What did you get done today?

[lindabee53]

On 11/14/2021 at 3:53 PM, Odd Duck said:

It does take some practice, for sure.

One trick I do, is I put in the center plants first in a group or I work from one side to the other.  I push the plant down into the substrate a little ways away from where I want it, then slide it slightly into place to help bury the roots.  I place it just a little deeper than I want it.  Then I shimmy the tweezers a little as I slowly release so the substrate falls down into place around the roots/stem.  If there’s lots of roots, I slide sideways more.  Also sometimes it’s better to trim the roots a little.  It can stimulate new growth.

If the substrate heaps up a little from the slide, I just push it down a bit with a fingertip to pack it around the roots a little.  Don’t get carried away at this part, just barely enough to level it slightly.  It will tend to level itself somewhat.  You can always level later after the roots have grabbed hold some.  Sometimes less is more.

I'm sure the tips will help with my next attempt at planting, if I do more, which I'm sure I will.  It never occurred to me to trim the roots and the plants I received from AC had some monster roots.  The Amazon Sword is huge and the roots are impressive.  The Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus had some really nice roots, too.  Everything I tore up earlier has been put back, except for the Anubias, which is floating.  My betta and a snail have decided to use it as a hammock, but I can put it back tomorrow.

Thanks so much for the help, the tips and tricks, and the encouragement.  I do need to buy another set of cooking chopsticks - you know, the extra long ones.  😄

[Torrey]

I didn't get anything I actually planned on doing, done this weekend. 

We came home Thursday with boxes from storage, we've almost finished going through all of my mother-in-law's belongings, hopefully will have the whole storage unit cleared out by next Friday.

On Friday we got a notice of entry for housing inspection and filter changes, to be done Monday 🤦‍♂️

So sorted out all the boxes, sorted and shredded 3 boxes worth of paperwork from over 20 years ago 😅 and got 3 trips to the Boys & Girls Club worth of donations. Some of the clothes still had tags on them 😔

Came home from returning things to the storage unit (so we could pass the housing inspection) to discover Karma trying to dismantle the pump filter in her pond (tasty snails inside). So impromptu pump repair, which was followed by a massive water change (tested the pump by using it to fill up the bucket, since Turtle pond is only 4" off the floor).

Fabulous idea that I will be repeating in the future: only took 5 minutes to pump out and refill the turtle pond, and another 10 minutes to replace the canvas mesh that acts as Karma's ladder in and out of the pond.

Restocked the soil side with worms, added about 6 handfuls of duckweed from the Walstad tank, topped off tanks, and returned to cleaning.

Cleared out 3 closets, vacuumed vents, cleaned windows and mirrors, did dishes, put away the rest of the laundry, and rearranged the pantry and kitchen cabinets. 

All that's left is vacuuming the carpets, stripping the beds in the morning, and dumping the trash.

Not bad for the weekend. 

[lindabee53]

I was cleaning the tank up a bit and came across two tiny snails - dark brown or black .  I don't know where they came from (although I expect they rode in on some plants) and don't know what kind they are, but here they are.  No, I'm not planning to do anything about them.

[anewbie]

Did the water change on my 40B today. Been a while since I shown pictures. A lot of the lower plants were dying I presume from being light starved from the floaters at the top of the tank so the past month or so i've been thinning the top. The picture doesn't show it well but the crypts in the back center have started to respawn and the PSO has started to regrow so I think the light issue was accurate but we shall see. This is the current look - the third and fourth picture shows the tank from oct 5.

 

 

 

Old look from oct 5 when i started thinning but not as extreme.

 

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Woke up to find my Tetra Whisper pump was not outputting air like I'd like it. Thankfully I'm a back up plan kind of human so I pulled it today and installed a BIGGER Tetra Whisper. I had the "Up to 20 gallon" pump for my two 20 gallons. One of the sponge filters had no output at all (this my friends is why I run TWO air driven pumps, the other is run by a lithium backed battery air pump for power outages- so neither tank was in any sort of danger). Originally- it only ran one but after addding the 2nd 20 I split the lines. I figured eventually it would grow tired of it. So I had the "up to 60" gallon pump standing by for that day. Apparently today was the day. Wow did that make a difference. I might actually have to turn the air down....

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Since a small group of Endlers replaced my idea of a centerpiece Betta in my Flex9 I've been working towards that. Unfortunately with my first group of 4 I'd lost one in QT and sadly yesterday lost another to an ultimately unknown illness after trying to treat with meds for a week. My ongoing saga of trying to fully stock my tanks continues and the stocking of my 8mos old 20 gallon again on hold. So I went back to the LFS and got 4 more Endlers (literally the last 4 they had) to add to the 2 who are constantly chasing each other in the Flex. So the newbies are in QT, hopefully they all make it. 

Do you name your small group individuals too? The two in the tank I have left are Drogon (yes Game Of Thrones) and Phoenix. (SIP lil Koi)

Now meet: Falcor (Luck Dragon from Never Ending Story- I keep suggesting the name on the forum nobody takes it, so I'm insistent- ha!) he's the biggest and fanciest of the 4. NEL (stands for Never Ending Light, one of my favorite songs ever) who is all white. Torchlight (multi colored orange and yellow marks) and Flare (just a dark orange strip down his body- remindint me of the color of flares). They've been really hard to get pictures of....Endlers never stop moving.....

 

[Cys aquatics]

today i got the bn pleco fry out of my filter😐

and made a co-op order with a pre-filter sponge so that the fry cant go in the filter.

Edited November 19, 2021 by Cys aquatics

[lindabee53]

I lost a young pecan tree to the freeze this past February.  I was outside starting to haul the fallen branches off to the wood pile when I thought I might be able to use some small bits in my tank.  I hacked off a couple of small pieces, brought them in the house and removed all the bark and then started boiling.  They've sunk to the bottom of the pot, I've changed water a couple of times, and tannins are leaching out.  I think I'll use one of them to anchor a large Anubias I have and let the other one sit in the tank.

I pinned the next quilting row on my sister's quilt and finished a scarf for one of my daughters.

I'm hoping to start cutting down the dead pecan tree tomorrow.  I can't lift my chainsaw - torn ligament in my shoulder - so I'll be using a bow saw to take off the small lower branches.

[Dawn T]

Water testing. No water changes were needed. Trimmed plants in one tank. Topped off all tanks but one to replace water lost to evaporation over the past week. Watered all my houseplants. Since I didn't have to do any water changes on tanks, all they go today was dechlorinated tap water with Easy Green added. I'm sure they'll hate me. NOT! They sure love EG.

[Flumpweesel]

Today I went to lfs to buy an air stone and test strips came back without either of those but with some harlequin rasboras to boost my numbers , 4 long tailed rosy barbs and some bug bites

Then it was tank cleaning and plant tiding ( I swear every time look in that tank I have a new lump of Anubias)

Took the secondary filter out of the tank as no longer in use and striped it down ready for storage.

Tomorrow I'll begin seeding a nano filter in the community tank in a view to getting ready for a potential shrimp project in the new year.

[KaitieG]

Lots of moving around fish for me today.  Came downstairs to shower at 7 and got distracted putting my new fish plans into place instead.   When I checked again it was almost 10. 

Betta and all but 1 super speedy, super sneaky embers moved to 5 gallon.  The last guy hid out and despite all efforts has evaded capture.  A few blue velvet shrimp came along for the ride and my newly identified emerald rasbora (forum folks...you are awesome at speedy IDs on Saturday mornings).   I'll have to watch this one closely now to be sure it's working ok...I know I'm pushing things with a 5 gallon.  Looks really good though so fingers crossed.

Next up some guppies and 2 female swordtails moved from the 95 to the 20 gallon to hopefully have fry in a tank where there aren't ravenous angelfish.  

Then ordered supplies to hopefully DIY a divider for the odd angel out in the 95.  He's looking really stressed lately, and moving him to the 20 would not only push it to the max but would negate the point of moving the livebearers to have fry.  The two angels that paired up laid eggs...and someone ate them...last week, and they've been huge jerks since then, even with the eggs gone.  Beautiful...but jerks.

 

[FishPlanet]

Well, hunting all day on Friday, cutting up deer today, and plus a lot of schoolwork, I did not have time to do water changes. *sigh*

[Odd Duck]

I opened 7 boxes of new ACO sponge filters adding fully new into 2 tanks - double stack in one, single stack in the other. Mostly it was about double stacking the rest of the sponges in every tank that is tall enough to handle double height and I’m considering triple stacking in the 75 gallon, mostly a just in case of power outage since I want to have more air driven sponge.

Moved the orange laser cories into their new stomping grounds.

Sold some bronze cory fry and gave the new owners a bonus of some red root floaters that they were very happy to get.  Very nice people and now they have a good group of 10 cories instead of just the 3 they had.

Still working on getting things organized for doing a fish room.  Clearing out old, outdated DIY books to make room to shift other books into that room and move bookshelves to make room for the new tank stack.  Shift tanks from current stack to new stack, move old stack, shift the Low Row to the old stack in the fish room.  Get 4 new 10 G tanks for the bottom row of the old stack after it’s moved.

Best of all, I found out I’m going to get some Betta persephone!  I found a local guy with connections for wild Bettas and he ordered a bunch for himself and enough for me, too!  He quarantines them and deworms them so I’ll get them in early January, hopefully.  I need the fish room fully ready before then because the 20 long is going to be a grow out tank.

I now have 5 of my 10 G’s empty of fish and shrimp and ready to be grow outs for laser cories and Bettas.  Since B. persephones are so small, I should be able to raise them together for several months.

Now I’m on the look out for hummingbird tetras.  That tank is ready (14 G cube) but I need to find the fish.  I moved my jade shrimp in there since they won’t eat eggs and won’t pull attention from the subtle beauty of the tetras since jades tend to go so dark on black substrate.  Still watching the jade shrimp’s old tank for any babies growing up.

My 2 G cube is finally behaving now that I have the larger wood piece out.  I think it was just adding too much organics for such a small tank.  I have a couple small Anubias attached to a lava rock as the centerpiece now.  It’s a bit smaller than I wanted, but it will work for now.  I have 2 cull shrimp in there and they’re doing well (one off color, pale sapphire and a very pale jade).  I may worry about putting nicer color shrimp in there at some point, but I need to feel much more confident the tank will stay stable before I add anything else.

[WillC]

I just treated myself for Thanksgiving. My local plant guy is having a small Black Friday sale so I supported him and ordered all the beginner plants needed for my first planted tank. He was out of some red plants so I treated myself to some Scarlet Temple & Pink Flamingo Crypts from the COOP. So next week should be a fun week! Plant package... and two packages from the COOP.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 

[Taco Playz]

Took photos of one of my smallest white cloud fry and he is so darn cute. 🥰

[Torrey]

On 11/20/2021 at 9:50 PM, FishPlanet said:

Well, hunting all day on Friday, cutting up deer today, and plus a lot of schoolwork, I did not have time to do water changes. *sigh*

Deer sounds good. Fish water will still be there tomorrow 🤷‍♂️

[FishPlanet]

On 11/25/2021 at 8:52 PM, Torrey said:

Deer sounds good. Fish water will still be there tomorrow 🤷‍♂️

Yep. Hoping to clean the tanks tomorrow, and hoping to get the plants from the co-op tomorrow, and then Christmas decorate. 

[drewzero1]

On 11/25/2021 at 4:36 PM, Taco Playz said:

Took photos of one of my smallest white cloud fry and he is so darn cute. 🥰

I gotta try getting some of my wcmm in a jar for photos. They move so fast! A few days ago I managed to get this shot of one of my oldest fry (~5mo) in the office grow-out tank.

In other tank news, I put some aponogeton bulbs in my new 40 breeder. I had moved everything from my 20 long so it all seems a bit sparse, hopefully I can get some things to grow out and fill it in. Haven't had much budget for plants this month because I spent it all on the tank setup last month. 😂

[Taco Playz]

On 11/26/2021 at 8:37 AM, drewzero1 said:

I gotta try getting some of my wcmm in a jar for photos. They move so fast! A few days ago I managed to get this shot of one of my oldest fry (~5mo) in the office grow-out tank.

In other tank news, I put some aponogeton bulbs in my new 40 breeder. I had moved everything from my 20 long so it all seems a bit sparse, hopefully I can get some things to grow out and fill it in. Haven't had much budget for plants this month because I spent it all on the tank setup last month. 😂

Aww I love him so much!  In my experience White Clouds are the easiest egg laying fish in the hobby and have one of the cutest babies. Just out of curiosity what did you feed yours when they were really young?

[anewbie]

Removed a small clown loach from my 120 and put it in a pail. I've had trouble with him - he has gotten quite skinny and weak. When I first got him he was undersized and i put him in a pail (he hates the pail); and treated him with med and fed him snails. I thought he was going to make it but now a few months later he has gotten very skinny and lost weight. Not going to treat with meds again but this way i can feed him a diet of snails and see if he will put on weight.

[scott the fishman]

I  cleaned my room and fish tank today. some of you might say wow big deal. i have been on a dark journey since 2011.

so cleaning my room while fighting deep depression. was huge for me. cleaning my fish tank = joy for me.

On 11/26/2021 at 10:39 AM, scott the fishman said:

I  cleaned my room and fish tank today. some of you might say wow big deal. i have been on a dark journey since 2011.

so cleaning my room while fighting deep depression. was huge for me. cleaning my fish tank = joy for me.

 

[Torrey]

On 11/26/2021 at 11:39 AM, scott the fishman said:

I  cleaned my room and fish tank today. some of you might say wow big deal. i have been on a dark journey since 2011.

so cleaning my room while fighting deep depression. was huge for me. cleaning my fish tank = joy for me.

 

I hear you. 

Those deep depressions are no joke, and accomplishing ANYTHING is HUGE.

I hope you celebrate, and the voices that say "not enough/no big deal" hush long enough to allow you to enjoy your accomplishment.

The tank looks great!

[scott the fishman]

On 11/26/2021 at 11:09 AM, Torrey said:

I hear you. 

Those deep depressions are no joke, and accomplishing ANYTHING is HUGE.

I hope you celebrate, and the voices that say "not enough/no big deal" hush long enough to allow you to enjoy your accomplishment.

The tank looks great!

THANK YOU! wasnt sure how this post was going to be excepted. thank you you seem to understand where im at. so for that i am 

sad for as well! I  think i am getting better with very small steps and a clean room is a great small step!!

[anewbie]

On 11/26/2021 at 12:39 PM, scott the fishman said:

I  cleaned my room and fish tank today. some of you might say wow big deal. i have been on a dark journey since 2011.

so cleaning my room while fighting deep depression. was huge for me. cleaning my fish tank = joy for me.

 

I bet that cat keeps one eye open all day long watching those fishes.... and having wonderful day dreams.

[scott the fishman]

On 11/26/2021 at 11:20 AM, anewbie said:

I bet that cat keeps one eye open all day long watching those fishes.... and having wonderful day dreams.

INDEED  kitty watches her favorite flavors swimming back in forth!