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DeadlyMuffin posted:Yeah, I've been out of town and I love my boyfriend to death but he over feeds no matter how detailed my instructions are. I've found getting the little paper bathroom cups and preparing one for each day eliminates the guess work for guest feeders.
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Oct 15, 2023 13:17
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BEHOLD    These guys are all about 6.5 months old and they are between 9 and 10 inches long. They are monstrously HUGE. So far I’m pretty sure I have two males and two females: the leucistic and the wild type look female, and the mel and goldie look like males. Will give it a couple more months before I call it officially but in the meantime I’m setting up another tank so I can split them up by sex.
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Oct 17, 2023 11:54
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God drat those are beautiful! Like they look like plush toys, so far and sassy. Make me miss mine but I couldn't afford a chiller.
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Oct 17, 2023 13:14
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pastor of muppets posted:BEHOLD Goddamn, they're like real life pokemon. Did you buy them or are you breeding them? My wife was dead set on getting a couple before I convinced her that we should start with real fish first. I would love to see the tank, if you have pics!
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Oct 17, 2023 14:02
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pastor of muppets posted:BEHOLD im jealous. my son asked for an axolotl for months but between 2 tanks, a dog and 2 kids i got enough things in my house i gotta feed
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Oct 17, 2023 14:04
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The Diddler posted:Goddamn, they're like real life pokemon. Did you buy them or are you breeding them? My wife was dead set on getting a couple before I convinced her that we should start with real fish first. I would love to see the tank, if you have pics! I raised these guys from eggs that were bred by someone else, I’ll try to dig up some pics of the eggs and larvae! My tank setup: 55 gallon - this is probably too small for four adults, but I’m going to be splitting them up by sex once they’re mature anyway Fluval 307 canister filter - added a spray bar to dissipate the flow Imaginitarium black sand substrate - I honestly can’t recommend this stuff for axies, it’s just a bit too coarse for my liking. I definitely wouldn’t use it for any axie less than 6 inches long. I would probably use pool filter sand next time. two three-head fan style chillers - these work mostly okay, but will definitely buy an actual refrigerated chiller before next summer Plants: - dwarf anubias - dwarf saggitaria - two pieces of driftwood - java moss (attached to the driftwood with fishing line) - Amazon sword (I am honestly shocked this is thriving as well as it is since swords usually need soil) - a shitton of duckweed for cover The tank itself is still kind of settling and at the tail end of a diatom bloom so aesthetically isn’t great IMO but its residents seem happy so who am I to complain       Everyone loves The Log but I suspect they will outgrow it and need an upgrade soon   
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Oct 17, 2023 14:40
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make sure they can't get stuck in that! great looking critters and tank. i had a 55 with 4 axies, all blue eyed lucys, and it was loving fun until summer came, and i couldn't keep the tank before 75* even with a high powered fan on it. they were the derpiest drat animals ever and recognized me as food source, but in phoenix you can't keep them safely without a chiller. i think mine bred like 3-4 times? i ended up flooding the fish market down here with tons of babies, giving away bagfuls to other aquarium keepers. as fry they are so goddamn tiny and cute. literal Pokemon, but their mindset is more Slowpoke than Mudkip. also, the white tips on toes mean sex time. you should be able to sex them pretty easily at this size.
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Oct 17, 2023 14:47
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Yeah I always knew that The Log would need to be replaced at some point, but it also has lots of large side holes so I’m not SUPER worried about them getting stuck? They’re pretty dumb though so I wouldn’t underestimate them. I live in VA and summers here can get pretty brutal. The ambient air temp in the house usually isn’t the problem, it’s doing water changes and having the tap water come out at like 75 degrees that’s been a pain to deal with. Whenever I’ve changed the water up until recently when it finally started getting colder I’d have to keep them in a temporary tank for half a day to let their tank water get back down to a safe temp. I’m hoping a powerful chiller can make that a little less painful. And yeah, I’m reasonably certain of their sexes at this point given how fast they’ve grown (the lucy’s toes have recently turned dark too). What’s throwing me off is just how much bigger the girls are versus the boys. In fact, up until maybe two weeks ago I thought I had three females, then out of nowhere PBR the goldie started growing Big Ol Bawls  
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Oct 17, 2023 15:02
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Girls gotta be bigger for all those eggs. 😁
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Oct 17, 2023 15:52
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Will dig up some more pics later, for now here are some of the leucistic I ended up keeping: 10 days old:  15 days old:  20 days old:  4 weeks old:  6 weeks old:   It was always easy to tell apart from the rest because it was growing several times faster than anyone else and so we had been calling it Big Chungus. Now that im pretty sure it’s a girl I have redubbed her as ABSOLUTE UNIT (or Abby for short)  
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Oct 17, 2023 16:30
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Heya folks - recently I've noticed that some of my rasboras seem emaciated, grey and have these little white dots on their sides. Does anyone know what sort of disease this might be and what treatment would work? There are also corys and shrimp in the tank (40 gal) and it would need to be treated as a whole tank. 
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Oct 17, 2023 18:07
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Mozi posted:Heya folks - recently I've noticed that some of my rasboras seem emaciated, grey and have these little white dots on their sides. Does anyone know what sort of disease this might be and what treatment would work? There are also corys and shrimp in the tank (40 gal) and it would need to be treated as a whole tank. I don’t know what the disease is, but most cures won’t be shrimp safe. They’d be safer treated in a 5 gallon bucket. I’ve also had success treating individual fish in tall deli containers or those hang on specimen containers. Even a cheap 5 or 10 gallon you buy on Craigslist or FB marketplace would be better.
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Oct 17, 2023 18:46
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It's more that it's a very heavily planted 40 gallon tank and there's dozens of rasboras in there so picking out a couple to treat individually just doesn't seem like a realistic way to put a kibosh on the problem. This is also all predicated on my knowing what the actual problem is as well, of course.
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Oct 17, 2023 22:31
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Double check with better resources, but if that's ich, from what I can remember hearing on an aquarium co op stream, it can be treated by raising the temperature to around 80F. Rasboras should be alright with low 80s, right? Good macro shots here https://youtu.be/6ep1aXjvZ4c?si=gBAlsSCX6nBVwT8U From the comments, you're looking more like high 80s. Top comment has citations to research papers on ich B33rChiller fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Oct 19, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 23:57
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How I treat ich (but I have few to no cool water fish): Slowly, like a degree every hour or two, raise the water temp to 86*. Add several air stones or a few powerheads aimed at the surface. Stop feeding. Ich stops reproducing at 85* and dies about 86-87*. Keep up water changes/gravel vaccing to get up the dead ich poo poo. This might have to last a week or so.
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Oct 19, 2023 01:13
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Not sure if ripariums fit in this thread but it seems the closest. I've had this running for 6 months or so, albeit with some disruption from a house move in the middle. It's a tiny UNS 25x25cm shallow tank with a mix of easy aquatic plants and terrestrial plants that don't mind getting their feet wet. There were a ton of floating plants but snails hitchhiked in and ate them all. I do a lot of terrarium stuff but this is my first foray into aquatic things since I was a kid. It's been pretty fun although with some irritating algae challenges and a few dead plants along the way.     No stock other than the snails, although I have plans for a larger pond style riparium with a Betta some time soon. CaptainTofu fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Oct 19, 2023 |
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Oct 19, 2023 23:06
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That is awesome! You can maybe toss a few cherry shrimp in there if you wanted.
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Oct 20, 2023 01:07
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It's only around 5 litres of water volume and isn't particularly stable as a result, so I don't think I'd want to stock it with anything. I'd prefer it didn't even have the snails but hitchhikers gonna hitchhike.
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Oct 20, 2023 08:03
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If there's one thing snails are good for it's scraping algae off glass and other surfaces, I've always missed them pretty quickly in tanks where I don't have them. I really like the layout and mix of textures you've put together, its so pretty!
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Oct 20, 2023 08:36
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Are there any options for treating hard and slightly salty water for aquariums? I'm about to move to a place where the tap water is from an aquifer and the water quality isn't as good as where I'm currently living. Or would it be easiest to just use rainwater?
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Oct 28, 2023 03:43
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gay picnic defence posted:Are there any options for treating hard and slightly salty water for aquariums? I'm about to move to a place where the tap water is from an aquifer and the water quality isn't as good as where I'm currently living. I think the common wisdom is "adjusting fine parameters like that isn't worth the trouble." Fish, more than any particular ph or hardness, like consistency of parameters, and adjusting that stuff can frequently be like steering a car using only your feet. If you get fish from the local area, they're likely to already be acclimated to the local water. If you really do want to keep very picky species, it's much harder to reduce the hardness of water by putting any chemical thingy in it. Either use rainwater or DI water, or get a reverse osmosis setup installed in your house. Or just say "gently caress it" and start raising african cichlids or livebearers or something else that loves hard, almost brackish water. Asterite34 fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Oct 28, 2023 |
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Oct 28, 2023 04:34
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Desert gobies would do alright in that water too I think. But reverse osmosis would work ok, a system like I have with a mixer and tds meter would let you pick how much you want removed from your output water. The downside is it can be wasteful since you’ll get some concentrated brine out of the waste side of the system and not sure how salty that would be or whether you could use it on the garden or whatever. Probably would be ok to flush your toilet with it?
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Oct 28, 2023 06:58
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Sounds like collecting rainwater would be easiest then.
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Oct 28, 2023 12:24
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Actually rainwater mixed with aquifer could get you a good range of parameters, it might work quite well as long as you haven't got run off or other weird stuff in there. Is it treated before it gets to the house?
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Oct 28, 2023 12:39
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I used to keep reef aquaria in a place with limestone aquifer-fed hard water. A three stage RO/DI system was essentially mandatory. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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Oct 28, 2023 14:04
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Yeah, now that most stuff is captive bred and has been for a while, it typically doesn’t matter as long as it’s stable.
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Oct 28, 2023 17:12
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Asterite34 posted:Or just say "gently caress it" and start raising african cichlids or livebearers or something else that loves hard, almost brackish water. I'm kind of thinking about getting a long tank and putting shell dwellers on the bottom and then let the rice fish occupy the top half Seems like the multi breed/species of shell dweller is pretty tolerant of other fish and the rice fish is almost always in the top third of the tank, and that seems to work out ok from the YouTube research I've been able to do My water is pretty hard out of the tap and now that the tank has fully cycled ph creeping towards 8
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Oct 29, 2023 01:29
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Stoca Zola posted:Actually rainwater mixed with aquifer could get you a good range of parameters, it might work quite well as long as you haven't got run off or other weird stuff in there. Is it treated before it gets to the house? I assume it's chlorinated and has flouride added too, but other than that nothing else is done because technically it falls within their water quality limits. There's plans to put an RO plant in at the pumping station but that's years off. I've emailed a native fish organisation to see if they know if this species will tolerate hard water. I'm assuming no since their habitat is mountain streams mostly, maybe it's something they can acclimatise to though if the parameters are stable.
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Oct 29, 2023 01:45
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Two-ish year update on this tank: all pearlweed, all the time.  Current livestock is about 10 neon tetras, tons of snails and shrimps, and at least one kuhli loach (which is about 10 years old at this point). There were two other kuhlis at one point but I haven't seen either in ages.
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Nov 1, 2023 03:07
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Hi folks, hoping for some advice on moving forward from a mass tank die off. Have a 75 gallon freshwater planted tank with black sand substrate. Been running for about 3 and a half years with no issues. Denizens as of last night: 8 Red-nosed Rummies, 4 female Rainbow Boeseman's, 2 Dwarf False Cuckoo cats, 6 Black Phantom Tetras, and 1 Garra Spilota. Over the past threeish weeks we lost one Garra and one male Boeseman. Wasn't overly concerned, since the Garra was significantly smaller and three years seemed like a reasonable lifespan. Same with the male Boeseman, we originally had 2 males among the group, one died about 6 months ago and we've had them about 2.5 years so assumed the males were just at their life span. However, I noticed fungus around the gills of the remaining Boeseman's and decided to treat with API Pimafix. Dosed the tank per directions two days in a row and woke up this morning to find four of the Rummies, and all of the Boeseman's dead. There may be more dead fish we haven't found yet as the tank is heavily planted and I didn't want to stress out the survivors by rooting around too much. The cats and garra are definately still alive but hanging out near the top and lethargic. We're checking more closely during a 25% water change today to be sure. Checked PH, nitrite, nitrates and ammonia. Ammonia was at 0, PH was 7, usually it's a bit more basic but not wildly off from our last check a year or so ago, nitrite and nitrate were both above 0, but not far off from 5ppm. We routinely do ~15% water changes twice weekly. My questions are: Do you all think this was caused by the Pimafix? Is there possibly some pathogen and the stress of the Pimafix pushed the weaker fish over the edge? Is it likely safe to introduce new fish after the current ones appear to have stabilized, or should we look at pulling the plants and starting from scratch again?
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Nov 4, 2023 16:41
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If you didn't increase aeration significantly there's a reasonable chance Pimafix could have suffocated your tank, assuming it's anything like Melafix in that it's an oil based product and it tends to float on the surface. Catfish tend to be able to breathe air or sip at the surface so it makes sense for them to survive (I don't know garras but I suspect they are tough fish too) and the behaviour of hanging at the surface is consistent with being starved of oxygen. If it isn't in the instructions to increase surface agitation when using those products, it SHOULD be, not that I've ever seen them work and not that API can explain how they are supposed to work. I don't want to get into whether Melafix/Pimafix are a scam or not because tons of people swear by those products, but they would definitely not be my first choice to treat fungus. I wonder if you saw actual filaments of fungus, or if you saw white/grey slime coat ie from irritation? Fungus itself usually is only a secondary problem ie physical damage or ulceration from a bacterial infection could become colonised by fungus. It could be that there is a high fungal load in the tank because for whatever reason there is a large food source for fungus to feed on, large pebbles that aren't vacced deeply trapping uneaten food in the substrate for example? But I would expect its more likely to be bits of slimecoat than fungus that you saw. I'd suspect 15% twice a week is not a large enough volume of water change that it is removing dissolved organics or other nasties that could have built up. I think this is more likely to be the source of the original fish death, 3 years is kind of short for many fish, I'd expect a healthy fish in a healthy tank should hit 5 years except for small fast breeding fish like blue eyes, kilifish, etc. Your tank isn't overstocked so that would explain why it took a long time for things to build up. Your nitrites should always be zero but with a mass fish die off it's not too surprising that that isn't the case, if you were routinely measuring nitrites in your tank, your biological filtration is inadequate for the bioload of your fish (possibly too frequent cleaning of the filter?). If this was my tank I would do a couple of big water changes, at least 50% each time both to get rid of the Pimafix and to get on top of any nasty stuff that could have built up in the tank. Gravel vac if necessary, check that your filter is operating correctly ie make sure the media isn't clogged, and do some research to make sure you have adequate biological filtration for your tank. Could be you need a second filter, could be you need to have more water movement to prevent dead spots in your tank where muck gathers, that's not something that is easy to answer without having eyes on the tank. I would give it a couple of weeks after that to make sure your survivors come good, and to observe them for any more signs of trouble and if its all clear then I'd consider upping the number of catfish to at least 4 since they are a social species. I don't like adding new fish to a display tank without quarantining them for 4 weeks first but I understand not everyone can do that. I would pick one type of fish to add, and add a decent sized school, then wait a few months before adding any more. I don't think there's anything toxic in your tank that water changing can't fix, even though black sand substrate is notorious for causing problems I think you would have seen issues well before 3 years into the life of the tank if the substrate itself was your problem. I wouldn't pull the tank apart and start over unless your remaining fish die (otherwise where will they live while you're fixing the tank?).
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Nov 4, 2023 17:37
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Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply. There's one 10 inch aerator stone half buried in the back of the tank, but the output isn't anything amazing. I should have done my research before going ahead with the Pimafix for sure. Nothing was on the instructions about increasing aeration. While I knew the fungus (or, as you point out, possibly slime coat) was more likely a symptom than the underlying cause of whatever was ailing my fish, I was swayed by the "safe, gentle and effective!" advertising and 4.5 Amazon rating. I was hoping it would act at worst as an ameliorant similarly to pond salt. I do suspect fungus load in the tank is a problem from overfeeding. We worried about the less aggressive feeders getting their "fair share" and regularly vacuum up uneaten food during the water changes. Some of the plants have also grown hair like algae that the food gets caught in and molders. I prune these leaves every other month or so, and was thinking for a tank this large any bio matter would be benign. I definitely plan to thin the plans out and avoid this going forward. For filtration we use an Oase biomaster. Flow is monitored, and the hoses get cleaned out whenever it drops below 75 gph (usually is at ~125 gph after the hose cleaning). The pre-filter gets rinsed out every two weeks, but the 'bio balls' are only cleaned twice yearly so I think we're good on those fronts. It is interesting that you mention there being issues with the black sand. I wasn't aware of that, and we had added more a few weeks ago so I'm not sure if that could be related. I know there can be issues with sand and anaerobic pockets, but the Garra tend to move it around a bit to make pits and we previously had assassin snails so I wasn't thinking it might be causing issues. Also, noting your advise on more cats. They're some of my favorite critters, but I didn't think they preferred a big gang like Cory's do. More than happy to get the duo some buddies once things are safe. I agree right now that water changes, monitoring, and selective fish reintroduction is as good a plan as any. A little crestfallen, since I thought we were being conscientious aquatic stewards, but fingers crossed we can save the remainder and salvage the tank.
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Nov 4, 2023 19:05
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How deep is the sand bed? I've had black blasting sand for years and never had issues with it other than initial cloudiness despite many rinses. I wish Mela and Pimafix would go off the market. That poo poo is pretty much expensive and colorful clove oil. Is the filter clogged at all with stuff in the bioballs?
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Nov 4, 2023 19:19
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If the new black sand coincided with the earlier two fish deaths, it could be that you have had a bad batch and it could have leached something into the water. The issue does seem to be fairly regional though, here in AU it was an actual aquarium product that had quality issues whereas people using sand blasting grit have had no issues. Or if you are using an Amazonia type sand, those sometimes leach ammonia since they are intended as plant food. Overfeeding is less of an issue if you are vacuuming out uneaten food straight away, but it does tend to be the number one leading cause of fish deaths in my experience, right up there with failed heaters and forgetting to turn the filter back on after tank maintenance. On the filtration front, the recommended filter turn over rate is something like 4 times the tank volume per hour for regular fish, so 600gph. In practice I like to have two smaller filters instead of one big one and I like to make sure I have a mix of ceramic media, foam and mechanical pre filters. But I think a Oase Bio Master 350 is the right size for your tank, just worth checking the foams in case they are clogged (not with large waste that the prefilter has removed, but with overgrowth of beneficial bacteria). I usually tap my filter foams on the side of a bucket to knock the big pieces loose and don’t worry about rinsing them too hard. If they end up full of gunk the water finds paths around instead of through and you end up with not much filtering going on at all. Absolutely everyone who keeps fish has something go wrong and it’s an unfortunate part of the hobby, I do hope your tank recovers and you work out how to get back into a healthy balanced tank and how to stay there. Slightly more water changes and slightly more careful feeding should help a lot.
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Nov 5, 2023 02:34
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Stoca Zola posted:If the new black sand coincided with the earlier two fish deaths, it could be that you have had a bad batch and it could have leached something into the water. The issue does seem to be fairly regional though, here in AU it was an actual aquarium product that had quality issues whereas people using sand blasting grit have had no issues. Or if you are using an Amazonia type sand, those sometimes leach ammonia since they are intended as plant food. To add to the Overfeeding, it isn’t just an issue of extra food waste, but of extra fish waste as they’ll eat far far more than they need. I kinda doubt this was a cause with such an understocked tank, but I guess it’s possible if you were low feeding, then overfeeding and the cycle just couldn’t keep up.
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Nov 5, 2023 02:49
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Happy to share that there have been no further casualties. I'm assuming the water quality was less than ideal (but not dire) for whatever reason but the massive die off must have been from Pimafix suffocation. As three Rummies have survived, we feel an obligation to give them a proper school (especially as they were the first fish introduced to the tank), so will grab a handful in week or two and watch the water quality closely. Thanks for the insight all!
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Nov 6, 2023 17:42
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What is the correct way to do water changes I have a 4 gallon bucket that was given to me, and a ~6' piece of airline tubing. Water changes take about 45-115 min to do on a 10 gallon tank. I use a little stool on the table to get the bucket above the tank water level and do siphon gravity feed
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Nov 8, 2023 20:48
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Hadlock posted:What is the correct way to do water changes Put the bucket under tank level and gravity will do the work for you.
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Nov 8, 2023 20:54
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Cowslips Warren posted:Put the bucket under tank level and gravity will do the work for you. 
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Nov 8, 2023 21:06
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I use a wider piece of hose for faster suck but I also have a piece of sponge or spare filter inlet guard (or both) attached to the end to stop the smallest inhabitants from being sucked up. This means I don’t have to babysit that end of the hose. I also have each tank marked with a small piece of tape at the side/corner to know the water level I want to remove and I clip my hose in place such that the siphon breaks once the water level drops below that height. Another clip to keep the end inside the bucket if a cat brushes past. Even going from a 6mm hose to a 12mm hose would speed your water changes up if that’s something that interests you, I use a 19mm hose for my largest tanks or it would take forever (although an airline left overnight can easily drain 60 litres on to the carpet as I found out the hard way). And for water going back in I use a 25mm ribbed crushproof potable water hose with a big pump in the water tank in my laundry which can reach every room of my house that has fish tanks in, unless I feel like gently bucketing the water into my smaller tanks which I often do just for fun. I have a bucket with a super long spout almost like a watering can which is perfect for extremely controlled flow. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Nov 8, 2023 |
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Nov 8, 2023 21:06
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