical (that is if they grow as balls in their native area or if they take a bunch of moss and 'ball it up'; I really love how it grows on the drift wood and I think i'll try to reproduce it in my other aquariums - though in truth this is the only one it has done it to date so there might be more involved.

[Ninjoma]

I finally got my brackish paludarium to what I would consider a semi presentable state. 

I also finished some plant reorganizization in my 75g. I also upgraded the pump for my chiller and installed a lily pipe for the outlet. 

I really need to trim the Dwarf sag, but I'm anxious about how the leaves will look when they melt back. 

 

[Katherine]

On 4/22/2023 at 7:03 PM, anewbie said:

Do you know if the balls are artifical (that is if they grow as balls in their native area or if they take a bunch of moss and 'ball it up'

Their native habitat, they do grow in balls. They roll around on the bottom of a lake (?) and form as a ball as a result. I have no idea if the ones we can buy are grown this way though.

[evonner]

The dark green plant in the picture 3rd from the bottom, what is that? I like it.

[Ninjoma]

On 4/23/2023 at 11:12 AM, evonner said:

The dark green plant in the picture 3rd from the bottom, what is that? I like it.

This one on the cave? 

That's anubias nana petite.

[evonner]

Yes, that's the one. Wow, I would have never guessed that but it's going to be the species I buy. Thank you so much.

[Ninjoma]

To round out my weekend tank maintenance, I did water changes in all of my tanks. I also moved over some bolbitas fern to my 40g and did some trimming in my 10g.

[Odd Duck]

On 4/22/2023 at 7:03 PM, anewbie said:

I think so too and it spread to the sponge filter. However i'm curious what it grows this way as the balls themselves don't seem to do much. Do you know if the balls are artifical (that is if they grow as balls in their native area or if they take a bunch of moss and 'ball it up'; I really love how it grows on the drift wood and I think i'll try to reproduce it in my other aquariums - though in truth this is the only one it has done it to date so there might be more involved.

The original/genuine balls apparently form from a combination of wind and water conditions in certain Japanese lakes.  I strongly suspect that most everything available now is formed “artificially” by splitting balls, grabbing the same type of moss and forming it into balls, etc, vs. just collecting the naturally formed balls.  If you can cultivate enough of it, you could certainly start grabbing some off your wood and rolling it into balls and grow your own Marimo balls. I know they split larger ones into multiple smaller ones and keep growing them.  You are supposed to roll your balls at least weekly to keep them round and nice color on all sides.

[PineSong]

On 4/23/2023 at 10:53 PM, Ninjoma said:

To round out my weekend tank maintenance, I did water changes in all of my tanks. I also moved over some bolbitas fern to my 40g and did some trimming in my 10g.

 

I see your sanke koi swordtails produced a lot of half orange/half black fry just like mine did. What percentage of your fry have more speckled patterns like the parent fish in your photos? In my batches it was less than half, I think.

[Ninjoma]

On 4/29/2023 at 3:52 PM, PineSong said:

I see your sanke koi swordtails produced a lot of half orange/half black fry just like mine did. What percentage of your fry have more speckled patterns like the parent fish in your photos? In my batches it was less than half, I think.

More than half of that batch of fry were half orange half black. Probably like 70%-80%. Although another batch of fry dropped recently that didn't have nearly as much black on them (at least not yet)