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Ok Comboomer posted:Eh. I assume you want some zooanthid/clove polyp/star polyp? Live sand and live rock+ their water already had microfauna, as do all the hitchhikers you’ve found. You could probably add a couple initial frags + the water they come with and be right as rain to add a fish or two shortly after. yeah I was thinking zoa's and stars (stars on an island ofc) but I eventually want to get either one maroon clown or a pair of small ocellaris clowns and an anemone or two for them to hopefully host. I understand anemones can be dicks to corals and whatnot with their tendency to migrate but I figure if I got some hardy corals that could easily bounce back from a anemone sting then why not.
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Mar 10, 2021 02:07
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BONGHITZ posted:chuck in the tim's, I think thats what the instructions say to do anyway https://store.drtimsaquatics.com/assets/images/pdfs/DrTims-Fishless-Cycling-Recipe-and-Guide-0920.pdf I really do want to do this but am concerned over a lack of ammonia in the tank at the moment, I feel like I should either wait for a higher concentration of ammonia from the ghost feeding or I could possibly cheat it a little and get one fish to get some instant gill ammonia in there when I add the Dr. Tim's. Am I being too much of a freak about it? Should I just dump the bac in??
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Mar 10, 2021 02:12
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Dick Bastardly posted:yeah I was thinking zoa's and stars (stars on an island ofc) but I eventually want to get either one maroon clown or a pair of small ocellaris clowns and an anemone or two for them to hopefully host. I understand anemones can be dicks to corals and whatnot with their tendency to migrate but I figure if I got some hardy corals that could easily bounce back from a anemone sting then why not. An anemone that can host clowns is likely to become a lot in 14 gal. You said it had a sump chamber so I’m assuming that like 3-4 of those gallons are taken up by sump. So realistically you’re looking at 10 gal. My advice is to get a bunch of really hardy corals- star/clove polyps on their own rocks, zooanthids, a softie or 2, some lps, maybe a ricordia or 2, and leave it at that for the first few months. Most places you’ll order from won’t do free shipping before $150-200, so when you start to price it all out it’s best to just get your first ~10 frags of hardy stuff up front (expect a few frags to fail to thrive, if there’s a morph you really really want a lot of there’s no shame in getting 2 frags, but for the most part one of each is probably fine. You can always reorder something that you want to try again with or beef up your stock of). Plus there’s an argument to be made that adding a lot of livestock in one go is less stressful for the corals and less likely to cause imbalances that lead to algae overgrowth early. Unless you want to prioritize the anemone and add one or 2 of those first/do polyps and light zooanthids and then make a big anemone the centerpiece of the tank. I just think you’re underestimating how big and aggro anemones are for really small tanks
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Mar 10, 2021 02:26
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Ok Comboomer posted:Unless you want to prioritize the anemone and add one or 2 of those first/do polyps and light zooanthids and then make a big anemone the centerpiece of the tank. I just think you’re underestimating how big and aggro anemones are for really small tanks This is the big take away I'm getting from your post because I definitely want the clown/anemone combo to be the center piece of the tank, and whatever other coral are just ancillary to support biodiversity.
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Mar 10, 2021 02:49
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So using my Eheim canister as an aquatic vacuum cleaner was really smart. Waiting until today to clean it out was not. My house smells like garbage beach 
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Mar 11, 2021 01:28
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Picked up 3 blue tuxedo urchins in a group buy this evening. Adorable dime-sized little dudes are acclimating now
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Mar 11, 2021 01:53
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Those little dudes are very cute! I didn't realise some urchins were suitable for aquarium keeping, here's an article about sea urchins for any freshwater people like me who know nothing about urchins. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rs/index.php
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Mar 11, 2021 09:08
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I have ordered a large quantity of black kuhli loaches after not seeing them available anywhere for months - and last time I saw them in stock they sold out on the same day. I'm going to put them in the sandy bottomed tank I'm currently using to grow out gudgeons and hopefully they will enjoy that and I'll get to see more of them than I see of the ones in my planted kitchen counter tank. I've added a piece of driftwood for something solid for them to hide around if they want to but I'm really hoping to see them bury themselves in the sand since it's very soft and fine grained. Hopefully there won't be issues between the loaches and the juvenile corydoras that I'm growing out in that tank. They are about big enough that I think I could move them somewhere else now anyway.
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Mar 14, 2021 04:18
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I decided to go to my LFS and pick up my first fish for my new nano after getting consistent zero ammonia, zero nitrite and exponentially increasing nitrate results (fully cycled tank, with live sand and rock to start the cycle with and dosed with Dr. Tim's 24 hrs ago, it went really fast!). I went with a pair of small (young) ocellaris clowns and one mid-sized red bubble tip anemone. I installed my new Kessil A160WE light shortly after bringing the fish/anemone home and let that rip at low color and intensity until about 10 pm when I programmed it to turn off until the following morning. One of the clowns is a bit more active and robust than the other, the other seems a bit more docile (it didn't eat too much when I fed them and seemed to swim a bit slower or more lethargic than the other although not at an alarming rate, but noticeable). The anemone looks good and decently acclimated to the new environment. In order to encourage the anemone to detach itself from the plastic cup container it came in I decided to blast it with the current from the return outlet and so far it seems to be working. I like to peek in the tank when it's dark sometimes with a red flashlight to see what's going on in there without disturbing the animals. Well this time being the first night with new fish, I was very surprised to only be able to locate ONE of the clowns. It seems to be the more lively one. I can't find the other anywhere (although I haven't searched with the lights on, only the flashlight) but the anemone is stretched out a bit as if it is trying to dislodge itself and move, I can see about a half inch of foot around the base protruding and pushing the anemone out away from the plastic cup it came in and is attached to. My first thought was that it is either splitting due to new environment acclimation stress or it's trying to move itself. But the missing clown is making me wonder if perhaps the weaker clown was just swallowed up and eaten by the anemone? Can that happen??  edit: yes, I did check all around the tank and on the floor in case the clown jumped (hopefully it's just hiding  ). I do have a lid, but it's ill fitting, could probably block most jump attempts but I think there's a small chance a well aimed jump might make it out.
Dick Bastardly fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Mar 14, 2021 |
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Mar 14, 2021 05:45
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I found the clown, it was in the filter sock!  it either jumped and was extremely lucky to land in there or most likely it just swam/ got sucked through the slits at the sump intake heh 
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Mar 14, 2021 06:49
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Glad to hear it. My missing clown story was solved a few years later when I found it mummified under the baseboard heater when I moved the tank. It was so weird. It was so well preserved I thought it was a toy clownfish.
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Mar 14, 2021 11:53
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I've entered the cycling stage of my first aquarium! Here's a picture dump because I'm excited.    It's a fluval flex 15 gallon Having watched a mountain of YT vids ahead of time, I understood the flow rate coming out of the pump is huge, so I wrapped some cut to fit sponge over the nozzles. In preparation, I also started off a bag of bio balls in a 2 gallon bowl, along with the plants. Actually, all of the plants have been growing in "betta" bowls for the past couple months, to give them a head start. That's where the two mini sponge filters came from. They have fully cycled in the bowls, so as to give the aquarium cycle a head start. I filled the little intake screen things with sponge also. Hopefully that will keep out any shrimp fry I might get in the future (fingers crossed). I mostly filled the big empty entry chamber at the back, starting off with an air stone, some oyster shells and bio-balls in a bag (pre-cycled), and a bunch of cut to fit sponge material. For plants, I picked up some potted java fern (wendelov) and anubias (nana and regular), and some loose marimos. All the rest of aquatics were those little cups of tissue culture plants. Limnobium laevigatum, Sagittaria subulata, Helanthium tenellum "Green"(almost all of it has died off ?!?), Salvinia auriculata, and a couple mosses. Substrate is seachem flourite with loosly sprinkled aragonite, and some oyster shells. Our water here is super soft. I've been dosing with fluval cycle, waste control, seachem stability, equilibrium, alkaline buffer, flourish, and flourish excel. I'd like to have cherry shrimp, oto's, and I'm not sure what else. Some kind of schooling fish. maybe CPDs or chili rasboras? ETA: pothos and spider plants growing out the top too. B33rChiller fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Mar 14, 2021 |
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Mar 14, 2021 20:30
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CPDs are awesome little fish. I've got a nice group of 40 or so right now and they're a ton of fun to watch. As a bonus, they don't need a heated tank.
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Mar 14, 2021 21:07
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Schwack posted:CPDs are awesome little fish. I've got a nice group of 40 or so right now and they're a ton of fun to watch. As a bonus, they don't need a heated tank. What kind of effect would a lack of heater have on cherry shrimp and otocinclus? For reference, room temperatures can range from 18degC at night in winter, up to 27 or 28 daytime in the summer. Daytime winter, we run 19.5-20 deg C. The tank is in the same room as our main front door, but protected from drafts. Can CPDs do alright with a bit warmer water? Or would another species be better?
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Mar 14, 2021 21:48
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B33rChiller posted:What kind of effect would a lack of heater have on cherry shrimp and otocinclus? For reference, room temperatures can range from 18degC at night in winter, up to 27 or 28 daytime in the summer. Daytime winter, we run 19.5-20 deg C. The tank is in the same room as our main front door, but protected from drafts. I've heard of people keeping them with bettas, so in the high 70's F. They might not spawn at that temp, but they should be just fine.
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Mar 15, 2021 00:32
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My clowns are both hosting my rose bubble tip! and only after one day! I am so happy 
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Mar 15, 2021 01:02
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Schwack posted:I've heard of people keeping them with bettas, so in the high 70's F. They might not spawn at that temp, but they should be just fine. sweet, gonna get my tiny trout on!
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Mar 15, 2021 01:07
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My 22 long has been mostly empty other than four pseudomugil luminatus and a couple amano shrimp ever since my apistos passed a while ago and I had been considering just taking the tank down eventually but it's so well planted it seemed like a waste... but yesterday I got a bit of a bug. I'll be breeding the shrimp with some selected ones from my current population, should be pretty neat. Otocinclus seem to be out of stock everywhere, I hope nothing happened there. Haven't really checked into the hobby for quite a while but I'm guessing COVID was not kind.
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Mar 16, 2021 14:37
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My bettas eye issues cleared up and have not come back! I held off on any medication, and switched his food to exclusively dried bloodworms and Hikari micro-pellets. Also substantially reduced the lighting schedule, to leaving it off every 3rd day and running 8 hours or less per day otherwise. Not sure if either was the actual cause or if it was anecdotal, but I'm happy either way. http://imgur.com/gallery/VYhOPde
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Mar 16, 2021 18:34
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B33rChiller posted:sweet, gonna get my tiny trout on! If you're in CA hit me up, I'm breeding them
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Mar 16, 2021 20:41
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DeadlyMuffin posted:If you're in CA hit me up, I'm breeding them Sadly, I'm in .ca not CA
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Mar 16, 2021 21:59
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My rams and gobies love having staredowns, it's pretty funny. I also taught my rams to wiggle when I wiggle my head. They're so smart and cute, even playful. I wish I had known about these lil' dudes earlier. These came as juveniles, so I get to see them grow into full yellow. They always come up to me and watch back. The gobies are chill, but I may get some hornwort for the back of the tank so they feel more secure. We got snails by accident, but the little dudes help clean the place, so it's whatever. I am gonna get some Amanos I think.
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Mar 17, 2021 02:45
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Mar 18, 2021 17:37
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Looks good Mozi! I've got 20 brown kuhlis coming in the mail, and it's taking them an extra day to get here compared to usual with no updates in the tracking app so I'm feeling antsy and worried about how they're doing. I think I'm going to plop and drop rather than acclimate just to get them out of the stinky bag water faster. Not sure if I should temp acclimate first or just rush them out of the bags ASAP, it's not particularly cold here (daytime temps of 29 ºC) so hopefully they haven't gotten chilled. I haven't bought new fish in over a year so I'm pretty excited!
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Mar 18, 2021 19:13
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Good luck! I'm sure they're looking forward to getting out of there as well. Been a couple of years since my last new fish as well so I had to refresh my memory on what to do but it worked out fine. Pretty neat seeing the rummy nosed tetras going from really pale to having that bright red nose within an hour after settling in.
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Mar 18, 2021 19:36
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Stoca Zola posted:Looks good Mozi! I saw people talking about exactly this on the Aquarium Coop forums. The consensus was to get them out ASAP as the temperature increase can lead to ammonium converting back to ammonia and injuring the fish. Stuff like that makes me so nervous to order fish through the mail.
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Mar 18, 2021 22:17
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When I worked at an aquarium, my boss was of the mindset that unless it's a marine invert, you toss the fuckers right into their new tank. Drip acclimating works if the animals aren't packed in a bag, or the bag is delayed, etc.
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Mar 19, 2021 01:11
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I usually did drip acclimation, then launch the little fish or shrimp into their new home. They seemed to do pretty okay. The weirdest shipping incident I had was my orange shrimp going from California to Virginia to Texas, and it took a few days. Lost a few, but the rest ended up living. Though, I have a small quarantine tub if they need to accumulate a bit of tank water first. I don't think I'm keeping anything especially fragile. I've gotten almost all of my fish from online since traveling to Austin to check out fish isn't such a good idea with Covid doing its thing. So far I've lucked out. It also depends if you want to quarantine them, too.
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Mar 19, 2021 02:21
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 I'm battling brown jelly disease on a coral I've had for 10+ years. It happened in literally a day. I'm so sad. I grew it from a single polyp. I have some frags in another tank, so it's not 100% gone, but this is the mother colony.
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Mar 19, 2021 03:25
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on the topic of acclimation, I think Rachel O'Leary makes some insightful points
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Mar 19, 2021 03:26
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A startling number of very experienced fish keepers were in favor of her method. Dump into a net over a bucket and blam into the tank. Seeing so many long-timers advocate for this method has me nearly ready to adopt it. I started on a DIY stand for my 29 gallon last weekend and realized that I could go just a tiny bit larger and fit a 40 breeder. I managed to sneak one into the house without my wife noticing the size change. Hoping to keep 3-4 Pearl Gourami and some Gold Barbs in there to start. Also ended up spending part of my stimulus on a CO2Art kit to play with on this particular tank. Just gotta finish the stupid stand now. Carpentry is hard.
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Mar 19, 2021 05:42
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I like this guy's method: http://www.selectaquatics.com/receiving_shipped_fish.htm
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Mar 19, 2021 07:43
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Rachael O'Leary's plop and drop is exactly where I saw it and I'm definitely going to do it now, I put my order in last week to hit the Sunday cut off for Tuesday shipping which, with this seller, has previously had fish arrive by Thursday with Friday as a spare emergency day so the fish aren't stuck somewhere over the weekend. However the world has changed significantly since I last bought fish, the tracking info website for the package said to expect the fish today (Friday) but first thing this morning I had a panicked phone call from the courier that someone had tried to send these fish by road and they were still sitting at the distribution centre. The person was concerned enough that they opened the box to make sure the fish were okay, apparently they seemed to be doing well, they then forwarded the fish to my nearest metropolitan area by plane, and then they've arranged specially to open the local freight centre on Saturday morning for me to grab the box of fish. I had a chat to the seller in case something had gone wrong from their end but they think every time they've sent to me before, Tuesday to Thursday has been the usual result and the shipping calculator had the same shipping time between air and road but the air option was $40 more. This sounds right to me since the last leg of any shipping here is always by road. He reckons he packed the loaches very lightly in big bags and used oxygen not air to fill the bag so if they were okay today they should still be okay tomorrow. It's a bit harrowing though! I even waited until all the state borders were open again so in theory there are no Covid related travel restrictions so I'm not really sure where the delay in the process was introduced. Tuesday to Saturday seems entirely too long for fish to be in bags but the weather has been good, these are juvenile loaches so their oxygen requirements and waste production should be low and to me it sounds like Phil (the seller) has given them the best chance for survival in how he's packed them. I'm a 5 hour drive from the closest big city and we only have 2 incoming flights a week which is why the situation is kind of dire, if you are in a metro area it's usually a lot less problematic to order fish online especially if you use a proper courier instead of relying on the local postal service. Phil has a blacklist of couriers who have proven they can't deliver as fast as they claim to so he usually doesn't see this sort of thing happen. I think slow acclimation of fish makes sense when you are bringing sensitive fish home from a local purchase and you aren't sure if your tank parameters match, but for fish in a box in the mail for 4 days the sooner they get into clean water the better.
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Mar 19, 2021 08:20
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Stoca Zola posted:I think slow acclimation of fish makes sense when you are bringing sensitive fish home from a local purchase and you aren't sure if your tank parameters match, but for fish in a box in the mail for 4 days the sooner they get into clean water the better. This is really the take away I got from it. Different topic: Is it called pruning or culling when you have to remove a bunch of excess floating plants?
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Mar 19, 2021 18:18
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B33rChiller posted:This is really the take away I got from it. Depends on your tone of voice while you do it.
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Mar 19, 2021 18:26
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Reaping. Chickens love duckweed, BTW.
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Mar 19, 2021 20:32
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I've avoided duckweed so far, but I'm excited that this is the first time I've grown enough salvinia and frogbit to necessitate some removal.
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Mar 19, 2021 22:50
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I just had to get rid of a bunch of jungle val and I have more Java moss than I know what to do with. I feel so bad just letting it dry out and throwing it away, but, I have no clue what else to do with it! Water lettuce is next on the chopping block. Re: the drop and plop method, I lost every shrimp I ever tried to drip acclimate, and my black market shrimp lady told me to just chuck em in and doing it that way I've only lost about 10%. Next fishies I get, I'll probably do the same with!
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Mar 20, 2021 00:25
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candystarlight posted:I have more Java moss than I know what to do with. There has been a real shortage of various mosses (around here at least) for the past while. There's probably some value in that, if you have a way of marketing it.
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Mar 20, 2021 00:50
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candystarlight posted:I just had to get rid of a bunch of jungle val and I have more Java moss than I know what to do with. I'm trying to jump start a huge piece of driftwood, and the plan was to cover it with java moss. I'd gladly pay shipping for as much as you'd care to ship my way, don't think it requires much beyond a ziploc bag and a few wet paper towels.
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Mar 20, 2021 01:13
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