|
Cowslips Warren posted:How's your breeding setup? 10 gallon tank with large (marble sized) gravel, a couple breeding mops, and a sponge filter. Adults go in for a few days, then pull em out, wait a day or two, and you'll have fry.  The box filter is a new experiment to improve filtration a bit DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Feb 21, 2022 |
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 03:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 23:32 |
|
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:10 gallon tank with large (marble sized) gravel, a couple breeding mops, and a sponge filter. Pretty much how I do em, except I put the mop in the 40 breeder, feed heavy with live food and do a water change right as I drop the mop. I feel like I get more eggs immediately after a wc, but no I've not bothered to gather any hard data. For such an easy to breed fish, they sure do fetch a good price
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 07:57
|
|
|
Schwack posted:Pretty much how I do em, except I put the mop in the 40 breeder, feed heavy with live food and do a water change right as I drop the mop. I feel like I get more eggs immediately after a wc, but no I've not bothered to gather any hard data. For such an easy to breed fish, they sure do fetch a good price How many eggs I get varies a bit, I think as a function of how long I leave the adults and how many of the eggs they eat. I figure it's a matter of time before the price crashes, they're only marginally more difficult to breed than guppies. I want to do neon tetra next, but they're going to be much harder to breed for way less return. It's not like I'm doing it to make money, but it's interesting that there's no correlation between difficulty of breeding and cost DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Feb 21, 2022 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 08:23
|
|
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:How many eggs I get varies a bit, I think as a function of how long I leave the adults and how many of the eggs they eat. CPD love to nom their eggs, i have heard from lfs owners that they tend not to ship very well and i have also heard from other fish nerds that you often have to do quite a heavy cull. I am in australia so maybe we just have extremely weak genetics. (neon tetras for example have had a close to 50 percent mortality rate in my tanks within the first month or so)
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 13:18
|
|
|
Are the fry okay with the bubbles going that fast? I tend to use gentler air flow but for no real reason. Edit: oops didn't check before pressing send, tons more posts
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 13:47
|
|
|
big dong wanter posted:CPD love to nom their eggs, i have heard from lfs owners that they tend not to ship very well and i have also heard from other fish nerds that you often have to do quite a heavy cull. I am in australia so maybe we just have extremely weak genetics. (neon tetras for example have had a close to 50 percent mortality rate in my tanks within the first month or so) I've had to do *very* little culling. However, I have one batch that was accidental: I sat on fry long enough that they started breeding, and when I sold them off I had new fry in a couple of days. Those new fry have been a bit sickly looking to me, and have what seem to be swim bladder issues. I'm not sure if it's genetic or if nutrients got too high in that tank. Neon tetra can be fragile here too, but I'm not sure how much is genetics and how much is the cost being so low that they're raised in lovely conditions and fed poorly. I bought mine from a fancy LFS and paid a decent amount for them, but I don't think I've lost one of that 10 Stoca Zola posted:Are the fry okay with the bubbles going that fast? I tend to use gentler air flow but for no real reason. Edit: oops didn't check before pressing send, tons more posts No issues! I wish I'd tracked my breeding numbers, I've got to be somewhere around 75-100. I kept a bunch, gave them away to any friends who'd take them, sold them on Craigslist, and now I found a LFS that'll take them DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Feb 21, 2022 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 22:41
|
|
|
I've bred ~200 or so and have 8 adults from those that survived to adulthood with issues. Most of them swim and eat without issue, but they look a bit off. Most of them just have oddly shaped mouths. That said, these are just the ones that made it to adulthood. I'm sure I've had plenty of fry with issues which just didn't make it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2022 01:00
|
|
|
My Betta has come down with a pretty severe case of bloat. Bloat is even on both sides with no pineconing so I don't think it's dropsy. He can still swim, but he is definitely lazier than normal. I haven't offered food to speak to his appetite. Pic: https://imgur.com/gallery/QrLqKwA Only recent change is I've added some nerite in the last month, so I suspect it may be from him grazing on the algae pellets meant for the nerites. Tank info: 8gal planted tank, cycled for just over a year. Various snail tank mates, no other fish. All water parameters are normal. Completed 50% water change after today's salt bath. I've fasted him for 3 days. Today being day 4, I did an Epsom salt bath for 8 minutes (1tbsp/gallon), with a second diluted "transitionary" dip for 4 minutes (1tsp/gallon) before putting him back home. Seems like there isn't a good general consensus on the following: - how much Epsom salt to use (some say 1tsp, others 1 tBsp), -how long to leave the betta in the bath (some say no more than 5, others up to 15) - how long to leave him in the transitionary solution (some don't list this step at all, the ones that do don't list a time) - how often the bath should be repeated (some say multiple times per day, others only daily) Am I at least headed in the right direction with an 8min 1tbsp/gallon bath repeated daily, or is there a better route to go? PS- in the pic, ignore the cloudy eyes. Seriously have no idea what that's about. It showed up sometime last year and I tried treating it for months with various meds and antibiotics with no success. It hasn't seemed to otherwise affect him.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2022 01:01
|
|
|
Schwack posted:I've bred ~200 or so and have 8 adults from those that survived to adulthood with issues. Most of them swim and eat without issue, but they look a bit off. Most of them just have oddly shaped mouths. That said, these are just the ones that made it to adulthood. I'm sure I've had plenty of fry with issues which just didn't make it. Whoa. Do you have pictures? I've culled 2-3 fish for swim bladder problems, and have one that didn't grow an anal fin, but that's really it. I'm wondering if I'm missing something... That might explain why the guy at the LFS eyeballed my fish so hard and was so happy with them
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2022 01:13
|
|
|
candystarlight posted:My Betta has come down with a pretty severe case of bloat. Bloat is even on both sides with no pineconing so I don't think it's dropsy. He can still swim, but he is definitely lazier than normal. I haven't offered food to speak to his appetite. I've had good luck treating bloated fish with plain ol salt baths. I tend to follow aquarium coops guide and treat in a dedicated qt tank. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish You might also give their forum a a visit. They've been pretty helpful with general illness questions for me.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2022 01:16
|
|
|
I've used Epsom salt in the display tank to try and reduce a prolapse in a fish that was too fast to catch, I had yoyo loaches and plants in that tank and it didn't seem to affect anyone adversely, can't remember what concentration I used but I mixed it with tank water and dribbled it in via air tube over about a day. I get the impression that it is really gentle and fairly safe for tank use. Dips for external parasites and injuries tend to be fast, in minutes rather than hours, but baths can be longer and for something like this I think a longer time in a lower dose will help the muscles to relax and pass whatever he's eaten.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2022 09:22
|
|
|
Schwack posted:I've bred ~200 or so and have 8 adults from those that survived to adulthood with issues. Most of them swim and eat without issue, but they look a bit off. Most of them just have oddly shaped mouths. That said, these are just the ones that made it to adulthood. I'm sure I've had plenty of fry with issues which just didn't make it. I think I have a shiner that has some... issues. Messed up mouth and hasn't really developed physically, so the body profile still looks like a juvenile fish - though its been eating well and growing the whole time.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2022 13:46
|
|
|
Betta is looking a lot better today, but still not great overall so I did a second Epsom salt bath today. Hopefully he'll continue to progress. Also, just got my CPD's from AquaticArts today and they are bigger than I expected but are still tiny lil bebes  Ordered 24 and they sent 30, so combined with the 15% off discount they ended up only being $4 each. Hopefully all 30 survive!
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2022 00:45
|
|
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:Whoa. Do you have pictures? I tried to get a picture of the worst of em, but they're such fast little turds it's tough. Plus, the puffers think I'm going to feed them every time I walk over so they swarm the front and keep all the littles away. The most common issues seem to be their tail fins not developing so they swim a bit clipped or with their bottom jaws looking a bit funky. They all seem to be totally normal otherwise, so they just live out their days in a 29 gallon I've opted to use for my culled CPD.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2022 02:21
|
|
|
Power outage tonight and had to drop all the filter biomedia into a bucket with an air pump to circulate water. Kinda a surprise when one of the SAEs was in the filter! He lost a tiny bit of fin somewhere along the way, hoping it doesn't get infected.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2022 03:39
|
|
|
I put water (and plants) in the tank  Everything seems to be running correctly though I may have to move the heater because I can't read the display on it. Other than one piece of wood that decided to float unexpectedly (it didn't when I tried it in the sink but it seems like one end is more buoyant than the other) I seem to have gotten off easy. It's got a weight on it for now—hopefully it won't take forever to sink. I went with very different plants on this tank (and no moss) so I'm excited to see how it looks when it clears up. A little worried I might wake up tomorrow to 100% tannins, but I guess I'll buy some purigen if I have to. I put the activated charcoal that came with the canister in one of the trays but I'm not sure if it'll do much.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 00:30
|
|
|
Wallet posted:I put water (and plants) in the tank How big is your driftwood? If it's small enough you can make some tannin tea by boiling it in a pot for ~20 minutes 3-4 times.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 01:26
|
|
|
It's not that small, unfortunately.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 02:18
|
|
|
I had a huge piece I picked up from the beach which was so buoyant I couldn't weight the stupid thing down. Ended up pulling the tank apart and letting half of it sit in a bucket at a time. Ended up working, but made me want to get a big ol' tub for soaking driftwood. Nothing worse than doing a nice dry scape, filling it and watching in horror as the wood tears everything to bits.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 02:38
|
|
|
I boiled my driftwood for 8+ hours in a huge stockpot, changing the water multiple times and reboiling it. I figured that would be overkill, but the water in both of my tanks is still noticeably brown-tinted 3+ years later. Small tanks, though (5.5 and 10 gal). Driftwood is great, but tea-tinted water is a fact of life even if you boiled it for forever.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 03:03
|
|
|
Luneshot posted:I boiled my driftwood for 8+ hours in a huge stockpot, changing the water multiple times and reboiling it. I figured that would be overkill, but the water in both of my tanks is still noticeably brown-tinted 3+ years later. Small tanks, though (5.5 and 10 gal). Any chance you've tried purigen in your filter? I was resigned to having a brown tank until I threw a bag onto my last aquarium coop order for free shipping. Now the tank is crystal clear. Not sure which I prefer, but the rest of the family likes things clear so it's staying in there.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 03:51
|
|
|
I run sponge filters in an otherwise Walstad-style tank, so now that I think about it, that’s probably exactly why. No charcoal absorbents of any kind and limited water flow would definitely tend to let tannins accumulate.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 08:21
|
|
|
The water is still a little tea colored but hasn't gotten any worse overnight, so that's good. I'll throw some purigen in there once it gets delivered. Luckily the floating piece is big enough that I could stick a weight on it easily and other than a few little bits of leaf and stuff it seems like none of the plants have uprooted themselves.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 14:14
|
|
|
Luneshot posted:I boiled my driftwood for 8+ hours in a huge stockpot, changing the water multiple times and reboiling it. I figured that would be overkill, but the water in both of my tanks is still noticeably brown-tinted 3+ years later. Small tanks, though (5.5 and 10 gal). My tank had this for about 8 months, I boiled my wood too, but it is some hardwood from Africa and I think something that you'd find in NA as driftwood is going to be more porous maybe or otherwise softer and more prone to slowly leaking tannins over a long time.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 21:57
|
|
|
No purigen yet but it's cleared up a bit. Luckily the chunk of wood that wanted to float only took a day to sink so I could take the weight out. Now to patiently wait for the plants to grow in a bit.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2022 13:49
|
|
|
That looks very nice! What's the planned fish stock? I am envious of the nicely planted tanks; most of mine have scuds, and now I kick myself for wanting that scavenger crew so badly because they have eaten every loving plant I have. Yes, even java fern. And anubias. And some of the duckweed. But they are cute little fuckers too so it's a tossup.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2022 14:27
|
|
|
Cowslips Warren posted:That looks very nice! What's the planned fish stock? Thanks! Not set in stone yet but after it starts growing some funk/algae with just the plants I'll likely put in some amanos, and then after the plants have done a bit more growing in something like: ~5 pearl gourami 6-8 zebra loaches ~20 celestial pearl danios and then there's room for something else. Probably a group of another small fish—maybe some rasboras. I dunno. There's a bunch of different Echinodorus in there that I'm hoping no one is going to eat 
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2022 17:08
|
|
|
Wallet posted:Thanks! With your planned stocking you can probably do like 3/4ths to 4/5ths? of a proper FW CUC. Amano Shrimp (5-15?), 1 Siamese Algae Eater, 1-2 Bristlenose Plecos (go fancy!). The loaches will make Malaysian Trumpet Snails a no-go, but you might be able to do Nerites (avoid any that dig lol). Farlowella are pretty cool too. There are a lotta low-bioload options that will just eat dying/dead plants and algae etc.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2022 17:43
|
|
|
Aren't bristlenoses notorious sword munchers? Or is that only when they don't have driftwood/algae wafer/vege supplementation?
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2022 18:03
|
|
|
Desert Bus posted:With your planned stocking you can probably do like 3/4ths to 4/5ths? of a proper FW CUC. Amano Shrimp (5-15?), 1 Siamese Algae Eater, 1-2 Bristlenose Plecos (go fancy!). The loaches will make Malaysian Trumpet Snails a no-go, but you might be able to do Nerites (avoid any that dig lol). Farlowella are pretty cool too. There are a lotta low-bioload options that will just eat dying/dead plants and algae etc. My impression was that the loaches will do most of what a pleco would, but maybe not? I've seen very mixed reports on them loving with nerites—some folks say they eat them all and some folks say it's totally fine.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2022 18:39
|
|
|
Stoca Zola posted:Aren't bristlenoses notorious sword munchers? Or is that only when they don't have driftwood/algae wafer/vege supplementation? I've never had issues with them and plants. Mine have always had plenty of wood and food though. Wallet posted:My impression was that the loaches will do most of what a pleco would, but maybe not? I've seen very mixed reports on them loving with nerites—some folks say they eat them all and some folks say it's totally fine. I dunno about them and Nerites but I would def try Amano's/BN's/SAE. Better to have the Clean Up Crew and not need it than need it and not have it. A small increase in bio-load can cut algae and maintenance down a LOT. EDIT: diff things munch on diff algae, having a variety of things is better
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2022 20:00
|
|
|
Wallet posted:No purigen yet but it's cleared up a bit. Luckily the chunk of wood that wanted to float only took a day to sink so I could take the weight out. Would love to do this with my 40 breeder, but the crays eat anything and everything I put in there except the water lettuce because they can't reach it
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2022 06:49
|
|
|
So my CPDs showed up yesterday from Aquatic Arts, ordered 24 got 31 and all were healthy and looking good. Put them in 20g QT with a seeded sponge filter from a healthy tank and new water. This morning 14 of the 31 were dead  No idea what's going on, I did my standard QT meds, but maybe I should have waited since they were such little guys? Dunno but I'm pretty seriously bummed out.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2022 18:10
|
|
|
Enos Cabell posted:So my CPDs showed up yesterday from Aquatic Arts, ordered 24 got 31 and all were healthy and looking good. Put them in 20g QT with a seeded sponge filter from a healthy tank and new water. This morning 14 of the 31 were dead Oh man, I'm so sorry, that's super lovely. It may be worth emailing AquaticArts even though they weren't DOA to see if they have any suggestions too. Their customer service has always been top-notch for me. Just curious what meds you used? I typically wait a week for them to settle before medicating just because I know shipping is pretty stressful. I'm one week into my order of 30, and so far have lost only 1 but I haven't medicated because none seemed sick.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2022 20:00
|
|
|
I use Prazi-pro and Ich-X, but I do think I should have waited a few days at least now. It hasn't been a problem before, but I almost always get fish locally so they probably aren't as stressed. I never used to medicate in QT at all unless they looked sick. Saw enough people advocate for treating proactively that I started doing it, but now I'm thinking maybe not the best idea.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2022 21:17
|
|
|
Exposing tiny CPDs to meds right after shipping was probably a bad move, that's just stress upon stress etc. Still contact them? Did you get a pic of the dead ones?
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2022 22:10
|
|
|
Wavemakers: I have a Fluval 252 Litre tank and am looking at the Fluval CP3 Wavemaker, however the reviews are mixed as to the noise. Any recommendations?
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2022 11:45
|
|
|
The water has really cleared up (hooray). There's some bladder snails in there because of course there are, but I guess they'll eventually get eaten. At least they seem to be going at the white mold or whatever that popped up on one of the pieces of wood. I was in there late last night so I figured I'd get some pictures while I was reflection free so I can tell if/how much things start growing. Bonus finger in the only shot I got of the right end.      I was going to put the heater over near the intake to hide it but it complains about not getting enough flow there so I had to move it  I was wondering about how to handle cycling though. My plan was to just run amanos and maybe a few nerites in there for a while to keep things clean while the tank seasons a bit, but is that going to be enough bio load to keep the bacteria going? I don't really want to drop pure ammonia on top of shramps.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2022 16:06
|
|
|
Wallet posted:The water has really cleared up (hooray). There's some bladder snails in there because of course there are, but I guess they'll eventually get eaten. At least they seem to be going at the white mold or whatever that popped up on one of the pieces of wood. I was in there late last night so I figured I'd get some pictures while I was reflection free so I can tell if/how much things start growing. Bonus finger in the only shot I got of the right end. Beautiful! Really love the contrast of the rocks against the green plants. The huge one on the right side is what my dreams are made of. I'd dump a whole pile of nerites in there (15?) to help boost the bio load since the Amanos don't really contribute much, and then occasionally overfeed just to be sure? I know the bladder snail population will grow from that, but that's not necessarily a bad thing anyway. I would agree with not adding pure ammonia while animals, especially shrimp, are living there.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2022 18:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 23:32 |
|
|
Wallet posted:I was wondering about how to handle cycling though. My plan was to just run amanos and maybe a few nerites in there for a while to keep things clean while the tank seasons a bit, but is that going to be enough bio load to keep the bacteria going? I don't really want to drop pure ammonia on top of shramps. Eh. I assume at least some of the plants came from a store/grower/seller/etc tank and would have some bacteria slime coat or brought their own water? Give the tank like 2 weeks to mature and you can probably go ahead and start stocking fish tbh.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2022 19:04
|
|